Xiu Niang smiled and retracted her hand indifferently.
Her lips were smeared with the rouge Shen Shiliu had bought for her. Her pale and dignified face suddenly had a touch of color, like a flower that had absorbed enough blood.
"I know you've always had doubts in your heart. Since we have a chance today, why don't we make it clear? You're indeed not my biological child," Xiu Niang said. "Do you feel better after saying this?"
The corners of Changgeng's eyes twitched slightly. After all, he was young and did not have the shrewdness to hide his emotions.
In this world, no matter how good a friend or how close a teacher was, no one could replace a mother, not even a father. It was not that Changgeng did not desire a mother, but sometimes, if he knew that it was unattainable and still refused to accept his fate, then it would be too bitter and he would feel pity for himself.
Changgeng had thought countless times that he could never be Xiu Niang's biological child. Now that he had received such an unsurprising answer, his heart felt empty for a moment, and he could not describe what he was feeling.
Changgeng had an ominous premonition in his heart. He asked cautiously, "Why are you suddenly telling me this?"
Xiu Niang looked at herself in the mirror and examined her own face. Perhaps she had put on too much powder, but her face was a little pale. So she carefully dug out a little rouge and carefully smeared it on her cheeks.
"'Changgeng' is the nickname I gave you," Xiu Niang said. "The people of the Central Plains say, 'In the East there is Qiming, in the West there is Changgeng.' They come out at dusk, and it's an ominous name for killing. The noblest and dirtiest blood in the world flows in your body. You were born a terrible monster. There's nothing more fitting for this name. "
Chang Geng coldly replied, "Wasn't I born after you were captured and raped by the bandits when you were stranded in Shanxi? I can't even count with my fingers how many fathers I have — the son of a prostitute and a robber. What's so noble about that? "
Xiu Niang's entire body stiffened. She didn't turn around, and the rouge on her face couldn't hide the paleness of her face. Her pair of eyes that seemed to be able to speak flashed with a hint of pain, but it quickly calmed down and turned into a crazy calm.
Changgeng's first memory was of being in a bandit's lair in the mountains. Xiu Niang always locked him in a musty cupboard. Through the cracks in the rotten wood, the young Changgeng could always see the drunken bandits who barged in.
Those rough men either beat her or had intercourse with her in front of little Changgeng.
In the beginning, the bandits were very strict with Xiu Niang. Gradually, they relaxed when they saw that she was weak and easy to bully and did not know how to resist. Later on, they even let her out and let her serve them with food and drink like a servant in the village. Xiu Niang filled the well and hundreds of jars of wine with poison. Heaven didn't know where she got so much poison.
She used a small bowl to ladle a bowl of poisoned well water for Changgeng to drink. However, when he actually drank it, she seemed to regret it and desperately dug at his throat to make him vomit.
Xiu Niang put the half-dead Changgeng into a small bamboo basket and carried him on her back. She held a steel knife in her hand. Whenever she saw someone who was still breathing, she would go forward and stab him.
Changgeng remembered that day when she wore a red dress stained with blood. She splashed kerosene and the bandit leader's private purple gold all over the mountains and plains. She set the entire mountain on fire and took him away.
In his short life of more than ten years, Xiu Niang had wanted to kill him countless times. She had fed him poisoned wine, stabbed him with a knife, tied him to a horse and dragged him away. There were even countless times when she suddenly lost control of her emotions in the middle of the night and tried to suffocate him with a blanket …
But every time, she reined in the horse at the precipice and spared his little life.
She also left him with a thread of unrealistic fantasy.
Changgeng said as calmly as possible, "You're thinking too much. I've never thought of you as my mother. I just always felt that the reason you hate me is because I'm the filth the bandit's lair left for you."
Xiu Niang sat woodenly in front of the mirror. Her face grew paler and paler. After a long time, she suddenly sighed and said, "Child, I'm sorry."
The moment these words left her mouth, the thousands of wariness and resentment in Changgeng's heart almost fell apart. Only now did he know that all the grievances he had suffered since he was young could be easily resolved with these words.
However, this fourteen-year-old youth used all his strength to hold back his tears. He then asked tiredly, "What do you plan to do by telling me all this now? Do you have a conscience and want to cure the poison in my body or just kill me? "
Xiu Niang looked at him with a strange gaze, as if the youth was some precious object. "Do you know …"
Changgeng said, "Of course I know. Since the day I settled down in Yanhui Town, I've not had a single night without nightmares. Even if I take a nap during the day, I'll wake up from the nightmare."
