twin moon

Chapter 2 Prologue

An orange-red fire was beating in the center of the mud house, and a few blue crabs just caught today were cooking in clay pots on the fire.This kind of crab can only be produced in the fjords south of the Wuping Mountains - this fjord is close to the northern end of Shuozhou, and the permafrost ice field is covered with snow all the year round. The sea near the mouth of a so-called warm water river is not Frozen, the crab roe produced is more creamy and fat.

The steam mixed with spices filled the house, and the mother picked up a female crab that had been boiled to orange from the pot with a pair of long chopsticks, and put it into the daughter's bowl beside her.The eight-year-old Jiang Yan looked greedily at the side, and boldly stretched out his hand to grab it.Unexpectedly, the steam rolled over the mouth of the pot, causing him to "hiss" and take a breath of cold air, and retracted his hand like lightning.

"There's something for you to eat too, don't be so hasty, the food looks so ugly."

Mother reprimanded him angrily and amusedly, and hurriedly fished out another crab and handed it to Jiang Yan.The boy didn't care about burning his hands any longer, so he pulled up a crab leg as thick as a pinky finger, dipped it in some vinegar juice, and sucked it vigorously on his lips.The aroma of fat crab meat mixed with a faint smell of the sea overflows in the mouth, which is indescribably delicious.

Years of wars have caused the tax burdens of the states to rise sharply.For this Changzhou fisherman, he was so happy that he could have seafood tooth-beating festivals such as blue crabs in bad harvest years, and it was almost in time for the New Year's Eve.

This happiness is so simple and pure that many years later, Jiang Yan, who has fought all over the world, will still follow his mother's old method in his memory, cook three or two blue crabs in winter, and sit silently by the fire Slurp alone.

After eating the crabs, Jiang Yan surrounded his father with his six-year-old sister, laughing and begging: "Daddy, Daddy! Tell me a story!"

The slightly emaciated man has been out at sea all year round, earning his living by fishing.Every morning, he sails northward with other fishermen in the village, and returns home in the evening of the next day, bringing back a full tank of seafood to the market to exchange for rice, noodles, fruits and vegetables, which is called "Taohai".

The years of wandering left thousands of ditches on the man's face, and also turned his skin into a special reddish brown.Every time he returns home, he will hold the two children in his arms with a pair of big hands that have been soaked rough by the sea, and narrate the strange things he saw and heard when he went out to sea.

But today, the man just stared silently at the not-too-hot flames in front of him. Recently, the sea is not peaceful. The fishermen were so scared that they didn't dare to get too close to the sea area under the cliff of Cape Lema.However, it is only there that red salmon that can be sold at a high price can be caught.At present, the rice tank at home has bottomed out. If the last trip to "Taohai" before winter tomorrow is still empty-handed, the whole family may even have a big problem with eating.

"Daddy, Daddy! What are you thinking? Your eyebrows are almost twisted into a twine."

The young sister was clever, she hugged her father's neck affectionately and acted coquettishly, pulling the man back from his thousands of thoughts.

There is a delicate necklace hanging around Xiaonan's neck.The fingernail-sized pendant on the chain is made of sterling silver, and under the exquisite sphere hollowed out on the outer layer, a piece of bright and clean white crystal is delicately inlaid.Maybe it was natural, or maybe the craftsman who made the pendant used some kind of secret method, and there was a striking pure red color in the center of the crystal.Look carefully, it is a lifelike little fish.

"Good girl, then this time Daddy will tell you two about the legend on the other side of the Chanying Sea, okay?"

The man forced a smile on his face, trying to keep his tone as humble as before.The eldest son, who had never thought about it, shook his head vigorously:
"Impossible, my father has told the story of Yingzhou more than ten times."

"I—do I?" The man hesitated for a moment.

"Of course there is." Jiang Yan nodded with certainty, imitating his father's tone and repeating:

"It is said that on the west side of the Chanying Sea, there is an uninhabited land called Yingzhou. This land is much wider than the territory of the Dasheng Dynasty. It is impossible to ride a fast horse for nine days and nine nights. There is no end. According to legend, there are thunder beasts with long horns on the bridge of the nose, huge tigers with teeth sharper than daggers, hornless cattle with necks longer than legs, and even dragons that have been extinct for more than ten thousand years. .”

"My boy, my storytelling skills are almost as good as my dad's."

The man pulled out some charred charcoal ash from the hearth in front of him, and added a few new firewood:
"Then... let me tell you the story of the northern tundra... According to legend, in the northern part of the Chanying Sea, there is a continent that is frozen by black ice all year round. It is a white dead zone. There is no living thing on the ground, and there is no It cannot be cultivated, and even a strong Shodi would have to risk his life wearing a thick coat made of big horned buckskin to catch a glimpse of it..."

