When the water reached my throat, I felt like I was inhaling air.

It made him feel like he was still on the boat again. The sound of the pipa and the little song were in my ears, but the sound of the swaying oars was far away. Grandpa opened his eyes and looked at his own reflection in the water, as if he saw himself living in the opposite world. The self in the opposite world may not be exactly the same as his own life, he may never have put down the sage book, and after being admitted to Xiucai, he was also admitted to the Juren exam, and he was also admitted to the Jinshi. He may not have traveled all over the world, but he has heaven and earth in his heart. He may have met Xiaomi, who was also in the opposite world, and Xiaomi, who had not died, was not a parasitic grass cultivator, but an ordinary girl from an ordinary family. He and Xiaomi are not separated, they respect each other like a guest, raise their eyebrows, and spend an ordinary time together. In the opposite world, he naturally came to Wuzhen not to look for millet, but to pass by here unintentionally, happened to take a boat, happened to pass through this waterway, and happened to meet himself in this world. The trajectory of his life was completely different from his own, but it happened to coincide in the sunshine of this place at this time.

Grandpa faintly felt that after leaving this waterway and this boat, he would return to a completely different life from him after landing on the other side of the world. There is millet in the other world, so you don't have to stay here to continue looking.

So, Grandpa passed by himself here.

For a moment, Grandpa wanted to plunge headlong into the water of Wuzhen and follow him in the opposite world.

Just when the idea first came to mind, Takemito played it.

She held the lute with one hand, as if afraid of the strings making an extra trill. She said, "Sir, I'm done singing." ”

The voice of the bamboo beauty pulled the fugue grandfather back.

Grandpa was stunned for a moment and said, "Oh." Finished singing? ”

"Yes." Bamboo Beauty said.

Grandpa took out the money from his pocket, and just now Zhu Meiren said that she sings by herself to entertain herself, and others will charge him if she wants to sing. Daddy guessed that she was a down-and-out entertainer.

Unexpectedly, when she saw her grandfather taking out the money, Zhu Meiren blocked and said, "Sir, I don't want money." ”

When Grandpa saw her say this, he was surprised: "Didn't you just say that you would be charged money for what others wanted you to sing?" Since you are an artist, it is not easy to make some money, so take it. ”

Zhu Mei said: "I don't want money, but I have something else to ask for." I don't know if sir can help me. ”

Grandpa was confused: "You are a local, I am a foreigner." How can I help you? ”

Bamboo Beauty bowed slightly and said, "Actually, I met you here on purpose. ”

Grandpa was shocked. Since she did it on purpose and sang this hymn again, could it be that she knew where Xiaomi's reincarnation was? Or was it the reincarnation of Xiaomi who deliberately made her wait for me here? But why did she ask me for help?

"I heard that you are a well-known and good person in Hunan, and I knew that you were going to pass by here, so I waited here in advance. Actually, I am not from Wuzhen, but from Hangzhou. I heard that you are inquiring about the mystery of 'the mountains have trees and branches', so I deliberately chose this hymn to sing so that you can hear it. ”

"......I see," Grandpa was surprised and disappointed. When the four eyes met just now, her dodge should be weak-hearted.

"But this poem does represent my state of mind. When I was playing the pipa just now, I was thinking, if you are not moved by this poem, then there is a good chance that you will not agree to what I ask you. But just now you were not only moved, but almost fascinated. I saw a glimmer of hope. I knew I didn't play the lute, and I didn't sing well. What moves you and fascinates you is the poem itself. This also shows that you have a deep affection and understanding for this poem. You are a man of temperament. That's how dare I ask you for help. ”

Grandpa nodded and said, "I remember this poem in my heart." Maybe I won't forget it in the next life. ”

"In that case, I must have asked the right person." Bamboo beauty looked delighted.

Grandpa said: "You haven't said that you want me to help you anything, why do you say that you must have asked the right person?" After a moment of hallucination, Grandpa felt refreshed and energetic. He wondered if he could suck the sun again.

Since falling to the ground that day, Daddy has tried to suck in the sun a few times, but he can't do it the same as before. Today seems to be a re-opening.

Takemei said: "It's a long story. I wonder if Mr. Ma can come ashore with me and let me find a quiet place to talk to you from the beginning? ”

"Okay."

Daddy told the boatman to rock the boat to an arch bridge in front of him, and then stopped the boat and went ashore.

The two of them found a small teahouse and sat down. Bamboo Beauty leans her lute against the wall behind her. Grandpa ordered two cups of tea, which was lavender bean tea brewed locally in Wuzhen.

"Let's talk about it." Grandpa took a sip and said.

Bamboo Beauty only moistened her lips with tea and did not drink it. "I still like to drink water," she says. There are too many ingredients in this smoked bean tea, which affects the original taste of the water. ”

Daddy smiled.

