In the cold winter, a thick layer of snow accumulated on the narrow alleys and low eaves.
Even though Hua Qingxue was sitting by the stove, she still felt very cold. She lowered her head and breathed into her hands, and continued to wash the clothes in the tub.
Bang, bang, bang!
A rapid knock on the door came from outside the courtyard.
Hua Qingxue's face suddenly turned white!
She stopped and turned to look at the broken wooden door outside the yard. For a moment, she even held her breath.
…Bang, bang, bang!
The knock on the door came again, and this time there was a childish voice in the middle -
"...Open the door quickly! It's me!"
The voice seemed to not want to alarm others, and the volume was kept extremely low. Even so, Hua Qingxue could clearly hear it.
Hua Qingxue felt that her heart was slowly falling. She threw away the wet clothes in her hands, stood up and took a few steps across the threshold to the courtyard gate.
Crunch—
Hua Qingxue opened the courtyard door a narrow crack.
There was a seven or eight-year-old boy standing outside the door. He seemed to be severely frozen. He was shrinking his neck and crossing his chest with his hands. His little face was blue and white from the cold, and only his nose was very red.
Hua Qingxue immediately reached out and pulled him in.
Bang! The courtyard door was closed again.
As soon as the little boy entered the yard, he ran towards the house like flying. He rushed to the stove and wished he could press his whole body against it.
Hua Qingxue, who followed into the house, wordlessly grabbed the little boy's collar and dragged him to the kang, "Be careful that the stove will melt the snow on your clothes, take off your clothes first and get on the kang." "
The little boy turned his head and took a look. Sure enough, the snow on his shoulders and sleeves had turned into water, and his clothes were soaked.
He pursed his lips and took off his outer clothes while complaining: "This coarse cloth is really useless. I have a pure white brocade fox fur, which is worth thousands of gold! When the rain or snow falls on it, just a gentle touch Just blow it and it will fall off! How could your clothes get wet like this..."
Hua Qingxue ignored him, turned around and sat back by the stove, continuing to wash clothes.
After the little boy took off his outer clothes, leaving only a single layer of clothing underneath, he climbed onto the kang, wrapped himself in a quilt, and breathed a soft sigh of comfort.
"It's so warm... Where did you get the money to burn the kang?"
Hua Qingxue shook her head, "If I had the money to burn the kang, I might as well buy a few kilograms of meat. I just wrapped the leftover charcoal in a rag and stuffed it into the quilt."
Hearing this, the little boy stretched out his little hand and touched around the quilt, and sure enough he felt a few soft wrappings through the quilt.
"There is still residual heat now. Let's replace it with new charcoal ash after it cools down." Hua Qingxue said, looking at the small stove beside the kang.
The carbon they can buy now is limited, and it is only enough to burn this small stove. If it is to burn a kang, it is far from enough.
The little boy stared at the stove blankly, looking a little confused through the warm yellow sparks.
Hua Qingxue looked at it and couldn't bear it. After all, she was just a child. How could she have ever suffered such a crime
Hua Qingxue called him: "Li Jingnan?... Hey! Li Jingnan!"
Li Jingnan came back to his senses and found that Hua Qingxue was calling his name. He immediately put on a fierce look and shouted: "How bold! You cunning woman! How dare you call His Highness by his first name!"
Seeing that he had regained some energy, Hua Qingxue felt relieved. She just rolled her eyes at Li Jingnan's scolding and continued to wash clothes.
-Yes, at this moment, the little boy curled up on the bed and wrapped in a quilt is none other than the extremely noble Crown Prince.
As for how Hua Qingxue got involved with the Crown Prince, we have to start talking about it a month ago.
A month ago, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sneaked out of the palace and brought a group of secret guards to Panlong Mountain at the junction of Daqi and Liao. He sent people to search the mountain for treasures. No treasures were found, but Hua Hua, who was unconscious in the mountains, was found. Light snow.
However, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Qi made too much noise in Panlong Mountain, and the news finally leaked out, attracting soldiers from Daliao... The next development can be described as a narrow escape. Li Jingnan secretly left the palace, and the manpower he brought with him was originally There were not many. The Liao soldiers chased them all the way, and the secret guards suffered heavy casualties. In the end, Hua Qingxue and the prince disguised themselves as siblings and entered Renqiu City, and then escaped the pursuit of the Liao soldiers.
Renqiu City belonged to Mozhou and had been ceded to the Liao Kingdom a year ago. The Liao soldiers never expected that the prince of Da Qi would not flee to Da Qi's territory, but instead escape to their territory.
However, it is precisely because this place has been taken over by the Liao people that it is easy to enter the city but difficult to leave. Now, Li Jingnan only hopes that the secret guards who escaped death can deliver his news to General Fu stationed at the border...
If the news about him fails to spread... Will he, the majestic prince of the country, have to be trapped here forever? How long will you be sleepy for? Two months? Three months? … or a year? …
Li Jingnan couldn't help but shudder.
"Stop thinking wildly. The more you are afraid of something, the more it will come." Hua Qingxue said quietly from the side.
