I live in a very ordinary rural family, listening to my grandmother say that my family has been living in Pinggu County for many years, and my father is the seventh generation of single inheritance, and I am the eighth generation of single inheritance.

  When I was a child, I was ignorant and unaware. Every day, I watched my father go out to work, my mother weave and spin, and my elderly grandmother take care of my grandfather who lay in bed. My grandfather often called me to his side, stroking my head with his thin hands, silently looking at me, his eyes filled with hope.

  Every time this happened, my grandmother would hide outside the door and cry silently. At first, I didn't know why; until one day, my grandfather's hand that was stroking my head fell weakly, and my grandmother's loud wailing, my parents' low sobbing filled my ears. After that, I never saw my grandfather again.

  It wasn't until years later that I realized my grandfather at the time was bedridden due to illness and couldn't walk or even speak, the doctor had judged that he would die early on, but he struggled with his illness for three years just to see me grow up healthy, maybe this is what the sixth generation expects of the eighth generation...

  I'm already ten years old, no longer following my little friends to climb trees and catch bird eggs, or go down to the river to catch grass fish. At this point, I can do some simple household chores for my family. After my grandfather passed away, my grandmother, who was getting older and older, seemed to continue his legacy, busy with her work every day, then sat beside me with a kind face. Originally, I thought such days would go on forever, until one evening.

  That night, Father came home very late. Grandma and Mother were both worried, but Father had a joyful face, took out several large copper coins from his pocket, and told them with a self-satisfied tone how he had mistakenly entered the gambling den because he wanted to take a shortcut home, and how he had made a big killing in the gambling den, winning back 500 coins with just 5 silver coins.

  My mother was also delighted when she heard the news, after all, it was an unexpected windfall, just enough to supplement our family's expenses. My mother even thought about letting me go to school to learn to read and write.

  The old grandmother was different, instead she was tense and grabbed her father's hand, muttering: "Son, you've won money this time, but we must never go to that kind of place again. You know the imperial court prohibits private gambling dens, if you get caught by the officials and something happens to you, what will our orphaned family do?"

  "Alright, alright, I know. You don't have to worry about it anymore, son. I promise I won't go again, isn't that enough?" The father impatiently placated his mother. The grandmother thought the father had given up on the idea of gambling and also stopped nagging, following the mother to discuss how to use the money instead.

  Father did not go to the gambling house again since he listened to grandmother's advice that day, but every time he passed by that alley, he would involuntarily look inside until a month later...

  Father came back home again at midnight, at the same time, father won a lot of money from the casino and returned home. This time, father didn't take out the money in front of grandma, but instead fooled her by saying he was delayed because he met some friends. After grandma fell asleep, he took out the money he had won. Mother happily put the money into a small wooden box, counting it while muttering that she wanted to choose a better private school, even if it meant spending more money.

  After that, Father would often come back very late at night, and Mother would cover up for him every time to prevent Grandmother from finding out about Father's continued gambling.

  This went on for over a month, one day the father who had gone to gamble as usual came back home with a gloomy face. The mother was puzzled and asked what happened, only to find out that this time he didn't win any money but instead lost quite a bit. The mother quickly comforted him, after all they had won so many times before, it's no big deal to lose occasionally.

  But who would have thought that this was just the beginning of a nightmare, and my life trajectory also deviated at that moment. The continuous loss of money finally crushed my mother's confidence, repeatedly advising my father not to go again, but by then my father had already lost his mind. These days, not only did he lose all the money he had previously won, but he also invested a lot of the family's savings. Originally, this money was set aside for emergency use at home, but unexpectedly, my father secretly took it out and used it as gambling capital.

  The mother had no choice but to tell her grandmother the whole story, and the grandmother was so angry that she fainted. The doctor diagnosed it as a sudden attack of fire in the heart, combined with old age and physical weakness, and said that if some medicine were bought for treatment, it might be cured. However, at this time, where did the family have extra money? The father who fell into the devil's trap even wandered outside, only when he lost everything would he come home to find something to sell, and didn't care about his grandmother's body either.

  The grandmother who couldn't afford treatment got worse and worse, and finally left us on August 9th, the same day grandfather passed away. Father's visits home became less frequent, and mother moved around like a walking corpse every day, her eyes dull and lifeless. I was filled with fear as I looked at my mother's eyes, unable to understand why our happy family of four had become like this.

  One day, the big door of my home was kicked open roughly, and a fierce-looking fat man with a group of people rushed into my home. It turned out that my father had lost money at the gambling house and borrowed from the house, now it's time to pay off the debt, the fat man ordered his men to search the house thoroughly, but still couldn't find enough to pay off my father's debt. The furious fat man suddenly fixed his eyes on my mother, roughly took her into the room, I wanted to go up and stop that fat man, but his men directly knocked me to the ground, my repeated resistance was in vain, until the fat man left my home with a scolding, half-naked.

  At this time, my disheveled mother came out of the house, looked at me with a bruised nose and swollen face, and burst into tears as she hugged me tightly. I don't know how long it took for her to stop crying, but when she did, she smiled as she gently rubbed the dark circles under my eyes. This was the last time I saw her smiling, because the next day I found her hanging from a beam in the woodshed.

  With the help of neighbors, I hastily buried my mother and returned home with a tired body to this house that was once filled with laughter and joy.

  I found a hatchet in the woodshed where Mother hanged herself, and by the faint moonlight, the rusty hatchet flashed with a cold light.

