The carpenter just asked Chang An to chop firewood all afternoon, in the pretense of teaching him how to use a saw, but the firewood is chopped with an axe. Is there a bullshit relationship between an ax and a saw? No matter how stupid Chang An was, he knew that the carpenter was using him for white work. He didn't say anything, but chopped up all the firewood the carpenter asked him to chop, and made a lot of blood blisters.
The carpenter has a very bad temper, and every time he comes back from Zhe Yan, there will be a moment when his attitude towards Chang'an softens a little. The carpenter also had a woman with squinting eyes as his wife. Perhaps it was because of her natural squinting. Chang An always felt that the way she looked at him was weird. Several times he saw the carpenter's wife sneering at him from behind.
Although the carpenter didn't teach him anything, Chang An was not in a hurry. He had no interest in carpentry in the first place—can saws and chisels keep him alive and well
Every time he thought of this, Changan would always feel distressed. He wanted to express his thoughts to Zheyan several times, but he couldn't say it when he really saw Zheyan.
In Zheyan's view, a carpenter is probably the most noble person in the world. Chang'an always felt that every time Zheyan sent him out in the morning, his eyes were full of piety, as if he was not going to learn carpentry, but to Immortal!
That night, Chang An did not dare to go home immediately, fearing that Zheyan would see his hands making a fuss, so he sneaked around to the small river behind the wooden house by himself, and pulled off the stalk of a thorngrass—this thing was dried, it was People usually use it to repair the roof. It is very tough, and there are burrs on the side. If you don't pay attention, you can scrape a hole.
The child sat by the river, washed the grass stalks, and silently picked out the blood bubbles from his hands with the thorn.
Pain is pain, but Chang'an is used to three disasters and nine diseases, and he is used to it, so he thinks it can be tolerated.
After picking out the blood bubbles, Chang An soaked his hands in the icy river water for a while, the hot feeling faded a lot, and the swelling effect was immediate.
It was already getting late when he finished handling his little hands. Chang An then stood up and was about to go home, but found Zhe Yan sneaking out from the back door of the house.
Chang An still didn't grow very tall. He was hidden behind the big rock by the river, so it was hard for others to find him. For some reason, he paused and didn't move. Just standing there, looking at Zhe Yan's face is as ugly as a ghost, pale and blue, only when he coughs, it will turn an ominous red.
Zhe Yan held a roll of grass leaves with some cloth strips in it, and set them on fire together.
Not a single part of Chang An's body was good, except for his good eyesight. He could clearly see that there were blood stains between the blades of grass and the strips of cloth.
Probably choked by the smoke, Zhe Yan suddenly coughed loudly, and he fell on the ground like a skinny ghost, with slightly dry hair hanging down to cover his face, he was very pitiful at dusk.
When he coughed, thin blood flowed down his fingers, and Zhe Yan coughed until his face became red and his neck was thick, and even tears came down. He just stared blankly at the slowly burning fire, his face seemed to be With a hint of death, his expression was angry and unwilling.
Chang An didn't dare to move, he suddenly came up with an idea without any teacher - Zhe Yan is going to die, right
No one taught him what "death" is, but when an old hunter in the tribe went out to hunt, his leg was bitten off by a wolf. He was too old, and his sons thought he was a burden, so no one cared. He died soon.
Chang An watched him being carried out of the tent. There were strange freckles on his face, a lot of hair had fallen out, his eyes were wide open, but they were terribly cloudy, and maggots were crawling on his body. A rancid smell.
Only then did Chang An realize that he was dead and could no longer live.
For some reason, he has a stubborn fear of death, especially Chang An still clearly remembers how those people said he would not live long when he was young.
Chang An was right, Zhe Yan was indeed dying, and he finally failed to survive the winter of that year.
That winter was extremely cold, as if no matter how many fires were lit, it was still so cold that human blood could be frozen into ice. People outside were panicking, they were all saying something big happened in the snow wolf tribe on the other side of the mountain, a sub-beast son of the leader suddenly didn't recognize his relatives, for some reason, he even killed his parents and brothers, and became a new The leader of the snow wolf is really capable of ruthlessness, and he is a character that people despise and admire.
When they said the word "father killing", they were both afraid and contemptuous, but from the perspective of an ignorant child like Chang'an, they killed their own father with a knife, and told him to go out by himself when he was old. It doesn't make much difference to hunt and be killed by wolves.
