The scorching afternoon sun basks everything on the red earth.

Zhou Xiaoyu sat in the carriage bumped between the mountain roads, looking back at the familiar countryside: "Let's go, I will come back." ”

Delicate and delicate, simple and thick Zhou Xiaoyu is twenty years old. No matter from the name or the appearance and temperament, he should not be a child who grew up in this barren mountainous area. But he is.

The bare mountains, the rivers dyed red by red mud on the periphery, the isolated Zhoujiabao, an old man with a rickety back, and a middle-aged woman are Zhou Xiaoyu's entire childhood...

The scrawny horses arrived in town with their carts in tow, and it was past the morning.

Every day, the shuttle bus to the county seat is about to depart, and the middle-aged woman who is driving the bus has a rough skin and a dark face, and her eyes show a little reluctant feelings.

She took a package and handed it to her: "According to people who have been far away, there are many liars on the train, things are expensive, you can eat fish shortbread on the way, don't talk to strangers casually, don't meddle in things." ”

Zhou Xiaoyu nodded and said, "Aunt Anthracene, I know, you have to take care of grandpa." ”

Aunt Anthral said: "It's natural for me to take care of my father, I don't want you to remind me." ”

Zhou Xiaoyu didn't say much, and ran to the shuttle bus that had already started.

The town was short of people, and the old shuttle bus was empty, so he sat down by the window and looked through the window at the back of Aunt Anthracene who was gradually moving away in contemplation.

Zhou Xiaoyu likes to meditate since he was a child, but he never understands, why Aunt Zhou Yan is not married? Where did Mom and Dad go?

These grandfathers and anthracene aunts never mention it. Zhou Xiaoyu tried to inquire, but was beaten half to death by Aunt Anthracene. He hasn't mentioned it positively since.

The town leads to the county seat on a rugged mountain road, which is staggering and bumpy until the evening before arriving at Jiangcheng, which is relatively lively as a port.

When you get to the train station, you can see a crowd of more than ten people in either direction. This is the largest crowd that Zhou Xiaoyu has ever seen.

He and Aunt Anthralis have not been to the county seat many times, and always think that the people in the county with a population of 80,000 are the so-called "city people", and the county seat is a big city. It wasn't until he started his study in Zhoujiabao that he saw many unimaginable things from books and learned the phrase "sitting in a well and watching the sky".

At that time, Zhou Xiaoyu, who was excited, shook his grandfather and said, "Do you know Shanghai? You said it had to be several times bigger than Jiangcheng! I think there have to be at least two big ones, right? ”

Grandpa didn't blame the child's rookie, and muttered with a look of reminiscence: "The world is not as big as imagined, and it is actually very small when it is small... ”

The familiar mountains and trees outside the window keep running behind as the train moves, and the wind along the way can't escape the barren mountains.

These didn't bring much excitement to Zhou Xiaoyu, who took the train for the first time, and he was always recalling at this time:

Since he was four years old, his grandfather always sat on the red earth at sunset, and said to the ignorant child who was working hard: "From the moment you stepped into the 'Four Gate Hexagrams', you have walked on a special road." ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said innocently when he was a child: "Where does this road lead?" ”

Grandpa looked at the upcoming sunset and said, "That place, we call her Jianghu." ”

Jianghu is a relatively abstract concept, but Zhou Xiaoyu liked to simplify everything as a child, and the world in his eyes was always as clear as his eyes. He believes that a sword and a pot of wine are rivers and lakes.

There was a sword hanging in Grandpa's room, and Grandpa said that the symbolism of the sword in this era was much greater than its practical meaning.

In addition, grandpa didn't drink, and there was always a pot of fragrant wine on the table during meals. Grandpa said that we had drunk, but we couldn't forget the old people...

The last car can look back at the distant tracks. For Zhou Xiaoyu, who is a child, this is very interesting.

Opposite was a young woman with greasy white skin, wearing a beret, military-colored overall, and carrying a large bag.

The appearance of a backpacker is magical to the limit in Zhou Xiaoyu's eyes. So from the moment he got in the car, he kept secretly watching this woman.

"Are you a local? Going to the city to work? ”

The woman lifted the bottle of mineral water and took a sip. She was a little uncomfortable being peeked at for an hour by a strange man, who just didn't speak.

Zhou Xiaoyu said: "I have been in this mountain since I was a child. Grandpa said I should go to the city to see it, Aunt Anthracene said I was different, they said this is my destined path. ”

The woman deliberately crooked her hat, and a hint of mockery flashed in her eyes: "If you work, you will work, what will you see." Doesn't any gold-digging worker say that he is unique, but the question is, can he make a fortune by thinking that he is unique? ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said: "I went to see, and when I left, Aunt Anthracene gave me 5,000 yuan, and I am very rich." ”

The woman almost squirted out a mouthful of water: "You are really different, and you are also... Sure enough, it's rich. Your mushroom is even more insightful, and you really should go and see it. ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said: "It's anthracene, not mushrooms." ”

"Uh-huh..."

The woman tried to ask again after a moment: "How much income does your family have a year to allow you, a small landlord, to 'see' everywhere?" ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said: "Aunt Anthracene is very capable, my family has more than 2,000 yuan a year. ”

The woman was stunned, she originally wanted to sneer a few words but was a little speechless, she felt very strange in her heart, and said after a long time: "No wonder you think you have money... Let you take the whole family's money for two years to see, mushrooms are very good. ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said again: "It's anthracene, not mushrooms." ”

The woman smiled, and when she was about to tease him, Zhou Xiaoyu remembered something and twisted her head: "I don't talk to you anymore, you always ask me about my money." Aunt Anthra said that there were many liars on the train, so I asked me not to deal with strangers. ”

"You..."

