Chapter 6: The Double Tragedy of My Parents

  The county soldiers arrived three days later - if the Goguryeo people persisted in not retreating, it is estimated that these few days would be enough to slaughter the county city seven or eight times. Then, Shi Gongzi planned to follow the county soldiers back to the county government of Korea. Before leaving, he called A Fei and said: "You saved my life, I will never forget - but archery skills still need to be honed."

  A Fei's face turned red as he made excuses for himself: "This... is the bow being too soft, and the arrow shaft lacking maintenance..."

  Actually, the day after Gao Juri left, Old Wang next door pulled him away, planning to return to Poor Valley, but Ah Fei was afraid that there were still barbarian bandits outside the city, and it was too dangerous to leave the city now. On the other hand, he also had a glimmer of hope, as Shi Gongzi said "there must be a generous reward", but he didn't know if he would make good on his promise.

  When he heard the distinction, Shigongzi smiled calmly - he had restored his elegant and calm appearance at first sight, no longer the desperate look when he ran out of the south gate. He pointed to the old bow that Ah Fei was reluctant to leave: "Unfortunately, there is no good bow in the county, so I will temporarily give you this bow, and I will tell the county lord about it."

  No way! Ah Fei was screaming in his heart, do you think a broken bow can get rid of me? And this isn't even your own property, how stingy must you be to come up with such a vicious plan?!

  However, the young nobleman still had something to say: "I don't have much wealth on me, but since I made a promise, I won't go back on my word. Leave your name and address, and if you're free, come to Korea to look for me and collect your reward."

  He spoke as he came with brush and ink and a piece of bamboo, writing down a column of neat clerical script: "North Sea Shi Xun's reply to the Yi people's Ah Fei..."

  A Fei watched him write, and suddenly realized that Shi Gongzi was not surnamed Shi... No, it wasn't Shi Gongzi at all, but rather Shi Gongzi, with the rare surname of Shi. The family seemed to have some background, with Qingzhou Beihai County written in front of their name. Logically speaking, the next thing to write should be the amount of reward. A Fei shouted in his heart: "Ten thousand taels of gold! Ten thousand taels of gold! No... In this remote place, even a local snakehead wouldn't have that much money. How about a hundred taels of gold? If it's a hundred taels, I'll reluctantly admit defeat."

  "Who would have thought that next, the young master actually wrote: '...repay the barbarian civilian A Fei 150 dollars, this serves as proof.'"

  I'm going! Only gave 150 bucks, and there's still change? So your little life is only worth a little over 100 big ones?! You must be so stingy and cheap! Ah Fei almost pounced on him, snatched the bamboo strip and opened a chrysanthemum for Master Shi.

  Of course, he didn't have the guts to do so. To be honest, for someone like him who might not even see a single cent in a year, 150 cents was already a staggering fortune that would make them jump with joy. Although Ah Fei wasn't quite sure of the prices at this place and time, he reckoned it could at least feed his family of three for a whole year.

  Later, he left the county town with the bamboo slip in his hand, and Old Wang followed behind him, constantly asking how much reward the young master had given. As soon as "one hundred and fifty coins" was spoken, Old Wang's eyes didn't look right, his waist bent, and his hands unconsciously rushed to a stone by the side of the road. If Ah Fei hadn't shouted loudly in time and flashed the old bow in his hand, I'm afraid Old Wang would have "killed the master" on the spot.

  A Fei had originally planned to go home and say hello before heading out to North Korea. No matter how he looked at it, 150 yuan was a small price to pay for what he was about to do. At this point, he would have done anything, even if it meant crawling through his pants. Moreover, he began to think that spending the rest of his life holed up in those poor mountains, he wouldn't starve to death but would definitely suffocate, and as this new body grew bigger, he would need to solve physiological problems...

  I should go back and ask old dad, with his extremely poor conditions, how did he actually deceive a woman who is still relatively healthy into marrying him?

  So he thought about whether to take this opportunity to get close to the young master, and simply become a slave in his household. Although theoretically speaking, peasants are free people, slaves have no personal freedom, but when their stomachs are still not full, who cares about what freedom.

  But as soon as he returned home, he was shocked to see a chilling scene - the so-called home only had three earth walls, and one side used thatch to block the wind and rain. Now the thatch was scattered all over the ground, and two sides of the three earth walls were also knocked down by someone or something...

  A Fei's eyes widened, and he rushed into the house. Then, all he saw was his parents lying in a pool of congealed blood, both with long wounds on their backs, skin and flesh rolled up, looking like ferocious and terrifying devils' mouths!