Anyway, the result is the same, that is, Dad died.
Chang An didn't understand why others wanted Father to die, but he himself didn't.
That day Ayan was beside him, looking at him worriedly, while Changan squatted beside Zheyan's bed, watching Zheyan lying dying on the straw mat, there was a block in his heart, sore and dazed. He has lived in the human world for less than seven years, so it seems that he has been with Zheyan all his life, Chang'an can't imagine what to do without Zheyan in the future.
So with a little expectation, he made a request to his adoptive father for the first time in his life.
Chang'an asked, "Zheyan, are you willing to die?"
Ah Yan let out a sob, but Zhe Yan exhausted all his strength, raised his eyes to look at him, opened his mouth, and uttered a hoarse single voice: "You..."
This one word almost killed him, he opened his mouth wide, gasping for breath, his eyes were slack, but the last words were not finished, Zhe Yan couldn't close his eyes, his slack eyes miraculously re-condensed He got up and condensed on Chang An's face.
"You have to... be a good carpenter!"
He roared like this, with a strange light in his eyes, he didn't know where the strength came from, and he tightly grasped the child's thin wrist.
Ah Yan pressed Chang An's head, and urged him in a low voice, "Nod your head, child, nod your head."
"But I want to learn swordsmanship." Chang'an thought like this, he felt that he only had two wishes in his life, one was Zheyan not to die, but Zheyan refused to agree to him, the other was to learn swordsmanship, but it seemed... that he was getting closer and closer to him. farther and farther.
But Chang An finally failed to say this sentence, he felt that if he said that, Zhe Yan would be like that dead old hunter, keeping his eyes open and refusing to close, how pitiful it was.
In Chang'an's little heart, the pain was so painful that he was about to die.
Seeing him nodding his head, Zheyan was finally relieved, squeezed Chang'an's wrist, made a gesture of handing it to Ayan's hand, and said, "Ah..."
A Yan quickly took Chang An's little hand with both hands, and Zhe Yan glanced at her, as if he had completed the last thing in his life, he tilted his head and died.
The pervasive sadness seemed to burst a dike, and instantly enveloped Chang An indiscriminately, and he understood ignorantly what life and death meant.
The child's feet stepped on the ground, as if they had taken root, like a little beast stubbornly guarding its own territory, no matter how much Ayan persuaded, it would not move, just to prevent others from taking Zheyan away.
He would look at anyone who came over with fierce eyes, as if he was about to jump over and bite him.
In the end, even the leader was alarmed. The leader finally sighed and said to others: "Look at the child picked up by Zheyan. Although he doesn't know how to cry, he still has feelings."
After he finished speaking, he thought for a long time, then sighed, and made an assertion to Chang An. The leader said, "This is a good boy!"
Finally, the adults in the tribe finally lost their patience. An adult orc picked up the back of Chang'an's neck as easily as a newborn animal, and then tapped three fingers on the back of Chang'an's neck. Pinch, pinch him out.
When Changan woke up again, Zheyan was gone, and they arranged him with Ayan. Ah Yan is a good woman and always hoped that Chang An would be her child, but she cannot replace Zhe Yan, and no one can replace another.
According to Zhe Yan's ridiculous last wish, Chang An still went to the carpenter's place every morning. For a while, he felt that he had almost given up on his distant dream of learning knives. As a vacation, I went to the woods to watch the warriors train.
Hungry and thirsty.
But the carpenter still didn't teach him anything, and even after Zheyan's death, he neglected him even more.
All this, Chang'an used the method of hiding Zheyan from Ayan—Ayan was more likely to make a fuss than Zheyan. When he saw his nosebleed, he would be at a loss, and when he saw a wound on his body, he would cry endlessly.
Finally, Chang An reluctantly stayed with the carpenter for more than half a year. The carpenter didn’t teach him anything, so he learned it secretly. When the carpenter was not paying attention, he secretly touched the tools, picked up the things the carpenter threw away, and practiced. Movements are inherently sensitive, and he remembers every movement of the carpenter in his heart.
Although unwilling—but he promised Zheyan that he would become a good carpenter.
However, just this summer, Chang An had just turned seven years old. He was carrying a huge bucket taller than others to carry bath water for the carpenter's wife. A distant relative who happened to be visiting by the carpenter saw him.
The man looked at him, and waved to him with some curiosity: "Child, come here and let me have a look."
