Yang Che

Jiang State, within the territory of Mozhou.

At the foot of Wanglong Mountain, Yangzhuang Village.

Inside a small earthen house with yellow mud walls and thatched roof.

Yang Che, who was in ragged clothes, had been hungry and doing heavy work for most of the day. At this time, he was lying on the dry hard board exhausted, not wanting to move even a little bit.

'Bang' sound.

The thin wooden door with only half of it left was suddenly violently kicked open.

A sloppy, drunken man walked in with a cane in his hand.

Without saying a word, he whipped Yang Che hard on the bed.

The burning pain came, and Yang Che gritted his teeth without making a sound.

He stood up with difficulty, dragged his tired and thin body off the wooden bed, and stared blankly at the drunk man in front of him.

"You little bastard, have you learned how to be lazy?"

The drunk man cursed and picked up the cane and continued to beat him.

Yang Che turned around and walked out the door with an expressionless expression.

He knew that if he didn't go into the mountains to find something valuable and come back, the drunkard Yang Hu would dare to beat him to death.

After walking out of the earthen hut, Yang Che suddenly smelled the tangy aroma of food, which made the rapid surge of gastric juices even more uncomfortable.

Not far from the earthen house, there were several green brick houses, and a boy's impatient voice could be heard faintly inside: "Mom, give me another chicken drumstick."

Yang Che knew that they were the wife and children of the drunkard Yang Hu, who had white buns every day and meat every day.

Even Yang Hu's dogs eat better than him.

The Adam's apple rolled hard several times. Yang Che licked his dry lips, raised his thin dark face and looked at the dark clouds in the sky. After hesitating for a moment, he still moved his legs with difficulty and walked towards Wanglong Mountain.

He is twelve years old, but he has been beaten severely by the drunkard Yang Hu for six years.

When he was almost six years old, his grandfather, with whom he depended on each other, died suddenly.

Yang Hu, relying on his status as Yang Che's uncle, secretly occupied several acres of his family's thin farmland under the guise of raising Yang Che.

Yang Hu was a glutton, lazy and addicted to alcohol. He only gave Yang Che one meal a day and forced Yang Che to do heavy farm work.

Moreover, Yang Che often needs to go into the mountains to get some valuable mountain goods back, otherwise his one meal a day will become one every two days, and he will be beaten with canes.

If it weren't for Yang Che's cleverness, he could always find some food to barely satisfy his hunger when he went into the mountains, and he would have probably starved to death.

Yang Che stepped into the barren mountain and climbed halfway up a certain peak with great effort.

Suddenly there was a loud thunder in the sky, and a bolt of lightning fell straight into the forest. Yang Che smelled a pungent smell of burning.

Immediately afterwards, heavy rain poured down, and Yang Che was soon soaked to the skin. He had no choice but to walk through the mountains and forests, trying to find a place to take shelter from the rain.

However, the rain was too heavy and his vision was blocked. Yang Che was also too hungry and soon lost his strength.

He kicked one deep and one shallow, and his steps were completely empty. In a panic, he suddenly missed the path and his whole body rolled forward.

Then there was a 'bang' sound, as if he had hit a stone. Yang Che felt like stars were popping up in his eyes, and the world was spinning.

The severe pain in his waist made him wake up a little. In a hazy moment, he found a dark pit about three to five feet away on the right side, so he struggled to climb in.

As soon as he climbed in, another bolt of lightning suddenly fell, hitting the entrance of the pit squarely.

With a roar, the mouth of the pit collapsed, and Yang Che fell straight down. Then he hit the hard stone surface hard and passed out.

…

Yang Che woke up faintly, tried to lift his heavy eyelids, turned his head and looked around, and found that he was lying in a dark and gloomy tunnel.

Struggling to sit up, he grinned and hissed in pain. He touched his waist and found that it was stained with blood, which had already been blurred.

The injury on his waist was not terrible. After enduring six years of severe beatings, Yang Che was already used to it.

The terrible thing is hunger.

Being hungry for a long time made his consciousness start to drift.

Yang Che knew in his heart that if he couldn't find anything to eat again, he might really starve to death.

