The city wall was low, and dozens of ragged beggars squatted on the side, and when they saw someone coming, they knelt down and kowtowed, begging for a little alms, but instead provoked a bad temper and kicked them away.

The gates were wide open, even half broken, and unguarded, and several rows of sharpened wooden rafts were hidden, with faint black blood stains on them, apparently that something had happened.

Yi Fan was covered in dust, avoiding the beggars who came up to pray, and walked into Guobei County, he saw the previously prosperous market, extremely dilapidated, and the shops on both sides of the street were mostly closed, even if the door was open, four or five strong men with bare arms were arranged outside, each holding a sword, with a fierce face.

There were a lot of pedestrians on the road, most of them men, with open chests and exposed arms, even if they were thin, they also had a sharp knife pinned to their waists, and they looked at people as if they didn't know that they were bad people, all with thorns.

Occasionally, those who are dressed plainly also leave in a hurry with their heads down, not daring to stay.

As for the two sides of the street, there used to be so many stalls, but there were not a single one, but there were many beggars lying on the side of the road, and some of them were obviously dead, and the stench was smelly, and no one cared about them.

Suddenly, there was a noise in the back, and then people turned on their backs, and five or six men with swords went on a rampage: "The person in front of you stops, and it's you, the Taoist priest with thief eyebrows and rat eyes." ”

Yi Fan was stunned for a moment, stopped, was surrounded in the blink of an eye, and the man led by him carefully looked at the bulging burden behind the disgusting ghost, and suddenly escaped from his arms A picture album, flipped through it casually and then closed it: "This person is a fugitive, arrest me." ”

"Wait, are the laymen mistaken?"

Yi Fan wondered, how did he become a fugitive after a long absence of more than a year?

The man laughed: "You just came from outside, right?"

"Yes, Poor Dao has just returned from the field, and he has only arrived today, and he is looking for a place to rest. ”

"That's right, you're the one who caught you. ”

Yi Fan's face fell, knowing that he was here to find fault, and said coldly: "Poor Dao has never done anything to commit adultery and break the law, a few laymen must have made a mistake, and a few of them don't look like yacha, what qualifications do you have to arrest people?"

"The front of the yamen is full of portraits of fugitives, and anyone can catch them, and as long as they catch them, there is a bounty. ”

The man slowly pulled out his knife and said, "Besides, if I say it's you, it's you, don't talk nonsense, follow me back to the yamen, and if you dare to resist, I'll kill you." ”

Yi Fan chopped his footsteps, and the stone bricks on the ground suddenly cracked, and asked, "You can see it more clearly, is it me?"

The faces of several people changed, and the man led by the man had straight eyes, and hurriedly took out the album: "I read it wrong, I read it wrong." After speaking, he beckoned: "Pierce your hands, find the next fat sheep." ”

After saying that, they all ran away.

Yi Fan laughed, shook his head, saw that the people around him avoided him, and did not stay longer, walked straight forward, and saw an inn in a moment, so he walked in.

A junior came forward and asked, "Is it a meal or a hotel?"

"For dinner, you prepare a few special dishes and a pot of good wine. ”

"Okay, wait a minute. ”

Yi Fan sat down, and saw six or seven people in the room, each looking at him with strange eyes, and he didn't care, and after waiting for a while, he saw Xiao Er coming over with a tray, a few small dishes of rotten vegetable leaves and a pot of wine inside.

"Objective, your dish is here, please use it slowly. ”

"Wait, you eat this food for people? And this wine, it's clearly stinky water. ”

Yi Fan picked up the wine jug, sniffed it, put it down heavily, and stopped Xiao Er, who was leaving.

Xiao Erpi smiled and said: "What, objectively dissatisfied? It's okay, you can change it, as long as you pay for this wine and food first, everything else is easy to say, not much, just ten taels of silver." ”

"It turned out to be a black shop, these things in the stinky gutter, how dare you ask for ten taels of silver?"

Yi Fan stood up, knowing that if he encountered a black shop, he would definitely not be able to eat, and maybe he would have to fight.

Xiao Er glanced back at the shopkeeper behind the counter, immediately clapped his hands, pointed to a small wooden sign next to him and said: "Yes, it's ten taels of silver, objective to good eyesight, knowing that we are a black store." ”

After saying that, five or six people over there, each of them stood up, and their swords came out together, and they surrounded them.

Yi Fan glanced at the wooden sign, and sure enough, the word 'black shop' was written on it, and he couldn't help but be speechless, it was the first time he had seen such a blatant store, and he only blamed himself for his bad eyes.

Suddenly, more than a dozen men walked in from the outside, saw the situation inside, and their bodies were stunned, and then the leader was surprised: "Is it you?"

