It's colder. It snowed overnight.

Early in the morning, the snow had stopped. The rising sun in winter shines on the snow-covered town of Motowa. There is no rooster crowing, no dog barking, like a fairyland on earth, not disturbed by the slightest disturbance of the world. The snow that accumulates on the road is imprinted with people's footprints. Yes, people who get up early and rush will not be stopped by this bit of wind and snow, and they will not linger on the beautiful scenery and forget where their destination is.

"The first snow of the year is coming a little earlier than usual." The older merchant sighed.

"Yes, the weather is really cold, thanks to my brother's thoughtfulness, drink a pot of warm wine at the wine shop in the town and then hurry, now the body is warm, and it is no problem to walk for half a day." The young businessman admired the old businessman's ample business travel experience, and wanted to take the opportunity to learn more from him along the way and increase his experience and knowledge.

"The businessman values profit over parting, and Fuliang bought tea in the month before last." The appearance of businessmen described by Bai Lotian in "Pipa Xing" gives them a label of heavy profits, but who knows the loneliness and hardship of leaving their families to travel alone to do business. Hearing that someone had asked him for advice, the older merchant forgot about this loneliness and hardship for a while. At this time, he was very happy to be accompanied by others on his lonely journey, and he did not hesitate to share his years of experience in doing business outside. The two merchants who were on the road together chatted as they walked, and in order to walk more, they all said goodbye to their homes when the sky was light. Perhaps their child was still asleep, and his wife was standing alone in the doorway watching him go.

A man with a sword approached and passed by the merchants.

"Two of you stay." When the merchants heard someone shouting to stop them, they all looked back. I saw that this man was wearing a hat on his head, wearing a robe, his clothes were ragged, his face was pale, and he was so stiff that he had no expression, but his left hand, which was red and swollen from the cold, was still holding the sword tightly. The blade of the sword is unsheathed, and there seems to be no malice. When the two merchants saw him dressed like this, they thought that he was a chivalrous man who had braved the wind and moon overnight, and they didn't dare not come forward to answer. The elder merchant asked, "What does this strong man have to say?" ”

"I'm sorry to ask my brother, is the town in front of you Yuanhe Town?" This man is also very polite.

"It is Yuanhe County, Yuanhe Town." The older merchant replied, waiting for an opportunity to examine the man.

"Listening to the strong man speak an official language, is he a visitor from a foreign country?" The older merchant is a Yuanhe person, and people with different accents are expected to be from a foreign country.

The man was stunned for a moment, then hesitated, "Visitors from other places." After saying this, the man was no longer speech, and stood there thoughtfully.

"Strongman, if there is nothing to do with the strong man, our brothers will continue on their way." The older merchant thought to himself, looking at the person who didn't look like a good man in the green forest, and he didn't know where it was sacred, or it was better to leave as soon as possible.

"Thank you, brother, please." Thank you for this man.

The early morning in Yuanhe Town was not disturbed by the noise, and there were not many pedestrians on the street, only the cries of roadside vendors, and the sound of sweeping the floor from several liquor stores on the street.

The old man who sells baked cakes walks through the streets and alleys in the snow, shouting and shouting, which rarely attracts the patronage of some pedestrians and old customers. He always lays down his stakes outside the usually best liquor store, waiting for more people to come and buy his pancakes. The only difference was that there was an unkempt young man squatting in the snow outside the liquor store.

"Young man, come and eat a cake! Just baked from home. The old man who sold the bread picked up two loaves and handed them to the young man who was squatting aside. The man looked surprised, and hurriedly reached out to take it, but when he reached halfway he retracted, rubbing his hands together and turning his face away.

"Look at how cold and hungry you are, come and eat the cake!" The old man did not give up, took a step closer, and squatted in front of this person with a cake. The man still didn't say a word. The old man said, "Take it!" ”

"I don't have any money on me." A few words popped out of this person's mouth, but his face still didn't turn around, and he looked very impolite. In fact, only he knew that he did this to try not to let the pancakes enter his sight and destroy the last bit of courage he had to refuse.

"No money." The old man smiled and said: "It's cold today, but the business is better than usual, these two cakes should be given to you, you can take them and eat them!" Look at you, you've been hungry for days, haven't you? The man hesitated, but no longer refused the offer. The old man who sold the baked cakes looked at the young man with relief and devoured the cakes, "Eat slowly, don't choke." As he spoke, he punched out a bowl of steaming tofu brain from the stove he was carrying. This time, the young man did not hesitate, put down the baked cake, took the old man's tofu brain and drank it.

"Uncle, what is this white thing, so delicious." The young man seemed to have drunk tofu brain for the first time, and he asked as he drank it, and he didn't stop in his mouth, biting the cake one bite at a time, it seemed that he hadn't eaten for a long time.

"This is called tofu brain, which was conceived by a good person in our local area, and it was ground out from the soybeans we usually eat. If it's delicious, I'll have another bowl. As he spoke, the old man handed over another bowl of tofu brain. The young man hurriedly put down the empty bowl in his hand, took it and continued to drink heavily.

"Young man, you're from out of town, aren't you?" The old man looked at the young man and asked.

"Well, well, I'm from Nanzhou." The young man touched the crumbs sticking to his mouth, and then went on to eat the cake.

"Nanzhou, it's far from here, and it's a month's walk from here to the south." Without waiting for the old man to continue to ask him why he came here, the young man asked, "Does the old man know Nanzhou?" ”

"In the past, when the Zhao clan rebelled in South Vietnam, I was conscripted as a soldier and went there once with the counterinsurgency army. It's a lot warmer there than here, how can you stand it in the snow when you're so thinly dressed, and if you don't dislike the old man, how about you go to my house and bake a fire? ”

"Roasting fire? Of course it's good. The young man stood up, patted his clothes and thanked him, "Thank you, uncle!" "With both hands, one of his hands was red and swollen from the cold, there were several chilblains on his fingers, and several places on Yan Zòng's side began to ulcerate, thinking that he couldn't bear to itch and scratched it. Seeing that he was still scratching the wound with his hand, the old man hurriedly warned: "Your chilblains are so strict, you must not scratch them again, otherwise the other wounds will also festering and bleeding pus." ”

Cold is the main cause of the onset of chilblains. The cause of the disease is that when the skin of chilblain patients encounters cold, damp or cold and warm rapid changes, the local arterioles constrict, and the arterial blood vessels are paralyzed and dilated for a long time, the veins are congested, and the local blood circulation is poor and the disease occurs. This young man came from the warm Nanzhou, and it was the first time he had seen snow in his life, so he naturally didn't know that the itchy and swollen red spots on his hands were chilblains. The old man had a stern warning on his face, which made him realize the problem of Yan zhòng. He nodded, promising to hold back and not scratch again.