Chapter 2 The first time Mr. Iron

The wind is howling. The wind was blowing from the west, and the whistling sound was like a ghost whipping a whip, which chilled the hearts of returnees and scattered the souls of passers-by. Fortunately, there are no returnees or visitors here. There is nothing here. There are no donkeys, horses, carriages and sedan chairs on the streets, no business in the shops, no coals in the stoves, no vegetables, rice, and fish in the pots, and no whispers of swallows or the fragrance of fat, powder, shavings, and oil in the boudoir. Because there is no one here, not even a living person. There was a dead silence.

I don't know when, the wind suddenly stopped, and on the dead long street, suddenly a white dog dragged its tail and walked up the long street covered with cloud-scattered bluestone slabs. Someone is behind the dog. There was a blind man. The blind man was wearing a blue cloth flower dress that had been washed white and was also yellowed by the wind and sand. He pointed the way with a white stick that had turned gray, and it touched the bluestone slab. Road, with a muffled "poof". The wind came again. The signboard swayed in the wind, the iron ring on the sign rubbed against the hook, and the sound was like a saw, making the teeth sour.The white dog was barking hoarsely, and the broken window paper was blown like pain and panting by the wind.

The blind man had already knocked on his small gong to attract guests. The sound of the gong was crisp and clear, but it stopped suddenly. —Where are those pleasant voices? ——Sounds of shop assistants haggling with women and old wives, knives and spoons stir frying and frying in pans, mothers spanking children, children crying, little girls giggling, dice thrown in bowls The voices in the house, the laughter of drunks, the voices of those fake Jiangnan songs singing ditties in restaurants. Where did all those fun, hilarious sounds go? The sound of the gong stopped, and so did the barking of the dogs.

The blind man's hand hangs down, the light gong and small hammer in his hand suddenly seem to weigh a thousand catties, and suddenly there is an indescribable terror in his heart. Because he doesn't know! He had been here before, but he didn't know that this normally prosperous town had suddenly turned into a dead town for some mysterious reason. I don't know, is it one of the most important reasons why people are afraid. He stopped, his dog's front paws scratching the ground, but his body recoiled. No one, no one on the street, no one in the house, no one in the front, back, inside and outside, if there is no one, there should be no danger, because the most dangerous thing in this world is people.

In this world, what animal kills more than "human"? So the blind man started walking again, and even started beating his little gong again. After a while, his dog also started walking, this time following its master. —A dog is a dog. How could this very prosperous and quite peaceful town suddenly become a dead town with no one in it? Of course the blind would find it strange. But if he could see it, he would feel even more strange. Because although this small town is deserted and deserted, it is still very "fresh and clean". There are no cobwebs in the corners, no rust on the ironware, no dry oil in the lamps, and no mildew on the leftover clothes and bedding. Not even much dust on the tables and chairs.

——Could it be that the residents here moved out hastily overnight? ——Why did they move in such a hurry? The blind man beat the gong lightly and moved forward slowly. The wind is blowing, the evening clouds are hanging low, and the figure is as thin as a bamboo.The sky and the earth are dim, as pale as ink. Suddenly, a voice sounded from a distance. It was the sound of horseshoes, softly and slowly, just like the sound of a blind man's stick hitting the ground. Although it was not very leisurely, it was very cautious. Of course, those who come are definitely not returning home, nor are they passing by.

—— Returning to others is like an arrow, I just wish I could return to the warmth of parents, wives and children sooner, passers-by are in a hurry, how can they be so calm? This kind of hoofbeat can only be heard in the beautiful spring and autumn days, famous mountains and rivers. At this time and this place, when the time is not good, the place is not a resort, suddenly there is such a sound of hoofbeats, and there are not only one rider and one person, even more than ten riders and ten people. Who is it?Why are you here? The blind man backed away slowly, and his dog also backed away slowly, into a dark eaves.

He has already heard that the number of people is at least thirty or more, and may even exceed fifty. Because his ears have always been very good, because he is a blind person, if a person cannot see with his eyes, can he only listen with his heart and ears? Sure enough, there were fifty or fifty-one riders who came. Fifty-one fast horses, famous breeds, purebreds, fast, fast and durable, one in a thousand, priced like pure silver. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they are fast horses that "travel thousands of miles a day". But now they go very slowly. Fifty-one fast horses, fifty-one men, tall, short, fat, thin, old and young, but at least fifty of them have certain common characteristics.

