After a busy day, Pang Qingfeng was very tired. The business in the tavern has been good in recent days, but no matter what, it seems that he is closely related to the young man from the past few days. I heard that the young man was missing half of his front teeth. Speaking of the man, the young-looking young man seemed to be a member of the Boyu Gang, one of the top gangs in the capital. Judging from his conversation and speech, he should not be among the top gang members, and he had a great background.
I have been working as a waiter in this tavern for a few years, but Pang Qingfeng has also met many people from the Boyu Gang, but most of them are carrying knives and swords. During this period, I have met two or three people who are probably the hall master Xiangzhu. Most of the characters are surrounded by gangs and are dressed in luxurious clothes. During the season when they pass by the official road in front of the tavern, they can really be called bossy and quite domineering. But that young man is different. He usually wears plain clothes when he comes and does not wear jade. , He never rode a high horse, and he seemed to be quite incompatible with the people in the Boyu Gang, so he never took the man's words to heart, and still chatted with the young man from time to time.
But this made the tavern owner angry, and he started scolding him over and over again, saying, "You are such a weak boy, how dare you chat with the nobles in the Boyu Gang? Could it be that you really want to fly up the branch?" Step on my head? It's better to put your mind away and serve the guests with peace of mind, so as not to have to eat and drink in the store when you don't have a few pennies left every month.
Pang Qingfeng's speech has always been unclear, and most of his chats with friends are hemming and hawing, and he has some stuttering. Only when this young man came to the tavern, he could barely speak clearly, and his stuttering was slightly relieved. As a result, Pang Qingfeng was very happy to chat with the young man. Even though the current shopkeeper was very unhappy, and the man often stood aside and made sarcastic comments, Pang Qingfeng remained unmoved. When there was no idle time in the tavern and no customers came, he scrubbed When the table is being set, one must take the time to look outside the door, and wait until the young man comes to greet him.
However, the boy did not come to the door for three or two days in a row, so Pang Qingfeng often went outside to wait. He still hunched his shoulders and squatted on the steps outside the threshold, watching the official and Taoist people coming and going. He probably had other thoughts and hoped to see him again. When I saw the girl in red, I had not yet finished painting the beauty picture at home, but according to Pang Qingfeng, who looked at it for himself, he found that the painting was indeed sixty-seven points similar. Even his timid and shy temperament, They all had a little courage for no reason, thinking that when they saw the girl next time, they would present their paintings to her, maybe they could really make the girl smile.
The girl looked very beautiful when she had no expression on her face, but she didn't know what she would look like if she smiled. However, Pang Qingfeng often thought that she could survive the deep spring season and live in the deserted countryside outside the capital. Flowers in Asakusa.
So when the man with half a front tooth took a nap outside in the afternoon, he would often see the shabby young man with ink stains on his hands squatting outside the tavern, smiling silly, just like the old farmer who saw the golden acreage in autumn. .
Tonight the moon's shadow is sinking on the wall, which is the best time to save lamp oil and candlelight.
After Pang Qingfeng returned home, he hurriedly took two bites of dry food that was as cold and hard as bricks, spread out the rice paper on the table, and didn't care about anything else. He grabbed two paper pressing stones, grinded ink and added pen, and hurried to the thatched cottage. Outside, I found a flat lying cow stone. I leaned against the evening breeze and carefully started writing while looking at the moonlight in the sky.
It’s just that Pang Qingfeng always has some doubts in his heart. Originally, this village was very quiet, especially at night. Most of the old people living here had gone to bed early to avoid being hungry at night. However, it was different in the past two days. In the evening breeze, I heard some sounds that seemed to be the clash of copper and iron, and there was a faint snort of a horse, but I didn't know where it came from. I tried following the sound several times, but all failed, so I simply returned. He no longer cared about it, but settled down to pick up the brush and paint.
When the moon is bright, even the wild grass looks like orchids.
Three to five hundred steps away, down the slope, five or six men extinguished the bonfire, talking in low voices with their palms on their pillows. From time to time they looked inside and outside the thatched cottage where Pang Qingfeng was, putting their swords aside, feeling a little bored.
"That helmsman Yun is weird. He rarely shows up in the gang. He spends all day guarding the Huchao Pavilion, which never makes any money. However, he is very valued by helmsman Iron. It's probably because he was in danger last year. Then Yun Zhong saved the life of the Iron Helmsman, but with the skills of our Helmsman, why should others save him? It is obvious that a kid who has not yet reached the peak of his age has such skills." The man holding the sword snorted twice and said no. If you listen carefully, you will be full of complaints, grinning frequently, and quite disapproving.
"Perhaps that boy is a distant relative of the Iron Helmsman, and he just took advantage of this to get a job. Apart from interrogating the accounts of several stores in the gang, he had very little free time. In the first few days, two or three brothers saw this. The Cloud Helmsman often He goes in and out of the tavern, and has a close friendship with the shopkeeper of Lingzilou. He is such a high-minded person who would not even be willing to show his respect to the Iron Helmsman, let alone a young young man. I don’t even know who is the distant relative of a nobleman in the gang who received such benefits for no reason.” When mentioning this matter, the other people were also a little aggrieved. If Yun Zhong hadn’t come out halfway, they might have been with a few people. A familiar sword-wielding man can step up from the position of leader of the hall to the position of helmsman. Naturally, he has to seek some benefits for his brothers. At least he can also arrange some casual jobs, and he will receive a monthly salary, but he will be much more relaxed all day long. , Why do you want to squat here day and night, of course you are very angry.
