Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect

Cheng Qianxu is ten years old, and he is too tall to keep up with his age.

As the sun was approaching, he carried the firewood from the gate of the courtyard into the main room. He couldn't carry the whole bundle of firewood, so he had to run back and forth twice before he wiped off his hot sweat and buried himself in the fire for cooking.

There are guests at home these few days, and his father is busy with the guests, washing vegetables, cooking, cooking fire, chopping firewood, etc., all fall on Cheng Qian's head, making him a short-legged spinning top, who can blow up a burst of exhaustion anytime, anywhere wind of.

Because of his short stature, although Cheng Qian was able to get the pot, it was still inconvenient to operate the big pot, so he found a small stool from the corner of the main room to step on.

The four legs of the small stool are of different lengths, and they go in and out. Cheng Qian has learned to cook on the stool since he was six years old. Qi's stepping stones coexist peacefully and maintain a precarious balance.

One day, when he was standing on the stool to add water to the cauldron, the elder brother came back.

The eldest brother of the Cheng family is already fifteen, and he is a young man. He smelled of sweat, walked into the main room silently, glanced around, and then lifted the younger brother off the stool with one hand. She lightly pushed him on the back, and said in a muffled voice, "I'll come, you go and play."

Of course Cheng Qian wouldn't really go out to play carelessly, he obediently called "big brother", then squatted down silently, pulling up the bellows.

Cheng Dalang looked down at him, didn't say anything, but his eyes were complicated.

The Cheng family has three sons, Cheng Qianxing Er, until the night before that guest came, Cheng Qian was still called "Cheng Erlang".

Da Lang knew that the word "Er Lang" was probably at the end of the day, and that this simple nickname, together with his second brother, was about to change their appearance and travel far away.

The guest who came the day before was a Taoist priest with an ominous surname, and he brazenly called himself "the real Muchun". He has a goatee, half-opened and half-closed triangular eyes, and a pair of slender feet exposed under the flowing robe. He doesn't seem to be a fairy, but looks like a swindling fortune-teller.

Zhenren was passing by here on his travels, and came to ask for a bowl of water, but he did not expect to meet Cheng Erlang.

Cheng Erlang had just come back from the outside at that time—there was an old boy who had failed for a long time at the entrance of the village, and he recruited students to teach reading. He didn't like it, he was only willing to accept real gold and silver Brother Kong Fang, and the amount was not accurate-every time he squandered, he would ask the students again.

As a human being, he is really unworthy of preaching and teaching sage books, but there is no way, it is not easy for children in the countryside to study, and there is no second teacher who can teach books in a radius of dozens of miles.

Given the family background of the Cheng family, there must be no spare money for the sons to read any books, but those bastards seem to have a strange attraction to Cheng Erlang, he can't go there openly, so he has to eavesdrop on .

Old Tongsheng felt that every saliva was the product of his painstaking efforts, and he refused to let people listen to it in vain. He often came out vigilantly to inspect it halfway through the speech.

Cheng Erlang had no choice but to turn himself into a monkey and hide in the big pagoda tree at the gate of the old Tongsheng's house.

Last night, Cheng Erlang was sweating like this. Driven by his father, he served a bowl of water to a guest, but the strange guest didn't take it. He used some outlandish kung fu, but gently lifted Erlang's face, and exchanged a glance with this childish child who tried his best to imitate the "scholar's sourness".

I don't know what the real person can see from this look, anyway, after reading it, he nodded his head in a daze, and said to the Cheng family in a serious manner: "I think this kid is very talented, and he may be able to fly into the sky and dive into the abyss in the future." , maybe there is a great fortune, not something in the pool."

When the real person said this, Da Lang was also present. Da Lang followed the shopkeeper's apprentice outside, and met some people who came and went. He felt that he was a bit knowledgeable. bad thing.

Da Lang just wanted to refute this charlatan contemptuously, but before he could open his mouth, he found that his father had actually listened to the nonsense, and he suddenly understood what was going on in a panic.