——They are all very strong, brave and aggressive. They have all experienced many battles. They should be very calm and composed, but now they all seem very anxious and restless. In this mood, they should have galloped horses, and it didn't matter if the horses were exhausted or the people were exhausted. A horse is a healthy horse, and a man is a hero. He can be as fast as he can. But why are they so slow? Fifty-one riders, fifty people, they are so slow, is it because of that other person? no. The other fifty-first person, his spirit, his physique, his demeanor, his fierceness, and the various powers revealed from him are not comparable to the other fifty people. .

Even if those fifty people add up, they can't compare with him alone. Because he is the pillar of all the heroes and knights on the Southwest Road, the iron man who sits in Chang'an. ——Uncle Tie has no other name, his surname is Tie, and his first name is Uncle Tie. ——Uncle Tie is seven feet nine and a half inches tall and weighs one hundred and thirty-nine catties. It is said that his favorite woman, Yang Yu, once asked him to do something for her. She asked him to take off his clothes to exercise his strength, and asked her to count how many muscles he could bulge? Three hundred and eighty-seven articles.

Yang Yu told her boudoir close friend: "There are really three hundred and eighty-seven items, and there are not many of them, and each item is as hard as iron." Uncle Tie's golden bell jar, iron cloth shirt, and the hard kung fu practiced by the thirteen Taibao are famous all over the world. His concubine Yang Yu is as gentle as a sheep and smooth as jade, and no one does not know about it. It's a pity that the close friend of the sheep girl is not a gentle big girl like her, but a gentle little man. ——In some respects, a man who is invincible in the outer sect is absolutely inferior to a gentle and gentle little man. Uncle Tie is certainly not gentle. He was hot-tempered, hot-tempered, never waited for anyone, and now he looked far more anxious than his entourage, and his horse was faster, but he was also walking slowly. why?When did the fiery Mr. Tie learn to be patient?How could you become so accommodating to others? Because of a sedan chair. Among the fifty-one fast horses, there were actually four handsome young men with bare upper body and embroidered trousers, carrying a sedan chair with a dance-like pace, and walking beside Mr. Tie's iron cavalry. The sedan chair stopped in front of the most luxurious "Four Seas Restaurant" in this small town. Uncle Tie immediately bowed down and got off his horse, and the other fifty knights who were riding on them also got off their horses in the same posture at almost the same time. The young man who carried the sedan chair put down the pole of the sedan chair and raised the curtain of the sedan chair. After a long time, a hand slowly stretched out from the sedan chair and put it on the young man's arm. This hand was slender, soft and white, the nails were carefully trimmed, and the skin was as smooth as a girl's. It was even more dazzling when it was placed on the boy's dark, strong arm. This hand was undoubtedly the hand of a young girl, and it was wearing three gemstone rings with extremely fine inlays, each of which was worth at least a thousand taels. Of course, this girl is Uncle Tie's pet, that's why he waited for her, and that's why she can afford to wear this kind of ring. Unexpectedly, the person who came out of the sedan chair was a little old man who was already very old and dying. A little old man wearing a long gown of emerald green satin embroidered with white silk bunnies. A little old man who would feel disgusting no matter who saw it, but there seemed to be a pair of knives in his small squinting eyes. His person was still in the sedan chair, and his eyes were fixed on the blind man. The blind man had already squatted down, squatting under the dark eaves, like a snail in its shell, thinking that he could not see others, and others would not see him, but this old man in an embroidered robe had already walked up to him. In front of him, his eyes were like knives, and his eyes were already fixed on his face. The footsteps of the old man are as light as a rabbit, and the blind man's eyes are as blind as a bat, but his dog's whole body is as taut as a bowstring. The blind don't know. He couldn't see the murderous intent around him, he couldn't see the old man's knife eye, and he didn't hear the cunning footsteps like a rabbit. The old man stared at him, and then slowly turned his head after a long time, and Uncle Tie was right there. He didn't speak, but his eyes were asking: "To kill? Or not to kill?" In fact, he didn't need to ask at all, "I'd rather kill a hundred by mistake than let one go." "Kill" should be the only answer.With just a simple gesture, the blind man was cut to pieces. Life is so precious, why does it often become so despicable? Sunset, dusk; twilight is getting darker, night is coming.The