On this day in September, Xia Mingming was the first to get up, when Yu Shu was woken up by her knocking on the door, there was just a bright color, she got up slowly, got up slowly, and pulled the quilt for Yu Xiaoxiu, who was still sleeping, at the end of the screen.

As soon as she went outside, Xia Mingming followed her buttocks, washing her face and combing her hair, even when she went to the thatched house, she was waiting outside, seeing that Yu Shu was there, Xia Mingming was anxious and didn't dare to urge, until she saw her turn into the kitchen and prepare to cook on the fire, she couldn't help but say:

"You can eat out for breakfast, what else are you doing?"

"You don't need money to go out to eat," Yu Shu instructed her to add water to the pot, took the small pot in the basin by herself, poured out half of the jar of rice wine she bought the day before yesterday, counted four eggs, and prepared to cook a sweet wine poached egg in the morning.

"Ah Shu, are you sure, what if you lose the money," Xia Mingming leaned next to Yu Shu and asked uneasily, with two handfuls of gray blue hanging ridiculously under those big eyes, because she was worried about missing this Dayan, she hadn't been able to sleep well for the past two days.

Yu Shu took out the boiled half-cooked poached eggs, put them in a bowl, poured the rice wine into the pot, covered the pot, and then turned his head to Xia Mingming and said: "If you lose money, you will write to me and go home immediately, let your family come to pick you up, pay off all the money you owe me, and go wherever you fall in love." ”

"You're still in the mood to joke with me at this time," Xia Mingming muttered.

"Who is joking with you," Yu Shu wiped his hand on his apron, turned around and went back to the house to get the abacus, crackled in front of Xia Mingming, and dropped it with his hand holding the abacus, showing her:

"Well, voila. From the time we jumped off the ship to the present, including the cost of travel and daily food and accommodation. You owe me eighty-nine taels and thirty-seven cents, and I will remember them all for you, including interest. When the time comes, you will have to pay me back one hundred and twenty-seven taels and four corners and sixty-two cents, and the fraction will be exempted for you. Count you one hundred and twenty-seven taels, if you dare not admit it, believe it or not, I will knock you out and sell you to human traffickers. ”

Yu Shu laughed evilly, stretched out his hand and pinched Xia Mingming's face, "With your appearance, let alone sell for one hundred and eighty taels." ”

Xia Mingming slapped Yu Shu's hand away angrily, because she was often joking about her. So as not to turn his face in anger because of this, "Don't worry, I won't forget it for you, don't say it's a hundred taels, if I pass the Dayan exam, I'll give you a thousand taels." ”

Yu Shu stuffed the abacus into her hand: "If you can't pass the test, you have to give it." ”

"Giv, give, give!" Xia Mingming was not lightly relieved by Yu Shu, and went out of the house with the abacus.

As soon as she left, Yu Shu saw the neatly dressed Jingchen walking outside the door of the stove room, and just as the rice wine in the pot was cooked, she beckoned him to come and serve breakfast. One side confessed:

"If I don't come back at noon, you can go out to eat, the cool taste of the cold noodles at the corner of the street is hot and comfortable to eat today. Remember to ask the store to put spicy peppers for you. ”

Jingchen nodded, Yu Shu served two bowls, and planned to bring out the bowl first, but when he touched the edge of the hot bowl, he retracted his hand and rubbed his earlobe, Jingchen saw this, so he stretched out the hot bowl out of the bowl, Yu Shu saw that he was not afraid of being hot, so he simply left the two bowls for him, washed the spoon and went back to the house to ask Yu Xiaoxiu to get up.

Before going out, Yu Shu checked the belongings she was carrying again, two charcoal strips burned last night, a knife, an abacus, and twenty taels of silver tickets, except for the abacus, everything else was placed close to her body, and in front of the mirror, she changed into her best robe, painted her eyebrows rougher with the ash at the bottom of the pot, smeared her sideburns, and looked more like a young man.

didn't let Yu Xiaoxiu and Jingchen follow, Yu Shu took Xia Mingming out of the door, no matter how she said it, she was doing something for her, how could she be allowed to wait at home, at least let her know that it was not easy to do anything.

***

The two of them didn't go out early, when they arrived at Qiu Kwai Fang, the sun had risen, Yu Shu turned two streets and found Chunxianglou, there were not many guests who came to the brothel to eat flowers and wine in broad daylight, two white women who were over twenty-eight years old moved a stool and sat in front of the door to eat melon seeds, holding a handpa in their palms, and they would smile when they saw someone passing in front of them, although they were dressed without showing their shoulders and elbows, but the pink and green dress was clearly not a good woman.

Xia Mingming didn't know where this Chunxiang Building was, but when he saw it at this moment, he knew what kind of place this was, so he was stunned, and then dragged Yu Shu back to the side of the road, blushing and lowering his voice and said in a panic:

"How is this filthy place?"

"Otherwise, what do you think is the place, the inn?" Yu Shu pulled her hand away, straightened the collar of her clothes, brushed her hair and sideburns, and advised: "You just wait for me outside, if you are hungry, look for food nearby, and I will come out before dark at the latest." ”

With that, he strode through the streets.

Xia Mingming didn't even have a chance to stop her, seeing that she was greeted by a prostitute with a smile, and disappeared in a blink of an eye, her heart suddenly emptied, she couldn't say whether it was uncomfortable or something else, her nose was sullen and sour, and she wanted to rush in and pull her out, telling her that she didn't take the test.

