Ten years later

Eastern Continent, Zeshui Country, Nancheng.

The early winter has arrived, and the morning light has not had time to caress this border city, the darkness has not disappeared, and the outlines of the houses in the city are still looming. There is an alley in the west of the city, called Gleaning Lane. At the corner of the alley, it is a little cold because the sun does not shine all year round, but it is also much darker than other places, and if it is at midnight when the clouds cover it, when it is completely dark, you can't see your fingers.

The early winter morning has rubbed some cool blue into this darkness, which makes it even more gloomy.

There is a house around the corner, some old, mottled wooden doors, broken windows, but because of frequent wiping, the windows are bright and clean, and there is not too much dust.

Looking through the window, the room was still pitch black, and suddenly there was the sound of some clothes rubbing against each other, and then, the oil lamp in the room was lit, the candlelight flickered, and a tall black shadow was reflected on the wall, swaying with the candlelight.

In front of the oil lamp, a thin body.

He shook the fire in his hand until the flame was extinguished. By the dim yellow light of the oil lamp, the outline of the room can be seen, which can be described as very small. A large bunk, just enough to accommodate three people, a small table, no wooden stools, a few steps away is the stove, next to the pile of dry firewood, and then on the side, is a simple night pot made of wooden barrels.

In front of the oil lamp, you can see that this thin figure is the appearance of a child, about ten years old, sleepy-eyed, and a little malnourished and hungry on the face. He slowly walked to a wooden basin in the house, and began to wash his face, and the cold water that had been left overnight was extremely cold, which made him instantly sober up a lot, and his movements began to be much sharper.

He is an abandoned baby, Liu Xing, who was given the name by his grandmother.

Liu Xing moved to the stove, pouring water, washing rice, making fire, hot vegetables, the action is very skillful, he can't remember when it started, every morning is like this, when the stove fire rises, Liu Xing immediately blew the oil lamp, since there are two fires, don't waste it, you can save it.

When the porridge is ready and the dish is hot, you can ask your sister and grandmother to get up for breakfast. Taking advantage of the gap, Liu Xing cautiously walked to his bed, took out half of the book he had read last night under the pillow, leaned on the edge of the stove, and read it with relish by the light of the fire.

The cold wind howled outside the window, and the firewood in the house was warm. Liu Xing likes this kind of quiet time very much.

This is the tenth book he has borrowed this year from the teacher who runs the private school in the street. Liu Xing likes to read medical books, in order to cure his grandmother's stubborn illness. Two years ago, my grandmother suffered from a stubborn lung disease, which dragged on for more than half a year without treatment, and one morning, she collapsed after getting up. You can no longer go to the ground. The doctor said that he was terminally ill and injured his spine. The second half of his life can only be spent on medicine. Liu Xing was sad for a while, not believing this fact, until the famous doctors in Nancheng invited it, and finally accepted the bad news.

The family also spent all their savings because of this, and grandma smoked Liu Xing with a cigarette stick in bed for a day until her butt blossomed. This is the silver tael she has accumulated for many years. Liu Xing lay on the bed, his thoughts were flying, touching his aching buttocks, he thought of another way.

Read books by yourself, learn medical skills by yourself, and make sure that grandma is healed.

Liu Xing felt that as long as he was better than the doctor, he would definitely be able to make his grandmother recover.

At a young age, in order to support the family, he had to work part-time. Working as a casual worker at the dock during the day and as a guy in a restaurant at night are all hard jobs, earning ten taels of silver a day.

But the daily medical expenses cost eight taels. The rest is only enough to eat.

Later, he had an idea, took the prescription prescribed by the doctor, compared the herbal medicine diagram in the book, and wanted to go to Tianhu Mountain, ten miles away, to collect medicine by himself, so that he could save a lot of money. So starting from identifying herbs, Liu Xing took the borrowed medical books every morning, and after cooking breakfast for his sister and grandmother, he went to the mountains to collect medicines against the books, then dried them in the sun and decocted them. This is also a way to save a little medical costs, and the doctor will not hesitate to teach after knowing it, and Liu Xing will point out the places that he does not understand.

