"What's the difficulty? I'll cut it."

The gentle man's voice sounded behind Rao Tu's ears, she was startled suddenly, looked back, and met his gentle eyes.

She immediately sank her face and said coldly: "My lord is your concubine, it is the spring breeze, what are you doing here?"

Shen Zhu grasped a strand of her blue silk and wiped it carefully with a cotton towel, "The princess hasn't entered the mansion yet, so I can't just go to the princess mansion."

Seeing him as if nothing had happened, Rao Tu was furious and said with a sneer, "So I'm the one to relieve the boredom of Lord Shen. When the princess comes, where will I have a foothold?"

Shen Zhu made a "hmm" sound, still noncommittal.

Rao Tu stood up abruptly, regardless of how little clothes on her body and her wet hair, she kept pushing Shen Zhu outside.

Shen Zhu was pushed away a few steps, then stood still, letting her punch and kick on him, the smile on the corner of his mouth became more intense.

The mountain ghost left the house with discernment, and the little girl couldn't help but sigh, thinking to herself that Lord Shen has been really good-natured recently, and a servant of the Ministry of Rites was manipulated into such a state, and he could still laugh!

Rao Tu was out of breath, and after a few dozen hits, Shen Zhu held him in his arms, listening to him softly persuade: "Take a break and hit again."

Rao Tu pouted, turned around angrily and went to the couch, scolding: "Who cares to beat you, where are you going? Don't let me see you, a cruel, short-lived, unlucky New Year's Eve!"

Lord Shen's face is thick with walls, and now he doesn't care about it, he enjoys being scolded after following Rao Tu.

Seeing her wet hair, he wanted to lie down on the quilt. He pulled her into his arms, leaned halfway on the quilt, and said to her, "Hair wet, be careful with headaches."

Rao Tu twisted in his arms a few times, but didn't break free. She hated: "Can you handle it? Let go of me! Let go!"

Shen Zhu just didn't let it go, smiled calmly and said, "Don't you want to cut one out of me?"

Rao Tu reached out and grabbed a pair of scissors on the kang table, pressed it against his chest and said angrily, "Will you let it go?"

Instead, his hands tightened, "Don't let go."

Rao Tu pushed the scissors down, and he smiled at her, but his eyes were somewhat relieved.

This kind of empty relief made Rao Tu feel a pain in her heart. She threw the scissors in a slump, only to feel that her whole heart was tangled together, and she couldn't help crying: "What do you mean, tell me to kill with a pair of scissors. With you, are you at ease?"

Shen Zhu stretched out his hand to wipe her tears, but the tears grew more and more, Rao Tu pushed his hand away fiercely, "I don't want you to be happy! I don't want you to feel at ease!"

Shen Zhu frowned, seeing her crying endlessly, he couldn't help getting anxious, he hugged her in his arms and coaxed her, and even said many soft words that made people laugh out loud, she still kept crying.

He was in a hurry, and put his lips together to suck the teardrops that were heartbreaking, "I am not a thing, and now I am not dead or dead. It's better that a gust of wind blows and a puff of smoke clears away!"

When Rao Tu heard this, she gradually stopped crying, and then she bit her lips out of a blood bead without speaking.

Shen Zhu held her face, forcibly came up to her lips, and licked the blood beads clean, he said hoarsely, "Aheng, whatever you want, say it, or I will cut it with a thousand cuts. Divide the corpse of five horses, it's up to you."

Rao Tu said angrily, "I'm not Ah Heng..."

Before he finished speaking, he pressed up and kissed her fiercely, as if to punish her for denying her account.

After a long time, the two finally parted breathlessly, and Rao Tu said intermittently, "Mr. Lu... said... you can't..."

Shen Zhu took his hand out of her clothes and put her in his arms. He didn't care what poison there was in his body, and wished he could die in her arms. But Lu Zhiming also said that she cuts blood every day to turn poison, and she is very empty.

He misses her.

Rao Tu lowered her eyes and said, "I know that you are afraid of death, this is the punishment given to you by the gods. You can't even eat it even if you are close to your mouth. It's worse than the eunuch."

Shen Zhu was a little helpless, "Don't say these dirty words in the future."

Rao Tu nodded and said, "In the future, if you are dead, how can you manage so much? Just keep it safe so that you don't hear it."

"I am dead, and my soul haunts you."

Rao Tu stopped talking, and lowered her head to ponder the meaning of his words. Now she doesn't know how much he has understood, and whether he really recognizes her when he calls her Ahen, or just treats her as a substitute .

