On the dirt road in the countryside, there is the sound of suona and the roar of gongs and drums.
A procession escorting the bride moved forward bumpily, guarding the sedan. In the front is the groom dressed in red and colorful decorations, behind are the brothers receiving the bride, then the brothers and sisters sending off the bride and the eight-carriage sedan.
Most of the suonas in the world have the same sound. The sound is majestic and high-pitched. Coupled with the accompaniment of gongs and drums, it scares countless birds along the way.
Gugu——
An owl hooted from overhead, and a gray bird of prey glided over the team's heads.
A girl in the team frowned, picked up a stone and threw it into the sky. The owl flew very high, and the stone naturally hit the air, crossed an arc and fell down again.
"What's wrong? Why give it a good beating?"
The girl turned around and saw that the person speaking was a young scholar. She recognized him as the youngest and handsome one among the four benefactors who had saved her before. Her face turned red and she said: "Tang...brother. That night owl is an unlucky bird." . The night owl barks to announce the funeral. Today is my sister’s happy day, how unlucky is it to see a night owl? So I drove it away.”
Tang Zhao muttered: "That's it..."
The owl just now belonged to him. As he walked, the owl kept flying around above his head. He saw a lot of owls on the mountain. Almost every one of his fellow apprentices had one. They could both report news and detect information. He just thought they were cute and convenient, and he never thought about anything auspicious or unlucky.
Although he had never thought that owls were unlucky birds, since there was such a taboo in the local area and it was a big day, there was no need to argue. He immediately whistled and made a gesture to signal the owl to fly forward first.
The owl flew away, and the girl sighed softly, not relieved, but a little sad.
Tang Zhao asked: "What? Are you still worried?"
The girl said softly: "I am not saying anything depressing on my happy day... Originally I thought that my brother-in-law was handsome, his family was well-off, and although he had no great potential, he was gentle-tempered, and my sister would definitely be happy if she married him. But today I feel a bit vague. You see The groom married my sister, but he wasn't really happy when we welcomed him. Instead, he looked weird, as if someone was forcing him to marry him. What will happen next... If I had known better, I would have advised my sister not to marry him. "
Tang Zhao looked at the groom, and sure enough he saw that although he was dressed up, riding a tall horse, and looked very talented, he seemed really not very happy. Although he smiled, he smiled very reluctantly. As the girl said, it was clear that A bit weird.
But that's not necessarily because he was really unhappy. Maybe he didn't care about riding the horse and rode on the dirt road for so long, so his buttocks got wet?
Just then, the owl flew back again. It circled three times above several people's heads.
Tang Zhao's face darkened, he thought for a moment, touched Jiang Shenyi, and said, "Brother, please keep an eye on it, I'll go over there and take a look."
Jiang Shenyi raised his eyebrows and said, "Is something wrong?"
Tang Zhao said: "The owl called the police. It may be a thief on the road who is robbing it. It's not surprising that there are thieves in this place. Today is a happy day, don't let anyone ruin it."
Jiang Shenyi said: "I'll go. I'm fast." He had been involved in a lawsuit while teaching his children to practice martial arts for the past few days, and he was about to take action to change his mood.
Tang Zhao saw that he was eager to try, so he handed him the diopter and said, "Try to lead the thief to other places, so as not to rush into the wedding procession."
Jiang Shenyi smiled and said, "Please, big brother." He opened the diopter, his body disappeared behind the twisting light, spread his wings, and flew away with the owl.
Tang Zhao looked at the direction of the owl and thought to himself: Isn't this the direction where they sent their bride? Could it be that there is a blind thief who wants to rob the wedding team?
Looking back, Sang Jialiang was riding a big mule, chatting and laughing with his in-laws who were picking up his bride. He didn't bother him and turned to his two companions in Liangzhou.
The group walked all morning and arrived at Huzhuang before noon. Huzhuang is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, making it very lively. After all, the girl from the Sang family married the son of Zhuangtou, and her family was relatively well-off, so the wedding was quite grand.
When Tang Zhao saw this scene at first, he thought that Huzhuang was richer than Wushubao, but when he went in and took a look, he realized that he was overthinking it. The eight-person family in Huzhuang is really poor, with no clothes to cover their bodies, and only four walls, which is worse than Wushubao. However, Zhuangtou's home is much wider than that of the Sang family and the Liang family. It is almost like a large mansion of a wealthy family.
