The moss marks on the steps are green, and the car tent is old and damaged. Dou Wenhuan had never stayed in such an extremely messy and poorly maintained inn. Whenever he rested in the inn for several days, he was so crowded that he was always surrounded by stars when traveling. The noble son of an aristocratic family was almost heartbroken.
Just because he wanted to stay in a top-notch hotel at dusk yesterday, the hotel that my husband chose was probably the worst inn in the imperial city within a thousand miles. Not to mention it was an unattractive decoration. Even Zhang Yachang, a lean and ugly scholar, could not even sit down. It was only when he fell to the ground and grinned that he realized that most of the benches and tables in the inn were hollowed out by insect bites. Before he could argue with the shopkeeper, a waiter came on In front of him, he ordered the three of them to pay money.
Ever since Mr. Zhou left Qiliang Academy, he rarely opened his mouth in front of others. Both of them knew it well. Seeing that their husband was too lazy to take care of trivial matters, they relaxed their hands and started to act as the shopkeeper. The intention was to test the abilities of the two of them when they were away from home, so it was clear that Dou Wenhuan had a hundred taels of silver in his pocket, and there was even a heavy amount of money in the car tent, but he still refused to go to that good place to live.
He spent most of his time eating and sleeping in the open air. I don’t know whether Zhang Yachang was not good at craftsmanship or was deliberately competing with his fellow disciple. Every time Zhang Yachang caught chickens and rabbits for cooking or made tea and soup in the barren mountains, Dou Wenhuan would be upset for a while. In the end, they have to endure hunger. Only when they are extremely hungry can they afford some meals at a reduced price.
Obviously seeing that Mr. Zhou was not willing to pay attention to this matter, Dou Wenhuan was angry, but he did not want to cause trouble when he was out. Even if the waiter asked for three taels of silver, Scholar Jun gritted his teeth and touched the silver taels in his arms, but it was He was held down by Zhang Yachang, who was always calm and composed.
The latter lowered his eyebrows and discussed with the waiter for a while, arm in arm, asking for two bottles of wine. He asked the waiter to take a few sips at the side. He sat back down with a red face and settled the matter just like that. They changed to an equally old bench, and the master and apprentice continued to drink.
Dou Wenhuan was puzzled, Zhang Yachang didn't say anything, and Mr. Zhou was bored and didn't say a word. Dou Wenhuan originally planned to ask the ugly scholar, but the latter acted like a senior brother, but Dou Wenhuan couldn't hold back his displeasure and called him senior brother. Zhou Kefa definitely didn't know how to solve the problem, and Zhou Kefa made it clear that he wanted to see the fun of his two students, so he went to the bedroom to rest early. The two of them only had a fight for a long time, and finally rested separately.
Although this place is only a few hundred miles away from the capital city of Xiasong, the location is extremely remote, but the business is very good. This is because the prices of food and wine are very reasonable, and the money required for accommodation is very little, which attracts people from all walks of life. People, I heard people say that the business is booming all year round. Those who can't afford to stay in a good inn or are dissatisfied with the outrageous prices of food and drinks elsewhere, anyone who can be called an old man is willing to come to this inn to rest and drink.
But as a result, there are many people in the world who are addicted to alcohol. People on the first floor of the inn drink almost all night long. The sound of punching and shouting can be clearly heard in the bedroom, but Dou Wenhuan is suffering from this. The noble young master often chooses a clean place to stay when he goes out. He sees that the four corners of the house are covered with moisture and moss, and the furnishings are even more disorganized. It is difficult for him to sleep peacefully all night, and then he hears the sound of cups and cups crisscrossing from outside. The words he spoke, and most of them were meaty and immodest, which was the most annoying.
Until he left the inn in the early morning, Dou Wenhuan's eyes were still black and blue. He had only rested for less than an hour last night, and he still had no energy at all. Fortunately, Zhang Yachang was driving the car, and the horse's hooves were moving slowly towards the capital of Xia Song. .
And Zhou Kefa took out a few tortoise shells from his arms, and sincerely made divination, and then put the tortoise shells into his arms, his expression was neither good nor bad.
After a day's journey, the car tent stopped at the head of the bridge. The stream flowed slowly under the bridge, and fishing boats passed by in the distance. Day and night, the moonlight illuminated the fish scales. Unfortunately, there was no place to rest, so I had to rest in the car tent for the night.
The wilderness needed to light a fire, so Zhang Yachang and Dou Wenhuan came by themselves with firewood, but only Zhang Yachang's firewood could burn. No matter how he started the fire, Dou Wenhuan still found it difficult to light it, so he sat dejectedly in the open space outside the bridge and watched Zhang Yachang make up the bonfire. Very prosperous.
It was rare that Zhou Ke failed to rest in the car tent, but simply gave a few instructions and walked alone along the stream, not knowing where he was going by the moonlight.
"How did you solve yesterday's incident? I'm specifically asking for advice. I'd like to hear the details." Maybe it's because he's not used to living in an inn and doesn't have enough rest, which makes him depressed. Maybe it's because he just couldn't start the fire no matter what. Compared with Zhang Yachang, who is quite nimble in his movements, he is so angry. After the fire, he went to another place again and talked with the fishermen passing by the boat. He said that he could get some fresh fish for a few copper coins. In the past, Dou Wenhuan always had his eyes high, but now he rarely felt down. He walked to the campfire dejectedly and exhausted. Ask.
