It took three days for Ji Jiu to restore the yard to its former neatness. Broken doors and windows, broken water tanks, overturned stone tables, pitted earth walls... Quietly restoring everything to its original state, Ji Jiu sat in the sun basking in the sun. The sun was warm, the breeze conveyed the fragrance of flowers, and he drank tea with a serene demeanor. As if the world is quiet and beautiful, impeccable.

Those despair and sorrow, sadness and happiness, are all an illusion.

Last year, there was a severe drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and the year before last, there was a locust plague in the northwest. In such a year, the local squires and the officials opened warehouses for disaster relief, and barely managed it. It was not until this year that the weather became better. In such years, when the army goes to war, it is labor and wealth that hurt the people. When the army is deployed, food and grass go first, and without food, it cannot move. Therefore, the emperor and Ji Jiu are both waiting, waiting for a good year, waiting for more money and food to deal with a battle of the world.

Ji Jiu yawned, rubbed his eyes, got up and went back to his room, sat in front of the desk and opened the pile of letters to read.

A few had been opened, and Ji Jiu took out the paper inside again. Most of them were nothing more than military affairs. There were only a few lines in the letters and they were all trivial matters. There was only one of them. It was only two lines of words, but the things described were unusual. The letter said that the Xiongnu army had recently changed.

Ji Jiu thought about it for a long time. First of all, he can be sure that he has not yet gone to find the enemy, and the enemy has come by himself. Then, he can also be sure that since even he can receive this message, the emperor must also receive it. In the end, Ji Jiu couldn't be sure of the emperor's intentions-do you want him to hide here and let him come back after the last battle, or...don't want him to fight this battle at all?

If it is the former, if the Huns come to attack, Ji Jiu is sure that he can lead the troops to fight this time. If it is the latter... Ji Jiu thinks about it, but doesn't quite understand why it is so?

Isn't it okay? He is the emperor, he is his general.

Isn't it okay? He sits on the world, and he secures the world for him.

Isn't it okay?

Ji Jiu threw the letter away, wondering what else in the world to believe.

Can only wait, waiting for the decree to come. In fact, he was not impatient. Ji Jiu always felt that if the Huns attacked, he would still have to meet him in person in this battle. Looking coldly at the court and the opposition, no one knew the Huns better than him.

The two years in the yellow sand were not in vain.

It was getting dark, and there was a knock on the door. Ji Jiu got up and went to open the door. A wrinkled old man handed him a greasy package and a jar of wine that had just been called.

Ji Jiu smiled and said, "Thank you mute, I've been bothering you recently."

The old man who was called mute hurriedly waved his hand, opened his mouth and shouted "Aah", but couldn't say a complete sentence.

Ji Jiu put the food on the table, the dumb uncle gestured to go to work, closed the door, and returned to the courtyard.

Turning on the oil lamp, Ji Jiu sat at the table and silently ate his own dinner. The pancakes made by the farmer should be made for him, so he put more oil, and put a lot of diced meat in it. Opened on the table, the oil stains flowed along the veins of the lotus leaves. Ji Jiu didn't have any appetite, but he didn't want to disappoint the uncle's family.

The remaining half couldn't eat any more, so he put it aside, filled the tea cup with wine, and drank it with his head up.

The wine is cold, but it is warm in the stomach, and then warms all over the body. He has always been a good drinker and won't get drunk easily.

Drinking and drinking until late at night, there was wind noise in the house with the doors and windows closed, Ji Jiu paused with his hand holding the wine bowl, spilled a few drops of hops, and landed on the green robe.

Yimo also held a jar of wine and placed it next to his jar, one jar next to the other, as if side by side.

Ji Jiu slowly put down the tea cup, looked at the two jars of wine standing side by side on the table, and waited for a while before saying, "There is no appetizer."

Yimo sat opposite him, took an upside-down tea bowl, poured himself some wine after putting it away, and said, "No need."

Ji Jiu smiled, nodded and said yes, then said, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm here to say goodbye," said Imo.

There seemed to be something flashing in Ji Jiu's eyes, but it was too fast for even Yimo to catch it. I am afraid that only Ji Jiu himself knows what he was thinking at that moment.

