Everyone loves Huo Qubing

In midsummer, the drought came back and spread to the capital.

On the afternoon of the second day when the army marched, I didn't play Cuju with Cao Xiang and the others.Li Gan's father, Li Guang, also went to the battlefield, but Li Gan came to the North Gate every afternoon to play Cuju happily with everyone, without any worry.Maybe it's because his elder brother Lang Guan Li Jiao temporarily stayed in Beijing to guard the city in place of his father's Wei Wei, so he feels more secure with his family around.

Instead of going to the court, I turned the corner and went to the archery range next door.

Recently, Taishi Han often haunts the shooting range. Every time he carries a large barrel of arrows on his back, he shoots indiscriminately with a blank face, and he can shoot down half of the straw people.I found a shady place by the shooting range, and spread out the bamboo slips in my hand as a fan, admiring Han Yan's archery, and at the same time admiring the eunuch's grass picker opposite.

Anyway, I don't want to go back to that empty home except for Da Jinniang and two servants. Maybe I can be lucky enough to learn the secret of shooting through Yang at the shooting range.For those who are far away, let’s not talk about going to the battlefield; for those who are near, I have to compare Li Gan, who is a self-proclaimed marksman.

"Want to learn?" The red knight walked up to me with a longbow on his back.

"Well, I want to learn. But I didn't bring a bow today." Today is a scripture class during the day, and I don't have a bow and arrow with me.

"Would you like to try mine?" Han Yan said as she took the longbow from her shoulder.

I curled my lips: "Your bow is the right hand."

"Actually, there is no difference between left-handed and right-handed bows." Grand Master Han smiled.He looked up at the other end of the shooting range, "Hey, over there, please give me a live target."

The eunuch took a long stick with a hook and dragged a straw man back and forth with difficulty.

Han Yan circled me behind her, put one hand on my hand to hold the bow, and the other hand held the arrow on the string, leading me to feel the strength of the bowstring, and slowly aimed at the moving grass target.He is very tall, so every time he practiced archery with me, he had to kneel on one knee; for half a year, I have become accustomed to being guided by him in archery at such a close distance.

The powerful body that has been practicing martial arts for many years is tightly stitched against my back, and the heat of my breath brushes over the back of my neck, causing me to be in a trance for a moment.

"You are not paying attention." Han Yan frowned and sighed softly, "On the battlefield, every enemy is a living target, even yourself is a living target for others. Opportunities are fleeting, either you die or I live, there is no time for you Aim slowly."

When the hand let go of the string, the arrow left a "clank" in my ear, and shot far to the chest of the moving grass target.

"Not only use your eyes to aim, but also use your ears to hear." He pointed to the location where the straw man was shot, "but the most important thing is to use your heart."

***

The moonlight was gradually covered by dark clouds, and the starlight shone dimly on the earth.The chirping of the summer insects gradually became sad.

This is the number of nights I didn't go home on time, I can't count, the summer is coming to an end, and there is still no news from Mayi County.

"Learn to switch the dominant eye. The left eye, or the right eye, needs to be trained to be very flexible and able to predict the opponent's speed and distance." Tonight, Taishi Han taught me to practice putting two arrows on a string at the same time.After I finally managed to shoot the two closest straw figures at the same time, I felt a momentary gratification, like eating two meatloaf in one go, or scoring two goals in a row.

Falling backward with the recoil of the hard bow, I lay on the grass panting.Taishi Han came over and sat next to me on the grass next to me.

"Stop practicing?" he asked.

"Have you heard of a military book?" I talked about it from left to right.

"What book of war?"

""Han Xin" Art of War."

"Who told you?" Taishi Han frowned.

"It's Li Gan. He said that as long as he has "Han Xin", he can win every battle without reading other art of war." As soon as the words came out, I laughed at myself.Li Gan is a man who always gives outlandish advice. The funny thing is, I still listen to him every time.

""Han Xin" is the first, and as far as I know, it has been destroyed by the Empress Dowager Lu." Han Yan shook her head and sighed, "Your classmate is exaggerating. If there is such a magical art of war in the world, why is it now the Han Dynasty? There will still be disputes between the two countries, and there will be killings?"

I raised my eyes to look at him, and said in a soft but firm voice, "So, I want to find this military book, even if I only find a copy or a fragment. If I get it, I can stop disputes and stop killing."

After a short pause, Han Yan smiled softly and said, "You are very similar to him."

"I know, you all say that I look like my second uncle." I turned my head away, instinctively rejecting clichés.

