[Short Stories in Troubled Times] Caiwei

head,

The season of willows.The country road is rugged, and the sparse houses are looming in the distance.

In the distance, the girl held the ox with both hands, chased the falling straw hat, and stumbled to the front.

--Why?Uncle, what are you doing sitting here?

——I... stay with Xiaosong.

——Komatsu?Who is Komatsu?Hey, Uncle, what's wrong with your leg?

—…It doesn’t matter.

Behind him, a tall and straight green pine stands on the side of the road with green branches and leaves.

Spring goes and autumn comes, and it snows heavily.

At the end of the dirt road, the girl was gradually approaching with firewood on her back.

——Uncle... isn't it cold?

—…Oh…it’s okay…with Xiaosong by my side.

——Twenty years ago, he retreated from the army... General Mo...

——…

——Oh... how long has it been...

White snow falls between the gray temples of the Matsushita man.

Behind him, the green pines and proud snows stand tall and green.

one,

He was holding the thin jade carving knife in his hand, his small nose was slightly wrinkled, and he had a serious appearance that was not commensurate with his age.

On the long table in front of him, there was a piece of flat and square jade, with deep and shallow nicks scattered on it. After careful identification, he realized that it seemed to be a few words.

The technique is naive, like a book written by a child who is just learning to write.He looked at them, pouted his lips, and then looked at the copy he was practicing——

A line of elegant calligraphy.

"Plucking weeds and picking weeds, weeds also stop. When the day comes back, the year will never stop. The house is ruined and the house is ruined, because of the evil spirits. Not to mention Qiju, the reason for the evil spirits."

—————————————————————

Mo Xingtian sat on the ground, put his hands on his raised knees, and rubbed his throbbing temples.

□□Leaning coolly in his arms, the tip of the gun is reflected by the sun, giving off some condensed light.

In front of him were military tents so familiar that he could point them out with his eyes closed. In the distance, wild geese flew across the white and blue sky with a long hoof in the distance.

The grass is stingy with long frontiers, and the colors that catch the eye are all single gray and yellow.Occasionally, a thick bright color hits the bottom of the eyes, but it can only be the bright red blood that no one wants to see.

At this moment, Mo Xingtian was surrounded by bright colors.

But it wasn't blood—it was young green.

Nestled next to the young military general, the light green color gently wraps a small piece of land, and a piece of new-born welt stretches out its tender leaflets, and timidly emerges from the soil. When it rained and the wind blew, they happily grew up on the barren land of the frontier fortress. After being discovered by a few young soldiers, meeting their surprised eyes, the little new leaves swayed even more proudly, and surrounded them one after another. A group of sergeants quietly drilled a soft hole in their hearts, which had gradually become cold and hard.

Take good care of them.The coach's usually serious face softened a little, shaking his head slightly as he spoke.When you grow up, for those on the frontier, this may mean a lot of lives.

Guard the border.Yes, border guards.

The army guarding the border, the people who look out for the countryside.

Catkins, hovering lightly in the sun, leave the willows beside the country road and fly all over the small villages.

□□It happened to be April day, but the small village, which had always been quiet and peaceful, had an uncharacteristically noisy noise.

It was a mournful sound.

In the field, only eighteen or nineteen-year-old Xiao Er of the Zhao family took his childhood sweetheart and sister next door and ran wildly. The two of them ran across every inch of land with their feet. They had done farm work together and held hands. Whispering, discussing when to pray to the heaven and earth to make a bridal chamber... No one stopped when they stepped on a piece of young seedlings. The surrounding farmers looked at them with hoe handles and just shook their heads and sighed; Uncle Li at the head of the village held the hand of his only son, The lips were opened and closed but there was no sound at all, two lines of old tears rolled down the cheeks silently, the gray-haired wife behind him lowered his head and threaded the needle, the sewing needle stabbed his hand tremblingly, the blood drops and tears together The drops dripped on the cotton padded clothes on her knees; the young woman Yugu, who was a mother, chased her husband to the bridge with her baby in her arms, her legs softened and collapsed on the head of the bridge, covering her mouth and crying. The young son in her arms looked up curiously and burst into tears Parents, completely unaware that his father may never appear in front of him again in a few days.

The evil spirits violated the territory.In a few days, a frontier guard team will be formed by men from all corners of the country and rush to the frontier fortress.

