Chapter Twenty-Three: The First Journey into the Rivers and Lakes
The cherry blossoms and snow flew white, staining the entire fairy forest, and the wind was whistling, rolling up the snow on the ground and spinning in the mountains and forests.
Occasionally, there was the sound of a few branches being crushed by the snow, and the whole mountain forest faintly made people feel a chill.
Early in the morning, Xianjie woke up, habitually stretched out her right hand to the outside of the stone bed, and swung it up and down twice, feeling empty.
He sat up nervously and looked out of the bed. Zong Zheng is no longer on the stone bed, there is only a coat as white as snow on the stone bed, the coat is made of white fox skin, quite delicate, and there is a letter and a pair of jade bracelets left next to it.
Xianjie hurriedly picked up the letter.
I saw that the envelope was written with the words 'Xian'er Personally Examined'.
Xianjie never thought that her beloved brother Zheng would leave her, so when she saw this situation, she was full of joy and thought, "Brother Zheng left a beautiful fox fur coat and a letter, is it to give me some unexpected surprise?"
Thinking of this, he hurriedly opened the letter, but the more he looked at it, his face changed and became more and more ugly.
I saw that it was written:
"Xian'er, when you opened this letter, I had already left the fairy forest! I thought about it for a long time, hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to leave. The weather is cold, send a fox fur coat to keep the cold, the bracelet is a relic left to me by my mother, for my good life, my brother is just temporarily leaving, will definitely come back. I hope you don't think about it, wait for me to return, and don't come out alone! Take care of the wolf! Brother Zheng left a pen!"
Xianjie looked at it, and immediately felt that the world was spinning, she never thought that her brother would leave the fairy forest and leave herself.
Excited for a moment, Xianjie ignored the cold outside the cave, chased out of the cave barefoot, and the wolf followed closely.
The vast snow, the surroundings were extremely empty, and the cold under her feet was no longer felt, Xianjie just continued to run forward, just ran and ran like this.
Xianjie shouted as she ran: "Brother Zheng"
I don't know how far I've run, or how long I've been shouting.
The vast mountains and forests are full of snow and no response.
Xianjie gasped, and for a moment she felt that she couldn't breathe, and fell on top of the snow.
"Brother Zheng, don't leave Xian'er!" his mouth still called slightly, and a hot tear slipped down the corner of his eye, dripping on the ice and snow that was cold through the bone marrow. Anxious for a moment and the wind and cold invaded her body, Xianjie fainted and slowly closed her eyes. The wind and snow still kept falling, and it seemed like it was about to envelop the fairy forest.
After more than an hour, Xianjie felt a burst of warmth in her confusion, and she mistakenly thought that Zong Zheng had heard her shout and came back.
So he got up immediately, only to see the divine wolf lying on his stomach to help him resist the cold that invaded around him.
Xianjie touched the broad and soft head of the divine wolf, and for a while crystal tears flowed out of her eyes, hugging the divine wolf's head tightly, full of sadness and tenderness.
She knew that her beloved brother had really left, she sat on the ground, stunned for more than half an hour, snowflakes fell on her black hair, white and black mottled, gradually, the snowflakes melted, wet the hair, snow seeped into the hairline, dripping snow.
After recovering her strength, Xianjie led the wolf barefoot back to the cave, leaving a row of footprints on the snow, and the snowflakes fell on the footprints, and gradually those footprints became blurred, and then disappeared, without a trace.
Xianjie put on her shoes and saw the white fox fur coat on the edge of the bed, so she reached out and took it and hugged it to her face. Caught in a dazed sense of loss. The divine wolf who was waiting on the side stared straight at Xianjie with his eyes.
Zong Zheng left the fairy forest on a snowy night with the flaming sword on his back, and came to a bamboo forest at dawn.
It was the bamboo forest where he lived as a child.
Bai Xueman dances, and the surroundings are silent.
Before Zongzheng came to the thatched hut, there was a layer of snow on the roof, and the bamboo door was dilapidated, Zongzheng gently pushed the bamboo door open, and a familiar bamboo platform came into view, Zongzheng touched the dusty teacup and looked at everything furnished in the house.
The eyes were full of memories of childhood and motherhood, and the eyes gradually moistened.
Seeing the green bowl on the bamboo platform, Zong Zheng recalled many past events, one year, his mother sat paralyzed at the head of the bed after falling ill, and boiled the medicine himself, that is, he took this green bowl and fed the medicine to his mother's mouth, and his mother stretched out her weak hand to caress half of her little face, and her eyes were full of tears.
Zong Zheng came to the bedside, took out a dusty wooden box from underneath, opened it and took out a rocking drum, shook it twice in his hand, and the sound of jingling awakened the memories of his childhood.
When Zong Zheng came back to his senses, he put back the drum and pushed the box back under the bed.
Stand up and gently touch all familiar objects around you with your hands, even though they are dusty, even though they are worn.
Zong Zheng had tears in his eyes, and the warmth of mother and son in the past seemed to have never left.
came to the hut, and then Zong Zheng came to his mother's grave.
Seven years have passed, and the surroundings are silvery white, Zong Zheng still remembers the location of the tomb, and saw a slightly convex mound, so Zong Zheng came to the side of the mound.
Seeing that the wooden sign with 'The Tomb of Mother Tu Yiling' had been tilted, Zong Zheng felt guilty and happy, guilty because of his unfilial piety, and fortunately the wooden sign was still there.
Zong Zheng corrected and stabilized the wooden card with great force, and then knelt down in front of him.
"Mother, Zheng'er is not filial, let you lie in this cold place for eight years, please forgive Zheng'er for being unfilial. ”
After speaking, he kowtowed three times in a row.
When I got up, I wanted to find some flowers, but it was already late in winter, and there was a silence around, only white snow.
