The Milky Way flows in the night sky.
Under the night, the remote and barren hills and villages, the villages are old, and although there are not many houses and courtyards, there are traces of people's activities everywhere. It is obvious that the villagers have lived here for a long time. A temple on the hillside is obviously a newly built thing, with red tiles and yellow walls, a color that is not easy to see in this desolate mountain village.
In the middle of the night, a figure staggered out of the forest, heading towards the temple. His steps were weak and weak, and while walking, he fell in the thatch on the hillside, then got up again and moved forward quietly.
This is a blood-stained young man in ragged clothes. The straw sandals under his feet are worn out, and the hair after the blood is scabbed like wormwood. There is not much energy in his eyes. The villagers are no different. The only difference is that there is a broken knife hanging from his waist. Although the knife is worn out, it is obviously a sword of a martial artist used to chop and kill people.
The young man approached the temple quietly, his footsteps and figure became more cautious, he groped for a while outside the courtyard wall, and then quietly turned inside.
The world is in chaos, and the temples are not without vigilance, but they are used to dealing with villagers who are easy to deal with. The monks who are watching the night have already taken a nap under the eaves. superior!
The worn-out knife slashed towards the monk's neck, and the young man used all his strength to hold the monk's mouth down, pressing him on the steps. After a while, the monk didn't move, and the bloody aura permeated.
The teenager touched the first house in the yard, he unbolted the door, and sneaked in. There were two beds in the room. The sleeping monk was snoring. The young man saw the monk's neck in the dim light. He held the handle of the knife with one hand and pressed the back of the knife with the other. , Soon after, the teenager touched the other bed...
The star river flows in the sky, and in the temple under the starry sky, the young man staggered and killed the monks in several rooms. When we got to the first few rooms, there was finally a disturbance. The sound of fighting rang out in the room, and a fat monk came out of the door with a messy clothes, with a stick in his hand. The blood of the vigilant monk in the small courtyard had already spilled out into a large pool.
The young man from the rear rushed out, still with the broken knife in his hand, his eyes were fierce like a mad tiger, and he was about to pounce. The fat monk greeted him with a stick. His martial arts strength was higher than that of the young man. However, in such a one-on-one life-and-death fight, winning or losing is often not determined by this. The two sides only fought two moves. The fat monk was not happy enough, staggered a few steps, but when he lowered his head, he found that a knife had been slashed between his chest and abdomen.
The fat monk practices martial arts on weekdays, and it is not that he has never killed anyone. However, group fights are different from letting go. He originally used his martial arts skills to kill the opponent, but when he was nervous, he didn't even feel pain from a knife in his chest. Immediately froze there. The young man rushed up again, slashed his head and face before running away quickly, and went around behind the monk with another slash, and the fat monk fell to the ground and lost his breath for a moment.
At this time, someone came out of the fat monk's room, but it was a sleepy woman in clothes. Many people in this age have night blindness. After rubbing their eyes, they can see the situation outside clearly with the help of the light. She screamed, and the teenager rushed over and chopped her down.
There was another noise in the other room. The young man became anxious, rushed over to kick the door, and glanced at it, a woman's voice sounded in the room, and a woman called out, "Gouzi!" This young man named Gouzi knew that if there were any more monks in the temple, he would Undoubtedly, he went to open the remaining door in the temple. When he saw that there was no one in the room, he breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the fat monk just now was the last man in the temple.
Two women from the previous room rushed out, saw him, and ran away screaming. The young man turned his head, and there was blood on his face before, and he was beaten again. At this time, blood was all over his face, like a demon Rakshasa. The two women screamed, and the young man chased after him and killed him at the temple gate. A slightly taller person. The other person was short, but a girl of fourteen or fifteen years old. She ran very fast. The boy threw the knife from the back and hit the woman's leg, knocking the other party down in the grass.
The girl was crawling in the grass, and when she saw the devilish boy approaching, she cried and shouted, "Dog, don't kill me, don't kill me, we grow up together, I'll be your wife, I'll be yours When the mother-in-law..." The young man came over, opened his mouth and roared a few times, as if hesitating, but finally slashed the girl's head with a knife, killing her in the grass.
