Cold night, long street.

The streets are long and the nights are cold.

There will be an end to the long street, and there will be an end to the long night.

At the end of the long street, Old Man Zhao's beef noodle shop.

Ding Xiaodao had eaten two large bowls of beef noodles, but the young man didn't even move his chopsticks, he stared at Ding Xiaodao with a smile after eating the two big bowls of steaming beef noodles, and looked at Ding Xiaodao who finally wiped his mouth with satisfaction and burped two times, he smiled and asked, "Can you still drink now?" ”

Ding Xiaodao rolled his eyes and said: "At most, I can only drink a jar of Huadiao, but I can't drink it tonight, and being stared at by others all the time when I drink is very emotional." He paused and continued, "Do you take two wooden men with you every time you drink?" ”

It turned out that there were two people standing behind the young man, and these two people had been standing beside the young man when they were in the Golden Hook Gambling House, a middle-aged man wearing a green robe and a long sword at his waist, and an old man with a white beard and a gray coat and a black sable.

The man in Tsing Yi has a long white face and a slight beard, a beaded crown with a sandalwood seat on his head, a Taoist priest's hair bun, his left hand caressing the hilt of the sword, standing solemnly on the left side, without even a trace of expression on his face.

The white-bearded old man was full of red light, and his temples on both sides were bulging high, and he looked like a master of the house. I saw him holding a three-foot-long cigarette stick, squinting and smoking one cigarette at a time. The cigarette stick was made of fine iron, as thick as a child's arm.

Anyone with a discerning eye could hear that Ding Xiaodao was deliberately provoking them, but these two people's cultivation was also very good, and they were not affected at all.

The young man said: "The two of them are my uncles, they are all my dearest people, this time I came to the Central Plains to do an important matter, and they came with me to protect me, brother Tai is not strange." He clasped his hands into fists and smiled: "In Xia Ye Rongqiu, I don't know if Brother Taigao's name can be sought?" ”

Ding Xiaodao played with the small wooden knife in his right hand, tilted his head and looked at Ye Rongqiu and said, "My name is Ding Xiaodao, the knife of the knife, the knife of the knife." ”

The old man in gray slowly exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "Your little knife looks familiar, I don't know if it's that kind of knife......"

"Oh, you've ever seen that kind of knife?" Ding Xiaodao looked up at the old man in gray.

"No, fortunately not, that kind of knife is not for people to see!" The old man in gray sighed.

Ding Xiaodao gently stroked the small wooden knife in his hand, his eyes became warm, and he muttered, "Yes, that kind of knife is not meant to be seen." ”

The man in Tsing Yi looked at Ding Xiaodao's hand and said coldly: "It's a pity that the wooden knife can't kill people." ”

Ding Xiaodao smiled, raised his head and looked at the man in Tsing Yi and said with a smile: "Of course a wooden knife can't kill a dead person, and a real knife can't kill a dead person." ”

"Oh?"

"The knife can't move, and it's not the knife that can kill people, it's the people!" Ding Xiaodao said word by word, when he said this, his eyes were full of respect, and it seemed that the person who told him this truth had an extremely noble position in his heart.

It is a truth that only people can kill. Truth is usually not easily refuted.

The man in Tsing Yi stopped talking, and stood solemnly with his eyes down.

Ding Xiaodao looked at Ye Rongqiu and said with a smile: "Ye Rongqiu, your name sounds like a woman, and you also look like a woman." Ye Rongqiu's face changed, and Ding Xiaodao continued: "If I hadn't seen you gamble, I would have thought you were a woman." ”

"Brother Ding laughed......" Ye Rongqiu secretly sighed.

Ding Xiaodao suddenly approached Ye Rongqiu and said with a smile: "Especially you have a fragrance on your body, which is very special, and it is not quite like the fragrance on the Chu'er girl of Chunhualou." Then he said to himself: "The young master of a rich family is different, you don't seem to have the smell of fireworks in the world." ”

Ye Rongqiu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "What is the place of Chunhualou?" ”

"Brothel."

Ye Rongqiu's hanging heart had just been put down, and now he seemed to be angry, and said coldly: "It seems that Brother Ding usually goes to this Spring Flower Building." After speaking, he raised his sleeves and glared at Ding Xiaodao.

Ding Xiaodao was surprised: "What's wrong with a man occasionally going to drink flower wine?" Have you never been to a brothel? After saying that, I thought it was really funny, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Ye Rongqiu's face was swollen red, and he snorted, "What if you haven't been there?" Only, only the unscrupulous would go to that kind of place. ”

Ding Xiaodao's index finger shook lightly: "You don't know this, first, the teahouse brothel is a place where dragons and snakes are mixed, and of course it is also a good place to inquire about news; Second, if you don't sleep well, you'll find that there's no better place to sleep than in a brothel, and absolutely no one will bother you. ”

Ye Rongqiu snorted lightly: "Hmph, it's not a good thing to go there anyway." ”

Ding Xiaodao glanced at Ye Rongqiu, a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes, and a strange smile rose at the corner of his mouth.

"What are you laughing at?" Ye Rongqiu aired.

"Laugh at you!" Ding Xiaodao said with a smile. "Why don't you ask me how I won just now, laugh at you and get angry like a woman."

"I, I, you talk nonsense, how can I be angry, how can I be like a woman?" Ye Rongqiu's voice trembled a little. He took a deep breath, calmed down and asked, "Does the cricket call first have anything to do with the lantern?" How did you know that the lantern would go out suddenly? ”

"Crickets use their wings to make sounds, and on the right wing of the cricket, there is a short thorn like a file, and on the left wing, there are hard spines like knives. The left and right wings are closed one by one, rubbing against each other. Vibrating the wings can make a pleasant sound. Crickets generally stop chirping in the winter months, and these crickets used for fighting and gambling are usually kept in greenhouses, so that they can't distinguish the four seasons. ”

Seeing that no one interjected, Ding Xiaodao continued: "When two male crickets are put together, they will inevitably think that the other party has invaded their territory, and they will make short but powerful chirps to warn each other. But there was a piece of gauze in the box, and after a long time, the cricket sensed that the other party could not be a threat. At this point, they won't chirp anymore. Unless ......"

