Who do you think you are.
There was no indifference or contempt in Xie Yun's voice, on the contrary, it was even very calm and taken for granted.
——However, it is because of this that a deeper and more vivid sting emerges from the bottom of my heart.
"Sure enough, it's something you can say." Unexpectedly, Jing Ling didn't fly into a rage, and only raised her chin slightly. He was already tall, so when he raised it like this, there was a look of disdain from top to bottom: "It is true that I am nothing in Yunshi's eyes, but if I were you, I would never be alone and powerless." Say this in self-defense."
Xie Yun said lightly: "How do you know I'm here alone?"
Before the words were finished, the vegetation swayed not far away, the branches waved, and the sound of iron tools rubbing against each other rang out in the darkness. It seemed that many people suddenly appeared and surrounded the mountain road vaguely.
The disciples of the various sects behind were all aware of it, and immediately looked around in astonishment: "What?" "What's going on?"
However, before they could figure out the situation, Jing Ling suddenly sneered and asked, "Then if I want to stop you, it's not just me?"
As he spoke, he raised his hand to his lips and whistled loudly—
Whoa!
In the night, around the hillside and around the rocks, dozens of black figures suddenly appeared, fully armed and holding bows and arrows, condescendingly surrounded the group of them, Zhou Yu exclaimed in surprise: "Gods and ghosts!"
Jing Ling said coldly: "Before I came to Forging Sword Village, I really did not expect to meet you here. In the past two years, everyone has been paying attention to your movements, but you have no order to leave Beijing, and everyone has no choice. Immediately after I recognized you, I sent an eagle report to the elders in charge of the sect, and now these people have all come from the Huainan area to escort you."
Xie Yun asked: "Protect your driver?"
"No, protect you."
"I?"
Jing Ling leaned over to Xie Yun's ear, and said softly: "Anyone who captures a precious trophy must take it back under strict guard, right?"
Xie Yun closed his eyes and nodded slightly. After a while, he finally opened his eyes and said, "So, today you and I will have to fight hard here."
——His voice was very strange when he said this sentence. The first word was still the soft, soft, indistinguishable tone of men and women these days, and then it became more and more serious. Magnetic voice.
That voice is actually very charming, but no one will think that the meaning in the words is also very pleasant.
However, Jing Ling shook his head and sneered jokingly: "Let me tell you one more thing, Yun Shi, you can decide for yourself."
"—Yu Wenhu has led five hundred soldiers from Chang'an to the south, and will soon arrive in Suzhou and Hangzhou."
"I heard that you were dispatched to Mobei for several years, because you planned Yuwenhu severely when you were in the palace, which made him lose face and almost died. Then you guess this time Yuwenhu came to Forging Sword Village, Finding that your hands are empty and you have lost all your internal energy, how happy will you be to meet such an old acquaintance like you in a foreign land?"
"I… "
Just as Xie Yun opened his mouth, he stopped suddenly, and suddenly raised his eyes to look at the dark forest in the distance, with a trace of inconspicuous surprise flashing across his eyes.
Immediately afterwards, lightning pierced the sky, rolling thunder roared past, and a beam of light connecting the sky and the earth suddenly flashed above everyone's head—
Boom!
The two huge bangs shook the heavens and the earth, and even shook the rocks under everyone's feet!
Everyone grabbed the trees and rocks in an instant, and before they had time to stand still, they saw a bright fire suddenly burst out from a certain direction where the lightning disappeared!
"No... not good!" Chen Haiping lost his voice: "It's the back mountain villa!"
down the cliff.
Shan Chaoshen, with one foot shallow and one foot shallow, stood on a certain high rock, and shouted: "Young Master!"
The wind and grass fluttered around, and there was no answer.
He had already descended to the bottom of the cliff, and Fu Wenjie must be nearby, but his surroundings were almost invisible. When he jumped down, he had no time to bring a lantern, and there was no one there for a while.
Shan Chao took a deep breath, and the burning blood came from his lungs.
He also fell when he jumped down just now, and the fall was too steep, so he must have suffered internal injuries. But now is not the time to stop and rest. Fu Wenjie must be found before the downpour becomes heavy. Otherwise, even if he is still alive, he will not be able to withstand the icy torrential rain in autumn.
Shan Chao pressed his side abdomen with one hand and gasped for a moment. After his eyes became more accustomed to the dark visual conditions, he suddenly found a figure lying quietly in the grass in front of him.
