Chapter 2 Prologue? From the beginning of the month? Two
Chapter 2 Prologue Month Two
An orange-red fire was beating in the center of the mud house, and in the clay pots on the fire were boiling several blue crabs just caught today. This kind of crab can only be found in the fjords south of the Wuping Mountains.
There are products - this fjord is close to the northern end of Shuozhou, and there is a permafrost ice field with snow all year round. The only sea near the mouth of the Nuanshui River does not freeze, and the crabs produced are even more fat and delicious.
Steam mixed with spices filled the room. The mother used a pair of long chopsticks to pick up a cooked orange female crab from the pot and put it into her daughter's bowl. Eight-year-old Jiang Yan looked on with envy.
, he boldly stretched out his hand to grab it. Unexpectedly, the steam rolled around the mouth of the pot, making him hiss and take a breath of cold air, and then retracted his hand like lightning.
"There's something for you to eat too. Don't be too hasty and make it look so ugly."
The mother scolded angrily and amusingly, and hurriedly fished out another crab and handed it to Jiang Yan. The boy no longer cared about the burning of his hands, blew on it, picked up a crab leg as thick as his little finger, dipped it in some vinegar and put it on
Take a deep breath on your lips. The aroma of plump crab meat mixed with a faint smell of sea overflows in your mouth, which is indescribably delicious.
With wars raging year after year, the tax burden of each state has also risen sharply. For this fisherman's boy in Changzhou, he is so happy to have seafood such as blue crabs as a toothpaste in a bad harvest year that he can almost catch up with the New Year's Eve.
Festival.
This happiness is so simple and pure that many years later, General Yan, who has fought in all directions, will still cook three or two blue crabs in winter according to his mother's old method in his memory, and sit silently by the fire.
Slurping alone.
After eating the crab, Jiang Yan and his six-year-old sister gathered around his father, laughing and begging: "Daddy, daddy! Tell me a story!"
The slightly haggard man goes out to sea all year round and makes a living by fishing. Every morning, he and other fishermen in the village sail a boat northward. They return home in the evening of the next day, bringing back a cabin full of seafood to exchange for fish at the market.
Rice, noodles, fruits and vegetables are called "Taohai".
The years of wandering left a thousand ravines on the man's face, and also tanned his skin to a special reddish brown color. Every time he returned home, he would hold his two children in his arms with a pair of big hands that were soaked rough by the sea water.
In my arms, I recounted the strange things I saw and heard when I went to sea.
But today, the man just stared silently at the not too strong flame in front of him - the sea has not been peaceful recently. Although few people have seen the so-called pirates with their own eyes, the warships that frequently appear and appear frequently.
The fishermen are so scared that they don’t dare to get too close to the sea under the cliffs of Cape Lema. However, only there can catch red salmon that can be sold at a high price. The rice tank at home has bottomed out. If the last trip is made tomorrow,
Before winter comes, "Taohai" is still empty-handed, and the whole family is afraid that even eating will be a big problem.
"Daddy, daddy! What are you thinking about? Your eyebrows are almost twisted into a rope."
The young sister was smart, hugging her father's neck affectionately and acting coquettishly, pulling the man back from his thousands of thoughts.
An exquisite necklace hangs around the girl's neck. The fingernail-sized pendant on the chain is made of sterling silver. Under the hollowed-out exquisite ball, a piece of smooth and translucent white crystal is finely inlaid. Perhaps it is
It's completely natural, or maybe the craftsman who made the pendant used some secret method. There is a striking pure red color in the center of the crystal. If you look closely, you can see that it is a lifelike little fish.
"Nanny, be good, then this time daddy will tell you two about the legend on the other side of the Chanying Sea, okay?"
The man forced a smile on his face and tried to keep his tone as modest as before. The eldest son, who had never thought about it, shook his head vigorously:
"It doesn't work, it doesn't work. Dad has told the story of Yingzhou a dozen times."
"I - do you?" The man hesitated for a moment.
"Of course." Jiang Yan nodded with certainty, imitating his father's tone and repeating it in a decent manner:
"According to legend, there is an uninhabited land on the west side of the Chanying Sea, which is called Yingzhou. This land is much wider than the territory of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Riding a fast horse can run continuously for nine days and nine nights. There is no end. According to legend, there are thunder beasts with horns on their noses, huge tigers with teeth sharper than daggers, hornless cattle with necks longer than their legs, and even hidden dragons that have been extinct for more than ten thousand years. .”
"What a good boy, your storytelling skills are almost as good as those of your father."
