In the 38th year of the Great Qin Dynasty, June 14.

Jianyi finally waited for the long-lost rainy season.

The entire outer wall of the city is covered with green bricks made of gray soil unique to the local area, and weeds have grown in some places that have not been treated for many years. If it is paired with a little spider web, it is also a bit of a quaint historical charm.

After so many days of hot weather, even the green bricks on the city wall were a little gray, and even the weeds that could survive in the cracks of the green bricks lost the pride they had always had, and they had to hang their heads to reduce the evaporation of their own water.

This long-lost rain brought a touch of coolness to the town. The rain fell from the gray canopy, passed through the air at a height of tens of thousands of meters, and finally collided with the green bricks that still had some residual warmth. This timely rainy season washed away the heavy dust smell of the small city these days, and even the willows under the city wall were a little greener.

But not everyone wants this rain to come at this time.

This is the case with Jiang Laosi.

As a professional watermelon seller, how to pick out the best watermelons and transport them to this small city to sell is his knowledge.

However, as soon as the rainy season came this time, the watermelons that were still in the sand were definitely going to be dumped. Years of experience have told him that he can only take advantage of the good weather now, and the rain is only one night, so he must go to Hexi to buy all the ripe watermelons back, and then seal them and store them. I think I can save it for a few days, and what to do with the remaining watermelons is the melon farmers' own business.

Jiang Laosi stood in the drizzle with an old yellow oil-paper umbrella, beckoned to the children who were still drinking white porridge in the east wing, and shouted in his usual voice: "Ah Xiao, have you finished drinking? We are about to set off after drinking! If you don't finish drinking, come to me and pick up two steamed buns, and eat them on the way!"

The child smiled embarrassedly, bowed to the old Taoist priest who was still asleep in the room, and said, "Grandpa, then I'll go!" In response, a tired voice came from the room: "Remember to listen to your Uncle Jiang's words, don't make trouble, just learn more." ”

It was about the second watch last night, and it rained in the small town of Jianyi, and the sound of the drizzle hitting the bluestone slab made the old Taoist priest wake up quickly, when he guessed that Jiang Laosi was going to go to Hexi to collect melons early today, and the old Taoist priest who had chatted with A Xiao for a long time last night was a little tired, thinking that it was just dawning now, and he was a little worried about the safety of the river today, and said to Jiang Laosi who was outside the station seriously:

"It's just raining, and the road will be slippery, and the upper reaches of the river will rain before us, and the river will be more turbulent. ”

The Xihe River is different from other large rivers to the east, as the largest river of Daqin in Huainan Province, and also one of the tributaries of that great river, different from the flow direction of ordinary rivers, the Xihe River extends from the south of Huainan Province and joins the river from south to north, so when this rainy season comes, the river water usually rises upstream first, and then spreads to the middle and lower reaches where this small city of Jianyi is located.

"That's for sure, you don't have to say that I know, I can treat Ah Xiao as my own nephew. Jiang Laosi touched Ah Xiao's head and said with a smile.

"Gone!" After repeatedly checking that his money bag was not damaged, Jiang Laosi approached the west wing, wiped the rain splashed on his face, looked at the child sitting on the stool and was a little eager to try, and said in a tone that was a little like a county soldier on a mission: "Do you have umbrellas, steamed buns, and water bottles?"

Ah Xiao listened carefully to everything in Jiang Laosi's words, his eyes widened and he thought about it one by one, and finally touched it in his cyan coat, and said seriously: "Bring it all, none of it is bad." ”

......

The bluestone street of the small city is about a zhang wide, which is probably the lowest configuration of a city, and there are few people in the small city in the early morning, not to mention that it is drizzling today, which makes people a little more lazy.

Only a few early risers could faintly see the faint candlelight through the window, and some green smoke came out of the chimney, thinking that they should be cooking breakfast, and the green smoke mixed with the drizzle, and disappeared after a while.

Ah Xiao and Jiang Laosi, one big and one small, two figures holding oil-paper umbrellas walked in the early morning light, Tuochuan Street is located near the wharf, walk out of the street and walk hundreds of steps north to the old wharf of Jianyi City.

However, Uncle Jiang said that he also had to go to the Wang's house in the south of the city to get a letter card, so they had to pass through the middle of the old man street, the old man street was named because the county government was located in it, according to the old people, it should be that people have been called the county lord for a long time, and then it was simply called the old man street.

However, Ah Xiao's neighbor Su Jie didn't think so, he once said when chatting with Ah Xiao a few days ago: The gentlemen in the school said that this was the old man who lived here before, so it was called Lao Ye Street. For this, Ah Xiao didn't believe it at all.

