It was an old farmer who was passing by and asked him a few words. Duan Ling clenched the dagger in his hand, waiting for him to do something, and then he rushed to end the life of the other party. Fortunately, the other party found out that Duan Ling was a Han Chinese, so he didn't show too much doubt, just motioned him to climb on his bullock cart, hang the lights on the bullock cart, and continue on his way.
Duan Ling was lying on the haystack and fled for days, he had exhausted all his strength. He huddled in the haystack and fell asleep. He didn't know how much he had walked. At dawn, he felt that he was hugging a warm body. .
The dog's tongue licked on his face, Duan Ling woke up immediately and reached out to grab the dagger, but the big dog picked up the dagger and handed it to him. Duan Ling was dumbfounded and touched the big dog's head.
It is a long day in the wilderness, and the autumn air is refreshing. Farmers are sitting on the side of the road, chatting with people. At the end of the road, there is a village where chickens and dogs hear each other.
Duan Ling got out of the car and kowtowed to the farmer to thank him, but the farmer stopped him and handed him a cloth bag with a few cakes in it.
Duan Ling devoured the food, walked while eating, and went to drink some spring water when he was thirsty. Taking a shower, when squatting and rubbing his face and washing his hair, his naked body was reflected in the stream, and he was no longer as immature as a child. What was reflected in the water was a handsome young man.
I grew up - Duan Ling thought.
He will be fifteen years old next year. He has grown a lot taller and his arms are thicker. He often draws a bow and shoots arrows, so that his shoulders and back are broad, and the outline of his chest muscles is not obvious. Duan Ling felt that it was not very real.
He washed his clothes, dried them, put them on, draped the cloth bag over his back, whistled, and walked on sadly and alone.
When the last yellow leaf floated off the branches, winter came, and Duan Ling also set foot on the road to enter Yubi Pass.
Outside Yubi Pass are all refugees who fled south. He mixed in the crowd and heard people speak Liao, Xianbei, Chinese and Dangxiang. The accents from various places were mixed together. , Hanging alone, weeping, weeping, and complaining, we walked slowly to the south.
He walked in the crowd, and at a glance, there were 300,000 to 400,000 torrents, and he didn't know where the end was.
Yubi Pass was unwilling to open and close, so the refugees had to turn over along Jiangjunling. Some were shot to death by the Yuan army, some fell off the cliff and were smashed to pieces. The bodies and clothes were stripped down along the way. Duanling was used to seeing death along the way. , but still couldn't help crying for this scene.
Fortunately, before the first snow came, the Yubi Pass finally opened, and the refugees were moved into the Central Plains. Facing the fork in the road, Duan Ling didn't know where to go.
"Just ask." Duan Ling asked, "Where is Xichuan heading?"
"Nishikawa?" someone replied, "It's far away..."
Before a sentence was finished, the crowd behind them urged to leave quickly and separated Duan Ling from the man. Duan Ling had to ask Xichuan how to get there, and someone else asked him, "Why are you going to Xichuan?"
"Look for my father!" Duan Ling shouted to the person five steps away from a numb man.
"Xichuan, of course, walk along the west side!" the man replied.
So Duan Ling took another road, but people's footsteps were always faster than the wind and snow, and the colder they went, the winter came.
Since he left Xianbei Mountain, he has walked all the way in ragged clothes, like a beggar, grabbing a few coarse clothes along the way, and wrapping them all over his body, his hair is messy, and his feet are full of blood blisters.
When I got to Xichuan, my father almost didn't recognize me anymore, Duan Ling laughed at himself.
Several times he saw Nan Chen's soldiers passing by, and suddenly he had the urge to go up to stop the horse and say that I am your prince, and take me to Xichuan.
However, just thinking about it and knowing that others will only regard him as a lunatic. Duan Ling had no choice but to keep walking forward, until when Luoyan City came down, Duan Ling couldn't move anymore.
If he goes on like this, he will only die cold on the road.
As winter entered the entire northern region, Duanling had to enter Luoyan City to escape the cold.
The first heavy snow fell without warning. The snow swelled and covered the earth gently. Overnight, the whole city was carved with jade, and the ruined temples, streets and alleys were all refugees from the war. Fortunately, Duanling squeezed into the ruined temple. One of the positions, leaning against the half-blocking wall, saved a small life.
The once-familiar feeling came again. Hunger, cold, pain, the deepest childhood memories were gnawing at his soul. Hunger was like a greedy wolf, biting at his internal organs and ripping them together mercilessly; cold was like a pair of piercing hands that kept stroking his body, which was only wrapped in a coarse cloth; the pain was still Like needles, it attacked from all over the body. The heavy torture made his whole body convulsed.
He hugged himself, huddled up, trembling and looked out through a small hole in the wall, watching the warm lights in the city and the heavy snow that fell everywhere, covering the living and the dead , stretches thousands of miles across thousands of years.
Behind him is the old and peeling paint in the temple, and the kindly Bodhisattva pinches his fingers, overlooking the sad and cold soul in front of him.
That night, more than 1,400 people froze to death in Luoyan City.
The next day, Duan Ling stumbled up and walked outside the temple, nearly half of the people in the temporary shelter had stopped breathing.
