From October to November, when walking on the road, time flies by quickly. Of the 500-member brigade, up to now, only the ordinary camel caravan with less than 50 members left. Sometimes Ji Jiu looked at this team and wondered how many of these men who would accompany him through the desert could be intact. returned home. They are all young people in their prime, at their prime of life, they may be buried in the sand, or they may die under the sword of the enemy. What will happen in the future, no one knows.
In fact, even if you know it, so what? No one will leave halfway.
They are soldiers, and death is their calling. If you can drink a mouthful of the enemy's blood before you die, you will die without regret.
These fifty people were carefully selected by Ji Jiu through careful observation. From skill to temperament, one out of ten out of five hundred people was selected. Since the selection was made, they were delivered with their lives, without any doubts.
In the future, regardless of good times or bad times, they will fight side by side, support each other, and rescue each other.
So far, the journey has been uneventful. He has never encountered thieves, nor has he discovered any enemy spies, and even those in the court who wanted him to die have not taken action yet. Peaceful like an illusion.
In a life-and-death fight, the hunter who indulges in a false peace is mortal. Ji Jiu didn't dare to let go of his vigilance for a day. He knew that the road would be full of bumps and bumps, but he was calm and relaxed.
Climbing mountains when encountering mountains, wading when encountering water, and killing enemies when encountering them, this is his way.
The yellow sand was blowing towards our faces in the swirling wind. Everyone held their breath and lowered their heads one by one to avoid the wind and sand. In November, the wind and sand were very strong. Can't open it. After the wind and sand passed, the people patted their clothes, rustled the layers, stomped their feet, and led the camel team to move on.
Ji Jiu walked in the middle, and Shen Jue, who was carrying a wooden box, walked in the end.
The camel caravan of fifty people was pulled into a long line and meandered on the long and endless road. No one except them knew where it would extend or how far it could go.
You can only keep going until the road under your feet breaks, dividing life and death.
As it was getting dark, Ji Jiu ordered the team to stop, leaning against a hill, and everyone set up tents.
It is said to be a tent, but in fact it is just a small world propped up by simple cloth, which cannot block the wind or rain, and at most three or five people can rest in it, just for peace of mind, at least there is a shelter.
Everyone began to divide the work, picked up some dry branches and lit a bonfire, and took some dry food out to eat.
The nights were getting colder, and without a fire the journey would be more difficult. Not every place has an inn. The farther west you go, the less populated people will be. After a while, you should enter the desert and enter the real trek.
The warm light of the flames flashed on his face, Ji Jiu gnawed on the bread, and said in a low voice: "Tomorrow I can go to town, get some dry food and water, and have a good night's rest."
The soldiers all nodded in response, and after filling their stomachs, they pulled the blankets to cover their bodies, or rested with their eyes closed, resting on a stone or leaning against a cargo box.
Not long after falling asleep, camel bells sounded not far away, and the sound was getting closer and closer, presumably they saw the fire coming here. At this time, in such a place, there is no one else except the caravan.
Just as Ji Jiu moved, Shen Jue stood up, shouted into the darkness, and asked, "Who is it?"
Someone answered over there, and it really was a caravan.
Soon the group of people came to the fire and exchanged pleasantries with Ji Jiu and others.
A team of fifteen people, the leader's surname is Zhou, others call him Boss Zhou, he looks in his early forties, his face is rough from years of wind and sand, his voice is rough, and he has a southeast accent. After asking, I found out that he was only in his early thirties, and his travels made him look much older. These ten or so people were not from his camel caravan, some of them were solo merchants they met on the road, and saw that there were a lot of them, so they went on the road together.
This time the timing was wrong, and the group ran into Ji Jiu. This is what he said.
After exchanging pleasantries, Boss Zhou asked Ji Jiu and the others: "Where are you guys from, and where are you going?"
Ji Jiu said: "Come from the south to find a way to make money."
"The south is good," Boss Zhou wiped his face and said, "I shipped a batch of silk last year, but it sold for a good price."
Ji Jiu laughed and said, "There is a lot of wind and sand in the north, and the silk fabric looks glamorous but it is not practical. Are you shipping silk again this year?"
"Haha, brother is very knowledgeable. Later, selling silk is not very popular, so this year I shipped some medicinal herbs and tea to sell." Boss Zhou asked him: "There are so many brothers, and all they want to ship are good things. On this road I have also been running for more than ten years, but I have never met my brother. I don’t know what kind of business my brother is doing business with, and who is he doing business with?”
We just met each other, but it was just a chance encounter on the road, so it's a little too much for him to ask this question. The soldiers sitting next to Ji Jiu all turned cold, thinking that he didn't know how to measure.
Ji Jiu found it interesting, this man looked rough and spoke recklessly, but he went straight to the goal without going around in circles. Such people are either stupid and straight who don't understand routines, or they are so deep in the city that they have no taboo about outside moves.
Obviously, such a man who has been on the road for more than ten years is not the former. Ji Jiu laughed, narrowed his eyes, stirred the fire in front of him, put down the stick, and began to lie.
