Abduct a shadow guard to investigate the case

At the dawn of dawn, the sky is glowing with a soft golden red.

In the shoals of the lower reaches of the Xiling River, the river beat against the rocks on the bank, splashing little waves.

Old man Jin carried a medicine basket on his back and went to the mountains to collect herbs early in the morning. He approached the river and wanted to wash his hands with water, but found a faint red color floating in the water. one person.

Uncle Jin rushed over and saw clearly that it was a man in blue clothes. He was tall and thin, half of his body was still soaked in the water, and his long messy hair was floating in the water.

He hurriedly turned the man over, and found that the man was still very young, with handsome features, his eyes were closed, his face was pale, and there was a gash on his abdomen, two or three inches long, still Blood slowly oozes out.The old man Jin stretched out his finger and probed under the man's nose. He found a trace of breath, then lowered his head to listen to his chest, and his heartbeat. He didn't hesitate anymore, changed the medicine basket to a bag, and the man on his back walked quickly to the place. Go back to the village.

White light slowly appeared in the darkness, and Xuan Qi's consciousness gradually recovered as the white light expanded. Pain clamored and swept through his whole body. He felt his chest was suffocated, his lungs felt as if they were being pricked by needles, and his right shoulder and abdomen seemed to have two balls of fire. Burning, proving to him how dangerous and real the previous underwater fight was.

Under the habit of vigilance trained for many years, Xuan Qi did not open his eyes immediately. He endured the pain all over his body, restrained his body from making any subtle movements, and held his breath to explore the surroundings. His clothes were half wet, and there was a faint herbal medicine on the tip of his nose. Smell, under the body is not too soft bedding.Was it rescued?Just as he was thinking, a hand suddenly reached out to his chest, Xuan Qi stretched out his hand and squeezed it, and opened his eyes at the same time.

"Ah—it hurts, it hurts!" The owner of the hand screamed. It was an old man in coarse clothes, with gray hair, frowning, and his body was struggling backwards.

"You big villain, let go of Grandpa!" At this moment, a five or six-year-old girl suddenly rushed in from the door, holding a bamboo ball in her arms. Seeing Xuan Qi, he smashed the ball over.

Xuan Qi detected that the man had no internal energy, he was slightly stunned, and hastily let go of his hand, the bamboo ball was not accurate, hit the edge of the bed and bounced to the ground.Xuan Qi turned over and sat up, but his eyes blurred suddenly, and he almost fell back on the bed again. He supported the edge of the bed with one hand to stabilize his figure, and a thin sweat broke out on his forehead instantly.

Old man Jin withdrew his hands and was rubbing them, but his face was a bit annoyed. Seeing him like this, he softened his heart and stretched out his hands to help him.The little girl ran into the house at this time, grabbed Old Man Jin's trouser legs, hid behind him, stared at Xuan Qi angrily with her big round eyes.

Xuan Qi froze, forcibly suppressing the discomfort of being close to someone, and asked old man Jin, "Did you save me?" As he opened his mouth, his voice was dry and hoarse.

"Well, I carried you back by the river this morning." Old man Jin nodded, "Young man, you are so vigilant, I just want to help you take off your shirt to check the wound," he pointed at the bed A bowl of green medicinal paste was placed on the stool, and said, "This is a herbal medicine to stop bleeding. It is good for you to mash it and apply it on the wound."

Xuan Qi glanced at the herbs, covered his abdominal wound with one hand, frowned slightly, and said, "Excuse me, what day is May today?"

Uncle Jin was taken aback, he didn't expect Xuan Qi to ask him the date, thought for a while and said, "May [-]th."

Fortunately, Xuan Qi thought to himself, falling into the water was a matter of yesterday, and now it's just a day's delay.

He asked again, "Do you know that there is a village of Wu's family seventy miles west of the upper reaches of the Xiling River?"

"Wu Family Village?" Uncle Jin was a little surprised, and said, "Why do you ask there? That village is deserted now, and we moved out of that village a few years ago."

