The river pours and the moon sets, and the bucket turns horizontal.

Outside the Xingyuan granary in the west of Luzhou City, it is already full of people who have fled the famine from all over the world who have come here to beg for food.

"Brother, how far is it? I can't walk anymore. ”

"Yu'er, we'll have something to eat soon. ”

In the bustling crowd of refugees, three frail children are mixed in, drifting with the flow.

These people described them as withered, ragged, with withered eyes and colorless faces. In the biting cold wind of the winter dawn, these poor people who were shivering and shivering from the cold helped the old and the young to come slowly, walking in a beautiful way, and the center was shaking. This situation and this scene make people sigh and feel compassion.

The turbulent times are turbulent, and the country is ruined and the family is poor. These poor people spend their days without clothes or food, so they can only wander around in search of a place to live. It is rumored that the Xingyuan granary in the west of Luzhou City, the shopkeeper is a great good man who eats fasting and recites Buddha, every first and fifteenth day of the new year, he will open the warehouse to put grain, and give some rice porridge and steamed buns, so today will attract so many poor people to come here early to wait, most of them are hungry, and they are all eager to eat a mouthful of hot porridge later.

There are three or five groups of three, densely packed, and there are three or four hundred people at the very least, most of them are old and weak women and children, and occasionally a few young men, who are also weak and can't help the wind, and they can't help but look miserable.

On the corner of the street, three inconspicuous children sat trembling around the tethered rock, hugging each other tightly and keeping each other warm. Two boys, one girl, both five or six years old, ragged and unkempt, if this embarrassed and pitiful appearance was seen by their fathers and mothers, they did not know how much heartache would be.

It's a pity that the three of them have no father and mother for a long time.

A year ago, a plague struck Xinglin Village in Tongchuan Prefecture, killing almost an entire village, including their respective fathers and mothers, in just a few days.

Like everyone present, the three children also came here before dawn, and waited from early morning until noon, looking at the gate of the Xingyuan granary with little eyes without blinking, waiting for the opening of the warehouse to serve porridge.

"Brother, I'm hungry!" the thin girl stared at the boy beside her with a pair of big watery eyes, pitifully looking at the boy beside her, although she was gray and dirty, she still couldn't hide the girl's natural beauty, and she was a little beauty embryo.

"Yu'er, we'll have something to eat soon. The boy grabbed the girl into his thin arms, and his immature voice contained pity, "Later, Qin Wei and I will go over to grab the porridge, and you will sit here obediently and wait for us to come back." Don't come near if you're weak, I'm afraid you'll be trampled by the crowd like last time. ”

The boy's name is Liu Xunyi, and the girl in his arms is his own sister, Liu Xunyu. The other short and thin boy beside him was their partner in the same village, Qin Wei. Since the disaster in Xinglin Village, the three of them fled together and wandered here together.

"The position is open!"

Suddenly, a high shout came from inside the Xingyuan granary, and then the door of the warehouse slowly opened, but I saw more than a dozen guys carrying seven or eight steaming porridge buckets coming out of the granary.

This cry was like a command, and in an instant the sluggish and lazy crowd suddenly lifted their spirits, and then like a pack of wolves pounced on food, they held broken bowls and jars, wailing and shouting, and rushed towards the porridge bucket.

However, whenever the warehouse is opened to release grain and provide relief to the victims, there will be more people and less porridge, and this situation will remain unchanged for eternity.

"Qin Wei, hurry!"

Liu Xunyi was already ready to go, and when he saw the granary door open, he screamed, grabbed Qin Wei, who was still in the fugue, and staggered towards the porridge bucket, while Liu Xunyu kept shouting loudly: "Brother, hurry up, brother......, hurry up."

Although Liu Xunyi is "quick with eyes and feet", he and Qin Wei are both young and frail, and they have no power to resist in front of those wolf-like adults. Therefore, before the two of them could get close to the porridge bucket, they were completely annihilated by the sudden begging army behind them, and the two children staggered between countless "legs", and were bumped into by people for a while, and kicked by people for a while, so miserable.

