Shi Song sat on the ground in a daze, looking at Coral, as if he didn't understand what Coral was saying.
The coral swayed its little feet, like a bird flapping its wings on the firewood. Shi Song, however, had forgotten "don't kiss when giving and receiving" and "don't look at anything inappropriate". Instead, he struggled to get up and desperately tried to catch the coral.
He moved so violently that he knocked over the wooden bowl on the side of the thatch. The remaining soup at the bottom of the bowl spilled out, and many insects swarmed up in an instant.
Shi Song couldn't bear it any longer, so he lay on the ground and vomited.
He remembered what he had heard before. In the previous dynasty, there was a severe drought in Diwei for three years. The emperor issued an edict to punish oneself, but the rain still did not come. The hungry people fought for a mouthful of food. In the villages and fields, hungry people were everywhere, and they exchanged their children for food.
He thought this was the saddest thing, but he didn't expect that people who ate their own kind would become crazy and delirious soon after. When other people faced crazy people, they would try to tie them up, throw them into the house, put dry food on them, and let them die on their own. But the crazy people stopped eating at all, just kept talking nonsense, and eventually foamed at the mouth, convulsed and died.
From that moment on, Shi Song knew that a person who couldn't help but attack others of his own kind would eventually be abandoned by his own kind.
Seeing Shisong holding the ground and retching, Coral jumped down from the pile of firewood in disgust and said dissatisfied: "Why are you like this? Don't you know how to be grateful?"
Shi Song had no time to pay attention to her and just buried his head in vomiting. Coral saw that his face was blue and the muscles on his face were twitching, so he stood far away and asked: "Are you okay, Meichuan?"
The cannibalistic Lycopodium these days - most likely eating his own right arm - no longer has the energy to correct the coral. He vomited until he vomited out the acidic water in his stomach and felt a cramp in his stomach. Then he pulled off a piece of cloth and wiped his mouth dry, then sat back on the thatch, shaking.
"Coral..." Shi Song closed his eyes and smiled bitterly, "Thank you for your kindness. You don't have to bring me food in the future."
Coral scratched her hair, grabbed a louse out of it, and bit it open: "No, this is what my eldest sister told me to do. I want to give you food."
Shi Song opened his eyes and looked at Coral: "Why?"
Coral started to look for lice in her hair again, and while searching, she said: "I forgot, what it was... I can't remember. Alas, but the eldest sister seemed to mean, can you take me out? Where?" "
Shi Song put his left hand in front of his eyes and said with a wry smile: "I don't even know if I can go out, so how can I take you away?"
Coral's eyes rolled around, and she shook her head with a smile: "I don't know. But the eldest sister said you can do it, are you sure you can do it? I think you can do it."
She picked up a broom and a dustpan from the corner of the woodshed, swept the vomit into the dustpan, and went out to dump it.
"So cheer up and eat well. I think you are very powerful. You bled so much when I cut off your arm, but you still survived. You should be a hero."
Shi Song had a wry smile on his face: "If I can survive by eating my own arm, that's it. But after losing my right arm and losing half of my martial arts, even if I walk out of this valley, how can I still be worthy of becoming a 'knight'?"
Xu Zhuchen's appearance reappeared in his mind: white clothes caught in the wind, jade pendants around his waist jingling, snow-white hair blown by the wind, looking like a graceful fairy who had strayed into the world in the snow and moonlight. Her phoenix eyes are like rubies without any impurities, but they cannot be imitated by rubies. Her snow-white eyebrows are light, but her smile is so vivid. In my memory, Zhuchen is so tall, upright, and noble. Like a pole of green bamboo, or a snowstorm.
Can he still meet Zhuchen like that?
In this room, Shisong was looking down in sadness, but Coral was laughing.
"Why do you think that's your arm?" Coral walked up to Shisong with a smile like a blooming flower. "What you are eating is obviously the 'leopard meat' left by my sister."
Shi Song's eyes became dim and he almost fainted.
Compared with eating his own flesh, he could not accept that he actually ate other people's flesh. In an instant, the image of himself in his mind was distorted and transformed into a man-eating beast with a green face and fangs, with the broken limbs of the victim still remaining under its sharp teeth.
The beast shook its neck and looked at Shi Song. He was so frightened that he broke out in cold sweat, and his lost right arm seemed to be aching again.
Shi Song held the bed with one hand and tried to calm himself down, but he was still almost breathless and felt chills all over his body.
He eats people.
