Spring grass grows when the country is destroyed, and there are no ancient mounds when the palace is gone.

Since the Liao Emperor went south and captured Shangzi of Chen State, the Han people retreated into Yubi Pass, three hundred miles south of Yubi Pass, and returned to Liao with Hebei Prefecture. There is a Runan City in Hebei Prefecture, which has been a distribution center for goods between the Central Plains and the northern border since ancient times. Now it has fallen into the territory of Liao State. The Han people fled west and retreated south. In the past, the largest city in Hebei is now a piece of ruins, with less than 30,000 households left.

There is a Duan family in Runan City.

The Duan family said it was big or small, and they did some reselling business of past merchants. There was a pawnshop and an oil mill. The head of the company suffered from tuberculosis at less than 35 and died. The whole family relied on the wife to take care of it.

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, a trace of sunset shone. In Runan City, bluestone was carved with golden light, like rolling gold stone waves covering the alley. Heart-wrenching screams came from Duan's courtyard.

"Let you steal your wife's stuff again!"

"Talk! Escape! Little beast!"

The stick fell on a child's head like raindrops, making a muddy sound. The child was ragged, covered in mud, his head and face were covered with bruises, and his eyes were swollen. He was caught with purple-black blood marks on his arms. He hid behind the house, but accidentally knocked over the wooden plate in the maid's hand, causing the housekeeper to scream again.

Immediately afterwards, the child took a step and overturned the fierce woman to the ground with a desperate attempt, punching her face.

The child opened his mouth and bit it, and the housekeeper shouted shrillly: "Kill someone--"

The scream attracted the groom. The strong man rushed over with a fork in his hand. The child was hit hard on the back of his head, and his eyes turned black and fainted. Then he was hit again, waking him up to the point of pain, and hit him so hard that he was bleeding from his shoulders. He held his back collar and threw it into the woodshed, closed the door and locked it.

"Sell wontons--"

The voices of the old man in the alley came. When it was dusk, Lao Wang would carry a load and walk through the streets and alleys.

"Duan Ling!" the child outside the yard shouted.

"Duan Ling!"

The scream awakened the child. Duan Ling had a wound on his shoulder by a fork, and a bloody hole was punched by rivets on his palm, and he limped up.

"Are you okay?" the child outside shouted.

Duan Ling gasped, his facial features twisted into a ball, and he didn't even have the strength to stand. He said "ah" and sat down heavily. The child received a response and left in a hurry.

He slowly slid down, lay down, curled up in the wet, cold and dark wood-room, looking through the skylight to the gray sky, the snow powder was shattered and drifted down, and among the clouds and snow in the sky, there seemed to be a flash of stars in the center of the celestial celestial.

The sky became darker and cold and silent. In Runan City, warm yellow lights were lit, and the roof was covered with a soft snow quilt. Only Duan Ling was still trembling in the woodshed. He was so hungry that he was confused, and there were chaotic scenes in front of him.

Sometimes it was because of his mother's hands, sometimes it was because of his beautiful robe of Mrs. Duan's family, and sometimes it was because of his hideous face.

"Selling - wontons--"

I didn't steal anything, Duan Ling thought to himself, he squeezed the two copper coins in his hand a little, and his eyes were dark.

Will I die? Duan Ling's consciousness became blurred, and death was always so far away for him. Three days ago, he saw a frozen beggar under the Qingqiao Bridge, surrounded by people, and finally pulled the body out of the city with a cart and buried it in a mass grave.

That day he was still joining in the fun and followed a few children outside the city. He saw them wrapped in straw mats and burying the beggar's body in a pit. There was a small pit next to the pit. Now, when he remembered, maybe after his death, he would be buried beggars whom he had never known...

As the night became deeper, Duan Ling's whole body was almost frozen. The last breath he exhaled became white mist, rising in the mist, and snowflakes were drifting in this breath. He fantasized about when the snow could stop, and a sun appeared in front of him, just like the sunlight appeared on countless summer mornings.

The sun turned into a lamp, and as the woodshed door was pushed open with a "creaking" sound, the light shone on his face.

"Come out!" said the groom in a rough voice.

"Is he Duan Ling?" a man said in a voice.

Duan Ling lay on the ground, twitching slightly, facing outside the door, his whole body was frozen to the point of being frozen. He sat up with difficulty, and the man walked in, knelt in front of him, and carefully looked at his appearance.

"I'm sick?" said the man.

Duan Ling's consciousness was blurred, and his eyes were filled with phantoms and hallucinations.

The man held the pill in one hand and fed it into Duan Ling's mouth, then carried him into his arms.

In his vague consciousness, he smelled the scent of the man, and as his steps bumped slightly, the road gradually warmed up.

Duan Ling's old jacket had a broken hole, and the reeds sewn in the jacket touched the man's body.

In a lonely dark night, the lights are gone.

He hugged Duan Ling, crossing the corridor half-shaded and half-lighted, and flying reed flowers rose all the way behind him.

On both sides of the corridor, the girl's unrestrained laughter came from the warm room, the rustling sound of the snow and the sound of the singing opera mixed together, and the world gradually became warm and there was light.

From the cold winter to the warm spring, from the dark to the day.

Heaven and earth are the backward journey of all things, and time is the passerby of generations.

Duan Ling gradually regained his mind and his breathing became heavy.

The hall was brightly lit, and Mrs. Duan leaned lazily against the couch, holding a piece of landscape embroidered satin in her hand.

"Madam," said the man's voice.