But Ji Jiu didn't say it, just raised the wine cup and said lightly: "In this case, this glass of wine should be practiced for you."

Emer drank.

They didn't speak for a long time, each poured their own drinks, occasionally meeting eyes, but quickly separated. Ji Jiu always looked away first, looking to one side or the other, always reluctant to look at him, maybe because he didn't want to, or maybe he didn't dare.

Ji Jiu drank a lot earlier, so his wine jar lit up first.

Shaking the empty wine jar, Ji Jiu said, "No more."

Yimo filled him with his own wine, poured it for himself, put down the jar that was also left, and said, "It's divided."

Ji Jiu has a good amount of alcohol, and doesn't care what kind of wine he pours for him, but after drinking three glasses in a row, Ji Jiu feels a little dazed, and at the same time, his heartbeat is very fast, and he can even hear the rapid flow of blood in the blood vessels. . Ji Jiu rubbed his forehead and asked, "What kind of wine is this? It's so powerful."

"Spring wine." Yimo said, and added: "It's also called Daughter Hong. I stole it from the family. The woman is ugly and lame, and no one wants it. The spring wine her father made for her has been buried for more than forty years. Years. No one will drink it anyway, so I'll bring it."

Ji Jiu held his forehead and glared at him at first, but after listening to it, he couldn't help but make a "puchi" and smiled softly.

With this smile, the qi and blood surged even more, and the head was a little dizzy.

Ji Jiu said, "Is there any more?"

Yimo picked up the wine jar and shook it again, "There's a little left."

"Give it to me." Ji Jiu said hurriedly, holding the wine jar into his arms.

Yimo looked at his empty hand and sighed, "Do you want me to dig another jar?"

As usual, Ji Jiu would reject this question immediately, no need to think about it. But tonight, as if it suddenly became complicated, Ji Jiu thought about it for a long time and finally said, "Has her father made a lot of it?"

Yimo said, "Three altars."

Ji Jiu gave an "oh", and then said, "Then I want another jar." After a little pause, as if his conscience was disturbed, he asked him, "Anyway, she won't marry again, will she?"

Yimo thought about it for a while, and finally was very determined: "In her situation, it is difficult to marry."

Ji Jiu settled down.

After drinking the last bit of wine, Ji Jiu crouched on the table, her face flushed and her breathing a little hurried, which was a sign of a drunk person. The eyes are also blank, with a wet color at the same time.

After lying down for a while, Ji Jiu muttered, "What kind of person is Shen Qingxuan?" He was so drunk that he could not speak clearly. Yimo listened, and it took a while to understand what he was asking.

After thinking for a while, Yimo said, "Bad man."

Ji Jiu lay on the table and laughed. don't know what to think, but kept laughing and laughing, tears came out, but couldn't hold back.

Yimo leaned over and looked at him for a while, "Drinking too much?"

"No." Ji Jiu said immediately. Usually people who drink too much say that they haven't drank too much, and Immor is gone.

Talking to drunk people is usually the most difficult, because their thoughts are floating, suddenly east, west, south, north, and you never know what he will say next.

Emer encountered this problem.

A moment ago, Ji Jiu was still stating that he was not drunk. The next moment, Ji Jiu asked, "What are you doing to force me?"

Yimo sorted out his thoughts and was about to answer when Ji Jiu jumped to another question and asked, "Who do you want me to be?"

Because he was drunk, Yimo was also frank. This time, he didn't think about it, and said directly: "Of course it's Shen Qingxuan."

Ji Jiu raised his eyes, stared at him blankly for a while, and then asked him in a particularly innocent tone, "What about Ji Jiu?"

Yimo was embarrassed for a while, then said honestly, "I don't know."

Hearing this, Ji Jiu suddenly stretched out his hand and pointed at his nose, as if he was about to curse, Yimo leaned back and instinctively wanted to hide, but Ji Jiu pointed at him for a moment, then he withdrew his hand, without any hesitation. A merciful taunt: "Idiot."

"..." Yimo didn't know where his thinking went.

