"What kind of place is this?" Jiang Xingchen, who had just woken up, was sitting on a narrow bed made of broken wooden boards at the end of the room, with a confused face. In his sight, the windows blocked by broken wood pieces, the mottled walls, and the closed old
An old wooden door, a wooden table with only three legs leaning crookedly against the corner... a simple and shabby picture.
Slowly turning his head, he saw that on the other side of the house were piles of broken charcoal as high as a person's height. His eyes stopped on it, with a thoughtful expression on his face, and the images in his memory slowly emerged.
"After graduating from college, I went drinking with the second, third, and fourth boys in the dormitory..."
"We drank all night long, and we were all drunk in the end..."
"On the way back, I walked in front..."
"Then I seemed to see a thick fog like mercury...I ran into it..."
"Boom~" Just when he thought of this, a muffled thunder suddenly sounded in Jiang Xingchen's mind. In an instant, he felt that his head was going to explode. The pain was as severe as tearing his brain, and he couldn't help but let out a miserable cry.
Call.
However, such severe pain did not make him comatose again, but made him more conscious. At this moment, he even clearly saw that there was a thick mercury-like fog rolling in his mind...
In just a moment, Jiang Xingchen's whole body was soaked in cold sweat. His little strength was instantly drained away, and his screams turned into low moans from his throat...
After a while, the pain receded like a tide, and the strange thick fog in his mind finally disappeared. Jiang Xingchen gasped for air, looking like a fish out of water, with a face full of fear as if it had been washed by water:
"How is this possible! How could I see... hallucinations in my head..."
Jiang Xingchen couldn't believe what he just saw. He didn't feel the situation in his mind, but actually saw it. This made him think that he was hallucinating...or that he was in a dream now!
"Bang!" The door was pushed open, and the sound of the two doors hitting the wall seemed to shatter the dream. Jiang Xingchen's face twitched, he slightly shrank back, and then turned his head.
.
In his sight, a petite figure rushed to him like the wind, grabbed his arm, and an anxious voice sounded in his ears: "Brother, how are you? Do you have a headache again..."
Jiang Xingchen nodded subconsciously, his eyes fixed on this man in a daze.
In front of her was a young girl, twelve or thirteen years old at most. She was thin and dry, with several stains on her face. Her shawl-length hair was slightly yellow and covered with dust. She had not cleaned it for an unknown amount of time. Her pair of
His eyes were a little red and swollen with bloodshot eyes, and he pursed his lips tightly, looking anxious.
"Brother, do you have a headache again?" Seeing Jiang Xingchen in a daze, the girl spoke again, her voice a little hoarse.
And just when the girl asked again, Jiang Xingchen's pupils shrank suddenly, and two words flashed in his mind: time travel!
The real touch of the girl grabbing his arm, and the words that he could understand even though they were clearly not in any language on earth, showed that everything in front of him was neither an illusion nor a dream!
"I... traveled through time!" There was only this voice in Jiang Xingchen's mind, and he ignored the girl completely. He immediately lowered his head, raised his hand with difficulty, opened his palm, and stopped at it.
"It's not my original body..." Jiang Xingchen's eyes narrowed again. His palms were thinner and his fingers were slender. Although they were covered with calluses, it could still be seen that they were originally delicate and definitely not his original thick palms.
"Brother! You are talking!" The girl's voice became more anxious and she shook his arm vigorously.
"Hiss!" Jiang Xingchen gasped. As the girl shook, an unbearable pain spread throughout his body, making him even more certain that everything that happened was real.
When the girl saw that Jiang Xingchen still didn't respond, the anxiety on her face turned into panic and fear. She was a little at a loss and didn't know what to do.
At this time, Tata's footsteps sounded, and a middle-aged man wearing old linen clothes and a kind face walked into the house.
"Master Jiang!" The man stopped in front of Jiang Xingchen and called out in a low voice.
Jiang Xingchen didn't seem to hear, still staring down at his palms in a daze. At this time, he was still in a huge shock. Even if he had good psychological quality and strong endurance before, it would be difficult for him to adapt to this situation quickly.
This is a legendary thing. Human beings' instinctive fear of unknown and strange things made him close himself up like a self-protection, and did not even notice that another person came into the room.
"Hey~" Seeing Jiang Xingchen like this, the man let out a sigh that seemed helpless and pitiful, and then said: "Master Jiang, it's not that I don't want you to live here, my second son urgently needs money to go to the empire.
College, we can only sell this old house, and even the charcoal business, I have temporarily put it down..."
The girl glanced at Jiang Xingchen, then raised her head and said: "Uncle Huang, we know! We will leave early tomorrow morning. Thank you for taking care of you these days!" As she spoke, the girl twitched the corners of her mouth and showed a forced smile to the middle-aged man.
Bowed.
Seeing the girl pretending to be strong, the middle-aged man couldn't bear it. He took out twenty copper coins from his arms and handed them over: "Miss Mei'er, no matter what, it's my fault for letting you leave early.
