As the evening sun shone, Gu Fan sent Pei Yue to the straight road outside Luliu Villa, and then rode away elegantly.

Pei Yue listened to the tune he hummed casually, from near to far, and gradually became unknown, and he was actually a little envious in his heart.

He is a righteous and heroic man, has an enviable talent in martial arts, and is protected by his powerful fathers. He can be said to be a lonely man in the world who can do as he pleases, and enjoy wine and sword fighting.

After all, life is different.

Entering the village, Pei Yue put away his inappropriate reverie.

The atmosphere here was solemn and solemn. Dozens of houses had white hangings on their doors, and cries could be heard from time to time. Although Pei Yue took out the money and handed it over to Deng Zai early this morning, and promised that the matter of deportation would definitely be settled, but the pain of bereavement

The scars cannot fade away in a short time, and can only be healed by time. Returning to the door of the main house, Deng Zai came forward to greet him and reported in a leisurely manner: "Young Master, the young master of the Qin family will bring people over at noon to kill those bandits.

All the heads were chopped off and brought back, and the bodies were buried in the wasteland to the east. He asked me to tell the young master that he would write down the process of this matter and hand it over, and no one's contribution would be ignored."

Pei Yue nodded and said, "I understand. Is that thief still honest?"

Deng Zai replied: "He is very peaceful today. Wang Yong and Qi Jun are watching him in the ear room now."

Pei Yue ordered: "Go and get a jug of wine and some food and bring them to the ear room."

"yes."

Pei Yue came to the main hall and saw Mr. Xi sitting there recuperating. When he saw him come back, he asked warmly: "How was your stay at the Gu family today?"

Pei Yue said with a slight surprise: "It's good. Sir, you came back so early. I thought you were going to have a drink with Mr. Shen and talk all night long."

Mr. Xi said: "I did have this plan, but as soon as I sat down at his house, the emperor sent someone to summon him to the palace. I thought that since you are at the Gu family, there will be no problem with your safety, and Gu Liang and I are not very close.

Deal with it, just come back directly."

If it were normal, Pei Yue might be curious about the old stories of these elders, but at this time he really didn't have the energy to do so. He just said calmly: "I see. Sir, I'm going to do something."

Mr. Xi looked at the heavy look of tiredness on his face and said with concern: "Brother Yue, don't be in such a hurry. You have to deal with things one by one. Although you have done a good job in the past six months, you are still weaker than others after all.

, I can’t stand such hardship.”

Pei Yue smiled gratefully and said, "It's not that I'm impatient. I'm just afraid that the night will be long and I will have many dreams."

Mr. Xi understood and asked, "What do you plan to do with that thief leader?"

Pei Yue said softly but decisively: "I'll give him a ride."

Mr. Xi looked complicated and stopped talking.

It was very quiet in the wing room. Fang Rui was still tied up tightly, and Wang Yong sat opposite him to guard him. The wound on the young man's face that was beaten by Li Zijun had healed, leaving a shallow scar, but it didn't look ugly.

On the contrary, it added a bit of ferocity to his dull temperament.

"Master!" Seeing Pei Yue open the door and walk in, Wang Yong and Qi Jun next to him immediately stood up and saluted with some excitement.

Pei Yue praised them a few words, then pointed at Fang Rui and ordered: "Untie the rope on his body."

Wang Yong looked hesitant, and Qi Jun couldn't help but persuade him: "Master, this person is quite dangerous."

Pei Yue smiled faintly and said calmly: "He was stabbed more than a dozen times by me. If he could still get violent and hurt others, then none of us would be able to keep him alive last night. Untie him, his hands are tied, how can I follow him?"

drink wine?"

The two teenagers were confused after hearing this. You have stabbed him so many times, why do you still want to drink together? In the end, Wang Yong suppressed the doubts in his heart, stepped forward to help Fang Rui untie the rope, and then stood aside with a wary expression.

.

At this time, Deng Zai came in with a food box. Pei Yue pulled a table and placed it in front of Fang Rui. He ordered Deng Zai to put the food box on the table and said to the teenagers, "You guys can go out."

The young men looked at each other, not knowing what the young master was going crazy about, and they didn't dare to move for a while.

Pei Yue's face turned cold and he said in a deep voice: "Get out!"

"yes!"

This was the first time that Deng Zai and others saw the young master angry. They were immediately frightened and did not dare to hesitate any more. The three of them quickly walked out of the penthouse and closed the door. They did not dare to stay away, so they stood guard outside the door.

If there is any movement inside, rush in immediately.

Fang Rui did not suddenly become a top expert as the teenagers feared. The injuries on his body made him unable to use his strength at all, let alone hurt others. At this time, his face turned pale, especially when he saw Pei Yue eating in an orderly manner.

