In the twelfth year of Tianfu, January 20, Qingpu Port.

Su Jingchen shuttled in the alley composed of goods, from time to time low bowed, or sideways forward, the goods on both sides of the road were piled up almost one person high, idle port workers sat around the wooden box containing the goods bragging and chatting, some also paid money to buy a bowl of bad wine mixed with water, and the people around to drink, no one scolded the bad wine, this wine was sold cheaply, they just tasted it, each of them took a small sip, the wine bowl saw the bottom, so they began to laugh and scold the shopkeeper who sold the wine was not kind, and the wine was less.

The shopkeeper was dialing the abacus, and when he heard the scolding of the gang, he laughed and cursed, and lowered his head to plan again.

Su Jingchen smiled, that wine bowl was obviously bigger than the wine bowl in other places' wine shops, and even if this wine was mixed with water, it was only sold for two copper leaves a bowl, which was much cheaper than other places, and this shopkeeper had already made very little money.

Turning the corner, Su Jingchen gently knocked on an inconspicuous small door.

"It's coming, it's coming." There was a sound in the door, and after a while, someone opened the door, and a short, swarthy man held the door, looked at Su Jingchen, who was standing outside the door, and asked, "Who are you looking for?" ”

"Looking for you." Su Jingchen smiled.

"What are you doing with me a bad old man?" The man turned around and motioned for Su Jingchen to come in, then turned around and walked in on his own, without looking back, "Remember to close the door." ”

Su Jingchen closed the door, turned his head and found that this small room was full of things, small stones of different colors, rattles, rag dolls, one-person-high wood carvings, porcelain bowls, vases, and some things that could not be named, but most of them were worthless bits and pieces, leaving only a one-person-wide path for people to pass through, and only a small four-foot square place was left in the house, probably for sleeping, or "entertaining".

The man walked over to the slightly spacious place, picked up a cigarette gun, knocked on the small stool on the side, and motioned for Su Jingchen to sit down, Su Jingchen walked over, thanked the man, and began to observe the things around him again.

The man didn't pay attention to Su Jingchen, took out a box of cigarettes by himself, slowly packed it, lit it, and then said, "Say, what are you looking for me?" Shopping? ”

Su Jingchen turned his head to look at the man, "I want to ask you about Yunzhou." ”

The man was stunned, put the smoking gun down, and asked, "How do you know that I have been to Yunzhou?" ”

"Count it as half my master." Su Jingchen smiled, "My master also said that in fact, you are not yet forty years old. ”

The man was stunned again, and then laughed and said, "Yes, I have been to Yunzhou, and I have been there for a long time, Yunzhou, it is really a good place, during the rainy season, the rain is big, like someone is pouring water on your head, the rain is beating on those huge banana leaves, those tall trees can't see the top no matter how you look at it, only see the rain constantly rolling down from the canopy, but when the weather is fine, it will be very hot over there, even if you are bare-chested, you still feel hot, Those watery Yunzhou girls wore rough skirts, revealing their white and thin long legs, no worse than this Huaiyang girl's figure, there will always be a fire lit in the house, the weather that day is cold, cold to the bones, so people over there often get a disease, when it comes to rainy days, the bones of the whole body will be sore. As he spoke, the man suddenly became slightly distracted, as if he remembered something a long, long time ago, he suddenly turned his head, looked into Su Jingchen's eyes and asked him, "Why did you go to Yunzhou?" ”

Su Jingchen raised his head and sighed softly, "I don't know." ”

"I don't know if you go to Yunzhou? Yunzhou is no better than other places, will die. The man's tone was serious.

"But I have to go south, and I have been told that I have to go south, and there I can find ...... The way to put an end to this troubled world. Su Jingchen also lowered his head and looked at the man's eyes, with a serious expression, "Those people I love are dead." ”

Su Jingchen suddenly knocked on his head, "There is something wrong with my head, I can't remember many things before, I only know, I lost a lot of things, but I didn't get any of them, this troubled world took everything away from me, I lived, I just want to end this troubled world, so I have to go south, even if I go up the knife mountain, down the sea of fire, even if I am broken, even if I am broken, even if I ...... will die. ”

"I want to be a big hero," the man suddenly stretched out his dark yellow hand and patted Su Jingchen's shoulder, "But you are in Yunzhou, and you probably can't find your so-called way to end the troubled times." ”

"Why?" Su Jingchen asked.

"There are hundreds of large and small villages in Yunzhou, and there are some scattered small villages, each of them is equivalent to our country, each of which is independent of each other, the big village annexes the small village, and the small village goes to annex the smaller village, and then there are four large villages to check and balance each other, although there are fewer wars, but it is only between the big villages, the small villages are either attached to the big villages, or they are waiting to be annexed, and those small villages, maybe one day they will be wiped their necks, before a village stands up and unifies, This situation will continue forever. The man took a deep breath of his cigarette and then slowly exhaled it, his eyes full of sadness.

