The sun is setting in the west, and the boundless night is carrying a biting cold wind blowing to the earth, taking away the last trace of warmth.
In Lingding Alley, the old houses, mossy low walls, and dilapidated wooden windows that creaked in the wind added a bit of decay to this poor man's alley.
Bai Gu looked up at the sky. It was dark, and there seemed to be a beast that chose to devour people, hiding behind the dark curtain, waiting for an opportunity to move. It made people feel a sense of fear.
Feeling the gusts of cold wind, Bai Gu shivered.
Late autumn has arrived, and winter is coming.
"It's this annoying weather again, it's annoying me to death!" Bai Gu cursed in a low voice.
Not only Bai Gu, but the entire poor people in Lingding Lane, and even all poor people, don't like winter very much.
Because of poverty.
I can’t afford food to keep my stomach warm, and I can’t afford clothes to keep me warm.
Summer is easier to bear. After all, the heat is unbearable, so you can wear less clothes, or even not wear them at all. If that doesn't work, go take a bath in the river to cool off. This can be done without spending any money.
But not in winter.
With that all-pervasive and biting wind, even those wealthy families wearing fur coats and holding heaters might not be able to bear it, right?
Not to mention these poor people who only have one or two pieces of clothing all year round?
It's like scraping their bones with a knife.
Moreover, Lingding Lane is backed by the sun and does not accumulate heat, so it will be much cooler than other places in the summer.
This seems to be a good summer escape factor, but it becomes a life-threatening sickle in winter.
Over the years, most of the deaths in Lingding Lane occurred in winter.
Die from cold.
People who have nothing to eat will starve to death; people who have no clothes to wear will die of cold; people who have no place to live will freeze to death... It's not uncommon.
The road is frozen to death, and the wine and meat of the rich families smell stinky.
That's about it.
Bai Gu walked lazily on the street. The big toe of his left foot poked out of his cloth shoe, and his face was covered in ashes.
"If we don't think of a way, Xiaoxiao and the others will be hungry today."
Bai Xiaoxiao is the boy's second sister.
Bai Gu sighed helplessly.
I don’t even have a copper coin with me, so I can’t even buy anything.
The two copper plates I bought for the big bag of steamed buns last time were picked up by Bai Gu from the cracks in the road.
Although it is quite immoral, there is no other way. Filling your stomach is important.
Morality? That’s something only people who can eat enough can talk about! If you are hungry and anxious, you can do anything.
Bai Gu had seen a down-and-out scholar who once spoke of benevolence, righteousness, and morality, and was full of economic principles, lying in Lingding Alley, hungry for several days. One day I was so hungry that I lay down at the entrance of Lingding Alley and fought with several mangy dogs for a steamed bun that was torn into pieces.
The usual degrading behavior in his mouth became a straw for his survival.
In the end, the scholar's sleeves were torn, half of his face was scratched, and even one of his fingers was bitten off. Only then did he snatch the small half of the steamed bun from the mouths of some mangy dogs, squatting at the entrance of Lingding Alley and chewing it with relish. He would also watch the people passing by with vigilance from time to time, for fear that someone would snatch the bit of steamed bun in his hand.
When we are at the end of our rope, we see humanity the most.
People were coming and going on the streets, and the shouts of vendors and the bargaining voices of the people were extremely noisy. Bai Gu, a broken boy, walked on the street like a feather drifting in the wind.
If there is, if there is not, it can be there or not.
Having him is not much, and missing him is not a problem.
Bai Gu's footsteps suddenly stopped.
He tilted his head and looked in one direction.
Under an old locust tree, there was an old beggar lying with his face covered with an old leaf, as if he was asleep. Next to it was a broken bowl with a corner missing, and a few small copper plates lying across it, which were as sparse as the old beggar's hair.
Bai Gu looked at the old beggar, or rather, at the copper plate in the old beggar's broken bowl, with a malicious smile on his lips.
He tiptoed over and slowly squatted down next to the old beggar.
He held his breath and stared at the old beggar tightly, but his hand stretched straight towards the broken bowl. With a flick of his wrist, all the small coins in the bowl were in his palm.
Bai Gu chuckled, stood up, turned around and wanted to run away, but suddenly he heard an old voice coming from behind him: "Put it back."
"It's boring." Bai Gu pursed his lips, turned around and returned the copper plate to its original place, then sat down next to the old beggar with all his strength, deliberately stirring up a burst of dust and slapping the old beggar in the face.
"Ahem, you brat! Ahem, you're going to die!" The old beggar jumped up immediately, wiping off the dust with his hands and jumping to his feet angrily.
"Who told you not to let me take it, you stingy bitch." Bai Gu grinned happily and made a face.
"Damn it, you want to steal my coins, you're reasonable, right?"
