The mother nodded, turned and walked home. The eldest brother got on the bike, grabbed the handlebars of the bicycle with both hands, held his head high like a knight, climbed with his feet, drove away from the entrance of the village, the bicycle passed a corner, and got on the road to the neighboring village. It was like two ropes tying me and my eldest brother as we were leaving. Seeing me turn around, my mother seemed to be a little panicked, and quickly turned her back, hastily avoiding my gaze, the moment she turned around, she lifted her sleeves and wiped the tears on her face, this subtle movement, almost made me jump off the bike. I think that in the face of parting, we are always inseparable from the home behind our mother.

The bicycle ran around Phoenix Mountain for half a circle, and after about two hours, it reached the other side of Phoenix Mountain. The sun had risen, the bike had descended a long slope, and a small town flashed in the golden sunlight, which was Dongjianshan, which seemed to be developing faster than our small village, and there were no more farmlands in sight. The factories all over the place are connected together, forming the prototype of industrial parks. The eldest brother turned his bicycle onto a road on the edge of the reservoir, followed the bend of the reservoir, passed through several villages, went down to the end, and then turned around again, and arrived at Xie Jiaweizi.

Master's house is a bit out of the way, an old-fashioned bungalow, in a corner of the hill on the edge of the village. The house is not large, and there is a hall house in the middle, and there are two side rooms on each side of the hall house. In this way, this famous family of stilt heirs, relying on the skills of my family's ancestors, did not obtain the wealth that matched the fame, and even a little shabby. The front of the house is very wide, with a large cement lawn, a few pairs of stone locks and an weapon rack in the middle. This is the practice ground of Xie Jiaban. Two hundred-year-old silkworm trees, like two giant umbrellas, are propped up on both sides of the training ground, blocking the sunlight, and on the thick branches, the fine branches hang down like curtains.

The eldest brother parked his bicycle under the silkworm tree, got out of the car, and led me into the hall. The room was a little dark, and there were two bright red lanterns lit up in broad daylight. A man in his forties, with long hair, sat on a mahogany chair. More than a dozen teenagers in power suits lined up on either side of him, of varying heights, with their hands folded behind their backs, standing in a regular manner. These are his disciples, and they look about the same age as me. It was summer, and the wind came in through the door, blowing up his long hair that had fallen to his forehead, revealing a face blackened by the mountain breeze. I was somewhat disappointed. I didn't expect that my mother and eldest brother respected such a mediocre-looking person, and there was really a big gap between the generation of grandmasters I imagined.

"Come over and worship Master. "The eldest brother lowered his voice very low, like an underground worker, passing some kind of mysterious code word to me. I don't know why my eldest brother is so respectful. Over the years, because of the support of rural farming technology, the status of the eldest brother in the village has become higher and higher, three years ago, he passed the election, became the village secretary, since then he has responded to all calls, and walked straight waist. But in front of this heir of Xie's stilt Yangge, he seemed so cautious.

Seeing that I was stunned, my eldest brother slanted at me, poked my arm, and said, "Go quickly." ”

I hesitated and walked over to Master. He raised his head and stared at me with blazing eyes, as if he were examining a prisoner. Another gust of wind came through the hall, and the big red lantern hanging above his head swayed, and the red light swayed all over the room, spreading out like water. As the lights flickered, the shadows of the disciples around him jumped and bent on the ground. Behind him, there was an old wooden shelf, on which were inserted eighteen kinds of weapons, swords, guns, swords, halberds, axes, hooks, forks, and so on. Some of the weapons were overbladed, and a layer of cold light flashed faintly. Next to the weapon rack was a shrine, on which a red-faced Guan Gong stood with a large sword, as if guarding something. In front of the shrine is an old-fashioned square table with a colorful lion's head and wide eyes. It should be my grandfather's affection for the lion props, which was transmitted to me through a blood channel, and at this moment, I was attracted by this lion head, and a lion appeared in my mind under the dance of people. When I walked up to the Master, I was about to kneel.

"Don't be busy kneeling first, you have to see if the ancestor appreciates the meal. One of his hands reached over and took my arm. I looked at him again. My future master was already covered with a layer of light in my eyes, and his thin face was sharp and angular, as if it had been carved with a knife. His figure is not tall, but he shows a capable temperament, like a well-textured shelf, steadily carrying a set of Xuan-colored practice clothes. The power in his hand was surprisingly great, and I couldn't move at all.

"Arms outstretched. He said.

I took a few steps back, raised both arms, and flattened them out on both sides.

"Turn twice. ”

I took two turns.

