荒墟牧神 - 第204章 少年不堪往事 - 簡牘書房

Shen Mu and the lame old man stared at each other, eye to eye. Old Huo's face was still cold, though his heart was warm. "We're grown men now. None of that sulking. We came to see how you've been getting on these days — and along the way, to let you have a look at whether our hands and legs are still of any use."

The lame old man laughed. "Old Huo ran here all the way from the Great Thunderclap Monastery, so you ought to know he came expressly to see you. The Great Thunderclap Monastery is tens of thousands of li from here; it's only two or three thousand li from Hidden Cripple Village. As for me, I did not come to see you at all — my leg sits in the Imperial Preceptor Jingping's mansion, the nearest thing to you there is."

Warmth stirred in Shen Mu's heart. Old Huo said, "Never mind the lame old man's mockery. Underneath, he's a good sort. When you were small you wet the bed all the time. Granny had never raised a child, and you wore her patience through with it, so she took it into her head to give you to the next village to raise. She carried you over the first day, and the second day there you were, lying in Granny's bed again. However many times she sent you off, back you came, just as mysteriously — and of course it was the lame old man who stole you back."

The lame old man shook his head. "Not a bit of it. What I hate most in this world is children. If I had two legs, I'd be behind him every day of my life, kicking the cheeks of his backside."

A faint ache settled in the pit of Shen Mu's heart. He could scarcely believe it. "When I was little and wet the bed, Granny wanted to give me away? Granny doted on me so..."

"Several times over."

Old Huo said, "Granny had never borne a child or raised one, and you peed like a waterfall. You cried at night, cried when you were hungry, cried when you'd eaten too much, cried when you couldn't sleep. The cow in the pen nearly went mad from your noise at midnight. Small wonder Granny had enough of it. We old things had enough of it too. Even the village head and the pill master said then that giving you away would be all for the best — then there'd be peace."

The ache in Shen Mu's heart deepened. His face darkening, he said, "Grandpa Village Head and Grandpa Pill Master said to give me away as well? How is it I never knew of such a thing?"

The lame old man laughed. "You weren't even a year old. How could you remember? Wetting the bed every day was one thing — the real trouble was that you did your business in it too. The Mute Artisan said at first he'd give you to someone else to raise and throw in a milk cow for good measure. Then you stopped wetting the bed, and so you weren't given away..."

"Grandpa Mute Artisan wanted to give me away too?"

Shen Mu fell silent a moment. "At least I still had Grandpa Blind and Grandpa Deaf to dote on me."

Old Huo said, "The blind old man did dote on you. But after he picked you up and lifted you high, and you peed in his face, and Granny tried to give you away, he said no more."

The lame old man said, "When you were little, the one the deaf old man could least abide was you. You were forever crawling up onto his writing desk, tracking ink everywhere, and you peed in his inkstone..."

He sighed. "You were cuter when you still wet the bed. Once you grew a little you stopped being cute — you'd climb up on the village stone idol and pee on it."

Shen Mu was utterly crushed. Bitterly he said, "Grandpa Huo, Grandpa Lame, I am the cult leader of the Dark Demon Cult now. Can we please leave off the bed-wetting? Let me look at your legs and arms."

The lame old man said to Old Huo, laughing, "This business of being given away by Granny for wetting the bed — when I'm dead and shut up in my coffin, I'll think of it and laugh hard enough to jump right out of it."

A hint of a smile surfaced on Old Huo's face. "So will I."