But at the thought of the consequences of this, she flinched again, pinched her ten fingers, took a few steps back full of guilt, and shrank into the alley by the side of the road, staring at the door of the brothel across the street, and gritted her teeth secretly:

"Ah Shu, I owe you, and I will definitely repay you tenfold in the future."

***

As soon as Yu Shu entered the brothel, he showed the old bustard who came up with the note bought by Mingyuan Casino, the old bustard still had a smile on his face, examined the red stamp on the strip, handed it back to her, and casually beckoned a twelve or thirteen-year-old chick and led Yu Shu through the hall to the back.

The pink incense of the front hall of this brothel, the veil is red everywhere, through the two beaded curtain doors, into the backyard, and there is a cave.

There are about 200 square meters of the courtyard, into the "mouth" shape around a circle of tea seats, about 30 or so looks, the middle is empty, there are small half people sitting in the banquet, some are drinking tea, some are chatting with the neighbors, but there is no gambling game, at first glance it is considered to be breaking into someone's tea banquet.

Hina led Yu Shu to the backyard, and a man wearing a gray cloth hat came up to ask, accepted Yu Shu's admission slip, and asked Hina to lead her to a seat.

Yu Shu chose a place with a lot of people to sit down, in order to listen to the people on both sides, so as not to wait for her to understand the rules of this place. made a joke, the tea table in front of him was not big, just enough for one person to sit alone. In addition to cups, there are also pen, ink, paper, inkstones, and a few envelopes. I don't know what to do with it.

After pouring her tea, the chick stood behind her for a while. didn't see Yu Shu give the reward, so he left stupidly.

Yu Shu and the neighbors talked, others saw her face, and they ignored it, Yu Shu said a few words, and when she saw that it was boring, she didn't stick to people's cold faces. took off the abacus on his waist and put it on the table to practice his hands, and after a while, a few more people came in one after another, Yu Shu saw that he had not yet opened the intention of gambling, so he asked the man who had checked the rules before, and the other party smiled when he heard her:

"You should be back for the first time, this morning, after the sun has risen. The whole number of people will be opened, and those who come late will have to wait for the next show, and wait until noon, and the morning will pass. If you want to bet on the afternoon game, you can stay in the building for dinner, and if you don't want to gamble, you can go first, and similarly, if you want to stay in the evening, you can stay for dinner, of course, you have to pay for the wine and food yourself. ”

This evergreen gang is very good at doing business, five taels of silver for a ticket, just buy one in, want to make enough money, how can a single gamble is enough, and it costs money to stay and eat, the food in this building will definitely not be cheap, one or two taels can't run.

Yu Shu saw that this person was easy to talk to, and couldn't help but ask a few more questions: "What you said is right, I am a southerner, the first time I played this in Anling City, I saw the rules here, but it is very different from ours, and we have to gamble in separate fields, so you can talk to me about the rules." ”

The man said: "Don't worry, when the next person is ready, someone will talk, please sit down first." ”

When Yu Shu heard this, he didn't ask any more, thanked him and went back to sitting, drank two sips of tea to moisten his throat, counted the number of people on the field, there were twenty-four people here, and there were still six.

Seeing a strong man walking in from the gap in the east, he stood on the empty spot in the middle of a circle of tea houses, stretched out his hand and patted it, and the backyard soon quieted down, and the strong man's voice was loud:

"Thank you in advance, I will gamble on the land of my Evergreen Gang, rest assured, we are all in a relationship, and no one will come to check the field and lose everyone's gamble."

The words fell, and a few voices rang down one after another, the south of the city is not allowed to gamble, this is expressly forbidden, if you want to play, you have to go to the north of the city, but the water in the north of the city is deep, and it is the general easy customer to flow, there are a lot of private gatherings to start the game to make profits, but if you want to support this one, how can you do it without two brushes.

The strong man looked at the crowd and continued: "Nearly Dayan, there are a lot of fresh faces in Anling, and a few of you here today are passers-by, so I'll tell you about the rules here." ”

As soon as Yu Shu heard that something serious was coming, he stretched out his ears to listen.

"The gambling game is not the same, our evergreen gang of the field only changed the most fashionable way to play in the north of the city two months ago, there is a name called" gambling ", please take a look at the left hand side, there are red and white envelopes, please come up with your own questions, a question plus a note, the bet is recorded under the question, the minimum five two a question, respectively, put the question into the red envelope, and another record of the solution into the white envelope, at least three questions, that is to say, you must have at least six red and white envelopes in your hand before the start."

This man is five big and three thick, but he speaks in an orderly manner:

"Wait for me to issue thirty cards, everyone is different, the gambling game opens, or you can spend five taels of silver to draw the opponent's brand number to choose the topic to bet, or you can then receive it in order, every half an hour for a game, if you can't solve the problem, or solve the wrong one, then lose the bet, to bet on the topic of the bet as lost to the problem, otherwise, the question will bet on the loss of the bet and the solver. Ugly words are ahead, if anyone wants to gamble, you can't afford to lose, please leave early, don't regret it when the time comes, there is no such saying. ”

The man said the last sentence with a cold face, and stretched out his hand to lead the two teahouses outside the southeast seat:

"Today, we invited Mr. Song from Hongren Yi Pavilion and Mr. Liu from Dexing Yi Pavilion as guests.

A middle-aged man and an old man at the tea party over there waved their hands, and many people here recognized these two celebrities in Qiu Gui Fang, and they all got up to salute.

"Don't talk nonsense, today is still three bets, two moments later, everyone, please think about the topic first, come to someone, deal cards!"

Yu Shu supported his chin with the back of his hand, looked at the two-color envelope on the table, and thought about it, according to such a gambling method, it must be arranged well.