All your life is gentle

Zi Shi lay down in a daze for two days.

After being shaken awake once in the middle, Chang Sheng held the clay pot in front of him: "Is it almost like this?"

Opening his eyes, he saw that the nine-section lotus was completely boiled, and the off-white soup in the pot was smooth and thick, exuding a faint bitter fragrance.Turning his head again, he saw Zi Zhou Zigui eating a loquat.A simple hearth was set up in the cave, and several stones were placed in a patchwork order, and the burnt branches were covered with sand to cover up the green smoke.My heart is settled: This person is really not bragging, he is a veteran of running outside.

Close your eyes again.Changsheng was in a hurry: "If you don't drink, I'll force it!" He was helped up, and the clay pot was brought to his mouth.

Zi Shi remembered what he seemed to say with a grin, in exchange for the other party's boss to roll his eyes.After swallowing a few mouthfuls, his consciousness was out of control, and he fell into a coma again.

When I woke up again, the situation was very different.

It turned out that Gu Changsheng hadn't been idle for a moment in these two days.He had a chance encounter. He has been practicing martial arts since he was eight years old, and his kung fu is not weak; he grew up in the vast sea and yellow sand, and he is used to wind, knives, and frost swords; Up, it's not on the same level at all.Once awakened, the body will naturally improve rapidly.

Leading Zizhou and Zigui to dry a pile of loquats, cored and cut into strips to make dried fruit, followed them to recognize seven or eight kinds of wild vegetables and herbs that are said to be recorded in "Tongcheng Local Natural History", and went to the forest to pick them back some fresh fruit.Feeling that his physical strength has recovered by a few percent, he climbed a tree and dug out some bird eggs, looked at the situation in the direction of Tongcheng, and finally caught a fat cauliflower snake in the tall grass.

So far, the two children have completely trusted and adored him.Brother Changsheng said that his eldest brother was fine, so the two no longer had any doubts, and worked hard to help Brother Changsheng realize their common desire to improve their lives.

For Gu Changsheng, two days of being together, a pair of twins who are pure, innocent, lively and cute, running after running with him, let him experience a completely different life.Knowing that he was in a dangerous situation, his heart was unprecedentedly relaxed and carefree.

"Zi Zhou, are you sure this thing is not poisonous?"

"Yeah. We also have it in the backyard of our house, exactly the same. But Uncle Huai won't let him be arrested, saying he's the housekeeper."

"Then I won't be polite." He grabbed Qicun with his left hand and held the dagger in his right, "Zigui, turn around and don't look."

"Brother Changsheng, what are you going to do?"

"Skin the snake alive." The snake was pinched uncomfortably by him, the long red letter retracted and spit out, and the blue and yellow mottled body twisted from side to side.

"Ah!" The two children took a few steps back in fright.

"Hey, it's fake to peel it alive, but it's true to eat it raw." Cut a hole at seven inches with a knife, pinch the snake's head tightly, and suck it up hard - finally found a good thing to replenish blood, just relying on those herbs , want to fully recover, until when to go.

After drinking an unknown number of sips in one go, the snake in his hand gradually stopped twisting, and then he stopped.Look at the one lying on the ground, unconscious. Although the fever has subsided, his face is still pale, so let's get some mending.Turn around and greet: "Zi Zhou, come and help."

Zi Zhou and Zi Gui didn't dare to look at it, but they couldn't help being curious. They secretly glanced back from the corner of their eyes, and were immediately startled by the way he was drinking the snake's blood.Such a bloody and cruel scene, close at hand, is another more direct and more delicate horror than witnessing the massacre.When Chang Sheng turned his head, there were still drops of blood hanging from the corner of his mouth, and the two of them could not help but scream and the other trembled.

"Scared?" Chang Sheng raised his sleeve and wiped his mouth, "It's just a snake, so scared..." I thought to myself, if you are from the south, you are timid.

"Zizhou, you are a boy, how can you be so timid? Come and help, with this thing, your elder brother will be well soon."