A flower hall has already been set up in the courtyard, waiting for the newlyweds to come and worship. Zhuangtou and his wife greeted him at the door.
The bride's father died early, and Sang Jialiang, as the brother-in-law who saw off the bride, spent time with the in-laws. Tang Zhao followed the crowd and saw that the old man was still smiling, and there was nothing unusual about it. His wife smiled very reluctantly, and there was no smile in her eyes.
how? Was this marriage forced? The couple is not a good match, or...
Tang Zhao thought about it, and pushed forward regardless of the crowd, and squeezed to the side of Sang Jialiang. Sang Jialiang saw him at a glance and quickly grabbed him and introduced him to Zhuangtou. The head of the village was surprised when he saw that Tang Zhao was dressed well and looked unfamiliar, but he did not dare to neglect him and said many kind words.
Originally, Tang Zhao was neither a relative nor an acquaintance, so he should have stepped aside after the introduction, but he just stood beside Sang Jialiang blankly and followed him through the entire wedding. During this series of processes, except that Hu Zhuangtou looked strange, there were no surprises.
After a while, a banquet was set up in the courtyard. Outside is a tented flowing banquet, and inside the courtyard is a serious banquet, where the whole village, old and young, eats together. As the head of the girl's family, Sang Jialiang naturally sat at the main table, and her parents-in-law also came to the table. Tang Zhao squeezed in front, and Sang Jialiang naturally pulled him to the main table and asked Tang Zhao, "Where are the others?"
Tang Zhao said vaguely: "They don't drink. They went out to play after visiting the wedding."
Sang Jialiang felt deeply sorry for him and pulled him to sit next to him. Tang Zhao noticed that Hu Zhuangtou opposite him was looking at him more and more wrongly, and he became more and more rude. He smiled and sat down firmly.
Home-brewed village mash was served at the banquet, and Tang Zhao took a sip first. Apart from the bad taste, there was nothing wrong with it, so he didn't delay everyone's drinking. Sang Jialiang took a bowl of wine and said, "Why didn't you see the second brother?"
He was asking about the groom's younger brother, Hu Zhuangtou's second son. Hu Zhuangtou said vaguely, "He's out."
At this time, an old man next to him came over drunk and said with a smile: "The second master is now prosperous. He has learned martial arts and joined the Donghe Water Village. He specializes in eating passing merchants. Now he drinks heavily and eats large pieces of meat. I don't know how much he has done. Happy and happy..."
The people next to him hurriedly pulled him away. Sang Jialiang's face darkened. He endured it again and again, put down the wine glass, and said: "Okay, if you really have a future, you can get into the water! There are big waves on the river. Be careful of the Dragon King!"
The people at the table looked at each other in confusion. One relative of the Hu family was unhappy and shouted: "What do you say on this happy day..." Old Man Hu quickly held down his words and said: "My relatives are right. If you are floating on the boat, shouldn't it be under the control of the Dragon King? Eat?" Let’s drink and drink!” He also served wine to Sang Jialiang and said, “What are you doing with that prodigal seed on this happy day? You can’t help your mother when you are older. That kid has been a bastard since he was a child. When he grows up, no one can control him. Let him go. He deserves to die outside. But my eldest son is definitely a good person, hard-working and honest, and a person who makes a living, so don't worry."
Sang Jialiang was really angry. He hated those thieves the most. There hadn't been a thief in Wushu Fort for many years. He didn't expect that his sister would marry a bandit. At this time, I was hesitant and wanted to take the girl away for a moment, but I thought that this brother-in-law had been inspected by myself. There was indeed nothing wrong with him, and the girl liked him. He couldn't mess with it based on his own whim. But there is a feeling of uneasiness in my heart - there is no bridal chamber yet, and there is still room for regret. If you hesitate, you will regret it.
He hesitated here, his face darkened, and he sat still. The atmosphere around the table was extremely awkward. Several relatives drank a few glasses of wine and left one after another, and the banquet outside was also hastily dispersed. Only Tang Zhao sat beside him, as if he wanted to sit there until the end of time.
