Gratitude License

The water in the pool gradually calmed down.

Zijin's finger points on the water surface, drawing a spiral line that circles outward.

In the dim light, the water surface reflected the scene in his memory.

Zijin said, "That spring was very cold."

There is a peach forest on the hillside, and the oldest peach trees grow on the steepest position.

The narrow passage extends all the way to the bottom of the old peach tree, and at the end is a flat and comfortable burrow. It used to be the old den of gophers. A few years ago, the quilt took over the cave. Now the cave is full of the unique smell of snakes, let alone the ground. Rats, any small animals with a normal sense of smell will not easily approach here.

Zijin has ended hibernation, but the weather is too cold, he is still stiff, so he can only continue to shrink in the hole.

The cave is far away from the ground, but Zijin can still smell the smell of rainwater despite the heavy rain for days.

After the spring rains, the weather will warm up.

Even if it becomes a fairy, the snake can't escape its instinct. It becomes lazy when it's cold, and wants to burrow into a hole when it sees it.

The magpie demon from the same mountain always persuaded him to change his habits. After all, he is the thickest and tallest demon in the nearby mountains, and it tends to become thicker and thicker. If it continues like this, it will be just around the corner to occupy the mountain and become king. If there is any disagreement, it will dig a hole What does it look like, if you can't learn how to pretend correctly, how can you make those foxes, birds and rabbits obey your orders?

Whenever this happens, Zijin can always find a bean worm nearby as if out of nothing, the fat, tender and juicy one.

The snake tail rolled it and threw it into the sky, and the magpie flew away at the speed of light to pick up the worm.

Zijin coiled on the tree and said slowly: It is true that we should change our habits.

After such a long time, Zijin is no longer the little snake that was almost frozen to death. With his current ability, it is not impossible to force his body to warm up. Even if you go outside after warming up, you will still suffer from the cold, so it is better to just shrink here and hold up the corpse.

At that time, the goblins were more superstitious than they are now, especially the goblins in the deep mountains like him, who thought that they could only start to change shape after they had crossed the catastrophe.

Generally, the goblin’s first choice is to transform into a human, but Zijin doesn’t have much contact with people, and he doesn’t have much interest. After crossing the catastrophe, he wants to change into wings first, but he can’t be as weak as a magpie. He needs a pair of big and powerful wings. Better not to have feathers, but to have scales like snakes, and strong talons, at least like falcons.

Many, many years later, Zijin realized that the image he fantasized about had already been fantasized by Westerners, that is, the evil dragon in the legends of heroes.

The most common way for goblins to cross the catastrophe is to be struck by lightning, without compulsory education, basically all goblins are born with this kind of common sense.

It is said that the process does not hurt at all, because the person who has been hacked is either fainted or dead, and has no time to feel pain at all.

That day, the bright red lightning struck the top of the mountain and landed firmly on the old peach tree.

The peach branches that had just sprouted were chopped black in an instant, and the sound and vibration extended to the ground. Zijin was hesitating, should I go out and have a look?

The torrential rain washed the hillside, and the soil and rocks were already softer than usual. In addition, a lightning strike knocked down the peach tree, which indirectly caused the landslide.

The mud slid to the valley with the peach trees halfway up the hillside, and packed Zijin down with it.

It took a lot of effort before Zijin got out of the mud.

The cold rain and cold wind made him want to shrink back into the soil and suffocate to death.

There was a burning smell in the air, and Zijin recognized his old peach tree, and suddenly thought, did he just survive the catastrophe?

Holding back his curiosity, he climbed to the side of the tree, and when he tried to move forward, he found that his body was completely stiff.

Zijin felt very firmly that this was a test given to him by Du Jie, and he could change his wings if he survived it.

So he didn't use any demonic power, and hid beside the charred tree trunk to lift the corpse.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and it didn't take long for him to float up on the spot, maintaining a stiff posture and being washed for a while, until he bumped into something and was forced to stop.