After the last man was chopped to death, the young man sat paralyzed in the grass. After sitting for a while, he staggered up and went back to the temple. Incense candles are still burning in the main hall of this small temple, and Maitreya Buddha, who is always smiling, sits quietly in this Asura field. The teenager rummaged through boxes and cabinets in various rooms to find some rice grains, and then Bara took out a wood-fired iron pot and cooked a pot of rice. During the cooking time, he searched all over the temple again, found gold and silver, food, and wound medicine, scrubbed the wound in the courtyard, poured the wound medicine on the wound, and bandaged himself alone.
When the medicine touched the wound, the boy let out a roar like a beast in the yard.
After a while, the rice was ready. He took the burnt food to the yard to eat. While eating, he couldn't help crying. Tears fell on the rice grain by grain, and then he was grabbed by his hand. eat into the belly. The night was long, and the people in the village did not know that such a tragedy happened in the temple on the mountain. The boy found a small amount of gold and silver in the temple, a bag of millet, and a new sharp knife, along with the old one. After hanging up, I left here and walked towards the other side of the mountain.
The night gradually opened, and the boy climbed over the mountains and over the mountains, and walked out more than ten miles, and the sun gradually became blazing. Exhausted and hurt, he found a shady place to sleep in the mountains. In the afternoon, he heard a voice from outside. The young man got up and glanced at the edge of the mountain forest. Not far away, there seemed to be a The searched villagers came here, and the young man hurriedly set off to flee to the hard-to-reach places in the forest. After walking for more than ten miles, I guessed that I had left the search area, and I was already in the rugged and desolate forest.
This murderous teenager is named Gouzi and named You Hongzhuo. He grew up in that mountain village when he was a child, and his father practiced swords without scribbling. Even though You Hongzhuo was seven years old, the Jurchens had already gone south to ravage the Central Plains. Because of the remoteness of the mountain village, the life of the You family could still go on.
The once peaceful Central Plains changed the world, and small mountain villages were inevitably affected. The army that captured Ding came over and was used by the traveller to cope with it with money. The famine was approaching, and the traveler’s family had some background. However, You Hongzhuo's father was convinced of the words of the monks in the temple and could not extricate himself.
At this time, the peaceful years of the Central Plains have long since passed, and they can only be searched hard from memory. The Great Light Religion took advantage of the situation and said that these disasters were caused by the human world’s extravagance and lack of reverence. The Buddha harassed the great king down to the realm, and the maid Jurchen rose up, and then brought down thirty-three great disasters in the human world to cleanse the world of ignorance and unbelief. People, over the years, the famine, the locust plague, the raging black flag, and the continuous war are examples. You Hongzhuo's father believed in the Great Light Religion, so he donated a lot of his family's wealth and recited scriptures according to the teachings to wash away the sins of his family.
This year, the Daguang Sect in the village has already accepted a lot of people. Although the You Family can still support it, the family's belongings have also entered the temple. The monk in the temple was still dissatisfied and coveted the remaining wealth of the family. On this day, in the name of praying for rain, he performed a "miracle" and chose You Hongzhuo's mother to sink her into the river as a sacrifice and offer it to the Dragon King. You Hongzhuo's father begged bitterly and wished to use his family wealth to quell the anger of the Dragon King. Before the matter was settled, the monk who coveted You Hongzhuo's mother's beauty tricked You Hongzhuo's mother into the temple.
At this time, the mountains were remote, and ordinary rural women worked tirelessly every day, and it was difficult to have too much beauty. You family has a lot of background. You mother was originally a half-literate woman. After marrying into the You family, You Hongzhuo's father also treated her very well. Occasionally bought some rouge gouache, which is much more beautiful than ordinary village girls. The Chinese monks were originally composed of villagers and hooligans with a little more flexibility, and they had been coveted for a long time. After the ****, You Mu was driven crazy and ran out naked. The monks chased and killed You Mu. They said that she had a sudden madness, which might have offended the Dragon King.
Seeing his wife's death, You Hongzhuo's father woke up and went to the temple with his son. The monk set up an ambush and knocked down the two You Clan on the spot. You father was once said to be quite martial arts, so he was taken care of the most by the monk, and he was killed on the spot. You Hongzhuo was beaten to death and fainted. Before he died, he crawled back at night.
