Chapter 814: Dong Family's Small World
"Old Army, do you have any customers? How is the business?" The man got off his horse and handed the reins to the old army as he asked.
Lu Changwen, who was drinking tea, raised his head when he heard the sound, and what appeared in front of the man was a handsome young man with thick eyebrows like black ink and regular facial features. He was dressed in short peasant clothes, but he was full of vigor and refreshed.
Lu Changwen saw that the man with the square face was holding a horsewhip. He was tall and tall, although he was not close to him, he felt oppressive.
After drinking the tea, Lu Changwen took out a few copper coins and was going to buy some dry food from the shopkeeper in preparation for the exam on the road. However, seeing the shopkeeper busy greeting the man, he left himself aside, so he had to sit down, thinking "" Snob."
"Thanks to the general, it's okay, it's okay." The old soldier responded, took the reins of the horse, and tied it to the fence behind the teahouse. The camel next to him snorted, obviously not happy with the sudden visitor .
Listening to the shop owner's question and answer with the man, Lu Changwen couldn't help but stare at the man's back, but the man suddenly turned his head to look at Lu Changwen as if his eyes were in the back of his head.
Seeing Lu Changwen's face full of anger, he turned his head away and chatted with the veteran.
Lu Changwen's face froze, he nodded and quickly lowered his head, pretending to be drinking tea, but the bowl was empty, feeling quite embarrassed, he hurriedly took out a few copper coins from his briefcase, got up and went out, and in a moment his figure appeared on the official road on the side road.
Just as he was about to get up to pay the bill, he heard the urgent sound of horseshoes on the official road. The old soldier looked sideways, galloped forward, and in the blink of an eye, he was approaching. say.
The frightened old soldier also hurriedly chased after him. After seeing the appearance of the person who came, the astonishment on his face dissipated instantly. He walked into the back hall to prepare for food, muttering, "I thought you were going to be bad for the general."
"Blind!" Hong Ye who was sitting opposite the general suddenly said.
"Stewed mutton, grilled lamb chops, haggis soup, served with big pancakes, the general and Hongye will use it slowly, please call if you have something to do." The old soldier put down his food, snorted heavily at Hongye, pulled out the cigarette stick from his waist, and sat on the side Raise it up.
When the general saw this, he didn't feel annoyed, he picked up a bowl and drank the haggis soup, Hong Ye was not polite, grabbed a leg of lamb and gnawed it happily. In a blink of an eye, there was almost nothing left on the table.
With a bang, the general put the bowl heavily on the table and gave the old soldier a thumbs up. The red leaf, who was originally pale, was flushed from eating, and his nose was sweating.
"Old Army, after I return to Beijing, I will help your daughter with an errand in the palace, so as to get rid of your troubles." After the general finished speaking, the sullen old army rubbed his cigarette stick, grinned, his eyes became slits. Wire.
However, Hong Ye only turned the corner of her mouth, and took out twelve taels of gold from her bosom, "Nuo, I have no money for your daughter's dowry." After finishing speaking, the person was already outside the door.
The general patted the old army on the shoulder, and stepped out of the door, leaving the old army alone in a daze. Although he had been away from the army for many years, the two of them still treated him as they did back then. The old army's palms slowly tightened. , until the cigarette rod was crunched.
After a long while, I took a deep breath, sat down again, picked up the pipe and took a few puffs, but there was no smoke. I stretched out my thumb and pressed it, only to find that the pipe had been extinguished some time ago.
He got up and turned into the back hall, but he lost the interest in smoking. He lay down by the window and looked into the distance. The figures of the two people on the official road had blurred into two black dots.
After waiting for half an hour, the two black dots disappeared. The old soldier inserted the cigarette stick back into his waist, turned over and rode on the camel, and ran in the direction the two left.
It's a pity that the weather is not beautiful, the storm came as soon as it was said, the eyes were full of yellow sand, the sky was blocked out, the temperature dropped suddenly, and what was even more exasperating was that the camels were lying on their knees by the side of the road, no longer moving.
But there was something important to do and no delay was allowed, so I had to turn over, abandon the camel, put on the leggings; looking around for no one, I took out two silver needles from my bosom, stabbed the left and right calves, rushed into the wind and sand again, and ran straight When I went to the four fields under the curtain, I didn't stop there.
