Lonely Immortal

Zhang Zhiwen hadn't eaten anything for three days. He was hiding in the alley outside a tavern, hiding from the scorching sun by the dense branches sticking out of the yard.

He was twelve years old, but he looked like he was only eight or nine years old. He was thin and ragged. In addition, he hadn't eaten anything these days, so his complexion was quite bad. He looked sick and half-dead, leaning against the wall, only the half of his head sticking out was staring at the door of the tavern, licking his already cracked lips from time to time. He didn't want to miss any leftovers poured out of the tavern.

It was a pity that the tavern's business was not very good. After all, in this year of drought, every household could hardly survive, so where would they have the spare money to spend in the tavern, so in the past three days, he didn't see the tavern pouring out any leftovers.

Wuping County was quite lively in previous years. Among the eighteen states of Yuan State, Wuping County was the most prosperous state. Although Yuan State was a small country, it had a good geographical location. It was considered a must-go for neighboring countries. It had frequent economic and trade exchanges. Therefore, Yuan State was able to get along with both sides. Although it was not rich, it was more than enough to live a peaceful life.

However, in the past few years, there were severe droughts every year, and starving people were everywhere. The number of business teams was getting smaller and smaller, and Yuan State, which relied on these taxes to survive, was gradually declining. Wuping County was a typical example. From the bustling caravans in the past to the deserted ones now, how good could all walks of life be?

Zhang Zhiwen's family was originally okay. His parents ran a small business and could support him to study and learn some characters. But with the severe drought every year, how could the small business be maintained? Not to mention the drought that lasted for several years, after the first year of the drought, my parents' business could not be maintained. After that, they needed money to live.

What should I do? In a small country like Yuan, arable land is scarce, and my parents have no land to farm. Even if they have a few acres of thin land, they will not have any harvest in this disaster year. They can only live on debt.

But how long can they live on debt? The money owed must be repaid.

If they can't pay back the money, the creditors will ask for it every day, and with the interest compounding, the debts are getting more and more, until one day, my parents were forced to go to a dead end, and finally they both hanged themselves, leaving Zhang Zhiwen, who was only eight years old, to live alone.

When my parents died, their bodies were almost stinking and there was no way to bury them. In the end, the neighbors raised some money to bury them.

Zhang Zhiwen naturally became a homeless orphan and wandered the streets from then on.

Although the death of his parents was a huge blow to him, he had to survive. He felt very uncomfortable if he didn't eat for a day. No matter how sad he was, he couldn't stand the discomfort of being hungry, let alone an eight-year-old child.

What could an eight-year-old child do? His parents couldn't survive, let alone him?

Even if Zhang Zhiwen could recognize a few words, in such a disaster year, which employer would hire him?

So Zhang Zhiwen could only go on the road of begging, but this road was far from as simple as imagined. Just like Wuping County, there were beggars everywhere.

There were many beggars, but the most important thing was that there were local snakes in this business. If you want to survive in Wuping County, you can only rely on these local snakes.

These local snakes recruited a large number of beggars and arranged them to go out to work in different areas, but most of them did things that were not righteous, such as stealing and robbery.

If you fail to steal or rob, you will inevitably be beaten by the local tyrants. If you succeed, you will be worried that you will be caught and your hands and feet will be broken.

For children of Zhang Zhiwen's age, the local tyrants will arrange them to steal.

At first, Zhang Zhiwen also followed him and did it once or twice, but soon something went wrong. The little beggar who went out with him was caught on the spot and then broke his arm. The bloody scene and the miserable screams still echoed in Zhang Zhiwen's mind. He never dared to go out to steal again.

If he didn't go to work, the local tyrants would definitely not tolerate him. He could only wander outside the city, but the outside of the city was all wilderness and it was even more difficult to survive.

But in order to save his life, he could only bite the bullet and struggle to survive outside the city. When he was thirsty, he drank mountain spring water. When he was hungry, he picked some wild fruits and vegetables to eat. Then he set some small traps to catch some mountain rats to fill his stomach. In this way, he could barely survive.

But the good times did not last long. More and more people came to the wilderness where there were few people. Like him, these people could not stay in the city and wanted to come out to see if they could survive.

When there were more people, all the wild fruits and vegetables were eaten up immediately. As for wild game such as mountain rats, they were almost eaten to extinction. In the end, they could only eat grass roots and tree bark.

In addition, when there were more people, there were all kinds of fights. Fighting back and forth, they finally formed large and small mountain bandit gangs, but what could these mountain bandits rob?

In the wilderness, where is there any caravan for them to rob? And who dares to come out to trade in this year is not from a prominent background? They can't afford to offend such a caravan.

The robbery failed, and the grass roots and tree barks were all eaten bare. What else can they do to survive?

Then they can only eat people.

