Chapter 21 Chapter Nineteen Ghost Shadows, Like Fire

It was already the middle of the night, there was no moon, no stars, and it was extremely dark. Gongzi Cong, Li Qichen, Tong Sui, and Yan Wei gathered in the back hall without lighting the lamp. The curtains still floated caressing the person's face, giving him a slight chill.Looking down through the window, downstairs was quiet and there was no one. The regulations of this building are very particular. Although it is built on the second-floor platform, although the sparrow is small, it has all internal organs.The entrance is the main hall, followed by the back hall, with three compartments and side rooms on the left and right.The three rooms on the left are the residence of Gongzi Cong, and the three rooms on the right are the sleeping places of Li Qichen and the other three.The window of the back hall is facing an open space, and there is a road leading to another tall building, which is where the servants live.

Yan Wei waited until midnight when she was woken up one by one by Young Master Cong to "watch a play". Seeing a lamp like a bean, fluttering along the road and approaching from a distance, Li Qichen hurriedly greeted Tong Su, and hid behind the wall to look out, but he heard Gongzi Cong say: "There is no light in the room, through the flower window, outside If you can’t see the indoor scene, don’t be so careful.” Li Qichen turned his head to look, and saw Gongzi Cong standing upright in front of the window, completely uncovered, with a serious expression on his face, and a little nervous.He was wearing a black robe coiled in gold, and the patterns staggered with gold thread shimmered in the night, making him even more noble.

Li Qichen sighed secretly. Although Young Master Cong is trapped here, he is a prince after all. All food and clothing are the same as other young masters, and even more extravagant. Just looking at the clothes, they are worth a lot. Daily wear.After thinking about it, he lives in a secluded valley, and there are no celebrations and sacrifices. Even if he has a dress, he has no chance to wear it, and he can only wear it every day. Thinking of this, he sighed again... The light gradually approached, and two people could be seen clearly.The man in front, who was the elder servant before, was holding a lamp.The man behind was a tall man, also dressed in the clothes of a servant, but he had never seen him before.Li Qichen turned his head to look at Gongzi Cong, only to see that he squinted his eyes, as if he was carefully observing the two's every move.

The two men stood still in the open space, the servant with the lamp stretched out his arm and pointed, while the tall servant held a roll of bamboo slips in his hand, approached the lamp, looked carefully, and pointed to the words on the bamboo slips, as if asking what.It seemed that the tall servant was new, and the servant with the lamp was explaining something to him. Suddenly, the arm of the servant with the lamp was pointed upstairs, and the two looked up. Li Qichen, Tong Shui, and Yan Wei were so startled that they hurriedly hid behind the side wall of the window.But Gongzi Cong didn't hide, he just stood firmly in front of the window, with an erratic smile hanging from the corner of his mouth.

There was a sudden noise in the distance, and someone shouted: "It's flooding! Come and put out the fire!" Looking from a distance, there was faint green smoke rising from another tall building at the end of the road, but no fire could be seen. The two downstairs were startled, and the tall servant disappeared in the darkness.Gongzi Cong suddenly lit the lamp, and asked loudly to the people below: "What happened?" The servant with the lantern raised his head and said, "Young master, it seems that there is water over there. It's just a trivial matter, it doesn't matter."

Gongzi Cong said: "Is it a trivial matter to walk in the water? Take me to have a look!" Then he turned and went out, before leaving, he waved to the three of them, as if signaling them to follow. Li Qichen and Tong Shui glanced at each other, then pulled Yan Wei out quickly. In front of another tall building, the fire had already been extinguished. Everyone was holding tubs and barrels in their hands. The ground was full of mud and water, and several people were holding torches. Looking closely at the tall building with the light of the torch, it seems that there is no major damage. The wooden pillars below are blackened and the paint is also peeling off, but there is no damage to the doors, windows and walls, and the stairs are also intact.

Young Master Cong took the torch from a servant, walked up to the stairs, stretched out his hand to shake the handrail of the stairs, but did not shake it at all, then turned to the servant with the lantern and said, "Why don't you ask someone to check the pillars below one by one? Do you want me to do it?" ?" Everyone seemed to have never experienced such a scene, and they were all blinded at once. After Mr. Cong said this, they started to check the damage of the building.After being busy for a while, the reports came up one by one, and it was indeed not a big problem. Gongzi Cong looked around at the crowd and asked sharply, "How could you get out of the water? You guys are sleeping so hard? Is there no one on duty at night?!"