He was dizzy at the time, and he didn't know what this "what" was. It was just out of instinct. He felt that this "what" was warm, so the power of instinct temporarily overcame the stiffness. "Climb up, and drill wherever it is warm.

The touch of this "what" is a bit strange, and it has a strange atmosphere.

Unknown equals danger, but the warm feeling is too tempting. Zijin didn't wake up until he smelled the fire, and by then he had been taken into the cave.

The young human man lit a fire in the cave, and took off his hat, coir raincoat and armor all over the floor.

Zijin was pressed under the inner layer of the coir raincoat, and only poked his head out to look at this human being.

The cave gradually warmed up. Zijin was afraid of the fire, but the warmth felt so comfortable. He huddled in the corner farthest from the fire, keeping warm through a pile of clothes, and still thinking about sticking to this person. When on the body.

The color of the sky and the earth changed under the rain, and it was difficult to distinguish between day and night. Cheng Peixuan only had a thin layer of clothes on her body, and fell asleep leaning against the earthen wall beside the fire.

Zijin was curious, so he checked all his clothes and luggage, and finally found a small shelf next to the fire, on which there were a few square things hanging, which looked light and transparent.

There is a person on that thing, but there is no temperature or breath.

At that time, Zijin didn't know anything about human activities such as painting. He just thought it was fun. He stared at the cloth and looked at it again and again, and suddenly came up with the idea of ​​transforming into a human form.

Anyway, I have survived the catastrophe, strike while the iron is hot, and try to change it.

The paintings were very detailed. The first one was a close-up of his appearance, wearing ordinary clothes, and the second one showed his whole body, carrying a gun and wearing armor.

The third one is quite special, this person is standing in the river, naked.

It was the first time Zijin saw human nudity, and he was surprised to find that these guys had no scales or feathers on their bodies, and their smooth skin was like a newborn voles.

Although I always heard that I should hide from humans, this appearance doesn't look scary at all.

Zijin conjured up a human form according to the appearance in the painting, adjusted it repeatedly, and finally was not sure whether he could succeed, so he ran out to find a puddle to take a picture.

He stood there, fully dressed one second, and turned himself naked the next.

After repeated several times, Zijin was sure that he succeeded in illusion, and ran back to the cave triumphantly, trying to see if his appearance could fool humans.

He imitated the appearance of human beings and sat against the wall. Seeing that he was holding something like a stick in his hand, he took an unburned firewood to follow suit.

The human suddenly opened his eyes, and the "stick" in his hand swung across, and suddenly swept towards Zijin.

Zijin dodged instinctively, couldn't sit still and fell to the ground, watching the human face change.

He thought he had been spotted and was about to change back to his original shape and run away, but the human suddenly pinned him down and said something, which Zi Jin couldn't understand, so naturally he didn't react, just looked at the man stupidly.

What happened next completely overturned Zijin's common sense.

The man bent down and pressed down, and suddenly licked his lips very hard.

At first it hurt a little, Zijin wanted to hide, but he couldn't dodge because he was pressed down, and he was not used to the human body, then the pain stopped, Zijin didn't want to hide anymore.

After the long kiss ended, Cheng Peixuan hugged Zijin tightly, "It's dangerous in the mountains! Why are you here!"

After a while, he realized that he had lost his composure, so he quickly let go of his lapel, and rushed over to put away the portrait beside the fire.

The person in the painting is Zhao Qian. The two have been in the army together for almost five years now. He has always been secretly in love with Zhao Qian, but he has never dared to reveal his feelings.

Putting away the evidence, Cheng Peixuan turned around to explain, but saw Zijin standing there in a daze, touching his lips with his fingers, as if reminiscing about a kiss.

Cheng Peixuan's head became hot, and he pressed his Zijin against the wall, and kissed it recklessly.

At the beginning, Zijin just thought it was fresh and fun, and responded like the other party. He didn't understand what happened until he was stripped naked and pressed to the ground.

