On the morning of the 29th, while the forest house was busy entertaining visiting guests. There are two people and a horse, but they are walking slowly on the official road without hurry.

Immediately, a young man in white clothes and white robes looked delicate and handsome, his body was not majestic, but he was not thin, and he did not lose a bit of elegance and elegance in Haohao.

Judging from his appearance, this person is a beautiful young man, a beautiful son. It's a pity that these are ruined by that somewhat lazy expression, which seems to be a fly in the ointment.

In front of him, there was a person in Tsing Yi who looked like a reading companion leading a horse, this person looked a little more delicate than his own young master at first glance, with red lips and white teeth, and a weak look. However, it can still be seen from the flashing eyes from time to time and the occasional sly expression that he is definitely not as harmless as he seems on the surface.

And these two people are the protagonists of the Lin family, Lin Fan and his companion An Ning.

It is said to be an official road, but in fact, it is not much stronger than a country road, but because of years of disrepair, it has led to potholes, rocks and weeds.

Fortunately, the two of them didn't seem to be in a hurry to go home, so they let the deep foot and the shallow foot slowly walk along the official road towards Jiangyuan Town.

Lin Fan felt a little chilled, rubbed his hands and complained on the horse: "An Ning, what kind of weather do you say this is, why is it so cold?"

An Ning didn't reply: "Young master, don't complain, if you don't have to lie on the boat in the morning, we should be almost home at this time." ”

"Didn't I expect it to be so cold, I used to be fine by water, but now this one is by land, you see this wind blowing, it's almost freezing me to death."

An Ning couldn't cry or laugh: "My eldest young master, it's not your fault, it's been more than a month since the list was released, and you have already eaten the Luming Banquet." It's good that you don't know how to go home, when you were in Hongzhou, you plunged into the green building. If it weren't for the fact that our entanglement was about to run out, you would still be there now, see if I go back and don't sue the master, by the way, I still have to tell Miss Qingya. ”

Lin Fan pretended to be serious: "What are you talking nonsense, I'm not here to contact you brothers, with this friendship in the future, you can take care of each other when you go to Beijing for the test next year!" Besides, we just listened to music and danced, recited poems and painted against each other, and I didn't do anything else, and my father would be considerate of me. As for Qingya, if one day I know that your mouth is not strict, where did she hear some rumors, you will die! ”

The little scholar was completely unthreatened by his young master: "Since you haven't done anything, then why don't you take me there, this kind of good thing is only for the pleasure of your own play, and you don't want to think about how difficult it is for me to sleep alone in the inn." ”

"But then again, young master, I see that you have been to Xiaoxiang Pavilion so many times, and you have never changed places, the girl in there must be very beautiful, right?" An Ning's eyes suddenly lit up and asked Lin Fan.

"Haha, Xiao Ningzi, is this time revealing your true nature? I know you want to go, but you don't want to think about who you are going with me, either the lifters of this list or their servants, although we are called the servants of the master, we are brothers; I can't really treat you as a servant, and let you have fun watching those sanctimonious old men in the back with those servants. ”

Speaking of this, Lin Fan's voice changed: "Hehe! But the girl in there is really good, you kid envy it! ”

The two looked at each other and laughed obscenely together.

In this way, there is a chat without a match, and the two of them just pass the boredom and kill time, so that the road is not too boring.

At this time, they suddenly heard a loud shout: "Oh, I opened this mountain, I planted this tree, I want to pass by here, and leave it to buy road money!" ”

When the master and servant heard this, they were stunned on the spot, and looked at each other, this is the robbery today?

At the same time that the two of them were stunned, more than a dozen people came out of the dry grass on both sides of the mountain road and surrounded the two of them in the middle. I saw that these people were yellow and thin, unclothed, shivering incessantly in the cold wind, and their thin bodies seemed to blow as soon as the wind blew, and they flew away the next moment.

They carried rusty hoes and sickles in their hands, and some of them simply used sharpened wooden sticks as weapons, and they did not look like strongmen who occupied the mountains as kings, but more like hungry people. Besides, I don't seem to have heard of any robbers in Jiangzhou.

The two quickly thought of the key point, I am afraid that these fleeing homeless people were hungry, so they temporarily decided to rob the two.

