"Brother!"
The door curtain of the back room was suddenly opened, and a boy of thirteen or fourteen rushed out.
He was wearing a brand new thick cotton-padded jacket, and his face was flushed from the cold.
His facial features are fifty-six times similar to Jiang Fa, but more immature. His eyes are dark and bright, exuding the unique vigor of a young man.
Jiang Xiaohe.
It's been almost a year since I last saw him. This kid has grown a lot, but he is still thin, and the cheekbones on his face are protruding.
Jiang Xiaohe rushed in front of him, but suddenly stopped, looked him up and down several times with wide eyes, his eyes stayed on the ghost-headed knife behind him for a moment, then raised his head to look at him, his mouth tightened, and his eye circles turned red.
"Brother... why did you come back..."
Jiang Fa reached out and rubbed his head. The boy's hair was messy and felt like a nest of hay.
"Why are you crying, I'm a real man."
"I'm not crying!" Jiang Xiaohe sniffed hard, wiped his eyes twice with his sleeves, and raised his head stubbornly. "I just... just got sand in my eyes."
Jiang Fa laughed, took out the sugar melon bought on the road from his bag, and handed a piece to Jiang Xiaohe.
Jiang Xiaohe took the sugar melon, but did not eat it immediately. His eyes were darting around, as if he wanted to ask something, but he didn't dare to ask.
"Ask whatever you want to ask." Jiang Fa said.
"Brother... this knife... is yours?" Jiang Xiaohe's eyes fell on the ghost-headed knife behind Jiang Fa again.
"Hmm."
"Real or fake? It's not made of wood, right?"
Jiang Fa took off the ghost head knife from his back, unwrapped the coarse cloth wrapping the knife, revealing the dark blade underneath.
The ferocious ghost head at the end of the handle looks lifelike under the light of the charcoal fire.
Jiang Xiaohe's eyes suddenly lit up like two lanterns. He stretched out his hand to touch it, then retracted it. He raised his head and glanced at Jiang Fa. Seeing that he had no objection, he carefully touched the blade with his finger and quickly retracted it.
"It's so cold..." He swallowed. "Brother, this knife must be worth a lot of money, right?"
Jiang Fa pinched his face,
"Enough for you to marry a beautiful wife when you grow up."
Jiang Xiaohe's face turned red and he muttered "Who wants a wife?"
However, his little hand couldn't help but move closer to the ghost head knife, and his fingertips gently brushed the cold and smooth blade, his eyes full of envy that he couldn't hide.
Lady Chen came in from the kitchen carrying a wooden tray. On the tray were three bowls of hot radish stew and several pancakes.
"Fa, you have to practice martial arts now, so you need to eat more."
Jiang Fa Picked up the bowl, the radish was stewed until soft, the meat was bacon, sliced thinly, and a layer of fat floated on the soup surface. It was salty and fragrant when you took a sip.
He has eaten this taste for more than ten years, but today's bowl of soup tastes particularly delicious.
Jiang Xiaohe sat next to him, eating pancakes and asking questions constantly.
"Brother, have you really become a master of martial arts? Is it hard to practice in the martial arts gym? Do you eat meat every day? How did you get the scar on your face?"
Facing his brother's barrage of questions, Jiang Fa looked helpless.
"There is no way to practice without hardship." He picked up a piece of meat and stuffed it into his bowl. "If you work hard, you might be able to enter a martial arts gym in the future."
Jiang Xiaohe chuckled twice and stuffed the meat into his mouth, his cheeks bulging like a squirrel.
"Right,"
Jiang Fa took out a bag of broken silver from his arms and placed it on the table.
"Dad, take this money and repair the house, buy some new clothes, and buy yourself some good medicine to replenish your body.
Jiang Dashan looked at the bag of silver on the table and said, "You kid, it's not easy to earn some money outside. Keep it for yourself. There is no shortage of money at home."
"Take it."
Jiang Fa pushed the money to his hand. "Your son is now enshrined by Lin Lineage. He has monthly money, so he is not lacking in this."
Jiang Dashan put down the hatchet, looked at the bag of silver, then at Jiang Fa, and suddenly said, "Lin Lineage... is the Lin Lineage who is the most famous in the medicinal material business in the county?"
"Hmm."
Jiang Dashan was silent.
The room was quiet for a moment.
Jiang Dashan lowered his head and looked at the dancing charcoal fire in the brazier, his voice trembling a little. "Old Jiang Lineage's ancestral grave is finally covered in smoke."
Jiang Fa took out an emerald green bracelet that looked valuable at first glance.
He handed the bracelet to Lady Chen, "This bracelet is for you, mother. You have worked hard for most of your life and don't even have any decent jewelry. Come on, try it on."
"Fa, this bracelet will cost a lot of money. My mother is very old. She wants any jewelry. It will be a waste of money..."
Although she said no, her eyes were fixed on the bracelet and she couldn't move away.
"It didn't cost anything. This bracelet was 'gifted' by a friend, so you can accept it with peace of mind."
Jiang Fa really didn't lie. Lin County got this bracelet from the woman in the Sun Clan's group without spending a penny.
"You accept what your son buys for you. You are not an outsider. You women just like your mother-in-law."
Jiang Dashan shook his head and urged.
Lady Chen Hearing this, he could only carefully hold the bracelet in his hands, turn it over and look at it again, with a few tears welling up in his eyes.
As night gradually fell, the charcoal fire in the charcoal brazier was replaced with new ones and was burning vigorously.
Jiang Dashan drank two bowls of rice wine, his face glowed red, and he talked a lot more than usual.
He began to talk nonchalantly to Jiang Fa about what happened in the town in the past six months, whose pig gave birth to piglets, whose yard wall collapsed due to snow, whose son went to work in the county and was fired.
After talking about it, he suddenly put down the wine bowl, looked at Jiang Fa, and his tone became serious. "Fa, dad has no ability in this life, only farming and chopping firewood. You are now promising. There are some things that dad doesn't understand, so I won't say more. But dad wants to tell you that when you are outside, your heart must be upright. The skills you use are to protect yourself, not to deceive others. Remember?"
Jiang Fa nodded solemnly. "Dad, I know."
After nightfall, the snow stopped, and the moon emerged from the gaps in the clouds, spreading a layer of silver-white cold light on the snow.
Jiang Xiaohe pestered Jiang Fa and talked about the things in the martial arts school for a while, until his eyelids started to tremble before Lady Chen drove him back to the back room to sleep.
Jiang Fa was lying on the bed board of his small room. The bed was still the same bed, but the bedding had been replaced by a new one by his mother. Although the fabric was rough, it was clean and had a faint scent of soap locust.
Jiang Fa was lying on the bed, with his hands behind his head, looking at the moonlight outside the window, feeling a sense of solidity that he had not seen for a long time.