"I'm not talking about him." Han Yan shook her head, "Indeed, your eyes are like Wei Qing. But your eyes, your character, and even your tone of voice are more like another person, someone I am so familiar with that I am almost unfamiliar. people."

"In the past two years, every time I see you, I think of him back then. I think of the carefree days when we were young, and think of the pain and joy that he experienced with him during the transition of power." He fell into memory. , kept talking, "He likes red, so I wear red; he is used to archery and calligraphy with his left hand, so I accompany him to practice sword with his left hand and write with his left hand; he likes to hunt in Shanglinyuan, so I take good care of Shanglinyuan for him .”

Thinking back to that conversation five years ago, I nodded, knowing who he was talking about.

"You two are very similar in your bones." The man in red stared at me and said slowly, "I was also surprised at first, but later, I realized that this may be God's will, a dream that I cannot fulfill, maybe you can fulfill it for me."

"What is your dream?" I asked curiously.

The man in red has deep eyes, looking towards the northwest horizon.There, the Big Dipper is slowly rising, vowing to compete with the moon for glory.

"My dream is to run wildly in the grassland with my beloved one in the desert, follow the Big Dipper, run northward, and run to the end of the world. My mother is a woman born on the grassland. I want to go to the grassland, to Look at the place where she was born and raised." He paused, and added, "I have been trapped in this palace for 20 years, but I have never forgotten my dream."

"Longing for freedom is really a great dream." Looking at the Big Dipper, I murmured, "I never thought it would be this far."

The man in red smiled sweetly: "No one has ever talked to me about dreams like this before."

"With no one to share your dreams with, you must be lonely." I looked at him.

"No, I'm not lonely. Now someone is willing to share with me." He lowered his head, looked back into my eyes, and then stroked my lips quickly like a dragonfly.

I touched my lips in surprise, the soft and warm touch.

This is a kiss?

I want to try again.

In the night, the dim light of the fire reflected on the face of the person in front of him, leaving long shadows on his cheeks.I went up to him and kissed him back tentatively.

He didn't refuse, and let me touch him jerky.

The short mustache on the side of my face was a little itchy, the smell of apricot wine still remained on the man's lips, and the slightly closed lips and teeth gave me room to push forward-until I was not satisfied with the lingering, I stretched out my hand to press down The back of his head, pried open his white teeth, and instinctively searched deeper.

The phoenix eyes narrowed, and Han Yan pushed me away violently.

"Go away, brat, otherwise, I won't promise to do anything to you."

I lay limp on the grass panting, Han Yan lay beside me and chuckled.The distant stars are densely covered with unreachable stars, the sound of rapid panting is especially clear under the cover of the night, and the ambiguous feelings are secretly surging between each other.

Everything seemed to come from a remake five years ago, and Taishi Han looked at me condescendingly that night, and said to me "Get out of here" or something like that.The difference is that last time when I was young, I kicked him away in order to survive, but this time, it was him who pushed me away.

In the night wind, the unique faint Su Hexiang in Weiyang Palace came from his clothes. I turned sideways and lay on his chest, resting my forehead on his collarbone habitually.The red silk material ran across my fingertips, and I stretched out my fingers, curiously touching the scar on his neck that was close at hand.

"Itchy." He flinched, but didn't run away.I suspect he was so drunk that time that he doesn't remember what he did to me.

The person in front of me instantly doubled with someone I knew very well.

"What does it feel like to love someone?" I asked.

With her fingers caught, Han Yan looked at me gradually with clear eyes, and the words came with a soft sigh.

"When you love someone, when you see him, you will want to watch the sunset over the long river with him, and watch the earth forever; if you don't see him, you will not think about food and drink, and miss you like crazy. If you fall in love with him, you will lose yourself, happy or unhappy , no longer involuntarily."

"The "Book of Songs" also said so." I looked at the starry sky and searched for verses in my memory, "'Take the other treacherous wall, hoping to return to the pass. Laughing.' When Li Siye taught this sentence, I laughed at the girl crying and laughing like a lunatic, but now it seems true."

Taishi Han was surprised, the corners of his lips were still raised, but his eyes showed a look of disappointment: "Do you have a girl you like?"

I nodded, then shook my head again, and decided to skip his question and answer it with a question: "So, after falling in love with someone, will you be crazy and be manipulated by the other person? I don't want to become like that myself."