"Daddy has told the story of Ghost State many times."

The boy kept shaking his head, but the man's frown gradually relaxed amidst the child's playfulness.He raised his hand and caressed the top of the eldest son's head, his eyes were full of love:

"I'm tired of hearing all this—then Daddy will tell a new story that no one has ever heard before."

"Really? Even mother hasn't heard of it?" Jiang Yan blinked.

"Well. This story was told to me by Daddy's grandfather, that is, your great-grandfather. Over the years, Daddy has never told anyone about it—"

The man smiled mysteriously, cleared his throat and nodded, saying:
"Although the story I'm about to tell you is a little scary, you must remember that it is not a legend, but something that really happened on this continent."

The father's serious appearance immediately attracted the brother and sister firmly. He stared at the man's lips without blinking his two pairs of dark eyes.Even the woman who was busy with housework couldn't help listening.

"Everyone in the world knows that since Emperor Taizu Bai Jiangxi's reign a thousand and 800 years ago, there have been twin moons in the sky, bright for clear and dark for turbid. Every night, they will rise together from the east, Falling towards the Chanying Sea, they are inseparable like a pair of twins, entangled and dancing in the air. However, few people in the world know that in fact, as early as ten thousand years ago, in the era of the ancestors, there was only one person in the sky. Only the moon."

"There is only one moon? Wouldn't it be darker at night than now, and you can't even see the road?" Jiang Yan couldn't help but interjected, "At that time, how much whale blubber should the ancestors on land use to light their lamps?" what?"

"Silly boy, the lights lit on the earth at that time were more and brighter than those in Yujing today. It's just that what the ancestors used was not whale oil candles, but a kind of light collected from the sun, the moon, and the earth. There is light without fire, and light without candles. People’s homes are like spring all year round, and ports are not frozen all year round. There is endless food and endless new clothes in the city, and there is never any need to worry. Tomorrow's weather and harvest."

"Then according to what dad said, these ancestors could not be the gods in the legend?"

On the face of the eldest son, he couldn't help showing his longing for that warm world.Seeing this, the man laughed out loud:

"Humans are human beings. Even if they have divine power, they will never be able to become gods. In fact, those ancestors are just like you and me, they all have one head and two legs. It's just the same. It's just their understanding of this land , far more than us. They even master many powerful spells that have long been lost and can turn the sea into trouble—"

"Daddy, Daddy, you are lying! If these people are so powerful, where are they now? Besides, the two moons in the sky have always been there. If they didn't exist before, where did they come from now? of?"

The younger sister also shook her head, and retorted childishly, shaking the braid on her head from side to side.The man hugged him into his arms, and his voice became softer:

"Daddy was about to say this - it is said that this muddy moon was created by the ancestors, but it also caused disasters. I don't know which year and month it started, and the fields of the ancestors could no longer Food was grown, and the livestock that were raised died in large numbers. Immediately afterwards, a protracted war engulfed the former prosperity, the sky collapsed and the earth was destroyed, and the mountains and rivers were destroyed. Even the sun was blocked by thick dark clouds, which could no longer illuminate the land Instead, there is continuous poisonous rain, polluting rivers and lakes, and poisonous fog all over the sky, killing people invisible..."

"But Dad, didn't those ancestors have powerful spells that could turn the sea into a mulberry field? Why didn't they think of a way to save themselves, but let the disaster come?"

The dark-eyed boy interrupted and asked again.

The expression on his father's face gradually became serious.It's like the shock brought by the first time I heard this story is still lingering in my heart.After a long time, he just remembered to hide the expression on his face that had already become a little stiff, looked straight into the child's eyes and said:

"Son, remember, any powerful power is not omnipotent. Perhaps it was because those ancestors possessed the mysterious power that could change the world, which made them uncontrollable, and finally provoked the wrath of the gods, so Endless disasters and eternal curses have descended on the world! After the death of the ancestors, ferocious beasts raged, and hundreds of ghosts walked at night. For more than ten thousand years, every survivor in this world must do his best to survive And we are the descendants of those survivors!"

The little girl in the man's arms half understood what he said.Jiang Yan suddenly thought of something, and whispered a folk song for children:
"Starting from the twin moons, ferocious beasts act, the people suffer, and the day is at stake.

Injury parting, injury parting, flesh and blood separated, going their separate ways.

