The sky was bright, and Lao Cao came to the door of the first guest room on the left with clean water. Knock twice before pushing the door in, put down the basin and stand in front of the bed. His expression was solemn and a little sad, and he told Zhang Mingyuan about his grievances with Yu Banshan as if he was repentant. Zhang Mingyuan always sat cross-legged, the palms of his hands were naturally placed on his laps, and he never opened his slightly closed eyes from beginning to end, and his eyelashes never blinked.

Lao Cao's real name is Cao Ying, and since he was a child, he has been eating with Kang Yishan, who is known as the "King of Thieves in the Capital (1)". Kang Yishan in the Xianfeng years has a lot of family wealth and is famous in black and white, in order to seek stability in the second half of his life, he changed his name to Yue Guangli, and settled in Jingnan River. Without worrying about food and clothing, he began to be obsessed with the study of locks, and also opened a lock shop. Yue Guangli was widowed in middle age, leaving a daughter named Yue Yinling, and two disciples Cao Ying and Xu Yu (2). Cao Ying is good-hearted, honest, and sincere, but her shortcomings are that she is not very open-minded, she doesn't like to talk and won't please people, and she only relies on diligence for work. And Xu Yu is young, handsome, not big, can speak well and is clever, and he understands everything taught by his master. Yue Yinling grew up day by day, and she was born delicate and well-behaved, and her appearance was very beautiful. What worries Yue Guangli is that the two disciples like the little junior sister very much, after his observation, Cao Ying, who is inclined to pass the age of marriage, thinks that he lacks nothing at home, and it is best to find a sincere life for her, so he wants to listen to her to Cao Ying. Naturally, she was willing to ask Cao Ying, but when she asked her daughter's meaning, she liked Xu Yun, who was good-looking. The old man thought that he couldn't just care about his character and make his daughter feel awkward, so he promised her to Xu Yun, and most of the family business was passed on to the younger couple.

Do you want to say that Cao Ying likes Yue Yinling? Of course I do. He has followed his master to run the rivers and lakes since he can remember, and he has not had a chance to recognize the girls in his thirties, and the one he has the most contact with is the little junior sister. It's just that he is introverted and not good at expressing himself, and he can't have an opinion when the master is in charge, so he can only hide this feeling in his heart. Yue Guangli felt indebted to Cao Ying on the one hand, and on the other hand, he really appreciated his kindness, so he passed on the lock shop and his ability to him.

Discontentment is the driving force of progress, but also the source of evil, and if you can control it, it will naturally lead to internal and external harmony, otherwise it is easy to go astray sooner or later. Xu Yan was uncontrollable, and turned into greed. It is said that with a beautiful wife and Wanguan family wealth, he should live a good life, but he always compares himself with Cao Ying, and feels more and more that his old father-in-law is partial. Just half a year after the two got married, they did everything possible to ask Yue Yinling to ask the old man to lock the shop. Yue Guangli guessed that it was his son-in-law's idea, and at first he comforted them by knocking on the side, but then he ignored it and went to the lock shop to help guard the door if he had nothing to do. Cao Ying turned the relationship between men and women into a brother and sister relationship, and since then she has been obsessed with her career. In that more than half a year, the skills of the committee have advanced by leaps and bounds, and the technology of making lock cylinders can only be opened by the key produced exclusively by him, and the concept of "one core cannot be used for two purposes" is also proposed.

Xu Yu became more and more red when he found out, such a good business and such a big fame should have been his. He began to drink and gamble, and often went home in the middle of the night to get drunk. Yue Guangli simply moved to the lock shop, and he also tried to see it out of sight. Xu Yin has really changed, she quarreled with Yue Yinling twice in three days, and she even started beating her when she was angry, completely ignoring her hard work with a big belly. Yue Yinling couldn't stand it anymore, she was originally the pearl of her father's palm, but now her life is a mess, and her father's love seems to have disappeared. Thinking about the honest and honest elder brother in the past, he never let her suffer the slightest grievance. After communicating, she asked the maid to cook meals every day, and she personally sent them to the lock shop, and sometimes went to the back workshop to help, and by the way, she confided the depression in her heart to Cao Ying. Cao Ying didn't think much about it, she still took care of her master and sister as before, most of the time she was intoxicated with lock art, occasionally comforting her, persuading her to be more relieved, and asking her to be considerate of Xu Yun and also think about the child in her belly.

