After the rooster crows, the rising sun bursts out into the sky.
wisps of green smoke rose from the mountain villages under the green mountains, and the grass and trees on the ground were covered with crystal fog beads.
A deserted grave.
Yaoniang placed the lame Taoist's head in front of her parents' tombstones, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed three times.
The man in a bamboo hat sat on a mound far away, appearing indifferent to what Yao Niang was doing. He even picked off a piece of dogtail grass and held it in his mouth out of boredom.
After Yaoniang finished praying, she got up, found a pond, and threw the Taoist's head into the water.
After doing this, she walked to the man in the bamboo hat
"You helped me avenge my whole family, and I still don't know your name?"
The man in the bamboo hat replied casually: "My name is Pei Liang. I am not Pei Pei. I am a sad Liang. I am a swordsman."
"How can I thank you?"
Yaoniang silently remembered the name and asked cautiously.
"Let's go. A true man eliminates violence and leads a good life. He has no intention of repaying anything in return."
Pei Liang spit out the dogtail grass in his mouth, patted his butt and walked down the mound.
Yaoniang was silent for a moment and suddenly asked: "Where are you going?"
"We Jianghu people are at home all over the world."
"Can you... take me with you!"
Yaoniang's timid voice suddenly sounded.
Pei Liang, who had not walked a few steps, turned around with a strange smile on his face: "Why, do you really want to be my wife?"
Although Yaoniang was a brothel girl, she was no less reserved than ordinary women. When she heard what this man who was sometimes serious and sometimes dissolute said, her cheeks turned red with embarrassment.
Pei Liang saw that Yaoniang was speechless, so he stopped teasing her and asked casually:
"Do you have any other relatives? I'll send you there."
Yaoniang's eyes darkened, she lowered her head and remained silent.
Pei Liang scratched his head and then asked:
"Then...where do you want to go?"
Yaoniang thought for a while and shook her head.
Looking at Pei Liang who looked troubled, Yaoniang finally summoned up the courage and whispered:
"Let me follow you to explore the world!"
Pei Liang shook his head after hearing this with difficulty.
"We Jianghu people have long been accustomed to living alone. Who would take a woman with him?"
Yaoniang was stunned, with a look of hesitation and helplessness on her face.
Seeing how pitiful she was, the man sighed: "Traveling in the world is not a child's play. It is really inconvenient to take you with me."
"You kept calling me wife before, but it turns out you were just teasing me. Do you know that a girl's body cannot be touched casually..."
Yaoniang's expression suddenly became excited, she stopped mid-sentence, and tears began to well up in her red eyes:
"I understand, you just dislike me for coming from a brothel, and my body is not worthy of you, right?"
Yaoniang wiped the tears that were already hanging on the tip of her nose, gritted her teeth and said:
"It's true that my mother-in-law is a brothel girl, but she did all this to avenge her family. If you dislike me so much, why did you save me in the first place!"
Pei Liang waved his hand quickly: "You misunderstood."
Yaoniang didn't care about this. After squatting down, she cried bitterly.
Pei Liang slapped his forehead, his head was as big as a bucket.
On a bamboo raft going down the river, Pei Liang was holding on to bamboo shoots, and Yaoniang was sitting with her legs crossed. The white horse behind them was swinging its hooves leisurely.
The peach groves for ten miles on both sides of the strait are still in bloom, and you can vaguely see the colorful fallen flowers in the forest, and the scenery is meandering.
Yaoniang had no intention of admiring such a beautiful scenery.
Pei Liang kept finding things to say along the way, but she ignored them.
An angry woman is harder to comfort than a crying baby, so Pei Liang finally gave up trying.
He had already made an agreement with Yaoniang to send her to Yujing City, and the two of them parted ways.
The bamboo raft went all the way south and passed a crowded ferry on the way. Pei Liang knew that she should have been hungry for a long time and asked her to get off the boat and eat something, but Yaoniang turned a deaf ear.
Pei Liang had no choice but to park the bamboo raft, go ashore and buy some food, put it beside her, and continue on his way.
At dusk, the bamboo raft the two of them rode came to a wide reed swamp.
A red sunset on the horizon reflects on the reeds swaying in the wind on the water, adding a touch of autumn desolation.
At this moment, a group of wild geese flew over their heads, forming a herringbone formation and disappearing into the distance where the water and sky were the same color.
At dusk in Xiangguan, the formation of wild geese is frightened by the cold.
It can always bring out feelings of separation and separation in people's hearts.
Yaoniang was affected by this scene, as if she remembered her own life experience, and couldn't help but feel sad.
Pei Liang heard the intermittent sobs behind him, put down the pennant in his hand, and sat next to the woman in purple.
The raft drifted aimlessly with the flowing water.
Pei Liang coughed and seemed to be planning something to say. As soon as he opened his mouth, Yaoniang let out a cry and fell into his arms in tears.
Pei Liang closed his mouth in astonishment, feeling the trembling body of the woman in his arms. The young man's originally unruly eyes were now full of tenderness, and he patted the woman's shoulder gently.
We are both fallen people at the end of the world, so why should we have known each other before.
"How did your family provoke that Taoist priest?"
