Obligations of the elderly

Outside, the banquet was still going on, and the smell of barbecue was still coming in, but Gong Si and the others had already shifted their positions and sat in the room.

They are now at the home of the elder, "Scar". After Scar called out that name, he calmed down. After eating meat and drinking with the clansmen, he extended an invitation to them after a while.

He invited Gongsi and others to sit at his home, of course, anyone with a discerning eye could see that he actually wanted to invite Xiliu to sit there.

At this moment, there are not only Gongsi and his party sitting here, but Arden and the patriarch are also there, and there are two members who seem to be highly respected in the tribe, plus the elder Scar, there is no one else here.

The elder's house looks no different from other people's houses from the outside, but it looks more spacious after entering, because the rooms inside are all opened up, except for the hall, which is a small room behind the corner door next to it. There is no separation of other rooms.

They are now sitting in the hall outside the elder’s house. There is no extra furniture here. A big blanket is directly spread on the floor. There is a hearth in the center of the house. At the moment, there are charcoals in the stove, and the charcoal fire is burning very vigorously. It was very warm because of the charcoal fire, and there were no lights in the house, just the light from the fire.

Unlike Arden’s home full of life, there are no extra things here. Blankets are spread on the floor, and blankets are also hung on the walls. There are large and small ones in different colors. If you look carefully, you will find that the weaving is also different. , obviously woven by different people.

"It was given to me by the women in the clan. All the girls, from Arden's grandma to Asa who just learned to weave, all their works are hung here." Although the eyelids are thick and long and cover them, but Scar could clearly see things, noticing that the palace and stream were observing the tapestry on the wall, he immediately introduced.

I probably guessed right, Gong Si thought in his heart, his eyes met the old man again, and he simply cut to the chase: "Hello, may I ask who the name you called just now... is it? My user, Xiliu, looks very similar to him." looks like?"

These years, the head device and the user are bound together in a community of destiny, and his question is equivalent to the stream's question, there is no difference.

After Gong Si asked, he looked at Yaden. He thought that he and the old man probably needed an interpreter, but when Yaden was about to speak, the old man suddenly said:

"Er... is the name of a person I respect very much. When I was very young, he existed like my elder brother. People in many tribes were still very ignorant, living in chaos, and were killed by gold diggers. When we drove around looking for a new habitat, he appeared, took us to preserve our own civilization, learned smelting, learned the different functions of various plants, and led us to find a safe place to multiply and live. survive on this land."

Although not fluent, he speaks the Common Tongue, yes!The lingua franca outside the mainland!

The palace is okay, but Arden's face is obviously surprised - obviously, he didn't know that the elders of his tribe knew the outside language before.

"This kind of outside talk was also given to me by him. In order to sell the things found in the tribe, and also to buy things from outsiders, we must learn what outsiders say. Er went out to learn it by himself, and then Whatever you learn, teach us what you have learned that day."

Arden opened his mouth, but his translation work was not over yet. The patriarch next to him and the other two tribesmen did not understand the common language, so he still had to act as an interpreter for them.

Ignoring the whispers between Arden and them, Scar, Gong Si and the others continued talking.

His face was facing the direction of Xiliu and Gongsi. Although Gongsi and Xiliu were sitting together, he clearly felt that the other party's eyes were on Xiliu's face. He was looking at Xiliu seriously, with a trace of nostalgia on his face, that is This trace of nostalgia, coupled with what he said before, made Gong Si reluctantly feel at ease: at first, when the other party called that name, his expression was very serious, and with that name... Mofa translated it for him, how do you listen, that Unlucky names!

"Am I really like that person? Hmm... that er?" Xiliu smiled and met the other party's gaze. When he said the word "er", he used the local language, which is Xiliu. I remember it well. The language talent is excellent, and I can pronounce this pronunciation like a local after only listening to it once.

Then, the expression on Scar's face was in a trance again.

"Look carefully, your looks are actually not the same, but the color of your hair is the same, your eyes are not quite alike, and your noses are not the same... I looked at it for a while, and thought I was wrong, but when you smiled, I I also feel that you are almost exactly the same, even the voices are very similar." Speaking slowly, Scar looked down from the stream's facial features one by one, shook his head, and nodded again.

"Uh, my hair is dyed. It was originally black, just like his." Xiliu said, pointing to the nearby palace.

Scar was stunned for a moment: "If it was black hair, then you probably would look a little different. However, it may be that too much time has passed, and I haven't seen him for too long, so I misunderstood him? Do the calculations carefully. , he has been away for more than 70 years..."

The old man let out a long sigh.

However, it was this sigh——

Hearing the old man's words of more than 70 years, Gongsi suddenly turned his head to look at Xiliu, and at the same time, Xiliu was also stunned.

At this time, it seems that I can't help myself to hide it. If I don't say anything, the old man named Scar will probably wave his hand and let them leave. Although he has no interest in who his father is, he has come here It's time, I always feel that I don't understand it... It's a disadvantage?

There was a momentary battle in his mind, Xiliu made quick calculations, and then stretched out his hand: "Wait a minute, although I look very young, if calculated according to my birth age, I am about seventy... over seventy years old. "

Finally, Xiliu revealed her biggest secret in front of everyone.

Except for Gong Si who was not surprised at all, everyone else at the scene, whether it was Arden, Juno, or even the uncle, all had expressions of surprise on their faces.

Especially Juno.

