twin moon

Chapter 25, Act Three: A Fateful Meeting Part Five

In Mulu City, which is still bustling after nightfall, Zheliuxuan is like a place that has nothing to do with the world.The quiet courtyard is located on a mound in Xiuyefang, surrounded by pines and cypresses, like a dark green barrier, isolating the hustle and bustle of the world.

The twin moons moved slowly from the horizon to the treetops at some point.There was no talk, no flies and insects, and only the sound of footsteps on the path paved with bluestone slabs could be heard in the silence.The Qiong Niang held in the arms of the two children was also shaking in the bumpy wine jar, making a rattling sound.

"Little stammer, are you sure we've come to the right place? No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like anyone will live here, it's scary." Ning Yue said, and suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"I have asked many people along the way, and there is only one place called Zheliuxuan in the city." Jiang Yan still walked forward firmly, "It is said that this courtyard was specially rewarded by the Lord Ye Kingdom. The commander. If you think about it, he can be considered a hero, and his hobbies will naturally be different from those of ordinary people."

"What a hero, I just can't figure out how anyone would like to live in such a gloomy place, it's not fun at all."

Seeing that the boy didn't stop to wait for her, Ning Yue pouted unhappily, but had no choice but to take two quick steps to catch up with him.The two continued to walk along the stone road for another mile, and finally saw some orange-red lights in the secluded and deep forest.

Jiang Yan looked at the girl next to him, and knocked on the door of the house in front of him where only a lantern was hung.After waiting for a while, there was a rustling sound from behind the door.However, it was not the doorman who opened the door to greet the two children, but a shirtless middle-aged man.

I saw that the man was wearing a pair of straw sandals on his feet, and the blue robe he had taken off was also casually wrapped around his waist.There was a short beard on his sweaty face, and the messy hair behind his head was tied into a bundle with only a piece of grass.A pair of thick-knuckle hands still held iron scissors that were only stained with a little sawdust.

As soon as he saw the wine jar held by the two children at the door, the man immediately laughed, threw the iron scissors in his hand towards his feet, and reached out to take the wine:
"Oh, it's finally here. I've been so busy these days that I've been on my back, and the alcohol bug in my belly has already been making a fuss."

"Hey, aren't you the one at Zhihedu—" Ning Yue was previously blocked by the wine jar in her arms. At this moment, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she finally saw the other person's face clearly, but she couldn't help but yelled Come.

"It's you two brats? Why did you come to Mulu City and deliver wine for Jiayunzhai?"

The person on the opposite side immediately recognized the child in front of him, hehe laughed, and motioned for the two of them to enter.Jiang Yan was not polite, took Ning Yue's hand and walked into the courtyard.

This two-entry mansion is not very big. After the entrance, there is a garden, and a small building is built on the east side of the garden.A stream of running water drawn from an underground spring passes through the center of the garden, and a row of weeping willows with flying white catkins are planted beside the water, as well as patches of crabapple that have not yet bloomed.And what the man was busy cutting and tending before were the budding bones on these crabapple trees.

"Uncle, did you plant all these flowers?" Ning Yue had never seen such a luxuriant flower garden, and she couldn't help being very surprised.

"Little girl, have you ever seen anyone else in this garden?"

"But aren't you the commander of the boat master? Don't you have a few servants?"

"I like quietness. If I hadn't been in the big camp on weekdays and had no other choice, I wish I could let all the guards and servants go clean. Now that it is getting late, I have already sent the people home. After all, everyone People who are worried about it, and they are catching up with Wuyang Festival, there is no need to waste their time here for me."

"You -- although you look ordinary, you speak quite unusually!" Ning Yue suddenly felt a little fond of the somewhat sloppy uncle in front of her.

"Since you can still catch the eyes of the little girl by doing things below, the crabapple flowers will bloom in a few days, and you two are welcome to come and enjoy them again."

The man also grinned, and the delicately trimmed beard around his lips raised slightly.

"Excuse me, do you know Qi Ziyin?"