It didn't take long for rumors on the street to reach Xu Yun's ears. Without thinking about it, he thought that Cao Ying was bad, so he rushed to the lock shop angrily and smashed it in front of Yue Guangli. In a fit of rage, he pushed his wife, who was pregnant with Rokka, to the ground, and her forehead was broken and her lower body was bleeding. Yue Guangli immediately gave Xu Yu two big mouths, angrily scolded him for driving him out of Yue's house, and asked his daughter to remarry. Cao Ying came back from the workshop and saw Yue Yinling at the counter, and hurriedly picked it up for treatment. After healing, Yue Yinling is fine, but unfortunately the child has no forehead and is broken. Yue Guangli's teeth hurt with hatred, and he insisted on reporting to the official, so he had to arrest Xu Yu and punish him. Yue Yinling cried after losing her child, and did not eat or drink for several days. Xu Yu heard that his father-in-law had fled from the river overnight, and he hid for a few days and ran to Yimeng Mountain in Shandong Province, where he followed the bandit Liu Heizi.

Xu Yin was in love with Yue Yinling in the end, and quietly sneaked back to the river less than half a year after leaving home. Late at night, I asked a former gambling friend, and the man also didn't know much about the situation, so he said that his wife and father-in-law moved to Cao Ying's workshop to live, and it was just a wedding. Xu Yu was angry and went over overnight to set fire to Cao Ying's workshop. He hid in the shadows and watched as six bodies were lifted out of the fire for two hours from the time it was discovered by neighbors to the time it was extinguished. He was relieved but also very annoyed, because he recognized Cao Ying as one of the people who put out the fire. So Cao Ying, who followed Cao Ying, who went to buy a coffin, unexpectedly stabbed her in the back. After being excited, he returned to Yue's house, and set fire to the same fire, he wanted to turn everything in the past into ashes. At this time, it was already dawn, and just when he was satisfied and about to leave, he heard someone shouting for help in the fire, and immediately recognized that it was Yue Yinling's voice. instantly thought that his wife had not betrayed him, and rushed into the sea of fire. The fire was so great that he was trapped in it. By the time the neighbors rescued them, she was dying, and his back was burned to the ground. Before she died, she told him that she was still looking forward to his return, that she and her senior brother were innocent, and she missed that when she was not married, the three brothers and sisters were like brothers and sisters. He cried and said that he had burned down the workshop and stabbed Cao Ying to death. She was even more heartbroken when she heard this, saying that her father was still living in the workshop, and then died in tears. Xu Yan was sad and remorseful, endured the pain on his body and buried his wife next to Yanzhao Bridge outside the city. She confessed for a whole day at her grave, and went back to the street after dark to sell something to eat. Listening to the people next to me talking about the two ferocious fires last night, they all thought that they were trying to kill people for money, burning six people alive and stabbing the owner of the lock shop. Some people also said that the county government had found a witness to prove that Xu Yu had come back and stole two barrels of foreign oil from the casino. Xu Yun's heart flickered, and the obedient meaning was that Cao Ying was not dead, so his father-in-law and wife would be wronged. But he didn't dare to stay in the river, so he could only rush back to Yimeng Mountain overnight. However, he blamed all these sins on Cao Ying, and vowed to let Cao Ying fill his life.

After Cao Ying recovered from his injury, he decided to leave this sad place, so he sold the lock shop and left Hejian. Cao Ying did not have a home, passing by Liaocheng on the way south, leaving a swastika lock shop, and the business was no less prosperous than that of Hejian, and he changed his name to avoid conflict with Xu Cheng again. But after a few good years, Xu Yu also chased to Liaocheng, joined the local gangsters to rob the swastika lock shop at night, first passed Cao Ying a few knives, and then set fire to destroy the corpse. After leaving the city, he thought that his wealth would not be so small, so he sneaked back to the city to fight the fire with those neighbors, but the gold and silver treasures were not found, and even the body was gone. Later, Han Fuguang and Yimengshan successfully defeated Liu Heizi, the tree fell and scattered, Xu Rong and Zhao Zhenhuan, the sixth master, ran to Liaocheng Tangyi to start a new stove, and they were still thinking about finding Cao Ying for revenge.

