After the death of the previous emperor, the Empress Dowager became arrogant

Chapter 163: Sacrifice to Friends

"I don't have many years left to live. I don't know how many more years I can see you."

He removed the wine lid, and the not-so-mellow smell of wine wafted out from the tiny mouth of the pot, slowly spreading over the mound of earth.

Grass grows on the mound every year. The old man comes here once a year and cleans it up every year.

This year is no exception.

But when he was halfway through cleaning, he suddenly stopped, grabbed some dirt from the side and covered it on top.

This is what he does every year, without interruption, for more than ten years.

This is how it looks like today.

The criminals of the imperial court were buried there. Since the government had not lifted the ban, no one dared to build tombs and erect tombstones for them. Therefore, every year he could only carefully use a few handfuls of soil to comfort the souls of his old friends, hoping that their family would be reincarnated as soon as possible and would not have to go through these bad things again.

He poured the wine in front of the mound but did not drink it himself.

It's not that he is reluctant to part with it, but this wine was given to him by Boss Wei back then, and there is not much left now, so he has to save it for next year's memorial.

The old man sighed leisurely, sat aside, not knowing what he was thinking about, and muttered a lot of nonsense.

Gradually, it got dark and the old man carried the basket and went back the way he came.

He usually went to bed early, as he could not resist sleepiness as he got older. But after paying homage to his old friend that day, he found it difficult to fall asleep no matter what.

He put on his clothes and wanted to go outside to relax, but the depression in his heart would not go away.

He didn't know what this meant, so he could only suppress it. He sat at the door thinking all night and closed his eyes only at dawn.

However, a sudden accident caused him to live in regret for the remaining five years of his life, a regret that he could not get rid of until his death.

The next morning, a major event occurred in Pingzhou.

I heard that someone tried to assassinate the prefect of Pingzhou but failed, and was hacked to pieces by soldiers instead. It was a tragic case.

When the old man heard the news, it was already evening after he woke up.

He couldn't sleep the night before and didn't feel sleepy until the early morning, then he slept until that afternoon.

He went to the market to sell some vegetables for money, but unexpectedly he heard a shocking piece of news from the people.

The man sitting next to me was eating his meal with big mouthfuls. He seemed to still be in shock when talking about that incident. "Hey, you don't know, the scene was really scary. Those officers were merciless when they chopped people down. They just attacked that kid."

The person who was traveling with him was also eating. After hearing this, he hurriedly shouted, "Stop talking now. If you have anything to say, why don't you wait until I finish eating before you say it?"

"No," the man wiped his mouth and turned to talk to others, "You don't want to listen, but some people want to listen."

The others agreed. They had not seen the scene and were curious about the matter.

The old man didn't care about these things and just lowered his head to eat his food.

The man was still talking, "You didn't see it. Dozens of officers swung their swords at him, but the assassin wasn't afraid. He raised his sword and struck him in the face, knocking down an officer."

"and after?"

"Later, although the assassin killed several officers, he was ultimately no match for the crowd and was hacked to pieces on the street. His face could not be seen clearly."

"Hey? Do you know where that assassin came from?"

The man put down the bowl and said, "How would I know? But I heard from the officials that he seems to be the remnant of an old case and has come here specifically to seek revenge."

The words "remnants of an old case" aroused the old man's vigilance.

He finished his meal in a hurry and put all the money from selling vegetables on the table of the tea stall owner.

He sat in the tea stall for a long time and heard a lot of the truth about the assassination.

He never dared to think about this matter with his own guesses.

But when he arrived at the mass grave and saw the assassin's body, he believed it completely.

Without telling anyone, he climbed down alone, brought up the body, and carried it up the mountain.

When the villagers saw him returning home late at night, still wet all over, they hurriedly asked about his situation.

The old man wiped the cold water off his face and said half-jokingly: "It's nothing, I just drank too much and didn't see the road clearly, so I fell into the river."

The man seemed to believe it and said, "At your age, falling into the river in the middle of the night is no joke. Come on, come on, let's go to my house first. I'll make you a bowl of ginger soup to drive away the cold. If you're fine tonight, then you'll be fine."

The old man thanked him repeatedly, went back, changed his clothes, and fell asleep in a daze.

When the man didn't see the old man coming, he personally brought the cooked ginger soup and knocked on the door.

The old man didn't close the door, he just lay crookedly on the bed.

"Uncle, get up and drink something before going to sleep."

The old man seemed unconscious and let the man help him up. He drank ginger soup and then fell asleep again.

The next day, the old man woke up with a groggy head. Looking at the tidy house, he couldn't help but cover his face and burst into tears.

The old man, who is nearly 70 years old, looked as helpless as a homeless child.

He lived far away and had little contact with the villagers. The only person he had any relationship with was the hunter who cooked soup for him last night.

He has gone to the mountains to hunt and is not at home.

The old man vented all his unhappiness, wiped the tears from his face, picked up yesterday's basket and was about to leave.

His steps became much heavier.

He came to the place he had been to yesterday, and found a new mound of earth behind the original one he had used for worship.

He had buried it himself last night.

Son of an old friend.

As the old man watched, his eyes became red again.

"Boss Wei, I'm sorry for you," he said in a hoarse voice, "I said I would find your son for you a long time ago, but I didn't expect that your family would meet in this way."

As he spoke, he burst into tears, and the tears on his face kept flowing, as if they would never stop.

"But don't worry, although I won't live for many more years, I will still come and chat with you every year."

As he was talking, he fell asleep again leaning against a small tree beside him.

In his dream, he seemed to have returned to the past, to the days before everything happened.

In the second scene, time goes back to before the incident happened.

Because Pingzhou is close to the border of Liang State, it does not have the complex flow of people like Beicheng in the south, nor the natural mountain resources of Ningzhou in the north.

It is sandwiched between two large state capitals, unable to advance or retreat.

Pingzhou has had many governors. Initially, it was because there was no money to be made here, so many ambitious people were unwilling to waste their time on this barren land.

But later, bandits were rampant, and most of the officials who came here were frightened by those local snakes. They hid in their mansions, hoping that the gods would come and save them from the water and fire.

The old man was just an inconspicuous jailer in the government office at that time.

He received the prisoners coming and going, and saw that the government was being held in the palm of those people's hands and toyed with at will, and he couldn't help but feel angry.