one
There is a village in the northern part of the mainland, called Fengxue Village. Every winter, heavy snow falls, and the fields and bricks are covered with a quilt, which is very graceful.
The snow fell very early that year. At the end of October, snowflakes were dancing all over the sky. Villagers who couldn't bear the cold had already lit charcoal fires in their fireplaces.
In the backyard of Xie's family, in a house that was usually terribly cold, this late autumn, for the first time, a charcoal fire was lit.
It turns out that she is the concubine of the fourth young master of the Xie family, and she is about to give birth.
The concubine has been married to the Xie family for three years. During these three years, she has been treated coldly, just because of her reputation as a "concubine".
But the strange thing is that among the women of the same generation as the concubines who married into the Xie family, their first or even first two children were all girls, not boys.
This made Mr. Xie, who had been bedridden for many years, very worried. If there were no male children, the Xie family would be cut off until the next generation. How could this make him have the face to face the Xie family who are so inferior!
However, just when the ancestor of the Xie family was about to find the last resort, the news of pregnancy came from the fourth son's side house. After deduction by multiple goddesses, the answers were surprisingly unanimous!
Boy!
Since then, the backyard of the side house, which had been neglected for a long time, has been flooded with people, and the smell of fireworks suddenly became much stronger.
The pregnancy lasted from ten months to the end of autumn. With the concubine's heart-rending cry, several midwives hurriedly rushed to deliver the baby before dark.
On a wicker chair outside the house, the thin-cheeked Mr. Xie came out for the first time to blow the most taboo cold wind. Although he was surrounded by stoves, he still couldn't help but cough.
"Son, when the child is born, he must be well educated. This boy, who has saved many generations of blessings, will be able to support our Xie family... I have a hunch that this child will achieve extraordinary things in the future. ah!"
Mr. Xie kept coughing, but there was unconcealable joy on his cheeks.
Next to him, Fourth Young Master Xie nodded. Even with such a stoop, his back was much straighter than usual.
As a concubine, he has a lot of literature and can neither practice martial arts nor do business. He is very unpopular in the Xie family compound.
Now, if his concubine successfully gives birth to a son, then the son's status will be transformed from a concubine to the eldest grandson of the Xie family, and his status as the fourth young master will also rise accordingly. There is no guarantee that many years later, he will become another "Xie family" Ancestor of the family".
In the backyard, the four sons of the Xie family had different expressions. They gathered around Mr. Xie, shivering in the cold wind.
In the back room, the wife of the side room and all the midwives were sweating profusely, and the bed was covered with bright red blood as they hurriedly scrambled.
On the bed, a twenty-two-year-old woman had bulging veins on her forehead, her cheeks were very pale, and her lips were chapped, with traces of blood overflowing from her teeth.
"ah----"
The wife of the side room screamed in surprise, exerted her last strength, tilted her head, and slumped on the bed with difficulty, her mouth full of breath.
"Wow wow wow——"
The midwife's face was full of joy. She did not immediately assess the condition of the poor mother on the bed. Instead, she lowered her head and held the baby covered in blood on the quilt in her arms. When she looked down, her smile became even brighter.
"Master, master, it's a boy!"
The midwife's shouts echoed throughout the Xie Mansion. The entire mansion fell silent at first, and then a trembling laugh resounded.
However, just when Mr. Xie's laughter had not completely subsided, the dark sky suddenly lit up.
All red!
It was like the blood god came to this world. There was only one side of the sky, the narrow sky that shrouded the head of Xie Mansion.
It was still dark for thousands of miles around.
The young and old of the Xie family were puzzled, but Mr. Xie’s cough became much worse at this moment.
"Boom——"
In the sky, a line of red lightning lined up along the east and west sides. It was only as thick as a finger as far as the eye could see. However, the thunder that followed was extremely frightening and even breathtaking.
Although the Xie family is mainly engaged in business, there are many outstanding elders in the family.
Soon enough, just when everyone was distracted, a bolt of lightning was about to hit the back room in the backyard. A figure emerged from the old house who didn't know how deep it was, and rushed towards the sky.
"Don't be afraid, everyone! I'm here to protect you! Hahahaha... let me see what kind of monsters are hidden in this little thunder and lightning!"
A loud shout like thunder echoed from the sky and fell into everyone's ears.
Mr. Xie and other members of the Xie family saw that it was the third master who took action, and a big stone hanging in his heart dropped slightly.
The third master is a master of the four realms of martial arts. His waist can cut off waterfalls and his palms can cut off flows. He is a person who can open up a sect in a small area. He should not be able to deal with a mere flash of lightning.
The third master was wearing a dark golden robe, and in just a few breaths he collided with the weird blood-red lightning.
The Xie family looked at it with bated breath, but after a moment, their expressions froze on their cheeks.
In mid-air, the Third Master's body suddenly stiffened, and then a bolt of lightning, no thicker than a finger, passed through his Tianling Cap and struck directly on the eaves of the inner room.
The third master's body was like a kite with its string broken, and with another thunder, it crashed heavily into a ruins in the courtyard.