Everyone seemed to have a hint of fear, and they all lowered their heads in silence.Young Master Cong turned to the servant with the lamp and said, "Go and find out who is on duty today! How did the fire start?" The servant was not as fearful as the others, and only bowed slightly and said, "I was patrolling the road just now, and I didn't know the situation here. Everyone was frightened, and I probably won't be able to ask any questions tonight. Why don't you come back tomorrow morning?" It's not too late to check. It's getting cold, and the young masters should rest earlier, so as not to catch the cold."

Gongzi Cong sneered and said, "I'm afraid that people will already run away tomorrow morning, so who can I ask?!" The servant was startled, stunned for a moment, then bowed and said: "Master, you are joking. This small fire does not cause serious damage. It is not guilty of running away in fear of crime, let alone where can you go?" Gongzi Cong laughed softly, "When it gets dark, the miasma will be gone, so it's time to hurry, isn't it?" The servant laughed dryly, "My lord, you are joking..." Returning upstairs from the fire scene, Gongzi Cong closed the door, and saluted Tong Sui with a solemn expression.

Tong Rate was taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "What are you doing?" Gongzi Cong said in a deep voice: "They are changing shifts tonight. The current group of people will go out of the valley tonight, and they will be replaced by another group of people. I would like you to follow them and explore the route out of the valley." Li Qichen frowned and said: "It's not difficult to go out with them, but the road is complicated. If you only walk through it once in the dark, you may not be able to find the right way when you come back." Gongzi Cong took out something from his pocket, like a handkerchief, folded into an inch square, it looked light and soft.Then he picked up one corner with both hands, and gently shook it away, but it turned out to be a two-foot-square piece of silk, as thin as a cicada's wing, on which a map was drawn with fine ink.