blind man was already walking in an alley in another town. In the depths of the alley, he could vaguely hear the sound of wooden fishes, which was as empty, monotonous and lonely as the sound of a bright stick in the blind man's hand. What's the matter with being lonely?Only those who are alive will feel lonely, only those who are alive will have this kind of feeling that always makes people feel cold, at least it is better than feeling nothing at all. The blind man is still alive, and he himself wonders why those people didn't kill him? At the end of the alley, there is a door, a narrow door.The blind man knocked on the narrow door once, then stopped, then four times, three fast times, one slowly, stopped, and then twice, trying to fill the seven knocks with a strange and interesting sound. sense of rhythm. Then the narrow gate was opened. The person who comes to open the door is a person who is born to open this kind of door. A narrow door, a narrow person, carrying a dizzy lantern, is very common, but in the ordinary, it seems to be It looks a little mysterious. Inside the narrow gate is a deserted garden with no paths for weeds and withered flowers and trees. An old lady with hair as white as frost and waist as bent as a bow is sitting alone under the eaves to make a flower out of weeds. fake flowers.Small white fake flowers. Before the flower is formed, it is dead. Big houses, high eaves, promenades, lonely lamps, old women, old houses, cold night, and the sound of the wind in the distance is like an abandoned woman crying at night. The blind man stopped and bowed to the old woman. "Hello, third aunt." "I'm fine, I'm fine, you're fine, you're fine too." The old lady had a hard smile on her dry face: "We're all fine, we're all alive, how can it be bad?" Speaking of this, she just formed a flower, although pale and colorless, but very delicate and beautiful. Seeing the flower she had made by herself, the smile on the old lady's face suddenly froze, as if a person who is most afraid of snakes suddenly sees a snake in his hand. ——This is not a snake, but a white chrysanthemum. —Why did the old lady become so frightened when she saw a fake flower she had made? The blind man couldn't see her sudden change, so he only asked, "Where's my nephew?" "He's not bad, he's also very good," the old lady smiled again: "It seems that he won't die soon." "That would be great," said the blind man with a smile on his face, "Can I go in and see him?" "Yes, yes," said the old lady, "you go in, he is already waiting for you." The blind man stepped up the moss-stained stone steps and walked up the corridor. The white bright stick lit the old floor, "Du, Du, Du", walked around the old woman, and walked into a door. He heard the old lady coughing and panting all the time, but he couldn't see that she suddenly started crying. Tears dripped on the petals, crystal clear like dew. ——Whether it is the tears of an old woman or a young girl, they are all equally pure and crystal clear. ——Tears are tears, tears are the same, but why does this old woman who seems to have died for a long time suddenly cry for a fake flower? This room is very old, and there should be cobwebs and dust bugs everywhere, but this room has been washed like a bed sheet that has just been pulled out of soapy water by a diligent woman. clean.Even the locust planks that pave the floor have been washed white. But there is nothing in the room, tables and chairs, furniture, calligraphy, painting and cups, which should be available in other rooms, but there are none here. There is only one lamp, one couch, and three people in this room. Two of the three were standing. They were wearing long blue cloth robes that covered their feet, and the sleeves were long enough to cover their hands. They even covered their faces with blue cloth covers. Except for a pair of eyes, there is nothing to see. But a discerning person can still tell that they are very careful girls just by looking at their posture and actions. The other person was reclining on the soft couch. He was a very handsome and young man with two very thick eyebrows and a pair of big eyes. They were as clear and bright as the big lake on the top of Tianshan Mountain. His eyes were full of With a flying and joyful expression, it looks like a herdsman who has just won a deer hunting competition. Young life, high spirits, abundant vitality, incomparable confidence, unusually outstanding appearance, and an incomparably rich family background, but... The blind man came in and saluted the young man, who did not return the salute but grinned. He only smiled, although he didn't return the courtesy, but his smile was gentle. "Uncle Ten, have you been there? Have you seen that big guy?" The boy's voice was not only gentle but hearty. "Did that big guy see you?" The blind man smiled. "Uncle Tie is not blind, how could he not see me?" "However, even if he saw you, it must be as if he didn't see you, because he can't see who you are at all." The boy asked