An Ning, who reacted, pretended to be afraid: "I said guys, don't kill me, I'm just a subordinate, no money." ”

After that, he pointed his finger at Lin Fan: "Look at him, he is the young master of a big family, and his family has money, so he wants to kill him." ”

The robbers turned their eyes to Lin Fan, and when they saw Lin Fan riding on the horse, their eyes were about to look straight, with a green light, and a greedy look stared directly at the horse under Lin Fan's crotch, as for Lin Fan, it seemed that it was not so important, and Lin Fan was a little hairy and uncomfortable.

The first one said: "Don't worry, you two, we only want money and goods today, and we will not hurt people's lives." As long as you obediently hand over all your belongings, we will let you go. ”

Seeing that the thief had no killing intent, An Ning said: "Guys, you see that there is nothing wrong with me!" Either you're busy first, I'll go first. ”

Then it's time to go. Lin Fan was furious: "An Ning, you unrighteous bastard!" If you dare to go, see if I go back and don't tell Uncle An, let him break your legs. ”

An Ning turned around with a bitter face when he heard this: "Young master, you can solve it yourself, I don't want to fight, I haven't worn this new dress for a few days, it won't be good if it is torn." ”

"You don't talk nonsense, hurry up and solve them for me, the family is still waiting for us to go back."

An Ning saw that he couldn't hide, so he could only helplessly say to the bandits: "You guys go up together, I'm still waiting to go home for dinner." ”

These robbers have long had enough of the two singing and harmonizing, chattering crookedly. Where will be polite to them, pounce together.

The man at the head slashed with a knife and went straight to the door of peace. An Ning dodged the blade sideways and elbowed the man in the ribs, knocking him to the ground.

Then he took a step back, dodging the sticks that swept from side to side. With a flick of his wrist, he took a wooden stick in front of him in his hand, lifted his leg and kicked the robber over, snatching the stick from him.

Then he swept out the sticks and knocked down another robber who had besieged him. And he made a spear out of a stick, and stabbed a thief with a sickle.

An Ning stabbed him, and the tip of the stick hit him in the lower abdomen, causing him to collapse to the ground. Then An Ning stepped forward and knocked down the two of them in succession.

The remaining thieves saw that An Ning was invincible, so they bypassed An Ning and rushed towards Lin Fan, wanting to take down Lin Fan first as a threat.

Seeing this, An Ning did not stop him, and stood sideways, only stopping the person in front of him, and let the others rush past him.

Seeing that the thief was about to come, Lin Fan did not panic.

He calmly rolled off his horse, and like An Ning, he first dodged a head-on blow sideways, then kicked out with a kick that hit the fastest man down and knocked him down.

Then he grabbed the arm of a man on his left who had slashed at him with a knife, and he pulled it forward, and he lifted his knee and hit him in the chest, and the man foamed at the mouth and fell to the ground, unable to struggle.

One wanted to take the opportunity to hug Lin Fan's waist from behind and create opportunities for his companions. Lin Fan dodged and struck back with his elbow, then turned and kicked sideways, knocking him to the ground.

The remaining two saw that the situation was not good, and they glanced at each other, a little hesitant, and did not dare to step forward again.

Before Lin Fan could make a move at them, the two of them had lost the last bit of courage and turned around and fled.

Seeing this, An Ning, who had already knocked the opponent down, threw out the long stick in his hand, and the long stick flew out, and it was pulled horizontally on the waist of a person, knocking it away. The long stick was so powerful that the blow sent the man to the ground, convulsing continuously.

An Ning solved one, and Lin Fan was not to be outdone, he picked up a stone and threw it at the back of another person. The stone struck the man in the back of the heart, causing him to fall to the ground.

When the last thief fell to the ground, the fight was over. But the fight is over, but the matter is not over yet, and the two have to clean up the mess.

To make it easier to supervise, they have the less injured people gather the more seriously injured together. When I was done, I saw a group of people lying on the ground, covering their wounds and screaming and wailing.

Regardless of the injuries of these people, An Ning looked at Lin Fan with a smile: "I don't know where the thieves came from, and they came to rob us without opening their eyes." Young master, what do you think should be done, or send it directly to the government? ”

"Let's try it first, I don't think they look like the most vicious people." Lin Fan said.

