Chapter 10 The third red dust

Listen to the snow falling in the snow building. The first snow in the early winter was falling one after another. On the top floor of the red building, she opened the window and looked at the snow-covered Tingxue building. She tilted her head and quietly seemed to be listening to something. As the center of martial arts in the world, the large courtyard in front of her is a very murderous place, every inch of the ground has been soaked in blood, she even imagined that there are scattered bones underground. However, the snow fell silently, slowly covering the entire Tingxue building.It was so clean that it even concealed the blood that had been there.

She leaned against the window, letting the cold north wind blow on her face, staring at the courtyard empty.There, the leaves of the bushes have all fallen, leaving only the gray branches, like a sharp sword stabbing the pale sky. How long? ...Has it been almost a year since you came to this place? It has been almost a year since the name "Hongchen" was born.How many more undead are there? "Hong'er...be a good person and live a good life." In a daze, her mother's hand seemed to have traveled through time, slowly stroking her face, humming a childhood song to lull her to sleep, and admonishing her with a faint smile.Her hands were as cold as snow falling from the sky.

She stood at the window, holding a bosom full of white plums that had just been brought back, and listened obsessively. There was a familiar tune from her childhood faintly in the wind. For a long time.Only then did she realize that it was not her mother's hands that were cold on her face, but the snow that had melted on her face. Suddenly, facing the wind and snow, she began to cry. One of Tingxuelou's Four Protectors, Hong Chen, who has always been famous for assassination poisons, this female killer who was rumored to be like a poisonous scorpion, cried like a little girl. Suddenly, she heard a familiar piano sound in the wind and snow, which came from the courtyard next door and spread into the wind.Free and gentle, slowly drifting into the window with the wind and snow, touched her face, and then seemed to melt into her heart.With a touch of sadness and memories, but also love and hope for life, full of comfort.

"Purple Bamboo Tune"... That tune is actually a folk ballad "Purple Bamboo Tune" in the south of the Yangtze River. She froze all over, raised her eyes and looked—— In the courtyard next door full of plum blossoms, under the promenade, wind chimes are ringing in the snow. Sitting on the porch was a man in green and long gown, with a Guqin across his knees.She couldn't see the appearance of the piano player clearly, because the man in the green shirt lowered his head halfway, his long black hair hung down, covering the outline of his face, and was blurred by the numerous snowfalls.However, his piano sound is like this snow, indifferent and sentimental, gentle and sad, almost making people crazy.

It's him.blue sky. He is the same as the Four Protectors and lives in a nearby courtyard. At dusk every day, he can be seen sitting under the wind chimes on the eaves and playing the piano every day, regardless of the wind and snow. He didn't look aside when he played the piano, and she knew that he was playing for another woman who didn't know where.He vaguely heard that Guardian Bi Luo had a sweetheart who had disappeared. Since he joined Tingxuelou, he has never stopped missing and searching for that girl for a moment. They have been living next to each other in Tingxue Building for more than half a year, but she doesn't know him, nor has she ever paid attention to his music.

People here have had different pasts and experiences, and they tend to become cold and guarded, and she is no exception. For such a long time, she had not spoken to Bi Luo outside of listening to Xue Lou's affairs. At that moment, she forgot that the other party was the protector in Tingxue Tower, and that there was a sharp sword hidden in the secret compartment under the zither... and she also forgot that even though she was a colleague loyal to the same organization at the moment... , but tomorrow may also be your life-and-death opponent——she just listened to the faint song in her dream, and the tears on her face slowly condensed into ice.

Zizhu Tune... Zizhu Tune - such a familiar melody! They didn't know each other at all, and they didn't intend to get involved in anything.However, in the fleeting snowy dusk, when she looked back at the past, the sound of the piano came. The first snow, the cold wind and the aroma of white plums easily opened the door that was closed in Hongchen's heart. Just for an instant, and then the door closed again.Before she regained her senses, the player who played the piano had gone back, and there was only the lonely sound of wind chimes in the snow under the eaves, and the snow just continued to fall quietly, and the pale orange of the setting sun appeared in the gray-white sky. 

