Qingzhou City is not big, and when you leave the city gate, you will see endless farmland.
Xia Xun walks behind the crow and walks through the fields in late summer and early autumn. In the ridges of the fields, the plump ears of wheat present an attractive golden yellow.
The crow landed on the Scarecrow's shoulder from time to time, waiting for him to follow.
It flew over acre after acre of wheat fields, and finally stopped at a reservoir in the field.
Xia Xun walked over slowly.
The cistern seemed to have been abandoned for a long time, and most of the bricks beside the pool had collapsed. Under the messy bricks, a human hand was impressively exposed.
Xia Xun was startled and took half a step back.
The crow yelled at the right time, as if urging.
Xia Xun understood, he knew whose hand this was.
He kicked away the large bricks, and the figure below gradually became clear. The first thing to be revealed was the thick brown curly hair, followed by Xia Xun's familiar scimitar, and finally, the owner of the scimitar—Fu Meng Tancha.
His nose was bruised and his face was swollen, his face was black, and there was blood at the corner of his mouth.
Xia Xun squatted down and patted his face several times:
"Wake up, wake up!"
Fumeng Tancha remained motionless.
Xia Xun saw his wine bag in the pile of rocks, picked it up, weighed it, and there was still wine in it.
He opened the lid and poured all the wine on Fumeng Tancha's face.
The wine poured into his nostrils, and Fumeng Tancha coughed violently, finally opened his eyes.
He slowly opened his eyelids, licked his chapped lips, and criticized Xia Xun in the first sentence:
"You are really... reckless..."
Xia Xun said lightly:
"You can still talk, it seems that you are not dead yet."
Fumeng Tancha laughed dryly, moved his eyes, and looked at his abdomen:
"Half a foot... is on the Naihe Bridge... I'm not dead now, I'm going to die soon..."
Xia Xun followed his gaze down and saw a huge bloody hole in his left abdomen.
Fumeng Tancha was dying:
"Let me tell you first, I didn't break my promise... It was Mr. Chen's people who arrested me... This big hole in my stomach... Also, thanks to them..."
Fumeng Tancha's whereabouts were discovered by Chen Xiangong's subordinates, they arrested him, tortured him, and got information from him, only to learn that Qi Yan was going to Tongchang teahouse.
Before the action, the group of people worried that Fumeng Tancha would leak information, so they stabbed him and threw him into the cistern.
Fumeng Tancha did not die, but survived these days lingering in the pile of bricks and stones.
Xia Xun looked at his wound and said to him:
"... You may not be saved."
Fumeng Tancha grinned and said with difficulty:
"It's still use... you say!"
Xia Xun thought for a while and asked him, "What wish do you have?"
Fumeng Tanza closed his eyes and said angrily:
"I... betrayed you, and you still want to help me...?"
Xia Xun said: "Don't talk nonsense, if you don't talk about business, you may really be too late."
Fumeng Tancha laughed dryly twice, a burst of dizziness struck him, and he closed his eyes.
Xia Xun knew that he was not dead yet, so she waited quietly.
After a long while, Fumeng Tancha gathered enough strength and spoke again:
"I really have a wish... You use my knife to cut off a strand of my hair..."
Xia Xun raised the knife and cut off a section of dry curly hair.
Fumeng Tancha panted heavily:
"Very good...you, together with this knife, help me...send it to Shanshan! There...is my hometown..."
Fumeng Tancha's eyes were dark, and when he was on the verge of death, he told Xia Xun about his life experience.
Fumeng Tancha was born in Tanni, the capital of the Shanshan Kingdom in the Western Regions. At the age of nine, he was abducted and sold to the capital by Ren Yazi, where he was sold to Lord Chen.
There were also many barbarians who were sold together with him. County Lord Chen invited special personnel to train them and turn them into his own slayers.
If they refused to obey the order, they would be killed by wild dogs released by the county government.
