"Child! Are you hungry? Come on, eat something first! As long as you eat well, you will be in a good mood. Once you are in a good mood, you will forget all the unhappy things!"
Xinwu didn't have time to completely swallow the puff pastry cake he just received. He grabbed the old man's wrist with both hands and said vaguely with the crumbs of the pastry in his mouth eagerly:
"Uncle, go and save your son!"
The old man looked surprised and asked with a smile: "Young man, how can I have a son! Are you talking nonsense? You must be hungry. Eat quickly and don't choke! Don't talk while you are eating."
Seeing that Xin Wu was about to choke, the old man gently opened Xin Wu's hand, quickly took a water glass from the side, filled it with the smoothie juice he was preparing to sell, handed it to Xin Wu, and said lovingly:
"Drink some water and go down now!"
Xin Wu hurriedly ate and drank, emptying his mouth without even having time to savor the delicious food. Then he opened his mouth wide and pointed it to the old man, and then said eagerly:
"Uncle, I may not be able to explain this for a while. In short, you have a son who is in danger. Go and save him!"
"Is he your little friend? Is he also starving? Otherwise, I still have some leftover cloud cakes here. Because some of them are broken, I can't sell them. I'll give them to you for free. , take it to your friends!"
The old man turned around again, took out a paper package of some finely chopped cloud cakes from a basket placed under the bench where he was sitting, tied it up again with a thin straw rope, and handed it to Xin Wu.
"'Cloud cake'? - 'Cloud'? - I understand, this is what 'sitting on the cloud' means!"
Seeing Xin Wu's expression of joy and enlightenment, the old man felt confused and confused.
"Child, do you have no money? It doesn't matter, I can't sell this at all, and I won't take your money."
"Thank you, uncle! By the way, uncle, you don't know how much effort it took to find you! Well, look, this map shows all the merchants here. My friend and I divided the work to find you. But the numbers are all messed up, and when I look for them, the number jumps, and I don’t understand what’s going on.”
"Come, let me take a look?"
The old man took the map, laughed, and said: "No wonder! You are still young, so of course you don't understand why these numbers are compiled like this. In fact, there were not so many merchants here from the beginning. The people who lived there were all poor people who had fled from various famines. Later, a guy named "Wu Chu" came over. He said that he wanted to make this place orderly and stop being such a mess. He came with him. , there are two people, one named 'Yangguan' and the other named 'Dumu', they said they were both from 'Shiyi', specializing in collecting 'trash' in the world - they gave this mountain without a formal identity People called them 'wasted people' must be part of what they wanted to collect! So, they wanted to take these people away, but these people resisted and were unwilling to leave."
"That's for sure. No one wants to be regarded as a 'trash'! What happened next?"
Xin Wu was very curious about how his two apprentices completed this task of "collecting scraps".
"Later, Wu Chu went to each family to persuade them to find a regular job for themselves, so that they would no longer be considered 'waste'. So, slowly, some of them became craftsmen, and some became craftsmen. Those who open restaurants, some wash clothes for others... Wait a minute, these merchants are numbered according to the order in which they "established business". The location is the place where they lived before; and the number is determined by the number. came out, compiled in chronological order. Slowly, here, the refugees on the entire hillside have become people with "real jobs" and are no longer "waste". And the "Yangguan" and " Dumu' saw that he really couldn't collect any "waste products" or "waste people" here, so he went back to their "scavenging" work. My ancestors also came here like this. Which generation did they come from? It was too long. It's been so long, I can't tell. Think about it, I have lived for more than 200 years, and I can't figure it out. How long has that little girl named Mu Yi been here? Of course she can't figure it out either. This The picture is correct, it was drawn by 'Mude', don't blame that little girl!"
"That's it! Then, uncle, what's your surname?"
"Haha, young man, are you here to check your household registration? My name is 'Wang Dial'."
"King 'Ghost'? Is he the 'Ghost' of 'Ghost'?"
"Oh, children are talking nonsense. There are no ghosts in this world. The 'dial' of the 'sundial' means time, and it is not a 'ghost'!"
"Uncle Wang Dio, can you go to the top of the mountain with me? I have a child who really needs your help. His name is 'Wuchu'!"
"What, you said it was 'Muchu'? He has been away from here for a long time! However, speaking of it, he did recognize me as his 'godfather'. Do you know? He will appear in all events related to 'time' Regarding the relevant place, because my name has the word "dial" in it, the first time this child came here was to bring everything related to "time": such as making water drop copper bells, hourglass timers, and clocks. What's more, also, those of us with the meaning of "time" in our names were given priority by him, allowing us to choose the best location first. Look, here I am, this is the best location. It's close to the roadside, not too far away, so it's very convenient to go down the mountain for shopping and go up the mountain for delivery! People who come and go like to come to my place to eat and rest. "
"Well, then why does he only recognize you as his 'godfather'?"
"Because, just like you, he was exhausted, impatient and anxious in order to sort out the refugees in this mountain. I gave him cakes and advised him: 'My son, go and reconcile with yesterday. Come on! If you eat well and drink well, you will be in good health. When your body is well, you will be in a good mood. Once you are in a good mood, everything will go smoothly! Don't get angry in a hurry. There is still plenty of time!' As a result, he was moved Well, he wanted me to be his godfather right away. Anyway, I am alone and childless, so I wish I could have such a promising child as my son! So I agreed."
"Then, you said he left for a long time, why did he leave, and where did he go?"
Xin Wu then asked.
"He, because all the refugees on the hillside here have been resettled, he said that the task here has been completed. He said that there is a good friend named 'Taoist' who is waiting for him to help. What exactly is he helping? , I didn’t know for sure, but I just heard that this ‘Tao Master’ has some ideas that need to be proved, and he has to help collect them, because during the experiment, this is called ‘Tao Master’. Lord, there will always be "wonderful thoughts", but there will always be something unsatisfactory, and the mess left behind in the end will all have to be ended by him. I think, it is nothing more than another noisy building. There is a group of noisy people on the top of the mountain. They need to be resettled, right? Anyway, young people should do big things. I very much approve of his boldness! If I were a hundred years younger, I would also like to go around Let’s go take a look, haha!”
The old man got interested and brought up the old story about him and his "godson", which became more and more exciting.
