The Words of the Number One

After that meeting, I have never seen Mr. Nan Huai again, and I think this grievance, which is not really a grievance, has been properly settled. If one day the underworld meets, I will be spared the need to explain.

But Ji Yu often called me over at the beginning.

In the days when I just became Ah Zhi, I actually rarely saw Ji Yu, most of the time it was Xia Wan or Lai Ying who came to teach me the rules, and other girls conveyed Ji Yu's meaning. He seemed very busy and wasn't in a hurry for me to do anything.

When I went to his room for the first time, he was wearing white single clothes, with a game of chess in front of him, propped his forehead, and looked at me with a pair of phoenix eyes smiling.

"Can you play chess?"

He asked me this.

I shook my head: "No."

He rested his chin on his hand, and pointed to the opposite seat with a gesture of no mind: "Sit down, I'll teach you."

I should sit opposite him, and he took all the pieces on the chess game and put them into the rattan box. Under the swaying lights, his fingers were white and slender, with thin calluses on the fingertips and the tiger's mouth. They were a pair of good-looking chess player's hands.

"Do you know why I am going to Fan Country?" He asked while collecting the chess pieces.

"I don't know."

"You might as well take a guess."

I raised my eyes to meet his gaze, and there was a hint of sharpness in his casual smile. So I thought about everything he had done recently, and replied: "Young master came from the state of Yu. I heard that the state of Wu and the state of Zhao formed an alliance to send troops to fight against the state of Yu. Force the capital city of the Yu Kingdom to say that the destruction of the Yu Kingdom is just a matter of time. If another country comes to save it, it will attack that country after the Yu Kingdom is destroyed. The Yu Kingdom and the Fan Kingdom have always been on good terms. Did the king of the country ask Fan for help?"

Ji Yu smiled noncommittal, but asked, "Who told you that I came from Yu Kingdom?"

I looked at him, that's how it was, he knew that those eight girls wouldn't tell me anything. Thinking about their estrangement from me, even Zikou rarely mentioned to me about their previous journey and Ji Yu’s affairs, all of this must have come from his instruction.

He's still wary of me, which is normal.

I shook my head: "No one told me. I saw a crimson robe when I was collecting clothes for the young master earlier. It is the most noble style of the Yu Kingdom after the royal family. It is very new and it is placed on the top. It should be a new one. The current situation of the Yu State, it must be something to ask for something to give the young master such an honorable gift, so it is probably related to this war. The Yu State is adjacent to the Song State and the Fan State. It's also the fastest way."

Ji Yu stroked the chess piece in her hand, was silent for a while, and looked at me with a half-smile: "You guessed right. Sometimes I'm really curious, how do you know so many things?"

The situation of the world, the customs of each country, the system of ritual and music.

"I was taught by Lord Tai Shiling of the Qi State when he was still alive. I read more books and listened to more stories on weekdays. After the fall of the Qi State, I also wandered abroad for a while and saw some things in the world." I said it very frankly. .

Ji Yu chuckled lightly, with a bit of inquiry and a bit of approval in his eyes. The white piece in his hand landed in the center of the chessboard, and he said leisurely: "Let's play chess."

I played a game of chess with Ji Yu back and forth according to Ji Yu's teaching. He was very patient, and he obviously gave way to me with every step of the way. It seems that today is very leisurely and wants to spend time with me.

I remembered something, so I asked him: "I heard from Xia Wan that I will arrive in Pucheng tomorrow, and the ship will dock for supplies. Can I get off the ship?"

"Are you going to Pucheng?"

"You can return before sunset, and you won't miss the time of sailing. If you are worried, ask someone to come with me."

Ji Yu smiled, but didn't try to stop her: "You go, I'll ask Li Ding to accompany you."

Among Ji Yu's many servants, the nine maidservants together with me are the highest, and the rest are male servants, there are about twenty people, all of them are strong and strong men, Li Ding is such The leader of the servants.

He is a man of great strength and a taciturn person on weekdays.

