Chapter 38 Chapter 02 Sasaki Kojiro

The samurai was thinking about something, and suddenly sat down in front of a large flat stone slab. The height of the slate was just about the same as a table, and he could rest his elbows on it. "Hoo! Hoo!" He blew off the almost scorched sand on the stone slab, and even the ants were scattered by him besides the sand. He rested his elbows on it, and propped his cheek with the bamboo hat.The sun's rays reflected off the stones, and the heat from the grass scorched his face.The hot weather kept him motionless, but he just concentrated on looking at the fortifications of the city.

This person didn't seem to notice that Youba was not far away from him, and Yaba also turned a blind eye to this samurai, since he had nothing to do with him anyway, and he still felt very uncomfortable in his head and chest, and his stomach was nauseated from time to time. Sit and rest facing that person. The man seemed to have heard Youba's painful groans, and he took off his bamboo hat. "Pulling stones!" He asked aloud, "What's wrong with you?" "...I seem to have a heat stroke." "Are you sad?" "It's better now...but I still feel nauseous."

"I'll give you medicine!" He opened a box, took out a black pill and put it in another mouthful. "Eat it and you'll be fine." "thank you!" "Is it bitter?" "Well! Not too bitter." "Will you continue to rest here?" "yes……" "If someone is coming, please call me, or throw a small stone to notify me, please!" After the martial artist finished speaking, he returned to his original seat.This time he took out a pen and paper and spread it on the slate, drawing intently. Through the edge of the bamboo hat, he watched the city carefully. Sometimes he looked outside the city, and sometimes he looked at the mountain line behind the city, the location of the river, and the castle tower.He used a pen to draw the geography inside and outside of Fushimi City on paper in great detail.

On the eve of the outbreak of the Battle of Sekigahara, the castle was captured by the Ukita and Shimadzu armies of the Western Army. Masuda Guo, Dazang Guo, as well as the barriers and moats of each post, were almost completely destroyed.And now the restored copper and iron walls are more majestic than those in the Taiko era, looking down on the strip of water in Osaka City. Youba took a sneak peek at the sketch that the martial artist had concentrated on drawing.He seems to have overlooked the entire city from the Great Turtle Valley and Fushimi Mountain behind the city, and he also drew a back view, so this painting is indeed precise.

"……what!" Youba yelled, because behind the warrior hat who was concentrating on drawing, stood a half-armored warrior wearing straw sandals, a sword tied to his back with a belt, and he did not know that he was a subject of the prince in charge of the fortification. , or Fushimi's direct minister, was standing silently behind the unaware practitioner. I'm so sorry for him.Matachi felt very sorry for this person, but it was too late.It is too late to throw stones or call the police. Just in time, a horsefly bit the practitioner's sweaty neck, and he stretched out his hand to drive it away.

"what!" When he looked up, his eyes widened, very surprised! The overseer samurai also stared back at him, and suddenly stretched out his wrist-worn hand, trying to take the sketch on the slate. In the scorching summer, martial practitioners endured the scorching heat in every possible way, and finally drew a real picture of the city, but someone reached out from behind silently to take it away, which made him furious. "What are you doing?" He shouted angrily with all his might. He grabbed his wrist and stood up.But he couldn't get back the map that was taken away by the overseer warrior.The two held their hands high in a stalemate.

"Show me." "You are so unreasonable!" "That's my job." "what is your job?" "Can't I take a look?" "No! People like you can't understand it even if they read it." "In short, I confiscated it first." "no!" The picture was torn in two in the hands of the two, each holding half. "If you are not honest, I will take you back." "Where are you taking it?" "Pursuance office." "Are you an official?" "of course." "Where are you from? Whose subordinate?"

"You don't need to know that I am the supervisor of this construction site. If you doubt it, just investigate. But you, who allowed you to describe the city's terrain and construction projects?" "I'm a martial artist. Because I feel that I don't have enough knowledge, I went to various countries to observe the geographical situation and construction projects to enrich myself. Is there anything wrong with that?" "There are as many spies as gadflies, all with the same excuse as you... In short, I will not return this picture to you, and I will take you there and hand over the other half."

