There was no sound in the Baosha, Xie Yun and Shan Chao faced each other for a long time, the former had an obscure storm brewing in his eyes, while the latter was calm and composed.
Yang Miaorong warned softly: "Xie Yun!"
After a long time, Xie Yun finally sat down slowly, seemed to take a long breath, and picked up the silver chopsticks.
If you observe carefully, you will find that his fingers are trembling slightly, which is the expression that his emotions can hardly be suppressed. Shan Chao stared at it for a while, then looked away.
After the meal, the maid carefully cleared the table and brought tea, but Shan Chao smiled as if nothing had happened: "I haven't had a heart-to-heart conversation with Master for many years, let's change to a drink. "
Yang Miaorong subconsciously turned her gaze to Xie Yun. The commander of the imperial army barely moved his chopsticks during the meal, and pressed the jade bowl filled with fat and tender fish under his palm. Spit out two words: "Change wine."
"...Xie Yun..." Yang Miaorong called out worriedly.
"Go and rest," Xie Yun interrupted, "Let's not have to wait here, and go outside."
Yang Miaorong glanced at Shan Chao as if asking for help, and Shan Chao winked at her slightly apologetically.
Yang Miaorong was actually very afraid that Xie Yun would throw the bowl over General Zhongwu's body later, but there was nothing he could do, so he had to step back and turn everyone back.
·
When there were only the two of them left in the hall, Xie Yun finally put the jade bowl on the table with a "Boom!", and the soup splashed a few drops on the shiny and gorgeous black rosewood table, and he pointed at it. Means: "Are you threatening me?"
Shan Chao laughed: "Of course not, Miss Yang doesn't know anything. But if Master is willing to think so... then it's good."
He picked up the jug, filled the mutton fat jade cup with gem-clear wine, and placed it in front of Xie Yun with his own hands. That action was thoughtful and free and easy, completely like a mature man taking care of his lover, with an undeniable care and thoughtfulness.
"Where did you meet Miss Yang?" Shan Chao asked with a smile.
Xie Yun said coldly: "I don't need to tell you this."
"Don't worry, I really didn't tell Ms. Yang anything. You see, Master... basically I won't do anything that might offend you. "
The words were so sincere that Xie Yun felt a sense of sarcasm instantly: "You won't do anything that offends me?"
Shan Chao lowered his head and poured wine for himself: "You want to talk about why I didn't stop that night in the cave eight years ago?"
There was a dead silence in the hall, Shan Chao raised his eyes and smiled and said, "But I didn't really offend you afterwards, did I?"
The air seems to have formed thin ice inch by inch, cutting the skin like a sharp knife with a slight movement.
Shan Chao looked at Xie Yun who was an arm's length away from him. He thought that Xie Yun would be furious, lost his composure, and even smashed the jade bowl on his head with his hands... But the fact is that Xie Yunwen didn't move at all. He showed an extremely mocking smile: "Yes, I did my best on you and spent so much time and effort. Wouldn't it be impossible to get back the money if I stabbed you to death?!"
Shan Chao was a little surprised. Looking at Xie Yun's sarcastic expression, he suddenly realized that it was not for others.
It was an extremely deep and veiled self-deprecation.
"...Don't talk about it," he said immediately, raised his glass and drank it down, showing the clean bottom of the glass with his backhand: "Have a drink, Xie Yun. After all, we haven't seen each other for so many years, you should catch it for me." The wind is."
Xie Yun didn't move under Shan Chao's gaze for a long time. After a while, he finally picked up the mutton fat jade cup and drank the wine with a sinking face.
"After the banquet in Changle Palace was over last night, I went to the East Palace to meet the prince." Shan Chao changed his aggressiveness just now, and said in a leisurely and carefree tone: "The prince's marriage is considered harmonious, but his health is getting worse. I just coughed a few times. I told me that I used several catties of century-old ginseng before the winter passed. Today, I saw some ginseng and ganoderma in the medicinal materials bestowed by the emperor, so I sent them all to the Eastern Palace... "
"A piece of grass," Xie Yun mocked.
"About me?" Shan Chao said with a smile, "But I am the Eastern Palace Party."
From his point of view, Xie Yun's cheeks were tightened, and after a long time, he suddenly said coldly: "So you send the medicinal materials given by the queen to the East Palace, and then send the rest to my house, is that right?" Do you think the crown prince died fast enough, or do you want to drag the entire Beiya into trouble?!"
"Well," Shan Chao looked at him innocently, stretched out a slender finger and shook it, and said, "You are wrong."
"..."
"I gave the things to you first, and then I gave them to the prince after you returned them... Xie Yun, I will not give you anything left over from anyone else."
Xie Yun was speechless for a moment.
Shan Chao picked up the jug and filled it up for him, sighing: "But thanks to you, now the whole capital knows that I ran to please you as soon as I returned to Beijing, but I was slapped hard on the face. Tomorrow, I will probably listen to the rumors when I go to court—the East Palace gave a carload of New Year’s goods to express condolences before I left."
Xie Yun said nothing.
"The prince is a good man," Shan Chao sighed.