The two children looked at him, then at Zi Shi who was lying still on his stomach, hesitated for a moment, and bravely walked over.Obedient to the command, turn Zi Shi over carefully, supporting his shoulders to prevent the wound from touching the ground.Changsheng held his chin with one hand and gently applied force to make him open his mouth. With the other hand, he grabbed the snake body and squeezed it slowly. A thin line of blood flowed down, moistening the chapped lips. Stained red teeth.

Seeing that it was almost the same, he took the dagger and turned it over, and the black and green snake gall rolled on the tip of the knife.The next moment, it had slid down his throat and into Zi Shi's stomach.

In a daze, he felt something cold and greasy slipping down his esophagus, Zi Shi woke up completely with fright.His mouth was filled with the smell of blood, and his throat felt an indescribably bitter taste, and he wanted to vomit immediately.Changsheng snapped out a finger, and touched his three acupoints Zhongwan, Tianshu and Qihai.Zi Shi coughed a few times, but couldn't spit it out.

Unreasonable uneasiness in my heart: "What did you give me?"

"Here," Chang Sheng waved the dead snake in his hand, "Fresh snake blood and snake gallbladder are most effective against heat, poison and swollen sores."

Zi Shi turned his head and wanted to vomit again.Reluctantly, the acupoints were blocked, so he could only hold his stomach and retch.

Changsheng didn't expect him to react so strongly, and said: "It's really a good thing, it's a pity to spit it out - you don't want people to spit up a few sour red bayberries, this is a good tonic." Seeing him is really uncomfortable , and couldn't help but compromise, "Forget it, I'll relieve the acupuncture point for you. If you don't eat it, don't eat it. Sigh..."

Zi Shi shook his head, suppressed the annoyance in his heart, and sat up with support.The most important thing right now is to get better quickly, and the nausea or not can be ignored.Turning to the younger siblings behind him, he said, "Zi Zhou and Zi Gui, don't need to support them." But the two children looked stunned.

"what happened?"

"Brother..." Zigui pointed to the corner of his mouth, "Here, wipe it off."

Raising his hand to wipe it, it turned out that there was still blood on his lips.Said to Changsheng: "Pass me the water."

"It's not water, it's nine-section lotus. It was prepared for you." The dead snake put it on the stone first, and then brought the pottery pot over. When Zi Shi raised his head, Bai Shengsheng's dark eyes were on his face. Dao Qing's faint eyebrows and light lips were dyed with a ray of bright red.Changsheng hung his hands in the air and forgot to reach forward.

"Gu Changsheng?"

Calm down: "Oh, hold it steady."

Zi Shi took it and poured a few mouthfuls.

As if to cover up something, Chang Sheng said: "Your complexion is too bad, you are as white as a ghost, you startled me." He added: "Fortunately, you didn't make you spit it out. You should be able to squeeze out some more, why don't you have two more mouthfuls?"

"Thank you. Leave it to you to suffer."

"Sorry, I've already enjoyed it first."

Zigui was beside him and said timidly, "Brother...Brother Changsheng, the way he drinks blood...is very strange."

"I just scared them." Chang Sheng explained a few words.

"That's it." Zi Shi imagined Gu Changsheng thirsty for the blood of a live snake, and seeing Zi Zhou and Zi Gui's lingering fears, he must have been quite frightened.For the sake of his hard work, let's break it up for him.So he put down the jar and said, "Do you still remember that at the banquet for the two of you on your [-]th birthday, there was a main course called "Dragon Teng Four Sea Phoenix Dance Nine Heavens"..."

It is a custom in the south of the Yangtze River that birthdays coincide with the Tenth Anniversary.All well-off families have to invite relatives and friends to prepare a sumptuous banquet for their children's tenth birthday to celebrate.All the guests presented various congratulatory gifts and expressed good wishes. During the banquet, the elders of the clan even delivered speeches and prayed for the children.

