Chapter 38 Beggar A Luo and A Luo, always kind
Lin'an is nestled between mountains and rivers, and the county magistrate is honest and upright. During the year of drought and famine in the north, many beggars came from all around just to ask for a bite to eat, and Luo Wan was one of them.
Luo Wan was only six years old at that time. Just because he heard that there would be food in Lin'an, he followed the large group and traveled through mountains and rivers for several days.
Due to hunger and a long journey, when the large army arrived in Lin'an, less than one-third of the people were left. Fortunately, Luo Wan was one of the survivors.
Some colleagues praised her for being able to endure so much hardship at such a young age, while others felt sorry for her and asked about her parents.
She doesn't remember.
Six years old is an age when people have vague memories. They have memories but they are not clear. In her impression, it seems that she is dead.
There is a special porridge stall in Lin'an City, which opens once a day at noon, and women and children are given priority to get porridge.
Most families in the city have food stored, and those who come to the porridge stalls are basically beggars.
Everyone was starving, hoping it would be their turn soon. When it was Luo Wan's turn, a tall, thin beggar, leaning on a wooden stick, suddenly knocked Luo Wan down and barged into the line, "Get out of here! You little beggar, you don't deserve to drink porridge!"
As for Luo Wan, not only did he not get the porridge, but his bowl was also broken.
This bowl was brought from the previous place before entering Lin'an City. The most important thing is that she didn't have money to buy another bowl.
Helplessness and hunger filled her.
She stared blankly at the debris on the ground, her tears falling into the dust.
Others couldn't bear to watch and scolded him, but no one went to help because they were afraid that they would have to queue up again if they went.
The beggar who cut in line ignored him, drank his porridge happily and left.
Luo Wan heard that there was a river called Luo River in Lin'an City. She thought of catching a clam from the river. The clam shell could be used as a bowl, so she would have a bowl for porridge tomorrow and would not be hungry like today.
Luo He was in the west of the city. When Luo Wan walked barefoot to the alley entrance in the west of the city, the laughter of men and the shouting of women came from the hidden alley entrance.
"Hahahaha, you're so white and tender, let me love you well!"
"Be gentle, what are we going to do if you break it?"
"Let her give you a blowjob first!"
"That's fine too, hahahaha, this mouth will make you feel refreshed just by looking at it."
Luo Wan had never been exposed to such obscene language before, and she had no idea what they were doing. She just took a quick look and quickly covered her mouth, almost screaming in surprise, her heart beating like a drum.
I saw three middle-aged men pressing on a girl. The girl's clothes were disheveled and she was struggling frantically, looking very painful.
Without time to think, and without even bothering to touch the clams, he ran to the county government office.
Panting, he said to the gatekeeper, "At the west alley... there are a few men bullying a girl! Go and save her!"
When the bailiffs rushed over, the three men hadn't even pulled up their pants.
As expected, they were thrown into prison, but not long after, rumors spread that a girl in the west of the city had hanged herself.
At that time, Luo Wan did not connect the two events together. Many years later, when she thought about it, she realized that the girl who hanged herself was the girl she saved with her eyes.
As for why it was a pair of eyes, the story starts after those men were released from prison.
After they were released from prison, they went straight to Luo Wan.
"It must be her."
"It was her. Someone saw it clearly. It was this little beggar who reported the secret!"
"I told you to mind your own business!"
These words were accompanied by a slap in the face. Half of Luo Wan's face swelled up rapidly. She immediately realized that these three people were here to settle the score with her.
She wanted to escape, but was restrained by several people and could not move.
"You've made things so difficult for us, you know? Our family spent a lot of money to get us out. The food in prison is so stale and plain, and I've lost a lot of weight."
"She knows nothing! Little beggar, giving her prison food is a reward."
"Hey hey hey...don't hit us so hard. It'll be hard for us to get away if you kill us. Doesn't she like to report crimes? Blind her and see how she'll report crimes in the future!"
Luo Wan didn't know how she managed to get through that half hour. The pain in her body completely overwhelmed her hunger. Darkness gradually replaced brightness, and then she could no longer see.
I couldn’t lift my hands or move my feet, and thunder roared.
She exerted all her strength and finally climbed under the eaves before it rained.
It rained heavily that day. People said that the rain after a long drought was a gift from God, indicating that the famine was about to end.
She just felt that her life was about to end. She was very sleepy, but the pain was too much to sleep.
