When Huzi arrived, it was the time for the Drum Tower to teach. Most of the people in the courtyard are shirtless half-sized children, who look about the same age as Huzi. The big ones are only seventeen or eighteen, and the small ones are only twelve or thirteen. The courtyard is boiling! There are those who wear swords and muzzles to practice their figures, there are those who press one leg to recite and sing by the wall, and there are those who follow the teaching to learn new plays sentence by sentence, mixed with the shouts of the teachers, it is not lively.

"Huzi, why are you here?" The first person who saw Huzi being brought in by the gatehouse was Chen Ban Master, who was standing by the wall and hanging his throat, "You are still carrying a rattan box, could it be that you have caused some great disaster, I am afraid that your master will beat you to death, come to me to avoid the limelight." ”

Huzi put down the rattan box and gave a deep salute, handed over the letter, and said, "I've seen the Chen class master, you can read me." My master went to Bamian City and threw me into Changtu, and my master didn't worry that I was afraid that I would get into trouble alone in the Sun Temple, and said that he would find someone to take care of me, so he didn't think of you. ”

"Your master can't control you, how can I control you a wild boy." Class Master Chen smiled, "There are still two coins of silver in this letter, and your master is really talking to me." You can take it back and spend it. ”

Chen handed the silver back, but Huzi didn't dare to stretch out his hand. He said, "Master Chen, you can take it!" When I turned around, my master knew that the money was in my hands, and my ass had to be beaten into eight pieces. If you don't want this money, you can go back and tell him when my master comes back. ”

"Lao Chen, take it when you should take it," Chu An walked over, still holding a wooden knife in his hand, "Isn't this the temperament of our brother Peng, I'd rather others owe him than allow him to take advantage of others." If you don't take the money, the name of the next play will be made up for you. ”

"Forget it," Chen Banzhu sighed, "I'll take it first, and then go back and eat wine with Mr. Peng, even if it's wiped out." ”

"You, you!" Chu An pointed at Huzi and said, "What kind of apprentice is really it, you and your master are both wilting, you don't say anything, and you have a terrible idea in your heart!" ”

"Huzi, come and sit," Chen Banzhu glanced at the letter, then paced to the table and took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, and greeted Huzi, "Look at these chanting lyrics, which one reads well?" ”

Huzi was a little confused, so he didn't know why Chen Banzhu suddenly talked about this with himself, so he snorted: "Chen Banzhu, if you ask me which one seems to be good at fighting, I can talk to you." But I really haven't seen a few plays in this play, and I can't tell me if you ask this. ”

"Your master knows how to play," Chen Ban Master tapped the table with the tip of his finger, "I think his apprentice should be similar." Don't talk about it from a distance, you look over there, the part you practiced over there, you heard me sing it a few years ago, you see what's the difference? ”

Huzi followed the eyes of the Chen class master and looked over, and saw Xiao Jiu holding a paper fan and a child older than him practicing dialogue. practiced a paragraph in "The Palace of Eternal Life", and Huzi still had some impressions.

"I remember that year in the agarwood pavilion to appreciate the peony, summoning Hanlin Li Baicao "Qingping Tune" three chapters, so that Li Gui into a new score, the words are very good. I don't know if the concubine still remembers? ”

"The concubine remembers."

"The concubine can be my song, and I should rely on the jade flute to make peace."

"Commandment ......"

"How's the demeanor?" Chen asked.

Huzi looked at it for a while and said, "Xiao Jiu's Yang Guifei is very beautiful."

"How is that compared to me?" Chen asked again.

"Can't compare." Huzi replied immediately. After thinking about it, he said again: "Your Yang Guifei is a generous beauty, Xiao Jiu's ...... Maybe you're a little stingier than you. ”

Chen Ban Master laughed when he heard Huzi's words: "Okay! You're a wonderful guy too! Who says you don't know how to act! ”

"Master Chen, don't praise me," Huzi waved his hand and said, "I'm just a stunned person, what kind of words are stabbing out, don't go to your heart!" ”

"Do you know, just like that, I dare to say that Xiao Jiu is the best in this subject." Chen said.

"Which is!" Huzi couldn't help nodding, "He's your son!" Besides, Xiao Jiu is also smart. ”

"It has nothing to do with being smart." Class Master Chen waved his hand, "There are more than forty disciples in this subject, which one is not smart?" They just came from a poor background, not that they don't have a lot of brains. ”

Huzi didn't answer for a while, so Chen continued: "You shouldn't know, Xiao Jiu won't tell anyone, right...... Xiao Jiu is not close to me, he is most afraid of me. ”

"Master Chen...... You ......" Huzi didn't know what it meant for Class Master Chen to suddenly turn his head to this side, and he didn't dare to answer for a while. Class Master Chen sighed: "Among the disciples of this subject, Xiao Jiu is a junior junior brother, even if there are younger than him, he is also his senior brother, because he is the latest to start. At first, his mother didn't allow him to learn drama, but the eight brothers and sisters in front of him all died, and your aunt's stomach has not moved since him, so he was allowed to enter the class. ”

Huzi glanced at Xiao Jiu, who was still practicing, and thought to himself why he was called Xiao Jiu.

