"My lord, what you said is ridiculous. How can a young and vigorous gentleman like you lower your body and go to such a realm?" When the man heard the young man's words, the corner of his mouth twitched twice. He suppressed the anger in his heart and still managed to do so. He forced a few dry laughs at the black-clothed young man in front of him, "How can I, my little girl, be able to serve you, a man of the highest caliber and bearing? I dare you to guess, I am afraid that you have remembered the wrong person. My family The little girl is clearly a court lady in Baiqiong Tower. She had agreed not to serve the guest at the beginning. It is probably because you, the noble one, forgot about things and confused the little girl with others."
The man's words didn't sound like lies, and they were quite courteous and cautious. Even Yun Zhong couldn't help but look at this short-skinned man with an unattractive appearance, but he still refused to give up and leaned down slightly to squint. His eyes were cheerful and showed no trace of emotion, "I once heard someone say that the only daughter in Xiongtai's family is only about ten or twenty-three years old now. Not to mention that Xiongtai's family was originally a bare-bones house with no decent furnishings. After searching for it, how can you ask someone to teach piano, chess, calligraphy and painting? For such a high-ranking family, they force their own children to learn arts since they were young. How many of them are only in their teens, twenties and threes, can really make a living by relying on piano, chess, calligraphy and painting? ?”
Bafang Street has always been famous because of the extravagance of the people there. It is already slightly higher than anywhere else in the world, and its reputation is unparalleled. Everyone knows that there is Bafang Street in Xuanhua City. Its wealth and extravagance can be compared with the imperial cities in the world. Naturally, it is Everyone hears the three words Bafang Street and is indifferent to them. Since there is extravagance and wealth, among them, the literati who are good at playing music, chess, calligraphy and painting are always waiting for a price. Of course, they have to come here to try their luck. The worst thing is that they can stay in the shops on Bafang Street and share the wealth with those rich masters behind the shops. After gaining some friendship, you can take it for granted that you don't have to worry about money. To put it more seriously, the skills and knowledge accumulated over many years can finally be put on the table and earn some money.
Therefore, even if there are smart people in the street, they may not necessarily be well-versed in literature. Many of them are just ordinary people who have known how to run a household and earn money since childhood. After decades of walking on thin ice, as if walking through a thunder pond, they earn a substantial income. After years of living here, my knowledge may not be deep, but my knowledge and thinking are extraordinary. Therefore, I often listen to musicians playing piano, masters playing chess, and precious calligraphy and paintings brought by neighbors and friends. Over time, I naturally develop a pair of He has extremely good eyesight, but if his ability is mediocre, he will definitely not buy it.
Yun Zhong knew these things well, and so did the man.
"Actually, brother has guessed it a long time ago. He also knows that in Bafang Street, only the price is not enough, and there are no items that cannot be sold. Even people are like this," the young man said in a voice Lower down, "About two months ago, there was a wealthy businessman in the street. His wife was very favored by his wife. However, the latter was getting older and often looked at the bronze mirror alone and was unhappy. The wealthy businessman sent countless orders. People and even people from all walks of life went out to search for good prescriptions. Even if they didn't care, they still had to relieve their worries for their wives. After all, they got a prescription. The other medicinal materials were easy to find. The only one was soaking the dough with the blood of a virgin's wrist. This made the wealthy businessman very worried, so he had to post a notice asking girls with smooth skin and delicate faces from around Xuanhua City to come forward. A bowl of blood water can be exchanged for a hundred taels of silver."
"Six or seven bowls of blood would be enough to make an ordinary person faint, but on that day, almost all the women who came to apply for the army had given out ten bowls of blood. There were even four or five women with weak bones who thought they were dead. Even if there are doctors watching, it will be of no use in the end."
"Every family is suffering. Although some people can't stand and talk without back pain, but why bother to take this road when they know that they will be ruined by others? It's too late to regret." Looking up at the scorching sun hanging in the sky, the young man slowly closed his eyes. , clicked his tongue twice, and sighed sadly for no reason, "No one can say whether it is right or wrong, but if you think about it, you can get a rough idea. If it is not a last resort, whoever wants to sell his son or daughter, why not just do it for himself? Can it solve the urgent need, so that the children can have enough food and clothing?"
The man was trembling all over. He was obviously wearing very elegant clothes, but now he was sinking into the floating soil. His eyes were wide open, his teeth were gritting, and he was soaked in the long wind.
I don't know whether it was out of guilt or shame, but since he sent his daughter to that Baiqiong Tower, the man has never sent a letter. Except when he is drunk all day long, he just goes to the card game played by those squire. Almost every day he had to pay back a lot of money, but it was clear that he had lost a lot of money. On the contrary, the man felt that he could feel a little better. It was as if the money he had lost had never been received by himself, and he had never transferred it with his own hands. The girl was sent to the Baiqiong Tower.
In remote areas, diseases are easy to occur, which naturally leads to a lot of troubles, and you are helpless and powerless.