  A Fei stared blankly at the scene in front of him, standing there as if his entire body's blood had turned icy cold and frozen. In fact, he had only lived with this couple for just one winter, and many memories of the past still lingered in his consciousness, but emotions had disappeared along with the original owner's passing. That is to say, he didn't have any familial feelings towards them. Moreover, whether it was the old man or the old woman, their words were extremely few, and they had never had any emotional exchanges with their theoretical son. For A Fei, this couple was probably just like a landlord for that short winter.

  However, after going through an entire winter, in a person's life, one winter is so short, but when experiencing it, it seems so long. More importantly, whether in the previous life or this life, this was A Fei's first time to face death at such close range, and it was such a tragic death...

  In his previous life, his parents had passed away very early on, and he was just a child at the time, unable to retain enough rational understanding of death. Then there were the deaths of friends and girlfriends - for him, who had been reborn in another era, or rather, separated from them by birth. For this irreparable separation, he spent an entire winter doing psychological construction, but when this sorrow finally gradually subsided with the passage of time, he went through another death farewell in this life.

  He stared rigidly at the two stiff corpses, and he himself seemed to have frozen not only his limbs but also his neck, eyelids, and pupils. He wanted to look away but couldn't. At that moment, everything in the world seemed to have ceased to exist - hunger, cold, pain, all seemed to have never existed before. His mind was a complete blank...

  It wasn't until much later that the sound of Old Wang's mournful crying suddenly came from next door, and he was crying for his old dog.

  This must be the evil deeds of the Goguryeo soldiers who invaded Lelang Commandery. They not only killed people, but also looted all the grain from the two families, and even roasted and ate the old dog from the Wang family next door, taking away its skin as well, leaving behind only some bones with teeth marks on them.

  Later, Ah Fei comforted Old Wang by saying that it's not necessarily the case that the old dog was eaten. The scattered bones on the ground might be from wolves or wolverines hunted by the Goguryeo people themselves. As for the old dog, the Goguryeo people saw how skilled it was at hunting and took it with them. Of course, Ah Fei didn't believe this himself, but Old Wang didn't refute him either, only asking: "What's a wolverine?"

  Finally, Ah Fei hastily dug a hole and buried the couple who were theoretically his parents. After an extreme shock, he recovered much faster than Old Wang next door who had lost his old dog. If he was actually not himself but the original owner of this body, then he must have been a thoroughly ruthless and cold-blooded guy who would even despise himself.

  When he moved the two stiff corpses, he felt as if he was carrying his own corpse; when he put the bodies into the pit, he felt as if he himself was lying in that extremely simple grave; when he filled the pit with earth, he felt as if he was sprinkling dust on his own face.

  War, chaos, death, this is the era he has crossed into, this is almost the inevitable fate he will face. Can't all of this be changed? Will he too ultimately suffer the same fate? Then who will bury them and him? Will they become food for wolves, crows, or even just ants, silently born and then silently rotting away...

  The grave was filled, and Ah Fei removed the wooden handle of the spade and stood it upright on the mound. He then picked up a stone knife, wanting to carve some words, but didn't know what would be good - he wasn't even clear about his parents' names, as they usually just called each other "you". In the end, he could only laboriously carve the two characters "" (kǎo) and "" (yī).

  Old Wang watched in astonishment: "You... how can you write?"

  "Do you know him?"

  "No, I don't know...I'm illiterate."

  "So this isn't a word," A Fei let out a long sigh, "it's just a symbol."

  "What's the symbol again?"

  The next day, Ah Fei brought a bag of wild vegetables and fruits, and set out on the uncertain journey to North Korea. This road was undoubtedly full of hardships, fortunately he had an old bow by his side, ordinary bandits did not dare to come and cause trouble. Of course, that's also because they couldn't see the quail feather arrows hidden in his bundle, otherwise they would not have been polite to this half-grown child.

  He first returned to the county town and went to the Shi family's warehouse to gather information. There were still a few familiar faces in the warehouse who had been with the young master of the Shi family that night, planning to escape from the south gate. They knew he had saved the young master's life before, so they were relatively friendly to him. As expected, Shi Xun had already returned to Korea, but it was likely that he had not entered the city and was staying in his family's villa north of Lie Water.

  What is referred to as Lie Shui is a large river that flows outside the north wall of the city of Chosun, and according to Ah Fei's memory from his past life, it should be the Taedong River next to Pyongyang.

  From the county town to Shi's house, the distance is not far, less than 100 miles, Ah Fei spent a whole day, and finally entered the range of the courtyard in the evening. It was a group of buildings covering several acres, with wooden fences outside the earth wall, and several rough arrow towers standing at the corners. Before he could find the entrance, suddenly a fierce barking sound came from his ear, and a group of fierce dogs rushed out from nowhere, ferociously biting his throat!