In order to survive, Fumeng Tancha had to sacrifice his life for Duke Chen. Over the years, he had killed many people for him.
"This is retribution..." Fumeng Tancha coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood: "I used to kill people, but now people kill me... I deserve what I deserve, and I don't deserve sympathy... But I really want to go home! You put my Take the knife and hair back, and bury it... outside the west gate of the capital, Muni City, where is my home... "
Fumeng Tancha's voice weakened little by little, his mouth was still opening and closing.
Xia Xun leaned over, trying to hear what he was saying.
What he murmured repeatedly was a Tocharian phrase, and Xia Xun happened to have learned this phrase from Shao Bo.
Fumeng Tancha is saying: "Aniang, Aniang... take me... home..."
After a while, his mouth slowly closed and never opened again, and the slight ups and downs of his chest gradually disappeared.
The early autumn wind brought coolness, and the ears of wheat rubbed against each other, making a rustling sound. Under the bright sunshine, Fumeng Tancha stopped breathing.
Xia Xun watched for a while and saw that the blood vessels in his neck were still trembling, so she immediately stretched out her hand and pressed Fumeng Tancha's heart.
—His heart was still beating slowly.
He couldn't breathe anymore, and his heart still refused to die, and he still struggled desperately with the last bit of strength.
Fumengtancha was unwilling, he didn't want to die.
Xia Xun pulled his two wrists, dragged him out of the broken bricks, dragged his arm along the gully in the field, and dragged him forward with difficulty.
Fumeng Tancha was very heavy, and after Xia Xun walked away for a while, a familiar tingling sensation came from his lower back.
He stopped, dropped Fumeng Tanza's arm, straightened up, took a few breaths, and then picked him up to continue walking.
After repeating this several times, Xia Xun finally dragged him to a ruined temple.
This dilapidated earth temple was what he saw on the way here. There was no one in the temple, and even the statue of the earth god was missing half a shoulder.
Fortunately, in the censer, there is still a furnace of incense ash accumulated over the years.
Xia Xun peeled off Fumeng Tancha's shirt, picked up a handful of ashes, and without hesitation, buried it into the bloody hole in his lower abdomen.
The unbearable pain of ordinary people pulled Fumeng Tancha back from the brink of life and death. He stood up abruptly, his eyes widened to the limit, and the veins on his neck were bulging. If Xia Xun hadn't pressed his wound firmly, he would have After a while, I was rolling on the ground in pain.
There was nowhere to hide from the pain, he let out a wail, grasped the soil with both hands tightly, ten finger holes appeared in the soil immediately, his legs twitched from the pain, and his whole body kept bouncing on the mud, as if being caught A beast caught in a trap.
And Xia Xun is that cruel beast trap.
He turned a blind eye to Fumeng Tancha's reaction, grabbed another handful of incense ash and stuffed it into his wound.
He felt it was not enough to do so, so he simply picked up the censer and poured the ashes inside on Fumeng Tancha's wound.
After a furnace of incense ash was used up, Fumeng Tancha was like a snake whose skin had been skinned, sweating profusely and lying limp on the ground, panting heavily.
Xia Xun had no strength left, so she let go of her hands, fell back and sat on the ground.
Fumeng Tancha could not speak, gasped with his mouth open, and looked at him with his eyes.
Xia Xun patted the incense ash off her hands, and said to him:
"Don't try to lie to me. Shanshan Kingdom is thousands of miles away from the capital. Who will do this hard work for you? If you want to go home and see Auntie, go see her yourself."
Fumeng Tanza continued intermittently:
"To tell you the truth... were you just... taking revenge on me? Taking revenge on me... betraying your whereabouts...? You actually stuffed incense ash...in my stomach...?"
Xia Xun leaned back and lay down on the ground:
"I don't know what's good...! My back hurts too much, otherwise I really want to give you two punches."
Fumeng Tancha pulled the corners of his mouth and showed a forced smile.