Even though the situation in the Northwest was already extremely critical, Li Yancheng insisted on holding a grand birthday banquet for the two young children when they were ten years old.The local area has always valued literati, and Mr. Li Ge was the number one scholar in the past, and he became a bachelor, which really added honor to the people of Tongcheng.Now that he is an official and lives at home, he is naturally the most prestigious person in the city.On the birthday of Mrs. Li's family, everyone came to join in, and the guests came like a cloud.

Boss Duan from "Deep Drunken Country" sent a full set of chefs to give Li Ge Laobai a day, and took this as a gift.It is not only a favor, but also a great opportunity to advertise.Several chefs tried their best to dedicate an unforgettable delicious meal to the guests.The main dish at the birthday banquet was a large bowl of "dragon soaring across the sea and phoenix dancing in nine heavens" - the second son of the Li family, the young lady, is a pair of dragon and phoenix twins, so the name is quite thoughtful.

Zizhou didn't understand why the elder brother suddenly mentioned this, nodded and said: "I remember, everyone thinks it's delicious."

Zigui added: "Mother also said that she has never eaten such tender and refreshing meat. I remember that wolfberry and chrysanthemum were sprinkled in it, and it looked very good."

The three brothers and sisters all thought of the good and happy time in the past for a while, fell into the memory, and did not speak for a long time.

Although Chang Sheng didn't understand why Zi Shi said this, he was attracted by the name of the dish.Seeing that he stopped suddenly, and the three of them looked bewildered, they could probably guess the reason.Thinking that he was responsible for the destruction of their family, he felt rather complicated.So he didn't disturb it, he picked up the snake and sat aside, and began to skin it.

After a while, Zi Shi coughed lightly, and continued, "Half of this dish is chicken, so there is a word "phoenix" in the name. Do you know what the word "dragon" refers to?"

Zigui was quick-witted, had already guessed, and changed his face: "Brother, you mean—"

"That's right. The other half of this dish is snake meat. All the black-stalked snakes over three feet in length were used in that banquet, and there were two for each table. Calculate how much you ate in total..."

"Ah!" Zigui exclaimed.Zizhou's face turned green.

"The hot snake blood was released, and it filled a big basin, which is the blood tofu cubes in the "gold, silver and jade chip soup"." Zi Shi chuckled, "Zi Zhou, I remember that you ate a lot." Zi Shi Zhou's face was pale green.

Zigui suddenly asked, "Brother, how do you know this?"

Zi Shi hesitated for a moment, but still said: "I'm curious, so I went to the kitchen to take a peek." ——That day at the slaughterhouse in the kitchen, he was so frightened that he vomited a mess on the spot, and then had a nightmare for a long time.The sage said: A gentleman stays away from the kitchen.Sure enough, a wise saying.

"Ah, no wonder you said that you had a bad appetite that day, and you hardly ate anything at the banquet."

"Little aunt also said that it was because Dad didn't celebrate your tenth birthday, so he was jealous..."

"Two little bean dings, do you believe the rumors that slander your smart and benevolent brother?"

Changsheng was doing his own work while listening to the three brothers and sisters talking.He cut off the snake's head, cut open the snake's belly, and took out all the internal organs.The tip of the knife cuts away bit by bit along the junction of the snake's neck and flesh.The muscles and snake skin are very tightly connected, and the direction and proportion of the knife are very particular.If you don't pay attention, the snake's skin may be scratched, or the snake's skin may not be picked cleanly, leaving residual meat.

Hearing Zi Shi talk about the dishes at the banquet, he thought to himself, the names are all so nice, I don’t know what the taste is... So he was frightened once, no wonder he wanted to vomit when he saw a snake.Still too squeamish.What is skinning dozens of snakes alive?

After listening to a few more sentences, my mood suddenly fell: Li's brothers and sisters have such a good relationship.They are so harmonious, support each other, trust each other.Li Zishi treats his younger siblings with such care and love from the bottom of his heart.I also have brothers, and I also have eldest brother. They call themselves, but it is not as kind as the two children call "Elder Brother Changsheng"...

