Seeing that it was still early, his mind was in a mess, so he was not in a hurry to go back to the inn. He put the blue cloth bag wrapped in the book in the pocket next to the saddle, and led the horse slowly towards the east gate.

His thoughts were a little confused, one moment he thought of his wife, who had no news, and the other he remembered Uncle Zhuzi and Shan Wazi. He remembered that Uncle Zhu and Shan Wazi were good to him. Uncle Zhu always cares about himself silently, no matter what difficulties he encounters, Uncle Zhu always thinks about him before he speaks, and does his best to help him; The same is true of Shan Wazi, he didn't even clean up his rotten bag, so he took out all the money to buy his own family business. He still hasn't paid off all their accounts, and he still owes Uncle Zhuzi five hangs and three, and he has a difference of seven thousand and eight ...... The person he owes most is his wife. He never revealed his true background to this good, big-eyed girl, and she still didn't know what kind of man she was marrying. He carefully guarded his secrets, and used a set of concocted nonsense to deal with his wife's curiosity. In order to generalize the fictional experience, he kept using a new lie to close the loophole in the previous one. When he did this, his heart was full of guilt and shame, especially on the night of affection, when his wife pillowed on his arm, looked at him with adoring and loving eyes, and muttered warm words in his mouth, he longed to slap himself twice, he would become a liar, and the person he deceived was still his lover...... Sometimes he also has the urge to confide everything as it is, but every time he sees his wife's gentle eyes shining in the dark, and sees the happy look on her face, he can only swallow back all the confessions that come to his lips in pain. The excuse he made for himself was that she was already miserable enough with him, and he couldn't let her not even get an illusory happiness. In fact, he knew very well that he was only doing it out of selfishness, and he was afraid that telling the truth would bring disaster to himself, and even more so that he would lose her forever because of the unforeseen calamity......

How gentle and considerate his wife is. In recent months, the bits and pieces of their life together have always flickered in his mind involuntarily. After they got married, they have been living a tight and hard life in order to repay the debt, and they can't wait to break a penny in half to spend it, so they want to save money to pay off the debt as soon as possible. Normally, I don't talk about it, she and he nibble on the same black and slimy vegetable dumplings, drink the vegetable soup that even the salt is reluctant to put more, occasionally grind some noodles to make a meal of noodles, she always fishes the thick ones for him first, and she is not even willing to tear herself up in new clothes during the New Year. It wasn't until her mother secretly gave her money and asked her to pull fabrics to make clothes that he knew that if the new daughter-in-law who passed the door that year did not wear new clothes on the New Year's Day, she would definitely be laughed at by the neighbors......

What a good woman his wife is, how could she fall in love with herself, a liar who doesn't even dare to tell the truth about her life experience?

When he thought of these things, he was distressed and sad, and his wife's lovely and kind smiling face always appeared in front of him, and she stared at him affectionately with her big talking eyes, as if to ask him: Do you still miss me?

Thinking about it one by one, I've been thinking about you, I've been thinking about you all the time, and I've never missed you so deeply as I do now!

He walked down the street as if no one else were there. Tears flowed freely down his face. He didn't care how many people in the market were staring at him with astonishment, or how many were making way for him in terror.

One by one, my love, where are you now?

He didn't stop until the road in front of him was replaced by a high wall. He stared at the wall for a long time before he got out of his trance. He wiped the tears from his face, let out a long breath, turned his head to look left and right, and realized that he had unknowingly gone astray.

There was a corner gate open by the high wall, and two guards with waist knives at their waists stood guard on both sides of the corner gate, looking at him with wariness. An officer walked over with a fixed gaze on him, and asked in a low voice but in a stern tone, "What for?" ”

“…… I'm lost. He said honestly.

The officer carefully observed his back, and after finding nothing unusual, repeated the topic he had just said: "What are you doing?" ”

“…… in the Guard. ”

The officer was obviously dissatisfied with Shang Cheng's reply, and pressed the hilt of the knife in his hand and asked again: "Which army and which battalion?" ”

"I've been ordered to come to the Guard's Office." Shang Cheng explained as he took out the jade pendant from his arms, held it in his hand and handed it to the officer.

The officer took the cloud-patterned jade pendant, and in the blink of an eye, he immediately returned the jade pendant to Shang Cheng, as if what he was holding in his hand was a piece of charcoal that burned red. But he still looked up at Shang Cheng suspiciously, and asked, "What's your name?" Where did you come from? ”

"Shang Cheng. From the camp of the Yixian County Health and Animal Husbandry Transport Division. ”

The officer frowned and thought for a moment. He seemed to suddenly remember something, squinted his eyes and looked at Shang Cheng several more times, and said, "I've heard of you." What are you doing here? ”

“…… I'm lost. Shang Cheng said with some embarrassment.

This time the officer accepted his explanation. The look on the officer's face was very strange, as if he wanted to laugh but couldn't, his facial features were a little distorted, and he asked him in a swallowing voice, "Where are you going?" ”

"The post house outside the east gate."

The officer forced a smile and pointed him in the right direction.

Shang Cheng left the dead alley with high walls on both sides, walked through two deserted streets, and soon saw the street running through the east and west of the state city. He didn't panic when he got here, he knew the way back to the post house from here.

Just as he was carrying the saddle bridge and preparing to get on the horse, he suddenly heard a voice calling out to him behind him uncertainly: "Brother monk? Is it a monk? ”

The accent of Shangjing Plain Mansion is not very authentic, and there are only a few traces of the Yanshan dialect, and he is also very familiar with this title, one is a senior junior in high school.

