"Do you sell your crabs?" Han Ji asked, "Give you two lanterns, and give me the crabs from the tree."

The man immediately refused, his face was not good, and he muttered, "No wonder they say you are profiteers." ”

Haizhu only understood the last two words, she turned her head and smiled, pulled Han Ji and said, "Do you want to raise crabs?" ”

"You don't want to raise?" Han Ji bought it for her, and she likes to raise these strange ones.

Haizhu shook his head, there are no coconut trees in Quang Nam, and the coconut crab that can pick coconuts went with the boat to a place where there are no coconuts, and it is useless, it is just an ordinary crab.

"Forget it." Han Ji also came up with the idea when she was interested in coconut crabs.

Another coconut fell, and after a while, the coconut crab came down from the tree, and its owner picked a piece of meat from the wooden box and fed it, and picked it up and put it on another tree.

The merchant returned to the ship, and there was a lively conversation and laughter from the direction of the ferry. Erhe glanced at Han Ji and Haizhu, weighed for a moment, and strode towards the ferry with the basket on his shoulder.

"Aren't you afraid we'll steal his little fellow?" Haizhu glanced at it and said, "How many days will we stay in Qiongya?" ”

"In two days, the merchants will buy goods from here."

Erhe hurried over, and seeing that the two of them were standing in place and not moving, he put his mind at ease and looked at the top of the tree with a pestle.

"How do you sell your coconuts?" Haizhu asked.

"It's sold out." Erhe glanced at her and said, "The next one will be sold to you, you will exchange things with me, two coconuts and a foot of cloth or a pair of shoes." ”

Haizhu was just inquiring, but seeing that he misunderstood the meaning, it was difficult to say that he would not buy it. She had to wait for the crab in the tree to pick two more coconuts, and then she went to the ferry to buy a foot of cloth and then trade with Erhe.

Two coconuts are cut and shelled, and then a hole is drilled, and the rice stalk is inserted into the head of the bed, so that it is convenient to drink when you are thirsty at night. Han Ji and Haizhu slept on the boat at night, and the merchants who were in a tight position also slept on the boat, they slept on the board of the ship with their goods on their pillows, and they were guarded by soldiers at night, so they didn't have to worry about thieves stealing.

The snoring accompanied by the sound of the waves sounded all night, and the next morning, the merchants all disembarked, and the sea pearl was covered with a quilt and made up for another hour's sleep.

She was awakened by the heat, and when she opened the hatch, her eyes aching from the bright sun outside.

Han Ji also came out of the next door when he heard the sound of the door opening, he squinted his eyes and said, "The winter here has caught up with the summer in Guangnan, you wash up, and I will take you to eat." ”

Haizhu nodded, and after a while, he disembarked with him, and the two of them ate a bowl of porridge casually, bought two straw hats at the stall and put them on, hired a local to guide the way, and began to wander around the island.

Rice is planted in the farmland on the island, coconut trees can be found everywhere, and the fallen coconut leaves are dried in the ground, dried and taken back to make firewood. Children dig holes under coconut trees to catch crabs, or pick wild fruits to feed their own coconut crabs, and old people carry buckets to dig clams and conch on the beach, or mow grass to feed cows.

"What's that?" Haizhu passed by a house, and on the bench outside the door was a sun-dried coconut leaf, which was covered with white squares, which looked like sugar.

"It's coconut meat, dried to make soup, soak in water, and boil porridge." The woman who led the way shouted into the house, and she twisted two pieces and handed them to Haizhu, saying, "Taste it." ”

The dried coconut smelled a strong coconut fragrance, crispy in the mouth, and the taste was sweet, Haizhu nodded at the woman and asked, "Is this for sale?" I want to bring some back to my younger siblings. ”

"Sell, sell." The woman excitedly shouted into the house: "Aunt Wu, there is a guest who wants to buy your dried coconut." ”

When the surrounding people heard the noise, they each took out their own dried coconut and competed to sell it to Haizhu.

Haizhu bought them all, and they also gave her six puff fans made of coconut leaves.

