The man with skin as smooth as white jade, long black hair spread on the quilt, and a cold fragrance floating on his body was lying next to him, with his index finger on his lips.
It was dark inside, and it should have been difficult to see clearly, but An Yinong saw this man clearly: he was a handsome man, with sword-shaped eyebrows and phoenix eyes, carrying a majestic appearance.
When he came closer, there was a fragrance that he had smelled before.
“Uuuuuuuuuuuu Host, I’m sorry for you, I just realized that this is a high-risk world!” The system squatted in An Yinong’s ear and cried, making An Yinong’s brows twitch.
“Okay, don’t cry.” He thought of the strange ending in the plot. It was reasonable for ghosts to exist in this world. The protagonist’s choice to become a monk was most likely not because he truly regrets it, but to show it to some ‘ghost’.
“Who are you?” An Yinong asked in a low voice, holding the machete tightly in one hand.
“You offended me, I didn’t kill you, but you want to kill me?”
The man’s cold fingers wrapped around An Yinong’s hand holding the knife, and the fingertips of his other hand scratched his chin. He could not move at this moment and could only ask calmly: “I don’t know why I offended you?”
“Isn’t it offensive enough that you use my urn to press food?”
“…” He has done this kind of thing once since he came here. On the first day, he used a broken black jar to press potatoes.
Who would have thought it was an urn? Wasn’t burial popular among ancient people?
“I’m sorry.” Knowing that it was his fault, An Yinong simply apologized, “I don’t know what I can do to ask for your forgiveness?”
“It doesn’t matter.” An Yinong’s unusual reaction seemed to please the man. His eyes narrowed, “Anyway, the ashes inside have been swept away.”
“…” Then you are still chasing me to apologize?
The man chuckled, and the deep laughter hit his eardrums, giving people goosebumps: “Of course, if you insist on apologizing, I won’t stop you. From now on, if you offer me a stick of incense every day, I will protect you.”
This statement sounded a bit unbelievable, but for some reason, An Yinong was willing to believe that it was true. He relaxed slightly and said, “I’ll buy some incense when we get to the next town.”
“No, I brought it myself.” The man waved his sleeves and took out a mahogany box with exquisite patterns, inside which were neatly arranged incense sticks.
“…”
An Yinong didn’t sleep well that night. Although the man disappeared and could not be seen, he knew that the man was always there. The next day he had dark circles under his eyes. Fortunately, everyone else was the same and didn’t sleep well, so he didn’t stand out.
An Yinong took a little water to wet the handkerchief, wiped his face, and then took a little brown plaster made from herbs from a jar. After pushing it open, he applied it to both sides of the cheeks and temples, causing the face to be sunken. The visual effect, and then wiped his teeth with a little salt on the corner of the handkerchief.
“No wonder you still look thin despite eating so much.”
When An Yinong turned around, he found the man sitting on his wheelbarrow. He wore a jade crown and robe, holding an ebony fan painted with landscapes, and satin with exquisite textures was spread on the box, which was incompatible with the entire environment.
“Find a piece of dirty cloth to wrap your face, the effect will be better.” The man leaned there lazily and spoke lazily.
An Yinong looked around.
“Don’t worry, they can’t see me. My surname is Gu, and my character is Zhongzhong. Just call me Zhongzhong.”
As expected, no one else looked here, so An Yinong whispered, “My name is Tian Xi.”
“This is not your real name,” the man shook the delicate fan in his hand, “When someone calls you this, you always have to confirm it.”
This man’s observation was careful, and he probably saw the secret of turning into food after he disappeared. Forget it, don’t worry if there are too many lice.
“Yinong, this is my name, given by an elder.”
The man was satisfied: “Yinong, don’t forget to offer incense today.”
The yellow-brown incense was lit and inserted into the gap of the wooden frame. The car swayed forward, and the incense stick swayed along with it. The man in rich clothes crossed his legs and leaned over, and the smoke lingered around him.
After burning the incense, the man raised his eyebrows and looked at him: “To thank you, I will keep you vigil at night so that you can relax more.”
As soon as he finished speaking, An Yinong noticed that the cloth strips on his shoulders were loosened and the vehicle he was pushing became much lighter. If it used to be more than 200 jins and almost 300 jins, now it is only around 100 jins.
“Thank you.” An Yinong thanked him sincerely. After thinking about it, he took out the tangerines he was reluctant to eat and put them in the car. The tangerines were his reward, and Mary gave four or five of them.
The man stared at the yellow orange for a long time. Without asking where it came from, he picked it up and peeled it open: “It’s so sweet.”
His slender white fingers peeled the orange apart piece by piece. The thin membrane was easily torn, and the rich juice flowed out.
An Yinong could smell the sweet and sour taste. He licked his lips and wanted to eat.
The first day of escaping was more of a psychological pain. After all, they were leaving their hometown. But on the second day, they began to know what running away was.
Not only the psychological exhaustion caused by the hopeless and repetitive desolate environment, but also the physical exhaustion caused by not eating well, sleeping well and being on the road.
“No, my legs hurt.” After walking for a day and not getting a good rest at night, many people’s leg muscles become sore and painful the next day.