"Where is there?" "The yamen where the fortifications are carried out." "Are you taking me as a prisoner?" "Stop talking!" "Hey, you little official, can you frighten us common people by showing off your power?" "Will you go?" "You have the ability to force me to leave!" He strikes a rock-solid pose.The overseer warrior's expression changed, he threw half of the picture in his hand on the ground, trampled on it vigorously, and then pulled out an iron ruler more than two feet long from his waist. He thought in his heart that if the other party drew his sword, he would attack with an iron ruler, so he put on a fighting posture, but the other party didn't seem to have this intention, so he asked again.

"If you don't leave, I will whip you with a rope." Before he finished speaking, the cultivator stepped forward, shouted, grabbed the opponent's neck with one hand, grabbed his belt with the other hand, and threw it towards the sharp corner of the boulder.Cursed in his mouth: "You parasite!" The head of the overseer samurai was smashed to pieces like the watermelon that was cut open by the workers just now. "what!" Youba covered his face with his hands. Because something like big red spice splashed around him.However, the cultivator standing behind still looked calm. I don't know if he is used to killing people like this, or he has regained his composure after the sudden rage.In short, he was not in a hurry to escape, but bent down to pick up half of the map that had been trampled by the overseer warrior, collected the scattered papers, and then calmly searched for the bamboo hat that was torn off when the overseer was thrown just now.

