Attack is successful, the name is [traversing]

"They say... I'm a monster..."

"They were wrong."

"Really?"

Xiao Yantang finally stopped, shook his arms, and hugged his sister to him, trying not to look too strenuous, with a heavy expression on his immature face, he looked at the little girl's wet eyes, and raised the corners of his mouth:

"Is brother a monster?"

The little girl immediately shook her head, almost without thinking about it.

Xiao Yantang laughed, pressed Yan Wei's head to his chest, choked with sobs and said in a trembling voice:

"We are flesh and blood, blood relatives, every bone and every drop of blood in our body comes from the same place, if you are born with a sin, I am not spared, if you are some kind of monster, then I am guilty of the same crime as you."

Xiao Yanwei looked at him half-understood, saw him smile, and also bared her teeth, vaguely felt that what her brother said at this time was very important, she rubbed his chest flatteringly, and said in a low voice:

"Brother, where are we going?"

It's fine to go anywhere, but even if it's not home, I can't go back after all.He didn't care about how his mother died. The only coldness in his temperament was finally revealed at this moment, but no one cared, just like no one cared about his meekness, weakness, and lack of deceit.

As the sky was getting dark, he stopped his sister from struggling to get off the ground, gritted his teeth and put her into the bamboo basket that he had brought into the forest before he could put it down, and headed towards the dark forest in front of him.

The wind blows fine sand on the street, and the whole city is dusty.There are two small figures curled up under the shabby eaves. The older one hugs the younger one. At first glance, they seem to be stuck together. Such a small one is rare, but so what if it is rare, that person knows that these people are actually recharging their energy, waiting for the porridge shed set up by the clerk in the afternoon, don't look at their sick and listless appearance, and wait until then one The two will be so lively that you can't recognize them at all.

Clerk Wai is the richest man in the city. In fact, it should be more accurate to say that he is the only rich man. If a person has money, he will be able to have power. After being rich and powerful, he will naturally want fame.Fame is a thing that costs money. Donating porridge, donating medicine, building bridges and paving roads, it seems that porridge is the most cost-effective item. It seems that the richest man can’t live his life too romantically. Renhe, once every two days, it is best to choose the time when the sun is the hottest at noon, when there are few pedestrians, even a starving ghost will feel weak.

The gongs and drums rang twice in a hurry, and the people on the street who were limp and swaying just now seemed to have received some signal for a moment, and jumped up from the ground with such a speed that one could think that he had spent his entire life using Come practice running around.

The two little ones under the broken eaves also seemed to wake up, the older one patted the younger one to comfort her, and then rushed to the place where the gong sounded just now with the fastest speed.His height is only a little higher than the average adult's knees, relying on the dexterity of his body, he turns between the moving legs, and squeezes to the front in two or three strokes.

Two dry steamed buns and a bowl of clear porridge, he pushed these out of the crowd like he was protecting his life.But when he got to the outer edge, his shortcoming was exposed. Some blind person kicked him casually, barely kicking the leg on which his body was anchored. He staggered, and the porridge in his hand Sprinkle most of it, and roll out one of the steamed buns I was holding.

Panicked, he hurriedly stuffed the other into his arms, held up the broken bowl and ran towards the steamed bun that rolled on the ground. He squatted on the ground, blowing and blowing on the dirty surface of the steamed bun in distress.When he was about to stand up, there were two people stopped beside him. He froze instinctively when he got up, and he saw the two people out of the corner of his eye.

There were two people, one big and one small, the young one seemed to be a year or two older than him, but the big one was already very old. He caught a glimpse of the man's gray beard and tail, and the hands exposed in the sleeve robe had bark-like texture.

"Young master," he heard the old man's voice slightly respectful, but he didn't know if it was an illusion, he always felt that there was an unknown arrogance in this respect.

Young master, at his age, he only heard this word twice. The first time was the day after the woman brought the man home. The village chief smiled at him abnormally and said that he might be the young master of a rich family. He said that he couldn't forget about poor relatives like them after he became successful.That's interesting, when did he become related to them?

But only that time, and then, there is no more.

Hearing "Little Young Master" again now, is much more sincere than he was back then.After the old man called "Little Master", he continued:

"A man should stand on his head and his feet on the ground. The way of a gentleman should be mellow and dignified. He should not show his arrogance and show his arrogance. It means that we should be gentle and humble in dealing with others, but we must not lose our backbone. It is a terrible thing to have no backbone. The thing is, people without backbone are no different from bedbugs crawling on the ground. They can only rely on others to breathe, and can only endure the food that comes from them. This kind of people can't lift their heads all their lives, and they can only roll in the mud. They don't know the height of the sky the breadth of the earth, for once some things are broken, they can never be straightened up again."