After Dongfang twilight, he finally saw the two figures in front of him, pulled out the cigarette stick at his waist, threw it out heavily, and at the same time roared, "Mei Yin, save your life!" He took out the dagger in his arms, closed his eyes and tried his best stabbed out.
When Mei Yin turned around, Hong Ye stepped on the saddle and jumped up. The soft sword in her waist cut the tobacco rod in two, and the sword energy came out against the wind, cutting a hundred steps away in an instant. The old soldier only felt a pain in his shoulder. The upper body jumped up, drew an arc, and then fell heavily in front of Mei Yin. There was a small patch of dark red sand, and the lower body fell after a dozen steps, and the sand was stained with blood.
The old soldier looked at Mei Yin and smiled, but there was blood between his teeth, and his expression looked ferocious. Mei Yin saw in his eyes that he was relieved, just like the way he survived every time he fought on the battlefield many years ago.
Scenes of the past were tumbling in his mind, and finally merged with the half-length old soldier, but now he is dying!
"Beware of...the dark place! General...jun, Yue'er...I beg...to entrust you, I will fight...for you in the next...life...!" The voice gradually weakened after several interruptions. He wanted to clasp his fists and salute, but he couldn't do it.
"Who asked you to come?" Mei Yin asked anxiously with a flash of light in his eyes.
The wind and sand raged, and the old army had been buried in his chest, but the old army could no longer answer. Hongye stretched out his hand to feel the old army's neck veins, and said, "Dead."
Even Mei Yin, who is used to seeing life and death, can't help but feel sad at this moment, if he dies on the battlefield, it is the glory of a soldier, but the old soldier has followed him for more than 20 years, but just now it seemed that he wanted to die just now, he came here just to report the letter and to ask for help.
Although Mei Yin has been guarding the border all year round, she is on the front line, so she is more sensitive to dangerous things. After watching Hongye put the old soldier's corpse together after the grave with her hands, and carefully tidied up her appearance, doubts linger in her heart.
All of a sudden, Mei Yin stuck her feet into the sand, her waist was bent back as hard as she could, and her back was like a spring. With a sound of "shoo", a golden light shot into the air.
"Chirp—" With a scream, a goshawk fluttered its wings and fled in midair, leaving behind a few residual feathers, which were blown by the wind and scattered down in all directions. After that, he handed the bloody eagle feather on his fingertips to Mei Yin.
Mei Yin took Xue Yu, but her eyes turned cold, Hong Ye was taken aback, and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"An eagle raised in captivity will always be less vigilant." Mei Yin's words made Hongye's heart tremble.
"I don't know who raised it?" Hong Ye looked at the old army's grave, as if talking to herself.
"Perhaps only the old soldier knows. He didn't say it before. He always has his own difficulties. Maybe his daughter is the reason." Mei Yin got on the horse, fisted the bulging sandbag, snapped, and whipped away.
Hongye waited for the general to go far away before she plopped down on her knees, kowtowed three times and then flew onto her horse.
But seeing the general was already half a mile away, holding the rein with one hand, the shadow of the whip seemed to be sent suddenly and eagerly, Hongye was puzzled, and whipped three times in succession, her legs pinched the horse's belly, and the mount flew forward with all four hooves. .
But after sprinting for a distance, not only did he fail to catch up, but he seemed to fall further away. He pinned the whip to his waist, bent his fingers into claws, and laid heavy claws on the horse's buttocks. Upper May Yin.
Just about to speak, Mei Yin said: "Go to the village ahead to rest".
Hongye understood, and once again raised her hand to pat the wound on the mount, and one by one rode away first.
"Such a hostility, it's life-threatening." Mei Yin murmured to herself, but she didn't point it out, but she was relieved in a flash. She has been on the battlefield all year round, and it's strange to lose her hostility.
Followed by raising the whip, entering the village, the wind and sand have stopped, the houses in the village are filled with smoke, and the sound of cocks crowing and dogs barking is heard one after another. There are occasional greenery in front of and behind the houses, which is a bit out of this world. posture.