Old man Hu went out to see someone off and came back and said: "Uncle Sang, please read this for your brother-in-law's sake. I have always thought that the younger son is dead and only live a good life with my eldest son. Our two villages are not far apart." , this marriage is like forming an alliance. In the future, we will advance and retreat together, and fight against thieves together. Isn't this a good thing? The old man has a vat of good wine. My son has brewed it since he was born and hid it in the cellar. It will be twenty years this year. I'll take it out and let's have a drink." After that, he stood up to get the wine.
As soon as he left, Sang Jialiang took a breath and said to Tang Zhao: "Young master, I told you to watch a joke."
Tang Zhao said: "What kind of joke? Things go wrong all the time in this world. This kind of thing depends on Brother Sang's decision."
Sang Jialiang shook his head and said: "You say you can't control it, but you still don't want to control it. I know that although there are people in other villages who are afraid of thieves and hate thieves, they wish they could become thieves themselves. They are not afraid of embarrassing their ancestors and ruining their children and grandchildren. This is still I don't know how to die. I have a merciless request. The young master will tell him later how the thieves were stabbed one by one when they met the knights of the rivers and lakes. Especially how the water thieves were thrown into the water to feed the fish. Call this old man I was afraid and persuaded his son to come back."
Tang Zhao said: "Okay. I'm good at this."
It just so happened that they had killed a boatload of water thieves before. The water was electrified and they died miserably.
It can't be such a coincidence, right?
--
They were waiting to drink good wine, and someone was still waiting in the inner hall.
The groom saw off the guests and went back to the inner hall. He saw a short clown sitting in the hall, staring at him.
The groom forced a smile, bowed and said, "The third in charge of the family."
The ugly man glared at his two mouse eyes and said, "Why are you so slow? Why don't you put that tough guy down yet?"
The groom smiled and said, "There were a lot of people outside just now. Dad was afraid that making a move in front of everyone would make a big fuss and mess up the plans of the kings, so he didn't move. He waited until the banquet was over and made a move alone. Now that the medicine has been brought up, we will start immediately. Just put him down."
The ugly man gnashed his teeth and said, "What's wrong with more people? You're just making excuses for procrastination. If the delay lasts for a long time, my fourth son will be waiting in ambush outside. He will lead the younger ones into the village and bump into a man. Kill one. He has such a temper, but he doesn’t care whether there are many people or not!”
The groom was sweating profusely and said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, you are so noble. We have no intention of delaying! The man named Sang is outside. My father is very considerate and will never fail!"
The ugly man ignored him and said, "Your wife has entered the bridal chamber."
The groom looked ugly and said, "Just now..."
The ugly man clicked his tongue and said, "Okay, anyway, we're waiting. You wait outside, and I'll go in and wait. The bridal chamber is a good place, so I went in for you." After that, he reached out and grabbed the groom's hat, and buckled it on On his head, he wandered into the bridal chamber.
The groom's legs went weak and he sat down on the ground with a pale face.
"The water bandits died so miserably at that time. After they were electrocuted, they were floating on the river like dead fish. Each one of them was beyond recognition, even his parents could not recognize him..."
At the wine table, Tang Zhaozheng talked endlessly about his and his party's experiences.
Old Hutou's face turned pale after hearing this. On the one hand, Tang Zhao spoke so vividly and vividly that he was immersed in the scene, thinking of his youngest son. On the other hand, the wine was poured, but Sang Jialiang didn't drink a sip.
Seeing that Tang Zhao had finished speaking, Lao Hutou wiped his sweat and said: "Master, Mr. Sang, let's not talk anymore. Let's drink and eat vegetables first."
Tang Zhao waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, I just finished telling the story of Pingshui bandits and a black shop. I never get tired of telling this story about evil being punished. Let's just say that we got off the boat that day and arrived at the road. We were at a small shop and wanted to have a cup of tea. The lady boss had a fierce look on her face, and she didn’t look like a good person. She poured us tea, and when I smelled it—"
He said, picking up the wine bowl next to him and bringing it to his mouth. Old Man Hu swallowed and stared at his wine bowl.
"When I smelled it, the anesthetic smell was exactly the same as today's wine!"
"Snapped--"
The wine bowl was on the ground, smashed to pieces!