The man took out some blackened charcoal ash from the furnace in front of him and added a few new firewood:
"Then... let me tell you the story of the northern tundra... According to legend, in the north of the Chanying Sea, there is a continent that is frozen by black ice all year round. It is a white death zone with no living creatures on the ground. Unable to farm, even the strong Shuodi people have to risk their lives and wear thick coats made of big-horned deer skin to get a glimpse of its appearance..."
"Dad has told the story of Ghost State many times."
The boy still shook his head, but the man's frown gradually relaxed amidst the child's play. He raised his hand and caressed the eldest son's head, his eyes full of love:
"I'm tired of hearing all this—then daddy will tell you a new story today that no one has heard before."
"Really? Haven't you even heard of it, mother?" Jiang Yan blinked.
"Well. This story was told to me by dad's grandfather, your great-grandfather. For so many years, dad has never told anyone else -"
The man smiled mischievously, cleared his throat and nodded:
"Although the story I am about to tell you is a bit scary, please remember that it is not a legend, but something that really happened on this continent."
The father's serious look immediately attracted the two brothers and sisters. His two pairs of dark eyes widened and he stared at the man's lips without blinking. Even the woman who was busy with housework couldn't help but listen. With.
"Everyone in the world knows that since Emperor Taizu Bai Jiangxi established his dynasty 1,800 years ago, there have been twin moons in the sky. The bright ones are clear and the dark ones are turbid. Every night, they will rise together from the east. , and then fell towards the Chanying Sea, they were inseparable like a pair of twins, entwined with each other, spinning and dancing in the air. However, few people in the world knew that in fact, as early as ten thousand years ago in the era of the ancestors, there was actually only one in the sky. A moon."
"There is only one moon? Wouldn't it be darker at night than now, and you can't even see the road clearly?" Jiang Yan couldn't help but interjected, "At that time, the ancestors on land, how much whale blubber should they use to light a lamp? ah?"
"Silly boy, the lights lit on the earth at that time were more numerous and brighter than those in Yujing today. It's just that the ancestors did not use whale oil candles, but a kind of candle that was collected from the sun, moon and earth. The essence of the city is light without fire and bright without candles. People's homes are like spring all year round, and the ports are not frozen all year round. There is endless food in the city and endless new clothes to wear, and there is never any need to worry. Tomorrow’s weather and harvest.”
"Then according to what dad said, these ancestors could be the legendary gods, right?"
The eldest son's face couldn't help but reveal his incomparable longing for that warm world. Seeing this, the man burst into laughter:
"Humans are human beings. Even if they possess divine power, they can never become gods. In fact, those ancestors were just like you and me, with one head and two legs. They were no different. It was just their understanding of this land.
, far more than us. They even master many powerful spells that have been lost for a long time and can turn the sea into a wasteland——"
"Dad, dad, you are lying! If these people are so powerful, where are they now? Besides, the two moons in the sky have always been there. If they were not there before, where did they appear now?
of?"
The younger sister also shook her head and retorted in a sweet voice, shaking the pigtails on her head left and right. The man hugged her into his arms and his voice became softer:
"Dad was about to say this - it is said that this Zhuo Yue was created by the ancestors, but it also brought disaster. I don't know which year or month it started, and the fields of the ancestors could no longer be restored.
Grain grew and livestock died in large numbers. Immediately afterwards, a protracted war swallowed up the former prosperity. The sky collapsed and the earth was destroyed, and the mountains and rivers were lost. Even the sun was blocked by thick dark clouds and could no longer illuminate this land.
.Instead, there is a continuous poisonous rain, polluting the rivers and lakes, and a poisonous fog that fills the sky, killing people invisible..."
"But dad, didn't those ancestors have powerful magic that could turn the sea into mulberry fields? Why didn't they try to save themselves, but allowed disaster to happen?"
The dark-eyed boy interrupted and asked again.
The expression on his father's face gradually became serious. It was as if the shock he had when he heard this story for the first time still lingered in his heart. After a long time, he remembered to put the expression on his face that had already become a little stiff.
He hid his expression, looked directly into the child's eyes and said:
"Son, please remember that any powerful force is not omnipotent. Perhaps it was precisely because the ancestors possessed the mysterious power that could change the day that they became incapable of restraining themselves, and eventually angered the gods.
Endless disasters and eternal curses have befallen the world! After the ancestors died, ferocious beasts raged, and hundreds of ghosts roamed the night. For more than ten thousand years, every survivor in this world had to do their best to survive.
.And we are the descendants of those survivors back then!"
The little girl in the man's arms seemed to understand what he said. Jiang Yan seemed to suddenly remember something, and whispered a popular children's song in his mouth:
"When the twin moons rise, ferocious beasts are on the move, and the people suffer and their lives are precarious.
