In the evening, when the westward setting sun dyed half of the sky red with the golden sunset, the capital ushered in the most noisy and lively time of the day. At this time, if you are lucky enough to climb the imperial city and stand on the high Xuande Tower overlooking this ancient and prosperous metropolis, you will find that unlike the imperial city and the palace city, which are surrounded by stars and lights behind you but are silent and quiet, in the east, west and south directions of the city, in the large area of dim darkness, there are always a few brilliant places. That's the East Peng, the West Peng, Bu Lianma Street, and the First Four Squares...... They are all famous flashy and lively places all over the world. The cold night breeze hovers over the city with the whisper of silk and bamboo; A few clouds of light suddenly exploded on the fire pai tower where the sky lantern was hung, and then it dimmed leisurely; Three or two sparks, so tiny that it is almost imperceptible, fluttered and swayed and swayed, slowly disappearing into the deep blue night sky......

"Big Flower Fang, West Walk Box,

Singing heartily and loudly, the young man Lang.

Don't lead the horse, Celestial Empire City,

The Celestial Empire forgets the homeland. ”

This is the Persian monk Hu Buyi's "Song of Sadness and Sadness in Beijing" written in the fourth year of the Eastern Era, which is about the night market scene in Shangjing, and the big flower workshop, Xibu Xiang and not leading the horse mentioned in the poem are the places where the poet loves to linger in the more than ten years of living in Beijing......

Shang Cheng, who had just come out of the private residence of Lao Xiangguo Tangxing, naturally did not know this Hu monk and poet, and he had never heard of this "Song of Sorrow" without magnificent rhetoric and without any artistic conception, but he was now walking on the street where the poet had wandered countless times. Or, we can't say that he is "walking". It is not accurate at all to say this. To be precise, he was now completely passively enveloping the torrent of people in the market, one east and one west, and slowly moving forward.

There are so many people on this street, it seems that all the people living in the capital have come here at this moment, so many that they can't even hear the greetings and shouts of the proprietors and men in the nearby street shops and stalls, and in people's ears, there is only the grand and noisy sound of the city composed of countless voices made by countless people. Many times, he didn't even have time to stop and take a closer look at the goods and things he happened to see, and he was swept away by the crowd of people rushing behind him.

He now finally knew why this long street was called the Street of No Horses, Duan Si, who was leading the horses one by one, and another guard had long since disappeared into the crowd of people.

He finally squeezed out of the crowd, found a place to stand by the wall of a house, and looked for Duan Si with his eyes open. But looking to the east is the brilliant lights and crowds, looking to the west is still brilliant and crowded, the ten-mile long street is like the daylight, the tide is rolling and the city is boiling, people can't stop, how can he find his guards in this situation?

It seems that he and Duan Si are completely separated.

If you are scattered, you will be scattered. This is the capital, no one knows him, and it is impossible for anyone to harm him, Duan Si and they didn't follow him, he happened to be free, and took this opportunity to take a closer look at Shangjing. As for the way he doesn't remember the way back to the post house, hey, under his nose is his mouth, he doesn't know the way, doesn't he know how to ask someone?

But he didn't want to leave Duan Si behind, and they didn't care. If Duan Si can't find him, he will be scolded by Baokan and Suza when he goes back, and maybe there will be some kind of mess One by one, Admiral Yanshan will disappear when he comes out of the prime minister's house, and this news will not toss Pingyuan Mansion to the ground? So he simply stood by the wall and waited for Duan Si to come over. This place is a little higher than the surroundings, there are four large lanterns in front of the mansion, and there is a torch mountain standing in front of the wall, the light is very sufficient, as long as Duan Si and they pay a little attention, they will definitely be able to see themselves. He simply learned from the people around him, and also put his hands in his sleeves, and watched with interest a few little girls and big girls in the open space selling one by one is acrobatics.

Top disc, kicking cylinder, rope skills, stool building, four programs in a row are very common, and the surrounding spectators can't be energetic, come to one person to take a look and pout and leave, come to two glances and then pout and leave, after the four shows, there are not many spectators around the small half, and the cheers are even more scarce. Shang Cheng also looked listless, staring at the other end of the field surrounded by dense cheers wave after wave, thinking about whether to change places.

Just when he was hesitating, a little yellow-haired girl held a sieve basket, didn't say anything and saluted him first, and then lowered her eyebrows and said crisply: "Thank you for your reward......

Shang Cheng grinned. The four shows are not outstanding, the cylinder fell off twice, and the stool building is only stacked with three floors, and you still have to reward money for this skill? muttering in his heart, his hand still reached into his arms and took out his purse. But this hand can not be taken out again.

It's not that he doesn't have any money in his pocket. The night before, Guo Biao and two military colleagues who had met in Mogan came to him to have a drink and catch up with him. Guo Biao's rank is the highest on the table, and the means of playing money are also the highest, three-color flowers, four-color flowers, five full colors, and lotus ...... Whatever you want, you can eat all the three parties, so that Shang Cheng and his two colleagues will lose in disgrace. Now in his purse is the rest of the gambling money from that night, all of which are one tael of small official silver ingots, the official price is one to two, and the market price is one to two for two thousand seven hundred silver......

The yellow-haired little girl looked strange when she saw his hand in her arms, and she didn't take it out again, her face showed a look of disappointment, but she didn't say anything, lowered her head and saluted him again, and then turned over with a sieve basket to salute a visitor next to her. The guest had already had two coins in his hand, and threw them gently in the basket one by one, but barely made a sound.

Looking at the basket that didn't hold a few copper coins, Shang Cheng suddenly remembered the scene when he watched others play on the streets of Yixian County that year. At that time, he didn't have any money with him, and when the female actor asked him for a reward, he was so embarrassed that he was almost embarrassed, and in the end, the eldest girl relieved him of the siege...... It had been a few years, and the situation had been forgotten by him with the passage of time, and he never remembered it again. But for some reason, this trivial past, which was too small to be small, now appeared in his mind very clearly......

In silence, he took out his purse, took out two ingots of silver, and gently placed them in the drying basket.

The sudden appearance of these two uncommon things in the sieve basket made the little girl a little confused. She hurried to figure out what it was, which looked black in the dim light of the torches. However, she still gave Shang Cheng another big gift, and whispered: "Thank you, thank you for your reward......"

The person who put the two money makers just now knew the goods, and said to the little girl with a smile: "The courtesy is light." This is a great reward, and you should be invited to thank your team. These two ingots of official silver are enough for you to sell here for more than a month. He raised his head again and glanced at Shang Cheng with his eyelids, shook his head and smiled at the corners of his mouth, turned around and walked away. It seems that this person is a little disdainful of Shang Cheng's indiscriminate generosity.

But he immediately turned back again, squinted his eyes and stared at Shang Cheng, and pointed at Shang Cheng with his index finger, inhaling the cold air in his mouth.

Shang Cheng was also a little confused by his inexplicable move. Does this person know himself?

He couldn't help but take a closer look at the old man who looked like a private school gentleman or a shop account.

He recognized it right away.

"Master Pan!"

The man also shouted his nickname almost at the same moment: "Blind Merchant!" He immediately realized that he had made a mistake and hurriedly changed his words, "Big ...... Yandu! ”