Chapter 275: Carving a Boat to Find a Sword

"Xu..."

Yang Ge reined in his horse and stared intently at Luting City at the end of the horizon.

"Xu."

Fang Ke raised his hand and ordered Bai Shiqi behind him to rein in their horses.

He looked at Luting City at the end of his sight, and then turned to look at Yang Ge in confusion.

There was obviously no expression on Yang Ge's face, but his heart sank inexplicably, and he felt panicked as if he was about to lose something.

"Sir, what's wrong?"

He forced a smile and found something to say, trying to distract from what his elders were thinking about: "Are you going to change clothes and enter the city in batches?"

When Yang Ge heard this, he glanced at himself subconsciously. Under the sunlight, the purple-red brocade python robe reflected the warm light... which was a bit dazzling.

"I want to change my clothes..."

He smiled, reached out and unbuttoned the collar, and slowly took off his python robe.

When Fang Ke saw this, he hurriedly drove his horse forward and raised an arm to use as a clothes hanger for him.

Yang Ge put the python robe on his arm, pulled out a dusty coarse cloth dungaree from the bag and put it on, feeling much more at ease in his heart.

Fang Ke stood beside him quietly, not daring to say a word.

But after Yang Ge changed his clothes, he still said, "Take the brothers back to the Yamen, I won't go into the city."

Fang Ke felt anxious and was about to speak in a hurry.

Yang Ge smiled and shook his head, murmuring softly: "Old Fang, I want to go home, I want to go home so much..."

Listening to his low murmur, Fang Ke felt a soreness in his nasal cavity. He forced himself to open his mouth and wanted to say something, but couldn't spit out a single word.

He knows that his master has no relatives in this world. He has practiced martial arts to the point where he is today, but he still can't find even a piece of clothing that can be buried as a family member.

Now that the old shopkeeper is gone again, although the world is big, where is his home?

"Then you have to tell me where your home is, right?"

Fang Ke's vision was blurred and he forced a smile: "I also pointed out that I will continue to come to your house to have a bowl of glutinous rice balls during the New Year this year..."

"I taught my younger siblings how to make glutinous rice balls."

Yang Ge gently patted his shoulder and said with a gentle smile: "From now on, we can celebrate the New Year at home."

Fang Ke strained his lips, but couldn't help but tears welling up in his eyes.

"A true man, don't act like a child. As the old saying goes, all banquets come to an end, but as long as the friendship between you and me lasts, we will see each other again in the future."

Yang Ge grabbed his sleeve and wiped his face carelessly, and said with a smile: "Inn... I would like to ask you to take care of me for a while. When I settle down, I will come back to pick them up."

"Let's go!"

He waved his hand with a smile, took out the Cold Moon Sword from the saddle with the other hand, jumped up, and turned into a golden rainbow light and swept towards the south.

Fang Ke turned his head and watched the rainbow light disappear into the brilliant sunset, feeling empty in his heart...

After a long time, he let out a long sigh, pulled Erhei, who was still stretching his neck to look at the southwest waiting for his master, and said worriedly: "Go back to the city!"

Outside the gate of Yuelai Inn.

Zhao Miao sat on the rocking chair where Yang Ge usually sat, held Xiao Huang in his arms with one hand, gently stroked its head, and said in a low voice: "Why isn't your father coming back?"

Xiao Huang put his head on her lap with a sad face, his ears drooped, and his eyes were looking at the end of the long street motionlessly.

The puppy doesn’t know why his father hasn’t come back yet, but the puppy will wait for his father to come home as before.

Keep waiting...

…

Yang Ge went all the way south and successfully found the Yangtze River.

Then along the Yangtze River, all the way up the river...

The rushing water and narrow channels under his feet were very different from the open and gentle Yangtze River in his memory.

There is no scenery along the way that can be used as a landmark... There is no greater power than this in the vicissitudes of life.

But the sound of wind in my ears was exceptionally soft.

The haze and smell of blood in my heart are gradually fading away bit by bit in the wash of the surging river...

He flew faster and faster, and even though his true energy was being consumed faster than it could be restored, he only felt more and more relaxed.

Finally, after skimming two large mountains along the river, he suddenly went back, staring at the increasingly familiar mountains for a long time under the bright moonlight, and suddenly shouted happily: "Ten yuan! "

He turned around, pulled out a long flame tail and continued up the river.

After ten yuan, we are almost home!

Soon!

Soon!

…

Dawn.

Chongqing Prefecture, Zhongzhou, Linjiang County.

It was time to go to the market, and countless people along the riverside carrying bamboo baskets crowded into the narrow streets built along the mountains and rivers, slowly squirming with the bustling flow of people.

