Chapter 22 Jiang Si
It was also a winter night.
Rain, very
cold. How cold?
He couldn't feel the temperature, but at this moment, he felt that his hands seemed to be frozen, without feeling, unable to lift or move.
He heard the sound of mice in his ears, rustling, thunder roared outside the broken temple, and the sound of rain was noisy.
Looking over, it was a thick black.
He met the young lady at this time.
The young lady was chattering and very noisy. As soon as she entered the broken temple, her voice never stopped.
With a little maid, he searched around in the broken temple and started a fire. The fire illuminated a large area.
The little maid was the first to discover him. She was frightened by him and screamed, her throat was hoarse.
He was covered with wounds at that time, looking like a ghost.
The young lady was not afraid of him and tried to treat his wounds. She hid him under the carriage and took him home.
She named him Jiang Si.
That year, the young lady was only nine years old.
His height was not even as high as Jiang Si's waist.
The young lady secretly raised him in the side room of her own mansion and found many expensive medicinal herbs for him.
The young lady loved to laugh. Every time Jiang Si saw her, her eyebrows were curved, and her smile was very sweet and beautiful.
After he recovered from his injuries, he stayed with the young lady and became her secret guard, a secret guard that only the young lady and the little maid knew about.
He had no concept of time. He only felt that not long after, the little lady grew up to be a big lady.
Her smile was still very sweet and beautiful, with two pear-shaped curls on her face, and she was very enthusiastic and confident.
Until the young lady was eighteen years old, during the Lantern Festival, she went out to play. The young lady said that she wanted to eat the peach blossom cake sold by the riverside of East Street, and asked Jiang Si to buy it.
Jiang Si was reluctant. When the young lady went out, she only took the little maid with her, and he who was hiding in the dark.
The young lady said that he was fast on his feet, so she would not run around, but wait for him where he was, and let him go and come back quickly.
She always liked to let Jiang Si run errands, saying that hiding in the dark every day without seeing the light would make him suffocate. Jiang Si wanted to say that he was a ghost, and ghosts should stay in dark and backlit places .
But the young lady didn't think so.
She said that no matter whether they are human or non-human, they should have the right to stand in the sun, and no one is born to stay in the dark.
Jiang Si was pushed by the young lady and ran very quickly.
But there was a long queue at the peach pastry shop. Jiang Si inexplicably felt uneasy. He didn't understand why he felt uneasy, so he just waited. But the longer he waited, the more uneasy he felt.
By the time he arrived, the peach pastry was sold out.
The moment the shop owner said that the peach pastry was sold out, the heart in his chest that had stopped beating a long time ago suddenly shook.
He returned to the alley as fast as he could, but the young lady was not there, and neither was the maid.
There was a beggar mother and son begging in the alley. Jiang Si asked her if she had seen the young lady. Perhaps his face was too ugly and scared the beggar mother and son.
They didn't dare to look at Jiang Si's face and just said they hadn't seen it.
Jiang Si searched the entire bustling Lantern Festival market and the streets where the crowds were moving.
This one is not a young lady, and that one is not a young lady either.
Someone grabbed his sleeve.
"Young Master, you are alone. Do you want to come in and play~"
Jiang Si turned around and
saw a scantily clad girl holding him. Behind her was the largest brothel in Shangjing, Chunfeng Building. He pursed his lips and walked in. He was surrounded by a group of girls and looked around the lobby and searched every room. Some screamed and some cursed, but he still couldn't find the young lady.
After leaving Chunfeng Building, Jiang Si went home. What if the young lady had already gone home?
But she hadn't. The young lady didn't go home.
The young lady was lost.
...
Jiang Si went to see the young lady's grandfather, an old man over fifty years old, with a voice like a bell and a strong aura.
The young lady's grandfather had never seen him and didn't quite believe him. He asked him who he was and what his name was...
He said.
"My name is Jiang Si, and I'm the young lady's secret guard."
