Jian Youfeng
Early in the morning, the hazy fog on the peak has not subsided, and the ground is wet. I can vaguely see a vague figure holding something in my hand, walking up the forest path to the top of the peak.
The old man in commoner clothes stood on the top of the peak, with his hands behind his hands, his old eyes looking at the red glow in the east, waiting for the sun to rise and dispel the surrounding fog.
Suddenly, his ears moved slightly, and a kind smile appeared on his solemn face.
At this time, Xin Wanyou walked up to the peak carrying a bowl of hot seaweed soup. After seeing the old man's straight back, he stopped and stood quietly waiting aside.
Originally, Zifu did all the cooking and making tea, but last time he ran away in anger and has not come back until now, so these things fell on Xin Wanyou.
"Wanyou, did your senior brother come back last night?" The old man turned his back to him, his words full of melancholy.
Xin Wanyou knew that he couldn't keep it secret, so he said truthfully: "Elder brother said that there was a huge change in the sea, and the fishermen did not dare to go to the sea. He specially brought you some shrimp, fish, seaweed and other food."
"What's the reason?" the old man asked.
"According to Senior Brother, the 'Sea King' of the Sea King clan died, and he doesn't know the specific circumstances." Zifu knew that the old man was going to ask questions, so he told Xin Wanyou everything he knew in advance.
The old man smiled lightly and turned around, saying, "A joke! It's simply nonsense! The lifespan of the Neptune family is far beyond that of humans. If the old Neptune dies, it makes sense, but the young Neptune dies just like this. Do you believe this?"
Xin Wan nodded and said with a smile: "Disciple doesn't believe it, but senior brother did say that."
"Of course Xiaofu won't cheat." The old man walked back to the room confidently, still trusting the apprentice he had raised personally.
Xin Wanyou followed in and asked, "What does Master mean?"
The old man sat on a wooden chair, took a sip of hot tea, and said: "There is no smoke without fire. As time goes by, the answer will naturally surface."
Xin Wanyou thought for a while, then after the old man coughed, he quickly looked up and saw the old man's expression, then he smiled and put the seaweed soup in his hand on his seat.
"Where is Xiaofu now?" After the old man asked, he immersed himself in drinking soup. It seemed like he asked casually.
Xin Wanyou said, "Elder brother is in Wenzhou."
"Wenzhou..." The old man shook his head solemnly.
Xin Wanyou asked quietly: "Master, is there something wrong?"
The old man remained silent, "Wenzhou is a small state among the five states in the Northern Continent. It has a small area, few people, and not many strong people. It is unceremoniously the weakest state among the five states. Where is Xiaofu going and doing something?"
Perhaps seeing the doubts in the old man's mind, Xin Wanyou explained: "Master, have you forgotten? That guy Wu Yuanxiao is in Wenzhou. The senior brother has a close relationship with him, so he probably went to catch up with him."
"Wu Yuanxiao." When he heard this name, the old man said with emotion: "Wu Yuanxiao is a young man with extraordinary talents and unique insights into the way of the sword."
"If he hadn't been trapped by love and had been stuck in swordsmanship for more than ten years, Xiaofu would be much inferior to him."
After hearing the old man's praise, Xin Wanyou was slightly stunned, especially because Wu Yuanxiao's talent surpassed that of his respected senior brother.
If these words had come from someone else, he might have laughed it off and ignored it. After all, he had also met Wu Yuanxiao himself when he was in Wu Zheng Town and didn't find anything extraordinary about him.
But what the old man said convinced him, just like when he chose to follow the old man, this belief never changed.
"Want to hear it?" the old man asked.
"Master, do you want to talk?" Xin Wanyou asked.
The two looked at each other and smiled, and Xin Wanyou sat cross-legged on the ground casually, looking forward to it.
The old man was about to get up, but when he saw Xin Wanyou sitting on the ground, he sat directly on the wooden chair, slapped the table, and said with a straight face: "The tea is cold!"
Xin Wanyou was startled by the old man and hurriedly got up and walked down the peak. Not long after, he came up again with a pot of hot tea in hand.
The old man took a sip of hot tea, nodded with satisfaction, and asked, "What else did Xiaofu say when he came back this time?"
"Master, I'm not talking about..."
"Um?!"
Xin Wanyou was about to remind the old man, but then he stopped asking questions and said, "Elder brother also said that Liangcheng was in chaos and that villagers in nearby villages and towns were seriously missing. Most of the villagers no longer dared to go out and walk around."
"Are all hundreds of villages and towns in Liangcheng like this? Or are villagers in remote mountainous areas missing?" the old man immediately asked.
"There will naturally be no evil people in the villages and towns near Liangcheng. Most villagers who get lost happen in remote mountains." Xin Wanyou said with certainty.
The old man shook his head and said sternly: "Wanyou, you are too naive!"
"Master, am I right?" Xin Wanyou asked with confusion on his face.
"Don't just look at things on the surface. If you don't go into the deep sea, how can you know what actually exists on the bottom of the sea?" The old man narrowed his eyes slightly and said with deep meaning.
