Eternal Tranquility

It was already late at night, but the lights in Ning'an City were brightly lit. Several houses were on fire, and screams and howls filled the night sky. There were small groups of soldiers in iron clothes wandering around the streets, laughing wildly from time to time and chasing frightened civilians passing by under the firelight.

Only the north of the city was dark, simply because this was where the poor lived. In the dirtiest and shabby corner of the slum, there was a thatched hut with a hole in the roof. A ragged child who looked to be only seven or eight years old was standing next to a shabby mat spread on the ground, looking into the tattered quilt. The skinny old man quietly wiped his tears.

The dim moonlight shone on the old man's face, which turned out to be gray!

After a while, the old man woke up leisurely, and his cloudy eyes saw the child sitting next to him. He wanted to raise his hand and touch his hair, but found that he had no strength.

"Qing...ahem, Qinghuan..." the old man called out angrily.

The child rushed to him and asked urgently: "Old man, are you feeling better?"

"Silly boy!" The old man looked at him reproachfully: "The city is in ruins, why haven't you left yet!"

"I, I..." The child murmured twice, but said stubbornly: "You are here, I am not going anywhere!"

"Confused! Confused!" The old man gasped angrily, a blush flashed across his face, and he suddenly became energetic and sat up.

The child hurried over to help him, but he pushed him away hard: "Go! Go! Why are you so disobedient? Old man, I'm going to die soon. You don't care what I do!"

The child's lips were pressed tightly, refusing to speak or leave.

The old man was helpless, knowing that it would be useless to talk, so he might as well settle the funeral arrangements while he still had his last breath. He reached into his arms tremblingly and took it out.

When the child saw that he was struggling to take it out, he went to help him and took out several books in succession from his arms.

Old Man Liu regarded these books as treasures and kept them in his arms all day long. He was afraid that other beggars would steal them and sell them for money, so he would only take them out when teaching him how to read and write.

Old Man Liu trembled as he flipped through several books. The child quickly took out a copy of "Preschool Education" and handed it to him. Seeing him shaking his head, he changed to another "Thousand-Character Essay" and finally found it from the bottom. A book with yellowed paper.

Hey, he has never seen this one. I saw it written on the title page: Sit...

Before he could see it clearly, Old Man Liu suddenly seemed to have great strength. He grabbed the book and touched it with infinite nostalgia, and then handed it over: "Take...take it! This is the god passed down from my ancestors." You put the book away."

The child took the book without looking at it carefully. He stuffed it into his arms and said anxiously: "Old man, go to bed quickly! Don't talk too much, so as not to hurt your spirit."

The old man shook his head gently: "If you don't tell me, there will be no chance! You must put the book away. This sacred book was handed down by my ancestor of the Liu family. It is said that if you practice according to the book, you can live forever and become a god. I wanted to wait until you grow up to give it to you, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon... Remember, don't let outsiders see this book, so as not to cause death! Take it and go to Qingcheng!"

Seeing the child nodding, he sighed: "Come on, child, it was our fate that I picked you up in the ruined temple. I raised you for five years and gave you a chance to live. Then I became paralyzed. You started fighting for food with a group of big beggar leaders every day when you were five years old, and you also supported me for five years, and now you are sending me off, and you have repaid your kindness. From now on, we will go back to our own way, ahem..."

The blush on his face dissipated quickly, his breath weakened rapidly, and he looked at the roof with broken eyes: "I think that when I was a rich young man in Liu Yuancheng, I used to wear beautiful clothes and rage on horses. Later, I spent all my wealth in order to become an immortal, and when I got old, I became a Beggar. Hahaha, everything is fate..."

The sound gradually became fainter until everything became quiet.

The child stared blankly at his old face, which was covered with tears, but did not make a sound. The silent grief was even more heartbreaking.

After a while, a determined look appeared on the face of the child who gradually stopped crying. He knelt beside the old man, wrapped his skinny body in a quilt, dragged it to the corner with difficulty, brought some straw and covered it tightly, and then He knelt down and took three "bang bang bang" noises, then stopped staying, turned around and walked out of the shabby hut, and the little figure disappeared into the night.

The child, named Liu Qinghuan, was abandoned since birth and was picked up by the old beggar Old Man Liu. He has been begging for a living in the beggar's den of Ning'an City since he was a child. Now that he is ten years old, he is as thin as a seven or eight-year-old child.

Now that Ning'an City has been captured by Chu Yue Kingdom, Old Man Liu is dead again. He has no worries here anymore and has to escape from the city quickly.

He specializes in walking in the dark places under the eaves. Since he has been begging in the streets since he was a child, he is very familiar with the roads and roads in Ning'an City, and has dodged oncoming soldiers several times.

Turning a corner, Liu Qinghuan listened alertly to the sounds around him, and was about to cross the street when he suddenly quickly retracted, hiding his small figure in the shadow of the corner.

Just looking at the city gate, I was almost desperate!

I saw a large number of Chu Yue Kingdom soldiers guarding the city gate. It was impossible to escape!

Just when he didn't know what to do, he saw a large group of guards on tall horses appearing at the other end of the street, surrounded by eight or nine carriages.

"Who is it!" The soldiers at the city gate shouted, and they all pointed their spears at the approaching team.

The convoy walked unhurriedly to the gate of the city before stopping. A horse ran out of the escort, showed a wooden sign, and said loudly: "My master pays Qingshan for the master of the Taibai Mountain family, and Chen Hechen with your army." The general is a close friend and needs to leave the city for urgent matters. Please let me go as soon as possible!"

