Copper Coins

Lu Yuan, who came from Lujiatang 13 years ago and settled in Dongfang District by the river, is a widower.His wife died early, and he dragged his two sons by himself, pulled a small boat by the river, and fished for a living.Although he has a reckless face with a slightly fierce look, he has a simple and honest temperament, he smiles when he meets everyone, and his fierce look is three points milder.

Neighbors often say that Lu Yuan's two sons really don't look like members of his Lu family.

Because Lu Yuan is tall and strong.Probably due to pulling fishing nets all the year round, the muscles on his arms are raised and look extraordinarily powerful.Not so with his two sons.

When he first came to Dongfang, the eldest son was four years old and the younger son was two years old, one was thinner than the other.The youngest son was thin and thin, and there was a bit of Lu Yuan's shadow between his eyebrows and eyes, showing a bit of vigor.The eldest son really doesn't have the slightest resemblance to Lu Yuan.

The father and son stood there, and the eldest son, nicknamed Nineteen, was always the most conspicuous, because he was so white that he was almost sick.

This Lu Shijiu not only doesn't look like the Lu family, he also doesn't have the same temper.Lu Yuan is warm-hearted, and his youngest son, Lu Nianqi, also likes to make trouble.Only the eldest son, Lu Shijiu, talked absurdly seldom all day long, he didn't look like a child at all.

Most of the time, this Lu Shijiu does seem to be very sensible, but sometimes, he will suddenly make some weird behaviors, and his pale and weak appearance is quite ghostly, so he is naturally not that attractive.

Therefore, there are occasional people in the neighborhood who tease Lu Nianqi, but few go to tease Shijiu.

What the neighbors didn't know was that this Lu Nineteen was really not Lu Yuan's own.

There is no one in Lu Yuan's family, and the elders are long gone.After Fa's wife died of illness, Lu Yuan was very depressed for a year, the family was dilapidated, and his son Nianqiyi didn't have enough food for a whole year, and he didn't have much meat on him, so he was pitifully thin.So he simply locked up the old house, and brought his son to Wolong County, because it relies on a good river road, and the fish and water are fresh and fat enough to make a living.

Before entering the city, when he took his son to rest in an old earth temple, he met Shijiu who was huddled in the mountains.

A child who looks like three or four years old, nestled alone in the old temple in the mountains, looks abnormal no matter what.

Lu Yuan asked Shijiu a few simple questions, and guessed roughly.

This nineteen originally lived in Ge County, a hundred miles away, and there were too many brothers and sisters in his family. In the drought year, his parents probably couldn't support them, so they had to discard a few.Originally, I probably wanted to sell it, but this nineteen has a sickly appearance, looks like he can’t support himself, and is born with eye disease. He is only four years old, and his vision is very blurred. stay home.

If you can't sell it, you have to throw it away. If you throw it close, you may not be able to touch it home, so you just throw it a hundred miles away.Occasionally, people come and go to the Earth Temple to rest their feet, and maybe they meet a kind person who can take them away.

This was an overly optimistic idea. After all, there are more bandits and wolves wandering in the mountains than good-hearted people. It is more likely that they were captured by bandits or eaten by wolves before they were taken away.

But this nineteen was lucky, he met Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan thought that raising one son is also raising two sons, and Nian Qi can have one more playmate, so he simply took Nineteen away.

But later he found out that Nineteen is not a good playmate, because he prefers to be quiet than to have fun around.But Shijiu is a sensible son, even if he can't see clearly, he will fumble every day to help Lu Yuan clean up miscellaneous fish and shrimp, or move a small stool and stand by the stove to cook some soup paste.

So Lu Yuan took care of Twenty-Seven, but never touched Nineteen's fingers. On the contrary, he felt very sorry for this child.

Children always like to chase and play with people who are slightly older than themselves, and Twenty Seven is no exception.Even though Nineteen is a man of few words, Nian Qi likes to follow each other.In Nianqi's own eyes, it's a help, but in Nineteen's eyes, it's just adding to the confusion——

For example, Nineteen boiled a pot of boiling water and hung it to dry by the wall, intending to help the old man iron the smock and shoes that he had replaced to get rid of the fishy smell.As a result, Nian Qi scurried around in the stove, insisting on helping, then slipped and sat down in the boiling water basin, crying like a butchered pig.

Another example is that the tree in the yard is covered with insect shells, which affects the growth of fruit. Nineteen brought a wooden broom to poke the insect shells off, but Nian Qi still came to help, but when he swept it, he felt the insect shells. It was very fun, I picked one off and put it near my mouth to whistle.The whistle sounded bright, and Er Qi jumped up and down with joy, but that night his mouth was swollen into a sausage, and he still cried like a butchered pig.

At first Nineteen had a headache when he saw him, but then his eyes became blurred and he couldn't see clearly, so he got used to it.

Ever since his eyes were so blurred that he could hardly see, Nineteen found that he could see some strange things and hear some strange sounds.Sometimes he couldn't help but follow the sound all the way out, searched around for a while, but couldn't find the source, and then came back silently to continue working.

When he was nine years old, twenty-seven had just turned seven.One day at noon, he heard a strange sound again, so he couldn't help but went out of the kitchen, and walked towards the river all the way.At that time, Nian Qi was a little more restrained than when he was a child, probably because his elder brother was half-blind, he finally became more sensible, and knew to take care of others occasionally.As soon as he saw Nineteen going out, he hurriedly followed him, nagging all the way for Nineteen to go back.

