Chapter 1 Snowstorm
Chapter 1 Snowstorm
Xinchou year.
At the end of the year, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, it snowed heavily.
Dynasties changed, political regimes shifted, and whether the heads of the people in charge were square or round seemed to have nothing to do with the general public at the bottom.
What the men and women of old and young in Beijing are more concerned about is whether they can survive such a difficult winter.
The sky was covered with heavy snow, and the earth was covered with white snow, making the ground clean.
The biting wind and snow were like knives and swords, piercing straight into people's seven orifices, so cold that it seemed to take away all the warmth, making every household dare not leave the slightest gap in the doors or windows.
Despite the bitterly cold weather, the peddlers on the street were still wrapped in tattered cotton jackets, working hard to make a living.
The cold wind chilled people's brains, and pedestrians with runny noses and red cheeks tried their best to stuff their heads and limbs into their clothes, bending their legs and waists, and moving on the ground like tree stumps.
The snow fell heavily from noon till midnight.
When I opened the door the next day, I saw that the snow outside was two or three feet high. People who opened the door to sweep the snow could occasionally pick out a stiff, frozen corpse from the swept snow.
As time went by and the days became difficult, such things were not uncommon. If one was lucky, the broken mat would be rolled up and the funeral cemetery would be closed, and there would be a chance for reincarnation; if one was unlucky, the body would be buried at random in the mass grave outside the city and become food for vicious dogs in the wilderness the next day.
"Dear uncles, aunties, and uncles, the merciful Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, the Three Pure Ones, the Supreme Moral Lord, the Holy Father and Allah, please be kind and give us some food!"
On the side of the overpass where the snow had been cleared, stood a teenager with a sallow complexion, wearing a set of tattered cotton quilts that he had begged for from somewhere.
In front of him there was a small stool with a broken bowl on it, and in front of it was a piece of rag hanging with a piece of regular script written in charcoal on it.
On the left side of the Bagua picture are eight big characters "The Book of Changes, Yin and Yang, Five Elements", and on the right side are the letters "foreign translation, translation".
Looking at the miserable appearance of this little beggar begging on the street, it seems that no one would believe this child's method of attracting business.
"Get out! Get out as far as you can! Today a nobleman from the west is coming to Beijing to see the Marshal. If you bunch of stinky beggars offend the nobleman's eyes, I will beat you to death!"
A group of dark-skinned people came towards this side impatiently, mercilessly beating the beggars on both sides of the road with the black and white sticks in their hands.
Things are different now. A bunch of low-level ruffians took advantage of the Beiyang government and transformed themselves into urban management patrolmen.
This caused the mud workers who made a living on the road to complain bitterly, but they could only accept their fate helplessly.
Seeing that Heipi was about to come under the overpass, the boy picked up a stool and ran away. He could hear the cries of other beggars behind him.
"Sir, please be gentle. I'm leaving right now. I'm leaving right now."
Three poles in the sun.
Qin Huai found a warm place with the bowl in his arms, sat down on a stool, and looked at the unfamiliar capital city in front of him. He couldn't help but mutter, "Could it be that I'm going to die again? I finally have a chance to start over again."
He remained silent, and turned from a dying terminal patient into a weed in troubled times. He thought he could change the world with his advanced knowledge in those turbulent years.
But as expected, he was regarded as a madman talking nonsense, and had to suffer in hunger and cold.
These days, Qin Huai tried every way to earn some food, doing odd jobs, fortune-telling, and hard labor...
Unfortunately, after asking about more than a dozen jobs, still no one wanted me.
If I hadn't been rewarded with a few copper coins for pointing the way to a red-haired ghost who asked for directions a few days ago, I would have starved to death in this cold winter.
Just as Qin Huai was rubbing his remaining copper coins, worrying about what to eat next and where to survive,
Qin Huai suddenly felt dazed.
Immediately, his pupils dimmed and his line of sight shifted.
Suddenly, a few blurry white mists emerged from the air above the street in front of him, slowly wriggling to form a few sentences.
Time: Xinchou Year
Location: Yanjing
North of Tianjin and west of Xiongguan Pass, this is the last political center of the ancient dynasty. Various forces are intertwined and confronted on this grand stage. The intricate relationships and interests give this city an indescribable charm.
This is the city of cities, the city of splendor, the city of violence, and the city of huge profits.