Yi Fan saw that it was actually the few men he met on the street just now, and he touched his nose, it was really a narrow road.

The man laughed and said to the person next to him: "Big brother, what I just said is this person, who has a bulging baggage, must have a lot of silver, and is a big fat sheep." ”

After speaking, he waved his hand: "There are many of us, hack him to death." ”

Yi Fan shook his head, kicked the table, then grabbed the disgusting ghost, slammed open the window, jumped to the roof of the house, and disappeared at the other end.

"Follow me, and then send someone to call some brothers over, I don't believe that he can still fly. ”

As soon as the man shouted, he wanted to chase after him.

"I drove away my guests and still want to leave, so where is the face of my second Li gone? Brothers, copy guys. The innkeeper took out a knife from behind him, slapped the table and turned it over, and the two groups immediately fought together.

......

I didn't expect Guobei County to be in such a mess, I really couldn't understand it, Yi Fan fell into an alley, let go of the disgusted ghosts, and then found a path and walked forward.

He was going to go to Chen's house first, but he hadn't seen him for more than a year, and he didn't know how the Chen's family was now.

Half an hour later, Yi Fan stood in front of a dilapidated mansion with the dusty door plaque on it that read 'Chen Mansion', indicating that he had not found the wrong place.

Unexpectedly, the Chen family also fell into such a defeat.

Pushed open the door and walked in, and saw that there was a mess inside, obviously experienced some chaos, and found a few places where no one was, so I didn't look for it anymore, and planned to stay here for one night tonight, and return to the mountain tomorrow.

'Bang'

There was a noise in a room, Yi Fan's figure moved, he came to the front of the room, and when he opened the door, he saw a large and a small huddled in the corner, bowing their heads and not daring to look at him.

"Who are you?" Yi Fan wondered.

The big and the small trembled, and the adults hugged the children, knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing: "Don't kill us, please let us go." ”

After saying that, he quickly unbuttoned his clothes, revealing a shriveled body, and then lay on the ground without moving.

Yi Fan was stunned for a moment, and quickly turned around: "This female layman, please don't get me wrong, Poor Dao is just staying here, and he has no intention." ”

After a while, seeing that there was no movement behind him, he looked with his eyes, and saw that the woman had closed her eyes and was not moving, so he shook his head, walked over, and covered her with clothes.

I saw the child next to him, not very old, only two or three years old, with a dirty face, a pair of big eyes looking at him in horror, and his little hands grabbed the corners of his clothes.

Yi Fan sighed, stood up and walked out.

The Chen family's house was very large, and there were many weeds in the broken door, so he asked the disgusted ghost to look everywhere to see if there were any others, he saw that it was getting dark, so he walked out and prepared some food to come back.

Although there was chaos in the city, there were always living people, and after running a few places, they found a gambling stall, turned into the house, knocked out a man who was guarding, took some coarse grain in the kitchen and drew some water, and returned to Chen's house.

At night, Chen's house was pitch black, and the oil lamps he found were also dry, so he simply found some dry wood, piled them into a pile, and lit them with flint, which was also a little bright.

Seeing that the disgusted ghost had not returned, he did not wait for it, so he ate cold water and ate bitter and tasteless coarse grains.

Suddenly, there was a slight sound of footsteps behind him, and he paused slightly, knowing that it was the mother and son, and ignored it.

After waiting for a while, seeing that there was no movement, Yi Fan looked back and saw the thin mother and son standing by the door timidly, only lowering their heads and not speaking.

He thought for a moment, divided the whole grain in half, put the kettle on the ground again, pointed, and turned around.

Suddenly, he only heard a 'poof', he turned around, and saw that the woman did not take food, but knelt on the ground, and said suspiciously: "What is the female layman doing here? ”

"Dao Chief, you are a good person, please show mercy and take my daughter, although she is young, she is very sensible, she eats little, and she can do tiring and hard work, as long as she can stutter. The woman kept kowtowing, and the blood on her forehead did not stop.

Yi Fan was stunned for a moment, glanced at the child, but didn't expect it to be a little girl, and didn't think much about it, got up and helped her: "What is the trouble, get up and talk first." ”

But the woman didn't get up, knelt on the ground, pulled the child over, held her head and knocked to the ground: "Nier, kowtow to the Taoist, as long as the Taoist accepts you, you can live." ”

The child didn't cry either, his forehead was bruised, which made Yi Fan frown and hold down the woman: "Layman, if you do this again, Poor Dao will be angry." ”

Seeing that Yi Fan lost her temper, the woman didn't dare to kowtow again, so she buried her head on the ground: "Ask the Taoist chief to take in the little girl." ”

Yi Fan sighed, shook his head, and went with her, seeing that the little guy was full of stubbornness, and although his big eyes were afraid, he didn't cry: "It's so well-behaved, it's a pity that I was born in this troubled world." ”

touched her head, picked up the dry food, patted the dust on it, and handed it over: "Hungry, eat enough first." ”

The child shook his head, lowered his eyes, did not look at the dry food, grabbed the corner of the woman's clothes with his two small hands, and did not speak.

