"Hey······ Yo ······"

The night is like paint.

From the depths of a lesser-visited alley came one groan after another of pain.

"Meow ······"

At the end of the alley, I don't know from the roof of which house suddenly came down a black old cat, the cat after the landing, glowing green eyes stared at a certain place, and then turned its head to the depths of the alley and screamed fiercely, turned its head and disappeared into the vast night.

I don't know if I was frightened by the cat's meow, but the moaning in the depths of the alley stopped. After a long time, I heard only the sound of Suosuo, and in a short time, a rickety figure moved step by step towards the place where the old black cat had landed.

Whether it was hunger and cold, or some physical ailment, or both, the man was always slumped and trembling all the time, and because of the involuntary shaking of his whole body, he had to pause a little every two steps.

"Ouch!" a man shouted, "Hey, I said what's the matter with you? don't you look at the road when you walk, how do you hit someone straight up?"

Under a series of interrogations, the man who had been walking with his head down realized that he didn't know when, and had come to a lively street. People around are coming and going, because they have been thinking about their hearts, and this accidentally bumped into people.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's too dark to see. ”

bent down repeatedly to apologize, making the man's rickety waist lower and lower, and his body trembled even more.

However, his humble attitude did not have the anger of the man in front of him, on the contrary, there was a little feeling of adding fuel to the fire.

"Look at your poor and sour appearance, do you pay for the damage to Uncle Ben? You old beggar. The man who was hit looked him up and down as he spoke.

There was also one of his companions beside the man, and the man stretched out his hand and pulled the man, and whispered to him, "Why should my brother be like an old man named Hanako? Let's go quickly, and don't let him spoil our interest." ”

Old beggar?

The man ignored the sarcasm and contempt in the man's words, but lowered his head and examined himself: seeing that it was already winter, he was wearing only a thin shirt and trousers. And it's such a thin set of clothes, still tattered and exposed. Maybe it's because it's been worn on the body for too long and hasn't been washed, so you can't see its original color.

At this moment, a thin wind with rain silk blew in his face, and the man only felt that the wind instantly turned into an impenetrable needle shower, which blew directly into his limbs and bones through the clothes on his body, and directly into his heart, and he began to shake his body involuntarily again.

The reason why the man he hit said he was a beggar was finally found, but where did the "old" that man say come from?

Just when he couldn't figure it out, another gust of wind blew in the opposite direction, and he didn't care about it, and he didn't bother to argue with the man, he saw the lights swaying in the store not far ahead, and thought that it would be good to take a few quick steps to create a place to shelter from the wind.

But he had only taken two steps before the man suddenly stopped, and by the dim lights in front of the shops on both sides, he saw a wisp of grayish-white hair like withered grass floating in front of him, and now he finally understood why the man behind him, who was still scolding and scolding under the persuasion of his companions, said that he was an old beggar. This also made him understand why when the wind blew, all the joints of his body ached faintly.

"So I'm an old man this time. With such a sigh in his heart, he hugged his arms tightly, and was about to raise his feet to continue walking, when a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, he suddenly remembered something, stood in place and was stunned for a moment, turned around and stepped forward and tightly grabbed the man who was hit by him just now, and asked excitedly: "What is this place?"

The man was taken aback by him, and replied with a blank expression, "Joy Town." ”

"Joy Town, Joy Town, how can it be Joy Town? I shouldn't be here. When the man heard this answer, his expression suddenly became much more lonely, and he lowered his head and talked to himself in a panic.

The man who was pulled by him lost the last patience, pulled back his clothes vigorously, and scolded again: "Is there something wrong with you old man······?

Without waiting for the man to finish speaking, the old man grabbed the corner of his clothes tightly, and asked again with his eyes shining, "Can I ask how far this Joy Town is from Wuxiang City?"

Hearing the name of Wuxiang City, the man and his companion were stunned, and after the two of them looked the old man up and down carefully, the man spoke: "You are a foreigner, right? Do you know what Wuxiang City is?

The old man replied calmly, "Demon Domain." After speaking, he lowered his head and thought for a moment, and then added: "The supreme territory of the Demon Venerable." ”

Hearing the name "Supreme", the man and his companion were stunned, and then looked at the old man's eyes with something different.

The man nodded his head and said, "Yes, the city lord of Wuxiang City is the Demon Venerable. He paused for a moment, and then spoke: "Hey, I said that you are really strange enough, since you know that Wuxiang City is the supreme territory of the Demon Venerable, how can you not know where it is?"

The old man didn't answer, keeping his head down as if he was thinking about something.

The man was even more puzzled by this, looking like a companion, and both of them thought in their hearts: Could it be that he really met a madman?

