In the late autumn of October, all the flowers are gone.
All the purples and reds have withered away, leaving only a blue sky, yellow leaves on the ground, and a line of geese flying south and north.
At the foot of the south slope, there is a large ginkgo forest, with clusters of fan-like ginkgo leaves that are golden and brilliant. Facing the afternoon sun, they seem to be burning with flames and brilliant like torches.
It's just that the autumn wind blows by, sweeping away the gold like rain, leaving only desolate branches.
A ginkgo leaf fluttered and fell.
The edge of the umbrella-like blade brushed the tip of a young man's nose and landed on his hand.
The hand was smooth and white, with slender fingers and no signs of labor. There were only thin calluses on the pads of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger.
This is the hand of a young man, and it is also the hand that only holds a pen.
"Zhaozi, Zhaozi!"
Someone called him, Tang Zhao came back to his senses and said: "Brother Sui."
At this time, Tang Zhao was sitting on a donkey cart. The donkey was a thin donkey and the cart was a flat cart. The driver was a simple-looking young man of eighteen or nineteen years old.
"Why are you in a daze?"
"I remember...Teacher." Tang Zhao rubbed his face. His face turned pale, with a hint of blue in the white, like fine frosted stone with cold tones. His facial features were handsome and clear, just as the book said, "painting within painting" He had a good appearance and was wearing a thick cotton coat. The cotton was very full and his body was as bulging as a bun. "It was late autumn when I met the teacher, and the mountains were covered with red and yellow leaves. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. It’s been half a year.”
Brother Sui recalled: "Ah, I know your teacher, I have met him twice. He is a very ancient... peculiar person. He often says things that no one can understand, and he also writes heavenly books that no one can understand. "
"It's Chinese characters." Tang Zhao said immediately, "I have completely learned it. I am probably the only one in the world who can write it."
He spoke proudly and looked proud. Brother Sui couldn't displease him. In fact, his father once complained to Tang Zhao's father: "It's so easy for your family to have a promising student. Why don't you invite a serious gentleman to study?" ? That lame man surnamed Chen only knows how to talk nonsense, make up stories that are less reliable than commentaries, write ghost drawings that even ghosts don't recognize, and completely ruined the future champion of your family. "
However, not long after the words were spoken, things happened in Tang Zhao's family. His parents and teachers suffered misfortunes. It was difficult for him to make a living with such a twelve-year-old child alone, and his education was all in vain, so there is no need to mention it.
Thinking about it this way, Brother Sui sighed and said, "Zhaozi, how do we cross the river?"
At the end of the ginkgo forest, the ground suddenly collapsed, revealing a deep trench about ten feet wide. The bottom of the trench was very dark due to insufficient sunlight, and pitted water could be vaguely seen.
The two planned to cross the river, but the ravine was like a natural chasm, blocking their way.
I can't cross the river, and I'm not willing to push back, so I can only stand here.
Tang Zhao said helplessly: "Shall we go back first? Let's go up from the downstream. We haven't seen the bridge after walking for so long. It seems we can't cross. Go to the county town to buy a rope and come back?"
Brother Sui breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It's good to go back. In fact, I have always felt that this forest is weird, and there is this water, and there is no drought and dryness like this. Is this normal..."
Before he finished speaking, footsteps sounded, and a tall man emerged from the forest.
"Haha, there is indeed a river. I am taking the right path!"
The man was about thirty years old, eight feet tall, with a turban on his head and coarse clothing on his body. He was carrying a heavy bag and his face was dusty. He seemed to have walked a long way.
Brother Sui glanced at his waist, became nervous immediately, and blocked Tang Zhao behind him.
There is a knife!
He's a family man!
If you are a robber, you will be in great danger!
The big man saw the two of them at the same time and his pupils shrank.
Someone!
In the deserted mountains and ridges, there are no people around. Where do two people appear?
The two sides were silent for a while, and Brother Sui was the first to apologize and salute: "It turns out he is a knight-errant. I'm fine, knight-errant!"
The big man had already seen the faces of the two people clearly at this time, relaxed and said: "Yang is not a knight, don't mistake your handlebar posture."
As he spoke, he patted his belt.
On the belt, there is a bright waistband, with a silver background and two large black characters on it.
"righteous!"
Tang Zhao stood in awe, cupped his hands and said: "It turns out he is a righteous hero!"
The big man laughed loudly and said: "I don't dare to be a righteous man. I don't dare to be a righteous man. Do you, a young scholar like you, also know how to be a righteous man?"
Tang Zhao said excitedly: "Why don't you know? A righteous man is a hero certified by the imperial court. He kills demons and eliminates evil, protects the country and the people, and has great martial arts skills and is famous in the world..."
As he spoke, the big man laughed, scratched the back of his head and said: "Thank you, thank you. I killed a few ferocious beasts, defended a few villages, and saved hundreds of people. How can you be so powerful... A great hero, Hahaha... And I have to go to Hero Heyang's house to live up to the name."
