Chapter 7: Revisiting the Old Place

In the twilight of the year, the snow is heavy, and the branch garden is covered with jade. The father and son on the riverside traveled slowly along the way, after all, the wind and snow were not small, and the road was a snowy world. The surface of the lake was covered with a thick layer of ice, and there were even fewer pedestrians on the road, and only their father and son were walking on the road at this time, and everywhere they looked was covered in silver.

Jiang Ban, who was wearing a hood, poked his head out of the carriage. "Wind rising" is also called warm rising, resisting the cold wind, double layer inside and outside, including cotton wool in the middle, because it is cheap, so many people love to wear it in winter.

"Dad, can we still go to Jiangcheng tonight?" After sticking his head out for a while, his whole nose was red from the cold, and Jiang Ban's head retracted and asked. "I guess I won't be able to do it tonight, I'm tired, and besides, the snow is so heavy, the ground is slippery and it's not easy to drive." Jiang Dazhui sat in the position of driving the car, holding the horse rope in one hand, and the wine gourd in the other, still not taking two sips.

"Daddy, let's stop and rest, I'm hungry." Riverside whispered.

"Okay, just so I can feed the horses." Then Jiang Da Hammer stopped the carriage. Jiang Da Sledgehammer jumped directly from the carriage and pulled out hay from one of the two packages he was carrying on horseback. Then he borrowed the horse.

The horse arched its nose and sneezed a few times, as if the brief moment of freedom had made it happy. Suddenly seeing the thing in Jiang Dazhui's hand, my mother stared intently, gently leaned the horse's mouth over, and made sure that Jiang Dazhui did not drive it away and began to eat it aggressively.

After feeding the horses, Jiang Da Hammer looked sideways, and it was a frozen lake. Instantly happy and polite.

"Son, son, come on, there is a lake here, Dad will take you to catch fish." Jiang Sledgehammer shouted. As soon as Jiang Ban heard that he had caught a fish, he immediately ran out of the carriage, "Where, where." Then he said that in the direction that Jiang Da Hammer was pointing, there was really a lake.

Jumped off the riverside of the carriage and ran towards the lake. The original road surface was covered with snow, so it was not fast to run. The footprints were deep and shallow, staggering and running, and from time to time he held the hat above his head with his hand. "Slow down." Jiang Da Hammer shouted next to the carriage.

Then Jiang Dazhui took out the package from the carriage and rummaged through the package. "Found it." Jiang Da Hammer grinned and picked up the fishhook. In Jiang Da Hammer's concept, the living utensils must be prepared, and the only thing is that there is no fishing rod.

Jiang Da Hammer took the fish hook and rope, and then held a firewood knife. He grabbed a stone from the side of the road and ran in the direction of the riverside. After a while, I saw Jiang Ban lying on the surface of the lake at this time, moving like an earthworm, and Jiang Da Hammer watched it.

"You haven't gotten up yet, be careful of catching a cold." Jiang sledgehammer cautiously climbed down the lake. Riverside looked up and said with a smile, "It's fun, Dad." "Okay, okay, get up, I'm going to show you how to fish." Jiang Da Hammer Niu said coaxingly.

I saw Jiang Da Hammer smash a hole in the frozen lake with a stone. Jiang Da Hammer tied bamboo leaves to the hook and threw it down, and soon caught a large grass carp.

"There's fish to eat tonight, son." Jiangban saw that Jiang Da Hammer had caught a big grass carp, so he hurriedly climbed up and ran over to pick up the fish.

At night, Jiang Dazhui and his son camped under two big trees on the side of the road. On the stove made of stones, an iron pot is steaming, and the aroma of white fish soup inside is fragrant. Jiangban sniffed, holding the bowl in his hand, and he couldn't wait. Jiang Da Hammer gave Jiang Ban a bowl, and Jiang Ban ate happily.

Jiangban father and son began to be stared at after they came out of Wuling County, and there were still two groups of people. I kept following along the way. Not far from where the father and son were resting, there were two men in black, wrapped in cotton robes, looking at the father and son who had just rested.

"Send a message to the Xuan Shen Envoy, saying that the Jiang family's father and son are about to return to Jiangcheng." "Yes." Another man in black ran in the direction of Jiangcheng.

But not far from the two black-clothed men, there were three more people bowing down and wearing big hats looking at the father and son by the riverside. The silver-white flying fish suit that is faintly visible inside the big feather has an embroidered spring knife on the waist. They were just about to step forward a little bit, when suddenly another person stopped them.