The requirements of this Jambu event are as follows:
1. Reached the finals at the Jinghua Martial Arts Competition
2. Obtain any Mirror Flower and Jade
3. Awakening Tian Wu in the Mirror Flower and Broken Jade
Name: Qin Huai
World: Dragon and Tiger in Beijing (Xin Chou 7)
Mission: Fist Moving All Directions Process: Snow Mountain Temple (8th day of the twelfth lunar month)
Stage Reward: If you keep the remaining jade, you can have some food and clothing for a while.
(The more you work, the more you get. The specific reward will be given after evaluation based on your performance.)
Note: After completing the task, you will be allowed to enter Yamabu.
Qin Huai's face tightened, he slowly stood up, threw away the broken bowl in his hand, his eyes flickered, and he stared silently at the smoke in front of him that had disappeared.
"It appears again. It seems that my way out of this predicament may lie in this mountain temple." He paused, touched the only three copper coins left in his arms, and made up his mind.
As long as there is a choice, it is not that there is no choice. Why should he go back and ask the red-haired devil to be his interpreter?
We can't do such a thing as betraying the people against our conscience.
"We have to try our best. We can't really starve to death on the road. Otherwise, it would be really embarrassing."
No matter what, as long as I can survive, I have to survive.
Qin Huai gritted his teeth, glanced at the stinky black man who was patrolling here, and walked quickly towards the west end of the city.
Tan's shop.
It is considered a fairly large carpentry shop in the capital.
Even from a distance across the material yard, you could hear the sound of wood being cut and the apprentices' shouts.
But it was dusk that day.
Outside the material yard.
"Bang bang bang!"
There was a knock on the door.
Carpenter Tan opened the door and saw a young boy, bent over in the snow at the door, waiting in the cold winter. When he saw the person in charge coming out, he bowed and said loudly:
"This is a harsh winter, so I would like to ask Carpenter Tan for a few pounds of sawdust to keep me warm. If you ask for anything in the future, I will do my best."
On the threshold.
The old carpenter, who was over fifty years old and had gray hair, put his hands in his pockets, pursed his lips, and looked at the young man in front of him.
He said to the young man standing in front of him expressionlessly: "Get lost, stop spreading bad luck here. What use do I have for a beggar like you? If everyone comes to me to ask for alms, can I still do business?"
Qin Huai obeyed and did not move, still staring at the old carpenter, as if he had made some decision.
The old carpenter standing by looked at Qin Huai's red face and chapped lips from the cold, but he remained unmoved. The world was in a difficult situation now, and countless people died of hunger and cold. If everyone would do what he wanted with just a few nice words, then it would be his entire family that would freeze to death.
He turned around and said, "Get out of here now, or I'll call someone to beat you away."
Unexpectedly, the young man sighed, stood up, took out a copper coin from his arms, and said in a hoarse voice: "Master Tan, I have money. Can you give me some unwanted waste and borrow a rope? I am not at the end of my rope, so I dare not trouble you."
Master Tan was a little impatient at first, thinking that the boy in front of him was making fun of him, but when he turned around, he saw a bright yellow copper coin lying in the boy's palm.
But in the twilight of dusk, the beggar with dishevelled hair and dirty face had a look in his eyes that was far different from those of the walking corpses on the road, and there was an unspeakable meaning on his resolute little face.
After thinking about it, he put down his hand, turned sideways, and waved to Qin Huai.
"Come in, there are bags next to the waste, you can take as much as you want."
The young man walked over, put the copper coin into the carpenter's hand, and went to load the materials.
The old carpenter stroked the dragon on the copper plate for a while, then walked towards the inner room.
"I knew at an early age that life is difficult. What a damn world."
The boy carefully selected and picked up dry and fine wood powder. When the bag was almost full, he tightened the mouth with a rope and staggered out of the city in the twilight.
At the grocery store at the city gate, the boy finished his Laba porridge and used his remaining money to buy a few steamed buns, a gourd of hot water and some sundries.
Seven miles outside the city, there is a mountain temple. The young man pushed open the tattered temple door, and dust flew up. The young man took off the bag on his back, and the bag on the ground stirred up dust in the cramped mountain temple.
The boy used a handful of sawdust to light the dead branches, built a fire, and warmed the cold house. With the remaining fire, Qin Huai looked at the dilapidated mountain temple, and made arrangements in silence.
Outside the temple, the wind and snow gradually rose, and the dark clouds covered the bright moon like a millstone tightly.
In the gloomy night, a man in a bamboo hat sneaked out of Prince Gong's Mansion in Peking and headed towards Cangzhou, seemingly unaware of the team of spies following him.
Happy New Year!
(End of this chapter)