The painting cave shrine on the west side of Jiankang was crowded with people who had escaped from the city, including rich people and ministers. These people all fled from the city in a hurry before Hou Jing's rebels arrived, and after Hou Jing occupied Stone City, the four gates of Jiankang were closed, and the people inside could not get out, and the people outside did not enter.

But those who jump out are not necessarily lucky, for example, these refugees who are in the Huadong Ancestral Hall, now all the roads and passes are occupied by the rebels, and they have nowhere to go but to hide in other people's ancestral halls. As soon as they went out, they were either arrested or killed, those who had money on them were all strengthened, and those who were a little beautiful were all arrested and taken to the barracks to serve as military prostitutes, and there was no way to live at all.

At this time, there are nearly 100 old women and children hidden in the painting cave temple, up to the eighty-year-old elders, down to the babbling children, among them there is a man named Qiu Ci, he is a bachelor of the East Palace, Hou Jing happened to be on duty in the East Mansion on the night of crossing the river, so he was able to escape by luck, but he ran east with the common people to the east, and wanted to go to Jingxiang to find his uncle, and served as the former Sima of the army under the account of Xiao Duo, the king of Xiangdong. Halfway through, he happened to encounter miscellaneous soldiers from several nearby counties robbing passers-by, and he was afraid that his identity would be exposed and killed by mistake, so he could only follow the people to the south and hide in this painting cave shrine.

At this time, the whole ancestral hall was crowded with people, and the adults made the children cry very noisy, he got up and wanted to pee outside, this was the words of a father and daughter that attracted his attention, only to see an old man in his fifties with a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl curled up in a corner under the corridor of the ancestral hall. The old man looked at the knife wound when he escaped, and there were blood stains on his thighs and chest that were dying, and the girl had been tearing up the old man's wounds and changing the gauze.

It is estimated that she was too anxious when she came out, the girl did not have the ointment to stop the bleeding at all, and the old man screamed in pain every time he changed the gauze, and scolded while calling: "Oh, you are light, are you going to kill your father?" I'm dead, you're running away, aren't you? The girl didn't defend herself but kept crying, and it seemed that she didn't want to do that, but without a doctor and ointment, what could a little girl do?

The hunters in the ancestral hall have their own troubles, no one cares about the affairs of the father and daughter, Qiu Ci read a few medical books when he was young, so he knows a little about external injuries, and when he saw the old man suffering so much, he walked up to them and said: "Old man, I studied medicine for a while in my early years, and when I saw that you were all skin injuries, I would like to help you take a look, are you willing?" ”

The old man grinned with a headache, and at this time, he looked at him and asked disdainfully, "Are you okay?" Oyo so painful. I don't think you're a doctor, but a reader. hiss~" It hurts so much, and the old man doesn't want to speak more. Qiu Ci saw that he didn't believe it and didn't say much, so he turned around and left. Unexpectedly, the girl shouted softly behind her back: "Sir, please show my father, he really can't stand the pain." Qiu Ci stopped, this voice was indeed euphemistic, not like the rude and reckless voice of a country woman. He turned to look at the girl.

Although she is only fifteen or sixteen years old, this girl has bright and bright teeth, although she is not glamorous, but she has a little more subtle coquettishness, and the look in the corners of her eyes always inadvertently reveals the pitiful appearance of her clothes, which makes people feel pity and unconsciously want to protect her.

Qiu Ci smiled slightly and said, "Since the girl has spoken, she will do her best." So he went up to check the wound of the old man, and a wound on his chest was two inches long, but the cut on the outside of the skin did not move to the inside, but the wound on the thigh was more troublesome, from the outside of the thigh to the calf, a very long cut. Moreover, there is already a tendency of inflammation and suppuration, and it is very likely to hurt the muscles and bones if it is not treated urgently.

