The small river behind the mountain, the water is clear and transparent.

  Song Mo stood by the river, quietly gazing at the reflection of the trees in the rippling water.

  A stone-blue brocade robe, a jade hairpin, an upright posture, and a quiet breath, he seemed to have transformed into one of the trees in the forest behind him, merging with the clear wind and blue sky, amidst the vastness and desolation, revealing the clarity and freshness of autumn.

  Dongfang Xiu's footsteps faltered as he stepped down from the soft carriage.

  Song Mo heard the sound and had already turned his head around, smiling: "You're here!"

  His eyes were warm and his smile was sincere, but Du Zhao suddenly lost her voice: "How did you get so thin?"

  His originally delicate features became even more defined due to his thinness, making him look solemn and stern despite the smile on his face.

  "Really?" Song Mo smiled and said, "I didn't feel that way."

  Dou Zhao sighed silently in his heart.

  No matter who encounters such a thing, they will probably be unable to sleep or eat well, let alone with injuries on their body. That he can stand in front of her is already quite difficult.

  "How is your injury?"

  "It's okay!" Song Mo seemed reluctant to talk about it, and said briefly, "Let Gu Yu help invite the best imperial physician from the Imperial Hospital, they all say that we can't be impatient, and can only slowly recuperate. I've been lying in bed these days, eating and drinking randomly, and haven't gone anywhere." Then he smiled and asked her, "I heard that the Jiuli ceremony was very lively, unfortunately, I couldn't come to congratulate...". A faint sense of regret flowed out from his eyes, and he really felt sorry.

  Dòu Zhāo couldn't help but secretly scold in his heart.

  Even if you hadn't encountered this trouble, even if you weren't injured, could you have come? What identity and excuse would you use to come?

  The thought flashed through his mind, and he felt he was worrying too much.

  What can't Song Mo do?!

  It's probably good that he can't come to congratulate us after all.

  If he found an excuse and came and went with a clear conscience, how could she avoid the affairs of the Song family in the future?

  Then thought of Ji Yong.

  How did she meet two people with such personalities?!

  Then I thought of Wu Shan and Wei Tingyu... and felt that Song Mo and Ji Yong were both headaches for her.

  She simply didn't think about anything, looked around and pointed to a large bluestone not far away, saying to Song Mo: "Let's go sit down?" As soon as the words fell, she felt that this sentence was somewhat inappropriate - it is said that Song Mo's injury was very serious. And now? She hurriedly said, "Forget it, let's just stand and talk." In her heart, she couldn't help but whisper, wondering if he would be tired standing like this...

  Song Mo gazed at Dou Zhao with a smile, the smiling intention flowing from the bottom of his eyes to the corners of his eyebrows. Elegant words and emotions first released.

  He said softly: "I'm fine. The external injury has healed long ago, the internal injury... My eldest uncle thinks that learning foreign family kung fu is too overbearing and revealing, our Song family is a close minister of the emperor, it's not good for me to learn this. In my early years, I specially found a master to teach me to practice internal family health kung fu, this kung fu is like simmering tea, it needs to be done slowly, there's no need to rush."

  "That's good!" Duan Zhao thought that when Duan Gongyi first met Song Mo, he said that Song Mo seemed to have learned some special martial arts skills. Thinking that both the Jiang and Song families were prominent families with a history of over a hundred years, they must have had some unknown self-defense techniques to outsiders, so she casually responded with a sentence.

  Song Mo smiled slightly and said: "You told me last time that there are wild vegetables in the fields, aren't they growing on this mountain behind? Why haven't I seen a single one?"

  "Have you met Yecai?"

  "Ah-ha!" Song Mo laughed. "I didn't know it before, but after going back, I had someone pick some and bring them back... It's a very rare one that isn't recognized. Most of the common ones are recognizable."

  Come on!

  Dong Zhao blinked his eyes.

  Song Mo nodded seriously at her.

  Dong Zhao looked around and pulled out a plant with oval-shaped leaves: "What's this?"

  "This... " Song Mo hadn't seen before, suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, muttering: "Should be... Ye Liao?"

  It really is hard-won!

  Dong Zhao muttered to himself.

  "No!" she said solemnly, "This is vinegar."

  Oxalis and Rumex look very similar, but one has longer and narrower leaves, and the other is more rounded.

  Song Mo wiped his sweat in embarrassment.

  Dong Zhaohaha laughed loudly.

  That smile. With a hint of mischief and cunning, it brings a kind of carefree abandon, illuminating the gloomy heart of Song Mo.

  He couldn't help but laugh along with him.

  A smile softened Song Mo's eyebrows and eyes, revealing a hint of youthful beauty.

  Dong Zhao sighed in his heart, what a pity.

  What a handsome young man, Song Yichun actually turned him into a killer.

  "This is also called sour jiao." She shook the sour jiao in her hand, "It's a wild vegetable that grows in summer. After picking it, wash it clean with clear water, put it in boiling water for a brief blanching, and then you can eat it. It has the effect of clearing heat and cooling blood."

  Song Mo took the sour plum from Du Zhao's hand and smiled: "Last time we had autumn melon, you seemed to understand these things."

  "Uh-huh." Du Zhao raised her head and gazed at the three wild peach trees on the other side of the river, smiling. "I grew up here since I was a kid, and when I was little, I would often go up the mountain with the village kids to pick wild vegetables and catch fish in the river," she pointed to a bend in the small riverbank. "See? In the summer, there will be many wild fish there..." Du Zhao turned her head back, smiling and asking him, "Can you walk?"

  "Uh-huh!" Song Mo nodded, "Let's go."