"Now I think about calling him Senior Brother." No matter how you look at it, Zhang Yachang's face is still very ugly, which may scare away tigers and wolves. However, this time his face was illuminated by the bonfire, and he looked more handsome, but his words were not as usual. Listening to the words, he hummed twice and said,
"This is a rule set by our master. I am only the second in line. I heard that the senior senior brother in front of me has entered the palace of Prime Minister Wen Qu. He is superior to the two of us in terms of ability and mind, even if he has some complaints. , don’t get angry with me in the future.”
"I want to talk about things one by one. I happen to have a lot of free time today, so I have a good chat with Junior Brother Dou."
"You are a young master from an aristocratic family. When you go out, you care about your appearance the most. Before you go out, your husband once said that you should wear more simple clothes so that you can go on the road. But I don't have much money on weekdays. After all, my family background is not as good as yours. It's not fancy, and you have a lot of money in your pocket, and you don't want to lose your status in front of others, so you wear such a rich dress. This is how the waiter in the inn targeted you, and he planned to use this to swindle some money. As far as you are concerned, it is probably not as good as a copper coin in the eyes of poor people, so if you give it, it is a gift, but we are used to living a poor life, and we cannot afford to ask people to give away money for no reason."
"The waiters in that inn blackmailed the money, but they couldn't get it themselves. They almost always handed it over to the mean shopkeeper who only valued money. They are ordinary people. If you get closer and talk nicer, they will Why bother to embarrass you? Instead, I just handed over the money. The shopkeeper knows that there is a stupid and wealthy patron in the inn. He is afraid that he will not even be able to sleep well, and he will be thought of countless ways to defraud the money." Zhang Yachang As he spoke, his hands continued to move. He cleaned up a few fresh fish, passed straight branches through the front and back, and placed them next to the campfire. He still took out a short protective knife, scratched a few lines on the back of the fish, and wiped it. Cornus officinalis was soaked in salt before he continued,
"In your opinion, the pot of bad wine that seems to have been mixed with a lot of water cannot be separated from others at all. But compared with deceiving customers for others, compared with getting a pot of wine for yourself, it is hard to say which one is more important to the waiter. It's more valuable, a few polite words and sporadic favors, a few nice words for you, of course cheaper than three taels of silver, but it's often easier for others to buy it." Dou Wenhuan was suspicious,
"May I ask what kind of words Senior Brother said?"
"I said that the man was going to Beijing for business. His family was poor, but he wanted to win some favors in front of others. He almost spent all his money on buying clothes. When he got here, he was in a pinch of money, so he went back to the Red Mansion where there are so many men. , put on women's clothes and sang songs, and then managed to make up for the expenses. If I ask for another three taels of silver, I'm afraid I won't even be able to go to the capital." So Dou Wenhuan, who had just admired the ugly scholar, turned pale and black. When Zhang Yachang stretched out his hand to hand over the grilled fish, he was very reluctant immediately. However, there was a roar in his stomach, and he was in a dilemma.
I wanted to try it, but I was worried about the abdominal pain at night, so I stared at Nian Yachang's face and kept silent, hoping to get some clues.
"You may think that it was me, my senior brother, who was having trouble with you along the way, so I specially brought dirty food to you. But in fact, the food that you and I eat is no different. He is very particular about never getting tired of fine food, but if he eats this kind of country food from time to time, his stomach will be so helpless that he will suffer from acute illnesses many times." After tearing off two pieces of fish, Zhang Yachang didn't know how to be polite.
"The reason why I know that the inn has such a rule of defrauding rich people out of their money is because every time I travel to Xia Song or return to Qiliang Academy, I always come to this inn to stay. The poor always have to save some money, but you might as well think about it, a poor family is like this, let alone ordinary people, they may not even have the money to go to the imperial city. The same is true for Shang Qi, and the same is true for Xia Song. It is not easy for a noble son from a poor family to go to Qi. Liang Xuegong, I have much better luck than others, but I can't even afford bamboo slips, so I have to go to the poor families who copy books in the homes of rich families. Even if I have a lot of knowledge in my heart, but no way, how can I do it? Speaking and doing things for others in the court? The most you can do is to be favored by a certain squire and be invited to work as a teacher at home for life, and watch other people's heirs learn the skills and then rise to the top." Dou Wenhuan was speechless after saying this, and then he wanted to argue. , but found that he didn't even have the thought to argue, let alone the support to open his mouth to argue.
There is a lot of money behind the car tent, luxurious clothes, and shiny jade. Maybe it will be much easier to embark on an official career in the future than this senior brother of my own. Although I have benefited from it, to say that the family is not good is to forget the origin and forget the origin. Taking advantage of it, but also unable to He argued and justified, but he said that the family was good, but he didn't know how to say it.
"Firewood cannot start a fire because there is wet rain and dew on it. After the rain and dew have faded, people may have taken it and burned it clean. But until the rain and dew have faded, there is no way of knowing how unbearable it is for those firewood that are picked up every day to make fires." For the first time, Mr. Hui Dou didn't talk back. Instead, he took the grilled fish from Zhang Yachang with both hands and took a bite. It was delicious and delicious.
It seems to be more delicious than the delicacies of Dou Mansion.
