The days on the water are much more boring than on the shore, Qi Zuo stands in front of the map table all day long, sometimes using his fingers to plan the route after entering the sea, sometimes holding his forehead, falling into a contemplation that no one knows; Dongzi has a pair of walnuts that never leave their hands day and night, with strange lines on them, no matter how they look and how they touch, they are never lacking in interest, and the two small things that were originally black and not slippery are coiled out by him with a thick pulp, even if it is only in the faint candlelight, it also exudes a red coral-like luster.

Among the group, Cai Zhao was the closest to Dongzi, followed by Sister Lai, and was the most estranged from his biological sister Cai Huan. The sister and brother come from a peasant family in Gongtang Village, south of Cunya, and their parents are there, although they are not wealthy, they are by no means a dilapidated and displaced family. Cai Zhao has enjoyed the love of his parents since he was a child, but he has never felt any family affection from his sister. Xiao Caihuan goes out early in the morning and returns when the sun sets, she doesn't know what to do outside, she always enters the door with a body full of dust, but her parents never lecture her, but they don't know how many times they stop Xiao Cai Zhao and don't let him chase his sister out.

Everyone said that he had a crazy sister, and slowly, he didn't need his parents to stop him, and Xiao Cai Zhao didn't want to chase his sister anymore. He pretended to live without his sister, and finally, on his ninth birthday, he really didn't have one.

It was a rainy day, Cai Zhao and his family had dinner, not only his parents, but also his grandmother and two aunts. Cai Zhao still has many relatives, but his favorite is his grandmother and these two aunts, they are very beautiful, more beautiful than his mother, and his grandmother is still very beautiful even when she is old.

The dinner that day was very long, and the big yellow dogs of Ran Bo's house began to bark, and Cai Huan had not come back yet. My parents and two aunts searched the village as if they were dead, and even my grandmother was holding an iron pear wooden crutch and pulling her loose and useless voice, "Huanhuan-Huan-" shouted with difficulty.

The whole family spent a whole night in the village and outside the village, leaving Cai Zhao, who had just turned nine years old, alone to guard a large table of meals - a lot of food, even if they ate it for a long time, it was still a lot, a lot of food, a lot of food that was cold in the cold wind of the wax moon.

When the morning light broke out from the east, Cai Zhao's parents stepped into the door weakly, and their eyes were not the black of a sleepless night, but fresh pink, swollen, as if they had just cried.

Cai Zhao didn't know how to make his parents feel so heartbroken with such a daughter who was away from home all day. After that, they asked someone to inquire about the news for more than a month, and the family had entertained all kinds of people in and out, first acquaintances in the village, then distant relatives, and finally Xiao Cai Zhao had no impression of the new face, and he knew that his parents, who had been farming at the door of their homes for ten years, knew so many people. Finally, on a sunny day with clear sunlight, the family ushered in a handsome man who exuded a beard, and his parents entertained him for lunch, Xiao Cai Zhao could see that his father had a long-lost smile on his face, and he didn't know if it was because of this person or because of the news he brought.

Sure enough, after that, the parents no longer invited strange guests to the house, and they returned to the ordinary life of sunrise and sunset, just like every ordinary peasant couple.

As if he was angry, Cai Zhao never asked his parents about his sister's whereabouts, he just thought that all this had never happened, it didn't happen since his mother's belly, Cai Zhao in Gongtang Village didn't have a sister, and there was no sister who fooled around outside all day long and finally lost herself.

It wasn't until last winter, when he was a recruit under the support of the state religion, and when he was sent to Qi Zuo's side as a guard, that the woman beside Zuo Envoy was the same as in his childhood memories and had cold eyes, that he reminded him again, you have a sister, and she is here.

After coming to Qi Zuo's side, although he was often under the same roof, Cai Zhao always avoided intersecting with his sister as much as possible, but fortunately, Zuo Envoy mostly let him partner with Dongzi, and Cai Huan served more closely, which was also in line with his heart.

But Cai Huan always took the initiative to find him, either to lecture the left envoy, or to urge him to practice martial arts. For example, now, she carried two wooden swords, one long and one short, and walked behind her younger brother who was lying on the side of the boat, looking at the river boredly.

"Next!" she threw the long one at Cai Zhao, who didn't have time to turn around and smashed the wooden sword into his side and halfway to his arm.

"Can't you throw it after you say it?" Cai Zhao's other hand quickly reached out, and his body sank, which could be regarded as catching the wooden sword.