The next morning I arrived a little earlier than the agreed time, and Li Ding was already waiting. He didn't smile very much, and after saying hello, he didn't speak anymore, but just walked beside me with a lamp, and I followed him off the boat.

There was a heavy fog in Pucheng today, and there was a vast expanse of whiteness everywhere, so I couldn’t tell the difference. I groped along the path to inquire about a village on the outskirts of the city. I grabbed a thin old man and asked, “Excuse me, is this Lujia Village?”

The old man nodded and said yes.

"Does Lu Shi's widow, the Lu Zhou family live here?"

The old man looked at me in surprise, then looked at Li Ding beside me, and said, "Last year, Mrs. Lu Zhou died of starvation. Why did you look for her?"

I was silent for a while, and did not answer his question: "Then is his child still alive?"

"His youngest son died of illness two years ago, and now there is only one eldest son left, who is being raised by brother Lu Shi." The old man shook his head and sighed: "He didn't have much compensation when he died in the battle, leaving this orphan and widow Mother, it's really miserable to catch up with the disaster year again."

The fog cleared a little, and I saw that we were in a field, but the crops were sparse. I asked the old man to take me to find Lu Shi's son. The old man said that today is the anniversary of Lu Zhou's death, and Lu Shi's eldest son should be in the village cemetery now.

This day is very coincidental.

Li Ding and I followed the old man to the village cemetery. At that time, the fog was still thick, and the area around the cemetery looked gloomy. When the old man was about to reach the cemetery, a crowd of crows cried out one after another. He looked a little embarrassed, and turned to me and said, "If you don't wait here, Miss, Douzi should be back soon."

I shook my head and reached out to Li Ding: "Lend me the lamp, I can go alone."

"Master wants me to protect the girl." Li Ding didn't agree with me walking alone, and he didn't look at me.

I looked at Li Ding for a while, and said, "Today is Wangri. I heard that the custom of Zheng Guo is taboo to look at the sun and enter the cemetery. I thought you were from Zheng Guo."

Li Ding's usual stern and silent expression finally showed a little wavering. He looked at me suspiciously: "How does the girl know..." Halfway through the question, he stopped and replied: "The villain was originally from Zheng Guo, but he followed the son. Traveling in various countries, I also know the principle of doing as the Romans do.”

I nodded and didn't insist anymore. After thanking the old man, he walked into the foggy cemetery together with Li Ding. Although Li Ding said he didn't care, he was still a little nervous. When the child appeared in the mist, I looked at him a little stiffly.

People in the state of Zheng respect ghosts and gods the most, so it is really difficult for Li Ding.

The child was kneeling in front of a tombstone and burning paper. When he saw us, he groped and stood up from the ground, looking at us with a pair of big round eyes. Probably in such a foggy day, meeting in such a cemetery, he would also be quite frightened.

"Are you Lu Shi's son?" I leaned down and asked him.

He is thin and weak, like those sparse crops, and he looks like he is only in his early ten years old.

He nodded tremblingly, looked at me and then at Li Ding, his voice trembling: "What are you...?"

It seems that we are regarded by him as a generation of ghosts who want to kill us.

I took out a blood-stained letter from my pocket and handed it to him: "This is a letter that your father didn't post before he died. He asked me to bring it to your mother. Since your mother is dead, please give me the letter." You."

He took the letter in a daze, opened the envelope and looked at it for a while, then looked up at me helplessly: "I...I can't read."

I took the letter in his hand and looked at his mother's tombstone: "Then I'll read it."

"My wife, Hongfang, sees the words like faces. There are many emergency casualties in the war, and I may not return in the battle tomorrow. If I don't return, don't wait for me. You are still in your prime, and you can still find a good relationship. I miss you very much, and I often recall my youth. We depend on each other and expect to grow old, and may you be protected by your beloved for the rest of your life. Dalang Erlang is especially cute, and his appearance has become blurred after not seeing him for many years. I can’t stop crying when I read this, and I hope you are in good health."

The tombstone stood quietly in a gloomy and cold mist, and the crows stopped making noise. It was as if someone was really here listening to the letter. The letter writer Lu Shi found made many typos, but his writing style was acceptable. Presumably he had already met his wife in Huangquan, so he should have told his wife the meaning of this letter perfectly.

