For a whole night, Shang Cheng couldn't sleep well, and he always had some bizarre and strange dreams over and over. One moment I dreamed that I was wearing an earthy yellow monk's robe and sitting in class listening to a public class, and at another time I dreamed that I was shaved and kicked a pair of cloth shoes on the court to participate in a basketball game, and at one time I saw the tutor walking hurriedly in front of me with a black briefcase, ignoring myself who was close at hand, and when I turned my face, I saw Gao Xiaosan saluting him, and the round face that was always staring at him was looking at him with a smile, but he was wearing a loose basketball vest and a set of basketball pants that dragged down to his knees. In a trance, he heard the little yellow dog of Liu Laozhu's house barking again, Liu Laozhu's father and daughter were talking somewhere they couldn't see, he followed the sound to find the past, but the surrounding scenery changed suddenly, the strange rocks and clouds covered the mist, the two wolves and the four yellow and green eyes flashed with violent and fierce light, and the bared teeth grinned one after the other and quietly forced up......

Worst!

He was shocked in his heart, and he only felt that there was a white expanse in front of him, and the beams and rafters were hazy and blurry, and he sat on the kang for a long time before he realized that he was caught in a nightmare.

He settled down, and habitually touched his hand over the pillow. The phone is not there. Dig under the pillow again, and the watch is not there. When I turned my head and saw that the window paper was already white and shining, and I heard the sound of dogs barking and chickens chirping and cows mooing in my ears, I remembered that I was no longer in the dormitory on campus.

It's just that he's not in school, and what's even more annoying is that he still doesn't know when and where he is now!

If it is not entirely correct to say that he does not know when and where he is at the moment, at least he knows that this is Huojiabao, Yixian County, the capital of Weiduan Prefecture in Yanshan, which is the northern border of a certain feudal dynasty; The current emperor of this dynasty was named Dong Yuan; From Huojiabao to the north is Beizheng County, after Beizheng for three more days, it is an endless prairie. He speculated that the so-called Yanshanwei may be the area of Shanxi and Hebei, and the grassland where the Turks come and go is the Mongolian grassland that he is familiar with. However, for him, the most important time coordinates have not been determined, and he has not had the slightest impression of the era name "Dong Yuan", let alone determine the historical period and judge the historical trend. However, he believes that as he learns more and more about the world and has more and more information at hand, it should not take too long to determine the time coordinates, and at that time, he can easily grasp the direction of historical development, and then it will be possible to calmly advance and retreat in this completely unfamiliar world.

Calmly advance and retreat? Or "lingering" is more pleasing to the ear, which is also in line with your current situation. He mocked himself in his heart. Suddenly, I remembered that there was such a sentence in an ancient text, "Chenben cloth clothes,...... Gou Quan's life is in troubled times", which is somewhat similar to his current situation. On the low bench by the pit are coarse cloth clothes and trousers; If it weren't for the extreme luck, maybe he would really be buried in Dayan Mountain, and it would not be wrong to say "save your life"; As for whether it is a troubled era at the moment, he does not dare to define it indiscriminately for the time being, looking at the prosperous scene of Huojiabao, it has a bit of a prosperous appearance, and then thinking about the food and clothing of Liu Laozhu's father and daughter, he feels that it has nothing to do with the word "prosperous age......

Thinking of Liu Laozhu, the various voices in his ears suddenly became clear, mixed with the childish and crisp voice of the little girl Yue'er, as if she was talking to someone.

He put on his clothes, packed up his bedding, and walked into the hall, where food was already set on the wooden table. It's still the pickles and pickles from yesterday, there is still a pot of clear water cabbage soup, and there are still heavy stacks of white flour buns in the big bowl next to it. Alas, I told Yue'er several times yesterday that he would eat whatever their father and daughter ate, and he didn't need to prepare it for him, so he didn't expect them to bring him white flour buns today.