Xuan Qi rolled his eyes, paused slightly, and said, "To be honest, my master is a medical practitioner. In recent years, he has traveled around to accumulate knowledge. He heard that there was a plague in the Wu family village a few years ago, so he wanted to go and collect information. Some information. We don’t know the current situation in Wu’s Village, and now I’m separated from my master, so I can only think of looking for him there.”

Uncle Jin stroked his beard on his chin, pondered for a while and said, "This is the lower reaches of the Xiling River, about one hundred and twenty to thirty miles from Wujia Village."

When Xuan Qi heard this, his heart relaxed slightly, thinking that if he chased Wujia Village immediately, maybe he would be able to help Shen Yao in time.

"Hello, young man?" The old man saw that Xuan Qi was silent and seemed to be thinking about something, so he asked again, "I think you are well-dressed, and your master must be a wealthy family. You still have some kung fu, how could you be injured and fell by the river?"

Xuan Qi lowered his eyes slightly, and made up some reasons just now in a hurry, but he didn't expect the old man to ask again and again, he was thinking hard about how to answer, when the little girl next to old man Jin suddenly asked, "You also met Are you a bandit?" After speaking, he quickly flashed back behind Grandpa, and Uncle Jin reached out and stroked her head with braids.

"..." Xuan Qi raised his eyes and said, "Exactly, I covered my master and left first, but I didn't want to be robbed, so I fought with bandits, but was injured by them instead."

"Oh..." Old man Jin shook his head and sighed, put on a look of "I knew it", and comforted him, "The bandits in this area have become more and more frequent recently, it's fine if you don't have any troubles, life is still important, I hope Your master will be fine, too."

"You're right," Xuan Qi nodded. Fortunately, before falling into the water yesterday, he saw that Shen Yao had subdued the killer.While talking, Xuan Qi stood up. Uncle Jin wanted to help him, but saw him standing upright, cupped his fists and bowed his head deeply, and said, "Thank you, old man, for saving your life. I have offended you so much just now. Please forgive me." Forgive me."

Old Uncle Jin sighed softly. He saw Xuan Qi was young, his eyes were cold, and the injuries he could see on his body would have been screaming in pain for an ordinary person, but since he woke up, he has been restraining himself, staying vigilant, Showing flaws, it can be seen that he is a very resolute person, and he couldn't help but feel some pity for the elders. He said to Xuan Qi, "You fell by the river. Since I met you, how can you refuse to save me. Don't say more, Take off your clothes and apply medicine, your abdominal wound is not shallow, you need to stop the bleeding quickly."

The little girl saw that Xuan Qi was very polite now, and her grandfather was chatting with him sentence after sentence, so she plucked up her courage and jumped in front of Xuan Qi, saying softly, "Big brother, hurry up and take medicine to stop the bleeding." .”

Xuan Qi looked at her, with a faint smile in his eyes unconsciously, but he asked old man Jin, "Do you have a fire stick or tongs here?"

In the kitchen of Old Uncle Jin’s house, Xuan Qi was standing by the fire in the kitchen, his upper body clothes had been untied by him, hanging on his waist, and the bandages on his body had been washed away by the river water. The bandages were torn off, revealing a lean upper body with old and new wounds all over his body.He lowered his head to look at the wound on his lower abdomen. Although he had tapped acupuncture points there to stop the bleeding before he lost consciousness, given the depth of the wound, blood might ooze and tear at every turn, affecting his movements.

Xuan Qi picked up the tongs by the stove with his left hand, the tip of the tongs had been soaked in the white wine brought by old man Jin, he put the tongs into the fire until the tip was burnt red, he took out the tongs, Taking a deep breath, his eyes darkened, and he brandished the tongs on the wound on his abdomen.

There was a "squeaky" sound from the scalding place, and the smell of burnt flesh diffused, as if a whole pan of oil had been poured into the wound on the abdomen. His hands became more and more forceful, his knuckles turned white, his Adam's apple rolled twice, he opened his mouth slightly to let out a hoarse gasp, and then bit his lips tightly, the hair on his forehead was wet with sweat, and it also flowed down his back and chest. Abdominal shedding.