  After a few days, my father returned home. The debt collectors seemed to have let him off the hook. When he got back home, he didn't notice that my mother had changed color and suddenly opened her mouth to scold her for secretly running away behind his back, using extremely vicious language to curse my mother.

  At this moment, I coldly stared at him, staring at what was once my father, staring at the cleaver placed under the table.

  Five years later, I was 16 years old and my body had grown up gradually. In the past five years, I relied on the help of neighbors and some odd jobs to survive until now. Five years have passed, and my father is still in a state of decay; five years have passed, and that axe has also returned to its original appearance.

  On a certain evening, a chilly autumn wind blew by, and the broken window creaked.

  The father who had lost again stumbled back home, drunk and fell onto the bed, snoring away. I picked up the axe and slowly walked towards him, the moonlight shining through the window casting a reflection on my face. At that moment, all I could see was the axe and the person he used to be.

  Without a moment of hesitation, without any resistance, he died under my sickle. Before his death, he stared at me in astonishment, opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained speechless. His life disappeared silently, just like when Mother passed away.

  I stared at my blood-stained hands, silently clearing my mind, and sat quietly in the courtyard waiting for dawn.

  When the city gate first opened, I followed the crowd and slipped out. From then on, I hid in the mountains and forests around Pinggu County, unaware of the changes outside, until one day I encountered a group of people wearing soldier uniforms. Their first reaction upon seeing me was to kill me, but their leader stopped them. I was confident that with my years of survival experience in the mountains, I could take down several of them, but the bow and arrow held by the blind-eyed, long-faced man were something I couldn't dodge.

  "Brother, we mean no harm, just passing by this road, don't be nervous," their leader said to me.

  I didn't respond to him, I just slowly backed away, and they also retracted their murderous intentions and rested on the spot. From then on, they lived in this mountain forest like me, and it was only from their mouths that I learned that the outside world had changed, the imperial court was already chaotic, these soldiers were dissatisfied with the Yuan people's rule and escaped to the mountains, over time, they gathered many refugees.

  I have always kept a distance from them and they don't mind, except for the blind man who still regards me with suspicion, while others have long been accustomed to my presence.

  The strange relationship between us had been maintained for a long time, until one day the people who came down from the mountain to explore learned that the outside world was now under the rule of the Han people, and it was the era of the Zhu family. They wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to communicate with the current dynasty, after all, it was difficult to continue maintaining themselves in the mountains due to a lack of supplies. And I quietly went down the mountain at that time, entering Pinggu County for the first time in over a decade.

  I wandered aimlessly on the street, looking at everything around me that hadn't changed.

  Suddenly, a person walked towards me, someone I had been thinking about day and night. At this moment, he was missing one leg, and there were no more fierce and evil followers behind him. His still stout body was limping and hobbling towards me.

  It's still the same knife, without any hesitation, I held Fatso's neck with one hand and kept stabbing him with my right hand. To the end, Fatso had a puzzled face, not knowing why I suddenly attacked and killed him. Maybe he won't remember what happened over a decade ago, but I won't forget, forever remembering.

  The pedestrians on the road stared blankly at me, the murderer. The woman's shrill cry broke the peaceful scene. The people dodged in all directions. The catchers rushed over and knocked me to the ground. I did not resist, nor did I want to resist. They took me into the county prison without a struggle.

  Other prisoners in the cell looked at me curiously, one of them asked curiously: "Brother, what did you come in for?"

  "When I uttered the four words 'killed someone on the street', the other prisoners instantly distanced themselves from me, after all no one wanted to get close to a murderer."

  The county magistrate interrogated me in the hall, I confessed without concealment. Because I have done what I should do, except for slightly missing those people in the mountains, I am now free from worries and it's also time for me to go find my family.

  I was sentenced to be executed after the autumn, in a cold prison cell, I was a silent prisoner. Autumn soon arrived, but what came was not the executioner's ghostly knife, but a middle-aged man with a national character face.

  "I've looked into your case and investigated your background. Are you interested in making a deal with me?" The middle-aged man said, squatting down next to me.

  I coldly stared at him without saying a word, and he seemed to know that I wouldn't respond to him. He continued speaking on his own: "Your family has been single-handedly passed down for eight generations, I know you're desperate to die now, but have you thought about how your family will become extinct if you do? Even though your father is a gambler, can you really justify what you're doing to your ancestors?"

  At this moment, after hearing his words, I thought of my grandfather. The image of my grandfather in my mind has become blurred, but the eyes full of expectation, instantly moved me by his words. I still can't die, I still want to live on, carrying my grandfather's hope to live on.

  "What kind of deal do you want to make with me?" My hoarse voice rang out, and his eyes lit up after hearing it, understanding that I had already been persuaded by him.

  "It's simple, I'll spare your life, you help me kill someone."

  "Good", no doubt he could do it, just thinking about being able to continue living.

  Tomorrow at noon, I watched with a wide-brimmed hat as the prisoner on stage with the same name as me was beheaded. I turned around and left, and in a dark corner, I used that hatchet to slash my own cheek.

  The next day, I found the man at the agreed place. He stared at my face in astonishment and didn't say much, only curiously asking: "You died yesterday, what should I call you now?"

  I took off my bamboo hat and slowly said with a ferocious face: "The person standing in front of you now is called Zhu Jiu."

  "What's your plan next?"

  I stroked the axe in my arms and whispered: "Open the gambling house..."

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