"Yes......" Su Jingchen muttered.

"Yunzhou is mountainous, and the vegetation is lush, there are many insects, snakes, and beasts, and some villages are dedicated to raising those insects and snakes for poison, which can be regarded as a means of self-protection, the miasma over there is life-threatening, and the weather is also strange, and people who are slightly weaker in their bodies will die in half a year at most if they go over there," As he spoke, the man suddenly looked at Su Jingchen for a while, "You have such a small body, if you go over there, you can last for a year, even so, you still have to go?" ”

Su Jingchen nodded, "Well, I'm going." ”

"Well, since you decide to go, then it's up to you, but say it beforehand," the man smiled suddenly, "ask me for news, but you want money." ”

"yes, I know." Su Jingchen took out the money bag, took out a gold leaf from it, handed it to the man, and asked, "Is it enough?" ”

The man looked at Su Jingchen's bulging money bag, and asked tentatively, "Give me more?" ”

Su Jingchen also took out the money bag seriously, and the man looked forward to it, but in the end, Su Jingchen only took out three copper leaves, and said with a smile, "It can't be more." ”

The man put away the money and muttered, "A man is so stingy, he won't be able to marry a daughter-in-law in the future." ”

Su Jingchen smiled and did not speak.

The man cleared his throat, shook his spirits, put on a serious expression, and said, "There are two ways to go to Yunzhou, water and land, the waterway is to take a boat from Huaiyang, all the way to the southeast of Yunzhou, where there is a port opened up by our Zhongzhou, sixty miles away from the port, there is a big market called Yun Mirage, Yunzhou Miao people will bring their things from the village to exchange things over there, this road is the safest, because several villages around the market have business dealings with Yun Mirage, The Miao people will not harm the Han people at will. ”

"If you take the land route, it is relatively dangerous, you have to cross the Cangyun Mountains, that section of the road is not easy, sparsely populated, infested with fierce beasts, and after crossing the Cangyun Mountains, there are a few stockades at the foot of the mountain, I don't know if they are still there, those few stockades are ...... to the Han people It's not very friendly. ”

"Well, it sounds like it's safer by water." Su Jingchen lowered his head and thought about something.

"Listen to your tone, are you planning to go by land?" The man was a little surprised.

"No, I'll take the waterway." Su Jingchen raised his head and smiled.

"That's good," the man paused, and then said, "On the mirage side, there will be caravans that will continue to go deep into the hinterland of Yunzhou in exchange for what they need, if you want to go farther, it is best to follow those caravans, but ordinary caravans will not let you follow, they generally don't trust strangers very much, and even if they do, they will make you pay a large sum of money as protection money." ”

"That's trouble," Su Jingchen scratched his head, "A penny is hard to beat a hero, I'm poor." ”

"Don't think I'll pay you back." The man clutched his pockets for money.

"Don't worry, no." Su Jingchen couldn't help laughing.

"You go to Yunzhou, try to pick the road to walk, if you get into the forest, maybe you will be poisoned by those poisonous insects, or eaten by those fierce beasts, and said that it is the road, in fact, it is just a sheep intestine path stepped out by the caravan, the plants in Yunzhou grow fast, the road is easy to be covered, all you are careful, you should be able to find, although it is not safe, but it is much better than you go into the forest." The man said so many things in one breath, which was almost worth what he said in a month, probably because it was more pleasing to the eyes of this young man, so he chatted with him a few more words.

"Well, thank you." Su Jingchen said with a serious face.

"Hey, two big men, thank you for something." The man waved his hand and took another puff of dry tobacco, "My habit of smoking dry tobacco was also cultivated after I went to Yunzhou, and it can be regarded as able to resist the cold over there." ”

Su Jingchen nodded, stood up suddenly, bowed slightly to the man, and said, "I should go, but I still have to say one more thing, thank you." ”

This time the man didn't say anything more, just smoked a dry cigarette in a sullen manner.

"How much does this cost?" Su Jingchen suddenly asked, the man raised his head, and saw that Su Jingchen was really holding a rag doll in his hand, the workmanship was not exquisite, but it was very cute, he waved his hand, and said that it was just a, no money, if you like it, just take it.

Su Jingchen said thank you again, then picked up the doll, got out of the small and dim room, turned around and lifted the rag doll, waved at the man, said goodbye, and then closed the door and left.

The man stood up, saw a few copper leaves in the place where the rag doll was placed, and suddenly smiled, he picked up the copper leaves, skillfully walked through the things that visited the ground, locked the door, leaned his rickety back against the door panel, and tears suddenly flowed down his eyes.

"If only I had your bravery." He muttered softly.