Winter is coming to an end, and the new year is not far away.

Luo Yin walked alone on the official road, and the weather had begun to slowly warm up, indicating that the New Year was approaching.

At this time, people came and went on the official road, those who sat in cars, those who walked, the old and the young, men and women, all smiling and smiling, and carrying large bags of New Year's goods. Listening to their laughter, he realized that tomorrow would be Chinese New Year's Eve.

In the afternoon, he walked to a small county town and watched the city be lit up with lights and a festive scene. He decided to stay for a while and wait for the end of the year before setting out on his way.

I found an inn in the city to stay, rested for the night, and washed away the fatigue of the journey.

On the second day, he watched as the shops in the city closed their doors one by one at noon, and the people who purchased New Year's goods rushed back to their homes one by one, ready to have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with their families. The streets gradually became empty, and there was no longer the bustle and excitement of the past two days.

Today, it's Chinese New Year's Eve.

The night came as scheduled, Luo Yin stood alone in front of the window, he opened the window, looked out the window, only to see the lights of thousands of homes, and from time to time he could hear the laughter from the people next to him.

Every day, travelers who go out will rush home to reunite with their loved ones, have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, wash away all the fatigue and hardship of the year, and look forward to the smooth things and healthy families in the new year.

It's just that when the family is reunited, Luo Yin can only be in another world separated by two lives, thinking of his distant relatives.

A distant traveler will eventually return home one day, but his wanderer has no hope of returning. The distance between the two worlds is not only a distance of thousands of miles, it is a distant and never-reachable other shore than the starry sky and the Milky Way.

"Bang bang......" A knock suddenly came to mind outside the door, interrupting Luo Yin's thoughts. He went to the door and opened it, and saw the innkeeper standing outside the door, carrying a food box in his hand.

"Guest officer, today is Chinese New Year's Eve, I made some Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at home, thinking that you are alone outside, so I sent you some too." The shopkeeper said with a smile on his face.

Luo Yin took the food box, thanked the shopkeeper, returned to the table and opened the food box, only to see a few plates of home-cooked side dishes and a pot of wine placed in it. He took out the food and wine, set it on the table, poured himself a glass of wine and drank it in one gulp.

Then, he poured a second glass of wine, held it up to the window, and said, "Mom and Dad, everything is fine here, please don't worry about it." The son is not filial and can not reunite with the second elder for a reunion dinner, the child toasts the second elder here with a glass of wine, wishing the second elder good health and 100 years old. ”

As he spoke, he drank all the wine in the cup, then poured a third glass of wine, raised his glass again and said to the night sky: "The death of my son made the second elder heartbroken, and the son failed to fulfill his filial piety in front of the second elder's knees, but let the second old man send the black-haired man." Please rest assured, although my son died in that world, he has a new life here, and I am still alive. If there is an afterlife, I hope to be your son and make up for the debt I have owed you in this life. With that, a glass of wine was slammed out.

Alone in a foreign land as a stranger, every festival is full of relatives.

After a drink, a pot of wine was already in the bowels, and the night was getting deeper.

Bursts of firecrackers came from the window, the sound of firecrackers said goodbye to the old year, the old year has passed, and the new year has arrived.

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

Spring has arrived, everything has recovered, the willow trees have pulled out new shoots, the flowers have bloomed, and the heaven and earth have changed a pair of green faces.

Spring goes to the summer solstice, the rainy season comes, and the whole world seems to be shrouded in a drizzle.

In the field, there are no tall trees, only low trees and puddles. Nearly a month of rain has turned the field into a swamp, and every puddle and mire hides deadly dangers, and the slightest mistake can be a disaster of being trapped in a mud pit.

This area is full of such swamps, and Luo Yin has already penetrated into it and cannot retreat.

He understood that the greatest danger in the swamp was not the countless poisonous insects, snakes and ants, but the deep mud pit that he would step on at some point.

He held a long bamboo pole in his hand, and every step he took had to be carefully probed with the bamboo pole before he dared to step out carefully, and he had to rely on the bamboo pole in his hand to make a way out for himself.

It's just that after walking cautiously in the swamp for more than half a month, he will still have a time to be careless after all. At this time, he encountered the situation that he had always feared the most.

He felt his leg sink into the deep mud, and he struggled to get out of the mud pit, only to find himself in horror that not only did he not get out, but he was gradually sinking.

This scene frightened him so much that he didn't dare to move anymore, and his brain was racing rapidly, trying to find a way out.

Watching his body sink little by little, when the mud had already submerged to his waist, he finally thought of a way. There was a coil of rope in the basket, and there was a small tree seven or eight feet away.

He took the rope out of the basket and tied it to the middle of the scabbard of the short knife, and used a bamboo pole to carry the rope buckle and stretched the short knife towards the fork in the middle of the tree.

He carefully placed the knife horizontally behind the fork of the small tree, then tightened the rope so that the knife was tightly stuck on the branch, and then pulled the rope and crawled out of the mud puddle little by little.

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

At the junction of the eastern and central parts of the Chu State, several low hills were located in between, which became the boundary between the eastern and central regions. There is an official road in the mountains, which is the only way to the eastern part of the Chu State, so it is often passed by tourists and merchants.

