The shopkeeper soon returned, still holding a pot of hot water in his hand. He looked at Zhiqiu and saw that he looked like he wanted to leave, so he whispered: "Xiao Zhiqiu, why are you uncomfortable sitting on the chair in the small bookstore?

Zhiqiu hurriedly refused, laughing and saying that he was just a little sleepy, but his heart became more and more uneasy.

"That's good, Xiao Zhiqiu, how many years have we known each other? I'm getting older, and now I'm getting more and more forgetful. The old shopkeeper looked at Zhiqiu and said softly.

Zhiqiu rubbed his head, two years, two and a half years? Who remembers this.

"It seems like more than two years... Not long after I came to Suzhou, it seems that I have come to this small bookstore. Zhiqiu replied with an uncertain expression.

"Anyway, it's been a long time, yes, I think when you first came to the small bookstore, I saw that you were still a child, why did you feel a little stronger when you first came over?" said the old shopkeeper as he stepped forward and pinched Zhiqiu's shoulder.

Zhiqiu sighed twice, why is this old man's strength so great, and he can't help but be weak when he looks at it. Can I not lose weight? What I used to eat in the capital, and what I ate after I came to Suzhou, can it be the same thing?

However, he still reluctantly squeezed out a smile and said to the old shopkeeper: "Maybe when I grow taller, I will become thinner?" After speaking, Zhiqiu wanted to slap himself fiercely, when did he speak so against his conscience.

Alas, it's all to blame for the fucking world.

The old shopkeeper actually looked sorry and said: "Alas, seeing Xiao Zhiqiu so thin, I am also very distressed, from tomorrow, the shopkeeper will add some meat to you, fifteen or sixteen-year-old boys are growing their bodies, eat more, okay, don't be humble, what you want to eat in the future, just tell me." ”

Zhiqiu thought to himself: I won't be humble... But it did rise from the west today, no, looking at the night, I'm afraid the sun is setting in the east.

Ke Zhiqiu still squeezed out a reluctant expression and said, "Shopkeeper, you... How can you do this? I am very grateful that you can take me to work in the small bookstore a few years ago, and can give me a few mouthfuls of white rice to eat, but I have not done anything recently, how can I be worthy of such a reward from you, the shopkeeper, I am ashamed of it, I really can't afford it. ”

If you add meat, add more beef, the beef is still tender... But Zhiqiu still can't say this, no matter how thick-skinned he is, he can't say it, in fact, he can say it, but today anyone with a discerning eye can see that this shopkeeper has something to find Zhiqiu.

Isn't it some kind of child abduction and trafficking? Zhiqiu imagined countless scenes in his heart.

He held a knife in his left hand and some rope in his right hand, and while shouting at the children, he went to trap them, and whoever quarreled he would use the knife to do so. It's a bit imposing when you think about it.

The old shopkeeper then said: "Think about you, I have grown up, time has passed, and the leaves in front of the door have also changed batch after batch, green to yellow, yellow and gone." He looked at the ginkgo tree in front of the door with emotion, "What do you say about people, are they also like this ginkgo tree, which changes every stage." ”

Zhiqiu touched his head, although his head didn't hurt so much, but it was difficult to think that it didn't hurt when he heard these words. "Shopkeeper, my head is starting to hurt again when you say this, I'll go into the room and get a bowl and drink the medicine!"

After a while, Zhiqiu drank the medicine and returned to the chair. He looked at the old shopkeeper and said casually: "Ginkgo biloba, I know that when the days are cold, the leaves will fall, and when the days are warmer, they will begin to bloom and bear fruit." ”

"Xiao Zhiqiu, there are not many learned teenagers like you, and if I'm not mistaken, you can't read or write, do you have such knowledge. The old shopkeeper said slowly.

Isn't this something that people with some common sense know... Why is this shopkeeper always touting me today, making me embarrassed, although I have a lot of advantages, but this is obviously to the point...

Zhiqiu smiled faintly and said, "Where is it, the shopkeeper, I have listened to what others say." ”

The old shopkeeper got up and walked under the ginkgo tree, just as the evening wind blew a burst of fallen leaves. He picked up a fallen leaf casually and said loudly: "Xiao Zhiqiu, do you say it's good to be like a ginkgo tree?"

Zhiqiu didn't know what the ginkgo tree had to do with being a human being, so he shook his head.

But he looked at the old shopkeeper's hot eyes, and shouted in his heart that it was not good, which was obviously a precursor to a lot of words!

Sure enough, after the old shopkeeper saw him shake his head, he became interested, he took the fallen leaf to his chair, and said in a deep voice: "These people do things like ginkgo trees." As you just said, ginkgo trees lose their leaves when it's cold, and when it's hotter, they start to blossom and bear fruit again. Some people will be motivated to do what they want to do when the weather is better, and they will give up what they are doing when the weather is bad, windy, rainy, or unbearable. ”

"They don't stick to the bottom line because of what they do, but when the external conditions are a little worse, they will give up or change. The old shopkeeper looked at Zhiqiu and asked, "Do you think what I said is right?"

Zhiqiu stretched out a thumbs up, and his head kept pointing.

The old shopkeeper touched his white beard, obviously very satisfied with Zhiqiu's move.

