It rained in early spring, pattering on the ridges of the decaying gray tile roofs of the town.
Dr. Xin's little yellow dog came back from afar and lay down in front of the drug store to take a nap. As usual, no one paid attention to it, after all, it was just a dog.
Neighbors sat together in twos and threes and talked about Agou and Miss Tweety. This was the only "interesting thing" worth discussing in the town.
Cui'er has been married for three months and has not come back once. The pavilion chief and his wife went to visit, but they were kicked out. Song Yu, the pavilion chief's son, always had a dark face every time he came back. It is said that he was promoted to the head catcher. The son has not been found yet.
And the young boy Agou, who loved to laugh and make trouble, always comparing himself to the protagonist in Uncle Xin's stories, and showing off everywhere, was gone. He was in a daze all day long and hadn't said a word to anyone in three months.
"Pap..."
Agou Daddy came from a distance and stood at the door of the drug store, hesitant and embarrassed. He was just in his early forties this year, but his temples had turned gray in three months.
"come in."
Doctor Xin's voice suddenly came from inside the room.
Agou dad breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and entered the pharmacy. He looked at Xin Zhuo and smiled awkwardly.
"sit."
Xin Zhuo put down the herbs on hand and pointed to the chair aside. His long gray hair was meticulously combed, his face was full of wrinkles, and the rotten scars on his body gave off a fishy odor.
Agou Daddy sat on the chair with only half of his buttocks, looking at Xin Zhuo's appearance, he hesitated to speak, and finally sighed heavily.
Xin Zhuo smiled and said, "If you have something to say, you might as well just say it."
"Brother Xin..."
The man in his forties suddenly had red eyes, and his voice was choked with sobs, "Agou, this kid is considered useless, but as a father, I can't help it. You tell me, we are just ordinary people, how can we get into the pavilion chief's house? The elder Ting is in charge of an entire town and ten villages with hundreds of people. He eats more meat than we eat rice. We can't catch up. I have been trying to persuade Agou since I was a child, but he refuses to listen. The result is great...
It’s been three months and he hasn’t said a word to me or his mother. This is the only child we have..."
Xin Zhuo remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
After a while, Agou's father said: "Agou said yesterday that he wanted to be a soldier. It happened that the guerrilla general of the imperial court was recruiting soldiers in the next county. His mother and I discussed it all night and decided to grant his wish and let him go. , but, I heard that when you join the army, you have to take care of yourself so that you won’t be assigned as cannon fodder. Our relatives borrowed it all over the place, but we could only get three taels of silver together, so I thought, I thought..."
At this point, I really can’t go on. The only person in the town who has more money may be Brother Xin, but Brother Xin is old, has no children, and has no one to rely on...
"Snapped!"
Xin Zhuo neatly took out twenty taels of silver and put it on the table, "Take all the savings I have earned over the years."
"Brother Xin, it's too, too much..."
Agou Daddy stood up in a hurry, at a loss.
Xin Zhuo waved his hand and gave the eviction order: "Take the money and get out!"
"If Agou doesn't provide for Brother Xin until he retires, I'll beat him to death."
Agou Daddy was grateful, gritted his teeth, picked up the money and left in a hurry.
On the third day, in the early morning, the rain not only did not light up, but became heavier.
Agou rode the only old donkey in the family and carried his luggage straight to the medicine shop. He looked inside and suddenly found Uncle Xin sitting on an old chair in the door drinking tea. It seemed that he had been waiting for a long time. .
He quickly jumped off the old donkey, knelt down in the puddle in front of the drug store, kowtowed three times, and then said with red eyes: "Uncle Xin, I won't thank you for your kindness. Now that Agou is gone, I will leave you alone." If you are promising, I will definitely treat you as my own father."
A smile appeared on the corner of Xin Zhuo's mouth, but his eyes were deep, and he asked in a vicissitudes of voice: "What is your purpose of becoming a soldier? Tell me."
