Qin Yue pointed to a tile-roofed house in the west among the mountains and rivers and said: That's where my home is. Then he tapped the hoe iron with his finger and asked Wangfu: Do you know why I bought the hoe?
Not just digging. Hope for wealth does not feel mysterious.
It’s not digging! It's digging a hole.
Digging a hole for what?
My father said that a rectangular tunnel should be built with cement to raise scorpions.
Why raise scorpions?
Make money!
Wangfu did not continue to ask, although there was a question mark in his heart: Can you still make money by raising scorpions? But he still believed it, so he patted Qin Yue on the shoulder and said: If raising scorpions can make money, I will raise scorpions and stop blacksmithing. Qin Yue looked at him in surprise: Isn't blacksmithing good?
What a shit. He spread out his palms, which were almost full of blood blisters: Look, I can't stand it! Qin Yue looked at it and thought it was not strange. He thought to himself: You can't bear the hardship of forging iron, so is it easy to raise scorpions? At this moment, he said to Wang Fu who was standing next to him: Go back to the iron shop, the master is still waiting for you!
I wish I couldn't go now.
You must go, otherwise, your master will think that I taught you bad things.
Wangfu thought Tan Yue's words made sense, so he said goodbye to him and returned to the iron shop.
Wangfu persisted in the iron shop for a whole day. When he was leaving, it was getting late. He stretched out his hand covered with blood blisters and said to the master: I can't stand it. My hand hurts so much!
The master said: If you persist for a few days, the pain will stop when the blood blisters turn into cocoons. Wang Fu turned his head, not looking at the master directly, and then whispered: I can't stand it. The master looked at his virtue and said unhappily: Blacksmithing is a disadvantageous thing. If you can't stand it, you shouldn't be an apprentice.
Wangfu didn't answer, buried his head, walked out of the iron shop, and passed several villages gradually. Before he reached the door of his house, his mother heard his footsteps, went up to him and said: Wangfu, you run every day, blacksmith. Master, do you have any opinions? You'd better move the quilt over tomorrow and live with the master blacksmith instead of running away again.
At this time, Wangfu had already walked into the house and did not answer his mother. Suddenly, there was a "ding" sound on the chair. What was it? The mother couldn't see it. Wangfu noticed that it was a cat jumping on the chair, so he yelled at it and told his mother that it was a night owl that made the noise.
My father was cooking when Wang Fu came back. He was not very happy, so he came out of the kitchen and said to him: "Don't run home every day. You should sleep with the master for a few nights. The apprentice must be sincere, and the master will be sincere." Teach true art.
I don’t want to learn to blacksmith anymore. Wangfu sat on the chair and suddenly said something unpleasant, which surprised his parents.
The father raised his voice and asked: Wangfu, what did you say? Wangfu stood up and mustered up the courage to answer: I don't want to learn blacksmithing anymore. There is no future in blacksmithing.
So what do you want to learn?
I want to learn how to raise a scorpion. I learned from my classmate Qin Yue’s father to keep scorpions, which are said to make you rich.
The mother was listening and was about to interrupt, but Wang Fu kept saying: There is no future in blacksmithing. Uncle Liu Wu has been working for most of his life, but he has never married a wife. The mother thought to herself that what her son said made sense, so she asked worriedly: Can you get rich by raising scorpions?
Scorpion venom is a precious medicinal material that can fetch a good price. Wangfu scolded optimistically.
When his father heard what he said, he didn't blame him anymore and changed his attitude when he spoke: "Have you talked to your classmate's father?" Will he accept you as his apprentice?
He should take it. Wangfu answered confidently.
People raise scorpions to make money, but you make a shitty amount of money as an apprentice? My father still felt uneasy, so he turned around and walked into the kitchen after saying a few words.
If I learn the art and raise scorpions by myself and sell them, won't I be able to make money? Wang Fu followed, hoping to persuade his father logically.
Qinzhuang is not far from Shizhuang, but Shi Wangfu has never been there. He wanted to find Qin Yue's father to learn how to raise scorpions. No one introduced him, so he came up with a way to find Qin Yue's father.
