"I am seventeen this year, and I am your brother!" Xu Dayan said with a smile, and gently took out a dagger from his boot with his right hand. The bright starlight illuminated the cold frost blade of the dagger, and also illuminated his eyes.
.
"There is a valley ahead!" Li Xu whispered, turning his head suddenly, and out of the corner of his eye saw something flashing in Xu Dayan's hand.
Before he could say a word, Xu Maogong's eyes suddenly lit up. With one hand on his back, he flew off the horse. The moment his body was in the air, the dagger stabbed Heifeng hard in the buttocks.
Li Xu leaned down and saw a haggard face in the lake. "Is this me?" He couldn't help but let out a bitter smile, and the reflection in the lake grinned with a dry mouth and bloodshot eyes.
The cracked lips rippled on the water waves with the heavy breathing.
A pair of rough hands reached into the water, shattering the reflection on the lake. The cool feeling spread from the fingers to the arms, along the shoulders and flowed into the heart. The fire in the heart gradually cooled down, replaced by a dull pain.
All year round, the water in Crescent Lake is as cold as ice. Splashing the cold water on your face can quickly drive away the fatigue in your body. Li Xu took handfuls after handfuls, and used the cold water to wash his face and soul.
. He didn’t like the haggard figure reflected in the lake. Such a lazy and slovenly person should not be him. “Cheer up!” He shouted loudly to the lake, and his voice spread on the empty water, stirring up countless passing birds.
After the white feathers of the flying bird were gone, the feeling of exhaustion and boredom still lingered in my heart.
He knew he should have a good sleep. It had been two days and two nights since he left Su Chuobu. He couldn't remember whether he had closed his eyes or whether he had eaten anything. Standing in silence for a long time in the wild made his head ache.
I was a little dizzy, even a little confused as to why I was wandering by the lake.
This is the place where Tao Kuo took off his silk to get the star iron for himself. Passing by this place the morning before yesterday, he naively thought that Tao Kuo would suddenly change his mind and catch up on his horse. Li Xu smiled bitterly and made excuses for himself. Black
The wind was galloping too fast. If he galloped, no good horse in the Su Chuan tribe could catch up. So, he had to wait by the lake. Two days and two nights passed, and the lake was still the same.
His figure will never appear again.
Li Xu shook his head hard to regain some of his energy. He had to leave here, otherwise once the first snow fell, walking alone on the grassland would be asking for death. In fact, the result of waiting outside the tent that night had already been told.
It was Tao Kuo's choice to take off the silk. But Li Xu didn't want to believe it. He would rather guess that Tao Kuo fell asleep crying when he took off the silk, thus missing the best opportunity for the two of them to escape.
"Tell Tao Kuo Tuosi that I will wait for her by the Crescent Lake!" Before dawn, Li Xu whispered to Ayun when he got up to say goodbye. He believed that Ayun would not miss every word he said. Now,
He could only force himself to believe in Tao Kuo's final choice.
"It's good. With Ganluo as your dowry, that Gu Tuolu from Ashina's family shouldn't dare to bully you!" Li Xu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and finally turned his face to the south. The autumn wind had already dyed the grassland.
Yellow, the time for large-scale slaughter of livestock is coming again. This autumn, countless caravans will come to Suchubu following the route that Uncle Jiu took last year. By then, a warehouse will make a lot of money. Parents about
The reply to marry Tao Kuo Tuosi can also arrive with the caravan. But I wonder if the two old people will be disappointed when they learn that their son failed to get married in the end!
He felt dizzy and let the black wind carry him to the south. There was no road on the grassland. As long as he kept going south, bypassing the mountains and wading through the water, he would be able to see the Great Wall. After seeing the Great Wall
, it was like arriving at his own home. Suddenly, a question flashed through his mind, "Has the conscription deadline passed? Have the soldiers and horses of the Sui Dynasty's Northern Conquest of Goryeo already set off?"
What if the conscription order is still there? Li Xu raised his head and looked around blankly. There was no smoke in the open grassland, and there was no place for him to settle down. "Forget it, if you become a soldier, you will be a soldier, and if you die in battle,
Just go to sleep!" He lowered his head to the horse's neck again, thinking tiredly. When the anger, disappointment and sadness were all accumulated into memories, the young man gradually became a little cynical in his heart.
Don't you say I'm a coward? Don't you look down on a Central Plains hawker? One day I'm going to be a general and a champion, let's see if you still laugh then! Thinking like this, he slowly stretched out his hand to pretend to be a hawker.
He tried his best to lift the wineskin, but he stumbled.
He drank all the wine and forgot to fill it with water when he left the Crescent Lake! Li Xu straightened up on his horse and looked back. He didn't know how far he had run in his daze, and there was no shadow of the Crescent Lake behind him. "
Go back again?" He found that he had another reason to wait another day, smiled, reached out and slapped himself loudly.
"You trash!" Li Xu cursed at himself. He tied the wine bag back to the horse's back and clamped the stirrups hard. Black Wind had been waiting for this moment for a long time. He let out a roar and flew his four hooves into the air, flying around him.
The scenery was forgotten.
