Strange Tale of Qingluan

When he turned his head, he followed the prestige and met Su Zhongming's face, so he stayed where he was.Su Zhongming came down from the high platform and walked straight to him. The first sentence he said was an apology, "I'm sorry, I didn't expect to catch you by chance when I drew lots. You won't blame me, will you?"

Ding Xuehou stared at him, not very happy, "Your luck is really bad, but..." His tone changed instantly, "I will fight well, but if I am unlucky to be beaten ten times by the enemy on the battlefield, And then die..." Before he could finish speaking, Su Zhongming hit him on the left arm with his fist.

"Don't be discouraged! You haven't set off yet, and you haven't fought yet! If you become a crow's mouth and kill yourself, no one will sympathize with you!" He pointed at the tip of his nose and cursed.

Ding Xuehou listened calmly, lowered his head, leaned closer to him, and said softly: "You still care about me." Su Zhongming took a step back, "I care about everyone except those I hate!" When Xuehou heard it, he felt that it would not be easy to fight with words, so when there was no one around, he simply opened his double walls and hugged him tightly.

Su Zhongming was unprepared, he was startled on the spot, he subconsciously struggled desperately, and even raised his foot and stomped on his instep, but the man's instep seemed to be made of iron, he was stunned and refused Let go of the guard, and replied calmly, "It's not as pitiful as dying on the battlefield if you lose a foot."

Su Zhongming immediately stopped stomping down, stopped, and endured it, as if he had been bitten by a dog.Ding Xuehou, who reported him, thought that he had calmed down and relaxed, so he lifted his left guard to support his background, and boldly moved towards his body, very intense, so intense that Su Zhongming could hardly hold back, Had to be forced to accept.

After a while, Dingxuehou let go of the guard, turned around and walked away, saying, "If you want to kill me, wait until I come back alive, and if I don't come back alive, you will have someone whip my corpse deep. Su Zhongming breathed a sigh of relief, watching him go farther and farther, but because of what he said, he stood still like a tree, neither scolded nor chased up to beat him severely.

He couldn't remember how he spent the next half day. He fell asleep peacefully when he was on watch in the middle of the night. When he woke up, it was already high in the sun. He rubbed his eyes and asked the old eunuch who was standing outside the couch waiting for orders, "Now What time is it, have the reinforcements for Jialing Kingdom set off?"

The old eunuch hurriedly knelt on the ground and replied: "Damn you slave. I saw His Majesty sleeping so soundly early this morning, so I didn't have the heart to wake Your Majesty up. I sent someone to tell the generals not to wait. Now, the troops should leave The capital is gone."

Su Zhongming sat up, didn't get angry with him, and only replied calmly, "If you oversleep, you oversleep, and it's not a big deal if you don't see him off. Ask someone to bring in mouthwash, face wash and breakfast."

The old eunuch said yes, and immediately followed his instructions.

At noon, the eunuch at the Empress Dowager's palace came to tell him that the Empress Dowager wanted to invite him to have lunch together. There, he didn't sit next to her, but when he saw her sitting close to the queen mother's left, he sat in the empty seat next to the queen mother's right hand.

The queen mother likes vegetarian food and likes a lighter taste, so the dishes on the table are almost vegetarian.Su Zhongming took a glance, and the dishes he saw were as follows: Stir-fried cashew nuts with parsley and white mushrooms, Stir-fried tofu with minced meat, Stir-fried bean sprouts, Taro glutinous rice cake, Stir-fried chestnuts with cauliflower. .

Not even his favorite flower crab, fish and shrimp.

Su Zhongming was puzzled, took a bowl of vegetarian porridge presented to him by the eunuch, and was afraid that the Queen Mother would be unhappy, so he ate some of every dish.The queen mother was happy to eat, and asked her daughter-in-law to bring food for Su Zhongming.Wen Qian was obedient in front of her, and she gave Su Zhongming a rub of bean sprouts as she agreed, but gave the Queen Mother a spoonful of cashew nuts instead.

Su Zhongming hated it in his heart, but in front of the Queen Mother, he had to accept it.After dinner, after leaving the queen mother's bedroom, he dared to confide the grievances in his heart in front of Wen Qian, "The queen mother asked you to pick up vegetables, so you put bean sprouts for me! Let me eat your saliva! Are you Didn't you mean not to let me eat a good meal? Scoop a piece of minced tofu for me!"

Wen Qian answered straightforwardly, "That's right! This queen just doesn't want to have dinner with you!" Su Zhongming said mercilessly, not to be outdone, "Okay! When we two go back, we will tell the Queen Mother that we are going to divorce! I will divorce you." ! From now on, you will eat your east wind, and I will drink my west wind!"

Wen Qian snorted, "Who's afraid of you? It's right for this queen to divorce you!...But, after this queen has become a queen, it's not too late to divorce you!" Saying that, she briskly ran away up. "You..." Su Zhongming couldn't stop her, he just watched her fly up with the wind, and disappeared in an instant.

This afternoon, he thought he was free, but a eunuch handed him a letter. The eunuch said that this letter was from the prime minister's mansion.Su Zhongming quickly opened it to read, and saw only a few handwriting on the paper, which meant to respectfully invite him to the prime minister's residence, so he put the letter away and set off immediately.

The frame slowly left Miyagi, passed through the busy city, and stopped in front of a mansion. A young housekeeper opened the door to greet him.Su Zhongming in the car got out of the car carefully, and was led by the young housekeeper to meet the owner's house.