"Young Master!"
He quickly stepped forward and turned over the person, and took a look. It was indeed the outline of Fu Wenjie, but his face was covered with blood and mud, and he must have been scratched a lot during the fall. What's more, his breathing and pulse are very weak, if he comes half a quarter of an hour late, it must be difficult to have any vitality.
Shan Chao gritted his teeth and poured internal energy into Fu Wenjie's chest, and the warm current flowed in slowly. After a while, he felt that the young master's heartbeat had stabilized slightly, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
How to get there
Shan Chao raised his head and glanced up the cliff.
Immediately afterwards, his eyebrows twitched, as if he keenly smelled some ominous breath from the dark and dense night.
— Swish!
Lightning pierced the sky, and the direction of Forging Sword Village in the distance was brightly reflected.
At that instant, a long black shadow meandered from behind him, holding something high in his hand—
Shan Chao's pupils shrank sharply, like a cheetah at the moment of starting, throwing a fist backwards!
But in an instant it was too late.
When there was a loud bang, he felt as if the back of his head hit something hard, and even his brains were about to fly out of his skull, and then his eyes went black!
Before he even had time to see who the sneak attacker was, he was caught off guard and fell into the abyss of dark consciousness.
… who am I
Where is this
Fists fell like raindrops, yelling and beating, and the sharp cries of children around were far away and unclear.
this is…
The young Shan Chao curled up desperately in his fists and feet, tightly protecting half of the dirty mustache in his arms, despite the intense pain in his chest, back, and legs.
His stomach was burning with hunger, and his whole body, covered in blood and dust, was filthy, even more embarrassing than a skinny wild dog kicked around by the roadside.
I'm going to die, he thought dimly.
dying.
The tent was lifted suddenly, the sounds of people and horses neighing in the market outside became clear, and the slave owner yelled some nonsense from afar.
"Hey! Hey! Stop hitting!"
"Kuba told him to come over!"
"Don't fight!" The surroundings became quiet, and the hoarse voice of the barbarians sounded:
"Someone wants to buy him."
A thin figure appeared at the door, casting a long black shadow in the light strip extending from outside, then walked into the tent and stopped.
A pair of dusty leather boots appeared in front of Xiao Danchao. They were covered with a lot of dust and had copper rivets, which looked very sturdy.
He flinched reflexively.
It hurt to kick in such a sturdy shoe, he knew it.
However, there was no movement for a long time, no yelling or kicking, and the pair of leather boots didn't even have any intention of moving.
"..."
Xiao Danchao finally struggled to raise his head, and tried his best to look up through the blurred vision due to the mixture of blood and tears.
Standing quietly in the backlight, a tall and straight figure is wrapped in a slightly yellowed coarse cloth cloak, and a long sword is wrapped in circles of old cloth strips on the back, as if there is still an unfinished breath of long-distance travel and wind and sand in his body. was looking down at him.
The silver mask was worn on this person's face, covering most of the face above the tip of the nose, but one could still tell from the soft jawline that he was still very young.
Xiao Danchao shrank back with his scarred body, his face was full of vigilance, and there was a mixture of doubt, fear and a trace of expectation in his eyes.
The man finally exhaled slightly, randomly threw a cloth bag from the cloak, and threw it on the ground in front of the slave owner with a snap, rolling out several strings of copper coins from the mouth of the bag.
Then he bent down and stretched out his hand to Shan Chao—
It was a hand with five fingers slightly spread and the palm facing upwards. Although it had a thick sword callus, it was slender, powerful and well-shaped.
"I bought you."
Behind the mask, his dark and focused eyes looked at Shan Chao, and said:
"follow me."
·
The desert is sparsely populated, and the wind blows from the distant horizon, flying over the continuous sand dunes, large clumps of Populus euphratica, and the hidden underground rivers that appear and disappear in the distance.
Their home is here.
The mud house is made of mud bricks, surrounded by stones and used as a yard, surrounded by shrubs and weeds of unknown species.
The wind crackled through the thick felt of the roof.
There was the sound of water being fetched outside the house, and a moment later the young man raised the dilapidated door curtain and walked in, handing Shan Chao a bowl of water and a few mustaches.
"Let's eat."
The pancakes are soft and have a faint golden color. Xiao Shanchao had never eaten soft hummus before. He smelled the fishy smell from the mutton, swallowed and asked, "Why did you buy me?"
