Hai Lian knew that Fang Tinglan wasn't lying tonight, he was even more frank than on the day of the Valerian Festival, but such frankness made him so unfamiliar that he didn't know how to deal with it. The young man's lips opened and closed, and finally he managed to look away, choosing to escape: "You...do you know anything else about my father?"
Fang Tinglan was a little helpless: "Hai Lian..."
"I need to think about it." The young man whispered.
Fang Tinglan sighed. Fortunately, he has always been very patient, and it doesn't matter if it takes a while longer. He turned his head back, faced the entrance of the cave and continued, "I have pieced together the matter about your father's Shang Weiji with various clues. There may be errors in the middle, but the result should be correct. Eight years ago, Fei Yi treacherously fled to the southern border." , once invited my father to go with him, but my father refused. At that time, the sixth prince, Qin Weiyu, had been hostage in Tisu for two years. Abale, the younger brother who lives in Wanlin City, hit it off right away. Abale is suspicious by nature and would not trust a stranger easily. To show his sincerity, Fei Yi shared a big secret with him."
"This secret is the Hanyin Token in my father's hand?"
"In general." Fang Tinglan nodded.
Hailian's expression changed, and he suddenly remembered something. He took out the waterproof tube from his side, took out the letter inside and handed it to Fang Tinglan: "Fekona... is the one you mentioned named Fei Yi, I I'm used to calling him by the name of the southern border. He gave me this that night, I can't read very well, just so you can help me look it up."
Fang Tinglan exclaimed: "I said that when I went through his cabinet, it seemed that something was missing..." He browsed quickly, his face getting darker, "So that's it..."
"What's wrong?"
Fang Tinglan sighed: "Your father trusts his senior brother too much. After Fei Yi contacted him, he was very happy, thinking that he was here to help him." He picked up the last letter and pointed out that a paragraph of it was for Hai Lian, "There is a gap in the date of the inscription on the letter he wrote to you. It is not difficult to guess that some letters in the middle were removed by Fei Yi, but here... Look, Shang Weiji asked why Fei Yi was so angry with the princess and the palace. Being so attentive to the patrol time proves that your father has already become suspicious. Unfortunately, he aroused his suspicion too late, eight years ago in the early winter, His Highness Longrong disappeared in the palace strangely."
eight years ago. Hailian's fingers trembled involuntarily.
Such subtle movements were also caught by Fang Tinglan. While narrating, the man stretched out his hand and slowly took Hailian's hand: "Abale and Fei Yi want to obliterate the direct heir of Tisu Kingdom. , but was stopped by your father in time, and the two of them had a great battle at Niutouyan." The fingers tightened tighter, exchanging body temperature tightly, "Your father lost, and all his disciples were wiped out, including him. I also... the next morning, Abale brought "Her Royal Highness kidnapped by Dongzhou people" back to the palace to claim credit, while the deceased was treated as an insignificant bloody conflict and wasted hastily buried."
"I thought it was because I left Fengxin Street that Brother Xiaoxiao and the others never came to look for me again," Hailian said in a low voice, "Did they all die there?"
Fang Tinglan's voice was regretful: "I think so."
Hailian pursed his lips tightly, and suddenly picked up the wine bottle at the side and drank it clean in one go, then threw the bottle into the bonfire, the remaining liquid touched the fire, and a ball of flames rose with a loud noise , spinning in the air. He stared at the flames and remained silent. After a long time, he smacked the liquor on the tip of his tongue and said in a low voice, "Fang Tinglan, do you know that I hated my father very much for a while."
Fang Tinglan didn't speak.
"He disappeared suddenly, without any warning. I even remember that morning he said that he would bring me and Xiaoyu the red bean paste and candied dates from the reflection bridge... When he left, he didn't tell me anything, just like your mother It's the same when I left you." The smell of alcohol filled the corners of the young man's eyes, he chuckled twice, and the embarrassing redness gradually appeared from his thin facial features, "I hate him for leaving me and my sister in the muddy area, and I also hate him He didn't tell me anything, assassins, treasures, his brothers and sisters, everyone kept it from me... Fang Tinglan, am I someone who doesn't deserve to be trusted?"
"No, of course you are not. He may just think that you were too young at that time, and he wanted to wait until you were older..." Fang Tinglan stopped when he explained here. He used this reason to comfort his despairing self, but now it will only look more pale and powerless if he uses it to others. He shook Hailian's hand firmly, and said in a more gentle tone than before, "I understand you, and I understand our elders. There is no doubt that their intention is to protect us, Hailian. But they also underestimated us, right?"
He and Hailian are by no means dodders who can't bear to fight, they want to be the young eagles behind their parents who want to fly.