He looked out the window, Dongfang had a white belly, and felt that the time was almost up, so he called his sister Liu Yue, and every time Liu Yue got up, she was in a fugue state, until her brother took a towel soaked in cold water and put it on her face and began to blow up her hair.

"I was just about to eat that big chicken leg, why did you wake me up?!"

After saying that, he pouted and added the cupola on the top of his head. Absolutely lovely. Little Liu Yue is five years old, with bright eyes and teeth, willow leaves and curved eyebrows, and she is a little beauty embryo.

"Okay, okay, isn't it just chicken legs, brother, I'll bring you one back at the restaurant at night!"

"When will you bring a granddaughter-in-law back, I can get out of bed immediately" The grandmother who was sleeping on the side also woke up, turned over, and slowly moved out of the bed, and her sister hurriedly went over to help.

"I'm only ten years old, what kind of daughter-in-law will I marry" Liu Xing's face twitched.

"I'm not afraid I won't be able to see it," Grandma said leisurely.

Liu Xing was anxious when he heard this, "Grandma, what are you talking about?"

"Ou, say the wrong thing, ahhh

"I know, Yueyue will make some hot water for you to wipe your grandmother's body. There's hot food on the stove, I'm going out!" Holding two steamed buns and kicking them in his pocket, Liu Xing said while wearing straw sandals.

"Good~~" the immature child's voice responded.

With a creak, the door opened, the cold wind poured in, Liu Xing walked out of the house quickly, stomped at the door, turned into Gleaning Alley, just stepped up with his right foot, and his left eyelid jumped.

Jump to the left for wealth, and jump for the right to disaster.

When I walked out of Gleaning Alley, it was not yet fully light, and there were still some oil lamps lit in the scattered houses on both sides of the main street. A gust of north wind blew, Liu Xing shrunk his neck, tightened the coarse cloth clothes on his body, and walked briskly to ward off the cold, will there be any financial luck, Liu Xing thought to himself.

Some steamed bun sellers began to spread out on the streets, and the smoke curled and the steam was rising. Several children of the same age got up early in the morning, and it was rare to see a child come out so early.

"Maybe it's tomorrow that the children are more excited? Every month, the city is crowded with people, and the children are the happiest. Liu Xing meditated in his heart, his eyes focused on the chasing child again, "What does it feel like to have a little friend?"

Walking on the deserted street, the cocoon is alone. Looking back, I really don't have a good friend around. Except for Xu Tianda, the son of Xu Da, who sells pork at the door, and Zhao Li, the guy in the restaurant, there is really no one who has a heart.

Over the years, busy with family affairs, taking on unnecessary responsibilities among peers, there are few friends around, the docks are all elderly uncles, except for Zhao Li of the same age, the others are uncles, several years older than him, basically no common topic, after a long time, he is used to being alone, in his own house, is the most comfortable.

Liu Xing greeted the morning light and continued to walk towards the city gate, he wanted to enter the mountain, remembering that tomorrow was the market day, and he would definitely see more "flying people" on the mountain today.

The moment he walked out of the city gate, his right eyelid jumped.

Hmm, what's the hell? What does it mean to jump both?

————

In Liu Xing's house, grandma touched little Liu Yue's head and said:

"Yueyue, help grandma bring the cigarette stick"

"Yueyue doesn't dare, my brother knows that he will beat Yueyue!" Liu Yue said with a wink of watery eyes.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, if your brother beats you, grandma will help you beat him" grandma looked kind.

"Okay, grandma~" Liu Yue took out a cigarette stick from the inside of the pyre.

Cloisonné, lit the fire, exhaled a puff of smoke, grandma looked at the sky, and murmured: "This winter seems to be extremely cold, and I don't know if my body can hold on, alas, it's good to leave early, don't burden these two grandchildren, but I can't rest assured..."