[Xianze] Danbo Bookstore Jiangnan Branch

Of course Li Chengze is not a ghost, nor is he a fairy, he cannot be resurrected from the dead.

He did drink the poisoned wine and was determined to die.

The Dadongshan rebellion was quelled by Emperor Qing and Fan Xian, and Li Chengze's desire to kill his father and seize the throne has been fully exposed.The general situation is gone, but he doesn't feel much regret.In this chaotic situation, he already knew that he had little chance of winning.It's just that the loach lying prone in the mud always has such a long-cherished wish once in his life, to take off to see the legendary Dragon Gate, right?

Although what he jumped out of the water was not a dragon gate, but an iron net that wanted him to die.

Lee Seung-taek accepted the ending calmly.He was arranged in the northwest corner of the palace, and it was heard that his mother and concubine were thrown into limbo that day, and Xie Bi'an's whereabouts were unknown.There were only two maids in the palace where he was placed under house arrest, but the outside of the palace was closely guarded by more than 30 imperial guards.Emperor Qing's meaning was clear: if you dare to do something, don't even think about going out if you come in.

Li Chengze finally wanted to understand why the eldest princess was crazy.

Li Chengze stayed in this palace for three days from the time he was placed under house arrest to the last time he took poison.

Although the court lady's face was as cold as ice, she respected him as the second prince who was once above ten thousand people, and she almost responded to his requests.So on the first day, he ordered a few volumes of "Red Mansion" and snacks, and read while eating grapes.There was a stove and incense in the room, and he removed them all, and sat on the table with bare feet, forgetting to eat and sleep, and read all night.

The chapters of "Red Mansion" still stop before the Dadongshan incident, presumably Fan Xian has been busy with his affairs recently and has no time to write any more.This actually became Li Chengze's biggest regret before his death. He actually chased a hole and was buried before this hole.

Li Chengze was waiting for his father at first.Emperors are ruthless, especially Emperor Qing. Li Chengze has always wondered whether the world in his eyes is just words and bargaining chips. For example, every time the father sees him, what he sees is not his second son, but a stone or a head There is a line of words on the top: can not be reused, can only be used.

But after all, he is his father, the beginning of everything, the chess player who put him on the chessboard.Li Chengze thought to himself, then at least he should come to participate in my ending and send me off in person.

On the second day, it was not Emperor Qing himself who came with the breakfast, but a personal eunuch beside him.Emperor Qing didn't even want to waste an edict on him, and only asked his father-in-law to pass down an oral order. There is no death penalty, he will not be deposed, he is not allowed to leave the house, and he will reflect on him for three years.

Li Chengze sat on the edge of the bed and listened with dangling feet, flipping through "Red Mansion" casually in his hand, and only waited for his father-in-law to bow and leave before asking more: "Did your majesty say anything else?"

"Not anymore."

"Then what message did he leave for the prince?"

"I'm sorry to tell you."

"You go down." Li Chengze suddenly stood up on tiptoe, knelt heavily in the direction of Emperor Qing's bedroom, and said in an unimaginably loud voice: "I wish your majesty the dragon's health and longevity!"

Widowed and lonely.He added in his mind.

The eunuch seemed taken aback, but somehow he retreated in a well-trained manner.Li Chengze rushed to the window, held his breath, and heard him muttering something to the guards outside.

"The second prince is crazy after all."

Li Chengze laughed for a long time lying on the cold stone floor, the grapes were crushed by his back, he looked at the top of the hall, and silently swallowed the last insult left to him by Emperor Qing while laughing wildly.

After all, the old fox is an old fox, how can he compare with it.Li Chengze thought.When he thought that Emperor Qing would at least crush him face to face, his father didn't even bother to see him for the last time, but sent someone to say: life and death as you want, why did I care?

So he sat up again, ate his breakfast as usual, and then ordered to the court lady who was watching coldly: "Prepare the hot pot."

He ate this hot pot heartily, his stomach was full and his body was warm, and at night he sat back at his desk and reread "Red Mansion" with satisfaction.In the middle of reading, he suddenly remembered that when he first read this book, it was also when he first met Fan Xian.At that time, the Grand View Garden was very lively, chasing butterflies in the flowers, talking about the moon in the snow, did you ever think that one day you would lose?