Slowly pick out more than an inch, put down the dagger, hold the separated snake body and snake skin with two hands, apply force evenly, and the whole snake skin slowly peels off.No longer distracted, the conversation between the three brothers and sisters over there drifted over again.

"Why are you telling us now?"

"It's such a festive day, why do you have to make you unable to eat? Isn't it a big deal? It's a pity to make you spit it out after talking about it. As for why you have to say it now...Zi Zhou and Zi Gui really don't understand? "

It has become a habit for the two children to be "educated" by the elder brother who is four years older since childhood.Before the age of eight, they were basically coaxed and teased.Before the age of ten, he was half playful and half serious, such as being forced to recognize the names of objects in "Tongcheng Local Natural History".In the past two years, Li Mian studied with a teacher to prepare for the exam. Occasionally, when he was free, he acted like a big brother, helping his younger siblings with their homework, but most of them talked about some poems and songs that nourished the soul.

Zizhou and Zigui felt that since the escape, in just a few days, although the eldest brother was still as kind and kind as before, he had added a little indescribable majesty.It makes people more dependent, but also more awe-inspiring.For example, now, when the eldest brother asked "I really don't understand", the two couldn't help looking at each other, and began to reflect on what was wrong with their words and deeds.

"It turns out that we have eaten snake meat and drank snake blood." Zigui said softly.

"But... like brother Changsheng..." Zi Zhou frowned.

"You think it's too cruel?" Zi Shi asked.

The two nodded quickly.

"If you haven't seen it, if--he made snake blood into blood tofu cubes behind your back, added some white tofu cubes, quail egg yolks, boiled it in broth, and made that "gold, silver and jade shavings soup", served in crystal lotus Do you still think it’s cruel to serve it in a cup?”

"..." I don't know what to say.After thinking about it for a while, he honestly shook his head.

(At this time, Changsheng thought, so the meaning of "gold, silver and jade scraps")

"Actually, what's the difference? I'm afraid, the only difference is that one kills a snake, and the other kills more. One kills directly, and the other kills covertly. One cures and saves people, and the other entertains guests. One is in a Desperate situation, killing snakes to satisfy hunger, and another pursuit of novelty and appetite... May I ask who is more cruel?"

Zizhou and Zigui were speechless.

Hearing this, Chang Sheng's heart moved slightly.He went around the boss in a circle, so he wanted to speak for himself in front of the two children.

Tired of talking, Zi Shi moved his body with his arms supported, and was about to continue, but he caught a glimpse of the pile of red, red, and white on the stone by Chang Sheng's hand.There was a churning in my stomach, and I managed to hold it back, turned my head, and begged, "Gu Changsheng, please clean it up quickly, okay?"

Well?Changsheng was surprised.Don't you seem to understand?

Knowing what he was thinking, Zi Shi said: "It's hard to say that it's cruel, but it's really too ugly... It's unappetizing."

After a short rest, he sighed as if talking to himself: "The sage said: "Words are worthless, but actions are not far away. "Speaking and writing articles are like this, so why not other things? The same thing, if it is done well, it is interesting, elegant, and attractive. If it is not well done, it is cruel, barbaric, and frightening. It has a good reputation and a bad reputation. , is often left like this.”

Of course, Changsheng knew the famous saying of the sage, and the meaning was very clear.Explained by Li Zishi, why does it sound so awkward?He answered bluntly: "Welcoming kitsch, hypocrisy."

"What you said is not unreasonable. However, unless you can completely abandon the world and have no desires, you must always consider looking at appearances and selling appearances. Otherwise, you will not only cause trouble for others, but also cause trouble for yourself. If you are not even this "hypocritical" If you refuse to do it, people will see you as a "real orangutan"—not a human."

Zi Shi glanced at him: "Also, don't you know that your ugly appearance scares children? Fortunately, my brothers and sisters understand righteousness, otherwise I would definitely treat you as a cannibal. I see that you have also read books, The sage has a saying: "Quality is better than literature, and history is better than quality. Gentleness is gentle, and then a gentleman"-it is not impossible, can you not be "gentle"?" These two children have enough psychological shadows Yes, I still look forward to their healthy growth.