"Wait, look over there." The other two were pointing in the direction they were pointing, and they vaguely saw a man in black running. "Ah Leopard, touch it and see what's going on." A man named A Leopard disappeared into the night.

After a while, Ah Leopard came back, "Brother Zheng, I don't know who it is, but they are two people, and one is lying there, according to my observation, they seem to be staring at the Jiang family father and son." "Are you sure they are also staring at the Jiang family's father and son?" "Yes, I'm sure."

The man named Brother Zheng was silent for a while, and said, "You go back to the post station immediately and send news to the capital, just say that the Jiang family father and son will arrive in Jiangcheng in a few days, and an unknown force is also eyeing the Jiang family father and son, and ask the adults if we want to help deal with it." "Yes, I'll do it." Another person asked, "Brother Zheng, what should we do then?" Keep staring? ”

"Let's go to the cave over there." "Okay." The two quietly came to the cave behind the father and son by the riverside.

It was dawn, and the curtains on the wind-blown carriage flickered, and the sunlight shone into the carriage through the flickering gap.

Jiang Pan opened his eyes in a daze, stretched out his hand from the quilt, rubbed his eyes, and found that Jiang Dazhui was still sleeping. The dazzling sunlight shone on the face of the riverside. "Get up, Daddy."

"Huh? Is it dawn? Jiang Dazhui made a confused sound, and then sat up. After a while, the father and son packed up the futon. After getting out of the carriage, there was still smoke from the campfire outside last night.

So they lit the fire again, roasted the dry food they had brought with them, and hurried away while eating. "Son, let me tell you, you have to follow the wheel prints that others have pressed on snowy days, so that you don't fall into the pit, remember." "Remember, Daddy."

The two of them set off at noon, and rushed back in the evening at the last moment when the city gates were closed. The two of them were covered in wind and frost, and they kept stopping and stopping along the way, looking here and there.

The layout has not changed from before, except that there are many newly built houses. The two came to Qingniu Lane and stood at the familiar door again. With a "creak", the door opened on the other side, and a man came out, carrying a basin of water, and poured it directly into the alley.

The man looked up in surprise and looked at Jiang Da Hammer's father and son and shouted, "Oops, Big Hammer, when are you coming back." "Brother Liu, why are you here?" "Hey, we didn't escape at all, it's a shame that our court sent troops, otherwise we all have to afford it, okay, you just came back, you must clean up, I won't bother you." , Jiang Dazhui smiled and said, "Okay, Brother Liu, you are busy, let's drink two cups another day." ”

Father and son pushed open the dusty wooden door. Looking at this familiar courtyard, it was still the same as before, Jiang Dazhui's heart finally relaxed, he was afraid that his home would be gone. Jiang Dazhui walked into the living room, looked at every corner carefully, and when he looked at the middle, he suddenly froze.

The sound of killing pigs resounded through the world, "Which god killed me and moved Lao Tzu's table, and I can't die well." ”。 It turned out that the only table in the house was gone. Riverside ran in and shouted, "What's the matter, Dad?" Seeing where Jiang Dazhui was yelling, Jiang Ban scratched his head inexplicably.

Father and son were about to eat dry food at night when there was a knock on the door. As soon as Jiang Dazhui opened the door, he saw his neighbor Liu Yishou and his fat tiger.

"Why is Brother Liu here, come in, it's cold outside."

Liu Yishou smiled and said, "If you don't enter, if you don't enter, you have to go back to wash the dishes, I don't see that you just came back, I guess there is nothing to eat, your sister-in-law asked me to send some noodles to your father and son." "Say you want to raise the scoop in your hand. Jiang Da Sledgehammer took a look, and it was full of knife-cut noodles.

"Then it's better to be respectful, thank you Brother Liu, and thank you sister-in-law for me." Jiang Dazhui was grateful.

"Oh, little thing, then I'll go back first, and come to you Brother Liu at any time if I have something." "Okay, thank you, Brother Liu, Brother Liu go slowly."

Closing the door, he turned around and shouted, "Bunny, come and eat noodles, your good friend Fat Tiger sent them." ”。 Riverside ran out of the room. At night, Jiang Da Hammer and his son ate noodles with dry food, and the dining table was removed from the bed by the river. The one that eats on the riverside is called a tasty. Jiang Pan learned the habit of Jiang Da Hammer to the fullest, eat a bite of noodles and take a bite of garlic. Jiang Dazhui shook his head.

