Finally, Chu Qiao couldn't hold back her tears anymore, she covered her mouth and cried out uncontrollably.
Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen...
It started to rain from the fourth watch that night, after Zhao Chun'er and Zhao Song got into the carriage, Chu Qiao came to the open grassland, behind him were a large number of officers and soldiers of the Southwest Township government who were all covered in hideous colors. Song Qian and the others looked panicked, like wretched wild dogs.
"Who cut off Zhao Song's arm?"
"His Highness did it."
Chu Qiao frowned, and yelled, "Lie!"
"Girl, I didn't!" Song Qian was so frightened that his face was full of tears, he yelled loudly, "It was really His Highness who cut him off. He came to assassinate His Highness, but His Highness chopped off a hand. Miss Yu wants to kill them, His Highness will not kill them." Let, let us escort them back to the imperial capital."
Chu Qiao took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Why doesn't Your Highness kill them?"
"The chief guard said that he was afraid that the girl would be angry." As soon as Song Qian finished speaking, he was afraid that Chu Qiao would bring up the matter of his abuse of lynching, so he said quickly, "But, if you do something on the road, the girl won't know, so don't worry about it." will be angry."
Chu Qiao's voice was low, and the heavy rain was pouring on her hair, "Is this sentence also said by the fine guard?"
"This... yes, yes!"
Seeing that Chu Qiao's complexion was not good, He Xiao immediately yelled, "If you dare to speak nonsense again, I will cut you off!"
"No need to say any more," Chu Qiao raised her head and said in a deep voice, "Pull them down and execute them all!"
"Your subordinates are not talking nonsense!" Song Qian cried, "Girl, look at us, which one of us is not the worst victim in the army by the Xia people? How many of our parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters are not dead?" In the hands of the Daxia officials, if they didn't want us to do it, why did they send us from the battalions?"
"Yes!" Another soldier shouted, "What happened to us beating him? We just slept with the princess of Daxia, so what? My sister was raped by the nobles of Daxia. My parents went to report to the officials. But he was beaten to death with sticks in the hall! What's wrong with me?"
"That's right! Girl, what's wrong with us? Why should we be punished?"
"Let me tell you what mistakes you made!" A flash of lightning suddenly exploded, and the sky and the earth were bright white. The girl turned her head, pointed at the carriage, and said slowly, "Because those who killed your parents, those who insulted your sister, those who bullied and persecuted you, are not them!"
A huge scream sounded immediately. Chu Qiao didn't look back, she just looked at the carriage quietly, her footsteps were as heavy as if a huge boulder had fallen, and she couldn't take a step forward.
"Girl!" He Xiao strode forward, wiped the water off his face, and said in a rough voice, "The animals have been slaughtered."
"He Xiao, go to Ximaliang by yourself." Chu Qiao paled and said softly, "I can't go with you."
"Girl!" He Xiao was taken aback and shouted loudly, "Why?"
Thunder rumbled, heavy rain poured down, and the pouring rain hit the face, covering the tears that he didn't want to show others.
"Because I have more important things to do."
The morning sun rises, the heavy rain stops, and the world is clean, as if all the filth and sins have been washed away by the rain.
On the high slope of the other cliff, a man stood tall, dressed in long white fur, with a pale face and black eyes, quietly looking at the thousands of rivers and mountains in the distance.
"Young master, we should go."
Standing behind Yan Xun, Wu Daoya said softly.
Yan Xun didn't speak, but looked into the distance, when the cold wind blew, his weak body suddenly began to cough violently, the voice was so heavy, and there seemed to be a bloody salty smell in the air.
"Little Lord?"
"En." Yan Xun waved his hand, turned around slowly, rejected Wu Daoya's hand that wanted to help, and walked down the hill slowly while coughing.
The green hills are rolling and undulating, behind the invisible mountain beams, the green cloth carriage is slowly moving forward, on the high sky, there are snow-white eagles circling and mourning, following the carriage, gradually leaving the sky of Yanbei. The lonely wilderness is surrounded by hundreds of miles of uninhabited people. Years of wars and killings have made this place a piece of scorched earth. Whenever a large army passes through the border, the people will flee everywhere, looking for other safe places to live. However, in this turbulent and chaotic world, where is the real paradise
It rained continuously for three consecutive days, the north wind howled, and the rain poured down. When the carriage drove to a dilapidated village, black ruins could be seen everywhere. Chu Qiao found a relatively intact room, and walked in with Zhao Song, who was still unconscious, on her back. She cleaned the room neatly, found clean hay, collected firewood and started a fire. Within half an hour, the room was warm. stand up.
This no-man's land is the central area of Sichuan, and it was here that Chu Qiao and the Southwest Town's envoy passed by, and had a battle with Zhao Yang's crusade army not far away. Apparently, the people here were frightened and ran away during that battle. They had nothing to take away except food and clothing. The pots, pans and kitchen utensils were still well preserved, and there was even clean water in the water tank. There are also large bundles of firewood for the winter.
Holding a bowl of hot water, Chu Qiao walked over to Zhao Chun'er who was sitting alone in a corner of the room, squatted down, and handed her dry food and water.
The golden branches and jade leaves of the past did not look up, nor did she dislike such a simple meal. She took the dry food in silence, lowered her head and drank the water, and quietly said nothing.
