Zha Gong's evolutionary path

The morning mist has not completely dissipated, wandering in the open valley.

The half-yellow and not green grass tip is covered with crystal dew, trembling when the breeze blows by, it will not fall.The overwintering birds landed on the branches, rested for a while, sang a few times in high spirits, and then spread their wings and flew away.

Not far away, in a large dense bush, lay an unconscious young man lying face down.

The man's clothes were stained with blood, and the sides of his face and hair were also stained with a lot of dark red, which had been dried for a long time, showing a strange purple-red color.The cuffs and the hem of the clothes were cut by the branches in the bushes, and the pale hands and feet were exposed, motionless.

If it wasn't for being in the cold air and occasionally seeing the silky white air exhaled from the mouth and nose, one would think that this body without ups and downs was already a dead person.

The man was just like that, lying lifelessly in the bushes.

In the silent valley, there is no sound of people.

The sun is gradually rising, and the thin mist slowly dissipates.A few strands of pale golden light passed through the shade of the tree and fell to the man's feet begrudgingly.

Suddenly there was a sudden sound of sprinting close to the ground, breaking the silence of the valley.

A dexterous and fast shadow jumped up from the edge of the bushes, moved lightly from tree to tree, and let out a happy cry.

The long arms hung from the branches, swung back and forth a few times, and yelled a few times in the direction they came from.The sun fell on the big round eyes, bulging cheeks and fluffy body, showing the figure of a baby monkey about one year old.

It seemed to be waiting for someone, barking, while still shaking its body on the branch.His eyes fell inadvertently, and he was immediately attracted by the "unknown object" in the bushes.

With a loose grip, the little monkey landed vertically beside the unconscious man.Curiously, he poked the man's cheek with his pointed toenails, and at the same time raised his vigilance, ready to jump back up the tree at any time.

The man remained motionless.

The young monkey found it funny and poked his neck again.

Seeing that he was still not moving, he put his curled tail on the man's back and patted him pitifully.

Not only was the man in a coma unable to respond, but because he had been lying on his stomach for too long, he suffered from severe hypothermia, and even his lips turned pale.

The little monkey squatted next to him, with big round eyes wide open, deeply thinking about whether this thing could be eaten.

There was a sound of soft footsteps, coming from the direction where the young monkey came, slowly approaching here.A moment later, a man in his mid-twenties, carrying a herb basket, appeared on the other side of the bushes.

The man was dressed in ink, his facial features could not be seen clearly under the bamboo hat, and the line of his jaw was soft.

The long waist-length black hair was not tied up, but was tied casually with a light-colored hairband, and it was scattered behind her back like splashed ink, making her tall and even.

The slender and well-articulated fingers parted the short branches in front of him, and he saw the baby monkey squatting on the ground, and the motionless male body next to the baby monkey.

Seeing him, the little monkey immediately jumped up, yelled excitedly, and gesticulated at the angry man on the ground.

The man in black shook his head: "This is not edible."

His voice was elegant and peaceful, with a lazy and idle tone.

The monkey became visibly depressed, and his excitement was cut in half.

The man in black carefully stepped over the barbed bushes, while tugging on his cuffs cherishingly, taking extra care not to let those messy branches scratch his clothes.

He squatted down in front of the unconscious man, lifted the man's exposed wrist, and felt for the pulse.

The pulse under the fingertips is weak and shallow, and it sometimes disappears, like a breath of residual breath, which will be cut off at any time.

The man took his pulse calmly and put his wrist back in place neatly.

Reaching into his bosom, he took out a crimson elixir, put it in his palm and looked at it.

Use your fingers to pry open the lips of the unconscious man, forcefully pry open the jaws, and stuff the pill into his mouth.Squeezing his jaw, he clapped his hands and stood up, regardless of whether the man swallowed it or not.

To the little monkey who was still squatting beside him, staring at the man unwillingly, he said, "Let's go."

Feeling sorry, the young monkey looked at the unconscious man again, followed behind the man in black, and bounced away.

The man who was surrounded by them for a while and then left behind was lying on the ground unconsciously as before.

The pale face like white paper, after the one person and one monkey left, was extremely inconspicuous, and gradually regained a little human color.

The sun is westward, and the warm golden light gradually disappears into the depths of the valley.The last few rays of the setting sun shone on a large area of ​​bushes, casting a thick black shadow in the center of the bushes.

The unconscious man was still the same as he had seen in the early morning, lying motionless in the same place.The difference was that the hands and feet were a little more bloody, and the chest began to rise and fall slightly, giving him a breath of life.

A few strands of damp hair stuck to his cheeks, whether it was from the cold dew or sweating.

The sound of footsteps in the valley, which had been silent for a long time, resounded softly.

The young man with the medicine basket on his back went back and forth, and there were several herbs in the half-empty basket in the morning.

He was still following the energetic little monkey, and jumped to the unconscious man's side in two or three steps, looking at him reluctantly.

The black-clothed man squatted down again, felt the man's pulse, and let out a sigh.

"It's still alive."

From his tone, it was impossible to tell whether it was joy or regret.

He raised his head and looked around. There was silence in the deserted valley.If this man was allowed to lie here, within a few days, the winter valley temperature would kill him.

Even if he is not far away from stepping into the gate of hell at this moment, he is still dying after all.

