The three of them walked all the way west along the avenue, and after a while, they arrived at the old man's residence, which was a secluded courtyard in the Treasure Bottle Lane, the courtyard wall was higher than the surrounding houses, and there was an old locust tree in the yard, the trunk was thick, and a few small white flowers could be seen in the leaves of the tree, and the stone table next to the locust tree was also old, and its edges had already become smooth after years of polishing. The yard is very large, the house is bigger, but there is no one under it, Su Jingchen and Lou Qi are still standing at the door and looking around, the old man walked in first, "Why, I haven't seen such a big house?" ”

"I've seen it, but I haven't been in it," Lou Qi followed the old man and probed his brain, like a child who had just arrived in a new environment, "Old man, do you live alone in such a big yard?" ”

"There is also a mother-in-law who cooks, which will probably be to buy vegetables."

Lou Qi let out a soft "oh", this old man is so lonely, it seems that he will have to be kind to him in the future.

"Are you going to go inside?" The old man said suddenly.

"Good! I'll go take a look," Lou Qi turned his head and looked at Su Jingchen, "Brother Su is going?" ”

Su Jingchen waved his hand, "I won't go." ”

"Then I'll go alone." Lou Qi rushed into the big room, looking around, and from time to time he would let out an exclamation, and he was alive and well, although he was.

"Tell me, what do you want to ask?" The old man put his hands behind his back and did not look back.

Su Jingchen bowed respectfully to the old man and said, "Old man, I know that you are definitely not an ordinary person. ”

"Nonsense, am I an ordinary person still using you?" The old man glared back.

Su Jingchen smiled bitterly, ignored the old man's words, and continued, "Brother Lou Qi is a manufacturable material, with a good heart and infinite strength, although he seems to value money, but in fact, it is not entirely like this, since you have taken a fancy to Brother Lou Qi, and want him to learn skills from you, even counting me, I know that my qualifications are mediocre, but I also hope that you can also teach me some real skills, I will ...... in the future."

"Okay, okay," the old man impatiently stopped Su Jingchen, "That kid has a good heart, but it's not necessarily a good thing, in this world, how many good people can have good rewards?" Other things about him are probably similar to what you said, and about you, if you want to learn real skills from me, it's probably no fun. ”

"Why?" Su was stunned.

"It's okay for you to learn some basic swordsmanship, swordsmanship, and the like from me, but I can't teach you the real skills in your mouth." The old man looked at Su Jingchen with an inexplicable smile on his face, Su Jingchen just wanted to open his mouth to ask again, but the old man shook his head, "Don't ask more, the secret of heaven must not be revealed, the time has come, you think you will meet the person who can teach you your true skills." ”

Su Jingchen bowed to the old man again, and as soon as he straightened up, Lou Qi walked out of the house, "It's boring, it's big, it's nothing special." ”

He rolled his eyes again and looked at the old man, "Old man, when did you start teaching me skills?" ”

"Do you want to learn?

"yes, or I'll do something with you."

"Isn't it because of those twenty silver leaves?"

"Being able to make money and learn skills is not a bad thing...... What is the beauty of two? Lou scratched his ears and cheeks, but he couldn't remember what the two words in the middle were, he was also a person who had listened to Mr. Xueshu's lectures, although there were not many, but he still knew some words and could speak some idioms.

"The best of both worlds." Su Jingchen reminded, after saying this, it was Su Jingchen's turn to be stunned, I don't remember that I had the experience of reading, but I seem to know a lot of words and idioms?

"Yes, yes, yes! The best of both worlds. Lou Qi didn't notice this abnormality, he began to urge the old man, "Old man, hurry up, let's start!" ”

"Okay, whatever you want to learn, go get four buckets of water first." The old man pointed to a few small kegs leaning against the corner, "The well is at that intersection in the middle of the alley." ”

The two of them immediately went to pick up the bucket and went out, and in a short time they returned to the courtyard with a full bucket in one hand and stood in front of the old man. The old man pointed at Su Jingchen, "You go and pour out half of the water in the bucket." ”

Although Su Jingchen didn't understand what he meant, he still did it immediately.

"Okay, let's start to take a horse step now, lift the bucket in front of you, you have to raise the level, practice this today, wait for me to say it's okay, you can stand up, don't underestimate this action, this action can best exercise the next plate," After speaking, the old man turned around and entered the house, sat on the sandalwood chair, raised a cup of tea and took a shallow sip, and said with a smile, "Don't think about being lazy, otherwise I will make you suffer some more when the time comes." ”

Lou Qi and Su Jingchen were not ambiguous, according to the old man's request, they half-squatted down and began to take a horse step, at the beginning, both of them looked calm for the time being, like a nobody, but in less than an hour, Su Jingchen was already sweating profusely, the angle of his hands and feet was a lot off, but he was still reluctant to put it down, Lou Qi's forehead was also full of fine beads of sweat, his legs trembled slightly, but his hands did not move an inch.