——The child's voice was particularly hoarse because of the beating and injury. As long as he made a sound, his throat would smell like iron after blood had dried up.
The young man sat in the corner of the room and said after a while, "There is no reason."
Shan Chao said vigilantly: "I am..."
"You don't need to know."
"… So, who are you?"
The young man finally turned his head to look at him, but his gaze was very long, as if he was looking at a farther place through Shan Chao's small figure.
It was a long time before he opened his mouth, his voice was very flat:
"You don't need to know."
Xiao Danchao has a new owner, but there is no sign of being beaten.
At night, the young man fetched water, stripped Shan Chao, and carefully scrubbed his dirty body with a damp cloth under the oil lamp. Every time he rubbed bruises, purple-black, or bloody wounds, Shan Chao couldn't help making a sound of breathing, which mixed with the cold wind whistling in the desert outside the window.
After wiping, the young man put down the cloth, blew out the oil lamp, and said, "Go to sleep."
The crescent moon in the desert is big and bright, shining into the room from the window, even the fine lines of cracks on the dilapidated walls can be clearly seen.
Xiao Shanchao poked his head out from the kang and looked at the young man lying on his side on the floor.
He didn't even take off his mask when he slept, his side cheeks were shrouded in shadow, and his chest rose and fell regularly. The long sword wrapped in rags was placed beside the pillow, and the palm was resting on the scabbard, as if it would wake up at any moment.
Shan Chao looked at it quietly for a while, then stepped off the kang lightly, walked around the floor like a thief, walked past the young man, and opened the door.
In the middle of the night, the desert is silvery white under the moonlight, the sea of stars is vast in the distance, the Milky Way runs across the sky, and there is a cold and slightly fishy smell in the wind.
want to run
The burning sensation in my stomach caused by years of hunger was lingering, and my injured back and legs were still aching. Xiao Danchao lowered his head to take a breath for a moment, and finally patiently closed the door gently.
He limped around the floor, climbed back onto the kang, opened his eyes and looked at the indissoluble darkness of the night, and heard the steady and rising breathing of the young man in his ears.
Xiao Danchao closed his eyes, and soon fell into a dark dream amidst anxiety, vigilance and irresistible drowsiness.
·
The wound on the body is getting better day by day, solidified, scabbed, and white scars appear on the edge.
Shan Chao had been waiting for the day when he would be called to work, but he didn't.
The young people went out very early every day, riding horses, hunting, trading some things in the dilapidated market where barbarians gathered on the edge of the desert, and bringing back bread and salt. Sometimes there are goat milk and dried bacon in the package, but he rarely touches it himself, and he doesn't seem to like the fishy smell.
He carved various gadgets out of animal bones. Once Shan Chao saw a gray and yellow withered claw hanging by the window, he touched it carefully and asked, "What is this?"
The young man lifted the curtain and walked into the house, untied the longbow and quiver from his back, without lifting his head.
"eagle."
Shan Chao has seen an eagle.
The falcon spread its vigorous wings, flew across the blue sky like an arrow, and flew to an unknown distance, leaving only a small black spot in his eyes in the end.
He secretly took off the eagle claw and hung it around his neck, hiding it under his clothes, sticking to the flesh of his chest.
Young people may not find it, or they may find it and don't care. During dinner, he glanced at the empty window lattice, and said nothing.
That night, Shan Chao sneaked out of the house again, and stood in the small courtyard, facing the howling wind from the depths of the desert. The little boy's heart was pounding in his bony chest. He stretched out his hand to press his chest, and the eagle's claws pressed hard against his palm.
He hesitated for a long time, and the sand dunes in the distance stretched endlessly under the moonlight, stretching as far as the eye can see.
"That's Antares," said a voice behind him.
Shan Chao turned around, and a young man wrapped in a gray and white cloak was standing at the door of the earthen house, looking up at the bright Milky Way in the night sky.
"..."
Shan Chao also raised his head. No one spoke in the small courtyard for a while, only the eternal sea of stars shone quietly above his head.
"... what about that piece?"
"Bullfighting Flame."
"Those two are..."
"Tianshu and Fluctlight."
Under the stars, the sea of sand is dead and silent, and the sound of wolves wandering and howling can be heard in the distance.
Shan Chao lowered his head, silently pinching his palm, the young man turned and pushed open the creaking wooden door.