Except for the night before — Changgeng's thoughts scattered in an instant. He suddenly regretted being angry with Shi Liu.
Changgeng said, "I don't think I've achieved much in my life, but I haven't done many shameful things either. How can there be so many ghosts knocking on my door in the middle of the night? Is there a strange disease in the world that causes nightmares every night? "
Xiu Niang's bright red lips curled into a strange smile. Her eyes slowly fell on the exposed iron wrist cuffs on Changgeng's wrist. There was a sharp light in her eyes, like a pair of poisonous arrows hidden in them. "What else do you know?"
Changgeng subconsciously retracted the iron wrist cuffs into his sleeves. He only felt that it was defiled by her gaze.
"I also know that the pack of wolves that chased me outside the Great Wall two years ago didn't come by themselves. They were summoned by someone. You're warning me that I can't run away. You have plenty of ways to kill me, right?" Changgeng said quietly, "Only the barbarians know how to control those beasts. After you came to Yanhui Town, you've been in contact with the barbarians. I guess you're also a barbarian woman. When I was a child, I was locked in the cupboard by you. I saw a man come in and tear your clothes. There was a wolf head on your chest."
Xiu Niang laughed in a low voice. "Barbarians, you actually call us barbarians …"
Her laughter grew louder and louder. In the end, she was almost out of breath.
Suddenly, Xiu Niang's shrill laughter stopped abruptly. She clutched her chest and coughed violently. Chang Geng instinctively raised his hand as if he wanted to help her, but then he reacted on his own and pulled his hand back as if he was convulsing, pinching the joints of his fingers.
A thin trace of blood flowed out from between Xiu Niang's fingers and landed on her yellow dress. It was a shocking purple-black color.
Changgeng was shocked. He took a step forward. "You …"
Xiu Niang grabbed his arm and tried desperately to straighten her back. She was shaking like a withered leaf in the cold wind. She gasped for breath and took out half of a jade pendant from under the makeup box. She stuffed it into Changgeng's hand with her blood-stained hand.
Her face was snow-white. Her blood-stained lips were more dazzling than rouge. She stared at Changgeng with bloodshot eyes. "My name is not Xiu Niang. That's the name of a woman in the Central Plains. My name is Hu Ge 'er. It means the purple gold of the heart of the earth …"
She was choked by her own words. After another heart-wrenching cough, she spat out a mouthful of blood and stained the front of Changgeng's robe.
"No … the purple gold of the auspicious." The woman had a strange sobbing tone. Her breathing was getting faster and faster, and her chest was like a broken bellows. "My sister is the Goddess of the Everlasting Heaven. Even the Wolf God has to kneel down and worship her.
"You're a little monster that I raised single-handedly." She laughed weakly. "No one loves you. No one treats you sincerely …"
She struggled to grab Changgeng's wrist. Her sharp nails pierced into his flesh. She clasped the iron wrist cuff on the boy's hand. "This is the Xuan Tie Light Armor Cloud Coiled Wrist Cuff. It's specially made by the Black Iron Battalion. Who gave it to you? Hmm? "
Changgeng pushed her away fiercely as if he had been scalded.
The woman fell on the dressing table. She curled up and twitched. Her charming phoenix eyes were wide open, revealing the ferocious whites of her eyes.
"You have my 'Wu' er Bone 'in your body. I gave it a Chinese name, also called' Changgeng '. Do you … listen?" Her cheeks twitched violently. White foam and blood flowed out from the corner of her mouth. Her voice was also blurred, but it did not prevent Changgeng from hearing it clearly. "Ju … the unparalleled Wu 'er Bone. No one can detect it. No one can understand it. One day, you will grow up to be the most powerful warrior in the world. You will also begin to be unable to distinguish between nightmare and reality. You will become a powerful madman."
Chang Geng stood in place, stupefied. He felt those words that he didn't understand drifting past his ears, easily freezing his bones with ice shards.
"The blood of the goddess also flows in my chest. I bless you with the infinite divine power of the Immortal Heaven. You … you will only have hatred and doubt in your heart. You will become violent and bloodthirsty. Everywhere you go, there will be a storm of blood. You are destined to drag all of them down with you. They will not … be … well …"
The word "die" slipped from her throat. The woman's body twitched violently. Then she suddenly felt something. She slowly turned her head and looked at the small sachet hanging on the bed curtain. There was a protective talisman in the sachet. Xu Baihu once asked for it in a temple outside the city when he returned home from duty.