When An Ning heard this, he said to these strongmen: "Where did you come from, you are so incompetent, you dare to plunder here, and say that I opened this mountain and planted this tree." I see that you are fucking and have listened to a lot of commentary, here is a fucking official road, and I need you to come to your fart mountain and carry a fart tree. If you can't say one, two, or three of today's things, you will all send them to the government. Hehe, when the time comes, the government will not be as easy to talk as the uncle! ”

The leader endured the pain and kowtowed to the two: "Uncle spare your life!" Please don't report to the official, we all fled from the Central Plains Road, just because the family has suffered a catastrophe in the past few years, and the harvest has been cut off every year, and now there are bandits again, and the food at home has been robbed. Later, there was a war again, and the officials and soldiers were inseparable from the thieves, and they really couldn't survive in their hometown, so they took their wives and children out to flee. When they came out, there were 1,200 people in the whole village, and they died all the way, and now there are about 30 people left. We were so hungry that we couldn't stand it, so we dared to come out and rob the road, trying to find a way to live. ”

"It's nothing that we're starving, but there are women and children who have to be robbers. God, we just wanted to grab something to eat, but we never thought about harming people's lives! If the uncle sends us to the government, we deserve to die, but those women and children will all die if they have no one to take care of them, they are all innocent! Ask the two masters to be kind and let us go, the little ones will never dare to be evil again. ”

"If you are spared, will you be allowed to rob the others? Besides, innocent? Who is innocent? ”

"The women and children you are talking about, you say they are innocent, but they eat the food you get from making money and killing people, you say, how many people's flesh and blood have fed them, how can they be said to be innocent?" Lin Fan said. "Tell me, how many people did you rob? How many lives have been killed? ”

The bandit leader was very frightened when he heard Lin Fan's words: "Uncle, what did you say?" Harm? How dare the little ones hurt others! We just want to fill our stomachs and live, uncle, we are all from good families, who doesn't want to live in peace, if they are really hungry and can't stand it, they won't come out to rob! We also want to be good people, but in this fucking world, being a good person will die, and a good person can't fucking live! ”

Then he smiled miserably: "Actually, today is also the first time we came out to rob, and those women and children don't know." This morning, we lied to them that we came out to find something to eat, but we didn't think that before it opened, we ran into two uncles. To be honest, we really have to thank the two of you, otherwise once you really kill someone, I'm afraid you really can't go back, and you can only walk on a road of no return! ”

Lin Fan was silent for a while when he heard this, and after a while, "Take me to the place where you live to have a look." ”

The bandit leader was stunned and stared at Lin Fan vigilantly: "What did you say?" You're going to where we live and why? ”

"What? I'm afraid that I'll kill them all and lead the government to exterminate you! Or did you not tell the truth and lied to me? Afraid I'll find out? Lin Fan mocked.

The bandit said: "Naturally not, I have lived for so many years, I can still distinguish between good and bad, I can see that you are a good person." I'm just a little curious, if you want to kill us and send us to the government, we have no complaints. If you don't kill us and want to let us live, then you will let us go, and we are grateful to you. But why would you want to go where we live? ”

Lin Fan responded: "I have to see if what you say is true or false, and then decide whether to kill or release you!" Otherwise, what will you do if you come out again and do evil? Where shall I go to you then? ”

The bandit leader hesitated, and after a long time, Fang said, "Okay, I'll take you there." ”

The rest of the bandits shouted loudly: "Big brother, if you want to kill them, you can take them as you like, you can't take them there." At that time, if they have bad intentions, even their sister-in-law and sunspots will all die! ”

The leader of the bandits angrily said to the thieves, "Shut up for me, I believe they are not bad people, go, go home." ”

Then he walked with a badly wounded companion into the valley to the southeast, and the others had no choice but to support each other and follow. Lin Fan, An Ning is also leading the horse to accompany him.

Along the way, Lin Fan learned from the bandit leader that his name was Wang Hu, and he was holding that person called Wang Dameng, but the others still ignored the two of them.

Wang Huyan said that their group are all people from Chenzhou, Central Plains Province, and they fled to this point, and they were originally going to flee to Huainan Road to settle down, preparing to return to Central Plains Road after the disaster year passed, and the world was too peaceful to go back to Central Plains Road. However, Huainan Province has now begun to be chaotic, and bandits are rampant, so they came to Jiangnan Province. The woman and child were waiting for dinner, and they really had no choice but to make this decision, but they didn't expect to meet Lin Fan and the others when they came out to loot for the first time.