Li Jingnan glared at Hua Qingxue angrily, "You woman! Even if you have a weird accent, you still talk nonsense all day long!"
Hua Qingxue rubbed the clothes in her hands and replied: "It's not a distortion, it's Murphy's Law, Edward Murphy's famous conclusion."
"What does that mean?" Although some nonsense always comes out of Hua Qingxue's mouth, the child's nature makes Li Jingnan very curious about these.
Hua Qingxue smiled casually, "Actually, it doesn't mean anything special. This sentence just explains a phenomenon in life. For example, some things are never useful, but once you throw them away, you often have to use them. It. For another example, the more you are afraid of something happening, the more it will happen in your life... "
Li Jingnan sat on the kang silently. He thought for a while and then said: "When I need something, the maids and guards will come to me... But once my father tested me for endorsement, and I only had one paragraph. I didn’t memorize it, but my father happened to pick out that passage and asked me to memorize it... This is somewhat the same as what you said."
After Li Jingnan finished speaking, he seemed to have thought of something interesting again, with a sweet smile that only a child could have on his face, "Another time, my sister and I sneaked out of the palace to play on the street. We were always worried about being recognized, but In my heart, I thought it was impossible. After all, Shengjing City is so big, how could it be such a coincidence?... As a result, I finally met the Third Emperor's Uncle in a shop... At that time, the Third Emperor's Uncle's eyes were so shocked that he almost fell down... Ha ha… "
Smiling, Li Jingnan's expression slowly turned cold. He stared blankly at Hua Qingxue's hands and suddenly said, "Stop washing them. Your hands are almost rotten. They are so ugly."
Hua Qingxue was stunned. She looked at her hands. Although the stove was burning, she had to wash several basins of clothes every day, and her hands were already red and swollen from the cold.
However, it's just redness and swelling, so I wouldn't call it ugly...
Hua Qingxue looked at Li Jingnan and thought, she was really afraid of something coming... It seemed that he had heard bad news outside today.
"What happened when you went out today?" Hua Qingxue asked him.
Li Jingnan's little face tensed up, and he said after a while: "...the bodies of Lao Qi and Thirteen were hung on the city gate."
Hua Qingxue gasped.
"Sooner or later they will find me... I will die... They will definitely hang me up like they did..." The eight-year-old child only had a look of deathly despair on his face.
Hua Qingxue looked at Li Jingnan's almost numb face and felt that her heart was about to twitch.
She walked over and took Li Jingnan into her arms, patting his back gently, "There is also Shiliu. Don't you always show off to me? You said that although Shiliu is the youngest, he is the smartest. One... As long as Shiliu sends out the news about you in Renqiu City, someone will definitely come to save us."
Li Jingnan did not reject Hua Qingxue. He buried his whole head in Hua Qingxue's arms, his voice choked with sobs: "I killed them... I was too naive. Panlong Mountain is so big, and there are only a dozen of them." , it is not easy to find a weapon in the mountains and plains... I killed them... "
Hua Qingxue knew that Li Jingnan must be crying, but she just didn't know and continued to pat his back gently.
This Crown Prince keeps his identity to himself and has been trying to remain calm for a long time. In fact, he is already panicking and scared... This is not a fault at all. After all, he is just a child, but he has such a noble status. She didn't dare to shed tears. Now that she finally vented her emotions, Hua Qingxue felt relieved.
Hua Qingxue didn't want him to continue thinking about those dead guards, so she led him to think elsewhere and asked, "What kind of weapon is it? Are you sure it's on Panlong Mountain?"
Li Jingnan shook his head in Hua Qingxue's arms, and said in a muffled voice, "I'm not sure, but this... was divined by my father before he fell ill. He said that there was a weapon hidden on Panlong Mountain, which was extremely powerful, but He also said that this weapon must not fall into the hands of the Liao people and asked me to find it."
Hua Qingxue was dumbfounded. She never expected that the little prince would end up in this situation just for a divination? A prophecy
But then she thought about it. Although this divination was unreliable, it was a mistake that saved her life. Speaking of which, she really had to thank the emperor of Qi. Otherwise, she would have frozen to death long ago. It's on the mountain...
Li Jingnan suddenly raised his head, staring directly at Hua Qingxue with two dark eyes, with half-dried tears still hanging on his face, "You must think I'm ridiculous now, don't you?"
Hua Qingxue quickly shook her head.
Li Jingnan snorted coldly, obviously not believing it, "It's normal if you don't believe it. All the civil and military ministers in the dynasty didn't believe in my father. Even the queen mother said that my father was full of divination and he was crazy... Once I I heard the ministers say that if my father had not indulged in these heresy, the three states of Xi, He and Mo would not have been ceded to Daliao."
When Li Jingnan said this, a look of extreme sadness appeared on his face, "But that is my father. Everyone in the world can disbelieve him, but I can't disbelieve him! My father said there are weapons in Panlong Mountain, so there must be them. ! Panlong Mountain, the sharp weapon of the country... I must find it!"