Everyone present could not have imagined that Mr. Sanye, a master of the fourth level of martial arts with a good reputation and extremely strong strength in the three towns and hundreds of miles around, could survive even one round in front of this seemingly "innocuous" lightning. Not going down.
The blood-colored dark clouds hovering above the Xie family's mansion didn't seem to give anyone a chance to react. They could only see smoke and dust swirling in them, and between the friction between them, another blood-red lightning was ready to strike.
At this moment, the faces of everyone in the Xie Mansion were ashen.
Mr. Xie closed his eyes tightly. If ten miles away, the ancestor of Xie's Dongtian came out of the pass, something would happen...
"Buzz——"
The gray-haired Mr. Xie's lightly closed eyes suddenly opened again. He used all his strength to hold on to the handles on both sides of the wicker chair, sat upright, stretched out his two thin, much degraded calves, and lightly touched the soles of his feet. He kicked off the ground and looked towards the sky beyond the high wall of Xie Mansion.
His legs couldn't stop shaking at this moment, and it spread to his whole body in an instant.
While frightened, the four sons of the Xie family all around noticed something strange about their old father and followed his gaze towards the sky.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, a thin figure came riding on the wind.
The man's feet touched the void, and the void under his feet rippled like water waves. As the ripples spread, the blood-colored dark clouds hovering above Xie's head began to vibrate violently.
In the distant sky, that thin and short figure stood above the head of a kind of Xie family member in just a few breaths.
He just glanced down, and everyone felt as if a huge boulder had completely fallen from their hearts, and their entire tense bodies instantly relaxed.
Mr. Xie was almost in tears. He asked the Fourth Young Master to help him up from the wicker chair and bowed slightly to the figure above his head: "Ancestor..."
It turned out that at this time when the Xie Mansion was in danger, the ancestor who had been in seclusion for ten years finally came out to save this huge mansion from danger.
The ancestor nodded and looked away from the people below him. He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the bloody dark clouds in front of him.
The power contained in the dark clouds made his mind condense.
The ancestor flicked his fingertips, took a deep breath, and his sleeves suddenly felt windy, swelling to form an exaggerated arc.
In the next breath, the two collided, and the sky became dark and the earth became dark!
…
The next morning.
Amidst the sound of gongs and drums, the young man of the Xie family buried the third master's body in the Xie family's ancestral grave.
Mr. Xie was supported by the fourth young master all the way. He suddenly stopped and sighed softly, "Thank you for your help yesterday, ancestor. Otherwise, the Xie family would not know how much they would have lost..."
The ancestor who was striding forward waved his hand casually, and then he also stopped and turned around: "The baby you gave birth to last night, bring it to me."
He thought for a moment, coughed dryly and said, "The woman who gave birth to that child should be rewarded."
Hearing this, the fourth young master who was supporting Mr. Xie at the side had a slight change in his eyes and interrupted, "The mother of the child died last night."
The ancestor didn't sigh much, nodded slightly, and took the baby in the wet nurse's arms.
In the swaddle, the baby stared at the ancestor with a pair of big eyes and curiously looked at the ancestor up and down. Unexpectedly, it was not frightened by his somewhat ferocious face. Instead, it stretched out its little finger and pointed at the ancestor's nose and said happily The first sentence, "Old man, hey hey, old man."
After the words fell, everyone in the Xie family, including the ancestor, was stunned on the spot.
two
"Master, master, don't run away, I can't keep up..."
An old woman with silver hair on her head, holding a pair of embroidered shoes, circled around the osmanthus tree in the backyard.
In front of her, there was a boy who was barely above the root of the tree. The boy kept running with bare feet, completely ignoring the "steward lady" who was more important than anyone in Xie's mansion.
In the two corridors, there were many maids and servants standing around. They all looked at each other, then covered their mouths and chuckled.
In such a large Xie family, only the eldest young master, who was afraid of being broken into pieces in the hands of all the gentlemen, and afraid of melting in the mouths, could make the old woman so miserable!
The boy was naturally the only child of the Xie family who was born five years ago amid several thunder disasters.
The master racked his brains and finally added the word "Xiangcai" at the top of the family tree.
Even though the Northern Territory is far away from the current imperial court, there is no family or person in the Daqing Dynasty's territory that does not have a lifelong ambition to serve as prime minister.
He is not talented in writing, and holding a document in his hand is "just a matter of course", and he has no real power.
The military prime minister is rough and arrogant, holding a sharp sword and "swinging Fang Qiu", arrogant among the heroes.
Mr. Xie regarded the thunder disaster that unfortunately killed the third master as "auspicious" and a good omen that could make this little independent member of the Xie family soar into the sky.
While running around the sweet-scented osmanthus tree, the young prime minister turned his head and looked at the stewardess with a smile.
The old woman supported the osmanthus tree with one hand and held embroidered shoes with the other. She opened her mouth and spit out a lot of hot air from her missing teeth.
The fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus lingered in the little Xiangcai's nose. He took a deep breath, with an intoxicated smile on his face.
