Chapter 2 The Child in the Wolf's Lair
The long winter is about to pass. Although most of the Cangping Mountains are still covered with snow, the breath of spring cannot stop it. The gurgling streams are surrounded by gradually melting ice, rushing happily in the forest. The new branches in the forest and the tender grass arched on the ground exudes dazzling new green.
The earth is recovering from its sleep. The villagers who have been holding back all winter have begun to go out. It is still early to engage in farming and farming. This season is a good time for hunting. Farmers in surrounding villages will invite them to go up the mountain to hunt together, hunt some hares, pigs, and other things down the mountain to exchange for some silver to subsidize their family income.
On that day, Old Man Xu, who lives in Qinghe Village at the foot of the mountain, and several farmers from the same village invited him to bring their own hunting tools. He entered the mountain early in the morning and prepared to hunt some wild animals. Because everyone brought only simple weapons such as forks, sticks, knives, arrows, etc., several families had to hunt together to hunt prey, and they didn't dare to hunt some fierce beasts.
After chasing a muntjac on the hillside, Old Man Xu and several other hunters ran apart. After chasing southeast for a while, there was no sign of prey and no one else. Old Man Xu had to stop, stand and look around, see that there was no movement of any beasts around, and then sat down next to a tree, preparing to take a break before talking.
He took out the dry food that his wife had prepared for him when he left in the morning from his bag, and was about to take a few bites.
Suddenly he caught a glimpse of an animal's head poking out from a dead old tree in the distance. He looked closely and confirmed that it was a wolf. He hurriedly hid in the tree, held his breath, and slowly looked around with his eyes.
In this season, wolves are usually in groups, and it is rare to see a lone wolf. If you are discovered by a group of wolves, your life will be difficult to save.
Fortunately, there were no wolves around him. Old Man Xu looked at the old tree again. After seeing the wolf leaning forward, he leaned out from behind the old tree and rushed out into the distance. After a while, the wolf returned with a mouthful of dead leaves in his mouth and crawled into the old tree.
Seeing that the wolf traveled back and forth twice, it seemed like he was going to build a nest here. Old Man Xu was sure that it was just a lone wolf, so he decided to hunt it.
When the wolf leaned out from behind the tree again, Old Man Xu had already raised his bow and aimed at it. He seized the opportunity, and with a "swoosh", the arrow shot straight at the old wolf.
Hearing the sound of bowstrings, the wolf immediately instinctively shrank his head, slumped on the ground, and turned around to look. With a "bang", the sharp arrow penetrated deeply into the trunk of the tree. The wolf was startled and immediately jumped up and ran away wildly, disappearing into the woods in an instant.
After seeing the wolf running away, Old Man Xu smiled bitterly and shook his head, sighing that his skills were not as good as before. He walked towards the old tree and prepared to retrieve the arrow he had just shot.
He came to the old tree, pulled the arrow from the trunk, put it into the arrow bag, and turned around and came to the back of the tree.
After Old Man Xu turned to the tree, he found a big hole under the trunk, with some dead branches and leaves scattered at the entrance. It was probably the one who came from the wolf.
He suddenly saw a branch near the entrance of the cave move, and there seemed to be a living creature in the cave. Could it be that the boy born by the old wolf or the hunted prey hidden in the tree cave?
He leaned down and looked into the cave. Through the dead branches and leaves at the entrance, he saw that there seemed to be a white living thing moving inside, not knowing what it was.
He simply laid his body completely on the ground and looked at the entrance of the cave. This was amazing. There was no wolf boy here. There was a lively baby jumping in the cave! I saw a naked baby curled up on a little rag, with a pile of dead branches and leaves under the rag. The baby also stretched his arms and legs to gesture in the air from time to time, and made a "ba" sound in his mouth.
Lao Xu was very surprised. He quickly closed his eyes and shook his head, opened his eyes wide and looked carefully, then he quickly got up from the ground.
This is really a hell. There is a baby hidden in the wolf's den. Whose baby is this? The wolf brought the baby with him, why didn't he eat it? In such a cold day, the baby did not freeze to death? I really can't believe his eyes?!
Lao Xu leaned into the wolf cave again, and this time he saw it clearly. He was indeed a healthy little boy. His body was dirty and smelly, and he had the smell of wolf milk. It seemed that the wolf not only did not hurt the baby, but also nurturing him with milk.
