the culprit

Mother always said she picked him up from a pigsty.

"I heard something terrible at night. A group of people were chasing something. I thought it might be jackals or wild boars. I went to the pigsty the next morning and saw a dirty child appearing out of nowhere."

At that time her eldest son was already two years old, she had no milk, he was fed with goat's milk.When he was two years old, his four-year-old brother died of smallpox. His mother hugged the infant younger sister, holding back tears as she watched her husband wrap the body of the eldest son in a shroud and carry him out.

Only then did he have his own name.

His parents gave him his eldest brother's name.

"Felix, keep an eye on Emma and Gellers."

"Felix, why is there a sheep missing?"

"Felix, there's no water in the house."

He is the eldest son of his parents. When his parents went out to work, he carried his younger brother and younger sister to herd sheep for the landlord.The family is very poor and there is not enough food to eat. His parents will leave the good food to his younger brother and younger sister, and the rest will be his in the end.In winter, my mother would make the thick old clothes smaller for younger brothers and sisters, and his clothes were always the thinnest.

But he didn't resent them, after all they gave him a name, gave him a shelter, gave him clothes to cover his body and food to eat.If they hadn't retrieved him, the end result would have been just another baby corpse over the fence.This kind of thing is not uncommon. Every year, people dig pits and bury corpses. The corpses in the shrouds are as small as the forearm. Some died of starvation, some died of freezing, and most of them died of illness.

He is an abandoned baby, and it is not the pity of heaven that he can survive, but the favor of his parents.

In order to reduce the burden on his parents, he has devoted himself to taking care of their children since he was five years old. At that time, he had only one younger brother and one younger sister, and when he was seven years old, he had another younger brother.The harvest of the crops was not good that year, and his parents worked desperately. He ran to the mountains to harvest fruit to catch rabbits, and went down to the river to catch fish. No matter where he went, he carried his youngest brother on his back.

Later, when the younger brother grew up, he still liked to climb on his back, pull his hair, and call his name in a soft, childlike voice.When he was ten years old, he was sent to a blacksmith by his father as an apprentice. On the day he left, the child staggered and chased him out. A shoe was on on one foot, and the other was bare.

After becoming an apprentice, he can't go home. The master will tell him to do everything, including the heaviest, most tiring and dirtiest things.In the first two months, his body was always in pain and his limbs were sore. He was often beaten and scolded by the master because of his slow movement.Master's wife is a harsh woman, and she entrusts all the housework to him, and if she doesn't do well, she will complain to the master.He was often beaten by his tall and burly master until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen. He slept in the haystack of the shop and cried secretly at night, but he still had to dry his tears and work honestly the next morning.He didn't even think about running away, after all, the master would give him a little money symbolically in the last few days of each year, and he would be given holidays on the last day and the first day of the new year.

He walked around the market with the money in his pocket, staring at the delicious food and drooling, but in the end he always left the market with empty hands and handed over the money that Master gave to his parents .

It was much better in the second year, and he grew a little taller again. After a year of tiring work, his once thin body became much stronger.After understanding the temper of Master and Mistress, he learned to please, and he also knew that he should take care of Master's children like his own younger siblings.The blacksmith's shop was not far from home, and his master told him to watch the shop. After the master's family went to bed, he would tiptoe and lock the door, and sneak back home.

At that time, Emma was nine years old, Gellers was eight years old, and the youngest brother Aaron was four years old. The three children surrounded the elder brother who sneaked home. Aaron grabbed his leg and tried to climb on his back. Bending down to pick him up, the boy giggled and wrapped his arms around his neck.

When I was 17 years old, I don’t remember what day it was, my wife suddenly rushed out and pinched his chin as he was pushing the bellows, and shouted at her husband, “I want him to be our son-in-law just because of this face.” .He looked at the agitated mistress in puzzlement, and he broke away from her hand without a trace, lowered his head and continued to push the bellows.The blacksmith master yelled to tell his wife not to get in the way. The plump woman stood at the door of the shop with her waist in her hips, pointing at her husband's nose and cursing. The master dropped the hammer in his hand and rushed over.

