Gu Shengchao asked passers-by about the location of the dock, and strode there, the small city was not big, and soon came to the river, and walked along the embankment in the direction of the dock. From a distance, the sails of the pier are crowded, and the hundreds of boats are very lively.

He walked to the boulder near the river, and suddenly heard a "plop" sound, and someone jumped into the water behind the stone. He began to think that it was a child playing in the water who didn't care, and when he walked over and looked back, he suddenly realized that something was wrong, if the other party was familiar with the nature of the water, he would either surface and paddle as he wanted, or dive into the water without waves, but at this moment there were many small bubbles on the surface of the water, and it was obvious that someone was drowning.

Gu Shengchao jumped into the river without hesitation, and struggled to swim towards the man, he came to the bubbling position just now and plunged down, and a person was faintly seen slowly sinking in the water, he lifted up from behind the man, and the two of them floated out together. Only then did he see that the other party was a woman, and her face seemed to be a little familiar. The woman's eyes were closed tightly as if she was almost fainting, Gu Shengchao didn't have time to think about it, grabbed her back and swam desperately to the shore.

After going ashore, Gu Shengchao half-squatted and let the woman lie on his lap and pat her back, but fortunately, the rescue was timely, and the woman spit out a lot of water intermittently and gradually returned to normal.

"There is only one human life, since you are not afraid of death, what is there to fear, take out the courage to die to fight, I believe that you can do anything, and there will be no difficulties in the world, isn't it?" Gu Shengchao helped the woman sit down and comforted her.

The woman didn't make a sound, just looked up at Gu Shengchao staring at him stupidly, and the tears in her eyes showed even more pitiful,

Gu Shengchao was embarrassed, he smiled awkwardly and said, "Say, if there are any difficulties, maybe I can help." ”

"Big brother, you're here." The woman burst into tears, hot tears rolled down her cheeks, she threw herself into Gu Shengchao's arms, "woo" and cried bitterly, because the sadness continued to rise and fall with her sobbing body, rubbing against Gu Shengchao's body.

Gu Shengchao was completely petrified, it seemed that the two did know each other, but Gu Shengchao couldn't remember who the other party was. He had to gently pat the woman's back and comforted: "Okay, the previous ones have passed, let's want to start a little, people in this life are going around and around, there are ups and downs, as long as you work hard to overcome the difficulties that cannot be solved, as long as you are patient and persistent, all the hardships will pass." ”

The woman's voice whimpered and slowly became smaller, her mood gradually stabilized, she took two steps back and left Gu Shengchao before she felt ashamed, tidied up her wet dress and said embarrassedly: "Brother Gu avenged the little woman's father's revenge in the Dawu Dynasty, but he couldn't get revenge, and today he saved me again, making the eldest brother laugh." ”

Gu Shengchao suddenly realized that she was the daughter of the patriarch who was killed by Liao Weikang, the eastern envoy of the Wuwang Palace. "Aren't you a lot of people, why are you the only one left?" Gu Shengchao was puzzled.

The woman was full of thoughts, and she didn't know where to start in her grief, and a man shouted eagerly in the distance: "Sister Wan, Sister Wan, where are you?" The woman beckoned in the direction of the man's shouting and responded, "Brother Ran, I'm here." ”

A moment later, a man rushed in a panic, it was in the capital of the Dawu Dynasty, that night he secretly cast a cold arrow outside the window to kill Liao Weikang, but let Gu Shengchao expose Ran Dengjia. When he saw Gu Shengchao, he was stunned for a moment and immediately recognized it, and stepped forward and arched his hand: "Why did Gongzi also come to our Xileng Country?" ”

Gu Shengchao shook his head: "It's hard to put it into words, I got lost in the mountains and came here by mistake." ”

Ran Dengjia looked at the woman's wet appearance, stepped forward and grabbed her nervously and said, "Sister Wan, are you thinking about it again, don't scare me." ”

The woman peeked at Gu Shengchao and whispered: "If it weren't for this big brother to save me, I would have almost ...... in the river" She lowered her eyes and couldn't help crying again.

Ran Dengjia saw Gu Shengchao's equally drenched clothes, and immediately understood everything, he stepped forward and bowed down at Gu Shengchao's feet and said gratefully: "Thank you Gongzi for saving Wanmei, I kowtowed to Gongzi for her." ”

Gu Shengchao hurriedly helped Ran Dengjia up, "Brother Ran doesn't want to be like this, but it's going to torment me." Seeing the two of them dressed in ordinary and dejected clothes, he guessed that something must have happened to them, and asked, "Is there any difficulty for your people, maybe I can help." He thought to himself that if he really couldn't take them back to the Valley of the Four Kings, there were few people in the valley, and if they were willing, the Valley of the Four Kings should not refuse.

Ran Dengjia sighed and said: "It's a long story, if the son doesn't dislike it, please go to the cold house to talk about it, and by the way, change the clothes on his body and dry them clean." ”

Gu Shengchao thought about it, so he followed the two of them. A short walk is a depression where many simple wooden houses have been built, some large and some small are crowded together, and the road is narrow and muddy. Walk through alleys of varying widths, some of which are about a foot wide and can only be passed sideways. Ran Dengjia stopped in front of a wooden house, took out the key and opened the door to invite Gu Shengchao in.

The wooden house is not large, divided into two floors, next to the ladder to climb to the upper floor, the lower floor is dark, only a small bed, and a simple stove, table and chairs. The woman went upstairs first to change her dress, and then found a clean robe for Gu Shengchao to go up and change. Gu Shengchao climbed the wooden ladder to change his clothes, and there were bamboo poles outside the upstairs window just enough to dry, so he hung up his wet clothes.