On this dark day, that person appeared. She held an oil-paper umbrella to shield her from the wind and rain, and her warm hands covered Luo Wan's hot forehead.
"How did it burn like this..." It was a gentle female voice.
Luo Wan was picked up by someone, with a faint scent of medicine lingering around her nose.
When she regained memory, she had been in a coma for several days and woke up from the soft bed.
His eyes were covered with veil, but he could still sense the light.
"Don't move." The gentle female voice sounded again, "Your eyes are seriously injured, but they can be healed."
"If you feel itchy, come over and eat to distract yourself." A young boy's voice sounded.
Madam Shen said, "Ayan, her eyes are covered with gauze, bring the porridge to her."
Shen Zhiyan didn't move at all.
Mrs. Shen dropped the herbs she was sorting, but saw Shen Zhiyan pick up the bowl of porridge faster than her and hand it to Luo Wan's groping hands.
Shen Zhiyan smiled and said, "I'm just teasing her. Her eyes will have to be blindfolded for ten days or half a month. It's good to let her explore the house."
Mrs. Shen shook her head helplessly.
Luo Wan finished drinking and handed over the empty bowl: "Thank you." When Shen Zhiyan turned around with the bowl in his hand, Luo Wan added: "I want another bowl."
So Shen Zhiyan poured her another bowl and asked, "Are you ordering me around on purpose?"
"Ayan, you have to take care of the patient."
"Okay, okay." Shen Zhiyan nodded. "Miss, what else do you want to eat?"
Luo Wan said seriously: "I'm not a young lady, I'm a little beggar."
When she was young, she had no sense of status. She had seen nobles riding in carriages, and heard other beggars say that those were for young men and women, and that they, the beggars, would never be able to ride in them in their lifetime.
Shen Zhiyan was amused.
Luo Wan then asked, "What's there to eat?"
Shen Zhiyan glanced at the table: "Hibiscus cake, lotus cake, Ruyi cake, auspicious fruit."
Luo Wan paused and said cautiously, "I haven't eaten it before."
Shen Zhiyan didn't bother to bring the cakes back and forth, and brought Luo Wan to the dining table: "Try them all!"
The candlelight flickered gently in the gauze shade. At night, Mrs. Shen changed Luo Wan's dressing.
As the gauze was peeled off layer by layer, she smelled the unique medicinal fragrance, which was strong but not pungent, but instead had a hint of cool warmth.
Madam Shen dipped her fingertips in ointment and gently touched her eyelids: “This is the special prescription I made for your eyes. It will help you recover sooner.”
Luo Wan asked: "Madam, did I do something wrong to hurt my eyes?"
Madam Shen asked softly, "Why did your eyes get hurt?"
"I saw them bullying a girl. She looked very painful. I went to report it to the police. When they came out, they said I was meddling and blinded me."
"Their first crime is bullying weak women, and their second crime is retaliating against young children. You have done nothing wrong."
“I thought you would be punished if you did something wrong.”
"Remember, there's a kind of wound in this world called 'the wound of righteous indignation,' a medal only heroes deserve."
Luo Wan understood: "Thank you, ma'am."
Madam Shen smiled and said, “Why do you always call me Madam?”
Luo Wan said: "Except for Brother Ayan, everyone else calls you Madam, and Brother Ayan is your child, so I think I should call you Madam like everyone else."
Mrs. Shen touched her head: “I don’t know your name yet.”
"I don't have a name."
"Then I'll give you a name, okay?"
Luo Wan nodded immediately.
Madam Shen pondered for a moment. "There's a river called Luo that flows through Lin'an City. Legend has it that a goddess' mirror from ancient times lies at the bottom of the river. Every time the moon is full, it shatters the starlight and sprinkles it on the river. Why not call you A'Luo? Just like the Luo River, even after being washed by muddy waves, it always remembers to reflect the light of the sky. And A'Luo is always kind."
Back then, Madam Shen secretly sent Shen Zhiyan to Xiliang as a hostage. All the people in the group changed their names. Luo Wan only knew that Ayan was called Ayan and Madam was called Madam, and there was no other information.
One day, Shen Zhiyan was playing the piano by the window. Luo Wan was attracted by the sound of the piano, groped over and asked him what he was doing.
He said, "Play the piano."
Luo Wan had heard similar sounds before, and had also seen a zither when he was a wandering beggar. It was probably a long, rectangular piece of wood with a few strings stretched on it.