Yue'er had already seen him, so she pointed to the stone mill at the foot of the courtyard, where a black pottery bowl and a half-wooden basin of water were already placed, apparently for him to brush his teeth and wash his face. The little girl's mind was clever, and he had only said it once, and he remembered these trivial things clearly, but why did she not remember to prepare wheat cakes for him when he repeatedly said that he was not accustomed to eating white flour?

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, he went back to the hall and put a few chopsticks and pickles into the soup basin, picked up the soup basin and went into the low stove by himself, took two half-tepid wheat cakes in the pot, grabbed three or four vegetable dumplings, broke them and threw them into the soup, and squatted under the eaves of the hall to eat and drink with taste. Yue'er had already seen him like this yesterday, and he was used to going in and out without being surprised, but Liu Laozhu was a little surprised and cramped, and he wanted to come over to talk to Shang Cheng with a smile of guilt on his face, but was stopped by his daughter.

Yue'er was probably explaining to her father, but Liu Laozhu kept saying, "How can you do it!" How? ”

Listening to the father and daughter talking in the hall, Shang Cheng stretched his brows with a clay pot that was not a few points smaller than his face, and a smile appeared on his face. This is the first time he has heard Liu Laozhu's words! How? Why not?

Seeing that he was full of food and drink, Yue'er came over to clean up the dishes and chopsticks, and was busy brushing the pots and washing the dishes in the kitchen, and said to him in a loud voice: "Monk, your luggage is wrapped in the room, you go and see if everything is complete." ”

Shang Cheng was so confused by her words that the second monk was confused. Luggage package? Where did he get his luggage package? Except for a pair of cotton pants from the country of Mauritius, he is almost "naked and striped without worrying". Besides, the pants are now worn on the body, so naturally they can't talk about luggage......

There was already a bulging white cloth blanket on the kang in the back room. There is only one thing in the house that can be called a "package", and it seems that this is the luggage that the little girl packed for him. He reached out and scooped up the blanket and checked it, and immediately felt a little heavy and pressed his hand, and the sound of metal rubbing back and forth. He immediately frowned. That's not right! Why did Yue'er stuff the copper coin into her purse? When I took it out, there were four copper coins, and some scattered copper coins were all worn by the little girl with fine hemp rope into three strings, wrapped in a black cloth, and placed on the top of the blanket.

What does that mean? Shang Cheng frowned.

"Right?" Yue'er had already put the things in the kitchen in order, wiped her wet hands with a rag, picked up the door curtain and asked. The light in the room was dim, and she hadn't noticed that Shang Cheng's face was wrong, only to see that the four copper coins were placed by Shang Cheng on the side of the kang, and the cloth bag wrapped in loose money was also opened and spread out next to it. "It's a total of four thousand three hundred and fifty texts. It's four runs. These three strings are three hundred and fifty ......"

"What are you doing?" Shang Cheng tried to calm his emotions a little bit, and asked in as calm a tone as possible. To be honest, he was grateful to the two father and daughter, who gave him all the money. But he was a little angry. The reason why he was angry was because of the money Yue'er put in the blanket he had. Yes, he does need money now, and he doesn't want to deny it. In the face of the unknown future, he certainly hopes that the more money in his hands, the better. But no matter how much money he needs, he doesn't need Liu Laozhu and Liu Yue'er to do this, right? They only had to give him a portion of the bounty of the two wolves and the money from the sale of the wolves, and he would be satisfied, and if they had given him more in consideration of his plight, he would have been very grateful to them, and would have repaid them if he had the opportunity. But they can't do that, they can't give him all the money - they should keep a part...... But they didn't leave a penny, which is too much! How could he take so much money? How dare he charge so much money? If he accepted all the money, what would others say about him when they knew, not to mention it, he would feel guilty in his heart, and the wolf was not killed by him alone......

Although Shang Cheng tried his best to restrain his dissatisfaction, Yue'er could still hear that this seemed to be questioning, and the little girl was stunned for a long time before she asked cautiously, "What did you say?" ”

"I said, why is there so much money in the blanket?!"

