After doing this, he returned to the back window, retreated silently, climbed over the fence carefully, and ran towards the fork in the road he took back in the afternoon.
Zhao Ning didn't know that as soon as she left the courtyard, her room suddenly glowed with silvery light.
The figure of the old man emerged from the silver light. Instead of looking at the empty bed, he walked to the table and sat down. He half-supported the table with his arm, lit the oil lamp with a finger of inspiration, picked up the longevity knot she left, Examine it carefully with the help of an oil lamp.
After running for a long time, Zhao Ning saw a small town near the fifth watch. The gate of the town was tightly closed. She raised her eyes and looked at the stone characters reflected by the torches at the head of the town.
"Yongning."
It was indeed Yongning County, but Zhao Ning was not happy. She was even a little frightened. This was not the town in her memory.
She remembered that Zhentou was involved several times in the melee between several major gangs. The two big characters in Zhentou were missing the edge "丶", but the old Zhentou in front of her was complete, without any trace of repair, and even looked like a hanging Been on it for decades.
For a moment, my heart was beating violently. I don't know whether it was because I had been awake for nearly a day and a night, or because I was shrouded in great fear.
Zhao Ning stayed at the entrance of the town until around midnight, when a donkey cart came carrying firewood from outside the town. Maybe the donkeys had been delivering firewood all year round and the old donkeys knew the way. The old man driving the donkey drooped his head and dozed off.
The donkey cart stopped, and the old man asked Haqie, "Why is it so early today?"
He rubbed his eyes and then saw a little girl in the town staring at him with red eyes.
The old man was excited and said, "Where did the little girl come from? Why are you huddled here so early in the morning?"
Zhao Ning stood up supporting the wall and asked, "Old man, do you know where this is?"
"Yongning County." The old man pointed to the gatehouse doubtfully, "You don't know how to read."
"Is it Yongning County, Nanjun County, Nanjing State?" Zhao Ning asked again.
The old man frowned and drew back his neck, and unconsciously grasped the donkey rope with his hand, "What are you talking about, girl? Nan Jing Kingdom was destroyed seventy or eighty years ago, and now it is Wu Jing Kingdom."
"Seven... seventy or eighty years ago... the country was destroyed?"
Zhao Ning was extremely frightened for a moment. She used all her strength to stop herself from shaking, and then asked, "What about the Qingyun Gang, the Bada Gang...where are those gangs..."
The old man also became nervous, and even pushed the donkey cart back, "You... are you a human... are you a ghost... There is no such thing as the Qingyun Gang or the Eight Great Gangs now. Those were destroyed in a hundred years..."
Zhao Ning's lips moved. She couldn't believe what she heard. The world in her memory was a hundred years old. She couldn't even understand the concept of a hundred years.
"Are you...are you...lost and crazy..." The old man drew a piece of firewood and held it in front of him.
Zhao Ning pursed her lips and whispered "Sorry" in a low voice.
Instead, he half-supported himself against the tower to stay away from the panicked old man, but he probably had been shrinking for too long, and his legs and feet were a little numb. After taking a few steps, he staggered and almost collapsed, but he was so startled that the old man picked up the firewood and danced.
Zhao Ning didn't look at him, and left Zhentou holding back the soreness and numbness.
But she didn't go far, just hiding behind a big tree dozens of feet away.
Zhao Ning slid down the big tree.
But at the age of twelve, she didn't understand what she had experienced. Why she was not in the Qingyun Gang when she woke up. Grandpa Qin, who rescued her, was kind but weird. After finally reaching a familiar place, he learned about her memory in the blink of an eye. The Yongning County seat here is already the Yongning County seat a hundred years ago...
What's this?
Huang Liang has a dream, will he wake up after a hundred years?
Zhao crouched his legs and feet and buried his face in his hands.
She was extremely tired, but the experience kept stimulating her consciousness.
Until the sun started to rise, the town not far away was crowded and noisy.
Zhao Ning was half-hiding behind a tree. She looked out and saw nearby villagers bringing their own items to the city to sell, and some people were rushing to the morning market.
A hundred years later, even the tone of Nanjun's dialect has changed somewhat, with a sense of pronunciation closer to that of Wu Mingguo.
Reason kept telling her that everything had indeed changed. In an instant, Zhao Ning no longer had the courage to enter Yongning County.
She sat back down again, leaning against the big tree, looking up at the small patch of sky that was covered by the shadows of the trees but still exposed.
It took a long time until the rush hour of entering the city in the morning had passed, and the noise in the town became much quieter.
Struggling between reason and emotion, Zhao condensed his body and finally couldn't bear the sleeplessness and running for more than a day and night, and fell into a deep sleep.
The moment her body slid down unconsciously, silver light fainted beside her, and she fell into someone's arms.
*
Early the next morning.
Zhao Ning woke up.
Sunlight filtered in through the cracks in the window. As soon as she woke up, she noticed something strange. Why was she in a strange room and not in the Qingyun Gang?
We will enter the mountains in two days.
In the past few days, she had been huddled in Qingyun helping the medicine boy read medicine books, and she had hardly gone out.
A hint of the sweet fragrance of sweet potatoes also came in. Zhao Ning hesitated for a long time, then walked to the window and took a look through the gap.
There is an old man in the courtyard carrying a pot of roasted sweet potatoes and placing it on the stone table.
