Of Mountains and Rivers

Chu Huan's throat twitched slightly, but Nanshan was staring at him...or rather, he was staring at him closely, like a cheetah staring at its prey, without moving its eyes.

Even though they always have some barriers in language communication, their behaviors and expressions are universal, and Nanshan's eyes made Chu Huan palpitate.

His chest suddenly became hot, and the blood that flowed through was not spared, and was heated to scalding without exception. He felt that his heavy bones suddenly lightened by two catties, and his feet had no roots, almost floating into the air.

When Chu Huan was in a trance, he forgot where he was, and the surroundings were suddenly full of spring, and he couldn't restrain his heart.

He slowly stretched out a hand and paused in the air for a moment, as if he was waiting for Nanshan's permission.

Nan Shan remained silent, allowing his hand to be lifted up inch by inch, lingering on the side of his face.

However, Chu Huan never had Meng Lang, and his untimely gentleman disease suddenly flared up again. He just rubbed Nanshan's face very gently with the back of his hand, as if brushing away a little dust on a peerless treasure, and then naturally smiled.

Silently, stripped of all pretense, indifference and carelessness.

Like thin frost and snow quietly melting in the morning light.

Nanshan grabbed his hand. The strength of the young patriarch of the mountain guard is self-evident. His palm is like a red-hot iron, with a kind of desperate heat.

Nanshan held his hand tighter and tighter, wanting to say something, but before he could say it, his expression changed suddenly, he let go of Chu Huan's hand suddenly, turned around and jumped into the cold mountain stream without saying a word .

Snow-white snowflakes splashed everywhere, Nan Shan sank himself into the water, the water almost reached his chin, he opened a pair of eyes that seemed to be jumping about a hundred thousand mountains and all the beasts and birds in them, no longer concealing the ambition in his eyes Longing, Nanshan stared at Chu Huan, his black eyes moved with him, looking a little eager.

Chu Huan was taken aback for a moment, and then he felt that his body was also getting slightly hot, and he remembered the waterway that was frequently covered in blood from "Mad Dog" Mutai just now.

The day before, Chu Huan had joked that Er Tijiao, who lost his composure in front of everyone, was a brat, but he didn't expect the retribution to come so quickly.Mutai's blood is a bit sweet and fishy, ​​as if it is a bit like deer whip and deer blood, a little stronger than that, but it is not as miraculous and immediate as the "aphrodisiac" in martial arts novels.

However, Chu Huan is no longer a young man with fresh blood. He has stood on the cusp of cold rumors for many years and has been soaked in water for so long. Even if he accidentally drank a few mouthfuls of blood, the effect is still limited.

Just looking at Nanshan, he felt a little impetuous.

Chu Huan washed his face in the cold mountain stream, and the two looked at each other in blank dismay, unavoidably a little embarrassed.

Chu Huan couldn't help laughing out loud, and at the same time, his heart fluctuated several times, loosened and tightened suddenly, and finally recovered to a normal adult man's mind, and calmed down heavily.

After all, he is no longer desperate and can be young and reckless.

Chu Huan didn't plan or have the energy to play with anyone, and he never regarded Nanshan as a dry affair. He felt that he probably liked Nanshan from the first time he saw him. After a long time, he couldn't help but cherish Nanshan.

Chu Huan felt that he had nothing to offer, and the greatest thing he could do to the other party was to be cautious from the beginning.

He quickly packed the firewood. Fortunately, the waterproof function of the lighter did not drop the chain, and he lit the fire without much effort. Chu Huan put his hand on the fire weakly, and felt that Nanshan's eyes followed him the whole way.

Chu Huan's eyes jumped over the flames, and he said to Nanshan in the water: "Come up when it's cold, everyone knows what's going on, so don't be embarrassed."

Nanshan moved in the water, probably not cooled down yet, so he had to continue soaking in the water.

All the dry food they brought with them was in Dashan, and the two of them were hungry after running for a whole day.

Fortunately, in addition to wild monsters, there are many normal wild animals on the mountain. Chu Huan listened attentively for a while, and keenly caught a rustling movement in the mountain forest. There was only a sound of "噗嗤", and a bird the size of a pheasant was shot through the neck and fell down.

Chu Huan grabbed the big bird and shook it towards Nanshan: "Is this not poisonous?"

Nanshan shook his head.

Chu Huan: "Okay, you go upstream."

Then, with the flowing water flowing quickly in the mountain stream, he skillfully disemboweled the big bird, cleaned it up, and roasted it on the fire.

The sky gradually dimmed, and Nan Shan, who had been soaking in the water for a long time, suddenly asked, "Why did you miss that arrow today?"

The movements in Chu Huan's hands paused. He instinctively didn't want to answer, but he also knew that he couldn't cowardly evade these questions forever. After a while, he said, "Panic."

Nan Shan's eyes sank: "Because of Yuan Ping?"

Since Chu Huan opened the mouth to him, he calmed down instead. He nodded, cut a few cuts on the big bird's body with a knife, and put it on the fire to roast slowly.

Nan San was so sour that he didn't bother to cover it up, and it was clear at a glance: "Why do you panic when you see him?"