"..." Seeing such a terrifying power, Youba was frightened and even more horrified.This cultivator seems to be under thirty, his complexion is dark, covered with light spots, a quarter of his face is missing from the ear to his chin, it seems a bit strange to say that it is missing, it may be the muscles after being cut off by a sword caused by shrinkage.There is also a black scar behind the ear, and there is also a knife wound on the back of his left hand. It seems that if he took off his shirt, there may be a lot of knife scars.The appearance alone is enough to make people fearful and daunting. After picking up the bamboo hat and putting it on Wei Wei's head, the cultivator walked away like a gust of wind.Needless to say, all of this happened in a very short period of time, and no one noticed the change among hundreds of stone movers who were like ants, and other supervisors who were waving whips and iron rulers and scolding. However, such a vast construction site must have eyes that are constantly watching from high places. These people are the upper-level officials who stand on the log tower and are responsible for the pillars and the supply of coolies.Hearing a loud noise, the Ashigaru who were boiling water in a large pot in the pantry downstairs asked one after another: "what sound?" "whats the matter?" "Did someone quarrel again?" Everyone chattered and rushed outside. At this time, around the bamboo fence that separated the construction site from the houses, a group of people had already gathered in black and white, shouting and screaming, and the surrounding area was filled with billowing yellow sand. "It must be a spy from Osaka." "It's really healed. The scars forget the pain, and they dare to come." "Kill him!" Everyone spoke in unison.This group of stoneworkers, earthworkers, and subordinates of the fortifications immediately gathered together as if the murderer was their enemy. The cultivator with half of his face has been arrested.It turned out that he was hiding behind the bullock cart that was about to leave the fence and go out. When he was about to pass through the bamboo fence, a nearby worker noticed him and grabbed his foot suddenly with a mace. At the same time, someone on the tower shouted: "Catch the man wearing the bamboo hat!" When the workers heard the order, they threw him to the ground indiscriminately.The martial artist's expression suddenly changed, and he fought like a trapped beast. He snatched the mace first, and hung the trophy in his hair.After subduing another four or five people, a white light flashed, and it turned out to be the big knife that was almost as tall as him hanging around his waist.This knife usually looks too big, but it is suitable for emergency fights. He drew his broadsword and swung it at his opponent. "You bastards!" He glared at the crowd angrily, and the practitioners who were surrounded by heavy siege were determined to kill a bloody path. The people surrounding him dispersed one after another in fear of danger, but they escaped halfway, and many small stones flew towards him from all directions. "Kill him!" "Kill him!" These people are afraid of real warriors.Generally speaking, most of the martial practitioners in their minds are vagrants who show off half-toned knowledge or knowledge, show off their power in the world, and do nothing to produce. These masonry and civil engineering workers who rely on labor for a living are quite disgusted with them. "Kill him!" "Kill him!" The crowd shouted, and stones fell like rain. "These nobodies!" As soon as the cultivator rushed towards them, they scattered away. Rather than saying that his eyes had found a way out for him, it would be better to say that he had lost his mind to these people and was unable to judge the interests. Although many of these workers were injured, and several of them even lost their lives, they all returned to their respective jobs in an instant. It seemed that nothing had happened on the vast construction site. the earth, and the stonemason chisels the stone. The sparks and screech of chiseling stones, the furious whinny of working horses.In the afternoon at the end of summer, the eardrums are hit by bursts, which makes people feel extremely hot. The cloud peaks extending from Fushimi Castle to the sky above the Yodo River never rest for a moment. "This man has only one breath left. Before Feng Xing comes, let's put it here! If you look at him here, it's fine if he dies." Youba accepted the orders of the team leader and the overseer warrior, but for some reason, his head was out of order. From the time he witnessed all the turmoil until now, everything was like a nightmare. Although his eyes and ears were still conscious, the received messages could not be conveyed. to the brain. "...Ah! It's so boring to be a human being! Just now this man was drawing a map of the topography of the city!" Youba stared at the object ten steps away from him with his dry eyes, and was stuck in a trance of thoughts from just now until now. "...he seems to have died. He's not thirty years old, is he?" And eight thought so. The workers tied the martial artist who had only half of his jaw left with a thick hemp rope. His distorted black face was covered with congealed blood and mud, and he lay down on the ground. The other end of the rope was tied to a boulder.Baxin thought, for a dead person who can't move, there is no need to be bound like this!It is impossible to imagine what kind of vicious hands this man had been beaten. I saw that the ankle exposed from the torn trousers was ripped apart, and even the bones were exposed. The hair was stained with blood. Full of ants. "When this person aspires to become a martial artist, he must have great ambitions! I don't know where he is from? Are his parents still alive?" Thinking about this again eight times, my heart feels sad, I don't know if it's because I think about the life of a martial artist, or because I think about my future. "When it comes to hope, there should be a shortcut to getting ahead!" He muttered to himself. The era incites the ambitions of young people. "Young people! Have a dream!" "Young people, rise up!" Now is the transition period to accept training.Lian Youba