Someone who has no grievances or grudges against him, and is even a stranger to him.
When he swallowed the piece of meat, he was still savoring the taste. Shi Song felt like the world was spinning in front of him, and he could hardly feel himself.
For a long time, something warm held his hand, it was Coral's hand.
"Cheer up," Coral's voice seemed to be far away from him and sounded a little distorted. Shi Song raised his head to look for her, but saw Coral's appearance gradually changing, becoming like a funny painting, "Don't faint. Cheer up, Meichuan. I heard you say in your dream that you are the one who wants to become the leader of the martial arts alliance."
When the words "Martial Arts Leader" came out, Shi Song was stunned for a moment.
It was as if there was something buried under the pain and sorrow, sparks from the good memories and memories of the past, jumping all the way to him and igniting him.
The scene in front of him changed. His father stood in front of him and patted his shoulder: "Well done! Son, you are the best successor of the Rift Blade, and you are worthy of being my son, Shi Haitian! From now on, your father will be able to Enjoy the title of 'Father of the Martial Arts Alliance Leader'! Hahahahahahaha, it's quite addictive!"
In the beautiful backyard, my mother, who was still alive, bumped into my father dissatisfied.
"Don't listen to your father. Song'er, the leader of the martial arts alliance, it doesn't matter! Whether your sword skills are good or not, you are my mother's dearest and most beloved son!"
He saw Zhu Chen again. Zhu Chen's sweat rolled down her forehead. She raised her sleeves to wipe her face and said with a smile: "Shi Song, that's awesome! I almost missed the sword just now! If you practice swordsmanship, I may not be able to rank this as the 'best sword in the world', hahahaha."
The young Shi Huan held a copy of "The Analects of Confucius" in his hands, and ran up to Shi Song and Xu Zhuchen with his little feet wearing tiger-head shoes, giggling: "Brother, Sister-in-law Xu!"
Xu Zhuchen picked her up and said with a smile: "Don't say that. If you talk like that, you will get beaten by your sister."
As she spoke, she stretched out her hand and gently puffed up the air, which made Shi Coral burst into laughter. When she had laughed enough, Shi Song took the coral from Xu Zhuchen's hand: "Little coral, what do you want to see me for?"
Shi Hualou opened a few pages of the Analects of Confucius in his hand, pointed to a line of words and read it out at a glance from top to bottom: "Suihan, then you know that the pines and cypresses will wither after that. If your brother is a pine and cypress, he is a gentleman in Suihan!"
Shi Song could hear that this was a compliment to him, but he was a little confused about its meaning and quickly winked at Xu Zhuchen. Xu Zhuchen held back his laughter and leaned into his ear and said, "Coral means that you are a proud and unyielding figure in the face of cold adversity. She is praising you for being strong and noble!"
Coral nodded: "Yes! There is an ancient saying: 'Don't you suffer from the cold, the pines and cypresses have their own nature'. From this point of view, isn't my brother and Sister Xu - Sister Xu very similar?"
Xu Zhuchen naturally knew what she wanted to say. Although she didn't mean it in this regard, she couldn't help but want to tease the pink dumpling-like stone coral, so she smiled and said: "I'm talking about pines and cypresses here, but my sister's name is Xu Zhuchen, not Xu Baichen?"
Shi Hualu didn't expect Xu Zhuchen to ask, so he said anxiously: "That is, the Four Gentlemen of Suihan!"
Xu Zhuchen laughed again and said: "That's also 'Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum', but it's not pine?"
Seeing that Shi Hualu was caught off guard, Shi Song quickly answered: "Hualu means that we are both noble people. As for the rest, it doesn't matter."
Coral looked at Shisong with shining eyes and nodded:
"Brother is right! Brother is the most powerful person I have ever seen, brother is the most powerful!"
Those memories were like sparks of fire, making his thought-silent heart light up again.
"I will not live up to your expectations, I definitely won't."
"I bear the name of Meichuan Ishimatsu as my witness."
The next day, Coral ran to the woodshed again, and Shi Song refused the "leopard broth" sent by Coral, saying that he would only eat vegetarian food from now on and would not touch any meat.
"That's it, it's good." Coral stuffed the vegetable leaves in her hands into a wooden bowl, mashed them, and sprinkled a handful of salt on them. "Mom and dad both said that vegetarian food is the most delicious."
Shi Song trembled all over - even though he knew that Coral was joking, the fact that he was being used as food to measure his taste still made him tingle all over.
