West Street gathers a boxy place, from south to north, from east to west can be strolled, there are stalls to sell tea, and there are to sell art anywhere. Those who shout and sell, those who play with knives and guns, where the crowd gathers.

Shen Yeling walked along the south to the north, passing by a few gourd stalls, and threw a few pieces of change for the children who picked up cigarette butts on the street. He continued to walk forward with the juggling team that could be seen everywhere on the side of the street, surrounded by the crowd and circled again, and he couldn't find the big road at all, Shen Yeling walked to the westernmost river in a daze, there were a few 'bald' willows on the other side of the river, and a few dozen meters away was a yellow boundary, and there was a high city wall erected there, which could not be crossed.

Shen Yeling thought: That's all for today. He turned around and just wanted to go back the same way, but noticed that it was still early, if he went home now, Xu Ruliang would suspect that it was not fun, he didn't want to live up to the kindness of his apprentice, so there was a clock tower along the river, where it was quiet, he sat there for a while, and when the time came, he thought of a good reason to prevaricate and then go home

There were few people on the clock tower and there were few shouts, but there were still a few juggling classes gathered sporadically next to it, and Shen Yeling sat down under the cypress tree next to the bell tower. Occasionally, I glanced at the stone steps next to the clock tower, sitting a middle-aged man in his forties, holding a cylinder erhu in his hand, the man had a black face, wearing a black coat, stretching out his hand full of dirt, pulling the bow rod in one hand, and plucking the strings in the other, looking a little dirty.

Although the appearance is untidy, the man's hand on the strings is seriously playing back and forth, even then there is still no one in front of him, Shen Yeling really can't look at it, he walked over and put a few pieces of change on the ground, and the man smiled at him with a row of yellow teeth.

The man looked Shen Yeling up and down, and saw that he was wearing an off-white gown, with a delicate jade pendant hanging between the placket, a white face, a flat comb on his hair, and his hair was freshly shaved and his temples were short and blue. At first glance, he looked like a rich son, so he put away the strings, took the two yuan that Shen Yeling put on the ground, weighed the weight in his hand, and said: "Mr. is really a good person, I am here waiting for my daughter to have nothing to talk about, I didn't expect you to open it for me, you want to listen to the play, my daughter's Kunqu opera is good."

The man praised his daughter without embellishment, undoubtedly wanting Shen Yeling to stay, and between the words, a girl about twenty years old came, with a face like a silver basin, her complexion was white and a little red, lined with plump hair, combed with a relapse, wearing a lake blue cheongsam, and two white round legs under the cheongsam. and the people who were watching the jugglers just now looked at it.

The girl approached the man, looked at Shen Yeling from time to time, and said to the man, "Dad, do you have anything to pop up here." As she spoke, the girl waved her handkerchief forward, suggesting that the unbridled spectators around her were all coming for her.

The man smiled at the corner of his mouth, took the money and pointed at Shen Yeling: "I really can't play anything, if it weren't for the gentleman who looked at me pitifully and gave me two pieces of money, I really didn't pick up any of them", the man glanced at the group of people around him with disdain, most of them were aimed at his daughter's two round legs.

The girl smiled at Shen Yeling and nodded, she picked up the pipa and tried the strings, and found a correct posture to play, and her eyes had already looked Shen Yeling up and down, and after looking down, she lowered her head and smiled, the man changed his musical instrument, picked up the bamboo drum and set it up, and looked up to see that his girl had not yet started playing, and the people who came to see it were all in a circle.

Shen Yeling was not in a hurry to leave, found a position in the back row, leaned against the cypress tree on the side, and listened quietly. The girl plucked the strings of the three strings and made a few notes, attracting everyone: "My girl has studied Kunqu Opera for a few years, and she just shows off her talent a few times, if she doesn't sing well, please include it", she said and glanced at Shen Yeling a few times, and said: "What I want to sing next is "Drunken Red Mansion" composed by our Xunyang people", she took the author of this composition 'Xunyang people' and didn't say it clearly, so she began to sing.

This "Drunken Red Mansion" was sung a few words by the girl, and she understood that this was undoubtedly through Lin Daiyu's mouth to hurt the spring and autumn, the girl sang and looked at Shen Yeling unconsciously, as if she was singing to him, and Lin Daiyu's bitterness seemed to be complaining to him. Shen Yeling also looked at this girl, she looked a little like Xue Baochai, but this girl sang with a really sentimental feeling, listened to a few words, nodded slightly at her singing, and kept nodding between her fingers to keep up with the rhythm of their singing.

The man playing the drum next to him waited for the girl to sing happily, and also sang a few words with the girl. After singing, the girl took the pipa, and the man came forward to take the rusty iron plate, and looked around to turn the money around, some people had already slipped away when the song was finished, and there were undoubtedly few people who could give money, and the man looked at the plate and turned his head to look at Shen Yeling.

It's just that Shen Yeling gave the money just now, and he was embarrassed to ask for it, but looking at the coins on the plate, he hadn't earned enough for today, so he cheekily came to Shen Yeling, Shen Yeling knew that the man was here to ask for money, so he took out his pocket and put a piece of ocean into his plate.

