Chapter 357: Acacia

Soon after, the sailboat passed by the river checkpoint, according to the rules, Yu Er should show the customs clearance survey, and the patrol officers and soldiers of the checkpoint also had to go on board to check, but when the boat sailed along the checkpoint into the inland river, the sergeants seemed to ignore this, and even smiled and nodded with a few people on board.

Chu Zhen is not a character who can't tolerate sand in his eyes, but he knows what is greasy, but he doesn't plan to expose it, just like in the county government, even if he learns about some of the bad deeds of the officials, he is lazy, corrupt and bribe, and oppresses the people, but the water is clear and there are no fish, and with the current background, saying that clean government is simply a joke, Chu Zhen naturally opened his eyes, closed his eyes, and pretended to be confused.

In the final analysis, in ancient times, it was still a society ruled by man, and besides, people were still kind to themselves, ungrateful, and suddenly turned their faces.

After entering the river, there is no help of the sea breeze, the boat draft is slightly heavier, Yu Er let down the sails, and paddled lightly by the wooden oars, the slogan of hey hey yo yo sounded for a while, the boat slowly docked in a secluded place, the smoke curling in the distance, faintly heard the sound of chickens and dogs barking and children crying, it should be a village.

"The two of you can get off the boat, and walk about a mile east from the village, which is the county seat of Yanguan." Standing at the bow of the boat, Yu Er said softly: "I can't send the two of you there, if it's rude, please don't be surprised." ”

I was prepared in my heart, of course the two of them wouldn't mind, thanked each other politely, helped each other get off the boat, said goodbye, turned around and left, but Yu Er stopped them, took out a package bag from the cabin, jumped off the boat, came to Chu Zhen, handed it over, and said softly: "This is my father and mother for you." ”

Saying that, without waiting for Chu to excuse himself, he returned to the boat, glanced at the two of them, commanded the boat to turn around, and soon disappeared in the distance, there are many rivers in the local waters of the south of the Yangtze River, extending in all directions, just like a net, even if it is an expert who has been running the boat for decades, he does not dare to say that he knows all the routes, and the ancient waterways have not been fully developed, as long as he hides in a river that is inaccessible, even if he has the intention to search, it is difficult to find their whereabouts.

Gently opened the package, found that in addition to some dry food, there were actually two strings of copper coins, presumably the old man and his wife felt that the two were unfortunately in distress and lost their luggage, this was specially prepared for them, the two looked at each other and sighed, and there was a little more gratitude in their hearts.

The two of them were not hypocritical, they kept their kindness in their hearts, went straight to the small village, and asked a pure and kind uncle in the village to drive the ox cart to the county seat, and then took care of a small boat carrying passengers to return to Qiantang County, and talked about Yu Er on the way, Shen Yao sighed softly: "Although it violates the laws of the imperial court, Yu Er is not a bad person, he is pure and filial by nature, and he is just forced by life to do so." ”

Chu Zhi nodded slightly, and thought deeply, Yanding, also known as the stove people, produces and lives in extremely harsh places, works all day long, and the hardships experienced are even more unimaginable, many of the salts who live by frying salt along the coast are immigrants, their living conditions are very difficult, they live in thatched houses built at will, and their diet is mainly coarse grains, and their lives are very miserable.

Salt people who cook the sea as their business, their husbands do not plough the land and their wives do not weave cloth, especially the islanders who live on the reefs, they can not grow crops, only guard the beach to fry salt, and if they do not fry salt, there is only a dead end, they can only boil salt and sell it to the government, and every year in the spring and summer when the tide recedes, the mud soaked in the sea water is scraped into a pile, and after being exposed to the wind and sun, the mud is made of brine by pouring mud with seawater.

The salt people produced in an environment where their lives were not guaranteed, and they had to endure the oppression of the salt officials and the exploitation of the wall merchants, and they were also bullied by the low-level officials, and the imperial court always continued to increase the salt tax revenue, which made the salt people's lives even more embarrassing.

Moreover, this kind of life will not pass, you must know that the salt households are hereditary, and their descendants will also live the same life, which makes Chu Zhen extremely dissatisfied, even if he is in a feudal society, but he still retains some human rights thoughts, and feels that the salt households are also common people, no matter what sins they have committed before, but they should not be borne by their descendants.

According to Chu Qian's understanding, Yu Laohan and his wife are not the first generation of salt people, their ancestors have lived on the island for three or four generations, and they have been living this miserable life.

In the face of rape and oppression, some people choose to endure humiliation and resentment, and accept it, but some people will not be reconciled, if it is a turbulent era, they may choose to rebel, but now is the Renzong period, the society is still rich and stable, the probability of success of the rebellion is not high, those who are not willing to be lonely, do not want to follow the old road of their ancestors, can only choose the road of smuggling and selling salt, in order to get rid of the miserable situation of being a salt ding.