However, Nineteen seemed to be possessed by an evil spirit, as if he had never heard of it.

That noon, Shijiu suddenly saw the shadow of a dragon in the vast mist of the river, but the next second he was amazed, he fell into the water.

Nian Qi subconsciously jumped down, trying to drag the blind brother ashore, but found that it was like countless things when he was a child—he thought he was there to help, but in fact he was to make trouble. Life is also lost.

The place where the two fell into the water was a relatively remote river bank, and there were no fishing boats or passenger boats.If it wasn't for a couple selling vegetables by chance, no one would know if they died in the river.

The old vegetable seller doesn't know how to drink water, but he knows twenty-seven.

"When Dad rushed over, Twenty Seven had stopped struggling." Lu Nineteen said slowly, "The water was not smooth that day, and it was too dangerous to catch two at a time. He supported me and let me breathe a sigh of relief." , and then fished twenty-seven ashore first. When he came back to save me, there was a sudden storm in the water. I could feel a dark eddy under my feet, and that dark eddy seemed to trap his ankle , in short, floating and sinking choked a lot of water."

He took a breath, frowned and let it out lightly, saying: "When I was pushed ashore, he was dragged down by the dark vortex, directly dragged down the river, and never came out again."

"Since then, my father is gone, and Nianqiyi is afraid of water when he sees water, and he no longer follows me all day." Nineteen said flatly.

He didn't seem to be able to cry or show too obvious emotions. When he said this, his tone was so calm that he seemed to be talking about other people's affairs, and his eyes didn't even turn red, but he was inexplicably uncomfortable. , as if he couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

Xuan Min put away the two pieces of stone with runes engraved on the side, and suddenly said: "I took a quick look at Lu Nianqi's palm prints. He had a broken mark when he was six years old, and someone else Forcibly stretched for a while."

Nineteen looked at Twenty Seven, neither raised his eyes nor spoke.

After a long time, seeing that Nian Qi still hadn't moved, he whispered again: "I didn't quite understand it at the time, and I thought it would be fine to think of a way to continue, even if... he grows slower, it would be nice if he could live Yes, no matter what life is, they can live a good life, as long as they live well. But..."

But he didn't expect that when Nianqi was extended, Lu Yuan would encounter robbery.

Equivalent sale.

After he finished speaking, he finally raised his eyes to look at Xuan Min: "This tomb is not over, there is still a section ahead to go out, and there is no danger, can you do me a favor and take Twenty Seven for another section."

Xuan Min glanced at him: "One last favor?"

Nineteen was taken aback, gave a low "hmm" and sighed again: "Otherwise, I would have made this trip in vain."

Xuan Min opened his mouth, but before answering, Xue Xian, who was in his pocket, opened his mouth: "This pool is at least ten feet deep, how can we turn it up and continue walking?"

After asking this question, he didn't give anyone else a chance to answer, so he continued slyly: "How about... I spit out the water again and let you float up? What a good way, saving time and effort!"

nineteen:"……"

Xuan Min said indifferently: "Don't worry about it, since it's been sucked in, just hold on honestly."

Xue Xian lost his temper.

They were talking, the old man Liu who had been silent all the time patted Shijiu lightly, raised his hand and pointed somewhere.

Xuan Min and the others looked in the direction of his finger, and saw a black shadow one person tall on the wall of the pool there.

They lifted their feet and walked a few steps, and when they took a closer look, they found that it was actually an iron door.

It's just that I don't know how long it has been soaking here, the door locks and cracks have rusted to death, and Xuan Min's talisman can't be used in this tomb, so everyone wasted a lot of work before using gravel to seal the rusted door. The lock broke open.

The rubbing sound when the iron door opened was so ear-piercing that Nian Qi, who had been lying on the ground and fainted for a long time, opened his eyes.

"Are you awake?" Shijiyi turned around and saw him, "Can you stand up? If you can stand up, don't lie on your stomach. If you want to go out, you have to go by yourself. There is no one to carry you here."

As soon as Nian Qi woke up, he resumed his cold and indifferent tone, without the slightest intention of trying to get closer to the brothers.

"I know." Nianqi also drank a few sips of water, the taste of the water was probably not very good, and his throat was a little hoarse due to the burn.In the past, when Nineteen said such lukewarm words, Nianqi would definitely reply a few words, and his face would not be too good.But this time, for the first time, he didn't block back, and he staggered up silently, beat his chest and coughed for a while, coughing up the remaining water in his throat.

Not far from his feet, the paper-like Jiang Shining dried for a while, and finally dried a little, so that it wouldn't rot if touched.

Xuan Min came over, picked it up and threw it into a secret bag, letting him make a pile with the bead that was full, and then walked through the iron gate with everyone.

Behind the iron gate is a slanting step upwards, probably left by the craftsmen who built the tomb at the beginning, in order to go out from under the pool after laying stone bricks.The other end of the steps falls into the tomb passage at the other end, which seems to be symmetrical with the tomb passage when it came earlier.

As Nineteen said, there seemed to be no danger ahead.The long stairway didn't even have a scary pattern, so it was unexpectedly safe.

At the end of the steps, Xuan Min's paper talisman was finally able to catch fire.

It's just that the moment the flame ignited, there was a slightly weird smell that was lightly diffused by the flames.

Jiang Shining in the dark bag suddenly said: "Wait, don't move! This smell is wrong!"