Chapter 96 Ah Piao "I have received your wish."...
In the country of the dog barbarians, outside the city of Pudu, there is the village of Wangman.
It was an ordinary day when the sun rose and set as usual.
The 21-year-old Ah Piao, carrying a bow and arrow on his back, walked barefoot, with his head lowered, slowly towards home in the afterglow of the setting sun.
Today was another day of no gain. The deer was clearly within shooting range, but she was too impatient and drew the bow without aiming, and the arrow flew away, brushing the deer's ear.
She failed to catch up with the frightened deer and wasted an entire afternoon.
How much rice is left at home? How many days can it last?
When he thought of his frail mother and younger brothers and sisters, Ah Piao couldn't raise his head and didn't know how to face them.
Since my father was forcibly conscripted to perform labor service in Pudu City half a month ago, there has been no news of him since then. My mother's ear was bitten by a ghost raised by the dog-barbarians, and her body has been getting weaker day by day. The family, which was originally doing well, has fallen to the bottom in a blink of an eye, and is still sliding towards the abyss.
If Ah Piao had not been unwilling to get married early, had practiced archery since childhood, and had been able to exchange the prey she hunted for some water and rice, the family of four would have starved to death and died of thirst long ago.
Wangman Village is actually not short of water. Three miles away is the beautiful Emerald Lake. The blue Emerald Lake is like a gem inlaid in the mountains, pure, clear and dreamy.
Before the Quanyi people ruled this land, the Wangman people who lived by the water were also carefree. They lived by the water and shared the abundant aquatic products with storks, wild ducks, wild geese and painted ducks.
After the Quanyi people occupied this place, the Wangman people were absorbed as citizens of the Quanyi Kingdom. There were more fully armed guards at the Emerald Lake, and people had to pay taxes before drinking water.
In addition to the increased tax burden, the Wang Man people also had to perform extremely frequent corvee labor. The Dog Yi people were keen on building temples and statues for the gods they worshipped. There were seven temples in Pudu City, each of which was towering into the sky and took at least a hundred years to build.
In those magnificent temples, there are more and more statues of gods enshrined. Mahakala is always in the center, with the king of heaven, the Vajra, and the sacred bird sitting beside him...
They look either mighty and strong or kind, displaying an air of being omniscient and omnipotent.
But for some reason, the more statues they built, the worse the lives of the Wangman people became.
The Quanyi people said that this was because the Wangman people were ungrateful and did not worship the gods from the bottom of their hearts.
The barbarians secretly discussed that these gods were evil gods who had made mistakes in the Great Zhou and were banished by the emperor, so they would not do anything good.
The Great Zhou was the Celestial Empire in the hearts of the Wangman people. According to their word of mouth, the land there was fertile, the barns were piled high with rice, the officials were honest, and no one would ask you to pay double the fine just for drinking a sip of lake water. They would even take the initiative to help the village build a waterwheel, which was a great tool that could pump water to your doorstep.
The greatest wish of every Wangman is to escape from the Quanyi one day, become a citizen of the Great Zhou, and live a life without worries about food and drink.
I heard that everyone can even afford salt.
Salt is a precious thing that the barbarians give out on the birthdays of gods.
Fortunately, there are enough gods among the Inu-barbarian people... Before something happened to my mother, she always muttered disrespectfully like this.
When he thought of his mother, Ah Piao frowned and felt extremely worried.
The remaining water and rice should be able to last for a few days. At worst, she would just stay awake and wait on the paths that the small animals must pass. She would always be able to find tired prey that had lost their vigilance.
But my mother's health is in urgent need of medical treatment.
The dog-barbarians were brutal and cruel, and the ghosts they controlled had many vicious methods. After the mother was bitten, she could not eat, and vomited after drinking water. She had become very thin, like a breathing skeleton.
Otherwise, let's take the last bit of water and rice to Pudu City and ask a witch doctor to come back and heal my mother.
She and her younger brothers and sisters would not die if they skipped two meals.
Ah Piao didn't know the principle of drinking poison to quench thirst, he only knew that this was the only solution he could think of.
