The twenty-sixth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.It was the end of the year, the sky was cold, and the north wind was howling, making the whole sky dim. In a sparsely populated small village in the north of Zhili, with the sound of hoofbeats, an old donkey cart drove out.There were two people sitting on the donkey cart, a man and a woman.The man was in his fifties, with white beard and hair, and ragged clothes.The woman was twenty-one or twelve years old, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, she seemed to be the old man's daughter. There is a huge wooden barrel on the donkey cart, the wooden barrel is as tall as a person, and it is very strong with iron hoops. It seems to be used for holding water.It turned out that the land here was barren and there was a severe drought. Not only did the crops fail, but even the daily drinking water of the people became a problem.Residents in the village have to go to the water workshop in the nearby town to buy water to drink water.

The old man driving the cart was surnamed Lian, named Lian Yi, and he was a hunter in this village, so he was good at marksmanship.Sitting in the back is his daughter Liancheng.On this day, the father and daughter went to the town to buy water. The village was only five or six miles away from the town. The father and daughter talked and laughed, and they arrived at the water workshop in the town after a while. After buying water, the old man bought a new pair of shoes for his daughter, and then hurried back without daring to delay.Dahei, the dog at home, is going to give birth in two days and needs to be watched when he gets home.Before the donkey cart drove to a dense forest on the way, suddenly there was a lot of dust in the distance ahead, and even the old man hurriedly stopped the cart on the side of the road, and got out of the cart with his daughter to avoid it.After a while, more than ten horses came galloping like a whirlwind.The riders were all dressed up as Taoists, and they carried a weird thing on their backs, which looked like a shovel but not a shovel, a knife but not a knife, and it was hard to say what kind of weapon it was.

Immediately, all the people drove up to the front, the leader pulled the reins, the horse neighed and stopped, and all the people behind also stopped.I saw that the leader was extremely thin and tall, with a long face like a horse.The horse-faced man rolled his eyes strangely, looked the old man up and down, and asked sharply, "Hey, old man, did you see a wounded young man? That young man has a long scar on his face!" Seeing this man's rude words, the old man felt angry, and said in a muffled voice, "I didn't see it." Just as the horse-faced man was about to get angry, a strong man behind him persuaded him: "Seventh brother, it's important for us to get on with business. If we delay our time and fail to catch the surname Wu, the old man will blame him, and no one can afford it."

The horse-faced man snorted, looked at old man Lian, then at Liancheng, and cursed: "Damn it, country girl, she looks quite upright, it's a pity for this face! Let's go." Liancheng hurriedly lowered his head, and the old man was furious, and put his left hand into his bosom, holding the musket he made himself. The horse-faced man led the crowd and galloped away with a whistle. The old man Lian spat heavily: "What!" He got into the donkey cart and drove the donkey cart home with a bang. After a while, I arrived in front of my house.The small village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there are only a few sparsely populated houses, and even the family is located on the hillside, next to the old locust tree.

Even the old man got out of the car and was about to go into the house to find a water ladle to scoop water.Suddenly, Liancheng screamed. Old man Lian was taken aback, and turned around hastily, only to see Liancheng with a terrified face, pointing at the wooden barrel of water on the donkey cart, trembling all over! The lid of the bucket had been opened at some point, and a bloody arm stretched out to rest on the edge of the bucket. Even the old man's heart was beating wildly, and when he looked intently, he saw that bloody arm was motionless. Even the old man took out his musket, collected himself, and walked over slowly.I saw a young man of twenty-three or fourteen floating in the bucket, his facial features were handsome, his face was pale, and a long scar on his face was very frightening.

The old man raised the gun in one hand, and slowly stretched out the other hand, and tried his index finger on the man's nose, as if he was breathing slightly. It's alive!Even the old man's heart settled down, but he was slightly puzzled, wondering when this kid got into this wooden barrel.It seems that this person is the one that those brats who spoke rudely just now were looking for.Those guys don't look good at first glance, and the person they're looking for shouldn't be a bad guy. The old man hurriedly beckoned his daughter to come over and pull the man out. The two tried their best to pull the man out.The water in the bucket was stained by the blood of the scarred young man into a bucket of bloody water, and it was no longer drinkable.The old man was very sorry, but saving lives was the most important thing.The old man and his daughter Liancheng hurriedly carried the young man with the scar into the back room on the kang.The old man asked Liancheng to boil a pot of boiling water, and then took off the clothes of the scarred youth. He saw a deep wound on the left chest of the scarred youth, and his right arm was also chopped off.The old man washed his wound slowly with hot water, but the young man with the scar was still unconscious.

Liancheng asked with concern: "Father, can this person still be saved?" The old man Lian sighed deeply and shook his head: "Whether we can save him or not depends on his own life." The next day, the old man went to the mountain to gather some herbs, pounded them into medicinal paste, and applied them to the wound of the scarred youth.Perhaps his life was inevitable, and the young man's injuries slowly healed under the careful care of the old man and his daughter. While the young man was recovering from his wounds, the old man Lian gradually learned from the young man with the scar that the young man's surname was Wu, Wu Zhen, and he was from Chengdu, Sichuan.After his father died of illness, because he was young, he accidentally offended some friends in the underworld in the business field, and those who chased and killed him were those friends in the underworld who had offended him before.All the way to escape for his life, he was still caught up by those people, killed two people himself, and broke out desperately.Seeing Old Man Lian's water truck parked by the road, he climbed into it while the old man was not paying attention, and escaped his life.

After finishing speaking, the young man with the scar knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to the old man Lian, thanking the old man for saving his life. The old man hastily helped him up. Since then, Wu Zhen has lived in Old Man Lian's house.After recovering from his injuries, Wu Zhen didn't say leave, and went up the mountain with the old man every day to hunt and do some farm work.Over time, Liancheng's ray of affection was slowly attached to this handsome Wu Zhen. Wu Zhen also seemed to like Liancheng very much, even the old man saw it in his eyes and was happy in his heart.After the Chinese New Year, a wedding was arranged for the two of them.In the blink of an eye, it was summer again, and Liancheng's belly grew bigger day by day, and it became more and more inconvenient to move around.Lian Laohan and Wu Zhen discussed and decided to dig a water cellar in the small garden behind their house to store some rainwater for emergencies.

The two started immediately, and the old man took two big pickaxes for digging and dug in the small garden. Both of them were very nimble in their hands and feet, and in a short while, the water cellar had been dug to a depth of more than one foot, and even the old man's iron pick suddenly hit something hard and made a "dang" sound.The old man frowned, put down the pickaxe, and touched it with his hand, it was round.Pull it hard and pull it out.The old man was so frightened that he yelled "Ah" and sat down on the ground. ——The one held in the palm turned out to be a human head!