The sky was slightly bright, and before the rooster crowed, Chen Ping'an had already gotten up, and the thin futon really couldn't keep the heat, and Chen Ping'an also developed the habit of getting up early and going to bed late when he was an apprentice in porcelain. Chen Ping'an opened the door of the house, came to the small courtyard with soft soil, took a deep breath, stretched his waist, walked out of the yard, turned his head and saw a slender figure, bent over, carrying a wooden bucket of water in both hands, and was opening the door of his yard with his shoulder.

Chen Ping'an retracted his sight, walked through the streets and alleys, trotted all the way to the east of the town, Mud Bottle Lane is in the west of the town, the easternmost city gate, there is a person responsible for the entry and exit of the town's business travel and night ban patrol, usually also collect, transfer some family letters sent back from outside, Chen Ping'an's next thing to do, is to send those letters to the people of the town, the reward is a letter and a copper coin, this is still the way he finally asked to make money, Chen Ping'an has made an appointment with that side, after the second dragon raised his head in February, he began to take over the stall business.

In Song Jixin's words, he was born poor, even if he was lucky enough to enter the house, he Chen Ping'an couldn't hold back. Song Jixin often said some obscure words, probably from the content of the book, Chen Ping'an always didn't understand it, for example, two days ago, he talked about what kind of material was cold in the spring to kill the boy, Chen Ping'an didn't understand it at all, as for surviving the winter every year, there was a period of time after the spring was colder, and the boy experienced it firsthand, Song Jixin said that it was called the spring cold, which was as powerful as the horse gun on the battlefield, so many people would die in these ghost doors.

The town is not surrounded by city walls, after all, not to mention the bandits, even thieves and thieves are rare, so nominally the city gate, in fact, it is a row of old fences that are crooked, and there is a place for pedestrians and vehicles to pass through, even if it is the face of this town.

When Chen Ping'an trotted past Xinghua Lane, he saw many women and children gathered around the iron-locked well, and the well kept creaking.

Bypassing a street again, Chen Ping'an heard a familiar sound of reading not far away, there was a township school, which was opened by several large families in the town in partnership to raise money, and the teacher was a foreigner, Chen Ping'an often ran to hide outside the window, squatting secretly, and pricking up his ears. Although the gentleman was extremely strict when teaching, he did not scold Chen Ping'an, the children who "studied and learned", and later Chen Ping'an went to a dragon kiln outside the town as an apprentice, and never went to the school again.

Further along, Chen Ping'an passed by a stone archway, because the archway building has twelve stone pillars, the locals like to call it the crab archway, the real name of this archway, Song Jixin and Liu Yangxian's statement is very different, Song Jixin swore that in an old book called the local county chronicle, called here as the university scholar's square, is the emperor's imperial archway, in order to commemorate the history of a great official's martial arts. Liu Yangxian, who is like Chen Ping'an, said that this is the crab workshop, we have been shouting for hundreds of years, and there is no reason to call it a bullshit bachelor's workshop. Liu Yangxian also asked Song Jixin a question, "How big is the official hat of the university sergeant, and is it bigger than the wellhead of the iron-locked well?"

At this time, Chen Ping'an ran around the twelve-foot archway, there are four big characters on each side, the font is strange, and it looks different, which are "Don't give in", "Xiyan is natural", "Don't ask for the outside" and "Angry bullfighting". Listening to Song Jixin, except for a certain four words, the other three plaque stone carvings have been smeared and tampered with. Chen Ping'an was ignorant about these and never thought deeply, of course, even if the young man wanted to get to the bottom of it, it was in vain, he didn't even know what kind of book Song Jixin often talked about.

Not far after the archway, soon see a leafy old locust tree, under the tree, there is a trunk that I don't know who moved here, after a little chopping, under the two ends of the head and tail, there are two bluestone slabs, this big tree is used as a simple bench. Every summer, the townspeople like to enjoy the shade here, and the elders of wealthy families will fish out a basket of chilled melons and fruits from the well, and the children will form gangs and play in the shade of the trees.

Chen Ping'an was accustomed to going up the mountain and going into the water, ran to the gate of the fence, and stopped at the door of the lonely yellow mud house, his heart was not beating or panting.

There are not many outsiders in the town, and it stands to reason that now that the cash cow fired by the official kiln has fallen, there will be no new faces. When Old Man Yao was alive, he once drank high, so he said to Chen Ping'an and Liu Xianyang's apprentices, what we are doing is the only official kiln business in the world, and it is the imperial porcelain for His Majesty the Emperor and the Empress. Old man Yao that day, his spirit was very different.

Today, Chen Ping'an looked out of the fence, but found that many people were waiting to open the city gate, no less than seven or eight people, men, women, and children.

And they are all strangers, the local people in and out of the town, whether they go to burn porcelain or do crop work, rarely go to the east gate, the reason is very simple, the road at the east gate of the town extends out, there are no dragon kilns and fields.

At this time, Chen Ping'an and those outsiders were facing each other across a wooden fence.

