In the early morning of autumn, the sky is high and the clouds are light. Even before the sun comes out, the sky is already bright.
Su Yu used the excuse of collecting firewood and hurried up the mountain without even having breakfast.
In this small southern village, the weather in mid-October is not too cold. Even after a few autumn breezes, the leaves are still hanging firmly on the branches, lush and green. Wild flowers all over the mountains are blooming, and as far as the eye can see, it is a sea of colorful flowers, which is beautiful beyond words.
However, Su Yu had no time to appreciate it. He was wielding a hatchet, cutting through the thorns and clearing a path.
In fact, Su Yu is very timid. He is afraid of people who suddenly appear, poisonous snakes and beasts in the mountains, and invisible beings in the dark.
If it were any other time, he would never dare to come alone to such a deserted place.
But there is no way out now. When he got up last night, he heard the conversation between his father and stepmother, and he knew he had no way out.
But he was unwilling to accept it and didn't want to resign himself to his fate. When his mother died, he had promised her that he would live a good life.
So today, he overcame his psychological fear, cut through the thorns and went to Linjia Village three kilometers away to find a man named Lin Xiao. He wanted to earn a living for himself.
There is a flat road wide enough for a horse carriage to go from Dashanjiao Village to Linjia Village, but on both sides of the road are farmlands from two villages, with villagers from the two villages working in the fields.
It would be bad if people found out that he, an unmarried young man, was looking for a man from another village.
Fortunately, both Dashanjiao Village and Linjia Village are backed by this long mountain range. Walking along the foot of the mountain, although the road is a bit difficult and some places are even covered with thorns, no one comes here. Even if today's plan fails, it will not have much impact on his reputation in the end.
Because of their relationship, he had secretly inquired about Lin Xiao's situation and learned that his mother died when he was twelve years old and his father remarried, so he was separated from his parents.
Over the years, he has lived alone at the foot of a mountain one kilometer away from the village, making a living by hunting.
The three-kilometer road was neither long nor short. If it was a flat road, it would take less than half an hour to get there. But Su Yu took the path he had opened up at the foot of the mountain, so it took him nearly an hour.
When I arrived at Lin Xiao's house, I shouted at the door for a long time but there was no response.
There was only this one house at the foot of the mountain. Through the gaps in the fence surrounding the yard, he could see unknown animal fur hanging under the eaves. The signs of someone living in the yard proved that he had not found the wrong place, but there should be no one at home now.
Su Yu was tired, hungry and thirsty. He stood at the door of Lin Xiao's house, at a loss for what to do.
He heard the news last night and was panic-stricken, helpless and at a loss. He thought about it all night and only thought of this as the only solution. He didn't have time to think about what to do if he couldn't find anyone.
He had heard that Lin Xiao would take several days to come back every time he went into the mountains, so he couldn't afford to wait here.
Just when Su Yu was in a mess and didn't know what to do, he heard heavy footsteps behind him.
Su Yu instinctively turned around and looked back, only to see a tall man carrying a wild boar weighing about 300 kilograms and walking towards him from the mountain. When he looked at the man, the man's sharp eyes also shot a gaze at him.
Su Yu was so frightened that he felt as if he was nailed to the spot by that gaze. He dared not move, and his whole body was shaking like a sieve.
He wanted to run, but his hands and feet were weak and he had no strength to take a step.
What is scary is not the hideous wild boar with lingering blood on its body, but the man carrying the wild boar.
Su Yu was nineteen years old and had never seen such a man - he was a head taller than the tallest man he had ever seen, with a sharp face, a knife-like face, sharp eyes, and a fierce aura all over his body. When he looked at people, he was like a big beast about to pounce on its prey.
Su Yu lowered his head, not daring to look again, but the man did not seem to stop and kept walking towards him. When he was so scared that he almost wet his pants, the tall man had already walked in front of him.
He was the first to speak: "You are blocking my way, get out of the way."