"It turns out that the reason why you stood at the East Palace is because you think that a good person can definitely be a good emperor?"
Shan Chao said gently: "If you can't even be a good person, how can you be a good emperor?"
Xie Yun helped Fu Fu's forehead, seemed a little sleepy, and said impatiently: "You came here today to recruit security?"
Zhao An.
Although the atmosphere quickly became tit-for-tat, what flashed through Shan Chao's mind at that moment was an old scene from many years ago.
——That was when he was standing in the stone path, surrounded by damp, dark, and invisible; through the half-hidden door, he saw the resplendent incense candles in the Buddhist hall, and the graceful and luxurious Empress Wu bowed her head, standing on the forehead of Xie Yun, who was kneeling on one knee. A kiss was printed on it.
He closed his eyes, the candlelight cast a shadow on the side of his brow bone, but there was no emotion on his face.
"No, Xie Yun, you are free to choose which side to stand on..." Shan Chao said in a low voice, "I will let you change your position in the future, but not now."
For some reason, Xie Yun's eyebrows twitched slightly.
But before he could think through this sentence with his habit of thinking before and after, thinking over and over again every word that others said, he just listened to Shan Chao gently put down his wine glass, raised his eyes and asked: "But I I still want to ask you, what would a good emperor look like in your mind?"
Just less than a day ago, by the plum pond in Changle Palace, the man in front of him asked with the same expression, "But what dragon do you mean by the power of the dragon?"
The temptation at this moment is not bad at all, and even the tone has not changed a bit.
Xie Yun's eyes changed instantly. He only heard the sound of tables and chairs rubbing against the ground. He suddenly got up, turned around and walked out: "It's getting late, you go, take your leave!"
Shan Chao sternly said, "Xie Yun!"
The next moment Xie Yun's wrist tightened, and he was caught in the air, and Shan Chao's vigorous and fiery body was pressed against his back. Xie Yun pushed out a palm with his backhand, and there was a faint sound of dragon chant in the void. Shan Chao didn't dare to force it, and used his skill to remove the oncoming killing intent. He retreated several steps to the corner of the room, raised his hand and said !” Gracefully caught Xie Yun's palm that was slapped in front of him.
The candlelight trembled violently with their brushed sleeves, and Xie Yun's eyes under his long eyelashes were dimmed as the flames flickered.
Shan Chao clasped his five fingers together, clasping his hand with palms close together.
The surroundings were quiet, Shan Chao handed the wine glass in his other hand to Xie Yun, and the bright red wine was swaying slightly in the jade glass.
"Master," Shan Chao looked closely at Xie Yun's pupils, and said softly, "I just want to treat you to this glass of wine before I leave, and you have the right to give it to me."
Xie Yun narrowed his eyes, his tense shoulders finally loosened a bit, took the wine glass and drank it with his head up.
Then he let go and smashed the suet jade cup to pieces on the ground!
"..." Shan Chao smiled, stepped back half a step, stared at him and bowed, and walked steadily towards the closed carved wooden door of the hall.
Three steps, five steps, seven steps.
Shan Chao suddenly stood still, and there was a low and suppressed panting sound behind him, and then Xie Yun hoarsely said: "Come... people..."
Shan Chao turned around suddenly, and caught Xie Yun just before he collapsed to the ground.
"Although you are wary of most poisons in the world, you probably wouldn't have guessed that this is just the most common perspiration medicine." He lowered his head and kissed Xie Yun's sweaty forehead, as if he was slightly proud of his little trick. But it was full of unconscious warmth: "You are too tired, and occasionally you need... to sleep peacefully."
·
Shan Chao hugged Xie Yun horizontally, rubbed his neck obsessively, his eyes fell on his sleepy cheeks without blinking. After a while he finally stood up and pushed open the door. Yang Miaorong was standing there at the end of the porch. Misheng turned his head and called out in surprise: "General Shan?" Immediately after he reacted, he immediately called out to the servant: "Go and help the commander!"
"Commander Xie drank two more glasses, fell asleep from too much alcohol, and even hit a glass with the wrong hand." Shan Chao apologized: "I didn't remind in time..."
How could Yang Miaorong blame him, she immediately sent people to help Xie Yun to rest, and repeatedly apologized, asking Shan Chao to rest at the mansion for a night. Shan Chao naturally resigned firmly, Yang Miaorong couldn't stay as a woman, so she had to send him out of the house in person.
At this moment, the market is closed, the night is as deep as water, and the sound of night shifts can be heard in the distance, reverberating in the streets and alleys with a long aftertaste.
Shan Chao stood on the blue brick steps in front of the vermilion gate, looked past Yang Miaorong, and looked at the back of Xie Yun being helped into the inner courtyard not far away; after a while, he looked away and bowed to say goodbye: "It's cold at night, Miss Yang, go back quickly , don’t freeze.”
His most subtle etiquette can be regarded as mature and stable, but Yang Miaorong always felt that something was very weird—the way Shan Chao looked at Xie Yun just now, although it was just a glimpse, made her feel very strange.