Seeing that she was quiet, Shen Zhu bent down and picked up the pair of scissors from the ground, took a piece of red paper from the table, folded it a few times, and cut out the outline of a small person.

Rao Tu saw that although the little man had no eyebrows and eyes, but his figure was clearly similar to his own, he sullenly said: "Didn't I cut one of you? Who told you to cut me?"

Shen Zhu then took out another piece of paper and cut out the outline of a scholar, Rao Tu took it in his hand and looked at it carefully, and said in deep thought, "It doesn't look like it."

"Not like?"

Rao Tu took the scissors, cut out the shape of a book from his sleeve, nodded and said, "This is you, if you are walking with a book in your hand, you know how to dress!"

Seeing that Shen Zhu didn't speak, she took out another piece of red paper and cut out a small donkey, which was glued to the back of the book-holding little man with glutinous rice paste, linked by a thin piece of red paper, "This is, lead the donkey, Hold the book and take a break."

Shen Zhu said "um", "It's me."

Rao Tu's face did not change, but her heart was like a stormy sea. When Xu Heng and Shen Zhu first met, he was leading a donkey. Now that she deliberately cut out the scene from that year, he was not surprised.

Rao Tu understood that he didn't take her as a substitute. With his careful thinking, it was impossible for him to be so confused. The only possibility is that he already knew who she was.

She was slightly panicked, not knowing when Shen Zhu knew, but after thinking about it, it seemed that Pei Qingwei had a flaw when she died. But since he knew that she was Xu Heng, why didn't he explain what happened back then if there were other secrets?

A bitter smile, secret? It turned out that when she arrived at this time, she was still fantasizing about some hidden secrets. He neglected her for five years, killed her child, and hated her deeply. What secrets could explain the past?

She couldn't help clenching her fists, her fingernails digging deep into her palms.

"What are you thinking about?"

She looked up at her, stunned, and shook her head subconsciously: "No... It's New Year's Eve, what shall we eat?"

Shen Zhu looked at the sky outside, "It's getting dark, you just remembered?"

"Well, I'm hungry."

The mountain ghost said in a timely manner outside: "Girl, for the New Year's Eve dinner delivered by the Hopeful Moon Tower, the palace also gave various cakes to eat."

Shen Zhudao: "Have a mountain ghost bring you some snacks in the palace?"

Rao Tu shook her head: "I don't eat anything in the palace. I heard that the cheese in the north is sweet. I want to eat it."

He nodded and instructed the outsider: "Mountain ghost, take my jade token to the post house and ask the cook from the north to come over and make cheese."

The mountain ghost came in to get the jade plaque, went out of the house and ran to the post house on horseback, showing the jade plaque, and the envoy from the north hurriedly asked the chef who could make cheese to follow the mountain ghost, and specially ordered to make the best cheese.

In the warm pavilion, Rao Tu looked bored, and Shen Zhu was afraid that he would say something wrong again to make her cry, so he didn't say much, and took an old Tang book to read.

Seeing that he was ignoring people, Rao Tu felt awkward again, and pulled his sleeves, full of unpleasant expressions.

"What?" he asked.

"Have the couplets posted the peach symbols?"

"The housekeeper posted the door."

"What about the rest of the house?"

"My book garden is called Yang Qian posted. The kitchen accountant's room is in charge of whoever is in charge, so don't worry about it."

"Why doesn't this warm pavilion not exist?"

"I didn't order it before, and the servants followed the usual practice. Now that you want to post it, I ordered Yang Qian to clean it up."

Rao Tu smiled and said, "Isn't this red paper, pen and ink, and paste?"

Shen Zhu looked at the red paper on the table, nodded and said, "Alright, but I haven't written a couplet for many years."

Rao Tu asked Liu Xing to bring the brush and ink and grind it herself. Seeing her like this, Shen Zhu took the pen and wrote two lines on a piece of red rice paper: "Three springs add splendid beauty, and four seasons strengthen rivers and mountains."

It's obviously a wonderful couplet, and money is hard to buy, but Rao Tu just twisted her eyebrows and said, "No, no, where does it look like a couplet? There's no human touch."

Shen Zhu said modestly: "Then you write, and I will grind it for you."

Rao Tu rolled up her sleeves, pondered for a moment, and wrote on the rice paper: "The qin and the spring are always moist, the people, the sky and the moon are together."

Shen Zhu looked at her "calligraphy treasure" and said nothing for a long time.