Taking out two plates of beef with sauce and a bottle of wine from the box, the look of fear in his eyes could not be hidden.

"Is this a decapitation meal?" Fang Rui asked in a trembling voice.

Pei Yue picked up a wine glass, filled it and placed it in front of him, handed over a pair of chopsticks, and said calmly: "Yes."

Fang Rui swallowed nervously and felt his neck was a little stiff. He smiled bitterly and said, "Do I really have to die?"

Pei Yue asked, "What do you think?"

Fang Rui raised his hand and pointed at the food and wine on the table and said, "Then what are you doing with these? Why don't you just kill me?"

"From the moment you brought people to Zhuangzi, either you kill me or I kill you. This should be the obvious outcome. Maybe you just never thought that you would also have such a desolate moment, life and death.

It's in the hands of a bastard that you looked down on before. As for these drinks and food, it's because your confession last night solved some of the questions in my mind, and your presence helped me force some people to bow their heads temporarily, so I want you to go.

You have to be more peaceful."

"What else do you want to know? Just ask! I can tell you. Do you want to know about the Pingjiang Fang family?"

Pei Yue looked at his twisted and ferocious face and asked in confusion: "If you are so afraid of death, why did you come all the way to Daliang to become a thief? If you stay in Southern Zhou, don't you have a chance to get ahead?"

This sentence seemed to break the most vulnerable part of Fang Rui's heart. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth and said: "The master of the family has given the order, how can I refuse? As for staying in Pingjiang, I can only serve as a follower for others in my life and stand out.

These four words are a joke! I am just a disciple from a side branch. No matter how talented I am, how can I compare with those disciples of my sect? I admit that there are outstanding people in our sect, but those other people are just reincarnated well.

He is a loser, and he is not worthy of carrying my shoes! But what about the reality? The reality is that if I want to carry shoes for those losers, I have to see if they give me the respect."

Pei Yue said calmly: "Does the head of the Fang family of this generation only have this kind of courage?"

Fang Rui sneered and said: "You don't understand at all, even if you tell me you don't understand, even those high officials in your Beiliang court don't know what kind of freaks the Pingjiang Fang family is. Even the juniors of our sect can't arrange it.

, not to mention us, the descendants of the branch?"

"Is the Fang family so powerful? How can your Southern Zhou emperor resist taking action?"

"Because there is not only one freak in the Fang family in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Speaking of which, I would also like to thank you Beiliang. If your dead emperor hadn't gone crazy decades ago and forced that family to go south to the Great Zhou Dynasty, now with the Fang family

To form a check and balance, maybe the Great Zhou Dynasty has long been torn apart due to civil strife. This should be retribution, right? At that time, that family came out in large numbers and made our Great Zhou miserable. As a result, your emperor went crazy and gave Great Zhou a chance to recruit that

family, and then stabilize the internal situation."

Fang Rui endured the pain and raised his glass to drink. A hint of heroism suddenly appeared on his defeated face. It seemed that this moment of giving impassioned advice to the country was his most proud and glorious moment.

Pei Yue tapped his fingers on the table and repeated softly: "That family?"

Fang Rui pushed the empty wine glass to the center of the table, motioned to the young man in front of him to fill it up for him, and said with a hint of pride: "One of the people you killed last night was named Xian Cong, who was a member of that family.

Member. It’s just that he is worse off than me. Although I am a descendant of the side branch, I am still a descendant of the Fang family. He is just a slave who was given a surname, so he must listen to me after he comes here."

Xian family.

Pei Yue silently thought about this surname in his heart.

Some dusty past events appeared before his eyes.

In Shen Danmo's third letter to Pei Yue, the girl once mentioned an old case. After a brief introduction, she asked him what he thought. Pei Yue did not answer at that time, because in his opinion, such a thing would never happen in any dynasty.

It's not uncommon. Although he wasn't very good at history in his previous life, he still remembered some allusions to major events, so he didn't think there was anything special about this kind of civil strife.

It's just that Pei Yue, who is still new to Daliang officialdom, doesn't know that the case mentioned by Shen Danmo is a taboo in the Tian family, and ordinary officials dare not even mention it.

Only Shen Danmo has such courage, after all, her father is in charge of Taishitai Pavilion.

Pei Yue recalled the content of the letter. Thirty-three years ago, in the second year of Zhongzong's Jianping year, the Duke of Chu, one of the nine founding princes of the country, was accused of conspiracy and rebellion. Chu, who was the commander of the Yaoshan camp in the south,

Xian Chunqiu, the head of the Duke's Mansion, crossed the Tiancang River at night with nine hundred of his disciples, and defected to the Southern Zhou Dynasty on the eve of the secret edict to arrest him. The Xian clan members who stayed in Kyoto were killed in rivers of blood, and many generals in the army were also killed.