The tone of his words was inexplicably familiar, and it really resembled the tone of the sheep-bearded private school teacher in the hut when he was hanging on the top of the tree.

"Like him?"

He raised his head slightly, met the innocent and bright eyes of the "little young master", and heard his crisp question, his whole body seemed to be frozen, and something clicked inside his body, as if something had really broken.

The old man looked at him inscrutablely, but didn't answer whether the young master was right or not:

"It's up to you to experience it yourself."

"I understand, the things on the ground are so dirty. If I were like him, my mother would beat me to death. Does his mother care about him? Oh, maybe he really doesn't care. I heard Duhu say that this kind of guy is called Bastards...."

"Young master, be careful! A gentleman keeps his word, you forgot, and want to eat the ruler again?"

"No, no, no... I was wrong, I'm just a gentleman, I will never be willing to be so humble..."

Those two people had already gone far away, Xiao Yantang stared at that direction in a daze, their arguing voices got into his ears by the wind, as if there were steel knives scraping in his body invisible.

"Brother?" A timid voice approached, Xiaoyantang suddenly woke up, hurriedly stuffed the steamed bun that fell on the floor into his mouth, took out the clean one from his bosom and handed it to Xiaoyanwei, and instructed vaguely:

"Hurry up, it's still hot." Then he handed over the porridge bowl, chewing the steamed buns lacking moisture in his mouth and swallowing with difficulty.

Xiao Yanwei was obviously hungry too, seeing her brother eating, she took the steamed bun, and then looked in the direction Xiao Yantang was looking at just now:

"Is there anything there?" Her brother stared at it for a long time.

Xiaoyantang forced a smile:

"No, it's just that the big house at the gate of the city is very nice. Brother, will you live in such a big house in the future?"

Xiao Yanwei smiled, nodded viciously with a steamed bun in her mouth, but heard a sneer from the side, and turned her head to look, the person who was laughing was also a beggar, whose clothes were covered in so many layers of ashes, and her face was covered with black spots of unknown origin. It's not clear whether it's pockmarks or mud.

The man cracked his black and yellow rotten teeth:

"The two little bastards still want to live in a big house. That kind of thing is what you can imagine? Don't look at what kind of cheap life you are, and why don't you stay cool? It's the house outside the clerk. How about you? It's only suitable to eat what his dog eats."

"You are the dog! A dirt dog! A mangy dog! Shit!" Xiao Yanwei angrily stepped forward and kicked the man's calf, the man shook his foot, and Xiao Yanwei leaned back.

Xiao Yantang quickly caught her, hugged his younger sister who was about to fight for a few rounds, cast a cold glance at the beggar, and led Xiao Yanwei away without saying a word.

"You son of a bitch! How dare you stare at me!" He was hit by a stone on the back. The stone was not big, but it made him pause. After a long while, he still didn't say anything and continued to lead his furious sister forward.

"Little coward..." The beggar laughed arrogantly.

--------

"Brother!" Xiao Yanwei shouted angrily.

"Okay, Wei'er, if you care about him, you're just like him?" Xiao Yantang combed his sister's messy hair, with a smile on his lips.

Xiao Yanwei grunted and walked slowly, kicking the stones under her feet.

Gradually, the food in the city became scarce, and Wen Jiabu's porridge water became thinner and thinner. In the end, there was only clean water left, which could not be applied for, and the porridge shed was naturally withdrawn.Xiao Yantang is only ten years old, and he is so skinny that he doesn't look ten years old at all. It is almost impossible to find a job.There are too many homeless people like them in the city, piled up on the side of the road, and they don't even have a place to beg for food.

Fortunately, Chengqiao Wharf has batches of goods these days, and many strong men are needed to help carry them. Xiao Yantang is not qualified, but he doesn't need wages, and he still has some strength. He only needs six steamed buns a day. The foreman weighed it I agreed immediately, but I didn't register him. Anyway, he was responsible for the exhaustion. There were so many people who starved to death in the city recently, and he didn't owe him a single one.

Xiao Yanwei saw it, her temper, which had become a little jumpy after escaping from Xiahe Village, had subsided a lot, and she became more silent when her brother was away.The two huddled together in the ruined temple in the west of the city, and Xiao Yantang had to go to work before dawn every day. Xiao Yanwei would point out at this time every day to ensure that she would take good care of herself, which made him walk away hesitantly.