But the door in her heart had already been opened, and some things remained inside, some blurred images of near and far. Hong Chen has never forgotten the feeling of listening to the piano at this moment. Six months later, the two of them were sent to southern Yunnan to participate in the Battle of the Moon Worship Sect. Before leaving, they knew from the first group of people who followed Miss Jing what kind of dangerous and unpredictable future it was - otherwise, the landlord would not have sent out Miss Jing in one go, and then dispatched Listen to the two guardians of Xuelou. spell.When they got there, Hong Chen couldn't help smiling wryly—this time, they were not facing martial arts masters, but warlocks and priests!She had never been afraid of killing in her life, and for the first time she felt uneasy.

After a fierce battle, all the other disciples of Tingxuelou who accompanied her were dead, and both she and Bi Luo were seriously injured—however, the weird white-clothed priest on the altar still didn't seem to have consumed his spiritual power. It shouldn't be a problem to get out of the body, right? —— She was thinking, secretly planning the way out.However, when she turned her head, she saw that Bi Luo, who came with her, was still ignoring her own attack, and swung her sword at the white-clothed and long-haired high priest on the altar... Don't die... She sighed. She understands the reason why her companion is so desperate for life - two months ago, Tingxuelou broke through the Huanhua Palace in Quanzhou - there, Biluo still hasn't found the girl... Originally, it was the last time he found her there. hope.

Since then, she has never heard Bi Luo play the song "Zizhu Tune" in the evening. She really didn't want to use human power to fight against such a terrible spell, so she had already moved to the gate of the temple... However, the moment she saw Bi Luo attack Jia Ruo with her sword drawn with a look of death, she stopped in her footsteps. He took off the golden necklace that tied his hair, shook his hand, and turned into a long whip to attack from the right, alleviating the crisis of his companions. She joined the fray. The moment the high priest's blood-dividing magic spell fell on the colleague beside her, she rushed over like a ghost, desperately released the last few hidden weapons on her body, and stretched out her hand to block Biluo.

Can't let him die...he can't die...she doesn't want to see him die... At that moment, there was only one thought in her mind. Jia Ruo's blood curse fell heavily on her body, and the illusory sword of light pierced straight into her chest and abdomen, tearing apart her flesh and blood.However, instead of retreating, she moved forward, and threw her whole body on the edge of the sword, letting the lightsaber pass through her body, and fitting herself straight to the caster on the altar! Before Jia Ruo could cast her next spell, her long whip stopped him, and the dagger in her left hand, which was no longer than a foot long, drew blood on the priest's shoulder.Because of the poison, even the high priest of the Moon Worship Sect, who was close to heaven and man, covered his wound and his movements slowed down. He is also a body of flesh and blood, so he has to be distracted to fight the poison. However, as her body moved more and more slowly, her blood was splashed on the altar, and everywhere was bright red. She smiled at Bi Luo who was stunned aside in a trance, Bi Luo's figure was still at this moment - he never expected that this indifferent colleague would save him with death! With the qin on his shoulder and the sword in his hand, he was stunned to the side.Why?why…… "Let's go..." Hongchen said softly at last, but she didn't know if such a low voice could be heard by him. She just tried her best to use the burning lamp blood curse, and put the blood flowing from her body in her palm. Using internal force to turn into mist—the highly poisonous blood mist rises windingly, like a red curtain, blocking Jia Ruo on the altar. That was the method of sacrificing her life taught by her master, using the poisonous blood in her body as a weapon—once it was used, it would be tantamount to burning life. The shocked expression slowly faded from Bi Luo's eyes, he clenched the sword tightly, and suddenly a sharp and astonishing murderous aura glowed in his eyes!Even the dead gray gloom of a moment ago has disappeared without a trace. "Let's go out together, Hongchen!" He regained his fighting spirit, flew over like lightning, supported her precarious figure, and called her name for the first time.At the same time, with a sword in his right hand, he blocked Jia Ruo's attack, and supported her to retreat