After leaving Qingshan Peak, Mu Ziyun and Hu Zi walked for two days. They only stopped to look at the gate of Fanjin City from a distance, but did not enter.
The atmosphere in Huzhou is the best sign before the storm. Even in the more remote mountain villages along the way, people are panicked. Merchants no longer sell rice and grains. Every household is stocked with goods. You can’t find a market even if you walk more than ten miles. .
Most people gather together in a few families to eat in a big pot to save firewood. Some families are led by their elders and move to the Girl Mountain area. Girl Mountain is the area of the Chenmen. The Chenmen has always had few disputes, although it was established at a different time. Although he is young, he loves the people in the area very much. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the battle between the sects, let alone a million. Who would care about the lives of his entire village in a real fight.
Only a few people could be seen on the road, hurriedly walking with their heads lowered. Mu Ziyun stopped an old woman wearing a yellow headscarf and carrying a basket, "Old man, I want to ask you something."
"What are you asking?" The old woman turned to one side and held the basket back to protect her. Her wrinkled face was wrapped in a scarf, and her eyes were full of vigilance.
"Uh, tell me which shops are still open. My brother and I are going to buy some food. We have to travel at night."
"Are you "walking"?" The old woman looked at these two people. They were dressed in ordinary clothes, with dust on their faces, and looked tired. They really looked like they were "walking".
The old woman's word "walking" means running away, which mostly refers to situations where she has to run away when encountering difficulties. Mu Ziyun knew that the old woman was wary, so he put his hands in his sleeves, trembled, and said in a dialect-heavy voice: "Walking, that's not walking! I went the wrong way with my brothers, fell out of the team, and asked for help." I can’t see my husband anymore."
After hearing what Mu Ziyun said, the old woman's attitude improved a lot. She opened the gray cloth covering the basket, took out two sesame cakes, handed them to Mu Ziyun and Hu Zi and said, "All the shops in our village have been closed. You go to the southeast corner." The butcher's house, they sell grain, but it's very expensive. If you two boys can endure some hardship, go to the short mountainside ahead and dig some soil. Scrape off the skin and roast it over the fire and you can eat it. Go dig it in the village. There aren’t many of them, they’re all reserved for people who “walk.”
The old woman then turned around, pointed to one side and said, "You go all the way up the path behind the house. When you see the house with the banner hanging on the door, go to the left. The person who just died is easy to recognize, and then... You can get out of the village if you keep walking. Hurry up, you two boys, don't be dumb and catch up with your husband as soon as possible. If you can't find him, something will happen."
Huzi sent the old woman away while chewing sesame seed cakes. The two of them did not go digging in the mountains, but went to the southeast butcher's house to buy dry food. The most common kind of bread was actually more expensive than medicine. The two of them were not rich, so they each bought half a bag, and they could make do with it for a few days. Then, we walked out of the village along the path.
The road in the col was very difficult to walk on, the soil under our feet was very damp, and my trousers were soaked.
"Ah" "Woo" "Master"
The child was still young at first, but as the two of them went deeper, the shouts became louder and louder, and the child's cry could still be vaguely heard. Huzi stood on tiptoe and couldn't see much, so he said to Muziyun, "Could it be a bandit? Robbing people passing by?"
Mu Ziyun nodded without saying anything and walked to the side, intending to go around. Huzi followed, feeling a little uneasy in his heart, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "Help me, maybe I'm pitying someone else, maybe the thief is a murderer." Muziyun remained silent and lowered his head to climb the mountain. Huzi's voice was a little anxious: "There are still children! Let's cover our faces and leave after helping."
Mu Ziyun then walked five or six steps before stopping. Looking back, Hu Zi was gone. It turned out that he ran over to save someone. Mu Ziyun couldn't make any expression on his face, and he couldn't explain why he was so cold-hearted. He had a child. Woolen cloth! Help me, I thought and ran towards the source of the sound.
After a while, I saw Huzi hiding behind a big tree, looking at a loss.
"What?" Mu Ziyun asked.
Huzi smiled bitterly and said, "I don't know who to help."
Mu Ziyun came closer and took a closer look. It turned out that it was not a thief, but two groups of walking people fighting together. There were women and children on both sides. There were no warriors. They were all men wielding mallets or hoes. , a lot of head injuries and bleeding, and fires broke out in many places.
