Li Shanren saw that Xianghai was ignorant and in a trance, so he paused on the floor with his crutches, and scolded Xianghai for having no rules after reading foreign books, and forgetting the ancestral family precepts cleanly. I want him to read it seriously, don't be like a little monk who recites scriptures without heart, remember that he must follow the rules, know the square circle at every turn, and sit upright and upright, so that he will not be in vain for the descendants of the Li family. Xianghai only promised, swore to the sky at gunpoint, remembered his father's teachings, and did not dare to forget. Li Shanren put away the pistol, sat down on the chair, and said earnestly: "You are a scholar, the only male of the Li family, in the future, the Li family will rely on you to glorify the ancestors, and you must not be that shameless disciple, insult the family style and defile the family rules." The world is ever-changing, and the rules of the ancestors are the same and will never change, you are so obsessed with women, where do you put my face? Xianghai swore that he would never look for flowers and ask willows, insisted that he would never do anything that would damage the face of the ancestors of the family, and asked his father not to listen to gossip. Li Shanren was relieved, sighed and said: "There are rumors that you keep prostitutes and are categorically unbelievable as a father. But there are still worries about being a father, the boy is older, he doesn't want to have children, and it is by no means normal, he is ridiculed by outsiders, and he will fall into a woman's sex if he is not careful, and his reputation will be ruined, so starting a family is as important as starting a business. Li Shanren said, taking a breath of relief, he felt a cigarette stick in the cloth, and Xianghai hurriedly brought a foreign fire to light it for him.

Li Shanren took a few puffs of cigarette and said: "The Zhang family has been a doctor for generations, and the ancestors have also diagnosed Emperor Qianlong. Miss Zhang's family is knowledgeable and reasonable, and she is wise and wise, and in terms of conduct, it is difficult for Guangfu to have a second one. I won't urge you today, once the house in Shanghai is built, you will immediately return to Guangfu to get married, and you can rest assured that you are a father. Now in the future, you can't do it upside down, starting a family first and then starting a career is a wise saying, career is important, marriage is also important. Xianghai listened to it like five thunderbolts, and argued: "The blind date, if it is not for the child himself, it is absolutely impossible." Li Shanren was furious, and slapped his palm on the table to reprimand him: "The marriage of children, the words of the matchmaker of the parents, do you want to rebel?" I didn't think that Xianghai didn't flinch, and replied categorically: "What age is it now, it's all the Republic of China!" Since Xinhai, he has advocated democracy, opposed autocracy, advocated new morality, opposed old morality, and made his own decisions about marriage. If a child is not filial, he will never give up his rights or sacrifice his freedom to fulfill the old morality. Li Shanren was angry when he heard this, and spit out a sentence: "It's against you!" Is this my son who went to a foreign school? Immediately, his face turned pale and he gasped, "I'll be angry with you!" ”

Xianghai saw that his father was angry again, so he had to shut up. Because the liquor store is cramped, the car shop is spacious, and the guy from the liquor store is also staying in the car dealership, and it is time for the wine store to open, and the guy comes from the car shop and is unloading the door panel. Xianghai was afraid that the guy would hear the joke, so he didn't dare to speak loudly anymore, and instead said euphemistically: "Let the child think about this matter." ”

Li Shanren was angry, took a few puffs of cigarette and said, there is something else to do today, Xianghai sighed in his heart again, and hurriedly asked, "What's the matter?" Li Shanren said: "Cut the braids for me!" Xianghai looked at his father in surprise and said, "After so many years, the countryside is still so strict?" Isn't it left to be cut as you go? Li Shanren explained that in fact, he had already cut his braids a lot shorter, and he also had hair on the top of his head, and he wore a hat with the braids coiled on his head, so that others could not see that he had braids. Yesterday I was in a hurry to go out and forgot to put on my hat, and others looked at him as a freak, so I had to cut my braids. Xianghai smiled secretly when he heard this: "If you want to stay, keep it!" There's no need to cut it! Li Shanren's eyes widened angrily, slapped the table again, knocked the cigarette stick on the edge of the table and said, "Cut!" Now how can a man keep braids, don't cut the braids, and put the lid on the pot, telling me how to go back? Do you want people to think of me as a monster? I don't want to be a pigtail monster. Xianghai said: "Father is angry, and the child is afraid that you will not be used to it." Li Shanren said: "Don't be verbose, bring scissors, cut well, don't cut as ugly as your dead father." Xianghai hurriedly brought scissors, put down the braid he had on his head, pinched it to death, and asked, "Cut it short or keep it long?" ”

"Stay long."

Xianghai didn't say a word, he didn't cut it with a knife, and cut it again, and the braids fell with the cuts, spread them on the table, and the braids immediately fell apart. Xianghai said, "Look, there are still insects in it!" ”

Li Shanren didn't look at it, raised his head and said, "Alas! It's so much easier! ”

Xianghai: "Why don't you cut it shorter?" Like me. ”

Li Shanren: "Let's do this first!" Let me get used to cutting it short later. ”