can also feel the current social trend, making people believe that he can become the master of a country and a city from an ordinary man. For this ambition, young people have left their hometowns one after another, without nostalgia for their flesh and blood, and most of them choose to practice martial arts.As long as you become a martial artist, you can live comfortably in today's society.Because even ordinary farmers and people care about martial arts, the temple is also willing to let them board. If they are lucky, they may have the opportunity to become guests of the local gentry and wealthy families.If you are even more lucky, you may meet a prince who is willing to "raise soldiers for a thousand days" and get financial support. But among the many practitioners of martial arts, there are very few such lucky ones after all, only one or two out of 10,000 people can achieve success and become famous.Even so, they are still fearless of the hard work of cultivation and the difficulty of achieving their goals, and embark on the never-ending road of practice. how stupid... He felt sorry for the road chosen by his friend Miyamoto Musashi from his hometown.Although I have made up my mind to show him off, I will never choose such a stupid path.He looked at the body of the martial artist who lacked a chin, and thought in ecstasy. "……what?" Youba jumped back a step, opened his eyes wide, because the martial artist who was covered in ants all of a sudden moved his hands, his whole body was tied up with ropes, like a turtle crawling on the ground with only its hands and feet exposed.Finally, he propped up his abdomen, raised his head and crawled forward about a foot. Youba swallowed his saliva, and took a few steps back, panic surged from the bottom of his heart, he couldn't even make a sound, he could only widen his eyes, at a loss. "Whoa! Whoa!" He seemed to open his mouth to say something.The so-called him is that martial artist who only has half a chin, that man who thought he had died, but he still has one breath. "... Shhh! Shhh!" There was a staccato breathing sound from his throat, and his lips were chapped and blackened. It seemed impossible to utter half a word from there, but he desperately tried to squeeze out a word, which made his breath sound like a broken flute. . What made Youhachi surprised was not that he was still alive, but that he was able to crawl over with the two hands tied to his chest.Not only that, but what is even more surprising is that he actually pulled the big rock at the other end of the rope, and he used the remaining strength of his dying to slowly crawl over one or two feet. This is simply a ghostly supernatural power. Even if he works here, a strong man who thinks he can be ten or twenty can't compare to him. What's more, this cultivator is on the verge of dying, maybe it's the willpower to survive that exerts a divine power beyond the reach of ordinary people.In short, the cultivator stared straight at You Ba with his protruding eyes, and slowly crawled towards him, making You Ba's hair stand on end. "...Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." The man made a strange sound again, indistinct.The only thing that could read something was his eyes—the eyes that knew he was about to die—that were bloodshot and glistening with tears. "...bye...bye...please..." Suddenly, his head folded forward, he really died this time!Youba looked carefully, the skin on his neck had turned purple, ants in the grass crawled up his dusty hair, and one burrowed into his bleeding nostril. "..." Youba doesn't know what he wants to ask of himself, but the last wish of this incomparably powerful martial artist before he dies is attached to him like a curse, making him feel like he has an irresistible promise—— When a man saw his pain just now, he kindly gave him medicine, and asked him to notify him when someone approached, but because he was in a trance and failed to warn him early, he ended up in this way. fate. The singing of Yishige gradually faded away, and before one knew it, it was dusk, and the city was shrouded in twilight.Lights began to appear in the town of Fushimi. "By the way... I don't know what he has on him?" Youba reached out and touched the practice bag tied around the waist of the deceased—you can know his identity by looking at the contents. He must have wanted me to send his belongings back home. And eight such judgments. He took the bundle and the small medicine box from the dead man and put them in his arms - he also thought that he should cut off a lock of hair, but looking at the face of the dead man was daunting. Then came the sound of footsteps. He peeked from behind the stone, and it turned out that they were the warriors under Feng Xing's command.Youba thought of the thing he had stolen from the corpse without authorization, and was in his arms at the moment, and immediately felt the crisis, and couldn't stay any longer, so he bent down, sneaked away from behind the stone like a hare. Towards dusk, a gust of cool wind blows, full of autumn, and fat loofahs grow in the corner of the wall. The proprietress of the pastry shop who is burning bath water under the shed heard a sound coming from the house, so she poked her head in through the wooden door and asked: "Who? Is it Youba?" And eight boarding here. He came back in a hurry, and then rummaged through the boxes in the house to find a coat and a waist knife. After changing his clothes, he wrapped his head and face with a large handkerchief, and put on straw sandals. "Yuba, it's very dark in there!" "What? No, not very dark." "I'm going to light the lamp right away." "No need to order, I'm going out soon." "Do you want to take a shower?" "No need." "Wipe off your body before leaving!" "No need." After speaking, he immediately ran out from the back door.Behind the house is an empty grassland, and there are no other people.As soon as he left the house, he saw several people walking through the grass and entering the pastry shop.This also includes the samurai on the construction site.Another eight looked at it, and said to himself: "It's too dangerous here." They must have discovered that someone had taken away the burden and the small medicine box