It wasn't until he could no longer think of turning around that Li Xu ordered Heifeng to slow down. After a galloping, both man and horse were sweating profusely. He found a depression with particularly green grass and jumped off the horse.
, pulled out the short knife used for cutting meat from his waist, and dug hard into the ground. This was the method of finding water in the wild taught to him by A Silan and others. Where there is an underground water source, the grass will turn green early and dry up later.
As long as you keep digging, you will definitely find water.
After half a stick of incense, mud gushes out from the bottom of the pit. Li Xu stretched out his hand and pulled out the mud from the bottom of the pit, and then plugged the water holes with a few gravels. The muddy water became thinner and thinner, gradually became clearer, and gradually
It turned into a trickle. Li Xu pulled Hei Feng over and asked him to take his first drink of water.
Heifeng snorted with satisfaction and looked at Li Xu with a pair of big, deep eyes. Obviously, he cared about whether his master valued him. After drinking enough water, his energy increased greatly. He ran away for a few steps.
, lowering his head to look for the latest buds in the grass.
Li Xu gently chased after him and took off the wine bag from the horse again. This time he had to fill it with enough water. If the water source could not be found within a few days, the lives of the men and horses depended on the leather bag in their hands.
The reflection allowed him to see his face again. Within a few days, he seemed to have grown up by four or five years. The soft and sparse beard that used to be drilled down his cheeks had gradually formed a sphere of influence. A few messy strands
The hair flowed down from the temples and was mixed with the curving beard. One of them was particularly eye-catching. Starting from the lower half, it actually turned white.
"Wu Zixu passed Zhaoguan!" Li Xu smiled bitterly and shook his head.
As if Heifeng knew his master's thoughts, Hei Feng ran over slowly, lowered his head and licked Li Xu's face with his tongue. "It's so dirty, do you know the smell of grass is very strong!" Li Xu lightly slapped him in the face and cursed.
.
Heifeng took a few steps back and snorted in dissatisfaction, his eyes seemed to be a bit mocking. "What do you know!" Li Xu cursed with a smile, licked his temples with cold water, and jumped on the horse.
"I killed a wild ass, a wild ass, and used its entrails to honor the wolf. I killed a leopard, a leopard, and used its fur to sew war clothes. I didn't kill the deer next to the felt bag.
Cook for me when I go hunting. I don’t shoot the eagle in the sky, it guides me in the direction of my prey..."
Accompanied by the young man's pastoral song, the sound of horse hooves became farther and farther away, gradually dissipating into the depths of the dusk.
On the third day after leaving the Crescent Lake, the south wind blew on the grass tips.
This is not a good sign. Autumn is the season of northwest winds. The warm south wind blows across the Great Wall, often bringing disaster to the grasslands. Li Xu and Hei Feng both worked hard and tried their best to rush south.
.But God obviously didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tease this pair of prey, and soon released dark clouds to cover the entire sky.
The sky was dark, as if it was about to fall from the top of his head. On the vast and endless grassland, the surrounding scenery became exactly the same. Without the guidance of sunlight, Li Xu could no longer be sure that he was walking the way home. Every day
After walking a few dozen steps, he would have to jump off his horse and rely on hearsay experiences and rely on the occasional small tree or stone to determine the direction of the Central Plains. Sometimes nothing could be found on the ground, so he could only hold it against his head.
Let the wind go away, and at the same time pray that the wind direction remains the same as before the clouds started, without any change.
In the middle of the night, he lit a fire in a depression. The light of the fire and the smell of cooked meat soon attracted several groups of predators. Pairs of blue-green eyes rolled around the fire, like countless people who had lost their homes.
The lonely soul was wandering around holding a lantern. Black Wind tensed his limbs vigilantly, always ready to hit the invading enemy with his hooves. Li Xu gathered up anything that could be ignited around him to keep the fire burning. He had some
I regret not stealing Gan Luo out. When Gan Luo is around, no wild wolf dares to come within ten feet.
"Maybe it is really a sacred object!" Li Xu said to himself. No one listened to him in the middle of the night, only Black Wind snorted uneasily. "However, I am an unlucky guy, so I am dragging you down!"
Li Xu smiled and threw a few pieces of dry animal dung into the fire, maybe it was wild donkey dung, maybe it was wild deer dung. Anyway, these things can be ignited. As long as the fire does not go out, the wolves will not have the courage to attack.
When it was almost dawn, he couldn't hold it any longer and fell asleep in the cold wind. In his sleep, he saw Tao Kuo taking off his silk and living a happy life of riding horses and swords across the wilderness. Then, a group of
Red Cloak rushed over and snatched away Tao Kuo's silk. He drew his sword and tried his best, but found that he had nothing in his hand.
"Attached!" Tao Kuo took off his silk clothes and hugged him, tears falling into the rain. Li Xu reached out to wipe Tao Kuo's silky cheeks, but there was a cold feeling between his palms.
He suddenly opened his eyes and saw a few bright colors coming out of the sky. Hundreds of crystal clear snowflakes drifted down from the sky, blowing the embers on the grass into misty blue smoke. The wolves had dispersed, and the black wind was blowing.
Looking for breakfast not far away. Under the low clouds, a few rows of wild geese were squawking and flying south. (To be continued)