The soldier who was guarding the city was depressed because he had been given the unprofitable gatekeeping task. When he saw the carriages in the opponent's cavalry, except for two that looked like they were occupied, the others were all filled with supplies. I'm so greedy that I'm almost drooling. He also weighed the strength of both sides and found that the other side only had thirty or forty soldiers at most, while he had nearly three hundred soldiers here, so he didn't even look at the wooden sign and shouted: "I don't care whether you are from Taibai Mountain or Taihei Mountain. You dare to use the name of General Chen, believe it or not, I will kill you immediately! If you want to go out, leave all the carriages and horses and leave!"

As soon as these words came out, the guard's expression changed and he said sternly: "Brother, I advise you to go and ask! General Chen is gathering troops outside the city right now. It won't take much time to make a trip. Don’t offend people you shouldn’t offend!”

The soldier's eyes were rolling. He looked at those carriages and really couldn't bear to part with them. He thought that even if it was true, General Chen would have to blame him later. Then he would share some of the property he got with his subordinates, and let's have a fight together. What else can you do if you refuse to admit your debt! Then he made a joke and said: "It seems that you are drinking fine wine instead of eating the toast. Brothers, you are cheating!"

"Crash!" Both sides showed their weapons at the same time, and the atmosphere was instantly tense. A loud shout of "Go" was heard, and they started fighting together.

Liu Qinghuan watched intently. There were more soldiers on the side, but everyone on the Fu family side was very skilled. They were almost one against three, and the soldiers were defeated step by step.

In a blink of an eye, he found that only two or three of the guards who had been guarding the carriage were still paying attention to the battle ahead, and a carriage carrying goods was revealed.

His heart moved, he hesitated a little, then lowered his body and approached the carriage without saying a word. Until he reached the rear of the carriage, he was still not noticed. He got under the carriage with a squeak and climbed under the carriage.

He only heard the commotion outside for another quarter of an hour, and then he heard someone shouting, "General Chen is here, stop now!" The sound of swords and arrows gradually stopped, and someone was talking in a low voice, which he couldn't hear clearly even if he was too far away. . After a while, the carriage started moving forward again.

It wasn't until he left the city gate that Liu Qinghuan breathed a sigh of relief and thought about finding a suitable time to leave the carriage. It's just that these cars were surrounded in the middle, and he couldn't find a chance at all.

The convoy walked straight for more than half an hour, then suddenly slowed down and gradually stopped. Liu Qinghuan felt happy, but suddenly she heard someone knocking on the wall of the car and saying, "How long are you going to stay under the car?"

After the man finished speaking, he stood by the carriage and waited. After a while, a ragged boy, Qi Qi Aiai, got out from under the carriage and looked at him with bright black eyes.

"What are you looking at! Get out of here!" The big man glanced at him and shouted.

Liu Qinghuan, as if he had received an amnesty, bowed respectfully and ran away quickly, only to hear the rough laughter of a big man coming from behind.

After leaving the convoy, he found a big tree on the side of the road and climbed up. It was mid-May, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter. Even if he slept in the open air, he didn't have to worry about catching cold. Liu Qinghuan just spent the night in a tree, and didn't get up until dawn the next day.

Because the city of Ning'an was destroyed, the road leading to Qingcheng was full of people fleeing. He blended into the crowd and followed them forward. When he was hungry, he would go to the fields to dig wild vegetables to eat. When he was thirsty, he would go to the mountain stream to drink water. There was a breeze in his sleeves, and he was helpless.

The Fu family brought a lot of things and seemed to have a female family member in the car, so they couldn't run even if they had horses, so they were slowly moving forward with the group of refugees on the road. The head of his family was a big man in a python robe, and he often He was following the car on horseback, with a stern look on his face and a chilling air on his body.

Liu Qinghuan followed his motorcade all the way, but from time to time he would be kicked in the butt and joked by the big man who had spotted him before, but he was not annoyed.

Signs of severe drought have appeared this year. It was better to be close to Ning'an City before, because Ning'an City faces the Hengwu Mountains with many mountains, which is better than elsewhere. But the further east you go, the farther away you are from the Hengwu Mountains, the drought becomes more severe, and even wild vegetables are scarce. Moreover, more and more people are fleeing. In the small villages we met along the way, there were cracks as wide as a palm in the ground, and nine out of ten houses were empty.

Fortunately, we can reach Qingcheng in a few days' walk. Qingcheng is a big city in Dayue Kingdom, and there are troops stationed all year round, so it should be safe to go to Qingcheng.

At the end of the day, the sun was shining down fiercely, causing a stinging sensation on my skin. The road to Qingcheng was filled with dust, and the refugees were all disgraced and exhausted. The body was sweating like a waterfall, and the clothes were wet and dry again, and then dry and wet again, and soon a layer of salt grains formed on them.

As the weather gets hotter and hotter, the refugees have changed the time of their journey. Now they set off at about 10:00 every day and rest at the same time. We started on the road in the afternoon when the sun was no longer so fierce, and the day's journey ended only when we reached Haihai.

At this time, everyone was hiding under trees or taking a nap in the grass. Liu Qinghuan was leaning on a dead tree to escape the heat. An old man with gray beard and hair was resting not far from him. He kept talking about something like "There is a severe drought in the world, wars are breaking out, and the world is going to be in chaos...", which made Liu Qinghuan feel uneasy. I feel restless and have trouble sleeping.

Suddenly hearing a whistling sound from the sky, he lazily raised his eyes, not wanting to see a strange picture.

I saw three figures appearing from the very far horizon, one in front and two behind, flying in the air like immortals, running towards the avenue like lightning, and from time to time, dazzling lights of various colors burst out between the three of them. Liu Qinghuan was dazzled.

When the refugees underground noticed the movement in the sky, they all raised their necks to look. They were all dumbfounded. Even the one who was eating opened his mouth wide and forgot to chew.