"Don't you know? This isn't considered stealing, right?"
"Hey, you kid!" The old beggar lightly kicked Bai Gu, and then sat next to Bai Gu. "You are so thick-skinned, thicker than the East City Wall! If you can scrape off your skin and eat it, you will definitely Can feed the people of this city.”
"Tch, pull me down! You're not bad either. Last time I peeked at Widow Liu taking a bath..." Halfway through his words, Bai Gu was directly covered by the old beggar and interrupted: "Hey, you kid can eat whatever you want. Don’t talk nonsense! I was just passing by at that time! I just happened to see it, do you understand? It was a coincidence! I was passing by! Do you understand? "
"Okay, okay, passing by. And that time, you broke into Liu Caizi's house in the middle of the night, and you said you were going to pick grapes. Only a ghost would believe it. The grapes Liu Caizi's family just planted this year, how could they bear fruit so early!"
"Tch, can't I go take a look in advance? Really!" The old beggar tilted his head and nodded Bai Gu's head with his finger, "Boy, the situation is too small."
Bai Gu rolled his eyes and said, "You are so powerful, so why are you still a beggar in this stupid place? Why don't you become the city lord and the emperor?"
"I don't care about that kind of thing! You force it on me and I don't want it! It's so good now, free and unrestrained, I just like this kind of life."
"If I have a chance, I don't want to live such a bad life anymore. I can't eat enough, I can't wear warm clothes, I'm confused all day long, and I have no hope in life. What's the good thing!" Bai Gu grabbed a stick. The withered and yellow grass was held in his mouth depressedly.
He even snorted twice depressedly.
The old beggar glanced at Bai Gu and said nothing. He just took off an ancient-looking gourd from his waist and took a sip.
Take another sip.
A pair of somewhat cloudy eyes looked at the sky. The few white clouds passing by could only reflect vague shadows in the old beggar's eyes. They looked like people but not people, like things but not things. He didn't know what he was thinking.
When Bai Gu saw the old beggar like this, he didn't bother him.
He has known the old beggar for a long time, and it was not the first time that the old beggar behaved like this. Bai Gu was already used to it.
He lay down and looked at the sky, thinking about what to do with food today.
In this way, an old man and a young man, sitting and lying down, are all looking at the same sky, but in different moods.
The streets are noisy, but it's quiet under the trees.
Sometimes Bai Gu feels strange. When he stays with the old beggar, he always feels that time will be very long and it will become... much slower. The surroundings will become much quieter, as if you are isolated from the world.
This feeling is very strange, but also very good.
Bai Gu still enjoys this feeling.
A sixteen-year-old boy will still retain the playful spirit of childhood. This novel feeling is exactly what he wants.
I don’t know how long it took, but the old beggar came back to his senses, with an inexplicable expression on his face. He stared at Bai Gu with a very strange look in his eyes. He didn’t say a word, but just looked at Bai Gu blankly, with an inexplicable meaning in his eyes.
Bai Gu felt that there were strange eyes on him, but he didn't pay attention at first, just thinking that there were some bored passers-by squatting on the roadside to watch.
But as soon as his gaze landed on him, he stopped moving, and Bai Gu didn't bother to pay attention.
There are always strange people in this world.
The old beggar is just one, and it is not surprising that others are like this.
But as time went by, this sight seemed to take root in me and never left.
Bai Gu was very confused.
Is there gold growing on me? Is it still blooming?
What's so good about a poor boy from Lingding Alley?
Bai Gu felt that if his gaze were replaced by two drills, two big holes would be poked out of his small body.
So, he turned his head and looked at the source of the strange sight.
Then, he couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
"Hey, old guy, are you a pervert? Why are you staring at me?"
As he spoke, Bai Gu did not forget to take two steps back.
But this time, the old beggar unusually did not retaliate against Bai Gu. Instead, he picked up the gourd, took a sip, and then slowly said: "There are thousands of kinds of people in this world, and they all have their own ways of living. Everyone has his or her own hopes and meanings. How to live and how to live are all their own business."
His gaze on Bai Gu did not move away, but instead became even more intense.
"Let me ask you what is going on right now. It's all based on your own heart. There's no need to pursue perfection. Just be happy on your own. Brat, don't you think so?"
For a moment, Bai Gu felt that the image of the old beggar suddenly became much taller, as if he had become a well-educated, kind and kind old gentleman.
If he hadn't said the following words, Bai Gu would have regarded the old beggar as an idol.
"Just like me, I drink and hang out every day in this city and make friends from all over the world. How happy and wonderful my life is, right?"
Being able to talk about climbing over a wall in the middle of the night in such a fresh and refined way made Bai Gu feel that the old beggar was the only one in this city.
There is absolutely no second person to be found.