Yu Er's choice seems to be right, and it can be seen that it is due to their behavior, compared with other salt conditions on the coast, the life of the islanders is somewhat comfortable.

Lamenting for the suffering of the people, Chu Zhen felt that he should do something, he used to always use his own weak position and could not change anything as an excuse, in fact, he was afraid of taking responsibility, but now, due to his own promotion, the West Lake project that should have been dredged by Su Shi was completed ahead of schedule after a few decades, and the effect does not seem to be bad.

This fully shows that as long as you have the heart, although you can't do something big against the sky, but you can change some small things, the difference is only whether you are willing to work hard, and not to say that you will succeed, even if you fail in the end, it doesn't matter, do your best, you are comfortable, if you never act, then you will be sorry.

Coupled with falling off the cliff, he is almost a person who has died twice, there is no need to be so cautious, try it, maybe you will become a famous minister comparable to Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi, and with the identity of the son-in-law of the Cao family, no one should dare to embarrass herself, it is a big deal to lose his official position and become his own big businessman.

It is understandable that after experiencing a catastrophe, the mood is agitated, it is inevitable that there will be a little impulsive, and there are a lot of thoughts in a muddled way, and if you calm down in a few days, you may not think like that.

The tide of thought fluctuated, Chu Zhen thought seriously, forgot that Shen Yao was beside him for a while, and when he found this situation, Shen Yao didn't ask much, and her beautiful eyes looked ahead as if she was stunned, with thousands of thoughts, and her appearance was not much better.

"Two guests, it's time to get there."

When it was almost dusk, the sky was red, and the boat arrived safely at the wharf of Qiantang County, under the reminder of the boatman, the two suddenly woke up, paid the money, walked slowly ashore, and quietly looked at each other, for a while, they seemed to be a little dazed and at a loss.

Merchants and tourists gathered on the dock, people came and went, loading and unloading, it was so lively, they were busy with their own affairs, and no one paid attention to the two of them, half a sound, Chu Zhen coughed lightly, and said, "I'll send you home first." ”

"Nope." Before the words fell, Shen Yao immediately opened his mouth to refuse, realizing that his reaction was a little strong, his head drooped slightly, and he said in a low voice: "The Shen family is nearby, just two steps away, you don't have to send each other, but you, as the county magistrate, have been missing for two days, and the county government doesn't know what the chaos has become, so it's better to go back first to appease people's hearts." ”

After thinking for a moment, Chu Zhen said, "It's okay." ”

"Hmm." Shen Yao bowed her head gently, turned around and walked towards Shen Yuan, walked a few steps, couldn't help but look back, and found that Chu Zhen did not leave, but stood in place and watched herself, her pretty face was slightly red, and she quietly walked two steps faster, she didn't know whether she was happy, ashamed or resentful, and there was boundless panic and hesitation

Seeing Shen Yao disappear into the corner of the street, Chu Zhen smiled bitterly, stood stunned for a moment, and didn't know what he was thinking, before he shook his head and walked away.

Back to the county yamen, the sunset has set in the west, the sky is like a curtain, dim into a group, the yamen hangs a few lanterns, there are four officials standing on both sides of the door, the appearance of hanging their heads, cold and deserted, there is no popularity in the past.

When Chu Zhen walked to the threshold and was about to step forward, the officials still didn't react, and they didn't bother to stop it, but said lazily: "Who is coming?" Let's go if it's okay, there is no one in the yamen today, and I don't do anything. ”

"It doesn't seem to be a day off today, how can there be no one? Where have they gone? Chu asked with a smile.

"Where to go, it's not for you to know." Halfway through speaking, he suddenly felt that this voice was very familiar, and the official suddenly looked up, and found Chu Zhen smiling under the lamp, and was immediately stunned, and after a while, he came back to his senses, and his first reaction was to rub his eyes vigorously.

"Lord Chu, Zhixian." exclaimed, I couldn't believe it, especially when I saw that Chu Zhen was different from the past, dressed in a villager's sackcloth, and the official was afraid that he would recognize the wrong person.