Mrs. Duan said with a smile, "Do you recognize this kid?"

"I don't recognize it." The man always hugged Duan Ling.

Duan Ling felt the previous medicine melting in his throat, and gradually warming it in his abdomen, and his strength seemed to have come back. He leaned against the man's chest and faced Mrs. Duan, but he did not dare to raise his eyes. There was only a small piece of flowers in the scribble bed in his sight.

"The birth paper is here." Mrs. Duan said again.

The housekeeper took the birth paper and handed it to the man.

Duan Ling was short and pale, and leaned against the man's chest. He struggled with fear. The man let him go down the ground. Duan Ling leaned against him and saw him wearing a black robe, with a piece of martial arts boots wet, and a jade waist pendant tied around his waist.

The man said again, "Madam, let's offer a price."

"Originally, my Duan family would never accept this child." Mrs. Duan said with a smile, "When his mother was pregnant with him, she was in the snow and snow, and she couldn't find a place to go. It was said that God has the virtue of living, but when she stayed there, she would never end."

The man didn't say a word, staring at Mrs. Duan's eyes, just waiting for her to say.

"So that's it." Mrs. Duan sighed leisurely and said, "After all, it was his mother who handed it to me back then. This letter is still here. Look, sir, look?"

The housekeeper handed over another piece of paper, but the man didn't even look at it and put it away.

"But now I don't even know your name." Mrs. Duan said again, "I've given it to you so confusedly. How can I explain it to Duan Xiaowan in the future? You're done?"

The man still didn't say anything.

Mrs. Duan unveiled her sleeves and said charmingly: "I couldn't tell the matter of Duan Xiaowan. I thought that since the person was gone, the past was just cancelled. Today you took this kid away. If someone came to the door one day and said it was sent by his father, what would I say? You said that?"

The man still didn't say anything.

Mrs. Duan smiled at him, turned her gaze to Duan Ling's face and waved to him. Duan Ling subconsciously took a half-step back, hid behind the man, and held the corner of his robe tightly.

"Hey." Mrs. Duan said, "Sir, you have to give me an explanation."

"There is no explanation." The man finally said, "Only money, give a price."

Mrs. Duan: “…”

The man fell into silence again. Seeing this situation, Mrs. Duan understood that the man obviously only planned to pay the silver to settle the parenting debt. She did not mention her identity, nor did she care about the subsequent situation, and threw everything to the Duan family.

After a while, Mrs. Duan checked the man's face and saw that he had reached into his arms and took out several colorful silver notes.

"Four hundred taels." Mrs. Duan finally offered a quotation.

The man held a silver note with his finger and handed it to Mrs. Duan.

Duan Ling's breathing was suffocated. He didn't know what the man wanted to do. He heard from the maids that in winter nights, there was always someone going down the mountain to buy children, and then send them to the mountain to be offered to monsters to eat. He instinctively felt fear.

"I won't leave!" Duan Ling said, "No! Don't!"

Duan Ling turned around and ran. As soon as he took a step, the maid grabbed his ear and was dragged back in the torn pain.

"Let him go." The man said in a deep voice, then pressed his hand on Duan Ling's shoulder.

The pressure exceeded a thousand pounds, and Duan Ling was unable to move immediately.

The housekeeper took the silver note and handed it to Mrs. Duan. Mrs. Duan frowned slightly, and the man said, "No need to look for it, go."

Duan Ling: "I won't leave! I won't leave--!"

Mrs. Duan smiled and said, "This is dark and bright, where can I go? Why not stay for a night?"

Duan Ling screamed at the top of his lungs, and the man looked down at him instead.

"What's wrong with you?" the man asked with a deep brow.

"I won't feed the monsters, don't sell me! Don't--" Duan Ling drilled under the table, but the man's hand was faster. He grabbed him, then he raised his slender fingers and bounced Duan Ling's waist. Duan Ling fell to the ground straight.

He picked up Duan Ling and carried him out of the door in a suspicious look of Mrs. Duan.

"Don't be afraid." The man held Duan Ling in his arm and replied in a low voice, "I won't send you to feed the monsters."

As soon as he left the mansion, the cold wind was like a knife, rolling Xiaoxue into his face. Duan Ling seemed to be blocked by a retrograde air in his throat. He opened his mouth but could not make any sound.

"My name is Lang Junxia." The man said in his voice, "Remember, Lang Junxia."

"Sell wontons---" the old man said leisurely.

Duan Ling was playing drums in his belly and looked at the wonton stall. The man who called Lang Junxia stopped and pondered for a while, then put him down, took out a few copper coins, threw them into the bamboo tube in front of the wonton stall, making a "clang" sound.

Duan Ling calmed down a little, thinking to himself who he was? Why did he bring himself out?

A yellow light in front of the wonton stall penetrated the fluttering snow. Lang Junxia pushed and pressed Duan Ling a few times and unsealed the hole. Duan Ling wanted to shout again, but Lang Junxia "shushed" and the old man brought a bowl of steaming wontons to him.

"You eat." Lang Junxia said.

Duan Ling didn't care about anything. After taking the bowl, he was not afraid of burning his throat, so he started eating immediately. A bowl of fresh meat wontons had a large filling, and sesame and peanuts were sprinkled on it. A small piece of fat melted into the soup, which was fragrant and fragrant. Under the bowl was covered with boiled snow red.

Duan Ling buried his head and swallowed it voraciously. His hunger had overcome his fear. Just as he was eating all over his mouth, he put on a fox fur and wrapped it on himself.
To be continued...