Shen Zhiyan thought that Luo Wan couldn't see anything and couldn't walk around. She must have been bored, so she groped her way here when she heard the piano music. So he asked her, "Do you want to try?"
He led Luo Wan to sit in front of the piano: "Put your fingers on the strings and pluck them with your fingertips."
“Zheng——”
Several guards immediately rushed in with swords drawn: "Sir, what's wrong?"
"It's okay, you guys go down first." Shen Zhiyan turned to Luo Wan and said, "You may not have the talent. They have never heard such an unpleasant piano sound and thought something happened to me. But when your eyes are better, I will teach you how to play the piano, and if you also study the music, your playing will at least not be so unpleasant."
Luo Wan was curious: "What is a qin score?"
Shen Zhiyan played a few notes casually and said, "I can teach you how to play the piano."
It turns out that the same thing makes different sounds in the hands of different people.
After several days of heavy rain stopped, Madam Shen was about to set off again, heading from Lin'an City to Qingzhou. Qingzhou was the border between the Northern Kingdom and the Yun Kingdom. This transaction between the Northern Kingdom and Xiliang was carried out in secret in order to prevent assassins from the Yun Kingdom from assassinating on the way and disrupting the delivery of hostages to Liang.
However, an accident happened just after arriving in Qingzhou.
The carriage that was moving normally suddenly jolted violently, and the clanging sound of a sharp blade being drawn from its sheath broke the silence.
"There's an ambush! Protect the lady and the young master!"
More than a dozen black shadows suddenly emerged from the woods, and the blood of the Shen family guards splattered on the car curtains.
The carriage was surrounded, and the guards worked together to escape. The captain of the guards said, "You take the lady and the young master and break out from the east!"
In an instant, a stray arrow hit the horse driving the carriage. The frightened horse neighed, raised its front hooves, and rushed forward like mad.
Luo Wan was pushed out of the carriage while the world was spinning, and his forehead hit the wet soil.
She heard Shen Zhiyan groaning very close by, and then Mrs. Shen shouted with a trembling voice: "Ayan, take A Luo and run east! There are defenders in the east!"
Before he finished speaking, there was another muffled sound of arrows nailing into the wood, and Luo Wan felt warm liquid splashing on his face.
Is it raining again?
A cold hand suddenly grabbed her wrist, and Shen Zhiyan's voice rang close to her ear: "Don't make a sound, just follow me."
The two children stumbled into the bushes. Although Luo Wan couldn't see, she could hear the sound of assassins breaking dead branches. At least three men in black were chasing them.
Shen Zhiyan's breathing became heavier and heavier, and she realized that her palms were sticky and Shen Zhiyan's sleeves were soaked with blood.
"You're bleeding." Luo Wan lowered his voice.
Shen Zhiyan gritted his teeth, ripped off his belt, and wrapped it around the wound. He then pulled out a dagger from his waist for self-defense: "You hide here. I'll go back to find mother."
Luo Wan held his hand: "There are assassins outside, you can't beat them."
"I can't leave my mother there alone."
Luo Wan fumbled around and picked up two fist-sized stones from beside his feet. "Will you trust me?" She stuffed one of them into Shen Zhiyan's intact left hand. "I'll count to three, and you throw it straight ahead."
Luo Wan's stone accurately hit the man's knee, and almost at the same time, Shen Zhiyan's stone smashed into another man's forehead. When the third assassin's shadow split the bushes at the sound, Luo Wan snatched the dagger from Shen Zhiyan's hand and plunged it into the assassin's vital point!
"Run!" Shen Zhiyan pulled Luo Wan up, and the two children rushed into the rushing stream ahead.
The cold river water immediately drowned out the curses of the two pursuing assassins. When they struggled to get ashore, the shouts of the Shen family guards finally came from afar.
Shen Zhiyan, soaked all over, collapsed on the shore, watching Luo Wan groping to help him press on the bleeding wound.
Under the moonlight, he took a serious look at the dirty little beggar for the first time. The medicine gauze had been swept away by the river long ago. Her eyes were looking into the void, with water droplets still hanging on her eyelashes, but the strength with which she pinched his wound was surprisingly steady.
"you……"
Just as he was about to speak, Luo Wan suddenly raised her finger: "Someone else is coming."
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The author has something to say: A very short memory killer, only two chapters
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