Lingnan Road, Anqing Prefecture, Heyang County.
Canal pier.
A team of mules pulled a wooden cart filled with sacks slowly towards the canal wharf where merchant ships were parked. The mules were panting heavily from exhaustion, and the wooden wheels also made an overwhelmed "squeaking" sound.
A group of shirtless porters neatly carried sacks to the merchant ships parked next to the pier. After seeing off several merchant ships, they gathered in groups to enjoy the cool air, chatting about family affairs, or mumbling whether there was dinner. meat.
Liu Shen, who is only seventeen years old, is also among them...
It's just that he was sitting alone in the shade, wiping the sweat mixed with mud on his face with his eyebrows lowered, and there was an indescribable tension and expectation in his expression.
And from his perspective, there was something gear-like that was rotating rapidly...
Whether it's borrowing a corpse to bring back the soul, or awakening Su Hui.
When Liu Shen was thirteen years old, a flood occurred in his hometown. The disaster destroyed many houses and drowned many people.
And he lost his memory in the flood, but accidentally awakened Su Hui.
He fled all the way to Anqing Prefecture, almost starving to death on the way, and saw how heavy the words "changing children and eating" in the history books really are.
Because he had no memory of before he was thirteen years old and had no acquaintances around him, Liu Shen didn't know who his parents were or even where his household registration was.
Unfamiliar with the place, without any relatives...
It was as if he had been forgotten by the world and became a refugee, a refugee from a black household.
Liu Shen was not only hungry and cold, but also dizzy and dizzy from the impact of the cognitive gap between the two worlds. He lingered on the edge of collapse for several days, and could only survive on the gruel provided by the disaster relief.
However, the porridge for disaster relief is limited, and refugees starve to death every day because they cannot receive the porridge.
The clerk who was doing household registration saw that he was young and relatively strong, so he gave him an idea - to sell himself.
That's right, I sold myself...
A piece of paper sold him to the Cao Gang as a porter, and he earned a living by working as a coolie.
Caobang is a general term, 'cao' represents water transportation, and 'gang' represents Jianghu gangs.
Whether it is the government's south-to-north grain diversion or merchants' material transportation, they cannot do without waterways, and they cannot bypass the large and small gangs along the canal...
The canal connects two rivers and three rivers in Daqian, passing through eight provinces and thirteen prefectures. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, trackers, porters and so on along the banks. There are hundreds of thousands of people at the bottom who live in Caobang!
Although the porter's monthly salary is only seven cents of silver, he still has to pay two cents of "tax" to Caobang before the monthly payment is received. After calculation, the daily salary is less than twenty cents.
With the current price of three cents for a steamed bun, this salary seems particularly pitiful.
But because Caobang provides two big pot meals for lunch and dinner, there are many people like Liu Shen who make a living from this.
Thinking about it on the bright side, it was precisely because of this job that he did not starve to death during his prime years when he was a young man living in poverty...
'The gear of my destiny...'
Liu Shen saw the rotating gear slowly stop, and the joints in his nervous fists turned pale...
After he awakened Su Hui, he could see something called the 'Gear of Destiny' in his eyes.
This thing seems to be hidden deep in his soul, visible but intangible, and it has a very metaphysical effect - changing luck!
The 'Gear of Destiny' will rotate rapidly every other year, and then randomly change the fate of the next year...
In the past four years, the 'Gear of Destiny' has changed Liu Shen's luck three times, and now this is the fourth time.
The first time was when Su Hui had just awakened and was escaping from a flood. The gears of fate turned rapidly and then stopped. The words "The Lone Star of the Sky" appeared on it, and there was also the sentence "The Lone Star of the Sky is unstoppable. The Lone Star is unstoppable." Ke Liu's biological father and mother's criticism.
When Liu Shen fled all the way to Anqing Mansion, he still didn't believe in the evil of this 'lone star of evil'...
After realizing that the people who came into contact with him were more or less unlucky, he accepted the reality obediently and just kept silent to fill his stomach, not daring to communicate with others;
In September of the next year, the gear of destiny rotated rapidly and then stopped. The words "late bloomer" appeared on it, and there was also a horizontal comment of "ambitions are so great, who can say that middle-aged people can't achieve their ambitions".
At that time, Liu Shenxu was only fifteen years old. He looked at the words "late bloomer" and "middle-aged" and fell into deep thought;
In September of the third year, the gear of destiny rotated rapidly and then stopped. The words 'IKEA, IKEA' appeared on it, and there was also the sentence 'Everything depends on God, don't ask for it, and your descendants will be far away'.
At that time, Liu Shen looked at the fate of the Wang family and was silent for a long time. Being alone, he saw the word "useless" in it...
He has changed his luck three times in three years. The changes cannot be said to be bad, but they can only be said to be of no help to him now.
After three years of wasted time, his luck changed three times. This fourth time, he couldn't help but be nervous!
Liu Shen looked at the gears of fate that were gradually coming to a stop and muttered in his heart: "Some good luck will come, some lucky stars will shine, some good fortune will come, some..."
Suddenly, his breath froze, and he watched helplessly as the rotating gears of fate stopped, and the words 'Destined to commit peach blossom' appeared on it...
Immediately afterwards, there was a horizontal comment below, "I am both charming to you, and you are also pleased with my appearance"...
"Fate...guilt...peach...flower..."
Liu Shen's face twisted into a ball. He looked around the dock. When he saw the shirtless old men working around him, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart...
After staying at the dock for a long time, let alone women, even seeing a female donkey makes me feel beautiful. What is the meaning of this fate of "destined to commit peach blossoms"?
Under the rays of the setting sun…
The mule pulled the cart away from the dock.