Zong Zheng stretched out his fingers and carefully touched the wooden sign, from the word 'Niang' to the word 'tomb', as if touching the gentle face of his mother. The mouth said,
"Mother, the child has grown up safely now, God is not thin on me, Zheng'er will learn the profound martial arts of the two predecessors by fate, although the skill is not very deep, the use of martial arts is not skilled, but self-defense is more than enough! Moreover, God also sent a fairy-like girl to accompany the child, to be honest, the child really likes her, I want to be with her in this life, the child was originally to tell her my thoughts, but the time is not yet ripe. The child promised her mother that she would definitely bring her over to meet your old man's home. ”
Zong Zheng paused for a moment and then said: "Mother, the child is leaving again! The child wants to break into the outside world." You have a spirit in heaven to bless me and that girl safe and sound. ”
After finishing speaking, Zong Zheng reluctantly left.
Zong Zheng walked for a long time, out of the mountains and forests, and came to the street, at this time the heavy snow had stopped, but it was still extremely cold.
The shouts of the vendors on both sides and the murmuring of the crowd all entered his ears, and he stayed away from the people for a long time, and suddenly came to the crowd of people shoulder to shoulder, Zong Zheng was difficult to adapt for a while, and suddenly felt a little scared.
When he was in a daze, a junior next to him walked out of the door of the inn, wearing a white handkerchief over his shoulder. Seeing Zongzheng parked at the intersection of the inn, he took the initiative to greet him.
Xiao Er patted Zong Zheng's shoulder, and Zong Zheng turned his body to look at Xiao Er.
"Guest, are you here for dinner? The shop has just come out with a few new dishes today, do you want to come and taste them?" Xiao Er asked.
Zong Zheng didn't answer, he looked at Xiao Er, his face was blank. It's just that after listening to Xiao Er's words, he felt that he was really hungry, so he followed Xiao Er into the inn.
Xiao Er led Zong Zheng upstairs, and Zong Zheng picked up a table against the wall and sat down, rubbing his fingers that were red from the cold.
Xiao Er asked, "Guest officer, what do you want to do?"
Zongzheng has lived in the mountains and forests for a long time, and where did he know the names of the wine and dishes in the inn, so he asked without thinking about it: "Do you have wild vegetables here to make it mush?"
Xiao Er didn't hear clearly for a while, so he asked again.
"I'm sorry, officer, what did you just say?"
"Wild vegetable mush!"
Xiao Er couldn't help but be shocked.
"Guest officer, we are here in an inn, only good food and wine, no wild vegetables. ”
Zong Zheng looked at Xiao Er's puzzled eyes, so he had to eat at will, and said,
"Then just bring me some vegetarian dishes!"
Xiao Er walked towards the kitchen stupidly.
After only a while, Xiao Er came out with two dishes of dishes, and when he arrived in front of Zong Zheng, he shouted: "Guest officer, here comes your dishes! Braised cabbage core, cucumber jade." ”
As he spoke, he put the dishes from the serving plate to the table one by one.
After serving a bowl of rice at the end, Xiao Er asked, "Guest officer, do you need some wine?"
Zong Zheng replied lightly: "No need!"
Xiao Er left with a disdainful face!
Zong Zheng looked at the two dishes in front of him, took a piece of cabbage core with chopsticks and sent it to his mouth, and immediately felt extremely delicious, and couldn't help but think in his heart: "I have lived in the barren forest for a long time, and I didn't expect the dishes outside to be so delicious." ”
After eating a few bites of food, Zong Zheng suddenly saw a girl dressed in white walking up the stairs, wearing a cloak with a white veil around the cloak, and her figure seemed to resemble Xianjie.
Zong Zheng couldn't help but think in his heart: "Could it be that Xian'er ran out to find me?"
Zong Zheng hurriedly walked in front of the woman.
A burst of aroma hit Zongzheng's nose and mouth.
Zong Zheng shouted "Xian'er" and was about to reach out and take off the veil of the woman in white.
The woman grabbed Zongzheng's finger and reversed it and clasped Zongzheng's right hand behind him, and Zongzheng was caught off guard.
"Thief boy, what do you want to do?" the woman in white scolded,
Although Zong Zheng did not lift the veil of the woman, when he heard this voice that was obviously the voice of a foreign woman, he already knew that this person was not a fairy. Hurry up and apologize.
"Girl, I recognized the wrong person! I'm sorry!"
After hearing this, the woman in white didn't plan to worry about Zongzheng, but just kicked Zongzheng's buttocks, and Zongzheng was kicked away.
One stumbled to his knees, and Zong Zheng got up and turned back to his original seat. muttered to himself: "I would admit my mistake, maybe I miss Xian'er too much." ”
At this time, the guest table upstairs was already full, and the woman looked around and found that there was only one person in Zongzheng's position, and there was a vacant seat, so she walked over and sat opposite Zongzheng, and put down the package and the sword she was carrying.
Zong Zheng saw the woman in white sitting opposite him, thinking of her fierce and bully behavior just now, he took the initiative to move the two dishes to his side, and didn't dare to look up at the woman, just glanced at it.
The woman couldn't help but snicker when she saw Zong Zheng's fear of herself: "Count you as acquaintances!"
Xiao Er walked out of the inner kitchen, came to the woman in white and asked,
"What do you want here, officer?"
"A bowl of green vegetables and meat noodles. The woman in white replied,
Xiao Er turned his head and shouted to the inner kitchen: "A bowl of green vegetables and meat noodles." He turned and left.
Zong Zhengze kept his head down.
After a while, Xiao Er walked out with a bowl of steaming meat noodles and brought it to the woman in white.
"Guest officer, here are your green vegetables and meat noodles!"
The woman in white lifted a little veil, took out chopsticks from the bamboo tube and ate the noodles.