"That day, his Taoist temple came to the village to recruit disciples and forcibly arrested my brother. My parents went to him to argue with him, but they were beaten to death on the spot by the evil Taoist."
"Where's your brother?"
"I committed suicide the next day."
"Have you reported it to the official?"
"In troubled times, is it useful to report to the official? I beat the drum to express my grievance. The county magistrate had already colluded with the Taoist temple and wanted to arrest me and sacrifice me to that dog Taoist priest. In the end, I ran away."
"It's not easy for a weak woman like you to take revenge."
"I have no choice but to travel far away from home and hang out in brothels. I hope that one day I can meet a martial arts hero and exchange my body for him to avenge this blood feud for me."
"In a place like a brothel, those who want to help are incompetent, and those who are capable cannot be found."
"I know in my heart that most of these people are liars, and I have never let them get me."
"Ahem, you are lucky to meet a handsome young man like me who has both strength and gentlemanly demeanor."
"Maybe it's just fate."
Yaoniang was silent for a moment and sighed.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
"Do you regret saving me from being such a burden to you?"
"You can't say that. Who asked me to touch you?"
"Are you... angry with me?"
"How dare you?"
“It’s okay if you don’t dare”
"Forehead……"
As night fell, thunder suddenly sounded in the sky, and after a while, huge raindrops poured down.
The two had no choice but to abandon the bamboo raft and go ashore, riding their horses towards the depths of the mountain.
In the ruined temple on the top of the mountain, Pei Liang lit up a fire, found some hay everywhere, and spread it on the ground.
"We can only spend the night here tonight."
After Pei Liang finished speaking, he sat down around the fire.
Yaoniang had just eaten some food brought from the bamboo raft, but because of her thin clothes, she got caught in the rain. Even though she was next to the fire, she was still shivering from the cold.
Seeing this, Pei Liang took off his upper body clothes and covered her.
"Hey, how come your clothes are dry?" Yaoniang wrapped her clothes tightly around her body and asked with a surprised look on her face.
Pei Liang smiled: "We martial arts masters can use our inner strength to steam clothes dry."
"Then why are you using your internal power to steam my clothes?" Yaoniang said
Pei Liang shook his head: "It's easy to catch a cold when you're naked."
Yaoniang rolled her eyes at him, and Pei Liang just pretended not to notice.
After a while, Yaoniang blinked and asked again: "How many experts in the world do you think you are?"
Pei Liang proudly raised his chest and raised his head: "It's enough to be called a first-class one."
"Come on, I don't think you're that good at fighting those third-rate masters."
"I've always been strong when I'm strong, and weak when I'm weak. I don't want to expose myself too much."
"Then why did you let those people go in the end?"
"I don't like too much killing"
"Okay, so why do you carry a wooden sword with you?"
"Have you ever heard this saying? If you practice martial arts to a certain level, flying flowers and picking leaves can hurt people."
"oh……"
"That's the truth"
"What's the point?"
Yaoniang's expression suddenly turned into one of confusion.
"You just need to know that I am still very powerful with a wooden sword." Pei Liang waved his hand perfunctorily.
"Are you doing this to pretend to be a pig and eat the tiger?" Yaoniang asked, tilting her head.
Pei Liang took a deep breath and looked at the beauty in front of him calmly: "I can eat tigers without pretending!"
Yaoniang covered her mouth and smiled. When asked about Pei Dao's life experience and learned that he was also an orphan, the smile on her face gradually disappeared.
…
It was late at night, and Yaoniang lay on the hay mat, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
Looking at Pei Liang's back lying on his side opposite the fire, her eyes kept shining brightly, wondering what she was thinking.
After an unknown amount of time, Pei Liang suddenly turned over and sat up.
Yaoniang quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep, but in fact there was still a gap in her eyes.
Pei Liang got up and found some dead branches everywhere, adding them to the smaller and smaller fire.
As the fire grew stronger again, Pei Liang glanced at Yaoniang who was lying on her back and walked over.
At this moment, Yaoniang's heart was beating harder and harder, and the gap left was quickly closed.
She felt that Pei Liang had squatted down beside her.
Nervous but with a hint of inexplicable excitement, Yaoniang tried hard to control her breathing and heartbeat.
But the next second, she felt that the man's fingers touched her nose and lips.
Yaoniang opened her eyes suddenly, frightened Pei Liang.
"Are you afraid that I will die?"
Looking at Yaoniang who looked down on him, Pei Liang rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
Yaoniang bit her lip, her face turned red either from being burned by the fire or something else, but there was a soul-stirring charm in her eyes.
Pei Liang looked at her with a little fear.
Yaoniang also realized something, her pretty face turned cold, her faint smile disappeared, she grabbed her clothes and lay down again.
The next morning, the light rain was as moist as crisp.
A white horse carried a man and a woman, walking leisurely on the official road at the foot of the mountain.
The woman fell lazily into the man's arms, wrapped in a red dress.
The man was wearing a white singlet and a bamboo hat on his head, looking calm and relaxed.
Along the way, there were misty and rainy mountains. After walking for more than ten miles on the official road, we finally arrived at a tall city.
"Jianzhou City"
Pei Liang glanced at the plaque hanging high on the top of the city.