Along the way, Zhao Chun'er has always been like this. Unexpectedly, she did not show the slightest hostility towards Chu Qiao, nor did she show any obvious resistance, she was obedient, reticent, eating as she was given, and drinking as she asked. If the road is difficult, she will come down to push the cart in the heavy rain with Chu Qiao; if there is no dry firewood, she will eat unpalatable coarse grains in cold water like Chu Qiao; She will follow Chu Qiao's example, pick up the knife with a fierce light like a hungry wolf in her eyes. However, she seldom speaks, except for Zhao Song, she is no longer interested in everything outside.
Chu Qiao knew that she was not grateful to herself, and she was not frightened. In that humiliating disaster, the girl grew up at an astonishing speed, and something changed in a corner that no one noticed. Chu Qiao even wondered with some worry, was what she was doing at this moment a kind of self-destruction in disguise
After crushing the dry food and pouring it into hot water, Chu Qiao came to Zhao Song's side, stretched out two fingers to pry open his mouth, and forced the food into it.
The man's brows were tightly furrowed, and a new mustache had grown on his chin. Different from Yan Xun and Zhuge Yue, the former Zhao Song had clean and clear eyes, thick eyebrows, and looked like a lion cub when he got angry. However, in just a few days, the once sunny youth was tortured until his bones became thin, and his face was as pale as a piece of white paper.
Seeing his empty right arm and blood-stained clothes, Chu Qiao gently turned her head away, unable to bear to look any further.
"Um… "
A deep humming sounded suddenly, and Zhao Chun'er, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly jumped up like a small animal, and staggered forward.
Zhao Song frowned tightly, with a look of pain on his face. Chu Qiao knelt beside him nervously, held his hand excitedly, and whispered softly: "Thirteen? Thirteen?"
"Stupid...don't go!" A deep and broken voice came from the man's mouth. He closed his eyes tightly, veins popped out on his forehead, and his face was painful, like a wild animal trapped in a cage.
"Brother Thirteen!" Zhao Chun'er pounced on Zhao Song and shouted loudly, "Brother Thirteen, Chun'er is here, I'm not going anywhere!"
Chu Qiao was squeezed aside by Zhao Chun'er, and couldn't help saying softly, "Princess, don't touch the wound."
"Get out of the way!" The girl suddenly turned her head, her face was stern, and she looked at her coldly with disgust.
"Don't go with... him... you will... die..."
"Brother Thirteen," Zhao Chun'er looked bleak and nodded, "Chun'er knows, don't worry."
Zhao Song's face was flushed abnormally, as if he was having a fever. Chu Qiao stood aside, but didn't know how to get close to such a brother and sister. She wanted to turn back to boil the water, but just as she turned around, she was firmly nailed to the spot by a hoarse voice like lightning.
"I... I can also... protect... you... Ah Chu..."
Zhao Chun'er was stunned immediately, with a pale complexion, as if possessed by a ghost, she turned her head to look at Chu Qiao, and then turned her head to look at Zhao Song who was in a coma. Suddenly, an ugly wry smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, and she returned to the corner covered with hay, hugged her knees, and buried her head deeply.
Throughout the night, Zhao Song was talking nonsense, sometimes he was yelling at Yan Xun for treachery, sometimes he was frantically yelling at Chun'er to run, and most of the time he was begging Chu Qiao bitterly , begging her to stay, begging her not to go.
This man who drew a line on the long street and wanted to sever his ties with him fiercely and decisively exposed all his fragility and softness on this heavy rainy night. Ling Chi touched Chu Qiao's heart.
When it was about to dawn, he suddenly woke up. Chu Qiao stayed by his side all night, feeding him water and compressing his face to cool him down. Seeing him wake up, Chu Qiao cried out in surprise, "Are you awake?"
The sound alarmed Zhao Chun'er who was sleeping with her eyes closed. The girl opened her eyes and looked over, but she didn't come over.
Zhao Song's eyes were a little dazed, for a moment he didn't even know where he was. He looked at Chu Qiao, his eyes changed from initial surprise to doubt, then emotions such as regret, resentment, and anger flashed across his black eyes one by one, and finally they were all covered by huge indifference. Those eyes are so cold, like the solid ice on the eternal snow peak, it makes people feel chills down the spine. From his eyes, Chu Qiao seemed to revisit their friendship over the years, from the first acquaintance, to the best friend, and finally, it all fell apart under the towering palace wall.
At this moment, Chu Qiao suddenly understood a fact that she had known for a long time but still had a fluke mentality. It was really impossible for her and Zhao Song to be friends anymore. Some damage has already been done, just like his broken arm, no matter how he repairs it, it is impossible to restore everything to its original state.
"Chun'er?" Zhao Song turned his head and looked at Zhao Chun'er in the corner. His voice was hoarse, like a rusty saw blade, and his only arm stretched out to the thin girl.
Zhao Chun'er pursed her lips, crawled over on her knees, her eyes were red, her lips were trembling, but she pulled out a smile that was uglier than crying, and firmly held Zhao Song's hand.
It was raining heavily outside, and the fire was crackling inside the house. The siblings who survived the catastrophe were relatively silent, like two statues. Thousands of unnecessary words turned into two sad eyes, meeting in a small space.