The young man turned aside the man whose face was already red and sighed softly, "But even if there are all kinds of reasons, I still look down on you."
The man who had been holding on until now finally couldn't recognize this understatement. His whole body trembled, and he suddenly raised his fists and hit the young man's face with such force that it seemed that he had never abused his body in these years. However, Yun Zhong raised his hand to stop him, and the expression on his eyebrows did not change.
"You have been alive for many years, so you should be very shrewd. Today I can mention this matter to you without telling you. It is probably because I know something about it, and I probably want to take care of it. If I really hit you hard with this punch, I'm afraid you will have to wait until you are very old before you can see the daughter you miss so much." He calmly shook off the man's fist, and the young man remained calm, slapping his palms clean of the dust. , smiled to himself and said, "That's right. I am the kind of master who can give up his children in exchange for money. Telling you these things is like playing the harp to a cow, so it is better not to say anything."
The two of them walked back and forth in the village, but they happened to meet a woman with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks. She had a black mole on her cheek the size of her fingertip. She had an extremely old bamboo basket on her arm, which was probably made from a nearby gun. When I returned home in the middle of a small gathering, most of the fish in the bamboo basket that were less than a finger long had not been sold, so my expression was very gloomy. Only then did I see the man and the young man walking back and forth towards the west of the village. It was Xiao Yin who came forward to talk to the man.
At first, he was flattering, saying that the man's clothes were very good just by looking at the material. When I got married many years ago, I was afraid that I couldn't compare to these clothes, but soon my words became more sarcastic, making insinuations and scoldings, saying: It was the man who was born with a very good fate, probably because the ancestral tomb was located in the east of the village and the feng shui was very good, with smoke rising from the tomb, so he raised such a girl who could earn a thousand taels of silver before she even left the palace. Maybe she is in that place now. The Baiqiong Tower in the street enjoys a happy life, but compared to these ordinary civilians, they live more like human beings.
Xuan even asked where the young man came from. He looked at the stranger and was about to chat for a few words. He found that the black clothes of the young man were quite ordinary, so he naturally calmed down and started talking a few more words. Without talking about anything, he pricked the man with acupuncture, and then left with satisfaction.
The man was a little downcast and clenched his fists, but he was unable to use his strength. However, the young man on the side stared at the peasant woman's back for a long time and said calmly, "Don't think it's just beating around the bush, there is something behind the words, but I feel that this lady, It’s like I’m envious of my brother from the bottom of my heart.”
The strong wind blows and the grass is broken, and the sun is scorching.
Yun Zhong, who was dressed in black, frowned and used his palms to block the sunlight, which was quite dazzling.
It was early summer when I left Yunchuan. It has been more than half a year now, but summer has not moved away yet. The sun has been shining brightly in the sky for five consecutive months. If it weren't for the cool wind at night and the frequent rain, I'm afraid it wouldn't be the same now. The green trees and flowers inside and outside Xuanhua City are all steaming until the leaves are curling up, and it is difficult to hold back the scorching waves of sunlight rolling down from the sky like flowing fire. It's just a pity that since I first came to Xuanhua City, I have been drinking heavily for days. In order to drive away the yellow dragon, I am very confused and do not know whether it is hot or cold. I have never noticed that this thin black dress has been worn intermittently for half a year, and I have never felt cold.
Nowadays, it is rare to calm down and calm down. Without many twists and turns, Yun Zhong naturally thought of this matter, so he no longer cared about the man's expression for a while, but moved forward slowly, with thoughts in his heart. Originally, I mistakenly thought that this place was just a place in the world with very little information. According to the current view, there is probably a small world in Zangna under Nangong Mountain. Even if Yun Zhong has not heard of such a statement, it can be concluded from the past. My senior brother and master had some speculations in their words, but now that I think about it, I immediately believe it.
After all, the sky changes in four seasons, no matter where you are, this is the way it should be. Without thinking too much now, you can roughly guess that this place is not an ordinary place. During my free time in the future, I would like to travel far and wide to enjoy sightseeing, so that I can get a glimpse of all the weird things here.
After the woman returned home, she put the bamboo basket aside in annoyance, and then scolded her man who was leaning on the bed and taking a nap, saying how many squires in the village had gained recently. The good thing is that all I can do is embarrass my fellow villagers all day long and talk about how well the man who sold his daughter has been living recently. Even the newly bought clothes are enough for the man to work hard for most of the year. Now he is unemployed again and has no future.
But the more the man refused to talk, the more vigorously the woman cursed. In the end, she walked out of the hospital quickly, picked up the girl's right ear, which was making handwriting on the soil with a dead branch, twisted it twice, and cursed Why don't you take advantage of her face, but she is born dark and thin? She is obviously two years older than the daughter of the prostitute, but she has not grown out yet, and she only knows how to paint and trace all day long. It's very unpleasant to look at.
But the dark-skinned girl with yellowish buns didn't care. It was obvious that her right ear was twisted and turned blood red, but she still looked at the two lines of words written in the dirt, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised.
