Chapter 5 Guizhitang Pharmacy

Fennel saw that her brother didn't spend money indiscriminately, so she breathed a sigh of relief and took the money bag back from Zuo Shaoyang's hand: "Brother, let's go, the sun is going to set, if you don't go, the road will be dark." ”

Zuo Shaoyang looked at the musk lovingly for a moment, and then put it in his arms and put it away, and walked back with the medicine basket on his back. As he walked, he said, "Don't be dumb this girl, right?" From beginning to end, I only saw her laugh and didn't hear a word from her. ”

"What a dumb person, you were talking to me just now, she must be a peasant girl, afraid of life, shy to see a young man like you."

As if to confirm the words of fennel, a crisp mountain song came from afar, and the voice was the girl who beat firewood:

"It's falling,

The water on the beachhead goes busy.

Which people flow on the beachhead water,

My sister went to the west to stay in the sun. ”

Zuo Shaoyang stood still, looked back, and couldn't see the figure of the firewood girl, and the curling mountain song echoed in the mountains behind his ears, and he didn't feel a little stupid. He asked, "This song is so good!" - Sister, did she say what her name was? ”

"I didn't say it, I saw you fall down the cliff below, I wanted to climb up but couldn't, I was so anxious that I cried under the cliff. She happened to be passing by with firewood and asked me what was wrong, and I did, and she immediately climbed up the cliff and saved you. That's all I have to say. ”

"Sister, you are really, people saved me, you don't even ask people's names."

"You've been unconscious, I'm scared stupid, why don't you care about asking this. - How? Tempted by other girls? Hee-hee"

"I don't have it, it's just that someone saved me, I should ask."

"I know what you're thinking, you're not a big man, it's time to start a family, but, don't like to listen to it, don't look at our current family background, but my father prides himself on being a scholarly family, and his daughter-in-law has a very high vision, a peasant girl like her, my father will never look down on her, so don't count on it."

The concept of marriage in ancient times is very strong, this Zuo Shaoyang knows that even if the scholar is poor, he generally does not look down on the mud-legged croppers (except for a very small number of 'alternatives' such as Tao Yuanming), Mencius said that "those who work hard govern people, and those who work hard govern people", although Liu Yuxi, a family in the Tang Dynasty, lived in a thatched hut and lived in poverty, but he disdained to be with the people of Pingtou, and said in the "Burrow" on the high ground: "There is a great Confucianism in talking and laughing, and there is no white ding." Since ancient times, most of the people who have practiced medicine have been literati who have not been able to learn to practice medicine, as the saying goes, "not for good looks, but for good doctors". So it's not surprising that Daddy Zuogui has this idea.

Zuo Shaoyang turned back as he walked and said, "Sister, look at what you said, I'm not in a hurry, don't you fight a single...... Ouch! ”

Zuo Shaoyang Gu spoke, but he didn't pay attention to his feet and slipped and almost fell, but fortunately, the fennel eyes behind him were quick and pulled him down: "Be careful!" The road is full of snow, concentrate on walking, don't think about other girls, walk slowly! Don't step on the snow, just walk on the mud, the shoes are dirty and easy to wash, and the snow shoes are wet and beware of catching a cold and getting sick! ”

Zuo Shaoyang couldn't help but laugh when he heard her nagging. Said: "Sister, there are a lot of mulberry roots in our back baskets, what are you doing digging such mulberry roots?" ”

"Peel the mulberry white skin."

Zuo Shaoyang knew that mulberry white bark was a commonly used herb for cough and asthma, and asked: "Even if you make medicinal materials, you should dig up some of all kinds of medicinal materials, how can you dig mulberry white root, which accounts for more than half of the back basket!" ”

Fennel sighed, but did not answer. Zuo Shaoyang didn't ask, he was more curious about the social life of ancient times, and asked a series of questions about various things, including what to eat, what to use, who relatives and friends are, how many people are in the state and county, what everyone does, etc., and asked all his curiosity about ancient times.

Fennel listened to what he asked these are very naïve things, where did he think that his younger brother was really dead, the modern young man in front of him who had crossed over more than a thousand years ago, full of curiosity about ancient times, and thought that he had broken his head and lost his memory, and he couldn't help but be even more worried in his heart, but he didn't dare to show it on his face, and he was patient with the surname to answer all questions, but fortunately, he remembered what he told him immediately, thinking about helping him recall, he should be able to remember all the previous things. Only then did I feel a little at ease.