Xianghai saw that Li Shanren no longer had the anger he had when he first came, and asked carefully: "Where did my father get the pistol?" "Xianghai was afraid that Li Shanren would come with a gun, and what other ulterior motives there were. Li Shanren said: "This is the heirloom of the Li family, it is a long story, and I will talk about it in detail later." Xianghai stopped asking. At this time, there were already customers in the store to buy rice wine, after the liquor store moved to Hudong, the people of Yangshupu did not have to go all the way to the city center to buy rice wine, just a little walk to arrive, so there were more people who came to buy rice wine, and the store was opened, and the people who bought rice wine lined up in a long line. Li Shanren sat in the attic, watched with interest, filled another bag of cigarettes, and lit it himself. Xianghai took the opportunity to ask his father to rest upstairs, stay in the store for a few days and then go back, he wanted to go down to take care of the store, and went downstairs as he spoke, leaving Li Shanren alone in the attic to look at the "scenery" - the store is full of customers coming and going. At this time, Zhao Da hurriedly roared and ran into the wine shop, Xianghai was coming down from the attic, Zhao Da pulled him up and asked, "Where did my brother go last night?" Xianghai pulled Zhao Da aside and told him the truth about himself and Peony Ziliang. After hearing this, Zhao Da said: "The master is right, the brother should start a family." Xianghai said: "The eldest brother is very right, he just wants to make his own decisions about his marriage, and he doesn't want his parents to act as his substitute." Zhao Da said with a pun: "Although the peony is so empty, the jujube flower must be less fruitful, the brother might as well find a girl who is the right person to start a family as soon as possible, so as not to worry about the old lady." ”

Li Shanren lived in the wine store for half a month, and saw Xianghai working hard to build a house and bowing to the wine at the same time. As soon as his father left, Xianghai couldn't help but think of the fun, after all, in the heyday of the Spring and Autumn Period, and he had no wife or concubine, he had tasted the taste of the soft country, just like a chaotic baby who had tasted the sweets of the world.

In the evening party, the door lights of each house are lit up, and most of them are replaced with new lights. The Shuanglin in the front building, the Wenxiu in the back building, and the Yinghong in the guest hall, only the signboard of Ziliang in the pavilion is missing. Xianghai walked straight to the bottom of the alley, came to the familiar door, pushed open the wooden door, climbed the stairs, and saw that the door between the pavilions was hidden, he knocked three times, and a rough voice came from inside: "!" Which one? The old lady is busy! Xianghai retracted his hand as if he had been stung by a crab, and ran downstairs as if he had fled, and heard a rude scolding from the pavilion. Xianghai ran downstairs, did not give up, walked around the front door, saw a woman at the door of the house to pack the sole cloth, and stepped forward to ask where the peony between the pavilions went? When the woman heard the question, she raised her head and said, "Peony? I have never seen a peony in the pavilion, only one is called Ziliang. The front of each house in Huile is almost the same, I haven't seen you here, Mr. is in the wrong place, you have to look for the lantern in front of the door. ”

"That's right, what about Ziliang? Where did Ziliang go? ”

"Is it a woman with a mole on her mouth? He's dead! Xianghai was taken aback: "Dead? How did he die? ”

"Poor, day and night, the iron man can't bear it, all the money earned is sent to the countryside, I heard that there is a tuberculosis father and a blind disabled stepmother in the countryside, and a daughter and three younger siblings who are too poor to wear pants, everyone expects her to send money to support the family, three shifts day and night, and the body made of meat is not tired to death? Dead in bed, the landlord is also unlucky. I watched her being pulled away by the car. ”

The woman's words made Xianghai stunned, and he stood on the ground as if he had had a stroke and was half-paralyzed, unable to lift his legs. Ziliang didn't say nonsense, the woman hadn't seen Peony, which meant that Peony really didn't stay here for long before leaving. But Ziliang didn't say that she still has parents, children and younger siblings in the countryside, and she didn't expect Ziliang to be such a strong woman, desperately making money to support a family in the countryside. Xianghai came back to his senses for a long time, and was about to ask the woman again, where is Ziliang's hometown in northern Jiangsu, thinking that if he finds Ziliang's family, he can find the peony, and the woman has entered the black gate.

This alley has 28 door openings, built by a wealthy merchant in Nanxun, and his original intention may be the same as himself, to build Chinese's own houses for Chinese to live in, did not think that the Qinhuai River banned prostitution, boat girls have come ashore to start a new stove here. Now every house is hung with lanterns, and there are hundreds of phoenix stars in the study, and the charms and spirits show their powers, and I am afraid that only the woman on the ground floor is a good citizen. The girls are like the vegetables sold in the vegetable market and the meat hung in the butcher's house, as long as they are willing to spend money, anyone can enjoy and spoil it. They are glamorous on the surface, but behind them are suffering and hardships unimaginable to ordinary people, and they are living a precarious life. They are in their prime, they are fine today, but they will be pulled away by the car tomorrow, and their fresh lives like flowers and jade will be lost overnight. They are no different from ordinary people, or they are harder and harder than ordinary people, but their fate is so sad that this ending seems to be doomed beyond change.

Xianghai walked through five or six alleys and came to the entrance of the alley, and the night was still dark. The sharp wind through the hall, like a pair of scissors, chased him out of the alley, cut him into a shadow under the shadow of the lamp, and dragged him behind him for a long time, Xianghai walked out of the club in a daze.

Three days later, it was an auspicious day of the zodiac, the construction site started, Xianghai lit firecrackers and red candles with his own hands, sacrificed to the land to worship the God of Wealth, and prayed that the land grandfather would keep him safe, and he couldn't help but say in his heart, but also to keep the peony safe, and Ziliang would no longer suffer if he was reincarnated. A week later, Xianghai went to the construction site to supervise the work, but found that the construction site was silent, and the supervisor said that the foundation could not be dug down, and he dug for three days without moving, even if he used explosives to blow up, he had to dig a hole first, so the work was stopped. Xianghai wondered in his heart, Shanghai Beach accumulated sand into land, five hundred years ago it was still a gangbody, how could it be so hard that it couldn't get off the shovel?