Tang Zhao became even more happy and said: "Then let's drop in. I'll also go to Xue Mansion..."
The big man's laughter stopped suddenly, and his pupils shrank again: "What, you're going too?"
He felt a shiver in his heart and thought to himself: Wait a minute, besides redeeming the Jiuzhou Loyalty List, what else can you go to Heyang Daxia Mansion for? Could it be said that he is also a member of the Jianghu?
He glanced at Tang Zhao again and saw that he was thin, with slender bones and no traces of martial arts training on his hands and feet joints. He definitely didn't look like a martial artist.
Could it be that……
Is this a real person without showing his face?
Yes!
According to old legend, the most unprovoked people in the world are those who appear to be harmless.
The elderly, children, disabled people, scholars...
Isn't it terrible that this little scholar has two things in one person?
Thinking of this, sweat gradually broke out on his forehead.
Yang Dong, Yang Dong, you judge people by their appearance!
Regardless of how thin you are, he might pull out a sword from the donkey cart and chop off your head at the next moment.
After all, you know how good your martial arts is!
I killed two ferocious beasts, drank their blood, and after a few years of increasing my skill, do I think I am very powerful?
You were too ostentatious along the way, hanging a righteous medal worth thousands of gold on your waist. Didn't this invite strongmen to rob you?
Could it be that I didn’t have time to check in, I didn’t even see Xuan Gong, and I didn’t know which way the magic cave opened, so I was going to die on the way?
Just when his mind was spinning, regretful and anxious, Tang Zhao had already said: "Yes, the student is here to seek refuge with his relatives."
…
"Wha...what? Seeking relatives?"
Yang Dong reacted, "Are you a relative of Daxia Xue?"
Tang Zhao felt strange. Everyone said that the martial arts of the righteous warriors were profound and unpredictable. Why was this righteous warrior's expression so unpredictable? He said: "I don't dare to call him a relative. My master is an old friend of Xue Daxia. The student is entrusted to visit me."
Yang Dong breathed a sigh of relief again, his pupils returned to their original state, and asked: "Your master has a relationship with the hero Heyang. He must be a master. I wonder if he is the senior hero?"
Tang Zhao said: "My master did not practice martial arts, but he taught me how to read and write."
"So, you don't know martial arts anymore?"
"Ashamed, the students are useless."
"Ouch."
Yang Dong patted his beard with his hand, was silent for a moment, and said: "My relatives and friends are the same, very good. I think you look like a friend of the hero."
After calming down, Yang Dong looked at Tang Zhao again. The words "weak and weak" were written all over his straight and clear facial features. How did he look like a hidden master?
He waved and said: "Let's go, let's cross the river. Hey, I remember there is a bridge marked on the map. Where is the bridge?"
Tang Zhao pointed to half of the wooden piles beside the ditch and said: "The bridge is here."
The wooden pile was old and broken, but the top was very smooth, as if it had just been shaved with a sharp blade.
Yang Dong looked left and right at the wooden pile and said, "Is this... an old bridge pier? Has the bridge been demolished?"
Tang Zhao said: "When we came here, there were only bridge piers."
Yang Dong clapped his legs and said, "What should we do? To go to Xue Mansion, we have to cross this river. There is no other way. Scholar, what do you think we should do?" He saw that the young scholar looked happy. Could it be that he was a scholar? Any ideas?
Tang Zhao was indeed in a very happy mood, even full of expectations, and said: "What's so difficult about this? This is just a ten-foot-wide ditch..."
"Yep."
"For a master like you, can't you just jump over it?"
"..."
Yang Dong's nose was so angry that he thought: Is this little sour guy just entertaining me? Ten feet? Is this bullying me for not being able to fly?
But then, he saw the young man's sincere and admiring eyes.
He was actually waiting for himself to fly into the sky and escape like the hero in the story.
Forget it, this little kid is not only weak, but also a stick. He doesn't know anything about martial arts.
As long as he has a little common sense, he will know that a person who can leap four or five feet from flat ground, let alone ten feet, can be regarded as a strong player in the world. Even for those "chivalrous knights" who have achieved both internal and external skills and stand at the top of the world, not everyone can leap that far.
Yang Dong is just a "righteous man", not a "chivalrous knight".
Of course Yang Dong could explain it to him, but that would be a loss of style. He shook off the bag and pulled out a knife.
Tang Zhao was startled. Brother Sui had been watching with clenched fists. Then he suddenly came up to apologize and said with a smile: "Master, please calm down..."
Yang Dong made a swipe sound and pulled out the sword from its sheath, revealing the blade made of fine steel. The sword's light faced the sun, and the light was dazzling and white, making Tang Zhao squint his eyes. Brother Sui's face became more and more earth-colored.
