The arrow was shaped like a meteor, and it went straight through the intricate spider-web-like strings under the twenty red-headed kites and sank into the back of the tiger's neck.

No one knows how powerful the arrow was. With a "puff" it pierced the tiger's head as big as a basin. With a loud bang, it staggered and fell to the ground without making a sound. It died cleanly and neatly.

Gu Yun's fingers did not stop, he turned around and pulled the bowstring again, directly loaded the second arrow, leaned his back against the door of the private room and turned an angle. Almost without any aiming, another arrow left the bowstring and hit the pillar of the observation deck where he had just thrown the gold leaves down.

There were cries of surprise from the observation deck. The arrow grazed a foreigner's scalp and nailed his hat to the pillar. The tail feathers were still shaking.

The man was so frightened that he fell off his chair with his arms and legs spread out.

Gu Yun put away his longbow and said expressionlessly to the black-armored guard holding the bronze roar on the mast: "He has evil intentions. Arrest him for trial."

Only then did the person pinned by the dead tiger come to his senses and utter a soft sob. The people around him, who had recovered from their shock, hurriedly dug him out.

At the foot of the Tingyuan Terrace, an inconspicuous thin figure walked through the crowd and took advantage of the chaos to board a cruise ship on the lake not far away.

As soon as he got on the boat, he took off his turban and revealed that he was a foreigner with black hair and black eyes, who looked a bit like a person from the Central Plains. He was quickly let into the private room on the boat and met the person who had been waiting for him.

He was a man between youth and middle age, wearing a white shirt and a red robe with intricate patterns on his back. A strange-looking scepter stood on one side. His dark brown curly hair was neither long nor short and hung on his shoulders, combed neatly, and he wore a large, solemn ring on his hand.

It was the messenger sent by the Pope.

The short black-haired foreigner half-knelt down respectfully and said, "Your Excellency the Bishop."

The bishop leaned forward slightly to show that he was listening attentively.

"I'm afraid the result is the same as you expected," the black-haired foreigner said, "Gu and his family have almost some kind of symbolic meaning to these Orientals. As long as the 'black crow' flies across the night sky, even in the face of a huge crisis, the foolish people will be blindly appeased, like sheep that have found a sheepdog - this kind of unreasonable belief is hard to understand, even though I think some of them can't even say Gu Yun's full name."

The bishop groaned for a moment with an obscure look on his face: "The 'seed' caused no casualties."

"Almost nothing," the black-haired man lowered his head. "Marquis Anding happened to be on the Red-headed Kite. It seemed that he had placed guards in the crowd. I don't know if our people leaked our whereabouts, or if he himself has an extraordinary ability to sense critical events. As soon as we sowed the seeds, the black crow reacted immediately. Gu shot the 'seed' to death with an arrow from the Red-headed Kite, and also captured the 'sower'."

The bishop leaned back in the carved chair, his finger hovering on his lips and rubbing along his beard. "This is not his personal prestige, but the accumulation of three generations. The people of the Central Plains blindly believe in these black crows, and have almost formed a kind of faith in the Gu family."

Black Hair: "The church has long discussed why Eastern societies are full of loopholes, but the people can maintain peace despite the numerous holes. I think this kind of faith is one of the reasons."

The bishop stood up and paced a few steps in the pleasure boat with his hands behind his back.

"This is our chance," he murmured in a low voice, "and it's not a bad thing - I'm going to write a letter to the Pope, and we can start the Loulan Project immediately."

At this time, the order under the Qiyuan Tower had been initially stabilized, and the Imperial Guards quickly came to the rescue. Gu Yun took a glance and saw that there was nothing for him to do, so he made a gesture to Shen Yi and prepared to leave - his vision was already very blurry, his hearing was also declining, and the noisy voices around him became quiet.

Gu Yun said to the Black Eagle guard, "I have something to do so I have to leave first. You stay with the Fourth Prince and the others. If they want to go home, wait until it's peaceful outside and then send them back. If they want to play on the Red Headed Kite for a while longer, that's fine too - I don't know if there will be any performances later."