It was very quiet all the way home. There were not many people in the village who had the energy to chat. Considering that Ah Piao's family had a strong laborer like her and could go out hunting every day to try their luck, they were already a pretty good family.
When her younger brother and sister heard the footsteps, they ran out of the low earthen house, looked behind her, and saw no prey, and there was some disappointment in their eyes.
Ah Piu didn't dare to meet their eyes, and walked into the mud house with his back bent. It was still dusk outside, but it was already dark inside the house and he couldn't see anything clearly.
Fortunately, the tables, chairs and beds at home have all been sold, so there is no need to worry about bumping into the furniture, and my mother will not be stepped on when she sleeps in the corner.
Ah Piao walked to his mother's side and sat on the ground in silence. His sensible sister brought him a small bowl of water, and his younger brother brought him the wooden arrows he had carved today.
There are copper mines in the mountains, but the Wangman people are not qualified to use copper. The copper smelting technology developed in the past has been lost, and they can only use the most primitive stone knives, wooden bows and wooden arrows.
Wooden arrows are consumables. My younger brother and sister are only five years old, and they have to use stone knives to make arrows as soon as they open their eyes every day.
Ah Piao glanced at their worn palms, pursed his lips, pushed his sister's bowl away, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm not thirsty."
My sister shook her head and pushed it back stubbornly.
My brother said, “Water should be saved for those who need it most.”
Ah Piu still refused to take it. He lowered his head and wanted to apologize for his mistake today.
Her mother's dry and rough hands suddenly grasped hers, and she said with difficulty in her hoarse voice: "Take me... to the mountain... to the mountain..."
Ah Piao froze.
Taking those who cannot be saved to the mountains and leaving them to fend for themselves is a "tradition" that has recently emerged among the Wangman people. The old people murmured that the Wangman people have been doing this since ancient times.
The light in the room was too dim, and Ah Piu could not see his mother's expression. He didn't know what kind of mood she was in when she said this. She took out a book from her chest. This book was bought by her mother at the border of Quanyi when she was young. The family used this book to secretly learn some Great Zhou characters.
There is a story in the book about crows repaying their parents.
Even crows know to repay their parents. As a human being, should she be worse than animals?
The mother understood what she meant, but still insisted: "Live...stay...live...aveng...me...us..."
Ah Piao shook his head vigorously. His sister, who understood, put down the bowl, leaned over to her mother's face, touched her face and said, "Not one less."
The mother closed her eyes, her dim pupils reflecting a faint light without a trace of moisture. She hoped that the barbarians would not cry, as crying was too much of a luxury.
Ah Piao put the book in his arms, stood up, and decided to go back to the mountain. Just as he was about to leave, his mother grabbed the corner of his clothes and said, "It's dangerous... don't... go..."
The mountains at night were indeed full of dangers, not only ferocious beasts, but also many demons and monsters. On the first day her father taught her to use the bow and arrow, he told her never to spend the night in the mountains.
"I won't go too deep." Ah Piao left a word of advice, asking his younger brothers and sisters to take good care of their mother, then he pulled away his mother's weak hand and strode out of the mud house.
At this moment, the sound of hurried footsteps and flying dust came from afar.
Seeing the familiar tall black dogs, the dog-barbarians with high noses, deep eyes, braided hair and carrying human-skin drums, made Ah Piu subconsciously tighten his grip on the wooden bow, arch his back and take a defensive posture.
The dog barbarian stopped in front of Ah Piao and glanced down at her: "It's time to pay the autumn grain."
Ah Piao had a sense of what was expected. Although he was not surprised, he was still extremely angry. "When you took my father away, you said that we would not have to pay the autumn grain this year. All 37 able-bodied men in our village went to help you build the new temple. How could we have any surplus grain?"
The dog barbarians looked at Ah Piao in surprise: "You want to disobey the order?"
He casually patted the human-skin drum, and several ghost shadows flew out behind him.
The other dog barbarians looked at this scene and sneered: "Kill the old one and leave the young one. This family has two children, and Garuda just needs offerings."
"It's too thin. Will the divine bird like it?"
"Feed it for a few days and it will get fat, hahaha."