Hailian lowered her head, looked at the overlapping palms of the two, and hummed inaudibly.
A crescent moon outside the cave will reach the climax, and it will be the new year soon. If the two are in Jiumeng City, they are probably singing and dancing in the small square near the Reflecting Bridge; if they are in Dongzhou, it is estimated that Tasting wine by the stove under the lantern, waiting for the fireworks that are about to bloom in the night sky. At this time, the two of them only had a bag of dry sugar stained with sea breeze and moisture, a can of clean water, a few bottles of bad wine, their wounds were not healed, and their clothes were dirty. Fang Tinglan felt very good about such a bad situation. better than anywhere.
He chatted a lot after he sat down, and now he was feeling tired gradually, Mr. Fang was not polite, leaned on Hailian confidently and winked coquettishly: "I'm tired."
Hailian didn't push him away, but frowned: "Why don't you go to sleep when you're tired?"
"I don't want to sleep," Fang Tinglan rubbed his head on Hailian's shoulder, "It's your turn to talk."
"what did I say?"
"Anything is fine, just talk about it." Fang Tinglan elongated the ending and said vaguely, "Tell me about you. You used to refuse to tell me anything."
Hailian sneered: "That's because you are not a good person."
"Well, I'm a bad guy." Fang Tinglan answered straight away, and continued to pester with a cheeky face, "Don't worry, the bad guy is in a coma now, and I'm sure I'll forget everything you say when I wake up from sleep."
The man started to play rogue again. Hai Lian wanted to refuse at first, but the high fever from the head resting on his shoulder could be felt through his clothes. He hesitated for a while, but finally lost to his conscience: "But I have nothing to say, it's nothing Good thing."
"Then talk about bad things, I'll listen." Fang Tinglan said.
He has experienced so many bad things that Hai Lian didn't even know how to start, so he could only continue to talk about the time when his father disappeared: "We were renting in Fengxin Street, which is considered Anwan Street. In a slightly cleaner area in that area, my father left my sister to me and the whole family to me, but I am useless and can't keep this family."
In the first month after Shang Weiji left, the landlord’s mother, Gran, smiled at the Hailian brothers and sisters, and would even order cheap snacks over, asking insinuatingly where the father of the two children had gone; in the second month, Mama Gran stopped smiling at them; in the third month, she began to call them lingering vermin, unwanted weeds.
"Maybe your father made a lot of money, married a beautiful bitch, and went to Westland to start a village. He left, leaving behind two bastards and the rags of this house. You continue to live here!" The woman's voice was so loud that half of Fengxin Street could be heard. Hailian was so angry that she swung her thin arms and threw things at her. The six-year-old Haiyu sat on the floor crying, her feet in a mess. All the money that ended up in the locker was taken by Gran's mother, who said it was "rent".
"Xiaoyu and I still have to eat, so I went out to look for work." Hailian's eyes were not focused on the campfire, and his fingers curled up unconsciously, more like talking to himself, "I am not capable of doing work at that age." Many, to be a beggar, a thief is one kind; to collect coal and wash clothes is another kind; someone asked me if I want to sell my butt, I ran away; finally a shipyard in Hongliu Port took me in and let me knock on the mast nail."
Hailian can earn seven copper coins every day, three for Gran’s mother, two for his and his sister’s meals, one for saving, and the last one for Haiyu to buy the most beautiful flower—Jiumengcheng’s Girls must wear flowers on their heads.
"Does it look good?" Haiyu asked, shaking his head.
"You look the best." He kissed his sister's forehead.
"... But three copper coins a day is not enough for the 'rent', and Mama Gran started to move things in my house, from the books in the box, a little gold and silverware, to tables and chairs, even old clothes worn by my father... I know In fact, she used the money to exchange wine to support the villain she was in love with," Hailian lowered her eyes, "but I am a waste, I dare not argue with her anymore, because I don't want Xiaoyu to sit on the ground again Crying... Fang Tinglan, are you listening?"
"I'm listening." Fang Tinglan replied.
Those two years were tough.
He was crazy about money, and the first thing he did every day when he opened his eyes was to count the copper coins hidden in his socks. He even followed an old lady uncontrollably all the way one day, just because he saw that the money bag rope was not tied around the old man's waist.
But he still didn't do it in the end, even though he knew that he had never walked silently and was lighter than a cat.
When Hai Lian said this, he paused for a while, as if he was thinking about whether the other party could stop and talk about the next thing. Fang Tinglan was the first listener in his life, and if the two of them ended up trapped on the island, it might also be the last one.
Fang Tinglan seemed to feel his hesitation, and he lightly squeezed the hands they held, and repeated, "I'm listening."