“Do you want some leggings?” An Yinong pointed to his calf, “It won’t hurt so much if it’s tied like this.”
He had already tied his calves with long strips of cloth. The leggings could protect his legs and avoid the swelling and pain caused by blood accumulation during the long trek.
“Is that useful?”
“Would you know if you try it?” Another person said, and had already begun to look for long strips of cloth to prepare leggings.
Soon, most of the people had their calves tied up, and they kicked their legs unaccustomed: “The flesh is stretched and a little swollen.”
The villagers were still dubious at this moment, but after walking for a long time, they felt the benefits of the leggings: “It’s a good thing. It doesn’t hurt after walking for so long.”
An Yinong forced a smile. He was too tired to talk anymore. He was tired even from smiling.
They passed through several small counties along the way, but the gates of each city were closed and refused to be opened to the refugees.
“Bang!” Without any warning, an old lady who was leaning on the wheel rolled out of the wheelbarrow, and the young man pushing the wheelbarrow was startled.
“mother?!”
The crowd stopped, and familiar people approached. They carefully stretched out their fingers, and their weak breath touched their fingertips. The visitor breathed a sigh of relief: “You’re still alive, hurry up, pour some water, do you have anything to eat?”
The boy, who looked like he had just grown up, hurriedly brought water and cotton cakes.
“This cake is not good. It needs to be softer. Soak it in water until it becomes soft.”
His tears rolled down: “This is all I have now.”
Cotton dregs cake was a cake made from ground cotton seeds. It was poisonous and cannot be eaten in large quantities. But there was nothing to eat at the moment, just this.
If the cotton slag cakes were gone, they would have to consider tree bark and Guanyin soil. That would be the real dead end.
Everyone was saddened by his crying, but they couldn’t do anything when he asked them to bring out food. Not to mention that they didn’t have food themselves. Even if they did, they had to think about their wives and children.
How many days are they running away? There will be a long time to eat in the future.
An Yinong’s hand had already touched the box. In the box was his ration, not counting kudzu powder and other things, it weighed more than a hundred kilograms. but……
He turned his face away and retracted his stretched out fingers one by one with difficulty.
Fortunately, the old woman woke up after drinking some water. She slowly sat up and said, “I’m not in the way. I just fainted after sitting for too long. I’ll be fine if I take a walk.”
Her son quickly helped the old man walk, actually believing his mother’s words.
Everyone looked at the mother and son, shaking their heads secretly: I’m afraid she won’t be able to hold on for long.
Because of such an accident, the team repaired in place for more than ten minutes before setting off again. This time, they were even quieter during the journey, and even the expressions on their faces gradually turned numb.
“I thought you would help.” Gu Zhengzhong looked at An Yinong.
“If I have the energy, I will help.”
But where does the spare energy come from? He only had so much food, but there were so many people affected by the disaster, and there was nothing he could do to help them. Since you have to face death sooner or later, it is better to be so cruel early in the morning.
As an ‘orphan’ who lost his parents and had no close relatives or elders, the original owner’s life in the village was also very difficult, but the only people who helped him were the village chief and his family.
Their mood that day was the same as An Yinong’s mood now. Call him selfish or cold-blooded. He has to take care of himself first when it comes to food. If the village chief’s family was in dire straits, he would try his best to help, but not others.
Having said that, that night, the young man still found a strange paper bag in his car. It was probably paper, very soft, with patterns printed on it. He found half a pound of millet inside, and a persimmon cake pressed on the paper package.
“…his words are too good for his integrity.” The system complained.
“Shut up, you.”
The old woman died two days later and slept through the night without suffering any harm.
Her son took the paper bag and bowed to everyone: “My mother asked me to thank my benefactor so that I could eat my favorite persimmon before leaving. I also thank you. My mother left in her sleep after eating so much that she didn’t suffer at all.” .”
After he finished speaking, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed several times.
“Okay, your mother has eaten and left, okay. She is free, and so are you.” An old man of about the same age looked at the skinny body, and then looked back at his children who were also suffering from hunger.
“Dad, don’t say that.”
An Yinong turned sideways, and he felt a kind of heartache. He was worried not because a person died, but because this was an era where people could starve to death. Although there were many shortcomings in his previous life, at least they were far away from hunger, so far away that he forgot that people had starved to death fifty or sixty years ago.
“I was too comfortable before.” He stared blankly at the man digging a groove in the ground and putting his mother’s body inside.
The team set off again, and suddenly he heard the barking of dogs. He turned his head and saw wild dogs who didn’t know where they came from, surrounding the dug place, constantly scratching at something with their claws.
“Don’t look at it, don’t look at it. You are buried too deep for wild dogs to eat.” The elder from before comforted the young man, who immediately burst into tears.
“Mom, I can’t help you. I can’t even build a grave for you.”
The others also had sore noses, but the old man said with a calmness that had seen through the world: “Let’s go, your mother has someone to collect the body, so enjoy yourself.”
They kept walking forward, not daring to look back.
That night, An Yinong heard the barking of dogs in his sleep. He woke up several times and was woken up by crying again the next morning.
A couple knelt on the ground and cried loudly. There was an old man hanging on the tree in front of them. He was the old man who helped bury grandma yesterday.
WhiteMoon x BlackSun 