Qiu Ci explained the injury to the old man and the girl in detail, and finally asked the girl: "I don't know what to call your high surname?" The little girl said a little shyly: "The little girl's surname is Sun, her single name is Erniang, and she is a member of Wu Xingren in Wu County." This is the father of my little girl. I don't know what Engong is called? Qiu Ci hurriedly got up and saluted: "Under Qiu Ci, he is a bachelor of the East Palace." He deliberately showed his identity as a high-ranking scholar and wanted Sun Erniang to worship him even more.

But the country girl doesn't understand what a scholar of the East Palace is, there is nothing special to say, Qiu Ci is a little anxious at this time, he is anxious to make Erniang have a good impression of him.

Qiu Ci's ancestral home is Shandong, and later his great-grandfather moved his family to Hubei, but Hubei is also the land of the four wars, out of desperation can only migrate south to Guangzhou, where he spent his childhood and youth, and later under his father's strong request and arrangement, he married the daughter of the same county Xuezheng as his wife, and returned to Jiankang with his father-in-law's family, but he did not love this wife, the ******** and interest of the two are completely two directions of people, So three years ago, he decided to divorce his wife without authorization, and the ancient people could not tolerate and tolerate divorce, so his former father-in-law gave him a lot of hardship.

Fortunately, Qiu Ci worked hard to make progress, and won the first place in the palace examination with the qualification of substitute tribute student, and was valued by Xiao Yan, and was not selected as Xiao Gang's Donggong University scholar. There are two kinds of bachelors in the East Palace, one is an older bachelor like Qiu Ci's former father-in-law, this kind of position is higher and more prestigious, and even the civil and military ministers in the court have to give three points, and the other is a bachelor like Qiu Ci, don't look at the difference of only one point, but the treatment is indeed very different.

There are only 30 people in the East Palace, but there are nearly 600 scholars, and a bachelor leads 20 scholars, and their work accompanies the prince to study, ah no, it is to use his good words and deeds to teach and edify the prince, and help the prince deal with some court official affairs or local cases on a daily basis, or to make friends with the prince with his own excellent cultural heritage, proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. In short, it is a very idle but well-known errand.

But as soon as Hou Jing's rebels came, these big men who were infinitely pampered on weekdays did not have a good life, thinking that it would be better for Qiu Ci to be young and strong, those old masters in their seventies and eighties, those who had children and land at home were fine, and those who were alone were simply better off than dead.

Erniang doesn't understand these people in the city, she just knows that a good person like Qiu Ci should have a good reward, but she has nothing to repay him. At this time, someone outside suddenly shouted: "There is a thief army hidden in this." Come on! The people inside were so frightened that they quickly got up and ran out, and Erniang also helped her father up and stared at the door in horror.

I saw that the first few people who rushed out were all killed by the miscellaneous soldiers, and a head rolled inside, and the people inside wanted to explode and flee in all directions, everyone was too scared, at this time Qiu Ci saw someone crossing the wall, someone looking for the back door, but the one who climbed the wall was shot down by a bow and arrow before the wall was shot down and fell to the ground and died, and those who were looking for the side door also found that the side door was guarded, and a hundred people were blocked in the ancestral hall like trying to kill pigs.

Qiu Ci grabbed Erniang with one hand and wanted her to run away with her, but Erniang hugged her father and cried to Qiu Ci: "Please, save my father, please benefactor." "But now the situation is critical, if Qiu Ci doesn't want to run away anymore, let alone Erniang, even he has to explain himself here. But looking at Erniang with pear blossoms and rain on her face, he felt that he was very unbearable, such a weak woman unfortunately fell into the hands of the rebels, and the end can be imagined. didn't think about it at the moment, helped her pick up the old man of the Sun family, and walked into the ancestral hall.

The old man was angry again, and scolded Qiu Ci: "You stupid, everyone else runs out, but you take us to hide inside, do you think you die too slowly?" Qiu Ci didn't pay attention to him at the moment, he was an old man in the countryside who knew something, at that time, the ancestral hall was very chaotic inside and outside, and the miscellaneous soldiers had already rushed in and robbed and killed people who were fleeing the war.