Although Liu Xunyi is young, his will is unusually tenacious, Rao is nose and face are swollen from being kicked and stepped on, but he still gritted his teeth and insisted, relying on his small body and flexible movements, rolling and crawling under the feet of everyone, approaching the crooked porridge bucket little by little. Qin Wei, on the other hand, was far away from the crowd, no matter how much he cried and struggled inside, it was difficult to break through the siege after all.

A porridge grabbing scuffle came to an end in the blink of an eye. Several porridge buckets were looted, and the people who grabbed the porridge had already run away to find a secluded corner to enjoy it for themselves. And those who didn't grab the porridge beat their chests and sighed again and again. After they dispersed in twos and threes, these poor people went their separate ways to wait for the next "scuffle".

"Qin Wei, come!

Liu Xunyi's excited voice sounded next to the porridge bucket, when Qin Wei, who was crying with a handful of snot and tears, ran in front of him, but saw that Liu Xunyi was carefully holding a puddle of gruel with both hands, and the porridge soup was flowing down his fingers.

"Quick, take a sip!" Liu Xunyi handed his hands forward, Qin Wei hurriedly leaned over and took a sip gently, and then a happy smile appeared on his tearful face.

"Take it and give Yu'er a drink. Qin Wei urged, and the two children were full of joy and happily walked towards the tethered horse stone.

"Yu'er, come and drink porridge!" Liu Xunyi's eyes were firmly fixed on his hands, he didn't dare to relax for a moment, and shouted without raising his head, "Yu'er, come and drink quickly, otherwise the porridge will run out." ”

"Strange, where is Yu'er?"

Suddenly, Qin Wei's puzzled voice woke Liu Xunyi from his excitement, he quickly raised his head and looked forward, but saw that the side of the tethered horse stone at this moment was empty, and there was no trace of Liu Xunyu for a long time.

"Yu'er!" Liu Xunyi looked forward to it left and right, trying to find Liu Xunyu in the scattered crowd, but he and Qin Wei looked back and forth for a long time, but still found nothing.

"Yu'er!" Liu Xunyi finally realized that something was wrong, and he couldn't care about the hard-won rice porridge in his hand anymore, and looked around anxiously, Qin Wei followed closely behind Liu Xunyi, and at the same time anxious, a thick panic appeared in his eyes.

......

For several months, Liu Xunyi and Qin Wei searched almost every corner of Luzhou, but they never found any trace of Liu Xunyu. Although they didn't want to admit that Liu Xunyu might have been abducted, they had to recognize the reality, and after searching for no results, the disheartened two had to continue to rely on each other and wander around in order to survive.

Spring goes to autumn, and in the blink of an eye, it is already a year. Liu Xunyi and Qin Wei begged for food all day long in hardships and hardships, although they were displaced and weathered, but fortunately, they barely survived for another year.

From Luzhou all the way to Qianzhou, until the cold winter wax moon, heavy snow fell.

There are very few pedestrians on the streets, and it is even more difficult for people to stop and give them alms. Therefore, Liu Xunyi and Qin Wei fell on the streets of Qianzhou today, frozen and sore, hungry and skinny, and the two of them were already on the verge of dying.

"Xunyi, are we dying today?" Qin Wei snuggled in Liu Xunyi's arms, at this moment he even ran out of strength to warm up, his eyes were slightly closed, and he muttered weakly, at the same time, a few tears couldn't help but overflow from the corners of his eyes, "I miss my mother......"

As soon as he mentioned his mother, Liu Xunyi's eyes suddenly moistened, and his little hands full of frostbite tightly covered Qin Wei's frozen stiff ears, and said with a smile: "I won't die, as long as we survive this winter, we will find a place to work next year, and then we will have food, drink, and a place to sleep." ”

"We're too young, we don't have the strength, and we can't read...... Qin Wei said weakly, "Xunyi, do you say that we will be able to see our father and mother when we die?" I think the sesame fire made by my mother, and the sauce and meat ......" Qin Wei said as he pouted, and at the same time, tears had slid down his cheeks.

"I can't die!" Liu Xunyi muttered to himself with a small face, "I still have to live to find Yu'er......"

"Boom!"

Suddenly, a copper plate was thrown in front of Liu Xunyi and Qin Wei. raised his eyes, but saw a middle-aged man with extraordinary wealth and magnificence standing in front of the two, looking them up and down with a pair of bright black eyes at the moment.

