Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 1 Spring

The red sunset is like a ferocious beast that has fled into the angry sea, it is extremely brilliant, and the shadows of the peaks and mountains on the earth are strange and strange, as if there is an unfinished love.

The wind and sand blew by, not a blade of grass grew, and everywhere you looked you could see the ups and downs of desolation.

A group of miners were busy in the mountain col, discharging the earth and rocks excavated deep underground, and filling in the nearby ravines one after another.

As the sun sets, the light gradually drops, the scorching heat gradually becomes milder, and the security personnel lurking around the construction site in the valley gradually show signs of emerging and looking around.

A simple deck chair made of broken wood was carried to the top of the mountain and put down by two people. On the deck chair, a thin middle-aged man with a cold face was aging prematurely. He squinted in the face of the setting sun, raised his hands and waved away, showing a melancholy expression. The wind swept over him. He has gray beard and hair, and looks sick and tired, but he is dressed the most appropriately here.

It's just a set of normal people's clothes. The other miners, including the guards around him and the people who just brought him up, it's not an exaggeration to say that they are so poor that they don't have pants to wear. Most of them only have a few pieces of rags and the like. Covering the shameful part, the dirty body is thin, the hair is unkempt, and there is no fat person here.

The difference between guards and miners is not only that they have weapons on their hands, but also that they wear a straw mask on their face and black cloth strips tied to their arms. The act of tearing a whole piece of black cloth into strips is already considered a luxury in this place of exile where supplies are extremely scarce.

The miners who returned to the mines after dumping the earth and rocks in the ravine had the lightest complexion of bronze, not as white and clean as the middle-aged man on the recliner, and most of them were barefoot. Part of it was because I really didn’t have any shoes to wear, and part of me had straw sandals hanging on my waist. The road that wasn’t particularly harsh on my feet would rather rub my feet rather than wearing my shoes too much. Fortunately, I was used to it, and the soles of my feet were thick.

Two of them, one tall and one short, looked a bit different.

Height is just a relative term. The short person is not shorter than others, but the tall person is indeed a bit taller than the normal person.

The rising wind and sand occasionally blew away the unkempt hair covering their faces. Even if the exposed faces were dirty, and the stubble that had not been taken care of for a long time, they could not hide the youthful atmosphere on their faces.

The faces of the other miners showed numbness after exertion, but the two other miners stared at the middle-aged man on the top of the mountain and looked at him from a distance. When they walked to the entrance of the mine, they did not even notice that someone was walking out of the cave. The other miners did not notice. They took the initiative to separate and move aside, but the two of them almost collided.

The visitor swung his big sleeves and walked out quickly. He was a man with a sinister face named Shen Youkun. Although his upper and lower clothes did not match and there were many patches, he was the only person here who wore a complete set of clothes.

Shen Youkun is the host of this mine excavation, but he has a bad temper and often beats and scolds. The miners who are summoned are a little afraid of him. However, he has the strength to provide everyone with two meals a day. He also promised a reward afterwards, a sum of food!
Shen Youkun had always been the number one figure here, until the middle-aged man lying on the recliner came not long ago. He seemed to immediately bow down and become an obedient subordinate, so the two young men, one tall and one short, paid special attention to observing the middle-aged man.

They did not know the middle-aged man and had never seen him in this place of exile, but they knew each other and had even had grudges with Shen Youkun.

After the two sides collided face to face, the two of them couldn't help but feel a little nervous. They really didn't expect to bump into each other directly like this. They quickly lowered their heads to cover their faces with their disheveled hair. The taller one even nodded and bowed, taking the opportunity to bend his knees in an attempt to hide his face. He is quite self-aware about his height.

Fortunately, Shen Youkun's attention was not on them at all. As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the cave, he looked around at the outside world. His eyes quickly locked on the middle-aged man on the top of the mountain on one side. He pushed them away impatiently and said unceremoniously. "Get away", passed directly between the two people, and quickly strode towards the target direction.

The numb miners just looked back one more time and moved on without any delay. If they dilly-dally, they would be suspected of laziness, and the supervisor's whip will not be merciful.

The tall and short people who were following them looked at each other and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The tall man carrying the load subconsciously patted his chest. It was okay, okay, and he was lucky.

There is no vegetation on the mountain, and the mountain body is not solid.

Sand and stones rolled down from time to time at Shen Youkun's feet as he climbed up the mountain. When he climbed to the lonely deck chair, he was panting, "Uncle, why did you go to the top of the mountain to blow the wind? Your cultivation has just failed and your body is still very weak. The wind Evil is easy to invade, so you need to take good care of it."

He was panting and he was demoted to this place of exile to fend for himself after his cultivation was abolished. He was just a few years earlier than the uncle he mentioned.

The uncle's name is Qi Ziru. He stared at the last glory in the sky and seemed to be murmuring, "You said that Dongjiuyuan must be cleared before we can act. Have everyone been cleared?"

Shen Youkun, who was about to make a promise subconsciously, suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a profound meaning in his uncle's words. He glanced at the foot of the mountain who had been working hard for several days, swallowed the words and said in a hum, "It's almost done."