The reaction of the body became uncontrollable, some parts were swollen, some parts were painful, but his whole body was hot, and the human body on the opposite side was hotter than his. The two of them hugged each other very comfortably, and he liked this feeling .

He also likes Cheng Peixuan's concentration and likes to listen to his voice. The monotonous and bleak life seems to suddenly become lively, which makes him obsessed with it accidentally.

The picture in the hot spring water is frozen on the fire, and a blurry figure can be seen behind.

It is self-evident what the two have done.

Zijin raised his finger, "I won't show you the rest of the content. I stayed with him in the cave for three days. At that time, I didn't understand anything, and I didn't know the love between you humans. I just enjoyed being with him." Huan-love, three days later, the man in the painting came to look for him in the mountains. He was hunting rabbits, so I took the opportunity to hide. When he saw Zhao Qian, I hugged him like I was hugging Zhao Qian. After calling his name, he happily recited Zhao Qian, saying that your voice finally healed, and then...they went into the cave together."

When Zhao Qian found Cheng Peixuan, he was naturally full of words.

Recently, the river broke its embankment. A few days ago, Cheng Peixuan led a team into the mountain to rescue the elders in the village. On the way, he encountered a landslide. He rescued his teammates, but he fell into the valley by himself. Fortunately, the pool was deep enough to save his life .

Everyone is Cheng Peixuan dead, only Zhao Qian did not give up and went into the mountains to find him in the rain.

But Zhao Qian didn't have a chance to speak, Cheng Peixuan repeatedly kissed him, and repeatedly asked him to call his name. There was a misunderstanding with Zijin before, Cheng Peixuan thought that Zhao Qian and himself were in love, of course, what should be done at this time What to do, Zhao Qian couldn't take this step at first, but after going through a life and death parting, everyone who can be bearish is bearish, and he also made up his mind to be together.

Zijin: "The two of them stayed in the cave until the rain stopped. I was curious at the time, so I went to the outside world with them, learned human language, gradually understood some things, and understood the two people. The relationship between him... For many years in the middle, I just followed him by his side."

When the war started, Cheng Peixuan led the army, and when the battlefield was most dangerous, Zijin followed him like a shadow.

The enemy general slashed at him with the epee, and Cheng Peixuan was unable to dodge. At this time, Zijin appeared and blocked the sword for him in Zhao Qian's appearance. He was also seriously injured for this. After being taken back to the camp, Soon I couldn't hold on and changed back to my original shape and left.

The battlefield was chaotic, and Cheng Peixuan didn't see Zhao Qian again until half a month later.

Zijin: "A long time later, those two people left together and lived without children. Zhao Qian was injured on the battlefield and died before forty, and you... and him, he lived until sixty. Nian is in poor health and can't recognize people, I often show up to talk to him, and I use someone else's appearance... This is such a story."

Xu Liang let out a sigh of relief, "It's over?"

This was just a subconscious question, and Zijin just hummed.

In fact, the story is not over. After Cheng Peixuan passed away, Zijin guarded his bones for hundreds of years, and killed a group of bandits because the tombstone was destroyed.

And the reason to do this is only because of Cheng Peixuan's few words before his death.

The peach blossoms in the yard were about to wither, Cheng Peixuan was sitting on the porch, his breath getting weaker and weaker.

After surviving the warm winter but not the cold spring, Zijin knew that he was leaving, so she turned into a human form and went to see him.

Cheng Peixuan looked at him for a long time and said with a smile, "I'm getting old, but you are still the same as before."

He took Zijin's hand and gave him those portraits.

The memories evoked by the portrait are like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, putting together decades of feelings. Zijin didn't really understand until that moment.

He left the bath, took a transparent box back, and opened it in front of Xu Liang.

When the color on the fabric meets the air, it quickly dries and falls off, just like the figure of Zijin leaving, disappearing into the gradually brightening sky.

"See you in the next life."