At night, quietly. The cries of owls were heard in the outskirts of the city, and more than one of them cried one after another. In the words of the older generation in Jiangcheng, the cry of the owl is a bad omen, which means that something bad may be happening around. Jiang Dazhui came out to squat in the toilet at night, and when he heard this sound, he scolded secretly: "Bad luck." ”

Holding leaves and bamboo strips in one hand, Jiang Da Hammer rushed to the thatched house with his pants in the other, and the moment he squatted down, he was so comfortable that he just wanted to moan. After a while, Jiang Dazhu's upper body straightened, and he pricked up his ears to listen quietly to see if there was movement outside.

Feeling that there was no movement, Jiang Da Hammer slowly groped on the bricks in the corner of the thatched house. The bricks were carefully removed without making a sound. Jiang Dazhui reached out to the corner of the wall, and felt that the book inside was still there, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.

A book was taken out from it, and Jiang Da Hammer touched it. Although there was no light to see clearly, Jiang Dazhui could judge by his hand that this was the original book. Jiang Dazhui whispered to himself: "For you..." Jiang sledgehammer stuffed the book back again.

In the early morning of the next day, when the snow was falling, Jiang Dazhui took his son out of the south gate of Jiangcheng and stood in front of a tomb without a tombstone for a long time. "me, I brought the child to see you, are you okay over there? Our son is studying, and Mr. said that he is a reading seed, and he is willing to work hard, and it seems that he has inherited your wisdom, but fortunately he is not like me, just a stupid melon. ”

"Mother, dad always beats me, you have air control to control him." Jiangban said aggrievedly. "You kid." Jiang Dazhui was angry and funny when he heard it. The father and son made a noise in front of the grave, and by the way, they cleaned up the weeds around the grave. Then Jiang Sledgehammer lifted Jiang Pan on his shoulder, and the two walked home together. This afternoon, the snow rarely stopped, and the sunset dragged the shadow of Jiang Dazhui and his son for a long time, and the two talked and laughed, and the laughter gradually went away. Only the wind carried their laughter in all directions. The clean grave was just behind the father and son, watching them drift away.

Jiangcheng, a courtyard. "Xuan Shen Envoy, the father and son of the Jiang family have returned to Jiangcheng, do you want to continue to monitor?"

"There is nothing strange about the Jiang family's father and son?" "Returning to the gods, no, according to the observation of the subordinates, they have nothing else after they go out of their daily lives." "Nothing else?" The voice of the Xuan Shen made it so small that the people next to him couldn't hear it clearly.

Three days later, the capital received a message from the post station in Jiangcheng, and a guard immediately asked to meet the middle-aged man in a luxurious brocade suit with the message. "My lord, a letter from Jiang Cheng."

The middle-aged man, who was still writing on the desk, sighed, put down the brush in his hand, stood up and said. "Read." Then he picked up the teacup and tasted the tea. "The father and son of the Jiang family have arrived in Jiangcheng, and there are monitors behind them, and the black-clothed behavior is strange, I don't know who it is, whether to take it or not, please make it clear."

"Oh? And the man in black is also spying on the Jiang family's father and son? The middle-aged man stepped forward to take the message, and then continued: "Pass my order, continue to wait and see, don't startle the snake, listen to my command." "Yes, my subordinates will send the message." The subordinate turned and left.

The middle-aged man sat beside the desk and drank tea silently, and said, "It seems that things are not simple, my intuition is not wrong, maybe they really found something." A man in black floated out of the corner: "Do you want your subordinates to go for your lord?" "No, use a knife to kill chickens." The middle-aged man said confidently.

Another month passed, and Jiang Pan had already memorized the book given by Jiang Dazhu, but many places in it were not very well understood. Before going to bed at night, Jiang Dazhui would tell Jiang Pan in detail. This morning, the snow fell, but there was no wind. Jiang Da Hammer directly pushed open the door of the room by the river, and shouted: "Get up, the sun is drying your ass, you come with me." Before Jiang Pan had time to rinse his mouth, he was pulled down in the courtyard by Jiang Da Hammer in a daze.

"Do you want to practice martial arts?" , Jiang Pan suddenly felt sleepy, and shouted: "Think about it." "Then you should study seriously from today, but you have to promise me three things." Okay daddy, you say"

Jiang Dazhui said: "First, just because you have learned martial arts, you can't not distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong; Second, you can't bully others with martial arts; Third, you can't do it lightly unless you have to. Can it be done? Jiang Pan said, "Yes." ”

In the next time, Jiangban was practicing martial arts with Jiang Dazhu. Every time I stretched and pressed my feet, I gritted my teeth in pain, and I even always thought "why should I learn to break martial arts".