, I won’t charge you the rent!”
"This..." The girl hesitated for a moment, then stretched out her hand, took the copper coin, and then bowed to the middle-aged man: "Uncle Huang, thank you! We will definitely pay it back in the future!"
"Well!" The middle-aged man didn't say much and turned around to leave, but after a pause, he turned back and said to Jiang Xingchen: "Master Jiang, Miss Mei'er has been taking care of you these days, don't think about it.
Sold her!"
After his words fell, Jiang Xingchen slowly raised his head. At this time, he recovered slightly from the huge shock and found that there was another person in the room and heard the other person's words. But he did not speak, in a completely unfamiliar place.
In an unknown environment, not talking is the best option.
"Brother will not sell me!" Seeing that Jiang Xingchen was still in a daze, Mei'er stepped forward and said with absolute certainty! However, the pretended to be strong expression on her face could not help but bring out sadness and sadness.
"..." Uncle Huang was silent for a moment, opened his mouth, and wanted to say something, but Meier spoke first: "I am not a slave! My brother must have lied to me before!"
There was a bit of childishness in the words, but the deep tone made people's hearts run cold.
"That's good!" Uncle Huang finally said nothing more, sighed, turned and left.
Jiang Xingchen's dull eyes followed Uncle Huang's back. Under the setting sun, he could see outside the door a building similar to ancient society, brick walls, mud walls, roof tiles, hard soil streets... until Meier closed the room.
Then he looked back.
He didn't listen to the whole conversation between Uncle Huang and Mei'er just now, but based on just a few words and the environment in front of him, he could tell that his current situation was not good.
"What kind of world have I come to, what is the environment outside, what is my identity, why am I so downcast..." In college, his psychological quality and adaptability were very strong. After the shock of time travel slowly subsided, he
This question arises because it is related to how he can survive.
Jiang Xingchen originally thought that the fact that he could understand the language of this world meant that he should still have the memory of this body. But when he recalled it carefully, it had no effect at all. Everything about this body was blank. The only way he could
What he associates with it is the ancient buildings outside the door.
"Brother, are you hungry?" Meier's voice rang in his ears, waking up Jiang Xingchen who was trying hard to find his memory.
Slowly turning his head, Jiang Xingchen looked at the girl. At a quick glance, he only saw the general appearance of Meier, and then he was in the extreme shock of time travel. Now when he looked carefully, a trace of pity suddenly flashed in his eyes.
He frowned tightly.
The little girl was wearing a long linen dress. Her arms, shoulders, waist, and skirt were almost all damaged and dirty, as if she were wrapped in a torn rag. Her shoes were also pitch black, so you couldn't see through them.
It was made of some kind of material, and it was torn in the front, and her little toes were exposed. There were red marks on her two little hands, which looked like rope marks. The whole body was almost smaller than the
Beggars are even worse.
Involuntarily, Jiang Xingchen looked down at himself, only to see that his outer shirt was made of pale white silk, and the clothes underneath were definitely not linen. You could tell by the touch.
"Brother, here it is!" Seeing Jiang Xingchen's reaction, Mei'er seemed very happy. She carefully took out something wrapped in an unknown leaf from her arms and handed it to his hand.
Jiang Xingchen took it subconsciously.
"Brother, open it and take a look!"
The leaves were opened, and inside was a palm-sized black dough cake.
"I earned money today and bought a black noodle pancake! Chunxiang House said that I can go over and help with the garbage disposal in the future. I can support my brother in the future... and my brother doesn't have to worry about having no place to live, Uncle Huang
Just now, we returned the twenty copper coins we paid for renting the house to us..." Meier said, raising the corners of her mouth and showing a smile, as if she was happy to earn money.
Looking at Mei'er's smile, Jiang Xingchen immediately thought of the red bruises on her little hands. He felt that the softest part of his heart was severely touched, and a gap was opened in the shell that was closed for self-protection.
This smile is put in.
"Brother! In fact, you don't have to be discouraged. Although you have not activated the spiritual spring and have lost the qualification to inherit the territory and your noble status, I have heard from people that to obtain noble status, you do not necessarily have to follow the path of a warrior. As long as you are right
If you make a contribution to the empire or a great lord, you will be canonized! My brother is only sixteen years old now, so there are plenty of opportunities..."
Mei'er didn't notice Jiang Xingchen's emotional fluctuations at all at this moment, her mouth seemed to have opened and she kept talking.
"Besides, didn't my uncle also say back then that practicing martial arts is very harmful to the body, and many people will not live to be fifty... When we have money in the future, we will find the best mercenary group and use our vacation time in the past few days.
Find the guy who lied to your brother about being able to activate the spiritual spring and give him a good beating..."
Listening to Meier's nonstop chatter, Jiang Xingchen actually felt a faint warmth, as if he had returned home. He felt that this little girl had an indescribable kindness, and her expressionless face was unconscious.
He smiled, and the pressure in his heart was relieved a lot unconsciously.
