The horse team of the inspector drove from the east end to the west end of the busy city, and the officials held their heads high one by one, and the horses seemed to have learned some of the arrogance of the master.

The people, who had slowly returned to the habits of the citizens from the fright of smashing the archway with a big sword, slowly surrounded both sides of the road where the horses were marching, as if they were greeting each other in the middle of the road—but the crowd was mostly silent, and the horses advanced a little, and the end of the procession also closed a little westward, at most a little deliberately suppressed and rattled to each other. There are really not too many events worthy of people getting together in the mountain, even if someone spits on the ground, if his expression is exaggerated enough and his posture is bizarre enough, people will consciously or unconsciously come over, inside and outside three layers.

When the last horse in the caravan was about to leave west from the market of Xie Ting, a middle-aged man carrying a large wooden box pushed through the crowd and ran to the team out of breath.

"Who's coming?" asked the one who had just shouted at the entrance of East Street.

The inspector rode at the front of the group, and no one saw the expression on his face, which was a confident smile with everything under control.

......

Chen Jianxue leaned on the side of the door, watching her sister go away, the little back was a little puzzled, a little joyful to be entrusted with a heavy task, and the mountain road behind the snow Ji formed a nursery rhyme-like scene painting.

The second child has been hiding from his parents that he skipped class in the county to learn carpentry, and the family just thinks that he is skillful and can fiddle with all kinds of tools and devices, so he often entrusts him with the work of repairing and repairing the family.

But only the hammer planer is far from being able to make Chen Qianxue's favorite objects, so in addition to the usual tools at home, he also stored a box of his own special utensils in Master Lu's shop in the county seat. Seeing that his father had cut off his tuition fees and it was difficult to have the opportunity to go to the city, Chen Qianxue hid these treasures in the bookcase and carried them back, and took advantage of the fact that there was no one at home to stuff them all into the space under the bed.

To this day, the second child has been at home for two months and nine days in a row, and the last time he entered the city seems to be a very long time ago. In another month, he will take the last county exam, and the whole family has little hope for this, including himself; his father just wants him to settle down in the mountains quickly, and he wants to be with his brother all the time, as for Chen Qianxue himself, he is just a little reluctant to enjoy the fancy world in the city, but thinking that he has let the tuition fees paid by his family go down the drain every year, this reluctance is nothing.

It was Mr. Yang who insisted that Jian Xue try again one last time, specifically, Mr. Yang, who taught him Jingyi. For some reason, this Mr. Yang is particularly blue-eyed to Chen Qianxue, a bad student who skips class at both ends for three days, knowing that he has fallen behind in his homework, and he is accompanied by him every time he takes the exam, not to mention that the second child has lived up to high expectations again and again, Mr. Yang is not only annoyed, but relieved for Chen's father again and again.

Now that Chen Qianxue is finally going to drop out of school and return to the mountains, it is also this Mr. Yang who has spoken to other gentlemen in the academy, and has a lot of words with Chen's father, and almost has to pay out of his own pocket, so he reluctantly persuaded him to let Jian Xue participate in this last county examination.

Although he is a little sorry for his teacher, the second child really doesn't have much hope in his heart for next month's county test. Now he just wants to be self-reliant quickly, no longer spend the family's money, whether it is to save a dowry for Cutting Bing, or to leave some pension money for the second elder, in short, it is time to fill the hole in the Chen family's rice bag.

In Chen Qianxue's heart, there are some more secret and inhumane thoughts. He wanted to go east, cross Jihu Lake, cross Gray Kang Mountain, choose one of the eight bridges of the Jun River to cross the river, go to Xuanchen, go to the royal capital Anlin, and go to the place where the craftsman ancestor lost Zhai Kaishan and established a faction. It is the paradise of the craftsman, the place where the skillful skills of a tree into ten scenes and mustard seeds are spread; there, the gold-stone carpenter is a guest of the family of the sage, a guest of the prince's seat, a child, and a king, and no one knows how to use a knife and saw the ink bucket skill.

The one who told the second child this was Master Lu, who helped him in the shop in the county town - everyone called him Black Hand Lu, because he never wiped his hands after playing the ink line, and the tips of his index finger and thumb were burnt black. But the second child respected him very much, and even felt that his craftsmanship was the best in the entire county, and that he could tell a lot of strange and remote conversations called Chen Laoer, a cultural person who had studied in private schools and academies.

The second child called him Master Lu, and he did teach the second child many strange things that he had never heard of. He told him how the second craftsman was not treated well in the empire, told him how many craftsmen the first emperor had buried in Lishan, told him that Changling, Shunling, Yuanling, and Muling, and none of the pits killed less, told him how many carpenters who built cloud ladders and blacksmiths who fought arrows were killed in the first battle of Fengzhang City, told him that Wusui's generals tried knives with the bodies of swordsmiths, and told him that the officials of Jinding were not allowed to enter the city......

