The Birds Keep Ringing Chapter 20
byChapter 20: Heroic and righteous. Don’t cry, Yun Zhen.
Three people, three horses, plus a bird and a fox, wandered into a place called Mikawa Village before it became completely dark.
Half of the archway at the entrance of the village has collapsed, probably due to disrepair. The word “river” in the middle fell off and fell to the ground in two pieces. As a result, the village is now called “Sancun”.
Without a word, the village seems to be a little less lively. Most of the houses in the village are dilapidated, and the adobes on the walls are cracked.
The strangest thing is that there is not a single person in such a big village.
“Chirp chirp chirp!”
Why is this place so run-down?
Yunzhen huddled in Jiang Zhi’s collar, only showing his furry head, pointing with his pitifully short wings.
The master squinted his eyes and looked around: “It shouldn’t be. This place is not far from Luoyang. Why is it so desolate? There is not even a dog on the road.”
“Maybe he was eaten.” Xiao Fenzhi lay lazily on his master’s shoulder, flicking his big tail, making the master’s nose itch. “A dog in prosperous times guards the door, and a dog in troubled times serves the table. Isn’t that what you people are like? Today you are a pet, and tomorrow you are food. You are very flexible.”
Wen Wan felt something was wrong, “Could it be a plague?”
“It’s not like that.” Master shook his head, “If there’s a plague, there should be a putrid smell.”
“Chirp.” Yunzhen called out.
He suspected it was a ghost village.It is written like this in the storybook, the moon was dark and the wind was high, the whole village disappeared, and then a female ghost in white climbed out of the well.
“Have you seen my head?”
Thinking of this, Bird’s head froze, and he quickly pulled his head in.
Wen Wan frowned: “How about we take a detour, I always think this place is eerie.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp cry suddenly came from the depths, mixed with the heart-rending cry of a child.
Yunzhen’s ears pricked up: “Chirp!”
They followed the sound, and the further they walked in, the weirder they felt.It’s not that there are no people in this village, but everyone is hiding. Behind those broken windows, there are many pairs of eyes peeking secretly.
There was a grain-drying field in the center of the village. A large circle of people gathered around it. Among the crowd stood seven or eight people dressed as government servants, holding a big knife in their hands and looking sinister.
A woman hugged the officer’s thigh tightly and cried hoarsely: “Master! Please do it! My baby is only one year old! He hasn’t been weaned yet! Please!”
The officer looked impatient and kicked the woman away.
The woman fell to the ground, but ignored the pain and got up on her hands and knees and continued to beg.
The head guard took out a roster, dipped his finger in saliva, turned a page, and drew a circle on it with a pen. The circle was very round, and he obviously drew it frequently.
“Stop howling. The Imperial Master said that ninety-nine pure-yang boys are needed to enter the palace. This is your baby’s blessing! It’s a good thing that the ancestral graves are smoking! You are a cunning woman who doesn’t know how to praise! There is no way for others to send them away!”
An old man in the crowd whispered: “The children from the next village entered the palace last time and never came back…”
The head of the police force sneered, “Come back and farm like you? That’s to serve the emperor, it’s his destiny!”
Yun Zhen’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he heard this.
The old emperor is crazy about immortality, using a boy as a medicine guide?The Lu family uses animals, while the emperor directly uses people. It can be seen that the royal family is always one step ahead of the common people in the field of perversion.
Wen Wan couldn’t stand it anymore. She had always been soft-hearted, especially when women and children suffered. Just as she was about to rush forward, she was tightly entangled by a big fluffy tail.
Xiao Fenzhi held her back: “Junior sister, don’t be impulsive. It’s official duty. People don’t fight with officials. We have just saved the martial arts leader. If we provoke the government again, this wanted order will be posted in the desert. We will have to go to Persia to sell mutton skewers.”
“Can an official just rob someone?” Wen Wan was so angry that her eyes turned red.
“Yes.” The master said coolly from the side, “Why not? As long as they wear that kind of skin.”
The master sighed, pulled the reins and prepared to turn around: “Let’s go, disciples, let’s go to the next village to stay. We can’t finish this kind of business.”
“Chirp!”
Yunzhen broke away from Jiang Zhi’s arms, flew to his master’s head, and pecked at the few sparse hairs.
“Ouch! Ouch! You evil disciple! Let go!” Master grinned in pain, “This is bullying the master and destroying the ancestors!”
Yunzhen pecked and gestured: Change me back!now!immediately!Right now!