“…… Beat...... The reward for fighting the wolf, and the ...... and the money from selling wolves, that's all. You count again. Yue'er stammered. She also thought that Shang Cheng was angry because the amount of money was wrong. Shang Cheng's face made her a little panicked, and she took half a step back, until her father's voice came from behind her, and she was a little more steady. However, she still didn't dare to raise her face to look at Shang Cheng.

Only then did Shang Cheng realize that he had frightened the little girl for a momentary gaffe. He sighed and waved his hand. Even he didn't know what it meant to wave his hand. Do you want the little girl not to be afraid, or do you want to drive away the fear and panic buried deep in her heart? It seems to have both meanings. He wanted to comfort Yue'er, but he didn't know how to speak, so he silently took the usual copper coins and stuffed them into the blanket, and then put away the bag of scattered copper coins, and then turned back to the little girl and said, "This is mine." He pointed to the remaining three pieces of money on the kang. This is a ...... for you."

Yue'er's gaze wandered back and forth between Tong Qian and him several times, before she realized that Shang Cheng was not annoyed because of the more money and less money, and hurriedly shook her head and waved her hand and said, "It's all yours, it's all yours...... We don't. As she spoke, she looked back at her father as if asking for help. But Liu Laozhu didn't understand what they were talking about at all, but just stood by the door with a respectful smile in his confused eyes.

Seeing Yue'er's anxious appearance, Shang Cheng pursed his lips and smiled, and said, "...... I didn't say it was all yours. Seeing Yue'er staring at herself, she said, "Do you remember the person who sent your father back the day before yesterday?" Seeing Yue'er nodded, he pointed to the copper coins on the kang and said, "Go back and ask your father and his family to send some money to others from house to house - don't leave anyone behind." And the money that was given to me for this garment shall be converted into this garment, and you shall all accept it. Maybe you'll have to lose a little bit in the end. But at the moment, I have a hard time, so I can only do this for now, and when I settle down, I will slowly make up for the short amount of money for you......"

Yue'er stared at the big black eyes, she was already stunned, and it took a while to come back to her senses, and her mouth was like her father, and she kept muttering, "How can you do it?" How? ”

"Why not?!" Shang Cheng asked rhetorically in the tone of her voice.

Knowing that Shang Cheng was annoyed and angry, it was not because the amount of money was wrong, but Yue'er was refreshed again. She first told her father the reason for the incident briefly, and then no longer paid attention to Liu Laozhu, who was shouting "how to do it", but said to Shang Cheng: "You can't assign it like this." You fought the two wolves, and you saved my father's life, no matter what......"

"Your father also beat the wolf! If it weren't for your father dragging the male wolf, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to pick up the she-wolf. ”

"My dad didn't go to fight wolves, he ......"

Shang Cheng didn't want to argue back and forth with a little girl who was less than his chest over a few money, and he also knew that Liu Laozhu would never agree to his distribution plan, so he was in a hurry, so he simply cut off Yue'er's words, closed his eyes slightly, and pretended to be a ** appearance and said slowly: "The monk is assigned and distributed like this, and there is naturally a monk's reason." One by one Amitabha. ”

His unfathomable appearance immediately silenced the father and daughter. Yue'er blinked her eyes, biting her lip with a row of white teeth, only staring at Shang Cheng, she had some suspicions that Shang Cheng was deliberately contrived. Liu Laozhu had already bowed in fear, and he was still chanting the blessing of the Buddha and Bodhisattva with Shang Cheng in his mouth.

"Cause is effect, and effect is cause. Cause and effect go hand in hand, and life is endless. Everything today will be known in the future. After speaking, Shang Cheng lowered his eyebrows and walked out with square steps.