"Kick your leg twice. ”

I kicked my leg twice.

"Jump twice. ”

I put my feet together and jumped twice in place.

"The conditions are not bad, alright, let's salute. He turned his head away and screamed. From the side room on the left, there was a sound of broken footsteps. A girl with a tray of drinking utensils flashed out of the curtain and walked up to me. I looked at it, and it was a very delicate face, not yet fully opened, but there was already a bit of dignified air in the appearance. I was a little shy, and I stood dumbfounded, forgetting to get my glass.

Big brother poked me in the arm again and winked at me. I came back to my senses, quickly picked up a glass of wine from the wine plate, held it in both hands, and respectfully handed it to the master. He took it, took a symbolic sip, and placed the glass back on the plate. There was a "dang" sound in my ears, which was the sound of the wine glass falling on the plate, which was exceptionally crisp, as if it was a kind of unequivocal promise. The expression on the eldest brother's face immediately relaxed.

As soon as the apprenticeship ceremony was over, the eldest brother went back. When I was leaving, I stuffed some money into me, and said a word, telling me to learn from Master in the future, and not to go home if I didn't learn well. After saying that, he patted me on the shoulder, turned around and got into the car, and left without looking at me.

The eldest brother walked so suddenly, I was a little stunned, and in a trance, a burst of yellow dust rose up, forming a mist in front of my eyes. By the time I came to my senses, the bike was far away and turned into a black dot on the road. A feeling of abandonment suddenly welled up in my heart, feeling like a burden that had been hastily thrown by my eldest brother in this village called Xie Jiaweizi. At the same time, I also think that the respect that the eldest brother showed just now seems to be worth scrutinizing.

Of course, I know Big Brother is busy. Since he became the village party secretary, the speed of development of our small village has been accelerating day by day, and some villages have been completely demolished and turned into commercial blocks, and some of the original residents have lived in resettlement houses, and some have moved into the county seat, and since then they have stayed away from the small village and become urban residents. But that is not the life that my eldest brother wants, and if his home is gone, what is the use of more money? My eldest brother is a principled village official who not only wants to keep his homeland, but also leads the whole village to make a fortune. Many businessmen came to the village to discuss cooperation, but as long as it involved the resale of land, he refused to do so. In the eldest brother's heart, the land was left by the ancestors and could not be sold. For the development of the village, the eldest brother has a clear direction, one is to build rental houses, and the other is to engage in village-run enterprises. In order to serve an exemplary role, he himself took the lead in overturning my family's ancestral house and building two seven-storey rental houses. At that time, everyone in the village said that this man must be crazy. However, after the house was built, it was quickly rented out, and my family became one of the first residents in the town to live a good life by collecting rent. This proves that my big brother's business acumen is still good. His success was a reassuring pill, and other villagers began to follow suit. Suffice it to say, the first rental house in our small village started from the hands of the eldest brother. In those years, he was like being full of chicken blood, and you could smell his ambition from afar.

After my eldest brother left, I really felt alone. Fortunately, it is not too far from home, Xie Jiaweizi has a small hill, just behind the master's house, climb to the top of the mountain, to the east you can see a lake of green water, embedded in a circle of low hills, that is the reservoir; further east is Phoenix Mountain, large and small peaks undulating, like a barrier, separating the two towns; on the other side of Phoenix Mountain, is my home, it seems, it seems to be close in front of me. This gave me some psychological comfort. In addition, most of the people in Xie Jiaweizi are surnamed Xie, and the people surnamed Xie respect the Wang family's teacher, and they and the master are their own family, so they are naturally more cordial and less strange. When I felt really lonely, I thought that I was here to visit my relatives.

In fact, we are indeed relatives. Most of the residents in our village have the surname Xie, and they have a deep relationship with the surname Xie of the Xie family. Historically, Shandong people are a group accustomed to migration, more than 2,000 years, our ancestors from Shandong to the northeast, experienced several large-scale migration, thus cultivating a strong ability to survive, just like dandelion seeds, floating anywhere can take root and sprout. According to my eldest brother, our ancestors moved from the Xie family, and they can be regarded as of the same ancestry. It's just that the surname Xie here reproduces faster, and the generation is higher. Master is about the same age as my eldest brother, but he is two generations taller than my eldest brother. This is also in line with his identity, as the first generation of Xie Jiawei's son Xie stilt Yangge, he can afford such a high seniority.

There are fifteen disciples under the Master, some from their own village and some from neighboring villages, some from other small towns like me, and some from Shenyang, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin, and other places.