"It's better to be born in the emperor's family," Li Chengze said to the candlelight, "Born is the end, and the best wood is used for the coffin."

On the third day, he started a new wait, waiting for a sworn enemy or an old friend—or even a half-brother.When there was still no news in the afternoon, he ordered the maid to bring a volume of poems by Xiao Fan Shixian.

The maid was about to leave after taking orders, but Li Chengze stopped her suddenly, and said casually: "This book must not only be readable, but also meet my requirements, be fast and accurate, and allow me some time. Understand me mean?"

The maid saluted again and left in a hurry.Li Chengze waited for less than half an hour, holding his cheeks, when a copy of "Little Fan Shixian Poetry Collection" carefully packaged in a wooden box was delivered to him respectfully.

He opened the wooden box, as if unpacking a long-awaited gift. The collection of poems was clearly a hardcover book specially reserved for noble children, but a page suddenly bulged out.He opened it with a smile, picked up the special bookmark bottle, and looked carefully at it against the light of the candlestick.

It is said that poisonous wine is delicious, and it quenches thirst. What is thirsty is victory or defeat, life and death, desire and ashes.

Li Chengze glanced at the page of poems with the poisonous wine between them, and after he realized which poem was on the page, he suddenly started laughing again, so much that the guards outside the door couldn't help but cover the window to check .But I saw that the defeated second prince was neatly dressed, holding poisoned wine in one hand and a book in the other, laughing so hard that he was about to shed tears before the case.

Li Chengze calculated the time when Fan Xian would come to visit, and without hesitation in the night he drank the poisoned wine with his head raised.The poisonous wine was really fragrant and pure, with an ominous astringent taste of almonds in the aftertaste, which was intended to make him drunk, and to commemorate his ridiculous life that was exploited all his life.He held up an empty cup and looked at the moon outside the window. The moonlight tonight was just a hateful full round, and he read the poems in the collection of poems.

Life is infatuated, and this hatred is not about wind and moon.

"It's... really good wine." Li Chengze murmured, his eyes were already full of drunkenness.

Fan Sizhe fell asleep for the whole afternoon, and perfectly missed the opening ceremony of Tanbo Bookstore's Jiangnan branch.When he woke up leisurely, he found that he had been carried back to Fan Xian's Fan Mansion on the east side of the West Lake. In the candlelight, he saw his elder sister sitting on the bedside, waiting for him to wake up with a bowl of fish porridge.

Fan Sizhe wished he could get into Fan Ruoruo's arms and cry bitterly. He just came to support Fan Xian's bookstore and cut the flowers, who knew that he would be tossed by the weird death ghost in the capital on the way.But it was the fish porridge sprinkled with chopped green onion and sesame oil that caught his attention first. Fan Sizhe took the soup bowl and started drinking it, sweating profusely.

Fan Ruoruo took the opportunity to explain a few words to him, saying that Li Chengze is not dead, but still wants to be the branch dean of the bookstore.There are still some orphaned copies of the previous dynasty that Li Chengze has collected for a long time in the second prince's mansion. He called Li Hongcheng over this time, not only to bring letters to Concubine Shu and Xie Bi'an, but also hoped that he could enter the mansion that had been sealed for him. Bring all the books.

"No, sister," Fan Sizhe became more and more confused as he listened, "Why did you accept it so easily? This second prince is not a good person. You forgot the days when brother fought to the death with him. Why did we suddenly turn around and change our surname to Fan and become our distant room?"

Fan Ruoruo said: "No matter what my brother's decision is, I support it." Then she thought about it and said, "I also feel strange, but I must have thought about the reason. We just wait quietly."

The Jiangnan Branch of Tanbo Bookstore had a grand opening. That night Fan Xian ordered someone to hold a banquet in Fan's Mansion for the people who had helped the bookstore to open, as well as the servants of the workers who built the bookstore.

Li Chengze didn't like the crowd, so he hid back in his room after the opening ceremony.Fan Xian was fed several cups of Jiangnan's local aged rice wine, and finally found a chance to escape and leave the banquet.Knowing that he couldn't drink well, he clutched his head and wanted to walk back to the dormitory, but suddenly remembered something on the way, and quietly knocked on the door of Li Chengze's room. Several oil lamps were lit in the room, and the light was warm.

"The door is open." Li Chengze said.