Su Jie likes to show off what the teacher of the school said in front of him since he went to school, Ah Xiao is very envious that he can go to class, but Ah Xiao doesn't believe what Su Jie said.

Young children always like to show off their superiority in front of other peers, and when there is nothing big to show off, the content of what is said is basically bragging about things. What's more, Lao Ye Street is just some ordinary blue brick houses, and there is a slightly larger county government in the innermost, where does it look like a big man on the street has lived?

Jiang Laosi held the old yellow oil-paper umbrella, took the hand of the child who was thinking crankily and walked into the alley, and then said seriously: "Ah Xiao, you wait here first, the school in our city is in this alley, you can go there to hide from the rain first, I will come to the Wang family to discuss things, at most two quarters of an hour, a child like you is really not suitable to go to the Wang family." ”

Ah Xiao didn't know why he wasn't suitable to go in, but Uncle Jiang said so, then he just needed to be obedient, and if Grandpa wanted to listen to Uncle Jiang outside, then he had to be obedient.

Uncle Jiang asked for the specific location of the school, and it turned out that the school could be walked ten steps after the corner in front.

Ah Xiao's gaze moved forward from the wall of the dark moss-covered alley, and he walked quickly through the alley, but he didn't hear the imaginary sound of reading aloud.

Standing in the drizzle with a small umbrella and a somewhat round face and thinking for a long time, I remembered that today is Saturday, and Su Jie is not in class today, so there should be no one in class today.

A child like Ah Xiao, who has never been to a place like a private school, is not something he can refuse just because of his curiosity about a private school.

However, for this kind of education rights exclusive to the children of the old man and the rich, Ah Xiao did not dare to get too close to the house inside the stone door, even if it was Saturday, no one was in the school, but he told him in his heart that he only needed to stand at the entrance of the school and wait for Uncle Jiang to come to him.

The school is indeed a magical place, these can be heard from the words of everyone in the small town, the Jianyi School is run by the government, and there are also county towns, but it is called Taixuefu, and the teachers in it are very famous Confucian and Taoist gentlemen. However, some of the larger county towns are far more than one Taixue institution, and as for the prefecture city, it is far from what the people in the small city imagined.

Jianyi School and the simple town in general, the inside is not as luxurious as ordinary people imagine, from the stone gate at the entrance of the courtyard, there are thick bluestone cobblestones in the courtyard spread out under the eaves of the school, and the main body of the school is composed of two wooden double-storey houses.

From Ah Xiao's point of view, you can see the two wooden windows of the school, which are carved with some decorations of flowers, plants, birds and beasts, the passage under the eaves extends to the distance covered by the bluestone brick wall, and on the right is a high courtyard wall separating it from other courtyards, and the two pillars in front of the two doors of the school are also carved with some couplets, but it is impossible to see clearly in this drizzle.

"Is this the school?" Ah Xiao's face was full of curiosity, he wanted to take the step out of the stone courtyard gate, but he hesitated, until the rain became heavier and heavier, and he couldn't cover the rain by relying on the stone gate, so he relented, gritted his teeth, and planned to go to the eaves of the school to take shelter from the rain.

There are two stone beasts carved on both sides of the eaves of the school, but Ah Xiao doesn't care what it is, he is just a person holding his small oil-paper umbrella, patting the water droplets on his body, and then standing obsessively in the aisle under the eaves, looking at the inside of the school through the window carved with flowers, birds, fish and insects.

The cobbled together school of the two large rooms remained as austere as the exterior, with a larger, black-painted wooden case at the top, and three smaller columns down the floor.

Ah Xiao counted roughly, and felt that there must be twenty cases for studying, and the heart said that this school is really amazing, and it will cost a lot of money to have a case, and there can be dozens here, and there are two classrooms here, which is really worthy of being a place run by the government.

"Hey, the one down there! Just as Ah Xiao was obsessively looking at the many facilities in the school, a young but serious voice came from above Ah Xiao's head, and the voice was puzzled: "The school is not open today, don't you know? Why are you here so early?"

Ah Xiao raised his head a little panicked and looked at the top of his head, and found that the second floor was originally a place where people lived, and he thought that no one would dare to hide in and shelter from the rain today, but he didn't expect that this place was actually inhabited, and his face turned a little red in an instant, and he didn't dare to run, but the stunned pestle couldn't say a word there.

Seeing that he did not respond, the man upstairs got up in confusion, and after a while, the sound of stepping on the wooden ladder came from the staircase next to the blue brick cover. "So this blocked place is a staircase?" Ah Xiao thought.