Jiang Yan had something on his mind, but he didn't want to gossip anymore, and asked directly.Unexpectedly, the other party asked the black-eyed boy in front of him instead:
"Oh? It seems that the chaos on Zitong Street in the afternoon was indeed caused by you three brats. In the whole Mulu City, you can hold Chilingwei by the nose and run half of Zitong Street, and you can pay a lot of money at the last moment. The one who puts things to rest is probably none other than Ziyin, that child."

"If you say that, you really know Qi Ziyin! He said you could do me a favor and asked me to come to you." Jiang Yan was suddenly agitated, and continued rashly.

The man in front of him suddenly laughed, and looked up and down at the black-eyed boy in front of him, but he still didn't answer directly:

"How did the three of you meet?"

"This is none of your business. Don't go around the bush, just ask if you can help. If you can't help, we will leave now, so as not to delay your time in growing flowers."

Jiang Yan was in a hurry, seeing that the other party always avoided answering, he couldn't help becoming a little anxious.But the man in front of him didn't seem to care about the rude attitude of the two:
"Little devil, since Ziyin asked you to come to me for help, he is at ease treating you as his friend. But since he is asking for help, he must first explain why? Otherwise, even if I am supercilious, You really don’t know where to start, do you?”

"You—are you Xiang Baili? Most of the soldiers and horses in front of the palace commanding the tens of thousands of forbidden troops in the city are guarding Baili?" Before the words finished, the black-eyed boy exclaimed, but he still couldn't change the abruptness of his words.

"Little stutterer, don't you recognize this person?" Ning Yue asked in a low voice as she saw her companion's eyes suddenly brightened, poked him on the back lightly.

"There is no one in the world who doesn't know Xiang Baili's name!"

"Tch, I don't know." Hearing what her companion said, Ning Yue curled her lips in disdain.

"You are a girl, so it's normal not to know these things. There is a saying in the folk: 'Sea battles against Fufeng, land battles against Baili'. Among them, Fufeng is Ye Fufeng, a pirate who once dominated the Chanying Sea. And Baili is this The world-renowned No. [-] warrior on land is heading for Baili."

"The number one general on land? Just this old man dressed as a gardener?"

"Yue'er, don't believe me. According to legend, when General Baili was still serving as a general in the Yujing Dynasty, he only led [-] elite soldiers, so that Ye Licheng surrendered [-] rebels in Dongli in the next battle, and became famous in the first battle. Later, he Resigned from office and wandered to Mulu City, was appreciated by Lord Ye and granted him the title of Grand Guard of the Army and Horses in front of the palace, but he is holding the military talisman of the forbidden army in the city!"

"No, it's just me." The man in Tsing Yi smiled and nodded, "But what I didn't expect was that a brat would know so much about me?"

"Boys in the Great Ascension Dynasty, who doesn't regard General Baili as a hero in his heart? It's just that you are called 'Baili in Land Warfare', why did you go to the Baisha Camp to become the commander of the boat division? "

"The boat master and the land master are two sides of the same thing. The way of using soldiers is universal. Twenty years ago, Ye Guogong respected me and gave me a place to stay. Now I am ordered to go to the boat master to assist the governor Practice, I should go all out, what is so strange?"

Xiang Baili didn't know when he dug open the mud seal on an altar of Qing Li Shao.Amid the scent of wine spreading, he picked up the jar and took a big sip, smacking his tongue and praising:

"It's really good wine, strong enough! I think I've been away from Yizhou for [-] years, but I can't forget the taste of Qingli Shao. But let's talk about me later, you kid, tell me quickly, what do you want to ask for? What's the matter with me?"

Seeing that the other party agreed to help, Jiang Yan couldn't help becoming more excited, trying his best to piece together his experience and fragmentary memories, and told the man in front of him.

Listening to the young man's statement, Xiang Baili's expression gradually became serious:
"There are ice floes on the sea—so it seems that the place where you boarded the boat before should be Tankou of Changzhou. However, although the master of Ye Kingdom is unparalleled in the world, he usually does not go north easily, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the emperor and the suspicion of the world. Criticism."

