I cross you in the world of mortals [Rebirth]

The snow outside was falling harder and harder, as if there was no end to it, and as far as the eye could see, it was all white.

In a shabby room, a seven or eight-year-old child leaned his hands against the crumbling window that was beaten by the north wind, his whole body was shivering, and his hands were even suffering from frostbite, swollen like small radishes, and he couldn't help going out. Pus came out.

After a while, a young woman came in. Seeing the child, she lightly reprimanded: "Teach you to protect this window, this window is about to fall down, why can't you even do such a small thing well."

The child was expressionless, without saying a word, glanced at the young woman, and stepped aside.

The young woman scolded: "I am most impatient with your appearance, as if I owe you."

The scolding could hardly fall to the ground, and a middle-aged man came in, carrying a small firewood, and persuaded: "What are you scolding him for?"

The young woman glanced at the middle-aged man, grunted twice, and went out.

The middle-aged man stroked the child's hair, and said softly: "Don't blame your mother, it has snowed for five days, and there is a shortage of food. Your mother is in a hurry, so she talks like this."

The child rubbed against the middle-aged man's palm and called softly, "Daddy."

The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Father, I'll nail up the window, you go and play by the side."

It has been snowing for five consecutive days, not only the rice and noodles, but also the firewood. The middle-aged man braved the snow to gather these firewood with great difficulty.

He took a hammer, first nailed an old floral cloth on the window lattice, and then nailed firewood to the window lattice. These firewoods were of different thicknesses and sizes, barely touching the window, while the floral cloth was blown by the incoming north wind. Gotta puff up.

After finishing all this, he hugged the child in his arms and said in a soft voice: "Today we can have a good night's sleep."

The snow fell for another two days before it stopped, and the thick ground was half a person's height. The middle-aged man barely went out, carrying a sling of copper coins, and wanted to buy a bucket of rice.

He walked to the rice shop with difficulty, but found that the rice shop was empty. The owner of the rice shop was flipping through the ledger, his round faces crowded together with smiles.

The owner of the rice shop saw the middle-aged man, and said enthusiastically: "The customer wants to buy rice? I have some rice hidden here, so I can sell it to you at a low price."

The middle-aged man originally thought that the rice was sold out, but when he heard this, he said happily, "How much is a bucket?"

The owner of Mipu made a two-pointer with his fingers, and the middle-aged man said eagerly, "Boss, please give me a fight."

Before it snowed, a bucket of rice was ten yuan, now a bucket of rice is twenty yuan, and two buckets of rice is forty yuan. Although the price of rice has doubled, but now he has one hundred yuan in his pocket, which is enough to buy two buckets of rice. Copper coins can also go to buy some flour.

"Okay." The owner of the rice shop responded, then turned around and went to the inner room to get rice.

After a while, he came out with a small bag of rice, put two buckets of rice into a burlap bag, and stretched out his hand to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man carefully took out copper coins from his pocket, counted forty and put them in the palm of the owner of the rice shop.

The owner of the rice shop took forty copper coins, but instead of giving two buckets of rice to the middle-aged man, he smiled and said, "Customer, there is still 360 coins short."

"360 yuan!" The middle-aged man was taken aback, "Isn't it twenty yuan a fight?"

The owner of the rice shop sneered and said, "Customer, you must have made a mistake. It's two hundred dollars a bucket."

After all, the owner of the rice shop threw forty copper coins to the middle-aged man, and said arrogantly: "Poor ghost, what do you still eat rice for?"

Forty copper coins "cracked" and smashed the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man picked up the copper coins one by one with distress, and was angry with the owner of the rice shop who looked down on people, but if there was no rice, what would the three of them do? ?

Holding forty copper coins in his hand, he begged the owner of the rice shop, "I brought a hundred coins, can you give me a bucket of rice?"

"One hundred dollars, one bucket of rice?" The owner of the rice shop sneered, "Do you think I am a fool? I can sell it to a distinguished customer for two hundred dollars a bucket, why should I sell it to you, a poor man, for one hundred dollars a bucket? "

The middle-aged man couldn't help but said helplessly: "Then sell it to me for half a bucket."