"Don't think about such long-term things." Taishi Han stretched out his arms around my shoulders, put his lips on my forehead and kissed the tip of my hair, "You are still too young, it is easy to forget friendship, or attachment, and the same Real love is confused with love. Wait a minute, you'll meet someone like that when you grow up."

I frowned, raised my head and retorted: "I'm not young anymore, I can tell the difference between liking and love."

"Really?" He chuckled.

Han Yan suddenly put on a posture of someone who came here, and I was instinctively displeased by this tone.I don't want to tell him that I have actually met such a person. I will be happy because of this person's joy, sad because of his sadness, sad because he is away, and struggle because of the fear of losing him at any time.

Not seeing each other for a day is like three autumns, not to mention the lack of news in the past few days, which makes me so worried, I can't wait to fly to Mayi with my wings.Should he really listen to the emperor and choose to move to Weiyang Palace?In that way, maybe I can listen to the news from the front line from time to time every day, so I won't be so at a loss and wait anxiously now.

My thoughts began to become chaotic, like a pool of calm water that suddenly raised huge waves, and the whirlpool dragged me down continuously, making me unable to breathe.

"I'm going home." I pushed Han Yan away, stood up, and at the same time poured all the regret and depression in my heart on the person at my feet, "The kiss just now was initiated by you, and it means nothing to me. significance."

He propped up his upper body and looked up at me, his smile disappeared, and his usual proud brows showed bewilderment and panic.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

I put away the yew bow and hung it beside Huoyun.Looking back, Grand Master Han was still sitting there in a daze.Walking out for a while, a soft humming sound came from behind, and I happened to know the lyrics.

"There are vines in the wild, with zero exposure. There is a beautiful person, clear and graceful. Meeting each other, it suits my wish.

There are vines in the wild, with zero dew.There is a beautiful person, as graceful as Qingyang.Meet each other, and live together with your son. "

Stepping across the green grass covered with alfalfa, I paused and didn't look back.

***

Strolling in the direction of home irritably, he raised his head unknowingly and walked to the north gate of Changle Palace.The tall palace is condescending, overlooking me solemnly.For a long time, I have been trying to avoid this strange place, but I didn't expect to come here again today.

Xia Ye's insects made a monotonous and strange sound, I couldn't help pulling Huoyun tighter, and quickened my pace.

A guard with a sword came forward, holding a torch in his hand.Seeing me, he stopped and asked, "Is that Mr. Huo?"

"I am." I nodded.

When I reached into my pocket to take out the forbidden door talisman, I looked up, the moonlight had disappeared, and the black clouds were wrapped in dim starlight.Sure enough, it was already too late, and Chang'an City had already imposed a curfew. You need to check your identity when you go in and out, right?

Thinking this way, suddenly a big hand came from behind, covering my mouth and nose with a kerchief exuding a strange fragrance.Before going completely dark, I heard a few words of dialogue faintly.

"Your Majesty ordered, let the horse go back and report to that man."

"This bow is not bad, let's keep it by ourselves."

"Oops." My heart sank, but I couldn't hold the door talisman anymore, let it fall, my eyelids closed involuntarily, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

***

The ringing of the bell was deafening, pulling me out of the endless darkness.Rubbing my dizzy eyes, I looked around in a daze, and found myself in a palace I had never been to.The beams of the house are very high, the mottled paint surface is covered with spider silk, surrounded by empty white walls, without any murals or wall hangings.The lampstand in the corner was burning with dim and ambiguous candles, illuminating this almost undecorated palace that I mistakenly thought to be abandoned.

On a high platform not far away, hung a red rusty copper bell nearly three people high.People in official uniforms are ringing the bell for the time of twilight, and the loud sound of "Dang Dang" echoes in the city of Chang'an.

It's already so late, Da Jinniang should wait anxiously.

The roaring bell finally fell silent, the cold wind poured in from the open high platform, and the patter of rainwater hitting the ground came from outside the hall.

The bluestone floor tiles are a bit hard, and they lie against my ribs. The ground is covered with traces of constant washing and washing, which shows what happened here, and makes my hair stand on end.I tried to support the ground with my forearms, but my whole body fell weakly, with half of my face stuck to the cold ground.The effects of the drug were clearly not over, and I could barely feel my extremities.

The torches were suddenly lit, and four guards in armor filed in, each carrying a gun.It looks like it will take a lot of work to get out tonight.

However, who is so bold to order the guards to lurk in the forbidden palace, holding a sharp weapon that can only be found in the arsenal?Who are they going to hurt with these crossbows?