The master covered his head, unable to bear the attack of this crazy bird: “Change, change! It’s going to change! Stop pecking, otherwise you’ll be really bald.”
He pinched the magic formula with his hands and muttered words in his mouth.After a burst of white mist, a young man wearing bright red clothes appeared out of thin air in the middle of the street.
Yunzhen landed unsteadily, staggered a bit, and made flapping movements with his hands.He quickly straightened his somewhat messy collar, and his red outfit stood out among the dusty crowd.
The villagers were startled and backed away.
“Master, you are afraid of things, but I am not.” Yun Zhen walked over with a cold face and strode over.
The head of the police force glanced sideways at the young man in red in front of him.He was thin-skinned and tender, and he didn’t have any weapons in his hands. He looked like a silly young man who ran away from somewhere. He was probably lost or his brain was not working very well.
“The government is doing business, you guys, get out of here!” The head of the police force waved his hand impatiently, “If you are wise, hurry up and go home. Don’t get in the way here, otherwise we will arrest you too and let your father use the money to redeem me.”
Yun Zhen smiled, with a hint of the dandyism he had when he was a young boy in Jiangnan.
“Is there any royal law for robbing children in broad daylight?”
“Wang Fa?” The chief officer smiled, as if he had heard some big joke, and the flesh on his face was trembling with laughter, “Boy, how old are you? The Emperor is Wang Fa! Not to mention asking for a boy, even if it means the life of your whole family, it is a great favor from the Emperor, and you have to thank the Lord for His grace!”
When he said this, his expression became ferocious: “Don’t call me a young boy, even if the leader of the martial arts alliance comes, you won’t be able to take care of this matter!”
Yunzhen almost laughed out loud when he heard this.
Martial arts leader?That Lu Ting who had been penetrated by his second senior brother?
“The leader of the martial arts alliance really can’t control it.” Yunzhen said seriously, “Because he has been busy recently and is busy reincarnating.”
“What?” The guard leader was stunned for a moment and didn’t understand.
“It’s nothing. I mean, the leader of the martial arts alliance is far away from here and can’t control it.” Yunzhen’s eyes became sharp. “He can’t control it, but I can.”
“You?” The head guard looked Yunzhen up and down, his eyes full of contempt, “Just you? Boy, I think you are tired of living.”
Yunzhen tried to calm down.Losing his temper won’t solve the problem, he has to find a way.
He thought of the passages in those story books.Usually at this time, the protagonist will say something particularly domineering and then reveal his identity, scaring the shit out of everyone.
But the problem is, he has nothing to show off his identity.
Yunzhen thought about it and decided to make up one randomly.
“I am…” He cleared his throat, put his hands behind his back, and raised his chin at a forty-five-degree angle, looking incomprehensible. “I am the one appointed by the current saint…”
Yunzhen’s mind was racing, trying to find an official position that was both bluffing and difficult to expose.
“The hand-appointed… Customs Envoy, under the order of the Emperor, inspects the local customs and customs. He is specifically responsible for supervising whether officials in various places…are urinating in public, and whether they are acting recklessly.”
“Collector?” The head of the guard looked at him suspiciously, “There is also this official? Why haven’t you heard of it? What rank is it?”
“Bold! Can you inquire about such a secret?” Yunzhen said sternly, “If you knew about the secret position that the emperor set up for private visits incognito, would it still be called a secret position? Do you want to spy on the military? Do you want to rebel?”
With this big hat off, the guard leader was also a little confused.This guy said one thing after another. What if he is really some kind of prince and prince who visits privately incognito…
“Do you have a certificate?” Although the head of the service has little education, he has been in the officialdom for many years and is not easy to fool. “Take it out and have a look. If you can’t show it, you are pretending to be an official of the imperial court, and your head will be beheaded. I think your head looks good. It would be good to chop it off and play it as a ball.”
Yunzhen cursed in his heart: This guard is quite difficult to deal with. He touched his body and found nothing except the bird feather that fell off just now.
“Certificate…” Yunzhen rolled his eyes and suddenly had an idea, “This is my certificate!”
He pointed at Jiang Zhi: “He is my certificate!”
The head guard followed his finger and saw an expressionless man in black riding a horse with a sword hanging from his waist. He exuded an aura that kept strangers away from him.
“Him?” The head of the police force frowned, “What kind of credentials does he have? A person?”
“Presumptuous! He is not a human being!” Yunzhen shouted.
Jiang Zhi: “…”
“He is my sword-wielding guard!”