Fan Xian pushed the door open and entered, and saw that the dinner served on the long table was clean.Li Chengze nestled in front of the desk on the inside, cross-legged and concentrated on smoothing the corners of an old book.

"The book was torn and thrown in the corner of the old bookstall. I gave the stall owner a penny, and he seemed to have gotten a big deal, and embarrassedly gave me the other two books."

Li Chengze seemed to be talking to the air, carefully cutting the tattered staples with a knife, and smoothing out the wrinkles on the pages with a wooden weight.

Fan Xian sat down opposite him, Li Chengze's nose moved, and he said, "Rice wine has a strong aftertaste, so don't spit it out here."

Fan Xian smiled, and tied the stapled ropes he had cut into a bundle for him, saying, "If I'm drunk, then I'll steal some poems from Wonderland, are you welcome?"

Li Chengze couldn't help but recall the last time he saw him drink too much.He played drunkenly at the royal banquet, and every drop of wine turned into a poem that was sung by thousands of people in the future.He came up to him and the crown prince with a drunken upside-down step. He had a handsome face, although his hair was messed up, his eyes were clear.

"Life is full of love and infatuation... This hatred has nothing to do with the wind and the moon." He read to him.

Li Chengze leaned back, covered his trembling lips with his chin in his hands, his heart was pounding.By the time he stabilized his facial expression, Fan Xian had already left lightly. He could only catch a piece of white clothes floating behind him, and hear his voice still echoing in the hall.

Why did the world produce a character like Fan Xian?Similar to him and different from him, he envied him and made him jealous.As long as he is not under his command, as long as he still wears the hair crown of the second prince, he is destined not to get this ball of white fire.

"I actually thought about it." Li Chengze took a fine brush and brushed away the dust and stains accumulated over the years on the pages of the book. Fan Xian began to rub his temples, his cheeks flushed, obviously from the alcohol.Li Chengze said to himself: "Look for a chance to take you captive, and lock you in an unknown dungeon for the rest of your life, with your hands and feet in chains, and you can only compose poems for me and show me the follow-up of "Red Mansion". "

Fan Xian's eyes were squinted and his head was cloudy. When he heard this, his whole body became agitated. He turned his head and found that Li Chengze was still working on his book as usual.

"I'll go... Your idea is too bold."

"It's very difficult to achieve, so let's give up, I might as well kill you." Li Chengze continued, his tone was very similar to the tone when he said "I didn't get any steamed buns, so let's buy steamed buns".

Fan Xian deliberately moved back, keeping some distance from Li Chengze, and said, "Everyone says the eldest princess is crazy. In my opinion, you are much more crazy than her."

Li Chengze sneered, whether he was laughing at himself or Fan Xian's late understanding: "I'm much crazier than her, you will regret it sooner or later."

"I've saved everything, I won't regret it." Fan Xian turned his head to look at the moon outside the window, and suddenly sighed, "Based on this, more than half a year has passed."

In the past six months, he went through the Great Dongshan Change, and fought twice with Emperor Qing to the death. The court was chaotic, and finally he helped the new emperor to take office, so he asked for orders to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River.It was only half a year before and after.Long half a year.

Li Chengze followed his gaze and looked out the window. The trance-like moonlight resembled that cold night half a year ago. He drank poisonous wine, waited for the poison to happen, waited for relief, and waited for Fan Xian.It seems that the same moon hangs in the sky, exactly the same, and all beings are equal.

During the half a year he had stolen and lived, he watched the battle with cold eyes, only then did he realize that the cruelty of the emperor's family was so ridiculous.He calmly accepts life today, just as he peacefully drank death that day.He tossed and turned in the night, not knowing whether living now was a kind of carelessness, whether there was any meaning in lingering.

He wanted to question Fan Xian, but it was a pity that Fan Xian was traveling around. He secretly sent Li Chengze, who had died in suspended animation, to Danzhou to recuperate, and then took him to Jiangnan. Instead, he and Li Chengze rarely had time to sit down and talk.

Like today, it was the first time in half a year that two people sat down face to face and said something seriously to the moon.

Li Chengze said, "Fan Xian, I'm asking you, please answer carefully."

Fan Xian stared blankly at the moon with his chin resting on his cheek, his eyes were bleary from drunk, but he still spoke sharply. Sure enough, he wouldn't let himself get completely drunk.