Qi Ziru looked indifferent. "Before, you said that the people in Dongjiuyuan were difficult to deal with, and it would be difficult to keep secret if we didn't clear the area. You said that we needed enough supplies to clear the area. You should know how difficult it is to get things into this exile area. Even a piece of paper is difficult to get in, but I still tried my best to help you infiltrate the supplies in. Now that you have started excavating, you told me that the area has been almost cleared. How much is this almost?"

Shen Youkun lowered his head and said with some hesitation: "It's basically cleared, there are still two more to go." He raised his head again and said: "It's just two people, it's nothing to worry about."

Qi Ziru was still staring at the sky, still looking uninterested in everything. "Just two people? You have so many people under your control, but you can't clear the area with just two people. I want to know what kind of 'just' two people they are." Shen Youkun was a little embarrassed. He didn't dare to hide anything and confessed honestly, "One is Shi Chun, the big boss of Dongjiuyuan, and the other is his loyal follower Wu Jinliang. They have more than a hundred people in Dongjiuyuan, and they have all been sent into the city as expected. Now there are only two of them left in the entire Dongjiuyuan. Without eyes and ears, they can't discover the secrets here in such a large area."

Qi Ziru slowly tilted his head and stared at him coldly, "In other words, those who were not cleared out happened to be the two biggest bosses in Dongjiuyuan. What are the origins of these two people?"

Shen Youkun sneered disdainfully, "The situation of the local aborigines' ancestors has long been unknown. Their parents were killed in the fight for water sources. The two of them grew up eating hundreds of meals in Dongjiuyuan. You stinking bitch begging for food, you’re lucky if you don’t starve to death.”

There seemed to be hatred in his tone that he wished he could be trampled into mud.

Qi Ziru raised the corners of his eyes and realized that after his nephew was demoted to this position, there might have been some unspeakable conflict between him and the big boss.

The nephew doesn't want to say anything, and with his current energy, he doesn't want to ask more questions, and he has his own judgment on what has been explained.

Although he came to the place of exile for the first time, he already knew the general environment here and what the so-called local indigenous people were like.

The people who can struggle here are either exiled here, or they are the descendants of the exiles.

Those who commit crimes and are exiled here will inevitably have both men and women. With the existence of men and women, nature dictates that they will inevitably reproduce. Those new generations are the so-called local indigenous people.

Materials here are extremely scarce. Whether it is the exiles or the local aboriginals, the biggest problem is actually survival. Fighting between people for food and drink, such as water sources, is often inevitable, and sometimes they can even be fought for one Root trees dry up.

Anything that can be brought into the city in exchange for "money" is likely to cause competition.

Indiscriminate deforestation, indiscriminate excavation and indiscriminate mining have resulted in serious ecological damage, causing most of the necessities of life to lose their ability to be recycled, leading to a vicious cycle of competition for survival.

The so-called "money" does not circulate in the place of exile. It only circulates in the city at the designated location and can be used to purchase survival materials. "Money" is also called "merit". If you save enough "merit" of a certain standard, Through that city, one can leave this place of exile and gain freedom.

The so-called "city" is actually the gate of this large open-air prison, and it is also a node between the two worlds.

There are many similar cities in the Exiled Lands, distributed in various places.

A punished exile like him cannot get out of trouble directly even if he has accumulated enough "merit". For example, if he was sentenced to ten years without being pardoned, he cannot leave with enough "merit" before his sentence is completed.

The people who are exiled here are basically cultivators. Before being thrown in, they must be tortured, and their cultivation will be abolished. The possibility of practicing again is basically cut off, at least during the period of exile. They are just like ordinary mortals, and the punishment is indescribable. Not cruel.

Without cultivation, it is extremely difficult to survive in this harsh environment, and it is difficult for ordinary people to survive their sentence.

The person who was thrown in for punishment was not allowed to bring in even a piece of paper except for the clothes he was wearing.

The sins are not as bad as those of the newly born descendants. The descendants of the exiles can directly leave this place with enough "merit", but it is not easy to save a certain amount.

Shen Youkun, who hummed twice, continued: "That Shi Chun didn't have a surname, and his parents couldn't figure out his origin. They didn't know what his ancestor's surname was. It was said that he was born in spring, so they called him 'Chun'." ', is also the usual naming method for the unscrupulous people in the exiled land. For them, the name is just a title, and there is not much emphasis on it.

When Shichun was half a year old, an exiled woman lived in Dongjiuyuan. It was said that she was very beautiful. Because of some encouragement, the locals allowed her to settle in Dongjiuyuan. I don't know whether it was out of repayment or leisure. It is said that the woman saw that Yuan Shang was ignorant and taught several boys in Yuan Shang how to read during her stay, including Shichun.

After staying for about three years, the woman left. I don't know where she went, and I don't know if she got out after serving her sentence. No one even knows her name. I'm afraid only the people in charge of the city know her origins.

Shi Chun regarded that woman as his teacher. In gratitude, he took the word "Shi" from a teacher as his last name. Since he only knew some words but had never read a book, he turned his name into a joke. He was often ridiculed as "Shun Chun" and yelled away. After he understood the meaning, it was too late to regret it, and he often got into fights because of it. "

(End of this chapter)