The little boy was not afraid when he saw Lao Xu coming in. He opened his curious eyes wide and giggled and reached out to grab him.
Lao Xu saw a circle of red rope tied to the baby's neck, and a round jade bi tied to the red rope, which fell on the dead leaves next to the child's head. It was crystal clear and bright, emitting green green light in the black hole. It looked like a top-quality jade.
Lao Xu reached out to take the jade bi from the baby and looked in front of him. He saw two brocades carved on the jade bi, rolling on the waves. The waves were crystal clear and vivid, which was really a masterpiece.
"Pisces?" Old Xu looked at the jade. The pattern on the jade bi suddenly reminded him of something, and his face changed drastically.
Old Man Xu hurriedly put away the jade bi, leaned into the cave, carried the child out, put it into his cotton cloak, looked around and saw that no one was there, and hurriedly headed straight to the bottom of the mountain.
After taking the baby home, Old Man Xu told his wife how to find and pick up the boy in the mountains, but he did not mention the Yubi.
His old woman, Zheng Yuefen, is a relatively weak country aunt. When she saw this little boy, her eyes shone brightly and she didn't let go when she held the child. She really liked it. She held the baby in her arms and looked left and right, but she couldn't believe it was true.
The old couple has been married for more than 20 years, and they are almost fifty years old. Perhaps it is because of the root cause of the illness that Aunt Zheng suffered when she was young and has not given birth to children. Seeing that the two have entered the autumn of their lives, but have not given birth to a child, Aunt Zheng feels very sorry for Old Man Xu.
It was such a great joy to get a son out of thin air today. "Maybe your mother is poorer than my family. She was afraid that she would starve you to death, so she threw you outside. But she didn't expect that she would be taken away by a wolf. It's so pitiful!" Aunt Zheng said as she fed the prepared broth to the baby.
"This is the son given to us by God. He was raised by the wolf again. Tianlang wolf raised him, so let's name him 'Tianlang'? His father, the child." Aunt Zheng asked.
"Tianlang, do you want to eat people? It sounds not nice." The old man thought for a while and said again: "How about changing the word 'wolf' to 'lang', which is called 'Tianlang', and 'Xu Tianlang' is quite nice."
"Well, yes, Xu Tianlang, it sounds nice, that's it." Aunt Zheng agreed with a smile, and she had always obeyed Old Man Xu.
But the old man seemed to have something to worry about and couldn't be happy. The jade bi seemed to show that the baby's origin was extraordinary. The Pisces pattern on it was the clan symbol of the Chu family, the largest family in the capital.
Just before the New Year, Old Man Xu heard about a major change in the capital. It was said that King Chu Muyun of Jingbei conspired to rebel and joined forces with other people outside the border to overthrow the Wu family dynasty. After his conspiracy was defeated, he fled back to the northern border alone to resist. It was pitiful that the Chu family was ordered by the emperor to be executed in the whole family, and more than 300 people were killed. Dozens of officials of all sizes and big and small who were involved in the Chu family were also held. For a time, the capital was bloody and stormed. Even the Chu family had married into the royal family. They did not let go of the young daughter who had been married to the royal family, and they chased them until the mountains of the Western Regions before they were cut off. This wealthy family, which was once the royal family, was destroyed.
Old Man Xu couldn't believe that the Chu family would rebel and cause trouble. Thinking back then, the Chu family in Zhongtu was a wealthy family. He once used the power of the family to help the weak countries in the Western Regions develop and grow, and win increasingly stronger.
At that time, Wu Jingwen, the king of Xingguo, personally worshipped Chu Renbo, the eldest son of the Chu family, as prime minister. With the assistance of Chu Renbo, the wise and unparalleled genius, Xingguo pacified the six Central Plains in one fell swoop, and finally unified the world and established the current Daxing Empire. Since then, the world has been peaceful and there has been no war for decades, and the people have abundant resources and live and work in peace. The scene of peace and prosperity has been more than 20 years.
The people of the world naturally felt very grateful to Chu Renbo, the savior of the dynasty. How could such a family with founding fathers and loyal and martyrs treason? What kind of connection does this child, who was born in a wolf den with Pisces jade bi, have to do with this family? How did he fall into the wolf den? The reason behind this is puzzling.
Chapter completed!