Experience has taught me that two good brothers swing their swords at each other, most often to fight for the same woman. In the same way, two males biting together are most likely to have a female squatting next to them, although it is also possible to be a male, but this is a special case. Everyone likes to fight around, everyone enjoys being fought over, in the words of my second mother: a person is not fragrant when eating, and a table of people rushing to eat is fragrant.

Su Yan said: If the boss wants to continue to trap me, I'm afraid he will need to pay me two taels of silver according to the rules of the store.

When I think about it, I'm still losing money. Then he shook his hand and stopped gossiping.

We each turned our heads to look out the window at the heavy snow, and the cold wind poured into our collars couldn't help but make people shiver, and we raised our wines and took two sips.

Su Shen suddenly got up and picked up the sword on the table.

I threw my neck back to see his angular chin, and there was no fat at all. I think he must be very thin, and his body hidden in a thick cotton suit is as slender as the branches of a winter plum.

I asked: Leaving you?

Su Shen said: Well, this thing is for you.

He took out a thing wrapped in a silk handkerchief from his arms and handed it to me, peeled off the plain silk handkerchief, and there was a simple wooden hairpin lying inside, the style was really quite simple, so simple that with a pair of chopsticks I would mistake it for a pair of chopsticks. But soon I found out that this hairpin is full of texture, although my knowledge of wood is not clear what kind of wood it is, but I can still feel the good and bad.

I asked: Picked up on the ground?

Su Shen said: There is not even dog shit on the ground in this weather, and the boss is still delusional that I can pick up a hairpin?

I said, "Ha, yes, that's what you bought?" You can't do it with this vision, it must be that others can't sell it, and a big man is so foolish that he sold you this hairpin.

Su Yan said: What I give you is yours, if you don't like it, throw it away.

I said, "I don't like it, you're a real loser."

Su Shen said: It's not worth much, I do it when I'm bored.

I said, "Oh, that's really not worth much."

......

It was getting late, and I saw people entering and leaving Baihuafang in groups of three or five, and the rest of the place was deserted. It wasn't until the last customer in the restaurant had finished drinking and left that I closed the door and went back with Fugui.

Since opening the wine shop, I have been going out early and returning late every day, wearing the stars and the moon, which is really fortunate to say. Compared with me, Fugui seems to be more fortunate, after all, he does the dirty work. Fugui, this child respects teachers and values education, basically has no complaints, and occasionally complains and I ignore it indifferently, or is educated (beaten), under my patient teaching and cultivation, my disciple Fugui has grown up very well, I am very satisfied, his father is also satisfied, and his mother is even more satisfied.

At the door of the house, Erniang carried a night patrol lamp and stood tall, and when she saw my return from afar, she held the night patrol light in my direction.

I said, "I've told you how many times, you don't have to come out to pick me up."

Erniang said: I came back later and later, and I was not at ease.

I said, "There's no way around it, you have to wait until the guests have had enough to drink and leave."

Erniang said: This snow is endless, it's cold, Erniang made your favorite dishes.

Stepping into the door, brushing away the snow and dust on his body, holding a soup woman and not letting go of his hands.

There were only me and Erniang at the dinner table.

I asked, "What about Master?"

Erniang said: I went out, and said I would come back later.

I let out a soft "um".

Pick up a piece of radish and stuff it into his mouth, the second master always said that the radish in winter is a small ginseng, which is the most nourishing.

Erniang asked: How has business been good recently?

I said: so-so.

Erniang said: Don't rush, take your time.

I said: You should add what should be added in the house, and some slaves should be recruited, it is really not good to say that such a big family does not even have a servant, although your father is gone, but you are still the master of this Jiang Mansion, how can you be busy with housework.

Erniang said: No, it's a waste of money.

I said: I will make money, you have to listen to me.

Erniang thought for a while and said: Okay, listen to you.

Erniang's words changed sharply and said: However, there is one thing you have to listen to Erniang.

I asked: What's the matter?

Erniang said: Your life's event!

The corners of my eyes jumped, and my heart suddenly went up and down.

Erniang said: Shan'er, you are not too young, and you are twenty after the New Year, right?

I said, "Yes."

Looking at the radish in the bowl, I couldn't muster my appetite to eat a piece anymore.

Erniang said: It's not Erniang urging you, seeing that you have solved the problem of late marriage and late childbearing in the entire Chang'an City, but you yourself haven't landed yet, how can you tell Erniang not to worry. In fact, not only am I anxious, but Uncle Wang's family next door is also anxious for you, and Uncle Li's family next door is also very worried. Even when I went to the market to buy a piece of pork, the king butcher asked me several times about you.

I hung my head, staring at the radish cubes in the bowl for a moment.

I asked: What does Erniang mean?

Erniang said: According to my meaning, Guan Yuyi is really good, honest, reliable, and stable in his work.

I said: No, no, the second master is my brother like Changgui.