Regardless of whether Xia Xun could see it or not, he took it as a thank you to Xia Xun.
Looking at the leaky roof, Xia Xun suddenly remembered something and asked him:
"Where's your bird? Why didn't I see it?"
Fumeng Tancha hurriedly glanced down:
"... still! In my crotch...! It scared me to death, I thought I was eunuched by those people—"
Xia Xun sat up abruptly:
"What are you thinking?! Who asked you this?? I mean your crow!!"
Fumeng Tancha closed his eyes and said wearily:
"You say it... it's very smart, it will find a safe place by itself..."
He tilted his head and fainted again.
Xia Xun slowly got up and built a fire beside him, so that after nightfall, the beasts would not dare to approach.
It was getting dark, and he had to rush back to Chu Anyu's house, so he couldn't stay here.
Before leaving, he closed the dilapidated wooden door of the Earth Temple as a cover.
Duke Chen's subordinates were all captured by Chu Anyu, no one would continue to hunt down Fumeng Tancha, whether he survived or not was up to him.
In the next few days, Qi Yan's injury tended to be stable, but he did not wake up for a long time. Xia Xun sometimes brought wound medicine and food, and went to the ruined temple to help Meng Tancha, the almsman.
Hu Ren was strong and healthy, he suffered a knife wound as big as a bowl, and he recovered faster than Qi Yan. In a few days, he was able to eat the meat Xia Xun brought and chat and laugh happily with him.
Most of the time, he chatted with Xia Xun unilaterally, and he always wanted to find out what the relationship between Xia Xun and Qi Yan was.
Xia Xun kept his mouth shut at first, not mentioning a few words, but was annoyed by the question, and asked instead:
"Don't talk about me, what's your plan next?"
Fumengtancha thought for a while and said:
"I'll send you back to Lingnan. I promised you before, how can I break my promise? Didn't you say that Qi Yan is still awake? It's just an opportunity, you prepare, we'll be on our way in two days!"
Xia Xun hesitated for a moment and rejected him.
"...Let me think again."
Fumeng Tancha said again:
"That's true! The barren places in Lingnan are not suitable for living... Why don't you go back to the Western Regions with me! You saved my life, and as long as I have food in the future, you will be indispensable!"
Xia Xun said with disgust:
"Forget it, Shanshan is not as good as Douzhou!"
After a while, he reacted slowly, and he asked the barbarians:
"Are you... ready to go?"
Fumeng Tancharang laughed and said:
"You have discovered this! You are really more cunning than the foxes on the prairie! That's right, thanks to your incense ash, my injury has healed a lot! I plan to go a certain distance north and hide in the barbarian's chamber of commerce for a while." It's time to recuperate, and I can go home with peace of mind when County Lord Chen falls! I wanted to leave during the day, and I waited until you came to say goodbye to you."
Xia Xun nodded: "You did the right thing, that's the only way to be safe."
Fumeng Tancha's brown pupils stared at him:
"Let me ask you one last time, are you really not going back to Lingnan? This is your only chance."
Xia Xun shook her head firmly.
Fumeng Tancha stood up slowly, his injury was still aching, for him who was used to suffering, this pain was nothing.
A black crow flew down from the eaves and landed on his shoulder.
He picked up the scimitar, hung it on his waist, and said goodbye to Xia Xun for the last time:
"Goodbye—no, I'm afraid we won't have a chance to meet again in the future."
Xia Xun looked at him calmly.
He waved his hands exaggeratedly as a farewell, and then took the wine bag and stepped out of the gate of the Earth Temple.
Just like many times before, his figure quickly disappeared into the night without any nostalgia.
Xia Xun should go too.
He stood up, stepped on the fire, and returned to Qingzhou City against the moonlight.
As soon as he entered the door of Chu Anyu's house, Zhigui greeted him with a happy face:
"Where have you been, my lord? Tell the servants to find it! Good news! My lord is awake!"