Heart-pounding every step

  Li Yuan's reunion with others may have been just a small episode in his wandering life, but it made him realize the urgency of life. What he needs to do now is not to find his son, but to survive first - most importantly, he needs a set of clothes, or rather, an identity suitable for this era.

  Heaven has played a big joke on him, from now on he will have to struggle for survival, and kinship has become a luxury.

  "I'm going to your grandma's time-traveling, I'm going to your grandma's phone!" Su You roared and threw his Nokia, which had been with him for over three years, into the river by the side of the road. As the phone drew a beautiful arc and fell into the river, Su You's tears also flowed out, but he quickly clenched his fists, knowing that to gain something, one must first lose something.

  Su You then used stones to sink the backpack that had been on his back for six and a half years, which contained his pen and notebook.

  Now, Su You only has a watch, a black diamond ring, a chromium steel dagger and a packet of pumpkin seeds on him. The first few items are essential equipment for Su You, but the packet of pumpkin seeds is his son's favorite snack, also the last memento left by his son, Su Yunfan.

  Su You threw away many external objects, but he really didn't have the courage to take off the clothes that best represented his identity. However, he believed that the moment when he would be able to take off these clothes wouldn't be too far away. At least now he had a plan, a plan to steal clothes from a nearby farm.

  But his plan was soon aborted by a childish and naive cry.

  "Thunder! Bring in the clothes!"

  "Damn it! Get the clothes in, damn it! …” Su You cursed angrily, raising his middle finger to the sky, but he still quickly ran towards a dilapidated small hut outside the village as the heavy rain was about to pour down; according to rural customs, that should be an earth god temple.

  "Halt!" Just as Su You was about to enter the broken house with his head poking in, he heard a low and stern shout, like an order.

  "Ah, I'm just passing by and wanted to take shelter from the rain." Su You only noticed then that two robust men in military uniform were standing at the door, their hands already tightly gripping the hilts of their swords as one of them shouted.

  Su You subconsciously raised his hand, and then threw the homemade bow and arrow that he had carried with him for nearly three months to one side. The scene was just like those criminals in later generations encountering the power of justice.

  "Taking shelter from the rain? What a fine excuse!" The two men heard Su You speak casually, but they didn't dare to be careless. They gripped their knives tightly and quickly formed a pincer movement around Su You, clearly because Su You's strange attire had given them a shock.

  "Lao Ba, what's the point of wasting so many words? Just tie him up first." The burly man with a small mustache in front of Su You gave an order to someone behind him. Su You even heard excitement mixed with tension in his voice, and he realized that his identity as a spy had already been confirmed at this moment.

  But could he resist? Su You didn't find a single advantage in himself.

  "Kneel down!" Old Eight shouted, and immediately kicked Su You's leg with one foot; Su You didn't expect the attack to come so quickly, he was caught off guard and was kicked into a dog-eat-shit position. Looking at the pair of shoes that were only a few centimeters away from him, his heart was filled with anger and humiliation, but he couldn't express this anger and humiliation.

  "What are you putting on?! Kneel down!" Hu Zi lifted his foot, the toe of his shoe already touching Su You's chin.

  A strange smell peculiar to cowhide suddenly came from Su You's nose, but he had to warn himself "a good man doesn't take advantage of the situation", and immediately knelt up straight and put on a timid face.

  "Where's the token? Bring out the token." Old Eight grabbed Su You's long hair from behind, and the latter found that after crossing over, he was delighted to have a habit of keeping his hair long, but at this moment his long hair had become a small braid that people could grab at will.

  "What's a 'mao yue'?" Su You whispered, and soon guessed that it might be something like an ID card or temporary residence permit; but he was just a drifter, a so-called "three-noes" person, what did he have to do with a "mao yue"?

  "Ah, ah... I'll look for it." Su You's first reaction was still to maintain his usual calm demeanor, but his subsequent actions were meant to convey that he had indeed misplaced the item recently and only just realized it now. However, it was clear that the two people in front of him were not rookie police officers fresh out of school, so they looked at Su You with a gaze like a cat playing with an old mouse.

  "Pose! You just pose for me!" As Su You made a dejected expression after searching in vain, Hu Zi ridiculed him and suddenly kicked one foot over, Su You wanted to dodge but didn't dare, besides he wasn't sure if he could dodge this sudden kick.

