The beast will always go through an awkward period, it is strong enough to survive on its own, but it is still greedy for the care and milk of the mother, naively thinking that life should be like this, so it spends all its excess energy rolling and playing with insects, and sometimes there is even such an interesting scene: the little leopard, which is bigger than its mother, lies lazily in the grass and basks in the sun, patiently waiting for the lunch to arrive automatically. Towards the end, once the mother beast is ready to conceive again, the pride of the sky will become an outcast in the blink of an eye, and will have to wander the world alone, and every difficult caracal hunt will wipe out a little of the memory of the innocence of the past, and in the end, it will either die miserably or grow into a ruthless killer.

Fourteen-year-old Gu Shenwei is in a similar stage, his name is a little old-fashioned, but there are still many childlike naughty innocence on his body, his parents and brothers are a little anxious in their eyes, but he has his own plans in his heart: he will wait for his sister to marry before he "officially" grows up.

There are still three months left before this day, but the planned life is interrupted by an accident.

One day at noon, the servant who had gone to the back mountain to graze his cattle brought back strange information: a knight had stopped on the opposite hillside and was looking over the manor.

The old man Gu Lun personally went to the back mountain to check, the knight was gone, he rode a horse and patrolled, but found nothing.

The Gu family only moved from the Central Plains to the Western Regions two years ago, the manor is located in an oasis at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, within a radius of 100 miles is the desert Gobi, there is only a small village at the bottom of the mountain, living more than a dozen tenant farmers, few people, therefore, it is no wonder that the old man was surprised by this news.

Gu Lun was originally a military attaché and was relatively vigilant, and asked the grazing servant about the knight's dress and behavior in detail, and then quietly arranged for Zhuang Ding to strengthen his vigilance.

Gu Shenwei's two elder brothers felt that their father was making a fuss, and the knight was probably a shepherd who had come to look for water and grass, and when he saw that there was someone here, he left automatically.

Gu Shenwei usually has nothing to do, and at this time, like his father, he regarded the situation as "serious", and rode his pony around the manor in a serious manner, and ran over as soon as there was a disturbance, making sure that it was a rabbit or a bird.

But in the next few days, there were no strangers peeping at the manor, everything was calm, and the days seemed to be going on like this again, dozens of people in the Gu family continued to be busy making dowries for the young lady, from the Western Regions to the Central Plains, thousands of miles away, there were a lot of things that needed to be prepared in advance.

Everyone has something to do, and the duty of the little master is to run into his sister Cuilan's boudoir every day, and play coquettishly, provoking her liver and intestines, and before she has left home, tears have already wet several clothes.

Gu Shenwei has a set of ideas in his heart, the Central Plains and the Western Regions are like two worlds, after this parting, I don't know what year, month, and day we can meet again, he just wants to use this seemingly naïve means to make his sister remember himself.

The peaceful days were only temporary, and on the tenth night after the strange knight appeared, several masked guests sneaked into the manor and made a lot of noise.

No matter what the purpose of these people breaking into the manor at night was, it seemed that it was not realized at that time, the old man Gu Lun was loose on the outside and tight on the inside, and he had been arranging Zhuang Ding to check the night, and the vigilant old servant Yang Zheng was the first to discover the intruder.

In the chaos, there were several fights in different places, but the time of the confrontation was very short, and the little young master Gu Shenwei woke up from his sleep in a hazy way, and before he could understand what was going on, the masked man had quickly fled.

No one was hurt.

The whole village woke up, and more than a dozen Zhuang Ding talked with great interest about how they blocked the masked people, listening to their tone, it seemed that there were hundreds of people who broke into the village, but the old servant Yang Zheng was very sure that there were no more than five masked people.

Gu Shenwei was very disappointed that he didn't see the masked man, pestering his father and brother to ask him non-stop, and finally the eldest brother sternly ordered him to shut up, so he reluctantly shrank into a wide armchair and quietly listened to everyone's analysis of the origin and purpose of these masked people.

There are many forces in the Western Regions, and the names of people and places are complicated, Gu Shenwei was confused when he heard it, his interest gradually diminished, and he fell asleep unconsciously, and before he fell asleep completely, he frequently heard two words - butcher, he thought: No matter who the "butcher" refers to, there is nothing to be afraid of, and his father is a real general.

In fact, Gu Lun's general name is not as genuine as his youngest son thought, he used to serve as a palace guard in the Central Plains, and it was not until Zhishi that he was symbolically named the general of Zhengsanpin Shenwu.

In the palace, Gu Lun is famous in the Central Plains martial arts, this is all because of a set of family martial arts, the martial artist Yang Zheng even volunteered to be a slave in order to learn the marksmanship, the eldest son and the second son of the Gu family are also masters, only the youngest son is half a year old, and he still has nothing to learn.

The little master of the Gu family is handsome, looks very smart and clever, and is really studious, but there is a shortcoming - he has no longevity, everything he does is a whim, and he will be abandoned after a few days, and he is the eldest in the family, and the love of his parents and brothers and sisters is integrated, which contributes to his problem.

Gu Shenwei was sent back to the bedroom, and when he woke up, he didn't run to his sister's room as usual, but wandered around the manor, asking for details about the theft last night.

The masked man was defeated with one blow, and the people in the village felt that they had won a battle, and the only regret was that they didn't catch the prisoner, and they didn't even leave a drop of blood, which was inevitably a bit of a fly in the ointment, but they were mouthful for the little young master, and the scene was described as extremely thrilling.