The man's companion quietly reached out and tugged at the corner of the man's clothes, pouted at the old man, and whispered, "It's so cold, let's leave quickly." ”

The man nodded and wanted to turn around and leave, but he couldn't bear to look at the old man's appearance, so he called the old man, raised his arm and pointed in one direction and said to him: "Hey, old man, you don't have to think about it, oh, go in this direction and go all the way to the river, Wuxiang City is on the other side of the river, as for how you get to the river, I can't do anything about it, I can't help you." ”

The old man, who had come back from his contemplation, nodded blankly in the direction that the man pointed him, and after thanking the man, he walked briskly in that direction with his body bent and facing the wind.

Looking at the back of the old man who was gradually moving away, the two men talked in a whisper, and only one of them asked, "Hey, why do you say that he is an old man?"

Another person answered: "In this world, there are always people who are not happy, maybe he has something unspeakable." After that, he reminded his companion in a low voice: "Shh, let's be quiet, each has his own life." It's such a cold day, let's quickly find a place to drink and warm up. ”

The old man, who had walked a long way in the wind, did not hear what the two of them said behind him, but walked in the direction that the man pointed him out. As he walked, he wondered, "How the hell did I get to that little alley?" and most importantly, who am I now?

The old man pondered these questions as he walked, and he did not know how long he walked in the drizzling wind, until the road before him was replaced by a river that roared in the night, and he stopped.

"This is the river those two men were talking about, right?" said to the old man, who was about to get wet, facing the raging river, "I don't know how deep this river is." ”

As he spoke, he remembered what the man had said, and couldn't help frowning: yes, how am I going to cross the river?

"Yes······ Brother Li?"

At this moment, the old man suddenly heard someone talking behind him, was stunned for a moment, and quickly turned around, only to see a middle-aged man standing behind him with a lantern in his hand, wearing a straw hat, and wearing a robe. At this time, the man was staring intently at the old man.

The old man was a little flustered, he turned his head to look around, and found that there were only two people in the middle of his eyes, he knew that this person was talking to him just now, but because he didn't know this person, he had to ask: "Is Mr. talking to me?"

Hearing the old man's question, the middle-aged man was obviously stunned, and said in surprise: "How do you call 'Mr.' here, brother, take a closer look, it's me, the second child of the Tian family who lives on your left, don't you know me?" After speaking, he began to look the old man up and down with a very strange look.

The old man frowned and thought quickly for a while, there was no memory of the middle-aged man in front of him in his mind at all, and when he didn't know how to deal with it, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said with a smile: "Oh, it turned out to be Brother Tian." After that, he pretended to sigh lightly, and then said: "Alas, this person is old, and his eyes are not very good, and this black light is blind, and he has not recognized you for a while. I don't know what happened when Brother Tian came here at night?"

"Well, there's a reason for this. When Tian Lao Er saw the old man asking, he explained: "You also know that our croppers serve the crops when they are busy with farming, and they do some short-term work to live when they are slack." Today, when it was close to noon, the owner asked me to go to the house to help, who knew that when this work was done, it would be dark. Seeing that the sky was unknown, the owner originally said that I would stay at their house for one night and come home early tomorrow morning. But this is because I don't want to trouble the owner, and the second is that I have been away from home for a long time, and I really can't rest assured at home, so I resigned the owner's kindness and only borrowed this lantern from the owner. The Dong family was very cheerful, and they didn't say anything more, but when they were about to go out, they saw how cloudy the day was, and they were afraid that it would rain on the road, so they lent me more of this rain cover. I didn't meet anyone along the way, but I walked to the river to save the river, and I saw a person standing by the river from a distance, thinking that maybe someone encountered something difficult for a while and couldn't think of throwing himself into the river, so I hurriedly came over to take a look, but I didn't expect to meet you, brother. ”

Tian Lao Er's words were clear, and the old man nodded lightly.

"Hey, by the way, brother, it's so late and it's raining, why are you still wandering outside?"

The old man glanced back at the dark tide and knew in his heart that it was impossible to cross the river tonight, and he was cold and hungry. Fortunately, he met someone who knew him, and he thought that at least tonight he had a fall, as for the next thing, now he can only take one step at a time, so he lied to Tian Lao Er and said: "I was also going to go home, but I suddenly became confused halfway through, and somehow I came to this river." ”

Hearing the old man say this, Tian Lao Er not only did not doubt it, but laughed out loud: "Brother, are you drinking too much again, and you can't even remember where your home is when you are drunk?"

Listening to Tian Laoer's ridicule, the old man smiled and didn't answer again.

"Well, it's good that you met me, and it just so happens that the two of us can go together. ”

Tian Laoer's proposal was just what the old man wanted, so he followed the two of them out of the river and turned around and walked onto the main road.

As soon as the two of them got on the road, Tian Lao Er saw that the old man's clothes were about to get soaked, and he wanted to take off his coat and straw hat to the old man several times, but the old man excused himself a few times, and saw that the rain was gradually getting heavier, and he was really cold and uncomfortable, so he accepted Tian Lao Er's straw hat, and Tian Lao Er was still wearing the robe.

