In the seventeenth year of Xiangyuan, the old emperor returned to the west with a crane, and the new king ascended the throne, changing the name of the year to Tai'an, and this year is the ninth year of Tai'an.

......

The bottom of the valley of Huoyang

In the dense forest of ancient trees, birds rise into the air from time to time, circling and chirping, breaking the tranquility of the forest in the early summer afternoon.

A swarthy boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old was moving and jumping in the forest, his posture was as vigorous as an ape, his toes were light, and his body was as light as a swallow.

Occasionally, the boy climbed to the top of the tree and squinted around, as if he was looking for something.

At this moment, the young man who was standing on the top of the tree and looking out suddenly had a happy face, and hurriedly jumped down from the top of the towering tree, walked like a fly in the forest full of ancient trees, and tried his best to catch up in one direction......

twilight

The afterglow of the setting sun stretched the figure of a young man to the old man, a hundred pounds of wild deer on his shoulder, the young man did not feel the slightest sense of hardship, leisurely while walking while humming a little song from an old man, towards the only populated place at the bottom of the valley.

There was a log cabin and a modest old man.

"Master, Master, come and see what I caught? An old fat old and fat wild deer, you have a good mouth tonight. ”

After a while, a small wooden house came into view, and the young man carried the wild deer he had painstakingly caught from the forest on his shoulder, shouting proudly at the top of his voice, and his footsteps did not stop.

"Master, old man, huh, what about people?" the young man did not see the hunchbacked old man who rushed out of the door as soon as he heard that there was venison to eat, and respectfully invited himself to the stove room.

On the contrary, it was surprisingly quiet, and the only thing that responded to the boy was the birdsong that rose and fell because of his shouts, as if he were the only living person here.

I shouted twice more but there was no response, although the old man often went out, sometimes for a day or two, but this time the young man inexplicably rose a trace of uneasiness in his heart.

Because the old man is still at noon, if he wants to go out for a walk, he will definitely talk to himself.

Something happened, should it be ......

The boy struggled to tell himself that the old man might just be out, but a terrible thought kept lingering in his mind.

The young man's heart gradually sank to the bottom, and he threw off the wild deer that had lost his breath with a slanted shoulder, and the young man rushed to the wooden door with an arrow, took a deep breath, suppressed the deep uneasiness in his heart, and slowly pushed open the wooden door that he had entered and exited countless times.

"Squeak!"

The door opened, and an old figure sat on the plank with his legs crossed on the wooden door. Most of the white-haired heads hung down slightly, and their faces were serene, as if they had fallen asleep.

Not far in front of him is a half-foot-long wooden sculpture, which is in the shape of a pestle, with symmetrical ends.

The setting sun shines through the wooden window, impartially, sprinkling the afterglow that is about to set on it, just enough to coat the wood carving with a layer of gold.

"Old man!"

As soon as the door was opened, the most unacceptable thing for the teenager still happened. The young man suddenly had red eyes, and staggered to the noon and sent him out with a smile and let him come back from some game, but now he slept motionless to the old man.

The young man knelt beside the old man, grabbed the old man's shoulders and shook him desperately, tears flowed uncontrollably in his eyes, and he couldn't cry.

"Master, Master, don't die! I will never call you old man again, wake up, cough, cough, cough, wake up!"

"I caught a deer and came back, you, you are going to die, and you will die after eating, woo......"

"Stinky boy, let go, the teacher is not dead yet, and it will be a real hiccup if you shake it again. ”

At this time, a young man's hoarse voice sounded a little weakly, and the young man was stunned for a moment, and then stared at the old man in front of him with wide eyes, his eyes were mixed with joy and sorrow, and his eyes were very strange.

"Old man, oh no, Master, you're not dead!"

The young man was surprised but also a little incredulous, he reached out to pinch his thigh but was afraid of pain, hesitated for a moment, and the young man stretched out his hand to the master's face.

"Why do you want me to die?" The old man opened his eyes with difficulty, knocked off the claws stretched out by the apprentice to his face, and said angrily: "I'm not dead, but I'm so shaken by you that I'm going to be fast, and my body and bones are about to be shaken apart by you!"

The old man's tone was still so unserious, but there was a little imperceptible weakness in his voice.

"I just said that I hit something, is it a wild deer? Go and get it, and I'll tell you something about it after I've finished eating." ”

As soon as the topic changed, it was pulled to the deer, and the old man was a little more energetic, wiped the non-existent saliva, and said slowly.

"I'll go. ”

The boy nodded his head like a chicken pecking rice, wiped his tears, went out of the house and carried the deer into the stove, and began to get busy.

Listening to the sound of ping-pong in the stove room, the corners of the old man's mouth unconsciously raised an arc. Looking at everything in the wooden house, the old man's eyes were full of soft color and reluctance.

Wooden tables, wooden chairs, rattan baskets...... The eyes slowly swept over these ordinary things, and the old man seemed to be able to see the scenes of the life of the old man and the young man in this life, and his eyes were extremely gentle, like the attachment of an old man to the world in the twilight.

And when the old man's eyes turned to the wood carving, his eyes instantly became extremely sharp, and the fierce color in his eyes flashed, and the unspeakable momentum exploded, and then disappeared without a trace.

