The two of them left the deep woods. Zhao Yuanyue went home by herself. Jiang Yifeng chopped some firewood nearby and brought it home along with several broken bronze artifacts taken out from the bottom of the pit. The sun was setting in the west, and it was already the evening hour.
Jiang Yifeng's family lived in the northernmost part of the village, far away from other families; the bamboo fence and tile house was a typical farmhouse, but the difference was that the east wing was particularly large. Not far behind the small courtyard, a small river meandered by. There were rape fields on both sides of the river. It was March, and the rape flowers were in full bloom, and the sight was full of golden color.
The sound of tinkling iron could be heard from a long distance away from home. Jiang Yifeng's father was a blacksmith named Jiang Shiqi. Jiang Shiqi was about forty years old and about the same height as Jiang Yifeng; he was thin, with slightly white hair on his temples, but his gestures were steady and powerful. At this moment, Jiang Shiqi was working hard in the west of the yard, and some forged iron shovels, iron hoes, iron swords, iron axes and the like were piled against the corner of the wall. In the middle of the yard, a half-year-old yellow dog had an argument with a big white goose for some reason. They were crouching and jumping, biting and drilling, and it was very lively. Suddenly, the yellow dog jumped out of the circle, tilted its head and stared for a while, then ran towards the bamboo gate of the yard. It threw itself into Jiang Yifeng's arms, wagging its tail wildly, hugged its little master and kissed and licked him, very happy.
"Good boy, little yellow." Jiang Yifeng touched the yellow dog's head affectionately, and when it left, he wiped the saliva on his face, put down the firewood, and walked behind Jiang Shiqi with the bronze ware.
"Dad." Jiang Yifeng greeted with his arms crossed.
Jiang Shiqi turned around, smiled at him, and hummed; then he noticed the bronze ware in his hand.
"What is this?" Jiang Shiqi asked.
Jiang Yifeng then briefly recounted what happened in the woods east of the village today, and finally said, "I thought these bronze artifacts might be useful to Dad, so I brought a few back."
Jiang Shiqi took them and looked at them carefully, shaking his head and said, "Bronze is soft. It was useful in ancient times, but it is useless now. However, it would be a pity to throw it away..." He looked around again and said, "Why not use these materials to make you a short sword for practice."
Jiang Yifeng thanked his father and went to light a fire and cook.
At 11:00 pm, dusk fell.
After Jiang Yifeng and his son had dinner, Jiang Yifeng packed up and followed his father to the east wing. The east wing was about five feet long and two feet wide, a whole big room. The main beam of the wing was about ten feet from the ground, and the main beam was covered with gears and other mechanisms. Six or seven iron chains hung from the mechanisms, passing through the main beam, of varying lengths. At the end of each iron chain, a piece of wood with a diameter of about five inches was tied in the middle. The lengths of the wood were different, the longest was about fifteen feet, and the shortest was about seven or eight feet; under each piece of wood, there were five or six thin iron chains of varying lengths, and at the end of each thin iron chain was a small iron ball about the size of an egg. There was an oil lamp in each corner of the room, the light was as big as a soybean, swaying.
Jiang Shiqi took a stack of small notes and walked into the room, selected a dozen small balls, pasted the notes on them, and then walked to the corner to open the mechanism. Once the mechanism was turned on, the six or seven pieces of wood began to rotate, driving the small iron balls tied to the thin iron chains to rotate together, some fast, some slow, some high, some low; some iron balls collided with each other, making a tinkling sound.
Jiang Yifeng was dressed in white, holding a wooden sword, and dipped the tip of the sword in ash, standing quietly at the door of the wing room.
Jiang Shiqi said in a deep voice: "Jia Wei, Bing Mao, Ji Chou!"
As soon as the voice fell, Jiang Yifeng jumped out, dodge and move among the small iron balls spinning in disorder, and moved forward in twists and turns. With the dim light of the lamp, his sword came out like lightning; after three consecutive swords, he flashed back and returned to his original position.
Jiang Shiqi looked at the water leak in the corner of the wall, four drops. This water leak was made by himself, and every thousand drops of water is exactly a quarter of an hour. He stopped the mechanism and said slowly: "All three balls hit. But you were hit on the left shoulder by the ball before the third sword, so you were a little delayed when you made the move. Otherwise, you should have been able to finish it within three drops."
