I don't know what happened, but all the worries and concerns I had when I left the city have disappeared. I am already enjoying the scenery along the road happily, as if nothing has to do with me. I am thinking that after the Yellow Turban Army is wiped out, I will come here to play with my sister, and simply build a thatched house, wandering among the mountains and rivers every day, riding horses, how nice it would be.
After asking a passerby, I learned that if I followed this road, I would reach Xinye before dusk. After running for a whole morning, I was tired and hungry, so I stopped to rest. The horse might not be able to run any longer. I led the horse and followed the sound of water to a mountain spring. I untied the reins and let the horse eat its own lunch. I untied my bag and put my head in the water to cool off. Then, I sat under the shade of a tree, ate some dry food, and watched the cicadas chirping.
Suddenly, something hard hit the back of my head. I couldn't bear the pain and fell forward. I felt that something had happened and someone must have attacked me. Before I could get up, a childish voice rang out. I listened, thought for a moment, and then did not get up.
"Brother, we caught a big guy. He's wearing official boots. He must be a bad guy."
Wearing official boots, I am not a good person? Fortunately, I was not wearing official uniform, otherwise I would definitely not be a good person, and he would have used something harder to greet me.
"He also has a sword, brother, come quickly, haven't you always wanted a sword? Brother, what are you doing?"
"Come and help me," a rough voice came from a distance, but it still sounded childish, "I can't pull this horse by myself."
These two guys actually wanted to rob me, so you had to hit me on the head with great force. Now I don’t even feel the pain.
"Wait a minute, I'll be right there." He leaned over, and I quickly closed my eyes. His hand was on my waist, trying to remove my sword. You're looking for death, I just realized that my hand had already moved first, and my left hand took advantage of the situation and knocked the guy to the ground.
The guy was startled and immediately climbed up the big tree next to him, shouting, "The big guy is alive again."
I am not dead, so why am I alive again? I thought to myself, and my hands were not idle, so I went to pull him. He was quite skilled. I only pulled off one of his straw sandals. When I tried to pull him again, he disappeared into the dense leaves like a monkey.
I was just about to climb up when his brother came running over. He was startled when he saw me. This guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes seemed taller than me, but not much shorter than me. He probably didn't expect to see someone taller than him.
"Brother, Xin, he has a sword."
No, I forgot I had a sword with me. But it makes no difference whether I wear it or not. I don’t know how to use it. If you ask me what I can do, I can throw stones.
However, the man was cautious and picked up a branch from the ground.
I threw the sword down. I guess he didn't expect that I couldn't wield a sword. I was afraid that I would hurt myself when I used it. But I didn't say that. "Come on, I won't take advantage of you."
He was at a loss, looking at me and then at the stick in his hand. He must have been shocked by what I said, or he really didn't know whether he could beat me without the stick. However, he finally dropped the stick.
The fight started but ended quickly. He was much weaker than me and I caught him under my arms. It turned out that this way of grabbing people was wrong. A big tooth mark appeared on my left arm. I covered my arm and watched the second monkey jump up the tree.
I looked at the tree and sometimes I could see their heads peeking out from the leaves, to see if I would climb up there. I wasn't stupid enough to climb up there, but I didn't want to be hit on the head with a stick.
I circled the tree twice. The tree was not very thick, and an idea came to my mind. I rolled up my sleeves, took off my shirt, put my arms around the tree, and started to pull it out. Then both me and the tree began to tremble.
The shaking of the tree might have been caused by the trembling of the two children above.
I thought that I was not strong enough, so I had to think of another way. But before I could think of a way, they both fell down. Fortunately, there were no stones on the ground, and the dead leaves over the years had made the ground softer than my window mattress. Even so, they still fell hard, and kept groaning on the ground.
This was beyond my expectation. Looking at the two captives, I didn't know what to do for a moment. However, I still tied up their hands with horse reins to prevent them from jumping up the tree again once they recovered.
"How did you fall?" I was very interested in this.
No one answered, and then a big green caterpillar fell down and landed on the younger brother. The child was a child, so he screamed and buried his head in his brother's arms, while his brother was trying to blow the caterpillar off his brother's body with his mouth. I basically knew why they fell down.
I smiled and shook my head, walked over and took the bug away with my hand. For the first time, I saw that there was no hostility in the brother's eyes, and perhaps a hint of gratitude.
I thought it was easier for us to communicate now, and I guessed they wouldn't attack me again. I untied the reins, and the younger brother was still looking for bugs on his body. But he didn't run away, and neither did his brother. I thought it was getting late and I had to leave. I couldn't leave the reins here, and I couldn't let these two kids starve to death here. Although I was not much older than them, I was the garrison commander of Xiangyang, so I was an adult.
I didn't say anything to them and just turned and left.
"Uncle" I almost fainted, I'm not that old, am I
"What did you call me?" I asked unhappily.
"Forgive me, grandpa!" I was just reaching the spring to pick up my bag. When I heard this, my legs went weak and I fell.
"Are you okay? We didn't mean to do that. We thought you were a dead official."
The official didn't seem to be a good person. At least the common people hated him. I guess it was all the work of the guys in the past. I shook my head. I picked up the bag. Then I knew why they called me uncle. My face was covered with mud. Although it was mud, I felt like I had a beard. I quickly washed it off. When I turned around, the eyes of the two guys lit up.
"Brother, I'm sorry, we attacked you by surprise."
"You seem to be brothers? What are your names?"
The other one took over the conversation, "Yes, my brother's name is Zhou Jian, and my name is Zhou Yin."
"not good."
"Why not?"
"One is called Yin (yin), and the other is called Jian (jian). Together they sound like Yin and Jian, which is not good. Take me to your parents. These names are not good. I will tell them that you need to change your name."
"No need, our parents are..."
"So they are just like me." It was the first time I realized that I liked these two brothers so much. Maybe it was because they shared the same pain, or maybe they depended on each other for survival. I began to miss my sister. I wondered if she was still crying.
"Brother, so you... We all chose our own names. Can you help us change them?"
"Let me think about it." I couldn't think of a good one for the moment.
"Then big brother, please go to the village where we live first." They were very enthusiastic. I thought it wouldn't take much time, so I stayed with them for a while. I put the reins on the horse and watched what they were looking for.
"Yin, your shoes are here, but they seem to be broken." I knew I tore them.
"It's okay, I'll go back and weave another pair." Then he took off the straw sandal on his foot and ran over barefoot.
"Zhou Yin, get on my horse, you have no shoes on."
"Really?" He certainly had never ridden a horse before and was very excited. He jumped onto the horse, then slipped and fell off the saddle. He stood up, patted his clothes, kindly accepted my help, and finally got on the horse.
After taking a few steps, Zhou Yin started shouting again.
"Brother, where's your headscarf?"
Zhou Jian rubbed his hands and started looking everywhere. I was just about to tell him, forget it, I'll give you one piece.
Zhou Yin was sharp-eyed and pointed to the bush. Zhou Jian ran over and came back, still muttering to himself, "It must have fallen when I was pulling the horse."
When he put on the turban, I was stunned immediately, because he was wearing a yellow turban.