Along the way, Zuo Shaoyang saw that a lot of flat fertile land was overgrown with thorns, presumably abandoned for many years, and asked: "Sister, why is no one cultivating these lands?" What a pity. ”

"Someone has to have oxen to plough the land. In these years, there have been many wars and chaos, young and strong laborers have been fighting for the soldiers, many people have died, and they can't even bury their bones, all of them are young and strong croppers, and those who survived are almost all old and young women and children, which kind of land has gained so much? I can only watch the barrenness. ”

Zuo Shaoyang still knows about the major historical events, after the collapse of the Jin Dynasty, in the next two or three hundred years, it is a group of heroes, years of war, there are not many days of dissipation, the population number will definitely not go up, in the agricultural era, everything depends on labor, the population has plummeted, the labor force is scarce, and the land is barren It is normal, looking at these barren fertile fields, I can't help but sigh.

The two walked while talking, Zuo Shaoyang knew from Fennel that the mountain where they collected medicine was called Qianren Mountain, because of the large number of peaks, and most of them were towering cliffs, so it was named. The county seat where their home is located is called Shijing County, which belongs to Hezhou and is the seat of the state capital.

When the sun was about to set, they finally returned to Shijing County, the capital of Hezhou.

Seeing this city from afar, it is not very tall, there is a moat outside the city, but the green water is long, the suspension bridge is a little dilapidated, the thick iron chain of the bowl mouth is pulled, and two carriages can be parallel on the bridge. At the gate of the city, several soldiers in armor, armed with spears and scimitars at their waists, were vigilantly watching the people coming in and out.

Zuo Shaoyang looked around curiously, staring at those soldiers several times, this was the first time he had seen ancient soldiers, similar to the TV series, but he seemed more energetic. The soldiers paid no attention to them, and the two entered the city without incident.

The first time I saw the ancient town, it was a big surprise to Zuo Shaoyang, compared to the TV series "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other costume dramas in the scenery is much inferior, not only dilapidated, but also a lot of ruins, although it has reached the era of Zhenguan, but this is the first year, the blessing of Zhenguan's rule has not yet bathed the people, and the trauma of the war is far from being healed. The people's clothes are even more shabby, and many of them are very thinly dressed in this cold winter, shivering from the cold. Zuo Shaoyang was a little strange, almost all of these people's winter clothes were Ge linen single clothes, and I didn't see anyone wearing cotton clothes. He didn't know that although cotton was planted in the Tang Dynasty, it was far from being popularized, and few people could see cotton.

On both sides of the road, there were ragged beggars, huddled in the corner, with a broken bowl in front of them, staring blankly at passers-by with godless black eyes. Occasionally, you can see people who are full of wine and food, staggering and singing, but their clothes are very gray, far less bright and bright than in TV dramas.

Fennel took Zuo Shaoyang through the streets and alleys, and finally stopped in front of an old wooden house, looked back and smiled: "We are home." ”

Zuo Shaoyang looked up, this is a three-bay tile house, in the middle is a hall, four open wooden doors are open, the wooden door on both sides of the peach board of peach charms, although simple, but planed very flat, the inscription on the couplet handwriting is simple and vigorous, very skilled, written naturally are traditional characters. Above the gate, there is a plaque, which is also written directly on the planed peach board, with three words in the big book - "Guizhitang". The handwriting is the same as on the couplet, apparently written by the same person. It's just that the handwriting has long been outdated, and if you don't stand below and look at it, you can't see what is written.

There are two long benches near the door of the lobby, and in the middle of the room, there is a long wooden table that can no longer be seen. Further inside, it was already evening, and it was very dark inside, and it was difficult to see the furnishings.

The threshold is concave in an arc, and it is full of cut marks, presumably left by the usual picture of cutting things on it. Zuo Shaoyang followed Fennel into the lobby, and saw an old man sitting behind the long wooden table, with a thin figure, wearing a hood, a wrinkled face, and a white goatee on his chin. He wore a black robe, too wide and spread out like a gray pyramid, with a small goatee head with a vicissitudes of life emerging from the spire.