Chu Huan looked up at him with a half-smile, and as soon as Nanshan met his intriguing eyes, the fire all over his body immediately heated up to his face, and he immediately wanted to bury himself in the water, and he was very puzzled when he was halfway buried. I feel like I was molested by Chu Huan's eyes.

"Why am I sneaking around?" Thinking of this, he suddenly became more confident, exposed his straight and broad shoulders and chest, and leaned against the shore.

Chu Huan said: "Why should I panic when I see him? I'm just not used to it. I often forget that he is dead. When I see this new gatekeeper, I feel like I've gone back to a long time ago... Well, I should slowly understand. accustomed."

Nanshan looked at him. For some reason, this time, Mutai's blood had a particularly strong impact on him. He looked at Chu Huan's body covered by clothes all the year round, and his lips moving slightly when he spoke, and couldn't help swallowing. Drooling, my heart seems to be scratched by a small brush, but I can't scratch the itchy place.

He didn't know if he was hungry or what, looking at Chu Huan, he suddenly had the idea of ​​"I really want to try it".

Nanshan realized that his mind was twisted, and immediately relied on his strong willpower to withdraw his gaze decisively, and asked without regard for injustice: "How is your 'marriage contract' over there?"

"It's very troublesome," Chu Huanzai carefully turned over the barbecue on the fire, and adjusted the heat by distance, "First, go to a place called the Civil Affairs Bureau to register, and ask them to send you a small book to prove that the marriage is established— —Oh, of course, right now they only register the marriage of one man and one woman, and the others are not under their control for the time being—then they have to send invitations, invite relatives and friends, book a hotel, invite the master of ceremonies to preside over the wedding..."

At first, Nanshan was still thinking carefully about what he described, but in the end he was almost stunned by the red tape.

"In short, a wedding needs a lot of money, it takes a long time, and sometimes you need to hire some people who specialize in this matter to take care of it, but..." Chu Huan turned over the barbecue, smiled softly, "Even with all the solemnity and trouble, there are still a lot of people who get married and get divorced."

Nanshan: "What does divorce mean?"

Chu Huan thought for a while: "According to your words, it should be 'disengagement'?"

Nanshan said urgently: "How can the marriage contract be dissolved? It is a life-and-death contract."

Chu Huan raised his eyebrows, and said a little self-deprecatingly: "That's over, we estimate that many people will die in one day."

The two of them were on land and in the water. Facing the huge cultural difference, the two were silent for a long time until Chu Huan roasted the meat until it was charred on the outside and tender on the inside.

He first carefully picked the best piece of meat, broke it off, carefully wrapped the bone at one end with thick leaves, so that it was easy to handle, and then handed it to Nanshan in the water.

Nanshan finally climbed up from the water slowly before turning into a water ghost. He sat down beside Chu Huan with a cool look, took the roasted big bird meat, and still asked him what he wanted. The world that doesn't understand: "Why do you want to undo all that?"

"There are reasons for everything," Chu Huan said, "In general, it's either that you can't live on, or someone else has someone else in their heart."

While talking, Chu Huan thought of Nanshan's parents.

A charismatic man, but not a good one, wanders around the border alone. He has a research level beyond ordinary people and has certain attainments in pharmacology. According to the description of the elders, the massacre of the gatekeeper by that man sounds like Unlike a whim, the time and place are all well thought out, it should be planned for a long time, he has several characteristics of boldness, carefulness, cunning, ruthlessness, and strong action.

From all the above, regarding the identity of that person, Chu Huan felt that the most reliable guess was the drug maker who fled to the border.

But he didn't mention it to Nanshan, he just felt that the woman in the story was a pity. If there was no unreasonable restraint, she could have picked herself out first, and then she should be killed and buried.

But... after thinking about it, it seems that it is not.

A nation in such an environment, no matter how hospitable it is, can allow the patriarch of the next clan to marry an outsider who doesn't know his roots?How can there be no pressure from the same clan to conclude this kind of oath of life and death?

Chu Huan could imagine her desperate and fierce temperament.

Maybe even if she can be alone, she doesn't want to?

Nanshan didn't speak anymore, as if he wanted to live up to the chef's intentions, he gnawed the meat that Chu Huan tore for him wholeheartedly, and only after the bones were gnawed clean did he say, "I still don't understand."

Chu Huan: "Because there are too few people here."

There are too few people, and life is too hard. For example, a person who has been hungry for a day can still gobble up unsalted meat like a delicacy. Treat yourself to two more bites.

In the middle of the night, the clothes were dry, and neither of them dared to close their eyes in such a place, so they simply got up and continued on their way.

Chu Huan opened up the chatterbox and skillfully led the topic. Nanshan finally relaxed slowly, putting away his involuntarily forced and even a little aggressive eyes.

The two seem to have returned to the time when Chu Huan first came to the Liyi Clan, and went to the patriarch's small courtyard to chat with Nanshan every day, relaxed, happy and stress-free.

When Nanshan patiently corrected Chu Huan's pronunciation of a Liyi language, his voice paused for no reason, and Chu Huan immediately reacted in a daze.