In the room, Liu Laozhu, the two fathers and daughters looked at each other. Liu Laozhu couldn't understand Shang Cheng's words, but Shang Cheng's solemn appearance made him feel worried. After being silent for a long time, Liu Laozhu walked to the kang nervously and collected the three times. Yue'er pursed her lips, lifted the door curtain up a crack, and quietly looked at the monk sitting in the hall with his eyes closed. She didn't really believe in Shang Cheng's words, but Shang Cheng's words pretended to be ghostly, she seemed to understand whether she understood or not, and every word seemed to have something else, and every sentence seemed to be hidden mysteries, but it seemed to teach people to be sure that it was insignificant, but it was insignificant, which made the little girl dare not slack off in her heart.

After packing up everything at home, Yue'er locked the door of the hall and covered the courtyard door, and the three of them then turned along the alley to the ridge road outside the town, and then turned to the official road from the ridge road, and went to the county seat along the official road. The aunts of the Huo Seventeen family also came, and they also brought four girls, and they kept sending them to the official road before turning back.

Shang Cheng was still a little strange when he went out, why did Yue'er follow them to the county seat? Supposedly, this Liu Yue'er shouldn't have come with her. He is Liu Laozhu's life-saving benefactor, so he wants to send himself this life-saving benefactor on a trip, but his daughter also follows, which is not very close to reasonableness and is not a close relative, where is there a reason to let his daughter send off guests? Even if you're a monk, you can't do it!

Or Yue'er said that she went to the county temple to burn incense for her deceased mother. This is, of course, an excuse. The real reason is that Shang Cheng can't speak the local dialect, and Liu Laozhu doesn't even understand the official language, if there is something on the way, or if there are any difficulties in the temple, she can temporarily deliver messages for them.

As they walked up the official road, the warm sunlight had just spread over the mountain pass to the east, gilding everything on the ground with golden yellow. Although it was still early, there were already neighing horses and large packs on the official road. In the green fields on both sides of the road, there are already busy figures. Far away, the mist was like a veil, and it seemed to be connected and broken. A light breeze swept by, and I saw the two-leaf flat boat hanging leisurely in the mirror-like clear bay. I don't know where from the mountains and wilderness came a piece of country slang in the wind, fluttering, like intermittent and flickering......

Along the way, Shang Chengdu was talking to Liu Yue'er beside him, inquiring about the situation in some places. He only now knew that although the name of the market town he had just left was Huojiabao, in fact, the family surnamed Huo had long since lost the right to dictate local chores. During the previous dynasty, the Huo family was prosperous for a while, and there were people who went out to be big officials for several generations, and the Huo family was also the capital of Sonic Shock, and almost all the land around the market town was surnamed Huo. But since a few decades ago, the people of Tuqi raised troops to the south twice, and burned and looted in this area, which greatly damaged the vitality of the Huo family, and the family business has never been able to develop since then. In the past ten years, the Huo family has been even more desolate in population, weak and lonely, and there are no outstanding figures who can stand up to support the family, let alone speak locally.

Shang Cheng listened to Yue'er's narration, and asked after thinking about it: "What year was the last time the people of Tuqi raised troops?" ”

Yue'er paused before saying, "The people of Tuqi raise troops every year. ......" glanced at Shang Cheng in surprise as he spoke. She obviously wondered how Shang Cheng could ask such a question.

Raising troops every year? These words made Shang Cheng suffocated. The Turks come to Yanshan every year to rob and plunder? This, this...... He couldn't help but pause, and looked suspiciously in the direction he had come. Just now I saw a group of merchants wearing flip hats, didn't Yue'er say that there were Tuqi people among those people? Why did the people of Uzbez raise troops every year, and they were still allowed to enter the country for trade here?

Why did the government still let the Tu Yi people come over to do business, Yue'er couldn't answer. She had no choice but to ask her father. Liu Laozhu muttered a few words, and she relayed all her father's words to Shang Cheng: "My father said that there are few people who come here to do business, and there are more people on the Bohaiwei side, and they are still open to each other!" The Turks exchanged horses and herbs for our cloth, salt, tea, and grain. She stopped and waited for her father, said a few words, and then caught up with Shang Cheng, and whispered, "My father said that there are still people who secretly sell iron tools to the Tu Quanci people. But this kind of thing is terrible for the government to know, and it will be beheaded! I heard that last autumn in Beizheng County, two horsemen who were carrying iron tools for the Turks were beheaded, and their heads are still hanging on the city gate. She said with a cold war.

