Ding Dong, the water droplets leaking from the corner of the house dripped into the clay pot.

The light was dim, the temperature was cold, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of mold and herbs.

A few gray-white mushrooms emerged from the damp corners, the umbrella smaller than a fingernail, and the stems thinner than straw, hanging their heads in despair.

......

Hey, I can't get by.

The thatched hut should have been renovated a long time ago, and it was too broken. When it rains heavily, it rains lightly inside. The rain outside has long stopped, and there is still a lot of leakage inside......

Forget it, salty radish is not a concern. I don't know who lives here and who I love.

......

Chu Fan covered a thin cotton quilt in tatters, pillowed his hands on the back of his neck, frowned, and stared at the low black roof in a daze. After a while, I lifted the quilt and slowly got up.

Hehe, it seems that the injury is so good that it is no problem to move around.

He smiled reluctantly.

The dirty upper of the cloth shoe had a few holes, and the edges bared and grinned. The soles of the shoes were cold and hard as iron plates. This is the same last year when the old man beat a hare and begged the widow in the next village to do it. It's not that people don't do well, it's that there is no good fabric. Besides, it's been worn for too long.

After standing up, the world spun around, he shook, and then stood firmly.

Isn't the injury healing? That's a problem.

A trace of panic flashed in Chu Fan's eyes, and after thinking about it, he shook his head with a wry smile. It is estimated that he suddenly got up after lying for too long, the brain is ischemia, the oxygen supply is insufficient, and the person is a little dizzy.

He tentatively took a small step forward, and when he saw that nothing was wrong, he was relieved to crappe to the back wall, touched the peeling wall, and listened closely. The whining wind whistled, like a conch.

The thatched hut is supported by several large logs, and the walls are made of earth. The wall is made of bamboo wrapped around a circle of straw and then filled with thin mud, which can barely shelter from the wind and rain after drying. If there is a strong typhoon, I am afraid that the whole house will fly.

Ten days ago, when he left, he had plastered a layer of mud on the outer wall, but the autumn rain had fallen, and many small holes had grown.

But these things will not have anything to do with him in the future.

Chu Fan slowly turned out of the wing room, entered the hall and opened the door, and could not see the shadow of the little girl. After waiting for a while, he saw no movement, and returned to bed in a daze.

Hehe, the sound of water droplets is really like a sad old song. Tick ......

He has been in this world for fifteen years.

As an ordinary graduate student in life sciences, I was not qualified to participate in the tall wormhole experiment. However, the tutor was not in good health and was assigned on an ad hoc basis. And in this feat of human beings breaking through time and space for the first time, his role is only to measure the vital signs of the mice.

Of course, the premise is that the mouse that crossed the gate of time and space can still come back.

Before the explosion, he was putting the mice into the guide trough when a door appeared three meters away between the virtual and the real. What happened later, I don't know at all, I just remember the white light in the sky.

Now lying in this dimly thatched hut, lying on the wooden bed that creaks and may fall apart at any moment. He was seriously injured and could not move.

These days, the gardenia and the old man take care of it. Based on their conversations and mental memories, Chu Fan gradually pieced together the current sinister situation.

This place is a remote small mountain valley in Li Country, with only three households, and it is the domestic slave of Lu Bo in Shanyin County, commonly known as "family son". Parents are slaves, children are slaves all born, and they will always be slaves from generation to generation.

The slave did not have a surname, and he was called Afan from an early age. It means that ordinary as dust, easy to raise.

Chu Fan, it was he who gave himself a surname after he woke up to commemorate his previous life.

Twenty years ago, King Li conscripted troops to fight against the Ji Kingdom, and Afan's father followed Lu Bo to fight and make military achievements. According to the law, he could have escaped from slavery, but he gave up his place to a beautiful slave girl in a neighboring village and married her. After Ah Fan was born, his parents concealed it and didn't report it, and wanted to find an opportunity to secretly send him out.

Ah Fan was found when he was two years old, and the government punished him.

His father resisted the law with a knife and was beaten and hacked to death by officers and soldiers and Lu Bo's soldiers. The mother was deprived of her commoner status, sentenced to be Lu Bo's concubine, and died on the spot by hitting a tree. Xiao Afan was kicked by Lu Bo and flew a few feet away, but luckily did not die, and the word "Lu" was branded on his forehead.

The children of the family are docile, and they are rarely darker than the prisoners of war slaves who are always ready to escape. Obviously, Ruber was very disgusted with the evil seed, and saw that it was his own property that left a cheap life.

