"Oh, my grandson, my grandson......"

The old man cried incessantly, tears all over the place, holding the baby in his arms while shaking and raising his hand to wipe the tears on his wrinkled old face.

On the side, the midwife, who had run out happily a second ago, immediately darkened her face after handing the baby to the old landlord. The old man was completely unaware of it, and was only absorbed in the baby in his arms.

"Old man......"

The midwife was an elderly aunt, in her fifties this year, and her curly hair was half white. She opened her mouth and said to the old landlord:

"Madame, she ......"

At this point, the midwife stopped talking and did not say anything more.

The old man also froze his movements, and the baby, who was originally shaking so much that he no longer cried, stopped crying after the old man stopped moving, and the baby began to cry again. But it was no longer like a baby crying for herself, and the old man knew what was going on in the delivery room behind a curtain, but no one said it.

The old landlord's own son went out to do something big outside the city more than six months ago, and he recruited a few strong and powerful men in Houjiu City, down to a 17-year-old young man, up to a 40-year-old uncle, a total of more than 10 people.

The son of the old landlord wanted to organize a group to go outside the city to clean up a nest of bandits, so that Hou Jiucheng could get the emperor's attention and reward.

But it backfired, and the result was that I waited for more than two months, and the news that I was waiting for was the death of the old landlord's son.

The body of the old landlord's son was carried back by a horse, and the body carried a letter on it:

{Hey, old man, it's me, the poisonous monkey, the head of the den twenty miles away.}

He's your son, originally I was a thief, and the things I did didn't mean to be harmful, but as a thief, I walked on this road, and it was normal to do those things, right? Your son is not good at studying at home, why is he running to my nest?

Do you want my life, and you still say that you want to take it to the court to receive a reward?

Say I'm evil?

, don't say I killed your precious son, I can send you a letter because the people in our nest have come many times, and you really have nothing to rob in the city, it's cleaner than ours. Look, haven't you been taking care of your city lately?

Why did your precious son come over in person, and brought a bunch of strong men to hit our people's knife edges, and you yourself are looking for death?

I sent you a letter as a courtesy, and now, I'm done with it.

The second is to warn that Shao Tama wants to take revenge, the people in our nest have no idea about your rotten city, and you don't know what to do, if you really want to die, the people on our side won't get used to you!

Also, don't go to the top to report to the official, if I know, before the government comes to the top, your family's head must land first!

Well, after the chatter, I wish you a happy life as a family.

Also, hurry up and go down to work in the fields on the hour, and our nest people are waiting for the development of your city! It's tiring to go all the way to other places to rob!

Have fun! }

…… The bandits were polite and well-behaved, and after the old landlord's only son died, those bandits really never came again. After all, there is nothing to grab, and now every family in the city is relying on going out to the mountains to dig wild vegetables to fill their stomachs, and firewood is also picked up from the mountains outside the city, and life is difficult.

Farming?

They want to plant, but the soil here is barren, and after the seeds are planted, the seedlings have not yet grown halfway, and the weeds are overgrown, and all the nutrients are taken up, and there are a lot of pests to eat, and a pound of seeds is put into the soil, and the harvest is less than half a catty......

"Alas......"

What's even more distressing is that the old landlord took two steps forward, stretched out his hand tremblingly to open the curtain, glanced into the delivery room, put down the curtain and lowered his head to whisper to the midwife:

"Arrange a few people and find a good place to bury them near the suburbs."

"Got it, sir."

One person is obtained, and two are folded.

The landlord's family is now left with only the old man and the grandson in his arms, and the midwife also has her own family, she just kindly came to help today.

……

Ten years later.

……

"Grandpa, I'm going out to play!"

Even if the old man lying on the bed had his eyes open, he could not see much of the scene on the beams of the room. Beside him, his little grandson is clamoring to go out to play, although he is noisy, but he is very sensible, every time he goes out to play, he has to say hello to the old man, and when he will go home, he will never delay.

It's just that every time, the old man didn't respond to anything, and when he got older, it was almost time for birth, old age, sickness and death......

