What is beyond the control of manpower, in addition to the forces of nature, there is also time.

No one can drag time and make it run a little faster, and no one can fall behind time and make time a little slower.

The troubled times are miserable, and coming and going is just a "suffer" word.

To the prosperous age, to the Ming Jun, to the Haiyan River, to the food and clothing.

A year ago. Jingguo, more than three episodes, is the place where Huo Dingzhi first met Pu Caoer.

Sanduoji is located in the Jingguo Sanzhou thoroughfare, the original name has long been unexaminable, the four tributaries converge here into the Mingyun River, the river is gentle, suitable for the boat to berth, from the Sanduoji boat to the south, can go straight to the South China Sea, if there is a familiar sea situation to lead, change to the ocean ship, continue to sail south more than 1,000 miles, up to the overseas islands rich in spices, pearls, gems, calligraphy and painting, wine, tobacco and tea, cloth from the mainland can be exchanged for almost the same amount of local products. Although the correspondence takes a long time and life and death are uncertain, as long as you are lucky enough to come back, you can at least manage food and clothing for a lifetime. After the framework of Jingguo is basically stabilized, in order to have more taxes and silver, it is difficult to vigorously support maritime trade, and it is difficult for more than three episodes not to prosper.

On the three more episodes, there are many opportunities, many people, and many green buildings. The original place name was gradually forgotten, but the name of Sanduoji became more and more widespread.

In the inn tavern, it is often rumored that some men who have been dilapidated for a long time will pin their heads to the waistband of their trousers and run to the South China Sea, and come back wearing gold and silver, brocade clothes and gorgeous clothes, and leading the servants to swagger through the market.

Gold and silver make a man brave.

Thousands of miles of waterways, all paved with white bones, there are always few lucky people, but everyone wants to believe that they are the darlings favored by the gods.

Sanduo episodes are really a good place to buy drunk.

Three glasses and two glasses of turbid wine went down, and the weak man had the pride to go thousands of miles. The old wine that has been boiled to taste is the most suitable for the warriors who have come back from picking up their lives. Drink until you get drunk, no matter what kind of man, find a sister in the building to fight to the death, who knows which one will come first tomorrow or the accident.

Huo Dingzhi was drinking in the Sanduoji tavern, and a black boy across the road outside the window was sharpening his knife.

Huo Dingzhi drank wine for an hour, and the black boy sharpened his knife for an hour. At the age of twelve or thirteen, he grinded a firewood knife back and forth on the gray and blue stones, occasionally pouring a scoop of cold water, picking it up and scraping it on his fingers. The bright white blade refracted the dim light when it was flipped over, reflecting on Huo Dingzhi's wine glass, like adding a layer of pulp to the flavorful water wine.

Huo Dingzhi has never been an eventful person, but looking at the black boy, there is always an indescribable touch. Fate, who can tell.

Losing a piece of silver for wine, Huo Dingzhi stood by the side of this black boy.

The black boy glanced at Huo Ding, took care of himself and grinded a stick of incense, patted his butt and got up from the ground, pinned the firewood knife to his waist, pulled the obviously much shorter shirt, and walked straight to the outside of the set.

Huo Ding's whim, thinking about going to the place where the black boy lived tonight for the night. At first glance, this black boy looks no different from a boy of this age, but his eyes are clean, his breathing is long, and his muscles and bones are smooth and free when he exerts his strength.

"This little brother, please stay" Huo Ding shouted at the black boy.

The black boy ignored him, and his pace quickened a little. Seeing the market out, I walked along the path to the shadowy thatched hut by the river. With no lights and no moon, the black boy began to trot.

Huo Dingzhi became interested instead, and he was always two or three feet away from his body.

When he was about to approach the grass house, the black boy suddenly turned around, pulled out a firewood knife and pointed it at Huo Dingzhi. "Are you sent by Cao Cripple to kill me, didn't Cao Cripple say that as long as I give him the house on the set, he will no longer pester me. Talking so quickly doesn't count?"

Huo Dingyi smiled, "No, no, no, I just want to spend the night with my little brother, I don't know if my little brother can take it in."

The black boy thought for a moment, "Then you come in, I don't have a bed at home, you can sleep on my floor for one night."