Chang Geng asked hurriedly, "Godfather, what about you?"

Gu Yun couldn't hear what he said at all at this time. He just patted his shoulder and left in a hurry.

There was a heavier rumbling sound under their feet, and the red-headed kite they were riding on briefly landed on the kite platform. Gu Yun and Shen Yi strode side by side. The night was cold and the frost was heavy. Chang Geng picked up the cloak that Gu Yun had put aside and was about to catch up when he was stopped by the black eagle next to him.

The black eagle said, "Your Highness, please stay. The Marshal does not wear winter clothes in the capital. There is chaos and disorder outside. Please do not leave my side."

Chang Geng's suspicions rose suddenly in his heart - why not wear it? Judging from Gu Yun's physique, it was obviously not because he was not afraid of the cold.

And the words "your eyes" that Shen Yi had just shouted out in a hurry also made him feel like a thorn in his throat. Chang Geng couldn't help but think of Shen Shiliu who "pretended to be deaf and blind" in Yanhui Town. Of course, Shen Shiliu's hearing and eyesight problems were mostly for cheating, but Chang Geng was sure that he really couldn't see clearly when he was in Yanhui Town. Was it just to confuse Xiuniang and those barbarians who intended to infiltrate the northern border?

People tend to get anxious when they think too much. Chang Geng suddenly felt uneasy, and it did not ease up even after Xuan Ying dutifully sent them back to the Marquis' Mansion.

Chang Geng returned to his room, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. After sending Madam Cao and Fatty Ge away, he quietly wrapped his coat tightly and ran to Gu Yun's room to wait.

Gu Yun's room was very clean, with a neatness and orderliness that was unique to a soldier, and there were no unnecessary decorations. There were a few books on the desk, an old gas lamp, and a calligraphy hanging on the wall with the words "The world cannot be avoided" written on it. It could be seen that it was Gu Yun's own handwriting.

Except for a brand new fox fur coat hanging at the head of the bed, Marquis Anding's bedroom was so poor that it was almost shabby.

Chang Geng waited for a while, and unknowingly fell asleep on the small table, with his chest hunched, and soon he had a chaotic dream.

In a trance, Gu Yun seemed to be standing in front of him with his back to him. Chang Geng in the dream was free from restraint and was much more unrestrained than in reality. He hugged him from behind affectionately: "Godfather."

Gu Yun slowly turned his head, his eyes were empty, and two lines of blood and tears flowed down his cheeks: "Call me?"

Chang Geng woke up with a loud scream, and was startled by the cold wind blowing in from the door. He stared blankly at the person who walked in from outside.

Gu Yun didn't expect him to be in his room. He quickly closed the leaky door and asked, "Why are you here?"

His voice was a little hoarse and his face looked ugly.

The breath of cold air that Chang Geng had been holding in his chest finally came out heavily the moment he saw Gu Yun. For a moment, he could not tell the difference between reality and illusion, and he almost felt ecstatic as if he had regained what he had lost.

Gu Yun stood for a while holding onto the door frame, and after enduring a wave of dizziness, he waved to Chang Geng weakly, "Come and help me - I have to take you to the palace to pay New Year's greetings to the emperor tomorrow, be careful not to get up."

Chang Geng took his elbow and helped him to the bedside: "Godfather, what's wrong with you?"

"On the way back, they dragged me to Beidaying. I drank too much." Gu Yun didn't even take off his shoes and fell on the bed. He had just taken the medicine and his head was buzzing. He said weakly, "Go back and rest early."

Chang Geng frowned - Gu Yun did smell of alcohol, but it wasn't strong, and he spoke clearly, so he didn't look like someone who was drunk.

However, before he could ask again, Gu Yun was already silent, as if he had fallen asleep on the pillow.

Chang Geng had no choice but to take off his shoes and socks himself, and pulled the quilt over to wrap him up. He felt that the coldness on Gu Yun's body was not enough to warm him up, so he burned the steam brazier in the room a little more vigorously, leaned against the bedpost, and quietly looked at Gu Yun's sleeping face.