outside the temple. Although he couldn't break through the blood barrier of the world of mortals for a moment, Jia Ruo freed the hand covering his shoulders and drove the spell. The mist slowly condensed on the fingertips dripping with blood, and transformed into a ferocious beast. Posture - Shikigami!The priest has already started summoning Shikigami! "Don't worry about it.... I, I can't make it..." The calm judgment of the situation at the critical moment of life and death made her quickly push him away, and her sanity was lost in a blink of an eye.The mother's peaceful and loving smile suddenly appeared in front of her eyes, and she smiled slightly. At this moment, a crimson dress appeared outside the door of the temple, passing by as quickly as the wind. "Red dust, red dust." In a trance, someone called her name, with anxiety and concern in her voice, but it seemed to be far away.She tried hard to open her eyes to see something, but she couldn't see anything. There was a constant gurgling sound in her ears, as if there was a torrent surging—however, she knew it was the sound of her own blood rushing out of her body, accompanied by a horribly enlarged and slow heartbeat.Someone held her hand and kept calling her softly. It was because of that voice that she regained some consciousness in a trance. "Miss Jing..." She smiled in a trance, and recognized the voice—although the usually indifferent voice sounded a little strange due to the addition of too much emotion.Two years ago, it was precisely because of Miss Jing that she decided to join Tingxuelou and gave up her ten-year life of being alone in the rivers and lakes. She is grateful to that woman in scarlet clothes... She did not hesitate to dedicate all her personal strength to Tingxuelou for her. However, everything is going to end today, right? "Hong Chen... Is Hong Chen hopeless? Miss Jing, what medicine can cure her?" Suddenly, she heard another urgent voice: Bi Luo.The blood was still flowing out of her body, taking away her life, but Hong Chen smiled gratifiedly: He's alive...he's just as good as alive. He can still play "Zizhu Diao", maybe not now, but after a long time, he can still play it to another woman, and he can still comfort another lonely person with the sad and gentle meaning in the tune. At that time, no matter where she is. She didn't have a deep relationship with him, and she couldn't talk about love, but she simply didn't want to see him die... because he would play the song in her dreams, the song her mother sang countless times in her childhood . The reasons for love and hate, or life and death, are sometimes as simple as that. She has no memory of her earliest years, and all she can remember is when she moved to Yongyangfang with her mother at the age of five. Yongyangfang is located in the west of Chang'an City, where remote poor people live. In her memory, the square was surrounded by high walls, and at night, the fat Lizheng would not allow anyone to go out.The high wall blocks the Lifang, which seems to have been without sunlight for a long time——Yongyangfang, is it still called Yongyangfang? My mother told her that my father had gone to a faraway place to do business, and it would take a long time before he came back.However, until she left that Yongyangfang, she did not receive any letter or news from her father.When she grew up, she didn't know by accident that her mother was actually a concubine of a high-ranking official. She didn't have a son, and she was abandoned after being favored. And she, was abandoned since birth... She never had a father. The dirt road in the workshop is long, with desolate and gloomy small dirt houses on both sides.The neighbors in the workshop are all poor.So is her house. She cooks, eats and sleeps in one room with her mother.That house was plastered with loess on the walls and only thatched roof. It was hot in summer and cold in winter—but in order to live in such a house, my mother still spun yarn and worked as a maiden day and night. At the age of five, she had nothing to do, so her mother sent her to play with the children next door, but she was always teased by those children without a father, and the fat Qingbao from Lizheng's family insisted on making fun of her every day. Just make her cry. "Don't bully my Hong'er, let's have fun together!" Every time she heard her cry outside, the mother always put down the spindle and rushed out the door in a panic, hugged her in her arms, and said to her playmates .The group of children looked at their mother in awe, didn't speak, and then would be honest for a few days. Even the children can vaguely feel the beauty of their mother.In this poor place with loess walls and loess roads, the