I often recall that when I was young, I depended on each other and expected to grow old. May you be protected by your beloved for the rest of your life.

In the end, his wife didn't have the chance to marry someone else, but died as his wife.

I received the letter and folded it and handed it to his son. He probably didn't quite understand the meaning of the letter, but his eyes were still red. He took the letter in his arms and looked at me eagerly: "My lord, my father Is it a hero?"

hero? There are so many heroes in this world.

I looked at him for a while, then shook my head: "Your father is just an ordinary man."

One of the tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers who died in the expansion of the Song Dynasty.

"But your father loves you very much. The person he loves the most now is only you living in this world." I leaned down and said to him, "This is the most important thing."

In the end, I bowed to the tombstone and left with Li Ding. It was noon at this time, and the sunlight gradually became stronger and the fog dissipated. There was only a thin layer of water vapor in the air, which did not block the sight much. A child's cry came from far away, Li Ding seemed a little unbearable, he paused but still didn't turn his head.

I was back on board in only half a day.

That night when I was learning how to play chess with Ji Yu, he asked me, "You went to Pucheng to deliver a letter for this man named Lu Shi?"

I nod.

"What's so special about him? You don't seem like someone who meddles in this kind of business." He put down a piece on the chessboard, and then took a lot of pieces.

I stopped to think, and met his smiling eyes.

"Qiqi and I passed through the battlefield on the way to Songdu. He climbed out of the dead, gave me his letter and his name and hometown, and died. I didn't want to care about it, but I didn't have time to refuse. "

Ji Yu seemed to believe it or not, and shook his head with a light smile. He pointed to a place on the chessboard: "You fall here."

I followed his instructions to play chess, and he propped his chin and said slowly: "Now do you still have unrepented grudges?"

"I never had a grudge."

"Korea Zheng Guo and Cai Guo were destroyed, and Song Guojun was assassinated. Didn't you avenge the destruction of Qi State?"

"That's Qiqi's hatred, not mine."

Ji Yu raised his eyes from the chessboard, and looked at me with a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes, which seemed a little provocative.

"The old country was destroyed, the father, the queen and the queen committed suicide. You fell from a high-ranking princess to a slave overnight. Don't you resent it?"

I chuckled, I seem to have answered this question for many people. When she first started to help Qiqi get revenge, she also blamed me for being too ruthless and indifferent to the destruction of the Qi country.

However, hundreds of years have passed since the emperor of Zhou unified the world and divided the princes into feudal lords. Now the royal family of Zhou has declined, and it is not uncommon for the vassals to fight against each other.

"How many countries, big or small, have been destroyed in the past hundred years, can't Qi be destroyed? Most of the monarchs who died will go with the country, my father will be an exception? Qi is already such a land, without the alliance of the four countries, sooner or later If another country invades, it will be destroyed sooner or later. If you really want to complain, it is just that my father is not good at governing the country, and he has already died for the country, so there is really no other complaint."

Ji Yu looked at me for a long while, with surprise in her usual smiling eyes.

"That's your parents."

"So?" I looked at him, he was silent for a moment, and said slowly: "So you don't blame me? I threatened you to be my slave and took away your freedom."

"Freedom is good, it's a very good thing. But it's a luxury after all. If you don't have enough food and clothing, there's no room for talking about freedom." I placed a piece on the chessboard, He looked up to meet his piercing gaze.

"I bought off the soldiers that day, and buried a fortune outside the palace. After escaping, I can eat and drink for a while. But after all, I have no power to restrain a chicken. In this troubled world, I fled alone with the treasure. I am afraid that my life will be in danger. You took away my freedom, and you also saved my life to provide me with food and clothes. This is a very fair business, why do I hate you?"

He looked at me for a while, then looked at the chessboard, smiled and shook his head: "Changshengjie, draw."

I lowered my eyes: "Young Master is a good guide."

He put the chess piece in his hand back into the rattan box, and said slowly: "You are really...interesting weirdo."