The man in black was caught in a violent inner struggle, wavering.

He squatted for so long that his legs and feet were numb, and he finally sighed.

"Bletilla striata," he sighed, and said to the little monkey with bright eyes, "let's take this man back."

The comatose man didn't look heavy at first glance, but when he was actually half-supporting and half-embracing and dragging back, he was dead heavy.

The man in black had a troubled expression on his face, thinking about the possibility of burying him on the spot several times along the way.

The little monkey named Baiji was very excited. Although he couldn't help much, he still helped pull the man's trousers in a serious manner.

While the master wasn't paying attention, he secretly licked the back of the man's neck several times, and opened his canine teeth to take a bite while licking.

Fortunately, his master could always detect it in time before he opened his mouth. With a slight cough, the monkey immediately moved its mouth away from the man's neck as if nothing had happened.

After walking through the bushes for several miles, when he finally saw his thatched hut, the unconscious man in his arms suddenly struggled.

The seriously injured person struggled with little strength, roughly equivalent to thumping in the arms of the man in black.

But it was enough to make people feel uncomfortable. He still carried the medicinal herbs that he had painstakingly gathered today on his back.You have to spare your hands to hug the wounded, and you have to keep the herbs from dangling out of the basket.

The man in black snorted and took out a handful of silver needles.

In the darkness of the night, he couldn't see anything, and he didn't care, he touched the man's body and plunged into it casually.

The man settled down immediately.

Pushing open the half-hidden door, a faint scent of herbs greets you.

Under the eaves, in the corners, on the shelves, and on the window sills, there are dried or wet herbal medicines drying everywhere; the bottles and jars containing the medicines are arranged in a straight row along the corners, divided into sections according to size, shape, and color. The arrangement is not chaotic, and it can be seen that the owner is an extremely meticulous and appropriate person.

The man in black clothes helped the man into the house, and the bletilla striata sprinted past his feet, quickly jumped onto the edge of the table, and lit the oil lamp.

A faint light ignited, illuminating a simple room.

A table, a chair, a bed with white curtains, a copper washbasin standing on a wooden stand, and a few simple dishes and chopsticks neatly packed in a drawer.

The man took off his bamboo hat and let out a soft breath.

He has a surprisingly handsome face, the facial features that were hidden under the bamboo hat just now are revealed at this time, the bridge of the nose is high, the lips seem to be vermilion, under the thick and slender eyelashes, a pair of red phoenix eyes are slightly raised upwards, full of affection The pulse of wind and flow.

He lowered his head to look at the unconscious man in his arms, his eyes flickered with indescribable charm.

Just as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, that lazy and idle atmosphere broke the infinite reverie left by the handsome face.

"It's so distressing... forgetting there's only one bed here."

He scratched his head, hesitated for a long time, and then reluctantly put the man in his arms on his bed.

After hesitating for another half a moment, he stretched out his slender fingers, with a somewhat disgusted expression, groping to untie the man's blood-stained clothes.

The hem of the man's shirt was the most blood-stained, as thick as ink, and several places were still stuck to the wound.

The black-clothed man tore off his clothes with a little force, and was not surprised to find that the lying man's brows were tightly wrinkled into the word Chuan, which was obviously in unbearable pain.

His subordinates showed no mercy, and continued to tear off his shirt, revealing the inflamed, swollen and purple-red wound on the man's armpit, and countless scars on his chest.

The little monkey slid down from the table, holding a bowl of black and unknown soup in its paws, squeaking by the bed.

His master glanced at it: "You are very warm-hearted."

Baiji thought it was a compliment, and responded excitedly.

The fingertips dipped in the soup in the medicine bowl, and slowly wiped the blood along the texture of the man's skin scars.

He moved slowly, although he didn't deliberately lighten his hands and feet, the slightly cool temperature of his fingertips still brought some relief to the body exuding high heat.

The man frowned slightly, and when he was concentrating on massaging the more serious wound on his armpit, he suddenly raised his hand and tightly grasped the black-clothed man's wrist.

The low and dry voice was almost squeezed out from the bottom of the lungs.

"Ye Mingjue...it's you."

"..."

"Ye Mingjue..."

He held onto it extremely tightly, with the fanaticism of a drowning man treating the life-saving driftwood, and he clung to the man who gave him the wound medicine.

The other party frowned, tried a few times, but failed to pull his wrist out of the hand of the man who suddenly became powerful, and finally lost his patience after a while.

The other free hand brushed across the man's body, and the silver needle in his hand poked some key parts.He heard the man scream in a low voice, and his hands fell limply to the side of the bed.

Baiji has been standing by the side, seeing the man fainted again, she rubbed her cheeks up happily and eagerly, rubbing against the back of the man's hand like a puppy.

His master glanced at it again, resisting the desire to sigh again.

"You can play with it if you like it, if you can save your life."

Saying this in his mouth, he kept applying the half-warm herbal medicine all over the man's body, and then took a clean cloth to wrap the wound carefully.The dirt that had been removed was so dirty that the original texture of the clothes could not be seen, so he directly ordered the little monkey to take it out of the house and find a place to dispose of it.

After finishing all this, the man in black put down the white curtain beside the bed, got up and went to the copper basin by himself.

Called clean water, carefully, meticulously, from the fingertips to the wrist, and even the nails, carefully washed it several times.