Rao Tu coughed, raised her eyebrows and said, "How?"

Shen Zhu carefully appreciated the two lines of crooked words with conscience, nodded and said solemnly: "It's very good, it is a kind of... pure and lovely style."

Rao Tu rolled her eyes, "It's not good, it's not good, and you call me writing like a child in a different way?"

Shen Zhu put away the paper, "Posting it in the inner hall can ward off evil spirits." He got out of bed and wanted to post it himself.

Rao Tu hurriedly jumped out of bed and followed him with a jar of paste. He stood on tiptoe under the door of the inner hall and used a small brush to paint the high-grade nanmu door with paste. Shen Zhu then pasted the "Spring Festival couplets" on it.

Rao Tu looked up under the door, nodded and said, "That's a little interesting."

Shen Zhu wanted to ask what the meaning was, but he still didn't ask. He stared at the strokes between the horizontal and vertical, and A Heng wrote, there was never a transition between the horizontal and vertical, and now even if the font was deliberately changed, this habit has not changed.

Ah Heng is Ah Heng.

Soon, the mountain ghost brought the prepared cheese over. Rao Tu had never seen the strong fresh milk smell before, so she couldn't help laughing: "Why is this smell so fragrant? I just wonder if it will make you dizzy after smelling it for a long time."

Shen Zhu personally dug out a spoonful of cheese and brought it to her lips. She didn't want him to feed it, but when she saw that white, soft and floppy thing lying in the spoon, it was really cute. The cheese is in the mouth.

It was sweet and fragrant, and it was obviously delicious, but because it was fed by Shen Zhu, she was duplicitous and said, "That's it, it's no big deal."

Shen Zhu nodded, "Yeah, it's no big deal." Then he put the jade bowl on the table, and said to Shan Gui, "Then the chefs in the northern border are not good at craftsmanship, so why don't they call them out?"

Rao Tu frowned, grabbed his clothes and said: "It's a big New Year, why are you like this? You just like to find it difficult for others, no matter how good it is, it is time-consuming and laborious to make, and there is no reward. Do you have a conscience to shoot people out?"

Shen Zhu thought for a while, nodded and said, "Madam is right, what do you think?"

Rao Tu said: "Give me a taste again, I just didn't taste it."

So Shen Zhu fed her a whole bowl, and she commented, "It's okay too."

Shen Zhu said to the mountain ghost: "Did you hear me, reward!"

The mountain ghost smiled and said, "Then the cook in the north is waiting outside. The special envoy said just now that if the adults like it, the cook will be kept."

Rao Tu shook her head: "No."

Shen Zhu said: "If you like it, it's okay to stay."

"Why do you keep him? He came from a long way from the North, and he must have a wife and children at home, so they are separated from flesh and blood?"

The mountain ghost withdrew, and Shen Zhu silently recited the phrase "there must be a wife and children at home" in his heart, only to feel that his heart was broken.

When night falls, fireworks rise in the direction of the palace, which is bright for thousands of miles. Raotu opened the window to look at it, with gorgeous fireworks reflected in her eyes, she sighed: "Jinling City, Jinling City..."

Under the brilliance, it is cool and thin.

Shen Zhu fiddled with the charcoal pot with tongs, and spread a layer of white ash on the fiery scarlet charcoal fire, so as not to be too hot and hot.

He said softly: "The imperial city is full of fireworks, but the people living in it have their own thoughts. Under the imperial power, how can there be any happiness in the family?"

Rao Tu turned around and looked at him: "Since this is the case, why are those people still refusing to let go during the camp?"

"Because they have either tasted the taste of power or seen the majesty of power."

"Rights?" Rao Tu was puzzled.

"Right, those who haven't experienced it, will never know how charming these two words are."

"What about you? Are you here for rights?"

Shen Zhu's hand holding the tongs paused slightly, then smiled: "Yes."

Rao Tu frowned, she felt that he was lying, he was not a person who would be crazy about power.

She suddenly thought of another person, and she felt that the person who stayed in this dangerous Jinling City was not for power. He may be an ambitious man, but his ambition comes from his hatred.

On New Year's Eve, the five palaces. The firecrackers blared and the laughter was loud. The three houses, the inner and outer corridors, the door gods, the couplet pairs, and the new nectarine symbols are all new and full of flowers.

Above the hall, the musicians played the sheng, and the beauties sang and danced in a prosperous world.