Chang An didn't want to offend him, so he moved over slowly. The relative of the carpenter glanced at him and asked lazily, "You are Luke's apprentice? What's your name?"
Chang An instinctively felt that he had no good intentions, so he just looked up at this man without saying a word.
The relatives of the carpenter laughed and said to the carpenter: "Look, your apprentice is dumb."
The carpenter waved to Chang An impatiently: "Go do your work, get out."
However, probably thinking that Chang An didn't understand, before he went far, the carpenter said contemptuously to his relatives: "This was given to me by a little slut I played with before. He actually agreed to come down and bring such a little burden on himself, he is still a little sick child, he can't be exposed to the sun, he dares to come to me as a young master, alas!"
Chang An paused, lowered his head, buried his small face in his shadow, couldn't see the expression clearly, and immediately continued walking forward after the pause, as if he didn't hear anything.
Then he turned a corner and stood stealthily behind a wall, listening intently to what they were saying.
The relative of the carpenter gave a meaningful "Oh" and laughed in a low voice: "It must be a good taste, so you can't find the north."
The carpenter said nonchalantly: "Man, he looks good, but he may not be ecstasy. The place is dry and loose, but... it doesn't have a little smell when you call him."
The relative of the carpenter laughed and said, "If you want me to tell you, you should have divorced this squinting wife and married a new one, otherwise why would you go out and find such a lowly sub-beast man?"
The carpenter sighed deeply, and said in a low voice: "Don't mention that bitch, I really want to find a chance to kill her, I get goosebumps from the way she looks at people, but after going out for a few times, she will hold back It’s not fun for me, guess what, I saw that Zhe Yan coughed up blood the other day, and all the spit out was purple blood, just like that bitch’s brother died... Alas, I don’t even know what happened to her Put the poison in the past... "
Hearing this, Chang'an finally picked up the wooden barrel again and left without anyone noticing. He thought coldly: So it was the carpenter and his wife who killed Zheyan.
That night, after Chang An finished his work and the carpenter waved him off, Chang An did not return to Ayan's house.
He climbed up a big tree not far from the carpenter's house and hid in the dense canopy. He waited until it was dark and saw that the lights in the carpenter's house were all extinguished and human voices could not be heard. Then he climbed up from the tree. He got down, sneaked through the crack of the door, and squeezed into the yard of the carpenter's house.
Chang'an found out the gum that carpenters usually use—it is said that it is made from a special "fat tree". If it sticks to a person's finger, it has to peel off a layer of skin to separate it.
Chang An was like a kitten, with no sound at all. He picked up a brush and a gum bucket, and wiped all the cracks in the windows and doors of the carpenter’s house, and sealed the gaps one by one with thin wooden strips. . He did this job quite patiently. After one layer was painted, another layer was painted, seven or eight times in full, and the whole big bucket of gum was used up, and then he sat down and rested for a while.
After doing this work, his whole body, from the inside to the outside, was soaked in sweat.
It took a long time for Chang An to get up from the ground out of breath, calmly stole the flint from the kitchen, put the wood scraps in the yard around the carpenter's house, and put them in piles.
After he had done all this, he did not panic at all, nor did he run away, but climbed back to the big tree, and sat there waiting to watch.
In the tribe, the rich lived in stone houses, covered with tarpaulins or animal skins, and covered with heavy curtains, called "tents", such as the leader's house.
The poor people just use thatch to build a shed to shelter from the wind and rain, just like Ah Yan's house.
Only the carpenter is unique and pretentious, making such a house with pure wood is very different.
Of course, when it burns, it will be even more different.
The doors and windows of the carpenter's house were sealed. Except for the women, the carpenter's family only had sub-beasts, and they didn't have the strength to smash the wooden walls and doors. That night, the wailing sound spread two miles away, and the whole tribe was shocked , but when people came, the fire had already started, and it was out of control, and it was too late to save them.
They could only watch the carpenter and the others, but after a while, they were burned alive inside.
Only then did Chang An feel relieved, slid down from the tree, and walked towards home without anyone noticing.
The carpenter treated him badly, had no kindness, treated Zheyan secretly, and killed Zheyan.
Changan thought, Zheyan raised him, so it is only natural for him to avenge Zheyan. The kid didn't feel any guilt in his heart, he even felt that he did it beautifully, the only thing that made him uncomfortable was...he had nowhere to learn carpentry.