At the beginning, Xia Yaleiming had a long headache for the old guy's evaluation.
Given his not-so-good level of education, he only knew that "creative" seemed to be a compliment, but "dead to sleep" seemed to be a bad word.
The old guy is very irresponsible for Xia Yaleiming's cultural education. The simple level can only allow Xia Yaleiming to barely recognize 80% of the broken books left by the old guy. As for the words that can be understood, no more than half.
But even so, the old guy also forbids Xia Yaleiming to read his collection of books, so Xia Yaleiming doesn't suffer from the old guy's stick. Only when the old guy drank too much and fell asleep, he secretly came out and looked at it for a while.
Some of the things in the book are mostly words like "cavalry", "turn in", "circle", "flanking", etc., or it is a combat plan, how much baggage is transported, and various deployments of terrain. way, river beach battles, plain battles, canyon ambush and so on.
At the beginning, Xia Leiming thought these were war stories, just like the legendary battle stories told by the down-and-out bards in the town. But later, he saw something different. At least, the content in the old guy's collection is definitely not as exciting as the stories told by the bard, and it can even be said to be very boring.
Xia Yaleiming had the courage to ask the old guy twice, but the first time, the old guy hit his head with a stick and swelled it for three days. The second time, the old guy was drunk, but instead of knocking him on the head, he kicked him with a kick, staring at him and scolding something, "When I was leading the army, if I encountered such disobedience as you The boy, he has been cut long ago..."
Well, according to this dumb-mouthed old guy, he was not only "once" a famous swordsman in the mainland, but even "once" a general who led troops.
Really
At least, Xia Leiming knew that a general would never be able to drink wine. And the old guy can only drink the cheapest rye wine, which is not only spicy, but also has a sour taste. Moreover, this amount of wine money is still deducted from the gap between the teeth.
"If he is a general, then Lao Tzu is the emperor of the empire." This was Xia Yaleiming's conclusion.
But... Regarding the evaluation of his axe skills, is the old guy praising himself or scolding himself
Fortunately, he didn't have to have a headache anymore.
Because one day after saying this, the old guy died.
In the old guy's own words, he died very "creative".
When Xia Yaleiming went to chop wood and came back, he saw the old guy lying on the ground and had lost his breath. He was dead on the road - climbed off the bed, and crawled to the cupboard where the wine bottles were kept. It's a pity that he was too old and weak, and he died halfway through the climb. When he was about to die, he stretched out his hand in the direction of the wine cabinet.
From this point of view, the old guy is a very personable person, and even the way of death is a mess. Because, the old guy didn't know, the wine bottle on the cabinet was already empty - there wasn't even a drop of wine there.
Xia Leiming buried the old guy.
They were buried in their humble house that leaked from all sides. They found a depression behind the hillside, dug a pit, and filled some soil and stones. But when the monument was erected, Xia Yaleiming encountered a problem - the absurd thing was that for so many years, he didn't even know the old guy's name.
Before he was eight he called him "Daddy", after eight he called him "Old Guy", and the townspeople called him "Old Drunk" and "Old Asshole".
Sitting in front of the grave all night, Xia Yaleiming sighed, chopped a piece of wood, and engraved a line on it crookedly: "The old guy is buried here, may his soul rest in peace."
He ran to the town and sold the most valuable thing in the family - the broken axe, for three copper coins, and exchanged the three copper coins for a bottle of wine.
A bottle of wine with three copper plates is undoubtedly the most "high-end" wine that Xia Yaleiming has bought over the years.
But he poured the bottle of wine on the old guy's grave and watched helplessly as the wine flowed into the soil, but he didn't drink a single sip.
When it was dawn, Xia Yaleiming, who was completely frozen, finally stood up. He stood in front of the grave, looking at the wooden sign, and there were some inexplicable things in his eyes.
"Okay, old man, you're gone. Now I'm alone."
※※※
The first problem to solve is feeding the stomach.
Although he can be regarded as a professional hunter. No, it is no exaggeration to say that he can be regarded as the best hunter within a few hundred miles in the vicinity.
When he was thirteen years old, he went up the mountain alone to chop firewood, and hacked to death a hungry bloodthirsty wolf with the broken axe in his hand. This wolf is a low-level monster living on the wildfire. Its fur can even become harder than a turtle shell, its teeth can bite off a hunter's spear, and its movements are agile.
But that time, Xia Leiming chopped off the wolf's head with just an axe.
A light axe.
In fact, at that time, Xia Yaleiming, who was only thirteen years old, was so scared that he almost wet his pants. When the wolf pounced on him, he almost lost consciousness, but instinctively practiced the posture thousands of times on weekdays, He chopped off the axe in his hand.
Then... He felt a hot blood splash on his face. When he opened his eyes, there was a grinning wolf head on the ground in front of him. It broke from the neck, and the wolf was behind him. .
Facing this scene, it took him quite a while to regain his senses, and then he was excited.
So... I'm already so good? !
But after carrying the wolf corpse back, when he excitedly told the old guy about it, the old guy was still very unhappy. There are two reasons why he is unhappy. The first is: "You have practiced for so long, if you can't kill even a little wolf, you can just find a piece of tofu and kill it."
And the second sentence is the real reason for the old guy's anger:
"You idiot, do you know that if you chop off the wolf's head, the wolf's fur will be worthless!! Originally, this wolf's fur could be exchanged for two silver coins, enough for us to drink wine for three months! Now we can only buy it at most. Less than a tenth of the price!!”
The old guy was right.
That time, when Xia Yaleiming carried the wolf to the town, many people came to ask the price with great interest, but when they saw the damaged wolf skin, no one cared about it.
As a result, the wolf skin could not be sold until the end, Xia Yaleiming simply made a leather jacket for himself, and the wolf meat, he and the old guy ate for several days.
Uh... can't think of wolf meat anymore.
Although the meat of the bloodthirsty wolf was unpalatable and had a sour smell, it was still an unbearable torture for Xia Leiming, who had been hungry for a day and a night and his body was frozen stiff.
However, Xia Leiming still decided not to go hunting in the mountains.
He didn't want to be a hunter.
Young people always have a lot of fantasies, and he wants to go out and have a go.
At least... In his opinion, it is better to go to the town to find a job as a helper than to stay in the mountains and be a coward like the old guy for a lifetime.
Go into town and get a job, even as a janitor in a car dealership. Maybe, with my strength, I can be seen by that mercenary group as a low-level squire.
Although his stomach was rumbling with hunger and his hands and feet were cold, Xia Yaleiming still thought with pride.
Without the axe that he was used to, Xia Leiming found the black fire fork in the hearth and put it on his belt, wearing the wolfskin robe that had several holes in it, and the soles of his shoes were almost too fast. The worn straw sandals walked down the mountain with hope in my heart.
This is Xia Leiming's first step towards the outside world!
According to the legends of the bards, it should be called "the wheel of history begins to turn".
However, when our protagonist walked down the mountain, not only did he have no bullshit "wheels", even his shoes were worn out, and at the same time, he was dizzy with hunger.