Qiu Ci found that there was a wall on the side of the toilet in the ancestral hall when he was looking for food in the ancestral hall, which was generally used to store sundries and was not easy to be found, but at this moment, while everyone was in a panic, Qiu Ci opened a two-foot-high door on the wall with people on his back, and stuffed Erniang and her father into it to see if anyone found it, so he also bent in.

Because the space was so small, it was difficult to accommodate three adults, and the latrine was on the side, and the smell of fishy smell and the damp and moldy smell in the walls made Qiu Ci almost faint. Finally, the three of them squeezed together, Qiu Ci closed the door, and then found that his hand was just pressed on Erniang's buttocks, so soft and ......, Erniang was very embarrassed but not easy to say anything. There were not many people in the ancestral hall, and at this time, the rebels killed the red eyes, and the people inside were also anxious, and everyone rushed up to fight with the rebels.

Qiu Ci and the three of them waited in the wall for the second half of the night, the ancestral hall was very quiet and very strange, and after listening to the bloody scene of the afternoon, at this time Qiu Ci could no longer smell the smell of feces and urine in the toilet on the side, but the strong smell of blood. He gently opened the small door of the wall, showed his head and looked out, only to see the black hole in the ancestral hall, fortunately, his eyes adapted to the night, and there was moonlight outside, and he could see things within two meters clearly. He gently slipped out of the wall, then straightened his waist, and for an afternoon and a night he curled up in it, his legs and feet almost numb, and his whole body felt like he had been broken. At this time, Erniang also poked her head out to look.

Qiu Ci turned around and pulled her out of the wall, Erniang's feet fell on the floor and accidentally touched a fallen wooden row, a loud bang made him both frightened, Erniang hid in Qiu Ci's arms, hugged him tightly with both hands, buried her head in his arms, and trembled. For a while, Qiu Ci even felt that the nurse would be scared and faint at any time. Because he felt that the weight of her whole person was on himself.

The two were motionless for a while, and found that no one came to chase them, Qiu Ci only then smelled a girl's fragrance in his arms, and broke free from his arms before he could enjoy Erniang, after all, she was a virgin in the boudoir, the reality was inexplicably touched by Qiu Ci's buttocks, and now he has a skin-to-skin relationship with him, although no one knows these two things, but in Erniang's heart, this is a big deal, either she will follow Qiu Ci from now on, or she will die alone.

In those days, there were only two ways for a woman to be despised by a man under any circumstances: either marry him; Either commit suicide. In short, I can't marry again. But next week was not the time to discuss this situation, and Qiu Ci also noticed that no one had noticed them, so he whispered in Sun Erniang's ear: "Get your father out quickly, let's take advantage of the night to escape south." This is Erniang also remembered that her father was still in the wall, so she quickly sorted out her thoughts, turned around and whispered to the wall: "Dad, come out quickly, there is no chaos outside, we can escape." "I called for a long time and no one paid attention.

Qiu Ci was very puzzled, stretched out his hand inside, and said, "Uncle Sun, come out quickly, let's take advantage of the night to run away and wait for the people from Yizhuang to come, we really can't run." Still didn't react, Erniang felt a little bad, Qiu Ci also felt that something might have happened, the two of them dragged Uncle Sun out hard, and found that he had been dead for a long time, probably just suffocated in it. Anyway, the old man died.

Sun Erniang sat on the ground like a fool, this time her father died, although this father is not good to herself on weekdays, she always dislikes her for not doing good things, she eats too much, she dislikes that she has not found her in-law's house, and even makes herself angry for no reason, but after all, he is his own father, the only relative living in this world, and even the last relative has left him. Erniang suddenly had no idea in her heart, feeling lonely and frightened. (To be continued.) )