one

The candle hasn't burned out yet, and it's snuff, like blood spattering hibiscus, broken and cold. It rained cats and dogs for three days outside the window. Dawn is like ink.

Gentle country is a painting boat, Qinhuai painting boat and Chu rouge. I've been here for three years, three years.

Drinking all day, singing poetry and dancing lightly, dancing in the golden lotus, waist-bending, crystal daring and exquisite heart, although not as shocking as Qinhuai's eight beauties, there are also a lot of romantic men's costumes, and I am willing to buy thousands of dollars of the legendary swordsman.

I don't laugh.

two

When I was a child, Brother Feng said that my smile was not that spring breeze was better than spring breeze. His clear eyes are full of my most innocent years, and also full of vows not to guess.

When he left, the ground was covered with yellow flowers. He said, Xiao Li, come to me three years later. Just three years. I bit my lip without saying a word, nodded fiercely, and my eyes hurt.

This is a well-known ending. From the day Master adopted me, I knew that Brother Feng would leave Luochang Valley at the age of nine. But parting is the end of the world. I'm so afraid of this day that I can't bear to part with him.

Master's face is as cold as frost, and even her nails are shining with cold light that scares me. She said you can't cry. Tears are your soul. If you lose them, you are finished. The master's soft fingertips slid over my shoulder's clavicle. She said: Xiao Li, I have been in Luolang Valley for 30 years and have been training guillotine killers for the East Factory. All the children, when they are nine years old, I will let them go to Beijing to work for our master.

Beijing. Beijing.

So my thin body began to wander with the luxury of prosperity in different places. My city is full of clothes and horses. Brother Feng will definitely see me from the North Wind Tower. I saw azaleas all over the mountain that year. Time is like the scar carved by Brother Feng's sword on an old tree. It is tortuous, long and old-fashioned.

One year in spring and autumn, one year in winter and summer, missing is like a wall, and loneliness is hurting.

Master gave me an emerald ring, which was hollow and contained a silk thread as thin as a sword. I wore it all the way to the north. Master's voice blew through my temple like the oncoming wind. She said, Xiao Li, you should listen to your master and be the best killer.

I finally waited until I was nine years old.

But when I arrived in Beijing, I didn't see Brother Feng. I waited outside the blood-red gate for someone to take me to my master. I said I was a child of the Valley of Sorrow. My master is very contemptuous. He said that a child as thin as paper can be an excellent executioner. He looked down at me, his eyes cold and high. Like Master, I said I would try.

Later, I learned that Brother Feng went to Jiangnan, which was the seventh task given to him by the bus. He chose to leave and never come back. I may not understand many things, but I know some people I will wait for.

When I was twelve years old, my master gave me a cover-up identity. I went from Beijing to Qinhuai, enchanting and dressed in red. No one knows that Su Ying, a sycophantic woman in Gentle Township, is also a bloody killer. She didn't laugh, because she got a biting disease in the most prosperous years.

Missing turned into illness. Miss for three years, and three years.

three

I received a letter from my master saying that it was raining in the south of the Yangtze River and the white gardenias were in bloom. My second task is written in the letter: Suzhou Governor Huo Keji, Fang Jing.

It has just rained and the mountain road is muddy. Although Hokkeji is a century-old temple, many people have been left out in the cold. It is the crouching Buddhist temple that makes me feel tired. Standing on the wet bluestone board, I wonder if I can safely end my life if I take off the emerald ring on my little finger and don't be Su Ying or Xiao Li, the guillotine killer. Or, on a rainy night in Chuqing, you can clearly see Brother Feng standing in front of you as soon as you turn around.

When I was thinking like this, I looked up and saw several green lanterns in front of the Buddha in the main hall, reflecting the simple face of a monk. I almost tripped over the steps at my feet, and my body fell into a bottomless black hole, with tears in my eyes. I remembered that Master said I couldn't cry, so I bit my lip hard, just like Brother Feng, who was nine years old, bit hard and bled out when he left the valley of sorrow.

I called the monk, Brother Feng, trembling.

When I was eighteen, I saw my brother Feng sitting in front of the Buddha, and my heart was broken. But he doesn't know me or he has forgotten me. He said, benefactor, the poor monk has a static name.

Jing heng. Jing heng. What a good net constant! His Buddhism is 3 thousand, but I am very popular.