The owner of the rice shop stretched out his hand, reluctantly said: "Half a bucket of rice is one hundred yuan, the money first."

The middle-aged man reluctantly gave all one hundred copper coins to the owner of the rice shop, and the owner of the rice shop filled half a bucket of rice into a burlap bag, and said angrily: "Oh, this guest, you can take it, don't you?" I'm going to fall."

The middle-aged man took the burlap bag, stuffed it into his arms, put his arms around his chest to protect it, and went home.

Seeing him coming back, the woman cursed, "Where's the rice?"

The middle-aged man handed the burlap bag containing rice in his arms to the woman, and said dejectedly, "I bought half a bucket."

"Half a bucket?" the woman screamed, "You trash, isn't rice worth ten cents a bucket? You paid a hundred yuan for a half bucket?"

The woman twisted the middle-aged man's ears and said sharply, "Tell me, where did you spend the money?"

The middle-aged man was twisted by the woman so that his ears hurt, but he didn't dare to attack, so he repeated the situation just now.

After listening, the woman snorted softly: "You really are a bastard, I'll go and see, I have to let that bastard spit out the money."

Seeing his wife leaving in a hurry, the middle-aged man said: "The snow outside has not melted yet, the ground is wet and slippery, be careful."

The woman ignored him and walked away.

The middle-aged man stood at the door, waiting for his wife to come back, but a passer-by held a child's hand, wiped his tears, and said, "Anan, it's my mother who is sorry for you."

Knowing that the woman was going to sell the child for money, the middle-aged man sighed.

Then, he heard the woman say: "Anan, don't blame your mother down here, mother has no other choice, you still have an older brother, and three younger brothers are waiting to eat..."

"Anan won't blame mother, mother must take good care of her elder brother and younger brother." The child was obedient and obedient, holding the woman's hand, and desperately raised his head, "I hope it won't hurt too much, Anan is afraid of pain."

But it turned out that the woman was going to sell the child for food?This is really a cannibal world, but if this child is not sacrificed, the remaining four children will starve to death.

The middle-aged man stared blankly at the backs of the two people who were drifting away. Before he could recover, he saw his wife come in and cursed: "You bastard, a bucket of rice costs 250 yuan!"

Before it snowed, the rice cost ten cents a bucket. After it snowed, why did it increase so much?

A day later, the middle-aged man heard that there was a famine in several nearby towns, and the famine flooded in, causing the price of rice to soar here.

Another day, the price of rice has risen to three hundred yuan a bucket.

After a few more days, even though the middle-aged family of three drank gruel every day, half a bucket of rice was almost bottomed out.

The middle-aged man was a hunter, barely making a living by hunting wild boars, hares and the like. It should be cold with no prey to hunt, but even so, he went up the mountain.

But for three days in a row, he got nothing, not to mention wild boars and hares, not even a bird, and there was not even a single bucket of rice left at home, so the three of them could barely eat bark and grass roots to satisfy their hunger.

He went down the mountain and passed the market, where some people were selling children, and several five or six-year-old children were kept in cages for selection like chickens and ducks.

The trafficker yelled at the middle-aged man, "Do you want a child? It's cheap, and it's tender."

The middle-aged man stopped and asked, "How much is it?"

The trafficker replied with a smile on his face: "One for five taels, buy two for nine taels of nine. If it weren't for the snowstorm and the famine nearby, where would there be such cheap children to eat?"

"How many taels for an eight-year-old boy?" The middle-aged man regretted it as soon as he said it, but the next moment, he heard the trafficker say clearly: "Are you going to sell the child? Eight-year-old boys are old in quality. Even if you have one or two."

Do you really want to sell your child to others?Never do that!The middle-aged man ran wildly and went home.

Seeing that the middle-aged man was empty-handed, the woman covered her face and cried, "My life is miserable. I married you, a useless thing."