...
"I've been looking for a long time. The young lady has been missing for a year. I've searched many places in this year. I never felt that time could pass so long."
Jiang Si's voice became softer and softer. Gu Jue squatted beside him without knowing when, rolled up the end of the cloak and held it in his arms.
"Have you found your young lady?"
"Yes."
...
Just a month ago, he came here and accidentally entered this forest, but after entering, he couldn't find a way out.
He was trapped here day after day, but the longer he was trapped, the more anxious he became.
Let alone people, except for himself, he didn't even see a ghost.
But ten days ago, he heard noisy voices.
Following the sound, he saw a group of people holding sticks, brooms, and shovels, surrounding a ragged woman by a small river.
The woman was covered in mud, her clothes were stained so badly that the original color could not be seen, her hair was messy, and her slightly bulging belly could be vaguely seen.
In the gaps between the crowds, he saw the woman's face clearly.
His eyes were bloodshot and his whole body was shaking with anger. He couldn't describe what kind of emotion that scene brought to him at that time, and he didn't even notice that his fingers were stuck in the tree trunk next to him.
That was his lady.
The lady he cherished the most.
No one saw how Jiang Si appeared, and before the crowd could react, two people's heads had already fallen to the ground.
Blood splashed on the faces and clothes of the others, and also on the young lady's body.
He saw the young lady's red eyes, calling him in disbelief.
"Ah Si..."
The young lady loved to laugh the most. When she laughed, there were two pear-shaped wrinkles on her face.
But the young lady did not laugh anymore. She cried and her eyes turned red. Her tears
also broke Jiang Si's heart.
Jiang Si did not remember how many people he had killed. He only remembered that someone's iron shovel scratched his arm. It was spooky and they were scared and ran away madly.
He picked up the young lady. The young lady seemed very tired and had lost a lot of weight.
"Miss, you have become lighter."
The young lady did not speak. She just shed two lines of tears and fainted.
Jiang Si only felt that he was holding a light feather in his arms, so light that he seemed to feel no weight.
"Miss, I will take you home."
He did not dare to look at the scratches on the young lady's neck and wrists, nor did he dare to think about how many such injuries the young lady had.
He took the young lady away, but he still couldn't get out of the dense forest.
He remembered that at dusk, the young lady leaned on him and said to him with a lifeless face.
"A Si, I want to die so much..."
These words were like a sharp knife, piercing his heart and bones.
He didn't know how much the young lady had experienced, and how much grievance she had suffered in this year, to make the young lady who always loved to laugh say this in such despair.
"But I can't die. There are more than 20 girls like me in that deserted village... I want to take them out too."
It was late at night, and Jiang Si didn't need to rest. He held the young lady in his arms and took her to continue looking for a way out.
He saw the light, the bright moonlight, falling in front of him, and he also heard the sound of a stream.
He thought that was the exit.
He took a step forward and saw an old Taoist priest in a yellow robe, holding a peach wood sword.
He rang the copper bell in his hand, and many people stood up around him, lighting torches. The bright flames surrounded him.
And around him, circles of yellow talismans painted with cinnabar were raised.
He lost his lady again.
The yellow talismans hit him and sparks flew, which was very painful.
Amid the explosion and pain, they snatched the lady from him.
Although the sound of the sparks was so close to him, he could still hear the sound of them gradually moving away.
"I spent ten taels of silver to buy this girl, and she is pregnant with a baby. We can't let her run away."
These words were too harsh.
Jiang Si laughed out loud as the villagers walked further and further away. He was crazy and sick. The villagers did not dare to stay any longer. Only the old Taoist priest stood there and said that he would take Jiang Si back and make wine.
Ten taels of silver.
Ten taels of silver would allow his young lady, who was originally a golden branch and jade leaf, to be tortured and mutilated like this. Just...
ten taels...
"Ah Si, go to Yuqueguan... We will meet again, I will wait for you to come..."