Under the faint music, in the fragrance of fragrance, the fifth prince, Xiao Yanning, dressed in a lavender robe, reclined on the old sandalwood carved couch, and embraced the warm and fragrant nephrite.

When he was about to have a baby, he rolled over and sat up, rubbed his temples, and was deeply drunk. He waved his hands to the left and right and said, "Let's go away, this king will keep the year old alone."

The vocal music dissipated above the main hall, and everyone got the gold and silver screwdriver money, and they all retired.

Soon, Xiao Yanning was the only one in the hall. A gust of cool wind came oncoming, and before knew it, it was already snowing heavily outside the hall. He smiled slightly, and walked out of the hall.

The most down-to-earth prince of this dynasty was wearing a red and red crane cloak and holding a solitary lantern. Walking barefoot in the palace, with graceful steps, it seems like a leisurely stroll.

The lanterns hanging on the corridor were lit by him one by one, and the heavy snow drifted on his clothes and hair, and he didn't even notice it.

There was no one in the courtyard, but Xiao Yanning seemed to be telling someone, and said softly: "In the past, when I was very young, whenever it was New Year's Day, I always came to post the couple, and the concubine went to light the red light. Now The wind and clouds are scattered, and people are neither things nor things. Only then did I realize that life is lonely, but it’s just keeping the year old without anyone to accompany me, and lighting the lamp alone.”

Desolate and lonely, muttering to himself.

"Mother concubine, after you die, I will no longer be a high-spirited young man. Conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy, these ten years of hard work, although my son has nothing, at least he is not dead."

"Without death, there are many possibilities."

He looked towards the south of the yard and said with a smile: "That woman, she can't sing the Bodhisattva Man, but it makes me very moved. I will take her with me when I leave the capital this time. If you have a spirit in the sky, mother concubine, you will definitely feel the same. , she's a very nice woman. Jiangshan, I want it. Beauty, I want it too."

There was no one on the main road of the quiet Jinling City, and people with well-to-do families had red lanterns hanging at the entrance of the courtyard, reflecting the brand-new couplets on the door. The ground in front of the door was covered with a layer of fine and bright red firecrackers.

Snow fell on the ground, reflecting the city, a little cold.

Outside the city gate, a small figure swayed on the post road. The child was wrapped in a heavy padded jacket and wore a torn mink hat on his head. He was a seven or eight-year-old boy with a soot-black face.

Lu Zhiming was standing not far from the city gate. After seeing the boy's figure, he slowly stepped forward, walked to him and stood still.

A boy with a strange name "May" looked up at the Taoist priest. The child was not surprised and frightened, and asked, "Is that Mr. Lu?"

Lu Zhiming nodded: "Who rescued you from Wuji Island in the East China Sea?"

"The person who saved me said it, don't say it."

"Since you survived, why do you still want to enter Jinling? You know, there are many people in this city who don't want you to survive."

"Sir, please send me to Qingzhou Xu Heng."

Lu Zhiming looked at the child and asked, "What are you doing with her?"

"She can save me."

"You are on Wuji Island in the East China Sea, and you have no worries about your life."

The child shook his head without explaining anything, staring stubbornly at Lu Zhiming with bright eyes.

Lu Zhiming's hand hidden in his sleeve made a quick gesture, knowing that the child was instructed by an expert, so he insisted on coming to Xu Heng. Maybe the child didn't know what to do to find Xu Heng, but he was suffering continuously, thinking Seek a shelter.

Lu Zhiming said warmly, "Now is not the time, let's be later."

May didn't bother, and nodded obediently: "The person who saved me said, but Mr. Lu is the master."

Lu Zhiming wiped the child's cheeks with his cuff, took his hand and said, "There is a Lingbao Village nearby, go there and stay for a few days."

Inside the Qintian prison in the capital, an old prisoner who had been blind for more than ten years suddenly pushed open the door and looked up at the sky with his turbid old eyes that had been blind for more than ten years. Here, Zi Qi comes 30,000 miles from the east... Shen Changlin, is this also the backhand you left behind?"

Shen Changlin, the father of Shen Zhu.

It snowed overnight in Meihuawu. When Rao Tu opened the window the next day, she saw two snowmen under the attic. The mountain ghost smiled and said, "Girl, how about my pile?"

"Which one did you push?"

The mountain ghost pointed at the big one, triumphantly.

Rao Tu said "Oh?", deliberately lengthened the ending, and asked with a smile, "Who made the little one?"

The mountain ghost glanced at Yang Qian, who was standing beside him, even more proud.

