"Sir."

"What happened to Chuanzi's injury?"

"It's not a big deal. That is, when I was bitten by the object that didn't have long eyes, I bled a little more. Didn't we bring good wound medicine and put it on Chuanzi. At this time, the work has stopped. When Ming'er hits the road, there will be no delay. ”

"Hmmm! That's good! ... That's good..."

In the night, the middle-aged man was talking. He casually added a branch to the stone fence in front of him. The clothes on the middle-aged man's body were also dirty because they hadn't been replaced for several days. The bonfire that is burning brightly illuminates the surroundings of the middle-aged man. An old man in his sixties sat next to the middle-aged man while talking to him.

Around the middle-aged man, there were also several scattered bonfires lit with stone fences. But they are all scattered around the bonfire of the middle-aged man. Some of the black donkeys used to carry the animals were tied to the trees next to the campfire. The men gathered around the bonfire sat together in groups of three or five talking. There were also a few men standing around the campfire, holding bows and arrows and ring-headed knives and patrolling the surroundings.

"They are all good men who have come to this forest with me! I can't let anything happen to them! It's okay to be fine... When I go back this time, I will give Chuanzi more money. Let him go back and recuperate. ”

The middle-aged man was talking, but he couldn't help but look at the men around him.

"That's what the lord said! Ay! They are boys, and it is also their blessing to be able to have a master who thinks about them like the master. ”

As the old man spoke, he threw a branch into the bonfire burning in front of him. After he threw the branches into the bonfire, he handed a very dirty leather mattress to the middle-aged man and said, "Master, it's not early. You'd better go to bed early. For more than half a month along the way, you haven't slept well. Wait until tomorrow, and we should be there. ”

"Let's sleep later, every time I come here, I can't sleep well, this time? I've gotten used to it all these years, and it's out of the way. ”

The middle-aged man smiled and took it, and the old man handed him the dirty leather mattress.

"Alas!"

The old man listened to his master's words, but he also sighed helplessly. Immediately he didn't speak, but just sat next to his master, just staring at the bonfire burning in front of him.

"When I come next time, I should let Xian'er come with me. Maybe... When the time comes, Xian'er will take my place here..."

After being speechless for a while, the middle-aged man spoke again. Although he didn't look at the old man sitting next to him. But there was no one in the campfire in the center of them except their lord and servant. Only the old man sitting beside him could hear it.

"Old, sir... Master... The young master is old... It's still too small... Isn't it, isn't it waiting? ...”

Listening to his master's words, the old man said with some reluctance. But there seems to be something to say between the words, and I want to say it to my master... Can...

"It's not small! It's not small! When I was my age, I started trading. You! It's just too protective of him. Although over the years, he has learned a lot from me. But those things are not enough..."

The middle-aged man couldn't help frowning slightly as he spoke, and then said, "Moreover, if one day... What if something happens to me... Xian'er can take my place..."

"Sir! You, what are you talking about! What can't happen! How unlucky! Besides... Besides... Let's buy and sell now... It's all done so big... Also, I have to... I have to come... Come on, come here..."

As soon as the old man heard the old man say that something happened to him one day, he continued even though he was a little anxious, and in a moment of anxiety, he also said the words that he had been holding in his heart for a long time.

But he thinks that now his master's business is more than enough to make money every day! Just this back and forth, from these, the skins collected from the forest where the Tun people live, and sold them so quickly, the profit is very large! Although... The business of his own master also depends on the big backer in the state... The lord can only take the twenty-seven points of the little head after he gets a profit.

But just these twenty percent of the little head also made his own master have a lot of money! In the county, the lord's house is bigger than the county's lord's businessman's! is also because of the big backer in the state behind the master, the power of the local government and the scholar family, which will also give the lord some face... It's all been done... Also, it's still used, it has to... Do you have to come here?

Although... The reason why the old man was able to have everything he has today... It's to get out of here... But, but over the years, if it weren't for the great effort of my own master... By their own efforts... That's not going to come either, all of this today... Today's lord... It should have been... You can enjoy yourself at home... But, but why, I want to...

