in the world of murder

This time, after the blooming day, classes were suspended on the mountain, and preparations for the New Year began.The days when there are no classes always pass quickly, and it will be New Year's Eve in the blink of an eye.

On the morning of New Year's Eve, Fugui dragged Xizhen to sell Spring Festival couplets on the Sun Moon Terrace.Xi Zhen wrote one, and he sold one. Most of the people who came to buy it came with the purpose of meeting Xi Zhen.The female disciples from Beiyuan also came to join in the fun, gathered around the Fugui stall, and watched Xizhen quietly.

Fu Gui counted the copper coins, smiled all over his face, and said: "Xi Zhen, even if your family is in trouble, you can still sell your beauty, relying on this face to eat and drink without worrying."

Xi Zhen snorted, dropped the ink-stained pen heavily on the red paper, and said, "Isn't it too rare for me to sell my beauty?"

Fu Gui took a look at Xi Zhen, he knew that Xie Li's last grade in Zhenghua Ri was invalidated, and he thought that Xi Zhen had tricks back then, but now it seems that the price he paid was not small.

Suddenly a person stood in front of the stall, Fu Gui saw that it was Xie Li.He quickly stood up straight, and said with a smile: "What do you want to see, senior brother?"

Xi Zhen raised his head when he heard the sound, and when he saw Xie Li, his expression changed drastically, and he wished he could be far away from him.If Xi was really a cat, the hairs all over his body must be blown up by now.

"I want a couplet." Xie Li's voice was quiet.

Fu Gui looked at Xi Zhen, who threw him a couplet and said, "Get lost!"

Xie Li didn't move, he carefully put away the couplet, and said: "Master ordered me to call you over, we will watch the New Year together tonight."

Xi Zhen's tense body relaxed a little, and said, "I see."

Xie Li didn't stay too long, and left after collecting the couplets. Before leaving, he said lightly, "The words are not bad."

Xi Zhen snorted, "Use your evaluation."

Xie Li left, Xi Zhen rubbed ink and wrote by himself, raised his eyes and saw Fu Gui, who had a narrow expression on his face.

Xi Zhen frowned, "What kind of expression do you have?"

Fu Gui patted Xi Zhen on the shoulder and said, "Not bad, not bad, it's a bit flirty."

Xi Zhen showed disgust.

In the afternoon, Xizhen posted couplets on the gate of his courtyard and the gate of his room.The white porridge is so thick that it turns into a paste by adding a handful of flour.Fu Gui dipped some paste and handed it to Xi Zhen, who brushed the couplets twice at the door and pasted them on.

Coming down from the ladder, Xi Zhen put down the rolled up cuff buttons while looking at the couplets on both sides of the door.

"This is the tenth New Year I have spent in Jiuyi Mountain," said Xizhen. "In the past ten years, the family has gone from bad to worse. At this time last year, there was news from my family that there was a war near my house and several towns were burned. More than a dozen villages."

Fu Gui sat down on the steps and said: "Think about the good, now that Emperor Yan has settled down the world, the war will end sooner or later."

"But my family is a big family occupying one side, Emperor Yan may not tolerate it."

Fu Gui looked at Xi Zhen and said, "Isn't there still you? When you become a direct disciple and go down the mountain to assist Prince Chongming, are you afraid you won't be able to keep your family?"

Xi Zhen took a deep breath, "I must become a direct disciple."

Fu Gui stood up, looked at the couplet with him, and said: "You are still lucky. In troubled times, there are so many people whose lives are worthless. On our mountain, many people are orphans. I have no father or mother. Isn’t it good to live up to now? I’m going to go down the mountain to practice next year, without the constraints of the sect rules, I don’t know how many people will die by then.”

Xi Zhen glanced at Fu Gui, "Do you want to stay on the mountain forever?"

"Why not?" Fu Gui said, "There are food, drink and money on the mountain, I really don't want to go down the mountain."

"I have no ambition," Xi Zhen said, "However, if you really just want to find a way out, you can visit various aristocratic families. You came from our mountain anyway, so you can be a guest no matter what. Or you can go directly to my house , fine clothes and fine food are no problem."

Fu Gui smiled and said: "Thank you very much, then I will call you little master from now on."

Xi Zhen lifted her chin proudly.

When it was getting dark, Xi Zhen took a few jugs of good wine and went to the small building of the mountain owner.Inside, Xie Li had arrived and was sitting and talking with the mountain master.

Seeing Xi Zhen coming in, the owner of the mountain suddenly calmed down and said: "Zhen'er is here, come in quickly, it's cold outside."

Xizhen walked into the room and said, "I know that Master loves wine, so I'm looking for my 20-year-old daughter Hong."

Xie Li got up and sat down on the high stool beside him.But Xi Zhen sat on the Arhat couch with the mountain master.

"Exactly, your senior brother brought a basket of tangerines, the kind you like to eat." The mountain master asked Xi Zhen to take off the thick clothes outside, sit on the couch, leaning on the stove to keep warm.

The owner of the mountain has something to do, so he went outside to meet guests not long after he sat down, Xizhen and Xie Li stayed in the inner room, one sat on the couch, the other sat on the stool, it seemed that the well water did not interfere with the river water.

"You want to be angry with me forever?" Xie Li said suddenly.

Xi Zhen peeled the orange and said, "Who is angry with you?"

"Then why have you ignored me for half a month?"

Xi Zhen glanced at him and said, "Because you are a shameless scum."