"In this subject, one is counted as one, and Xiao Jiu has been beaten and reprimanded the most." Chen continued, "They all say that I am cruel to my son, but which parent does not pity his child? Sometimes after beating Xiao Jiu, I don't feel good in my heart. ”

"Hmm." Huzi nodded sneeringly.

Chen shook his head and said, "I'm not telling you this for anything else, I just want you to know that Mr. Peng and you are working hard, and some things he said himself are not necessarily like that, so I want to be an outsider to talk about it." Only then did Huzi understand - it should be Mr. Peng who wrote something in the letter, so that Chen Banzhu and himself could sing this twist and turn.

"I'm a parent, I can know what kind of affection Mr. Peng has for you." Chen said, "Although you were brought back by Mr. Peng, after all, you took his surname, and Mr. Peng didn't ask for a wife, and everything he said and did to you was treated as his own son." Huzi, you must know that as long as parents have not lost their conscience, there is no one who does not want their children to be good. Xiao Jiu may not be close to me for the rest of his life, and he resents me and hates me in his heart, but when he becomes it, I am content. I don't know what happened to you and your master, your master just said that you were angry with him and asked me to persuade you, but I think that there are no parents in the world who can't get over. ”

Huzi didn't speak, lowered his head and played with the buckles on his clothes, put it on and unfastened it, untied it and put it on again. Chen didn't say anything more, Ren Huzi sat here playing with his buttons, and raised himself to take the test of a child who pressed his legs to memorize the lyrics.

After the teaching period in the drama class passed, the children dispersed. Xiao Jiu jumped to Huzi's side and patted Huzi on the shoulder, startling Huzi. Xiao Jiu's face was full of joy: "Huzi, Master Chu said that you want to live with us for a while?"

Huzi nodded: "Six or seven days at the least, and a month at the earliest."

"That's great!" Xiao Jiu said, "You are not allowed to live in a guest room, you can sleep in the same room with me." Someone to play with me this time! ”

Huzi raised his hand and pointed at the so many disciples in the courtyard who had not dispersed: "There are so many senior brothers the same size as you, and no one has played with you yet?"

Xiao Jiuyi flattened his mouth: "Don't talk about them, open your mouth and shut up 'Young Class Master', you don't treat me as a person in their circle!" Play with nothing with me. ”

Huzi diverted the conversation: "Hey! I've got something good for you to see! He opened the rattan box and brought out the string of dead sparrows.

"House Sparrow!" Xiao Jiuyi clapped his hands, "Good guy, so much!" ”

Xiao Jiu is a child who lives in the city, and he usually wants to go up to the tree to dig a bird's nest, but there are not so many trees in the city for him to dig, let alone the pleasure of catching birds with a clip.

"When you're cooking, you bury it all in the pit." Huzi shook the string of finches in his hand, "Aren't the meat dishes of the two of us coming out at night!" ”

Most of the children beat the house finches and did this. Put the house finch in the pit where the rice is cooked, bury it under the soot, and when the food is cooked, the bird meat is almost roasted. There is no need to pluck hair and bleed, and there is no need to disembowel. When the charcoal fire cleans the feathers from the bird's body, it tears down the skin, and the crispy roasted bird meat is revealed. As for the bird's launch, it is not a problem to choose when you eat it.

Xiao Jiuyang asked the cook to help, roasted the house sparrow while cooking, and helped Huzi place his things in his room.

"Huzi, I've set when to open my voice." Xiao Jiu sat down in the room, and the first thing he said was this.

"Oh?" Huzi was also curious, "Do you want to sing "The Palace of Eternal Life"? ”

"It's not." Xiao Jiu replied, "Singing "The Legend of the White Snake", I play Bai Suzhen. ”

"Then you're a goblin!" Huzi pretended to exaggerate, "I'll be able to take you in then!" ”

"You're not a monk, you can't play Fahai!" Xiao Jiu said with a smile, "After the New Year, the gong will start on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month." When the time comes, you and Mr. Peng...... And your scary-looking uncle, come and see! But the dog said okay, his whole family is coming! "When Xiao Jiu went up the mountain to play with Huzi, he had a face-to-face with Li Lintang and was quite impressed.

"Come and see, come and see." Huzi nodded and replied, "That's the first time that the future horn has raised his voice, and how facedy it will be to say it in the future!" But let's say okay, my uncle is a monk, he can accept you! ”

The young man's mind is simple, his heart is small, and he can't hold many things. It's like the water on the street in the middle of summer, it comes and goes faster, and the sun dissipates as soon as it shines.

Huzi and Xiao Jiu, the little brothers, ate with the house sparrow roasted in the stove pit, and ate with black ash on their faces, so they couldn't help but laugh at each other. I'll rub it on your arm, and I'll rub it on your face, and I'll have a great time.

It is also because Xiao Jiu has always eaten in his own room, so he can joke with Huzi so unscrupulously. If you eat at the big table downstairs like an ordinary disciple, whoever shouts and speaks loudly will be reprimanded by the teacher who cares about it that day, let alone make trouble.

Not long after dinner, it was the time to start the gong, and those who were going to take the stage tonight began to hook their faces and change their clothes, and Xiao Jiu and their disciples ran to help them. Huzi is not a person in the troupe, he has no chance to see the excitement of the backstage, but he has to enjoy the drama without spending money.