Rao Tu pursed her lips and smiled, "Why are you so rude? If you build a snowman, you don't know how to restrain yourself. If you continue to be so wild, you will still have food after thirty boards."

Hearing this, the mountain ghost couldn't help but touched his butt. The riot in the hot pot restaurant a few days ago was punished by 30 sticks when he came back, but he didn't know what was going on. It hurts. Is she used to it?

The mountain ghost sighed, and followed the girl without killing anyone, but instead developed a skill of getting slapped. She was a dead man, and she was too low-level.

Huh? Why hasn't the master been summoned recently? Is it possible that you feel that you are too useless and abandoned? The mountain ghost thought this, and became more and more melancholy.

Rao Tu ignored the little girl's thoughts and asked, "Where's Shen Zhu?"

"Back to Madam, Lord Shen has gone to the academy." Yang Qian replied from the side.

Rao Tu squinted her eyes, then smiled indifferently, "He's really busy."

Shen Zhuzheng opened a copy of "San Dao Deeds" in his study, flipped through the book several times, flicked his fingers over the old and yellowed pages, and pondered, "It's my father's pen, why are you here sir?"

Lu Zhiming drank tea slowly by the side, "This book was given to me by Zhang Yufu, the Taoist master of Wudang Mountain, so I have some opportunities with Wudang Mountain in the past."

"What does Mr. Lu want to say?"

"I'm a cultivator, and I should stay out of it, but things are a little more complicated now. I think it's better to look back at those old things. Ling Zun's book of "Shan Dao Deed" has already laid a foreshadowing. Maybe, he had already expected it. Until he will die under the conspiracy planned by the Xu Clan in Qingzhou."

Shen Zhu frowned slightly.

"Ling Zun did die at the hands of Xu Maochun, the head of the Xu family in Qingzhou, but I think that when he resigned and returned to his hometown, he did not want to return to his roots, but to seek death. He knew that he would die if he disobeyed the former emperor."

Shen Zhu slapped heavily on the table, "Sir, don't talk nonsense!"

Lu Zhiming said calmly: "I don't dare to say anything biased. Back then, Mr. Shen resigned because he didn't want to be the eagle dog of the royal family, and he didn't want to go against the sky to tamper with the luck of the dynasty. And Xu Maochun, the head of the Xu family in Qingzhou, resigned from office. , the person who made a name for himself, secretly planned that conspiracy to get rid of Lord Shen, in order to flatter the royal family."

Shen Zhu clenched the "San Dao Deed" in his hand and hated: "If you are flattering, the food will be too ugly! They secretly manipulated and instructed people to frame my father as a demon and burn him alive in the street. They said that my mother was deceived by sorcery. Heart, ask a sorcerer to exorcise my mother, what kind of exorcism? Actually... let her be humiliated to death by that mad sorcerer..."

He coughed a few times, blood oozing from the corners of his mouth.

Lu Zhiming got up and pressed his back, and said slowly, "Calm down."

Shen Zhu slammed the case with a fist, "If there is injustice, it will be heard, blood feud, how to meditate!"

Lu Zhiming said: "Xu Maochun secretly killed your father, the imperial court actually knew it, but did not buy it. The first emperor issued an edict to enshrine your father as the Qing Ci. The Xu family in Qingzhou quickly withered in just a few years, and only The whole line survives. Xu Maochun died suddenly, his descendants withered, and the third generation has only one granddaughter, Xu Heng, and there is no male in the family. The Xu family in Qingzhou has received the retribution it deserves."

Shen Zhu closed his eyes, the tragic state of his father and mother before his death was still in front of him...

Lu Zhiming continued: "Xu Heng's father may have participated in the conspiracy back then, but at that time she was a girl less than ten years old, and before she was ten years old, she lived with her grandmother on a farm in the countryside, and she was secretly aware of that conspiracy. She didn't know anything about the planned conspiracy, and the insiders of the Xu family didn't talk about it later. She didn't even know that it was her family who conspired to kill Ling Zunlingtang. Over the years, she has carried enough sins for her father's generation. You "It's time to let her go."

Shen Zhu opened his eyes, he looked at his hands with bitterness in his heart.

"You said that my father was asking for his own death, so why did he borrow the hands of the Xu Clan of Qingzhou?"

"Let's guess, at that time, Mrs. Shen figured out that the Xu clan in Qingzhou would have a strange woman, who was extremely unworthy of the young phoenix, but she was a lonely person, and in the future, she might overturn the world of temples and rivers and lakes.