In early winter, the wind is slightly chilly and the sky is clear and clear.
In the afternoon, a high-speed railway carriage came on the road in Lin'an County.
Before the car stopped at the inn, a boy of seventeen or eighteen years old jumped out of the car carrying luggage.
In those days, there was no such thing as "getting off the bus only when you arrive at the station". As long as you were willing and not afraid of falling to your death, you could jump off the bus at any time without having to say hello to anyone.
Therefore, no one took Sun Yixie's move of getting off the bus early seriously.
This time when he went home, there was no "reverse high-speed rail". From Wuhan to here, he took high-speed rail buses all the way, and he also took a big boat when crossing the river, so this journey was quite smooth. .
When we arrived in Lin'an County, we had already stepped into the territory of Hangzhou Prefecture. Sun Yixie of this generation was already familiar with it, and there was no need to continue taking the coach.
He got out of the car at the moment, not for any other reason, but because he was a little hungry, and he happened to smell the fragrance of food wafting in the wind, so he wanted to look for it.
The source of the fragrance is not far away, right on the street, just a few steps away.
But when Sun Yixie walked to the door of the restaurant, he couldn't help but stop, because he found that not only did the restaurant not have a sign on the door, but it was also tattered inside. When he looked in again, he found that There were only two tables in the store, and one of the small tables near the corner was already occupied by customers. The aroma of the food probably came from that table.
Ordinarily, when most people see this kind of scene, they may not want to go in anymore, but Sun Yixie's thinking is weird, and he feels...the more this kind of store is, the more he can try it, in case he is discovered. What kind of niche food?
So, Sun Yixie strode in, sat down at the only empty table, put his luggage on the stool next to him, and shouted at that time: "Is there anyone here? Let's eat!"
Unexpectedly, in the next second, one of the three people sitting at the table in the corner who was eating quickly stood up, chewing rice in his mouth, and ran to him and said: "Hey, you're here. Na."
Before the man came closer, he looked at Sun Yixie and both of them were stunned.
"Eh? It's you." Sun Yixie immediately found that the person who came looked familiar.
The "guy" here in the book is Zhang Ergui, the cook whom Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai met in the Bugui Tower in Luoyang City.
"Sun Shaoxia?" Zhang Ergui recognized him quickly, and immediately turned to the two people at the other table and said, "Boss Yuan, Mr. Xue, look who's coming."
In fact, even if he didn't shout, the two people would have heard the conversation here. In addition, Sun Yixie's voice is quite distinctive, and it would be difficult not to be recognized.
"Oh, it turns out to be Mr. Sun, a rare visitor, a rare visitor!" Xue Tui walked over and raised his hand to salute enthusiastically.
"Young Master Sun, do you still remember me?" Yuan Fangzhi was older and couldn't walk as fast as Xue Tui. He walked two steps later and said hello to Brother Sun.
"Master Yuan, Mr. Xue, and...Master Zhang." Sun Yixie also recalled the appearance of these three people again before remembering their names.
To be honest, these three are really hard to recognize right now.
The last time Sun Yixie saw them, these three people were all well-dressed and full of energy. But now, all three of them were wearing shabby and old clothes, their faces were as dirty as if they hadn't been washed, and their eyebrows were His mental state was also sluggish, looking very stressed and exhausted.
"Ha, this is really fate. Why are you here?" After glancing at them, Sun Yixie bowed to the three of them politely and asked.
When the three people heard this, they looked at each other, and then they all showed a bitter expression.
"Hey... don't mention it." It was Xue Tuilai who still had to tell the story. "That night, the No Return Building was set on fire. The three of us managed to escape, but the next day we... I heard that our boss and the people from the Zhengyi Sect were all traitors, and they were taken advantage of by Jin Yiwei.
"Fortunately, we are only responsible for cooking and accounting in Bugui Building, and we don't know what the boss is doing on Jianghu Road, so Jin Yiwei didn't make things difficult for us.
"It's just... we definitely can't stay in Luoyang City anymore. All the other shops in the city know that we used to be Buguilou's clerks. They are afraid that we have something to do with Zhengyi Sect and don't dare to invite us...
"We had no choice but to leave our country and come to Jiangnan to make a living."
When he said this, Sun Yixie thought with some hindsight: In this way, the jobs of these three people have been ruined, and it seems that Brother Huang and I are also somewhat responsible...
However, Brother Sun only thought about this in his heart and would not say it out loud.
"Oh... So that's it." Sun Yixie paused for a few seconds, nodded, and then put on a look of confusion, "His... that's not right..." He raised his head and looked around, "Is that right?" Mr. Xue’s talent, Master Yuan’s and Master Zhang’s craftsmanship... No matter where you open a shop, it should be packed with guests..."
"That's right." Xue Tui continued, "I thought so at first..." He shook his head bitterly, "I thought about it again and again before setting off... I am from Shaoxing, and my hometown is not too far away from here. It's far away. Master Yuan and Master Zhang are both from the south. They will feel more comfortable here than in Luoyang. Plus, Jiangnan is a land of plenty, so I thought business would be easy here, but who knows..."