"Thank you." Hai Lian breathed out and continued, "When I was fourteen years old, Mama Gran took away all the things that could be moved, and left me and my sister with a bed and two quilts. And warned that if I fail to pay the rent in the middle of next month, we both will go to sleep on the street."
Fortunately, he had been in Hongliu Port for nearly two years at that time, and he had more or less made friends with friends. A young man nicknamed Flea gave him an idea.
"You should change jobs as soon as you are old. How much money can you earn as a handyman at the shipyard?"
"The foreman said that I won't have to climb the mast to learn things after working for half a year." Hailian and Flea squatted in the corner of the port, watching a pair of big feet that smelled like fish passing by, "What else can I do? , become a sailor? I will not leave my sister alone in the Anwana district."
"Of course not sailors." Flea bumped Hailian with his elbow, "Did you see the ones in front with gray leather patches on their shoulders? They are members of the White Tiger Gang."
"so?"
"They are short of people!"
Hailian wiped her mouth and muttered, "I'm not a thief."
"If you don't want to be a thief, why not become a thug," Flea lowered her voice, "I heard that as long as you can sneak in, even the lowest people can get this amount. Then you don't have to be afraid of that woman!"
"you want to go?"
Flea chuckled: "I would like to, but they said that if you want to be a thug, you have to see blood on your hands."
Hai Lian was taken aback: "The meaning of seeing blood... wouldn't it be murder?"
"That can't be done!" Flea was speechless, "They have already assigned me a task. There is an old man in Yangjiao Lane who is said to have asked them to buy medicine and not give him money. Every day he has money to play with women. They asked me to teach him a lesson. He paused and broke his gadget."
"You agreed?" Hailian was surprised.
"Of course," Flea smiled, and opened his coat to Hailian, with a boning knife hanging inside, "I've already thought about it, when he's 'doing business', first scare him, and then hit him on the head with a stone Now, I just kick a few kicks and run away, it's easy." He straightened up on his knees and rubbed his friend's messy hair. The two of us just walked sideways in the mud area, and we don't need to look at anyone's face."
Helian patted his companion's hand away.
After the fleas left, he continued to stare at the crowd in a daze. He waited until the two members of the White Tiger Gang were about to leave, then he finally got up and chased after them.
"But they didn't want me." Hai Lian shook his head, "They said that I was too weak to be a thug at all, and only fit to be a low-level thief. If I wanted to do it, I would cut off one of my little fingers and give it away past."
Fang Tinglan subconsciously glanced at the little pirate's hands.
Hai Lian is still immersed in the memory: "I remember that I was in a bad mood when I went home that day. Gran's mother lived next to me. She was dating her friend and was arguing. She broke a lot of things. I was in a bad mood when I heard it. Worse."
Mama Gran has already passed her prime age, she can't keep the starlet in the black boxing arena with her looks, and the boxer's growing appetite makes her almost unable to keep him with money.
The boxer scolded her for being old and lustful, and for buying herself bad wine. Plates and bottles were thrown against the wall from time to time, mixed with women's cries and men's drunken curses, which stuck into the ears of the two children. Hai Lian asked her younger sister to cover her ears, and Hai Yu did so, but the little girl would still tremble when the next wine bottle shattered.
"Find me a woman right now. I don't want to fuck you. I don't like seeing your face."
"How dare you fucking say such a thing?! If you hadn't been supported by your mother, you would have starved to death five years ago!"
"Can you find it?"
Hailian heard the sound of a chair being kicked away.
"You are not allowed to go!"
The sound of slapping.
There were sounds of beatings, weeping, insults, the rattling of timber, and a strange, muffled whimper.
"I'm afraid..." Haiyu whispered.
"Don't be afraid," Hailian added her own hand to her sister's covering her ears, "I'll sneak over to have a look later, and you lock the door."
The sobbing sound disappeared quickly, and the woman's voice also disappeared, while the man's panting sound was still stirring.
After an unknown amount of time, the panting turned into thunderous snoring, and Hai Lian gestured to his sister to shut up, while he slowly walked out of the room.
The door was ajar, he pushed open a crack and looked in, the first thing he saw was a woman's bare arm. There was a bean of moonlight on the broken nail, and Hailian looked forward along the moonlight, and met a pair of frozen pupils.
He should have turned around and ran away in fright, but his feet were as immobile as if he had been hit by stakes; he should have closed his eyes immediately, but his eyeballs were also fixed by something, and he was forced to stare at the dead white for a long time.
His mind was extremely chaotic, as if there were countless voices shouting, but suddenly, a voice slowly surfaced and became clearer and clearer. He couldn't help but think of the sentence Flea said during the day.
If you want to be a thug, you will see blood on your hands.