The old man and the other family in the valley, Aji, are hardcore brothers who have been on the battlefield with Afan's father, and they raise him together, like father and son. Aji has always wanted to marry his daughter Gardenia to Afan, but unfortunately he was not lucky enough to wait until the two children grew up, and the year before last, he and his mother-in-law contracted illness and went west one after another.

Gardenia's elder brother Ah Tu is silent, and he can't beat a single fart with three sticks. Sister-in-law Ah Hua is extremely mean, disgusted with Gardenia eating at home, and wants to sell her at a good price.

Ah Fan is fifteen years old this year, his brain is not very bright, and his body is as thin as a bamboo pole, a head taller than ordinary people.

He has a lot of strength, and he learned some rough martial arts from the old man, and he always wondered how to help Gardenia get out of slavery. Seeing that there was no fighting, he secretly ran to fight for the Lu family.

A slave is an object to his master.

In order to have fun, show off, or settle disputes, the nobles often let their slaves fight and fight. Killing a slave is no more than a cow, and the people will not be held accountable. For the slave who won the war, the master often rewarded and even pleased him to be freed from slavery.

The first time poor Afan played, he was cut miserably. When Gardenia heard the news and hurried to the mass grave outside the Lu family castle, he had been soaking in the dead man's pile for a day and a night, and he had no breath.

The eleven-year-old girl bursts out with a formidable stubbornness, and she must bring her brother home. While crying, he made a rattan bed out of thin branches and bamboo strips for Ah Fan to lie down and dragged down the mass grave. Waiting for the old man and Ah Tu to catch her halfway, they were stunned when they looked at the bloody hands and worn shoulders, and couldn't believe it.

Ah Fan once again suffered a catastrophe, and after carrying him home, he had a faint heartbeat.

Gardenia and her sister-in-law had a big quarrel, and they rolled up the bed overnight and moved over to take care of it.

The old man left two pieces of air-dried meat and half an urn of corn, and went into the mountain the next day. Located on the edge of the mountains, the only way to get some fresh wildlife and rare herbs is to go deeper into the mountains.

This cramped area is long and narrow, about 50 square miles, and belongs to Lubo in Shanyin County.

The east and west sides are Xiaoshui and Tiger Leaping River, to the north is Lujiabao, to the south is Daishan. There are Lujia sentry posts on the river embankment and in front of Daishan, and more than 800 slaves are trapped in cages. Even if they are lucky enough to escape, the world is so big, where can there be a place for them? Without the status of a commoner, they will be arrested by the government to do hard labor, or even beheaded.

Therefore, they rarely escaped, and most of them never crossed Lujiabao to see the county seat in their lives.

The old man has fought a war, has the ability, and is well-informed. But risking his life to avoid the miasma of poisonous insects and beasts at the sentry card to find medicinal materials is not easy for him, and he has not returned until now.

"Brother, does it still hurt?"

A crisp and immature voice sounded, interrupting Chu Fan's thoughts.

A thin body slumped his shoulders open the door of the hall with difficulty, carrying a large bundle of firewood in his right hand and a broken pottery bowl in his left hand.

The origin of the name gardenia is simply because there is a gardenia tree in front of the door, which happened to be born when the flowers were blooming. She and Afan's childhood sweetheart are closer than brothers and sisters.

After noon today, the drizzle has just stopped. Gardenia found that the brine was gone, so she went to the old cangtou house more than 500 meters away.

The 500-meter straight-line distance was achieved overnight on the plain, but the 500-meter winding muddy mountain road was probably not a simple project for the girl carrying the firewood and bowls, and it took almost two hours to return.

The human body cannot do without salt, and it will be weak.

Slaves could not afford salt and had to drink brine.

Brine is an unknown liquid soaked in salt brine ore, which is bitter and astringent.

After Chu Fan was hard poured into a big gulp yesterday, he strongly suspected that long-term consumption would lead to chronic poisoning. And the girl sniffed the remnants of the brine like a cat, but she was reluctant to drink it, mixed it with boiling water, and waited for it to cool down to wipe the wound with a burlap ball.

On the edge of the mountain, there is no shortage of firewood. But Afan is not a person who lives a life, and he doesn't have much savings.

Yesterday, the girl went to her brother's house to bring back a large bundle, and immediately attracted a woman to scream and scold. The girl scolded back, and kept wiping her tears.

