But he did not return to the palace. The two children he had just met reminded him that even the children were saying goodbye to each other. Qu Yunmie, who attached great importance to Yanmen Pass, was probably doing the same thing.
Arriving at the foot of Yanmen Pass again, Xiao Rong looked at the towering pass. This time he sighed heavily before climbing up.
At least this time he was not affected by Qu Yunmie's luck. He no longer felt dizzy or blurry, and he no longer panted like a pug when he was halfway up the climb.
Qu Yunmie was sitting on the city wall with a jar of wine beside him. He didn't drink it himself, but poured a glass from time to time and slowly poured it on the floor tiles in front of him.
This was the scene that Xiao Rong saw when he came up.
The entire city wall was filled with the smell of alcohol. Xiao Rong wrinkled his nose and then slowly walked towards Qu Yunmie.
The latter poured another glass of wine, and this time it didn't spill. He raised his head and looked at the person who always interrupted his time alone: "Want a drink?"
Xiao Rong pursed his lips and couldn't help but smile: "I don't dare to drink anymore."
Qu Yunmie had already guessed the answer. He took back the wine glass and said with his eyes downcast, "You were not talking nonsense that day after drinking, but you spoke the truth after drinking, right?"
Xiao Rong first found a clean place to sit down, and then he widened his eyes and said, "Unfair! How can you take drunken nonsense seriously? Only after sobering up can every word come from the heart, without a single falsehood."
Qu Yunmie turned his head and narrowed his eyes slightly: "Do you dare to swear to heaven?"
Xiao Rong: “…”
It's not easy to fool.
After a pause, Xiao Rong was about to raise his hand to swear, but as soon as Qu Yunmie saw him open his mouth, he frowned and interrupted him.
"never mind."
Xiao Rong was delighted: "The king believes me?"
Qu Yunmie shook his head: "I'm afraid that the thunder will strike me as well."
Xiao Rong: “…………”
He laughed dryly twice: "Your Majesty is really good at joking."
Qu Yunmie curled his lips and did not respond to him, but poured out the wine in his hand again.
Xiao Rong looked at his face and felt that he was not in a bad mood, so he asked, "Who are you pouring wine for, your parents?"
Qu Yunmie hummed and said slowly: "Dad, Mom, brother, the elders when I was a child, the brothers who came later, and the soldiers who died here one after another."
Xiao Rong was stunned. If there were only a few people, he could still persuade them with eloquent words, but after Qu Yunmie finished speaking, he could not utter a word.
One sentence, dozens of words, countless lives.
It was rare for Xiao Rong to be speechless. He fell silent. Qu Yunmie asked him again, "You said that only your grandmother and younger brother are left in your family. Have all the others passed away?"
Xiao Rong paused, looking at the wine stains on the ground, and then answered, "Yes, my family...is not the main branch of the Xiao family, but a side branch. We don't live in the main branch. Our ancestors made mistakes when they were young and were driven out of the house by the main branch. My grandfather was a minor official in the government and barely made a living. My grandmother took care of the household expenses and gave birth six times in her life, and finally raised four children. My father is the third child in the family. My eldest uncle died of illness when he was seventeen. My second uncle went out to seek medicine for my grandfather and was killed by bandits. My youngest uncle joined the army and died on the battlefield. My father was a scholar, but because there was no title in the family and no one appreciated him, he could only rely on writing letters to support his family. Twelve years ago, he was too tired and coughed up blood, and then he died."
At this point, Xiao Rong paused and continued, "My eldest uncle had not married yet. When my second uncle died, my second uncle's mother was pregnant. Her family forced her to abort the baby and remarry. They probably found a quack doctor, but she died within two days. She had an eldest son, but he also died. My mother was not from a wealthy family. After my father died, she supported the family by weaving. She also supported me to study abroad and my younger brother to learn to read. When I was... fourteen years old, she couldn't see clearly and accidentally fell into the pond outside the house at night. She was not found until the morning."
Qu Yunmie was completely stunned when he heard this. He had never thought that Xiao Rong's family would be in this situation.
He was right to think that Xiao Rong had these experiences, because these were not Xiao Rong's experiences at all, but were told to him bit by bit by his step-brother Xiao Yi. Last year, because Xiao Yi's family was in great difficulty, he took his grandmother to Xin'an to join his older brother who was studying abroad. But after finally arriving in Xin'an City, he learned that a plague had just broken out here, and the dead were thrown outside the city and burned.
Xiao Yi learned from someone he knew that his eldest brother had also been infected with the plague. He didn't dare tell his grandmother about it. After his uncle passed away, his grandmother was devastated. When his father also passed away, his grandmother completely disowned him. Although she disowned him, she remembered that she had two grandsons. Xiao Yi didn't dare to imagine what his grandmother would do if she knew that her eldest grandson was gone.
So he ran out of the city alone, searching recklessly among the pile of dead people's belongings, and finally found his eldest brother's documents.
The document was still there, but the jade pendant on his body was gone. Although their family had fallen on hard times, they were still a branch of the Xiao family. Although their family was poor, they still had a lot of good things, but they had never sold them.
The jade pendant was the same. Xiao Yi wiped his eyes and went to ask the person in charge for the jade pendant, but how could he give it to him? The person had been dead for who knows how many days. Valuable things were tacitly belonged to those in charge. No matter how much he made a fuss, he would never get it back.
It was at this time that Xiao Rong met Xiao Yi. He heard Xiao Yi calling his name to the manager. Later he found out that the person was calling him Xiao Rong, which has the same pronunciation but different characters.
Without his elder brother, Xiao Yi lost his last hope. He could only take his grandmother back to Linchuan. However, he was only thirteen years old and knew nothing. He was afraid that he could not support his grandmother.
Xiao Rong just listened to him sobbing and talking about these things. At that time, he was just about to leave Xin'an and go to Huaiyin. Just like that, the two hit it off. Xiao Rong needed an identity, and Xiao Yi needed a support. Xiao Rong took the documents, and then left ten silver cakes he earned from selling sweet noodle sauce to Xiao Yi, and asked him to rent a small courtyard in Xin'an to study and take care of his grandmother, and promised to take them over after he settled down.
Xiao Yi gave Ashu to Xiao Rong. He saw that Xiao Rong was in poor health and was afraid that his eldest brother would also die. Ashu was the child of a former servant in their family. When the family fell into poverty, the servant was dismissed. But a few years ago, the servant fell seriously ill, so he sent the child back and said that he did not need to be paid, as long as he had something to eat.
Although Xiao Yi's life would be more difficult without Ashu, he really didn't want to collect corpses for others anymore.
Xiao Rong had always wondered why Ah Shu was so thoughtful, but now he could solve the case. …
Xiao Rong had always had mixed feelings towards this adopted brother. After all, they were not related by blood, and at the beginning, it was just a mutual benefit. But Xiao Rong spent ten days with Xiao Yi, and during these ten days, he could feel that this kid was particularly dependent on him, as if he really regarded him as his big brother. This was normal, as his family had been in trouble one after another, and Xiao Rong appeared when he was most afraid and saved him, so he naturally developed a sense of dependence on Xiao Rong.
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