The memory that followed was very chaotic, as if his instinct was ordering him to forget. When he was able to speak soberly, he was standing in front of the two leaders of the White Tiger Gang with his hands covered in blood, speaking word by word.
"I killed a black boxer named Brown Bear."
"That was the first time I killed someone." Hai Lian took another sip of wine. After many years, he is no longer the little boy who escaped by forgetting, "But the people of the White Tiger Gang still don't believe me, they mock me , Said that I washed my hands in a chicken blood basin to pretend."
"I was mad... no, I was a madman that night, and I told them I would show them the proof."
"How do you prove it?"
"What do you think?" Hailian smiled without any emotion, "I turned around and walked back to Fengxin Street."
Fang Tinglan could imagine the scene. The thin boy, with blood on his hands, walked alone on the moonlit street.
"I found a hatchet from the kitchen, and when I was about to chop it, someone grabbed me from behind." Hailian closed his eyes, "It's the second-in-command of the White Tiger Gang, Blind Eagle Age, and I didn't notice it at all. Until he followed me and he said I passed—he became my teacher."
Later, Hai Lian asked Blind Eagle Agger why he was qualified and why he became his only student. His teacher replied very rudely: Because you are ruthless enough, and you walk silently, you are born to eat this bowl of rice, I will feed you some pig food now, and you can earn a lot of money for me in the future .
"I didn't let him down. I did earn them a lot of money. I also took some pig food from them and moved." Hai Lian finished the last bottle of wine, "I think about that guy Mercury Should have told you all."
"Where's your friend named Flea?" Fang Tinglan asked, "Did you really run amok with you in the port later?"
Hai Lian's tone was flat: "No, he died. He died disgracefully. He fell into the puddle while drunk and drowned just like that."
Fang Tinglan gave a soft ah. He didn't say any words of sympathy or comfort to the other party. He just kept this posture quietly and hummed a simple tune of Taiyan's ballad. Hai Lian suddenly smiled when she heard the second sentence: "When I was young, my mother sang this to lull me to sleep."
"My mother is too." Fang Tinglan nodded. So the solo turned into a duet, and the voices of the two were softer than the wind, and they were carried by the wind to the distant sea.
The tide washes over the rocks and fine sand, the moon is shining in the sky, and everything is quietly growing new branches.
"Can you sleep?" Hailian glanced at the moon outside the cave, "It's already the New Year."
"My wound hurts a bit." Fang Tinglan said.
"Pain is a good thing, it proves that scabs are forming."
"If I was in pain when I was young," Fang Tinglanyou muttered to himself, "My parents would kiss my forehead."
Hai Lian looked puzzled: "I'm not your parents, let alone kiss the forehead and the wound will stop hurting?"
"Maybe," the man groaned and pretended to be pitiful, "It's like if I die on this deserted island tomorrow if I can't get rid of the fever, it's also maybe..."
Hai Lian saw that the other party was talking more and more without hindrance, and wished to slap this person on the forehead, but seeing that Fang Tinglan was really burned, he couldn't stretch out his hand, the little pirate was grinding his teeth, and wanted to slap the other party Rubbing his forehead was the end of the matter, but just as he turned his head, the patient, who was weak a second ago, suddenly grabbed his collar with quick eyes and hands, and he turned his head slightly, and the next second their lips collided. one is right.
Caught off guard by the kiss, Hailian's eyes widened, his pupils reflecting the other's brows and eyes full of smiles.
Hai Lian struggled a bit, but the hand he was holding was tighter. He tilted his head, and struggled to speak while breathing intertwined: "I said, I want to think about it..."
"I gave you a year to think about it, didn't I?" Fang Tinglan smiled innocently.
"Fang Tinglan," Hailian said angrily, "You're sophistry!"
"Well, the villain is of course the best at sophistry." The cunning villain leaned forward again with a smile.
This time the kiss carried a scorching temperature, as if a ball of flame burned along the throat that had just drunk the strong wine and burned into the heart. Hailian tasted the sweetness from the tip of Fang Tinglan's tongue, when did this person eat that bag of candy? Before Hai Lian had time to think about it, this question was swept away by the damp and hot shivering caused by the brushing of the teeth.
The smell of sugar and alcohol mixed together into an intoxicating smell, Hailian seemed to have returned to the sea and was sinking continuously, he wanted to catch it in this sweet drowning. He ordered something, but accidentally bumped into Fang Tinglan's wound.
Fang Tinglan, who still wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, really hurt. He stepped back half a foot, took a breath with a pale face, and suddenly couldn't help but curled the corners of his mouth, smiling helplessly: "Oh, I really did it to myself. …”
"You still know what to do."
"So what's your answer?" Fang Tinglan looked up at him.
His little pirate even had red ears: "What do you think?"