After hearing a lot of such words, the second child naturally yearns for Xuan Chen in the east, and he even thinks that one day he will become a famous craftsman in Anlin City, a guest of the scholar's family, and a guest of the prince's throne, and when the reputation is transmitted back to Qiyin County and Xiaoxiao Xieting Town, Mr. Yang will no longer regret that he failed to pass the county test, and his father will no longer have to pity his empty dozens of acres of woodland.

......

In the early autumn of last year, someone ordered a two-foot and eight-foot-long knotted grass and wood dragon from Master Lu's shop, and the second child did not see the transaction with his own eyes, but only listened to him when he went to help in Master Lu's shop.

From tail to head, the second child watched the dragon grow longer and longer, growing a flaming tail and eagle-like claws, becoming more and more like a dragon. The second child asked Master Lu why he didn't make his head first, and he said that if he did a good job of his body and then put his head on it, the dragon would live;

Master Lu also told the second child a lot about the wooden dragon, he told the second child, in addition to sending the heavenly maiden, there is another activity of the Yandi Fish Gift Festival, until today, the Xuan Chen in the east is still circulating, but it is cut off in this place east of the jaw and west of the Jun River. On this day every year, after sending off the celestial maiden symbolizing peace and protection, the Yan people will carry a grass and wood dragon that brings war and plague, light a fire on its back, and dance by six or seven people holding long tongs from the fire; another shirtless man, holding a five-inch wide broadsword, with a red ribbon tied on his arm, takes a step forward, and fights with the burning grass and wood dragon, cutting off its two horns and four whiskers, and finally cutting off the dragon head when the flames are burned out.

Master Lu said that if this grass and wood dragon is exquisitely made, the wooden knots of the entire dragon body will be disconnected at this moment, and when the dragon head lands, the dragon body will also be scattered into knotted wood chips, crackling and falling to the ground.

Xuan Chen's Huaiwang, that is, the grandfather of the current lord, once made a ten-zhang long grass and wood dragon with his own hands, it is said that the wooden skeleton is made of fireproof ebony peach wood produced in the Shizhou Great Crater, the straw on the top is all the general length, general thickness, dyed black with rosin ink, the roots are straight, extraordinarily hideous; the dragon head is taken from the heart wood of the black peach, by the Huai Wang 39,671 chisels, even if it is as slender as a dragon's whiskers, the lines on it are also 33 huge.

Outside the Chongyang Gate, the ten-zhang long dragon was carried by the strongest wrestler in Xuan Chen Kingdom, and the straw coated with rosin ink ignited a blue demonic flame, and the general of Zhenxi, Yue Tongyu, went into battle shirtless, cut off the double horns and four whiskers, and fought with the broken fire dragon for a long time, until the green flame declined, General Yue broke off, the big knife swung down, and the dragon head and the dragon body were scattered.

"In ancient times, there was also a leader of Yandi who also made a grass and wood dragon with his own hands, but the wood he used was the enemy's shield, and the grass he used was the enemy's hair, the dragon's head was at the northern foot of the mountain, and the dragon's tail was at the south entrance of Xiangshui, and the fire on the dragon's back burned from sunset to dawn, and when the morning light broke out from the east, the backlit figure seemed to be as high as the sky, and a knife was cut down, the blade was westward, and a shadow penetrated the Central Plains. ”

When he said this, Master Lu would shake his head like a storyteller, and the second child remembered that he used a chisel to knock on the saw blade, just like the storyteller's shocking wood.

But all of this, under the control of the empire, is a taboo of great rebellion, and it is the crime of slandering the Son of Heaven and bullying the king. Although in Yandi, what kind of fire burns grass and wood dragons, what kind of double horns and four whiskers, people of Chen Qianxue's age have never even heard of it.

When Master Lu told him about the prohibition of "slaying the dragon horns" in the empire, and told him how proud the Yan people were to the east of the jaw, Chen Jianxue felt not the hatred of the country and the family, after all, he was born as a subject of the empire;

......

The custom-made grass and wood dragon was made for more than ten days, and Master Lu was only responsible for the wooden skeleton, which was done at night, and was dismantled and hidden in the waste wood during the day. The dismantled wooden dragon was nothing more than some inexplicable pieces of wood, and when Master Lu finished it, even if the mysterious guest took these pieces of wood in broad daylight, no one would notice the slightest suspicion.

The second child is just very curious, not to mention the order, who dares to kill this grass and wood dragon in the empire, even if he dares to cut it, will anyone dare to see it?