The beautiful woman who finally had a preliminary change in her impression of him almost fainted out of breath.

For a long time, she began to fall into silence, and the woman smashed and smashed, making a lot of noise, but Zhou Xiaoyu didn't pay attention to her anymore, just looked at the scenery outside the window and was silent.

The beauty took out a 12-inch ASUS portable from her bag and fiddled with it, Zhou Xiaoyu was very curious, he had never seen a computer.

It was close to midnight when the car passed through the city, and everything outside was hidden in the dark. The lights on the old train were even more dim.

The city is much bigger, and even though it's night, there are still a lot of people.

The railway policemen, who had been sleeping in this carriage with their faces covered by their hats since the afternoon, also put on their police hats, buttoned their shirts, and fastened their ties.

Looking at a series of actions by the railway police, the woman "cut", and Zhou Xiaoyu watched curiously.

Many passengers on the train in Beijing obviously squeezed this clean carriage, and the front and back were full of men and women.

Zhou Xiaoyu, who had rarely seen so many people, was a little nervous, and hugged the package of the slag tightly in his arms. There are clothes sewn for him by Aunt Anthracene, as well as "fish shortbread" made by herself.

After the police left, a group of four young people, three men and one woman, came to the first two booths. They got into the car together, dressed like brothers and sisters, with a uniform Moran coat and no lining.

Zhou Xiaoyu glanced in that direction, and what he saw was a majestic back and a short-haired woman smiling at him.

A woman with short hair has very white skin and a very mature temperament.

Zhou Xiaoyu looked at the different back curiously, and the owner of the back looked back and seemed to notice Zhou Xiaoyu, his expression moved slightly, and he quickly turned back.

That back is really masculine, his coat can't stop the bulge of his chest muscles, the collar of his suit collapses, and when he turns around, the thing on his left chest is faintly left in Zhou Xiaoyu's "last glimpse", a peculiar tattoo: beautiful monkey.

It's not the Monkey King, it's not the ugly monkey, it's the Monkey.

In the era of openness, tattoos are becoming more and more common. But it has a special meaning for Zhou Xiaoyu, a guy who has only occasionally watched "CCTV-1".

Grandpa once drew a monkey on the land and asked, "Little fish, what is this?" ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said: "It's an ugly monkey." ”

Grandpa continued to add some clothes to the monkey, and then said, "Now it's called the monkey, but it's not the king." ”

Hearing Aunt Anthracene say that the little fish in Journey to the West was curious: "Where is the Monkey King?" ”

"In Mount Emei. The one with the 'crown' on the tattoo head is the Monkey King. Grandpa had a look of memory in his eyes at that time: "His surname is Hou, and the Hou family's iron cloth shirt and tiger crane double shape are very praised, but the industry they do is not legitimate." They specialize in begging for a living on the train... ”

Zhou Xiaoyu, who came back to his senses, muttered: "His surname is Hou." ”

The woman in the beret didn't know what he was muttering, and she glanced at him.

After the Hou family appeared, Zhou Xiaoyu intentionally or unintentionally, his hands were slightly clenched into fists, his finger bones were flat, and the shape of his fist was peculiar.

Because Zhou Xiaoyu suddenly clenched his fists, the atmosphere in the carriage suddenly changed.

The short-haired woman in the first two seats paid attention to Zhou Xiaoyu's fist and fell into doubt, and then said in a low voice, "It's a friend in the rivers and lakes, and the hand that can practice foreign boxing to this point can actually be a 'hand model', am I mistaken?" ”

"Monkey" heard that he was about to get up immediately, but the short-haired woman's hand pressed on the monkey's hand: "Brother Hai... Why don't you forget it? ”

The beautiful monkey shook his head and said in a low voice: "No, if you like it, you have to start, this is a tradition and a rule." Since we are people in the rivers and lakes, we should not take care of our business. ”

The short-haired woman thought about it and said, "Then wait a little longer... ”

The train always went down the mountain at night, the last carriage was bustling, chatting, sleeping, Zhou Xiaoyu and their left, four unknown passengers played poker.

The woman in the beret turned around by chance and found several people in the booth in front of her, intentionally or unintentionally carrying their bags.

She immediately became vigilant, turned around quietly, and said to Zhou Xiaoyu: "Hey, do you want to chat with beautiful women, maybe you can become friends?" ”

Zhou Xiaoyu twisted his head away and said, "Don't talk to strangers." ”

The beret woman thought about it, and actually felt that she didn't hate this little rookie, and even felt a little sympathetic.

Immediately, she glanced at the four people in front of her, kicked Zhou Xiaoyu under the table, and said in a low voice: "Brother, are you willing to do me a favor?" ”

Zhou Xiaoyu said: "You and I are not sisters and brothers, Aunt Anthracene said that some scammers will take the initiative to 'recognize fellow villagers and relatives', you always inquire about my money... Hey, why do you keep kicking my feet. ”

The loud words almost didn't make the beret woman angry directly!

Like a deflated ball, she leaned back on her seat and muttered, "Long Chaonan doesn't know you, I don't know your whole family." ”

Hearing the woman's self-reported name, Zhou Xiaoyu looked at her with a peculiar gaze, "Your surname is Long?" ”

Long Chaonan said vigilantly: "What's wrong with the surname Long?" ”

Zhou Xiaoyu left her gaze a little shyly, thinking, and didn't answer...