There was indeed a gray spot on Jiang Yifeng's left shoulder. It turned out that the small iron balls were hollow and filled with wood ash, which would leave marks on people's clothes when they hit them.
Jiang Yifeng stood with his head down. After his father walked out of the house, he put down the wooden sword, took a bow from the corner, stepped on the quiver, and walked to the back of the yard.
The stream meandered and the sound of water could be heard; the fragrance of rape flowers was sent from time to time with the wind. The moon was in the middle of the sky, and the ground was full of silver light.
From the back of the house to the rape field, there was a sparse grove in the middle, running east-west and shaped like a spindle. About a hundred steps away, there were six or seven trees with one-foot square targets hanging on them, the number varied, and a total of twelve. There was a red dot in the center of the target, as big as a fingernail.
Jiang Yifeng first walked over and moved the targets on the tree, then returned to their original positions. He drew his bow and arrow, held his breath, and shot twelve arrows in a row. The arrows were like meteors, cutting through the moonlight.
After shooting, he checked the arrows, and found that eight of them hit the bull's eye, three were slightly off, and one was off by about an inch.
Jiang Yifeng put away the arrows and turned back to practice again.
The moonlight was like water, and a long flute sound came from a corner of the yard, low and melodious, quite sad.
Jiang Yifeng knew that it was his father playing the flute. The song was called "Remembering Qin E", and he didn't know how many times he had listened to it over the years.
The flute sounded sad,
Qin E's dream was broken by the moon in Qin Tower.
The moon in Qin Tower,
The willows are green every year,
Ba Ling is sad to say goodbye.
On the Qingqiu Festival on Leyouyuan,
there was no news from the ancient road of Xianyang.
No news,
The setting sun in the west wind,
The tombs of the Han Dynasty.
Jiang Yifeng had never seen his mother since he could remember. All his memories of his mother were just a face, a dignified, beautiful and loving face. He had asked his father several times, but Jiang Shiqi always had only one sentence: Your mother is in a very far place, you must practice archery and sword well now, and you will naturally see her when you grow up; in addition, you are never allowed to mention your mother to outsiders.
Grow up? I'm grown up now. Jiang Yifeng thought to himself.
Jiang Yifeng packed up his bow and arrow and returned to the yard. Jiang Shiqi was sitting on a stone bench playing the flute.
"Dad." Jiang Yifeng walked to his father's side, hesitated for a moment, and said.
"Well, Feng'er, what's the matter?" Jiang Shiqi stopped the flute and asked.
"I'm grown up now, I want to find my mother." Jiang Yifeng hesitated for a moment and said.
Jiang Shiqi pondered for a moment and said: "You hit three out of four today, your speed is not fast enough. When you hit five out of three, and you are not hit by the iron ball, maybe it will be almost there. In addition," he paused, "your sixth arrow, twenty-second arrow and thirty-fifth arrow today were uneven, they should all be off by an inch?"
Jiang Yifeng had never seen his father practice martial arts, and he didn't know if his father knew martial arts, but in the past ten years, every time he finished sword practice, his father knew whether he hit or not without going over to check; every time he shot arrows, his father didn't even look at it, but what he said was always accurate.
There was no conversation for several days. On this day, Jiang Shiqi handed the forged bronze sword to Jiang Yifeng. The sword was two feet and six inches long, and the hilt and the sword body were forged as one, which was very solid; the sword body was covered with small pits left by hammering, shining in the moonlight, like shining stars, so Jiang Shiqi named it "Stars" and engraved it on the sword body. Jiang Yifeng took the Star Sword, played with it for a long time, and couldn't let it go. There was still some leftover material from the bronze artifact after making the Star Sword, so Jiang Shiqi used it to make three bronze arrowheads, engraved with cloud and thunder patterns on them, and handed them to Jiang Yifeng.
Spring flowers, autumn moons, summer rains, and winter snows, a year passed in a blink of an eye. During this year, Jiang Yifeng practiced sword more and more diligently, and he could hit six out of three drops; his archery skills became more and more stable and accurate, and his speed was amazingly fast. Every time the front arrow was just out and still in the air, the back arrow had been shot; before the first arrow hit the target, the third arrow had been shot.