The sound of water—the sound of water is wrong!

Nanshan suddenly made a retreat gesture to Chu Huan, which was exactly the same as the gesture that Chu Huan and Yuan Pingyao talked to during the day—Chu Huan was stunned. Every movement of him and Yuan Ping was seen and remembered.

A huge monster suddenly appeared in the river, and Chu Huan and Nanshan had already hidden in the woods by the river bank.

The two climbed up to the middle of the big tree one after another. Chu Huan pushed aside the layers of leaves. The dark night affected his vision to some extent. He was about to turn on the telescope function when a hand was suddenly placed in front of him.

"Don't look." Nanshan said hastily, "Don't look."

Chu Huan is very inexplicable, will there be a needle's eye after seeing it?

Nanshan covered his eyes with one hand, wrapped his arm around his shoulder, grabbed his arm, and said, almost lying next to Chu Huan's ear, "This is not a sound beast, it's..."

He paused, realizing that Yuan Ping was not here, and neither of the two could accurately translate the two languages, so he had to skip over the unclear terms: "It has eyes all over its body, and it will hurt if you glance at it from a distance." , in severe cases, you will be blind, and you may even die.”

Chu Huan's thinking is very mature—that is, he has his own certain knowledge reserve and formed way of thinking, which enables him to handle many situations with ease, but there are also disadvantages.For example, he will become rigid, and once he comes into contact with new things that do not match his old cognition, he will have some obstacles in accepting them.

What is "eyes all over the body"?So which organ is it really used to realize the visual function?It can't be a 360-degree full view, can it?

And what about the lack of visual contact?glare?Psychic attacks caused by optical illusions?

Chu Huan really couldn't imagine it, and couldn't understand it. He was waiting to ask again.

Nanshan: "Hush."

The rustling sound came slowly, Chu Huan closed his eyes, and his sense of touch and hearing became very sensitive. He heard the leaves trembling, rustling without wind.And something extremely heavy was walking under the tree step by step, and the speed was not fast. When passing by their tree, Chu Huan heard it stop.

There was silence around, as if the wind and time had stopped, and the two held their breath involuntarily.

is it moving

There are eyes all over the body, where is it looking?

It found them?

Chu Huan's hand slowly touched the handle of the triangular thorn in his arms.

Suddenly, the whole tree, which was difficult for four or five people to hug, shook, and then there was a sound of sharp hard objects scratching the bark.

Chu Huan's hand on one side was almost inserted into the bark.

That thing climbed up?Or is it trying to push down the big tree?

People's imagination can be extremely rich when they can't see it, especially when Chu Huan felt that Nanshan was slightly sweating in the palm of his hand.

The sound of scratching the bark became louder and louder, Chu Huan had tightly clasped the triangular thorn, and was ready to pull it out at any time.

Just when the cold sweat on Chu Huan's body had risen and fallen twice, the movement suddenly stopped.

After a moment of silence, the sound of the heavy and dragging footsteps just now resounded like an amnesty.

After a long time, Chu Huan exhaled lightly, and took Nanshan's hand, which was in front of his eyes: "Leave?"

Nanshan put his hand down: "Let's go. It consumes a lot of energy every step it takes. Generally, it doesn't like to move around. It's not common for us not to be able to go to places as high as the mountain gate."

When Nanshan said this, his eyes sank: "But we will die every time we meet, without exception. That's how my ancestor died, so grandma became the patriarch at a very young age."

Chu Huan: "Aggressive?"

Nanshan: "Cannibalism—go, let's go as soon as possible."

The two quickly jumped down from the tree, and Chu Huan saw the big footprints on the ground—nearly one meter wide and one and a half meters long. It is an off-road vehicle, and there is a row of thin and deep holes in front of each paw print, like the tip of a sharp claw.

Chu Huan glanced at the root of the tree, just now the thing stopped to look at it to sharpen its claws.

The bottom of the old tree was half hollowed out, sawdust flying across, and layers of overlapping annual rings were exposed in the wound.

For a moment, Chu Huan never clearly realized the insignificance and helplessness of being a human being.

He was full of sobs, when suddenly, he saw a length of rope with a hole in the broken wood and grass.

Chu Huan's heart skipped a beat at that moment, he took a step forward to pick it up, afraid of admitting his mistake, he looked it over several times carefully, only to see that half of the braid was still attached to the knot.

This piece of string and hair belong to Xiaofang!

Although the mountain guards and gatekeepers both have long hair, men generally neglect to take care of it. Only Xiaofang braided a colorful rope into her braid like a little girl, so Chu Huan was particularly impressed by that coquettish little braid. profound.

Nanshan glanced at it, and his expression changed.

The tail of the braided rope was cut off by a sharp weapon, probably a weapon brought by the mountain guards themselves.

Nanshan pushed aside a piece of bushes, only to see an arrow nailed into the wood on a short tree stump.

It is the bow and arrow of the mountain guard himself.

As an illiterate with a very limited level of education, Xiaofang must have no ambition to become a monk, so...

Either this is his warning, or he has...