Team leader Xu, who was in charge of all the workers at the dock, lazily walked out of the canteen, holding a whip in one hand and picking his teeth with his nails in the other. He shouted as if calling an animal: "Formers of the Chishui Gang, dinner is ready. .”
The appearance of the shift leader also means that most of the day's work at the dock has been completed. If there is no night work, the workers who rely on the dock to make a living can also have a safe meal and sleep.
A group of long-term workers from the Chishui Gang went to the canteen calling their friends, Liu Shen was among them...
Captain Xu was about forty years old, standing at the door of the canteen with a whip in his hand and behind him. He had the treacherous philistine unique to businessmen and the gangster spirit unique to people in the world...
He glanced around and saw that most of the long-term workers at the dock had already arrived. He called out: "Don't leave until after dinner. I have something to explain."
"..."
All the long-term workers outside the canteen were silent and just nodded to express understanding, but no one dared to answer.
Captain Xu is the small leader of the Chishui Gang and is responsible for supervising the workers on this dock.
But if he catches a laborer cheating while working, he will lash out mercilessly with the whip in his hand.
Therefore, the laborers on the dock are very afraid of him.
And Team Leader Xu also knew this. He smiled slightly when he saw all the laborers nodding to show their understanding. Then he turned sideways and waved his hand: "Come in and eat, there is braised pork today."
When they heard that there was braised pork in the canteen today, the eyes of all the workers lit up and they crowded into the canteen.
The staple food is several large buckets of rice, and you can eat as much as you like. In addition to the usual fish, crab, and boiled vegetables, there is indeed a basin of oily braised pork.
There are eight rivers in Anqing Prefecture, and people make a living by the docks. Fish and crabs are cheaper than rice...
Eating fish, crabs and river fresh food all year round makes all the laborers feel nauseated. Pork costs twenty cents a pound, and sometimes they cannot eat it even once a month.
Therefore, no one was taking the fish and crabs, and the pot of braised pork was crowded with people.
If someone from the canteen hadn't been watching in person, each person would have been allowed only one spoonful of braised pork, and I'm afraid even the basin would have been taken away...
Liu Shen held a bowl as big as a basin, filled it with rice, and sat down next to the fish and crabs to eat and drink.
The prime eating period of the teenage years is the time when the body is growing, and the appetite is surprisingly large, and all the physical work is done, which consumes a lot of physical energy and eats a lot.
Others use bowls to eat, he uses basins...
He was also often glad that he made a living at the wharf of Anqing Prefecture, where there was enough fish and crab meat. Although the food was greasy, it was rich in nutrients and at least he was strong.
If it were somewhere else, it would be a question of whether his small body could still grow...
A basin of braised pork was quickly divided, and even the gravy on the bottom of the basin was used to soak the rice.
Hu Dahai, who was also a porter, sat down next to Liu Shen with a bowl. Seeing that there was no braised pork in his bowl, he raised his eyebrows and joked: "What's wrong? Brother Shen has no appetite today?"
"That's not true."
Liu Shen was minding his own cooking and muttered: "There are too many people, and if the meat is not enough, we won't join in the fun."
"Brother Shen, I have meat here, you can eat some."
Another porter, Wei Dafu, also came over with a bowl and thoughtfully put the pieces of braised pork he had just received into Liu Shen's bowl.
"..."
Liu Shen glanced at him in surprise.
Although I have been working at this dock for four years, we are all low-level people. We come here to work to make a living. As the saying goes, people are poor and have short ambitions. Everyone works hard all day just to provide food and clothing. Naturally, they have no intention, and I don’t have that much energy to maintain relationships with people.
Liu Shen looked at the braised pork in the bowl and asked, "Brother Dafu, if you have anything to do, you might as well just tell me."
"It's something."
Wei Dafu scratched his head and said a little shyly: "A few days ago, my wife asked someone to write a letter and send it over. I heard that Brother Shen is literate. Can you help me read it?"
As he spoke, he took out a crumpled letter from his body.
"OK…"
Liu Shen nodded and did not refuse this trivial matter.
He worked as a porter at the dock for four years. After solving the problem of food and clothing, he used his spare money to buy some books on human geography, travel notes, or unofficial history books, which he read in his spare time.
Not for merit, not for fame, just to better understand and integrate into this so-called Daqian...
After all, he doesn't want to be a porter for the rest of his life...
Liu Shen took the letter, read it, and said, "The letter said that your wife gave birth to a big fat boy for you, and asked you to go home and take a look when you have time."
"My wife gave birth to a big fat boy for me?"
Wei Dafu was slightly startled when he heard this, and then he seemed to react. He stood up excitedly and said with joy on his face: "I have a son?"
Liu Shen nodded, "That's what the letter said."
"Hahahaha, good, good!"
Wei Dafu was so overjoyed that he didn't even eat. He ran out and said to everyone he met, "My wife gave birth to a son for me," "I have a son."
"..."
Liu Shen watched him running out the door laughing heartily, and seemed to have thought of something. He softly asked Hu Dahai next to him: "I remember Brother Dafu hasn't been home for almost a year, right?"
"It's been a year..."
Hu Dahai nodded with envy and said matter-of-factly: "This guy is so lucky. He hasn't been home for a year, and his wife gave him a son."
"..."
Liu Shen opened his mouth, not knowing how to speak for a moment.
Seeing that Hu Dahai still couldn't hide the look of envy on his face, he couldn't say anything more and could only lower his head to eat.
After finishing the meal, he glanced back and saw Team Leader Xu enjoying the cool weather at the door. He asked softly: "The Team Leader just said that he has something to tell us porters after dinner. Do you brothers know what it is?"
