"Then you're so happy that you haven't heard anything."

"But I have done a very useful thing," Shi Suo said proudly: "In that village, there is a group of Pang family members, who are recruiting people to work, and the job is to prepare for Master Pang's wedding banquet, including setting up sheds, taking plays, cleaning, etc., I pretended to be doing odd jobs in a foreign country, and registered both of us, so that we can go to work tomorrow, and we can blend into Master Pang's house." ”

"Well, that's a good idea." Hu Xuan nodded, and then said: "I have inquired in two nearby villages, and I have not heard of any bad behavior about this Pang Meng, but some people say that he is a very wimply person, although he has a lot of property in his family, he is just a short-sighted native property, and he will only lend money and buy land in his life, and he often becomes a turtle with a shrunken head in case of trouble." ”

"Let's take our time tomorrow when we go to the Pang family to work." Shi Suo said.

The next day, Hu Bolt and Shi Lock wore a ragged clothes, Hu Bolt also used paint to smear his face yellow, the two walked to Jixiang Village, saw that the village head was also pasted with the "notice", found the Pang family, Hu Bolt saw that the rich man's gatehouse courtyard was not as grand as he imagined, a small thick wooden door, a pair of old stone lions in front of the door, the high steps in front of the door of the general large households, the horse stone and the like, all of them were not.

The two of them entered the door to find the housekeeper, saying that it was a part-time job signed up yesterday, and the housekeeper immediately found a person, and the stone lock saw that it was the family who recruited people yesterday, and the person looked at the stone lock, and said: "You are here, then good, follow me to carry charcoal and firewood." ”

Carrying charcoal and firewood is heavy work, tiring and dirty. There was only a bent half-cripple slowly tying firewood there, and the family directed Hu Shi and the others to work, but he himself did nothing, sitting in the shade of the tree and fanning the fan. Hu Xuan and Shi Suo worked very hard, and after a while, they were sweating, and the family was very satisfied, and said: "Well, it's okay, if you work, you have to look like you, or who will hire you?" ”

Hu Xuan looked stupid, and said with a smile: "Come back when your strength is exhausted, don't be pity, big brother, let's carry so much charcoal, what are we doing?" ”

"Set up a wedding banquet, set up several high-barrel stoves, don't prepare much firewood, what will be burned at that time? A sucker. ”

"Oh," Hu Shu nodded. When he was carrying firewood, he walked back and forth in the courtyard twice, and saw that the courtyard of the rich man Pang Meng was a total of three entrances, and there were many rooms, but they looked rustic, and the main house was partial to the house, all like ordinary peasant houses, with peanuts and edamame on the windowsill, and chili tobacco leaves hanging on the porch. He wanted to find out where the Wu woman was held, but he never found a clue.

The lame old man, slowly tying up the firewood, whispered to Hu Xuan: "Don't worry, what you have to do is that if you do this, you will be tired and lie down in a while." ”

"Okay, thank you, uncle." Hu Xuan said.

They entered the courtyard and walked through the back door, back to the third trip, just entered the first row of houses used as a kitchen, saw a short and fat old man coming over, looked around, a sad face, Hu Bolt quietly and the lame old man asked, it turned out that this person was Pang Meng.

Shi Suo couldn't help but shake his head, "The name is quite majestic, but I am a turtle." ”

At noon, the main family served Wotou vegetable soup, and before he was full, Hu Xuan took out a dough cake from his waist, tore half of it to the lame old man, and said, "Why are you so picky, you don't care if you are full." ”

The old man nodded gratefully, "You can't see that you can't recruit people to work, no one comes, and Master Pang is famous for slamming the door." ”

"Then I'm willing to spend money to marry a child."

"Then I don't know." The old man said.

Hu Xuan pretended to be curious and continued to ask: "I heard that the woman's family is not happy, and she is forced to marry, right?" ”

The old man shook his head again, "I haven't heard of this, the Wu family is also an honest person, I heard the housekeeper say in the past two days, the daughter of the Wu family promised Master Pang, but eloped with someone and was arrested, I just listened to what the housekeeper said, I didn't hear what others in the village said, what happened, but I don't know." ”

"Then you got it back, where is it? Why didn't you see it? Hu Shuan asked casually.

"I heard from the housekeeper that it was held in the wing room of the second courtyard, which was originally the second girl's room, and it was empty after the marriage."

When Hu Xuan heard this, he was pleasantly surprised, and then the family Ding came to urge Hu Shi and the two to carry the props of the troupe with him, Hu Zhu asked the family with a smile: "Big brother, when will today's salary be opened, will you still be alive tomorrow?" ”

"Yes, yes, there is still a lot of work tomorrow, why are you in a hurry for wages, you look poor and sour." Jia Ding pouted.

"Yes, if we do it tomorrow, where will we live today?"

The family glared and said, "It turns out that you don't have a place to live, okay, I'll find you a place from the long work shed, but it will be deducted from your salary." ”

Hu Shuo said, "Okay." ”

2

When Hu Shuo carried things into the courtyard again, he paid attention to the side room that the lame old man had mentioned, but the door of the house was always closed, with a big lock, and the window was tightly closed.