from the corpse of the half-jaw-missing martial artist.At that time, he was the only one by his side, so it was hard to escape the suspicion. "But... I am not a thief! I was entrusted by the deceased to take his things." Youba didn't feel apologetic at all, he put the things in his arms, thinking that he was just taking care of them temporarily. "I'm not going to carry stones anymore." He has no plans for the wandering life that will begin tomorrow.But if there is no such turning point, maybe he will have to continue to lift the stone for decades!Thinking of this, he felt that the future was gradually dawning. The shoulder-high thatched grass is covered with evening dew, as long as you hide in the grass, you don't have to worry about those people in the distance finding you, so it's quite easy to escape.Just, where are we going?He is alone now, and he can go wherever he likes, but he feels that his destiny is waiting in different directions, both good and bad. Any direction he chooses now will result in a completely different life for him in the future.At this moment, he really couldn't agree with the statement that life was predestined, and there was no other way but to rely on chance. The places he wants to go are Osaka, Nagoya, and Edo, but there are no acquaintances in any of them, not even something like dice points.There is no inevitable result in rolling dice, and there is no inevitable thing for Youba.He thought, if something accidental happened here, let's go forward with this accident! However, in Fushimi's grassland, no matter how you walk, you will not encounter any accidents, only the sound of insects and night dew.The hem of the wet singlet clings to his feet, and the tall weeds make his feet itchy. Youba has forgotten the pain of the day, replaced by hunger.He was so hungry that his chest was pressed against his back, and although he didn't need to worry about someone chasing him at this moment, he still felt that it was difficult for him to walk, and he felt inexplicable pain. well!I really want to find a place to sleep for a long time! This desire drove him unconsciously to a house at the end of the prairie.When I got closer, the walls and gates around the house seemed to be blown down by a storm, and no one started to repair them, and a large piece of the roof was missing.But it can be seen that this house used to be a villa of a wealthy family, and the house was built very gorgeously. It is conceivable that the beautiful lady from the city used to work in front of the loom here, and then entered the house through the door without the door panel, overlooking Looking at the main house and wing rooms buried in the autumn grass reminded him of the poem "Journey to the West" in "Jade Leaf Collection": He thought of this poem, and his whole body felt chills.Originally he thought that there was no one living here, but he saw bursts of red fires shining with the wind in the house, and soon there was a flute sound. The player who played the flute turned out to be an ascetic monk, so he just found a suitable place to stay and spent the night here.The glowing red fire was burning, and the blazing fire shone on him, making his figure on the wall even bigger.He played the flute alone, neither to entertain himself nor to entertain others, but on this lonely autumn night, he was already in a state of ecstasy. After a song: "Hey!" The ascetic monk seemed contented in the ruins of the wilderness, muttering to himself: "Forty without confusion, I am already forty-seven years old, and I still make mistakes, causing my only son to wander in a foreign land. I am ashamed to think about it. I have no face to my dead wife and living son... The so-called forty without confusion, then Only sages can do it! Forty years old is a dangerous hurdle for ordinary people, and there must be no negligence at this time, especially regarding women." Holding a flute in both hands, he sat cross-legged: "When I was in my twenties and thirties, I was repeatedly victimized by female sex. Any gossip in my youth would not affect my future... But if I am obsessed with female sex after middle age, I will be ridiculed by everyone, especially after the incident of Atong Afterwards, it is even more difficult to tolerate in the world. Rumors are flying everywhere, my reputation is ruined, even my own son abandoned me, and I ruined my life... If such a failure happened at a young age, there is still a chance to recover, but people who are nearly half a century old , It is impossible to make a comeback." He muttered to himself as if no one else was around. Youba quietly walked into the room.When he saw the skinny cheeks of the ascetic monk in the firelight, his skinny body, gray hair, and his muttering, he looked like a ghost in the middle of the night, which was creepy.You Ba couldn't muster the courage to strike up a conversation. "Ah! Why... why did I make such a mistake..." The ascetic monk looked up to the sky and sighed, and Youba saw his nostrils as big as holes. He was wearing ragged clothes of a ronin and a black cassock, which proved that he was a disciple of Zen Master Puhua.The mats on the ground seem to be his belongings when he sleeps in the open. "The mistakes of the past are irreparable. After entering middle age, the journey of life needs to be done step by step and cautiously. I thought I was sophisticated and accomplished a little, but I was addicted to women, and I really tasted the bitter fruit of failure. It must be the result of fate. God's punishment... is really too embarrassing!" The ascetic monk bowed his head like atonement: "I don't care anymore. It is my great happiness to be able to linger in the embrace of nature in my confession." After finishing speaking, tears welled up in my eyes: "However, I am most ashamed of my son. Like evil, evil is rewarded. My misdeeds are all retribution on Jotaro. If I were still a vassal of Himeji Ikedahou, my son is now the son of a Sengoku samurai Now he has to stay away from his close relatives and live in a foreign country... No, this matter is not serious, if Jotaro grows up and understands the truth, knowing that my father was kicked out for being infatuated with women when he was in his forties What