"Dad, can you drink some water?"

In a dense mountain forest, a young man opened the kettle and cautiously approached the chapped lips of a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man opened his eyes slightly, picked up the other party's kettle and padded it, that little bit of water made his already bitter face even more bitter, he forcibly held back his desire, licked his chapped lips, and said with difficulty: "Take it, give your mother and your sister a little drink, remember to keep half of it, you can't drink too much, now you know how rare this water is." ”

The young man glanced at the mother and daughter who were already asleep sitting not far away, and hesitated: "Dad, you have to drink some too, or . . How can you carry this body? ”

Over the mountains and mountains, water is now the most difficult resource, dry food or something can be eaten for a long time, especially the dry food pickled by Jiangnan meat insects, eating a bite can manage a day, but water is different, hiking, when do you not need water to maintain?

In the past, it was difficult to find food, thousands of miles of bare land, not even a single grass, but three months ago, after the start of several major famine escapes in the southeast, hundreds of millions of displaced people, which was huge than the displaced people at any time during natural disasters.

For example, the mountains where they are now located are green and dense, and the clear water is everywhere, and there is an inexhaustible supply of fatty fish

But the more so, the more dangerous!

The fish in the water wants to eat it, and it wants to eat you, and when you get close to the water, you don't know what monster will suddenly emerge and tear you apart in an instant.

Several times these survivors have taught them that the closer they get to a water source, the more careful they must be, and if it is not necessary, it is better not to go near the water source.

And even if they take a huge risk to get a little water, they may not be able to drink it, they saw too many people drinking the clear spring water in the mountains directly on the road, but nine out of nine, within a day, the insects in the water ate up their internal organs.

When I woke up, the few mountain bandits who drank water were directly eaten up by the insects, and a piece of human skin was attached to the human bones, and countless fist-sized maggots broke out of the stomach, and there were shadows in this life.

After that, whenever they drank water, they had to boil it over a fire for at least a quarter of an hour before they dared to try it.

But in today's jungle, boiling fire and water is the most dangerous, usually only dare to start a fire during the day, and only dare to choose a place that seems relatively safe, anyway, in this dense jungle do not dare.

If you don't dare to make a fire, you don't dare to boil water, and the water you can drink is naturally getting less and less.

"Little swallow, come on, my brother brought you water, drink it quickly." A woman who looks yellow and thin, but can vaguely see a little bit of posture in her bones, her eyes lit up, and she took the kettle and coaxed the girl in her arms who looked to be only three or four years old.

But no matter how much the girl shouted, there was no movement at all.

At this moment, both the woman and the young man who brought the water sank.

"Swallows? Little swallows? ”

There was no movement, and the young man cautiously put his hand on the tip of the little girl's nose, and then withdrew it like an electric shock, and the precious kettle in his hand fell to the ground with a thud.

The woman's eyes were red when she heard this.

At this moment, the old man who was lying on the ground struggled to get up, walked over in a few steps, grabbed the little girl, and carefully tested the tip of the girl's nose with his hand.

"What are you doing, old man?" The woman struggled and cried.

"I said that I can't come here, I can't come here, you have to pull the whole family to come with you, along the way, the second girl died, the third baby also died, and now the fourth girl is gone, what else do I have?"

"Shut up!" The old man roared weakly: "If you don't break through, will you wait for death at home?" ”

"Don't you see how those southern barbarians treat us Han people? Do you want your children to be captured and skinned in the ghost temple to make wine, or do you want them to be eaten alive by those monsters? ”

The woman was speechless for a moment, and she stammered for a long time: "It's not necessarily our turn."

"A woman's opinion!" The old man glared at the other party: "The capital is arresting children, and now that those officers and soldiers in the imperial court are gone, and the people in the southern barbarians are even more unscrupulous in catching children, why do you think your children can escape?" And now the chickens in the yard may turn into man-eating monsters the next day, can they still stay in their former home? ”

"Then Jiangnan can stay?" The woman roared, "Are you sure Jiangnan hasn't become like this?" ”

"Jiangnan can't become like this!" The old man roared back, with a bit of seriousness and expectation in his eyes: "You haven't been to that place, you don't know. In that place, it is impossible for any demon to get close, and even if something happens, the people above will not be like the imperial court, but will become accomplices! ”

Saying that, he was tired and panted: "I should have sent a few of your mothers over a year ago, even if I can't get into the household registration, even if I am a refugee, it is better than now."