He looked up and found that due to the collapse, smooth rock walls were exposed all around. It was probably impossible to get out.

Then he looked into the depths of the tunnel, where it was pitch black and eerie, with no end in sight and no idea where it was leading.

Not sure whether it was because of hunger or fear, Yang Che felt weak all over and wanted to stand up, but after struggling for a long time, he still could not stand up.

He couldn't help but think of his miserable fate, his nose felt sore, and he felt that it would be better to die than to be relieved.

16:27:57

Thinking about it this way, since you are not even afraid of death, what else are you afraid of? The fear in his heart suddenly weakened greatly.

Gritting his teeth and holding on, Yang Che reluctantly stood up, supported the stone wall, moved his still trembling legs, and limped slowly towards the depths of the tunnel.

Several times he almost fell to the ground from hunger and wanted to give up, but his survival instinct made him inexplicably gain some strength again.

After passing through the long darkness, there was a sudden light ahead. Yang Che subconsciously blocked his eyes with his hand. Then when he took his hand away and saw the scene in front of him clearly, he couldn't help but be stunned.

This is actually a spacious natural grotto. Deep inside the grotto, you can still hear the sound of gurgling water.

This place seems to have been renovated. There is a luminous bead embedded on the top of the grotto, which makes the place very bright.

Most of the cave is a nursery surrounded by gravel, but it seems to be deserted. Many flowers and plants have withered, and only one strange flower about a foot tall is still growing tenaciously alone.

The other half of the grotto has stone tables, benches and a stone bed.

When Yang Che saw a terrifying skeleton sitting cross-legged on the stone bed, he suddenly became frightened again.

However, after waiting for a while and seeing that there was no movement in the skeleton, he boldly moved into the cave and began to look at it carefully.

 16:28:09

On the wall next to the stone bed, two layers of stone grids were cut out. On them were three yellowed ancient books, a black scroll of unknown material, and a few bottles and jars. Can.

Yang Che moved to the stone grid, picked up an ancient book at random, blew the dust on it, and saw a few large characters on the cover. Unfortunately, he couldn't read at all and couldn't understand it at all.

Putting the ancient book back, Yang Che began to look anxiously for something to eat.

Unfortunately, after searching around, I couldn't find anything to eat.

"Is it true that we are going to starve to death here?"

Yang Che felt sad, and the relaxation of his will made him feel dizzy and wanted to lie down on the ground and fall asleep.

At this moment, he suddenly smelled a strange fragrance, which shocked him. Then he bit the tip of his tongue and suddenly woke up a little.

After sniffing carefully, Yang Che gradually shifted his gaze to the lone strange flower in the nursery.

He has been looking for mountain products in the mountains all year round, so he naturally knows that some flowers and plants are rare medicinal herbs. He also found one in the spring of last year. He wanted to secretly take it to the town and sell it, but he was discovered by Yang Hu on the way. Not only did the tiger steal the herbs, he also beat him severely and starved him for three days and nights.

This strange flower is about a foot tall. There are seven small dark green spiny leaves growing on the stem. There is a black fruit the size of a thumb at the base of each leaf.

 16:28:20

The weird fragrance just now was emanating from this flower and grass, but Yang Che looked at these dark fruits and didn't dare to pick them and eat them.

He once suffered a loss in the mountains. That time, he seemed to be poisoned because he ate an unknown wild fruit. He suffered from stomachache for several days and tortured him to death. Fortunately, he managed to survive in the end.

However, Yang Che was really hungry and thought that there was no difference between death by starvation and death by poisoning. He simply hesitated and reached out to pick the black fruit.

"Don't eat me, don't eat me..."

A vague sound suddenly sounded in Yang Che's ears.

Yang Che's whole body trembled, he subconsciously took a few steps back, and shouted with trembling lips: "Who?"

There was no reply for a long time.

Yang Che forced himself to calm down, looked thoughtfully at the flowers and plants in front of him, and reached out again to pick the black fruit.

"Don't eat me..."

Sure enough, the ethereal voice sounded again.

Yang Che was shocked, a flower and grass could actually talk?

This...could this be the terrifying flower demon in the rumors?