"What, can't hold on?" The figure of the old man came out of the room, and Lou Qi could even imagine his gloating expression from his voice.

"Hold on!" Lou Qi shouted loudly like an old man, this old man just wants to set me up, right? With twenty silver leaves, he definitely won't be able to take them out, he thought to himself.

Su Jingchen didn't say anything, he gritted his teeth, and slowly leveled the bucket, and his legs trembled and bent like they did at the beginning, thinking that he might still not want to lose to Lou Qi.

After a while, the old man walked out of the room and looked at the two of them, he nodded to Su Jingchen, signaling that he could stand up, Su Jingchen seemed to have received a pardon, and put the bucket down at once, and the water flowed all over the ground, he took two steps forward, but his legs were weak, and he almost fell to his knees, he had to climb to the side of the steps with his hands and feet and sat down, and fell down softly like a slug.

Lou Qi also wanted to stand up, but the old man came over and gave him a chestnut, "You can't do it yet." ”

"Why!" Lou Qi glared at the old man, and became more and more determined to think that the old man was here to set himself up.

The old man snorted coldly, turned around and entered the house again, "If you kid only has such a little ability, I won't even bother to see you." ”

When Su Jingchen heard this, his eyes darkened, he didn't say anything on his lips, but his heart was turbulent, am I not as good as Lou Qi? He smiled like a self-deprecating smile, too, Lou Qi is such a tall and handsome young man, with extraordinary strength and good treatment of others, although sometimes he is a little obsessed with money, but he is indeed much better than himself, no wonder he can't compare, right?

About half an hour later, Su Jingchen had already woken up from sleep, and Lou Qi was still walking on the horse, but this time his legs also began to tremble, but compared with Su Jingchen, the shaking was still not obvious, and his hands were still the same as at the beginning, not moving at all, ordinary people should be sour even if they raised their hands for so long. Are the two buckets of water in his hands decorations? Su Jingchen said in surprise in his heart. He stood up lightly and turned his head to look, the old man didn't know where he went, so he looked at Lou Qi and pointed out the door, Lou Qi understood and smiled at him.

Su Jingchen went out and wandered around in Aquarius Alley, the houses here are not big, most of them live in ordinary people, each family is about two or three people, which should be considered poor in Huaiyang. Walking and walking, he came to the intersection where he had just fetched water, and he wanted to ask for a while, and he touched the two pieces of silver that Boss Chen had just given, only to feel hungry again. Su Jingchen followed the fragrance and looked over, it turned out to be a baked cake stall, it was so big, he had seen the baked cakes, but he had never seen such fragrant baked cakes, he did not hesitate to pay for six baked cakes, two for himself, two for Lou Qi, and two for the old man.

Su Jingchen took the baked cake handed over by the boss, took a bite gently, and the aroma that was stronger than before immediately spread, and the meat filling in the baked cake and some kind of homemade spices made by the boss made Su Jingchen fluttering, and he only felt that this baked cake didn't seem to be a baked cake, but became something more delicious than those delicacies from the mountains and seas.

"Boss, your pancakes are so delicious!" Su Jingchen couldn't help but turn around and shouted at the boss with the baked cake.

The boss smiled, "Then I'll come more after that." ”

"Okay, I'll be here more!"

Su Jingchen turned his head and immediately noticed the gaze coming from the narrow and dim alley next to him, it was a thin girl about five or six years old, she was dirty all over her body, her hair was curled, and her shabby clothes were put on her indiscriminately when she was too old to know how many yards, now it was okay in summer, but in winter, I was afraid that she would freeze to death here. She was staring at the baked cake in Su Jingchen's hand, and when she saw Su Jingchen looking at this side, she immediately stopped looking at it and retracted her head back into the alley.

Su Jingchen always felt that this scene was familiar.

He walked over to the girl, who, when she saw him coming, shrank her body inward, put her hands on her head and curled up in a ball, probably afraid of the living.

"Do you want to eat?" Su Jingchen squatted down beside her and looked at her.

The girl raised her head, her eyes were bright, she looked at the baked cake in Su Jingchen's hand, swallowed her saliva, but said, "Don't eat it." ”

"Really?" Su Jingchen looked at the girl's thin and skinny arms, and his heart was sour, he knew, the feeling of being hungry, he only felt that he wanted to eat everything that could be eaten around him, "You haven't eaten for a few days?" ”

"I don't know, the day before yesterday, I went to the city with my sister and picked up two small fruits to eat, but they were delicious, but I didn't go yesterday, and I didn't have them today," the girl was disappointed for a while, "I don't know if there will be tomorrow?" ”

"Tomorrow, there should be, right?" Su Jingchen smiled, "Don't you really eat it, this fragrant baked cake must be better than your little fruit." ”

"No, and it's certainly not as tasty as my little fruit." The girl looked at the biscuits, her tone was firm, but the corners of her mouth kept drooling.

Su Jingchen raised his head and looked into the alley, but didn't see anyone else, "Why?" Also, where did your sister go? ”