At this time, Mei'er stopped, looked at him strangely and asked: "Brother, why don't you eat? In the past two days, you have been in and out of consciousness. You have never eaten well. Aren't you hungry?"
"Ah!" Jiang Xingchen was stunned, and then he thought about eating. He suddenly felt his stomach twitching like a spasm, as if a big hand was holding his stomach and kneading it hard.
The feeling of hunger was more unbearable than the pain. Jiang Xingchen looked at the black flour cake in his hand and immediately had the idea of swallowing it in one bite. He didn't even have time to respond to Mei'er's question, so he raised his hand and put the black flour cake into his mouth.
side.
"Gulu!" Just when Jiang Xingchen opened his mouth and wanted to bite it, a voice suddenly came into his ears. He immediately stopped and looked up at Mei'er. He saw that the little girl lowered her head and did not confront him.
He looked around and turned around and said: "It's getting dark, I'm going to light a fire...Uncle Huang is a very nice person, let us use the charcoal as we please, just be careful not to ignite the charcoal pile!"
However, Mei'er didn't walk away, Jiang Xingchen had already grabbed her sleeve.
"You haven't eaten either!" As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Jiang Xingchen realized that he was speaking the same language as Mei'er! However, without thinking too much at this time, he pulled her back with force, raised his hand and tore the black flour cake into pieces.
He took two halves and brought one half to her mouth. Although the little girl lowered her head quickly, he saw her swallowing.
Meier stared blankly at Jiang Xingchen, her mouth slightly open, with an expression of disbelief on her face, and then her eyes were filled with mist. In her memory, she had never seen Jiang Xingchen since she was six years old.
I've never seen him give anything to me.
Jiang Xingchen also felt a little nervous at this time: "You can't tell anything with this expression on the little girl, right?"
"Thank you, brother!" Before Jiang Xingchen could finish his thoughts, the little girl had already grabbed half of the black flour pancake and bit it down hard.
"How long has this girl been hungry?" Jiang Xingchen thought to himself as he saw Mei'er devouring her food.
"Eat slowly, don't choke!" Jiang Xingchen tried to persuade him while resisting the discomfort in his stomach, but did not eat the black flour cake in his hand. The little girl resisted hunger and brought back the whole black flour cake, and her hands
He endured so many injuries without showing them. This kind of strength once again touched his heart.
"Woo~" The little girl nodded vigorously with a puffy face.
The palm-sized black flour cake was even smaller when divided into two halves. It went into the stomach in three bites. The little girl struggled to swallow the food in her mouth and wiped the corners of her mouth, not letting go of the dough residue. Just when she was about to raise her head
, only to see half of the black flour cake appear in front of him.
"Eat half of this too!"
Mei'er raised her head and looked at Jiang Xingchen, who had his arms outstretched and a smile on his face. Tears welled up in his eyes that were already filled with moisture.
Raising her hand to wipe away her tears, the little girl casually snatched half of the black bread from Jiang Xingchen's hand and asked loudly: "Why is brother so nice to me today?"
"Uh!" Jiang Xingchen was stunned, not knowing how to answer.
"Brother doesn't really want to sell me, does he? Today is the last time he will give me a full meal!" The little girl took a step forward, leaned her little head close to Jiang Xingchen, and stared into his eyes.
"It's nothing! You are my sister, how can I be willing to sell you!" Jiang Xingchen laughed dryly, and then said: "I still point to you to support me!"
"Puch!" The little girl burst into tears and laughed. Suddenly she stretched out her hand, pinched Jiang Xingchen's cheeks, and stuffed the cake into his mouth: "Eat quickly, I'm full! If you're hungry, let's eat tomorrow
How to go!"
Jiang Xingchen never thought that the little girl had such a side. Without any precautions, she stuffed a quarter of the cake into her mouth.
"Let me go, I'll eat it myself! Little girl, you bullied me now that I don't have the strength, right? Wuwu~" Jiang Xingchen shook his head and struggled, making unclear sounds in his mouth.
"Don't move, it won't be good if it's wasted. I'll just let go!" the little girl said and let go.
Jiang Xingchen glared at the little girl, stretched out his hand and pinched a small piece of dough exposed outside his mouth.
"It tastes really bad. What does it taste like? A mouthful of dregs is worse than a sour bun that has been stored for many days! They say that porridge is as sweet as honey when you are hungry. There is no such thing!" Jiang Xingchen frowned.
Brow, if his stomach wasn't so hungry, he couldn't help but spit out the food in his mouth.
"Brother, is Meier really a slave?" Meier suddenly asked while Jiang Xingchen was swallowing food.
Jiang Xingchen stopped for a moment and looked at Mei'er, only to see the little girl looking at him nervously with a solemn face.
"Of course..." Jiang Xingchen wanted to say "Of course not", but in the middle of his words, he suddenly paused. He felt a heat flow in his stomach, which had just become more comfortable, and instantly rushed to the top of his head, followed by a thunderous roar in his mind.
There was an explosion, and the mercury-like mist appeared in my eyes again.