This Youjia swordsman, Youfu, has only been trained in the air, and has no experience in actual combat. When he is in the hands of You Hongzhuo, he is more than ten years old. He practices routines every day, and he doesn't know how to use it. It's just that there are so many people with peculiar temperaments in this world. He was incensed by the death of his mother and went to the temple with his father. Yuan originally only wanted to fight one-on-one. Whatever tricks the other party made, he would block and counterattack. However, he was ambushed on the spot by a monk, and he was almost killed before he made a move, but because of this, he suddenly realized that martial arts were used in this way.
This moment of enlightenment, he returned to the temple and killed more than ten people in a row. Even the three women were also neighbors in the village. The youngest girl grew up with him. Her fiancée, the family has gone away this year, and there is no help there, the girl was sent to the temple and given to the monk. At that time, You Hongzhuo was a little hesitant in his heart, but he didn't think clearly, the knife in his hand had already slashed down.
A glass of wine in the spring breeze of peaches and plums, and ten years of light in the night and rain in the rivers and lakes. Despite the bloody beginning, the young man's walk led to a new world afterward.
This year is the eighth year of Wu Jianshuo, the sixth year of the establishment of the Daqi Dynasty, and ten years have passed since the Jurchen went south for the first time. This long decade has crushed the prosperity and prosperity of the Central Plains that lasted for more than two hundred years. Even the wealth that once existed in memory has long since become like an illusion. A young man like You Hongzhuo no longer had the impression he had in the Central Plains. When he came out of the mountains along the way, what he saw was mostly dry land, stagnant rice and wheat, and fleeing pedestrians. Although it was early summer, the plague of locusts had already begun. raging.
The sky and the earth were long, and You Hongzhuo looked around at a loss, not knowing where to go, so he just walked south subconsciously. Although he didn't have much travel experience, he was a young man after all, and he could understand a lot of things just by listening to it. North of the Yellow River at this time, although it is not long before summer, there are already traces of drought in many places. After the famine and locust plagues raged in the past two years, many people knew that it was difficult to support, and they had begun to abandon their homes and leave their homes. Go south to find a way out.
Since the chaotic years in the Central Plains, this kind of thing has continued every year. At this time, refugees have formed a scale in several places in the Central Plains, and they are raging... You Hongzhuo has not yet had a great idea of these things. He is still in a relatively peaceful place in the hinterland of the Central Plains. At least gold and silver can still be bought. Things, not long after, his pocket became empty, and his chest was still full of hatred, and he began to target the small temples, strongholds, and believers of the Guangming Sect, practicing swords, and grabbing things for a living.
In the following month, You Hongzhuo wandered everywhere, killed seven or eight people in a row, and smashed a small stronghold of the Guangming Sect. He was young and ignorant and thought he was fine, but soon after, he was found by someone, and it was his fate. At this time, he was found by a group of "righteous men" in the green forest who also used black and black as their business. After they met, they fought for a while, and when they saw that his swordsmanship was fierce and fierce, they invited him to join the team.
The ten-year-old You Hongzhuo first tasted the taste of rivers and lakes, and the other party and his party of six swore to him. Since then, they have had the first group of brothers who are like family. After those few people said it, You Hongzhuo broke out in a cold sweat behind his back. It turned out that he thought he had no background. After killing people at will, the Guangming Church could not find him. In fact, the other party was already staring at his whereabouts. The six brothers arrived one step early, and he would soon fall into the siege of killing.
These six brothers and sisters are male and female, and they are quite friendly to You Hongzhuo, a little brother who has just entered the arena and has good skills.
Among them, the eldest brother is Luan Fei, a middle-aged man in his forties, with a scar on his face, but he is quite stable. The second brother, Lu Guangzhi, is tall and burly, and he is most admirable for his horizontal practice of kung fu. The third sister Qin Xiang has a birthmark on her face. She is not beautiful but has a very gentle temperament and takes good care of him. The fourth one was named Kuang Wenbo, who was good at using a single whip. The fifth brother Lezheng has the stunt of empty hands and the most cheerful temperament. Lao Liu Qianheng was two years older than him, but he was also the same young man. He was born in the market without his parents, and he was a very loyal brother.
After more than a month, a group of seven people traveled for hundreds of miles, carefully selected two strongholds of the Guangming Sect. When there is nothing to do every day, the seven people gather together to talk about the affairs of the world and the world. Lao Wule knows these things the most and loves to talk about them. In the endless conversation of the other party, You Hongzhuo gradually understands many things. The world situation, the legend of the green forest.