The Cheng family was not rich at all, and his mother gave birth to a younger brother a few years ago. The younger brother had a hard time, which made his mother too weak to get out of bed after giving birth. The medicine jars that take medicine every day are not rich at all, and they are even more stretched for a while.

This year's year is not good, there hasn't been a drop of rain for several months, and it looks like a great famine with no crops. The three brothers... I'm afraid they won't be able to support them.

Da Lang knew what his parents thought. He had been an apprentice for a year and a half, and in another year and a half, he would be able to let his family see the money back. This was the future hope of the Cheng family. Naturally, parents cannot part with each other, so there is only one Erlang in the middle, which is purely redundant, and it is useless to keep it. If it can be sent to a passing Taoist priest to lead him to cultivate immortality, it would be a good place to go.

It's good luck that the old Cheng's family's grave has grown grass. It's okay if it doesn't work. Let him go with others. Whether it's going to the rivers and lakes or bluffing and cheating, if he has enough to eat and grows up, that's his way out.

The real Muchun and the short-sighted family member of the Cheng family went back and forth, and quickly negotiated the "sale". , this afternoon, he will cut off the mortal relationship and set off with his master on the road.

Da Lang is a few years younger than his second brother, and they usually don’t have much to say when they are together, and they are not very close, but the second brother is sensible since he was a child, he doesn’t cry or make trouble, and he never makes trouble. Leaving younger brothers and sick mothers behind, they can only take the lead in work and never complain.

Da Lang didn't say anything, but he loved his younger brother in his heart.

But there is no way, the family is poor and can't afford to support them, and it's not yet time for him, Cheng's boss, to establish a household, so he doesn't care about big things and small things.

No matter what, it is also flesh and blood, can you sell it as soon as you say it?

The more Da Lang thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt, and he wanted to smack the old liar's forehead with a big iron spoon, but after much deliberation, he didn't dare--in other words, if he really had the courage, he wouldn't have to follow other apprentices, Wouldn't it be more profitable to rob houses?

Cheng Qian was not completely ignorant of his parents' plans and his elder brother's depression.

He wasn't precocious, and he couldn't be compared with those child prodigies who became poets at the age of seven and worshiped at the age of thirteen, but he was just ordinary-minded.

Father gets up early and is greedy for night, elder brother wears stars and wears moon, mother puts elder brother and younger brother in her eyes, so she can't let him go, so in the Cheng family, although no one beat him, scolded him, and took him seriously, Cheng Qian knew all these things well, He is also naturally witty, and tries not to be too noisy to be annoying. The most outrageous thing he has ever done in his life is just to climb a big tree born by an old boy and listen to nonsense sage books.

He is conscientious and diligent, and regards himself as a small running hall, a small long-term worker, and a small servant—just not a son.

Cheng Qian didn't quite know what it was like to be a son.

Children are supposed to be talkative and jump up and down, but since Cheng Qian is not a son, he naturally does not have the privilege of being talkative and naughty. There are many pits and holes poking out of his small chest.

Cheng Qian, with the rain hitting the beach on his chest, knew that his parents had sold him out, but he felt a little strangely calm in his heart, as if he had expected such a day long ago.

Before leaving, Cheng Qian's sick mother got out of bed for the first time, called him aside tremblingly, and stuffed him with a small package with red eyes, which contained a few changes of clothes and sent dough pancakes. , it was still his elder brother who couldn't change it, and the cake was made by his father the day before yesterday.

After all, it was the meat that fell from his body. His mother looked at him, and couldn't help reaching into her cuff to dig out. Cheng Qian saw her trembling and took out a sling of copper coins. The pitted and dull copper coins suddenly Slightly twitching Cheng Qian's indifferent heartstrings, he was like a frozen little animal, sniffing the tip of his nose in the ice and snow, smelling a bit of a mother.

