048. In a dream
After leaving Huangshan Mountain and walking onto the horse trail, the carriage finally became more stable. Qingling pushed the door open a crack and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Go out of Mingzhou and go to Liuyang City on the border of Dizhou." Shang Changheng answered, and at the end, he said, "Rest for a few days."
Coming out of Lincang and then entering Huangshanling, it was the hottest time of the year. In Liuyang City of Dizhou, people were buying all kinds of ice cream along the streets. Qingling was not very interested. He just wanted to have a good sleep. As soon as he entered the city, he found an inn to stay in. He took a shower, changed his clothes and lay down on the couch in one go.
Perhaps because he was really tired, Qingling fell asleep quickly.
The dream was complicated and chaotic. It was a story that happened thousands of years ago but no one tells it now. Even I didn't know it. A tear fell from the corner of my eye.
But someone saw it.
Shang Changheng wiped away the tears with his pale fingertips and sat beside the bed. He was still wearing the wide-sleeved round-collared robe that Qingling Shao had given him, and he looked silently at the water mark on his fingertips.
"Fool." Shang Changheng sneered, his eyes darkened again, and he asked in a low voice, "Qingling, who are you worried about?"
King Lie of Zhou who struggled to hold on during the Great Zhou Dynasty, or those loyal and brave soldiers? But that was all a thousand years ago. What is here now are evil ghosts who have been accumulating resentment for thousands of years and have nowhere to vent.
Qingling was still young and had not been in the world for long. Shang Changheng liked his ruthlessness and cruelty because Qingling was very much like him. However, the further he walked, the more people and things he met, the more vivid Qingling became.
Under the tomb of Princess Ling, no matter how cold-blooded and cruel Qing Ling behaved at first, he still gave them a chance when he saw with his own eyes that Zhu Lezhi and Miao Yuan were trying their best to save her soul.
Under the lonely grave at Huangshan Ridge, he even shed tears for Zuo Baichuan and Wei Qingxia.
The cold and indifferent Qingling became more and more gentle.
But he would not feel sorry for a ghost that was a mixture of resentment and hatred. He only felt fear and fear. This thought made the evil spirit, who was already full of resentment, very annoyed.
He wanted to cut open Qing Ling's heart and brand his name on it. This impulse was really... unreasonable. He shouldn't be so angry.
Then the tear-stained fingers gently touched Qingling's heart.
Qingling, who was still asleep, knew nothing about this. In his dream, he met Shang Changheng again, the Shang Changheng who had won a great victory in the Battle of Xidi. They were burying the Grand Marshal Wei Shanfu who had died in Yangcheng.
It was only half a head, inlaid with bronze and stone as decorations, making it into an exquisite yet creepy human bone wine glass.
In the vast wilderness, the army was silent. After bowing to the departed Grand Marshal, the young commander turned around and said loudly: "The Dongyi people eat our Zhou people and use them as sacrifices. When Yangcheng fell, the Grand Marshal covered our retreat and died in battle. He was humiliated by the Dongyi people, who cooked his body and ate it, and even made his head into a wine cup! Justice is clear. Our Great Zhou is a country that rules the world with etiquette. How can we tolerate such a ruthless villain! Soldiers, sharpen your weapons and horses, and swear to avenge this!"
"I swear to avenge this!"
The soldiers were excited and their shouts shook the earth.
It was not like the bystander watching in his memory. Qing Ling seemed to have really come back to a thousand years ago. He stood not far away and watched the young commander raising his arms and shouting. He was like a pine or cypress supporting the crumbling country, firmly rooted in this land and refusing to retreat no matter how the frost and snow destroyed it.
In the blink of an eye, Shang Changheng was the only one left on this desolate land.
Qing Ling walked forward slowly and came to Shang Changheng's side. He asked softly, "Do you want to take a break?"
Shang Changheng turned his head and looked not at Qingling, but at the west, the direction of his hometown.
"Luyuan." He whispered the name of the capital of the Great Zhou Kingdom, and his resolute and cold brows finally revealed a bit of tenderness and attachment. "I have been on this earth and fought for such a long time. Now... you should rest well. If your soul can return to your hometown, you can go yourselves."
But he couldn't go home.
Even the remains were buried in the remote east.
Qing Ling reached out and touched the cold armor on his body.
He longed for a life as eventful as Shang Changheng's, but he also felt sorry for his ill-fated half-life in the military. People always yearn for things they have never seen or possessed, while those who are truly in the game crave stability.
"Chang Heng..."
The dream thus dissipated.
Qing Ling opened his eyes and met Shang Changheng's ink-black eyes. He was lying on his side on the outside of the couch, with his elbows bent and supporting his forehead.
"You were calling my name just now." Shang Changheng brushed away Qing Ling's messy hair and asked in a low voice, "Did you dream about me?"
The person in front of him was the evil ghost Shang Changheng. His expression was very easy to identify. He always had a gloomy look on his face, and his words were also sarcastic.
Qingling didn't answer, but just glanced outside. There was an oil lamp lit on the table and it was already night.
"I slept for a long time." Qing Ling wanted to sit up, but Shang Changheng pressed him back on the shoulder.