He first said that in the south, there is a dense jungle, and many strange birds and beasts are born in the huge jungle with high temperature all the year round. This is the beginning, and then looking into the eyes of the boss Zhou, he said slowly: "Brother Zhou, have you ever heard that there is a village in a dense place in the south, which is called 'Witch Village' by outsiders, and it is full of witchcraft. Among them, is it famous all over the world for 'Gu'?"
Boss Zhou was stunned, and quickly said: "I've heard about it, but I've never seen it with my own eyes. Could it be..."
"After listening to brother," Ji Jiu waved his hand to signal him not to intervene, and quickly continued: "The men, women and children in Wu Village, everyone raises Gu, there are centipedes, black spiders, and highly poisonous things in the forest. Once they don't raise them, they catch poisonous things to domesticate them, and then use poisonous insects to kill each other for practice, and finally keep a Gu, and then develop it. From the beginning to the end, it takes three to five years to raise a Gu, if it is more harsh, almost It is also possible to raise a Gu for ten years. Brother... that's where it came from."
It was a dark night, the sky was full of moon and no stars, beside this desolate loess hill, Ji Jiu sat in front of the fire, the bright yellow flames danced on his face, bright and dark, there was a three-point twist and strangeness for no reason, it was very frightening.
Ji Jiu fiddled with the fire again, and said in a calm manner: "Brother Zhou, what I sell is nothing more than that. The people in my team only sell this once in their life. Brother Zhou can't mess with what you sell. I got it. Brother Zhou sells things, and I have no intention of getting involved. This way, the well water does not violate the river water, and you don't have to worry about blocking my money."
Smiling, Ji Jiu said: "Maybe brother Zhou will be in trouble someday, and brother will have to rush to take you home." The last sentence he said was very light, and it was because it was so light that it seemed to suddenly sound deaf.
Before Boss Zhou could react, someone already screamed, "Could it be that you have a corpse driver?!"
In the wilderness in the middle of the night, just this one sentence made the faces of the dozen or so people so pale.
Ji Jiu neither admitted nor denied, stood up and bowed to them, led his own people to retreat to the other side, rekindled the bonfire and set up a tent, avoiding this group of people far away.
After the things were put back, the camels lay down again, and the fifty or so people sat around the campfire beside Ji Jiu, and said with a low smile, "The general opens his mouth so he can speak."
Ji Jiu sighed and said, "I also met many caravans along the way, haven't you listened carefully to their conversations?"
Someone asked, "What talk?"
Ji Jiu said: "A few days ago, I heard that this business route is controlled by a person named Zhou, and all the profits from the merchants will be paid to him. ?”
He said again: "Do you think that man is reckless and ignorant when he speaks straightforwardly? He is just utterly unscrupulous. That's what those traders said in all likelihood. Instead of getting entangled with this person, don't you?" If we told them to be afraid of us early, we would have less trouble."
Shen Jue said, "Do you scare them when you say that?"
Ji Jiu said: "It doesn't matter if he's afraid or not, it's just that we've been running around for the past few days and everyone is tired, so let's bluff him for now, and we'll deal with him when we enter the city tomorrow and have a good rest."
It turned out that he was lazy to do it, and he was only willing to play tricks first. After everyone understood this, they looked at Ji Jiu and were speechless for a while.
Ji Jiu yawned, straightened up, and lazily went back to the tent. If nothing goes wrong, the world will be peaceful tonight. Even if you want to watch a play, you have to wait until tomorrow.
On the second day, we hurried on the road early in the morning and arrived at the town at sunset. This is the last town. Further forward, there is a sea of sand, a piece of scorched yellow, nothing but a mirage.
Ji Jiu and the others entered the inn, had a full meal first, and asked Xiaoer to fetch hot water to freshen up. After washing off the sand and dust all over his body, Shen Jue said, "Here comes the man."
That week the boss brought his men and horses into the inn, and there was a lot of noise in the backyard for a while, and the noise was unbelievable. Closing the window, Ji Jiu said: "It's nothing, he has no confidence in us, he doesn't dare to act rashly, rest for one night, and enter the desert tomorrow, if he still follows, he will be killed."
The tone is indifferent, but it reveals a cold color.
Shen Jue said "um", untied the wooden box behind him, put it on Ji Jiu's bed, and went out.
After closing the door, Ji Jiu leaned on the head of the bed, holding a book in his hand to read. I don't know how long it took before I became sleepy. I put away the book and was about to lie down when I saw a white light flashing through the gaps in the window lattice, as if someone was holding a weapon. Ji Jiu came back to his senses after being slightly stunned, and after thinking for a while, he took off the soft quilt, hugged the big snake that had been drunk for more than a month under the quilt, and held it in his arms.
Just holding it like this, wrapping the long thick snake around her waist, Ji Jiu hugged it out of bed and went to the table to drink water.
He wore wet hair, raised his eyes after drinking tea, and looked out the window with a half-smile. The big black snake was wrapped around his snow-white coat, and the tiny scales all over his body reflected brilliant luster under the candlelight, and the luster was reflected on the window. The smile on his face instantly revealed a strange aura, like a voluptuous monster.
For a moment, there was silence outside the window.
Ji Jiu caressed those cold scales and stood for a while, making sure that the people who should have seen them had already seen them, and no one was watching anymore, then went back to bed and put down the cloth tent, and disappeared behind the tent together with the snake.