"The old immortal remnants, all day long, know that they spend money outside and live happily, and they don't touch it at home! Stinky and shameless to eat and live in vain, how can you live this day! The woman's high-pitched voice was harsh, shaking beads of sweat from her arms.

The man squatted on the threshold of his house, smoking a low-quality tobacco. Although when Chongzhen was four years old, Emperor Bixia explicitly ordered a ban on smoking, everyone felt that the emperor was in charge of heaven and earth, and he couldn't even take care of the trivial things of eating and farting. The city of Beijing is so big, can you smoke two puffs of tobacco in the palace?

Besides, how good this tobacco is! Take a sip, and the troubles in my heart will drift away like green smoke.

"I've never seen a man like you! I can't get a lot of money by my seven or eight feet long, and I don't even dare to fart when I see that eggless old thing! The family will not be able to open the pot in a blink of an eye, and I know that dozens of copper plates are taken out every day, taken out, and taken out! If you have gold and silver at home, you can't take it like this! Let's sell my wife and children another day! You're a! You're going to live with that eggless old thing! ”

The woman scolded louder and louder, picked up the bucket in the kitchen, and poured the small half bucket of water into the copper basin with a bang, but more than half of it spilled out.

"Fetch water! You lazy donkey! The woman angrily threw the bucket on the ground.

The man took two heavy puffs of his cigarette, inserted the cigarette stick diagonally into the hole in front of the threshold, patted his butt and walked inside. He picked up the wooden barrel on the ground silently, first looked at any broken places, and then said in a low voice: "Back then, my mother was treated and buried, and everyone paid for it." ”

"!" The woman roared: "That's what I said!" How much money did he have at that time! How many were given to you? His dog has to eat a few taels of silver for a meal! Your mother and son are not even as good as other people's dogs! And when he is a good man, I bah! Bah! The woman did not understand the hatred, and spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm and fell on the man.

The man glared at the woman, right in pairs.

In an instant, the winner was decided.

"Don't go yet!" The woman scolded loudly.

The man craned his neck and carried the bucket to the common well.

After walking a few steps out of the door, the man's legs suddenly seemed to be filled with lead, and he stood still.

Beneath the shadow of the neighborhood archway, a thin old man curled up, looking at the man with a blank face.

"Uncle......" The man felt that his throat was so dry and painful, it must have been because of the smoke just now.

The thin old man pulled his lips and barely squeezed out a smile: "Uncle made it difficult for you." ”

"Uncle, you say this." The man wanted to be angry, but he knew that the cousin must have heard his mother-in-law's abuse. From his heart, the family is not rich, and it is already very hard to eat more mouths, but this master still has a hobby of bathing, and he has to go two times in three days, and he goes all day, and there are more than a dozen big sons a day, which makes the porridge at home really thinner.

But when his family was most desperate, this cousin gave ten taels of silver, so that he could ask the old lady to see the doctor, and when he left, he also made a good coffin board and cured a decent shroud. If this kindness is not reciprocated, is it still a person?

"Mother-in-law is not reasonable, uncle, don't be surprised." The man's lips squirmed, a little weak. Back then, the cousin's dogs were better than him, and the mother-in-law didn't make it up. However, he always thinks that no matter how rich people are, they shouldn't care about you, even if it's just a grain of rice leaking between your fingers, that's a kindness.

The thin old man nodded: "Today, I met an acquaintance from the former palace in the bathhouse, and I heard that the prince is out of the palace." I've asked him to help me with an errand. ”

"Trust...... "The man's Adam's apple rolled, "How much silver?" ”

"As long as you can get in, your uncle and I will definitely be able to get ahead!" The thin old man said very confidently: "Now there are not many old people in the palace who understand allusions more than your uncle, and there will be no capable people on the prince's side." ”

"Uncle said," the man felt that his tongue was knotted, and asked again, "How much silver?" ”

"Not much," said the old man, "it's only fifty taels." ”

"Fifty taels!" The man cried out.