The Baijiang clan raised swords and soldiers, ascended to the throne and established Kyushu.

Don't be greedy, don't be greedy, the twin moons are still there, and the wrath of the sky is hard to stop.

It turns out that everything sung in this song is true! "

A trace of sadness flashed in the eyes of the man in front of him, he quietly looked at the pair of bright moons outside the window, and sighed a long time:
"Don't be greedy, don't be greedy—oh, Dasheng is still here now, but Ansheng's life is getting farther and farther away from us... Although the Baijiang clan wiped out all the beasts in the world back then, but now this surname is the same as the dynasty it established. , but has already turned into an evil dragon that puts the people of the world in misery! If the world can really maintain peace forever, how can our life be so difficult, and why bother us so much as a father!"

At this moment, Jiang Yan still doesn't quite understand why his father compares the Baijiang clan and the Dasheng Dynasty to evil dragons.But when he heard his father's emotion, he immediately got up from the ground, patted his chest and straightened his waist:

"Daddy, don't worry too much. When Yan'er grows up a few years later, I can help you go fishing and crabbing together. Then everything will be fine!"

The childish face was full of determination, so that the man was stunned for a long time before he realized it. He reached out and patted the eldest son's head gently:
"Silly boy, even if you come to help, it can barely fill the stomachs of the four of us in this troubled world."

"Daddy, don't look down on people! I am taller than ordinary children, and I am also strong. I must be much better at pulling nets than other dolls! Then I will be able to catch a few more red salmon to sell in the market."

"Silly boy, do you think that by relying on these, you can save us from rain, snow, frost, taxes and corvees, and robbers and bandits?"

"If bad people do evil, I will drive them all away, leaving no one behind!"

"This--it won't change anything. Son, remember, half of the evil in the world is born of greed, while the other half is born of fear. Now that the world is declining, the kingdoms in the southeast are constantly fighting. If there are no heroes Come to end the current chaotic world, I am afraid that there will never be a day of peace."

"Then I will try my best to be the hero who ends the troubled times!"

Seeing his serious son speak seriously, the man couldn't help but let out a long sigh and smiled wryly.

The mother, who heard the conversation between her husband and her son, stopped immediately:

"Bah, bah, bah, the more you father and son talk, the less you are right! These rebellious words are a serious crime of beheading, so you are not afraid of letting outsiders listen to you?!"

She immediately stopped what she was doing, walked nervously to the crack of the door and looked out. Seeing that there was no one outside, she felt relieved:

"Daddy has to go to sea tomorrow morning, Yan'er, why don't you hurry up and help mend the holes in the fishing nets?"

However, before Jiang Yan agreed, a series of deafening bangs suddenly sounded outside the dilapidated door.The sound sounded a bit like firecrackers set off during the New Year's Eve, but it was much denser than the sound of firecrackers.Not long after the loud noise, the family even faintly heard the frightening screams from the villagers.

"Is it pirates? But pirates only have knives and guns. What made those strange noises?"

The man's face darkened, and he immediately wrapped his son and daughter in his arms.Jiang Yan could clearly feel his father's hand trembling slightly, and couldn't help becoming nervous.

Then another scream came from not far away, making the man unable to hide his inner panic anymore, he pushed his wife's shoulders out of the mud house, picked up the child and walked quickly towards the fishing boat on the beach.

"Get in the boat and go to the place where there is no light! No matter what happens, don't make a sound, and don't return to the shore before dawn!"

The man muttered tremblingly, as if he was talking to himself, but also seemed to be telling his wife and children.

The woman followed the child and climbed onto the boat in a hurry. After hoisting the sail, she turned her head suddenly, but saw that the husband under the boat dropped the cable in his hand and turned back towards the shore that was already in flames. :
"Father, where are you going?"

"This is the home we managed with great difficulty, we can't just lose it like this!"

In the man's hand was a hatchet that he picked up from nowhere.His body was tense and stiff, but his steps did not hesitate at all.

At this moment, the village was already in chaos, and the neighbors who fled from their homes gradually organized themselves in the raging fires, some with harpoons and oars in their hands, or wielding hatchets and fishhooks, and turned to break into the night. The invaders fought back.

"No, you can't go back!"

The woman became anxious immediately, and hurriedly followed the man and jumped into the water, trying to pull her husband back to the boat.At the same time, the old sail full of holes roared and swelled in the cold wind.The fishing boat suddenly accelerated, and the two children on it couldn't stand upright, and fell to the deck one after another.

"Mother, Daddy, I'm afraid!"

Xiaonan knocked her forehead and immediately burst into tears.

