It has been three years since Geng Yuan's slaughter in the world.
The spring rain nourished Zheng's fields like oil. The pear blossoms were knocked down and stuck to the wet bluestone floor. The ruts ran over the mud between the stone bricks and deeply imprinted the snow-white pear flowers. The bells came and went, and came in from outside the high walls of the deep houses in Xundong City. The merchants walked through the streets and alleys, shouting three long and one short. When they arrived at Jiang's house in the north of Decheng, they did not stop, only quickened their pace and walked past the corner gate. .
The family did not know when they moved here, and they never chatted with their neighbors. Raising a seven-year-old child, he occasionally climbs on top of the bed, clings to the high wall and looks out, watching melancholy at the urchins chasing in the streets and alleys.
"The Guard is Here"
In Xundong City, anyone who has seen the boy would not fail to praise him for his beauty. Some of them are so delicate and agile, and it is not difficult to imagine his mother's beauty. It's a pity that it was rumored that she was a widow, and many disciples had nothing to do. They tried to find a reason and tried to knock on the door of Jiang's house, but for some reason, they were unsuccessful.
The high wall of Jiang's house is like the four walls of a cricket jar, isolating the noise outside the wall and the loneliness inside the wall. Jiang Heng, who is only seven years old, often looks up at the sky and clouds outside the wall. What I heard the most was the intermittent cough of my mother from the west wing.
Jiang Heng had already passed the age of Kaimeng, and he was neither invited nor allowed to go to school at home. His mother personally taught him to read and urge him to study, and she was often strict. Just an hour.
Over the years, Jiang Heng remembered that there were only a few guests in the house. He even heard his mother's name from the guests' mouths. There was a strange old man who was tall and tall, with yellow beard and deep nose and eyes. In the donkey cart, he carried a cart of bamboo slips for him to read, calling his mother "Mrs. Zhao", and Jiang Heng knew that his mother called him "Zhao". Apart from that, there was no mention of who his father was or where his grandparents were.
"Who is my father?"
"You don't have a father, don't ask." The mother's answer was concise and powerful.
Except for his mother, who served the house every day and accompanied his mother and son, there was only an old dumb servant named "Wei Po". Jiang Hengsheng was very active, and he was full of words and had no one to say, and he couldn't get out. Last winter, he managed to steal Granny Wei's key to the corner door, sneaked to the market to have a look, and was beaten when he got home, and he will remember it in a hundred years.
But when he heard his mother's coughing every night, Jiang Heng couldn't help but sigh.
"When can I go out?" Jiang Heng shouted, "I want to go out!"
"On the day I die, naturally no one will be able to lock you up." Mrs. Zhao said coldly, "Don't worry, look at your mother, you won't live for a few more years."
Jiang Heng's face was full of tears, and he was immediately frightened. He stared at his mother in a daze, and Mrs. Zhao showed a rare cruel smile on the corner of her mouth: "If you pray to the sky every day, and ask God to take away your mother and me, I can't say more. earlier."
Mrs. Zhao sat upright on the couch in the hall, dressed in brocade clothes, neatly dressed, and half-hidden in the darkness of the airtight hall. She said these words with justice, which made her son shudder.
Having read a lot of sage books, Jiang Heng knew that he was a child, not asking the heaven to bless his parents was unfilial, and cursing his mother to die early was no different from a pig and a dog.
So Jiang Heng didn't dare to raise the door again, so he had to read his book in a proper manner, hoping that when his mother would change his mind, let him go out and play happily on the New Year's Day or other festivals.
Or there are a few more guests, so that he can hear things outside through the crack of the main room door. Perhaps God heard Jiang Heng's prayer. On this day, when he was holding a bamboo slip, bearing the spring sun, and kneeling in the courtyard, there were several "knock knock knock" sounds outside the gate.
There has been no one at home for over a year!
Jiang Heng raised his heart immediately, and looked at the courtyard gate secretly across the flowers and trees. The knock on the door quickly disappeared, replaced by the warm spring breeze blowing across the empty courtyard at noon. Jiang Heng thought he had heard it wrong, thinking it was the sound of Granny Wei pounding a fire stick under the kitchen.
"Knock knock knock."
The knock on the door rang again.
"Mother Wei!" Jiang Heng shouted hurriedly, "There are guests!"
Granny Wei was stooped, and although she was mute, she could hear her. Jiang Heng kept kneeling and shouted to the firewood room a few times. For fear that no one would open the door, the guests ran away. In the end, he turned his heart away, put down the scroll, and ran quickly to the screen wall. He came quickly, took a heavy brass key, unlocked the door, and pulled the latch.
Jiang Heng pulled the door open and looked up, but there was nothing there. When he lowered his head again, he saw an animal standing outside the door and was startled.
"Looking for Mrs. Zhao," said the boy's voice.
