When the lights dissipated, there was silence on the shore of Yangzhou Lake, like a white snow carpet, and some sparse snowflakes would shake off from the treetops from time to time. The snow in the south of the Yangtze River is much softer than that of Chang'an, and the snow in Chang'an is a little less majestic than in the north.

In the silence of the night, a man in a thin shirt gently pushed open an old wooden door, and the snow slowly shook down and sprinkled on his shirt and hair. Behind him, carrying a scabbard without a sword. In his hand, he also held a sugar gourd that was as red as blood.

The yard was quiet, just a small house and a dry well, and a tree to the left of the eaves. The man walked under the tree, leaving a lonely footprint.

Ten years later, he's finally back here.

People walk away from tea cool, cold wind and cold.

He raised his palm high and gently wiped away the frost on it, only to see that on the thick trunk, he could vaguely see the two words engraved: Half Moon, Zhao Ruxue.

"Two dogs...... Two dogs......"

In the man's ears, I don't know when the familiar child's voice suddenly sounded.

"My name is Ergouzi, this is the name my father gave me. ”

"Master, where have all my parents gone?"

"Master, I want to eat sugar gourd......"

Crunch......

The door panel was pushed open, and a little cold air rushed into the house, mixed with an old atmosphere. The room was dark and cold, with a square wooden table, one large and one small, and a half-knitted sweater lying quietly on the big bed, and a short mahogany sword pressed under the sweater

He walked to the big bed and sat down, his hand trembling a little and stroking the half-finished sweater, and unconsciously shivered. I don't know how long later, he lifted the sugar gourd he was holding in his hand, opened his mouth and took a big bite, it was very cold and sour......

"Half a month has passed, why are you still trembling with a sword hand?"

"The name of the second dog is too ugly, why don't you change it and call it Half Moon?"

"I heard that the lights on the day of the winter solstice in Chang'an are very beautiful, when you grow up, let's go see it together, okay?"

"This sword has been with me for many years, and now I give it to you, you take it to make me famous in the rivers and lakes, and I will wait for you to come back......"

Syllable!

The sugar gourd, which had only taken one bite, fell to the ground with a crisp sound that echoed through the quiet room.

"I don't want anything famous!" the man muttered in a low voice, "I just want you back......"

His name is Ergouzi, and when he was a child, many people died in the Jiangnan famine, and only a few good people survived. He was also going to die, but that night, it was his master who picked him up from the pile of dead people, and he escaped. Then he began to learn sword practice with his master, because he was intimidated by the bandits who entered the village to rob him when he was a child, leaving a shadow, so whenever he held the sword, his hands would tremble involuntarily, and it lasted for half a month before he got better.

His master named him Half Moon, which implies the meaning of the crescent moon.

That year, it snowed heavily in the south of the Yangtze River, and the master and apprentice walked in Yangzhou City in the heavy snow, and the master let him walk behind him to resist the wind and cold for him. At that moment, a man handed the master and apprentice two pieces of hot roasted sweet potatoes and two windbreakers. That man was carrying seven swords on his back, and he later learned that that person was Wei Qijian, who had already become famous all over the world.

It wasn't until he was fifteen years old that he finally stepped into the realm of cleansing the marrow, he took his master's sword and began to walk the rivers and lakes alone, pursuing his wish to become famous all over the world.

Jianghu Road is not easy to walk, perhaps because of the fledgling and did not hide the silver on his body. When he passed through a small alley, he was knocked unconscious, and when he woke up, he found that the silver on his body was gone, and the sword he was carrying behind him was also lost, and if he hadn't tied the scabbard tightly to his body, even the scabbard would have disappeared with it.

The sword given by the master was only a scabbard in less than a month, and he was young and frivolous and had no shame to go back to meet the master.