Sometimes, Le Zheng would talk about the origin of the Great Light Sect, the uprising that stirred Tiannan. The legend of the previous generation that the heroes of the green forest came out, the grievances and grievances of the saints Fangla, the demon saints Sikongnan, and Fang Baihua, in the end, left a few survivors. .
Sometimes, he would talk about the legend of Zhou Tong, the "iron arm", who was once well-deserved in the world and was undefeated. When the Jurchen went south, he led a group of heroes to the north to fight, and a steel gun "Canglong Fu" almost killed him. Stick to the gun. When it was said that the old hero died in the army in the end, You Hongzhuo would inevitably have red eyes and a choked voice.
Sometimes, people will talk about the legends of many rebels when the golden man was raging, and the embarrassing battle of Huang Tiandang. Sometimes, they talk about the most complicated and mysterious great master, "Devil of Heart" Ning Yi. He killed the monarch but turned violent. A few years ago, the black flag swept across the northwest, suppressing the pride of Jurchen, and the mess he left behind will be Da Qi was so devastated that he was very happy. In the past two years, although there have been occasional rumors that the inner demon is not dead, most people still prefer that the inner demon is dead.
Speaking of the brutal act of the Jurchen who almost slaughtered the northwest into a piece of white ground after the war, You Hongzhuo could not help but follow a few people to scold the golden dog for being ruthless, wishing he could slay the golden man with a knife.
And by this time, many heroes have gone, and now the biggest forces occupying the north of the Yellow River are probably the tiger king Tianhu who is separated from one side, the Pingdong general Li Xizhi who guards the Hebei and Shandong areas, the millions of the righteous teacher Wang Juyun, and Taking the opportunity to spread among the people, there are countless followers of the Great Light Religion, which is headed by the world's number one master Lin Zongwu. As for the hundreds of thousands of "hungry ghosts" led by Wang Shitong, the eight-armed Dragon King and other rebel forces who went south in groups of refugees, it was difficult to compare with these people because of their weak foundation.
One by one, these things have opened up You Hongzhuo's horizons to places he had never imagined before. In his heart, he fantasized about galloping together with these people, and one day he would achieve an unimaginable reputation. However, the complexity of the rivers and lakes quickly came to him soon after.
One day after worshiping for more than a month, a group of seven of them were resting in the mountains. When You Hongzhuo was practicing, he heard the fourth brother Kuang Wenbo and the eldest brother quarreling not far away. After a while, Qin Xiang joined in to persuade and Lu Guangzhi passed by. , The voices of several people were getting faster and more intense. Before You Hongzhuo could figure out what happened, someone came over from far away in the woods.
He could only hear the eldest brother Luan Fei roaring angrily: "You eat the inside and the outside." Then there was a chaotic fight. The rudder masters of the Great Bright Sect came over, You Hongzhuo only had time to see the eldest brother Luan Fei and the fourth brother Kuang Wenbo killed together. After that, there was only blood.
The helmsman of the Daguang Sect, Tan Zheng, nicknamed "Heshuo Tiandao", led the team in person. It was simply not something that a few Lvlin people who swore at will on the rivers and lakes could resist. You Hongzhuo watched as the third sister Qin Xiang was stabbed by the opponent. He cut off his arm, and cut off his head with another knife. He fought hard, and in the end, he didn't even know how he escaped in blood. When he was temporarily out of the pursuit, he was alone again.
Thinking back many years later, that incident may have been caused by the uneven distribution of the loot between the eldest brother and the fourth brother, or because the masters of the Daguang Sect focused their attention on several brothers and sisters, which made him escape by chance. out of the siege. But the complexity of the rivers and lakes was unimaginable and unpredictable for him at the time. He bandaged his wounds and ran away.
At this time, the gold, silver and rice grains on his body were finally gone, and he ate the last bit of dry food. All around were barren and unspeakable places. There were so many rice and wheat in the fields that they had already been eaten up by locusts, and the fruits in the mountains were hard to find. He occasionally feeds on locusts. Due to the many heroic stories that the fifth brother Lezheng told him, although he had a knife and there were occasional people nearby, he finally did not grab it with a knife.
Da Guangming Sect believers are everywhere, he hides in secret and does not dare to expose too much. This day, he has been starving for four or five days in a row. He collapsed under the eaves of a family. , but someone came out of the room and carefully fed him a bowl of rice soup.