Han Ji acted as a small servant carrying things, he followed Haizhu and continued to walk, and at noon he met Erhe, who sent crabs to pick coconuts last night, he was killing chickens, and when he saw people, he rubbed his hands and shouted: "Do you want to come to my house for dinner?" ”

"Erhe's daughter-in-law makes coconut chicken delicious." The woman who led the way saw the stitches and said.

Han Ji glanced at Haizhu, nodded and said, "Let's eat in the village at noon." ”

Walking into Erhe's house, his house is made of wood and stone, the yard is covered with a shed, the roof of the shed is coconut leaves, and there is a smell of dried grass and trees when sitting under the shed.

Erhe's wife opened a coconut and poured two bowls of coconut water on the table, she smiled at Haizhu and pulled the child into the stove house.

"Is your house far from us? How many days does it take to take a boat? The woman who led the way wondered.

"Six or seven days." Haizhu replied.

"It's too far, it will take half a month to come and go." The woman was a little disappointed, and after a while asked again, "Are your big ships sold?" What do you want to exchange? ”

Haizhu and Han Ji glanced at each other, the people living in Qiongya have little knowledge, they lack knowledge of the outside world, gold and silver are not as good as cloth iron pots and clay pots on this island, and they have no concept of price. However, the arrival of Quang Nam merchant ships broke the confinement of this island, and the islanders, who had been self-sufficient for generations, also had the idea of going out.

Han Ji dipped his fingers in the water and drew a fish-shaped diagram on the table, saying: "You live in the place of fish fins, go in the direction of fish tails, you can reach Quang Nam without boats, the fish tails in the east are connected to Quang Nam, and the fish tails in the west are connected to Guizhou Mansion." ”

Erhe also came over with the cleaned chickens, and he asked the key, "Can we go over?" ”

"You can go with your household registration." Han Ji pointed to the point representing Guangnan and said, "As long as it's not a rogue, you can go over." ”

"What is a family register?" The woman asked.

"Just go to your chief and ask him to give him a token." Han Ji said, he thought for a moment, and said, "If your chief is willing to be a guarantor, you can also take our ship to Quang Nam or Guizhou." ”

Erhe thoughtfully, he carried the chicken into the stove room, and after about a pillar of incense, he came out with a clay pot, and the chicken and soup in the clay pot poured into the stone basin, and the rising heat wrapped in a light fragrance.

"Eat." He brought a few bowls of rice and said, "Taste it, you can't eat it in other places." ”

The freshly slaughtered chicken is chopped into pieces to wash off the blood and poured directly into the coconut juice to cook, the condiment is only a few slices of ginger and tender coconut meat, add some salt to taste when the pot is raised, and the boiled chicken is still the original color. Haizhu scooped a spoonful of soup and drank it first, the soup tasted good, and she took a piece of chicken wing root to eat, the chicken was very tender, the juice was very full, sweet and sweet, and there was no smell of meat.

"You eat it too, it tastes good." Haizhu took two pieces of chicken for Han Ji and put them in a bowl, saying, "The original chicken may only be made by their local chicken." ”

Han Ji tasted two bites and said, "When we return, we will buy a few chickens and a basket of coconuts to take home, and give them to our family to taste." The tender chicken made with simple ingredients tastes much better than chicken soup stewed with ginseng slices and goji berries. ”

Haizhu told Erhe that he promised to save her a basket of coconuts.

After the meal, Han Ji took out an ingot of five taels of silver and put it on the table, and said, "This ingot of silver can buy a good cloth, if you don't want silver, you can go to the ferry with me later, and I will bring you cloth." ”

"Yes." Erhe didn't want cloth now, he grabbed the silver and thought about one day to take a boat to Quang Nam.

The afternoon sun was scorching, and the air was roasted to a deformation, so Han Ji took the corner of broken silver to the woman who led the way, sent people, and he took Haizhu back to the boat for a lunch break.

In the afternoon, when the weather was cool, Haizhu and the children on the island were digging sand under the coconut trees to find crabs. After sunset, she asked Han Ji to go to the restaurant to buy bamboo rice, she picked up firewood and dug a big pit on the beach to make a fire, the sand and gravel burned hot, and then put the coconut crab and bamboo rice into it and buried them in the sand.