beauty of my mother is like sunshine that cannot be concealed, radiating from all the shadows of dilapidation, attracting the secret attention of many men in the workshop. Maybe it is a habit left over from the rich life in the past, my mother loves to dress up.Even though she is poor, every day she dips in water, combs her hair extremely smooth, and then wears the tuberose she planted in the corner of the wall on her temples. Mother dotes on her very much, and sometimes calls her Nannian—the kind of appellation from a Jiangnan water town.There is my mother's hometown. However, the days of poverty did not last long.The meager income that my mother earned alone was soon not enough for the family, not even enough to rent the small house, not to mention that Lizheng, who was like a fat pig, often came to collect various taxes.Mother still pointed at the sewing needle day and night, but it was still not enough. She never forgot that time when she grew up.Many nights, her mother always hugged her to go to bed with an empty stomach, and when she cried because she was so hungry, her mother would cry and hum a little song to coax her to sleep. That piece of music is called "Zizhu Diao", which is also a ballad from my mother's hometown in the south of the Yangtze River. Mother always said that she could earn money tomorrow, and then she bought a lot of biscuits for mother and daughter to have a big meal.She bit her finger and pretended to fall asleep obediently—in fact, the child knew very well that there would be no pancakes tomorrow, and there would be no pancakes tomorrow—just like her father who “goes out to do business” never won't be coming home. But after a while, the family actually started to have food.Or a few slices of bacon, or a stack of sesame seed cakes, in short, although it is not a big meal, she no longer has to go hungry. The food was brought by those strange uncles. My mother told her that those were merchants who came to buy the thread she spun.The eight-year-old nodded, but there was a look of distrust in her eyes.She knew that her mother had lied to her, and she no longer trusted her mother. Mother hasn't spun yarn at all these days.And every time those strange guests came, the mother would drive her out of the small house, put some food in her skirt, and let her go out to play by herself. There is a small earth temple in the square, and there is an old and dizzy Miao Zhu in the temple. No one goes there on weekdays, so she runs there alone, staring at the empty temple in a daze, and sits for an entire afternoon. At the age of eight, she didn't understand why her mother did this. She only knew that all the neighbors in the workshop looked at them no longer with good intentions.She still doesn't know much about things in the world, and she doesn't know why everyone's attitudes have changed like this.She just wished she could stay away from everyone, including her mother, and stay in a place where no one could find her. "Your mother is a whore." Even though she tried her best to avoid meeting Lizheng's son and the gang of bastards, one day when she came out of the Earth Temple, the group of children still entangled her and blocked her way home.Qing Bao said something at the beginning, and then laughed maliciously. She didn't know the meaning of this word, but the eyes of those bad boys let her know that it was a vicious ridicule. "My father came out of your house last night, but my mother quarreled with him today!" Qing Bao said provocatively, grinning, "It's only worth five sesame seed cakes...your mother is so cheap!" Her hands trembled, and the biscuits in her arms fell to the ground, then she screamed suddenly, rushed over like crazy and knocked down the fat Qing Bao.She bit him, kicked him, with every means at her disposal.However, the group of children reacted after being stunned for a moment, and began to surround and beat her. "Hong'er, Hong'er, what's wrong?" It was already dark when we got home. My mother leaned on the steps and looked at the door. Seeing her bleeding head, she rushed down, grabbed her by the shoulder and asked, her voice choked up. "It's nothing, mother. I fell down." She pulled her mother's hand away in disgust, and replied coldly.There is a faint fragrance on the mother's body, rouge is rubbed on the mother's face, and the mother is wearing bright clothes—— Long ago, she was proud of her mother's outstanding beauty.Now, however, she hated her mother, hated her beauty, hated why she didn't wear dull, sober clothes like the neighbor's aunt—she didn't want her mother to be different from everyone else. She hated her mother, hated the strangers who came to her house, and hated the children her age. It was