  "Come on, I'll take you somewhere!" Dou Zhao smiled and walked forward, saying, "If you feel tired, just say so." He paused slightly, saying, "Don't force yourself, that's no fun."

  "I know!" Song Mo smiled and followed Dou Zhao across the small river, stepping on stones.

  Dong Zhaodeftly climbed up the wild peach tree.

  Song Mo didn't hesitate and followed closely behind, climbing up as well.

  He saw a large expanse of farmland and two villages, the one to the east was Dòu Zhāo's estate, with a blue-brick-tiled house standing in the middle of the village, surrounded by some low mud-grass houses. The other was very unfamiliar. The size and layout of the two villages were about the same, and he could even see clearly the farmers working in the fields and the people moving around in the blue-brick-tiled house.

  He pointed at the village that made him feel unfamiliar and smiled, "That's Lang's estate. The people from Lang's family rarely come here, the one who takes care of the estate is a thin old steward, he has a white and chubby wife, she likes to drink wine, every time she gets drunk, she chases the old steward to hit him, the old steward scolds while running into the fields, the people in the estate all run out to watch the excitement..."

  Song Mo couldn't help but laugh.

  He seemed to see the little Duan Zhao, with curved eyebrows and eyes, lying here watching the Lang family's husband and wife quarrel... That ridiculous commotion, like a warm current, flowed over his cold heart, warming it.

  Dong Zhao's expression suddenly became very solemn.

  She gazed into Song Mo's eyes and said in a low voice: "I don't know why your father wants to frame you!"

  Song Mo's smile solidified at the corner of his mouth.

  Dong Zhao turned his head and gazed at two villages that seemed not far apart.

  "Do you know that my mother hanged herself?" In her previous life, she often stood here looking out at the two villages. This life, however, she rarely had such opportunities. "I often wonder, why did she have to hang herself? Was I not worth staying for? Is there anyone in this world who would put me in their heart? Who would protect me without regard for life or death? Am I even less than the village head's Lai San?" Her eyes flashed with a hint of confusion. "Sometimes I think about it so much that I almost go crazy, and then I'll run wildly on the mountain... One Mid-Autumn Festival, my third uncle sent me a box of Beijing-style mooncakes. I don't know why, but my heart was in turmoil. After he left, I ran to the mountain and suddenly looked up to see these three wild peach trees... At that time, I was wearing a new dress... I climbed the tree like the village children, and my clothes were torn, but I saw the old master of the Lang family being chased by his wife..." Perhaps thinking of the scene at the time, Du Zhao smiled with her mouth upturned, then pointed to a house on the west side of the Lang family's courtyard. "There are two daughters in that house. Their father would carry a pole with goods and walk around the village during the slack season, and when he came home, he would always bring back two baked buns for them." She then pointed to another house. "The old lady in that house is very fierce. If her daughter-in-law was slightly slow, she would stand under the eaves and scold her. But once her daughter-in-law fell ill, she immediately went to town to invite a doctor and helped her daughter-in-law with medicine..." Du Zhao gazed at Song Mo, her eyes shining brightly. "You see, in this world there are bad people, but also good ones. If you see more people or things, you'll find that the good ones outnumber the bad!"

  Is she trying to convince herself not to take her father's betrayal to heart?

  Song Mo's line of sight was somewhat blurred.

  I don't know if it was for what Suo Zhao said or for her own kindness.

  "I just don't quite believe my own father," Dou Zhao's voice rose and fell as it reached his ears, "so when I heard that Yan Gong and Xu Qing were being pursued by someone, I left a heart, letting Duan Gongyi and Chen Xiaofeng go to the capital to investigate. If you are really framed by your lord as I expected, just stretch out your hand, if not... be careful with the boat for ten thousand years, it's better to think that I'm worrying too much!"

  Song Mo smiled, his smile bitter: "It's good that you made this extra move, otherwise I'm afraid I would have died long ago."

  Dong Zhao didn't say anything, she looked towards the two fields at the foot of the mountain.

  It's almost noon, and wisps of smoke are rising from the village.

  Song Mo followed Du Zhao's line of sight and looked over.

  Women carrying meals for their husbands in the fields walked in twos and threes, greeting each other with smiles as they headed to the fields together.

  The quiet village was added some liveliness due to the laughter, but what people felt was not noise and disturbance, but a vibrant vitality.

  Song Mo felt his own heart becoming as calm and light as the village.

  He turned his head and looked at Dou Zhao beside him, softly saying "thank you".

  "Don't be polite." Du Zhao smiled and said, "You'll find that time flies like an arrow. The moment that made you feel unbearable just a moment ago, once it's passed, you'll soon forget, even the pain will be forgotten together with it."

  Xiaolong, who was hiding behind the trees and gazing at Song Mo and Dou Zhao from afar, was filled with worry: "What do Young Master and Fourth Miss Dou want to say? Why did they climb up the tree?"

  Chen He thought of Du Zhao's warning to himself "not to set a bad example", and couldn't help but purse his lips.

  Miss Dousi must be going to tell Young Master Shi why she discovered that Duke of England has intentions on him.

  He was somewhat distracted and said: "Maybe there's something important going on in the tree, definitely don't want to be eavesdropped."

  "Really?" Xiaolong was very skeptical. "This backyard is so secluded that even mosquitoes can't fly in, who could eavesdrop on the young master and fourth miss's conversation?"

  Since the "robbery" incident at the British Embassy, whether it's the British Consul or the Crown Prince, many highly skilled bodyguards have been added to their entourage. Even when coming to Zhengding, the Crown Prince still brought enough manpower.

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  Book-reading brothers and sisters, yesterday's chapter had a major revision, which will affect everyone. You can go back and take another look at this chapter.

  o(n_n)o~

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