"Grandpa, there is nothing to eat at home today, I want to go out and have a look, and I will come back before the sun goes down, okay?"

The old man didn't make a sound, but opened his mouth weakly, his shriveled lips moved a few times, and the little boy said with a smile:

"Okay, I'll go and get back quickly! ～”

After saying that, the little boy ran out as soon as he slipped through the smoke.

It was now noon, and there was no one in the city, and there were no more than two hundred people in the entire Nine Cities of Houjiu, including those who left the city at noon. The little boy of the old landlord's family is called Lu Sheng, and the name given by the old landlord means that his grandson can eat enough in the future and can be satisfied with anything.

The sun is in the sky, and no one sets up stalls or walks in the city.

There were people who went out, and at this time they were all digging in the mountains near the city, or at the foot of the mountain, but what could be eaten at the foot of the mountain had already been hollowed out, and there was no one even halfway up the mountain. Most people go out and go to the mountains, hoping to find some wild vegetables on the hills.

I don't expect it to be delicious, at least it fills my stomach.

Lu Sheng is ten years old this year, but his size may be because he usually can't eat enough, he eats some boiled grass roots, tree bark shavings, and so on weekdays, and there is no nutrition.

But it's also because of the company of my grandfather, I am very happy every day, and my grandfather used to tell stories by himself at the bedside, although now my teeth are gone, and I can't lie in bed, and I have to get out of bed once a day to clean up, and Lu Sheng has to spend a lot of effort to help.

Lu Sheng is also happy to do this, he believes that as long as he takes good care of his grandfather, when his grandfather recovers, he can tell him stories every day in the future!

Or, I can tell my grandfather a story, hehe.

"Hey, they've hollowed it out......"

Outside the city, looking at the soil that had been tossed at the foot of the nearest mountain, Lu Sheng was a little disappointed, he was too late, there were only clusters of weeds left in these soils, and those weeds were even cut off at the roots.

Lu Sheng frowned, there was no way to think about it, the bark of those big trees in the vicinity couldn't be eaten, and many people had tried it, and the bark had to diarrhea for a night after drinking the soup, so it was still ......

"Hey, let's change places, the top of the mountain should have been almost dug up by them, change the mountain."

Lu Sheng planned, ran and jumped and went to another place.

……

However, unconsciously ran to a strange place.

Where is this?

He had never been here, but Lu Sheng remembered the way back, so he didn't care too much about how far he ran. It had been two or three hours since he came out of the city gate, and Lu Sheng was running and jumping twenty kilometers away from Houjiu City unconsciously.

There was an open field in front of it, and there were woods on the left and right, but those trees, Lu Sheng knew, uh, meaning that the bark of those trees could not be eaten......

There was a path in front, driven by Lu Sheng's curiosity, he followed the path and there was no road at the end, but the careful Lu Sheng found that in the woods on the left hand side at the end of the path, there was a little black rock wall, and there seemed to be something different there.

'Go and see first. ’

After Lu Sheng ran over, he found a hidden cave.

"And the caves here? The entrance is so small......"

The entrance of the cave is only one meter high and half a meter wide, and an adult has to bow his head and bend down to barely enter, but Lu Sheng is small and can rush in.

'Look first! ’

Lu Sheng didn't think much about it, he ran in directly, the light inside was very dark, where the hole was not deep, the light in the woods outside could still shine in some, and then walked inside, kept walking, and when he reached the position more than ten meters later, it was completely dark, and he couldn't even see his fingers clearly when he stretched out his hand.

Lu Sheng didn't want to go out yet, he thought, since he had come here, he would go to the innermost part to take a look, maybe there would be something to eat or some other treasure to bring back.

While walking cautiously inside, his hands were on the uneven walls on both sides, cold and piercing.

Lu Sheng felt that the more he went inside, the lower the temperature became, and the inside was ......

Whoa......

"There's the sound of water?"

Lu Sheng was overjoyed when he heard the sound of running water inside, and sped up his pace, on the way, his little hand accidentally wiped a hole on the inner wall of the cave, but he couldn't see whether he was injured in the dark environment. Lu Sheng was too lazy to care about these, he was more concerned about what kind of environment was in the place where there was water sound in front of him.