A few years later, when Wang Hu recalled this day again. He said with emotion: It was God's will that he could meet Lin Fan. Otherwise, he would either starve to death on the side of the road and become a pile of dry bones, or die at the hands of the bandit officers and soldiers, and there would never be him later.

Half an hour later, the group came to the place where Wang Hu and the others gathered. I saw that on the leeward side of the valley, more than a dozen shacks made of tree branches were irregularly scattered on a flat ground with a radius of dozens of zhang, which looked tattered, not so much to shelter from the wind and cold, but to comfort the greater effect.

And although it is a leeward side, the biting chill hangs over my heart, and I can't get rid of it.

The women and children in the valley also saw Wang Hu and his party coming back, and gathered all at once. These people, both adults and children, are skinny and dark-skinned, all of them are dusty and have blank expressions.

Those children were supposed to be active and active, but there was no light in their eyes. Perhaps only then will the sparkle in everyone's eyes make people realize that these are living people and not walking dead.

But seeing Wang Hu shaking his head bitterly, everyone's already thin and numb faces looked even darker, and the hope in their eyes that had finally gathered suddenly dissipated.

Their gaze darkened again, and everyone wandered like ghosts, and spread out again, as if there was no longer a trace of life, and everyone from front to back seemed to have no idea that there were two more strangers in the crowd.

It wasn't until someone exclaimed in surprise and found out that the injuries on Wang Hu and his party gathered back together, and then someone discovered Lin Fan and the two, and then the hateful eyes converged towards the two, but the empty eyes looked more like numbness and despair. It wasn't until Wang Hu explained that it was none of their business that their eyes dispersed.

In the valley, suppressed cries came and went, and the people, who were already short of food and clothing, now lost all their strong labor almost all at once, and a breath of despair was permeating.

After Lin Fan understood the situation, he found Wang Hu: "What are you going to do?" Winter is coming soon, and if it goes on like this, none of you will survive this winter. ”

Wang Hu was already desperate: "The big deal is death, there's nothing to be afraid of, I've been ready for a long time." It's a pity that he didn't die in his hometown, and he wants to be a lonely ghost here, and he will never see his homeland again. ”

"Come with me, although there is no guarantee that you will be able to eat enough for every meal, but at least you will survive." Lin Fan said.

Wang Hu's eyes suddenly burst into brilliance, and he asked in disbelief: "What did you say, what did you say true?" ”

Lin Fan said angrily: "What am I lying to you for?" Is it any good for me? ”

Wang Hu's eyes became more eager, but then his eyes dimmed again: "But so many people, how much food do you want?" ”

"Don't worry, just you people, my family can still raise it. But I didn't raise you for nothing. If there is a job, you have to work for my family, and I won't pay for it then!" ”

"As long as I can keep everyone alive, I can do anything! From today onwards, my life is yours. Engong, I am here to kowtow to you, thank you for your great kindness. Wait a minute, I'm going to gather you and tell you the good news. ”

Wang Hu hurriedly went to gather everyone, and because he was too excited, he even stumbled a little. In a moment, everyone gathered again and came to Lin Fan.

"Everyone, kneel down and meet Engong! Engong said that he would take us away and let everyone live. ”

"Rest assured, Engong is the son of a big family, and he will definitely speak his mind."

After Wang Hu finished speaking, he took the lead and knelt down, and everyone looked at Lin Fan in disbelief, until after seeing Lin Fan nodding, everyone seemed to come to life all of a sudden, and knelt on the ground: "Meet Engong." ”

Lin Fan knew that if he didn't let everyone kneel, he would definitely not be at ease, so he accepted this worship.

Then he helped Wang Hu up and asked the others to stand up. He asked An Ning, "How much dry food do we have?" Take it all out, divide it among everyone, and we'll hit the road after eating. ”

An Ning only said a good word, and the two looked at each other and smiled, everything was silent.

In fact, there was not much dry food, not even enough for each woman and children, but everyone was still happy, to be precise, because they saw the hope of living.

After a short break, everyone hit the road again. Lin Fan originally intended to dismount and walk by himself, and let the children take turns to ride horses to rest, but Wang Hu and the others did not agree.

They said that it was difficult to repay the great kindness of Engong, how could there be any reason to let Engong get off the horse and walk, under their constraints, no child dared to get on the horse.

Although Lin Fan was helpless, he couldn't force it, so he could only ride a horse. In this way, the group headed towards Jiangyuan Town. There was also the scene in front of the gate of the forest house.