The husband and wife who heard the cry of the child also became more and more flustered, struggling to follow the boat and wade into the sea again.But the wind on the sea became stronger in a blink of an eye, and the boat drifted farther and farther in the undulating black waves, and it was difficult to catch up.

Jiang Yan struggled to stabilize his body on the swaying boat, and stretched out his hand to retract the sail, but in desperation, he used too much force, and tore off a suspension cable on the bow of the sail.With a clatter, the wooden rigging with the heavy crossbar rushed down obliquely from the top of the mast, hitting his forehead impartially and fiercely.

Intense dizziness accompanied by severe pain was irresistible, Jiang Yan wobbled back a few steps, staggered and fell to the side of the ship, completely unconscious.

By the time the boy regained consciousness, a milky white halo had already appeared in the eastern sky.He was horrified to find that the fishing boat under him had drifted far away from the shore with the current.To make matters worse, Ben's sister, who was crying loudly on the boat, also disappeared at this time!
Standing on the boat, Jiangyan summoned all his strength to call out his sister's baby name loudly towards the still dark sea, but he failed to get any response.He was very anxious, but he didn't know where to start.

The wound on the right eyebrow arch that was pierced by the crossbar, even though blood scabs had formed at the moment, was still painful.In a daze, Jiang Yan, whose face was covered in blood, had no choice but to take out his oars, and followed the unextinguished fire on the far shore, and rowed towards the direction of the fishing village.

It wasn't until the sky was bright that the boy dragged his exhausted body back to the shore again.However, what he saw in his eyes made him unable to stand still anymore, he only felt his knees go weak, and he fell to his knees on the ground with a plop——

The entire fishing village had already been reduced to a sea of ​​scorched black ashes in the blaze that never went out all night long.The adobe houses that the villagers used to shelter from the wind and rain are now only cracked and collapsed ruins.There are scattered embers of fire everywhere, and there are constant scorched and brittle beams and columns, which collapsed from the top of the incomplete and overturned house without warning, making loud bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang

Soon, among the ruins more than ten steps away, two familiar figures came into Jiang Yan's eyes.His head felt as if he had been hit with a sap on the spot, he felt dizzy, his ears were buzzing, and tears poured out of his eyes even more uncontrollably——

Those were the father and mother who wanted to protect their homeland a few hours ago.They fell in a pool of blood, and there were dozens of circular blood holes on their torsos.Until the death of their breath, the husband and wife still maintained a posture of embracing each other tightly.This scene is so real, yet so illusory, like a nightmare from which it is difficult to wake up.

Jiang Yan broke down in tears and pinched his thigh several times, the intense and real pain made him even more desperate.In his vision blurred by tears, he suddenly noticed something tightly clenched in his father's already stiff fist.

The sobbing boy opened his father's curled fingers one by one, and saw that what he was holding in his palm was a black, strangely shaped drop-shaped object, which seemed to be torn from the body of the gangster who slaughtered the fishing village last night. of.

"Daddy, are you - what do you want to tell Yan'er?"

Jiang Yan kept wiping away the tears that could not be wiped away from his face, and even rubbed sand into his eyes without caring.He held the drop-shaped object very carefully in his hand, and looked at it carefully.Unexpectedly, as soon as it touched the tears on the boy's palm, the thing suddenly shot a dazzling light from inside, out of thin air, a bloodless face of a strange man was outlined in front of Jiang Yan's eyes!

This sudden change made Jiang Yan tremble violently in fright, and the drop-shaped object fell onto a raised rock near his feet, smashing to pieces with a "smack", and the man's face in mid-air followed. Dissipate into nothingness.

I don't know how long it has passed, but Jiangyan's heart is still beating wildly, but he is trying his best to imprint the appearance of that fleeting man in his mind - because he vaguely realizes that this person may be He was the chief culprit who killed his father and mother, and caused him and his sister to be separated!
Suddenly, Jiang Yan seemed to understand why his father had previously compared the Dasheng Dynasty and the Baijiang clan to evil dragons. Yin and Yang separated!
"Father, mother, one day I will end this troubled world with my own hands and avenge you!"

After that, the boy didn't say a word, just knelt down in front of his dead parents for three full days.

In the end, he decided to go on foot to Tankou in the north.He once heard from his father that there is a port there, and the warships of the various princes and kingdoms to suppress pirates stop there from time to time.Although it turned out that this move was not a wise decision, it was the only way he could think of to survive when he was only eight years old.

And since that day, Jiang Yan has never knelt down to anyone easily, nor has he shed a single tear easily.

(End of this chapter)