Liu Xunyi stretched out his trembling little hand to pick up the copper plate, and timidly clasped his head and said, "Thank you, uncle, for the reward!"

"What's your name?" the man's voice was quite warm, like a spring breeze, and it felt very comfortable.

"Liu Xunyi. Liu Xunyi suddenly came to his senses, and hurriedly pointed to Qin Wei beside him, and said, "His name is Qin Wei." Is the uncle trying to recruit workers? We can do both long-term and short-term jobs...... Although we are young, we are serious ...... work" Liu Xunyi saw that the man was unmoved, and hurriedly added, "We can do any work, we don't need to be paid, as long as we have a stutter......"

"Stretch out your hand to me. The man said without waiting for Liu Xunyi to agree, he leaned over and quickly grabbed his wrist and pulled it up and down.

The man's strength was extremely great, and the emaciated Liu Xunyi had no power to resist in front of him, so he could only endure the pain and let him be at his mercy. The man looked at his hand, looked at his arm again, and finally shot at Liu Xunyi's body, groping up and down carefully, patting it, and nodded again and again in surprise, "Not bad! Not bad! It's really a rare and manufacturable material! I really can't imagine that in this poor street and alley, I can still let Zhao Yuan meet a talented martial arts practitioner." Wonderful!

"Uncle, you ......"

"Come with me!" Without waiting for Liu Xunyi to ask, Zhao Yuan suddenly smiled and said, "I can not only let you eat and drink, but also make you prosperous and prosperous!"

"Really?" Liu Xunyi was suddenly ecstatic, and promised to drag Qin Wei to thank Zhao Yuan together. But Zhao Yuan frowned, waved his hand and said, "I only said to take you away, but I don't want him." ”

"This ......" Liu Xunyi suddenly looked embarrassed, turned to look at Qin Wei, whose life was hanging by a thread, and after thinking about it again, he sat on the ground again and continued to hold Qin Wei in his arms.

Seeing this, Zhao Yuan couldn't help but be stunned, and said in surprise: "What are you doing? Do you want to freeze to death here?"

"Qin Wei is my good brother, I can't leave him alone. Liu Xunyi's little face tensed, and he said stubbornly, "I won't go with you, I will stay with Qin Wei, even if I freeze to death and starve to death, I will never leave him." ”

Zhao Yuanhu looked at Liu Xunyi suspiciously, and asked, "What if I can only take one of you?"

"Then please ask the uncle to take Qin Wei away. Liu Xunyi replied without hesitation, "He is weak and is about to die." ”

"Are you willing to starve to death?"

"I won't starve to death, didn't Uncle give me a copper plate?" Liu Xunyi held up the copper plate in his hand and smiled proudly, "I can change a steamed bun and a bowl of hot porridge, I won't starve to death with them." ”

"Haha......" Zhao Yuan laughed loudly, nodded again and again, "Life and death are dependent on each other at a young age, and it is rare to share hardships!" After that, Zhao Yuan took off the mink wool on his body with his backhand, threw it on Liu Xunyi and Qin Wei, and said with a smile, "That's it, you two can go with me together!"

Feeling the warmth brought by the mink velvet, Qin Wei's face was much softened compared to just now, Liu Xunyi helped Qin Wei to stand up staggeringly, and bowed to Zhao Yuan three times in a row, his gratitude was beyond words.

"You just said that as long as you stutter, you can do anything, is that true?" Zhao Yuan asked with a meaningful smile.

"Really. Liu Xunyi was afraid that Zhao Yuan would regret it, so he nodded desperately in agreement.

"What about killing?" Zhao Yuan looked straight and asked again, "Do you dare to kill?"

"Dare!" Without waiting for Liu Xunyi's face to hesitate, Qin Wei already grabbed the words without thinking, "As long as we can be prosperous and prosperous, we will kill whoever you let us kill!"

Zhao Yuan nodded lightly, and lightly spit out a sentence, "Then let's go!" After saying that, he turned around and walked into the distance without looking back.

"That ......" Liu Xunyi hesitated again and again, and finally couldn't help but ask, "Where are you going to take us?"

"Lin'an City, Tianji Pavilion!"

......