Yin Guihong is on his way. He didn't want to waste a moment, but he had no choice. There was no spiritual vein here to give him a shortcut. The mountain was very high, and it was already past noon when he started climbing, and he only reached the top of the mountain after dark. There is actually a village on the top of the mountain, but it is very small. After all, the area on the top of the mountain is not that big. He went to seek shelter and was taken in by a family of four.
The four members of the family were a young couple, a little boy, and an old man. The old man is over sixty years old and is the woman's mother. He didn't ask in detail, but the old lady was very talkative. She talked eloquently when meeting outsiders, and she never stopped for a moment. The couple said that her legs and feet were not good and she could not go out for a walk all day long, and it was even more difficult for her to go down the mountain. She has been nagging her since she was young, but now she has suppressed it. But she only likes to talk, but not to listen, because not only is her leg broken, but her ears are not working well, so she has no place for others to talk. Yin Guihong didn't listen very carefully, but she probably knew that the parents of her wife and son-in-law had passed away. Although there are villages at the foot of both mountains, the distance up and down is always inconvenient, and she often complains. Yin Guihong pretended to listen, but felt sleepy in his heart. He was going to find a reason to rest in an empty room after dinner.
He always had a straight face and was cold, so the boy at home didn't dare to talk to him at first. Originally, Yin Guihong had no interest in children, but he kept running into his and the old lady's house. At first he thought the child wanted to play with his grandma, but he soon discovered that the child was interested in his knife. He tentatively wanted to touch it, but he didn't dare. He just went in and out of the room repeatedly.
"This can't be given to you."
Once again, when the child almost touched the handle of the knife, Yin Guihong suddenly adjusted the position of the knife. The child was caught in the act and was startled. He screamed and ran out of the room, but he put half of his head back to find out. Yin Guihong raised his knife and waved him in. The child hesitated for a moment, but let his curiosity overcome his fear.
"Why is this hook so big?" The child was a little scared and asked from a distance, "It still has a sheath."
"This is not a hook, but a knife." Yin Guihong pulled the knife slightly open, revealing a gray-white blade. "It is a special scimitar. The knife naturally has a sheath."
The child became bolder. He leaned over and looked at Jin Mieya up and down.
"Isn't it so big and heavy?"
"It's not heavy. Do you want to weigh it?"
The child's eyes shone with excitement and he stepped forward eager to try. But the old lady on the kang saw that her grandson was going to play with the knife, so she quickly raised her hand, pretending to hit him, and scolded him:
"Why are you tampering with other people's things? Be careful of your ears being cut off with a sharp knife!"
The child was scared again and did not dare to come forward. Yin Guihong waved his hand to the old lady, meaning it didn't matter. Then he called the child over and said to him:
"You can only take it when it is in the sheath to test how heavy it is. Never take the knife out of the sheath. This knife is highly poisonous. If you are injured, you will probably die immediately."
The child was frightened. He really didn't know whether Yin Guihong wanted him to touch it or not. But even though the knife was handed to him, he still couldn't hold back and grabbed it with both hands. The knife was indeed lighter than he thought. He used the strength to lift the steel, but accidentally raised the knife too high. He took two steps back and finally stood still. In any case, this long scimitar, even though it was made of teeth, was still too heavy for a child to hold for too long.
The knife was quickly thrown to the ground by the weak child. Yin Guihong was not angry, he just picked up the knife, blew the dust away under the candlelight, and wiped it carefully with the edge of his sleeve. Seeing that the little boy was still interested, he took out the hidden short knife on the side of his boot, held the back of the knife and handed it to him to play with.
"Be careful not to hurt anyone."
"Hey, thank you uncle!"
"...Call me brother."
The old lady shook her head non-stop: "Oh, what a sin. I didn't learn well at a young age, and I love to dance with swords all day long!"
"That's what I said."
Yin Guihong just said it casually. Maybe the old woman caught her meaningless expression at that moment, and she immediately became serious.
"Young man, let me advise you to stay away from those swords, guns, swords and halberds. You might as well get into trouble one day!"
Yin Guihong suddenly felt a little funny, and turning away was the minimum respect for the old man. Her ears didn't work well anyway, and he wasn't going to argue with the old man. They are all people who travel around the world with knives and swords. Everyone is accustomed to seeing a little blood. What a big deal. The light and shadow of swords, the pleasures and grudges, these are all things that can be created without weapons.
"Mom, you're talking nonsense again!"
The daughter-in-law opened the curtain and walked into the house, carrying the rice bowl filled with vegetables. She put the rice and chopsticks on the bedside table and complained:
"Every time a guest comes to your house, you have to mutter something. No one wants to hear what you say. It's better for you to stay out of the affairs of young people. How can this principle still be alive when most of the people are dead? not understand?"
"You think I talk too much, don't you? You stinky girl, why are you talking to your mother? You think I'm old, my legs are weak, and I can't do much work. What's wrong with you if I say more words? You've eaten it I have been eating rice all my life, but now I feel that I have talked too much, so I have spent a lot of energy and eaten a few more mouthfuls of your rice. If your mother and I had not had the foresight to force you to come here to take refuge, you would have been like your brother. He's lying dead on the street, and now it's his turn to be here and quarreling with me!"