Because of this, he was lucky not to die. After waking up, he wanted to thank him, but the family just locked the doors and windows at home, refused to come out, and did not speak. You Hongzhuo staggered away, and in the mountains not far away, he finally managed to dig a few rhizomes and wild vegetables to satisfy his hunger.
After escaping for two more days, this evening, he encountered a few travelers in a broken temple in the mountain. At this time, the refugees were walking around. It is not unusual to encounter such people occasionally. The temple in the mountain still had a roof covered with tiles. There were probably two families gathered, one of which had about seven people. It was a team of adults who brought their families and children to the south to escape. They had some baggage and some rice, so they went to the temple. Raise firewood to cook rice. On the other side was a man and a woman who were traveling far away. They were supposed to be husband and wife. The wife wore a veil on her face and occupied a corner to eat some dry food. They even brought a green mule with them.
You Hongzhuo looked at the family of seven, and remembered that he was originally seven brothers and sisters. He couldn't help but feel sad, and his eyes were red in the corner. He was carrying two knives in the family, but he was quite vigilant and a solid man. The master held a stick and was always on guard here. You Hongzhuo saw them eating porridge, but he didn't bother them. He just ate the bitter wild vegetable roots in small bites in the corner to satisfy his hunger.
It rained that night, and the three parties who met by chance stayed together for one night in the ruined temple. The next morning, a group of seven got up and packed up to go on the road. The husband of the couple lit a fire with the firewood that he had collected in the temple last night, and took out an iron pot to cook a small pot of porridge and rice. When Mi Xiang came, You Hongzhuo was empty in his belly, hiding in the corner pretending to sleep, but he couldn't help but took out the last few tubers from his arms and ate it into his belly.
Still eating secretly, the man came over with a bowl of porridge, put it beside him, and said, "It's fate to meet by chance, let's eat a bowl."
He took the other two bowls of porridge and went there to share with his wife.
You Hongzhuo sat up subconsciously, his first thought was to simply refuse, but his stomach was so hungry that he finally couldn't say the words of refusal. He was holding the porridge late and drank it as slowly as possible with a straight face. When he put the porridge bowl back to the couple, he just bowed slightly and nodded with a straight face. If he were a little older, he might say thank you words at this time, but at this time he couldn't even say words.
Not long ago, when he was about to starve to death, he got a bowl of rice soup under that roof, and now there is another bowl of porridge, as if to tell him that the world is not so bad as to be hopeless.
But a moment later, despair set in. Eight men came from a distance, two on horseback and six on foot. When they reached the Depo Temple, they met with You Hongzhuo. One of the men on the horse recognized him. The congregation was a master who had previously followed Tan Zheng, the Heshuo Tiandao. At this time, the man headed by him was over forty years old. He also had a long sword on his back, waved his hand slightly, and surrounded the ruined temple.
"The Daguang Sect arrested the murderer. This person killed my sect members. He was an extremely vicious person. Who are you, why are you with him? If you are not involved, go to me quickly!"
The family of seven had eaten something before, and now they were all packed up. Seeing that eight people with knives and soldiers were guarding the front, they hurriedly left. The couple on the side also packed up the iron pot, put the pot into a cloth bag, and carried it on the back of the green mule. At this time, the family who left first arrived at the temple, and one of the eight people stopped them and asked a few words: "Is there an official text? What is the relationship with the bandit? Can you help him take things away? ?" The seven quickly distinguished, but they were inevitably searched.
You Hongzhuo's injuries have not healed, and he knows that he is unfortunate. He has just finished drinking the hot porridge, and now his chest and abdomen are hot, but he does not want to hurt anyone. Standing with his sword drawn, he said, "What Daguang Sect is like a bandit. What you want to kill is me, so what's the deal with the poor and weak, if you have something, you will be right with the young master!"
The swordsman who headed the Great Bright Sect looked coldly: "You ignorant little doll, when Brother Tan became famous, you were still breastfeeding. You can't even hold the sword firmly, and you still dare to be a hero when death is imminent..." He paused, but stepped forward, "Alright, if you have the guts to use a knife, Tan will chop off your left hand first!"