"Humph! Don't talk about it again! Old man, what kind of person is my Xihuyi, you haven't known after following me for so many years? If it's really just for the so-called wealth in front of me, then I really don't need to come here anymore. But what is this wealth to me? ”

Xi Huyi spoke, but slowly stood up. His face also changed from the kind and calm just now to a faint loneliness. Seeing that he had said the wrong thing, the old man couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, and hurriedly stood up with his master and said, "Don't be angry, master!" Yes, I'm too talkative! It's my mouth! ”

"Alas! I also know that you are also thinking about me. Old man, over the years... I'll let you come here with me every time... But also.."

Listening to the old man's somewhat uneasy confession, Xi Huyi spoke slowly, returning to the kind and calm face just now. After pressing the shoulder of the old man who also stood up, he sat down again. The old man saw that his master sat down again, and his face returned to normal. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in my heart, and I slowly sat down next to my master again.

"What to buy and sell is not to buy and sell... Those of us who run errands for the scholar clan in the Guannai. Although he can rely on the lord of the Shi clan, he can occupy some small heads after gaining profits. On the surface, it's quite beautiful... To put it bluntly, it's just a dog raised by the old man of the Shi clan! The lord of the scholar clan appreciates you today, and with you, you can gain some benefits. When I don't need you one day, I can kill you with a knife. This... It's those of us who are traders who act as dogs for the lord of the Shi clan... The so-called wealth..."

Xi Huyi looked at the bonfire burning in front of him and said to the old man sitting beside him. The words are inevitably very helpless, mixed with a sense of helplessness.

"It's like when we come to the woods where these Tun people live, we can exchange a few coppers for some skins that are worth a lot of money in the pass. If it weren't for the care of the man above us, would we have come to this forest to collect skins? The Tun people, who were already exploited by the local government and the scholars, are actually the same as those of us who are ostensibly beautiful traders... It's just that we're a dog raised by the old man of the scholar clan... Although it is possible to get some wealth like yourself... But all this is just a matter of one sentence in the mouths of the old men of the noble clan... Let you have it, you will have it! If you don't have it, you don't have it! ... There is a chance to be a human being... Who, would like to be a dog!? ”

As if asking himself, Xihuyi clenched his hands tightly after saying the last sentence. Looking at the bonfire in front of him, under his still kind and calm appearance, it seemed to be an irrepressible anger burning silently but passionately in his heart.

He will never forget the self he was when he was young... No matter how hard you try... But because he is just a merchant with no identity and no power. I have to curry favor with those government officials who often come from the shop and ask for benefits!

Afterward... And because of his own business, he hindered a merchant who had the support of a scholar behind a certain family, but he almost ruined his own family! Until he had to risk his life for a glimmer of life, he secretly took his buddies and came to the forest where the skins held by the government and the lords of the scholar clan were bought and sold... But by coincidence, I happened to meet the person who changed my life...

He remembers, that day, more than twenty years ago... It's autumn season... He almost became a ghost under the knife of his subordinates! But in the end, he survived! In addition to surviving himself, there is also the old man who is sitting next to him now... I, too, from that day on, with the help of that person, was spared the end of the ruin...

Later, relying on the help that person gave him, he not only avoided the destruction of his family. On the contrary, it also ruined his own family, which was almost harmed, and the merchant wife who was supported by the lord of the scholar clan lost the business! But looking at the merchant who almost killed himself, he was so reversed that he lost the deal, and it didn't end well... But I didn't rejoice in my wicked anger... I didn't resent the merchant anymore...

Because the merchant at the beginning was just to make more money for the master behind him, the old man of the scholar family. Since he is in the way of him, can he not trouble himself? And... Now I am also like the merchant who almost killed me in the past... is also a dog under the master of the Shi clan, and he will also use his own means to punish those who hinder his own way like he did at the beginning...

"There's a chance to be a human being... Who wants to be a dog in the gate of the scholars..."

"Sir... You..."

The old man looked at the old man sitting next to him, although he still didn't understand what the old man said... But I also know that the old man is really iron-hearted over there... Over the years, it has been rain or shine, even when the government is investigating the strictest, it has not stopped coming here...

But I thought that the next time I came back, the master would bring the young master with me... But he couldn't help but shake his head again and didn't say more. can only look at the bonfire in front of him silently with his master.