The man holding the sword sneered, "It's best not to make wild guesses about this kind of thing. If you speculate too deeply and dig out the roots of that kid and spread the news to everyone in the gang, you may have to destroy the lives of several important people in the gang." Honor; that man had never had lustful thoughts when he was young, but unfortunately he already had a wife and children at home, so he had no choice but to send the boy elsewhere. When he got older, he would take him back to the gang and arrange it with his own power. It’s a sinecure, but I don’t know.”
These words were quite crude, but they just touched the minds of several people. They all couldn't help but smile on their faces, but they didn't laugh out loud, for fear that the young man who was busy painting would notice. After all, people are under the roof now. Those who neglect their duties in the Boyu Gang have always been severely punished, not to mention the mere leader. In the past few years, a leader was delayed due to drunkenness, causing the gang to almost lose thousands of taels. Yin Qian, not to mention being downgraded several levels and becoming a member of an ordinary gang, was expelled from the gang and left the capital in embarrassment, never to be heard from again.
After all, it was the old man from Lingzilou who had a very high status in the gang who entrusted it with Yunzhong Tiezhongtang. Although he had never been convinced at all by the partial gang leader, after all, the gang had gang rules. If anything went wrong, The end is often miserable and embarrassing.
"But having said that, why does a waiter in this ordinary tavern need to be looked after by me and a few others? In the current world, in this important place in the capital, who would care about the stupid waiter in this run-down tavern? Let alone what if something happens. If you make a move, you will be investigated thoroughly, and beheading is considered a trivial matter. There are murders around the capital, and even if there are high-ranking officials behind the scenes, it is difficult to remove them completely." One person opened his mouth and pulled out a root from his side when he had nothing to do. After taking a bite of the grass stem, he quickly took a few mouthfuls in succession, cursing that the grass roots were difficult to chew in this early spring. He huddled back angrily, and several people on the same side moved closer together to protect themselves from the cold.
"Perhaps the iron helmsman is greedy and the shopkeeper of Lingzilou is old and stupid, which is why this kind of thing happened. If you ask me, the crux of the matter lies with Yun Zhong. Most likely, he is looking for an unreasonable hard work because he is an eyesore to you and me. I've seen too many of these methods in the gang, so that I can kill a few of us. If this situation continues, the Boyu Gang will fall apart and be rotten from head to root in less than ten years. "Obviously his resentment has not subsided, the man holding the sword snorted and cursed, but then he frowned and smelled the smell carefully. Just when he was about to say something to the people around him, he fell down in a daze.
A man in red clothes squatted on the slope, stretched out his fingers to count for a while, smiled with satisfaction, took away the swords of several people, and immediately left.
Pang Qingfeng still took advantage of the moonlight to almost press his eyes to the rice paper. His hand was very steady, for fear of making the thin hair on the woman's temples thick and straight. Before starting to write, he needed to think about it for a while, and then started writing again until the ink on the tip of the pen was drawn. It was so faint that there was no trace, so he hurried back to the thatched cottage to re-research the ink and add pen. But the young man never noticed from the beginning to the end that a man in red suddenly walked up to the side of the lying cow stone. He stared at the scroll for a long time, with a complicated look in his eyes.
When it was almost the second watch, Pang Qingfeng rubbed his sore eyes, unfolded the rice paper with satisfaction, looked at the moonlight for a long time, and checked again and again that there was no mistake in the painting, and then he put down the breath he had been holding on his chest, his expression Tired and happy, I carefully put away the scroll and walked slowly back to the thatched cottage. However, I couldn't bear the joy in my heart after all. I lit the lamp and looked at the scroll carefully. The woman on it had handsome features, carrying a sword and riding a horse. The officials around her When they first met, there were no flowers and plants, but Pang Qingfeng rarely added some thoughtfulness and added many small flowers and grass on both sides of the bluestone official road.
But then the young man became worried again, pressed his eyebrows and sighed, even muttering something in his mouth.
"I want to draw a girl to accompany me, but we can't live in this thatched cottage with two people. We need to add a small courtyard. The mansion does not need to be too big. A mansion with two people in and two out is too empty for just two people to live in; it is light spring and winter. If you want to add a place where you can burn charcoal fires, it is best to have a bookstore and an old well with clear water. You also need to add some rouge. Although she is from the world, she has a very good-looking face. If you apply powder lightly again, maybe the gods will say hello to you when they see you."
But after saying that, Pang Qingfeng frowned even more tightly, looked up at the moonlight outside, rubbed his numb hands and muttered, "But if everyone thinks it's good, don't I count as the exception?" "
From the beginning to the end, there is a girl in red standing behind the thatched cottage. Although her face is covered by a gauze, no matter how you look at it, her features and eyes are the same as those of the woman in the painting, with her eyelids drooped.