It's just that before he finished speaking, Cai Huan's short sword had already struck at his waist, and she bent her legs, like a female leopard hunting for food, and after two catapults, she went straight to the prey's ribs.

Cai Zhao had no choice but to hold the long sword in his left hand and the back of the sword with his right hand to prevent this thunderous blow. It's just that a stab is no better than a slash, unpredictable, and how can it be so easy to prevent. I saw that her right wrist was slightly flicked, and the tip of the sword avoided Cai Zhao's sword surface, and the strength did not decrease.

But this gave Cai Zhao room to turn around, he flipped his body to the other side, and the sword body took advantage of the momentum to push into the distance, and Cai Huan's blade was being pulled outward. Seeing that the short sword was about to pass by Cai Zhao's sideways body, Cai Huan took a step in time to stop the figure of the front stab, the short sword flipped in his hand, the tip of the sword reversed, the lunge turned into a false step, and the back foot kicked hard, and another barb pulled towards Cai Zhao.

Cai Zhaocai switched the wooden sword to his right hand, and before he could breathe, his sister's short sword had already turned from a forward stab to a back stab. He held his breath, his right knee slammed up, hitting Cai Huan's wrist, and with a loss of force, the short wooden sword slid out of her right hand and slid out of the tiger's mouth by half an inch.

Seeing the good time, Cai Zhao reached out his left hand to snatch the short sword in Cai Huan's hand, but suddenly felt a suffocation in his throat, only to find that a white arm was holding his neck, and he could glimpse the faintly bulging muscles at the base of the arm.

The opportunity was fleeting, and with a breath and a breath, Cai Huan's right hand had already grasped back the short sword, but the left arm clamped on his younger brother's neck did not loosen. When the mountains and rivers were exhausted, Cai Zhaoyi was holding the long sword in his right hand, and the hilt was aimed at Cai Huan's waist, and the latter was close to his right side of his body at this time in order to hold Cai Zhao, and he didn't see the lonely right hand hanging out, and he didn't know about the danger that was coming-

Hmm! The blow hit Cai Huan's back firmly, unloading her with seven points of strength—but only for that moment, and in an instant, she was able to breathe well, and that was at this moment, Cai Zhao pulled her arm away, and was about to shake her off.

"It's late. ”

Cai Huan twisted his left arm, broke free from his younger brother's control, climbed the latter's wrist with his backhand, and pulled his body closer with his strength, and his right hand immediately followed, and the three-inch-long short wooden sword compared to Cai Zhao's throat.

"It's me winning again. ”

Cai Huan's shoulders unconsciously rose higher, then let go of his younger brother's hand, separated the two with a push, turned around to hold the side of the boat, and took a long breath of cold river breeze.

"Why did you change the short sword?" Cai Zhao no longer wants to intersect with his sister, but he still has the heart of a teenager, he wants to win, and he must lose clearly.

"The day before yesterday you asked me why I use thorns instead of splitting, yesterday you asked me why I use my legs without my hands, and today you asked me why I use short instead of long. ”

Cai Huan just turned his head, and his voice drifted into Cai Zhao's ears along the river wind, but there was only a lot more contempt in his words.

"I told you that the stabbing is unpredictable, but you still have a horizontal sword to block, I tell you that in addition to the sword in one hand, there are one hand and two feet to be guarded against, but you are still bent on taking my sword, and you can't see that my other hand is going around the back of your neck, and even if I tell you the advantages of the short sword today, what use will it be to you. ”

"You say that the stabbing is unstoppable, but don't I get out of the way; you say that you use both hands and feet, what do I use to hit your wrists and lower back; you want to teach me the advantages of short combat, I don't need you to talk about it, 'one inch short and one inch dangerous' is not your turn to be my teacher. ”

Cai Zhao threw the wooden sword in front of him, and on his young face, the humble humility of the loser at the beginning was completely replaced by shame.

Hearing the sound of the wooden sword falling to the ground, Cai Huan subconsciously turned around and saw his younger brother turn around to leave.

"Come back!" she was still so fierce and commanding.

Cai Zhao stood up obediently.

"When I say 'it's late,' I say at the end that you should have realized that you were distancing yourself from me. Remember, as long as your sword is, you can get as far away from your opponent. ”

Cai Huan turned her whole body around and wanted to lean on the side of the boat, but as soon as her lower back touched the side of the boat, she bounced up in pain. It was a small movement, and no one noticed.