The night was dark, Chen Mu sat alone in the patio, mosquitoes buzzing in his ears, but he didn't dare to put his mouth down, just like Chen Mu had an aura on his body that made him frightened and full of temptation.

Whether it was Huang Xing, Yang Zhaochun, or Song Zhenshu, they didn't come to bother, maybe they all reached an agreement and left Chen Mu enough time to think about it.

Chen Mu knew that once he walked out of this courtyard, he would never have the courage to walk in, so he had to sit in place.

He is not a person like Huang Xing, he did not stay abroad, even if he followed Prussia to learn Western culture, the original purpose was very simple, everything was for revenge, that's all.

He knew that the imperial court was exhausted, but he was a scholar after all, and to this day, Chen Mu still believes that even if the fate of the imperial court is going to end, it should not end in the hands of his own people.

In contrast, he admires characters like Liang Qichao more and thinks they are the real heroes.

The court is like a father, since he is sick, he has to find a way to save him, and he can't think that he can't save it, so he kills and buries this father, and then changes his father.

Of course, after all, he is a son of Hongmen, and he has been influenced by the ideology of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty since he was a child, perhaps the imperial court is not the father of the Han people, those who are loyal to the imperial court just recognize the thief as their father, and they deserve to be killed.

But these are all things that have been accumulated over the past two or three hundred years, and they shouldn't be, and they can't be bothered by a little person like Chen Mu.

He always believes that he is by no means the one who decides the general trend of the world, he has no ability or ambition.

He was a son of Hongmen, but Chen Qiyou let him read the books of the imperial court, and halfway through, he relied on the scattered societies of Hongmen to take revenge.

All these experiences made Chen Mu's thoughts extremely complicated.

Now he has his own incense hall, and he has inherited the dragon head stick, and it is said that he inherited the mantle of anti-Qing Dynasty and Ming restoration, and it is understandable that he is the same as Li Sanjiang, Wang Julou and others.

But his books in the past ten years have not been read in vain, even if he refuses to help Yang Zhaochun and others, it should be understandable.

This kind of ambiguity is the most tangled and contradictory.

He even left everything in his past behind, thinking seriously about what kind of prospects it would bring him to be involved, and how many chances they would have of success.

All the things that should be thought and what should not be thought about, he is thinking.

His brain was a little swollen, Chen Mu rubbed his temples, and unconsciously hugged his knees and dozed off.

In a trance, he smelled the smell of food and woke up suddenly.

It was an old man with a wrinkled face who brought him food, and his face was very dark, as if the dirt on his face had seeped into the flesh and skin from years of hard work, and he could no longer wash it.

The old man was wearing a short coat open, and the ribs on his body were clearly visible, dry, as if life had already drained his flesh and blood.

"Eat some, there's nothing in this world that you can't figure out, when you're full, you have the strength to think about it."

He grinned, most of his teeth were already rotten, and when he opened his mouth, there was a smell of inferior tobacco, which was very smoky.

He set his meal aside and brought a hookah from the side.

This hookah is made of large bamboo, which is very simple, but very mellow.

It's a pity that his tobacco is so bad that even if he changes the water, he can't filter out the hard spicy and choking taste.

Chen Mu took the tobacco sachet from the cigarette stick and handed it to the old man.

"Try this, this is a gift from Master Huang Feihong, a good thing."

The old man was about to raise his hand to refuse, but when he heard Huang Feihong's three words, he immediately took it, twisted it, carefully packed it, and spurted it, pinching one between his fingers.

"To be honest, I can't get used to smoking such expensive things, but it was given by Master Huang, so I have to take a bite."

His eyes narrowed into a slit, immersed in the trance caused by tobacco, as if he had returned to a memory.

Chen Mu opened the food box, which contained salted fish and rice, as well as some fresh sauerkraut stalks, and drooled at first glance.

While taking a big bite of rice, Chen Mu asked the old man, "Brother, are you with them too?" ”

The old man opened his eyes slightly and said to Chen Mu, "What? I'm not like? ”

Chen Mu was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly explained: "I don't mean to be disrespectful......

The old man waved his hand: "If you can smoke all the tobacco given by Master Huang, it means that you are not a person who looks down on others, and you don't need to explain so much." ”

"I haven't stayed abroad, I don't know half a word, I don't know how to box, I haven't even held a knife in my life, and now I'm old and my strength is gone, it's really not like their group......"

"Then why are they looking for you?" The old man was very honest, and Chen Mu didn't beat around the bush, and asked curiously.

The old man took another sip, and then said: "I did an errand to put it bluntly, I am a coffin guy, a person who collects corpses, and from time to time I will go to the official office to do errands, and I am very familiar with the terrain, so it is just right for them to show the way." ”

"I see, ......" Chen Mu was also abrupt, but he inevitably asked: "Aren't you afraid that there will be no return?" ”

"Have you gone or not?" When the old man heard this, he immediately laughed, but his smile was full of misery.