"Go home and sleep," he said without turning his head.
·
The short conversation late that night, as if it had never happened, was never brought up again. Shan Chao kept observing cautiously and vigilantly, like a wolf cub who has suffered a lot of injuries and is full of vigilance, but he can no longer peek at the calm face under the young man's mask.
The young people took good care of Shan Chao—formula, cold and distant care. Give food and drink, don't ask, rarely speak, almost no conversation. At dusk, he would sit on the roof and look at the burning sunset in the distance. The afterglow rendered the desert layer by layer, like golden water, boundless for thousands of miles, submerging his lonely and thin figure in the long river of halo.
Who is this person? Shan Chao thought.
where is he from? when are we leaving
Will he suddenly leave one day, caught off guard just like when he appeared, and completely abandon himself in the depths of this vast and uninhabited world
Shan Chao's injuries finally healed little by little. After the windy season passed, the blood scabs on his back and legs fell off, leaving only countless scars on his dark and rough skin, which were either deep or shallow, and in different shapes, silently commemorating the countless hunger and homelessness in the past few years .
One night he woke up to drain the water, and when he came back, he saw the young man lying on his side on the floor, the sword in his hand unsheathed for a short period somehow, and the edge of the sword shone with pale blue cold light in circles in the moonlight.
——It was a light that Xiao Shanchao had never seen in his life. It was extremely beautiful and clear, but also extremely cold and terrifying. The bloody iron chains on the lutes of adult slaves are even more terrifying, and even a tingling chill runs down the spine.
He stood by the side of the bed for a while, his eyes unblinking, his chest panting slightly.
After a while he finally couldn't hold back anymore, he slowly squatted down and stretched out his hand, wanting to lightly touch the pure blue sword like frozen water.
At this moment, the young man closed his eyes and grabbed his wrist with his backhand, knocking him over like lightning!
"what!"
Shan Chao was caught off guard, his back fell to the ground hard, and then his body sank, the young man turned over and sat up, the long sword clanged out of its sheath, and it was stuck in his throat!
All of this happened in a blink of an eye, and before Shan Chao recovered from the severe pain, the breath of death enveloped his whole body.
—It was really the first time in his life that he was so close to real death.
As long as it is half an inch closer, Jianfeng can easily cut open his trachea, and slide off his entire neck bone like tofu.
Shan Chao's whole body trembled, and he saw the young man opened his eyes under the moon.
"..."
The two looked at each other for a while, one up and one down, and they were so quiet in the darkness that they couldn't breathe.
"...don't do that next time," the young man finally said, raising his hand to put his sword back into its sheath, with a hint of hoarseness from just waking up in his voice.
"It will kill you."
·
Xiao Shanchao finally decided to run away. He knew that there must be a village not far from here, but he knew that he could not choose the cold night in the desert, preferably in the afternoon.
The young man hunted a sand fox back, took out the internal organs, hung the meat behind the house to dry, and took the skin to the market for salt. It was in the afternoon when he left, and Shan Chao waited until the horseshoe prints at the door were flattened by the wind, then dug out the water and dry food that he had secretly hidden under the kang, went to the back of the house, untied the bacon and put them in the bag, hesitated for a moment Hang it back halfway.
He left the small courtyard, walked to the sand dune and looked back, the small earthen house stood alone in the vast yellow sand, like a lone boat in the sea that was gradually receding.
Goodbye, he thought.
Thank you, stranger.
If every child had the experience of running away in childhood, then for Shan Chao, it was the first time in his life that he traveled long distances.
That experience was so unforgettable that it was deeply engraved in his mind for several years, until it was replaced by a more tragic and desperate escape.
The rough sand under the scorching sun quickly worn through the shoes, causing big blisters on the soles of the feet, and every step I took was painful. Although the amount of water was accurately calculated, it was still difficult for a child who did not know enough about the desert to fight against the rapid evaporation of sweat. The exhaustion and lack of water made his lips chapped, his eyes darkened, and it was difficult to distinguish the direction.
Before sunset, he walked forward almost with perseverance, and survived the hottest and thirstiest stage. Soon dusk fell, night fell, the desert was shrouded by the slowly rising moon, and the extreme cold took away the last trace of heat in the sand.
Xiao Danchao stopped in his tracks.
There are endless sand dunes on all sides, and the sky and the earth are lonely as far as the eye can see, and the eyes are full of gray and white.
