Several people investigated again and again, and finally decided to leave here.

Near the entrance of the village, several people saw an isolated stone monument, the front of the stone monument had been eroded by the wind and sand, and many of the handwriting had been blurred.

Mu Cheng and Li Yiru also approached to take a look.

It would seem, this seems to be the last epitaph here.

The craftsman who carved the stele is a refugee who fled all the way from Fuzhou to here, who is over the age of old, and after leaving Zhuozhou, he has hemoptysis every day, knowing that his time is short, and he does not want to be a drag on his family, so he gave up the idea of crossing the river, and took the initiative to stay in the "Xiaojia Village" in the north of the river.

When he arrived, the village was empty, and only the starving people, who had also fled from the north to the south, would stay here for a short time, and the next day they would rise again at dawn and cross the river south.

"From Fuzhou to the south, back and forth thousands of miles, all you see is a hoof-faced, and what you hear is nothing more than a man crying and a woman crying.

"The north wind roars angrily in winter, the forest valley is frozen, and it is eaten again and again, but it is not yet able to keep out the cold, and it is hungry for a long time, how can I live? Even dry bones jam the road, circling the car, crying for help, looking at the ground and stiffening, starving to death every day, not to mention thousands of people......"

The more people looked back, the more they felt that things hurt them, and sadness came from them.

Children were abandoned in the middle of the paths, or thrown into ditches, starved to death, and eaten by their flesh, or slaughtered like cattle and sheep.

There are wicked people who coax people into silence and kill them, or eat them themselves, or let them out for sale; And there was a woman who lay on the body of the dead and devoured his flesh raw. Others hung the starving people at the doors of the houses of the rich, or cut off their heads to ask for a bite of food from the high gates......

All these appalling things happened one after another on the way south of the old man.

"At the beginning of the disaster, the poor households had no shelter and no way to support themselves, or sold clothes and utensils, or demolished and sold the tiles and wood of the houses. When the looting was exhausted, he had to flee in all directions. Helping the old and the young, crying halfway, enduring hunger with illness, stumbling and carrying the road;

"It is not long before the home of the middle household, the eclipse does not continue, and it is the same again;

"It's not long before a well-off and solid home, sitting on a mountain of food, all like this.

"Sad Husband ......"

After that, the handwriting was mixed with the yellow sand and could no longer be legible.

The three of them stood silently in front of the stone monument.

The village is full of white bones, and I don't know which pile is the former stele carver.

Following the stone road at the north entrance of the village, the three of them returned to the main road, and Bai Ling couldn't help but turn around, and took one last look at the lonely brick houses here.

Autumn in the north is already deep, and the vegetation is no longer as lush as it is in spring and summer. The creepers that climbed the tile walls withered and withered, and they were desolate.

In silence, it was as if heaven and earth were silently reclaiming the land that belonged to Him.

All the sorrows, all the struggles, all the laughter, all the songs and the cries of despair, were blown away in this bleak autumn wind, and they blew without a trace.

Whether or not there will be people living here next year, when spring arrives next year, it will be green again.

Bai Ling couldn't help but shudder.

……

After leaving the deserted village, several people referred to the map in Li Yiru's hand and found that there was an official post station about thirty or forty miles ahead.

Li Yiru himself is a little unsure of how credible this map is - after all, it is still an old version made by his grandfather during the Apocalypse.

The village they had just searched was already the closest and largest village to the official road nearly twenty miles to the north, and if this was the same scene, it was not optimistic that the post station would exist.

The few people discussed for a while, since they had enough food and water at the moment, it was better to go and find the post station first.

If the post station is still there, it may be able to rub the carriages and horses of other commercial routes, and if it is gone, then you can only find a nearby cottage to see if you can buy a donkey or mule to travel on your behalf—to walk from Jiangzhou to Zhuozhou, and it is still in the current season when the day is cold, the risk is almost unbearable.

At noon that day, a few people rested briefly in the shade of a forest and munched dry food and water in silence.

The sun outside looked more and more intense, and whenever the skin was exposed, there was a burning stinging pain as soon as the sun was direct, but in the shade, the wind blew and made people feel cold, and people couldn't help but pinch their collars tighter.

After eating, several people were a little sleepy, so everyone leaned against the trunk behind them and squinted to rest.

"By the way, have you ever heard the name 'Deer Hunter' before?" Bai Ling suddenly said, "What is the origin of these people? ”

"I don't know." Mu Cheng closed his eyes and said, "That red hair doesn't look like a Zhou person, maybe it's a gang of gold thieves." ”

"Yes," Bai Ling said softly, "the language is not like that. ”

"But how could a gold thief kill a ship thief?" Li Yiru said, mentioning this stubble, he suddenly remembered the words of the gray-robed man last night, "At that time, what did that person say, 'buy one get one free'...... What is the meaning? ”

Mu Cheng and Bai Ling both held their hands at the same time.

After so many days of getting along, the two can almost be sure that each other has a secret on their backs, but it is unknown who the "send one" in the gray-robed population refers to.

However, despite this, Bai Ling was still eighty percent sure that the person this group of gray-robed people were looking for was Mu Cheng.

The reason is very simple - if the emperor is really suspicious and secretly offers a reward to send someone to find it, then according to Chen Yicong's temper, her worth cannot be lower than that of a rich young master in the borderland.

Since the gray-robed man locked Li Yiru first, it can be seen that in their eyes, the value of the young man is the highest, and the second-highest "gift" refers to the pasture among the three.

"If you want me to say," Bai Ling said softly, "the words of these gray-robed men—"

"That's not true." Mu Cheng then replied.

The two smiled at the same time with a tacit understanding.

Li Yiru tilted his head suspiciously, and then sighed again, "Then it is estimated that when I arrive in Zhuozhou, my trip to the north will come to an end......

He lowered his head and took out two golden leaves from his arms, one by one, and handed them to Mu Cheng and Bai Ling.

"I wanted to talk to the two brothers about this before," Li Yiru said with some regret, "The two brothers should take it as a souvenir, if they have the opportunity to come to Shuzhou in the future, they will be able to find me soon with this clan emblem gold leaf." ”

"Okay." Bai Ling quickly took over the golden leaf, "I've wanted to go to Shuzhou for a long time. ”

Mu Cheng didn't speak, but silently wrapped the leaves in a handkerchief and put them in his bag.

……

In the afternoon of that day, several people hurried and hurried, and finally came to the vicinity of the post station shown in the map after dark.

Far away, they saw dozens of tall horses tethered to the roadside in the open stables, wagging their tails and burying their heads in forage, and behind them were neatly arranged carts full of sacks.

Opposite the stables, two lanterns at the official post hung high.

The three of them were all happy - they looked familiar with this horse team, wasn't this the group of people who went to Zhuozhou outside Jiangzhou City, maybe because of the rugged official road, they were chased up......

Several people quickened their pace and walked forward, until the last dozen or so steps away, Li Yiru suddenly braked.

"Wait......" he grabbed Bai Ling and Mu Cheng with a frown, "the number of people in the station...... Doesn't that sound right? ”

。