When Song Jiang heard this, he smiled and waved his hands and said, "You're welcome. Let's do this. For the sake of safety, where do you live? I'll send you back with my friends first!"
On the way to send the old man home, Song Jiang and Meng Zhe roughly understood the whole story. The old man's name was Qiao Di Ah Liu, and the girl beside him was his daughter Qiao Di Ping'er. Uncle Ah Liu's wife died after the birth of her daughter. He died of illness soon after, and then only the father and daughter were left to live dependent on each other at the bottom of Yanhui City...
Their family lives in Poluo Hutong, not far from here, which is the poorest place in the city. The people who live there are either hawkers walking in the streets or working as part-time coolies. All in all, the father and daughter live a pretty good life. Poverty.
Uncle Ah Liu was originally a watchman in the city, living on a meager salary. However, the father and daughter lived frugally, and their lives were not bad... Unexpectedly, he encountered a thief one night when he was watching the watch, and he was shocked. He sounded the gong as a warning, but was beaten by the thief until he became bedridden and had to rely on medicine every day to stay alive.
Their family's financial resources were not strong to begin with, and now that they had no income, Ping'er had to borrow money from everywhere, resulting in a pile of debts. Uncle Ah Liu wanted to wait until he recovered from his illness to go out to earn money and pay off his debts, but suddenly a huge change occurred in the city, and everyone in the city died...
Song Jiang was very puzzled when he heard this and said, "As the old saying goes, debts will be paid after death... Since everyone is like this, why does the other party come to ask you to pay back the money?"
Unexpectedly, Uncle Ah Liu waved his hand and said, "That's not what you said. Although I, Qiao Di, Ah Liu, don't have much knowledge, I also understand the principle of repaying debts. But you also know that our city has changed a long time ago, and we don't need to eat or drink. If we can survive, then the money is no longer money, and the money is no longer used as money, so where can we make money?"
After hearing this, Song Jiang sighed and said, "That's why those people won't let you pay back the money, but want to snatch your daughter away to pay off the debt..."
Uncle Ah Liu nodded helplessly, then pointed to a dilapidated adobe house in front and said, "This is my home. You two distinguished guests, please come in..."
To say that this family is really poor, there are only two rooms in the house. One room is for the daughter, and the outside room is used as a kitchen, living room, and storage room for Uncle Ah Liu.
After entering the door, Uncle Ah Liu said a little embarrassedly, "I'm really sorry, the house is too messy, Ping'er, go and boil water for the two distinguished guests!"
Song Jiang looked at the situation at home and knew that they could only use some boiled water to entertain the guests. But at this time, there was already a pool of urine in his stomach and there was nowhere to deal with it. How could he have anywhere to drink water? So he quickly declined and said, "No need to bother Miss Ping'er, we'll leave right away. Why don't you tell us about the situation of the creditor just now and see if we can be of any help..."
When Qiao Diping'er heard this, she hurried over and said with a grateful face, "Don't you know the names of our two benefactors?"
After hearing this, Uncle Ah Liu slapped his forehead and said, "Look at me, an old fool, how can I be so rude! My Ping'er is still thoughtful."
After hearing this, Song Jiang smiled and said, "My name is Song Jiang, and this is my friend Meng Zhe..."
The father and daughter were slightly startled after hearing this, but they soon returned to normal. At this time, Ping'er smiled and said, "Ping'er has written down the names of the two gentlemen. Thank you for your generous help today, otherwise I would have been really killed." Those few people were taken away by force to pay off the debt. Those villains just now were thugs from a family named Xu in the east of the city. Although the city lord announced that there would no longer be distinctions between nobility, lowly status, and slave status in the city, some people We are still able to bully others with force, and we, ordinary people who had no ability in life, have no place to reason."
Meng Zhe, who had been silent until now, suddenly said, "Can't we ask the city lord for comment?"
After hearing this, Ping'er smiled bitterly and shook her head and said, "To tell you the truth, no one in the city dares to go to the city lord for comment now, because the current city lord is moody, and if anything goes wrong, he is likely to kill both parties who come to comment. Throw it outside the city to bask in the sun, or eat it in one gulp... Unless they are very close to the city lord, no one would dare to say anything to the city lord for comment."
Song Jiang thought to himself that it was no wonder that those strong men were all scared away when they heard that he wanted to go to the city lord for judgment. In fact, he was just talking nonsense to scare them, but he didn't expect that he would play into his heart...
Uncle Ah Liu then continued, "Actually, we have long been used to living like this. We have little hope and don't have to worry about getting old or dying, but we always feel that there is nothing to look forward to."
Song Jiang said with some sympathy after hearing this, "If I had known this... it would be better to just go to the underworld and be reincarnated. Maybe now I will be free and at ease in the world outside."
Ping'er sighed after hearing this, "I can't help it, people are like this. I used to be afraid of change, afraid that life would become more difficult, but now that things have changed, I feel that life has become boring..."
"It's not difficult to go out. Just become an Aluda..." Meng Zhe said leisurely on the side.
Unexpectedly, Ping'er sneered, "That kind of thing is too sinister. We ordinary people really can't do it... We are just hoping that a god will save us so that we don't have to be like this endlessly." Trapped here."
"Are there many people in the city who think this way?" Song Jiang asked tentatively.
Uncle Ah Liu nodded and said, "Actually, most of the people in the city think so... It's not a good thing to live like this without humans and ghosts. Although he looks like ordinary people at ordinary times, day and night are reversed, and he doesn't eat If you don’t drink, there is no hope in life. What’s the point of living like this? Our life in the past was a bit hard, but it was the life that people should live. I will grow old and die, and Ping’er will marry and live. Son, I will never be as hopeless as I am now."
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When Song Jiang and the others came out of the father and daughter's home, Meng Zhe said to him in a deep voice, "The father and daughter already know that we are from outside..."
Song Jiang was surprised when he heard it, "No, where did you see it?!"
Meng Zhe sighed and said, "From the time you reported our names... If I guessed correctly, Yan Hui's city should all have compound surnames, so their names are either four characters or three characters, so you Once you tell them your name, they know everything.”
Song Jiang suddenly panicked, "Then will they report us?!"
Meng Zhe shook his head and said, "Judging from the tone of the two of them, it shouldn't be... They are both old ghosts for thousands of years. No matter how unsophisticated they are, they should know that outsiders who can enter here are by no means easy, so what they said What they mean inside and out is that they want us to rescue them."