He looked down at the stunned Qingling, his voice sinking, "Did you dream about me, Qingling?"
Qing Ling was stunned for a moment, then turned his face away. He felt that Shang Changheng was inexplicably angry. This evil ghost could do anything when he got angry. He was a little scared, and subconsciously clenched the mattress under him, pursed his lips and asked softly: "Well, I dreamed about you, what's the matter?"
Shang Changheng sneered, "Is it me?"
Qingling sensed something from his inexplicable question, but he had no way to answer it. Even he himself did not understand. His seven emotions were like a twisted hemp rope and he could not make sense of it.
"I…"
"Is it me?" Shang Changheng raised his tone, his eyes becoming darker as he stared at Qingling. He even exerted force on the hand pressing on his shoulder. His jaw was tightly clenched, as if he would not give up until he got the result.
Qingling vaguely knew what he cared about, but didn't understand why he cared.
"It's Shang Changheng." Qing Ling pronounced each word clearly. He looked back and asked, "Is it you?"
"He's dead." Shang Changheng's expression was so ugly that it was hard to describe. He pressed the hand that was holding Qingling's shoulder to his slender white neck. "He's dead, Qingling. King Xiang of Zhou has been gone for a thousand years. And I, I am your husband by marriage."
It was clearly he who was threatening and intimidating people, but he looked like he had been shattered to pieces and could not be put together again. Qing Ling found it ridiculous and could not utter the provocation that was on the tip of his tongue. His tightly clenched hands loosened as if the force had been released. He said softly, "You will always remember who you are."
"What has been done cannot be undone." Shang Changheng's voice trembled slightly. "I am a murderous ghost. No matter who I was in my previous life, it is difficult for me to come back to my former self."
He let go of the hand that was pinching Qingling, and his figure suddenly disappeared, returning to the dragon pendant hanging on Qingling's neck.
Qingling breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes again.
He thought Shang Changheng would get angry and do something again.
But just shrinking back in a gloomy mood like this was really not something this evil ghost would do.
.
As he said he wanted to rest in Liuyang City, Qingling rested well in the house for two days, eating and sleeping, and eating when he woke up.
It was not until the third day that he walked out of the inn in high spirits, ready to stroll around this strange little town. Liuyang City is close to Yingshui River and has a wharf. There are many traveling merchants coming and going. It is more prosperous than Lincang in the mountains.
Braving the scorching summer heat, Qingling strolled through the busy streets for the entire morning. After noon, when the sun got even hotter, he decided to return to the inn.
Just as he was about to leave, he seemed to feel a gaze falling on him from somewhere. It was a gaze so cold that it gave him goose bumps, and it was full of malice.
Qing Ling turned around suddenly, only to find that the people coming and going in the busy streets were either pedestrians or vendors, and their sight seemed to have disappeared in the blink of an eye.
It is not advisable to stay here for long.
Qingling reacts strongly to other people's malicious intent. As long as it appears, he will never take it lightly. No matter who it is, there must be someone here targeting them... and it may not be a human.
When his figure disappeared in the crowded streets, a figure slowly walked out from the darkness, humming and laughing, and said in stiff Chinese: "This small Liuyang City... actually has such a precious medicine. This trip was not in vain."
.
Qing Ling quickly returned to the inn where he was staying and hung the talismans he had drawn on the doors and windows. He then opened the windows. His room was on the second floor, but it was quite remote, not in the downtown area, and therefore cheaper.
Zhu Lezhi and Miaoyuan rested for only one day in Liuyang City and went out the next day. One went to find a way to send a letter home, and the other went out to see if there was any work that needed chivalry, helping the weak and punishing evil. They should all come back at night, and then they can discuss with them... to find out the shameful rat in the dark.
But until late at night, Zhu Lezhi and Miaoyuan had not returned.
Qingling felt a little uneasy, but these two people had some abilities and it was not right for them to just disappear without a trace after they left.
In the second half of the night, Qingling lay on the couch. Shang Changheng had not come out the whole day, let alone spoken to him. If it were not for the cold dragon pendant hanging on his chest, he would have thought that Shang Changheng was gone.
Suddenly, the talisman on the window made a "sizzling" sound. Qingling, who was sitting on the couch, sat up abruptly, got off the couch with the awl in his hand. The window had been opened a little at some point, and when Qingling approached, he could feel the remaining evil spirit.
Sure enough, something came to the door, but it seemed to be blocked by the talisman.
At the same time, in another brightly lit room, someone chuckled quietly, "He's quite knowledgeable, and has some skills... but not enough."
Another young woman's voice rang out in the room, "Brother, we have already wasted many days. Today those two are here to cause trouble again. I am afraid that the longer we wait, the more trouble we will have. Let's not make things more complicated."
The man called Senior Brother didn't take it seriously. "We've been to Huangshanling before, and there's nothing unusual there. We'll be in Mingzhou soon. Why are you panicking? What we found today... is a priceless treasure."
At this point, his tone was already filled with an almost morbid greed and joy, but it suddenly turned cold and warned: "Don't ruin my business, Junior Sister."
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