Here, you can hardly see the most common hairpins and crowns in the Central Plains. Almost everyone, regardless of gender, old or young, is wearing a white headscarf...

Yang Ge remembered that someone said that the old people from Sichuan and Chongqing wrapped in white headscarves was a tradition passed down from the time when they expressed condolences to Marquis Zhuge Wu.

He didn't know if it was true or not, but now that he saw someone dressed like this again, he just felt extra friendly... When his grandmother was alive, she always wore a white scarf like this.

He sat in a shabby, greasy stall, listening to the hawking sounds in local accents on the street, and tasted all the food sold in the stall. In the end, he really found a food that was the same as in his memory. The food that tastes exactly the same as my childhood: Yin rice porridge.

A kind of convenient staple food that is made by boiling glutinous rice and then drying it again. When eating, it is cooked again with water. It is suitable for both sweet and salty. He often ate this for breakfast when he was a child...

He knew very well that he was looking for a sword on a boat, but this discovery still made him overjoyed and he ate three bowls in a row!

Until his stomach was really full, he happily took out his purse and shouted loudly: "Boss, check out!"

The boss who was both the shopkeeper and the waiter had been staring at him for a long time, fearing that he would wipe his mouth and run away after eating. Seeing that he really took out the purse, he greeted him with a smile on his face and said in a thick Linjiang accent: "Sir, you just arrived in Linjiang today, right?"

Yang Ge was stunned, came back to his senses, stirred his tongue, and said: "No...no...no, I haven't been home for a long time, and I can't speak my hometown dialect anymore."

He stirred his tongue for a long time before finally speaking with a Linjiang accent.

"No wonder."

The boss's smile became more and more casual. He chatted with him while calculating the bill: "Hometown is better?"

Yang Ge smiled and looked at the unfamiliar street scene outside the stall, and replied softly: "Yes, hometown is better!"

After paying, he wandered aimlessly along the ancient city for a long time, and found some familiar city gates. The strange ancient city in front of him finally gradually overlapped with the old streets of the ancient city where he accompanied his first love girlfriend countless times when he was young...

After noon, he found a deserted place and soared into the sky, flying towards the direction of his hometown.

Even though the world has changed, people and things are not the same, he still found the right direction easily...

Yes, how could someone not recognize the way home?

After leaving the city, there were more and more familiar scenes in front of him.

Those rivers...

He was once dragged by his fishing friend to wade through them.

Those mountains...

He had looked at their gentle figures through the car window countless times.

Closer, closer and closer.

After crossing a small hill, two mountain ranges separated by a shallow ravine appeared in front of Yang Ge.

He fell into the valley, his eyes followed the ravine in front of him, looking at the two mountain ranges that appeared in his dreams countless times, and his vision gradually blurred.

These two mountain ranges...

The slightly steep hillside on the left was where he and his friends in the village grazed cattle and sheep when he was a child. The mountain was full of footprints of their whole family.

At that time, he envied his friends who grazed cattle the most. He only needed to lead the cattle to the hillside, and then he could throw away the rope and go to the small ravine below to play in the water and touch crabs peacefully, because the cattle would not run around, and would find a place to lie down and ruminate when they were full.

And they raised goats, and a flock of them. They were picky eaters and could not be tied with a rope. If they were tied with a rope, they would not eat enough and would not grow meat. But if they were not tied with a rope, they would run all over the hills. He could only chase those plagued goats all over the hills. Often, just after he chased one, another one would run away. At that time, he was still very small and his strength was not as good as those big goats. He himself could not remember how many times he fell on this hillside.

Later, this hillside was converted from farmland to forest, and pine trees were planted all over the hills. It was impossible to graze cattle or sheep. After a few years, it was so lush that people could not enter.

Later, every time they drove past here on their way home, his parents would point to the forest and ask him if he remembered the days when he used to graze sheep. They joked that the pine trees had grown so tall, and he was not married yet...

The hillside on the right with a relatively gentle slope is the road.

When he was a child, there was no road here, only a narrow path. At that time, there were green hemps planted all over the mountains. It was okay in spring, when the green hemps were still very short. When the wind blew, the snow-white side of the leaves turned out, like waves.

In summer, it was more uncomfortable. The green hemps would grow taller than adults. To walk on the narrow path, you had to walk through the green hemps. What was even more annoying was that the green hemps would grow all kinds of insects. When you were walking among the green hemps, a bug would fall on your face... At that time, what he hated most was harvesting green hemp. His parents were harvesting green hemp in the field, and he followed them behind them to cut hemp stalks with a sickle. They cut bundles after bundles, and it was hot and itchy.

Later, a highway was built here, and the way home was easier to walk. Their family also had a motorcycle. Once, his grandfather took him to the market and asked him to watch him march in a serious manner.