Young Master Cong pointed to the map and said, "On the carriage that took you into the valley, I installed a machine to record the mileage. This map was drawn based on the records of the machine. It is seven or eight points accurate. You take it and go on the road. One time, nothing will be lost." Tong Shui didn't go to pick up the silk, but crossed his fingers, put them behind his head, and said lazily, "How do you know I will agree to you? Why do I have to listen to you?" Young Master Cong bowed again: "I have worked hard for many years just for today, please promise me!" Li Qichen took Tong Shu's arm, put his hand between his own, patted it lightly, and said, "You'd better make a trip, for your son's sake, and for ours." Tong Shu sighed softly, nodded, took the piece of silk, and put it in the front of his chest. Gongzi Cong said again: "Go out of Degu, you don't have to go back immediately, you can follow them and see where they went." Tong Shui smiled and said, "You're overreaching." Li Qichen asked: "My lord, who do they look like?" Gongzi Cong asked back, "What do you think?" Li Qichen smiled: "Like a soldier." Young Master Cong said: "Sure enough, they saw the same thing. They knew that there were calluses on the inside of their palms, which should be caused by holding spears and bows for a long time." Li Qichen asked, "Where are the soldiers from?" Young Master Cong shook his head: "I have no clue..." Then he turned to Tong Shi and said, "Brother Li's leg injury needs to be healed for a period of time, and you are bored staying here, so why not go out and take a rest. By the way, if you can find out For this matter, I am very grateful. If you don’t want to, you are free to come back at any time. But once you come back, they will know that you know the way. I am afraid that things will change, so I will come back the next day on the summer solstice. OK." Tong Shui heard that he was thinking everything carefully, but lost his mind, and looked at Li Qichen. Li Qichen nodded and said, "Go ahead, don't worry here." Young Master Cong took Tong Shui's saber, handed it over with both hands, and said, "Return it to the original owner. I wanted to replace it with a better one for you. Who knows that the few swords I have hidden here are not as good as yours." Tong Shou took the sword and smiled triumphantly: "Of course, this is Master Mu Xuanshi's handwriting. Of course it's not ordinary. I spent a lot of effort to get it in exchange for it!" next morning. Li Qichen got a little cold due to the tossing around last night, his legs hurt and he couldn't sleep, he didn't fall asleep until dawn, so he got up late.When she was ready to go out of the room, she saw that Yan Wei had already gotten up and was leaning against the window, with her hair tied up, a high crown, and a man's clothes. It was a perfect fit.The three came out in a hurry and didn't bring any replacement clothes, so they borrowed Gongzi Cong's clothes to replace them, but they didn't expect that Gongzi Cong had clothes suitable for Yan Wei. Seeing Li Qichen staring at her clothes, Yan Wei smiled and said, "This is his... Gongzi Cong's clothes when he was young. I heard it was Jiang Guo's embroidery, but I didn't expect it to be as beautiful as new after more than ten years. " Li Qichen smiled and said: "Sure enough, she looks like a beautiful boy!" Yan Wei blushed, stroked her temple hair with her fingers embarrassingly, lowered her head and smiled and said, "I'll dress up like a man from now on, it just so happens that these people have changed a lot." She pointed down with her hand. Li Qichen leaned his head to the window and looked down, and saw a dozen or so servants busy, some were sweeping, some were carrying water, some were chopping firewood, some were burning the stove... It was no different from the past.A hearth cannot be built on this kind of wooden building, so there is an adobe kitchen next to the building.In addition, Gongzi Cong also raised many animals, such as peacocks, cranes, pigeons, dogs, deer, rabbits... the cages are also built below, and some people are feeding and taking care of them. Yan Wei stretched out her hand and pointed, "Look carefully at their faces!" Li Qichen looked down again.He had been tortured on his head and face before, and his right eye vision was damaged, which is not visible on the surface, and it is fine in daily life, but when he really uses his vision, he will feel that it is not good.But he didn't mention this to anyone, especially Yan Wei, who didn't mention a word.If I mention it, I'm afraid that Yan Wei will come to the doctor as a serious illness, and the energy of taking care of her everywhere is really too much... Thinking of this, Li Qichen couldn't help showing a smile on his face. Seeing Li Qichen's gentle expression and erratic eyes, Yan Wei stretched out her hand and shook it in front of his eyes, and shouted, "Hey! Who are you looking at? Are you stupid?" Li Qichen hurriedly withdrew his attention and looked down. The servants were all dressed in the same clothes. Because Yan Wei said that these people were a bit weird, he seldom talked to them. He never paid attention to what these people looked like. Pass.But at this moment, Li Qichen recognized a person, the one standing in the middle, pointing at the other servants, isn't it the tall servant from last night?Since hearing the water alarm last night, he disappeared and didn't show up all night, but now he appeared here. Li Qichen said softly: "Sure enough, everyone has changed." Yan Wei nodded, and said, "Is this probably what Gongzi Cong is talking about?" "Wait will be the real good show, and you all have to play with me!" Gongzi Cong walked over from nowhere, dressed in dark purple clothes, revealing light taupe-colored trim and inner lining, looking The whole person is refreshed, which is quite different from the appearance when he was sick, especially his face is radiant, as if he has done something proud. "Every three months, a group of people change. Those people from last night are already outside the valley at this time, but last night was delayed. There must be a lot of things that I haven't explained clearly." Gongzi Cong laughed, laughing extremely Relaxed and cheerful. At this time, a servant came in from outside the door. He was about twenty years old, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, and he had a naturally smiling face, carrying two buckets of hot water.According to the usual practice, one should have breakfast first, and then start the foot bath. Looking at the scene below today, it is a bit chaotic. It seems that the meal was not ready, and the water was brought up first.The servant was a little at a loss, looked around, bowed and said: "The hot water you need is here, let's see where to put it?" Young Master Cong smiled and said, "Are you new here?" The servant said seriously: "My lord, don't be joking, I serve here every day." Gongzi Cong said: "Since you are here to serve every day, why ask how we serve you?" The servant was still serious, with a smile on his face: "I had a nightmare last night, and I was so frightened that I was confused. Please tell me again, young master. I will definitely remember it, and I will never forget it in my life." Yan Wei interjected, "I'm afraid you were quite frightened by walking into the water last night, right?" She deliberately thickened her voice to make her voice sound more like a man's.But she looked like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy, a man of this age had a childlike voice, and there was actually not much difference from a woman. The servant looked surprised: "Did the water go out last night? Why didn't I know?" Young Master Cong said, "Didn't you run out of water last night?" The servant said solemnly: "I didn't go into the water. I think the young master had a dream and took it as a dream." Young Master Cong smiled and stopped talking.The servant was also clever, and caught a glimpse of the big wooden barrel that Li Qichen used for medicinal bathing in the corner, walked over and placed the wooden barrel in front of the bed, poured hot water into it, bowed and left without saying a word. Gongzi Cong sneered slightly and said, "Did you see it? This is the real good show. Everyone can act like this when they tell lies without batting an eyelid. This show is played once every three months. I have watched it for more than ten years..." After talking , There was a trace of sadness in the voice.