Black clouds are overwhelming, and the wind is raging, and a heavy snow is about to fall.

There are only a dozen houses scattered in the valley, and a house with a separate courtyard wall at the entrance of the village looks old.

Facing the wind, there was also a barely legible banner sticking out of the doorway.

This place is hundreds of miles away from Yingtian Capital City.

The shopkeeper is also a running hall, a bookkeeper, and a wife who is busy burning the fire in the back kitchen, but fortunately, although the store is small, it is located on the largest road in the northeast direction of Yingtian.

With the favorable geographical conditions, it is not difficult to support a family.

It's just that in front of him, the shopkeeper put his hands in the sleeves of his cotton robe, stood in the courtyard and looked at the gloomy sky in the east, and muttered in a low voice: "I'm afraid that there are no guests who have settled down today." ”

Since late autumn, several snowfalls have caused a sharp decrease in the number of cars and pedestrians on the road, and even if there are no people who have not landed for a day, it is not too surprising.

The busy proprietress in the back kitchen wiped her hands on her apron, walked out slowly, walked to the shopkeeper's side, looked up at the quiet mountain road outside the courtyard like him, and comforted her: "The master, it's hard to say." ”

As soon as he came out of Yingtian, he hurried continuously, and had to stay at the inn at night, and his food and accommodation were in huge contrast with the comfortable and leisurely days in the Lingering Garden.

The whole person has returned to the state of illness and haggardness, but fortunately, this is still very helpful for my current disguised identity.

Disguised and changed into a man's robe, I am now a down-and-out traveler in the eyes of others.

I'm already familiar with the change of identity, and it's not the first time.

If you want to do something as big as entering the palace at the beginning, you can pass the test by hiding from the sky and the sea, and of course it is not a problem in front of you.

Turning the col, I unexpectedly saw a village in the valley ahead.

Originally, I had prepared for the worst, and I had a lot of dry food right away, which I could last for several days with my consumption.

Along the way, you can occasionally see the hunter's abandoned hut. It's a big deal to wait until the next time, and I'll go in and hide for the night.

The wind and snow can't stand the journey, and when you need it, you still have to stop and rest.

The road to Shikun Mountain is far away. It's not a day or two to arrive, so I'm not in a hurry.

I thought about the idea, and I was prepared for the worst, but God still gave me a surprise.

A small village like the one in front of it will not be marked on the map.

With the new situation, with hope, the lazy me and the horse came to the spirit, straddled the horse, I tightened the reins and watched for a few seconds, and then quickly urged the horse to run towards the destination.

Wait until you get to the old wild shop. I bowed my head and got off the horse, and after a few days of hard work, the movements of getting on and off the horse were also a lot neater, and the riding skills were far more than when I was in the Lingering Garden, which shows that the potential of people is really endless.

Look around. I didn't see anyone in the courtyard, but I heard a voice talking from the main house in the courtyard, and then a middle-aged couple walked out one after another.

Stopping in front of me, the two of them exchanged glances with each other, but the responsive wife spoke first: "Little brother, stay in a hotel or eat?" ”

I asked for a room. I asked about the situation, ordered a few simple dishes, and I was welcomed into the store by the proprietress and sat down.

On the small square table, which was wiped clean, the proprietress first served me a cup of hot tea.

With the warm hot tea in my stomach, I turned my head to catch a glimpse of the shopkeeper who had led my mount to the tree in the courtyard and tied it down.

After settling the horses, the shopkeeper chatted with me in the shop. After a while, the smell of food came from the back kitchen.

Greens, egg soup, sliced bacon, plus rice. The taste is surprisingly good.

It was the best meal I had ever had on the road.

The proprietress saw that I had eaten a small half, and the number of times I lifted the chopsticks gradually decreased, she smiled and said: "Little brother has a small appetite, and the guests who come here to stay and eat, which one is not gobbling up." "Our shop, just in the middle of two towns, is a mountain road, and there is no other house, unless you are in a hurry, and if you stay to eat, most of the customers will look like they have been hungry for days." "Is the food delicious?" "Where, where, well done, I haven't eaten such delicious home-cooked food in a long time."

I glanced at her with a little blush, and said embarrassedly: "I've eaten a lot, when I go out, I immediately bring dry food, I ate some on the way, not very hungry." ”

In fact, this is already double the usual amount of food.

It seems that when I returned to Yingtian Capital City from Jianghuai, counting the past few months in the Lingering Garden, my appetite is not as good as before.

They gossiped with me in the store until the meal was finished and the tea was drunk.

The proprietress was about to add tea for me, and asked me, my mind drifted out of the sky, and I came back to my senses when I heard the words, and quickly waved her hand and said, "Enough is enough." ”

Putting down the dishes and chopsticks, sitting up straight on the bench, I thought about it and said to the two of them: "I came out of Yingtian and walked in a hurry, but the first time I came here, I don't know how many days I have to walk to Shikun Mountain?" ”

The shopkeeper and his wife were both stunned, exchanged glances again, a look of confusion flashed on their faces, they were silent for a moment, or the proprietress opened her mouth first.

