[Journey to the West] Monkey, be good

The sunset on the long river, the lonely city in the desert;

The sun was scorching, and the sky was full of yellow sand.

On the narrow and winding official road, there are a few yellowing weeds growing sporadically on the side of the road. Under the scorching sun, it seems that the last drop of juice in the leaves has been squeezed dry, and they become dying, and the whole plant is crawling on the ground. .But when you look deep into the desert, you can't even see this kind of dry weeds, only a high stone wall.The city wall is [-] to [-] feet high and built with loess, the purpose is to resist the violent sand of the desert day and night.

There are three big characters "Huaiyin Town" hanging on the city gate.There is a small tea shop under the city wall. There are three or five square tables sparsely arranged in the shop. The tea doctor is guarding the hearth and brewing a kind of fragrant tea unique to the desert.He fanned the flames with a cattail fan in his hand, his dull eyes narrowed into slits under the scorching sun, looking at the refugees fleeing famine on the small road outside the shed, with an expression on his face that he was used to seeing life and death.

Water sources are scarce in the desert, and now there is no drop of water for three consecutive years. "Huaiyin City" has long been turned into a dead city, and those in the city who are still sharp have already fled, leaving only half of the city's old, weak, sick and disabled waiting to die in the loess.There is only the last half of water left in the water tank behind Dr. Cha. He was born and raised in Mobei, and has been rooted here for more than [-] years. He decided to sell the last half of the tank of water and live and die with "Huaiyin City".

There were only two guests in the tea shed, and it was said that they were officials from the imperial city thousands of miles away to the frontier fortress to escort the prisoners to the border beyond the northern part of the fortress.After traveling on the road, the two officials' faces were full of dust, their beards grew to their cheeks, and their faces were full of flesh.So Dr. Tea only talked to them a few words, and then turned his attention to the prisoner who was left in the sun outside the tea shed.

The man looked twenty-seven, and his appearance was not at all like the roughness of the people in the desert. Even though he was exposed to the wind and the sun and was devastated along the way, his unparalleled handsome face was still as delicate as jade.The prisoner didn't seem to be from the Central Plains, because he had slightly curly blond hair and golden eyes. Although he was dressed in a gray prison uniform, he couldn't hide the wild wildness that seemed to be born on him.He was squatting on a rock outside the tea shop, his lips were dry and bloodshot due to lack of water—this was the only part of his body that could be regarded as embarrassing.

Listening to the chatting of the two officials, it turned out that the prisoner turned out to be the well-known General Zhiqi, who was good at controlling floods and made great contributions.The diversion of the Yellow River, the bursting of the Yangtze River's embankments, and the blockage of the Huai River... In the past ten years, the four characters "General Zhiqi" have been added to the notebook by historians.However, just six months ago, a sudden drought broke out in the Luoshui area, which caused an increase of 300 million refugees.Wuzhiqi was ordered by the emperor to go into the water to divert water for disaster relief. The original plan was to move the refugees to the fertile Jiangnan area to seek a way of life.Unexpectedly, he changed his mind midway, and united with the Jiangnan County King, closed the Jiangnan fortress tightly, and abandoned 300 million refugees.As a result, public resentment was aroused and the country was in chaos.The emperor sent troops to suppress.When the civil strife was put down, 300 million refugees died of starvation, war, and disease... In the end, there were only 73 refugees left.Outraged by the common people, the lord of the country condemned Wuzhiqi and sent him to the frontier.And Huaiyin City is also within the scope of falling into the water, and he is also a sinner of Huaiyin.

"After drinking this cup of tea, don't go any further. If you enter the city, you will die." Dr. Tea picked up the teapot, walked to the table in a senile manner, and refilled the tea for the two uncles.He himself is not afraid of death when he is old, but these two young men are still young.There is also the one outside the shed, whether the general is not the general, whether the person commits the crime or not, in this Mobei, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, it's all the same.So, Dr. Tea picked up an old teacup from the table, poured half a bowl of tea, staggered over, and said, "Oh, take a sip too, the sun at noon is the worst."

People who have been in the army and fought in the war have their backs straight even when they are the most downcast. Wuzhiqi sits there like a needle for calming the sea, as if he can calm down the wild sand in the sky.He tilted his head slightly and glanced at Dr. Cha.What disappointed him was that he couldn't see the fighting spirit that soldiers should have in Wu Zhiqi's eyes.Dr. Cha was suddenly in a trance, feeling that the general and the prisoner really seemed to be a little different--the spirit was different, and the thoughts they held in their hearts were different.Also when he was in a trance, an official came over and kicked the tea and rice to the ground, so the half bowl of tea spilled on the ground was evaporated by the hot sun in an instant.