When Xiaoyantang left, the girl Pianzi slid into the alley behind. There was an old plum tree there, and some sour and astringent plums had grown there. She stared at it for a long time, trying to climb up to it every day. , she believed that she would be able to pick the fruit today. Her brother said that she was very smart, and she never doubted his words.

She succeeded as expected, overjoyed and stuffed all the plums she could touch into her pocket, but if she was too concerned about the top, it was easy to ignore the bottom, not to mention that she was already at an age where she was easy to get carried away.She accidentally stepped into the air, she instinctively protected the food, hugged the plum in front of her chest, and fell from the high branch.

She was held in someone's arms, her little face was pale with fright but she was biting her lips tightly. If this posture had not been discovered, no one would have known that she had fallen to her death.Xiao Yanwei opened her eyes carefully, and saw her savior, a boy who was older than her brother, dressed as a scholar, seeing her open her eyes and smiling at her comfortingly, he was as gentle as jade and a gentleman as a bandit .

Xiao Yanwei was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously looked at the bosom, Li Zi was still there, she took a breath, jumped out of the man's bosom, nodded at him, bit her lower lip and didn't know what to say.

"You, you, you did such a dangerous thing at such a young age. If I hadn't happened to stumble across this scene while studying, let's see what you would do now." The young man has a good heart, and even the blame is so gentle that it only makes people Feel embarrassed, not ashamed.

But Xiao Yanwei wrinkled her nose and muttered:

"Will you be distracted while reading?"

The scholar froze, and before he could think of an answer, the little girl in front of him ran away without a trace.

This little white-eyed wolf... the scholar was muttering in his heart.But those eyes were astonishingly bright, and he paced around, muttering words.

He didn't know that his image of "being distracted" caused his image to plummet in Xiao Yanwei's heart. How could he be distracted while reading?If you don't cherish the books you have to read, her brother will definitely not.

Xiao Yanwei pursed her mouth, shook her head, then pulled out the broken building she found yesterday and put all the plums in it, and tied them with hemp rope to put them into the old well in the temple bit by bit.Squinting to look at the dazzling sun, Xiao Yanwei held the rope and leaned against the well, counting the sand in boredom.

--------

"Boss, we agreed on six steamed buns." Xiao Yantang counted, and the actual number was only half.

The foreman Huo Di snatched one over and said impatiently:

"If you want it or not, it's good to have it. Now that there is a food shortage, be careful not to have any!"

Xiao Yantang choked angrily, pursed his lips tightly, took the steamed bun back, and walked away silently.

"Cut...Little bastard, it's good to eat some..." The foreman didn't know whether it was a guilty conscience or something, but he couldn't help muttering to himself when he saw Xiaoyantang's leaving back.

Approaching the ruined temple, Xiaoyantang forced himself to relax, quickened two steps, and shouted loudly:

"Vill!"

"Brother!" Xiao Yanwei woke up from a drowsiness, and hurriedly pulled the rope out of her hand.

"What is this?" Xiao Yantang raised his eyebrows and asked.

"Fruit! I...I picked it up!" She added superficially.

Then hastily interrupted her brother:

"Brother, come and help me!"

"I picked it up, where did I pick it up? There are so many?" Xiao Yantang stretched out his hand to pull out the bamboo basket for her, so it was not so easy to fool her.

"I saw a group of children digging out fruits outside, and I picked up the ones they dropped on the ground while they were not paying attention." Xiao Yanwei stared at the bamboo basket, her face was red and her heart was not beating.

"Be careful when they come after you and beat you, you girl is too courageous."

Xiao Yanwei laughed foolishly, wrinkled her nose, and said angrily:

"They can't outrun me."

"Yes, yes, you are the most powerful!" Xiao Yantang stuffed the steamed buns in her arms into her hands, and then walked towards the temple with a pile of plums dripping with water.

Xiao Yanwei stretched out her hand to grab one, her hands were cool, and she smiled contentedly.The two were sitting on the shabby futon in the temple, Xiao Yantang had rested enough and was about to get up to wash his body. After walking a few steps, he found his sister following up like a tail, holding a fortune in her hand. She had frozen the fruit for a day.

He always had nothing to do with her, and sighed:

"Go back and sit down, eat the steamed buns, I'll be back soon."

Xiao Yanwei shook her head.

It was all his fault for raising his younger sister so gender-neutral, and in the next second he laughed at himself: if he didn't have enough food and clothing, he still cared about these unreasonable things.

