The day of fortune-telling for the dragon

Wherever they went, the two were taken by the horse to the depths of the mountain forest.The sky slowly dawned, and after the time passed, it was the coldest moment. Hua Jue shivered from the cold, so Xuanlong pulled him off the horse and wrapped him in a cloak, like a child hugging the tip of his heart tightly. The toy on the bed generally held him in his arms, and found an open place to light a fire.

Hua Jue wanted to move, but was pulled back by Xuanlong: "Sit." He fiddled with dead branches and leaves with one hand, the firelight dispelled the cold mist in the morning, and roasted a few wild fruits to feed Hua Jue.

Hua Jue frowned after tasting it: "Astringent." He wanted to vomit but didn't dare to vomit, so he had to swallow it whole. Xuanlong saw it, afraid that he would choke, and poured him a few more sips of water.The water sac has a faint leathery smell and a bit of tobacco leaves.

"Eat it to dispel the cold and moisten the lungs. The fruit will be astringent when roasted. We often look for this small fruit to eat in the army. There is also the bark of citrus aurantium, which has similar effects to wormwood." Xuanlong said.

Hua Jue glanced at him: "Shouldn't you chew it together with the tobacco leaves to relieve the spiciness?"

"You know this too?" Xuanlong put his chin on his shoulder and said with a smile: "After chewing the tobacco leaves, you won't fall asleep during the vigil. There is a kind of tobacco in Huainan whose leaves are red. After chewing, it's like drinking blood. of."

In fact, Hua Jue heard about it from Mr. Sang. When he visited the city lord's mansion, he saw Mr. Sang chewing Fanbang tobacco and then changing the accounts. Hundreds of backlogs were counted one by one, and finally two huge ones were calculated. With dark circles under his eyes, he told him contentedly: "This is a refreshment method from the army. The shortcoming is that it is easy to become addicted and harm the body. Don't tell others, especially the city lord, understand?"

With respect and love for her childhood idol, Hua Jue carefully kept the secret, but she didn't expect to discuss it with Xuanlong one day.Xuanlong was obviously very interested in why he knew about this matter, Hua Jue was questioned for a while, and finally decided to push the blame to his non-existent "shaving master" again.Xuan Long said: "Oh, your master is proficient in eighteen talents. He not only teaches you physiognomy, but also teaches you miscellaneous studies. He even knows these trivial things."

Hua Jue knew that she had been exposed a long time ago, so she admitted it cheekily: "Yes, my master is very powerful."

Xuanlong pinched his face, held him with one hand, and turned him over to ask him to read the palm prints together: "Hua Jue, do the fortune telling for yourself."

"why?"

"Forget it, I'll listen." Xuan Long twirled his fingers, obviously finding it interesting: "I want to hear it."

Before waiting for the reply from the person in his arms, Xuanlong noticed something wrong a step earlier: "Your palm lines are really shallow." He stretched out his fingers, followed the lines of his palm down, and finally ended at the wrist.Hua Jue's palm prints are so shallow that they can hardly be seen, and you have to curl up your palms slightly to recognize them clearly.Hua Jue was not surprised: "People with Qi deficiency and infirmity have shallow palm lines."

Xuanlong glanced at him.

Hua Jue went on to say: "It's just another kind... People with bad fate also have shallow palm lines." He pointed out to Xuanlong: "The jade pillar lines in the Mars Plain are broken, and the higher you go, the shallower it is. Life is flat and green in the moon, and it will not last long."

He didn't say he actually had both.Hua Jue has counted her own fate at least a thousand times, and now she has a somewhat romantic attitude of looking down on life and death, but Xuanlong behind her suddenly fell silent.After a long while, Xuanlong pretended not to care, then changed the direction and asked: "What about marriage?"

"Marriage?" Hua Jue didn't think about it this time, and replied according to the answers she had answered since she was a child: "I am a broken sleeve, of course I don't have marriage, and it is impossible to harm other girls." Grandma Hua established the family rules. In fact, Hua Jue cannot be crowned, cannot get married, cannot leave Jiangling in his whole life, but he has never counted his marriage.

"Duanxiu doesn't mean you can't get married. The Qi brothers have done a lot. Even if someone in the previous dynasty accepted a male concubine, you don't have to be so pessimistic." Xuanlong said.He looked at Hua Jue looking straight ahead, his eyes seemed to be a little sad, and suddenly felt that the person in front of him was about to disappear, so he stretched out his hand, trying to stroke the end of his eyes, but changed the way halfway, only gently Tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear.

Hua Jue was ignorant, after a moment of stupor, she suddenly thought about it, and came to her senses: Did Xuanlong mention the matter of the male concubine just now?

Although not to him, is this bumbling dragon enlightened?

Thinking of this, he felt that his goal was about to be achieved.After careful consideration, he cleared his throat: "If you can become the prince's...family member, it must be the ultimate pursuit." Hua Jue thinks that this is reserved and open, and Xuanlong should be able to hear it. Hinting, maybe Fenghuang can really enter the mansion in a legitimate way, and he has more than half of his success.

But Xuanlong was unmoved.He asked leisurely: "Why? Everything in my palace is trivial, and the rules are not unusual. Why do you think that entering my palace is a wish?"

Hua Jue counted for him: "Inexhaustible money and a comfortable life, these two alone are enough..."

Xuanlong interrupted him: "Being on the king's side is like walking on a cliff. It seems to be safe but in danger. I am the emperor's uncle. As early as the day the emperor ascended the throne, there were remonstrances that I was a minister of tigers and wolves. Do you think you can live with me?" Going to a stable life?"