from that day that she learned to hate. Day by day, their mother and daughter have no worries about eating and drinking in the workshop, but the situation is getting worse and worse. On that day, Qing Bao and the others came to Earth Temple again, beat her up, snatched the lunch her mother had prepared for her, and threw it into the ditch with a mocking smile: "Dirty things should go there!" Miao Zhu just looked at it with dazed eyes, and then continued to doze off.She knew that it was useless to tell her mother—the daily entry and exit of mother's guests had to be approved by the people in the workshop——mother could not offend Qing Bao's father. Well, since her mother doesn't care about her, she won't be so patient. At the age of eleven, a cold and vicious light suddenly flashed in her eyes, she snorted, wiped the blood from her head and walked out of the temple gate.Startled by her cold snort, Lao Miaozhu raised his head suddenly.There was also a gleam of surprise in the eyes. She squatted down on the barren grass outside the temple, and began to pull out the long grass leaves with her small hands, straightened them out, and then tied a thin knot with the grass next to her. She tied the knot very carefully, so that the tough grass leaves Form a noose.Then put a stone next to it as a mark, and jumped out to find the group of children. After a while, there was excitement outside the gate of the Earth Temple, and a group of children came chasing and chasing a little girl.She never runs away from a fight, but this time she just ran straight for the Earth Temple, swearing back with acrimonious words.When passing by that place, she jumped over, light and unrevealed, and heard the sound of someone falling heavily behind her. She ran to the porch of the Earth Temple in one breath, and then stopped and turned around to look at her results—but to her surprise, the group of children did not catch up, but just surrounded the fat Qing Bao lying on the ground Panic. Can't stand up after falling?What a delicate boy... She sneered. However, when she saw the blood spreading from the grass, she panicked—there were stones—there were sharp stones placed near the trap she set, which happened to be the distance of a child lying down, deep Knocked into Qing Bao's forehead.That nasty guy passed out at that time. She was only slightly startled, but then ran into the temple and smiled secretly, the more she laughed, the more carefree she became. After a long time, she was startled to realize that someone was watching her.The old Miao Zhu woke up from the table at some point, sat there looking at her, the light in her eyes made her a little scared: "Hey, girl, you have to do it thoroughly!" Then she suddenly remembered: Who put the stones on the grass? Looking at the cold light in Lao Miaozhu's dim eyes, the child's heart suddenly trembled. "Why, child, do you want me to teach you how to make them never bully you again?" Miao Zhu smiled and stretched out her skinny hand, "You are a smart girl, you are a plastic material." It took more than a month for Qing Bao's injury to heal, and he also suffered from a headache.However, no one ever suspected that there was something wrong with the children's nonsense.What's more, she has always been a beaten character. Her mother just warned her very worriedly because of this, it is dangerous to fight with those people, and she would rather give in to them in the future. She just smiled, and then fell asleep on her own without talking to her mother.She went home less and less, stayed in that earth temple every day, and seemed to be getting more and more lonely. But she knew exactly what she was doing—half a year later, Qing Bao died.His death was miserable, his face was black, blood was bleeding from his seven orifices, with a foul smell.The doctor said: Oh no, that's a symptom of the plague. Panic arose in the workshops—everyone was not afraid of the spread of the plague, especially where the poor lived.That night, Lizheng's family was burned down as usual, the door was sealed and nailed to death, and no one escaped. The screams of those who were sealed in the door before death could be heard intermittently. She was at home, smiling at the firelight.In the firelight, there was a chilling cruelty on her childish face. Children are terrible because of their youth, because of their indifference and ambiguity about good and evil, and when they hate someone, they are even more vicious than any adult. No one knows what that old temple is for, and naturally no one knows what she has been doing in that ruined temple these days—and no one knows that in order to prepare this poison that resembles the symptoms of the plague, she spent a lot