Before Xue Tui finished speaking, he heard a burst of noise outside the store door.
Immediately afterwards, three or five guys who looked like gangsters filed in from the door and stood in the store with a whoosh.
"Hey! You guys, it's a good day today." As soon as the fat man at the head of the group came in and saw Brother Sun sitting there, he immediately shouted loudly, "Where are the guests? What can you give me today?" Is the money coming?"
When Sun Yixie heard this, he looked back at the group of people, then looked at Xue Tui and asked, "Mr. Xue, this is..."
Xue Tui had a serious face, leaned over to Sun Yixie's ear, and said softly: "This is a bully in Lin'an County, named Zeng Erbao. He relied on his brother to be the county's chief arrester, so he went to the county to Bullying and dominating the market... In fact, when our store first opened, there were many customers and the tables in the room were full. Unexpectedly, within a few days, Zeng Erbao came here with his gang of gangsters to cause trouble. We were so fed here that they used it to blackmail us for our money... When we didn't give it, they smashed our store's sign, smashed tables and chairs, and beat people... I went to report it to the police, but was beaten by the head catcher Zeng Dabao. We called it out, but in the end we had no choice but to give money... But after we gave it, they would come every now and then. Once they came, other customers would not dare to come. In the end, the store became like this..."
Xue Tui is a scholar, and he is still a bit noble at heart, so what he said is still a lie.
In fact, Xue Tui couldn't tell anyone about the many bad things done by low-level people like Zeng Erbao.
In the past few months, in addition to being beaten and scolded in the store, rocks were thrown at the residences of Yuan Fangzhi and Zhang Ergui, as well as at Xue Tui's home.
Sometimes those gangsters would go outside Xue Tui's house at night and deliberately make a scene. In Xue Tui's house, besides his wife, he also had children. The children would often cry all night if they were frightened like this. Stop, can't sleep, while those gangsters are laughing outside the house.
Xue Tui had gone to the yamen gate many times. Sometimes he went specifically to find Zeng Dabao when he was not around, but no other yamen servant dared to offend Mr. Zeng, and no one dared to help him report the case.
Some people may ask, why didn't he go to Laos to appeal for justice?
Everyone, this matter is not that simple. The government office is not what you see in the TV series. You can knock the grievances there if you want...
As soon as this injustice is heard, the master must be brought to court.
Therefore, there are usually government officials watching next to the injustice drum. If you want to play the drum, the government officials watching the drum must first ask you what the matter is. If you don’t have a deep injustice and a major case to appeal. , he won't let you knock at all - for example, "Zhang San next door owes me two green onions and refuses to pay back." If he lets you knock, he will have to suffer the consequences with you in court.
As a "prodigy" who once had an ambition to be an official, Xue Tui knew the laws of Dashu very well, so he knew that in a small case like his where he was harassed by local ruffians, if he was forced to complain, it would definitely be Those who want to eat a meal... With his body, if he eats a meal, he will be crippled even if he is not dead, and his family will only be in more misery in the future.
However, Xue Tui could not move anywhere else.
Because when he left Luoyang, all his belongings there were sold at a low price, and the little money he got in exchange for it, except for travel expenses, was basically invested in this shop. If this shop disappeared, Master Yuan and Zhang The master might be able to find another place to work, but he, Xue Tuike, would have to live on the street with his family.
Fortunately...he met Sun Yixie today.
"Hey! Shopkeeper Xue, what are you talking about sneakily?" The next second, Zeng Erbao stepped forward and stepped on the end of the bench where Sun Yixie was sitting, interrupting the conversation. Xue Tui whispered, "What?" Zeng Erbao said, tilting his head, turning his face, and looked at Sun Yixie closely, "Is this your friend?"
"Yes." Before Xue Tui could reply, Sun Yixie responded first, "Mr. Xue, Master Yuan, Master Zhang... are all my friends. Do you have any advice for me?"
The moment he said "friend", Xue Tui, Yuan Fangzhi and Zhang Ergui felt relieved, because they all understood that Sun Yixie said those two words, which meant that he was ready to take care of the matter at hand. .
"Drink~ You really dare to admit it." Hearing this, Zeng Erbao raised his head with a smile and exchanged glances with his group of boys; his group of boys also laughed in cooperation, and they didn't know why. A very noisy look.
"Okay..." After Zeng Erbao finished communicating with his younger brothers, he put his face in front of Sun Yixie, squeezed his face and said, "Your friend owes me a lot of money, you can do it for him Just pay it back."
"Ha..." Sun Yixie laughed at that time.
This smile seemed a bit baffling to those gangsters, but in the eyes of Xue Tui and the others, it made people's scalp numb.
At this moment, Xue Tuina said in his heart: Mr. Zeng, you are going to be in bad luck...