Are you saying I'm thick-skinned? Your own is not bad, right?
Bai Gu rolled his eyes and threw the piece of dogtail grass he was holding in his mouth towards the old beggar: "You have to have some face. That time I had my leg broken by that guy Zhang Liuqi, I won't let you remember it."
Zhang Liuqi is the blacksmith in charge of the lamp road in this city. He is extremely powerful and is considered a somewhat famous figure in the city. One New Year's Eve, the old beggar broke into his house and didn't know what he was doing. He happened to be discovered by Zhang Liuqi, who broke his legs and threw him on the road, like a dead dog.
The old beggar spent more than half a year raising his legs before he could barely stand up.
Of course, Bai Gu took him in.
Otherwise, the old beggar would have died in the winter of that year.
The old beggar seemed to have choked on his saliva and coughed twice violently. He picked up the gourd and took a sip. He felt his throat was dry and took another sip.
Still feeling dry, the old beggar took another sip.
"Zhang Liuqi, that stupid big guy, only knows brute force and doesn't talk sense! I can't get along with this kind of person!" When Zhang Liuqi was mentioned, the old beggar was like a cat whose tail was stepped on, and his hair exploded.
The trembling in his tone was more like breaking his defense.
Zhang Liuqi is a nightmare existence for the old beggar.
So Bai Gu likes to use Zhang Liuqi to provoke the old beggar.
Seeing the old beggar break through his defense, Bai Gu felt very amused.
"Who told you to persist in your stubbornness? This hobby of climbing on walls in the middle of the night is something that no normal person would have. Forget about people like Liu Caizi, why are you going to provoke Zhang Blacksmith? You can't even squeeze your thighs together. Are your arms thick? It's good that he didn't grab you and twist you into a twist." Bai Gu glanced at him, his eyes full of contempt.
The old beggar's face turned red with anger, but he was unable to say anything in reply.
What Bai Gu said is indeed true.
At least that's how it seems to outsiders.
In the end, I could only hold back one sentence: "Forget it, I have a lot, I won't argue with you brat!"
"You are an old and crooked person. You have nothing to say, right?"
The old beggar snorted twice and did not refute anything. He just poured out a few coins from the broken bowl and pushed the coins in front of Bai Gu with a sweep of his hand.
The old beggar ignored Bai Gu, stood up, took a sip of wine, then tied the gourd back to his waist, patted the dust on his butt, smiled, and headed east, towards the direction of Oriole Road.
With each step he took, the old beggar hummed an unknown song.
"The blue waves of the Luoshui are rising in the distance, and there are murmurs on the boat with a canopy head.
It turned out to be a pretty girl, secretly in the boudoir.
Xiaoyu's tongue was dripping with tears, but she couldn't explain clearly, many of her daughter's thoughts were unclear.
Purple lotus root head, green wall roots, white-faced scholar with red pillow mat.
shame! shame! shame! Just when I was sitting in the pavilion, I walked to Wushan and wore silk scarves embroidered with plum blossoms.
The smoke from the kitchen is rising, the river is clearing, and the roosters are crowing under the mulberry trees.
If I want to say more, it is already stained with rouge and white jade.
Looking at each other, they both smile with their green awns.
There are only a few ounces of ink on the inkstone but I don't know its weight. A hundred kilograms of stone carved from the mountain is light.
This is a matter of fireworks in the human world, buried deep in my heart without saying anything, strange, strange..."
The old beggar's voice gradually faded and became distant.
Although Bai Gu couldn't understand what the old beggar was humming, he couldn't tell from the old beggar's casual tune that this song was somewhat serious.
"I'm not serious!" Bai Gu cursed with a low smile, put away the coins in front of him, stood up, patted his butt, and left.
Go buy some cake.
Filling your stomach is important.
——————
After a lot of talking, Bai Gu asked the cake seller to spare him two more black dough balls.
Let the two sisters eat the sesame cakes, and just eat the black dough gnocchi for yourself.
As long as you have something to eat.
Bai Gu held a bag of cakes in his arms and hurried toward Lingding Alley.
Lingding Alley is a bit far from the city. If Bai Gu was not born with a fast pace, it would probably take most of the day for an ordinary person to walk there.
But it still doesn't affect Bai Gu leaving early and returning late.
After all, I had no money, so I had to rack my brains to find some food.
It's normal to take some time.
No need to eat, more normal.
Bai Gu remembered the last time he ate sesame seed cakes. It seemed to be a month ago, right? They should be very happy!
Thinking of this, Bai Gu's steps became faster and a little more cheerful.
"I'm back!"
Bai Gu reached out to open the door, but this time what greeted him was not Bai Xiaoxiao's cheers, but her crying voice.
"Brother, Ah Yue..."