We are separated by injuries, we are separated by injuries, our flesh and blood are separated, and we go our separate ways.
The Baijiang clan raised their swords and soldiers, rose to prominence and established their foundation, and Jiuzhou was established.
Don't be greedy, don't be greedy. The twin moons are still there, and the anger of God cannot be quelled.
It turns out that everything sung in this song is true!"
A trace of sadness flashed in the eyes of the man in front of him. He looked quietly at the pair of bright moons outside the window and sighed longly:
"Don't be greedy, don't be greedy - alas, the Great Ascension is still here, but Ansheng's life is getting farther and farther away from us... Although the Bai Jiang clan eradicated all the ferocious beasts in the world, now the dynasty established with this surname
, but has long since turned into an evil dragon that puts the people of the world in dire straits! If the world can truly maintain peace forever, how can our lives be so difficult, and why should we be so troubled as a father!"
Jiang Yan still didn't quite understand why his father compared the Bai Jiang clan and Da Shengchao to evil dragons. But after hearing his father's emotion, he immediately got up from the ground, patted his chest and straightened his waist:
"Dad, don't worry too much. When Yan'er grows up a few years, he can help you go out to sea to fish and catch crabs. Everything will be fine by then!"
The child's childish face was full of determination, so much so that the man was stunned for a long time before he could react. He stretched out his hand and patted the eldest son's head gently:
"Silly boy, even if you come to help, you can barely feed the four of us in this troubled world."
"Daddy, please stop looking down on others! I am taller than ordinary children and have greater strength. I will definitely be much better at pulling the net than other children! I will be able to catch a few more red salmon to sell at the market."
"Silly boy, do you think that relying on these can save us from rain, snow, frost, taxes, corvee, and banditry?"
"If I encounter bad people doing evil, I will beat them all away, leaving no one behind!"
"This - it doesn't change anything. Son, please remember that half of the evil in the world is caused by greed, and the other half is caused by fear. Now that the emperor is declining, the feudal kingdoms in the southeast are constantly fighting. If it weren't for heroes To end the current troubled times, I am afraid there will never be a day of peace."
"Then I will work hard to be the hero who ends the troubled times!"
Seeing his son with a serious face speaking so seriously, the man couldn't help but sigh and smiled bitterly.
The mother who heard the conversation between her husband and her son immediately shouted to stop:
"Bah, bah, bah, the more you two talk, the more unreasonable you are! These disobedient words are a serious crime of beheading, so you are not afraid that outsiders will hear it?!"
She immediately stopped what she was doing, nervously walked to the crack of the door and looked outside. She felt relieved when she saw no one outside:
"Dad is going to sea tomorrow morning. Yan'er, why don't you hurry up and help mend the holes in the fishing net?"
However, before Jiang Yan could agree, a series of deafening roars suddenly sounded outside the dilapidated house door. The sound sounded a bit like firecrackers set off during the New Year, but it was much denser than the sound of firecrackers. Shortly after the loud noise, The family even faintly heard the frightening screams from the residents of the village.
"Is it a pirate? But the pirates only have swords and guns. What makes those strange noises?"
The man's expression darkened, and he immediately gathered his children in his arms. Jiang Yan could clearly feel his father's hands trembling slightly, and he couldn't help but become nervous.
Then another scream came from not far away, and the man could no longer hide his inner panic. He pushed his wife's shoulders out of the mud house, picked up the child and walked quickly towards the fishing boat on the beach.
"Get on the boat quickly and head to the place where there is no light! No matter what happens, don't say anything, and you must not return to the shore before dawn!"
The man muttered in a trembling voice, seeming to be talking to himself, and also seeming to be giving instructions to his wife and children.
The woman followed the child and climbed into the boat in panic. After raising the sail, she suddenly turned around. She saw her husband under the boat threw away the cable in his hand and turned back toward the shore where the flames were already blazing. She screamed at that moment. :
"Dad, where are you going?"
"This is the home we managed with great difficulty, we can't just lose it like this!"
The man held a hatchet that he picked up from somewhere in his hand. His body was a little stiff due to nervousness, but there was no hesitation in his steps.
At this moment, the village was already in chaos. The neighbors who had fled their homes gradually organized themselves amid the raging fires. Some were holding harpoons and oars, or waving hatchets and fish hooks, and rushed into the night. The invaders launched a counterattack.
"No, you can't go back!"
The woman immediately became anxious and hurriedly followed the man and jumped into the water, trying to pull her husband back to the boat. At the same time, the old sail full of holes swelled in the cold wind. The fishing boat suddenly It accelerated, and the two children on it became unsteady and fell to the deck one after another.
"Mom, Daddy, I'm afraid!"