In the spring of the second year of Zhiping, on March 20, peach blossoms appeared again.
In the early morning, Jiang Shiqi called Jiang Yifeng to the main hall and said, "Feng'er, you have grown up now, and you have made some progress in swordsmanship and archery, but you still lack experience." He paused and continued, "All things have spirits. There are many giant snakes in the deep mountains and swamps. These creatures are particularly spiritual. It is said that there are often some that have been hiding for many years, absorbing the essence of the sun, moon, heaven and earth, waiting for the right time to transform into a dragon and ascend. You should go out of the village now to find the giant snake that is about to transform into a dragon. If you kill it, it must have a pearl called the Snake Spirit Pearl, which is the gathering place of its spiritual energy. It is said that if you use this pearl to refine a sword, it will be sharp and indestructible. Go and get it." Jiang Yifeng expected his father to tell him about his mother, but he was disappointed when he heard this. He opened his mouth to speak, but Jiang Shiqi seemed to have seen through his thoughts, waved his hand, and said, "You go find the snake and get the pearl first, I will take care of it myself." Jiang Yifeng had to give up. Jiang Shiqi handed the packed package to Jiang Yifeng, who then carried his bow and arrows, took his favorite bronze sword, Fanxing, said goodbye to his father, and walked out the door.
The morning dew on the peach petals had not yet disappeared. Across the river, a golden crescent of the rising sun had just appeared.
"Feng'er." Jiang Shiqi called out from the gate.
Jiang Yifeng turned around.
"Be careful." Jiang Shiqi said, and turned to walk towards the anvil.
Inside and outside the courtyard, the rhythmic sound of "ding ding dang dang" of iron hammering was heard again.
After leaving the house, Jiang Yifeng thought for a moment and walked towards the private school in the west of the village.
Mr. Zhao was reciting poems in the room. Jiang Yifeng saluted respectfully and explained the matter.
Mr. Zhao was not surprised, but he frowned slightly when he heard about killing the giant snake to get the pearl, and said: "Any spiritual thing must be accompanied by danger. Although you have some strength, you must be more careful. If you can't defeat it, it's better to run away, don't fight to the death."
At this time, the bamboo curtain moved, and Zhao Yuanyue walked out from the inner room.
"Brother Yifeng, are you leaving?" Zhao Yuanyue stared at Jiang Yifeng.
"I'm not leaving," Jiang Yifeng said with a smile, "I'm going out to do something and will be back after I finish it." Zhao Yuanyue breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "How long will you be gone?" Jiang Yifeng thought for a while and said, "It's hard to say, at least ten days and half a month, at most three to five months." Zhao Yuanyue rolled her eyes and smiled at Mr. Zhao, "Dad, you always teach your children that reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles..." "Yue'er, don't make trouble." The voice of Zhao Yuanyue's mother Chen came from behind the curtain. Mr. Zhao smiled slightly and didn't say anything. Jiang Yifeng smiled at Zhao Yuanyue, "I'm going to walk through the mountains and forests this time, which is inconvenient. Next time if I go to the prosperous place of the state capital, I will report to my master and his wife. If they agree, I will take you there." Zhao Yuanyue had to give up after hearing this. Mr. Zhao thought for a moment and said to Jiang Yifeng, "Wait a moment." He went into the inner room and took out a small porcelain bottle, handed it to Jiang Yifeng, and said, "All things in the world are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining. This realgar wine is the natural enemy of snakes. Once it fails to transform into a dragon, it will be afraid of this realgar wine. You may be able to use it with you."
Jiang Yifeng took the realgar wine, put it away carefully, and said respectfully, "Thank you, Master." He added, "I was just wondering on the way here, where can I find a giant snake that is about to transform into a dragon? Master is knowledgeable and can you give me some pointers?"
Mr. Zhao twirled his beard and pondered for a while, saying, "There are many deep mountains and swamps in the northeast, towards Bazhou. As for whether there is a giant snake that is about to transform into a dragon, we can only ask around. Generally, there are many strange stories about such spiritual creatures."
Jiang Yifeng thanked his master, said goodbye to Zhao Yuanyue, and turned to leave.
Until Jiang Yifeng walked out of the village for a few miles, Zhao Yuanyue still stood at the door, looking far away in the direction he left.