Ji Jiu propped his head with the hand that just pointed at him, and asked drunkenly with closed eyes, "Before you went to see Shen Qingxuan, did you think that you would meet someone like Ji Jiu?"

Emer said, "I thought about it."

"Then have you thought about how to solve it?"

Yimo said: "I thought about it, but there is no way."

Ji Jiu laughed "hehe", as if it was funny, he kept laughing, and when he was done laughing, he said again: "Idiot." Yimo blinked and listened to Ji Jiu saying: " You can't figure it out, so just blindly look for it. So what if you find it? There's no strategy for doing things, idiot."

"..." Yimo generously did not defend him.

"Ji Jiu became Shen Qingxuan, what should Ji Jiu do?" Without looking at him, Ji Jiu propped her head up, thinking hard about this question with her already knotted brain, and muttered, "Ji Jiu entered the palace at the age of nine. The sixteen-year-old and Chen Ming forced the old emperor down, and the family carried all their lives on their shoulders. Later, he became a general in the military camp, married a wife and had children, um... and promised Chen Ming to be him. The military generals are going to fight the Xiongnu." After a pause, Ji Jiu slammed the table and cursed, "The emperor is a liar!"

Yimo froze for a while, "How did I lie to you?" The topic floated again.

"He told me to fight the Xiongnu." Ji Jiu stood up, stumbled to the front of the case, took a stack of letters and threw it to him, and said ruthlessly, "Look, the Huns are almost at the door, and he also asked me to Nest here!"

Yimo opened the letter and was about to read it, but Ji Jiu grabbed him and said to him with a serious face: "You peep at the military situation!" He shouted again: "Come here, tie him to me, he is a meticulous craftsman. !"

Yimo sighed, a little headache.

Getting up and grabbing Ji Jiu's shoulder, Yimo shook him and said, "See who I am."

Ji Jiu stopped calling, looked at him for a while, and suddenly three words popped up: "Old demon snake!"

Yimo: "..." It's okay, I still recognize it.

Ji Jiu pushed him away, because it was a sudden force, Yimo was pushed away without taking precautions, Ji Jiu stood there, shaking slightly, looked at him for a while, and said, "What did you do in the early years? Why didn't you come to me when I first entered the palace? When those princes were thinking of ways to toss us, they didn't see you coming. What's the use of finding them now?"

Yimo said, "Is it useful to find you earlier?"

Ji Jiu laughed and said, "It's better than what you are looking for now. At that time, it was too late for me to be a playboy."

"Yi Mo." Ji Jiu suddenly raised the volume and shouted loudly, "Ji Jiu has no time to turn back and be a dude, you are late!"

The quiet courtyard was no longer calm because of his sudden scream, and even disturbed the dog of the farmer's house not far away, and there was a burst of barking.

But Yimo stood for a moment and said, "You can't be a dummy." Then he said, "Because you are the only son of the Ji family."

Ji Jiu was stunned, and then asked: "Really?" Seeing Yimo nodding, she was stunned again, and then said, "Yes."

Emer said, "Well."

Ji Jiu waited for a while, and said, "Anyway, you are looking for Shen Qingxuan. Ji Jiu is not a dummy, so what's the matter with you?" This topic suddenly came to this point again. It makes sense, and quickly added: "That is, what is it with you?"

Imer paused and said, "For me, it's no different."

"Nonsense." Ji Jiu immediately retorted, plausibly: "Then I'll make you immortal, why don't you go?"

"But..." Shen Qingxuan asked me to go, but I didn't go. Without saying this, Ji Jiu waved his sleeves and said in one sentence, "You want to treat me as Shen Qingxuan, but you have never heard my words. If I say no, you say yes. Is that the case? After all, you just use me as a tool for thinking."

This time, even though his thoughts jumped quickly, Yimo knew what he was talking about, and immediately said, "Shen Qingxuan never said 'no'."

Ji Jiu blinked and said, "But I'm not Shen Qingxuan." Another innocent look.

"You are," said Emer.

"No." Ji Jiu said.

"Yes."

"no."

"Yes."