"It doesn't matter if the family doesn't meet for a while," said the old man, "everyone in the community will make up together, and when I return to the palace, I can pay them back a hundred times." ”

The man tightened the barrel in his hand, and said secretly in his heart: What is this place? Even if the neighbors are encouraged to sell their houses, they may not be able to scrape together fifty taels!

"It's not right away," said the old man, "and it's okay to show your sincerity with a ten, two, twenty, or twenty taels." ”

The man lowered his head, his eyes fell on the bluestone, and said, "I'll go back and ask." ”

"Hmm." The old man replied with a long sigh: "Now that the East Palace is stable, as long as you can survive until the prince ascends to the pole, it is a proper work from the dragon." Think about it, back then, your uncle and I were just eunuchs in the court, and we earned such a big family business. If it's ...... in the future," the thin old man said halfway, and forced the next half of the words into his mouth.

He saw a middle-aged man dressed in satin and a white beard running towards him. From the way the man ran, the old man recognized the man as a eunuch at a glance.

The middle-aged eunuch walked briskly through the door, and soon saw the old man and his cousin. His gaze soon fell on the old man, sweeping over and over again the old man's eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth...... Finally, he shouted in a trembling voice: "Grandpa Liu? ”

The old man looked at the middle-aged eunuch with a calm expression, who he didn't know.

"Father-in-law Liu? You don't recognize me anymore? I'm Wang Ping under the name of Eunuch Cao! The eunuch shouted.

This father-in-law Liu finally let out a long "oh" and bowed his hand: "Forgive your sins, forgive your sins, I'm old, and my memory is not good." He asked, "How ...... is the prince here?"

"I came to find your father-in-law Liu." Wang Ping didn't hold it up, and said with a smile on his face: "Father-in-law Liu is so blessed, the slave and maid really want to congratulate father-in-law." ”

"The prince laughed," said Liu's husband, "After the old slave came out of prison, he only had bad luck, how could he be blessed." ”

"It is the hardship in front of us that makes it even more blessed." Wang Ping said with a smile: "The slave maid was ordered to come to find Gonggong Liu, and you went back." He paused, and then said as if begging: "I heard that the East Palace saw your "Records of the Middle" and asked you to come by name. ”

This father-in-law Liu is the Liu Ruoyu sent by Zhu Cihong to find Tian Cunshan.

Having personally experienced the inner palace of the Wanli, Longqing, Tianqi, and Chongzhen dynasties, the nerves of this old eunuch have already been cast like copper and iron. He didn't smile immediately, but made a look of embarrassment, and said, "Since the old man saw the light of day again, he has completely faded about fame and fortune. Now living with my nephew, although it is harder, I have leisure. ”

Wang Ping had a smile on his face, and scolded in his heart: You old man wants to play with me? If you are really willing to be bitter, what do you run to the bathhouse every day?

There are two ways for ordinary eunuchs to take a bath, one is that the mixed hall priest in the palace draws hot water and cleans it in the palace. The second is to go to the temples of all sizes in Beijing. Those temples have mixed soups, and there are nameless white people in them to rub baths. Just like the theme bars of later generations, those who go to that kind of place to bathe are also eunuchs, and everyone is the same when they are naked, and they will not feel inferior and embarrassed.

Liu Ruoyu went to the mixed hall to take a bath all day long, not simply to love cleanliness and find enjoyment, but just to meet one or two old people in the palace and find a way to return to the center of power. To put it bluntly, he is no different from those nameless whites who rub the bath for people to beg for rewards.

Hearing Uncle Cousin say that he didn't want to go back to the palace, the stout man with shallow knowledge and poor brain suddenly became stupid: Didn't you just say that you wanted to make up fifty taels of silver so that you could go to the prince's side on an errand? Why is it that good things are delivered to the eyes but they are not gone? How can you not go!

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