the blind man with a very excited expression, "Is it right?" "right." The boy laughed. "Those blind bastards, how could they recognize you, a blind man, as Mr. Liu?" The blind man laughed too. "You can't blame them. My ability to pretend to be blind has always been top-notch," said the blind man. "Even if you pretend not to be like you, they won't think of it." The young man said: "The first thing in the world, 'Mr. Liu Ming Qiuliu,' Mr. Liu Mingqiu Liu, how could he be blind? Who would have thought?" His eyes suddenly dimmed, as pale as the morning moon in autumn. "There are many things like this in the world. For example, who would have thought that Jiangnan Murong, one of the four young masters of the present age, would actually..." Jiangxi bears can eat and drink endlessly. Jiangnan Murong is exquisite and ever-changing. Guandong was furious, and when he was angry, there were countless corpses, and when he was angry again, corpses were everywhere. There is a willow in the east of the river, and the swordsmanship is invincible. The number one son in the south of the Yangtze River did not finish what he wanted to say. His expression suddenly changed again, and he asked the blind man again: "Is that big guy still the same as before? He always has a big man with him around him." The young man who doesn't like food in the ticket?" "It seems to be a little different this time." The blind man said, "This time he brought at least twenty-seven useful people, and they were very useful." "Very useful?" Young Master Murong asked, "How useful?" Liu Mingqiu replied: "Although the young master is from the south of the Yangtze River, he should also know that in the mansions of famous princes and giants in Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong, there is the most famous theater troupe called Nongyu Troupe." "I know." Murong smiled: "I've heard of it a long time ago." He smiled as if he was a little abnormal and had bad intentions, because this "Nongyu Class" was like this, and he hoped that the rich sons and sisters would have bad intentions towards them. They all entered the "Nongyu Class" when they were four or five years old. They had to receive extremely strict training since they were young. They could sing, dance, drink and play. They were not only versatile, but also understanding. "Actually, what they are really proficient in is not these things." Liu Mingqiu said. "Not what are these things?" "It's murder." Mr. Liu said: "How can we seize the most favorable opportunity at the most appropriate time, use the fastest and most effective method to kill, and get out of the way after the killing." He said: "This That's the ultimate goal of the training for the beautiful actors in Nongyu Class." "Could it be that those cute little boys are terrible killers?" Mr. Murong asked. "Yes." Mr. Liu said, "Is the price of killing people usually much higher than the price of pleasing others?" "Yes," Murong couldn't help but admit, "Generally speaking, it's usually like this." "So they are obviously prostitutes, but in fact they have to receive very strict and cruel training in killing people." Mr. Liu said: "After ten to twelve years of this kind of training, each of them has been trained to be a very effective murderer." "Is there anyone who can't accept it?" "Yes." Liu Mingqiu said, "If you can't accept it, you will be eliminated." "The one who is eliminated is death?" "yes." Liu Mingqiu said: "After being eliminated once a year, there are not many people left. Each of these people is ruthless, agile and cunning like a poisonous snake, cunning like a fox, and patient like a camel. Shrunk, disguised, sniped, assaulted, assassinated, especially some of them called 'Si'." "Silk?" the young master asked, "Satin silk?" "yes." "Why are they called Si?" "Because they were all specially selected. After being trained in the Nongyu Class, they were sent to 'Iga Valley' in Fusang, Japan, to receive three years of ninjutsu training." Mr. Liu explained again: "After this kind of stricter and crueler ninja training, each of them can twist and deform their bodies like snakes, hide in a secret hiding place that others must never hide in, and wait until the most favorable When the timing is right, the wind rushes out, sniping and raiding, killing people in an instant." "Oh!" "Sometimes they can even curl up in a very narrow place for three or two days without drinking, eating, or sleeping, but as long as they move, the other party is usually dead." Mr. Liu continued: "In this form, they are It's like the most poisonous kind of 'green bamboo silk' among poisonous snakes." "Then, why aren't they called Green Bamboo Silk?" "Because their cover color isn't necessarily blue, and they don't look like snakes." Murong smiled. "It's reasonable, very reasonable." He sincerely praised: "Si, it's Si, where could there be a better name?" The heirs of the Murong family in the south of the Yangtze River have always been very good at tasting, and no one can deny this...