There was no smile at all in those eyes, and they were not even gentle at all, replaced by complex, deep and extremely bright light.
But that's just for a moment.
"... The general has a good journey," Yang Miaorong retreated behind the door, bowed her head and bowed back: "My husband has lost his manners today, and I will go to the mansion to make amends tomorrow."
Shan Chao shook his head to indicate no need, turned around and walked into the thick ink-like night.
·
Yang Miaorong lived in another courtyard, but when she went back, she still went to the master bedroom to have a look. Xie Yun had already rested, sleeping very peacefully and steadily, breathing deeply and evenly, and his pale cheeks were slightly red with wine in winter.
In fact, there was nothing unusual about all of this, but Yang Miaorong always thought of the unintentional glance she had before parting. Shan Chao's eyes flashed in the dark with an indescribable, hard and calm look that seemed extremely hot.
She felt a little uneasy, and told the maid: "Go to the second gate and tell the servant to see if General Zhongwu has left."
The maid went away in response, and after a long time hurriedly replied: "Girl, the boy said that General Shan has gone far."
"... Someone should have sent him back just now," Yang Miaorong murmured.
"girl?"
"It's nothing." Yang Miaorong took a deep breath, suppressed the weird thoughts in her heart, and said with a smile: "I'm overthinking, let's go to rest too."
·
At the same moment, outside Xie's mansion.
Shan Chao stopped, looked at the looming outer wall in the dark night, and narrowed his pupils like a beast before hunting.
Immediately, he jumped up and nimbly touched the top of the wall, barely making any sound, and then disappeared into the deep and dark inner courtyard of Xie Mansion.
In the eyes of outsiders, the extremely mysterious Forbidden Army Commander's Mansion has not changed the pattern, everything is the same as it was eight years ago. Shan Chao was already familiar with the road, and he confirmed this on the way to the backyard for dinner. He quickly bypassed all the patrolling guards and landed in front of the study.
Apart from the master bedroom, this is the most secret place in Xie Mansion.
— Xie Yun is already asleep, so he won't come over suddenly in the middle of the night, and no one dares to approach here easily except him.
Although Xie Yun was falling asleep without any precautions in the bedroom not far from here, this made Shan Chao feel a little hot inside; but he still took a deep breath, suppressed some kind of trembling and impulse, broke through the window lattice and climbed in. into the house.
He looked around, and under the moonlight, all the bookshelves and table cases were blurred with light and shadow.
Where will it be
Shan Chao didn't turn on the lamp, and only searched the room with his sharp eyes, searching all the cabinets and furnishings. His movements were slight and careful, but he didn't find any trace of the hidden grid.
— If I had some extremely important, life-threatening confidential documents that I wouldn't destroy unless absolutely necessary, where would I keep it
Shan Chao once again scanned the surroundings carefully, inch by inch, and suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed, and he looked up at the beams in the darkness. He jumped up in the air, turned over and climbed up like a night owl, and spent a meal time touching every beam and every wall, and finally found a secret gap in the corner of the wall.
"...!"
Shan Chao recalled Xie Yun's habit, and he pressed decisively with his hand, and the secret box popped up with a "ding!".
Under the faint moonlight, in the dark grid, a silver cylinder was in the dust, with a faint luster.
Many years ago in the desert, the young Xie Yun stood in a small courtyard, reached out to catch the swooping Xinying, and untied the identical silver cylinder from the eagle's leg.
Shan Chao thought that his hands would tremble with excitement, but when this moment came, his fingers were strangely cold and stable. He picked up the cylinder and unscrewed the lid, and took out an old parchment roll from it.
The scroll is still yellowed after years, but the handwriting written in cinnabar is as bright as ever, and each word is reflected in Shan Chao's eyes——
Xie Yun received the order:
Go back to Beijing alone, don't make mistakes, and kill him.
December of the first year of Linde
Panting hoarsely, Shan Chao slowly put down the scroll.
Ten years passed, and the past formed a raging torrent, mixed with sadness, despair, pain and tears, engulfing all his memories.
He thought of the boundless sea of sand in Mobei on a moonlit night, the corpses of wolves were scattered all over the place, and the blood in the air had not completely dissipated; under the sand dunes, Xie Yun drew his bow and arrows, his eyes seemed to have a glimmer of light, and said: "If In the next life, please don't let me meet you again."
Then he let go of his finger, and the arrowhead spun and came in front of Shan Chao.
Shan Chao, a young boy in the blink of an eye, didn't know where the strength came from. He knelt down on the ground and rolled down the sand dune under the force of gravity. At the nick of time, the iron arrow brushed his face and flew over; He grabbed Xie Yun's skirt with his hands and pressed him hard on the sand!
-thump!
The yellow sand rose up, and the young man knelt on Xie Yun's body, shouting hoarsely: "What's going on? Why did you kill me?! I... I love you, I love you!"
The roar spread far in the desert, like a lone wolf seriously injured and dying.
Xie Yun turned his face away, trembling and closing his eyes.
The boy's pupils constricted suddenly, and he saw a line of water running across Xie Yun's cheek, which turned out to be tears.