Ah Piao heard the dog-barbarian people's words clearly. Her whole body felt as if it had fallen into an ice cave, and the chill went straight into her heart. The dog-barbarian people knew how many people there were in her family, they knew everything, but they did not treat the Wangman people as human beings.
She recalled the joy she had heard not long ago and the word "happiness" she had seen, and said dully, "Isn't the prince going to marry the princess of Zhou? Princess, the princess will not agree to use human sacrifices."
The marriage between the Quanyi and the Great Zhou is the last hope in the hearts of all the Wangman people. They hope that the princess will bring civilization and educate these bestial Quanyi people.
This sentence seemed to have touched the sore spot of the Dog Barbarians. Their faces turned extremely ugly. The leader said coldly: "You are looking forward to the arrival of the Princess of Zhou so much, then go down and accompany her."
After he finished speaking, the ghost behind him roared ferociously and pounced towards Ah Piao.
Thanks to her good skills developed from years of hunting, Ah Piao was able to roll over and avoid the ghost at the critical moment.
Then, without having time to think, she subconsciously drew her bow and shot an arrow at the chest of the leading dog-barbarian.
The sharp arrows carefully polished by the younger brothers and sisters pierced through the flesh and blood of the dog-barbarian man without any hindrance and pierced into the strong and powerful heart.
The dog-barbarian lowered his head in a daze, and before he could say a single word of his last words, he fell off the dog's back.
The ghosts that had originally pounced on Ah Piu turned around and pounced on their former master, starting to bite his body with big mouthfuls.
Ah Piu opened his eyes wide and clenched his fists in disbelief. She actually killed a dog-barbarian who claimed to be a messenger of God.
The eerie silence lasted for a moment, and the other dog-barbarian people gradually reacted. Their faces flushed, and they roared at A-Piao. One after another, they beat human-skin drums and drove ghost shadows to attack her.
Ah Piu tried hard to dodge and counted the number of the Dog Yi people. There were still five of them. As long as they could kill three more, their family would have made back their investment.
Okay, then kill him.
In Ah Piao's eyes, the dog-barbarian people with their halo shattered were no different from the prey in the mountains.
The ghost bit her shoulder, but she seemed to feel no pain and pulled the bowstring again.
The arrow was knocked away by the flying ghost, and Ah Pi's knee was bitten. Black blood oozes out of his body, as if he was poisoned.
Her knees went weak and she almost fell to her knees, but she didn't.
She propped herself up, and through her blurred eyes she saw the hideous grins of the dog-barbarians, and numerous ghost shadows pounced towards her, as if to drown her.
Can’t make back the money?
Ah Piao was filled with regret. He opened his mouth towards the house and wanted to shout, "Run!"
The younger brothers and sisters who heard the noise had already stood at the door of the earthen house. Each of them held a small wooden bow and shot small wooden arrows at the dog-barbarian people.
The small wooden arrow flew crookedly, which made the angry dog-barbarian people happy and laughed again.
Ah Piao struggled to straighten himself up, pulled out another wooden arrow, aimed, and shot.
The third wooden arrow was equally powerless, and its futile struggle further pleasing the dog-barbarians. They opened their mouths, as if they were about to say something sarcastic.
“Plop.” “Plop.” “Plop.”…
The black dog suddenly ignored its owner on its back and knelt on the ground trembling.
The dog-barbarian fell to the ground in a mess, got up cursing, and didn't know what was going on. He looked around for the enemy.
The wooden arrows that were not supposed to be shot into the Dog Barbarians, one after another, pierced into their chests at an absolutely unreasonable angle and pierced through their hearts.
The three dog-barbarians died instantly.
Ah Piao made his money back.
Ah Piao didn't know what happened, but she was satisfied enough. She fell down softly, but was caught by a big red figure.
In this cold but soft embrace, she saw a white dog full of holiness landing not far away. All the black dogs were crawling at the feet of the white dog, with their tails hanging down behind them, looking extremely docile.
Sitting on the white dog's back was a tall and straight swordsman with a dignified appearance and clear eyes. He held a thousand paper cranes in his hand. He lowered his eyes to look at her and said, "I have received your wish."
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