He didn't need silver when he was in the Valley of the Four Kings, and when he put down the things in his pocket and found that there was not much silver left, he regretted it a little, knowing that he would bring more silver out to relieve them.

There were no beds upstairs, just a few worn-out wooden boxes in the corners, but they were clean and tidy without a trace of dust. Gu Shengchao went down but didn't see the woman, and Ran Dengjia replied that he went to buy wine.

The two chatted, Gu Shengchao learned that the woman's name was Jiang Wan, he was curious about the two of them being the same family, how could they be two surnames, Ran Dengjia saw Gu Shengchao's doubts, "I was originally a hunter in Xilang Country, I have no parents since I was a child, I accidentally fell from a cliff a few years ago and my life was in danger, fortunately, Jiang Wan's father led the clansmen to pass by and saved me, and it just so happened that they also needed some kung fu to help, so they took me in." ”

Gu Shengchao nodded in understanding, he looked at the furnishings in the room, and said curiously: "There is only a small bed here, could it be that the eldest brother and her have already married, and I want to call her sister-in-law?" ”

Ran Dengjia looked out the window nervously, and said in a low voice: "Childe made fun of me, how dare I have such a thought from a humble background, I sleep downstairs on weekdays, and Miss Jiang Wan lives upstairs, and she directly spreads the futon on the floor." I bought the bed for her, but she insisted on putting it underneath, saying that it was easy to get cold if she slept directly on the ground when it was damp downstairs, and I couldn't do anything about her. ”

Gu Shengchao saw the embarrassment of their lives, and it was inconvenient to ask more, but fortunately, Ran Dengjia did not shy away from taking the initiative to talk about it, and Gu Shengchao knew what was going on.

They left the capital of the Dawu Dynasty and entered the Xileng Kingdom smoothly under the leadership of Jiang Wan's uncle, and according to the advice of other clansmen, they originally wanted to return to their ancestral homeland to make plans. After coming here, it happened that the family of a sect leader of the Yunqi Palace of the Xilang Kingdom took the lead in opening a family chamber of commerce, specializing in the business between the Xilang Kingdom and the Dawu Dynasty. Jiang Wan's uncle proposed to join the shares to do it together, they are familiar with trade all year round, and they should be easy, so everyone agreed.

It turned out that when they were in the Dawu Dynasty, Jiang Wan's father was the patriarch Zhang Luo's business, and the annual dividends were fair and just, and they were distributed to each household according to the amount of money and effort, and everyone never had an opinion. After Jiang Wan's uncle took over, everyone naturally thought that it was the same as before, just waiting for the final dividends, so no one objected, and they didn't care about the specific matters of the shares. Even if someone is worried about wanting to participate, Uncle Jiang Wan doesn't speak, and others are not easy to interfere.

In the end, the chamber of commerce was established in partnership with five families, the family of the head of the sect accounted for forty percent, the Jiang Wan people accounted for one and a half, and one and a half percent, and the other two two families were two percent and one percent. In order to be fair, the county order was specially invited to testify, and each of the five families sent representatives to sign and draw the charge, and of course the Jiang Wan clan was her own uncle.

At first, everyone was elated, happy that their future life had been settled, but after a long time, they found that it was abnormal, as if the Chamber of Commerce had nothing to do with everyone, and it was also a shirk to ask Uncle Jiang Wan. Everyone came to the Chamber of Commerce to inquire only to find that they did not buy shares in the name of the clansmen, but in the personal name of Jiang Wan's own uncle, Jiang Fanzheng. That is to say, everyone worked hard to the end, and made a wedding dress for Jiang Fanzheng, and the dividends of the Chamber of Commerce were only given to him.

Everyone was indignant and asked Jiang Fan to reason, but he hired someone to beat him out. The county magistrate estimated that he had accepted Jiang Fanzheng's silver in favor of him, but beat several people who complained to death, saying that the black and white words that were signed at that time were evidence, and the ownership of the chamber of commerce's shares should be owned by Jiang Fanzheng alone, and the case was closed.

In this way, all the hard work of the clansmen came to naught, and the most pitiful one was Jiang Wan, who was ruthlessly abandoned by her uncle as the only flesh and blood of the patriarch. The trees fell and scattered, and everyone had no way to complain, so they each looked for a way out, and no one cared about Jiang Wan's life or death anymore. Ran Dengjia was worried about the patriarch's kindness to him, but he was afraid that Jiang Wan would not be able to think about it while being sad, so he stayed by her side. In order to survive, Ran Dengjia temporarily worked as a coolie at the riverside dock to support the expenses of the two.

Ran Dengjia said bitterly: "I am sincere and sincere to Wanmei, and she also knows that I like him, but the more this is the case, the more she avoids me, and today she actually jumped into the river to seek death." A girl's heart, I really can't figure it out. ”

Gu Shengchao enlightened him and said: "Is there such a possibility, Miss Jiang Wan also likes you, she is just afraid of dragging you down, so she wants to die, first, to get her own liberation, and second, to no longer affect you, so that you can live a better life." ”

"How is that possible?" Ran Dengjia didn't believe it.

Gu Shengchao pointed to the small bed and explained: "Miss Jiang Wan refused to sleep on the bed for fear that you would be damp, so she gave the bed to you, doesn't it just explain this problem?" ”

Ran Dengjia was noncommittal, he looked out the window uneasily again, and said worriedly: "Sister Wanmei has been out for so long and hasn't come back, will there be an accident, no, I have to go find her." ”