That's Gardenia's vicious sister-in-law.

Chu Fan guessed that the shrew no longer expected to sell her sister-in-law for a good price, but she was full of vigilance about hollowing out her family. In this era, etiquette and religion have just sprouted, and the imprisonment and discrimination against women are not severe. Gardenia's father made it clear before his death that half of the family property would be left to his daughter.

Even though they were slaves, everything belonged to their masters, and they were allowed to own a little bit of private property. What's more, the owner will not be tempted by a few old tiles and a few thatched houses.

The shrew knocked on the mountain and shook the tiger, the meaning is nothing more than that she wants to take advantage of the old lady!

This time, Gardenia unusually did not immediately drop her things and rushed to the sickbed to check the injury, but first went to the stove house to unload the heavy firewood, scooped water and washed her face, and wiped her clothes before she went into the back room.

"What's wrong?"

Chu Feng stared at the dirt stains on her sackcloth and asked in a deep voice.

The dark and thin girl stood for a long time, her eyes gradually reddened, and she threw herself to the side of the bed and cried silently.

"Uh......h Brother, I'm really useless...... The road is slippery, and I fall halfway. The firewood got wet, the bowl broke, and the brine spilled...... Whining...... Brother, I'll boil millet porridge first. After you finish the porridge, I'll go and serve the brine......"

Chu Fan's nose was sour, and tears almost poured out. It took a long time for the raised hand to fall gently, stroking her unkempt and dry hair, and softly admonishing: "It's okay...... Don't go. ”

"No, I have to go. Cang Bo said that the wound should be wiped three times a day with brine so that it will not be broken......"

The sobbing girl quickly raised her head when she heard this, wiped her eyes, and looked determined.

"Don't go, get some sleep......"

Chu Fan repeated, pressing his thumb on her temple.

The girl's eyes were glazed, and then she fell into a deep sleep.

Chu Feng lifted the quilt and staggered to the ground, first carried the little girl to the bed, then went to the stove house to boil a pot of hot water, scooped it into the wooden barrel and carried it into the side room, and carefully washed the two black little feet hanging on the edge of the bed.

She had no boots and walked barefoot to and fro the mountain. In addition to the thick calluses on the soles of the feet, there are several old and new scars.

Wipe your feet clean, straighten your little body and cover it with a thin quilt, and gently untie your bun and pull out the hairpin.

After finishing all this, Chu Fan carried the bucket to the hall and opened half of the door. Seeing that it was twilight outside, after pouring water, he pulled the door bolt again, pushed the door bar, and then returned to the wing room to bring out the brazier, passed through the hall and entered the stove house, and accurately found the flint in the dark.

There is a secret that no one knows, and Afan's eyesight and hearing in this life are very amazing. You can see the rabbit two miles away, and you can hear the insects a hundred meters away.

But whether it is Chu Fan in the previous life or Ah Fan in this life, he is not very good at life.

Some of the ashes were taken out of the brazier, and the dead leaves were sprinkled with chaff, and it took half an hour to light the fire. During this period, the smoke was billowing out, and the little girl coughed a few times in her sleep, so frightened that he quickly closed the door of the stove house. When the charcoal burned red for a small half, it was estimated that it would not be extinguished, and Chu Fan brought the brazier back to the sleeping room, carrying a few large dry firewood under his arm.

The red flames danced like a brilliant enchantress, dispelling the cold and dampness. From time to time, the firewood crackles and bursts into sparks. The shadows of the objects are cast on the walls, and the light is strange, like a monstrous monster, a dark forest.

Remembering that when the little girl made a fire last night, he almost reminded her to be careful of carbon dioxide poisoning, Chu Fan smiled and shook his head.

The thatched hut leaks everywhere, and if there is no fire, it is really difficult to survive the autumn night.

Whose stomach is growling? He hesitantly looked at the little girl's sleeping face and shook his head again.

Under the wall opposite the bed was a makeshift bunk piled up by the girl with tattered bedding. Chu Fan sat cross-legged on the bunk, staring at the hairpin of the little girl between his fingers, stunned.

It was a stripped branch of willow branches, like a slender "Ya" character, yellow and black.

What gems and jade, coral ivory, moths and snow willows are not as precious as the shriveled branches in front of them.

He subconsciously turned the hairpin, recalling an extremely strange thing.

Four days ago, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the gladiatorial arena, I heard someone whispering upstairs.

It was that passage that made him creepy, and he fell out of standard in the later battles and hung up early.