of time. How much effort. As she became more sensible, her hatred for her mother increased day by day, and she knew what a humble occupation her mother was engaged in. However, she could do nothing to her mother, as she could do to others who had offended her. Lao Miaozhu died when she was fourteen years old, and before he died, she had learned almost everything he could teach her.That is how to use poison and hidden weapons to kill other people without a trace. Many times, after hearing the insults to her mother and seeing the ubiquitous white eyes, she couldn't help wandering by the well in the workshop—the mother was terrified, thinking that her daughter couldn't see it, but she Little did he know that the package of poison in the palm of his fourteen-year-old daughter was enough to kill the entire workshop! She didn't dare to do that after all... She didn't know why she couldn't do it. Maybe it's just because the neighbor Aunt Wang once gave her an egg when she was hungry?Maybe it's just because when she was being bullied by her peers, Tailor Zhang at the entrance of the square once poked her head out to stop her once? For some reason, although every time she was discriminated against, trembling with anger, she had the urge to throw the poison into the well, but at the last moment, she changed her decision. As my mother's beauty gradually faded away, the number of guests who came to the door gradually decreased, and the few remaining frequent visitors were all regular benefactors.One of them came very frequently, and my mother seemed to be very afraid of that person, because it was said that the middle-aged man named "Uncle Ma" worked in the yamen of Chang'an. He has a bad temper, and his mother waited on him carefully. Every time he came, his mother would nervously send her out quickly.However, sometimes when she came home at night, she could still see her mother cleaning the smashed room with tears in her eyes. Sometimes, she really wanted to kill that uncle Ma... Uncle Ma came very early that day and was very drunk.Before the mother had time to send her out, the middle-aged man with a pockmarked face came in, looked her up and down, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Yo, your daughter is a beauty!" Coming closer, he took out a silver key and stuffed it into her palm, stroked her head and laughed. "Get out, Hong'er!" The mother's face turned pale all of a sudden, and she pushed her quickly. However, she stood still, not knowing why, and smiled strangely: "Why do you want me to go out? Can't I stay in the house?" She slipped a glance at Uncle Ma, with a smile in the corner of her eyes, but she held him in her hand. With a stinger attached. Damn guy... Mouth full of alcohol, dirty hands... Touching mother and her with such dirty hands... She's going to put a needle in his spine today, so that he can never be move! "Okay, then girl, you stay here." Uncle Ma immediately smiled when she glanced at her, and then looked at his pale mother, "Let's drive your mother out, and you stay with me, how about it?" "Okay..." She smiled, and suddenly felt a sense of victory in her heart: Mother, after all, is old and is no longer as good as her.She walked over with a smile, and slowly stretched out her small snow-white hand to pull the pockmarked uncle—holding the poisonous needle in her hand.At the moment when the other party barely noticed, she lightly stabbed Uncle Ma's wrist with a poisonous thorn. "Bitch! Get out of here!" Suddenly, she was hit hard on the face, she raised her head in horror, saw her mother's pale and distorted face in front of her eyes, looked at her fiercely, pushed her out, and closed it hard Door. She was stunned - it was the first time her mother hit her since she was a child! Cheap... Mother actually called her cheap!She's the cheapest!She's the cheapest! At the age of fourteen, she ran out crying, and ran away along the only road in the workshop, full of hatred in her heart.She, she just wanted to help her mother deal with that uncle Ma today!Waves of grievances and pain tore her, she covered her swollen cheeks, tried her best not to let the tears fall from her eyes, and vowed in her heart that she would never see her mother again. In the room behind her was the sound of fierce quarrels, accompanied by her mother's crying - she knew that Uncle Ma was beating her mother again, but he had been poisoned by a heart-breaking needle. How long... She stood indifferently on the dirt slope by the roadside, listening to her mother's cries, and then continued to run out. Bitch! ... She found it herself! ... She deserved to be beaten! Otherwise, today, she would be happy to solve this uncle who bullied her on the spot for