Zhu Meidao: "Actually, I am a somewhat high-minded person, but unfortunately my family had no money when I was a child, so they sold me into the Qinglou." To tell you the truth, I'm a prostitute. I just turned 21 this year. ”

Grandpa was slightly surprised when she heard her say this. Such a slender girl, who can play and sing, if it is a small jasper girl, she will definitely have a good landing in the future. If it's a Qinglou girl, it's a pity. After listening to her self-reported age, Grandpa was sure that she was not the reincarnation of Xiaomi. Twenty-one years ago, Xiaomi was still alive. The timing doesn't fit.

Zhu Meiren said that she was born in a poor family in Hangzhou, and at that time she was not actually called Zhu Meiren, nor was she called Zhu Meiying. She has other names. She was sold into the Qinglou by her family at the age of thirteen, although at that time she had to learn the basic skills of playing, singing and laughing to please the guests, and should not pick up customers, but less than half a year after entering the Qinglou, she was broken by a brutal and drunk guest.

She said that she was originally a source of clear water, but from that day on, it became cloudy. So she never drinks tea with other ingredients, only clear water.

She started picking up customers at the age of sixteen, when she was one of the top Qinglou in Hangzhou, and had not yet come to Wuzhen. After four years of picking up customers at the age of twenty, she suddenly fell in love with a man of the same age. The man was a teacher in a new-style school.

At that time, the conflict between the old and the new ideas was fierce, and the domestic situation was complicated, and the man often preached on the streets of Hangzhou about the situation at home and abroad, the advantages and disadvantages of the old system and the new system. As a prostitute, she could not understand what he was saying, but she often mingled in the crowd and listened to his angry preaching. Whenever she saw him say something good where something was going on, she would be happy in the crowd; Whenever she saw him angrily scolding some name that she didn't know who it was, she would get angry in the crowd.

But she never said a word to the male teacher.

Once, she heard him scolding Qinglou for corrupting society in the crowd, and she was immediately very depressed.

After returning to the Qinglou that day, she interceded with the bustard, hoping that the bustard could let her go.

The old bustard knew that she had a high heart, but she had survived all these years, so she was very surprised when she heard her say that she wanted to be good, and asked her why she wanted to be good.

She replied that she wanted to get married.

The bustard did not ask her for her opinion, but persuaded if he could persuade her, and persecuted if he could not. She couldn't let all the prostitutes who could make her money be freed.

The bustard persuaded her repeatedly to no avail.

She was determined to leave.

When the bustard saw that persuasion had no effect, he had her tied to her bed and starved her for three or four days.

But even when she was hungry and unconscious, she still didn't let go. She thought that as long as she held on, the bustard would have no choice, and God couldn't do anything about her. But she was wrong.

Three or four days later, the old bustard brought a few people in Taoist robes into her house, and surrounded her by blowing and blowing, breathing fire, burning paper, and sprinkling water.

She was in a trance, confused≡ she was not dead yet, why did the old bustard invite the Taoist priest to the room to do it?

A Taoist priest dripped a few drops of water on her lips. Water seeped from her lips into her mouth. She smelled a foul smell, but she couldn't spit it out.

After a while, someone came to the room with a bamboo beauty in her arms. At that time, she didn't know that the thing that the bamboo turned into like a woman's body was called a bamboo beauty, and she didn't know that it was held for people to dissipate heat when it was hot.

She panicked, thinking that the bustard was going to kill her, so she put her body in something like a basket and threw it into the water like a pig's cage. This Taoist priest is here to do the water and land dojo to see him off. She tried her best to get out of bed, but her hands and feet were tied and she couldn't move.

Sure enough, a Taoist priest walked towards her with a rope.

She thought to herself, this Taoist priest is going to tie me up and put me in a bamboo basket and soak me to death.

When the Taoist priest approached, she realized that the rope was a little strange, it was not the usual hemp rope straw rope, but a rope like a human braid.

When Bamboo Beauty talked to her father about the rope of the Taoist priest, her father remembered Zesheng's dreamcatcher.

The Taoist priest tied her with a rope and tied her like an inferior zongzi.

She struggled.

The Taoist priest grabbed the tied rope and lifted it up. She thought she would be brought up, but she was surprised to see a person who looked exactly like herself being lifted up by the Taoist priest. Later, the bustard told her that it was her soul. When a person is dying, it is very easy for the soul to leave the body. She had been starving for three or four days, and she was already dying, so her soul was easily separated from her body. The bustard also said that starving her for a few days was not just a punishment, but to achieve this goal.

The Taoist priest stuffed the person who looked exactly like her into the bamboo beauty. When she shoved the person into Takemito's opening, she saw that Takemito was smaller than the other person. But that doesn't stop the Taoist priest from stuffing the big stuff into the small stuff like a marshmallow.