Your Majesty Cheng Huan

In the south of Yanghe Prefecture, there is a small fishing village near the sea. Every family in the village lives by fishing. They use the money they get from selling fish to buy things in the town, and use the cloth they buy to make new clothes for their children.They don't wear any shoes. They just grow up barefoot, stepping on the sea water and the sand on the beach.They don't study much either. When their children grow up, they inherit from their parents the fishing boats that they have relied on for generations to survive. life.

Hua Ling said that he was like this a long time ago. He also went out to sea with his father and mother, dried fish into dried fish, and hung them on the beams of the house to let the wind blow and the sun shine.Cats are never kept in the village because they steal food, and dogs are never kept.Here, as long as there are people, as long as there is water, and as long as there are fish, hundreds of thousands of years can pass in this way.

"Ah—but, that was a long time ago, and I almost forgot."

Life here is strange and novel to Li Chenghuan, but he doesn't like it very much, so he prefers to go to the town.Doing the job of collecting medicine in the pharmacy, saving money to travel north, or waiting for someone to find them.

But this place is really too remote.

Li Chenghuan often thinks this way.He was born in Nanyang Prefecture, Zhihe County, Bailu Town.The Shanyin area of ​​Nanyang is a well-known and prosperous place in Daxia. Even in a small place like Bailu Town, few people worry about daily necessities.

Whether it is a girl or a boy, it seems that they are all polite, respecting martial arts and morality.The people here don't know where Shanyin and Nanyang are, they don't know that Western Shu has become Bazhou and Shuzhou, they don't know that Daxia and Dahan fought in the north and stopped fighting, they don't even know that Daxia Who is the current emperor.If someone asked them that, they would probably give an "unreasonable" look.Maybe they don't even know "unreasonable", they just find it strange, who cares about this when they are full and have nothing to do?Besides, some people find it difficult to fill their stomachs.Landing and doing business in various countries did not benefit this remote place.

They don't care about the changes in this land, because even in the era of war, there has never been a war here.In contrast, they are more concerned about the price of fish in the fish market tomorrow, whether the price of fabrics in the fabric shop on the east street has increased again, what the weather will be like tomorrow, and whether they can go to sea.

It was said that the holy decree spread all over the world, but Li Chenghuan went to the yamen in the town, and was directly blasted out by the yamen servants.And the county government office is still several days away from here.It might be faster if you take a horse-drawn carriage, but few households here have horse-drawn carriages, and even ox carts and sheep carts are rare.

But the unchanging land also has its rules, its stories, and its legends.Li Chenghuan worked as a clerk in the pharmacy, so he often heard such legends or stories.When people talk about it, there is always an exaggeration like singing a big show.

This old fishing village—I don't know its name, anyway, people here say "our old fishing village", and there are several similar villages nearby.There seems to be no communication between the villages. Speaking of another village, they only call it "Erliwan" and "Sanligou", and the villages do not seem to be separated by two or three miles. way.

There is also a desolate desertedness in the town, but business is still going on.The pharmacy is open like a pharmacy, the rice seller sells its rice like a rice seller, and the blacksmith in the blacksmith's shop beats like a blacksmith all day long.There are also markets, which are lively and wild.

For the people here, apart from the life in front of them, everything is meaningless and there is no need to talk about it.

When Li Chenghuan and Hua Ling had just drifted to this village, it was said that someone came from the yamen to take a look, but they went back after a cutscene.Later, the two packed up a dilapidated house that seemed to have been unoccupied for a long time, and no one came to take care of them.

The two of them were penniless, Hua Ling pawned a jade finger in a pawn shop, and the boss only gave him the money for two baskets of fish.So they counted on the money from these two baskets of fish, and they spent the most difficult and desolate days at the beginning.Later, Li Chenghuan asked for a job from the doctor in the pharmacy in the town, and Hua Ling also found a job in the fish market, so life gradually became less embarrassing.

Returning to that dilapidated house at night, the two of them slept next to each other, not knowing when it would be, when they would be able to save enough money to go back, and whether someone would find this place.Hua Ling gradually began to regret his recklessness—after all, he was just a child, and after finding out that the days of escaping were not as good as he imagined, he also became scared after all.

"What the hell is this place..."

Often at this time, Li Chenghuan would pat him on the back, coaxing him to sleep like a child.Hua Ling raised his face to look at him, and asked: "We...will not be stuck here for the rest of our lives, right?"

Here, he is the elder brother and Hua Ling is the younger brother.The two depend on each other for life, it's like a family.

"No, Master Gu will definitely find us."

"But I don't want him to find me..." Hua Ling sniffled and said, "I don't want to see him again."

"There must be some misunderstanding, trust me. Hua Ling, let's listen to his explanation when we get back."

The days passed day by day, until one night, Li Chenghuan and Hua Ling really saw the primitive horror of this place.

After Li Chenghuan returned home that day, he waited for a long time but Hua Ling did not come back. He was very worried, so he decided to look for him at the fish market.Although the fish market had already dispersed at this time, there was always something to be done.