Yun Zhen became more and more fluent as he spoke, “Let me tell you, this bodyguard of mine is a peerless master trained by Ouchi, codenamed Black Cat. He kills people without batting an eyelid, eats fish without spitting out their thorns, and likes to cut off other people’s ears and drink wine. This sword of his can behead the faint-hearted king at the top… No, it can behead the corrupt officials at the top, and the unruly people at the bottom!”
Jiang Zhi: “…”
The guard leader looked at Jiang Zhi doubtfully. The man in black did not look easy to mess with, and the sword on his waist did not look ordinary.
“Even if you are an imperial envoy, so what?” the chief of the envoy said with a stern expression, “We are here to arrest the boy under the orders of the imperial master. This is the emperor’s order, can you take care of it?”
“National Preceptor?” Yunzhen sneered, “Which Imperial Preceptor? Nowadays, you can do two tricks and you dare to call yourself a National Preceptor? I guess where did the monsters come from and haven’t shown their true colors yet?”
As soon as these words came out, the chief officer’s expression changed drastically: “How dare you, Imperial Master, let you slander me! I think you are a liar. Brothers, come on and arrest this pretty boy pretending to be an imperial envoy!”
Several officers immediately rushed forward, holding their knives high.
Jiang Zhi’s eyes flashed, and he was about to move, but was held down by his master.
The master looked at Yunzhen, his eyes a little heavy: “Zhen’er can handle those minions, let him do it by himself.”
“Second senior brother, borrow the sword and use it!” Yunzhen shouted and stretched out his hand.
He capsized the boat and flew towards Yunzhen with his sword in its scabbard.
Yunzhen reached out to catch it.
The moment he took it, his arm sank suddenly.
So heavy!
Normally, I would see Jiang Zhi holding it like he was playing with it, and he would have thought the sword was made of paper, but he didn’t expect it to be so heavy, almost breaking the waist of the great bird warrior like him.Yunzhen gritted his teeth and pretended to be calm.
The first officer rushed up.
Yunzhen hurriedly raised his sword to block, forgetting that the sword was still in its sheath.
“Dang!”
The broadsword hit the scabbard with a muffled sound.The officer’s jaw trembled, and he took two steps back, looking at Yunzhen in shock.
Yunzhen was also shocked.
He reacted completely instinctively and didn’t expect to be able to block it at all.Moreover, the guard looked very shaken. Could it be that the scabbard was also so powerful?
What he didn’t know was that the reason why the officer was knocked back was not because of how powerful the sword was, but because Yunzhen’s posture in holding the sword was so weird that it caused the sword to come into contact with the hardest point of the scabbard, and the angle was tricky, which hit the officer’s tendons.
It can be said that it was a complete mistake, a blind bird meets a dead mouse.
When several other officers saw that their companion had suffered a loss, they thought that this boy was a hidden master, and immediately gathered around him.
Yun Zhen panicked. His martial arts skills were poor and half-baked. It was okay to deal with one person, but how could he deal with a group?Isn’t that seeking death?
He subconsciously wanted to pull out the sword, but the more anxious he became, the more his hands shook. The sword seemed to be rusty and could not be pulled out.
Seeing that several knives were about to hit his head, Yun Zhen got wise and decided not to pull out.
He closed his eyes, hugged the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands, and then used all his strength to start spinning in circles.
Those few officers never expected that Yunzhen would use such wild tricks. This was not a swordsmanship, it was clearly the creaking and turning of a big windmill.
Although this trick is ugly, it is surprisingly effective.The sword was too heavy and had great inertia. Once it started spinning, it couldn’t stop.Yunzhen was like a spinning top that was out of control, sending all the surrounding officers flying away.
The three guards screamed and fell to the ground, clutching their stomachs and unable to get up for a long time.
Yun Zhen was spinning so dizzy that he finally stopped and stood up unsteadily, feeling like the sky was spinning.
This…is this a win?
He glanced at his trembling hands and thought: Could it be that I am a hidden genius?So this is just a random punch to kill the old master?
The guard leader was dumbfounded. He didn’t expect that this young man in red, who seemed to have no strength, could be so powerful. This move was unheard of.
“You…who are you?” the head guard asked stammeringly, taking two steps back.
“Didn’t I just say that?” Yunzhen raised his sword to the ground, “I am the Imperial Envoy. Under the orders of the Emperor, I patrol various places to deal with you scum who oppress the people.”
He glanced at them coldly: “Why don’t you get out? Want to see if my sword is stronger than your head?”