Don't miss yesterday, still miss today? Repeat the same parting and be a stranger for the rest of your life.

It began to rain again. He didn't look at me, just buried himself in chanting. I wonder if there are any traces of the past left in his cold eyes. I stood next to him, standing quietly under the waterfall with him like he was punished as a child, and my clothes were soaked. I still looked at him and smiled like a spring breeze man.

However, three years, three years, three years. He is no longer the little boy who is obedient to me, but he doesn't know that I will always be a child lying on my back, waiting for him and reaching out to help me get up. I said, Brother Feng, just say that you remember me and Xiao Li, just this sentence? OK or not?

After a long time, he looked up at me with no expression on his face. He said, benefactor, the poor monk's legal name is Jingheng, not your brother Feng.

The whistling wind passed through the hall, and I vaguely felt that I was stained with frost and snow. When a bunch of petals fell to the ground, they burned my heart and broke my soul.

I can only stagger around.

I even violated the rule that the killer can't reveal himself before killing, forgetting that I should have found out the environment here before the other person arrived in Hockey. His sudden appearance made me lose my mind.

Fortunately, I didn't miss it.

I told my master that things were going well, and Fang Jing, governor of Suzhou, went on a pilgrimage to Huokeji yesterday. When he was resting in the meditation room, I easily cut off his head with a small ring and a thin silk thread. No trace.

I hold my emerald ring tightly, and everything is still vivid: frightened head, ferocious expression, blood on the beach like a desperate lake, powder in a rouge box, scattered in the pure land of Buddha. My mind is full of images of Brother Feng, cold or hot past or present.

He's right. I was such a stubborn child before I was six years old. In the process of waiting and looking for time, my stubbornness became a habit. The person who misses me is stubborn and unrepentant. I hate him, but I finally understand that I love him.

four

Hokeji was seized because of the headless murder of the governor, and all monks were guarded and could not go in and out casually. I had to put on a black night suit, covered with gauze, lightly jumped on the roof of the east wing of the temple, uncovered the tiles and secretly looked at him. On the first day, the second day and the third day, he meditated or recited the scriptures, without any expression, and he was no longer the lively brother Feng in my memory. I felt a twinge of anxiety.

I didn't see him on the fourth night. His room is like a cold black cave. I feel horrible. On the fifth and sixth day, I went and even sneaked in through the window. I saw the beds stacked neatly, and the water in the teapot was a little moldy. Secretly arrested a few young monks, and no one knew where Jing Heng had gone.

I am walking in the busy street of Nanjing, and my ears are full of jubilation and noise. I'm tired of the original powder flavor of Qinhuai, but I'm afraid of the quiet air of Hockey. I've been sneaking into the temple every night for a month, and I haven't seen him. This month, I killed three more people for my master. Those officials who oppose the East Factory, big and small, may die at any time and place. I often see myself covered in blood. From my fingers to my forehead, the poor people I killed are lying on the ground, staring at the eyes the size of copper coins and can't close them. From the moment my master adopted me, I knew I had to adapt to this bloody and brutal life. I never thought that one day I would be afraid of killing people.

five

That day, I killed an official in the official department, and his head fell to the ground. I saw Brother Feng standing in the distant Woods. Gray robes, no hair, like a barren beach. His voice is low and his tone is as light as water. He said, come with me.

He took me a long way, bypassing clear streams, muddy roads and weeds everywhere, which reminded me of catching crickets with him in the summer in the valley of sorrow. Finally, we came to the bottom of the steep cliff, quiet and deserted, with only sparse grass. The crack in the stone is cold. He pointed to a nearby grave, an empty tombstone, without any words engraved. He said, this is Zhen Niang.

Zhen Niang? I was startled. The bare grave is like a mysterious curse, which almost makes me want to escape. He turned to look at me with sadness in his deep eyes. I think there must be me and some joy in that kind of sadness. You ask him: Even if you shave off 3,000 troubles, your heart is still there. You are still the maple brother who loves me, right?

He turned his back and squatted in front of the bright tombstone, gently rubbing the lines on the stake with his fingers. He said, Xiao Li, what is your murder weapon? I don't understand. Staring at his back, I only feel that the past is far away from us, and I am afraid that it is too far away to go back.

Brother Feng. My voice choked.

Xiao Li, what's your murder weapon? He repeated it again, his tone getting colder and colder.