The black boy led Huo Dingzhi forward for half a mile, pushed open the door of the grass house, and smelled a musty smell in front of him. In addition, it is located by the river, which is humid and has a smell mixed with aquatic plants and mud. On the right side of the entrance door is an old boat plank and covered with a layer of straw, which is probably the boy's bed. There was nothing else in the house, and there was a stone niche against the wall in the middle, and there was a vague woodcut tablet, and the night was too dark to be indistinct. On the left side were a few pieces of dry firewood, and a crooked clay pot hung from the beam, and there was still burnt ash under the pot. Huo Dingzhi glanced at it and took out two pieces of bread from the bag he was carrying, "Little brother hasn't eaten it at night, I have some dry food here, you pad it first, just thank you for taking it in for one night."

The black boy didn't shirk, took the cake, first took a small bite, and then took a big bite, his cheeks bulged high, and he swallowed it with great effort.

Huo Dingzhi waited for the black boy to finish eating two cakes, and asked with a smile: "Little brother lives alone?" Aren't you afraid that I'm a bad guy sent by Cao Cripple? ”

"You carry the piano on your back, carry the bookcase, and look like a gentleman who is reading, when you sit there drinking, I see it, and the wine of two coins of silver mixed with water is drunk slowly, unlike people who beg for a living in Sanduoji. Besides, I have seen Cao Cripple's henchmen on the dock, Cao Cripple is suspicious, if I don't want others to know, I will only call the dogs around me. Those people can't beat me too late, how can they give me food." The black boy snorted, pointed to the old plank, and patted the wood knife that had not left him. "You sleep there at night, I'm not afraid of you, I have a knife".

"Little brother, you-" Huo Dingzhi was interrupted by the black boy before he could speak.

"My name is Pucao, and everyone calls me that."

"Haha, isn't Pucao just a water candle, this name is quite special."

"When my mother was pregnant with me, my father and Cao Cripple went down to the South China Sea together, and when my mother gave birth to me, the water candle by the Mingyun River grew well, and my mother gave me the nickname of Pucao, saying that when my father came back, he would give me an official name. After waiting for several years, dozens of people who went to sea with my father, only Cao Cripple came back with the boat alone."

Pu Cao didn't seem to want to say more, and asked Huo Dingzhi with a stiff neck, "Ask a lot of words, if you don't sleep, if you don't sleep, I'm going to pick you up."

"Don't ask, don't ask, come on, come on, I'll meditate the same as sleeping, or you sleep." Huo Dingzhi waved his hand, put down his bags, sat on the old boat board against the end of the wall, and meditated and breathed in silence.

Pu Cao was not polite at his own home, took off his shirt, carefully smoothed the folds, put a bunch of hay pads under his neck, and fell asleep.

As soon as the ugly time passed, Pucao got up lightly, opened the door with the cat's waist, Huo Dingzhi pretended not to know, and after a while, the sound of the young man's shouting came lightly.

Huo Dingzhi sprang up like a fish, flew to the top of an old locust tree, and saw the young man chopping a straw man with a firewood knife.

When the sky was slightly bright, the young man came back sweaty bare-chested, and although he was thin, the lines of his muscles began to look a little. Seeing that Huo Dingzhi was still meditating with his eyes closed, the young man picked up the broken fishing net at the door and went out again.

When the milky white crucian carp soup and a pair of bamboo chopsticks with different thicknesses were handed to Huo Dingzhi, Huo Dingzhi was really moved. I tasted it a little, it was very bland, salt is a good thing, but not every family can afford to eat it. After a long period of boiling, the fish meat and bones are completely separated, and the fish belly is stuffed with a kind of herb that can be seen by the river, which covers the fishy smell, but does not affect the original umami of the crucian carp at all. The boy himself touched his stomach and said that he had eaten it.

Huo Dingzhi saw the most precious kindness of this era in the young man's body.

Of course, Huo Dingzhi knew that the young man had cast the net more than 20 times this morning, and his thin body had turned around and plunged into the river several times due to inertia. Every time he faced the result of failure, the young man kicked the water in frustration, stubbornly pinning his hopes on casting the net again next time. Finally, he caught two crucian carp, one large and one small, and cut them on the stones on the shore with a firewood knife. Thread the crucian carp with water weeds and hang them on a tree behind the hut to dry. The big crucian carp was stewed in a clay pot, and even the jar was served to Huo Dingzhi.