"Tell me, I'll answer according to the situation."

"Why on earth did you save me?"

Fan Xian paused for a moment, then smirked at the moon.Li Chengze raised his eyebrows and waited for him to turn his head. Under the moonlight, his eyes shone with a strange light.

"I thought I explained it that night."

Witnessed by the same full moon, Li Chengze was lying at the desk, still flipping through the collection of poems, his stomach began to churn, and a piercing pain spread from his internal organs and limbs.He knew that death was not easy.

But he waited without saying a word until his eyes were blurred, until he heard the footsteps of someone pushing the window into the room in pain, until he raised his head and saw the poet in white under the moonlight.

"You're here." He said with a smile, trying to restrain the bitter blood from the corner of his mouth not to flow down, just like when we first met, he told him with a smile, if he doesn't see you, 'then you go back'.

"I'm here." Fan Xian said calmly, clasping his hands behind his back.

Li Chengze struggled out of the pain, stood up weakly but firmly, put a few letters on the chopping board, and said: "I left the letters, if I die, they won't blame you."

He staggered towards Fan Xian, holding a bunch of grapes nervously in his hand. He ate one just now, and his sense of taste seemed to have failed. He could only taste the bitterness of the grape skin, but could not taste it anymore. Sweet taste.

"After fighting for so many years, I have always wanted to ask you...why are you so harsh on me alone?"

Fan Xian didn't answer, he took another two steps forward, but when he descended the wooden steps, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if someone had taken his heart out, and he lost all strength, and fell to the right on the ground.He curled himself up into a ball, with cold sweat all over his forehead and wet his temples.The black blood that was in his mouth finally flowed out.

"Don't save me, don't need to sympathize," Li Chengze said intermittently with his eyes wide open, "I drank it myself."

He was unwilling, he didn't want to be just a whetstone that could be wiped away for the rest of his life, he wanted to fight for the almost impossible survival.Born in the emperor's family, birth is the end, and you can see the coffin behind you.When the pain made him so embarrassing that he couldn't speak, he especially wanted to talk, especially wanted to tell Fan Xian about his unwillingness, his hatred, and his nostalgia.

Excellent writing, good poetry, and good people.There is only one pity, that is, it has nothing to do with him from beginning to end.

Fan Xian approached him and wiped the cold sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. Li Chengze was panting heavily, every breath felt like a needle prick.

"Does it hurt?" Fan Xian asked.His voice was extremely soft, it was the closest to gentleness that Li Chengze had ever heard.

He nodded reluctantly.

"I know," Fan Xian said again, "because I adjusted the poison."

Li Chengze froze all over, and regained some strength on the way, firmly clasped Fan Xian's wrist next to his ear, and listened to him with his eyes wide open in the convulsions of his body——

"I have already replaced the maids and guards arranged by Emperor Qing with my subordinates. They said that you want poison, which is fast and accurate, and gives you time. So I prepared a poisonous wine, at least to let you last An hour of pain, and an hour later, he died of poison on time...does it meet your requirements?"

The corners of Li Chengze's mouth trembled, and he was finally speechless, only blood seeping from the corners of his mouth.Fan Xian's expression was so calm that he even felt boundless fear and coldness at the dying moment of severe pain.He could only stare at Fan Xian, but he couldn't tell whether he wanted to vent his anger, or whether he wanted Fan Xian to never forget his dead state for the rest of his life.

But Fan Xian just gently took his cold and sticky hand back, and said, "I didn't do this to humiliate you, let alone because I sympathized with you. I make poison, and I've always only made poison with an antidote. I... ..."

Speaking of this, he suddenly took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, he took out something from his cuff, held it tightly, and then slowly spread his palm where Li Chengze could see.

The medicine bottle in his palm was very familiar, but the potion in the bottle was exactly the opposite of the poisoned wine.

"I want to give you a possibility."

Li Chengze slowly opened his palms and then clenched them tightly again. Half a year ago, the bottle of cold antidote was placed in front of his eyes, at the moment when he was tortured and almost dying.And the instigator who made such a nonsensical move was sitting slumped in front of him across the chopping board, his cheeks were flushed, and he couldn't help hiccupping.

"Second Highness..." Fan Xian was really drunk, and actually called him by his old name, "You know, we are very similar."