Xie Li chuckled, and said, "You said it, let me touch your hands and feet."

"It's for touching, not for you..." Xi Zhen swallowed the rest of the words, and said, "Dirty! Dirty!"

Xie Li laughed, his frosty and snow-like eyebrows and eyes instantly turned into spring water, he looked at Xi Zhen with a smile,

Xi Zhen blushed when he saw him, and didn't scold him for a while, just turned his back to him, rolling around on the small table with tangerines.

After seeing the guests, Shanzhu went back to the inner room and talked with Xie Li Xizhen about some academic matters.He intends to test two people in the school, and these two people are talented and hard-working people, so naturally they will not be questioned by the mountain master.The masters and apprentices enjoyed themselves together, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.

The night was getting darker, the owner of the mountain was old and drank some wine, he couldn't hold it anymore, he was talking with two people, and then leaned on the pillow and fell asleep.

Xi Zhen squeezed the wine glass, squinting at Xie Li.Xie Li still had that dignified look, peeling the orange with his slender fingers, and slowly tearing at the tangerine string.

Xi Zhen stared at his hands with both eyes, not knowing what was in his mind, his cheeks slowly turned red.

Xi Zhen put the back of his hand to his cheek, and was about to drink, but Xie Li took the glass away, and replaced it with a whole orange.

"Stomach hurts after eating cold wine." Xie Li lowered his voice, took the white jade wine bottle and warmed it in hot water, the mellow wine smell diffused, and the smell was a bit intoxicating.

Xi Zhen took the orange and ate it petal by petal. The orange was cold and sweet.

"Is it delicious?" Xie Li came over with warm wine.

Xi Zhen nodded and said, "It's delicious."

Xie Li said, "Give me a piece."

Xi Zhen glanced at him, broke off half of it and gave it to him.Xie Li refused to take it, and said, "Feed me a piece."

The corners of Xi Zhen's mouth twitched twice, but he didn't say anything, he broke off a piece of orange and fed it to Xie Li's mouth.

Xie Li opened his mouth to hold in his mouth, not only the oranges, but also Xi Zhen's cool fingertips.

He peeled the orange, and his fingertips felt the bitterness of the orange peel. Xie Li sucked his finger, his eyes became deeper and deeper.

Xi Zhen quickly withdrew his hand, looking quite at a loss.

Just at this time, there was a loud noise outside, and with a "bang", the fireworks exploded in the night, and in an instant, the entire Jiuyi Mountain was illuminated like daytime.

The mountain master woke up and said, "Is it midnight?"

Xi Zhen hurriedly said, "Yes, it's time."

Fireworks exploded one after another at the gate of the mountain, and the outside became noisy for a moment, with laughter, fireworks and firecrackers, endlessly.

Xi Zhen looked at Xie Li, who had already sat back on the stool, pouring wine calmly.

The owner of the mountain took out two boxes from a small cabinet on one side and said, "Your lucky money."

Xi Zhen took it with a smile and said, "Thank you, Master!"

Xie Li also took it and said, "Thank you, Master."

Xi Zhen opened the box and saw that it was half a jade pendant. He was puzzled, so he probed to see Xie Li's box, which contained the other half of a jade pendant.The two jade pendants are combined to form a complete peacock pendant.

"This jade pendant has the same origin as He's Bi. It was obtained by the first generation of mountain owners of Jiuyi Mountain, and it is a token of the past mountain owners of Jiuyi Mountain." The mountain owner said: "Now I will divide this jade pendant into two and give it to you two." One, I hope that you will be of one heart and one mind, and remember the love of the same family today."

Xi Zhen and Xie Li looked at each other, there was no emotion on their faces, but Xi Zhen found it strange.Throughout the history, disciples of Jiuyi Mountain's sect competed for the position of direct disciple, and most of them either died or were injured.The more they belong to the same family, the more they want to kill.Now the owner of the mountain is urging the two to be of one heart and one mind, which is too ridiculous.

Xie Li pondered for a moment, then cupped his hands first and said: "Disciple understands."

Xi Zhen followed suit and said, "Disciple would like to follow Master's instruction."

The owner of the mountain nodded and said: "I'm getting old and I can't stand it anymore, you two can play. After dawn, go to the elders to pay New Year's greetings, don't forget."

Both Xi Zhen and Xie Li said yes.The mountain master went back to rest, and Xi Zhen looked over and over at the peacock holding the flower pendant, but he didn't see why.

He saw Xie Li beside him, thought for a while, and said, "Senior brother, where is the lucky money you gave me?"

Xie Li glanced at Xi Zhen, and took out a copper coin wrapped with a red thread from his sleeve.

Xi Zhen raised his eyebrows, "A copper coin, what is this?"

Xie Li stroked the copper coin, and said: "When I was born, my father was traveling far away. My house was completely empty at that time, and even the brown sugar for my mother's confinement was bought on credit. When he left, he gave He gave me such a copper coin, which is the only copper coin he has."

Xi Zhen looked at the copper coin and said, "What can a copper coin buy?"

"Two steamed buns, or a steamed bun." Xie Li said, "It's a pity that such copper coins were no longer in circulation at that time, and they couldn't even buy two steamed buns."

Xi Zhen was speechless, Xie Li handed over the copper coin to Xi Zhen, and said, "It's a kind gesture."

Xi Zhen holds the copper coin, a small copper coin, which hurts the palm of his hand.

The author says:

Xi Zhen: He is so pitiful