After a while, Xuan Qi removed the poker, looked down at the abdomen, the skin at the wound was burnt gray, slightly wrinkled, and no flesh and blood could be seen.Panting, he put the tongs into the fire again, and it was roasted red again, and the old injury on his right shoulder was burned in the same way, and the severe pain hit him again. The sweat dripped from his face and body, reflecting the scorching flames of the furnace.Xuan Qi closed his eyes tightly, restrained the trembling of his body, survived the wave of intense pain, let go of his left hand, and the tongs fell to the ground with a clang.

"Young man, are you okay?" Uncle Jin's voice sounded from the door, Xuan Qi quickly opened his eyes, and stretched out his hand to pull up his coat.

Old Uncle Jin has already walked in. Just now, he actually saw a large area of ​​torture wounds on Xuan Qi's back, and his heart sank. Thinking of Xuan Qi saying that he was walking with his master, he guessed that his master must have tortured his servants. vice.

He looked at Xuan Qi's sweaty and white face, and said with injustice in his heart, "You did something evil, little brother, you said that you were hurt like this, and you have to go to your master immediately. If he treats his servants so harshly, isn't he afraid of retribution? "

"..." Xuan Qi was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "My master treats me very well, but I can't rest assured, I must find him quickly."

Old Uncle Jin looked at him with raised eyebrows, as if he wanted to say something, finally swallowed his words, sighed, handed him a set of gray-brown cloth clothes in his hand, and said, "Your clothes are torn. I got my son's clothes, if you don't mind, go and change them."

He saw that Xuan Qi didn't like letting people get close, so he told him to mix the water boiled on the stove with well water to wipe his body, apply some herbal medicine on himself, and then change his clothes.

Xuan Qi quickly thanked him, and cleaned up by himself.

Uncle Jin's son's clothes looked a little fat on him, but the cuffs and trousers were a little short, Xuan Qi didn't care, and just tied the belt tightly.After tidying up, although he was still tired and weak, he felt refreshed a lot.

He walked into the yard, thinking about saying goodbye to old man Jin after asking the way.

Uncle Jin's family lives in a corner of the village. Outside the courtyard is close to the mountains and forests, and on the other side is a neighbor's house. The fenced courtyard is full of chickens and dogs.

At this time, the sun was shining outside, and the little girl was playing ball in the yard, slapping and chanting——

"Wu's carp, Jin Jiahe,

Flying and playing in the water is fun.

The lion roars and leaps three times,

Get into the clouds and run away. "

Xuan Qi stood aside and watched quietly for a while, the little girl turned her head and found him, her face was full of surprise, she dropped the bamboo ball and ran towards him, she blinked suddenly after two steps, her small face With a slump, he stopped.

"Ning Ning, come here." At this moment, old man Jin came out of the room, walked to Xuan Qi's side, and waved to the little girl.

"Grandpa——" the little girl ran towards Uncle Jin and hugged his leg, she turned her head and glanced at Xuan Qi secretly, then immediately buried her face in Grandpa's lap, and whispered, "It's not dad. "

Xuan Qi couldn't help asking, "Where are her parents?"

Before Old Man Jin could open his mouth, he heard Ning Ning say, "I was captured by bandits. Grandpa said that my parents were captured by bandits and taken to the mountains to accompany monsters. It would take ten years before they were released. Tell me to be obedient, or you will never come back." Can't see them anymore."

"..." Xuan Qi looked at Old Man Jin, and saw him stroking Ning Ning's head and smiling wryly.

"Go and play with the ball." Uncle Jin said to his granddaughter, Ning Ning pulled his pants and swayed, then ran back to the yard.

Seeing that she was concentrating on playing ball again, old man Jin whispered to Xuan Qi, "Ning Ning is still young and doesn't know what life and death are, so I can only tell her that."

Xuan Qi's eyes dimmed, and he didn't speak.