Coincidentally, Cao Ying was once again in a catastrophe, and ran to Donggu's Hutong with injuries and was found by eight-year-old Gu Xinyi, and brought into the courtyard of the sixth uncle to buy medicine and deliver food. He didn't dare to stay in the land of right and wrong for a long time, and left Liaocheng overnight before the injury healed, and gave her the seven-trick exquisite brocade box before leaving. On the one hand, he was afraid that this little girl would be affected, and he was worried that he would die on the way, and the craftsmanship of his life would be buried. He once again succeeded in hiding and mingled with the porters at the Pukou Wharf in Nanjing. However, several wounds on his body recurred frequently, and not long after the fall of Nanjing, he was planted in the river in pain. Fortunately, he met Zhang Mingyuan, who was passing by and rushed to Shanghai, and after rescuing him, he also cleared his old illness. Since then, he has stayed by Zhang Mingyuan's side, running errands and doing some odd things, and he has been safe and sound for several years. Because Zhang Mingyuan never asked about his past, he never took the initiative to mention it. Yesterday, the ghost sent the god to live in this courtyard again, and last night he saw Xu Yun, who had been hiding for many years, and he understood that he couldn't hide after all, so he could only confess everything to Zhang Mingyuan first.

After Cao Ying finished speaking, he lowered his head and stopped talking, Zhang Mingyuan slowly opened his eyes, got out of bed, put on his shoes and put on his coat. When he walked to the door, he stopped and turned to look at him and said, "What should I say?" The past cannot be changed, whether it is good or bad, as long as you face it seriously and positively, even if it cannot be satisfactorily resolved in the future, at least do your best, that is the best result. ”

"Yes, Lao Cao will do his best." Cao Ying still lowered her head.

"Go ahead, go and help the fourth sister-in-law do something, we have already caused trouble for others. I'll go out for a walk after breakfast, you can accompany Yizhi to the factory for a walk, no one should dare to touch you for the time being. ”

"yes, I'll go to the front yard." After Cao Ying finished speaking, he went out and walked to the corridor.

Zhang Mingyuan sighed softly and turned around to wash. He knows that it is not easy for everyone to live in such a world, just like Zhou Yizhi seems to be smooth sailing on the surface, but in fact, there are unknown difficulties and unpredictable tomorrow. And why not himself, Dai Lin hated him so much and hurt him, but he loved her so much that he couldn't help himself.

At more than two o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang Mingyuan had already walked through several main streets in Liaocheng City. In addition to the four main streets of the east, west, north and south, there are also Yaowang Temple, Chenghuang Temple, Longwang Temple, Guandi Temple, Archway Entrance and other lively places, for the ancient shed street (3), North Garden Xiaoweizi, Jiangxi Hall around also carefully stroll. This is his consistent style, and the most direct way to understand a certain place is to look at the local folk customs in the prosperous area, and then look at the layout of the garrison. People like Dai Lin who have undergone special training will also pay attention to this, and he guesses that as long as she arrives in Liaocheng, she will definitely live in the city, because Ma Liang, a person who yells everywhere she goes, will not live in a remote place. It's easy to get out after hiding in the city, and the most important thing is that she loves cleanliness, which is exactly the same as his previous lover.

Before returning to Zhou's house, he sat on the stall at the southwest corner of the south street at the east end of Wanshouguan Front Street, drinking a bowl of tofu brain and eating a quack for lunch. I inadvertently saw a boy holding the "Sihe Inn" card in his left hand as if he was stealing something, and then looked at the child's skinny skinny, it is estimated that he has been hungry and malnourished since he was a child. All he could see was crumpled dozens of old dollars, and seeing that the stolen person was not very poor, he couldn't help but stop it. When he got up to leave after eating, he saw the boy cut the purse on the shoulder of a big man pushing a cart and quickly turned to the Fire Temple Street. You may see that the things in your hand are not money and throw them away, so you turn around and go back to Lounan Street to continue to wander around. At this time, the big man with the cart was still walking forward, but the change in the purse behind him was falling down as he walked, and some passers-by saw it and picked it up.