Later, the price of green hemp plummeted, and no one planted green hemp here. Passing through here, you no longer have to pass through the green hemp bushes. Unfortunately, his grandparents were gone by then, and he only came back to visit the graves during the Qingming Festival and the New Year.

Walk along this hillside all the way to the end, and you will reach home...

Yang Ge looked at the two mountain ranges steadily. Through the blurred vision in front of him, he saw the dark-skinned child who ran all over the mountains chasing goats, and the skinny old man who held his grandson and marched with his head held high.

"Erwa, the goat is running away again!"

"Don't make a fuss, watch Daddy march for you!"

After a long time, he slowly lowered his head, walked stiffly into the goat path on the right hillside, and his heart began to beat wildly.

Halfway through the walk, a child riding on a buffalo with his bare bottom rushed up from the path below the hillside, laughing and joking. He carried a branch on his shoulder, and a pair of wet pants hung on the branch.

The big buffalo held its tail high, followed by a child wearing only a patched pair of tattered pants. He held the tail of the buffalo in one hand and a stubborn goat in the other, and rushed up from the hillside.

Yang Ge was stunned when he saw them.

They were also stunned when they saw Yang Ge.

After a few breaths, the boy riding the buffalo screamed, slapped the buffalo's butt, and ran forward.

The boy who was herding sheep saw this and hurriedly pulled the rope to chase forward: "Wait for me, wait for me..."

"What are you waiting for? You are not without pants..."

Yang Ge looked at the happy backs of the two children going away and smiled knowingly.

See, this is why he envied those friends who herded cattle back then.

'I want to raise a cow later! '

He made up his mind: 'Well, how about getting Erhei back later? No, no, that bear thing not only eats meat, but also bites people. I can't afford to pay if it bites people! ’

He pondered in his heart, and his heavy steps gradually became lighter, and his heart was no longer uneasy.

He walked along this narrow path all the way, and after turning a small hill, a small open valley came into his sight.

In the middle of the valley, there was a small courtyard facing north and south. The naked boy riding a cow was clinging to the wooden door and looking out.

Yang Ge stared at the valley and the small courtyard without focus, but another scene emerged in his mind...

‘Grandpa, grandma... Erwa is back! ’

He dragged his steps, one deep step and one shallow step towards the courtyard.

In front of him, Yang Ge walked straight towards his home. The shepherd behind the wooden door was not afraid, but took the initiative to push the wooden door open, raised his head and asked enthusiastically: "Guest, are you here to look for someone?"

He had put on his pants and was not afraid of strangers.

Yang Ge thought about it and nodded.

The shepherd boy patted his chest and said, "Who are you looking for? I'll help you find it. I know this place well!"

Yang Ge smiled and pulled open the dry food bag on his waist, took out a piece of cake that Zhao Miao had prepared for him, and stuffed it into the shepherd boy's hand: "Thank you, but no need, I've already found it."

The shepherd boy looked at the cake in his hand, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, but did not put it into his mouth immediately, but replied strangely: "Have you found it? Who are you looking for?"

Yang Ge smiled, said nothing, raised his head and continued to scan Looking at the valley, he asked softly, "Have your parents not returned home yet? I have something to find them for."

The shepherd boy finally couldn't help but stuff the cake in his hand into his mouth, and replied vaguely, "My parents will be back later..."

Yang Ge nodded, "It's okay, I'll wait for them... By the way, what's your surname, kid?"

The shepherd boy looked up at Yang Ge and replied happily, "Guest, my surname is Yang, and my full name is Yang Erchui!"

He had never eaten such delicious food before, and his eyes were shining when he spoke.

Yang Ge was stunned for two seconds, his face suddenly froze, and he stretched out his hand and slapped the shepherd boy's back, making him open his mouth and spit out the cake that he was reluctant to swallow.

"You bully people..."

The shepherd boy almost cried out, staring at the cake that fell on the chicken shit on the ground, thinking about whether he could still eat it now.

"Didn't your parents tell you that you can't eat food given by strangers casually?"

Yang Ge asked seriously with a straight face.

The shepherd boy shook his head with tears in his eyes.

Yang Ge: "Then I'll tell you now, you can't eat food given by strangers casually in the future... Come on, call me brother!"

Shepherd boy: "Brother?"

"So good!"

Yang Ge smiled, stretched out his hand to tear off the dry food bag, and handed it over: "Here, all for you."

Shepherd boy: "Didn't you say that I can't eat food given by strangers?"

Yang Ge: "You have already called me brother, so we are not strangers... Go, bring a chair out for me, I will wait outside for your parents to come home."

"Okay!"

The shepherd boy was very excited, hugged the dry food bag tightly in his arms, turned around and rushed into the yard.