  "Hmm." Su You retreated backward, letting out a muffled grunt, somewhat regretting his initial decision to surrender. If he had turned around and run away at the beginning, perhaps the outcome wouldn't have been so dire; he also regretted coming to this dilapidated temple, if only he had endured for two more days, stealing a set of clothes shouldn't be a big deal...

  But if it's always just an if, and history never believes in ifs, then all he can do now is think of a countermeasure, or deceive them, or temporarily endure the humiliation, waiting for an opportunity to escape again.

  "Isn't it great? You'll soon experience the thrill of being a nobody." Lao Ba flashed to one side as Su You fell backwards, causing the back of his head to hit the doorsill directly. Fresh blood accompanied by pain gathered into a small lump on the back of his head.

  "Never mind, the interrogation isn't our business." Hu Zi apparently didn't want to waste his effort either, and directly took out a rope to tie up Su You's hands and feet. After finishing tying him up, he started searching through Su You's belongings.

  "What is this? Shining golden light, really not bad." Lao Ba immediately took off Su You's watch.

  "This dagger... we've caught a big one today." Hu Zi drew out Su You's dagger and with a light swing, cut off a small wooden stick the size of a thumb, saying this as he gazed deeply into Su You's eyes, "Looks like it's a big fish."

  "Sir, these things all belong to my master, I'm just a humble thief." Su You looked at the whiskers with an unkind gaze and hastily threw out his latest identity, which he had just made up. Although he used to look down on thieves, now he had no choice but to choose to be one.

  "Thief? Robber? How interesting." Old Eight walked around Su You, who was tied up like a rice dumpling, and couldn't help but laugh. Su You had big ears and fair skin, and no matter how you looked at him, he didn't resemble the usual scrawny, sallow-faced, lecherous-looking suspects they caught.

  "It's quite interesting, haha." Hu Zi looked at Su You's extremely sincere eyes and still couldn't help but kick him in the chest again. After kicking him, he regretfully examined himself and said, "We usually rarely hit people, but you, why do you look so punchable?"

  "Never mind, Second Brother, let's get something to eat. It's almost dark." Old Eight shook his head, although he was also curious about Su You's background, but the rumbling protest from his stomach made him too busy to think about other things.

  "What's good to eat? Nothing but steamed buns and salted vegetables." Hu Zi muttered, his hand already leaving the knife handle.

  "What's this?" Old Eight said as he pulled out a wine gourd.

  "Wine? You little rascal, you actually brought wine on patrol! Hand it over to me quickly." Old Second started with a righteous tone, but gradually turned into an overbearing rogue. This was clearly because he had always been bullying his fellow patroller, Old Eight, or perhaps, hiding a gourd of wine also had the intention of currying favor with Old Second.

  The two men ignored Su You and first tidied up a place to sit and lie down, then lit a fire for lighting. They took out steamed buns, salted vegetables and other food from their bags, which made Su You drool constantly. He hadn't eaten anything all day.

  "Big brother, can you give me a little something to eat?" Su You felt his lips were dry, the roof had several leaks but he couldn't get a single drop of water. At this point, it wasn't that Su You wanted to beg for food from the two men, rather he just wanted to strike up a conversation with them.

  "You little scamp, stay put! We don't have enough to eat ourselves, how can we spare some for you?" Old Eight heard Su You's plea and impatiently refused outright, but it was clear that his words were not entirely truthful, as the several half-eaten buns scattered on the ground had already betrayed him.

  "Alright." Su You replied helplessly and began to cultivate his energy.

  The rain kept falling, and the atmosphere wasn't very harmonious...

  Time slowly passed among these two groups of people who inexplicably met yet were born to be enemies, until the words gradually came to a halt, until the bonfire also gradually went out.

  Just before dawn broke, Su You saw the darkest moment, but he used the eyes given by this dark night to find the light.

  Su You silently spat out the ring that had been hidden in his mouth. This ring, he had quickly taken off and hidden in his mouth at the moment he knew he was going to be tied up but then kicked down. It was laughable that these two guys in front of him, although they had checked him carefully, even looking at his butt, couldn't think of the fact that there was a ring with a black diamond in his mouth.

  Su You finally cut open the rope on his hands and then cut open the restraints that bound his feet.

  If he wanted to leave now, he could have left long ago, but this is not Su You's usual style.

  He crept up to the two drunkards by the firelight and picked up a knife they had casually thrown on the ground...