In the courtyard of a mud house on the outskirts of the village, a stocky man dressed as a merchant in a felt hat was looking back and forth around a slender black horse. A thin woman dressed in burlap and with a scarf around her face held the reins of a horse and stood in the wind and sand, like a dry poplar tree.

"Miss Mu, although your horse is a good horse, but now the world is not good, and the business of cochineal insects is not good, I will pay five taels of silver, you can sell it if you want, and forget it if you don't want to."

"Can you have a little more?" The woman leading the horse let out a low, hoarse pleading voice.

"Miss Mu, I think five taels of silver is about the same, everyone knows that Ji Da Fat Ji Ye is a good person in our Rouge Zhou area, and I will send you away if I exchange it for three taels of silver for others." The broker on crutches next to him persuaded.

"My brother is sick and needs money urgently...... I was forced to sell it......"

Ji Da Fat squatted and looked at the horse's hooves for a while, then raised his head and said, "Then you will be given six taels at most, and I can't afford any more." ”

The woman looked back at the mud room and nodded helplessly, "Okay, thank you Ji Ye." ”

Ji Da Pang got up and took out the cloth bag containing silver from his arms, handed it to her, and said, "Then I'll take this horse away?" ”

The woman took the cloth bag, carefully counted the silver, and handed him the reins of the horse, "Ji Zhao has been with me for a long time, just like my family, and I ask Ji Ye to treat it well." If it is in the future, when I have money in the future, can I buy it back? ”

"Miss Mu rest assured, we just use it to pull something when we receive and ship, and we won't be tired of it. If you want to buy it back in the future, just give it at the market price......" Ji Da Fat took the reins and left, but the black horse stood still and refused to go, he increased the strength in his hand, but the black horse turned his head and snorted, but pulled him back several steps. Ji Dapang wiped the sweat from his forehead, and pulled out the whip pinned to the back of his waist with his backhand, "You're really stubborn, I don't believe I can't cure you——! ”

Before the woman could stop it, there was a crisp "snap", and the whip was firmly drawn on the horse's back. The black horse pouted his hooves in pain, raised his head and let out a neigh, turned his head to break free from the reins in Ji Da Fat's hand, and ran out of the wooden fence with his hooves.

A burst of yellow sand flooded, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

The broker said helplessly: "Miss Mu, look, you horse-"

"Good signs, I'm not selling."

"If you don't sell it, pull it down, you give me back the silver!" Ji Da Fat said with a gloomy face.

"My brother urgently needs money for medical treatment, can I ......borrow this silver first" Seeing Ji Da Pang stretching out his hand to ask for silver, the woman covered the cloth bag containing the silver on her chest and begged.

"Miss Mu, don't listen to the kidnapper Li put on the tall hat of 'Great Benevolence' for me and think about it, my Ji Fat Man is in business, not in a money bank!" Seeing that the woman's eyes were full of tears, Ji Da Fat, who originally wanted to step forward to snatch the silver, stopped, "What are you crying about, let outsiders see it, and think that I and the two big men of the kidnapper Li bullied you......"

"Master Ji, I'm really in a hurry to use this money...... I can work for you to pay off your debts, and I will raise cochineal! The woman said eagerly.

"You can raise cochineal?!" Ji Dapang looked incredulous, "I'm afraid you people in South Vietnam haven't seen cochineal before, right?" ”

"I came to Rouge Island with my father when I was a child, and I know how to raise cochineal. If the light is too strong or the temperature is too high, the molting time of the larvae will be delayed for ten days and a half months, and the quality of the adults will be greatly affected......

"This year's hot summer weather is long, and the molting time of the larvae has been delayed, do you have any other way?" What the woman said was what Ji Dapang was most worried about now, and he was immediately interested.

"When I ask a doctor to see my brother for a doctor, I'll go to your house to see the worm valley and think of something for you."

Ji Dapang pondered for a while, and said: "If you can really solve the problem of delayed larval molting for me, these six taels of silver should be regarded as a commission for you." If you can't solve it, you can go and work as a maid for my mother-in-law for half a year. Feasible? ”

"Okay, okay, okay." The woman nodded busily.

The kidnapper Li smiled and said: "Look, I'm right, our Ji Ye is kind-hearted, and the name of 'good man' is not false...... If you want to ask for a doctor, no one is more familiar with it than me, I dragged two broken legs all the way from South Vietnam, thanks to Dr. Guo Ziyu Guo in the gourd ditch west of the Worm Valley, now I can jump around......"

"Thank you, Master Ji." The woman bowed solemnly to Ji Da Fat, and bowed to the kidnapper Li again, "Thank you Li Ye for your recommendation." ”

Sending away Ji Da Fat and the abductor Li, Shu Mei took off his scarf, opened the clay pot in the corner of the courtyard and scooped a bowl of water, and was about to bring it into the house, when there was a sound of "whirring" behind her, she turned around and saw that the auspicious omen was back again.

It hung its head, its nose twitching, and its eyes looked at her cautiously, as if to see if she was angry. It was the same as the last time it had left her outside the birch grove and fled, and the next day it had caught up with her by scent.

It runs away, but it always finds itself back.

On that day, if it weren't for the auspicious omen who was afraid of wolves, and when they fled, they led away the rangers who were rushing for the bounty, and she and Ling Li were afraid that they would have already fallen into the hands of Ling Zhao. After that, if it hadn't followed the smell in time to catch up, she was penniless and unable to move an inch with Ling Li's brother on her back, how could she escape the heavy pursuit of the Tianxianglou spies and the imperial court eagle dog, and bring Ling Li's brother to Rouge Island all the way?

Starting from Xiangji Temple, Ji Zhao accompanied her through the torrential rain of Lushan, through the thorny jungle of Niutou Mountain, and survived the eight hundred miles of wind and sand on the Mohe Sandbank.

Thinking of this, Shu frowned and nose soured, stepped forward and hugged the horse's head, and couldn't help crying: "Good signs, I'm sorry, it's all because my sister was in a hurry for a while, and she actually thought about selling you for money, and you were whipped ......"

"Hello Er ......" Ji Zhao seemed to understand her words, and called out aggrievedly.

"My sister is rich now, I'll go to Hulugou to ask for a doctor in a while, and I'll buy bean cakes to feed you when I pass by the street, okay?"

Hearing the word "bean cake", the auspicious omen's hooves hit the ground "tuk-tuk", very cheerful.

It didn't care about the previous suspicions so quickly, Shu Mei couldn't help but burst into tears, patted the horse's back, took the pottery bowl and pushed open the wooden door and walked into the house.

This mud house was rented by Shu Mei when she first came to Rouge Island with the broken silver trust Li Li that Xuan Qingzi gave her. It is said that the owner of the house is a person who came to Xili from South Vietnam to do a fur business, and after the two countries declared war, the family went back to South Vietnam and entrusted the house to the abductor Li Zhaoying.

The house is located in the periphery of the rouge oasis, out of the yard, surrounded by a vast sea of sand, because of the wind and sand, few people come to ask, so the price is also very cheap. Shu Mei was afraid that someone would recognize Ling Li, and it was the most suitable place to stay away from the crowded streets.