The final result was that the master turned back angrily with ten scratches on his face, swung a hammer and smashed it on the iron plate one after another as if venting his anger. After a long time, he mumbled, "I will marry you .”

He refused.

The master raised his head and stared at him in astonishment when he heard the words, and suddenly raised the hammer like crazy and threw it at him.He was chased by angry men for two miles, and finally jumped into the river in desperation to escape the pursuit of his master who couldn't swim.

Master doesn't know, he has a secret.

He has a secret that cannot be known by anyone.

It took a whole week for the master's anger to subside, and the master's wife was even harsher to him, and the money he got at the end of that year was also the least in the history.When they returned home and handed over the money to their parents, they still suspected that he had hidden part of it, and stared at him suspiciously for a long time, until the children jumped on him before they had to give up.

Growing up, Aaron had long since given up on climbing his back.On the night of the last day of that year, the three children surrounded their elder brother with their mother's cloth-cutting scissors in their hands, sniffed their noses and giggled, and cut him a unique hairstyle.

He apprenticed to a blacksmith for ten years.If it weren't for the sudden war, maybe it would continue to do so.

He will never forget the winter when he was 20 years old. On a midwinter night in November, someone outside the house rang the bell and shouted that the enemy army was coming. He woke up from his sleep and saw the fire outside the window.He jumped up immediately, before he could put on his shoes, and hurriedly woke up the master's family. When he opened the door, he saw the neighbors who had just woken up from the dream rushing out of the house in panic, running towards the opposite direction of the fire.

When he came back to his senses, the master had already run away with his family. He went from house to house to wake up the neighbors who were still asleep, and finally rushed back to his own house, only to find that his parents had left with their three children.The heart that had already reached his throat finally let go a little. He escaped from the village with the fleeing crowd, and suddenly heard the deafening sound of horseshoes behind him.

He turned his head abruptly, and the village that was left far behind was gradually engulfed in flames, and the black smoke poured straight into the sky, as if an evil sharp knife wanted to pierce the full moon.His heart twitched hard, he exhaled with difficulty, tugged at the stranger beside him, and asked hesitantly if he heard the sound of horseshoes.

The man who was just running for his life subconsciously pulled back his sleeve from his hand, and gave him a strange look, but ignored him.

He asked several people one after another, but they all said they hadn't heard.

He suspected it was just an illusion.

Crowded, the villagers fled towards neighboring villages in the cold wind.Some people fled too quickly and went out in thin clothes, already shivering from the cold.Even without shoes, he was so cold that his teeth were chattering, and his anxious eyes scanned the crowd back and forth, but he still couldn't find his family.

The villagers managed to escape to another village, and they pounded on the closed door one after another, begging the owner to take him in.The sound of clinker-shattering horseshoes approached from far away, and the torches held high continued to form a dazzling and terrifying city wall. The enemy army came on snow, armored horses scattered the crowd, and cold sharp knives pierced people's throats and chests.

Screaming, crying, laughing wildly and horse neighing intertwined, blood splashed on his face from nowhere, the warm temperature and unusually alluring smell made him tremble suddenly, the black war horse rushed in front of him , The sword blade reflected the firelight and projected on his sore eyelids, he plunged into the snow, rolled twice awkwardly, dodged the sword and the horse's hooves, and caught up with the fleeing crowd with his feet that were almost paralyzed by cold.

They fled for a whole night in the cold wind, and when dawn came, the bloodthirsty carnival of the enemy finally stopped.The villagers who barely escaped from the blood and corpses were all covered in blood, some of them were injured, some were lucky enough to be unscathed, most of them were separated from their families, and no one knew whether they were dead or not. It is alive, and no one dares to turn back and look for it.

It was already evening when he found Emma and Aaron from the lifeless crowd.The two children were squeezed between a group of adults. Emma had loose hair, a large bloodstain on her forehead, and black lips from the cold; He held his sister's hand tightly.

When they saw his brother, they rushed over crying. He anxiously asked where their parents and Gellers had gone. The children just shook their heads. Emma hugged him tightly, tremblingly saying that she was so hungry.He bit his lips in embarrassment, not knowing what food he could find in this world of ice and snow, but when he turned around, he found that Aaron had disappeared again.He hurriedly carried Emma on his back and hurriedly searched for Aaron. After a while, he saw the little boy sneaking back, opened his oversized clothes, and threw out a pair of blood-stained shoes and a piece of frozen bread.