There was a hoarseness in his voice, as if he hadn't spoken for several days, and his tone was indifferent and distant. He didn't care who Su Yu was, nor did he care what Su Yu was doing here.
Su Yu stammered, "I...I..."
Su Yu was born with a bad habit. When he met people or things that he was particularly afraid of, he would stutter and was often laughed at for this when he was a child.
For so many years, he has been avoiding and overcoming this problem. He thought he had done a good job and the villagers also thought he was cured. Unexpectedly, today all his efforts failed and his stuttering came back.
Perhaps because he had been waiting for Su Yu to give way for too long and didn't know what he was going to say, the man uttered "hmm" impatiently, with the tail tone rising and carrying a sense of oppression.
Su Yu struggled to finish the rest of the sentence: "Looking for Lin...Lin Xiao."
The tall man said "Oh" with a long tail sound: "There is no Lin Linxiao here, can you move aside, little stutterer?"
The last three words "little stutter" were spoken very slowly, each word pronounced with a hint of sarcasm.
"I...I..." Su Yu, who had always been tough, was about to cry. He wanted to give in, but his brain had lost the ability to direct his actions. He only remembered that he had thought about the plan all night last night and the purpose of coming here.
As if he had lost his patience, the man asked impatiently: "What? You won't give in?"
Su Yu: "No…"
He wanted to say no, but before he could say it, the man interrupted him: "Not allowed? You're pretty brave."
Lin Xiao looked at the boy in front of him who was not going to give up until he achieved his goal, and who was obviously very scared but still standing still, and said kindly: "I am Lin Xiao, what's the matter?"
It was clearly a simple self-introduction, but the tone was domineering.
Knowing that the scary man in front of him was Lin Xiao, the person he was looking for, Su Yu's heart almost jumped out of his throat. He still didn't dare to look at Lin Xiao, but he could feel Lin Xiao's gaze resting on him, as if waiting for his answer.
For a moment, Su Yu thought about giving up the plan and turning around to leave, but then he thought about the conversation between his father and stepmother. He couldn't escape, and there was no way to escape: "I... I am... Su... Su Yu."
Lin Xiao seemed to be interested: "Su Yu from Dashanjiao Village?"
"Yes." This time Su Yu answered quickly. After all, he couldn't stutter a single word.
Lin Xiao threw the wild boar directly beside the courtyard gate and looked at the guy in front of him with interest. He was only as tall as his chest, with his head lowered. From top to bottom, he could only see his delicate nose and small mouth, and his skin was sallow, which was a far from the delicate and pretty child he was when he was a child.
No wonder he didn't see it: "What do you want me for?"
Su Yu was torn between two thoughts and said hesitantly, "I...I..."
Lin Xiao said frivolously: "Let me guess, you came to me to fulfill your engagement? Or..."
Both his mother and Lin Xiao's mother fled from the north more than 20 years ago, and their family members either died or were separated.
The two met halfway and supported each other to come to this area. Later, they were assigned by the government to settle down and married in two villages respectively.
The two weak women gave each other confidence and support, and managed to gain a foothold in this strange place. In order to make their relationship strong and lasting, they even arranged marriages for their two children. At that time, Su Yu was six years old and Lin Xiao was nine years old.
But the good times did not last long. Perhaps because they suffered too much on the journey to escape famine and their bodies were too exhausted, the two mothers passed away early, without even waiting for their children to grow up. The two families were not real relatives to begin with, and once the bond was broken, they never had any contact again.
Logically speaking, when Su Yu turned eighteen last year, Lin Xiao should have come to propose marriage, but no one knows why he didn't come.
Su Yu didn't dare to ask and just said "hmm" timidly.
"Break off the engagement." Lin Xiao added slowly.
Su Yu raised his head in shock, but when he saw Lin Xiao's ferocious face, he lowered his head in fear.
Does Lin Xiao not want to marry me, so he doesn't come to propose?
Thinking of this, sad tears fell on his toes like beads that had broken off the string.