Jiang constant concentration, rubbed his eyes, Fang saw that there was a man in front of him, this savage was similar to him, with disheveled hair, dark skin, a face so dirty that it was impossible to see where the nose and mouth were, only the eyes were very bright.
The little savage was wearing a tattered, muddy animal fur vest, and the bloody animal fur around his neck, exposing the young man's arms, which were covered in blood, some scabbed, and some scabbed. So open, flies buzzed around him, he wore a pair of straw sandals, and his legs were covered in mud.
The little savage carried a long and narrow wooden box almost as tall as him on his back, with a root tie around his waist and a dagger's sheath, revealing a simple and simple dagger.
A foul smell followed him a step forward, as if something tangible rushed in, wrapping Jiang Heng in it. Jiang Heng was a little stunned, but he didn't step back, instead he extended his hand towards him.
The savage was also stunned, realizing that Jiang Heng seemed to want to hold hands with him, so he rubbed his right hand on his body. , rushed to the side, made a small vacancy, and signaled the little beggar to come in. Then he closed the door, bolted it, and locked the door.
Jiang Heng was rushed to the courtyard and continued his unfinished kneeling punishment. When the sundial was past noon, he watched Madam Wei bring the little beggar into the main room, closed the door, and stooped back to the kitchen.
There was a slight sound of broken porcelain in the main room—the mother accidentally broke something.
Jiang Heng immediately put down the scroll, got up, took off his boots, and quietly slipped out of the main room, clawed at the crack of the door, and looked in.
In the dark and airtight main room, as soon as the door was closed, it was pitch black. Mrs. Zhao was hiding in the darkness. The little beggar was kneeling on the ground. The face that was so dirty that it was impossible to tell the expression fell in his bright eyes, before his knees.
He patiently put down the long and narrow wooden box, pushed it forward, and took out a silk cloth full of words from his arms, spread it out slowly, and spread it on the ground.
"What's your name?" Madam Zhao was in a dream, her voice trembling, like a ghost in the dark who couldn't contain her fear.
"Geng Shu." The savage replied, turned his head again, and took off his scarf earnestly, revealing bloodstains that had been strangled somewhere in his neck, with a red rope tied around his neck. He took out a half-moon-shaped jade pendant from under his underwear. Yujue's fractures were uneven, as if someone cut a jade pendant into two pieces, and what he got was only half of it.
Geng Shu finally put Yujue on the silk and lowered his head quietly, waiting for Mrs. Zhao to answer.
"What do you call him?" Mrs. Zhao trembled, "Do you say it again?"
"I call him 'father'." Geng Shu said.
A violent cough came, and Mrs. Zhao supported the table on the low couch with her elbows. She tried to get up several times, but was unable to get up again.
"Who is your mother?" Mrs. Zhao took a deep breath and stared at Geng Shu with wide eyes.
"Seven'er." Geng Shu's voice was still so calm, he replied.
Mrs. Zhao suddenly became confused, stretched out her hand and pressed it randomly, she didn't know where the key was opened, she pulled out a dagger about two feet long, and said sternly, "Nie Qi, you're hiding it from me, hiding it from me... you... You wild bastard!"
Geng Shu didn't answer. Outside the main room, Jiang Heng covered his mouth in horror. For the first time in his life, he saw his mother holding a sword. Stop trembling, almost at any moment, I will start to kill him!
Geng Shu just lowered his eyebrows and knelt quietly. When Jiang Heng was about to push the door in to save him, a hand like a chicken's claw appeared behind him. He suddenly grabbed his collar and dragged him away from the main room. Jiang Heng's eavesdropping was discovered by Wei Wei.
"Run!" Jiang Heng shouted desperately, and then was covered by Wei Wei's mouth, brought back to the bedroom, and locked the door.
Geng Shu turned his head away, looked outside the closed door of the main room, and then looked up at Mrs. Zhao.
"Dang bang", Mrs. Zhao's dagger fell to the ground, and she lost all her strength for a while, crouching on the table, her shoulders twitched uncontrollably.
After a short silence, Geng Shu opened the wooden box and said, "This is my father's sword, and my mother asked me to bring it to you."
"Get out!" Madam Zhao screamed at Geng Shu like a madman desperately, "Get out of here! If I see you again, I will kill you!"
Immediately afterwards, Mrs. Zhao overturned the case and slammed her head on Geng Shu. Geng Shu retreated a little, leaving the wooden box open, turned around and pushed open the door of the main room, and walked out.
Inside the wooden box, there lay the heavy black sword that Geng Yuan used three years ago.
Geng Shu took out his dagger and tried to pry open the inner lock of the Jiang's door. After a few prying attempts, the copper lock remained unmoved. Geng Shu looked at the high wall again, spit two saliva into the palm of his hand, and was about to hug the tree to climb up, when one hand grabbed his neck from behind, the other locked his wrist, and took him away. .