"You really think he is still a majestic general, give him tea, and give him tea! Now this water source is so scarce, it would be a waste to give it to him!" The soldier cursed, and pulled out the sheepskin bag at his waist after cursing. , went to the water tank and filled a bag full of water.Wu Zhi Qi Bo remained calm, looking down at the bowl on the ground without saying a word.Dr. Tea sighed and returned to the tea shed.Another officer chewed the stiff dry food and asked, "What do you mean you will die if you enter the city? Old man, please speak clearly."

It turns out that although the land of Mobei is barren and rarely rains, there will be a rain every six months.There is a Huaiyin Lake in the east of Huaiyin City, and the people live on it.But just three years ago, when someone went to fetch water from the lake, he accidentally found a group of koi coming from nowhere in the lake.Not to mention the beautiful red and golden scales, it is said that koi can attract wealth and bring good luck to people.So the people in the whole city went out to catch koi to raise them, so that the prices of fish tanks, fish food, bait, and fishing rods in the city were once more than gold.In less than a month, half of the koi could no longer be found in the huge Huaishui Lake.Not to mention koi, even the usual small fish, shrimps and crabs disappeared without a trace.Strange things began to happen at that time. Overnight, the entire Huaishui Lake seemed to be emptied, drying up until the cracked riverbed was exposed.Also since that night, Huaiyin City has a radius of hundreds of miles, and there has never been a single drop of rain.

"Sin, sin! You are my only relative, baby, grandpa is sorry for you." A [-]-year-old man hugged his grandson who was still in his infancy, knelt on the side of the road and cried.He was afraid that the sun would peel off the child's skin, and he was afraid that the water in the child's body would evaporate too quickly and dehydrate him, so he wrapped the child layer by layer with oiled paper. Who knew that the wrapping was too tight, and the child was suffocated to death.

Dr. Tea couldn't bear it, and brought a bowl of water to the old man, but when he walked over, the old man also fell to the ground and died.When he died, his body was so thin that only a piece of skin was left holding the bones.Wu Zhiqi glanced at the old man lightly, neither sad nor happy.

"What do you look at, don't look at it. These refugees are in dire straits right now because of you! It was you who joined forces with the Jiangnan County King to close the city gates to drive out the refugees, and embezzled the money for flood relief to fill your own pockets. Now I can't bear it again. The officer had enough to eat and drink, and filled his sheepskin bag with water, then he casually stuffed two mouthfuls of dry food into Wuzhiqi's mouth, pushed him up and started on his way, saying: "Hurry up and eat, we can go on the road after eating .Dude, you didn’t earn any money betting on you this trip, but you suffered a lot. Damn it, look at all the shitty places you pass by along the way!”

Wu Zhiqi mechanically chewed the dry food in his mouth, and walked towards "Huaiyin City" expressionlessly.The two officials behind him glanced at each other, and they both showed disdainful expressions: "Tch, why are you pretending to be noble at this time." Maybe Wu Zhiqi's blond hair is too eye-catching, and he was recognized quickly after entering the city .All the people in the city are desperately waiting for death, when they suddenly see the culprit who once could have saved him but turned back and ignored him, he immediately becomes violent, and rushing forward with his last strength to vent his anger, holding a stick, knife and fork .

The two officials stopped them symbolically twice, but they couldn't stop them, and they were afraid that the group of people would accidentally hurt themselves, so they quietly slipped out of the crowd, hid aside and watched the show.I don't know how long it took, and waves of refugees came forward to avenge, and Wu Zhiqi had already fallen into a pool of blood.The sun was setting to the west, and the officials thought that Wu Zhiqi had been hacked to death by random knives, so they left Huaiyin City in the dark.There were few people along the way here, and the desert was no different than the Central Plains, so no one could be sure what would happen if we went further.The two officials were also afraid that they would die in the desert, and now that Wu Zhiqi was beaten to death with a random stick, the two of them could barely exchange their duties when they returned.

Wu Zhiqi was slashed 380 times on his body.His flesh and blood were separated, his meridians were severed, and his face was completely changed—but he didn't die.In the middle of the night, on the lonely street, there was no one there, only groans and cries from both sides of the street from time to time.Suddenly, a loud thunder exploded in the sky, and then the rainwater rushed down like a long river bursting its embankment, washing away the blood stains on Wu Zhiqi's body, leaving only whitening wounds.In the dark silence, like a real walking corpse, he got up stiffly from the ground and walked down the long street.Someone heard the sound of thunder and rain, and opened the window happily, but when they saw the strange gray figure on the street, they were still hesitant and did not dare to go out to find out.