As soon as the man heard the crisp collision sound thrown into the iron plate by the ocean, he hurriedly squatted down happily at him and changed Mr. to Master. Shen Yeling looked at the girl, and the girl was even more at him, with a smile in her eyes, as if everyone around her had disappeared, and there was only him in her eyes.

Shen Yeling was stared at and began to feel uncomfortable, turned around and wanted to leave, but was pulled by the man and asked, "Master, I don't know your surname, which yamen you work in."

Shen Yeling replied in response to his words: "Big brother, my surname is Shen, I can't afford the title of 'master' according to my generation, as for which 'yamen' to work in, I don't hide it, I'm just like you, I'm just a servant who eats by hand."

"Yes, then I'll call you sir", the man squinted his eyes and looked at Shen Yeling again, and said strangely: "Mr. looks elegant and generous, not like a singer, but like a white jade boy who came out of the school."

Shen Yeling lowered his head and explained with a smile: "You really misunderstood, I am really a singer, I just moved here yesterday and sang in Chunhe Courtyard."

Shen Yeling pointed to the east, Chunheyuan was in the east, he pointed and said with a serious face, the man nodded, if it was really a singer. Then he was relieved, smiled, and called the girl who had just played the pipa.

The girl came over, her face was a little red, I don't know if it was originally red or dyed red by the sunset on the horizon, in short, she hid behind her father, turned her head and looked shy, took off the handkerchief on the placket, picked up a corner and wrapped her fingers back and forth.

After the man called his daughter, he also reported to himself at the door: "My daughter is like this, sir, don't blame, my surname is Lou, I usually stay here, or go to the teahouse on Front Street to accompany my girl, if you like, you can come often."

Shen Yeling nodded politely, and was still satisfied with the song just now, when he saw that the man had already pulled his daughter over, put it in front of his eyes and said, "My daughter just said that she can sing Kunqu Opera, and now she has found an expert and offered her ugliness."

As the man spoke, the girl pouted at him, bumped into Shen Yeling's gaze at her, and lowered her head in shame, Shen Yeling defended her: "Where, your daughter sings well, I don't have the spirit of singing to a girl at my age." In fact, Shen Yeling didn't know if the girl sang it well or not, but he saw that this song was fresh and he hadn't sung it, if he had heard a few people sing it, he wouldn't have been so perfunctory.

The girl saw Shen Yeling praising her like this, and hid behind his father and didn't see anyone, Shen Yeling didn't feel strange when she saw her so shy and thought that the girl was timid and afraid of people, but continued to say to the man: "Big brother, the song your girl sang has never been in Kunqu Opera, and it is very fresh for me to listen to it."

The man waved his hand and explained: "It's also strange to say, it was written by a scoundrel in a brothel, you said that Lin Daiyu Bing Qingyujie, he still wrote music for her in that kind of place, it was really put before the horse, not to mention that he was ridiculously flopped, and invited a corner to sing popular."

Needless to say, the rest of the song was circulated and sung as a cover. Shen Yeling clicked the rhythm in his hand and filtered the song in his hand again, if it was a good song, he would have memorized it all, but this "Drunken Red Mansion" undoubtedly had the same heart as him, so he had to ask who the 'scoundrel' was.

"Mr. Shen just came, and he may not know him, that scoundrel used to have the reputation of a genius prodigy", the man had already begun to feel sorry for the 'prodigy scoundrel', and said seriously: "You just need to go to our Xunyang kiln and shout 'Jiang Yuan' to find him, he likes to write poems to prostitutes the most, that talent is really bad."

Shen Yeling was shocked by the word 'Jiang Yuan', and his heart was confused. Still uncomfortable being targeted by something, he looked up and saw that the girl hiding behind the man was holding her handkerchief and smiling at him, and the strength of the shy answer just now was long gone.

The girl's eyes when she looked at Shen Yeling were a little strange, Shen Yeling sank down, and Shen Yeling had already guessed in her heart about the girl's statement.

I saw Shen Yeling arch his hand and say goodbye to the man: "It's not too early, I think I should go back too."

The old man tried to go down to the sky, it was indeed sunset, and he was embarrassed to pull Shen Yeling to stop leaving: "It's okay, thank you Mr. Shen today, if it weren't for your piece of the ocean, we might have to sing until the curfew, oh, by the way, if Mr. Shen doesn't mind that my house is in a miscellaneous courtyard on West Street, you see a house number surnamed Lou, and that is my house."

Shen Yeling also nodded and wanted to turn around: "Okay, I will definitely visit next time, but the door will close today, and I will rush to get medicine for my wife."

"Wife", the man and the girl behind him screamed as if they had grasped some terrible information in the words.

Shen Yeling said with a pleasant attitude: "Yes, my wife is always sick, so I can obediently stay on the hospital bed and not run around", he said, staring at the sunset in the distance, as if the uncomfortable feeling of being stared at just now was gone.