"For people like me, death is not to go, but to return."

Although the old man's words were simple, he was full of pathos, and Chen Mu's heart softened.

"Guangzhou has mountains and seas, can walk horses and take boats, it can be said to be the richest place in the country, that is not too much."

"I'm afraid that those northerners will be very envious of the people here, thinking that we are all living a good life, even if the whole world rebels, it is impossible for this place to rebel."

The old man hesitated a little when he said this, but in the end he continued to speak.

"I am a local native, with a personality like my Abba, I have never quarreled with others, I am a neighbor, I can help if I can, and I don't care if I can."

"I work very hard, as long as I can beg for food, I can do anything, dock coolies, ocean sailors, digging dung and farming, there is nothing I have not done."

"It is said that as long as you work hard, you will be rewarded, but what is the result?"

"When I was young, my family was forced to sell my land, because I couldn't pay the grain rent, so the family went to the river to beg for a living, and to move and transport people, if there was no illness or pain, I could make do with it, but the root of the disease passed down by the family soon became famous, and in order to treat the disease, except for the wife and children, everything that could be sold was sold out."

"Don't think that you don't have to pay rent if you work as a coolie at the wharf, all walks of life, but anyone who can be seen by the officials must pay rent, and if you don't have money to pay rent, you can help them do things for free, and if you don't pay filial piety on weekdays, you are not allowed to go to their land to look for food."

"My two sons died of hunger and cold, and my daughter was older, although she was thin, but she grew well, and she was forced to sell, so she jumped into the river and died."

"My wife couldn't stand it, she went crazy, the locks couldn't be locked, one day I got off work, I went home and didn't see anyone, I went out to look for her, and I didn't find her until midnight in the rotten fish pile on the dock, and the body was gnawed by rats for most of the ......"

The old man stopped, the smoke of the tobacco obscuring his eyes, and he did not shed tears, as if he were telling someone else's story.

"I have encountered too much oppression, but I endure it all, because it is difficult for me to even live, and what can I do to resist? Desperate with people? If it is better to let people be beaten to death, at least a little compensation can be given to the wife and children, who will go out to work if they are not killed, but they are disabled? Do you want to drag them down? ”

Chen Mu was silent.

"I haven't read a book, but I've heard a lot of truths, but my brain is not good, I can't see the future like them, and I don't have much knowledge."

"I don't care who broke this world, whether it's the emperor, the official, the ghost, or the thief."

"I only know that this world has become bad and can no longer be cured."

"When I was 30 years old, I was soaked in the sea for many years, and one toe was soaked and rotten, and the doctor said that it could not be cured anymore."

"I asked him what to do, and he said he had to cut it off."

"I didn't ask him to cut it for me because I didn't have the money, and I didn't have the courage to do it myself because it hurt too much."

"But when I saw that my toes kept rotting up, I knew that if I didn't cut them off, I wouldn't be able to save my whole leg."

The old man purred a hookah, but the tobacco was burned and there was no smoke.

Chen Mu helped him fill a pile of tobacco, and he spewed smoke again, as if only tobacco could calm his mood, or perhaps only smoke could hide his sad expression and gradually moisten eyes.

"That night, I borrowed a firewood knife, sharpened it very well, drank all the old wine I had hidden, and began to do it when I was drunk."

"Although the bones of the toes are small, they are finely crumbled, and the toe bones are harder than the others, which I tried myself."

"Because I have been barefoot all year round and carry heavy objects, several of my toes are wrapped together, and I can't cut them in two, so I can only break that toe, little by little, and cut ...... carefully."

"At the time, I thought, if I had a pair of scissors, would it be easier......

The smoke gradually dissipated, revealing the old man's face, and he said to Chen Mu: "I really don't have much knowledge, and I don't know how to explain you, but I know that just like my toes, it's rotten, and if it's not saved, I have to cut it, and if I don't cut it, I won't be able to save my legs......"

"I've been cowardly all my life, I've endured it all my life, and now my wife and children are dead, and I don't have to worry about it."

"But I can tell you, if I can do it all over again, if this matter was put a few years ago, more than ten years ago, even if my wife and children are still there, I will no longer be cowardly and afraid!"

"I couldn't sleep all night, not because others killed my wife and children, but because I hated myself for not being capable, hating myself for being too sloppy, if I had known how to stand up and resist, they might not have died......"

The old man wiped the snot on his nose, pasted it on his worn shoes, and said to Chen Mu: "You don't have a wife or children now, but you have a choice, don't you want them to live in a better world in the future?" ”

The old man seemed to feel that he was talking too much, smiled awkwardly, returned the tobacco bag to Chen Mu, and slowly walked out of the yard.

His waist was still stiff, as if he had carried the burden of his life, and he had not yet taken it off, but his head was held high.

Poor man, who have nothing, if he does not look up at the sky, where is there any hope?

Looking at this back, Chen Mu took a big bite of food, and didn't dare to raise his head.