The officers were so frightened by this “Windmill Sword Technique” that they rolled and crawled away, not forgetting to look back and look at him fiercely as they ran.
The officers and soldiers ran away, but the child was saved.
Yun Zhen breathed a sigh of relief, his arms were almost broken and his hands were still shaking.He turned around and showed what he thought was the coolest smile, ready to receive the cheers and thanks from the villagers.
He has even thought of a humble line: “It’s a little effort, nothing worth mentioning, don’t be too polite.”
However, there was no cheering.
There was no applause.
Only the woman whose child had just been rescued kowtowed to him with her child in her arms, her forehead bleeding, and she kept saying, “Thank you, hero, thank you, hero.”
But the other villagers, including those hiding behind the cracks in the door, looked at him with fear and even resentment, which was even colder than the way the official looked at him just now.
“Disobeying the emperor’s orders will result in beheading…”
“I could have saved my life if I handed the child over, but now they are all going to die…”
“Where did this person come from from Sangmenxing? Isn’t this harming us?”
“It’s over, it’s over. The officers will definitely bring troops when they return. Let’s run away.”
The smile on Yunzhen’s face froze.
“I…” he wanted to explain, “I’m saving you…”
“Save?” An old man came out tremblingly, his cloudy eyes were like a pool of stagnant water, and he couldn’t see any light. “The emperor wants boys every year. If you don’t pay them this year, you will pay them next year. If you beat the officials, they will only get worse.”
Yunzhen felt that the sword in his hand was a thousand times heavier than before, making him breathless.
He shook his head: “But that child…”
“There will be new children.” The old man said calmly, and that kind of calmness made Yun Zhen’s hair stand on end. “As long as there are still children, there will be new children. After giving birth, we will hand over, and after handing over, there will be another child. One day, the emperor will die, and the Imperial Master will die. By then, maybe there will be no need to hand over.”
As long as there are still children, there will be new children, and there will be another crop after harvest.
These words hit Yunzhen’s heart hard.
Wen Wan came over and gently pulled Yun Zhen’s sleeve, “Zhen Zhen, let’s go.”
“Senior sister…” Yun Zhen looked at her with confusion in his eyes, “Did I do something wrong?”
Wen Wan didn’t answer, she just pulled him out.Her hands were warm, but Yun Zhen felt cold.
They left Mikawa Village.
The voices coming from behind were not thanks, but villagers discussing how to escape, or how to go to other villages to steal a child to use as a counterweight. Some people had even started to snatch the child from the woman’s hands, saying that it was because of her that this disaster had occurred, and perhaps offering this child could atone for the crime.
“It’s all you bitch! If you weren’t unwilling to give birth to a child, how could you have caused such a big trouble!”
Yun Zhen was pulled back by Wen Wan and did not dare to look back.
at night.
The bonfire burned cracklingly, occasionally bursting out one or two sparks, flying into the air, and then quickly extinguished.
Yunzhen hugged his knees and sat outside alone.
He didn’t eat and didn’t say a word. His bright red clothes dimmed in the night, and he was no longer as showy as he was in the morning.
“The emperor is the king’s law.”
The words were spinning around in his head.
He thought of those spiritual beasts with missing arms and legs, the villagers of Sanhe Village, and the old man’s cloudy eyes.
It turns out that this is the world.
It’s not about the beautiful clothes and angry horses written in the story books, the happy grudges, it’s not that if you defeat the bad guys, the world will become better.
It’s the superiors who can crush people into the mud for an illusory dream of immortality. It’s the common people who have to kneel on the ground to thank those holding butcher knives in order to survive.
The people are speechless.
Something warm pressed against his face.
Yunzhen raised his head and saw Jiang Zhi holding a warmed bun.
“Second senior brother.” Yunzhen called.
“Yeah.” Jiang Zhi sat down next to him.
Yunzhen put his chin on his knees and looked at the flames: “I used to think that being a hero meant being cool, showing off in front of others, wearing the best clothes, using the fastest sword, so that others would worship me. The moves only needed to be good-looking, and the name only needed to be majestic.”
“I probably didn’t really want to be a hero,” Yunzhen said, “so I didn’t practice seriously and just cheated and cheated.”
Jiang Zhi listened quietly without interrupting him.
“But now I want to learn.” Yunzhen raised his head, and the firelight reflected in his eyes, beating, “I want to learn the sword to kill people.”
“I want to kill the person who wants to live forever one day.”