"Okay, okay, hurry up and stop your mouth. There are not many teeth left, so you can't speak!" The wife and I just talked in front of each other. She turned around, quickly put on a smiling face, shook the rag in her other hand, and made way for Yin Guihong to leave the room. "Young hero, please don't pay attention to that wretched old woman. She picks out things people don't like to hear all day long. She's really annoying. Don't be surprised, she just doesn't like those bladed things, and she has no intention of targeting you. Meaning. In the early years, when her legs and feet were still good, I would chop vegetables with a knife and my husband would chop firewood with a knife. They would chatter all day long."
"It's okay. Don't you go to the table to eat, old man?"
"Don't worry about her. She's not fat, but she's calm. In the first two years, we helped her sit on the table, but then my husband sprained his ankle and couldn't go down the mountain for a few days. After that, we put her in the house. .”
Yin Guihong nodded and walked out the door. As soon as the little boy walked into the house, he immediately threw the knife at Yin Guihong's feet to avoid having his ears plucked. He yelled "eat" and ran outside. Sure enough, as soon as Yin Guihong picked up the dagger, the little boy fell down at the door. But he didn't feel any pain, so he just got up and dusted himself off and continued running. His mother was so angry that she followed behind and scolded her constantly. Everyone was still noisy all the way to the dinner table.
Even though their home is a mess, they actually love each other very much. For a family of this class, "beating, scolding, and love" is the most appropriate description. For more than ten years, he has been living with his silent adoptive father, and there has never been a lively day in the cabin. That's not to say that this is not a good thing. He was lucky to have saved his life from Zuo Jinmen. He shouldn't ask for anything else, not to mention that he also learned a skill. But in a noisy home like this, his memory clearly told him: You have experienced it too. Although it is a very distant thing, the quarrel with my family before every meal echoes so vividly in my ears. Sitting at the table, I watched the family finish a hard day's work. Each and every one of them took chopsticks to throw rice into their mouths and picked up each other's dishes, without treating him as an outsider. The woman blames the man for not sitting and eating, and blames the child for leaving the food everywhere. When a man dislikes a woman's nagging, the child will agree with her, only to be taught a lesson by her father. Yin Guihong held the bowl and sat sideways, looking at everything in front of him, wanting to laugh and cry at the same time. Of course, he neither laughed nor cried.
After just sitting in this house for a while, Yin Guihong learned a lot of things. The child's father is a simple and honest woodcutter, who is responsible for taking the firewood cut from the mountain to the two villages down the mountain for sale. Most of the time, it is a direct exchange of materials needed for daily life. The women sewed and mended at home and shared a vegetable garden with the rest of the village. After all, there are not many places to grow things on the mountain, and the slightly flatter land has to be used together except for individual houses. Naturally, other women in the village can also do needlework, but her patchwork is the most beautiful, and she can turn any hole into a small flower or bird. Even in the villages at the foot of the mountains on both sides, some people thought she was handy and asked her husband to take the money and clothes back to sew them.
Halfway through the meal, everyone finally stopped making so much noise. Yin Guihong seemed to remember something and suddenly asked the woman:
"The old man said just now that you have a brother?"
"...Ah, yes. But he died prematurely."
When she replied, her movements were obviously slower, and her chopsticks stopped at her mouth. But as soon as she finished speaking, she returned to her original state and gave the child a few more bites of green vegetables. The child kept complaining and clamoring for meat, but his father glared at him.
She probably didn't intend to say more, but the child's father answered: "We have known each other since we were young. Her brother often took us to play when he was still alive. He loved to play those fighting and killing games. Later, when he grew up, , I learned martial arts from a martial arts practitioner who didn’t know where he came from. He said he wanted to make money for his family, and then he left. After many years, he didn’t make much money, but his people were gone.”
"Alas...is the master reliable?"
At this time, the mother said to the child: "If you don't want to eat well, go out and play by yourself. Don't complain about being hungry when you come back!"
"I know, I know! No way!"
It’s the age when children are active. After eating, the children happily ran out to play. It was already dark, and the mother shouted at his back, don't run away, and don't come back too late. At this time, the father suddenly raised his voice and cursed:
"Damn it! Later I found out what Zuo Renmen was. I think that bastard just deceived my brother!"
Yin Guihong tightened his hands and broke the chopsticks. There was a strange sound in his hand. The couple raised their heads and looked around, not noticing where the sound came from. Yin Guihong controlled his emotions and tried his best to drive the impact of those three words out of his mind. He held the broken part of the chopstick tightly and continued to inquire casually:
"Didn't you report it to the official? Just say that your family was abducted."
"Then who dares to take care of it? We only found out later that in that ghost place, we used to rob other people's children, force them to practice martial arts, and kill people. It's pitiful that the child's uncle didn't even meet his nephew. After the child's uncle died, I My mother-in-law was afraid that the Zuojinmen would kill people and silence her, so she brought my daughter-in-law here. My parents left early, and I came with them. It has been more than ten years now."
"Twelve years," his wife said.
I don’t know how many people Zuo Renmen has killed! He thought to himself and tried his best to calm down his emotions. After that, he learned more things from the couple. The child's uncle was indeed a good candidate for martial arts. In the beginning, his master provided food and accommodation, and regularly sent money to his family, claiming that he earned it all by himself. But they didn’t know that the money at that time was filled with other people’s blood. In the end, he lost his life instead. His master was still alive, and he conveyed the news of his death and asked his family not to cause trouble.
While Yin Guihong was listening, a thunder suddenly flashed outside the window, followed by heavy rain.
