Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Departure

After two days have passed, Xiao ChaoYuan along with Elder Ming spurred the horses and left. Inside the Xiao family’s courtyard remains only Xiao Xiao. Several famous bodyguards and female servants as well as a horsekeeper defended the Xiao family’s courtyard.

Although the Xiao family is only of the aristocratic families, any aristocratic family in WuChui village was far more imposing. Even the merchant families who were only a bit prosperous had more bodyguards and servants.

The night’s darkness was like a black cloud, rolling and engulfing the Xiao family’s courtyard. Whenever the darkness descended, Xiao Xiao would always carry the short-tailed black dog and stay in front of the courtyard gate. He would sentimentally look into the distant night because this was the time when his father would return.

Inside the Xiao family courtyard, Xiao Xiao wore thicker clothing than usual. When he was walking out the gate, he incidentally greeted at the bodyguards who were on duty.

“Young master, do not stay out too long. Come back a bit earlier to rest!” the bodyguard YongHe kindly warned. Each one of the Xiao family’s bodyguard was accustomed to the Xiao family’s young master, sighing with the feeling that the world was unfair and taking pity on Xiao Xiao.

The Xiao family was benevolent, but unexpectedly did not receive Heaven’s concern. Although the Xiao family was one of the aristocratic family, they have never impose any master servant control to the lower class people. They treated the lower class people with warmness. Both the old master Xiao ChaoYuan and the young master Xiao Xiao. treated everyone the same.

As a result, the bodyguards in the Xiao family’s inner courtyard and the lower class people naturally respected the Xiao family. as well as treating the young master Xiao Xiao with love and protection, and further sympathizing to his bitter experience……

Because the old master had to leave for a outside matter, they were more concern for Xiao Xiao’s safety.

“I know! Uncle YongHe you are so pesky!” Xiao Xiao snappily stuck his tongue and laughed. Obviously, Xiao Xiao’s action did not anger the bodyguard YongHe, but it made the other party feel as if Xiao Xiao spoke like a mischievous junior.

Indeed in this way, the nine great bodyguard plus one famous commander of the body guards were all very concerned toward Xiao Xiao. It was not because the other party was their young master, but because they already want to treat this young master as their junior, to cherish and to treasure.

As he gaze into the distant, the thin figure had already left the courtyard gate. The bodyguard YongHe could not help but smile and scold, “Brat!” His mouth scold in this way, but his expression showed deep affection instead.

As the thin figure gradually mix into the night, only until it completely disappear that the outer courtyard gates, the sound of a weak sigh could be heard behind Xiao Xiao……

It was already deep into the night, thus inside the Xiao family’s great courtyard was a complete mess. the bodyguards were alright, the female servants were fine. They have already rummage through several miles from the great Xiao family’s courtyard, but could not find their young master —— Xiao Xiao.

The people within the courtyard were already anxious like ants on a hot pot., but this had nothing to do with Xiao Xiao anymore. At that moment, he had already climbed over the peak of TianZi mountain range.

Although it was already late at night, Xiao Xiao had originally flamed his pale face with his torch and appeared particularly flush that even beads of sweat seeped out from above his forehead. His left hand supported his knee as his chest breathed heavily. He opened his mouth and took large gasps of the coarse air.

He hastened his journey with all his strength, afraid that the family’s bodyguard would catch up. He wanted to leaves as far from home as possible, but feared that it was not going to be easy. Seeing that the oil above his torch was burning out, Xiao Xiao laughed bitterly.

He looked around and discovered bamboo growing densely together, He could still get by tonight. Shortly afterwards, he sticked the torched on the ground and started to set down a layer of thick dry yellow bamboo leaves.

After some effort, the withered yellow leaves were piled together up to his foot’s height. Xiao Xiao’s entire body collapsed on top of the pile of bamboo leaves. Besides cushioning the weight of Xiao Xiao’s fall, it immediately made his body bounce back, causing some bamboo leaves to splatter.

Xiao Xiao was already so tired that he did not move a hair’s breadth. He extended his hand to push aside the dried leaves and placed the whining black dog to his chest to hold: “Xiao Hei. tonight we will consider this pile of dry leaves as our bed. Behave and don’t whine anymore!”

As Xiao Xiao calmed Xiao Hei, the whining sound gradually weakened. The two of them embraced each other as they fell asleep on the pile of dry leaves. Perhaps the all-night climb on TianZi mountain range really did make them exhausted…….
They did not know how long they slept. A burst of cold air blew, the swirl fluttered the dry leaves, causing the sound asleep Xiao Xiao to shiver. He subconsciously opened his pair of eyes and looked around.

It seemed alright, but once he looked, he started.

Feeling pairs of eyes move in the lush fields, Xiao Xiao grabbed the green bamboo above his head and stood up. The black dog on his foot appeared alert. It wished to cry out a whine, yet forced its throat shut and retreated back. After that, it hid behind Xiao Xiao’s trousers.

Xiao Xiao did not dare to move. Rather, he held out a flint paper from within his cuff. With one blow, a small flame immediately emerge. As soon as they felt the flame’s radiance, the surrounding wolves subconsciously backed away.

TL: http://baike.baidu.com/view/40081.htm

Xiao Xiao, who was in a life or death crisis right now right now, did not panic. Instead, he was exceptionally calm. After his state of mind was a little more stable, he felt that this method would not work. Once the feral wolves realize that the flint paper will not harm them, there would be no chance of escaping.

He glanced at the surrounding wolves and estimated that there were as much as 5 or 6 wolves. His eyes shifted to look at the pile of dry leaves and an idea suddenly appeared. He slowly crouched down and as soon as he lit the pile of dry leaves, it immediately ignited.