Hearing that Su Zhongming came, Yi Yeqing quickly came out of the house to greet him, and personally invited him into the deep courtyard instead of leading him into the flower hall.Su Zhongming asked as he followed him, "What is it that invites me out at this time?" Yi Yeqing only pretended to be closed, and only answered: "Your Majesty will go with the minister, and you will know immediately."

The two walked into a room, and into a small fragrant pavilion in the room. Yi Yeqing raised the bead curtain and called the white-robed man inside the curtain, "Master Bing". The robe covered his entire body, only the half of his face below the tip of the nose was exposed, and only after hearing his voice did he know it was a man.

The white-robed man bowed respectfully to Su Zhongming, and then asked Yi Yeqing, "Is Your Majesty the new city lord elected by the elders?" Su Zhongming bowed, "Your Majesty, my name is Banluoyan, and I am a sacrificial priest of the middle layer of Qingluan City-Shui Lingzhu. If you can see the incredible image after pulling out the sword blade in my hand, it will be for this purpose." The new city lord!"

Su Zhongming nodded in agreement, and watched as Ban Luoyan took out a blue long sword, with an unusually distinct phoenix pattern on the sheath.He was startled in his heart - is this the Qingluan sword? !

Ban Luoyan handed it into his hands, he was helpless, and slowly pulled out the blade, the bright luster slowly receded upward like a wave, until it receded to the tip of the sword, turning into a light like a star .He touched the edge of the blade involuntarily, and suddenly, a huge almost transparent blue luan bird appeared in his vision, its spread wings even had a strange brilliance.

Su Zhongming looked up at it, opened his mouth in shock, and watched it fly up, and disappeared in an instant.He retracted the blade into its sheath, unable to speak.Ban Luoyan stared at him and asked, "What did Your Majesty see?" He replied, "A nearly transparent blue luan bird... but it flew away."

Pan Luoyan smiled and said: "That's right! Your Majesty, please go to Huangyuan Kingdom with me in September, and wait until all the evil red cherry blossoms have fallen before entering the altar of the underground palace together. Once this ceremony is over, you will be the real city lord." .”

"September?" Su Zhongming thought for a while, "Isn't that the Cherry Blossom Ceremony of Huang Yuan Kingdom?"... Huang Yuan Kingdom's most important festival within a year!It is said that in September, the cherry trees there will grow blood-red flowers, and when crushed, blood-like juice will flow out.There is even a legend that after this kind of flower blooms, it will not fall until August of the following year, and during the period when it is in full bloom, disasters will continue to occur in Huangyuan Kingdom.

Indeed, it is a scary rumor...

Recalling this, Su Zhongming couldn't help swallowing, feeling the wind behind him was very cold.

"At this big ceremony in September every year, the royal family will invite eminent monks to go to the altar to chant scriptures. Your Majesty can stop by to have a look and enjoy it with others." Ban Luoyan said with a smile.

Su Zhongming was slightly taken aback when he heard the words, only to hear him add, "Since your Majesty is a young man, he must be interested in this grand scene." His cheeks flushed slightly.

Ban Luoyan continued, "The Qingluan sword should be handed over to the city lord after the ceremony, but your majesty must remember that this sword is different from other swords. As a treasure, it cannot be used to kill ordinary people and Livestock, otherwise you will lose your energy."

Su Zhongming thought: I have never killed people, and I don't want to kill people. Of course, I would not use such a beautiful sword if I slaughtered livestock. It must be matched anyway, with a meat cleaver!

At this moment, no one spoke anymore.After a while, Yi Yeqing said, "Your Majesty, why don't you stay, I will prepare dinner for you." Su Zhongming was very happy when he heard this, and quickly agreed.

Dingxuehou was not around, whenever he had time to go to Dingxuehou's mansion, he could only drink tea and eat snacks with Princess Shengshi, he said very little, he was supposed to go there for some entertainment, but he felt even more lonely.But in the palace, eating, drinking, sleeping, relaxing, going to the theater with the queen mother, playing cards with the little eunuchs, bickering with the naughty girl, going to the court, there is nothing new.

After much deliberation, he still felt that it would be best to have Ding Xuehou by his side.Although Ding Xuehou was a little rude occasionally, he could help people relieve boredom, and the things he did were even a little romantic. Now that he is not by his side, he feels that something is missing every day.

Every time he went to the court, every time he received a note, what he hoped most was the news about the reinforcements. However, they had been gone for more than half a month, and no news came back, as if they were cut off from the world.

One night, he had a terrible dream.In the dream, there were dilapidated Wen Guo flags everywhere, the ground was full of stacked corpses, it was horrible, on the top of the hill, the enemy soldiers and horses were laughing ferociously, the laughter was frightening, and then a piece of bad news kept spreading in the breeze That's it - Jialing is defeated!The reinforcements are defeated!Wen Guo is doomed!

Wen country's reinforcements also lost? --impossible!

He suddenly opened his eyes, looked at his forehead, his hands were covered with cold sweat, and realized that everything he saw just now was an illusion in a dream, even so, he still had lingering fears in his heart.

After staying on the bed and opening the window, it was still pitch black outside, and the singing of the night insects was ringing uninterruptedly. Su Zhongming just stood there, no longer sleepy, and his mind was always haunted by that ominous dream. A sentence that Xuehou said before going out was very similar to his last words, and he couldn't help worrying about his life and death. After half an hour, he finally made a willful decision.