When he walked halfway, he saw a group of people gathered together on the flat ground, and the place surrounded by the crowd was full of flames.Li Chenghuan suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

He squeezed into the crowd and saw that there were two piles of firewood piled up in the open space, and an official-looking man stood in the middle holding a torch, announcing something loudly.Li Chenghuan didn't listen to a word, because he saw that the person tied to one of the piles of firewood was Hua Ling!

As soon as Hua Ling saw him, he shouted at the top of his voice: "Brother - save me - save me! They're going to burn me, me, I don't want to die, I'm afraid..."

How flamboyant and domineering he was before was just because he was confident.With Gu Zhenye pampering and protecting him, no matter how willful he is, someone will tolerate him, and no matter how big a disaster he makes, someone will clean up the mess for him.But here, she has nothing to rely on, his threats will only be taken as provocations, and his arrogance will only bring him more disasters.

Li Chenghuan rushed up to the firewood to untie him, but was stopped by several big men, his voice could not stop trembling, and he asked the man in official uniform: "What crime did my brother commit, that you want to treat him like this? Is there no law here? Daxia’s law, which one allows you to burn a person without interrogation?"

The onlookers seemed to have heard a big joke, and the official family didn't take it seriously, waving his ghostly torch that spit out flames, and said: "These two people are hiding in the wild and want to do something stupid. Fortunately, we caught it in time. This is an act of a beast, which is immoral, and the laws of nature will not tolerate it. You said it is the University of Heaven—or the University of Fa Li?”

Some of the onlookers booed: "Burn them to death! Burn them to death!"

"If you don't burn them to death, Grandpa Sea God will get angry and overturn our boat, preventing us from catching fish. We must burn them to death, and let Grandpa Sea God stop his anger!"

"No! No! He forced me, I didn't do anything bad, no!" Hua Ling shouted hoarsely, but no one paid attention to him.

The other person tied to the fire was a bum in the village, who had nothing to do on weekdays and relied on doing some manual work in the mill to get food.Many girls in the village have been harassed by him. The villagers have long held grudges against him, but there is no reason to punish him. Now that they have finally caught him, they will never let him go.

Even when death is imminent, this man is still full of nasty words. "Hmph—you people don't know how white this little boy's legs are, and how tender his skin is! Grandma, if you can come to this one time, it will be worth dying! Hahaha——Aren't you going to burn Kill me? Burn it! Come on! When I die and go to the underworld, I will be a ghost couple with my little daughter-in-law, happy like a fairy every day—hahaha—"

"Er Mangzi! You are about to die, and you are still full of foul language! Don't worry, the gate of the underworld will open today, Lord Hades will accept the kid, and your time of death is coming!"

The official family ordered people to pour kerosene on the firewood pile, and Li Chenghuan screamed and rushed over: "My lord—my lord, I beg you...my brother is still young, he doesn't understand anything, you just let him go!" Right! It must be... This person must have forced him! The two brothers, both of us, are decent people. We got water from our hometown, and we fled here after a few wanderings. We just want to be safe and live here. ——Please show mercy and let us go—”

Someone leaned into the official's ear and said, "Officer, the origins of these two brothers are unknown. Look at them, they look like foxes. They are decent sons. How can they be as delicate and tender as a girl?" ? Before they came to our place, they might not know what kind of business they were doing! Don’t let them pollute our atmosphere here and harm our men and daughters.”

"My lord! Lord—" Li Chenghuan walked up to him on his knees and begged him, "We two brothers definitely didn't come from some unhealthy place... It's hard for the whole family, and I really just want to ask for one Survive! The official—”

Finally, an old man stood up and spoke for them: "We all know who Er Mangzi is. These two little brothers are not easy to look at."

"That's right, these two little brothers are also people with serious jobs. Since they don't want to, they are also harmed by these bastards. Wouldn't it be too unfair to lose their lives for nothing because of this?"

Li Chenghuan hurriedly said: "My lord, the uncles are right. You know people well, and you will never kill innocent people indiscriminately. Please show mercy and let my brother go—"

"Hehe—my elder brother is more handsome than my younger brother! My Er Mangzi is not at a loss! Beauty, do you want to go to the underworld with my uncle and be a pair of mandarin ducks in the underworld?" Wretched, the officials and family members waved their hands, and finally asked people to pour oil on the fire, and asked people to let Hua Ling down.

The torch pierced the night sky like a shooting star, landed on the pile of firewood, and ignited a skyrocketing flame all at once.Li Chenghuan suddenly lost his strength and slumped on the ground.Hua Ling crawled over and leaned against him, her face was so frightened that she didn't even have the slightest trace of blood in her face, she didn't dare to shout anymore.

That Er Mangzi was still screaming at the beginning, cursing the heaven and earth, cursing ghosts and gods, but later on, he could only scream, and finally, he couldn't even scream.

The fire ignited silently, the firewood crackled and exploded, the crowd gradually dispersed, and Li Chenghuan and Hua Ling were still sitting in place.For the rest of their lives after the catastrophe, neither of them had a trace of rejoicing in their hearts—they could no longer stay in this place.