As the fire intensified, the surrounding feral wolves quickly retreated back. As they retreated, Xiao Xiao, who was facing towards the large fire, heard the lingering sound of the wolves’ howl.

Once Xiao Xiao saw that the wolves backed away fearing the fire, his heart was filled with happiness and shouted, “Xiao Hei, follow!” He lowered his head to pass through the intertwining green bamboo., breaking into a wild run as if his life depended on it.

Focused on escaping through the concentrated, during the whole journey, he did not know how long he been running and felt as if a rock blocked his chest. At any times, it would feel as if he stopped breathing.

Xiao Xiao did not dare to keep running violently again. In this way, even if he were not eaten by the feral wolves, he would die from running. He extended his hand to support himself up with a stick of green bamboo, lowering his head and stooping, gasping large breaths of coarse air.

After a long while, he saw that the feral wolves did not catch up and finally let out a long sigh of relief. Seeing Xiao Hei sticking out its pink tender tongue and also breathing heavily, his face could not help but smile.

Crouching down, he extended his hand to hold Xiao Hei to his chest. Looking at his surroundings, he started to determine which direction to travel.

Unexpectedly there was a steep cliff to the side of his body. Xiao Xiao extended his arm, wishing to hold the slim green bamboo. But the cliff was too steep. As he rolled down more and more times, his head was dizzy from the spinning.

What he felt was the bamboo hitting against his neck, not his head. Nevertheless, Xiao Xiao tightly held Xiao Hei to his chest and never let go.

His consciousness was already becoming vague and he could not feel the pain…….

When Xiao Xiao woke up again, it was already daylight. His face felt moist. He opened his eyelids slightly. As he slowly opened his eyes, nearby, Xiao Hei’s outstretched pink tongue kept licking his cheeks. With each lick, Xiao Hei whined a “Wu Wu” sound.

He woke up wanting to carry Xiao Hei to comfort it for a while. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain. The pain in his body felt as if countless threads twisted his brain into a knot. When he exerts a bit of strength, he could feel all the pain from his entire body.

He took another gasp of cool air and slowly rotated his body by using both elbows to support himself. After spending quite a while, he finally managed to sit up. Thus, before he sat up, the tears on his face had already dried.

The shift in movement had just affected his injury. The once persistent Xiao Xiao to cry because of all the pain. Rolling down the path had brought upon him multiple injuries. Fortunately, his body was nimble from the precious medicine he taken since childhood. His bones were strong and did not appear to have fractures or other serious conditions.

He reached into his chest and pulled out a jade bottle. His expression exhibited a feeling of reluctance, but he thought about how he could not even move a fraction of his body. He lowered his head and used his teeth to bite down on the cork. When he used his strength to pull open the jade bottle, a whiff of the strong medicine smell assailed into his nostrils. Using his hands, he turned the bottle upside down. After swallowing the one and only medicine pellet inside the jade bottle, he calmly waited for the medicine to take effect.

It was his grandfather’s precious healing pellet that he stole when he was about to leave. At the moment, many of the wounds on his body could not be sealed.

After a good while, when his whole body was no longer in that much pain, Xiao Xiao extended his arm to pick up the jade bottle. Although the inside was already empty, he remained reluctant to discard the jade bottle. It was also the only object he brought outside his home.

After collecting the jade bottle, he raised his head to observe the surrounding. He noticed that he had rolled into a low-lying ravine. Several tens of meters away was a pool of water. The water vapor above the surface obstructed him from seeing the entire pool of water.

Just as Xiao Xiao was reckoning the surrounding, he felt the land tremble behind him. He subconsciously turned his body to look back and discovered a large cavern not far behind him.

The entrance seemed like the mouth of a large ferocious monster. Looking ahead, Xiao Xiao felt an odd feeling. Once again the ground trembled. The top soil gravel rustled down. There was a faint sound of a large object striking against something coming from within the cavern.

Xiao Hei followed Xiao Xiao’s gaze and headed into the cavern. It walked and stopped at the mouth of the cavern. Facing into the cavern, it whined twice. The sound was engulfed by the mountain and did not echo back.

Xiao Xiao worried that Xiao Hei would burst with curiosity into the cavern. He strut forward with difficulty to advance and look ahead. Right at this moment, the cavern shook once again, so much more violent than the previous two times.

Xiao Hei, seeing the situation wasn’t good, wanted to return to Xiao Xiao. Right at this moment, because of the cavern’s tremble, a large rock rolled down, landing right at the direction Xiao Hei was returning.

If Xiao Hei had continue running back, the rock would possibly have been turned him into minced meat sauce. Xiao Xiao called desperately, “Xiao Hei, run into the cavern!”

Xiao Hei seemed to have partly understood what Xiao Xiao said and seized the opportunity to rolled back, plunging into the cavern’s dark seclusion. The split second when Xiao Hei’s figure disappeared, a huge rock smashed happened to smash at the position Xiao Hei was standing.

A loud “Boom” sounded. Large boulders plunged into the moist dirt, blocking less than half of the cavern. Seeing that no more rocks were falling, Xiao Xiao quickly advanced.

When he walked to the mouth of the cavern, there was still Xiao Hei’s shadow. In his eyes was a landslide that spread endless darkness into the cavern, like a throat obstruction, slowly spreading downwards.

Xiao Xiao gazed into the cavern’s bottomless darkness. Without taking time to think, he blew at the fire flint paper once again. A weak fire blazed like a sword sticking vertically in the darkness of the cavern.

As he crouched down, both his legs first fell onto the inner cavern ground. He sat down on his butt on top of the soil. With one strike with both his legs onto the ground, his butt slid forward. Using his back and butt as a skateboard, he slid into the depths of the cavern.