In the middle of the night, the middle-aged man had the idea of ​​stealing, so he went out with the knife he usually used to skin wild game.

He went into the house of Xiucai's house. He remembered that Xiucai's family had a brood of chickens. If he could steal one...

He wiped his saliva, but before he touched the chicken coop, there was a roar: "Who is it?"

Xiucai's father was an executioner in his early years, and the middle-aged man only killed some wild boars and hares. Hearing the roar, his legs were so frightened that his legs became weak, and his footsteps were flustered. He climbed up the wall and fell down immediately. Broken a leg.

He was afraid that Xiucai's father would catch up to him, so he didn't care about the pain, so he dragged his leg and didn't dare to stop, so he finally returned home.

The woman was woken up by him, and seeing him like this, she questioned him.

After he answered, the woman said dejectedly: "You have broken a leg, and the family has neither food nor wealth, only a few pieces of bark and grass roots, but the bark and grass roots nearby are almost gone. What should I do in the future?"

The middle-aged man bowed his head and said nothing, and finally said in a low voice, "Either we sell the child."

"Sell it?" The woman glanced at the sleeping child not far away, her face pale, "Sold him for someone to eat? You..."

A woman treats a child badly, but it never occurred to her to sell him as food for others.

The middle-aged man replied: "I have already asked him what he is worth one tael of silver."

"You..." the woman murmured, "One tael of silver can only buy three buckets of rice at most."

Three buckets of rice, only three buckets of rice, but that is three buckets of rice.

The woman remained silent, then lay down again and closed her eyes.

The middle-aged man caressed his leg and said softly: "We picked him up and raised him for eight years. If he hadn't been left alone at that time, he might have died long ago. Now we are in trouble. He..."

The two of them stayed up all night without sleep, and stayed up for another five days. They had no choice but to sell the child to traffickers for a tael of silver.

The child got into the cage obediently, without making a sound, and just stared at the middle-aged man and the woman with a pair of clear eyes that seemed to be able to see through everything in the world.

There are a total of five children in the trafficker's cage, and the child is the oldest among them.

During the three days, when the traffickers opened the cage to catch the child, the child escaped twice. Once, his legs were broken, and once, his ribs were kicked.

The human trafficker poked him with a slender wooden stick for fun when he had nothing to do. He poked him until there was no good meat on his body.

Another day, only the child was left in the cage, wounded and dying.

For another ten days, no one cares about the children, and all the other children have already fallen into the rich man's appetite.

The trafficker got a little anxious and yelled loudly: "Eight hundred yuan, an eight-year-old boy only needs eight hundred yuan, and everyone who passes by should come and see."

Suddenly, a soft voice said: "Eight hundred yuan, I want it."

The child raised his eyes and saw that the speaker was an old Taoist priest, with white beard and white hair, and a benevolent expression on his face, but he also wanted to eat people.

He trembled with fright, but because of the injuries all over his body, he was paralyzed in the cage, unable to move, and could only let the traffickers lift him out.

The old Taoist paid [-] yuan, held him in his arms, patted his back and said, "Don't be afraid, I don't eat people."

The child hadn't made a sound for many days, and the tone of his voice was a little weird: "You really don't eat people?"

The old Taoist nodded and said, "I really don't eat people."

The child wondered, "Then why did you buy me?"

The old Taoist smiled and replied: "I am short of an apprentice, so I bought you to be my apprentice."

After finishing speaking, the old Taoist asked again: "Can you tell the old Taoist your name."

The child shook his head and said, "I don't know either."

He is eight years old this year, he is already the age of the governor, so he knows his own name, but since his parents sold him, why does he call them by the name they gave him?

The old Taoist pondered for a while, stroked the child's forehead and said: "The old Taoist layman's name is Ji, so from now on you will be called Ji Zhuo. Jade can't be made into a tool, take a character, and you will be called Ji Zhuo from now on."

The author has something to say:

This chapter is Ji Zhuo's childhood past, the next chapter will return to the main story