Hearing Mei Yin say three "good" words in succession, Hong Ye turned her head, but saw a peach blossom in full bloom inside the enclosure, with a faint fragrance, and a person beside the tree, with good features, thin figure, and a long blue cloth gown full of wrinkles, Under the feet are a pair of straw sandals with missing fingers, and the heels are covered with calluses.
"Sir, can you go in and rest for a while?" Mei Yin clasped her fists and said very politely.
"The one who is dead is the one who is down, and the one who is alive is always the one who is up. The door is open, so you can do whatever you want." The man under the tree turned his head and glanced at the two of them.
After the two of them walked into the courtyard, they walked to the door, kicked the door open as if angry, and said in a muffled voice: "Drink the water yourself, I'm too lazy to serve you." Pushing the blue and white teapot on the table towards Mei Yin , turned to look at the peach blossoms in the yard, dazed.
Hongye wanted to explode several times, but was stopped by Mei Yin secretly, she poured water and drank while looking at the furnishings in the house, but the inkstone above the stove was very obtrusive, and it happened that Hongye's eyes also stopped on the inkstone.
"Hmph, poor and poor, arty" Hongye was already angry in her heart, and her words were naturally mean.
"Yeah, poor one, she used to say that too, but unfortunately..." Before she could finish speaking, two lines of tears dripped down her cheeks onto the table, looking extremely heart-wrenching.
Hongye frowned, and didn't look at him, he didn't sympathize, but contempt.
"It's a man standing upright, what's the point of crying?" Mei Yin suddenly frowned and shouted.
"Cry if you want to cry, laugh if you want, it's none of your business." After finishing speaking, he simply fell on the table and wailed loudly, which later turned into wailing, and the sound shook the roof tiles.
Mei Yin was about to get up and leave when she saw an old man rushing into the room in a panic, shouting "Dingwen", dragged Lu Dingwen to the bed, took out the silver needle in his bosom, and stabbed him a few times , Lu Dingwen fell asleep.
After asking, I found out that the old man is the only doctor in the village, and he often comes to take care of him because he is pitiful.
Although the old man was old, he was very talkative, but when he talked about Lu Dingwen, he let out a long sigh.
It turns out that Lu Dingwen was not like this before, and the reason why he became like this now is because of Ya Ruo, who is also his wife.
"As the saying goes, if you are not of my race, your heart must be different. Even a woman has to guard against it, but he insists on marrying that woman. This is all right now. He has made himself like this, and his son has not come back until now. , I don’t know if I can bear it at such a young age.” The old man shook his head and sighed, with sympathy on his face.
"Could it be a secret work?" Mei Yin asked.
"That's not true. How can there be a fine job to give birth to children? Isn't that a loss for his wife and a soldier? Besides, he is a poor scholar and has no profit." The old man wiped his nose and shook his hands repeatedly.
"Could it be that this foreign girl is missing now? He's going crazy because of lovesickness?" Hong Ye teased.
The old man patted his thigh, "Yes, that's right", Mei Yin nodded slightly, and was about to get up and leave.
But he heard the urgent sound of gongs breaking outside the house, "Dingwen, come quickly, your mother-in-law and aunt have found it." The three people in the house were startled, and the old man stepped out of the house first, only to see that the yard was completely surrounded by the old and young in the village.
The old man shouted at the top of his voice while pushing away the crowd. When he got closer, he saw a white cloth covering the stretcher. As soon as a corner was lifted, he screamed "Ah!" Mei Yin winked, and the red leaves squeezed into the crowd. The white cloth was completely lifted, and the crowd fell silent.
After a while, several people rushed out from the inner circle, crouched on the ground and vomited violently.
Mei Yin parted the crowd, frowning immediately into a deep Sichuan character, and saw that the back skin of the corpse had been peeled off completely, the tender flesh was black, scabs had formed in some places, but maggots were everywhere in other places, and bursts of corpse odor penetrated into the body. nostril.
Mei Yin was about to reach out to turn over the corpse, but was blocked by Hongye, she stretched out her fingers and pressed on the wound, the blood was as black as ink.
"Toxic?" Hongye nodded in agreement.
"Have any outsiders visited the village recently?" Mei Yin asked.
However, the villagers looked at each other, and finally fixed their eyes on the two of them, Hong Ye's heart sank, but Mei Yin's mouth was mocking, so she had to turn around and walk into the house.