“I want to learn how to kill with a sword. You teach me.”
The little junior brother who only knew how to make mischief seemed to have grown up suddenly.Even if this kind of growth is cruel, it is watered with disappointment and pain.
“Okay.” He said.
“Eat something.” Jiang Zhi handed the bun to his mouth, “You won’t have the strength to kill if you’re not full.”
Yun Zhen didn’t move, just looked at the bun.I bought it in the morning. Now the skin is a little hard and not so white, but it is still steaming.
Tears suddenly flowed down.
“Am I stupid?” Yunzhen asked while crying.
“Not stupid.”
Jiang Zhi didn’t say much. He didn’t know how to comfort people. There was no comfort option in the language system yet, just like his swordsmanship didn’t have those fancy moves.
He just stretched out his hand and gently wiped away the tears on Yunzhen’s face with his fingertips. His fingers were a little cold and rough. They were calluses left by holding swords for many years, and it hurt a little when scraped on his face.
“Don’t cry, Yunzhen.”
He paused, searching in his brain for all the words on how to make Yunzhen stop crying, and finally only said one sentence:
“Tears are too salty,” Jiang Zhi said seriously, “the buns will not taste good.”
Yunzhen laughed “puff”.
“What…” Yun Zhen sniffed, crying and laughing, “Can you comfort people… How can anyone talk like that…”
He took the bun and took a hard bite, as if he wanted to chew up all the grievances and anger and swallow them.
The buns are indeed a bit salty. I don’t know if there is too much salt or if the tears are really mixed in.Yunzhen cried while chewing, but the more he cried, the harder he cried. His tears couldn’t stop flowing and he couldn’t stop them at all.
Jiang Zhi put down his sword and took Yunzhen, who was sobbing, into his arms.
An awkward hug, but a tight one.
Yun Zhen buried her face into his shoulder and cried loudly, her tears and nose smearing all over Jiang Zhi’s clean clothes, soon making them wet all over.
“The clothes are dirty.” Yunzhen said in a muffled voice.
Jiang Zhi’s hand patted his back gently, rhythmically, “You can wash it.”
“What should I do if I can’t wash it off?”
“Throw it away.”
…
A campfire not far away.
Xiao Fenzhi squatted on the ground and fiddled with the fire with branches: “Junior brother finally got the idea.”
Wen Wan said: “It’s just that the price is a bit high.”
The master didn’t speak. He looked at Yunzhen’s back with complicated eyes, and he still held half a piece of uneaten dry food in his hand.
“Grow up.” Master whispered, “It’s good to grow up. Only when you grow up can you survive.”
Being a hero requires paying a price.
Injuries and bleeding are common, and they may not change anything in the end, and may even cost you your own life.
But someone has to do it.If no one does it, the world will really be hopeless.
The master touched his beard and said to himself: “It seems that our Liuyun Sect can really produce a decent disciple. With the blessing of the ancestor, this single seedling will not be broken.”
Xiao Fenzhi smiled and said: “Master, you make it sound like we are not decent.”
“Isn’t it?” The master glared at him, “You have been flirting with others all day long, why are you so shameless? The second brother only knows how to practice swordsmanship, just like a wooden pile, so the two younger ones look more convincing.”
Xiao Fenzhi was unconvinced: “I sacrificed my appearance to let those people get hurt, and then I have no intention of doing evil. Isn’t this smarter than killing them directly?”
Master was too lazy to pay attention to his fallacies.
Xiao Fenzhi was silent for a moment, put away his playful smile, looked at the fire and said, “Master, is the world going to be in chaos again?”
The master smiled: “We are Jianghu people. Jianghu people only care about Jianghu affairs. The people in the court should take care of the affairs of the court. If they can’t manage it well, others will naturally take care of it.”
“Go to sleep.” Master stood up and patted the dirt on his butt. “We have to travel tomorrow. No matter how chaotic the world is, we still have to eat, right?”
The master smiled and glanced back: “I see that the bird and the cat are hugging each other very tightly. It seems that we don’t need to keep vigil tonight.”
The night wind blew and the bonfire gradually extinguished, leaving only a few sparks flickering in the darkness.
Yunzhen finally got tired of crying and fell asleep leaning on Jiang Zhi’s shoulder.He was sleeping deeply, with tears still on his face, his brows furrowed together, and his hands still clutching Jiang Zhi’s clothes tightly.
Jiang Zhi kept the same posture and didn’t move all night.
———————–
The author has something to say: Will update next time on Thursday night~