Wuzhiqi went all the way to the east and came to the edge of Huaiyin Lake.The rolling rainwater is constantly pouring into this deep pool, and soon, it will turn back into a lake, or even become a sea.Wuzhiqi stood by the lake, every muscle and bone in his body was straight.He lowered his eyes and saw the reflection of Dragon God on the mottled water.So he looked up, and saw a red and white luxurious clothes quickly disappeared into the dark blue night sky.By the shallow lake, only a koi jumped out of the water, happily spitting bubbles at him.

"It's you?" Wuzhiqi filled some water with a green lotus leaf, and held the little koi in his arms.His voice is nice, a little hoarse in the deep, soft and gentle.This is not the first time he has seen this koi. Half a year ago, he met him when he was ordered to divert water for disaster relief, but it was not in this lake, but in the West Sea far away.

Half a year ago, a drought broke out in the Luoshui area, where there had been no rain for three years, and the people were in dire straits.Wuzhiqi was ordered to control the water and divert water from west to north.He has controlled the water for many years and is invincible like a real general.He is proud, he is conceited, but he has everything he can be proud of.So, that time, he took up the task with confidence as usual, and took hundreds of thousands of soldiers and millions of grain and grass to dig river channels and divert water for disaster relief.

However, when he arrived at Xihai, he discovered that the Xihai Dragon Palace was suffering unprecedented catastrophe, and the Dragon Clan themselves could not take care of themselves.What's even more desperate is that seawater is not fresh water. Even if rivers are dug to attract seawater, it may not be a life-saving medicine for cities in the sinking water basin.But at this time, it was too late to go to other places to find water, and the number of refugees was increasing day by day. In desperation, Wu Zhiqi had to use the silver used to dig the river to rescue the victims.

Fight Mi En, bear Mi Qiu.

He found helplessly that the more disaster relief he did, the more victims there would be.Until all food and grass materials were exhausted, the disaster situation was not resolved, and it was even worse than before.So, he made another decision-send troops to escort the 300 million refugees southward until they reached the rich Jiangnan.It was also at this time that he saw for the first time this small koi carp that was all golden and red, with only a peach blossom and pink pattern growing on its back.The little koi spits bubbles at him, and inside the bubbles are purple and gold night pearls from the bottom of the West Sea.

Wuzhiqi is not a fish, he does not understand the happiness of fish.However, when the little fish poked its head out of the water and spit bubbles at him, he clearly felt that the fish was happy.So he exchanged the Ye Mingzhu given by the little koi for the food and grass going south.That night, he wrote a letter with his friend Jiangnan County King, and he quickly got a response from the other party, expressing his willingness to help, and even started to send people to build a porridge shed.

It took several months to travel thousands of miles from falling into the water to Jiangnan.Food and grass became less and less, from the original three meals a day to one meal a day, and finally to one meal a day.The crowd began to complain, and some people said: "You soldiers are strong and strong, why can't you eat less?" Later, someone said: "Anyway, you war horses are livestock, since you have nothing to eat, why don't you eat less?" Why don’t you just kill a horse and eat it!” Finally, some people rushed into the houses of the people along the way, robbed chickens and ducks, slaughtered cattle and sheep, and even… raped their children.

Wuzhiqi is a young master who grew up in a wealthy family in the imperial city. He is used to the strict rules of the army, and he is also used to the people who support the army and love the country. He is proud but not arrogant. If you go crazy, you will become a disaster victim like a robber.When he was about to arrive in Los Angeles, he couldn't bear it anymore and executed a refugee who led the disturbance in accordance with military regulations.

So the Xuan, which had been tense in the team and used as a check and balance, was broken like this.The anger of the soldiers collided with the growing greed of the refugees, and a vicious battle broke out.Although soldiers have swords and guns, refugees are more numerous.The night was brightly illuminated by swords, lights and swords, and countless wailing sounds rang in my ears. Wu Zhiqi did not participate in the war, but his body was still splattered with blood.