This is really inappropriate, Zhang Mingyuan felt that it was a mistake not to stop the boy just now. Hurriedly stood up and shouted: "Push the cart!" Your stuff is gone! The man also stood up and walked diagonally.

The cart man looked back and found that the money was scattered, so he hurriedly put down the car and turned around to bend down to pick up the money. Zhang Mingyuan went over to help Dahan pick it up, and when he saw the residual cinders on the flatbed, he guessed that Dahan was selling briquettes or transporting briquettes for others, as if chatting and asking Dahan how much he could earn in a month. Seeing that Zhang Mingyuan's clothes were neat, Dahan smiled awkwardly and said that he had just done this job for a few days, and the little money he earned was not enough for the children to drink rice soup. Zhang Mingyuan asked him what he used to do, and he said that he was in the Chenzhuang Flour Mill outside Dongguan a few years ago, and his mother was sick a while ago and was delayed for a few days, and he had been replaced by someone to go to work again. Zhang Mingyuan gave him 2,000 yuan of fiat currency, asked him for his name and address, and said that he would introduce him to work in the future. He smiled and said that his name was Yang Tieniu, and he lived in Beihuayuan Village next to the big temple outside the city, and he took it away.

Zhang Mingyuan found the boy and pulled him to the Xigujia alley diagonally opposite the Fire Temple, and when he asked, he learned that the boy was a guy from the Sihe Inn, named Chen Xiaodan, and people called him Xiaodaner when they called him crosstalk. Zhang Mingyuan first reasoned with Xiao Dan'er and told him that the consequences of stealing were very serious, and that a man should do his best to help the weak. After saying that, he crushed a pebble in front of him and warned him not to be a thief again, otherwise he would pinch off his fingers. also said that he would live in Zhou's house in Donggujia Hutong for a short time, and he would pay attention to whether he would commit it again, and if he really needed help, he could go to Zhou's house for help.

Walking back out of Xigujia Hutong, I saw a small black and thin man wandering back and forth at the entrance of the east alley. Zhang Mingyuan deliberately walked into the gate of the Fire God Temple opposite, and waited for a few minutes to come out, and the person was still there. At this time, Luo Sanneng came from Zhufukou, and the man hurriedly walked to the north side of the road, and then turned into the small alley in the north. Zhang Mingyuan stopped Luo Sanneng and asked him if there was something wrong with leaving in such a hurry. He said nothing, just told the fourth sister-in-law to stew a sour jujube longan soup to calm Zhou Yizhi at night. Because Zhou Yizhi fainted in the store not long ago, he was sent to Dongguan by Xu Xudong to see a doctor. Zhang Gen said that drinking more soothing soup might improve it, so he came back and asked his fourth sister-in-law to prepare.

In this way, Zhang Mingyuan did not go back, waited for Luo Sanneng at the mouth of the alley for a while, and went to David Hospital on Dongguan Street together. When they arrived, Zhou Yizhi had already woken up. was sitting at the head of the bed waiting for Xu Xudong, and he asked Xu Xudong to go over and ask the doctor if he could be discharged from the hospital. Zhang Mingyuan stepped forward to hold his pulse handle, feeling that his pulse was strong and his blood was strong, there was no big problem, so he asked him why he fainted and what was uncomfortable before he passed out. He and Zhang Mingyuan sat side by side on the bed next to him, whispered to him that it seemed to be hallucinating, and carefully explained the process of fainting when he entered the purchasing department twice. After listening to it, Zhang Mingyuan told him that it might be an acute shock, and if he relapsed, he could try to stimulate the acupuncture points in Renzhong and Shixuan. He shook his head lightly, even if it worked, it was useless, no one around him knew the acupuncture points at all.

When I returned to the entrance of the alley, it was already dark, and there were no lights on the street, only a faint light emitting from someone's house. A few people got out of the car and walked inside, Zhou Yizhi's eyes always aimed to the west intentionally or unintentionally, and through the fence, all he could see was the dark night that was a little brighter than the high wall. It was dark and no one noticed, and his face was full of melancholy. I wanted to see Gu Xinyi but was afraid to see it, and I knew that it was impossible to see it at this time. However, when Xu Xudong opened the courtyard door, everyone walked in one after another. The moment he turned around, he saw a delicate head peeking out from behind the persimmon tree next to the courtyard wall. Hurriedly bowed his head and walked into the yard and sighed softly.