would he think if he was exiled from the feudal domain? I really have no face to see him!" He covered his face with his hands for a long while, then immediately walked towards the door as if he remembered something: "Don't think about it anymore, why do I think of these troubles again... Ah! The moon is out, go to the wild! Throw all these troubles into the sky." He picked up the flute and stepped out of the house. What a strange monk, You Ba hid in the shadows to watch him leave, and found that he had two beards vaguely under his thin nose bridge. He didn't look old, but why did he look old when he walked? He didn't come back after he went out.Maybe there is some abnormality in the spirit!Thinking of this, You Ba couldn't help but feel terrified, but he also felt pity for him.All of this was fine, but what worried him most was that the night wind blew through the fire and made crackling noises, and the fire gradually spread to the floor. "Danger!" You Ba ran over and poured out the fire with a bottle of water. This is a ruin in the wilderness, but what if it is a relic left over from the Asuka era or the Kamakura era? "It is because of such people that Nara and Gao Ye are often ravaged by Zhu Rong!" He sat in the seat of the ascetic, full of morality.Those wanderers are not only unaccompanied and have nothing, but also lack public morality towards the society. They don’t realize that a single spark can start a prairie fire, so they often light a fire in the main hall of the temple to keep warm, roasting their useless corpses. "Speaking of which... the ronin can't be blamed for this." And eight thought that he was also a ronin.Never before has there been so many ronin as there are now.Why are there so many ronin?That is the aftermath of the war. Many people have been promoted and made a fortune because of the war, and there are many more who have been left behind like mosquitoes and flies.And these people have become the pressure and burden of the emerging era.This is the law of nature, and the cycle of cause and effect. Although these ronin burned many national treasure pagodas, they are not as impressive as the royal treasures burned by the war beacon in Koya and Ruishan. "...Oh! There are too many treasures there." Youba looked around and murmured to himself. At first he thought it was just a place to keep warm, but after a closer look, it might have been a tea room for drinking tea. There was something on the shelf in the corner that caught his attention. It was not an expensive vase or incense burner, but a broken hole. warm wine bottle and black saucepan.There were some leftovers in the pot, so he picked up the warm wine bottle and shook it, there was a rattling sound inside, and a faint aroma of wine overflowed from the gap. "Thank goodness!" A hungry person will not worry about it being someone else's property. He drank all the wine in the bottle in one go, even the pot. "Ah! I'm so full!" He was lying on the ground with his head on his hands. The fire drowsily dwindled slowly, and the chirping insects became louder and louder like the sound of rain, not only outside the door, but also on the walls, ceiling, and broken straw mats. "correct!" He sat up abruptly as if remembering something, and took out the small bundle that the half-faced martial artist entrusted to him before he died.Well, at this moment, let's take a look at what's inside. He opened the bag and took a look. Inside was a dirty hand towel dyed by Su Fang, a clean coat and the traveler's belongings. Inside the change of clothes and trousers was a thing wrapped in oiled paper that looked quite expensive. , still a little entangled, suddenly, with a bang, something fell to the feet. It was a small bag made of purple leather, which contained a lot of gold and silver treasures.Counting to eight again, I gradually felt uneasy in my heart, and I muttered to myself: "This is someone else's property!" He opened another oil-paper package, which contained a rosewood scroll mounted on ancient gold-platinum paper, which made people tempted to take a peek. It was completely invisible from the outside. He put the scroll on the ground and slowly spread it out. It read: On the back of the scroll is another piece of paper with the words "Ao Shu" written on it, and there is also an extremely interesting poem inside: "Aha! This is the secret catalog of swordsmanship!" Youba immediately understood, but he knew nothing about Zhong Juan Zizhai. As long as Yatachi hears about Ito Ergoro Keihisa, he will think of: It is the person who founded Yidaoliu, known as Yidaozhai! Youba knows only this. He doesn't even know that Mr. Ito Yidao is Zhong Mian Zizhai, let alone that he has another nickname called "Wai Ta Tong Jia", and he inherited the long-forgotten, The orthodox tradition of the orthodox Tomita Imito Seigen.In his later years, he avoided living in the countryside and enjoyed the rest of his life. He was a noble warrior. Your Excellency Kojiro Sasaki?So, the name of the martial artist who died tragically at the Fushimi Castle construction site today was Kojiro? Ok!He nodded and said: "His martial arts should be very strong! Judging from the catalog, he inherited the Yinke of Zhongtiao Liu, but he died young unexpectedly. What a pity! Looking back on his struggle before dying, he must have been hesitant. Unwilling, let’s die with peace! When he was dying, he must have asked me to send his belongings back to his hometown.” Youba chanted sutras for the dead Sasaki Kojiro, and determined to fulfill his will and send his relics back to his hometown. You Bayue, who was lying on the ground, felt colder and colder, so he simply threw all the firewood into the fire. The strong fire warmed his whole body, and he soon fell asleep. At this time, there was a burst of flute sound in the wilderness in the distance, probably that ascetic monk!What is he talking about?Perhaps, as he was talking to himself in the room just now, he wanted to express his ignorance and troubles!Therefore, even though the dream sea and the people are quiet, he is still frantically wandering in the wilderness playing the flute.But Youba was exhausted and sleepy, the sound of flute and insects gradually faded away in his sleep.