Seeing that she didn't answer, Yi Fan didn't force it, sat back and continued to eat dry food.

It took him a long time before he spoke, "Who are you?"

"My mother and daughter fled here a few months ago, separated from our families, and when we saw that the house was empty, we moved in. The woman hesitated and bowed her head in reply.

Yi Fan's face changed, and he snorted coldly: "You're still lying, do you think you can deceive the poor Dao with your little trick?"

He had long seen that this pair of mother and son, dressed in rags, but also tidyed, not very messy, dirty but deceitful, and their conversation did not look like ordinary people.

It should be from a big family in the city, and after great changes, he escaped here, as for escaping from the famine here, it is full of loopholes, in this chaotic Guobei County, even he has been blackmailed several times when he entered the city, not to mention a pair of mother and daughter?

The woman trembled, raised her head, and no longer hidden: "The maid of the housemother of the Chen Mansion is the maid, and Nier is not the biological son of the child, but the Miss of the Chen Mansion." ”

As he spoke, he told him all about what happened in Guobei County this year, and also solved the doubts in Yi Fan's heart.

It turned out that just half a year ago, a drought suddenly broke out in a radius of several hundred miles in Guobei County, and even the river quickly dried up, and the originally prosperous territory suddenly became desolate.

At first, the yamen and the gentry also united to organize various rain prayer activities, and even donated money to dig wells to find water sources, but there was nothing, and no rain came down for more than a month, so some people began to flee the famine, in groups, but soon people found their bodies.

But there were bandits, who took the opportunity to rob, and even swept and looted, and for a time the entire Guobei County was in chaos, and even more people were desperate and sold their children and daughters.

Just when everyone was desperate, it finally rained and relieved the urgent need, but the good times did not last long, and the news of the death of the current saint came from outside, and a group of officers and soldiers were stationed here, recruited soldiers and food in the city, and then left in a hurry.

In this way, for several months, the city became more and more chaotic, the yamen also lacked manpower, and the officers and soldiers did not obey the orders, which made the situation even worse, and finally set off a riot of food and water.

Many large families in the city were attacked by desperate people, and even all of them were destroyed, and the Chen family was one of them.

Since then, Guobei County has been completely chaotic, it was originally a transportation artery between Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but it suddenly became a dead area, and the imperial court was even more chaotic, so it naturally didn't care.

I see, no wonder Guobei County is so chaotic,

At that time, it was chaotic, and I took the young lady to hide in a hidden rockery, and only dared to come out for several days, and then I didn't dare to go out at will, and only secretly looked for some food at night. Tears fell from the woman's eyes, and she said bitterly.

"Then no one found out about you?" Yi Fan regretted after speaking.

Sure enough, the woman trembled, gritted her teeth and said, "I still have a bit of a posture, and if you serve a good person, you won't hurt us." ”

Yi Fan was silent, no wonder when he saw him for the first time, he automatically took off his clothes, and regarded him as a villain.

At this time, the disgusted ghost jumped, ran over, patted his chest, pointed in the direction of the backyard, and screamed.

Yi Fan was puzzled: "What did you find?" and walked to the backyard, and the big and small ones followed closely.

When he arrived in the backyard, Yi Fan's expression froze, and he saw the vast courtyard, dozens of grave bags without tombstones, and looked back at the woman: "This is?"

The woman's face was sad: "I hid with the young lady for a few days, and when I came out, I found that dozens of people up and down the Chen family had been killed." ”

"I didn't want the old man to have their corpses outside, so he collected the corpses and buried them in the backyard. ”

Yi Fan closed his eyes, thinking about the Chen family, which was still prosperous a year ago, as well as Yubaoyan and Chen Yi, and took a deep breath: "The world is impermanent, I didn't expect that when I said goodbye, I would already be separated by yin and yang." ”

opened his eyes and looked at the child: "Since it is the Chen family, let's follow the poor road to beg for a bowl of rice in the future." ”

The woman was overjoyed, and hurriedly pulled the child to kowtow: "Nier, quickly kowtow to the Taoist." ”

The child knelt down, kowtowed a few times seriously, was helped up by Yi Fan, and touched his forehead: "What's your name?

"My name is Chen Nier and I am three years old. The child replied timidly.