In the fifth year of Taihe, winter, October has been in the middle of the day, and at the beginning of noon.

Jingzhao Mansion, Chang'an, Chang'an County, West City.

The season is in winter, and the cold wind is steep. The Tang West Market seems to be completely unaffected by the four seasons, and it is still full of people.

It has been half an hour since the market opened, and the merchants in the West Market have already set up their stalls, and the sound of shouts and pack horses filling the ears of pedestrians. At noon, walking on the street, you can still smell the aroma of roasted mutton from time to time.

During the prosperous period of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, there were many Hu merchants who came here to do business from Fulin, Dashi, Sogdia, Kangguo and other places, and they exchanged foreign glass crystals and horse felts for silk and silk satin worth thousands of gold in their country.

Later, Anshi caused the Xiao Wall, Tubo invaded Longyou, and the Silk Road was cut off. Many Hu merchants settled down in the Tang Dynasty, followed the Han surname, and their descendants took the Han name, completely integrated into the Tang Dynasty, so the exotic accent of the West Market that could be heard everywhere in the past gradually became rare. At this time, the Tang West Market, in addition to Beiqu, also began to operate domestic business, and even set up food stalls.

On the east side of the West Market, there is an enlightened beast flag hanging above the square gate. A young official in his thirties from the West Market Bureau was inspecting the documents of a young man wearing a cloak and holding a white horse.

The little official looked at the document for a long time, and it was printed with the inquest and signature of the whole way to Guanjin, and there was nothing suspicious. He raised his eyes and looked at the young man again, and found that this person was handsome, with a pair of sword eyebrows, sideburns, blazing eyes, and an angular face. It seems that this man has just gone on a long journey, and the white horse's hair is a little dirty, but it can be seen through the obvious muscle lines that this horse is definitely expensive.

The little official faced Wen Mu, spoke in a Chang'an accent, and asked loudly: "Who is the surname of the honorable driver?" ”

The man also spoke the standard Tang dialect: "Jingzhao Zhang Yijun." ”

The little official took out the little wolf hair from his waist and wrote a "listen" in the book in his hand, which was considered to be allowed to enter the market. Then he handed the paper back to the young man, and said with a smile: "Welcome home." ”

Zhang Yijun looked back and smiled, then took the "Sa Yuqi" and walked along the threshold road into the crowded Tang West Market.

It is one of the most expensive land plots in Chang'an. There is a cross street in the middle of it, the width of the street is dozens of steps, along the street are all shops with high hanging signs, and the cross street has a fork every 100 steps, each stretches inward, there are ten steps wide, there is no lack of small vendors and food stalls that cannot afford to rent the shops along the street, although compared with those shops with prosperous crossroads, the flow of people is a little sparse, but at this hour, it is not much inferior.

Zhang Yijun actually came to West Market for lunch.

In order to hurry, Zhang Yijun didn't eat anything except for the simple food he ate in front of the Changming Pavilion outside Chang'an City last night, and now at the beginning of noon, Zhang Yijun can already be said to be hungry.

However, unfortunately, the "Gu Ji Sheep Soup" restaurant at the intersection that Zhang Yijun used to frequent, was already full of diners, and there was a long queue outside the store. Zhang Yijun smelled the fragrant mutton soup, so he had to pout his lips and go to Liqu to find some small food stalls.

Xishi is still the same as Zhang Yijun when he was in Chang'an two years ago, with a lot of traffic and the hustle and bustle of the city. In front of a tea shop on the side of the street, a few young men in charge of the corner played around with a few wooden sticks in their hands, and were scolded and run away by the angry shopkeeper; In front of the glaze shop on the other side, a Hu merchant in a maroon lapel is teaching a few hanging hairs to sing nursery rhymes, and the singing is mixed with Hu Yin, mixed with the noise of the street market into Zhang Yijun's auricle: "Zhangshui is clear, Tang Zuo is long; Years old in Xinhai, the water is abundant and the sky is yellow......"

Zhang Yijun turned around at a fork in the road, looked left and right, and finally found a vacant soup cake stall in Liqu, and after bolting the sa jade cake outside the store, he hurriedly asked the store guy to ask for a bowl of vegetarian soup cakes and half a catty of roasted lamb sticks, and sat down at the small table at the door of the store.

While waiting for the food, Zhang Yijun noticed that there was a reward notice posted on the water-mill blue brick wall opposite the door of the store, and the words on it could barely be seen from the position where Zhang Yijun was sitting, it seemed that he wanted to arrest the thief, and the reward was not low, it was two hundred.

However, the appearance of the suspect is painted with teeth and claws, like a cow, a ghost, a snake and a god, presumably because of this reason, no one cared about this notice in front of him, and pedestrians didn't even bother to look up.

"Come on, your vegetarian soup cakes, roasted sheep sticks, be careful to burn, you use it slowly!"