He drenched in a bucket of well water, his upper body was bare, showing the bruises on his shoulders and back, because Xiao Yanwei was beside him, he didn't even frown.He was about to fetch the second bucket of water when the hot, swollen and painful wound suddenly froze. He tilted his head slightly and saw Xiao Yanwei rolling the frozen fruit on his shoulder.

"This... said to reduce swelling." But she still felt that it would be better if there was ointment.

Xiaoyantang pursed his lips, sat down by the well, greeted his little sister, and cursed:

"Waste food."

"It's not a waste, and it's not that I can't eat it." She said, picked up the plum in her hand and bit it, her face froze because of the soreness.

"Stupid girl!" Xiao Yantang took the obviously unripe plum in her hand, picked it up in Lou for a while, handed her a riper one, and then finished the sour plum she had bitten into in a few bites.

Xiao Yanwei leaned against him, covering his wound with ice plums, watching him eat up the most sour and astringent fruits she picked, she licked her lips, thinking that what she said next would definitely make him angry, but She still couldn't hold back and said:

"Brother, do you... recruit female workers?"

Xiaoyantang's expression froze, and the sour taste in his mouth seemed unbearable for a moment.

"Do you think I can't support you?" Xiao Yantang scolded sharply with a straight face.

Xiao Yanwei bit her lip, tears were trembling in her eyes, looking at the bloodstains on her brother's body that never faded, she choked for a long time before uttering two words in a low voice:

"no...."

"Then don't think about it! You are only seven years old, and you don't have any meat to eat after stewing, so how can I recruit you?" Xiao Yantang interrupted her domineeringly, stretched out his hand and pulled back his still-dried coat to wrap around his body, Blocking his sister's view of the wound on his body.

"Brother, the clothes are not dry yet!" Xiao Yanwei shouted angrily.

"It's fine if you can wear it, how can you be so delicate." He walked into the temple with the few plums left.

Xiao Yanwei was extremely wronged, she could run and climb trees, and she could learn everything very quickly, so why wouldn't her brother let her go out to earn money.

Xiao Yantang was also blocked, so blocked that he even forgot his hunger, those plums were not full at all, he could only eat more and more hungry.Handed two white steamed buns in front of him, Xiao Yantang frowned and said angrily:

"Eat it."

"No, if you eat too much, you'll gain weight, and you won't be pretty." Xiao Yanwei lay on the futon with her back on her back, covering her ears with her hands, as if she didn't listen or listen.

Xiao Yantang laughed angrily, her thin body like firewood is still beautiful, not even pleasing to the eye.He sighed, settled one in twos and twos, handed the rest back, and threatened:

"Don't make me pinch your mouth and stuff it in."

Xiao Yanwei sat up angrily, staring at him with red eyes.

Xiaoyantang refused to give way, and finally Xiaoyanwei cried and cursed angrily:

"Brother, you are so stupid!" Then he grabbed the steamed bun and gnawed it angrily.

Xiao Yantang showed helplessness - yes, he is really stupid.

After hesitating for a while, he still took off his wet clothes, hugged his sobbing sister into his arms, and apologized in a low voice:

"I was wrong, okay, I shouldn't kill you."

Xiao Yanwei whimpered even more fiercely.

"I like you to be fatter. In the future you will grow round and soft and easy to pinch. That's beautiful." Xiaoyantang whispered, and Xiaoyanwei leaned in his arms when she was tired from crying, rolling her eyes and listening to him Speaking of daydreaming, there is only one thought in my mind:

How much does it cost...how many days does her brother have to work.

The next thought flashed through her, and she shivered, feeling that she was quite economical.

The famine broke out completely, and the wharf has not paid wages for several days, even a few steamed buns from Xiaoyantang.The workers wanted to disperse, but the foreman dragged them out of their homes one by one, saying that since they had signed the contract at the beginning, none of them could escape first.

The workers are very aggrieved, the fields are already deserted, who would come here if they had no choice, and now they have no money to make people work. I heard that several of them have died of exhaustion these days. Under the supervision of a group of thugs, they are doing white labor.

Xiao Yantang was very witty and sneaked away early. He was a young man, so he didn't sign anything at the beginning, and the foreman didn't bother to bother him.But in this way, the siblings were completely out of food.

In fact, if he stayed at the pier, he could survive on a daily meal of porridge and cornmeal, but his sister couldn't, which made Xiao Yantang very worried.Worried, he wandered the streets, almost door-to-door asking them if they needed to recruit, but to no avail.The streets are dilapidated and desolate like a dead city.