The next morning, he did not go to the iron shop and had no intention of going there anymore. He quietly came near the school and wandered under the shade of the trees in the fields until school was over at noon, waiting on the road that Tan Yue must pass.
More than 10 students from Qinzhuang gradually came out of the school gate and embarked on their journey home. Before passing the waiting intersection, Wangfu didn't want to run into other students, so he retreated to the ridge on the roadside, leaned down and let the group of students pass by, then stood up and followed them, about 50 meters apart. He could have walked with them, but he had concerns. If he walked together, and the classmates who knew him asked him this and that, he was poor at talking and unwilling to reply and explain.
This was good. He followed him for a long stretch of the village road, staring at the kid in front of him who was wearing a crimson sweatshirt. He was Qin Yue.
When they arrived at Qinzhuang, the classmates walked separately to the door of their own homes. Qin Yue also walked to his tile-roofed house. Suddenly he heard someone calling him. When he turned around, he saw that it was Shi Wangfu coming. He was surprised and asked: Wangfu, aren't you a blacksmith? How did you get here? Wangfu walked up to him and said in a low voice: I have agreed with my family that I will not learn to blacksmith anymore, and I want to learn how to raise scorpions from your father.
How did this happen? Qin Yue said: I don’t know if my father will accept you as an apprentice. After hearing this, Wangfu felt bad, turned pale, and said hesitantly: My parents are blind and my family is poor. I just want to learn how to raise a scorpion and get rich as soon as possible.
Qin Yue regretted that he should not have told him about his father's raising of scorpions. Seeing his pitiful look, he said, "Well, you can talk to my father yourself. I will only make an introduction."
Qin Yue's house is a tiled house with a courtyard in front, about an acre of land.
On the left is an orchard with jujube trees, pear trees, plum trees, etc. The jujubes on the jujube trees are covered with branches one after another, and they seem not to be fully mature, and are still glowing with green light; while the pears may be mature, but most of them have yellow skin, and they are swaying in the wind among the branches and leaves.
Only the plums on the plum tree have been picked long ago, and there are not many leaves on the branches. Maybe the plums hanging on the wild branches were too heavy to reach, so the owner used a bamboo pole or something to knock them, and used a heavy hand to knock the tree down. A lot of green leaves were also knocked down.
On the right is a field with some weeds growing sparsely on it. The most eye-catching thing is that there is a rectangle made of lime powder on it, with a hoe lying on one side of the rectangle, as if taking a nap.
Shi Wangfu was obviously not interested in it. He only looked at the dates on the jujube trees, the pears on the pear trees, the bare plum trees and so on. Seeing the fruits on the tree, he became greedy as if conditioned to eat, and his stomach seemed hungry. But rationality reminded him: Wangfu, you are here to learn the technique of raising scorpions, why are your thoughts divided?
Only then did he look away and follow Tan Yue into the courtyard gate. The courtyard door is not closed, but open. Qin Yue pointed to the field on the right and said, "That hoe was bought from your iron shop yesterday. My father equipped it with a wooden handle, and I plan to dig a pit according to the pattern sprinkled with lime to protect it and raise scorpions." After saying this, Wangfu walked over to look at the lime pattern, showing great interest.
The front door of the tile-roofed house in the courtyard was open, and a shirtless middle-aged man was sitting at a dining table, holding a wine glass and tasting wine, with his back to the outside. The woman next to her was also eating. She looked up at the door and saw two children coming into the courtyard. One of them was a stranger looking at something. She stood up with her rice bowl and walked to the door. She called to her child: "Qin." Yue, is that your classmate? Come in and eat.
The middle-aged man was Qin Yue's father. He also twisted his neck and looked at the strange child. Qin Yue nodded to his mother and introduced Shi Wangfu's intention. He also stared at his father and said: Wangfu has stopped studying, and I want to learn how to raise scorpions from you.
Don't be kidding, raising scorpions is something adults do, how can they let children do it? My father put down his glass of wine and smelled of alcohol when he spoke.