The two discussed quietly, and Shi Suo asked, "When will you start?" Hu Xuan said: "It is better to be tonight, sooner rather than later, so as not to have too many dreams at night." ”

When carrying the second trip, the two saw a group of people entering the Pang Mansion, some of these people were in robes and horse coats, with arrogant expressions, some in suits and hats, like officials, and two soldiers, carrying box cannons in their waists, showing off their might. Pang Meng ran out to greet him, and the bitter gourd had a smile on his face, looking like a slave had seen his master.

The family rushed over to drive away Hu Bolt and Shi Suo, and scolded: "Pull over and pull aside, I don't have any eyes at all, and I can't see the VIPs coming." Knocking the two aside, Hu Xuan said to Shi Suo: "This Master Pang has a lot of face, these dignitaries and dignitaries have come to congratulate him." ”

Shi Suo said: "There are two people who are somewhat familiar, as if they have seen them in the city. ”

"That's nothing, rich people talk to officials, it's like this." Hu Xuan said nonchalantly.

The group of VIPs was led to the living room by Pang Meng, but two of them, under the guidance of the housekeeper, went straight to the room where the "bride" was held, and Shi Suo whispered: "Strange, what are they doing there?" Look at the bride? ”

The two were guessing, and the family came to drive the two away to work, scolding: "I can't find anyone more eyeless than you, don't leave when you should go, and jump blindly when you shouldn't." ”

Until the lights were on, Hu Xuan saw that the houses in the courtyard were lit up, and the side room was always dark and dark.

The old man said, "You should not ask for housing from the family, then he will find a reason to deduct your wages, and he will have the heart to let you work again tomorrow, and he will find a place, and besides, if he doesn't look for it, I will let you two live with me." ”

"Yes," Hu Xuan said, "we were reckless, and we didn't expect this family to be such an iron rooster." ”

"It's all like this up and down, all of them don't pull out a dime, and they are still thinking about taking advantage of people all day long, the virtue of the Pang family compound, everyone in this place knows it." The old man said disdainfully.

Hu Xuan asked: "Then, this time for a happy event, I see that the pomp is not small, invite the drama troupe, hold a banquet, I see that there are dozens of lanterns hanging in the courtyard, and it costs a lot of money, why is Master Pang so generous this time." ”

The old man shook his head, "I also wonder, I've been working here for decades, and I've never seen my master so willing to spend money, it's really the sun coming out of the west." ”

Shi Suo said: "Maybe it's because I married in my old age, and I'm happy." ”

The old man shook his head.

Sleeping until midnight, the two pretended to be relieved, got up, and went out of the long shed, seeing that there was silence outside, the sky was overcast, and the dark and heavy hand could not see the five fingers, and Hu Xuan was secretly happy in his heart.

Coming out of the latrine, sticking to the wall and hiding in the corner, carefully observing for a while, there was no movement in the courtyard, they tiptoed through the corner door, came to the door of the wing, Hu Shuo squatted by the door to sentry, the stone lock took out an iron hook bent into an iron bar, poked in from under the heavy wooden door, hooked the door and pulled it up, the wooden door was installed on the stone with a wooden shaft, a pull, the wooden shaft was untied, away from the stone, the stone lock and then gently put the door outside the stone, and the whole door was taken off.

When the door was picked, the door shaft made a "creaking" sound, although it was not very loud, but Hu Shi and the others were still nervous, for fear of being heard, and even more afraid of the voices in the house, but from beginning to end, there was no other sound at all, and there was no movement in the house.

The two of them secretly rejoiced that the stone lock had moved the door slightly in, so that it could squeeze people in, and then flattened its body and entered the house. Hu Xuan followed behind Shi Suo and also entered the house, the room was dark, he couldn't see his five fingers, and he couldn't see anyone or nobody.

Hu Xuan said softly: "Is there anyone in the house?" We're not bad guys, we're here to get you out. ”

Suddenly, a gust of wind sounded, and Shi Suo said: "Not good," before the body turned around, a large net fell from the sky, and suddenly covered the two people into the net, and the two people struggled hard, not only did not break free, but they struggled tighter and tighter, and someone next to them pulled hard, and the two of them were tied together like a bundle of brown seeds. Hu Xuan's heart was cold, knowing that he had been ambushed.

As soon as the fire flashed, someone lit a fire sickle, lit a lamp, and looked closely, there were three or four people in the room, standing in the middle of a thin man holding a fishing net, with a slender knife on his face, and a pair of bulging goldfish eyes, which was the flying monkey who had been caught by the stone lock.

Hu Xuan suddenly understood, this marriage robbery, from beginning to end is a scam, it is planned to seduce himself and Shi Suo to take the bait, looking at the flying mountain monkey's triumphant expression, he quickly recalled the past two days, only to feel that from yesterday to now, he has made a series of mistakes, a rescue heart, but did not take into account a lot of obvious suspicions, so that he was finally caught by the enemy, he shook his head, regretting that he wanted to hit himself in the mouth.

Looking around, two of them were the people in the group of visitors I saw in the afternoon, these people were undoubtedly also specially arrested for themselves, and sure enough, one of them complimented the flying monkey and said: "Mr. Hou, your plan is really effective, these two boys are really here, you seem to be able to pinch and calculate." ”