He was surprised at first, then raised his eyebrows, and the corners of his mouth curved upwards, his surprised expression turned into a ambiguous smile: "Ah, you take good care of yourself!"

He also sighed.

The corners of her mouth twitched, and Xiliu said to the old man: "My mother came to the Black Earth Continent a few years ago, here, she had me here, and then returned to Jizhou to give birth to me. She didn't mention my father, but if you If I look very similar to him, and he is from the Black Earth Continent, I want to hear more about him from you."

Hearing this, Scar's eyes opened. Although it was only a small gap, he was obviously surprised by the news. He carefully looked at the stream up, down, left, and right, and then he waved to the side. He waved his hands: "You all go down, the next thing, I just want to talk to him... and his weapon."

Pushing away the others, Scar left only streams and palaces.

Of course, no one dared to disobey the words of Elder Scar, the highest authority in the tribe, and Juno was dragged away by Uncle Gong. Soon, there were only Scar, Xiliu and Gongsi left in the tent.

He motioned the two of them to sit closer to him, and when the stream in Gongsi surrounded him from one side to the left, the old man looked at the stream carefully, and then slowly said: "I don't know who you are, but, My intuition tells me that you have a connection with Er, and there is a kind of connection between you. you--"

"We met 85 years ago. At that time, I was still very young, to be exact..."

***

85 years ago, Scar was five years old.

He was about five years old. He was born without a mother, and his father died during a hunting. Scar, like many children in the tribe, became an orphan.

This is the most difficult year for the Hetao tribe, because of the arrival of the gold diggers, or the arrival of the gold diggers with quite high abilities, countless powerful beasts have been driven to places they would not have set foot in before, and these places are the natives of the Black Earth Continent In the place where we lived for generations, powerful wild beasts destroyed the tranquility of the Hetao area, such as animal riots, river depletion, plagues, earthquakes, fires... In those few years, it seemed that all disasters had befallen this land. The people of the tribe died, and eventually the remaining people could only start to be forced to migrate.

Along the way, the originally small number of young and middle-aged people sacrificed a lot in order to protect the tribe. In the end, there were less than 50 of their original exile team of hundreds of people.

Luckily for Scar, he was one of those 50.

In fact, he was also going to die, but at the moment when he almost died, a savior came.

"Eh, suddenly jumped into the water from the other side of the river, and killed the vicious fish that bit me, so that I was not eaten." Scar said, taking off the blanket on his body, revealing The part where it came is a scar that has already been spent. This is the imprint left by the original scar as the skin grows and grows. It is still very deep. One can imagine how terrible the original scar was back then!

"My name comes from this scar. I didn't have a name before that." Scar said, showing the necklace on his neck for the two of them to look at: "And this is the tooth of the evil fish that bit me back then." .”

Very large teeth, seven or eight centimeters long. Over time, these teeth have worn away, but the original fierceness can still be seen.

Er saved Ba, and also saved other people in the tribe. He dragged the fat evil fish up, skinned and cut the meat. The people in the tribe who were about to starve to death finally had a full meal. He took the skin of the evil fish. Sticking to the bottom of the bamboo raft, for quite a long period of time later, as long as they sat on the bamboo raft, no fish in the water would attack them. They avoided the beasts on the shore and the fierce fish in the water. Just like this, I kept walking and walking, and finally found a place where I could live.

He knows a lot of things. He knows which plants can be eaten and which ones cannot be eaten. He knows which plants can cure which diseases. In order to meet the shortage of young and middle-aged adults lost in the world, he will also plant and grow edible food near the place where they live. From then on, they don't need to risk their lives to go outside to collect it.

"Er is an incredible person. At that time, he didn't look very old, but he knew so many things. Although he refused, we all regarded him as the new tribal leader."

85 years ago, Er looked seventeen or eighteen years old. Ten years later, he still looks that age.

"I was 15 years old at that time, and in the tribe at that time, I was considered an adult."

"Er handed over all the things he knew to the people in the tribe, and all the things that other people didn't learn, and gave them all to me. He taught me to identify various plants, taught me to speak the language of outsiders, and taught me to talk to others. After dealing with people outside and making sure that I can do these things, he said he was leaving."

The old man said, as if he had returned to that day 75 years ago. He wanted to be strong and burst into tears, begging E not to leave.

but--

"No, I have to go." He gently stroked his head with his hand, but E refused him: "If you don't go, I will bring bad luck to the tribe."

"Like my name, I will bring misfortune to this place."

"How is it possible? The only thing you brought here is peace, right? Because of you, we all survived, found this place, and lived and worked in peace and contentment. It's all because of you, isn't it?" Scar remembered that he was quite dissatisfied with him road.

What he got was a shake of his head.

"I can feel that he is here, and he is coming to this place soon. He is looking for me. I must leave here as soon as possible, so that you will not be affected."

"He? Who is he? Are you stronger than you? I don't believe it!" Scar obviously disagreed.

"You don't understand, many things before... were brought about by him, and even all the hardships you have encountered are all because of him."

"Now, everyone has finally settled down. I don't want this stability to be destroyed. For this wish, I have to go, I have to go..."

"Then, Er left and only said goodbye to me alone. He left alone when I accidentally fell asleep. I don't know what he was talking about, but that year, we There was an earthquake in one direction in the west, a terrible earthquake, but fortunately it was far away from us and did not affect our tribe."

"Then, I never had news of my bad luck again."

"That's all I know about Er."

After finishing speaking, the old man quietly raised his head and looked at the stream again.