The Words of the Number One

As soon as I finished speaking, Chang Le's bandaged hand tightened, causing my wound to ache. I looked at her in a blink of an eye and saw that she had a knife in her eyes, so I smiled slightly: "Could it be that my sister thinks the young master is not good-looking?"

Her eyes were fixed, and she was about to strike again. Ji Yu leisurely called her name: "Chang Le."

Chang Le was relieved all of a sudden, looked at me angrily, quickly bandaged me up and left.

Ji Yu looked at me and said with a half-smile, "Chang Le strikes so hard, but you don't even frown, it looks like you don't know the pain."

I touched the gauze wrapped on my arm, and said calmly: "It still hurts, I just endured it."

He used the book to light the small clay stove on the charcoal fire next to him, and said, "There is a bowl over here for your medicine, go and drink it."

I looked at the small clay stove and thought for a while, and recalled that I still had his poison on me. I have to take the antidote once every three months, otherwise I will die after five days of poisoning. This is the basis of his trust in me.

"I hurt my hand, so I boiled the medicine myself." He said in a joking tone.

I tilted my head slightly, and said calmly, "Ah Zhi, thank you for personally poisoning and boiling the antidote."

He laughed so hard that his eyes rolled. This handsome face looks even better when he smiles.

"It's funny how straightforward you are."

Su Cheng agreed to marry the prince of Wei, and everything was arranged in an orderly manner. The servants in the Hou's mansion didn't know what was going on between Ji Yu and Su Cheng, they just lamented that the original couple could not be together in the end.

In a few days we will leave Fan Kingdom, and Ji Yu will try to break the Wu-Zhao alliance.

I climbed down the stone steps, from sunny to dark and humid. There was a lot of moss growing between the gaps between the stone slabs, and it was a bit slippery.

This is the dungeon of the Hou Mansion, where Zi Chen was locked up.

The cell was fairly spacious, and the floor was covered with straw. He was sitting on the ground wearing a gray prison uniform, his hair was a little disheveled, and he looked disgusted, not at all as surprised as he was when he first saw him.

I put the food outside the railing and called him: "Zichen."

He turned his eyes slowly, his loose eyes gathered at the moment he saw me, he almost jumped to the railing, the chain on his wrist hit the railing with a loud sound, staring at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Ah Zhi." He said through gritted teeth.

I looked at him and smiled lightly: "It's me."

"You still dare to come to see me?"

"Why didn't I dare?" I said slowly against his anger, "It's just that the person you want to see is not me, but Xiang Shaoya."

His face turned pale, and the resentment he stared at me turned into a deeper kind of disappointment. He lowered his eyes and smiled coldly a few times, and said, "Are you here to see my joke?"

I didn't respond to him, I was silent for a moment and then said: "Miss Er is dead."

Hearing this, his eyes widened, his face full of disbelief, and he asked intermittently, "You...what did you say?"

"Miss Er was pushed into the water by you, right? After she fell into the water and was rescued, she developed a high fever, and her condition fluctuated from time to time. The weather suddenly turned cold recently, and her condition deteriorated and she passed away yesterday." I said flatly.

His expression changed from surprise to panic and finally to despair, and his fingers holding the railing turned white.

After a pause, I continued: "Also, He Xin committed suicide. On the day you were imprisoned, Master Xiang had not had time to rehabilitate her."

Zi Chen's eyes trembled, as if he didn't know what to say, he bit his dry and cracked lips, lowered his eyes to avoid my gaze.

"What are you telling me...for?"

"Although you are a victim, you are not innocent." I lowered my head and opened the lunch box layer by layer, and said slowly, "You may feel better if you understand this."

"I'm not innocent. Is any of you innocent? You, Ji Yu, the prime minister, and... Xiang Shaoya." He looked at me stubbornly, the light in his eyes still trembling.

I smiled and said, "Did I say which one of us is innocent? Me, Ji Yu, Prime Minister and Xiang Shaoya, we always have to pay for what we do."

"Speaking nicely, what price did you pay?"

I thought about it, and said seriously: "Those who are good at water will drown more often, and those who attack their hearts will end up sad. For example, I will never love or be loved for a lifetime. Is it a little price?"

Zichen was surprised by my words, half suspicious and half pity. He slowly calmed down from the initial anger, looked at me and said coldly: "What exactly are you here for?"

His eyes were a little wary. I think he guessed the wrong direction, so he said, "Don't worry, I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to tell you, don't wait."

"You are betting, betting on your relationship with Master Hou over the past eleven years, betting on your sincerity, and betting on his reluctance. But does he really love you? He treats you with care, but even if he raises a pot of flowers , raising a dog also requires care.”

Zichen clenched his fists and looked at me with red eyes.

I knelt down and looked at him at the same level: "For them, there is no reason to keep only one potted flower, not to mention that when a potted flower dies, it can be replaced with a new one. For a flower, it is its entire life, but for To them, it's just something to decorate the garden, a moment of pity and vanity. Such a cheap love."

"But I don't regret it either!" He struggled for a while, and finally squeezed these words out between his teeth.

It's rare not to regret it.

I think this teenager sometimes looks old-fashioned and sometimes young. For him, it is also enviable to have someone who loves so much that it doesn't matter if he is cheated.