He didn't hurry to get on the horse, and when he turned around, Gao Xiaosan, who had been promoted to the deputy shopkeeper of the Yanzhou branch of Liu Ji Warehouse, was wearing a thin long jacket with a navy blue satin face, and was standing on the side of the street a few steps away and looking at him with a smile.

When Shang Cheng was recuperating from his injuries, Gao Xiaosan took the opportunity to go to the general number of Yixian Warehouse to deliver the goods, and went back to Huojiabao to visit him twice, and now he has not seen him for almost two months. Compared with the last time they met, Gao Xiaosan seemed to have become more stable, seeing that Shang Cheng recognized him, he first bowed to Shang Cheng, and then came over and said with a smile: "It's really a big brother monk." ”

Shang Cheng just laughed and didn't speak. The identities of the two people are different now, one is a good merchant, and the other is a seventh-rank martial official of the imperial court, the status gap is too great, and Gao Xiaosan can't afford his return gift at all. If he insists on returning the gift, Gao Xiaosan will not only not be flattered, but will also feel that the relationship between the two will never be closer again. He waited for Gao Xiaosan to finish speaking, but he didn't give Gao Xiaosan a return salute, and asked, "When did you come back?" I went to the warehouse to look for you a while ago, and they said you went to Duanzhou. ”

"...... who came back three days ago"

Shang Cheng was bored, so he wanted to find someone to talk to, it happened that Gao Xiaosan and he knew each other for the earliest, and he was smart and witty, and he was a good object to talk and relieve his worries, so he proposed that Gao Xiaosan, the "head snake", find a clean place, and the two of them sat down and talked.

Shang Cheng's proposal is exactly what Gao Xiaosan can't ask for. He first said hello to a familiar shop on the side of the road, and asked Shang Cheng to tie his horse to a stake outside the shop, and then led him into a narrow alley across the street, and walked for a while in a low mud hut until he came to another street. More than half of the streets on this street are tea shops and restaurants, there are high-rise red pillars of the high-end places, there are also ordinary places of shacks and stools, every household is carrying various colors of banners and banners, embroidering each other, covering the day.

Gao Xiaosan is probably a frequent visitor here, and he is very familiar with the shops in this area, so he found a big tea shop and entered the noisy and lively main hall. The main hall is full of tea guests who are talking to each other around the big round table, the tea servants who carry the teapot and deliver hot towels are busy shuttling through the cracks, a row of three flower drums of different sizes has been erected in front of a wall screen in front of the wall, and two little girls wearing red and green are each holding a drum, and the small drums are knocked on the drum surface to make a crisp popping sound. Gao Xiaosan casually stuffed a dozen copper coins into a tea servant, whispered a few words, the tea servant carried a large tea soup pot with a thin mouth in one hand, put a hot towel on his arm with the other hand, put his hand on his mouth, and said a loud greeting: "Neifang, Liu Ji Warehouse Gao Shopkeeper, a pot of Jiuxiangtuan tea, eight parts of dried fruit and pulp one by one" After shouting, he led the way in front, and introduced Gao Xiaosan with a smile, "Several high-ranking people from Luohua Taizi Sang Aiai are now performing in the tea shop, do you want to invite two of them to come over and sing a book to the tall shopkeeper and respected friends?" ”

Gao Xiaosan couldn't make up his mind for Shang Cheng about this matter, so he had to pretend not to hear it.

Shang Cheng was paying attention to a piece of red paper hanging in the lobby of the tea shop. There were probably three or four crosses on the red paper, and the handwriting was unrecognizable, but the last sentence surprised him very much: Today, Shen Shisang loves to talk about the Book of the Later Han Dynasty.

Is this a storytelling? How can the title of the book be a canonical history like the Book of the Later Han Dynasty? If you want to say that it is really about the official history, how can you talk about the name of a person, it looks like the stage name of a female singer? Looking at the scene in the main hall, I am afraid that the talk is about to begin; If there was a good position, he would rather listen to the commentary of the Great Zhao Dynasty here.

The tea servant was an elf man, looking at Gao Xiaosan's face, he knew that Shang Cheng was the host and guest, and he had already arrived at Shang Cheng's side with a turn, and asked with a smile: "This guest is a student, I'm afraid it's the first time, right?" Seeing Shang Cheng nodded, he immediately said, "The tea art tea workers in this workshop, the taste of tea, and walnut crisp, sesame cake, glutinous rice dumplings, four seasons fragrant fried fine wheat oil fried cake, five-spiced black ......" He reported dozens of dim sum names in one breath, and there was not a single pause in the middle, and finally said, "...... They are all from Yanzhou. ”

Shang Cheng was already a little dizzy when he heard it, and he couldn't say that he didn't hear clearly, so he had to nod his head and not say anything.

Gao Xiaosan scolded the tea servant with a smile next to him: "You don't want to make more money if you say it's beautiful." First serve eight plates of dim sum fruits, and we will shout what is missing later. "Said to Shang Cheng again, "Brother monk, don't pay attention to him, these people are all old workshops in the tea shop, and fooling people is a skill that has been practiced for decades, and they will come as soon as they open their mouths." One by one, more than half of the thick and thin snacks he just talked about were other people's things. It's that Sang Aiai's apprentices are singing and dancing well, do you want to invite two of them over? ”

The word "forget it" was already swirling around Shang Cheng's tongue, but when he said it, it became "It's okay to call two." But forget about singing and dancing, just call two to play some tunes and listen. ”

Before Gao Xiaosan could speak, the tea servant was already smiling with joy, and shouted in a long voice: "Liu Ji Warehouse Gao Shopkeeper, there is a show girl who invites Luohuatai......"