"Uh-huh."

"It's not just the way I smile, but also the thoughts, attitudes, and logic of doing things... How can there be such a coincidence in the world that someone can understand me so quickly and even predict me."

Li Chengze chuckled lightly and said coldly, "That's because we have the same father."

Fan Xian smiled foolishly, and continued on his own: "Among the same fathers, I am not the most harsh on you, but I am most afraid of you..."

After being drunk, Fan Xian actually answered Li Chengze's desperate question half a year ago, with an answer that he could never have imagined.Li Chengze was anxious to hear an explanation, so he put his hands on the desk. Fan Xian's body smelled strongly of alcohol, and there was still a drunkard's smirk at the corner of his mouth. Li Chengze held his breath, listening to his warm breath blowing against his ears, My heart was pounding.

"I am afraid of you because we are similar but different. I look at you as if I am looking at another me, but there is no Mrs. Ye, no Uncle Wuzhu, and I don't know the warmth outside the palace. If I woke up that year, I didn't sleep in In the bamboo basket on Uncle Wuzhu's back, is he waking up in your cradle...

"You are in the mud of the royal family, you are crawling, struggling, killing people, and killing yourself. I can't agree with it, but I also understand that it would be the same if I were born. And I was born in the Fan family, and I still have There are many choices, you were born in the Li family, and this is the only one.

"The chess watcher is clear, I'm afraid I'm the only one who can understand. Li Chengze, I'm afraid of you because we are the most similar and the least similar among the same fathers. You are more cruel than me—you are the most vicious to yourself."

At the end, Fan Xian's voice became lower and lower, and his eyelids became heavier. Finally, his head sank and he slammed on the table with a "boom". It was obvious that he was drunk and fell asleep.All that was left was the back of his head, snoring lightly.

Li Chengze was stunned for a moment, but he still couldn't make sense of what he said.After a while, he slowly stretched out his hand, and seeing that his fingertips were about to touch Fan Xian's ear, Fan Xian suddenly muttered nonsense and turned his head.Li Chengze immediately retracted his tentacles like a snail, and listened attentively:

Fan Xian said in a daze, "I thought you wouldn't know how to drink the antidote...you wouldn't believe me..." His tone was actually a little aggrieved.

After hearing this, Li Chengze gloated and smiled.He bit his fingertips and remembered for a long time, finally shook his head, stood up and covered Fan Xian with his back robe, closed the windows to lock the moonlight in the room.

"I want to give you a possibility. Even though I know that the relief you are looking for right now is death." Li Chengze heard Fan Xian say this as he fell from side to side in the agony of dying.

Fan Xian spread his palms hesitantly, staring at the white bottle in his hand which contained the antidote to poisoned wine.Finally, he made up his mind and seriously handed the bottle to the dying Li Chengze.

"An hour is coming, you have less than a moment to make a choice, and I only have one last chance to convince you to survive."

"It is impossible for me to give you the throne, and it is impossible for me to satisfy your unwillingness to kill and desire. Whether you are a whetstone or the second prince, I am not a man of God, and I cannot change your past."

"But if," Fan Xian said at the end, his tone was indescribably sincere, and there was even an urgency that he didn't realize, "but what if... I can set you free?"

……free?

Li Chengze opened his numb eyes in a trance, the scene in front of him was blurred and distorted in pain, he could barely make out the human figure in front of him.He blinked hard, and his vision became clearer.

In his dark and distorted vision of everything, a man in white clothes stood in the center, he stretched out his hand to him, and the hem of his clothes fluttered.Just like when he was drunk back then, at the court banquet where everyone sat upright and dared not move, he chanted a line "without a colorful phoenix and two flying wings", stretched out his arms, and ran and danced recklessly, like a A free-spirited white eagle is laughing at everyone's dignity and everyone's cage.

When he was dying, Li Chengze suddenly realized that he really envied him and also liked him.Because they are so similar and so useless, he has the freedom and carefreeness he dreamed of, and he has a stomach full of poems and "Red Mansions" stolen from fairyland. He has tomorrow and dreams, but there is no cage.

At this moment, this person was reaching out his hand to him, his white clothes fluttering, and his expression was urgent.

free……

Li Chengze tried to struggle again in the quagmire of pain and fate, and he exerted his last strength.He took his hand.

TBC