It's just that there are always some people in the world who like to get something for nothing, they are stationed on this traffic artery, robbing passing pedestrians, and they have a title, the king of the mountain, or the strongman who cuts the path.

More than a dozen strongmen were enduring the scorching summer heat at this time, hiding on both sides of the official road and waiting for passers-by. The weather in June and July was unbearably hot, and even if there was shade under the tree, it was difficult to endure the torture of the heat.

The robbers, who were waiting for their prey to come to the door, were already a little groggy at this time.

One of the robbers said, "Brothers, why don't we go back and hide first, and then stay here for fear that the fat sheep will not wait, and we will die of heat first." In such weather, no one will still be in a hurry, and those merchants are afraid that they will still be in the cool at this time and wait for the evening before going on the road. Let's go back and wait for noon to come back, I'm afraid there won't be any fat sheep passing by?"

More than a dozen robbers couldn't bear it anymore at this time, and when they saw someone coming forward, they hurriedly echoed it, and the leader of the robbers also knew that what he said was true, so he gave an order: "Go back to enjoy the cool first, and come back at noon, this day the heat will kill the king." ”

The robbers shouted long live, and as soon as they changed their half-dead and weak state, they became alive one by one, and they were ready to go home with swords, guns, swords, and halberds. At this time, a sharp-eyed robber suddenly shouted: "It seems that someone is coming." ”

The leader of the robbers looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, there was a man walking in this direction on the official road in the distance, and he could reach it in about a mile or so.

"Little guys, let's go back after making this ticket, otherwise we will suffer from the bird's anger of the sun in vain today. The leader laughed.

The passer-by in the distance gradually walked in, and a robber whispered: "My lord, it seems that he is just a poor scholar, and looking at the tattered appearance of his clothes, he must not have much oil and water." What to do, to do it or not to do it?"

The leader of the robbers said angrily: "Damn, it turned out to be a poor sour man who can't squeeze oil and water, and he wasted the spirit of this king." Hmph, when he arrives in front of you, you will rush up and cut him down for me, so as to dispel the sullenness of this king's day. The minions hurriedly nodded in agreement, ready to cut down the scholar and dissipate everyone's anger.

When the scholar came closer, all the minions really swarmed up and surrounded the scholar.

When the scholar saw this situation, he smiled bitterly, why is my Luo Yin so miserable, and I have encountered such a dedicated robber on a hot day.

Along the way, the clothes on his body have long been worn out, and he is too lazy to buy new clothes, just because no matter how new the clothes are, it will not be long before they are worn into tatters in this endless journey.

He hurriedly shouted: "The king spares my life, I am just a poor scholar and have no money." ”

The leader of the robbers walked out, looked at Luo Yin's down-and-out appearance in tattered clothes, raised his knife and pointed at him and said, "Looking at you like this, you know that you are a poor ghost, and this king just wants to use your heart and liver to make a bowl of soup to relieve the heat." The little ones, for the king, take the heart and liver of this kid, and go back to the mountain to make soup to relieve the heat in a while. ”

The minions shouted and beckoned the guy in their hands to the scholar.

When Luo Yin saw this battle, he ran away, but he was facing more than a dozen robbers with sharp blades, and with his own unpopular kung fu, he didn't run and waited for death.

However, the direction in which he ran was the east, and the way to escape from the east happened to be blocked by the bandit leader.

When the leader saw that the poor scholar was not easy to run, he had to bump into him, laughed and beckoned the scholar with the big knife in his hand. Such a thin boy will definitely be cut in two with one knife.

In the blink of an eye, the scholar had already run to him, and the knife in his hand was about to cut off his head, and the leader grinned cruelly.

When the bandit leader slashed with a big knife, Luo Yin's body turned and dodged the blade. At the same time, when he dodged, he stretched out his hand to the back basket behind him, and a flash of white light flashed and drew the short knife, and slashed at the bandit leader.

After chopping, he didn't dare to stay at all and escaped from the encirclement, and ran away without looking back.

You must know that there are more than a dozen weapons beckoning towards you behind you, and a short stay will be the end of the corpse of the knife, so it is the most important thing to escape, and it doesn't matter if you kill the bandit leader with the knife just now.

The leader of the robbers stood still, a streak of blood slanting down from the top of his head, almost splitting his head in two.

The minions watched the leader fall to the ground and die after being stabbed, and they also stopped, not daring to chase any further.

The robbers looked at each other, and one of them shrank his head and said, "You say that the scholar is so powerful, why did he escape faster than a rabbit?"

"If you ask me, I ask who is going, and it is hard to say that he is a rabbit. ”

One of the robbers looked at the corpses on the ground and said to the others, "The king is dead, what shall we do?"

"What to do, go back to the village, divide the family, and go back to each house. ”

"That is, let him the eggs, go back and divide his silver woman, and go home to buy the land of the local lord. ”

After saying that, the robbers dispersed in a hurry, and even the corpse of the leader on the ground no longer looked at it, let alone someone would help him collect the corpse......