The world is unpredictable, and he has no chance to know the answer to his question. On an ordinary night, Master Lu put together the wooden skeleton that had been partially completed, held an oil lamp in his hand, and led the second child from one end to the other-

The two-foot-eight-foot grass and wood dragon was made one foot and five feet, and the dragon had no head, no flesh and no forefeet, just like a strange insect.

Master Lu took out a bag of silver from his blanket and put it in his hand, "This is the rest of the labor fee, and the guest gave it to me this morning," there was no joy in his face, only regret, "plus the previous deposit, it is a total of eighty taels." He said give me the money, and the grass and wood dragon don't have to do it. ”

Master Lu didn't know why the guest gave up halfway, and the second child didn't know. Poor people like Master Lu and Chen Lao Er don't understand the thoughts of rich people, but cowardice and fear are always common, so as for the reason why the guests gave up the grass and wood dragon, they can understand it somewhat.

It's just a pity that this half-made wooden skeleton is made, and Master Lu asked the second child to pack them up and take them to Blacksmith Li to burn them as firewood. He said that if no one kills the grass and wood dragon, it is better not to do it, and if no one looks at it, it is better not to do it.

But the second child was always reluctant in his heart, so he superficially accepted Master Lu, and filled two sacks full of dismantled wood chips and waste wood, but instead of carrying them to the blacksmith shop, he went around two miles to the west and piled them into the squatter house he borrowed. He thought that he would simply carve a small dragon head on the body of this five-foot dragon, and then add two front paws, and finish this grass and wood dragon by himself.

After that, it is the day when the second child returns to the mountains. He got on the ox cart that went into the mountains, and when he didn't reach his house, he only got ten miles to the east. There was a spacious house with a backyard, in which only father and son lived, and his father was a well-known hard-working San Lang in the town, and whenever he had free time outside of his own farm work, even if he only paid him five or six Wenli money, he would go to help without saying a word and carry a hoe.

The son of this family is named Wang Guansheng, who is white and fat, round and not slippery, like a wheel, and children of the same age call him Wang Lun'er. When I was a child, I studied in a private school in the town, and he and Chen Lao Er were the whitest in a class of children, one fat and one thin, and they were particularly conspicuous among the descendants of the dark earth.

When Wang Lun'er was eight years old, his mother had a difficult birth, and the big and the young were not saved. Before that, Wang Lun'er's father was not what he is now—although he was also like a bull that had just been bred for the first time, as if he had nowhere to exert his strength, but there was always a time when he was tired; The curtain that was incompatible with the old and dilapidated house came out, and Wang Lun'er couldn't sleep all night.

Without those thick palms that can dispel fatigue, the bull will never seem to get tired, he ages at an astonishing rate, but he never takes a breath, never slumps his shoulders, as if this is still an inexhaustible well, even if the moss crawls all over it, even if there is no reflection in the downward direction, but as long as you are willing to put down the barrel, when you lift it, there must be a full bucket of water.

Wang Lun'er grew from eight to fifteen years old, and the bull changed from a breeding cow to an old cow, still ploughing the ground all the time, and a pound of meat seemed to be attached to Wang Lun'er's stomach from his arms, thighs, waist, and back.

Even Chen Erbai, an outsider who is one year younger than him, can see the accumulation of Lun'er's father's depression over the years, but Wang Lun'er, a smiling fat man, can't see it, or as if he can't see it, enjoying the convenience of his father's not returning home all day, turning the house in his early sixties into a meeting place for friends to gather, leaving Lun'er's father who returns with the moon and lotus in a mess.

Although the second child despised Wang Lun'er in his heart for being ignorant, inconsiderate, and even unfilial, he never abandoned this uncared for treasure land in action. For example, at this time.

The ox cart slowly rocked into the eastern ten miles of land, the sun had not yet set, the mountain road in the forest was falling silent, the smoke was about to rise from the rooftops of every house, and after a hard day's work, dinner would become delicious, and the boring conversation that had been told countless times would be chewed back into laughter. Such a moment, such a moment, there is still an hour or two before Lun'er Dad stops hoeing and goes home.

The second child deftly jumped off the ox cart and jumped into the water like a fish.

"Lieber, stop!"

He trotted with the ox-cart and could keep up with it without much difficulty.

"Alright, alright. The old man who drove the car responded, but a rugged old hand threw out another whip as if he couldn't understand the words.

The old ox's hooves slowed down, though it wasn't fast, and the second trotted with one hand on his two sacks. Before the ox cart finally stopped, the second child turned around, grabbed a sack with one hand, exerted force on his waist, and lifted the two hemp bags to the ground with a snort.

"Thanks, Lieber. The second child carried the sack in one hand to his shoulder, and still carried it in the other, and turned his head to thank the old man who was driving the car.

"Wang Lun'er, come out!" he shouted two steps and into the spacious house with a backyard.