He must go to the market and find a job at once, or he will die here in another night. There were people coming and going in the market, everyone was wrapped in jackets, Duan Ling stood in the snow and looked at everyone who looked at him with pleading eyes, too cold to speak.
"Selling yourself?" someone asked him.
"Don't sell yourself." Duan Ling replied tremblingly.
A few ruffians just found it funny, patted his mouth, asked him to open his mouth, checked whether his teeth were aligned, and asked him to walk a few steps, Duan Ling just took a step, and then they went to see the crickets again.
He hesitated whether to use the dagger as a dagger, or hold the dagger and put it on someone's back to grab some money. Even if he grabbed the money from the stall and ran away, it might be a relief. All the land in this world, all the money, logically belongs to him, but he never did that.
"I didn't steal the money! I didn't steal the lady's money!"
Those words kept echoing in his mind, and when the sun was setting, there was a commotion out of nowhere, and someone shouted, "Go to the fire!"
Duan Ling ran with people after collecting the stalls in the market. A house in the alley was on fire. Many people gathered around the outside to make a fire. Duan Ling heard the cry of a baby inside. face, rushed in.
"Whose child?!" Duan Ling asked anxiously.
No one answered, Duan Ling asked around, and no one asked.
He rescued a baby from the fire, and no one wanted it. What's the point? When the officers and soldiers came, there was nothing they could do about it. Watching it burn, Duan Ling had no choice but to hold the baby and sit at the door of the medicine hall with a numb expression on his face.
Dad, I'm so cold, I'm dying...
Duan Ling thought in a daze, the cry of the baby in his arms gradually decreased. I don't know if it was tired or dead. Duan Ling patted him gently. Raising his throat, howling.
The door of the pharmacy opened.
"Yo, what's the matter?" said the shopkeeper of the medicine hall, "come in."
Duan Ling shivered and climbed in. At that moment, he came back to life again. He shrank for a whole night beside the stove where the medicine was being burned. The staff in the medicine hall resigned and went home. Dan, put the dog skin cream, apply it, and prepare to distribute it to the big families in the city to treat the diseases of wealth and wealth. Duan Ling was so hungry that his eyes darkened. In the middle of the night, the shopkeeper made two taels of wine, poured himself a drink, and threw him two cakes, which Duan Ling broke to feed the child.
"Where did you steal it?" The shopkeeper squinted at him.
Duan Ling replied, "It was rescued from the fire."
"It's pitiful." The shopkeeper said, "Send it to me, I was thinking of getting one from outside."
No one wanted Duan Ling himself. It was not easy for a small baby to survive in this world, so the shopkeeper and the proprietress who could not give birth to a child adopted the child, while Duan Ling built a floor under the medicine cabinet. Act as a temporary assistant in the pharmacy.
Most of the other refugees who came to the city had no skills. In order to survive, they could only steal things, but Duan Ling’s hands and feet were very clean. He could recognize the medicinal materials and could write. The shopkeeper was afraid that he would be interrogated by the government to take in the refugees, so he let him hide in a dark room, facing the whole room of medicinal materials, cutting medicine, picking medicine, dispensing medicine, and giving him something to eat on weekdays, the proprietress occasionally came over with a child Look, I'll give him some money.
The shopkeeper was very satisfied with Duan Ling and decided to let him stay. This stay is three months.
The coldest time in winter finally passed. Duan Ling picked up a few jackets that the shopkeeper didn't want to wear. It was warm and didn't need to spend money, which was good. After saving a little travel expenses, I can finally go to Xichuan.
He inquired about the way, and it would take half a month to go to Xichuan. He didn't have a household registration certificate, so he must not be able to enter the capital. When you get under the city wall, are you afraid that you won't be able to get in? When the snow began to melt, Duan Ling packed up all his belongings, went over to see the child who was waiting to be fed, patted his head, turned around and closed the door of the medicine hall, left a letter to say goodbye, put a small burden on his back, and set foot on the road. way home.
Spring is gradually coming, and Luoyan City seems to be just an unimportant page. He walked along the official road for half a month to reach Dejiangzhou.
This is what Dad said about Jiangzhou, Duan Ling thought to himself.
It is as prosperous as Li Jianhong said, but there are no peach blossoms. It must be the time.
He asked people, but he couldn't understand the Jiangzhou dialect. Someone promised to take him to Xichuan, but he was just playing around with him, confused, and was cheated of some money. Finally, he boarded a boat at the ferry port outside Jiangzhou City, paid a fare of 120 bucks, made a floor with the boatmen, and headed upstream to Xichuan. Once he got to the south, it was easy to warm up. Under the bright sunshine, Duanling was far away. Sit on the bow and don't talk to anyone.
The green mountains on both sides of the strait were like ink, reminding him of the evening when Lang Junxia took him away from Shangzi.
Xichuan has arrived.
The Wenzhong Mountain, Fengshui, and Xichuan City in front of him were all places that Li Jianhong had told him.
It seemed a little familiar, but also a little strange, he was standing on the official road, and the wind was blowing, and the two green wheat fields had begun to sow in spring.
On this day, half a year has passed since he escaped from Shangjing.