When he passed by an alley, he smelled the aroma of broth, and his stomach suddenly thundered.He approached the alley carefully. The alley was full of homeless people and beggars. He found that the smell was coming from a big pot inside, and there was some fishy smell of mutton. He swallowed.

"Still alive?" he heard a man ask his companion.

"It's gone, the last bite was pinched by Lao Wang!"

Just wondering, I saw them lift up a person as if to throw it into the pot.The man was not very old, only about ten years old, he was naked, Xiao Yantang's eyes widened and he could still see the baby's pale complexion.

He couldn't help but took two steps back, his heart was beating fast, and his appetite disappeared in an instant.Carefully leaving this terrible alley, his mind was in chaos, he took two steps, the sudden sense of panic gripped his heart, he ran, and quickly ran towards the ruined temple where the brothers and sisters lived.

"Vill!" he yelled out of breath.

Xiao Yanwei's eyes are full of hunger these days, but she still manages to raise her voice and reply "Hmm!".

Xiaoyantang breathed a sigh of relief and lifted it up again, and ran into the temple in three steps at a time.

Xiao Yanwei lay softly on the ground, he picked her up, and heard her weakly whisper:

"Brother, I'm so hungry..."

With trembling hands, he wiped the blackness on her face. The more he wiped it, the dirtier it became. He gritted his teeth, afraid that he would cry out in the next second.

Xiao Yanwei came back to her senses, blinked slowly, and immediately changed her words:

"No, I'm not hungry, I just ate a lot...a lot of fruit."

"Stupid girl..." He hugged her and rubbed her soft yellow hair, his voice choked with sobs.

In fact, in theory, he should be the first one to fall down. These days, he eats less and less, but the work he does has not decreased at all. It is all due to his energy and spirit that he can carry himself until now. He really treats himself like a god. up.

But he can't fall, once he falls, he will be completely finished.

He carefully hid his hungry and lifeless younger sister in a secret place behind the statue, and dragged his limp hands and feet out to look for food.

In fact, how can I find it? The plum tree that Xiao Yanwei was guarding was even stripped of its bark.

The city was so desolate and dead, the crows thought the corpses had no flesh and refused to fly a few.

His mind was heavy and he wandered aimlessly.All the way from the west of the city to the north of the city, the sky is blue and scary, and one or two of the people on the street will fall down as they walk. .

The dilapidated house just appeared in front of him.

Leaky roof tiles, crumbling doors, and window paper were gnawed clean by bugs.This house blocked the way for his unknown target, not to mention the door was unlocked, Xiao Yantang's heart was racing two times... What if, what if?

He looked around, he was alone, he took a deep breath and walked in.

The house seemed to have been ransacked a long time ago, Xiao Yantang wiped his face, and cursed secretly, the famine came like locusts crossing the border, he was stupid to think that no one had touched such a conspicuous place.

Walking out of the door in frustration, he suddenly heard some movement in the main house, his footsteps stopped, he hesitated for a moment and walked there.

If it's a mouse, it's still a piece of meat.

There were no rats in it, and there was a man, a dying man.

It was an old man with a bad smell, and he twitched occasionally, his naked parts were covered with scars, and someone beat him up when he was thrown down.

He was dying... Xiao Yantang knew it in his heart, and then he was so obsessed, he suddenly remembered the alley he passed by before.

Snapped!He slapped himself hard on the face, awakening himself and the dying old beggar at the same time, he howled hoarsely:

"I am the fifteenth generation grandson of the Qi family, you bastards, don't let me go!" After he finished speaking, he seemed to have breathed his last breath, and he could only stiffen where he was venting.

His eyeballs were so yellow that when he moved, Xiao Yantang thought he heard a crackling sound, and he saw this kid.

Xiao Yantang felt uncomfortable for a moment, hesitated for two steps and planned to leave, who would have thought that before he moved his feet, the old man made a groaning sound from his throat, as if he was calling him.

After hesitating for a moment, he still stepped forward.

"I am...I am..." The old man stared straight at his eyes, and his lips closed silently.Xiaoyantang was helpless, it didn't matter who it was, what should go still had to go.

"I know, the Qi family has only passed on fifteen generations of grandchildren." By accident, Xiao Yantang calmed him down just like that.

The old man seemed to have taken off his whole body, and loosened his hands covering his chest, revealing a dark yellow thing in his pocket.

Xiao Yantang choked for breath, it was a big piece of cornmeal, he raised his eyes to look at the old man surnamed Qi, and found that he had already swallowed his breath.

Without even hesitating for a moment, he picked up the ball of grain and ran outside.

The sky was blue all the way and it was scary.