More than ten miles southeast of Xuan'an City, surrounded by mountains.

It is a barren land, inaccessible, and it is often not seen from morning to evening when the carriages and horses pass by.

The steep slopes up the mountain are covered with soft loess, and occasionally some rolling stones slide down the mountain.

There is no doubt that this is a steep area, but at the moment, the road leading to the mountainside can still clearly distinguish many large and small footprints from the dirt, even after the rain has washed away.

There are no houses on the mountainside, but it's not completely without buildings, and every once in a while, you can find an ancient temple in the forest by the roadside.

The reason why I say "once" is because these temples have obviously been abandoned for a long time, some of them have broken roofs, some of the courtyard walls have collapsed, but they are all covered with cobwebs.

What's more, for example, at the entrance of the dilapidated ancient temple at the farthest point, there are a few stout dead trees that have fallen to the ground blocking the road.

At this moment, a long-bearded old man in a shabby Taoist robe pulled a small wooden wheel cart in front of these dead trees, he lowered his head and took out a large bag of packages from the small cart and carried it on his shoulder, and climbed over these tree trunks lying horizontally on the ground with great difficulty, and walked into the temple.

"It's coming, it's coming!"

As soon as the old Taoist priest stepped into the door, three ragged and gray-faced children greeted him, hugging the old Taoist priest and pulling his robe.

It was a bit rude for these children to do this, but the old man didn't care, he took out a few steamed buns from the package and handed them to the children, they took it happily, hurriedly broke it in half and stuffed it into their mouths, and without saying half of the word "thank you", they ran quickly to distribute the remaining half of their hands to the three or four adults who were lying on the ground in the house.

After receiving the steamed buns, the adults slowly got up and expressed their gratitude to the old Taoist.

"Old man Yun, why is your robe torn, which grandson was bullied?"

Lying in the corner of the wall was a man with a messy beard, he bent one leg, one leg extended, his right hand on the right knee, after seeing the old Taoist priest's robe torn, he stood up with difficulty against the wall, and his tone was a little excited.

"Hey, I fell when I went up the mountain, and several steamed buns fell out. Otherwise, a few of you are unlucky, and you are the only ones in the city who have been assigned to these remote places, and I have lost some luck even with my old ways. ”

The old priest waved his hand to signal that he was all right, bent down and took out some lamp oil from the package, and walked to a lampstand full of insect remains in the house and poured it out.

The man saw that Lao Dao's legs and feet were still neat, and his body should be fine, so he sat down against the wall again.

Seeing that the old Taoist priest had lit the lamp, he pouted his lips and surrounded the beggars in the room.

"I told you, it's better to spend money on these useless lamps, but it's better to keep them and buy some incense for those who need them."

"People still have to have some flames." The room instantly lit up a lot, Yun Laodao smiled, and dragged the package to distribute some simple food that could be stored for a few days to the remaining people.

"Actually, most of the other temples at the foot of the mountain still have some small officials taking care of the food, why is no one the only one who cares about you on the mountainside?" The old Taoist priest himself took a bite of the steamed bun and stood beside the man to chat with him.

"Heh, it's still tiring to climb the mountain." The man sneered, "I advise you not to come often, you are so tall, no matter how much you toss and toss, you should go into the ground, and we have a way to find something to eat." ”

Hearing what he said about "entering the ground", Yun Lao Dao suddenly felt unlucky, his eyes widened, patted the robe on his body and said: "You will be fine without Lao Dao, I am too lazy to tell you, go to a thatched house." ”

"You wait! I'll go too. ”

However, just as the old Taoist priest was about to turn around and leave, the strong man suddenly grabbed the corner of his clothes, Yun Lao Dao turned his head to look at him, saw that his face was a little abnormal, and secretly gave himself a look.

Silently, the old Taoist priest helped him up, hummed a relaxing tune, loosened his robe, and the two of them walked out of the temple gate side by side.

It's not the first time that the old Taoist priest of this temple has been there, but he is still holding on to the wall with one hand, while stretching out his foot to explore the road, it just rained a few days ago, the road is slippery, and he still has to be cautious in the dark, in case he trips and can't row.

However, just as the two of them were holding on to the moss-covered wall and walking not far away, the big man looked around, and suddenly lowered his voice and whispered in the old Taoist's ear: "I went out in the early morning the day before yesterday, and I heard ...... There's a temple nearby that has some jewels hidden in it......"

The old Taoist priest's legs trembled, and he slipped after all.

……

"Taoyuan Poetry Club?"

The night was like water, and in the courtyard of his house, Situ Xi held two invitations in his hands, and sat opposite Zhong Li at the round table, without the evening breeze blowing, and the candle flame illuminated them straight.

"Yes, this invitation was sent by Steward Chen, it is said that it was originally sent to the house, but my father sent it to the concubine, and he seems to have intended to let the prince and the concubine go."

"Why did you let the two of us go to participate?" Situ Xi was a little puzzled, Zhong Liwu's subordinates should not lack capable people who can recite poems and do the right thing.

"Since this poetry meeting is invited by the prince of Mi Wang, it should be mostly for the younger generations in the family to participate. Several brothers are on errands, and the slightly older one in the family is Brother Mo...... And my father knew that the concubine loved poetry in the past, so maybe he would want to let us go. ”

Guessing Zhong Lifu's intentions, Zhong Lixuan frowned slightly when he saw his father-in-law, thinking that he didn't like to participate in these, so he said to him softly: "The decision of the minister on these things is that if you don't go, we will return the invitation, and my father will not accuse us for these little things." ”

However, Situ Xi shook his head, since there were two invitations, it meant that Zhong Liwu wanted him to go.

He had just passed Fan Lao's request to Zhong Liwu in the morning, even if it was a commission from the elders, purely from the perspective of human interaction, he should go to this poetry club.

"It's okay, let's go and see." Making a decision, Situ Xi put away the invitation, and he looked at Zhong Lixuan again and talked about buying a house.

"Lady, the three of us are crammed into a hut, after all, it is not very convenient, now I have some silver tickets, and today I have found a suitable house by the water, why don't we go and see it together another day?"

Who knew that when she heard this, the smile on the corner of Zhong Li's mouth, which was still a little sweet just now, suddenly froze, but it was only for a moment, she looked at Situ Xi with a light smile and said, "Everything depends on each other." ”