Yang Dong raised the blade of his sword and said, "What kind of skill does diving into a ditch count? Look at Yang." He went straight to the ginkgo forest, squatted down on his horse, and concentrated on his luck. His body was as motionless as a Taishan stone, and his energy was as high as a prairie fire!
Tang Zhao looked at where he was going and opened his mouth——
A loud shout sounded like a golden bell!
The lingering sound has not stopped, and the fallen leaves are like rain.
The big tree that was more than ten feet high slowly toppled over and crashed to the ground, splashing gold all over the ground.
Yang Dong swung the knife and used all his strength. He took two deep breaths on the spot and suppressed the numbness in his arm. He glanced at Tang Zhao from the corner of his eye and saw that Tang Zhao was stunned. He couldn't help but feel proud and thought: I'm afraid this is me. The best knife in my life! It's a pity that the young scholar can't understand it. He doesn't know how exquisite this "Moyun Golden Winged Sword" is, and he doesn't understand how perfect the "Riding the Wind Thousand Miles" move I just made is. Otherwise, the scholar is the best at writing, and he would have to write a poem to praise me.
Tang Zhao was really confused. Just before Yang Dong swung his knife, he wanted to say: The tree in front of him has brilliant yellow leaves and is a spectacle. Can you let it go and replace it with another tree? But Yang Dong drew the knife too quickly, and it was over before he could say anything.
Seeing that Yang Dong had put the sword into its sheath and returned it gracefully. Tang Zhao hesitated for a moment, then cheered up and said: "A righteous man brings benefit to one party, which is true benevolence and righteousness."
Yang Dong waved his hand and said: "It's a small matter. As a righteous man, of course he must do something loyal. It is his duty to repair bridges and roads."
Tang Zhao applauded and said, "Okay!"
Brother Sui couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw one of the two men showing off his holiness with all his strength and the other praising him wholeheartedly. If he hadn't been familiar with Tang Zhao's sincere and frank temperament, he would have thought that the two of them were singing and selling melons to Mrs. Wang. Seeing that the two of them were so inexplicably in sync with each other, they couldn't get in the conversation and just caressed the donkey silently.
Tang Zhao said: "Brother Feng, with this big tree as a bridge, I have to work hard for you."
Brother Sui sighed: "Yeah. It's not easy to just drive the donkey cart onto the single-plank bridge."
The ginkgo tree is thick and strong, which is more than enough as a wooden bridge for people to walk on, but not enough for donkey carts. What's more, it's not easy to just drive the donkey across the bridge. If the animal stumbles on the bridge, both the car and the people will be in danger.
Tang Zhao thought about it: "This...can you unload the donkey, put it on the cart and push it over?"
Brother Sui said: "How dare you think..."
At this time, Yang Dong said: "What's the difficulty in crossing the bridge? Come here and help me, kid, to build the bridge. I guarantee you can cross the river."
Brother Sui hurriedly said: "If you have any orders, just send the villains, but I don't dare to work for you..."
Yang Dong said impatiently: "Since I like you as a fellow traveler, how about helping me? I think you have a cocoon in your mouth. Although you don't seem to have a real teacher, you have practiced some kung fu at least, and you can be considered half a martial artist. Why are you not as good as others?" Scholar, are you happy? Come and help me move the wood."
The two set up the tree on the ditch, and Yang Dong stepped on it to confirm that it was stable. Then he directed the two men to unload the car.
Rolling up his sleeves, Yang Dong took a deep breath, stretched out his hand, and firmly grasped the donkey's legs.
The thin black donkey's hair stood up and it screamed "arrogantly", but it was like being clamped by an iron hoop, and it couldn't even kick its legs.
Yang Dong exerted force on his arms, the muscles in his arms swelled, and with a loud shout, he lifted the six to seven hundred kilogram animal above his head!
Tang Zhao's eyes widened and he said "Wow"!
That's it - a donkey lifting a thousand pounds!
How awesome is it to lift this big beast over your head? Isn't it much better than cutting down trees with a big sword?
Yang Dong couldn't hear his voice, so his nose was not crooked in anger. He turned around gracefully amidst Tang Zhao's praise and stepped onto the single-plank bridge step by step.
It was okay to walk up at first, but after walking a few steps to the suspended area, the ginkgo tree trunk began to sway a little, and nearly a thousand kilograms of things were suddenly placed on it, making the wooden bridge overwhelmed.
When Tang Zhaoxin mentioned it, Yang Dong was also a little nervous. Fortunately, the wooden bridge was not long and he could cross it in just a few steps.
Kick your feet and step forward——
Whoosh——
Yang Dong felt a chill in his ears. An arrow flew past his ear and landed a few feet behind him.
The dangerous bridge is narrow and does not allow him to turn back, and he does not have to turn back.
When he raised his head, he clearly saw the cold light of the bow and arrow in the trees on the other side!