"What should we do? Should we help?" Huzi scratched his head and said, "I weighed it up and found out that the group of walkers on the east side are few men and obviously can't be beaten. Let's help the ones on the east side. If we don't kill anyone, let's just let them go. They just stop."
"Stop, and then, as soon as we leave, they start fighting again," Mu Ziyun said as he put out the fires on the burning bullock carts and haystacks. "Don't worry about it. People in the west also have families, old people and children to support. Who dies and who lives is destiny. Don't disturb them."
Huzi sighed, glanced at those people regretfully, and silently walked around the road.
"Do you believe in fate? I remember that you were the most dissatisfied with your parents worshiping ghosts and gods. Calling them nonsense is only deceiving."
"It's different from that. I believe in fate. For example, some people are born lonely, and they will be lonely in life and death. Some people are born with serious sins, and no one who meets them will die well."
"Ha" Huzi said with a smile: "Nonsense, how can there be such a person? If it were really like that, who would meet him? It would be too late to avoid him."
"Well, how can such a person be born in the world? He really deserves to die. It's a pity that God is unfair."
There was a rustling sound in the forest, and three or four men came out. One was older, about forty-five or six, the other two were in their mid-twenties, and there was a younger one, about twelve or thirteen years old.
The older man wore an earth-colored cotton felt hat on his head, and his sleeves were torn in several places to expose the cotton wool inside. He held a handful of fruit in his hand without peeling it, and squeezed it between his fingers, turning it over with all the water and flesh. When it came out, Huang opened his teeth and sucked it into his mouth, which seemed to quench his thirst.
The three young men stood in a row behind the older one with their sleeves inserted. The older man stamped his steps politely and said to Mu Ziyun and Hu Zi while eating the fruit, "You're from the south?"
"Yes," Huzi chuckled, "The walker got lost with my husband, and I'm looking for him now."
The man hummed and nodded, took out a handful of fruits from his pocket, handed them to Huzi, and said, "We are also walking and coming from the south." Huzi was not polite and took three or four fruits in his mouth and was chewing them. After getting up, the man continued: "Brother, get something."
Huzi's mouth was full and he looked at the man and said favorably.
"Yeah." The man looked into the distance and said, "Get something. We guys have reached the end and have nothing to eat. It would be better if you bring some money."
Huzi was still a little confused, and Muziyun stood aside without saying a word.
"Oh" Huzi swallowed a few mouthfuls, "You guys are kidnapping me." "Yes." The man acted very politely, and seemed to be talking about home affairs naturally.
The young boys, including those who were twelve or thirteen years old, all had mallets in their hands, and one boy even had a knife in his hand.
"Get some, brother." The man patted Huzi on the shoulder, "Huo is so big, haha, get some, it's not easy. Let's be more relaxed and not bother you. You agree." The man stretched his waist. , flicking his right hand to reveal the dagger on his belt.
Huzi was a little stunned, with the pulp in his mouth, and didn't know how to answer. At this time, Mu Ziyun moved and raised a hand, and the men who were trying to rob Dao also saw it.
Mu Ziyun raised his arm slightly, raised his index finger slightly, and then lowered it lightly. Suddenly, a small red bead swished into the ground, and the twelve or thirteen-year-old boy let out a strange sigh.
Then, a bead burst out from the ground under the older man's feet, went in under him, came out from the top of his head, crackled, popped, jumped into one person's ear, came out from under the armpit, entered the waist of the third person, and then It pierced out from the soles of the feet, penetrated into the ground, and finally emerged from the boy's mouth.
The fire beads that returned to the fingers were faintly smoldering and not stained with a trace of blood. Although the four people were dead, their postures remained the same, and they fell down after a while.
After a few pops, Huzi opened his mouth and spit out the fruit, "Hey! You guy, just teach him a lesson. Who are you going to kill?"
The soft wind made people feel cold. Mu Ziyun was expressionless. He played with the fire beads and said calmly: "Didn't I say that no one who meets a sinner will die well? These people will die when they die. It is their fate to meet us." , let’s go, we still have to hurry. "
"You guy!" Huzi looked at the four corpses on the ground again, sighed heavily with a hint of annoyance, followed Mu Ziyun, and said as he walked: "If you do this again, I will beat you! I swear !”