So I smiled and said, "I just heard about Master Hou's decision, so I came to see you."

Zi Chen was stunned, bit his lip, and said softly, "He... wants to kill me?"

I nod.

At that moment, I could clearly see the despair in his eyes. The corners of his mouth curled up, as if laughing at something, his voice trembling: "Impossible...he wants...to kill me...Why should I believe you!"

"Of course you don't have to believe me, and wait for him to forgive you."

I turned around and walked towards the exit of the cell. After a pause, I said: "Or don't wait for him anymore, use your method to get out of here, and live your own life from now on." He trembled slightly, and I closed the door. closed the cell door.

He has stayed in the Hou Mansion for eleven years, and he is familiar with this cell. I think he should have expected this kind of outcome, no matter how much he resisted, he must have prepared a plan for himself to get out of this situation.

This is the only return I can give to those sad and determined eyes.

When the news of Zichen's escape spread, Zikou and I were in the garden of the Hou Mansion, looking at the ancient locust tree in the center of the garden.

It is said that this locust tree has a history of 400 years, and the trunk needs three people to embrace it to surround it.

Zikou's hometown worships locust trees, and she sits on a stone bench under the shade of a huge greenery, clasping her hands and praying devoutly. I sat next to her and looked up at the lush locust tree, listening to the passing servants discuss Zichen's disappearance.

After Zikou finished praying, she asked me suspiciously, "Aren't you praying for blessings?"

When the state of Qi was about to be destroyed, the father and the queen took all the places they could go to the temple to make offerings and prayers.

If there are gods in this world, they may be helpless to us.

I shook my head and said, "I don't worship pagoda trees in my hometown."

"Hey, to be honest, Sister Azhi, do you believe in ghosts?" Zikou puffed her cheeks, looking dissatisfied.

Like Li Ding, she is from the state of Zheng, which respects ghosts and gods very much, and there are many famous gods.

"I believe, for example, this locust tree, I believe it has a spirit." I laughed and patted her on the shoulder: "In ancient times, there was a big toon, with eight thousand years as spring and eight thousand years as autumn."

Zikou's eyes widened, and he covered his mouth and said, "My God, eight thousand years...that's such a long life."

"For mayflies who live and die day and night, the hundred years we live is an unimaginable time. Mayflies are to us, just like we are to this locust tree, toon, and many gods." I smiled faintly and said: " So, will you listen to the Mayfly's wishes?"

Zikou shook his head.

"Then why do these beings who are higher than us want to fulfill our wishes? Asahi bacteria don't know the future, and crickets don't know the age. Our lives are carried out in different dimensions, and we can know the existence of each other, so we can know the vastness of life." It's not easy."

At this moment, there is a breeze, and the leaves are blown down on our shoulders, and there is a very faint fragrance of the tree. Zikou looked at me in confusion, as if she was thinking about something seriously, but also as if she didn't understand at all.

"The vastness of life..." she murmured.

There was a low, soft voice coming from behind me, accompanied by the increasingly distinct aroma of cypress.

"It means that if you want to become as smart as your sister Ah Zhi, praying for blessings is useless."

Zikou's eyes lit up, and he called out, "Master!"

I looked back, and Ji Yu was standing behind me, listening for an unknown how long. He is dressed in dark blue long clothes with a white jade hair crown, and his phoenix eyes are gentle and smiling.

Zikou stood up and saluted Ji Yu, and I followed suit. She couldn't wait to ask: "How do you know what I wished?"

He gave a low laugh, and did not answer her question directly, but said: "You can't learn Ah Zhi's intelligence, but you can work hard if you observe carefully and think twice before acting."

Zikou nodded happily like a child who got sugar. Ji Yu said to her: "I have something to tell Ah Zhi, you should step back first."

I watched Zikou leave happily, and thought she said that she liked Ji Yu, just like her elder brother and teacher.

Ji Yu showed the image of a gentle elder brother and teacher in front of her, no matter if he was sincere or not, he treated the eight girls very well.

She walked away, and Ji Yu looked at me, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Zichen escaped."

"I heard about it."

"You let him go?"

"I don't have that ability."

I looked at him calmly. It's not a bad thing for him that Zichen escaped. I went to find Zichen in a very secret way, and I didn't think I left any clues.

He looked at me for a while, then suddenly smiled and sat on the stone bench where Zikou was sitting just now, looking up at the locust tree.

"Forget it, the things you just said are interesting."

"I said?"

"Acacia tree, Chun, God." He closed his eyes and said briefly.

The sunlight fell on his eyelids through the gaps in the leaves, and the bright one reflected his browbones and eye sockets. He looked clean and a little pale.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but he seemed tired.

Suddenly he opened his eyes and looked at me, the light and shadow in his eyes were like broken glass. He laughed, his upper eyeline raised, and he was full of vigor again.

"I just suddenly realized that you seem to be very lonely."

lonely?

I still felt lonely when my mother died, but then I forgot about it and got used to it.

I have used every day of these twenty-one years to get used to it. These days, I feel like I get along pretty well with loneliness.

He used to say that I was funny or smart, but this is the first time he said other adjectives from his mouth.

It turned out to be lonely.