"Don't leave yet," Zhang Yijun called the guy who stayed in the store and pointed to the door of the store, "When was the notice posted?" ”

"Oh, it's your first time in Chang'an," the shopkeeper glanced at Zhang Yijun's slightly unkempt face due to the journey, slightly attached to his crossed hands, and said with a smile: "In the past two or three months, our Chang'an City is also strange, from the dignitaries to the ordinary people, all kinds of people are throwing things, not a big thing, all kinds of money bags, calculation bags have been cut, etc., mainly in Wannian County, Chang'an County is still less, but you have to be careful!" ”

"Oh?" Zhang Yijun tasted the roasted sheep stick, Xu was a little overburned, so he frowned slightly, and said strangely: "Two or three months, the government hasn't caught the thief?" ”

"Who's to say it isn't?" Seeing that Zhang Yijun was interested, the shopkeeper unconsciously sat down opposite Zhang Yijun, "Don't say that you caught the thief, you don't even have a clue, otherwise can the notice be drawn like that?" It is said that the matter has been stabbed to Jingzhao Mansion, two days ago, I heard that Jingzhao Mansion pressured Wannian County to solve the case within ten days. ”

"Within ten days?" Zhang Yijun agreed, and after nibbling on the roasted sheep stick, he picked up the chopsticks and ate the vegetarian soup cake, "This pressure is not small." ”

"Yes, speaking of the 10,000-year-old county order...... The kid remembered that his name was Lu Xing, and he had just taken office at the beginning of this year, and he encountered this incident, and it was also unlucky......" The shopkeeper said this, turned his head and found that the shopkeeper glared at him fiercely, and jumped up from the chair in fright, and crossed his hand at Zhang Yijun, and said "You use it slowly", and hurriedly ran to the back kitchen to serve the food.

After a short while, Zhang Yijun finally filled his stomach and called the shopkeeper to settle the bill.

The shopkeeper had a dark face, a beard like a mane brush, and said expressionlessly: "Guest officer, you have a total of ten yuan here......

Zhang Yijun reached out and probed the money bag on his waist, but he was stunned for a moment, and quickly looked down and found that his fingers poked out from the bottom of the money bag.

The money bag was cut wide......

As for the several strands of money inside, I'm afraid it has already gone into other people's pockets.

It turns out that the rumors told by the guy in the store are not false at all!

The shopkeeper looked at Zhang Yijun impatiently and urged: "Hurry up, the other guest officers have urged ......"

Zhang Yijun's face was full of incredulity at the moment, just because he had touched the money bag before entering the West Market, and the money bag was still bulging and intact at that time. Who knew that this food stall had less than half an hour's work, and without realizing it, it was lightly taken by the thief, which made Zhang Yijun secretly sigh that while the thief was skilled, he had to admit it.

"A certain money bag has been cut ......" Zhang Yijun felt ashamed, so he lowered his voice.

Hearing this, the shopkeeper, who was already a little impatient, changed his face immediately, and deliberately raised his voice and said, "What did you say?" You don't have any money?! ”

"Hey, this is fresh, I didn't expect you to be born with a white skin, and you are actually a master of overlord meals!"

The shopkeeper ridiculed Zhang Yijun with a bad attitude, which made Zhang Yijun hold back the fire in his stomach, but he didn't dare to attack, because in the final analysis, he was really the one who didn't give money for dinner.

The shopkeeper's shout attracted a full house of diners and a few pedestrians who happened to pass by outside the store to look at the lively eyes, and for a while, dozens of people were waiting to see how Zhang Yi would react.

"I'm so sorry!" Zhang Yijun got up and crossed his hands, and said with a humble or arrogant attitude: "A certain person is from Chang'an, his family lives in Guangdefang, and when he goes home to withdraw the money, he will be handed over to the foot within half a moment, and it is not bad!" ”

"Hmph," the shopkeeper sneered, "If you wipe your mouth after eating like you like the guest officer, you will take credit, and I won't close the store?" Still in business? ”

There were whispers everywhere in the store, and the guy from the store saw that Zhang Yijun was in an embarrassment, so he walked over, bent his waist and said, "Why don't you ...... Honor, can you ask anyone in this store who can help with the payment? ”

Zhang Yijun listened to this suggestion and hurriedly looked around the restaurant, but all the diners who watched the excitement turned their faces back before Zhang Yijun looked at him, for fear of meeting Zhang Yijun's eyes.

The shopkeeper seemed to have seen the reaction of the diners in the store, so he said to his buddy: "Serve your food!" ”

The shopkeeper was helpless, so he had to shake his head with sympathy to Zhang Yijun as if he was slightly sorry, and retreated to the back kitchen. The shopkeeper then looked at Zhang Yijun like a winning rooster, raised his chin and pointed out the store, and sneered ill-willedly: "I see that Zunjia has a white horse, why don't you mortgage it, and wait for Zunjia to have money, and then exchange it back, how about it?" ”

Zhang Yijun was so angry that his teeth were locked, how did he not know that this was a deception, if he really did this, there was no word or evidence, and it was likely that in the end, it would not be "Sa Yuqi" at all, but any inferior horse. And in a worse case, you can't even get anything back.

"Don't talk about it!"

"Oops!" Seeing Zhang Yijun glaring at each other, the shopkeeper laughed out loud, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth and widening his eyes, "Then you don't want to step out of my store!" ”

Seeing that the two of them were tense, there were good deeds outside the store who were afraid that the world would not be chaotic, and they wished that the two of them would fight on the spot. At this moment, a crisp female voice with a slight surprise came from the crowd watching from outside the store.

"Jun'er?!"

And Zhang Yijun, who heard this call, his originally tense face immediately soothed.