Erniang smacked her lips: How many times have I told you, girls don't always call others brothers, like what!

I said: Anyway, it's impossible for me and the second master, and besides, my virtuous second master won't like it, he likes good-looking girls.

Erniang said: Ah, I didn't expect the imperial doctor to be so demanding, so there was really no way. But I see he's good to you.

I said, "It's all brothers, can it be good?" You see, Changgui is good to me.

Finally, I lifted my chopsticks and picked up the cold radish in the bowl.

Erniang said: Oh, that's okay, Erniang will look for other candidates for you. It's a pity that there are very few older unmarried young men in Chang'an now, and the second master is a treasure, and the others are either younger than you or middle-aged and widowed.

Hearing this, I choked on the radish.

......

The elderly have the stubbornness of the elderly, especially when it comes to the marriage of their children. The strange thing is that if the child pulls the hand of another child when he is a child, kisses the mouth of another child, and sleeps on the bed of another child, then the parents will reprimand the child for early love, and some parents think that this is a blatant hooligan under the guise of ignorance. In the eyes of parents, early love is not good, late love is not good, and no love is even worse. Not sooner or later, this idea is quite in line with the golden mean, but not everything can be modest, and too much pursuit of the mean will seem mediocre.

After eating, I felt sleepy, and I didn't have the energy to do anything other than sleep. When I returned to my room, I lit a candle, picked up my pen and wrote two strokes, and then lay down on the table and fell asleep.

My body became colder and colder, and I dreamed that I was standing on the ice, looking around, it was a city of ice and snow. I think this may be what Master calls the "Snow Capital". When I looked down, I found that I was stepping on the ice barefoot, because it was too cold and my feet had no blood, I trembled and hugged myself and squatted down, worthy of the frozen city, it was really cold and unbearable.

Suddenly, a giant eagle fell from the sky and held me in his arms, the plump wings wrapped me tightly, and the frozen body instinctively shrank under the dense wings, inexplicably I seemed to smell some familiar fragrance, so I tried to stick to the feathers and sniffed hard, ah-this faint fragrance is like the master's body fragrance.

Master—

Suddenly woke up from his dream and opened his eyes.

His eyes rolled around, and he found himself curled up in Master's arms like a monkey, covered with a heavy, warm fox fur coat.

I muttered, "Master?

Master glanced down at me and asked in a cold tone, "What's wrong?"

I said, "Why is Master here?"

The Master said, "If the Master hadn't come to see you, you, a scoundrel, would have slept on the table for the night?"

I said, "I wanted to keep an account, but I couldn't open my eyes and fell asleep after making two notes, and you see, those two are still here."

There were indeed two strokes in the account book, one was not much, one was not much, and the real two strokes were there.

Master said, "How many times has the Master said that you are not allowed to go barefoot, you just can't remember?"

I said, "These shoes are a constraint for me, and I feel free without them."

Master was silent.

I said, "Don't be free, and the disciples must remember Master's teachings next time."

Master said, "That's it."

I changed the subject and asked, "Is there something that Master is hiding from the apprentices, since you have been in Chang'an, your whereabouts are often unknown."

Master said, "There are indeed some things that need to be dealt with, but you don't need to know them yet.

I said, "I don't want to worry about it, there's nothing that Master can't solve."

Master said, "What about you?"

I touched my nose and asked, "Me?"

The master said: In the past few days, your second mother has frequently mentioned your family affairs to the teacher, and she thinks that the imperial doctor Guan is good, so she asks me how I am.

I was so excited that I almost fell out of Master's arms.

The master said, "It's good to look at it as a teacher."

I said: It's not good, it's not good at all, I made it clear to Erniang at dinner, so that she shouldn't mess around with mandarin ducks in the future. If any of you want to think that the second master is good, you can marry yourself.

Master said, "Then who do you think is good?"

I thought about it for a moment and said, "Master, it's good."

Master raised an eyebrow, obviously not expecting me to answer like this.

I got out of Master's arms, slipped into the bed barefoot, poked my head out and said to Master, who was sitting at the desk, "My disciple is not in good health, although he is jumping around now, I don't know if I won't jump one day." I can't say this to Erniang, for fear that she will worry, but I know that if I really get married, I will also drag others down. And...... There should be no man in this world who will like this appearance, everyone likes to be good-looking, no matter how bad it is, it must be sound, and the worst must be safe. Even if one of them reluctantly marries me back in the end, if they don't really like me, they will be tortured to each other if they are opposed to me every day and want to keep it every day.

Master sat quietly in the dim candlelight, his brow furrowed and his expression serious. I was tempted to ask Master what he was thinking at the moment, but the sleepiness swept over me as soon as I was warmed up.

Master said: In the eyes of the teacher, you have always been the most beautiful in the world-

Leaving Master alone, Master naturally said to himself, I have slept soundly.

......