Changsheng was also speechless.Fu Sheng, the second prince of Xirong who had changed his identity, was taught by a young man from the Xia people to "be gentle and gentle, and then be a gentleman". God is really blind.

Hearing what his elder brother said, Zizhou suddenly became smarter, pulled Zigui to stand up, and bowed to Changsheng: "Brother Changsheng, I'm sorry."

"No...no...cough..." Gu Changsheng actually blushed, which was rare in his life.

Zi Shi thought, the northern children are real, and their hearts are not bad.

Cleaned up the mess a few times, put the snake skin in the corner to dry, buried the internal organs, cut the snake meat into pieces and threaded them on the sharp and thin branches, and finally took a handful of dry grass to wipe off the blood stains on the stones and daggers, Throwing it into the fire, Changsheng set up a fire to kebab.

For a while, the hole is full of fragrance.

For the Li brothers and sisters who have always been pampered, it was unimaginable before that they only ate some stiff cakes and fruits.Zi Shi is a different matter, Zi Zhou and Zi Gui never quarreled, worked hard to cooperate with their eldest brother, had fun while suffering, and were very sensible.At this time, when I smelled the smell of meat, I knew it was the snake that died tragically before, but I couldn't control it, and my mouth watered.

Chang Sheng handed them each a skewer, and seeing the two children hesitated a little, they happily ate and smiled, feeling quite relieved.

"Thank you Brother Changsheng."

"It's delicious... Brother Changsheng, you are amazing."

Zi Shi also laughed.Children are really easy to bribe, as long as they have milk, they are mothers.Not to mention the promotion from "Brother Gu" to "Brother Changsheng" so quickly, they put aside their previous suspicions in a blink of an eye and became intimate.

Changsheng also handed him a bunch.Zi Shi shook his head.

Thinking that he was humble, he said: "There is no shortage of food on the mountain this season, so feel free to eat."

"no appetite."

Changsheng stared.This is the first time I heard that a fugitive is actually qualified to complain about lack of appetite.

"Don't stare at me. I don't want to either. The snake's blood and gall are still pouring up. I really can't eat it." Zi Shi frowned and turned away, not looking at him anymore.

Just eat grass roots and bark, when will it be better.Changsheng hardened his heart, remembering the sneer and sarcasm when he let him eat pancakes that day, and deliberately said coldly: "Mr. Li, if you don't eat, how long will you have a pair of younger brothers and sisters and an outsider like me to take care of you? Are you still planning to take the disease as a way of praising yourself?" ?”

Zi Shi laughed.June debt, pay off quickly.This guy has a good brain.Also, the mental block left over from two years ago should be worked on.

Take a bite.Before he started chewing, some pictures flashed in his mind: from dozens of bloody and skinned live snakes to the bloody rain of human heads all over the sky, from the red waves formed by the influx of blood in the Han River to the lingering corpses of burning corpses in the air Burnt smell... spit out the piece of meat with a "wow".Stomach was tumbling, and he gritted his teeth to let it calm down slowly.

I thought I didn't care, but it turned out to be in my subconscious mind.This is not something that can be overcome in a day or two.

He raised his head and looked at Changsheng with tears in his eyes.

"Okay, okay, I won't force you to eat."

It was as if he was being forced into prostitution, and I wished I could beat him a few times—that's all.Changsheng gave up and sat next to Zizhou and Zigui to eat his own.snort!Starve to death you hypocritical hypocrite.

Zi Shi lay down on the ground again, watched Chang Sheng turn off the fire, buried a few eggs in the ashes and simmered.The two children circled around him like worms, smiling happily.

It turned out that by accident, I picked up a treasure.Occasionally, a small investment is like buying a potential stock, and I don't know how much I can earn.Listening to them whispering over there, I fell asleep in peace.