Then he said, "Do you think you're like that?"

Zhiqiu shook his head without thinking about it.

But after waiting for a while, Zhiqiu held his chin with one hand and asked the old shopkeeper, "Then what if the ginkgo tree just follows the trend?"

The old shopkeeper obviously didn't expect Zhiqiu to ask back, but fortunately, someone had asked such a question before, and he could answer it in a timely manner, so he said again: "Actually, what you said is also right, but you ignored a question." That is, if the ginkgo tree is willing to endure hardships and endure all kinds of bad weather, it can bloom and bear fruit at any time. Therefore, this is not called flowering and fruiting, but escapism. ”

"If the reality is cruel, what should I have escaped?" Zhiqiu still refused to give up.

"How can there be an escaping reality in this world, as long as a life is still there, then you are still living in reality, how can you say that you can escape? When you eat, when you sleep, you are still in this reality, how to escape?" The old shopkeeper's series of questions made Zhiqiu a little breathless.

"That being said, sometimes it seems like you have to escape from reality... It's okay to pretend to run away, just like me, when something doesn't go your way, drink a little wine, get drunk with him, and forget about it when you get up tomorrow morning. Zhiqiu muttered quietly.

The old shopkeeper looked into Zhiqiu's eyes and muttered, "How can things that can be forgotten be annoying?"

"I've seen thousands of riders straddle young children. ”

"I've seen people kneeling down to soldiers with broadswords and begging for mercy. ”

"I've heard a guy who should be at the top of the Dao list say he can't do it. ”

"Whether it's what I've seen or heard, anything that can keep me in mind until now is a nuisance. ”

"In this world, how can there be any troubles that can be forgotten?"

Zhiqiu looked at the face of the old shopkeeper, and suddenly felt that the shopkeeper was older than he imagined.

Perhaps it was when he said these words that he was several years old in an instant.

Especially when he said the word "can't do it", Zhiqiu could obviously feel the shopkeeper's voice trembling a little.

After the shopkeeper finished speaking, the atmosphere was a little silent. Zhiqiu didn't know what the old man was talking to him about tonight, but he felt that he still had to break the silence.

Zhiqiu whispered: "What, shopkeeper, although I don't know what you want me to do..."

"I... Can I say the same, can't I do it.."

After Zhiqiu finished speaking, he closed his eyes and didn't dare to look at the old shopkeeper.

Who knew that the old shopkeeper laughed out loud, and said "interesting and interesting" in his mouth.

Zhiqiu felt a little embarrassed, and laughed twice like the old shopkeeper.

"Xiao Zhiqiu, who did you learn from this clever man?" asked the old shopkeeper.

Zhiqiu replied without thinking about it: "Who else can it be, self-taught." I'm pitiful..."

The shopkeeper thought that he was going to sell a miserable period next, but found that Zhiqiu had stopped.

Zhiqiu looked at the night and found that he had been chatting for a long time tonight, so he wanted to go back to rest, so he looked at the shopkeeper a little crampedly.

The shopkeeper saw Zhiqiu's intentions, so he shook his head as a matter of course.

Zhiqiu sighed and said, "Shopkeeper, I don't have a talent for martial arts, and I have been fighting for a few years, but I can't even beat a girl." My brain is not bright, you can't read my words, and I can't write. Except for a slight talent for food, I really can't think of what you can do with me?" he paused, stared at the shopkeeper, and whispered, "Don't you really want me to be a child trafficker?" ”

The shopkeeper still shook his head. Zhiqiu really didn't have a problem with him, so he simply lay on the chair and pretended to be asleep.

"I've been thinking about a question these days, if I teach you to read and write, do you count yourself as my apprentice?" said the shopkeeper slowly.

When Zhiqiu heard this, he bounced up directly from his chair.

It took me eight years to learn how to write, and then I got out of the sea of suffering. But if I say that I can actually write, then what I said before will also be overturned, and it is nothing to be overthrown, and the point is that if I start asking who I learned it from, how should I answer?

This unlucky little boy seems to have rubbed his head more often today.

He thought for a while and said: "Shopkeeper, what, I got it with my heart, but you also know me, a cheating and slippery person, a very philistine, where there is a advantage to take advantage of me, I must run fast, where I can be idle, I will never hesitate for a moment and run." Do you think I look like someone who can bear the name of your disciple?"

After the old shopkeeper looked at it carefully for a while, a "like" popped out of his mouth.

The little boy wanted to cry without tears, and he estimated that if he didn't agree today, he might not use the small bookstore tomorrow. He wondered if he could get back on the last journey, and he asked, "Shopkeeper, can you just be your disciple and not learn to read and write?"

"No, you can't. The shopkeeper refused.

"By the way, from today onwards, you are my closed disciple, ranking fourteenth. ”

"What about my senior brothers and sisters?" Zhiqiu heard the fourteenth ranking, and wondered if this old man was talking nonsense, just a bookstore shopkeeper, how could he receive fourteen, and what was even more ridiculous was that before a stick of incense, he seemed to have heard something like "the first on the Taoist list".

"It's over. ”

Another gust of evening wind hit, just enough to blow off a ginkgo leaf.

Impartial, it blew into Zhiqiu's face.