Hearing the footsteps behind him, Shen Lie turned around and met her gaze with his dark eyes.
Xia Zhaoyi's fingertips circled the small oil ball lamp slightly tightly, and her heartstrings seemed to move.
In the quiet and peaceful night, the man's thin and snow-white handsome face was illuminated by the light of the courtyard lamp, and accompanied by the faint shadows intertwined with the treetops, the outline of his eyebrows was even deeper and softened by the light.
His deep and bright eyes were calm and calm, as if he had written all his thoughts, and they were as quiet as a thousand-mile flat lake, without any waves or waves.
Xia Zhaoyi often felt that Shen Lie was really a wonderful person.
He could make her feel the vitality and excitement of spring and the scorching heat of summer, but also the desolation and desolation of autumn, and the cold silence of winter.
He is such a complicated person. He can never finish a clear song, or finish a piece of rhetoric. He is sometimes far and sometimes near, but never hot or cold.
"Ah Li." Shen Lie opened his mouth to break the silence, his voice was clear and light, blending into the cool night.
"Yeah." Xia Zhaoyi responded and walked away.
There was a broken leaf on his shoulder. Xia Zhaoyi stood on tiptoes and raised his hand to pick it up for him.
"It seems like you've been standing here for a long time." Xia Zhaoyi said.
Shen Lie said gently: "Well, I'm waiting for you."
Every time he smiles like this, Xia Zhaoyi also wants to laugh unconsciously.
She looked down at the remaining leaf in her hand, loosened her fingers, and watched it fall to the ground.
Early tomorrow morning, Zhu Chang would be cremated, so Shen Lie returned to the city overnight.
But Xia Zhaoyi didn't expect that he would wait for her here for so long. If she knew, she would come out as soon as possible.
There were only two guards outside the back door, no mounts, and no carriage.
Xia Zhaoyi and Shen Lie walked slowly side by side, walked into the back alley and said, "They said you went outside the city and went to the Chen family ancestral hall."
"Well, the secret passages extend in all directions, but Ruan Guoliang has already led everyone through them all."
"What did you find?"
"Dirty, outdated, no one has been there for a long time, except for a long road. There was not much dust in that long road. Deep in the long road, they found several iron cages. In the iron cages were corpses that had not yet fully decomposed. A total of Fifteen bodies. After identification, the armor on the corpses came from the Hengxiang Guard Station."
Xia Zhaoyi raised his eyebrows: "Why do they have to fight against the people who guard the place in Hengxiang?"
"I don't know yet, but I have sent people to Hengxiang Guard Station to investigate."
The back alley was empty, and their silhouettes were elongated by the lanterns hanging high on both sides.
Leaving the back alley, the main street was deserted. Because the weather was getting hotter, the windows on the second and third floors of many houses along the street were open.
Shen Lie unconsciously lowered his voice and continued: "Bypass the open space with the iron cages, continue walking deeper, reaching the northwest, and at the end becomes a suspended underground cliff."
"Is it a cave?"
"Well, the journey is too far. I haven't gone there yet. According to their description when they came back, it looks very much like the cave we visited."
Xia Zhaoyi said thoughtfully: "The darkroom where Guo Yunzhe was found is an isolated island in the cave. The end of the road Ruan Guoliang and the others went to should be southeast of that 'isolated island', where we went down to On the left after the secret passage."
Shen Lie nodded: "The direction remains unchanged, but the distance is further away, at least one mile different."
"It's said to be a hanging cliff, but there may still be a way. Just like the giant ax dropped from the sky that blocked our return, it was intercepted directly on the Qianren Wall." As he said this, Xia Zhaoyi's voice became helpless, "If these people weren't It is a pity that he has a wrong mind and is actually a great talent."
Her words reminded Shen Lie of her stunning eyes when she saw Feihong in front of the Nebula Tower.
Shen Lie lowered his eyebrows and looked at her pretty and beautiful side face.
The girl is very talented, but her eyes always look like she is thinking, focused and serious.
"Speaking of which," Xia Zhaoyi said suddenly, "there are still two people in their hands, one is Bian Yuanfeng and the other is Lin Qingfeng. But in fact, the previous Guo Yunzhe can be regarded as..."
"……Um."
Thinking about Guo Yunzhe, Shen Lie always felt heavy in his heart.
Xia Zhaoyi noticed his emotions and said, "During Zuilu, have you sent someone to check?"
"Well, I wrote three letters, two to Zuilu and one to Ji Xiahe."
"You and Zui Lu had a falling out. This letter should be sent to the old shopkeeper or old man."
Shen Lie smiled lightly: "Ah Li is smart."
Xia Zhaoyi thought for a while and asked something he was not willing to ask: "So, what are your plans next? You have been running around with me in Hengxiang for a long time. Do you have any plans after I finish my study on the world?"
Shen Lie's eyebrows sank slightly, and his steps gradually stopped.
Xia Zhaoyi also stopped and raised her clear and bright eyes gently to look into his eyes.
The evening breeze was blowing gently, and the girl was wearing a blue dress, and the man was wearing a black shirt, standing by the ancient water bridge, wading into the wind, flying in the air.
"What about you?" Shen Lie asked.
"Continue to build the road to the north, continue to invade Li Qian's wealth, continue to retain manpower, and dig out the roots of people like Hengxiang."
Shen Lie looked at her deeply and suddenly smiled: "Then I will go to pacify Bei Yuan, pacify Li Qian, pacify Qingfeng Qingang, pacify 'those people', and pacify all the cunning rotten maggots who secretly covet the light."
Xia Zhaoyi also smiled. She opened her mouth and what she wanted to say came to her lips, but she didn't know how to say it.
At this moment, the sound of horse hooves came from the Yamen, approaching from far away.
Xia Zhaoyi and Shen Lie turned around.
Horse hooves stepped on the moon, and in the dim light, a soldier wearing Xia's army armor ran towards the Yamen.
"There seems to be something urgent." Xia Zhaoyi said.
Shen Lie looked sideways at her.
Xia Zhaoyi gently pinched the small oil ball lamp with his fingers and whispered: "It may be a disaster for the military."
"Certainly?"
"It's hard to distinguish good from bad when it's right."
Watching the soldier disappear from sight, Xia Zhaoyi paused for a moment, raised his head and said to Shen Lie, "If you have something important to do tomorrow, go back first. I'll go over and take a look."
How could Shen Lie agree and follow her back to the Yamen?
Jian Jun was on duty at the Yamen tonight. Jian Jun was about to send someone out to find Xia Zhaoyi when he saw her walking in from the gate, followed by the tall and straight Commander Yan Jun.
"Second Miss! General Shen!" Jian Jun walked over quickly.
Xia Zhaoyi nodded at him and looked at the messenger soldier: "But the soldiers from Youzhou are heading south?"
"Second Miss, have you received the information?" The messenger respectfully handed over the military intelligence letter, "It is King Dacheng's army on the west route, led by Lu Dun. The vanguard has arrived at the official road of Yuntian Mountain. Early tomorrow morning, the army will arrive at Tao'anling. !But as soon as the vanguard troops got off the official road, they formed a formation on the south side of Tao'an Mountain, numbering about 10,000 people!"
"There are ten thousand people in the vanguard, which is so impressive," Jian Jun said.
Xia Zhaoyi smiled: "It's indeed impressive, just for us to see."
Zhao Ya, Jian Jun's deputy general, was worried: "Second Miss, will they take action?"
"I'm afraid they don't even know the answer to this," Xia Zhaoyi lowered his head to open the letter and said, "It depends on our attitude."