her mother. Wiping her tears, she just ran, ran, ran... The noon sun was shining brightly above her head, and the Yongyang Square, which was built with four walls of loess, was so big and boundless, her footsteps echoed on the dirt road—— — For a moment, she seemed to have an illusion: she would never escape the place where she was imprisoned since childhood. After wandering in the rivers and lakes for many years, she never returned to Yongyangfang.However, she really could never get out of that place. More than once, she dreamed of Yongyangfang, dreamed of her mother's pale face, sometimes she gently hummed "Zizhu Tune" to lull her to sleep, and sometimes she scolded viciously: "Bitch! Get out of here!" ... Then he pushed her out of the door with his hands, causing her to wake up in shock. At that time, she had already earned a name in the arena: Red Scorpion.She is cruel, debauched, indifferent, and alone. No one can figure out her whereabouts and thoughts, but only knows that she is a vicious and sinister assassin. However, no one knew that she was actually cowardly—many times, she wanted to go back to Yongyangfang to take a look, but for some reason, she never had the courage. The last time I saw my mother was in the prison in Cangzhou. She easily eliminated the guards with mist, and sneaked into the place where the prisoners were held. In the innermost cell, she finally found her mother.The reason it took so long was because she could no longer recognize that it was her mother... Lying in a piece of dirty withered grass, her mother's eyes lost the brilliance of the past, and her hair became dull and brittle Yellow, with high cheekbones and a strange smell, the whole person is like a lifeless puppet.Because she was seriously ill, the prison authorities locked her in a room alone. She was stunned for a long time before gently opening the cell door with the key brought by the guard and walking in. "Mother? Mother?" She knelt down beside the unconscious mother, calling out in a low voice, carefully pushing the emaciated woman, for fear that her mother would no longer be able to answer her words. The mother opened her eyes and looked at her blankly. After a long time of effort, the dim eyes suddenly lit up: "Hong'er?!" The mother stretched out her hand tremblingly, trying to hug her daughter, but she froze there. In an instant, her mother's words "Get out!" sounded in her ears, and the mother's slap seemed to still be burning on her face.She flinched for a moment. "Mother! Mother!" Tears welled up in her eyes, she rushed over, hugged her dying mother, choked up, "Hong'er is not good... Hong'er is sorry for you...Uncle Ma, that guy is the one I used the poisonous needle for." Stabbed to death!" "I'm sorry...don't talk nonsense, kid..." The mother refuted her, put her hand on top of her head, and lovingly stroked it, "Let me see you... Hong'er, you, you are so beautiful... Than My mother was much prettier back then..." "Mother, let's go home, shall we?" She hugged her mother and said softly as if her mother was coaxing her when she was a child.The mother is so sick that only bones are left, as light as a leaf.She choked up and carried her mother on her back: "Let's go home...you can sing that song to me again, okay?" She wants to go back to Yongyang Fang, reunite mother and daughter, and live a peaceful life like before - she will never allow anyone to hurt her mother again.She already has enough strength to maintain what she wants to protect. She carried her mother on her back desperately, fled the Cangzhou Prison where she was imprisoned, and traveled day and night towards Chang'an. Of course, she can never go back to the past. Three days later, my mother died of illness on the way—there was more than a thousand miles away from Chang'an. She never had the opportunity to tell her mother that she had always loved her deeply, and because she loved her, her young heart developed such strong hatred because of ignorance.At that time, she didn't understand the hardships of life and the sorrow of poor women... She was too young to understand. Even after so many years of wandering in the rivers and lakes, she has not realized this point until someone said to her—— "You can't see it? At that time, your mother used the only way she could do and tried her best to protect you." It was that sentence that broke the knot in her relationship in an instant.When speaking, the corners of the eyes of the woman in scarlet clothes sparkled. She had an epiphany, and finally had the courage to rush back to Yongyangfang. Being close to the hometown and being timid, he still mustered up the courage to inquire about his mother's whereabouts.However, there is nothing wrong