As soon as he put it down, he glanced in her direction and said, "Little girl, you can smell the fragrance on the tip of your nose. It's time to go out to eat. I'll bring some more porridge."
Zhao Ning froze slightly. For a moment, she was shocked to be caught peeping, and also felt embarrassed to hear her stomach growling.
After half a cup of tea, Zhao Ning opened the door, looked around the courtyard, and then back at the room, confirming that everything was strange, including strange people, strange places, and strange kindness.
She stood there awkwardly, watching the old man come out with two bowls of porridge.
After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Grandpa, I don't remember why I'm here."
The old man moved for a moment, then put down the bowl naturally.
He smiled and said, "Of course you don't know why you are here. You were unconscious when the old man picked you up."
Zhao Ning asked, "Picked it up? Am I not in the Qingyun Gang?"
"Of course." He pointed to the opposite side, "Come quickly, your stomach is growling."
Zhao Ning was a little embarrassed, and after confirming that it was impossible to hear from such a long distance, she walked over with her head lowered.
The old man asked again, "Where were you before you fell into coma?"
Zhao Ning was holding the bowl, feeling a little nervous in her heart, but she hid it and looked very calm on the outside.
"In the Qingyun Gang, we will enter the mountains in two days. I shouldn't be a gang member."
The implication is that he still refuses to believe that he appears here for no reason.
"Yes." The old man responded, and then murmured in a low voice, "It only took one day."
This made Zhao Ning hold the bowl tightly, not knowing what he was going to say.
Then I heard him say again, "Would you like to see the place where I picked you up?"
"……good."
After finishing the meal, the two of them went out. The old man slowly walked in front with his hands behind his back, and Zhao Ninglao followed after two steps.
Seeing the old man turning out of the mountain on the fork in the mountain, he breathed a sigh of relief without leaving a trace.
After walking slowly for almost two hours, Zhao Ning saw the shadow of the county seat. To her surprise, she felt a hint of familiarity.
When she arrived at the gate, she looked at the word "Yongning", and for a moment, fear crawled in her heart. This "Yongning" was not the other "Yongning".
At this moment, the old man suddenly pointed to a big tree not far away, "I picked it up there."
After the fear came the strangeness. She walked over and looked around, but didn't see anything special. She didn't understand why she was unconscious here, and... why she was picked up by the old man in a mountain hut so far away.
"What are you thinking about?" The old man came over.
Zhao Ning shook her head quickly, "It's nothing."
"Then go for a walk in the city and buy some food." He said and walked towards the county town. After taking a few steps, he looked back at Zhao Ning.
Only then did Zhao Ning follow.
It was already noon, there were not many people on the streets of the county town, and the street vendors were looking at the passers-by tiredly.
Zhao Ning looked at the buildings and planning in the city. They were almost the same as those in her memory, but they were strange and had a sense of old-fashionedness. At least they were much older than the Yongning County town in her memory.
The shouts of street vendors are no longer the same as before, and the occasional Mandarin spoken by passers-by seems to have changed their accents.
She saw that the old man was just buying some food, and when she walked to the end of the street, she saw a vendor making candy figures.
The old man turned to look at her, "Does the little girl eat candy?"
Zhao Ning smelled the sweet smell that stimulated her taste buds, but she still shook her head.
"Thank you, grandpa." This not only thanked the old man for his suggestion to buy candy, but also thanked him for saving his life. "I want to go home."
"Go home? Back to the Qingyun Gang?"
Zhao Ning was silent. She knew that she would be beaten if she went back, and she was not allowed to go back. Even Yongning County was different from her memory.
But she persisted, touched her sleeve pocket, and found nothing. She added, "When I have money, I will come back to thank you."
After saying that, he crossed his hands and saluted the old man, then quickly turned around and ran into the alley and disappeared.
The old man looked at it for a long time, turned around slowly, and still asked the vendor how to sell the candy.
Zhao Ning walked roughly through Yongning County, feeling confused and confused. Everything here told her that this was Yongning County, but it was not the Yongning County in her memory.
After hesitating in the county town for a long time, Zhao Ning still followed the route to the Qingyun Gang in her memory. It was not that she really wanted to go back, but that she wanted to see what happened.
But the further they walked towards Qingyun Mountain, the more desolate they became. When they reached the entrance of Qingyun Gang Village, Zhao Ning froze in place at the dilapidated buildings in front of him.
Half of the door was leaning in decay, and half was lying on the ground, rotted into blocks.
After taking two steps closer, I saw that the weeds in the yard were already as tall as a person, and there were spider webs everywhere on the roof beams. No one had come in for a long time.
She didn't care about the dilapidation and went to Yaotong's small building. The courtyard of the small building was even more desolate. The second floor completely collapsed, and most of the first floor tilted. Zhao Ning stood in front of the room where she lived before. People could no longer enter. But he could barely see the bloodstains on the floor of the room that had turned black over the years from the window.
How could it become like this overnight? It seemed like a dream for a hundred years.
She stood blankly on the steps of the small building, then sat down again, looking around at the ruins, unable to find the answer.
After being depressed for a long time, she stood up again. Not knowing where to go, she headed south.
Walking until late at night, I found a ruined temple and hid behind a stone statue to take a rest.
After closing my eyes, I fell into deep sleep.
The silver light floated away quietly, and the old hands held her in his arms and disappeared.