I held out the little finger of my right hand and showed him the jade ring I had worn for nine years. I want to say that it knows how long you have been gone and how long I love you. But Brother Feng didn't look at me. He just sighed faintly: the last task your master gave me was actually your first task.

The sparse wind came in and blew up the tiny gravel on the grave. Brother Feng told me that the woman inside was Shen Zhenniang, the daughter of Shen Gantan, the governor of Hangzhou. The seventh task given to him by the bus is to take Shen Qiantan's head. However, he met Zhen Niang, and for her sake, he was willing to give up his sword-holding hand and betray his master.

But Shen Gantan will not die, and Master will not give up. I should have thought that I was a killer trained in the Valley of Fallen Sorrow. My master will give you the unfinished task. He stood up and looked at me with hatred in his eyes.

I took off the jade ring and put it on my palm. It's called rouge rope. Master said that the only rouge rope in the world can only be worn on the best killer. No one has used such a weapon except me. I killed Shen Zhenniang.

At that time, the spring breeze helped them, and they were on the bank of the beautiful West Lake. I killed Shen Gantan, but Zhen Niang was anxious to save her father. The whole person came at me, and I broke my neck with Rouge Soller, and my head fell to the ground, almost rolling into the lake. You know, people like us have to be killed if we don't kill people, and we can't have any pity. What should I do? Am I wrong? Brother Feng, I just want to ask you, if you were there, would you stab my heart for her?

He didn't answer. He said, do you know why I'm not here? I'm planning my marriage with Zhen Niang. She promised to marry me when she came back from the West Lake. In recent years, I'd rather become a monk in order to avoid the eyes and ears of Master. I've been thinking about who killed Zhen Niang. Until I saw Fang Jing beheaded in Hokkeji. I've been following you for a month. Every time you kill someone, I will examine their bodies. Xiao Li, I don't want to draw a conclusion. I hope I can find a reason to overturn my guess. But, but why, of all the killers on the guillotine, it's you.

six

My rouge rope danced the most beautiful arc I have ever seen, and gently branded a red line on Brother Feng's white neck. I laid hands on him so lightly that I couldn't bear to separate his head from his body, but he still fell.

He didn't fight back at all.

I watched him slowly fall to the ground with tears in his eyes.

Why? If you kill me, you can save your life and avenge Zhen Niang. Brother Feng, you know I'm no match for you. But why don't you fight back?

He looked at me with his eyes half closed. He didn't speak. I knelt on the ground, holding his heavy and weak body and kissing his bleeding wound.

Brother Feng, you don't know that Shen Gantan is not my first task. Master said that the first person I want to kill should be Murong Feng. Because you are the first executioner to betray him, in his view, this is a great shame. ...

Brother Feng, you and I are both chess masters. I don't want to. I thought if you killed me, maybe I would feel better, but ...

Brother Feng, do you hate me? Do you hate it? ...

I finally cried. So much scarlet blood touched my hands, my clothes and my rouge rope that I never cried. But this time, my tears were cold and fell on Brother Feng's face, and then slowly slipped down and penetrated into the wound on his neck.

He finally spoke. He said I don't hate you. If I want to complain, I can only blame God for playing tricks on people, and let us fall into the valley of sorrow and be taken in by our master, thus bearing the name of killer.

He said, I have always regarded you as my closest and favorite sister. I know I can't bear to shoot you. Since I failed my mother, why should I live and suffer again?

Sister.

Sister.

Brother Feng, people like you shouldn't be killers.

He smiled sadly. He said that no one is born a killer, and the feelings are so complicated that no one can abandon and leave, and live like a walking corpse all his life.

He said, Xiao Li, when you fall in love with someone deeply, you may understand. His voice is getting weaker and weaker, so weak that it almost evaporates in the hot sun, disappears in the dry wind, and bursts in front of me like a dream. I know we will never meet again.

But he only knows that he loves Zhen Niang deeply, which leads to today's broken ending; But I didn't know that I loved him deeply.

-I loved him, too, for many years.

-he didn't understand in the end!

Those gurgling warm blood flooded Yuhuan, and there was no green. The transparent rouge rope gradually dyed bright red, like the wedding line of the old man under the moon.

Although one end of the line is tied to my ring finger, it is morning and evening every year, but the other end is empty. It can't bind the person I want.

It always fails.