Chapter 1 - Descending the Mountain

The mountains and rivers are beautiful, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant.

The sun is rising, and the mist has not lifted.

Halfway up the mountain, on a platform.

A young man in plain clothes was kneeling in front of a lonely grave, kowtowing respectfully.

After kowtowing three times, the young man straightened up and said, "Master, I have come down the mountain, you are here by yourself, you must be well, I will come back to see you from time to time." ”

After saying that, the young man stood up, picked up a small dusty bag next to him, carried it on his back, and then turned and walked down the mountain.

The mountain road was rugged and narrow, and the boy walked slowly and steadily.

Suddenly, a crisp voice came from the bushes on the side: "Little salted fish, where are you going?"

When the young man heard this voice, he did not have the slightest strange look, and said without even raising his head: "I want to go down the mountain." ”

The voice said, "What are you going to do down the mountain?"

The boy said, "Go to the rivers and lakes." ”

The girl's voice said, "What are you going to do in Jianghu?"

The boy said, "Experience!"

"Experience, you little salted fish, aren't you afraid of being eaten when you go down the mountain?"

The girl's voice said jokingly.

Before the words fell, a yellow figure flew out of the bushes on the side and stood in front of the young man.

The girl is dressed in a yellow dress and a yellow skirt, her face is pretty, like a spring flower, and her eyes are bright, like a star in the night sky.

The young man looked at the girl who appeared every day, and said with a serious expression: "Girl, I told you that my name is Xiao Xianyu, not Xiao Xianyu." ”

"Also, my master said that although the rivers and lakes are sinister, as long as you have strength, you can be fearless. Although I am a small salted fish, I am not an ordinary little salted fish. ”

The girl in the yellow shirt grinned and said, "I know your name is Xiao Xianyu, why don't you ever ask my name?"

The young man Xiao Xianyu glanced at the girl, and said apologetically: "Girl, what is your name?"

"Huang Ying'er, my name is Huang Ying'er. The girl smiled and said, "You can call me Ying'er directly." ”

"Ying'er. Xiao Xianyu said.

"Look, you're a fish, I'm a bird, aren't the two of us even?" said Huang Ying'er with a smile.

The young man couldn't help but be speechless for a while, but the girl laughed proudly when she saw the young man's deflated appearance.

The boy looked at the girl, stared at her autumn-like eyes for a while, and said, "I'm going down the mountain, thank you for coming to see me off!"

After saying that, the boy walked around the girl and continued to descend the mountain.

The girl turned around, looked at Xiao Xianyu's departing back, and suddenly said, "Hey, Xiao Xianyu, when are you coming back?"

The boy stopped, glanced back at the girl, and said, "I will come back often." ”

The girl Huang Ying'er pursed her lips and watched the young man turn around and move forward, although his steps were slow, but extremely firm.

For some reason, the girl felt that she would not see him for a long time in the future, and her eyes were a little moist.

She suddenly shouted loudly: "Hey, Xiao Xianyu, you have to take care of yourself!"

"Well, I know!" Xiao Xianyu waved his hand with his back to her, and his body turned around and disappeared.

The girl jumped to the top of a large tree, and then to the highest branch.

She looked down at the boy, hoping that he would look back at her, but the boy didn't.

And on the mountain peak in the distance, there was another figure, like a widow, looking at the two of them.

The breeze blew up the mountain mist, obscuring the lone figure, and when the mist cleared, the figure disappeared with it.

............

Dressed in a coarse cloth shirt, carrying a small dusty bag, and pinning a small black gourd around his waist, the young man walking slowly on the road was silently reciting the words taught to him by the master: "If you go down the mountain one day, you must remember the four words, talk less and see more." ”

The boy muttered as he walked along a country road.

He doesn't have any destination, the rivers and lakes are the places he wants to go, and the master said that when he goes down the mountain, he enters the rivers and lakes, and where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

The rivers and lakes are dangerous, we must keep an eye on everything, don't trust others, etc.

In the young man's mind, the scene of the master passing on the exercises and telling him these things at the same time came to mind.

But after the boy went down the mountain, the rivers and lakes he saw with his own eyes seemed to be different from what the master said.

Most of the roads are muddy rural dirt roads, and most of the people you see are farmers facing the loess with their backs to the sky.

Occasionally, someone looked up at him, but it was just a little curious, but no one came up to talk to him.

But the novelty of just coming down the mountain made the boy feel that everything he saw was interesting.

He went down early in the morning, and at noon he came to the outside of a village.

After a morning of labor, people returned home with farm tools.

The young man who stopped at the entrance of the village made these simple farmers feel a little strange.

A middle-aged man approached and said, "Young man, where are you from?"

The young man thought for a moment and replied with a smile: "Zixu Mountain." ”

"Oh, Zixu Mountain, that must be twenty or thirty miles away from us, right? Are you here to visit relatives?" the middle-aged man asked with a smile again.

The young man said: "No, I was ordered by the master to go down the mountain to practice, and I happened to pass by here. Uncle, can you give saliva to drink?"

The middle-aged man laughed and said, "No problem, let's go, follow me home." You haven't eaten, right? Why don't you have a meal at my house?"

The boy did not eat, he nodded to the uncle, and said, "Then thank you uncle!"

"You're welcome, let's go!" the middle-aged man led the young man and walked home.

On the way, the uncle said, "At this hour, my mother-in-law must have made lunch." ”

However, when they arrived at the uncle's house, they found that there was no smoke on the chimney of the house, and the uncle shouted loudly outside, but no one answered inside.

The uncle couldn't help but be a little strange, and said, "Where did this lazy woman go?"

The two pushed open the door and walked in, but found that it was surprisingly quiet inside, and the uncle called a few more times but no one answered, so they felt that something was wrong.

He hurriedly walked into the back room, and then let out a burst of exclamations: "Mother-in-law, what's wrong with you?

The young man who heard the strange voice couldn't help but be slightly surprised, and in a flash, he also flashed into the back room.

At a glance, I saw that the uncle was holding a woman, shouting loudly, the woman's eyes were closed, her face was sallow, and she seemed to have fainted for a long time.

Seeing this scene, the young man didn't have time to think about it, so he hurriedly stepped forward, stretched out his hand and tried it at the woman's vein, and then said, "Uncle, you get out of the way first, I can cure this disease, auntie!"