Wing On Tune

When he stopped to rest at night, Chang An carefully opened his husband's package. When he opened the travel notes, Chang An was stunned for a long time, until Liu Xu called him to eat something. The denomination of the banknotes is not large, probably because they are afraid that orphans and widows will be disadvantaged if they hold large banknotes.

Chang'an thought of his husband's advice, and now that he thinks about it, Lu Yao is worried that the mother and son don't have enough money, and they will sleep in the wild to save money, and they know Chang'an well enough to know that if they take the broken silver that they use on weekdays, Chang'an is picking up money. When he weighed it in his hands, he found that when he picked up the banknotes, he saw the inscription on the title page. The handwriting was clear and timeless, with gentle power, but it ironed a burning feeling in Chang'an's chest. I blinked, and I was still chanting that sentence over and over in my mind when I took a break at night,

Little Chang'an, everything is going well.

However, in just a few words, it was Lu Yao's intention, appropriate and frank.

*******************

"Ouch", the white-clothed boy who was distracted was knocked on the forehead by a book, and turned his head mournfully, covering the place where he was knocked, "Senior brother, why did you knock me?"

The older boy took back the book and said indifferently, "I asked you to copy the book, why are you in a daze."

The young man in white had no choice but to start his movements again, "I've been copying books for a whole day, and I can't take a break?" He curled his lips unhappily, and sighed softly, "Why hasn't the uncle come back?"

The one holding the book in his hand looked out the window, "Don't you know the return date of the uncle best?"

"Hey, I know, isn't this just a sigh of relief, my senior brother and I haven't had any fun recently, and I begged for a long time before my senior uncle left, asking him to bring me some fun things back. I was punished for copying books only when my mind was distracted."

The young man in white wanted to put down his pen to chat with others when he was talking, but he couldn't be idle, the older one glanced at him and then picked up the pen resignedly, and continued to copy, uncle, when are you coming back?

The person who was resting while reading sneezed, turned around slowly, and went back to sleep.

*******************

After driving for two days, it was already dusk when we got off the car. Chang An thanked the elder brother in the car, remembered Lu Yao’s advice, and led Liu Xu to stay at an inn not far away. Liu Xu just got sick not long ago In the past two days, my mood has not been very stable, I just keep talking about Huai'an, like urging and resisting, but fortunately, I have been in a daze under the gauze hat today, and there is no other movement.

There are many quiet paths nearby, and there are no other people around except the inn, which is very strange. Seeing Chang An looking at the inn, the eldest brother in the car pulled the rein and said neatly, "Little brother, the forest not far away is nighttime. There are wild beasts and raptors infesting, you orphans and widows, you can't run around at night, take care!"

When the carriage drove away in dust, Chang An and Liu Xu were stepping into the inn, and the man in front of the cabinet was holding his chin, flicking his abacus in boredom, his expression looked like he was having fun rather than sorting accounts, the man was not in a hurry when he heard the noise, Leisurely raised her eyelids to take a look, and became interested, "Xi Ke, little brother, do you know where this is, but you went in the wrong direction?"

Chang'an has been wandering outside with catkins these years, and many shopkeepers would ask orphans and widows when they were chatting. He has gotten used to it, and said with a normal expression, "I didn't go wrong. I have to go through the forest ahead."

The shopkeeper turned the abacus back to its original position, and asked with a smile, "Two rooms?"

"One room", Liu Xu has just suffered from hysteria once, and it is reasonable that she will not have any problems in the next few days, but Changan is worried that she will live alone, so he wants to keep watch at night.

The shopkeeper's eyes fell on the woman wearing a gauze hat behind Chang An, thinking that Chang An didn't have enough money, and when collecting the money, he deliberately quoted a lot lower. He dared to open the inn here, and he didn't lack this money, so he raised it slightly "Shitou, take the guests to the room."

A young man sprang out from the back of the hall, with his eyes curved and smiling, "Here we come," he called with ease, "Little brother, come with me."

The shopkeeper behind the cabinet twitched his long fingers on his chin, and stared playfully at the backs of the big and small ones, "Interesting."

"Shopkeeper, I saw that girl when I was delivering the meal. That girl is really pretty." Shi Shi propped his chin and looked upstairs, "That child looks like his mother. It's a big deal, and..."