The contradictory but indeed existing news of military mobilization and trade, smuggling and anti-smuggling made Shang Cheng's mind a little confused, and it took a while to remember the problem just now. He originally wanted to inquire carefully about the exact time of the fall of the Huo family, but suddenly remembered that Gao Xiaosan had mentioned the night before that Huojiabao had gradually prospered because he had not been attacked by sword soldiers for more than ten years, so that other places had not been peaceful in the past ten years?

Yue'er is young and has no knowledge, and she has never been to the county seat of Yixian County in Dalian a few times since she was a child, and she can't tell what Shang Cheng asked. Although Liu Laozhu has a wooden temperament, he was a famous packer in this area when he was young, and he has traveled to many places through the state, and many things that his daughter does not know, he can say that he is ugly; It's just that the content is too dry, and after Yue'er interprets it once, it seems that the preface doesn't match the afterword, which makes people confused for a long time. Despite this, Shang Cheng still knew something to some extent. Only now did he know that it was really not peaceful here, and this Yanshan was really not peaceful—the people of Tuqi had to make trouble once or twice a year; Yanshan is not bad here, at most, it is to break a few villages and attack a few Zhuangzi by the Tuqi people, and plunder some property and population, but other places have suffered a great disaster, and the news from the east last month has just burned the two county towns of Qingtang and Jin County in Bohaiwei to the ground. Yue'er Niang's hometown is in Jin County, three uncles and two aunts, five families, even adults with children in their twenties and thirties, none of them ran out......

"My uncle is fine. The year before last, I drove a horse from Jin County to Duanzhou Mansion, and on the way back, I made a detour to see my mother, and brought us a lot of things. I heard that my mother died, and I cried all night......" Yue'er bit her lip and whispered.

Looking at the tears floating in the little girl's eyes, Shang Cheng quickly changed the topic and asked, "How did your father and your mother meet?" Seeing the little girl looking at him with teary eyes, he knew that he had asked the wrong question again, so he had to say vaguely: "Jinxian is so far away from here,...... Who gave your dad and your mom a matchmaker? He didn't know how many roads separated him from Yi County and Jin County.

Yue'er bit her lip and secretly glanced at Liu Laozhu. Seeing her father walking with Shang Cheng's blanket and no reaction to Shang Cheng's words, he smiled and whispered: "My father helped people drive horses to Bohaiwei more than ten years ago, and met a bandit team on the way, and he carried a person who was cut into flesh and blood from the pile of dead people, and that person was my uncle...... and secretly glanced at her father again. “…… My mother said that if it weren't for my uncle, she wouldn't have married my father, across the mountains and rivers, who knows what kind of person my father is, maybe my father is a bandit! After saying that, he covered his mouth and smiled.

Shang Cheng glanced at Liu Laozhu, who was a little stiff with a wrinkled face, and then at Liu Yue'er, and also smiled: "Does your father know what your mother said?" ”

Yue'er nodded and said, "He knows." My mother often said this, and every time she said it, she didn't avoid my father, and she always smiled at my father. My dad isn't annoyed......" Her eyes were suddenly full of sweetness, thinking that she remembered the days when her mother was alive and the happy days when the family was together.

"What else did your mother say?"

"My mother said that she was not afraid of anything, but she was afraid that my father would find me another stepmother......"

"What else?" Shang Chenghuan continued to ask with interest.

"And ......" Yue'er suddenly stopped talking with a red face, pointed to an earthen wall not far away, and said, "The county seat has arrived!" ”

Her mother also said that if she wants her father to find her a good family in the future......