Perhaps many years later, when he was sitting alone on the hillside outside the city, he would still recall the scent of osmanthus.
After all, the sweet-scented osmanthus trees that bloom just in late autumn are the only ones in Daqing.
"Dong dong dong——"
There was a knock on the door of the backyard. Xiao Xiangcai's body froze on the spot, and the smile on his face was gradually replaced by disappointment.
The old woman holding the sweet-scented osmanthus tree just removed her hand from the trunk and smiled with relief.
She limped towards the little Xiangcai, patted his little butt lovingly, then bent down, gently lifted the two fleshy little soles of the little Xiangcai one by one, and put the two delicate Small embroidered shoes were put on.
The prime minister put on his shoes, then raised his head and looked towards the courtyard door.
The fourth young master, dressed in a long gown, was already standing there.
The young prime minister pouted, jumped forward and jumped into the fourth young master's arms.
With a smile on his face, the fourth young master took out a palm in his busy schedule and pushed back the wind and frost on his temples.
"Xiangcai, let's go to Ancestor's place to practice martial arts?"
"Oh, I'm going to practice martial arts again."
"Yes, you are a man who will take charge of the Xie family in the future, how can you not practice martial arts seriously?"
"Why can the children over there in the alley play outside every day?"
"Does the sparrow know the ambition of the swan? Our little prime minister is not an ordinary child, so that's why we don't have so much time to play."
"Dad, I don't want to practice martial arts. I really don't want to practice martial arts. I don't want to be with that old man from my ancestors who only hurts me every day..."
The little Xiangcai in the fourth young master's arms buried his head on his father's shoulders and started crying.
He cried for a long time, but for some reason he thought of his mother.
The young prime minister raised his head and looked at the bright white clouds in the corner of the sky. The white clouds were quickly blown away by the wind.
My father once said that my mother went to the west, the kind of "going" that she would never return.
My father also said that everyone will go there once in their life, a journey that you can never look back on.
But before the journey, all regrets must be made up for.
The young prime minister vaguely knew that his mother had no regrets.
Because he remembered that his mother's position was at the top and center of the ladies' seats in the ancestral hall.
Just like that, in a state of confusion, Xiao Xiangcai was carried by the fourth young master and walked towards the back mountain.
The unkind and unsmiling ancestor was already suspended in mid-air, sitting cross-legged. Hearing the footsteps not far away, he slowly opened his slightly cloudy eyes.
The ancestor made a loud sound and said in a slightly unhappy tone, "Xie Wenqing, why are you late again today?"
When the fourth young master heard his ancestor calling him by his real name, he naturally did not dare to slack off. He quickly put down the little Xiangcai in his arms, took his little hand, and walked quickly towards his ancestor.
He lifted up the hem of his clothes, lowered his knees to the soil, and kowtowed to his ancestor, "Ancestor atones for his sins."
The ancestor flicked his sleeves, and a gentle breeze swept out, sweeping the Fourth Young Master down the mountain, who had not yet recovered.
Only Xiao Xiangcai was left standing there helpless.
The young prime minister clenched his fists and bit his lips with his teeth. He didn't know what tricks the fierce old man in front of him would use to "torture" himself today.
The ancestor stood up slowly, landed on the ground, walked forward and stroked the little Xiangcai's head as usual.
When his palm touched Xiangcai's head, the turbidity in his eyes dissipated slightly, and his pupils became clearer.
The relief in the clarity was mixed with the vicissitudes of life, but it only stayed for a few breaths before being filled with gray again.
The ancestor withdrew his palm, coughed dryly, turned around, looked at the interlaced houses at the foot of the mountain, and spoke slowly.
"For an hour, the horse steps, punches five hundred times, and kicks eight hundred times."
"After reviewing, you must read through the three volumes of martial arts written on the stone and try to memorize the maxims contained in them."
"Do you understand?"
The young prime minister heard the words, and even though he pouted and muttered a few words in a low voice, he still did as the ancestor said.
On the hillside, a thin old man stood aside, looking at the young child who was meticulously walking, kicking and punching, and nodded slightly.
However, the ancestor's cloudy eyes were full of unwillingness and bitterness. All the bitterness finally turned into a long sigh, and when those eyes looked at the complaining child who was dancing and kicking, they were once again filled with smiles.
"Hate it if you hate it..."
Xiao Xiangcai's clothes had been wet countless times. Sweat dripped from the corners of his clothes and seeped into the soil below. Under the crushing of each footprint, the soil became much tighter.
Practicing from noon to dusk is far from what a five-year-old child should bear.
At the end of autumn, Xiao Xiangcai wanted to tell his ancestor that he no longer wanted to practice martial arts.
But when he saw the old man's raised eyebrows, he swallowed the words that came to his mouth.
This swallowing is ten spring and autumn.
Every day from noon to dusk, the children practice martial arts on the hillside according to the ancestor's words and deeds.
Unknowingly, the hillside had actually become a few inches shorter.
Xiao Xiangcai has also grown taller, and his head has already reached more than half of the osmanthus tree in the backyard.
The ancestor's eyes became cloudy day after day...