Xin Wanyou frowned in confusion, cupped his hands and said, "Master, I don't understand, please give me some guidance."
"You often walk by the river and your shoes don't get wet. Go down." The old man waved his hand at him.
Xin Wanyou exited the room. The dazzling sunlight made him unable to open his eyes. "It's so late. Why hasn't Junior Brother come to the peak to practice swordsmanship?"
In the past, Luo Yuan would have come to the peak to practice swordsmanship at this hour, but today, for some reason, he was so late, and not even a single person was seen on the mountain road.
Xin Wanyou thought for a while, and there was no need to tell the old man about this trivial matter. He walked down to the top of the mountain alone and took a familiar route to the place where Luo Yuan lived to find out.
He shouted to the thatched house for a long time but no one responded. Finally, he opened the door and found that there was no one in the house, and the bed was not warm at all.
Obviously, Luo Yuan had left long ago.
"Strange? Where has this kid gone?" Xin Wanyou rushed out in a hurry. He wanted to report the matter to the old man, but then he thought about it and turned around and walked towards his residence.
Since Master and others don't care about it, I'd better not ask for trouble, lest Master and others think I'm nosy.
Mine No. 10
The mine owner, Pei Yuan, covered his eyes with a blindfold, resting his head on his arms, lying on the rocking chair with a comfortable expression on his face, and the corners of his mouth naturally raised slightly.
Holding a letter in hand, the servant hurried to the top of the mine. Seeing Pei Yuan's body rocking with the rocking chair, he whispered: "Mine owner, Gui San sent someone to deliver a letter."
Pei Yuan took out an arm, pointed a finger at him, and said: "Nian."
The servant opened the envelope and read: "The mine owners' meeting requires all mine owners to arrive at the first mine ten days ago, otherwise they will bear the consequences."
Pei Yuan took off one of his blindfolds, stared at the servant and asked, "Is it over?"
The servant nodded and said: "It's over."
"Go! Damn it! Guisan is nothing! You dare to threaten me." Pei Yuan suddenly pulled off his blindfold and threw it on the ground, then hurriedly turned his back to the sun.
"You go down first." After Pei Yuan waited for the servants to leave, he looked around. When he found no one, he picked up the mask that was thrown on the ground and covered his eyes again.
Pei Yuan said to himself: "Oh! Let's go. Otherwise, we will inevitably suffer ridicule from other mine owners. If we don't go, I will not be able to be a mine owner."
Because the mine owners' meeting is held every few months, most of the time each mine owner talks about the daily output of the mines and their plans to manage the mines in the future.
Mine owners with high mine output are naturally happy to see this. How can they easily miss this opportunity to show their strength?
But for Pei Yuan, going there means being laughed at by other mine owners. He can't even raise his head and has to sit there and listen to others show off the results of the mine.
When he thought of this, Pei Yuan took off his blindfold and threw it on the rocking chair. He put his hands behind his back and began to inspect along the mine seam. This was considered to relieve his boredom.
He started from the first mineral layer, glanced at the veins mined by slaves, and then left, never lingering for a second look.
Because most of the slaves were hunched over and looked miserable, and he himself came from a poor background, he naturally didn't want to look at them too much.
Bang!
Jia Juesheng dropped the pickaxe in his hand, sat down on the ground, and sighed: "I really can't stand it anymore, my body is about to fall apart."
Bang!
After Zhufeng saw that he had lost the confidence to go out, he dropped his pickaxe and sat beside him.
Xiaohai stopped what he was doing, raised his face and stared at Ziyang expressionlessly.
"Don't be depressed. Maybe someone will come to save us tonight. Only if you are alive can you have a chance to leave here." Ziyang smiled and looked confident.
Jia Juesheng said weakly: "Forget it. How long have we been mining here? How could anyone come to save us?"
Zhufeng added: "That's right. Let alone anyone coming to save us, I'm afraid no one even knows we are locked up here."
"You are just waiting to die. If you don't dig enough veins, we won't even have porridge to drink at night." Zi Yang still did not give up on the two of them and continued to enlighten them.
The sloppy man who had been silent for a long time suddenly said: "Forget it if you two don't want to go out, but the three of us still want to go out. If you two fall down, we will die too. You two are not harming anyone." Well."
When the sloppy man said this to the two of them, Zhufeng stood up first, holding an iron pickaxe and said sternly: "Zhufeng doesn't like to owe other people favors in my life, let alone drag you down."
After saying that, he began to swing the pickaxe vigorously to mine as many veins as possible.
Jia Juesheng looked at Ziyang, then at Xiaohai and others, with a sad expression on his face and said, "I'll try not to drag everyone down."
Snapped! Snapped! Snapped!
Just after a few people finished speaking, crisp applause sounded from the direction of the tunnel entrance, and a black figure slowly walked along the dark and narrow tunnel.
The light in the tunnel was extremely dim, and it was impossible to see who was coming, until the person came in front of everyone, stretched out, and sat down with his back against a rock, looking carefree.
When everyone saw the animal skin, their first reaction was shock, but after seeing him sitting down casually with a calm look on his face, Zi Yang and others' faces were full of doubts.