"Wow"

The old man vomited a mouthful of blood, and when it landed on the wooden board, a red blood flower would appear, and this blood flower was mixed with a trace of black color, like poisonous blood forced out after poisoning.

"What's wrong?"

The boy who heard the movement was about to come out of the stove room, and although he was dealing with the deer, the boy's ears were always listening to every move outside the stove room.

Frowning, the old man wiped the corners of his mouth with his sleeve without changing his face, and said with a smile to the young man who poked his head out with a concerned face.

"It's no big deal, you do yours, I'm dying of starvation for the teacher. ”

"Oh"

The young man glanced at the master, and saw that he was smiling, and his face was much more ruddy than before, and he poked his head back as if something had happened.

The afterglow of dusk slowly dissipated, and the old man looked at the sunset that was gradually setting in the west, and sighed silently.

"It's old, it's time to go. ”

......

After eating a meal of venison, the old man wiped the greasy corners of his mouth with his sleeve, changed his hippie smile from the past, and beckoned to the young man with a serious face.

When the young man sat down beside him, the old man groaned for a while, cleared his thoughts, and was about to speak when he coughed.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough......"

"Master, are you alright?

The young man hurriedly put his hand on the old man's back and patted it gently.

As soon as he heard the first half of the sentence, the old man was relieved, and was about to wave his hand and say "It's okay", but as soon as the second half of the sentence entered his ears, the old man's face immediately sank, and he raised his hand and knocked a chestnut on the young man's head.

"You've just eaten, don't interrupt, time is running out for the teacher, and listen to the teacher first. ”

"Oh!"

The young man was in pain, holding back his sadness, looking at the old man with a red face at this time, his chest was a little stuffy.

During the meal, the old man kept coughing up blood, and the young man knew that the old man should be back to the light now, but he couldn't keep it, and the only thing he could do was to accompany the old man through the last moments.

Immediately, the young man straightened his posture and listened attentively.

"Little Liu" the old man called out to the young man, "For so many years, haven't you always wanted to know what your surname is?"

Now as a teacher, I will tell you, you are not surnamed Xiao, your surname is Yang, Xiaoliu is your milk name, your big name is Yang Nanguan, born in Nanguan City in the south of the Yangtze River, if you have the opportunity, you must go there for a walk, cough, cough, cough ......"

Xu was too excited to say it, and the old man coughed violently, waved his hand in Yang Nanguan's concerned eyes, and signaled that he was fine. After a pause, the old man continued.

"And your master and I, surnamed Li, single-word list, and your father Yang Zixiong are old friends, forty years ago I first met your father and mother in the restaurant at the foot of Huayang Sect Mountain, at that time, ah......"

The old man babbled some stories about his acquaintance with the young man's parents, and his eyes were full of remembrance.

The old man talked intermittently for a long time, and Yang Nanguan didn't bother, just sat quietly next to him and listened to these past events that can be called trivial, and the waves in the young man's heart that should have been caused by the imminent death of the old man gradually calmed down.

The sun sets, the afterglow fades, the night creeps in, and the sky is full of stars.

"Ah, that's a long way off. ”

When a ray of starlight sprinkled on his body, the old man realized that he had been nagging for a long time, and after scratching his head with some embarrassment, the old man said: "Okay, now let's get down to business." Little Liu, what I say next, you must always remember. ”

The young man bowed slightly, signaling that he knew. After listening for more than an hour, Yang Nanguan did not feel tired at all, but was full of energy.

At this moment, when he heard the old man's words, he was even more energetic and sat upright.

"Your father, Yang Zixiong, is the junior disciple of the first Huayang Sect Master in the world, and the son of the old Sect Master. Mother Lin Yuqing is the eldest disciple of the valley master of Guanyin Valley, which ranks second in the world. ”

"Ahem, ahem, you should have an extremely noble status. I have lived all my life in fine clothes and food, and now I have lived with a bad old man in this camel valley for fifteen years, do you know why? cough, cough, cough ......."

Yang Nanguan, who had lived for fifteen years and only knew who his surname was and who his parents were not long ago, shook his head silently, looking at the old man who was slightly panting due to excessive emotions, with an inquiring look in his eyes.

After taking a deep breath, the old man stared at the young man's eyes, and said word by word in an unprecedented solemn tone: "Because you are already an orphan, your parents, the sect was gone fifteen years ago, and you have two enemies, one is far away, it is the court of the Central Plains! and the other is close at hand, it is me, Li Dan!"

The young man was like thunder, staring blankly at the old man with guilt on his face, unable to believe what he had heard.

Sensing that the young man seemed to be a little unconvinced, the old man sighed and said, "Master didn't lie to you, Master can indeed be said to be your enemy." Your father and mother, although the sect was destroyed by the hands of the imperial court in the Central Plains, if it wasn't for my involvement, it would still be there. ”

The old man's eyes showed a look of grief, and for a moment it was tears of old age.

While the young man was still stunned, the old man roared angrily into the sky, and invisible waves of qi burst out from the old man's body, destroying everything around the wooden house in less than two breaths.

There was nothing to do inside the house, but the sand and rocks flew outside, and the ancient trees as thick as wooden barrels rose up and fell in all directions, a mess.