"In the face of desire and greed, who's life is not the same as an ant." Wu Zhiqi looked straight at him, as if he was talking to the little koi in his arms, or talking to himself, "I never believed in gods and Buddhas. , I don’t consider myself merciful, and I don’t think it’s wrong to order the closure of the city gates to prevent those refugees from entering the city. A refugee dies, but one life is lost. But if all the soldiers starve to death, it’s a country that dies. It’s those people People are greedy, they, too much."

The little koi gulped and rolled its golden eyes, as if it understood, but also as if it didn't.It swam around in the lotus leaf, flicked its tail, and seemed to be making Wuzhiqi happy.Wuzhiqi gently rubbed the fins on the back of the little koi with his fingertips, and said lightly: "It's you, you are worthy of being a koi, good luck. As soon as you appear, the long-dry land will rain down. Tell me, you How did it get from the West Sea to Huaiyin Lake?" The little koi flicked its tail again and looked up to the sky.Wuzhiqi asked and answered, "You mean that person just now?" Little Jinli nodded frantically.Wuzhiqi smiled lightly, held up the lotus leaves, and walked away with a slender figure against the night.

"Found it! Wuzhiqi is there!" At this moment, countless emaciated refugees, or more accurately, "living dead" suddenly poured out from behind.This group of people followed the army from Huaiyin City to Jiangnan, and returned along the same road after the Jiangnan County King ordered the city gates to be closed and refused to enter.The journey back lasted for two months. They hadn’t eaten a drop of water or eaten a grain of rice. They had already starved to death on the way, but they died without being stiff, their bones didn’t melt, and they didn’t even know that they were dead. revenge. "Why did you abandon us? Your life as a soldier is your life, isn't the life of our people not your life? My God, he still wants to steal our koi! This is the last koi, it will bring good luck , the koi that will bring precipitation!"

These living dead with cold limbs let out indistinct questioning voices from their sobbing throats, and slowly approached Wuzhiqi.The little koi's eyes widened in horror, struggling to avoid hitting the water, trying to shout something to remind him of the danger behind him.But Wuzhiqi didn't look back, he gently gathered the lotus leaf with his tiger's mouth, wrapped the little koi, and pressed it gently to his heart, saying: "It's okay, don't be afraid. With me here, I won't let them Take you away."

Suddenly, a sword pierced Wuzhiqi's heart from behind with incomparable accuracy, Wuzhiqi staggered a bit, stood firm and protected the lotus leaf in his arms; then an ax fell on his shoulder, It was difficult for him to hold on, but he persisted; then an iron rod hit his head hard, time paused for a moment, scorching heat splashed out, mottled his pale face...Wu Zhiqi's body After shaking violently, he finally fell down.The lotus leaf he held in his arms fell, and the little koi lay on the lotus leaf, revealing its soft belly.There is still the last drop of water on the lotus leaf, mixed with Wu Zhiqi's blood, surrounded by yellow sand that has just been soaked by rain.

The group of living dead who were scarier than devils wished they could swallow Wuzhiqi alive, piercing his flesh and blood inch by inch until his chest and mouth could no longer squirt a single drop of blood, and he never uttered a muffled groan from the beginning to the end. , just looked apologetically at the little koi that had already been caught in the hands, and said silently: "I'm sorry, I still couldn't protect you..."

The little koi's stomach was pinched tightly, its eyes were rounded in pain, its mouth opened and closed as if crying, but it couldn't make a sound, not even shed a tear.It didn't know why it felt happy when it first saw a man, and it didn't know why it was so desperate at the moment.Even, it does not understand human feelings.But it knew that there was no need to ask so many reasons, it was willing to cross the ocean for the other party, and even begged the fourth prince of Xihai for help.It thought that as long as the rain fell from Huaiyin City, all the grievances and debts could be written off.

But the idea of ​​the fish is still too naive——

In the face of greed and desire, whose life is not like an ant?

"No, don't! Chang, Changliu brother!!!"

In a trance, Wu Zhiqi seemed to see that little koi turned into a man in white.The man was plain-clothed and black-haired, with a dignified look, like an exiled immortal, but with a slight stretch of his sleeves, those entangled living dead were overturned to the ground.Wu Zhiqi didn't know who "Chang Liu" was, but the thousands of wounds on his body were not as painful as this cry.He looked at the other party reaching out to him, and took him into his arms, trembling in panic, but still desperately trying to heal the wound on his body.

Until a soft sigh came from my ear, satisfied and distressed.Wuzhiqi saw another person coming in the rain, the person was dressed in red, holding an old oil-paper umbrella, and finally stopped not far away, calling out in a warm voice: "Happy." So he pressed on his wound His hand suddenly stopped.