Who to eat? Of course, the first choice is young children, and children of Zhang Zhiwen's age are undoubtedly the best targets. They have no parents, are young, and have no strength to resist. They are easy to catch.

Compared to the city, Zhang Zhiwen, if he is not stupid, will know what to choose. If he goes to the city, at most he will be caught by the local tyrants and ordered to be a thief, but he will not be eaten.

So after twists and turns, he returned to the county.

Four years have passed since then, and Zhang Zhiwen is already twelve years old. He is no longer the child who wandered the streets and knew nothing.

In the past few years, he has experienced countless hardships and survived countless crises to barely survive today. Of course, he knows how dangerous the world is, so he hid as soon as he returned to the county, trying to avoid being discovered by the local tyrants. Begging openly would definitely not work, but hiding secretly to pick up some leftovers is still possible.

Of course, Zhang Zhiwen also knew that he would be discovered sooner or later, but he could delay it for a day. Once he was caught and forced to steal, he could only accept his fate, which was better than starving to death.

But the tavern had not been open for three days, and he was almost starving. If he continued to wait, he would probably die here.

Zhang Zhiwen was in a very bad condition. He could not hold on for too long due to years of hunger and malnutrition. Three days was his limit, and it would be very dangerous if he continued to wait. He could either continue to wait or take the risk of climbing in to see if he could get something to eat.

The wall on this side of the tavern was not high, only six feet high. If he put in some effort, he could still climb in. If he didn't climb in now and waited any longer, he would have no strength to climb up.

Zhang Zhiwen looked up at the red wall, and finally gritted his teeth and decided to climb in.

He stood up tremblingly, but as soon as he stood up, he felt dizzy and fell down again.

He leaned against the wall, panting heavily, with stars in his eyes. He was so weak that he almost had no strength to stand up. He could only close his eyes and let his violently beating heart slowly calm down.

After a long time, he barely recovered a little and stood up again.

His thin body was almost ready to fall down standing in the alley, but he had to grit his teeth and walk towards the red wall step by step.

Zhang Zhiwen knew that if he didn't crawl in and take a look, he would never have a chance to walk out of here.

He regretted it a little. If he had known that the tavern had no business, he should have crawled in earlier. Even if he was discovered, he would be beaten up at most, which was better than starving to death.

After a long time, he came to the red wall. He had been hungry for many years, his body was very weak, and he was very short. The six-foot-high wall became unprecedentedly tall for him. He was only half the height of the red wall. Even if he raised his hands and stood on tiptoe, he couldn't touch the wall.

He tried to jump up, but he almost had no strength to stand, so how could he have the strength to jump?

He had to stop and hold the wall to catch his breath for a long time before he regained his strength. Then he looked around and found a stone about one foot high not far away, but the stone weighed at least a hundred pounds. How could he move it?

Except for the stone, there was nothing around to help him climb into the red wall.

It seemed that climbing in would not work. If he didn't want to starve to death, he could only go to the tavern to beg. Even if he was found and caught by the local snake, it would always be better than starving to death.

Zhang Zhiwen made a decision. He walked out of the alley step by step. As soon as he came out, the hot afternoon sun shone on his face, stinging his eyes so much that he could hardly open them. He felt dizzy again and almost fell to the ground.

Hungry, thirsty, tired, weak...

He even had a hallucination, and the whole person seemed to be light. The memories of his childhood passed through his mind like water. His parents' loving smiles and loving eyes, he ran and played freely in the yard. These were the most beautiful memories in his life, and at this moment they erupted like a volcano.

Tears could not help but slide down from the corners of his eyes. Zhang Zhiwen didn't know how long he hadn't cried, so that the tears seemed so bitter and salty...

He knew long ago that this world was not worth it!

But apart from this, he always had a doubt in his heart. Logically, his parents would not hang themselves because of debt. In this day and age, Zhang Zhiwen had never seen anyone who died because of debt. And he was only eight years old at the time. How could his parents have the heart to abandon him and die?

But he was only an eight-year-old child back then, and he didn't know anything. Now he feels doubtful, but he has no way to find out. He is now dying of starvation. This biggest doubt in his heart may never be solved.

Just when Zhang Zhiwen was about to faint on the street, a wretched voice came: "Hey... I don't think I've seen this kid before, boss, how about taking him back?"

Hearing the voice, Zhang Zhiwen reluctantly opened his eyes and saw two people standing not far from him looking at him. One of them seemed to be a little beggar. He had a broken arm and was about twelve or thirteen years old, but he had a sophisticated look on his face. At this moment, he said.

Standing next to him was a boy of fourteen or fifteen years old. Although the boy was wearing linen, he was still clean. He frowned and looked at Zhang Zhiwen. The corners of his mouth moved. I don't know what he said, because Zhang Zhiwen felt that his eyes were black, and then the whole person was dizzy. Then he felt that someone grabbed him and dragged him forward, and then he lost consciousness.