"Just right here."
Zhuo Lengping and her mother had entered Yangzhou Prefecture and walked to a broken house outside Yizheng County.
She passed by the courtyard outside the house and saw that the earthen walls and fences had collapsed and were covered with cobwebs, almost blocking the road. Zhuo Lengping lifted up the hem of her skirt and stepped forward cautiously, then turned around and pulled her mother in.
She walked to the house, lightly blew the dust on the doorknob, and then pushed the creaking door open. The light inside was extremely dark, but she could see a Buddha statue directly in front of her. Unfortunately, this The statue was covered with a layer of copper-yellow rust and became dull.
"Mother." Zhuo Lengping said, "This is a temple."
"Is there a place to cook?" Old lady Zhang asked.
"I'll go in and have a look." Zhuo Lengping held on to the door frame, lowered his head and walked in. Seeing a duster on the altar table, he picked it up respectfully, swept the patina on the Buddha statue, then knelt on the ground and faced the Buddha statue. Bowed three times.
After kneeling down and worshiping, Zhuo Lengping saw that there were penthouses on both sides, so he walked to the east room and rolled open the curtains. A burst of dust rose up, choking her and making her cough weakly several times.
She walked into the house and saw that there was indeed a stove against the wall, with a pot on the stove. Zhuo Lengping's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurried over and lifted the lid of the pot. There were only a few black and hard and crisp rice grains inside, and a lot of dust accumulated on the bottom of the pot.
"Mother!" Zhuo Lengping shouted outside the house, "There really is a stove here!"
The mother and daughter scooped water from the river, washed the pot, burned firewood, pulled out some wild vegetables, and cooked them.
Zhuo Lengping took the bowl, walked to the west room, placed the vegetable soup on the kang, and the mother and daughter started eating immediately.
"Leng Ping, you have endured such a hard life for so long, for mother..." Old lady Zhang chewed wild vegetables, with tears in her eyes, and patted her head sadly.
"Mother, my daughter is used to it, and she can be content with herself. It's better than living under someone else's roof in Nanjing, isn't it?" Zhuo Lengping smiled softly.
"You girl, you are usually taciturn, but you are so good at comforting people when you speak..." Old lady Zhang sighed and wiped away a line of tears.
Zhuo Lengping ate for a while, and when there was half a bowl left, he pushed it to her mother and said, "My daughter has finished eating, so I will leave these to my mother."
Old lady Zhang looked at her scorched face: "How can you eat these? We traveled for three days and didn't even have a few good meals... It doesn't matter if your mother is hungry, don't let you..."
"That's wrong. My daughter is young and can be treated as much as she can. Your body is precious, so just eat more!"
Old lady Zhang was about to stop her when she saw Zhuo Lengping immediately jumped off the kang and walked out of the house.
Leng Ping had nothing to do, so he walked around the courtyard and went around to the back of the house. He saw that there was a wide open space behind it, which was surrounded by a fence. There was a lock on the door, which could not be found. key.
Curious, she stood on tiptoes and took a look inside. She saw several bundles of firewood piled there, and a bamboo basket beside them, but the contents inside couldn't be clearly seen.
Leng Ping thought to himself: If we can get this firewood, it will be enough for ten days.
She walked closer and saw that the fence was not very high. There should be no obstacle when she climbed over it, and she was secretly happy. However, when she first put her hand on the fence, she realized that the top of the fence was extremely sharp. If she stepped over it, the supporting hand would be stabbed extremely painfully. For a woman like her, this was really hard to bear.
She was stunned for a long time, and finally gritted her teeth, jumped up, and climbed over the fence.
There was a sharp pain in the palm of her hand, and she couldn't help but scream, fell to the ground, and rolled.
After a while, I felt the pain subside. I looked at the palm of my hand. Fortunately, there was no damage, just a cut, so no blood would flow out.
She dusted off her clothes, reached for the bamboo basket next to her, and took out a woodcutter about a foot long. It was shiny, but the blade was a little curled. She got up and took out an ax and several bundles of thick hemp ropes from the basket, which were all tools for cutting wood.
She suddenly beamed, picked up the bamboo basket, pushed open the door to the backyard, and took out all these items.
"What are you doing?" Old lady Zhang asked when she saw Zhuo Lengping entering the room.
"Mom, look!" Zhuo Lengping held a bamboo basket and asked her mother to take a look, "All the tools for cutting firewood are here. I chopped firewood all day long and carried it to the city to sell. Can't I settle down?"
Old lady Zhang had a worried look on her face and advised: "You are a daughter, so doing such rough work is a bit tiring..."
"It doesn't matter!" Leng Ping flipped his hair and said, "Although my daughter has learned weaving since she was a child, it is definitely not as convenient as doing this trade now. Now that we have knives and axes to chop wood, why not take advantage of it?"
Mrs. Zhang always followed her daughter's wishes, so she just smiled and said: "Okay, okay, just follow Leng Ping's idea!"
Zhuo Lengping asked people and found out that there was a mountain in the north of Yizheng City, so he went up the mountain to chop firewood in the early morning, came back to cook at noon, and went to the city to sell firewood at dusk. Over the past few days, he never saw the word "no" uttered from her mouth. , still maintaining a strong momentum.
Every time she went up the mountain, she felt that the skirt of her dress was often caught in the tree branches, which made her deeply distressed. After thinking about it for a long time, although I cherished this apricot-yellow skirt, I still had to take care of my mother after all! So I couldn't take care of so many things, so I had to use my left hand to smooth the skirt, and with my right hand, I chopped the hatchet towards the hem of the skirt, tore it back and forth several times, tore off a few rags, and threw them into the stream.
She quickly picked firewood, and because she looked up and saw that it was still early, she planned to go to the city to sell some firewood first. After getting the idea, she went straight down the mountain and went straight to the city gate.
She entered Yizheng City and walked to the street. Since she didn't know the way, she asked passers-by: "Can you tell where to go to the market?"
"Go forward along the avenue, turn left and go through an alley."
"Thanks."
She walked on the main road for a while, and she saw an alley on the left. She was about to walk in, but someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder.
"Turn around."
She heard the man laughing dirtyly behind her and thought he was some kind of gangster. She broke out in a cold sweat. She didn't dare to disobey, so she turned around slowly and saw that the man had a flat nose, small eyes, and an uneven face. He gently held a folding fan and smiled crookedly at her.
"You... who are you?" Zhuo Lengping asked timidly.
"This is the famous Duke Lu Zhengfu of the Lu family in Yizheng. His name is Lu Jishou and his courtesy name is Lu Sheng. You girl is so ignorant. Please bow down quickly!" A slave appeared out of nowhere and stood beside this man. shouted arrogantly.
"Yes..." Zhuo Lengping was about to kneel down, but Lu Jishou grabbed his arm. Her expression suddenly changed, and she quickly retracted her hand.
"Girl, you don't have to be polite, I don't have any airs!" Lu Jishou waved his folding fan and cupped his hands: "Dare you ask me your name?"
Zhuo Lengping's fearful eyes darted up and down, and he didn't know how to deal with this person for a moment.