Houjiu City is surrounded by mountains, and there are two wells in the city, but one of the wells has run out of water, and the other well ...... The water saved every day is only enough for a small number of families in the city.

Everyone is struggling to get by.

Lu Sheng walked to the deepest part of the cave in the dark, but the scene in front of him made him disillusioned-

Yes, there is water, it is a mountain spring overflowing from a stone crevice, and it flows non-stop, although the water flow is relatively small, but it is better than a continuous stream.

But the ground here is full of bones...... Dead man's heap, what kind of place is this?

I thought that there should be a place with water, green grass, or delicious wild vegetables, and no matter how bad it was, there should be some mushrooms!

There was nothing, bones everywhere, ragged clothes, and knives, hammers, and shovels half-buried in the earth......

Here, it used to be a den of bandits.

Lu Sheng was shocked, and after standing stunned for a while, Lu Sheng patted his face with both hands and cheered himself up:

"Whew, no, no, no, you can't be afraid, these have been dead for a long time, I'm here to find food, yes, I'm here to find food. I'm passing by, passing by. ”

Lu Sheng walked around the cave several times, and could not find anything else to eat except for drinking some mountain spring water himself. After a while, I left the cave with disappointment, and in the future, I will come again, and it is also a good choice to bring people from the city here to fetch water.

……

Ten years later.

……

Lu Sheng is on his birthday today, at the foot of a mountain outside the city, there is a wooden sign inserted here, and there is no writing on it.

Lu Sheng is illiterate, but he knows and remembers the shape of this wooden sign, the small mound raised behind the wooden sign, and his grandfather is buried in it.

"Grandpa, today is my birthday, and I'm coming to see you."

Putting a bunch of weeds in his hand in front of the wooden card, Lu Sheng sat cross-legged on the ground, his buttocks separated by a thin layer of fabric, and he suddenly felt cold. He was wearing tattered and patched clothes, which had been turned out of the dusty wooden boxes at home, and were clothes that my grandfather had worn before and was reluctant to throw away.

There are still several unpatched places on the clothes, and you can see through the small holes that the inch by inch of sunburned skin in Lu Sheng's shirt is sunburned.

Since the death of his grandfather, in recent years, Lu Sheng has taken the lead in farming in the name of the landlord, and has taken the lead in receiving water from the cave twenty miles outside the city, and leading people to take turns to bring the water back for irrigation of the fields.

The way to get rid of insects is to pick and choose with his own hands, and most of the time, Lu Sheng stays in the field all day, from the sun does not rise to the moon hangs.

In the past five years, there have been some changes in Houjiu City, two hundred people, some have entered the soil, and there are more than one hundred and sixty people, and the fields on the edge of the city have become a little green, which is the result of the efforts of Lu Sheng and the residents in the city.

"Grandpa, there is a better place in the city, and the wild millet that I picked up in the mountains outside, and some wheat seeds, have been planted in our fields, and now they are very green, as tall as half a leg of mine. This fall, we city people should be able to eat enough. Grandpa......"

Lu Sheng said with a smile, his eyes stayed on the wooden card, as if he had hallucinated the appearance of his grandfather when he was coaxing himself by the bedside.

As he spoke, he suddenly fell silent, and his gaze fell on the weeds on the ground that he had just laid down.

Lu Sheng searched for a long time in the surrounding area, but he didn't find flowers, maybe summer is not the time for flowers to bloom, I knew that I would come in spring, and I could bring a few bouquets of flowers to my grandfather.

"Grandpa, the food in Houjiu City should be stable, I want to ......"

If you want to talk and stop, you obviously ......

It's been a long time since we've been separated, so why do you feel so uncomfortable? Even though he is already twenty years old, he will still come to report to his grandfather.

"I want to go outside, there is no money in Houjiu City, everyone can only fill their stomachs, and the merchants who pass by, those carriages passing by from afar, will not come to take a look. We're so poor, grandpa, I want to ......"