Hua Jue held back for a long time, then rubbed her nose: "Then...have you drunk today?"

Xuanlong: "..."

Hua Jue became a little serious: "I was joking just now. Don't laugh at me, I really think that being rich and stable is a good life." Not to mention that he was frightened by all kinds of ghosts, but let him When Hua Dabao was full, he would set up a fortune-telling stall from dawn to dusk.He took so many things from the city lord's house in vain, and he also felt that he should return them one day.

Just don't know when it will be paid off.He sighed secretly.Xuan Long fell silent again, hugged him even tighter, held his face and asked him to look forward: "Shh, don't make any noise, take a good look."

Sunrise.

Xuanlong brought him here early in the morning to watch the sunrise.The clouds winding thousands of feet in the sky slowly spread out, dragging out a round of heavy red sun.Hua Jue looked at the dark red that seemed to be gushing out of something, and suddenly felt a little palpitation, so she turned her eyes away.That kind of power that contains the vitality of life burns people's eyes like the fire of a phoenix, magnifying his life that is destined to die prematurely.Thousands of sunrises in the three thousand floating lives, he, who lives in the center of the mountain city all the year round, has no chance to see them. Only when he sees them seriously once in a while does he feel that life is shallow, as thin as a piece of pulp paper that has just been fished out in the sun. After exposure to the sun, the brittleness disappeared.

Hua Jue moved her fingers suddenly, and said in a low voice, "Jiaofeng."

But Xuanlong didn't answer him.His voice was very low, so King Ziyang could naturally ignore this stranger's address and pretend he didn't hear it.

After sunrise, Xuanlong took him back to camp.Hua Jue crawled back to bed to catch up on sleep, but Xuanlong went out again. It is said that the address of the palace has been chosen in Pingshan, and he will discuss the specific details of the construction with the feng shui master.He went out for a whole day, and Hua Jue fell asleep confidently and boldly. After waking up, she only felt a headache and drank half a glass of absinthe.

Hua Jue cheered up, and was about to go out for a few laps to improve her health, but before she could take a step, she was picked up by someone.Xuanlong was wearing Zhou Zheng's fine official uniform, blocking him at the door: "Where are you going?"

Hua Jue said, "Take a walk."

Xuan Long turned around and changed his clothes, then he found out a sleeve bag out of nowhere, and the coins and silver in it rattled: "Take me."

"Take you?" Hua Jue suspected that she had heard wrong.

Xuanlong nodded calmly, and came over to hold his hand: "I have only been in Jiangling for half a year, and I am not familiar with many places, so you can just show me around."

The prince spoke, Hua Jue didn't dare to disobey, tidied up a bit and went down the mountain with Xuanlong.Pingshan is remote, and there are only a few small settlements and a night town nearby. However, because autumn is in season and Chongyang is approaching, many people from the city come to enjoy the autumn, and it is actually a bit crowded at night.

Hua Jue shuttled back and forth in this place 20 years ago based on her impressions. First, she asked Xuanlong to pay for two masks worn by children: "There are your subordinates in the town, don't be recognized."

Xuanlong looked at him: "Recognize what? I'm with you?" Having said that, he still put it on. Hua Jue disliked the gauze hat blocking his sight at night, so she was going to choose one to wear.Xuanlong handed over the chosen one directly: "Take this."

Hua Jue scratched her head: "Isn't this exactly the same as yours?"

Xuan Long pinched his face: "It's not the same, look carefully." Hua Jue looked at it carefully, and Fang found that the masks of the two of them were green birds, a lot of colorful ones, the only difference was Xuan Long's mask. The one with the dragon is uglier.

Hua Jue: "...Okay, I understand."

Xuanlong said leisurely: "What do you know, this is a mandarin duck."

Hua Jue turned her head and saw him buttoning the mask from top to bottom to hide the narrow smile in his eyes.So he also put on the mask, and the two continued to tour the market hand in hand.The flower market opens at night, paper lanterns and chrysanthemum pots are placed along the street, and some people sell drunken crabs.

Xuanlong bought two of the biggest ones and came back, and the two sat on the steps beside the river bridge and peeled them slowly.This crab is big and firm. It is marinated with local yellow rice wine and eight-day marinade. The crab meat and crab shell are soaked in refreshing juice without spoiling the original taste of crab roe.When peeled off, crab roe is everywhere, but when bitten down, it is soft and sweet, with endless aftertaste.

Hua Jue ate without raising his head, Xuanlong ate half of the crab, wiped his hands with a silk handkerchief, picked out all the remaining crab roe for him, and watched with a smile as he happily wiped out one and a half crabs like a milk cat snatching food. Big crab.

"Is it delicious?" Xuanlong asked.

Hua Jue nodded again and again, feeling very poetic after eating, and opened his mouth with a poem praising crabs: "Jade legs overlap and open, dare to laugh at Po Xian is not a hooligan." Xuanlong knocked on him: "What are you singing?" Poetry!" Liangliang glanced at him, then held back a smile and pulled him away.

On the way, Xuanlong told him: "I'm going to Dongzhou in the next few days, and I won't be able to return home until about half a month later. During this period, you stay in my mansion and don't move around. I will hand over the mansion to Xiao Wu. , if you have any difficulties, just look for him, although he is not of the Lin family blood, but you still have to call the prince according to the rules, do you hear me?"

"Which little five?" Hua Jue was a little alert, was that dandy who was going to give him alcohol?

If he didn't answer, Xuanlong stopped walking.In the end, he reluctantly said: "Follow orders." Xuanlong froze for a moment, but he sighed softly as if he was not satisfied with these two words.