The wind smoothed his footprints, and the path was smooth and without traces, as if there had never been any evidence of existence.
"..." Shan Chao's lips moved, as if he wanted to murmur something to the young man, but no sound came out.
His voice was already very hoarse.
And he never knew the man's name either.
Shan Chao fell to the ground, opened his skin bag and drank the last sip of water, then threw the skin bag away, and lay down on his back on the cold sand.
In autumn, the Milky Way traverses the sky, and it is particularly clear and brilliant in the desert, transforming into a turbulent star tide. The heaven and the earth are like the first swaddling clothes of life, gently wrapping the little boy's scarred body, gentle, cruel and vast, leading his last trace of consciousness to the eternal abyss.
There will never be hunger again.
No more long fears, no hopeless loneliness.
"... Bullfighting, Antares..."
In that similar late night, the young man wrapped in a coarse cloak looked up at the sky and pointed to the vast sea of stars: "Tianshu, Yuheng, Yaoguang..."
Xiao Danchao made a backhand, grabbed the sand, and turned over with difficulty.
He staggered and climbed two steps and then fell down. After a while, he got up little by little, looking in the direction he came from in a daze.
—At that moment, his slack pupils suddenly tightened.
On the sand dunes not far away, the young man's clothes fluttered in the wind, and his thin figure was stretched out in the moonlight.
He stretched out his hand to Shan Chao, with an eagle claw quietly lying on his palm, and said in a low and calm voice, "You left something behind."
"..."
The two looked at each other, and an indescribable emotion suddenly rose from the bottom of Xiao Shanchao's heart and rushed straight to his throat.
However, he was so thirsty that he couldn't even shed a tear, and he could only breathe hoarsely and unpleasantly in his chest, and he got up from the ground with some strength he didn't know where he came from: "——Are you here to kill me?"
The young man shook his head.
"Then what are you doing here?"
The wind blows a sharp whistle, and a pack of wolves howls in the distance, wandering and wandering, gradually heading towards the rising moon.
"...I'll take you back, Shan Chao." The young man finally said.
"You have a place you deserve to go back to, and I'm the one to take you back."
Shock, suspicion and bewilderment gradually appeared in Xiao Danchao's eyes, but the young man's face behind the mask showed no expression at all. They stared at each other for a long time, the gradually rising crescent moon changed the angle of their shadows, Shan Chao finally spoke hoarsely and tremblingly: "You... who are you?"
The young man lowered his eyelashes, then reached out and took off the mask.
At that moment, the emotion in Xiao Danchao's eyes was immediately replaced by another kind of surprise.
The young man raised his eyes to look at him, his eyes were deep and steady, and his face was handsome and calm. At this moment, there is no one more beautiful than him in the world. The silver light of the stars and the moon is reflected in the desert, as if the whole world is smudged with a gentle and faint halo, and all the pain and despair are scattered and carried far away. .
"My surname is Xie, word cloud."
"A star of beacon fire, a cloud of new clouds and autumn."
"Being a teacher for one day and being a father for the rest of your life, you will be your master from now on."
There were long footprints winding in the desert under the starry sky, Xie Yun carried eleven-year-old Shan Chao on his back, and walked towards the simple hut made of stones in the distance.
There was a warm oil lamp, and the wick crackled softly, shining brightly in the dark night.
"Master..."
"Ok?"
"Where do you think we are going back?"
Xie Yun turned his head to look to the south, then looked away after a while, and exhaled softly.
"There will always be a day..." He answered the wrong question, white air drifted from his lips, and disappeared soundlessly into the cold autumn night in Mobei.
·
At the same time, at the bottom of the cliff in Forging Sword Village.
Lightning illuminated the sky again, earth-shattering rolling thunder exploded, and the torrential rain finally poured down from the night sky.
"... huh... huh..."
In the heavy rain, Shan Chao's eyes were closed tightly, his muscles tensed to the point of convulsions, and terrible blue veins popped out of his ten knuckles. The next moment he suddenly burst into flames, reflexively drew his sword backhand, and Qixing Longyuan burst into a shocking long howl!
Swipe!
Xueguang cut off the rain curtain, and the sword intent roared out, crashing into the surrounding rocks!
"Thank you..." Shan Chao was confused and in severe pain, pressed his forehead tightly, and unconsciously spit out two words between his teeth: "Xie Yun—"