Speaking of this, he suddenly looked unpredictable, and moved closer, as if he had discovered some big secret, "The tear moles at the end of his eyes are quite unique. This child looks cute and cute."

The shopkeeper stretched out his hand to hold his face, and pushed the little gossip away a little without a word. What's so unpredictable about it, this kid hasn't shown off for a long time, maybe he's overwhelmed?

The location of the inn is special. On weekdays, people who come to stay here are either business caravans or imperial court teams. Shitou followed his shopkeeper in the sea of ​​people he met in this inn, whether it was Jianghu knights or court eagle dogs. It's rare to see such two mothers and sons who are alone and almost powerless, gossip ignites, and can't help chattering.

The shopkeeper smiled noncommittally, and was picking up the snacks on the plate to eat, when he heard that he turned his hand and flicked on the stone forehead, "It's troublesome."

Just as he was about to go on, the door of the upstairs room opened with a creak, Chang An settled the catkins, and after making sure that he was asleep, he went downstairs to look for food, and took the opportunity to find out about Lin Zi's situation so that he could arrange things for tomorrow.

The shopkeeper raised his eyes and saw Chang An descending the stairs with downcast eyes. This child was indeed beautiful, but he was probably used to lowering his head slightly and lowering his eyes on weekdays, easily concealing his presence. Clearing the tear mole at the end of his eye, uh...Shitou is right.

Chang An didn't know what the shopkeeper was thinking, so he ordered a bowl of noodles from Shi Shi, who was almost caught gossiping, and sat down at the opposite table.The shopkeeper had a smile in his eyes. There was a reason for Shitou to be so interested. There had never been a lonely child in the inn. Although he laughed and scolded Shitou for being troublesome, he really thought it was very interesting. He pushed the plate containing crispy peanuts over and said, "Eat Is it? Wrapped in flour and deep-fried, stone craftsmanship, just out of the pan, very fragrant."

Chang An smelled the aroma, he was a little hungry, and he was not polite, picked up peanuts and threw a few into his mouth, and then he said after swallowing, "Shopkeeper, I heard from the elder brother on the road that there will be a team of merchants passing by this inn on weekdays. Why is it so quiet today?"

The shopkeeper rested his chin, "It's not a coincidence today. Two teams set off at noon. According to the usual frequency, there will be a new team passing by in no more than two days. If you want to wait for the passing team to cross the forest together , might as well wait a little longer, if you are lucky, someone may come tomorrow."

Shi Shi came up with noodles, heard them chatting, and sat down accordingly. The shopkeeper knew that the fire of gossip had not been extinguished, so he ignored him.

Chang An picked a pair of chopsticks from the bamboo tube, nodded and asked carefully, "Didn't anyone go into that forest alone during the day?"

"Of course there are people, not to mention the daytime, even at night there are people who pass through the forest, but they are all kung fu, some skillful quacks, and ordinary people who don't have the courage to go into the forest alone," Shitou said. While urging Chang An to eat noodles, the buddy has been used to worrying about the taste of the food for a long time, "Hey, you eat the noodles first, if it is cold, it will not taste good, you can chat with us while eating."

Most of the teams passing by here are old and regular customers, and the conversations are all clichés. It is rare for Shitou to meet someone new. At this moment, the interest is high, and the whole person seems to be glued to the chair.

Chang An nodded, asked the question first, and then lowered his head to eat the noodles, "I heard that there will be beasts in the forest at night. They have such a bad reputation, do you know what they are?"

Shitou was so happy to call my little brother, and the chatterbox started to go out, "Hey, it's nothing, just bears, boa constrictors, hunting dogs, etc. They are quite scary in size, but they hide during the day. Animals are used to sneak attacks at night. Originally, when they came to transport, there would be excellent attendants in the merchant team, which was more than enough to deal with beast attacks. It is inevitable that there will be some mistakes when protecting the goods. In addition, the birds come out to hunt at night, and some of them are poisonous. To be safe, there are very few teams passing through the woods at night. Stay overnight in the inn for a short rest, and then leave the next day."

Chang'an ate the noodles, and listened to Shitou's words, and swallowed the noodles in his mouth here, "Since few people pass through the forest at night, there will be no prey at night. Will those fierce beasts turn around in the daytime?" haunt?"