In my mind, what flashed was the scene when I ran to my grandfather's bedside:

'Grandpa, I want to hang out!' ’

Lu Sheng's eyes were red, his nasal cavity was sour, and he endured it without letting the tears fall.

After slowing down for a long time, and after his mood gradually calmed down, Lu Sheng turned his back to the sky and exhaled a long breath:

"Phew......, grandpa, I want to go out and play! …… Don't worry about me, every time I go home on time, just go outside to see what is delicious, bring some food back, and earn a lot of money to come back, so that our Houjiu City will be lively. ”

……

A little choked, but still smiling:

"Grandpa, next time I'll bring beautiful flowers to accompany you, goodbye."

……

A few days later, Lu Sheng packed his luggage, wrapped it into a large package with the gray sheets at home, and left Houjiucheng with the package on his back.

On foot, I don't know how long it will take, and there is no map, so I can only walk in the direction of my feelings.

……

In the court of Wolong City, the main hall of the large room in the province of Zhongshu, and the private school gentlemen of the famous families in each city are all reported here, and the names of some of the scholars in their own halls are graded. The students of Mr. Private School can come to Wolong City to take the exam on a fixed day after a period of time.

There are always too many civil servants.

"There are never too many readers~"

Not far from the next door, in the hallway, a lazy scholar-like figure sits diagonally at a desk, his elbows resting on the corner of the table, his wrist propping his chin, and his other hand spinning an uninked brush.

Beside him, a young man of similar appearance mentioned him sorting through the mountains of books on his desk.

"Master, if you don't do it, these books will soon buy you."

The elder still doesn't want to move.

Shangguan Yuan turned the brush and sighed while playing:

"Ouch, really, if I want my master, my old life, I sit here every day, and I sit here for a day, and I won't be allowed to move my way."

The scholar sorted the books on the side, muttering:

"The last time the lord sneaked out of the palace, no one arranged the list of the Wolong City martial arts competition, the emperor was unhappy, and he beheaded several civil officials after asking for the crime, which is actually investigated, most of them are the lord's sins."

"Hey ——?"

Shangguan Yuan lifted the brush and clicked a drop of ink to look at the scholar's face, but the scholar didn't need to look at it, he directly and quickly pulled his neck back, and opened just the right distance to avoid the brush in Shangguan Yuan's hand.

Shangguan Yuan pulled his body forward again, and the scholar also pulled his head out and behind at the same time as if there was a transparent board between him and the brush.

After a while of hard work, but still couldn't touch the tip of the scholar's nose, Shangguan Yuan withdrew his hand with a disappointed face, and put the brush dipped in ink on the inkstone.

"Alas, boring, boring, so boring!"

Shangguan Yuan shouted loudly, but the scholar ignored it, purely thinking that his own pavilion elder was going crazy.

Shangguan Yuan glanced at the scholar and looked at the scholar, but there was no reaction?

Then there was a leaning on the edge of the table and rotting:

"Oh, the little scholar has grown up, it's not fun, it's not fun~, next time I go to the emperor, let's see if I can change to a fresh scholar~"

"Then I'll tie up the master tonight and throw him out of the city."

"Hey~, what a terrible scholar, if you want to change, you have to change~"

The scholar urged with a straight face:

"Hurry up and start writing, I really don't have much time to play, if you don't finish this, your scholar will have to lose his head for you."

Shangguan Yuan sighed:

"Alas, I know, I know! ~”

After playing around for a while, Shangguan Yuan entered the state, and quickly brushed down the folds of these books. In recent years, all that has been passed on to the elders of the Pavilion is nothing more than the suggestions of some literati and scholars to their local towns, the examination in Wolong City, or the improvement requirements of local county officials, etc.

Almost all of them are miscellaneous, and the civil officials below are not sure to decide, and they will eventually be appealed to the elders.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

They are all directly brought by several strokes, to be honest, many times even the scholar does not know whether the elder Ge has carefully read the contents of the book.

"Master, do you want to drink saliva to calm down?"

Shangguan Yuan's eyes jumped from side to side, muttering to himself:

"In the past five or six years, many people have died, most of them are ordinary people, and the documents submitted by Huacheng are even more strange."