Among those who were implicated was Gu Liang's father, Gu Hao. This incident dealt a heavy blow to Daliang's military strength. Afterwards, the Beijing army was subject to a large-scale purge and rectification, and the first battalion and seven guards were eventually abolished.

Did Xian Chunqiu commit any treason? Why did Emperor Zhongzong, who had only been on the throne for two years, do this? The reasons had long been sealed in the memories of very few people. Even Shen Danmo couldn't figure it out, so she asked Pei Yue

My opinion is actually just out of curiosity.

At this time, Pei Yue listened to Fang Rui's talk and connected these memories together.

Fang Rui saw that he was just silent and had no intention of getting more wine for him, so he couldn't help but said depressedly: "Since it's a meal without a head, why is it so unpleasant?"

Naturally, Pei Yue was not interested in coddling him, so he pushed the wine bottle over and motioned for him to pour it for himself.

Fang Rui did not continue to complain. He filled a cup and drank it, sighing: "To say that those Xian family disciples are really powerful, it only took them thirty years to gain a firm foothold in the army and even compete with our Fang family."

A fight of arms. If not for this, our Emperor would not be in the mood to play with checks and balances, and would have long ago tried to level the entire Pingjiang River."

An idea flashed in Pei Yue's mind, and he said solemnly: "Perhaps this is what you thought about Emperor Zhongzong of Daliang back then."

Fang Rui was stunned for a moment, then said in disbelief: "Why didn't I think of this? No, even if your emperor wanted to take action, he should have targeted your Pei family! Who in this world doesn't know that your Pei family is the most powerful family in the Beiliang Army?

"

Pei Yue remained silent.

He remembered some details. Thirty-three years ago, Pei Yuan, the first generation of Dingguo Duke, was already nearly eighty years old. Even if he was the best in the world in martial arts, he was still in his twilight years and it would be difficult to do so.

He firmly held the power in the military as he did when he was young. After the incident in the Duke's Palace of Chu, he went to the palace to dissuade Zhongzong, so that the Gu family was not confiscated and exterminated. In this way, he still had a certain influence on the emperor. That's all.

If so, why would he sit back and watch the Xian Chunqiu case expand to such a horrific situation?

Some thoughts gradually brewed in Pei Yue's mind, but he felt they were too ridiculous.

That's all, it was all a matter of the past decades ago, so why bother about it.

Faced with Fang Rui's question, Pei Yue did not answer, but changed the topic and said, "I'm very curious as to why your head of the family trusts that woman in the mountain so much."

When Fang Rui heard him mention that girl, he couldn't help but smile sarcastically and said, "How do I know? Maybe because she is a lunatic."

"madman?"

"I have never seen such a woman, as if revenge is the only word in her life! Of course, revenge is my guess, otherwise I can't think of a reason for her to do these things. We stayed in the mountains for a whole time

For a year, the scenery there was beautiful, but looking at it every day can easily drive people crazy. I looked at everyone’s faces, from the excitement and anticipation at the beginning, to the indifference later, to the hard-pressed manic depression, there was almost no trace of

People can endure that kind of life. Only she and Aunt Leng don't seem to care at all, as if it is their home. Do you think they are crazy? "

"I don't know, but I know that all of you deserve to die, including the girl you mentioned and Aunt Leng."

"Are we damned?"

Pei Yue raised his finger and pointed outside, and said with a cold face: "If she wants revenge, she can go to her enemy. Even if she chops her enemy into a mess, I will only say that the chop was good. But what did you do after she did it?"

?A dozen Zhuangzi outside Kyoto were slaughtered by you. Those people were just ordinary people, how innocent? These people in my Zhuangzi had nothing to do with what you did, why were they killed?"

Fang Rui lowered his eyes.

Pei Yue tugged at his collar and said a little irritably: "I'm not trying to tell you some big truth! It's just that the teachings I received since I was a child tell me that every injustice has its owner and its debtor has its owner. Don't bring disaster to the innocent. It's that simple.

Is it difficult to do things? You said that woman is crazy, but I can tell that you actually admire her. I don't understand what is worthy of admiration for this kind of person? "

"I hate this kind of person, so I will find a way to catch her and let her redeem herself."

Fang Rui looked at the extremely serious-looking young man in front of him, shook his head and said, "You can't catch her."

Pei Yue said solemnly: "I want to try."