But the hanging money was also seen by his father, and the man coughed heavily beside him, his mother had no choice but to take the hanging money back with tears in her eyes.

So Mother's smell was like a mirror flower in water, she flickered for a while, and without Rong Cheng Qian hearing the truth, it disappeared again.

"Erlang, come here." His boring mother took Cheng Qian's hand and led him to the back room. After walking two steps, she began to wheeze and pant.

Weary, she found a wide bench and sat down, pointed to the small oil lamp hanging on the roof, and asked feebly, "Erlang, do you know what that is?"

Cheng Qian looked up indifferently: "The fairy keeps burning the lamp."

This unattractive little lamp is a family heirloom of their old Cheng family. According to legend, it is the dowry of Grandma Cheng Qian. It is the size of a palm. It has no wick and no lamp oil. There are a few lines of charms engraved on the simple ebony base. It can emit light by itself, illuminating the one-foot-square place for a long time.

Elder Cheng Qian couldn't figure it out, what's the use of this crap hanging here besides attracting bugs in summer?

However, since it is a fairy artifact, it doesn't need to have any practical use, as long as it can be used to show off when the neighbors and neighbors occasionally visit, it is a treasure that can be passed down from generation to generation for the villagers.

The so-called "immortal artifacts" are things carved with spells by "immortals", and ordinary people cannot imitate them. There are many types of immortal artifacts, and their uses are even more diverse. The bed and so on, and so on.

There used to be a storyteller who came to the village entrance and said that in the bustling city there are houses built with "immortal bricks", reflecting the sun like a glazed roof, resplendent as a royal palace, and there is a high-rise building outside the rice bowls of rich people's homes. The charms written by the immortals can avoid all kinds of poisons and cure all kinds of diseases. A broken bowl costs four taels of gold per piece of porcelain, but it is still very popular.

"Immortal", that is, a "cultivator", also known as "Taoist" or "True Man" - the former is usually called by himself, and it sounds a little more modest.

It is said that they start by drawing qi into the body and communicating with heaven and earth. No matter how deep their cultivation is, they can go to heaven without eating, go to heaven and earth, and even live forever. A few noses and a few eyes, no one has seen it, but it sounds like a miracle.

The whereabouts of immortals are uncertain, and good immortal artifacts are even more rare, and dignitaries flock to them.

The lady of the Cheng family bent down, looked at Cheng Qian earnestly, and asked in an almost flattering voice: "When Erlang comes back from his studies, can I also make a long-burning lamp for my mother?"

Cheng Qian didn't answer, but just raised his eyelids and glanced at her, thinking coldly in his heart: "It's a good idea, you sent me out today, and I don't care if I succeed in my studies, whether I live or die, whether I am a pig or a dog. I will never come back to see you again."

The Cheng family's wife was taken aback for a moment, she realized that the child was not like his parents, but a bit like her natal brother.

Her elder brother is the little piece of green smoke coming out of her family's ancestral grave. He was not like a farmer since he was a child. , people say that her family has lost a Wenqu star.

However, Wen Quxing probably didn't want to stay in the world for a long time, and died of illness before he could be admitted to Juren.

When the eldest brother died, the Cheng family's wife was still young, and some impressions were already blurred. Now I suddenly recalled that it was the same when that person was alive. Vigorous and frightening, no one can get close no matter what.

The lady of the Cheng family involuntarily let go of Cheng Qian's hand, and at the same time, Cheng Qian took half a step back without a trace.

In this way, he meekly and without saying a word, brought the life and death of the mother and child to an abrupt end.

Cheng Qian thought that what he did was not out of resentment, and resentment was unreasonable—his parents had the kindness of life and upbringing to him, even if their kindness was abandoned halfway, and half of the upbringing was abandoned, then at best it would be too much. It is to balance the merits and demerits.

He looked down at his toes, and said to himself, it's okay that his parents don't see him, and it's okay to sell him to a Taoist priest with triangular eyes.