"I heard it, the official is not deaf, so there is no need to shout so loudly." Chu Zhen said with a smile: "What about Master Liu, have you arrested Li Thief and others?" ”

"It's really Lord Chu." The voice, tone, and demeanor were correct, and there was no doubt that the official was extremely excited, and the joy seemed to swell out of his chest, and he resisted the urge to look up to the sky and let out a long howl, turned around and rushed in, shouting like the wind: "Lord is back, Lord Chu is back." ”

Let the officials roar for a long time, but no one from the county government responded, and followed in, ready to enjoy the cheers and rejoicing of everyone, Chu Zhen couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Running back out of breath, the official touched his head and said embarrassedly: "My lord, the little one forgot, the brothers of the county government, as well as Master Liu, all went to search and rescue the adults." ”

"Oh." Chu Zhishu smiled, and immediately waved his hand: "Well, the official has escaped safely, and they don't know yet, you go and tell them and let them come back." ”

"The little ones are going." The official agreed, and regardless of the fact that it was getting late, he immediately rushed out, this is an opportunity to sell favors, this time, I don't know how many people will be grateful to themselves.

glanced at the official with envy, and the three officials next to him were not to be outdone, and hurriedly hugged Chu Zhen into the ya, rushing to express their worries about the disappearance of the magistrate, and the surprise intersection of seeing the magistrate come back safe and sound.

Chu Zhen smiled and nodded, just listened, walked to the lobby, did not stop, walked towards the inner house, heard the news of his disappearance, I don't know how Chu'er will react, it must be sad and heartbroken

In a hurry, Chu Zhi walked quickly, and when he was still some distance away from the inner house, he saw a touch of light green flashing over, and he threw himself into Chu Qian's arms, and he took a few steps back again and again, his chest was stuffy.

Holding Chu Zhi firmly with both hands, Chu'er quietly raised his face slightly, opened a pair of big black and white eyes, with a bit of confusion and surprise in his clear eyes, looked at his face stupidly, opened his mouth, and said softly: "Childe, Chu'er didn't dream, is it really you?" ”

Chu Zhen tried his best to behave calmly, but in an excited mood, his throat suddenly choked, he resisted the urge to cough, smiled, wrapped his left arm around her body, slowly combed her hair with his right hand, and said in a low voice: "It's not me, who else can it be." ”

Chu'er's eyes slowly brightened, like two rising stars at night, her pale face was slightly flushed with excitement, and the light of joy seeped out from the depths of her eyes little by little, hugging Chu Zhi's neck, two red lips trembling and coming up, kissing him frantically, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Chu Qian's heart was intense, his whole body was hot, his chest was boiling, he hugged the beauty back, opened his mouth to hold her soft lips, and responded eagerly, between heaven and earth, it seemed to have become extremely small all of a sudden, so small that he couldn't accommodate a third person.

The two were fascinated and forgetful, I don't know how long it took, the two slowly separated, Chu'er continued to look at Chu Qian, a pair of eyes fixed, blurred, sometimes clear, and gradually became hazy, the long eyelashes trembled slightly, two crystal tears quietly slipped out of the eyes, fell to the ground silently, and slowly melted.

"Chu'er, when you see me coming back, why are you still crying, and it won't be beautiful if you cry again." Chu Zhi said softly, stretched out his hand and gently stroked the tears on her face, the tenderness in his heart was infinite, he lowered his head and kissed her delicate face, naturally got her warm response, and the two suddenly adhered to each other.

"Childe, go back to the room, I want it." The liver and intestines were broken for two days, and suddenly saw Chu Zhen returning safely, Chu'er was in a turbulent mood and couldn't help herself, and she was a hundred times more courageous for a while, and said something that she would never say on weekdays, and when she woke up, she saw that her face was flushed, her eyes were fluttering, and she was indescribably charming and lovely.

Chu Qian's heart was hot, he reached out slightly, picked her up horizontally, and walked quickly towards the inner mansion, naturally, it seemed that this situation would be expected, whether it was the servant or the servant maid in the inner mansion, they would not appear here, and even if they did, they would choose to disappear automatically, so as not to disturb the two people who were immersed in joy.

However, just like this, Chu'er was also so ashamed that his face was red, his heart trembled, and he simply followed the ostrich and buried his head in the crook of his arm.

Three steps into two steps, back to the room, the bedroom is lit with a candlestick, the light is dim, the scenery is vague, the screen mirror table, carved wooden bed, back to his room, everything is so familiar and kind.

Moved to the side of the bed, put the beautiful woman in the brocade quilt gently, Chu Zhi leaned down lightly, her skin was warm and hot, her lips were like dragonflies, sweeping her eyes, pretty face, and holding her earlobes

Chu'er whimpered, as if he was about to cry, a pair of white arms hugged his neck, his starry eyes were blurred, he was panting thinly, a fire was burning in his chest, and the tide of love was surging, and he gently spit out two words in his mouth: "Chu Lang." ”

The red candles flickered, and the low call echoed in the room, lingering and sympathetic, and lovesick to the bone.