Fang Rui smiled miserably and said slowly: "I admire her a little, but I also hate her. If it weren't for the existence of this lunatic, how could I have gone to Beiliang to become a thief? If I could stay in Pingjiang, even if I had to

It's better to please those losers than to be caught by a young man like you and then die here inexplicably."

Pei Yue remained unmoved.

Fang Rui directly picked up the wine bottle, took a sip, and then asked with the last glimmer of hope: "Am I bound to die?"

Pei Yue answered simply and directly: "Yes."

Fang Rui laughed a few times, then gritted his teeth and said, "I'll tell you how to get into the mountain."

Pei Yue looked at him carefully.

Fang Rui seemed to let go of the restraints in his heart, holding the wine bottle and leaning on the back of the chair, saying: "You say I deserve to die, I am too lazy to refute, but I can tell you that I have never killed anyone with my own hands, including the man next to you named Cheng Xue

The young man did not die in my hands. Well, maybe you will say that I am also guilty and I will not argue. I am in this situation today. Even if I am responsible, doesn’t that lunatic have no responsibility? Anyway, I am going to die.

It’s disgusting. What’s wrong with her?”

Pei Yue nodded and said, "It makes sense."

"It makes sense!"

Fang Rui slapped the table with his free left hand, and then he grimaced in pain. A look of madness gradually gathered in his eyes, and he said very seriously: "The Hengduan Mountains are huge and the terrain is very complex. If you just walk around the mountains, you will not be able to tell the difference.

The madman is on a mountain in the north section of the Qing Dynasty. If you rush in, even if you are lucky enough to see her shadow, you will be easily thrown away by her. Why do I admire her? Because the place she chose is so good.

.In that kind of terrain, even if you throw all the hundreds of thousands of Liang Jing troops into it, you still can't catch her. Now I'll tell you, there is a trail that can smoothly enter the mountain and find her."

He poured some wine on the table, then dipped his fingers in the wine and painted.

"There are three giant trees arranged in a Z-shaped pattern in this place, which are the only signs of finding the mountain. Pass through a canyon directly behind the tallest tree, and then walk about three miles further to reach the mountain.

back."

Fang Rui chuckled as he spoke, as if he had seen the tragic situation of the woman after being captured.

Pei Yue watched quietly, engraving the route map and Fang Rui's tips firmly in his mind. After he finished speaking, he asked, "How many people are there who can fight in the mountains?"

Fang Rui thought for a moment and said: "There are about two thousand people on the surface. This time she sent out nearly a thousand people, but I don't know if she has a hidden agenda. After all, she is a madman, and no one can guess what is in her heart."

idea."

He raised the wine bottle, poured the last sip of wine into his mouth, and then smacked his lips, as if he still had more to say.

Pei Yue saw this and asked, "Would you like to get you another bottle of wine?"

Fang Rui waved his hand and said: "No, just think about it. Maybe you will still remember who you are after you die. After you catch that madman, you must tell her before she dies that I told you these things.

She will always look down on me, and if she can die with her eyes closed, then I will truly rest in peace."

Pei Yue stared at the strange emotion on his face and said in shock: "You actually..."

Fang Rui interrupted him and said calmly: "I want to remind you that she will not just stay in the mountains and wait for you to find her. According to my guess, she should have planned her next move."

"clear."

Pei Yue hesitated for a moment and then said: "Actually, there is another most important reason why I want to kill you."

Fang Rui asked curiously: "Please tell me."

Pei Yue said: "Because you are afraid of death, but you are so afraid of death that you come here to be a thief, which means you want to stand out more. The so-called order of the head of the family is just an excuse. You have many ways to refuse. If someone like you is really successful,

On that day, you will definitely try your best to erase your disgraceful past. Those who have laughed at you, and those who have tortured you like me, you will not let go of any of them, otherwise you will have trouble sleeping and eating.

Therefore, I can't let you go, I don't want to have a ferocious beast staring at my back in the future."

Fang Rui stared at him blankly, then burst into laughter, raised his finger and pointed at Pei Yue and said: "How could I meet you, a monster? I suddenly felt that we are the same kind of people, but you are stronger than me, and more beautiful than me."

Hen, you are younger than me, so I am very optimistic about you. If you become invincible in the future, remember to give me a bottle of good wine as a way to make up for what you owe me today, hahahaha..."

Pei Yue stood up and walked to him, holding the dagger in his hand.

Fang Rui leaned on the back of his chair, laughing so hard that tears flowed out uncontrollably.

There was a flash of cold light and the laughter stopped abruptly.

Pei Yue released his hand holding the dagger, then helped Fang Rui close his eyes and whispered, "I will do it."
Chapter completed!