At that moment, the young man wearing self-made straw sandals was only a little envious of the thick clothes on those people, which must be very warm and could withstand the cold.

The people outside the door were obviously divided into several groups, not a group of people, but they all looked at the thin young man inside the door, most of them looked indifferent, and occasionally there were one or two people, their eyes had already passed the figure of the young man, and looked farther into the town.

Chen Ping'an was a little strange, didn't these people know that the imperial court had banned all the dragon kilns? Or did they feel that they had an opportunity because they knew the truth?

There was a young man wearing a strange high crown, with a slender figure and a green jade pendant hanging from his waist, he seemed to be impatient, and walked out of the crowd alone, and wanted to push open the unlocked fence gate, but when his fingers were about to touch the wooden door, he suddenly stopped, slowly withdrew his hand, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the straw sandals boy in the door with a smile, and did not speak, just laughed.

Chen Ping'an's eyes were out of the corner of his eye, and he inadvertently found that those people behind the young man seemed to be disappointed, playful, frowning, and sarcastic, with subtle emotions and different emotions.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with messy hair suddenly opened the door, scolded Chen Ping'an, and said, "Little bastard, are you losing money?

Chen Ping'an rolled his eyes, the young man didn't care about these harsh words, as soon as he lived in this rural place with a total of few books, he would be annoyed if he was scolded a few words, so he simply found a well and jumped down, saving worry and trouble. Second, this middle-aged bachelor who guards the door is often teased and teased by the people of the town, especially those bold and spicy women, not to mention scolding him, there are many people who beat him. In addition, this person also likes to brag with children wearing open crotch pants, such as what Lao Tzu was at the city gate back then, a good fight, beating five or six big men all over the ground to find teeth, the ground is full of blood, the whole two-zhang wide road in front of the city gate is similar to a muddy road on a rainy day!

said angrily to Chen Ping'an: "Your little, I'll talk about it later." ”

No one in the town takes this guy seriously.

But whether outsiders can enter the town or not, men have the power of life and death.

He reached for his crotch as he walked to the wooden fence gate.

The man with his back to Chen Ping'an, after opening the door, collected a small embroidered bag from someone from time to time, put it in his cuffs, and then let him go one by one.

Chen Ping'an gave way very early, and the eight people were roughly divided into five batches and walked towards the town, in addition to the young man who wore a high crown and a green pendant hanging from his waist, he also walked by two seven or eight-year-old children, the boy was wearing a festive red robe, and the girl was pink and delicate, as if she was wearing good porcelain.

The boy was half a head shorter than Chen Ping'an, and when the child passed by him, he opened his mouth, although he didn't make a sound, but there was an obvious mouth shape, he should have said two words, full of provocation.

The middle-aged woman holding the boy coughed slightly, and the child retracted slightly.

The little girl behind the woman boy was led by a burly old man with frost and snow, she turned her head and said a lot of words to Chen Ping'an, not forgetting to point at the boy of the same age in front of her.

Chen Ping'an couldn't understand what the girl was saying at all, but he could guess that she was complaining.

The burly old man glanced at the straw sandals boy.

was just glanced at intentionally or unintentionally, and Chen Ping'an took a step back purely subconsciously.

Like a mouse sees a cat.

After seeing this scene, the little girl who was originally chirping like a little yellow finch suddenly lost the interest of fanning the flames, and turned her head to stop looking at Chen Ping'an, as if one more look would dirty her eyes.

It is true that the young Chen Ping'an has never seen the world, but it does not mean that he can't read his face.

When the group was far away, the man at the gate smiled and asked, "Do you want to know what they said?"

Chen Ping'an nodded and said, "Yes." ”

The middle-aged bachelor was happy, and said with a smile: "Complimenting you on your good looks, it's all good words." ”

Chen Ping'an tugged at the corners of his mouth, thinking to himself that you are stupid to me?

The man saw through the young man's mind and smiled even more happily, "If you are not stupid, can Lao Tzu let you deliver the letter?"

Chen Ping'an didn't dare to refute, for fear of annoying this guy, and the copper coins that were about to arrive would fly away.

The man turned his head, looked at those people, stretched out his hand to rub his chin with hulila, and whispered: "That woman just now, two legs can kill people." ”

Chen Ping'an hesitated for a moment and asked curiously, "That lady has practiced martial arts?"

The man was stunned, looked down at the young man, and said seriously: "You kid, you are really stupid." ”

The boy was confused.

He asked Chen Ping'an to wait, strode to the house, and when he came back, he had an extra stack of envelopes in his hand, not thick or thin, about a dozen copies, after the man handed it to Chen Ping'an, he asked: "Fools have foolish blessings, and good people have good rewards." Do you believe it or not?"

Chen Ping'an held the letter in one hand, spread his palm with the other, and blinked, "I said that a letter is a penny." ”

The man was annoyed and angry, slapped the five copper coins prepared in advance on the palm of the young man's hand, waved his big hand, and said arrogantly: "The remaining five coins are owed first!"