Gu Shenwei was even more disappointed after hearing this, and complained vigorously about his little scholar Mingxiang, blaming him for not waking him up in time.

Ming Xiang and Gu Shenwei are of the same age, and they are the only people in the family who dare to compare themselves with the little master, with their hands spread out, with a look of disbelief, "Young master, you are a person who practices martial arts, you see six ways and listen to all directions, I am a little scholar who listens to the call, I don't know if I fall asleep and kill people, how can I wake you up?"

Gu Shen couldn't argue with the little scholar, so he was so angry that he ran to his sister alone to seek comfort.

Different from the excitement of the Zhuang Ding, the old man Gu Lun and the old servant Yang Zheng were very serious all day, and the supervision of the Zhuang Ding was stricter than usual, and sent people out to inquire about the news, obviously, Gu Lun thought that the matter of breaking into the manor at night was not over.

There was a hint of tension inside and outside the manor.

After half a day's heat, Gu Shenwei didn't care much about the masked man, he was full of confidence in his father's and brother's martial arts, and there were other good hands in the village to assist, that is, thousands of troops came to attack, and the same soldiers came to block, and he only had to watch the excitement.

What's more, the current Western Regions is different from more than ten years ago, when the Western Regions were big countries competing for hegemony, small countries were fighting, powerful and powerful supported troops, and bandits were numerous, and robbers often found that the robbers were their peers, and ordinary people could only hide at home to seek the blessings of gods and Buddhas. Now, all this is a thing of the past, the three major powers of the Central Plains, Beiting, and Shule have reached a balance and reached a compromise, more than 30 small countries of the old and new have resettled, and the bandits have become fewer and fewer, and they have gradually become legends.

When he moved from the Central Plains to the Western Regions, the old man Gu Lun was thoughtful, "The Western Regions are very stable now, and that manor is like a paradise. ”

Gu Lun's words were right, the oasis where the manor was located was indeed like a paradise.

Gu Shenwei believed in his father's words, so he was not worried at all, and as usual, chatting with his sister, wandering around the village, and arguing with the little scholar Mingxiang, as soon as it was dark, he was put to bed by his father, and soon fell asleep.

In the haze, the little master of the Gu family felt that someone was pushing him hard, opened his eyes, and was very dissatisfied, "What are you doing?

The little scholar Mingxiang yawned like the little master, holding a candle in his hand, "It's not a robber, it's a master." ”

Gu Shenwei reluctantly got up, and saw his father's thin figure standing in the shadow of the door.

"Huan'er, put on your clothes and give your sister a ride. ”

Huan'er is Gu Shenwei's nickname, and only the closest family members call him that.

"My sister is leaving, my brother-in-law's family hasn't sent anyone yet. Gu Shenwei was very surprised, he was more than two months away from the original departure date, and he was not mentally prepared at all.

"Well, ahead of schedule, things have changed a bit, so we have to go. ”

Gu Shenwei was too sleepy to think, so he answered, got dressed and put on his cloak with the help of Ming Xiang, Gu Lun tied the prepared burden to his back, and inserted a short sword in his belt.

Gu's family martial arts are known as double swords and guns, and they are not good at using swords, this short sword is specially made for Gu Shenwei, the sword body is narrow, less than two feet long, and weighs more than a catty.

The short sword is usually kept by his father, Gu Shen is rare to use, at this time he couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised, his sleepiness disappeared, and he was about to pull it out to appreciate it immediately, Gu Lun held down his son's hand and whispered:

"You are also a man of the Gu family, use it to protect your sister, protect yourself, don't show off. ”

"Hmm. Gu Shenwei solemnly agreed, and immediately imagined the scene of a group of masked people coming to rob the kiss and holding a short sword in front of his sister.

Gu Lun walked out of the manor from the back door with two children, it was quiet along the way, there was no half a figure, and there were already three people waiting outside, namely Miss Gu Cuilan, personal maid Ju Xiang and old servant Yang Zheng.

Yang Zheng and Gu Lun were also teachers, friends and servants, and Gu Shenwei followed him to practice basic skills for several years, so he called him "Master Yang".

Gu Lun carried his youngest son on the horse, and in the shadow of the nightlight, his face was even clearer, more like an old-fashioned teacher than usual.

The little scholar Mingxiang got on his horse by himself, his body was shaking, he had not woken up too much, he was very dissatisfied with this unexpected escort mission, he would rather huddle in the manor and stay at home, than go into the desert again.

There were only five horses and five people, and her sister Cuilan was wrapped in a cloak with nothing left, and she only brought one of the four close-fitting rings, and she didn't carry much luggage.

"What about the eldest brother and the second brother, what about the mother, and won't the father come with us?" Gu Shenwei asked with wide eyes, completely sleepy, the group of people dressed not like escorting the bride, but more like fleeing.

"You go first, and we'll catch up. Gu Lun replied casually, patted the horse's buttocks, and urged everyone to go on the road.

Gu Shen gently pulled the reins of the horse, and wanted to ask again, Yang Zheng passed by him, and said in a sullen voice:

"Let's go. ”

Gu Shenwei's horse was slapped by Yang Zheng and galloped forward, and when he reined in the horse again and looked back, his father was gone, and he didn't even say a word of farewell to his daughter who was about to get married.

The night was deep, the moon was hanging in the west, it was midnight, Gu Shenwei was very unhappy in his heart, this was completely different from the scene of his sister's marriage in his imagination.