When the temperature of the sand and stone cooled, Han Ji dug up the sand with a shovel, and the golden roasted coconut crab was revealed, and the fragrance also came out. He and Haizhu first ate bamboo rice to fill their stomachs, and continued to eat coconut crabs when they had food in their stomachs.

The sunset was shining in the sky, and the beach was scattered with people catching the sea, and Haizhu and Han Ji sat on the ground eating delicious crab meat. When you are full, you lie on the warm sand, the sea breeze blows slowly, and you don't know when you will fall asleep. Haizhu woke up in the middle of the night, and was greeted by the bright night sky, with twinkling stars overhead, as if within reach.

Haizhu sat up, the sand and stones wrapped in her hair fell with her movements, Han Ji woke up when he heard the sound, he yawned and said, "I didn't call you when you slept deeply, now it's time to go back to the boat to sleep?" ”

"Forget it, there's a snoring on the ship." Haizhu touched a coconut, she picked it up and drank a stomach of water, quenched her thirst and walked away to release the water.

Tonight the night is wonderful, the moon is like water on the beach, the swaying aquatic plants on the reef are clearly visible, and it is even more difficult to hide the figure of people. Han Ji turned around when Haizhu turned around, he looked at the waves on the sea and was engrossed, waiting for the footsteps to turn back before sitting upright.

Haizhu sat down beside him, lay down on his shoulder, and said, "We are also in the same bed." ”

"With the sky as the covering?" Han Ji turned sideways and hugged her, and the beauty was holding him in his rare reverie, and said: "In the future, I will take the time to accompany you out to play every year, we will go far away, put down all kinds of things at home and abroad, don't think about anything, just eat, drink and have fun." ”

Haizhu agreed, she listened to the sound of the waves and said, "Tomorrow we will go farther, and I will take you to swim in the sea." ”

Han Ji agreed without hesitation.

Early in the morning, the seabirds were crying, and the sky was still glowing blue, Haizhu and Han Ji were woken up, the two went to a nearby fisherman's house to borrow water to wash, bought breakfast and walked along the beach in the distance, to the deserted beach that no one patronized, she led people to the sea.

Entering the sea, Haizhu hugged him from behind Han Ji, and she didn't let him look back at her. He was not good at water, so she took him to swim under the clear blue sea, and when he shook her hand, she led him out of the sea, and let him look up at the underwater sky, the white clouds swaying with the water, and the bright but not dazzling sunlight.

She showed him the sea as she saw it.

At noon, Haizhu went to the bottom of the sea to catch crabs and shrimps, knocked abalone and scooped conch, and the two dug a sand pit to burn a fire and eat seafood roasted from the sea sand as they did last night.

Without worrying about being seen, the two kissed passionately on the beach, dived wantonly in the sea, dug sand on the beach to build a city wall in wet clothes and scattered hair, dug pits to bury themselves, and finally lay on the shallow beach with a body of fine sand washed by the waves.

As the sun set, Han Ji carried Haizhu to the ferry step by step, and after borrowing water from the fisherman's house to rinse, he ate dinner indiscriminately and fell asleep. When I woke up, the boat had left Qiongya, and the boat rushed to the next ferry port with a full load of goods.

"What's in Guizhou Mansion?" Haizhu asked, leaning against the railing.

"If you don't go to Guizhou, go directly to Dali, and you will pass through Guizhou on the way back."

"What does Dali have?"

"There are elephants, and the local people ride elephants, and we use mules and donkeys to pull carts to pull goods, and they use elephants to carry people and camel goods, which is amazing."

Chapter 199: Elephant Worker

The ship was at sea for another three days, and when it was getting dark, the helmsman twisted the sails and changed direction to move in the direction of Kyeokfu. Han Ji pointed to the land in the distance and said: "The people who live in this place are cunning, they don't look like us, they have different hearts, they are greedy and lazy, we don't deal with them. ”

Haizhu secretly compared, and had a measure in his heart, it turned out that his cunning and ruthless heart was rooted in his roots.

At night, the boat floats on the sea, the sky is bright before approaching the ferry port of Dali, Qiongya is wild, the primitive atmosphere of the islanders' life on the island is strong, Dali is the opposite, here is not more desolate than Guangnan, the colors are bright, the people are very spiritual, they treat foreign ships, they are picky in their eyes.