Agou immediately said: "Defend the home and the country!"
Xin Zhuo shook his head: "Not sincere!"
Agou was startled for a moment, then lowered his head and let the rain drip down his still green face to his chin, and then hit the ground along his chin. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said: "In order to get ahead and be superior to others, the only way is to become a soldier. Only then can I climb up step by step. Does the prince and general Xiang Ning have the guts? I am willing to be cut off and dare to pull the emperor off his horse. These are the words of Uncle Xin! I want to create a world of my own. No matter what the pavilion chief or Ling Yin is, I will If you step on it, my beloved woman must not be taken away so easily. I never want to experience that kind of helplessness and pain again."
Xin Zhuo looked at him silently and didn't make a sound for a long time.
This child is sixteen years old. He was also sixteen when he became the King of the Mountain. Similar words seem to have been said...
Agou raised his head: "Uncle Xin, did I say something wrong?"
Xin Zhuo still didn't make a sound.
Agou gritted his teeth: "Uncle, do you look down on me? Didn't you have any dreams and wishes when you were young?"
"It should be noted that Shaori Nayunzhi was once promised to be the best in the world!"
Xin Zhuo looked at the sky silently, and after a long time he murmured this poem, as if he was saying it to Agou, but also to himself. His voice was very slow, and his old eyes were full of fatigue and vicissitudes of life.
Those years of mountain kings, those years of vassal kings, those years of sect elites, those years of being hunted all over the world, and countless old friends of those years, all passed through my mind one by one, and in a blink of an eye they became what they are now. Heaven and man are exhausted, suffering every day...
Is the ambition...still there?
Agou didn't know much, and it was all given by Xin Zhuo, so he didn't understand it very well at the moment.
Xin Zhuo finally looked at him: "You should know... life and death, fate and wealth are determined by heaven!"
Agou nodded heavily: "Uncle's stories over the years have taught Agou a lot of truth. Agou understands it. Please... uncle give me a name. Agou doesn't have a name yet, so I will use uncle's surname. Uncle gave it to me." A dog’s chance to be reborn!”
Xin Zhuo's old eyes exuded a faint light, and he said casually: "Chengzhi!"
"Chengzhi...Xin Chengzhi!"
Agou recited it silently several times, then raised his head sharply: "Agou likes this name very much!"
"Hold on!"
Xin Zhuo suddenly stood up and went into the back room. When he came out again, he had three more books in his hands, half of "The Art of War", half of "The Analects of Confucius" and half of "Wumai Kaiwu". The ink was still dry, and he ordered: " Remember to read more!”
"I know, Uncle Xin!"
Agou solemnly took the book and stuffed it into his backpack, got up and got on the donkey, slapped the reins, and ran straight into the distance. He only ran for more than ten steps, stopped again, looked back and said with a smile: "Today is the tenth day of peace in the Dakang Empire." On the third day of March in the seventh year, Uncle Xin will wait for the news. Sooner or later, Xin Chengzhi's name will become famous all over the world, and I will take back everything that belongs to me!"
"Da da da……"
The donkey's hooves trampled the water and ran straight into the rain curtain in the distance.
Xin Zhuo watched silently for a long time, until he couldn't see anything anymore, and then said: "Cause and effect!"
Xiao Huang raised his head and glanced at him.
Xin Zhuo said: "Don't you understand? If I hadn't told these stories for so many years, just an illiterate indigenous boy, his beloved woman would have been married, and there would never have been resentment for too long. I have become enlightened. His inner aperture is the cause, his actions today are the effect, the books I gave him about his future are the cause, and his future life and death are also the effect!
The theory of cause and effect is definitely not something in the world of cultivation. It took me two lifetimes to understand it. "
Xiao Huang tilted his head and peed.
Xin Zhuo shook his head, stood up and walked into the room, continuing to sort out the herbs, as if he had aged a few years.
(End of chapter)