"Sure enough..." Hearing the other party say this, Jiang Yan couldn't help showing disappointment, and his voice also sank.But Xiang Baili shook his head and continued:

"However, I didn't say that your memory is wrong. Just last winter, a tiger-head flying fish boat in the battalion once docked at Tankou, and sank on the rocks in Jinghui Bay. The whole ship was one hundred and one Of the thirteen elite boat masters, only one survived—no, counting you, there are now two..."

"Is there another person who survived? Who is he? Can I go and meet him?" The black-eyed boy suddenly saw a glimmer of hope to link up with his past.

"This man's surname is Luo, and he is the commander of the flying fish boat. Because of the sinking of the ship, he was demoted to the captain of Xiaoqi in the Yuyu camp, and the leader of the army is on duty outside the city. But what makes me feel strange is that , He had already met you once at Zhihedu, if you did stay on that boat, kid, why would the other party insist that you are a pirate?"

The man's words reminded Jiangyan of the ferocious bearded man he met not long ago, recalling his somewhat gloomy face.A chill suddenly appeared on the back of the boy's neck, and he reached out his hand to drive away the unpleasant feeling, but he didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, he felt his head became half cold and half hot again.It's cold, it's like walking into an ice cave made of thousands of years of black ice from Baimang Mountain.Heat is like being thrown into a furnace for making iron and forging steel.In a blink of an eye, the previous experience on the Tiger Head Flying Fish boat came to the young man's eyes with incomparable clarity from the depths of his memory.

Jiang Yan suddenly felt a splitting headache, held his head in his hands and screamed without warning, before Xiang Baili and Ning Yue fell straight down like a felled sapling.

When he woke up, the boy with black pupils had already been sent back to Jiayun Zhai.At this time, he was lying on a bed with a faint fragrance, being taken care of by the hostess.Seeing her open her eyes, the woman in purple finally showed a bit of relief on her face:
"You, since you were injured, why didn't you tell my sister? If I knew this, I wouldn't let you deliver wine! Last night you fainted without warning, what should you do if something bad happens? "

"Why am I here? Yue'er brought me back?"

"General Baili sent you and Miss Ningyue back in person. The little girl guarded you by the couch all night, and just went to sleep."

Sister Jia explained with a bit of reproach, and then put her index finger on her lips, signaling the black-eyed boy to lower his voice.

"What about General Baili? Can you let me meet him again? I still have some important matters to ask!"

"You look like this now, don't always think about messy things. Besides, the general is in command of the [-] forbidden troops in the city. Although he likes to drink my Qingli Shao, he never comes to the door in person. Buying wine. He hired a carriage to take you back last night, and I didn’t even enter the door, let alone have so much time to meet a kid who is unconscious and may faint at any time.”

Sister Jia stretched out her hand and pushed the black-eyed boy back on the bed.

"But--"

"Your body is important, lie down obediently for me, there is nothing to bargain for! The other party specifically asked me to tell you last night that you will go to Baisha Camp to find him in half a month. So you can rest here with peace of mind. A big job with a name and a surname People don't disappear suddenly out of thin air. No matter how important things are, we have to recover from our injuries."

Hearing what the woman said, the boy finally stopped being persistent.I just secretly guessed in my heart that an important reason for Xiang Baili's refusal to visit Jiayunzhai in person is probably related to the sister Jia in front of me—after all, she is from Dongli, and it was Xiang Baili who was there 20 years ago. Li personally suppressed the Dongli rebellion that turned the world into disbelief.

After finishing speaking, the woman walked out of the room slowly under Jiang Yan's gaze, turned around and gently closed the door.Only at this moment did she take out from her bosom the few silver pennies that the general sent last night to buy wine, and fiddled with her slender fingers.

For the convenience of counting, those silver pennies were all hung with five pieces of a thin string.And at the end of that red rope, there was a branch of seven or eight inches long, slightly opened buds, and a bright red begonia specially tied to it.

　Thank you for your attention to "Twin Moons", and hope that the wheat grown by the little raccoon can meet your appetite.You can pay attention to the official account of the same name~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)