In August, the aftermath of the setting sun is like fire, illuminating the earth breathlessly, the fields crack out one after another, like spider webs, even the thick trees are withered, and the surrounding area is barren, revealing a sense of desolation, although the scorching sun is in the sky, but it makes people shudder.

On the trail in the distance, Fang Chengtian walked slowly with a burden on his back, his heavy footsteps shattered the dead leaves on the ground, but he could not break the loneliness between heaven and earth.

Fang Chengtian frowned tightly, squinting his eyes and scanning the surroundings, there was a long wound on his face, from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth, the wound had formed a black-red blood scab.

The scar did not make him ugly, but rather added a strange charm to his handsome face.

His gaze fell on a dead forest, and he said, "These trees are poisonous, and I don't know what happened to the people who ate the bark!" ”

Suddenly, a breeze blew.

Fang Chengtian took two breaths sharply, looked suspicious, pointed ahead, turned around and said loudly, "Master, can you smell a smell of meat?" It seems to have floated from the village in front of it. ”

There was an old man behind Fang Chengtian, his eyebrows were white.

The old man stroked his silver beard and said lightly: "Don't be nosy, we have to hurry, otherwise we won't be able to reach Yanzhou before dark, and we will have to sleep in the wilderness." ”

"But ......" Fang Chengtian's face was embarrassed, and his eyes moved to the village not far away.

Dilapidated thatched houses, depressed dead trees, deserted streets......

It's a lifeless village, but the smell of meat wafts from the village.

Fang Chengtian's brows furrowed more and more, when he was young today, the government was controlled by eunuchs, making the people's livelihood miserable, coupled with the continuous drought, the people were hungry and had begun to gnaw on the bark, where did the meat come from?

The old man frowned and said, "Chengtian, the knife wound on your face has not healed yet, have you forgotten the pain?" ”

Fang Chengtian touched the scars on his face, a little itchy, a little painful.

The knife wound was caused by a sneak attack when he was treating an injured bandit not long ago, and the bandit took revenge and robbed him of his baggage.

"Let's go!" The old man shook his head and walked in front of Fang Chengtian.

Fang Chengtian was still staring at the village, which was very dilapidated, and very silent, deathly quiet.

Suddenly, in a closed and dilapidated grass house, a child's cry suddenly came out, breaking the silence of the village.

Fang Chengtian's face changed, his eyes suddenly looked at the closed thatched house, his body moved, rushed over, and after a few ups and downs, he came to the door and kicked it over.

With a "bang", the door of bamboo straw weaving opened.

The room was a little dark, and a thick smell of meat wafted from the room.

Fang Chengtian took a closer look and found a middle-aged man in dirty clothes and as thin as firewood, holding a thin child about four or five years old in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other, which was stained with blood.

Fang Chengtian's face changed greatly, and he shouted: "Stop! ”

In the midst of the cheers, Fang Chengtian rushed forward with an arrow step, grabbed the hand of the middle-aged man holding the kitchen knife, snatched the kitchen knife with a slight twist, and then pushed it, and the middle-aged man sat down to the ground with a scream.

"Wow...... Mother ...... "The thin child broke free from the restraints, crying, and ran in the direction of the stove.

"Who are you, what are you trying to do when you break into my house?" When the middle-aged man questioned, he grabbed a sticky stick out of nowhere, and before Fang Chengtian could respond, he had already rushed forward, holding the stick high and slashing down on the top of Fang Chengtian's head.

Fang Chengtian heard the sound of the wooden stick above his head whirring, but his face did not change, and when the stick was only three inches away from his head, he suddenly kicked his legs.

I only heard a "bang", the middle-aged man was hit in the abdomen, flew upside down two or three feet away, fell to the ground with a "bang", covered his stomach and rolled into a ball, and moaned in his mouth.

The child's crying became louder and louder, and the shouting of the mother became more and more frequent, Fang Chengtian frowned and slowly walked to the edge of the stove, a stream of heat came from the tightly covered iron pot, and there was a strong smell of meat in the heat.

Fang Chengtian clenched his teeth, slowly lifted the lid of the pot and looked inside, and suddenly there was a loud "boom" in his head, and then the entire scalp was numb.

A human hand with a broken wrist was lying quietly at the bottom of the pot, the water in the pot was still rolling slightly under the high residual temperature, and the meat on that hand was boiled white and already cooked.

Although Fang Chengtian had expected it and was mentally prepared, when he really saw it, he still couldn't help but feel cold from within, anger from his heart, and his snort gradually became heavy.

Fang Chengtian took a few deep breaths, calmed down, slowly covered the pot, and looked behind the stove.

Under the light of the fire, in the messy firewood, there was a middle-aged woman in ragged clothes, her face was as pale as paper, without a trace of blood, there was a deep wound on her neck, and the firewood pile and the ground were full of her blood, most of which had coagulated.

Fang Chengtian suddenly looked at the middle-aged woman's hand, only to see her right hand broken at the wrist.

The skinny child was lying on top of her, crying bitterly, covered in blood.

The skinny child kept calling her mother, but unfortunately her mother couldn't hear her anymore.

Fang Chengtian's eyes were full of tears, looking at the thin child who wanted to speak and stopped, he was stunned for a moment, he didn't know what words to use in order to persuade the child not to be sad anymore.

The old man entered the room at some point, stared at the middle-aged man with a sharp gaze like a knife, and asked, "What did you do?" ”

The middle-aged man held his stomach with one hand, propped himself on the ground with the other, half-sat up, looked at the old man with a painful face, shook his head, sighed, and looked at the middle-aged woman and thin child under the stove, then suddenly nodded again, grinning: "What's the matter with you?" ”

When Fang Chengtian heard this, he pointed at the middle-aged man and said angrily, "You...... How can you do that? You're not human, you're a brute! The more he spoke, the more emotional he became.

The old man glanced at Fang Chengtian, sighed, and said, "Chengtian, this kind of person is not worthy of living in the world, kill him, let's take the child away." ”

"Kill him......" Fang Chengtian clenched the bloodstained kitchen knife, looked at the old man, and hesitated, "But ......"

The old man shook his head: "Chengtian, there is a distinction between good and evil in this world, and the wicked deserve to be rewarded with evil, why don't you understand?" Saving people divides good and evil, otherwise if you save the wicked, you will not harm the good people in disguise. ”

Fang Chengtian said in a low voice: "But...... Don't you often say that the heart of a healer's parents? As he spoke, he lowered his head.

The old man sighed, snatched the kitchen knife from the young man's hand, and slowly walked towards the middle-aged man, saying as he walked: "Something like this inhumanity should not live in the world. ”

When the middle-aged man heard this, he looked at the old man, then turned his head to look at the thin child, sighed lightly, and smiled at the old man.

The old man saw that he was dying, but he did not have the slightest remorse, and the only trace of pity in his heart disappeared in an instant, and he raised the kitchen knife and wanted to cut it.

The middle-aged man turned his head to look at the thin child again, sighed, and slowly closed his eyes, although there was a lot of reluctance on his face, there was also a kind of peace on his face.

Fang Chengtian frowned, a little baffled by the middle-aged man's expression, but he always felt that it was not appropriate to kill this middle-aged man, and hurriedly shouted: "Master, wait, the disciple feels that there seems to be something else hidden in this matter." ”

The old man paused slightly, looked at Fang Chengtian, pointed a knife at the middle-aged man, and said, "The facts are all in front of him, even he has admitted it, what else is there to hide?" ”

At this moment, a childish and crying child's voice sounded: "Daddy......"