The little girl hit her forehead and immediately burst into tears.
The couple who heard the child's cry became more and more panicked, and arduously followed the boat into the sea again. However, the wind on the sea suddenly became stronger, and the boat floated more and more in the undulating black waves. The farther you drift, the harder it is to catch up.
Jiang Yan struggled to stand firm on the swaying boat and stretched out his hand to furl the sail. In desperation, he used too much force and actually tore off a suspension rope on the sail head. With a crash, the wooden rigging The heavy beam rushed down diagonally from the top of the mast and hit him squarely on the forehead.
Strong dizziness accompanied by severe pain hit him irresistibly. Xiangyan staggered back a few steps, stumbled and fell to the side of the ship, and was completely unconscious.
When the boy regained consciousness, a milky white halo appeared in the eastern sky. He was horrified to find that the fishing boat under him had drifted far away from the shore with the current. To make matters worse, My sister, who was crying loudly on the boat, was also missing at this time!
Jiang Yan stood on the boat, mustering up all his strength to call out his sister's nickname on the still dark sea, but he didn't get a single response. He was extremely anxious, but he had no idea where to start.
The wound on the right eyebrow arch that was hit by the crossbar, although it was now scabbed with blood, was still painful. In a daze, Jiang Yan, whose face was covered with blood, had to take out the oar and follow the fire on the shore in the distance that was not yet extinguished. The firelight rowed hard towards the direction of the fishing village.
It wasn't until daybreak that the boy dragged his exhausted body back onto the shore. However, what he saw made him unable to stand firm anymore. He only felt that his knees were weak, and he knelt down on the ground with a plop - —
The entire fishing village had been reduced to blackened ashes in the fire that burned all night long. The adobe houses that the villagers used to shelter from the wind and rain were now only the cracked and collapsed ruins. There were ruins everywhere. There were scattered remnants of fire, and brittle beams and columns continued to collapse from above the incomplete and overturned house without warning, making a loud banging sound that made people tremble with fear.
Soon, among the ruins more than ten steps away, two familiar figures came into Jiang Yan's eyes. His head felt like a sap on the spot. He felt like the world was spinning, his ears were buzzing, and he burst into tears. Even more uncontrollable words welled up from his eyes——
Those were the father and mother who just a few hours ago were still thinking about protecting their homeland. They fell in a pool of blood, with dozens of circular blood holes on their torsos that were made by unknown objects. Until they died, the couple still Maintaining a tight embrace. This scene is so real, yet so illusory, like a nightmare that is difficult to wake up from.
Jiang Yan burst into tears and pinched his thigh several times. The strong and real pain made him become more and more desperate. In his eyes blurred by tears, he suddenly noticed that there was something tight in his father's stiff fist.
Holding something tightly.
The sobbing boy opened his father's curled fingers one by one, and saw that what he held in his palm was actually a black drop-shaped object with a strange shape, which seemed to be torn from the body of the gangster who massacred the fishing village last night.
of.
"Dad, do you want to tell Yan'er something?"
Jiang Yan kept wiping the tears on his face that could not be wiped away, and even rubbed sand into his eyes without caring. He held the drop-shaped object in his hand very carefully and looked at it carefully. He never thought that just now,
As soon as it came into contact with the tears stained on the boy's palm, the object suddenly emitted a dazzling light from the inside, and out of thin air, a bloodless face of a strange man was outlined in front of Jiang Yan's eyes!
This sudden change made Jiang Yan tremble in fright, and the drop-shaped object accidentally fell on a raised rock at his feet. It shattered into pieces with a "snap", and the man's face in the air also followed.
Dissipate into nothingness.
He doesn't know how long it took, but Jiang Yan's heart was still beating wildly, but he tried his best to imprint the fleeting appearance of the man just now in his mind - because he vaguely realized that this person might be...
He was the culprit who killed his father and mother, and caused himself to be separated from his sister!
Suddenly, Jiang Yan seemed to understand why his father had previously compared Da Shengchao and the Bai Jiang clan to evil dragons - if the government was harmonious and the prosperity was peaceful, how could he allow the bandits to massacre wantonly and destroy his family and his loved ones overnight?
Yin and Yang are separated!
"Father, mother, one day I will personally end this troubled world and avenge you!"
The boy never said a word again. He just knelt down in front of his dead parents for three full days.
Finally, he decided to rush to Dankou in the north on foot. He had heard from his father that there was a port there, and the warships of various vassal states that exterminated pirates would dock from time to time. Although it later proved that this move was not a wise decision, it was nevertheless
At only eight years old, he could think of the only way to survive.
Since that day, Jiang Yan never knelt down to anyone easily, nor shed a tear easily.