Three days later.

In this rainy season between the Jianghuai River, the climate is always as changeable as the faces of those imperial courtiers, the sky is still clear in the morning, and the sky is gloomy in the afternoon, and after a while, a strong wind blows, and the camphor trees in the courtyard are rustled.

The camphor tree was blown and swayed, shaking off the green of the ground.

Jiang Laosi put the last piece of clothing into the baggage, and felt that some of the rooms were too messy and untidy, so he sighed and bent down to clean up for a long time, until he saw the paper where Ah Xiao practiced writing, and a smile appeared on his extremely simple and honest face, and he put the paper with the words "Uncle Jiang, Ah Xiao, and Grandpa" into the bag like a baby, and finally patted it with satisfaction.

To tell the truth, over the years, he has been taking care of Ah Xiao and the old Taoist priest alone, the old Taoist came to this small town late, and it is not so easy to make a living here, just with his blind fortune-telling skills, how can there be customers? It is not that he secretly spent money to ask for a few trusts, which spread the fame of the old Taoist priest in the small town.

But even so, the income of fortune tellers alone is still difficult to feed a baby to be fed, the old Taoist priest does not take care of the child, Jiang Laosi remembers very clearly, that autumn the old Taoist priest only dressed Ah Xiao with two clothes, and went out to set up a stall again, fortunately Jiang Laosi came back early, and when he saw Ah Xiao, who was cold and red, he was so anxious that he entered some Haoran Qi, which saved Ah Xiao.

Jiang Laosi laughed when he thought about it, he shook his head, put the burden on his body at will, and was about to go out, but the old Taoist priest dragged his stall at this time, shouting and ran in: "Lao Jiang! Lao Jiang! This ghost weather is getting faster! The weather is quite good in the morning, but the sky will be gloomy in the afternoon, good guy, my stall is almost blown away!"

The old Taoist priest was still about to say something, but when he looked up and saw Jiang Laosi looking like he was traveling far away, all the words seemed to be blocked in his mouth, and his throat moved, but he couldn't say anything.

"Are you leaving?" was silent for a long time, and then the old Taoist priest squeezed out these words.

"Hmm. Jiang Laosi replied truthfully, he took out two taels of silver from his pocket and put them on the table, his expression was as calm as eating on weekdays: "There are more taels of silver here, I won't give the rest, there is a lot of silver to spend on the emperor from here, and I have saved so much over the years, remember to save some flowers." ”

"You'd better keep it yourself, I'm afraid you'll need it on the road?"

Jiang Laosi smiled and shook his head: "My travel expenses are enough, I'm afraid that the two of you will not be enough, Ah Xiao is still young, how can you say that you will also use it in the future." ”

When the old Taoist priest saw him like this, he didn't be polite anymore, but just asked, "Do you have to go?"

The howling wind blew through the top of the camphor tree in the yard, and even the roof tiles accidentally blew off a few pieces, and fell to the ground and shattered into many pieces.

"If you want to leave, why don't you say goodbye in advance? Ah Xiao didn't know you were leaving. ”

Jiang Laosi tightened the burden on his back, ignored the old Taoist's words, took out his yellow oil-paper umbrella from the corner of the wall, walked a few steps, and suddenly looked back and said: "There is still a cart of melons left by me behind the courtyard, if you want to eat it, you can eat it." ”

He propped up the oil-paper umbrella, and when he walked into the courtyard, the raindrops in the sky fell very cooperatively, hitting his oil-paper umbrella with a crackling sound, and the rainwater falling on the umbrella surface broke into countless small droplets, and continued to fall on the umbrella surface, and so on.

Standing in the rain, he stretched out his hand from under the umbrella, touched the body of the camphor tree, and said, "This tree was planted when I came, but I didn't expect it to be ten years, and it was just a trance when I remembered it." ”

The old Taoist priest looked at him blankly, and there was a sudden gap of seven years between the two.

"Old way. He spoke.

"Huh?"

"Help me reinforce this tree with a board, otherwise the wind will be strong and my waist will be easy to break." ”

"Good. ”

"What a fucking fart, you haven't done a few things for Lao Tzu except for helping me wash the board! Don't think Lao Tzu doesn't know, everything you told Ah Xiao to do!"

The old Taoist priest smiled embarrassedly and reminded, "You forgot to bring that thing back." ”

"That thing didn't belong to me in the first place, and I don't need it now. ”

The rain in the sky became more and more urgent, and the rain condensed into a stream of water on the roof tiles, and threw it high along the upturned eaves under the eaves, falling in the yard and splashing the corners of Jiang Laosi's green shirt.

Jiang Laosi held an oil-paper umbrella, pushed open the wooden door that had been pushed open by him countless times, and walked into the rain curtain.

The old Taoist priest looked at the wooden door that creaked in the rain, suddenly picked up his oil-paper umbrella and chased him out.

Laojiekou, school.

Jiang Laosi stood at the stone door, didn't enter, just smiled softly, and said, "Stinky boy, take care of yourself more in the future, that guy from Lao Dao'er may want you to take care of it." ”

"Lao Jiang, you wait for me!" The old Taoist priest panted and chased after him, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, the small oil-paper umbrella could not have any great effect, and a vulgar Taoist robe was drenched, but he didn't care at all, just ran over in a hurry, and said in pain: "Before you go, I have something for you." ”

Jiang Laosi frowned: "I don't know what kind of body I have, how can such a body get drenched in the rain?" He waved his hand, and a mighty aura appeared out of thin air, isolating the old Taoist priest from the rain curtain outside.

The old Taoist priest took out three sleek and shiny ancient copper coins from his arms, gritted his teeth, and handed one over.

"Aren't you really heartbroken?" Jiang Laosi was a little surprised, he had begged for this thing many times, and the old Taoist priest was not willing to show him a look.

The old Taoist priest said angrily: "I'm afraid that you will die, if you die, Ah Xiao will be very sad." ”

"Well, even if this thing belongs to me, I won't return it when I come back. ”

"You think it's beautiful! Come back when the time comes, and obediently return the things to me! I'll pass it on to Ah Xiao!" The old Taoist priest blew his beard and glared.

Jiang Laosi took the old copper coin, put it in his arms like a baby, and said with a smile: "Then I'll talk about it when I come back." ”

The northern part of the town, the old docks.

Jiang Laosi got on the cargo boat that belonged to him, supported the dilapidated wood pulp, freed his hand, waved his hand at the old Taoist priest on the case, and shouted: "Old Dao'er, go back! I'm leaving!"

The old Taoist priest smiled and shouted, "Look at your appearance, you really look like an old scholar who entered Beijing to take the exam!"

Jiang Laosi was stunned, and said to himself: "Do you want to enter Beijing to take the exam, but I have some images, but I used to test others, and now someone else has come to test me." ”

Then he flicked the oars, and without saying too much, sailed downstream along the stream.

In the dashing rain curtain, a flat boat floated casually on the river, and from time to time there was a Huainan dialect folk song:

"The ten-mile long street market is connected, and the fairy is seen on the Yueming Bridge!"

"Life is only suitable for Huainan Lao, a good cemetery on Yuehua Mountain!"