Mo Xingtian was twenty-five at that time.Five years ago, he fought a few battles with his master—that is, the commander of the border guards. He was a military officer who was not a top rank outside. In the small village of his hometown, he was a fighting hero in the eyes of every villager.Mo Xingtian has no complaints about being assigned to lead a team to defend the border with his master this time. Defending the family and the country, defending the land and recovering the border is just a duty, and it is a word that has been firmly imprinted in his heart since he was a young martial artist.What's more, this restless outlander nation really needs someone to take care of it.

only……

His usual stern eyes slowly moved to the mourning neighbors.

If it is possible...they don't need to bear these things. As a military commander, he can face the wind and sand in the desert outside the Great Wall.If it is possible, he hopes that these villagers who live beside him, do not contend with the world, keep their own law and order, and never think that wars and killings will fall on their heads, can always stay peacefully in the verdant fields, until they grow old ,Until death.

It's because he didn't protect the folks... Angel Mo Xing shook his head vigorously, throwing this sentence that popped up in his head from time to time into the wasteland of the frontier.Is it?It seems not.He couldn't pursue it.

Been here for a year now.

The willows are all broken and the flowers are flying away. Let me ask passers-by... whether to return or not...

A line of poetry popped out of my head full of martial arts recruiting methods.Not in a hurry to think about it, Mo Xingtian embraced the accompaniment, waiting indifferently for the words to be connected and connected in his mind little by little.

"I said I'm going home, but I haven't let us go back after shouting for a year!" Two months ago, the indignant words of Zhao's Xiaoer, who cruelly let go of the little girl next door, seemed to be still ringing in the air. ear.When Mo Xingtian stepped out of the tent with the dewy morning breath on the ground, he saw from a distance the back of Xiao Er who was waving a shovel to loosen the soil with weed vegetables while murmuring to the sergeant beside him.Amused in his heart, he quietly stepped forward and slapped the two of them on the shoulder before they realized it.

"My god, sneak attack!!!" The busy two were so frightened that they almost sat down on the ground, one frantically touched the dagger at his waist, and the other swung the small shovel in his hand to try desperately, but After seeing Mo Xingtian's face clearly, he breathed a sigh of relief, and staggered into a ball, "Oh, let me go, Master Mo, you scared us to death this morning... Oh, I'm so scared to death... !"

"If it's really a sneak attack, how can the enemy still politely pat you on the shoulder to remind you?" Mo Xingtian sighed, shook his head, picked up the shovel that Zhao's Xiaoer threw on the ground, and handed it to him, "It's so early to loosen the soil, Woke up earlier than me."

"Alas... Yaomei is still waiting for me to go back." The Zhao family took the shovel absently, but did not insert it into the ground, but just squatted on the spot, staring at the swaying seedlings in front of him, " Who knows how she cried! Master Mo, you must be homesick too, there must be someone waiting for you at home... Ouch!"

Before he finished speaking, he was slapped on the head by the slightly older sergeant beside him, and he was scolded a few times: "It's not big or small! Shake the morale of the army! Do you think Master Mo is the same as you?!" But Mo Xingtian Reach out to stop.

"...I miss home. Why is it different? I am also a human being. How could I miss home?" There was a little imperceptible smile in his stern eyes. Aggrieved, his clothes were shabby, his cheeks were yellow and thin, but he was full of energy and winked at the sergeant beside him, and his palms subconsciously fell to his waist.

The transparent blue and white are imprinted on the skin coolly, and the thin water-red threads are formed into tassels, and it is a cute safety buckle.

Zhao's Xiaoer is now watching his hometown from afar.

Lying at the foot of the chaotic mounds gradually gathered in the past dynasties, the raised mounds face the direction of the village.

Before the crown was weak, he starved to death.Fortunately, the bones can still be retrieved, and the willows in the small village should be flying catkins again. Under the loess, no one knows whether he can see his Yaomei.

The temples are still twitching.

Mo Xingtian has been faintly regretting, just like the sergeant always regretting the slap that Xiao Er had slapped, he is also regretting, not much, just faintly, regretting not answering Xiao Er's last question at the beginning.

The answer rolled a few times in his throat and taught Mo Xingtian to swallow it.

Yes...someone is waiting for me too.

——Xing Tian, ​​why are you leaving?

——Because of 猃狁.

——Why do you go to the frontier fortress to suffer?

——Because of 猃狁.

——Why did Master and Chongwu also go?

——…Because of the hunk, because of the hunk, because of the hunk.remember?

——Oh...then you still can't come back?

——…

——I thought you were going to say 猃狁 again... Forget it, I'll let you come back, you all can come back.