"But I didn't know you ten years ago! My memory is only thirty years!"

"But... I have two hundred years of memories, and you in my previous life."

Ji Jiu squatted down like a deflated ball, then covered her face and sat on the ground.

After a long time, I heard him say: "What about Ji Jiu? What about Wang Jiu, Chen Jiu, and Li Jiu in the future? If they are not as good as Ji Jiu's treatment of you, what will you do? Are you looking for it?"

Yimo was silent for a moment, walked over and sat on the ground with him, and replied, "I don't know."

"You think about it." Ji Jiu lowered his head and muttered: "Shen Qingxuan is dead, nothing but bones. If you want to accompany him to death, you can go. If you don't want to, go to immortal. There are only two ways to go, you can't keep looking for it, even if you find it, you have to face different Shen Qingxuan, maybe hate you, maybe fear you, maybe ignore you, you are not ready to face Shen Qingxuan you said 'no'."

Yimo lowered his eyes and said softly, "Is there no other possibility?"

"No more." Ji Jiu also replied softly: "I thought about it for a long time, no. Even if you find him in a certain life, at the right time, at the right place, you will be together again. But it's only a few decades. It will be lost. Then the cycle will continue.”

"Yi Mo," Ji Jiu said, "I don't have many days left. People are good at their words when they are about to die, so you can believe me. Go to immortality."

Yimo looked at him, first with a casual glance, then with a serious look, with a scrutiny. After looking at him for a long time, Yimo said, "Do you really want me to go?"

Ji Jiu said, "Does it make sense for you to keep it?"

Silence again.

Yimo said, "Stay with me one more night."

Ji Jiu said, "Go away."

Yimo said, "It's Ji Jiu to accompany him."

Ji Jiu was silent.

The author has something to say: A note on yesterday's convulsion and the recent debates: Writing "Encountering a Snake" was not a whim. At the beginning of writing, I just wanted to draw an arc, from the beginning to the end, to grind away all the edges and corners. With blood and tears, the two can truly be together. So there are three.

But in the process of writing, I also raised some incomprehensible questions before myself, such as why I love, why I give up since I love, and why I never say anything since I like it. Etc., etc.

So what is love, love is tolerance, love is patience, love is compromise - even a compromise that pulls out one's own thorns with blood.

Some people love Shen Qingxuan's madness because he brings out the selfishness of love to the fullest, and some people love Yimo and his pursuit because he shows his perseverance. There are also people who love Ji Jiu, because he changed from hatred, from compassion on the table to quiet heartbeat hidden in the depths - and always sober, knowing that he can only be Ji Jiu.

Everyone has different preferences and three different views, so you are all right and not wrong.

However, they are all thorns. Some thorns grow on the surface of the skin, we can see it at a glance, such as Ji Jiu. Some thorns are covered up in the name of love, like Imo. Some thorns are also deeply hidden in the name of love - such as Shen Qingxuan.

These thorns make them strong, and they also make them weak, because the people they love cannot really get close to them, and they will have no real liberation, and they will always "seem to be lost" and cannot reach perfection.

What I want is such a bloody process, I want them to appreciate the pain and live a happy life, I want them to know that in order to get, they must pay, not superficially, but to truly dig out their own heart and cut it apart. Open it and see what's in it, and what the heart wants. Because there are no fairy tales in this world.

Nor do they believe in fairy tales. ——This is the reason why this article is written today: Humans and monsters have different paths. If they want to return together, they must pay the price. They must learn to face reality and learn to compromise with the world.

This process may be cruel, but we all know that the warmth and tranquility after cruelty is what our heart desires.

————

Therefore, many people care about it subjectively, such as: Ji Jiu is not Shen Qingxuan, the second part has been replaced, Orochi is too pitiful, or Shen Qingxuan is better, etc.

With me, it's all a lie.All I care about is how such a person and a monster can come back together from different paths.

The process is of course horrific.Also, of course, I have been very restrained, writing carefully to avoid such tragic events.

So, stop arguing.Those who are willing to read such a tragic story, calm down, accompany me, and go on.

If you don't want to, see you in the rivers and lakes.