The old man really regretted it, he was a merchant in Southeast County, and once he went to Jiangnan to run a merchant at the suggestion of a friend, and only bought the goods once, which made him earn money for several years.

After seeing the prosperity of Jiangnan at that time, he had the idea of bringing his wife and daughter to live in Jiangnan.

But this mother-in-law and old peasant thinking, have been reluctant to those fields at home, plus the scholar who is married to the second girl, it is said that the mother-in-law who was admitted to the Jinshi and will be an official master immediately, where is she willing to move to Jiangnan?

For fear that the other party will find an excuse to regret the marriage.

Well, now that scholar doesn't know whether he lives or dies in the capital, and Erya also died so miserably.

The old man did not continue to argue, but handed over the little girl to the most powerful eldest son: "Liangzi, you take the swallow and run over there, if I remember well, this is only a few miles away from the dividing line in Yunzhou, Jiangnan, you have to send the swallow to the junction line even if you give me your life, and the swallow must die there!" ”

"Why, Daddy?" The young man looked puzzled.

Even if the little sister is still breathing, she can't hold on to go to Jiangnan for medical treatment like this, in this case, shouldn't she stay by her side, take a good last look, and bury the whole corpse?

Now let him run desperately to the Jiangnan realm, and only need to cross the line? What is the use of crossing the border line?

Is Daddy a magic barrier?

"If you are told to go, you will go!!" The old man's eyes were red and he roared, "If you can't send the swallow over, don't come back!" ”

It was the first time for the young man to see his father at home so scary, how dare he turn back, and hurriedly carried his little sister on his back and ran quickly in the direction pointed by his father.

"What are you doing, old man?" The woman cried breathlessly, the girl was gone, and now she doesn't let herself accompany her for the last time, and she is still thinking about his Jiangnan, she knows Jiangnan in one day, can you accept you if you send your daughter's body over?

Thump.

As if he had exhausted his strength, the old man sat on the ground and looked at his son's back expectantly.

He knew that his son didn't understand what he was doing, but as soon as he got to Jiangnan, he understood.——

The so-called blessing and misfortune are not singular. Perhaps the old man didn't expect that his son, who had tried so hard to send away, encountered a huge mountain insect on the way.

The centipede, like a python, rushed over when it saw the two of them, and the foul smell of poisonous gas made people's scalps tingle from afar.

The young man was so frightened that he ran fast with the girl on his back, but after all, he was exhausted for several days of trekking through mountains and rivers, eating and drinking and saving, where is there still much physical strength?

After only a quarter of an hour of running, his legs were already shaking and his eyes were full of stars.

Seeing that he was about to lose it, he only had one breath left in his heart

Daddy asked him to send Yanzi to the border of Jiangnan, and he didn't know why the old man insisted so much, but he was so desperate now that he almost had no thoughts, just thinking that before he died, he had completed his father's instructions.

Although he knew that this was useless, the border between the southeast and Yunzhou had always been very blurred, and after the unification of the Great Jin Dynasty, there was not even a post station on the border, let alone officers and soldiers, even if he and his little sister ran into Yunzhou?

Could it be that if we get there, the big centipede behind us won't chase us?

I don't know why, maybe it was the last straw after drowning, the man held on to the last hope, forged ahead with all his strength, and jumped from the cliff directly to the place of the stone monument in his impression!

The fishy wind hit behind them, and it was obvious that the huge centipede did not let them go because of its action of not being afraid of death, and flew down.

Looking back carefully, I found that the centipede could fly, with a huge mouth close in front of me, and bit off the little swallow behind it along with the meat on its back!

The severe pain made him heartbreaking, not only in the body, but also in the heart, the family trekked through mountains and rivers, but he didn't expect it to be a dead end.

So be it

Dahan gave up struggling and closed his eyes.

(End of chapter)