"I'm not imagining things." He repeated these words silently three times, and then like a trembling little animal, he moved slightly closer to Gu Yun, as if he wanted to smell his scent, but he couldn't help holding his breath.

The next day, Chang Geng felt that he had just closed his eyes and had not even had time to finish his nightmare when he was picked up by Gu Yun. After a lot of tossing and turning, he followed Marshal Gu into the palace in a state of exhaustion to pay New Year's greetings to his nominal brother, Emperor Long'an.

On the way, Gu Yun said: "Your Majesty, don't mind what happens to you. When the Queen Mother was alive, there were some conflicts with the Imperial Concubine, but that was a matter of the previous generation and has nothing to do with you...hiss, bad luck."

Chang Geng responded absentmindedly. When he heard him curse, he looked up and saw Gu Yun trying his luck in front of a car.

It was the carriage from the Huguo Temple.

The Daliang royal family was a devout believer in Buddhism, and even Gu Yun's decisive grandfather was no exception. This was especially true of the new emperor's former crown prince, who would meditate and talk with the great monks whenever he had free time.

But if we talk about what annoys Gu Yun the most in his life, it is not the barbarians from all directions, but these bald heads.

Especially the bald old abbot of Huguo Temple, who had no idea what it meant to create bad karma through words and had a cruel and wicked mouth. He had always predicted since childhood that Gu Yun would bring misfortune to his relatives when he grew up.

Marquis Anding still blames the monks of Huguo Temple for his bachelor status.

When the personal eunuch of Emperor Long'an Li Feng saw him, he hurried over.

He was a big and strong man, almost as tall as Marshal Gu, but three times as wide as him. He was born with a pair of four-inch long feet. When he took small steps, he looked like a large-leafed iron tree swaying in the wind, very graceful.

This man's surname was Zhu. Others called him Eunuch Zhu to his face, but called him Zhu Xiaojiao behind his back.

Zhu had a bad reputation because of her bound feet, so she kept two greasy-haired and powdered-faced "godsons" outside the palace, but no one knew what they were used for.

Daliang opened up shipping earlier, and the people were not as conservative as in the previous dynasty. There were endless scandals among the dignitaries, and this was nothing. It would have been better if the eunuch with bound feet had not indulged his godson in grabbing land and making money by relying on his name.

Zhu Xiaojiao smiled and came to Gu Yun: "The Marquis and the Fourth Prince are here? Abbot Lechi of the Huguo Temple is talking to the Emperor. He said that if you two arrive, you can go in directly. Abbot Lechi hasn't seen you for a long time - Oh, what a coincidence, the masters are coming out!"

As they were talking, two monks came out one after another.

Gu Yun recognized the man in front. He had a wrinkled walnut-shaped face and looked very sad, as if he had never had a full meal in his life. He was the abbot of Huguo Temple, Monk Liaochi.

Gu Yun's eyes could not help but fall on the man behind him. He was also a monk, about 20 or 30 years old, wearing a snow-white cassock, with picturesque features, and his clean monk shoes stepped on the path of the imperial city, like an immortal walking on the snow.

Even though Gu Yun hated bald heads, at that moment, he couldn't help but think of the great monk who had traveled to India in the previous dynasty.

The young monk seemed to have sensed something and looked up to meet Gu Yun's gaze. His eyes were clear, and there seemed to be a vast and quiet sea of ​​stars in them, which could make people sink into it at a glance.

The young monk put his hands together and bowed to Gu Yun from a distance.

Gu Yun looked away as if awakening from a dream, thinking: "Why am I staring at a bald head?"

He ignored him and rudely turned his eyes away, asking Zhu Xiaojiao, "Who is the pretty boy that the old bald donkey is leading?"

Zhu Xiaojiao had watched him grow up and knew his temper, so she hurriedly said, "That's the abbot's junior fellow apprentice, Master Liaoran, who just returned from his overseas travels."

Gu Yun thought to himself: "What a bullshit Dharma name, it brings bad luck as soon as I hear it."

Who would have thought that even though he doesn't like others, others would just come close to him.