with personnel. Tailor Zhang at the gate of the workshop could no longer recognize who she was, and when she asked, he just sighed and said, "Is this the family? The woman who lived there before was a prostitute, it's poor... dragging a daughter, in order not to be hungry. What about death?" "Originally, it's nothing more than earning money by accepting customers honestly. I don't know why, but one day this woman dared to quarrel with the benefactor, and even poisoned that unlucky ghost. Tsk tsk... The death of that person is really terrifying..." "Originally, he was sentenced to beheaded by Qiuhou Wen, but he was lucky enough to receive an amnesty, so his sentence was changed to exile and he was sent to the Cangzhou Prison." "Her daughter was not sensible at first, and she talked to her mother regardless of whether she was big or small. She had a fight with her mother that day, and she ran away without a trace... Alas, later, a neighbor said that she saw it in a brothel. Pass her, or see her as a maidservant in a rich family—tell me, what kind of life can a little girl run out by herself—” Tailor Zhang talked halfway through, and suddenly remembered that the passenger inquiring about the news in front of him was also a woman, so he stopped talking.Then he quietly looked at the visitor with some suspicion... It seemed, it seemed familiar. Just as he was peeking at the beautiful girl, he saw a string of teardrops rolling down from the traveler's beautiful eyes.The formidable woman with the sword suddenly covered her face and began to cry. She suddenly understood why her mother beat her and told her to get out that day—the terrified mother had already sensed the man's malicious gaze on her young daughter, and she had no choice but to use the only way to get her out as soon as possible. Keep her daughter out of danger— "Bitch! Get out of here!" When she hated her mother and fled Yongyangfang, her mother took the charge of murder in order to protect her. While she was wandering in the rivers and lakes with her unique skills, her mother had been locked in this dark and damp dungeon. And when she went back to find her mother because of remorse, her mother swallowed her last breath. She can never go back to the past. After burying her mother, she joined Tingxuelou and changed her name to "Hongchen".  After running in Shizhang Ruanhong for so long, it seems that I can't escape the Huangtufang yesterday.It's been ten years, and when I look back at it, I walk through the crowd, but I don't even get some popularity, and I'm still shaky. Now that the world is famous, some people are afraid, but it is not as good as childhood - at that time, at least there was a mother who really cared about her. She came to Tingxue Tower and stabilized - that's because of Miss Jing - the person who once broke the demon in her heart with one sentence.If it weren't for the calm and sharp words of the woman in scarlet clothes, she might not even have time to see her mother for the last time. Everyone in Tingxue Building is in awe of Miss Jing, even the landlord respects her quite a lot.And the eyes under the veil of that scarlet-clothed woman have always been as cold as ice and snow.She knew that Miss Jing's childhood was probably more tragic than her own. However, only she thought that somewhere in Miss Jing's heart, there must be a soft and sensitive place - otherwise, how could she understand her mother's state of mind back then. “靖姑娘……”红尘恍惚笑了一笑，想伸手拉住那个绯衣女子的手，告诉她，自己一直是多么的感激她，同时，也希望她能找到自己的幸福——为什么对于旁人的内心能一眼看到底的她，对于自己的内心却一直都无法正视？ 然而，神智又在一点点的消失。 “紫竹调……紫竹调……”在恍惚中，她只是下意识的喃喃自语，母亲哼唱的旋律萦绕在耳边，一重又一重。阿靖握着她渐渐冰冷的手，轻轻叹了一口气，低着头，对一直守在病榻旁边的碧落道：“请你将那曲子弹给她听，好么？” 听雪楼女领主的话，第一次那样的温和，甚至带着一丝的祈求之意。 碧落微微一怔，却没有立刻回答，仿佛在挣扎着。许久许久，他不再说话，只是低下了头，静静坐到了案后，摆开了古琴。 在指尖碰到弦的时刻，他发觉自己心中似乎有什么屏障在片片破碎——曾经，他在内心发过誓，只为那个人弹奏这首曲子而已……如今他终于明白，世事，从来没有绝对。 就像他从来都没有想过、竟然会有人能不顾性命的也要他活下去一般。 柔和的曲调从他手指底下渗出，慢慢扩散，碧落的思绪也慢慢延展开来……那样的细雨，那样的笑靥，那样的往日…… 忽然间，他的手指震了一下：寂静的房间里面，居然有人轻轻的唱起了那首歌谣。 拉着垂死的人的手，阿靖俯下了身，轻轻用手指理顺红尘的头发，一边低低的和着碧落的琴声、哼起了那首《紫竹调》。没有人听过靖姑娘唱歌、甚至没有人想象过、这个平日冷漠的女子居然还会这样歌唱，然而，碧落却真真切切的听见了。 那一瞬间，他一向冷静稳定的手指顿在了弦上，微微颤抖—— “靖姑娘，请用这个给红尘治伤罢。”他起身推开琴，走到了绯衣女子身前，从怀中拿出一只玉匣递给了她，然后转身就走。 阿靖打开了那个白玉匣子，即使冷静如她、竟然忍不住低低惊呼了一声： 一朵浅碧色的花，在匣中凝固的怒放。 踯躅花。 竟然是碧落视为生命的那朵踯躅花？ ! ... 碧落走出门去，生怕自己一回头，便会改变主意。 那一朵花，就让它永远的绽放在自己的梦里吧！ 小妗、小妗……苍茫海里的踯躅花已经开了一年又一年，上穷碧落下黄泉的寻找，可是你又在何方？恐怕，我们是再也相见无期了么？ 把酒祝东风。且共从容。垂杨紫陌洛城东。总是当时携手处，游遍芳丛。 聚散苦匆匆，此恨无穷。今年花胜去年红。可惜明年花更好，知与谁同？ postscript: 按预先的构思，第三篇应该是碧落篇，最后才是红尘篇。 然而，碧落篇是指间砂里面构思的最早的一篇，想法早就有了，也比较完整清晰。可因为太清楚该怎么写了，反而失去了激情。一个现成的故事，就是从哪一点切入开始叙述都是一个问题，我翻来覆去写，都不是很满意，于是渐渐冷了下去，放到一边了。 现在先写红尘篇，看看吧，等四篇全部完工以后，再考虑顺序的问题好了。 这一篇有些摹仿希区科克的片断，此外我写的时候还想起了为了傅红雪杀人的那个妓女……那样复杂激烈的人性转换。杂七杂八的念头和思路太多了，反而分心了那。没有希区科克或者古龙两位大师笔下那样简练而感人的效果了…… 第四篇《碧落》，其实已经写了三个开头，都被扔掉了，等偶慢慢酝酿情绪吧……笑。