That night, Jiang Dazhui took two bowls, placed them by the window and said, "Can you break it if you don't touch it?" Jiang Pan said: "Dad, you have a fever, how is this possible?" "Although I don't think I can do it. But Riverside did break the bowl. Jiang Pan was stunned and thought: "Isn't this period of kung fu in vain, I have become a peerless master?" ”

Seeing Jiang Ban staring at his hands stupidly and smirking, Jiang Da Hammer knocked down with a chestnut. Jiang Pan shouted in pain: "Dad, what are you doing?" "You kid think you're a master? Your level is not enough to stuff people's teeth. After speaking, Jiang Dazhui also plucked his nose.

"What makes a master?" Jiang Pan asked. Jiang Dazhui thought, "At least like the man who fell into our house that night." "Ah, a master is a wrestler, so haven't I become a master several times?" Jiang Dazhui covered his forehead and was speechless.

Jiangcheng's newly transferred county commander arrived, and I heard that it was a newly appointed young man, only in his twenties. The streets were crowded with people, and the people in the city came to greet them, but in fact, the main purpose was to see what the new prefectural magistrate was like.

Anxian Lingna is the object of admiration of the people in the city. Although Anxian Ling usually doesn't look at it, he cares about everything, and even if the farmer loses his cattle, he goes to find it himself. When the enemy broke through the city, instead of being the first to run, he rushed to the front line.

At that time, some people persuaded An County Commander to flee together, and many soldiers of the County Commander also persuaded An County Commander to escape. Ke'an County was unmoved and persevered to the end.

When the people heard that Anxian ordered a tragic death, their eyes just turned red. It is said that after the imperial court sent troops to capture Jiangcheng, the body of Anxian Ling was still on the city gate. When Jiangcheng was not recaptured, some people wanted to secretly snatch back the body of Anxian Ling, but not only did they not get the body back, but their lives were also put on the line.

When Jiangcheng was recaptured, Wang Zaishan ordered people to carefully take down the body of An Xian Ling. The corpse was decomposed, but not completely decomposed. It's disgusting to watch. But when the people saw it, they not only felt disgusted and scared, but also volunteered to come over to tidy up the clothes for the county order.

An old man who had received the life-saving grace of the county order knelt beside him and cried, saying in his mouth, "There may never be such a good county order in the future." After that, when the people of Jiangcheng passed by the city gate, they would spontaneously look at the city gate silently. The street where the Anxian County Order died in battle was renamed Chengxi Street, and no one did not read the Anxian Order.

So now that I heard that the new prefectural order was taking office, everyone came to watch. The people don't expect a good official from Bi'an County, they only hope for an official who is not very bad.

I saw a plainly dressed young man walk into the city gate, followed by two middle-aged people. At the city gate, the officials and some squires who had not yet died were respectfully saluting the young man. When the people saw the simple appearance of the new county order, they immediately had some expectations for the new county order.

Jiang Pan and Fat Tiger also joined in the fun, looking at the city gate lively, Jiang Pan pointed to the young man at the city gate and said, "Is this our Jiangcheng official?" "I guess so, you see so many people greeting him." Fat Tiger said stupidly. "It would be great if we could be big officials in the future, it must be very majestic." Jiang Ban kept his saliva and said, "Yes, yes, I want to ride a big horse, majestic." ”

"Bang" Jiangban took advantage of the fat tiger's inattention, and threw a handful of snow on his face. Then he ran away, and the fat tiger shouted angrily: "Jiangban, you stop for me." ”。 Jiang Pan ran out with a smile, and the chubby body of the fat tiger chased after him.

The two passed by the Pushan Medicine Hall noisily, and Jiang Ban remembered the man in black he met here, and couldn't help but look inside, but found nothing. Unconsciously, the two came to the broken temple again, and the fat tiger looked at the familiar and unfamiliar broken temple, and leaned into the riverside and said, "Jiangban, let's go back, my father is still waiting for me to have dinner." ”

Looking at this dilapidated temple, Jiangban didn't think of what happened to him that night, but thought of the person named Hanako here. The snow was falling again, still sleet, and the riverside looked at the dead trees outside the door, thinking, "Are Hanako and her father still alive?" Or will you survive this winter? ”

Fat Tiger didn't know what Jiang Pan was thinking, only that Jiang Pan had been staring at the broken temple, and Fat Tiger looked at it suspiciously, staring at the old man for a long time, but he didn't find anything special.

Probably only the cold wind knows what the riverside is thinking.