"Coral," he looked for a topic in a panic, "have your ancestors lived here for generations?"
Coral thought for a while: "My ancestors did live here, but they all died and were not wasted. As for me, I only appeared recently."
Shi Song always felt that the way she spoke was a bit strange, but when he thought about the isolation of Yaxia Village, he was relieved: "Are you the only child in this village? I seem to have never heard the voices of other children."
Coral answered quickly: "Do you think everyone is like me and has the ability to take care of the warehouse? Their parents have locked them in the house, and there is no way you can hear them."
After she finished speaking, she made a fierce expression, which made Shi Song laugh.
"So, your family is very open-minded? Let the children take care of... the warehouse."
Coral looked at him as if she were looking at a retarded child: "You don't think there are particularly bad people in my family, do you?"
Shi Song looked at her and asked, "Isn't it?"
Coral smiled and shook her head: "Of course not! My parents are very good people, and they also read books. There are three books in my family. My family are all very good people."
Shi Song frowned: "Then what happened to your sister?"
His original intention was to know why Coral's sister appeared in the wooden bowl at hand. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he realized that he simply had "no deep meaning". Sure enough, Coral also frowned.
"Meichuan, what are you talking about?" Coral said with her hands on her hips, "My sister contributed herself and left it outside. It's called 'the wax torch turns to ashes and tears dry up'. Why do you talk like this?"
Shi Song quickly held her with his left hand: "I'm really sorry, I couldn't speak since I was a child. Coral, if you want to hit or scold me, I will never fight back."
Coral pulled out her hand and glared at him: "I can't be angry with you, but you can't be heartless. You have to remember the following things I'm going to say."
Shi Song nodded sincerely.
Coral cleared her throat and said:
“First, my sister saved you, and my family is kind to you.
"Secondly, after my sister was seriously injured, she took the initiative to give up her life and cut her meat to feed tigers. This is another great kindness.
"Third, I put you in the woodshed so no one knows. This is the third favor."
Shi Song nodded and motioned for her to continue, but Coral shut up.
He hesitated and asked: "So...?"
Coral looked at him with big eyes, as if she didn't understand what he was talking about.
Shi Song then prompted: "For example, what do you need me to do in the future, or what excessive orders do you need from me?"
Coral frowned: "Why should I do this?"
This child looks like a little adult, but he doesn't know how to repay favors.
Shi Song raised his left hand and bowed seriously: "Shi Song will always remember these three graces. He will never forget them in his lifetime!"
Coral then smiled with satisfaction. She walked out of the door, turned around, stretched out a hand, pointed at Shisong and said: "You are not allowed to talk about my sister in the future."
Shi Song nodded: "Definitely."
He always meant what he said. All those who had been defeated by his sword, not to mention whether they were convinced or not, at least had no criticism of his character.
It's a pity that he is only among the top 100 swordsmen in the world. It will probably take a long, long time for him to be ranked number one with Zhu Chen.
How should I practice swordsmanship if I lose my right hand?
……knife?
After falling under the cliff, it seemed that he hadn't seen his knife for too long.
Where is his knife?
Shisong suddenly stood up from the thatch, his body was unstable, and he knocked over a pile of firewood. He subconsciously stretched out his right hand to help, but only got nothing.
The firewood hit the ground and made a crackling sound.
Shi Song heard a burst of footsteps, rapid and heavy, and the person coming had no martial arts.
"What's going on?" It was the voice of an adult man, who must be the father that Coral referred to.
"Hehe," Coral put her hands behind her back and said with a smile, "I wanted to try to see if I could break a bundle of wood at once. Dad, I succeeded."
The man took a bundle of wood from Coral, looked at it for a while, and said helplessly:
"Child, sometimes you can only do good things if you are strong enough, you know? If kindness is stupid, it is poison that harms people.
"Coral, I don't want you to follow in Pearl's footsteps."
Coral nodded: "Okay, I know, dad just likes to nag, come with me and help grandma cook!"
Coral took her father away, leaving Shisong alone in the woodshed sweating coldly.
What the man just said was clearly meant for him. But this was not the only thing that frightened him.
The man clearly called out the name "Coral", which meant that what Coral told him about "picking up the name after listening to Shisong talking in his sleep" was false. Not to mention, the name of Coral’s sister is Pearl, and the words next to the four double jade are definitely not taken out casually.
But he was so fragile that he could be knocked unconscious with a piece of firewood, so why did Coral lie to him?