When the swordsman surnamed Tan spoke, You Hongzhuo dashed forward with two swords in hand. From the moment of life and death, he realized that fighting has to be omnipotent, so he naturally simplified the swordsmanship and moves he had learned. When the words "cut your left hand" were spoken, the sword light flashed in the air, and You Hongzhuo's left hand slammed into the air, only to see blood flying, his left arm had been severely slashed, and the worn-out long sword he was carrying was also slashed. flew out.
The swordsman surnamed Tan said: "Kick your face again." You Hongzhuo's face suddenly exploded like thunder, and the whole person was kicked out. His head was buzzing, and his mouth was full of blood. The wall just stopped. This swordsman is the younger brother of "Heshuo Tiandao" Tan Zheng. Although it is not as famous as the "Heshuo Tiandao", compared with You Hongzhuo, it is really one heaven and one underground. He walked towards You Hongzhuo step by step, and a voice sounded not far away: "This swordsmanship is okay." Tan's swordsman said: "Your swordsmanship is really bad, just die!"
The two voices came together, showing a little inconsistency. You Hongzhuo jumped vigorously, vomited blood and rolled to the ground. The swordsman surnamed Tan slashed at the dirt wall of the ruined temple, pulling out heavy knife marks. At this time, the seven members of the previous family were being inspected by the members of the Daguang Sect at the door. The woman in the middle was searched several times, but she dared not speak out. The other couple also walked over with the green mule, their eyes were looking in the direction of the fight, and the one who just spoke seemed to be the veiled wife. The swordsman surnamed Tan looked back and saw that a congregation had already When I came over, I heard the words "This sword technique is okay", and shouted: "Who are you!?" Then he reached out to the woman.
At that moment, You Hongzhuo only thought that he was about to die, his head was buzzing, and the scene in front of him had not been seen in too much detail. In fact, if he could see clearly, it would be difficult to describe the delicate scene at that moment.
When the congregation stretched out their hand, the woman also stretched out her hand, and she grabbed the handle of the knife around the opponent's waist.
This matter is random and weird, because at that moment, the disciples of the Great Light Sect were already reaching out and drawing the knife. His movement towards the handle of the knife was slow for a moment, and the woman's hand pulled the knife at will. Come out, the knife light folded, went up, passed the man's cheek, and then slashed the face to the left. At the same time as the knife light slashed down, the woman took a step and stretched out her hand to pull the hand of another cleric. The sword, swiped in a circle, stabbed into someone's neck, and she moved forward, bizarrely grabbed two knives in her hands, inserted one in front of the other, swiped again, and turned forward. Turning back and forth, a knife stabbed into the person's throat, and a knife was put into the person's chest.
You Hongzhuo only saw a little of this scene. In the past, he used to swing a knife and cut people, and there was always a sound of breaking wind and howling. There was no light or whistling. She slashed back and forth with the long knife, even stabbing people's chest, as if there was no sound at all. The long knife was like a silent return to the sheath. into the chest.
A long knife flew towards the swordsman named Tan, who almost avoided subconsciously, and then said subconsciously: "I am the Heshuo sword king Tan Yan's brother, Heshuo Tiandao, Tan Zhenghe, who dares to be the enemy of the Daguang Sect. His words were urgent and prudent. You Hongzhuo's eyes only saw the figure of the woman following up like a shadow. The two sides moved a few times, and they were several feet away. Tan Yan's hand was fluttering in the wind, but there was no iron strike in the air. The sound of beating. After saying those words, Tan Yan settled down a few feet away, and the woman pulled a knife out of the opponent's throat.
It is naturally impossible for a person to draw a knife out of thin air, but at this moment, the woman did not seem to be swinging the knife, but just drew a knife out of thin air, You Hongzhuo heard her mutter: "Lin Yechan doesn't dare to Talk to me like this..."
On the other side, the family of seven stood there in a daze. The husband of the couple was still standing there holding a green mule, and the seven members of the Great Light Sect around were dead, either in the throat, in the face, or in the chest. On the ground, the wind from the mountain blew over, forming a bloody and strange picture.
The veiled woman came over and said to You Hongzhuo, "Your swordsmanship is a bit interesting, who did you learn it from?"
People will meet many, many people in the arena, but even many years later, when You Hongzhuo is already a world-famous master of the Dao of the Sword, he will always remember this scene on this day. This was his first acquaintance with the couple. (.)