The woman's eyelashes fluttered gently. Suddenly, it seemed that her eyes were full of tears. The tears washed away her insidious gaze into incomparable gentleness. Unfortunately, this gentleness only lasted for a moment.
Her constricted pupils finally dispersed lifelessly. The well-dressed woman's breath came to an abrupt end as she cursed the world's most vicious curse. Then, wrapped in her last remaining warmth, she fell heavily to the ground.
No one will love you. No one will treat you sincerely. You will only have hatred and doubt in your heart. You will become violent and bloodthirsty. Everywhere you go, there will be a storm of blood. You are destined to drag all of them down with you.
In the dead night of the late summer, Changgeng stared blankly at the well-dressed corpse on the dressing table. He blankly held the iron bracelet stained with blood.
Why did she commit suicide?
Why did she hate him so much? Why did she raise him to this age?
… What's the deal with the iron bracelet of the Black Iron Battalion?
What kind of person was Shen Shiliu?
The curse of Xiu Niang seemed to have taken effect. A child's initial trust and closeness to the world came from his parents who raised him without reservation. Changgeng had never received that.
No matter how generous and benevolent he was, he was forced to be on guard all the time. He would also be like a stray dog with its tail between its legs. Even if he was dying from the desire for that little bit of human warmth, he would still be frightened and reject it again and again.
Changgeng suddenly had a strong idea in his mind. He wanted to find Shen Shiliu. He had to ask him face to face who his adoptive father was and what his intentions were.
However, he did not walk out of the embroidery room that was filled with the smell of blood. As soon as he walked out of the door, he was already scared.
"By the way," Chang Geng thought blankly, "Mr. Shen usually shows his knowledge and talent. How can he be a poor scholar who has been trying for a long time?"
Although Shen Shiliu was idle, he had the temperament of a young master from an aristocratic family. Even if he was living under someone else's roof, he did not show the slightest bit of embarrassment … How could he be an ordinary gangster?
He should have known these things, but when he closed his eyes, he always thought of Shen Shiliu holding his head and looking after him by the hospital bed.
If that was also a false show of affection …
When the old cook saw the door open, she rushed over with a smile and said, "Master, today …"
Changgeng looked at her with red eyes.
The old cook was scared by his eyes and trembled. After a while, she calmed down and complained, "What are you doing …"
Before she finished her words, she saw the scene in the room clearly.
The old cook froze. Then she staggered back three steps and sat on the ground. She stretched her neck and let out a scream that did not sound like a human's voice.
At the same time, a sharp alarm suddenly sounded in the city.
It was unknown who had released the alarm whistle in the city tower. The long whistle, which was more than two feet tall, swept up white gas that had been dyed with purple and gold. With a "woo" sound, it rushed into the sky. The sharp sound drifted out like water waves for thirty to forty miles, cutting through the bleak tranquility of Yanhui City for fourteen years.
Shen Yi, who was busy tidying up the steel armor, looked up. The next moment, the door of the Shen family was kicked open from the outside. Shen Yi picked up the heavy sword that was removed from the steel armor on the ground.
"It's me," Shen Shiliu said in a low voice.
Shen Yi said in a low voice, "The barbarians took action in advance?"
This sentence was short and low, but the half-deaf Shen Shiliu heard every word, "There are barbarian spies on the giant kite. The people hiding on the ship that came back are not our people."
As Shen Shiliu said this, he rushed into the inner room without stopping. He raised his palm and chopped down beside the bed. The whole bed board split into two with a loud noise. There was nothing under the bed board.
A set of dark iron armor was lying under the board.
Shen Shiliu deftly pried open the secret compartment on the chest of the steel armor and took out a Xuan Tie token. His fingers were green from the cold reflection of the Xuan Tie token. He suddenly turned around. His mud-like waist was like an iron spear. The wind blowing through the open door lifted his light, plain green robe, as if it was intimidated by the cold murderous intent on his body, and brushed past him in a whirl.
Shi Liu said, "Jiping."
"Jiping" was Shen Yi's name. He had never called him in front of outsiders. The two of them often bickered and quarreled over small family matters. They were as close as real brothers. At this time, Shen Yi took a step back and quickly half-knelt on the ground, "I'm here."
"Since they came in advance, we can take advantage of the chaos to close the net. I'll entrust the Fourth Prince to you. Send him out of the city first."
Shen Yi said, "Yes."
Shen Shiliu quickly took off his coat and a sword at the head of the bed, turned around and left.
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