"Of course not. Night is the best time for them to act. Think about it. During the day, whether it's sunny or rainy, their whereabouts are easily exposed in the sun or in the rain. In addition, people's spirits and brains during the day , They are highly vigilant, they will not choose to act during the day, it is different at night, the ability of wild beasts to see things at night is several times that of ordinary people, and in addition, they can hide very well in the night, even if no one passes by at night, then There are other prey, they are not unanimous, when there is no one to be the prey, don't you have to think about how to save your life and how to kill other beasts, after all, they also have to eat."

Shitou analyzed the reason seriously. Changan felt that this angle was very common, and he actually nodded seriously. He looked only seven or eight years old, and he was handsome and well-behaved. The shopkeeper wanted to laugh when he saw it, but he held it back after thinking about it. He wanted to see how the stone could fool people.

Sure enough, Shitou's face that smiled when he saw anyone suddenly became unpredictable again. This expression was exactly the same as when he whispered about Chang'an just now. The shopkeeper almost laughed out loud, confirming once again that this kid has not been showing off for too long, and he is really suffocated up.

"When you meet these beasts, if you want to escape, as long as you find the right way, you will have enough time to escape, because most of the beasts in the forest are alone, and there is only one kind. If you encounter them, you can only hope for luck, because they They are dispatched in groups, but no matter how threatened the prey is, as long as there is a chance, they will never let go, it is very difficult to deal with."

Chang An had already finished eating, put down his chopsticks, seemed to be attracted by the words, looked at the stone seriously and asked, "What is it?"

Shi Shi felt that he might have frightened Chang An, and was about to play haha ​​to cheer up the atmosphere, when the shopkeeper with his chin on his side said, "Wolf."

Chang An asked for an extra quilt before returning to his room. When he lay down, his ears were still ringing with the words just now. He planned to rest for two days and wait for the team to pass before moving. The wound on the back of his shoulder has not hurt much these days. , but he didn’t have a good rest on the road for several days. Before he fell into the darkness, he felt a little hot, and there was a faint rumbling sound in his ears.

The figure who had been lying quietly on the bed moved, staring at the direction of Chang'an for a long time, the lightning outside the window suddenly passed through the window and illuminated the room, Liu Xu moved very slowly, without making a sound, with a solemn expression.

*******************

Chang An was awakened by the thunder, he shook his head drowsily, and was still dizzy, the water on the window sill was dripping on the window sill, and Chang An was stunned for a while before looking out the window, the rain did not wake him up .

An ominous premonition suddenly rose in his heart, and Chang An quickly rushed to the bedside. The package beside the bed was still the same as he had tidied it up tonight, but the person on the bed was gone.

His eyes widened, his breathing became rapid, and he tried to feel the temperature on the bed calmly. It was still warm. He had just left not long ago, so he shouldn't be able to run far, and he can still catch up now.

The rain outside the window had already subsided, the lights in the inn were also turned off, and the surroundings were eerily quiet, but Chang An seemed to hear the roar of a beast, and his heart beat like a drum.The sound of him going downstairs alarmed the shopkeeper, "Little Chang'an, where are you going out so late?"

Changan kept walking towards the door, and answered with a trembling voice, "My mother is gone, she must have gone out, I have to go find her", tonight there was thunder and heavy rain, people probably went out at that time of.

The shopkeeper didn't know about Liu Xu's situation, so he frowned and said sternly, "It's just after the rain, when the smell of grass is the strongest, and the human smell is overwhelmed, you take a torch and bring this with you," he said Throwing two packs of powder over, "sprinkle this powder on your body, the smell can drive away beasts, the woman's footsteps are not fast, hurry up and catch up."

Chang An remembered what the shopkeeper said before going to bed about the method of expelling wild animals, hurriedly sprinkled a pack of medicinal powder on his body, lit a torch and ran out. After a while, he murmured, "It's time for people to arrive."

As soon as the words fell, a figure came in with the curtain lifted, "Rare, the door is still open at this time?" Still teasing as usual, the shopkeeper didn't delay, and said eagerly, "There is a child's mother who ran out in the middle of the night. , that child is holding a torch and has powdered medicine on his body, hurry up and take a look!"

The figure lifted the curtain in its hand, paused, and quickly disappeared into the night.