In desperation, he had no choice but to steal food, until one time he risked being chased and cut three miles by someone with a knife, and stole a large piece of sauced beef. This year's famine was very serious, not to mention beef, even a bowl of pearl white rice is very precious. He hid under a tree outside the city, drooling and looking at the large piece of sauced beef in front of him, he couldn't help but bite down, but at this time he heard the sound of a little girl swallowing saliva.

Only then did he realize that on the other side of the tree, there was also a family of three. Because of the famine, they had been hungry for three days and three nights, and he hesitated for a long time, but decided to give this large piece of sauced beef to the family of three. Left hungry......

He returned to the city and found a place to sleep in the streets and alleys. But from the house of a wealthy family on the side, I smelled the fragrant smell of wine and meat. It turned out that this family was celebrating their birthday, and they had many guests at a banquet and drank and had fun all night. He didn't sleep well at all that night, his mind was full of thoughts about the piece of sauce beef that he desperately stole and swallowed his saliva all night.

What is the smell of Zhumen's wine and meat, and there are frozen bones on the road, and now he finally understands.

Then he began to walk on a path that violated his original intention in the rivers and lakes. There is also a way to rob the rich and help the poor. He took the things stolen from the homes of the rich and noble as silver and donated them to the poor people whose homes were ruined. It didn't take long for his bounty order to gradually spread through the streets.

He was worried that his bad reputation would be known to his master, so he traveled all the way west until he came to Chang'an. The lights in Chang'an were beautiful, but no one was with him to watch them. The vows that were once made have become far away.

Someone once asked him what his name was, and he said that he had no name and no surname, leaving only the name of a half-sword.

At the time of the theft, he was constantly looking for the whereabouts of the sword he had lost, and he did not dare to go back to visit the master until he found the sword, year after year.

What he didn't know was that every year before the beginning of winter, Master would sit in the long pavilion where he had bid him farewell all day, just to wait for him to come back. The face can't withstand the erosion of time, time slowly makes a person grow, and it will also make people grow old.

One year, when the heavy snow came very early, his master stood alone in the long pavilion, trembling uncontrollably, looking at the vast snow, only expecting a familiar face to appear.

Someone once asked her, "Who are you waiting for?"

She shook her head and didn't answer.

Who awaits in the snow to review? Knowing that no one is looking back......

In a trance, years have passed. He finally returned to Yangzhou again, and he bought his master gorgeous jewelry, beautiful new clothes, but a sword was missing. For some reason, at the moment he was in a very anxious mood and eager to see the Master, so he came back. He once made an appointment with Master to meet him in the pavilion every year, but he made Master wait alone for ten years, and he was a little overwhelmed, and he waited in the pavilion alone for several hours without seeing Master.

The man in the house took out two small cups and filled two glasses of wine with the wine gourd he was carrying. He clenched a wine glass in both hands and drank it all in one gulp.

He shuddered, and said to himself into the empty room, "This wine is so cold......

At this moment, his heart was in a panic, he would never forget that day, the moment he pushed open the door, he saw the old face of the master, lying on the bed with a sick face. His face was haggard, and he only had one breath left in his body.

The moment the Master saw him, a smile appeared on her face, and she only said one sentence, "You have finally fulfilled your wish to become famous in the world......

After the master said this, he walked away.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the most unfilial apprentice in the world.

"What's the use of being famous? It's not like you haven't been able to see it after all?" the man yelled at the empty house, smashing the wine glass in his hand in a fit of rage.

A tear quietly fell on the bed at some point. Together with the unknitted sweater, they were sunk in the gloomy house and never to be remembered again.

For many years, whenever he walked through the Jianghu teahouse in the downtown and heard the storyteller tell the story of Zhao Ruxue, the three beauties of the south of the Yangtze River, it was like a cold rain in his heart.

He couldn't help but recall what he said to the boy in Menghualou that day: "Cherish the person in front of you, don't wait for her to miss it, and never come back......"

Is there only loneliness left at the end of the rivers and lakes?

Wandering in the rivers and lakes, who can see through the rivers and lakes?