"Where did you come from?" He looked at his younger brother in surprise.

"Someone died over there." The boy whispered, suppressing the trembling cry, lowered his head in embarrassment, bent down and pushed the shoe towards him, "If you don't wear shoes, your feet will be frozen to death." He said As he said that, he put the bread into his arms again, saying that the bread was too hard, and he would eat it after it softened.

He left the bread with Emma and Aaron and ate nothing himself.The injured Emma was always calm for a while and then suddenly burst into tears. He hugged his sister in his arms, looked at Aaron, and couldn't bear to ask them what happened. He only said that they would go to their parents and Geller together when it was safe. s.Aaron also squeezed in, put his arms around the waists of his brother and sister, and whispered that he would steal some more bread when it was completely dark.

Fearing that the enemy would catch up again, the villagers did not dare to act alone, and all the survivors huddled together after dark.Those who were the most seriously injured were deliberately left at the outermost edge. After all, no one knew when they would die. If the enemy came, their bodies would still be able to block others for a while.This of course aroused the dissatisfaction of the wounded. They squeezed desperately into the crowd, but were thrown out by several tall and strong men.The conflict became more and more intense, and people blamed the injured one after another. The small Aaron took the opportunity to sneak into the crowd, trying to try his luck and steal some food for his brother, but he was caught before he succeeded.

The opponent was also a small man, but although he was short, he was muscular. He picked up Aaron and threw him into the snow, and kicked him hard in the stomach.The boy clutched his aching stomach and crawled in embarrassment in the snow, but he was pulled back by the man before he could climb far.More punches and kicks fell, and the boy cried and covered his head, desperately begging for mercy.

In the end, he went to save his brother.He ran over to pick up the boy, and kept apologizing. The man refused to let go, and punched him in the face, and there was a burning pain on his cheekbone. He saw a hand reaching out and grabbing his brother's hair. Huddled in his arms and shivering.The man's cursing came to his ears, and he swore with red eyes that he would kill this little bastard who stole things.

Always good-natured, he only felt a gust of hot wind blowing through his brain, and the sound of blood boiling and heart rumbled in his ears. He looked down at the big hand that was about to peel off his younger brother's scalp, and suddenly clenched his teeth angrily.When he regained consciousness, only the man's screams echoed in his ears.He raised his head, and the man clutched the hand with the broken finger tightly, tears streaming down his face from the pain.

"I'm not hungry, stop stealing for me." He hugged his younger brother tightly and said softly while patting his back.

Sobbing in his arms, Aaron shook his head vigorously, crying and murmuring, "You lied."He took his younger brother back to Emma, ​​reached out and put her in his arms, looked down at his younger brother, and said seriously, "I'm not lying."

The boy became sleepy after crying for a while. He took off the boy's clothes and put them on Emma, ​​letting Emma hold his brother.He took his sister into his arms, stroked her shoulder lightly, and patiently coaxed them to sleep.

The commotion around gradually subsided as the hour got late. He pricked up his ears and listened for a while, and after confirming that there was no sound of horseshoes, he quietly withdrew his hand, got up and walked out from the sleeping crowd.But he didn't dare to go too far, so he could only secretly go to the place with his back to the crowd to dig through the thick snow, hoping to dig out one or two dead rabbits.But he couldn't find it, only dug out two frozen mice in the snow.

better than nothing.

He held the mouse in his hand, looked back at the peacefully sleeping villagers, repeatedly confirmed that no one would follow, and then finally turned his head away again, and opened his mouth to bite the mouse's cold neck.

The sharp canine teeth bit through the fur and pierced into the blood vessels, and cold dead blood poured into his mouth. He greedily swallowed the stinky, cold and greasy liquid, and sucked a mouse dry within a moment.Throwing the emaciated body into the snow, he couldn't wait to bite through the neck of the second mouse.

At the age of 17, he refused to marry the master's daughter.

Because he harbors a terrible secret.