The proprietress still maintained a smile on her face, but her question was straightforward: "Little brother, I don't think you are a businessman, and besides, this season is not a good time to run there." "We also heard from the guests who came and went that the place in Shikuo Mountain was extremely cold in autumn, and the mountain was closed early, and it was even more difficult to enter when the snow fell."

My eyes flashed, I picked up the teacup on the table and played with it, turned my head to look at her with a smile, and said with a sincere look in my eyes: "What do you mean?" “

Could it be that thousands of miles away, even the mountain gate is guarded, and you can't enter?! "With all due respect, little brother, Shikun Mountain is not close to here, we have opened a shop here for many years, and all of them add up, and the number of people over there who have landed can be counted by stretching out their hands."

The proprietress glanced back and pushed the people around her: "Last time, there was a man of different races, who didn't eat, and didn't live in the store, but only took some water from the well in the backyard of the store, and said yes" "Yes, his son in the car wants to drink." "Those two people are really strange, but they are rare guests to go to Shikun Mountain." "Hey, it's not a guest, it's just a well water." "He asked me if there was a clean mountain spring nearby, and I said that the well in the backyard was always said by customers to be sweet, and the water quality was very good." "His son-in-law never got out of the car from beginning to end, and we didn't see him."

The shopkeeper and his wife glanced at me, mentioned this incident a few months ago, and listened to their tone, and I was very impressed.

My eyelids jumped, and a thought suddenly flashed in my heart, and I rolled my eyes and said in a dumb voice, "But a tall, dark-skinned man of an alien race?"

I thought back to Aman's appearance, and I was a little incoherent for a while. "That's about that," I stood up and gestured, "looks like it"

Listening to my careful description, Xu is that the well water that time impressed the people in the store too deeply, the two of them nodded after thinking about it and said: "What you said, it sounds very similar, is it someone that the little brother knows?" ”

"Then you went to Shikuo Mountain, did you go to visit relatives?"

The proprietress asked.

Suppressing the surging emotions in my heart, I took a deep breath, my eyes were slightly moist, and I whispered, "Yes, I'm going to visit relatives." ”

Suddenly, the cold wind blew open the unclosed north window of the store, and the snow drifted in, and the cold hit the face.

"Hey, it's snowing, it's really starting to fall."

The proprietress shouted, walked over, raised her hand and pressed the window pin, and firmly closed the wooden window to block the wind and snow outside the window. "The horse tethered outside, brought by the little brother, can you feed it?"

I asked the shopkeeper and got a positive answer.

She turned back, walked over to the table and sat down, and continued to talk to me.

"Little brother, looking at his appearance, he is from our Central Plains, how can he have relatives in a foreign place like Shikuo Mountain?"

It is not surprising that she asked this, Shikun Mountain is a distant and mysterious existence for the people of Yingtian, and there is a bit of indescribable color.

"I have relatives who practice medicine there." Thinking about it, I decided to tell the truth.

I don't want to give Xiao Chu a strange made-up profession.

The proprietress looked a little incredible, and she said in surprise: "There are so many medical halls in Yingtian, and the practice of medicine is not in Yingtian, how could it be that you have come to a place like Shikuo Mountain." ”

"There is a shortage of doctors and medicines there, and after the family went there in the early years, seeing the situation there, he decided to stay and help a group of people of different races."

"Sure enough, there are no boundaries for doctors."

Both of them showed solemn expressions, I paused in my tone, and said in a low voice: "In fact, helping others is also mutual assistance, he is there, he is respected by other races, he opens a medical center, and he also accepts disciples, and his life is also good." ”

"Then do you want to stay in Shikuo Mountain to live or come back with him this time?"

I was stunned for a moment, and said with a little uncertainty in my tone: "Probably stayed, if he willing." ”

"Shikun Mountain is not as good as the Central Plains, it is always a bitter cold place, little brother, you persuade your family, can you come back or come back."

I smiled and said, "I'll relay what you said to him, but he's always had a lot of ideas, and he has to listen to his own words." “

In an instant, my nose was a little sour, and my heart was even more bitter, and I quickly suppressed my feelings, I lowered my head and said calmly: "If he has many reasons, I will be persuaded by him." “

Outside, the wind and snow have stained the hills white, and the road will be more difficult to walk tomorrow morning.

Inside the house, under the warm oil lamp, I finished eating the pills that Mr. Ge had prepared for me, wrapped myself in a thin quilt, propped my hands on the table, and stared at the lamp in a daze.

If the snow falls one after another, I am really not sure that I can get it along the way.

A few months ago, they came back from Jianghuai and passed through here to Shikun Mountain.

Tomorrow, I will still follow the same path as him, following the same path as he went

(PS: It's the beginning of the school year again)