"Unless it's to see the lights?" Ye Rongqiu's eyes lit up and he said excitedly.

Ding Xiaodao looked at him and smiled: "Yes, another big habit of crickets is phototaxis, crickets like light by nature, if in a dark room, crickets hide in the corner and generally will not chirp, but if you light a lamp in the house, it will come out and chirp at the light." ”

"Sikong Jieyue has been standing, blocking the lantern behind him with his body, if you bet on the 'general' to call first, he will quietly turn his body sideways, let the 'Iron King Kong' see the lantern behind him, if you bet on the 'Iron King Kong' to call first, he will stand still, the 'general' saw the lantern behind you, he has already begun to get excited, and he secretly has luck to nudge the 'general', and the 'general' will chirp out first. You don't even notice when he's lucky, he's going to be in good measure, so you won't win at all, not once. He spoke eloquently, leaving the three of them dumbfounded.

Ye Rongqiu said hatefully: "It turns out that he actually cheated!" ”

Ding Xiaodao said with a smile: "Ten gambles and nine frauds, don't you understand this truth?" ”

"Wait, you said his name is Sikong Picking the Moon, is that the Jianghu people who call the world's first thief the Sweeping Moon?" Ye Rongqiu exclaimed.

"It's not who else he is, who else will dress like that, take off and dress as a god of wealth, for fear that others won't know that he is rich." Ding Xiaodao said with a smile. "But he's been getting a lot of money lately."

"But how did you know that the lantern behind him would suddenly go out?" Ye Rongqiu was still puzzled.

"It's even simpler, because you're all watching the game at the table, and no one is going to look at it, but I've seen the wick in that lantern flash three times, and even the light is much dimmer, and it won't be long before it runs out. When the lantern behind Sikong Picking Moon went out, I suddenly turned to the side, and the 'General' saw the lantern behind me and was gently lured by my secret luck, and it called first. Ding Xiaodao smiled faintly.

"But why hasn't the moon been moving? He could have moved before you, right? Ye Rongqiu still didn't give up, he was anxious to know the answer now, if Ding Xiaodao was silent at this time, he would have to go crazy.

"Because I said something to him." Ding Xiaodao looked at Ye Rongqiu with a grin. He likes to laugh very much, and he laughs beautifully, and he always thinks that if people in the world laugh every day, then there will be a lot less trouble in this world.

"In a word? What a word? Why didn't I hear it, but talking counts as cheating and losing! Ye Rongqiu couldn't wait to punch Ding Xiaodao's smiling face into a crying face.

"I didn't make a sound, so it's not cheating. I spoke lip language, and I just knew he could read it, because I only spoke three words! ”

"Which three words"

"Shaolin Temple!"

Shaolin Temple, these three words are indeed like a spell, making Sikong Picking the Moon feel like he was fixed, and it took half a pillar of incense to ease his senses.

Ding Xiaodao, these three words are also like a spell, and Sikong Jieyue's head may hurt more than Ding Xiaodao. It's big and painful.

Although Ding Xiaodao said it lightly, anyone with a discerning eye can already understand that the game in the gambling house just now is no less than a life-and-death duel between masters. Not only must we have meticulous observation and calmness before Mount Tai collapses, but also have careful thinking and shrewd kung fu.

Even the old man in gray cast an approving glance at him, and Ye Rongqiu's eyes lit up with admiration.

"There are still a few days to go before the eighth day of the lunar month, and the Shaolin Temple must be very lively." The eyes of the man in Tsing Yi flashed with cold light.

Ding Xiaodao said lightly: "It must be very lively, I heard that Huotoutuo burned the Luohan Zhai with a wonderful hand, I don't know if I am lucky enough to eat his stewed Laba porridge." ”

"Do you want to go to Shaolin Temple too, why don't you go with us, my car is just big enough." And there was a lot of good wine in the car. Ye Rongqiu looked at Ding Xiaodao and smiled, there seemed to be some expectation between his eyebrows.

Ding Xiaodao thought for a while, looked at Ye Rongqiu and said, "You answer my two questions, and I will go with you." ”

"You ask!"

"First, you're not good at gambling at all, so why did you go to the Golden Hook Casino? Second, where do you come from? Ding Xiaodao played with the small wooden knife in his right hand, and the small wooden knife kept changing and flying between his five fingers, as if it was originally a part of his body. He stared at Ye Rongqiu and asked.

"I went to the Golden Hook just to lure someone out, and I had to win all the time, or I had to lose all the time to get him out. I am not good at gambling pai gow and dice, just happened to meet Sikong picking the moon to do the bank, I will pretend to lose to him, but I have lost almost 100,000 taels or not see that person appear, so I am ready to change the plan to always win, just now the last one I want to win back, I can use ventriloquist or thousands of miles to provoke the 'Iron King Kong' to call first without letting the other party find out. But you suddenly appeared, me, I somehow believed you, and I always had an intuition in my heart that you wouldn't lie to me. Ye Rongqiu kept watching Ding Xiaodao speak, his eyes were eager.

"As for me, I come from an isolated place outside the gate, under a white cloud." Ye Rongqiu smiled, "What about you, where are you from?" ”

"I also come from an isolated place, under another white cloud......" Ding Xiaodao smiled faintly, "goodbye!" ”