Along the way, the old man pretended to be drunk and dizzy, and asked Tian Lao Er about the way to cross the river to Wuxiang City, but he didn't expect Tian Lao Er to say another thing, and it was this sentence that made the old man more worried.

It turned out that the rescue river had its own origin, but it did not have a name before, and the river was not as turbulent and abnormal as it is now, and the water in it was also clear, and there were many fish, shrimp, turtles, crabs and other parallel goods in it, and several fishing boats could often be seen tied to the bank of the river when the farm was busy. About ten years ago, no one could tell what day or hour it was, when a towering city suddenly appeared in the middle of the calm, wide river. At that time, there were many people standing by the river to watch the excitement, and the farmer did not see it, but said that the gods went down to earth, and the city was the cave of the gods. There were also a few people in the crowd who patiently explained that it was just a "mirage". But just as the scholar was explaining to the onlookers how the "mirage" was formed, he saw the gate of the high city open, and out of the gate came a young man in white clothes. When the onlookers were wondering how this illusory scene could be so real, the young man floated in front of everyone in the blink of an eye, and only said to the crowd, "If you want to become a demon, you can come with me", and then turned around and floated back to the high city in the middle of the river, and the high city disappeared after the young man in white entered the city. The people present at the time were frightened, but since that day, there have been people who have disappeared one after another, and it is said that those who disappeared followed the boy to the high castle that appeared in the middle of the river. Those who disappeared and came back did not mention anything else in the city except for telling others that the high city was called Wuxiang City, and according to the relatives and friends of those people, after those people returned from the city of Wuxiang, the whole person's temperament changed greatly, and the people who used to be honest and cowardly became strong, while the people who used to be domineering and short-tempered became a lot more easy-going. As for how those people crossed the river to the city of Wuxiang, those people don't say it, and outsiders don't know. Also, the name of the river, "Rescue", is also said by those who disappeared and came back when they talked about the river.

"It's been more than ten years, and now the shore of the rescue river is not a fishing boat, even if any naughty little baby folds a paper boat and puts it into the river, it will immediately sink to the bottom. Tian Lao Er sighed: "Alas, now if the people in our happy town want to eat a mouthful of fresh water, they have to go to the morning market as soon as possible to buy fish and shrimp from Linzhen." Although it is not too far from this town to our happy town, after all, there is still some distance, and the fish and shrimp are not too fresh when they are transported, and the price is extremely high. ”

After listening to Tian Laoer's words, the old man lowered his head and muttered: "There is water in the north of Kunlun, and its strength cannot defeat mustard, so it is called weak water." The feathers do not float, and they cannot be crossed. ”

"What do you keep talking about?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm just saying that the river of distress is not a river of weak water?"

"Yes, no. Tian Lao Er said: "I heard the storyteller say that the weak water river you always said said that if you put a feather on the surface of the water, it will sink to the bottom of the water." But our rescue river, although it is said that a small paper boat cannot be supported on the water, but the strange thing is that sometimes you throw a big stone into it, but you can see that the stone makes a few turns on the river surface before sinking to the bottom. To elaborate, this alone is different from the weak river that eats people. ”

The old man nodded frequently when he listened, but he had his own little abacus in his heart.

While the two were talking, they had already walked to the front of the house. Tian Lao Er was afraid that the old man would not wake up drunk, so he kindly sent the old man outside the door of the old man's house, and left the lantern in his hand for the old man to illuminate, so he walked to the door of his house step by step.

Listening to the sound of Tian Lao Er banging on the door of his house, the old man carried the lantern, lightly pushed open the courtyard door made of several half-human-high rotten wood, and walked towards the closed black lacquer gate.

"Ouch, what the hell is this? Fell to my death. ”

How do you know that the old man had just walked a few steps before he tripped over an object under his feet and fell to the ground, and the lantern in his hand was not held steady, and he was thrown aside at once. The old man didn't bother to pick up the lantern, but was humming and rubbing his sore knee with his hand, when he heard a muffled grunt, like the sound of a person.

The old man's heart beat much faster at the thought that there might be a person lying in his yard, and the more he looked at the object that tripped him just now in the dark, the more he looked like a person. The old man hurriedly got up and picked up the lantern that he threw out, turned around with the lantern and carefully looked at the objects on the ground, and when he saw a face full of messy hair, the lantern in the old man's frightened hand almost took off again.

The person lying on the ground didn't know whether he was dead or alive, and when the old man was anxiously thinking about whether to smash the door of Tian Lao's house, suddenly a green light flashed in front of him, and the old man "Huh", turned the person over, threw the lantern aside, groped around the man's waist with both hands for a while, and whispered: "Found it." Then he breathed a long sigh of relief, sat back on the ground, and muttered, "It's a good thing to save ······."

After staring at the man lying on the ground for a long time, the old man got up, walked to the door, took out a key from his body, opened the door, turned around and dragged the man in the courtyard back to the house······