After dinner, Zhou Yizhi and Zhang Mingyuan sat in the flower hall in the backyard and drank tea. Zhou Yizhi wanted to speak a few times and stopped, but Zhang Mingyuan didn't see it, and still drank tea and looked at the thick night outside. After ten o'clock, Lao Cao came over and asked if he wanted to refill the water, and Zhang Mingyuan waved his hand and said that it was time to rest immediately. Zhou Yizhi saw that Zhang Mingyuan stood up to go back to the room, coughed dryly and stood up with him, and lowered his head again when he looked back. Zhang Mingyuan smiled and said, "Yizhi, if you feel uncomfortable holding something in your heart, you might as well say it, maybe it will be more enjoyable." ”

"Huh? Is it? Uh-this-actually, I don't have much on my mind. Zhou Yizhi sat down again.

Lao Cao saw it in his eyes and felt that they had something to talk about, so he pretended to be dozy and yawned, and said, "Sir, Boss Zhou, Lao Cao is a little sleepy, so go back to the room to rest first." ”

Zhang Mingyuan nodded and did not rush to leave.

"Okay, good night to Chief Cao." Zhou Yizhi also bowed his hand to Lao Cao. Seeing that Lao Cao went out and turned a corner, he walked to Zhang Mingyuan's side and asked in a low voice: "Sir, if a married man always wants to see the neighbor's woman, shouldn't he be?" ”

"Well, sort of." Zhang Mingyuan nodded, turned around and sat down in front of the round table.

"What if the woman whom the married man likes is a married woman? Isn't it very immoral? ”

"Sort of. But it's not a heinous crime. ”

"What if this married woman is the wife of this married man's friend?"

"Oh? Such a thing should really be- how to say it? This kind of thing is really nothing in fifty or sixty years, and whoever wants to cheat on anyone does not need to be condemned by morality and conscience. ”

"That means it's time to be morally and conscientiously condemned, right?"

"This, too, is not absolute. It also depends on whether the parties have misunderstandings in their respective marriages, or the marriage itself is very bad. ”

"This married man already has two wives, and the second wife has accompanied him from birth to death and took care of him everywhere, and they have not been married for a long time. The married woman seemed to have something wrong in her head, and it was hard to say why. Also, as far as I know, she barely lives at her husband's house. ”

"If you don't mind, it's better to tell them about the process of getting to know each other from beginning to end. It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong, if you can find a suitable solution, it will be a relief for two people or even two families. ”

"Sir is very right." Zhou Yizhi also returned to his position as he spoke, sat down and sighed and said, "If you want to start from the beginning, you have to start with this man's treatment in Heidelberg." Heidelberg is a city in western Germany. At that time, he had to be treated with a variety of instruments every day, and probably because of his mental exhaustion and weakness, he began to dream intermittently......"

Zhou Yizhi began to talk about "Xiaoyi" and "Junsheng" from the beginning of his dream, talking about the great changes in his career and family after returning to China, and said that he accidentally saw Gu Xinyi and was sure that she was the person in his dream, and also said that the changes in the hearts of the two of them when they met several times, as well as the intimacy that came from seeing Widow Fan. Zhang Mingyuan thinks that everything may be inevitably connected, maybe he has seen those people before and forgotten them. Gu Xinyi may have schizophrenia, two completely different personalities that appear in a specific environment or being stimulated. These must not be explained clearly to him, because Zhang Mingyuan himself knows nothing about it. proposed to find time to meet her, no matter if he could determine what the illness was, but he would try to understand her family environment, so as to help Zhou Yizhi analyze his emotional problems. Before returning to the room, Zhang Mingyuan remembered Yang Tieniu, a big man with a cart he met during the day, and felt very honest, so he asked Zhou Yizhi to arrange a job, and he readily agreed.

Note: (1) Kyoto and Beijing in the Qing Dynasty. (2) tú, with painting. (3) The west exit of the middle section of Lou Xi Street connects to the west street of the Provincial Department to the north, and the administrative office is next door to the east.