The anchor was settled, the officers and soldiers of the ferry got on the boat to check the ship, Han Ji took out a token and took Haizhu off the boat first.

The fishing boat at the ferry port was about to go out to fish, the local fishermen looked at the two people who got off the boat, Haizhu smiled slightly at their eyes, she held Han Ji's hand and looked around, the vegetation here is lush, the grass is full of flowers, and the air is full of grass and trees, not the salty and wet smell of the sea.

"There are a lot of snakes and insects here, so don't move around, let alone have conflicts with people." The steward of the ship gave an explanation to the merchants, and instructed: "It is better to go back to the ship and sleep at night, and come to the ferry to discuss when there is an incident, and do not go with people to a remote place." The boat stops at the ferry port for five days, and after five days, it has to leave regardless of whether the people arrive or not. ”

Haizhu glanced at Han Ji, he pulled the corners of his mouth and said, "We are businessmen on this trip, and there is no preferential treatment." But as long as we don't cause trouble, and the local people don't make trouble, you can have fun. ”

"I seem to have heard your mother say that she wants to buy jade from Dali?" Haizhu asked.

"Yes, I'm here with a mission, to go to the quarry to see the stones, and if it's negotiated, I'll buy half a boat back." A colorful bird flew overhead, and Han Ji dodged for a moment, afraid that it would poop and pull on his head.

A fat man walked in front of him, he had a live snake wrapped around his neck, the snake's tail was upturned, and he was still spitting a letter in his mouth, Han Ji pulled Haizhu sideways and took a step to make way for people and snakes.

Haizhu glanced at her twice, didn't say anything, she and Han Ji found a place to eat first. Here near the sea, there are still a lot of seafood, the guy in the restaurant first brought a plate of oysters, Haizhu pry one dipped in the dipping sauce and tasted one, the sour dipping sauce made her squint, the sour taste faded, she felt that the taste was not bad, but she didn't dare to eat it again.

"Let's go to the quarry today." She said.

"Why don't you shop first?" Han Ji asked.

Haizhu shook her head, the environment here is too unfamiliar, and there are no familiar people, she doesn't know where to go when she first arrives, so it's better to do business first.

"The quarry is far from here, I'll ask someone later, and we'll ride an elephant over there." Just as the shopkeeper of the restaurant came in from outside the door, Han Ji beckoned to her, first gave a dime of silver and then inquired: "Female shopkeeper, do you know who has an elephant?" I'm going to rent three elephants to go to the quarry in Tai Xu. ”

"My brothers had, and each elephant had twenty taels of silver a day, or a piece of silk."

Han Ji nodded and said, "You go and shout." ”

After the meal he went to the ferry and called eight guards, and then went to the door of the restaurant, where three long-nosed elephants were already waiting, their tusks hard and sharp, and they were hard to look at, but they were reduced to human mounts. can tame such a big guy, Han Ji didn't dare to underestimate the Dali people.

The elephant keeper brought a high stool and patted his pedals to signal to the guests, and he stepped on the stool and climbed on the back of the elephant, and the elephant was very gentle from head to tail.

Haizhu guessed that the elephant could not speak Chinese, and she tentatively asked, "Are these elephants yours?" ”

The elephant shook his head.

"He understands but can't speak your words." The shopkeeper explained, urging: "Hurry up and sit down and walk, now you can leave at night to the big market." ”

Han Ji first stepped on the back of the elephant, then bent down and dragged Haizhu's arm to drag her up, and the eight guards also climbed onto the back of the other two elephants one after another. The elephant herd examined it, and he sat down on the back of the elephant, and with a shout, the elephant set off on its thick legs.

Haizhu noticed that where the elephant was passing, the stones on the ground were trembling, and the old woman who was selling water saw the elephant coming, and pushed the wooden cart to avoid it first.

"How does it feel?" Han Ji asked.

"Very good." With a high field of vision, the treetops were overhead, and Haizhu leaned over to avoid the branches, and she glanced down, which was more exciting than riding a horse.

The guards in the back were more excited than her, shouting and bragging, and the four of them riding an elephant together were not crowded, and the last person could even lie down.