As soon as the rainy weather in the south of the Yangtze River came, it was so cold that people didn't want to go out, Chen Tao just wore a somewhat thin linen clothes, sat under the stone bridge to hide from the rain, and his bamboo basket contained a few pieces of taro found in the mud field, and went back to roast it with wildfire, which could be eaten by hungry people.

The rain was heavy, Chen Tao shook his hair, twisted his hair and wrung it out, looked at the sky, the dark clouds were thick, and a thunder could be seen faintly, this rain is getting heavier and heavier, thanks to this stream was diverted a few years ago, and it has been dry, otherwise you can't even find a place to hide from the rain.

Picking up some dry branches that had not yet been wet, and lighting them with a fire breaker, Chen Tao sat on the stones under the bridge, and some of the clothes that were wet and damp by the rain were also taken off, and spread them on his knees near the fire to roast.

It didn't take long for the rain to be heavy, a gust of wind blew, and it was cold and damp under the stone bridge.

"Tick Tick ......"

The rain hit the stone bridge overhead, shining on the side of the tree, Chen Tao's ears were talking softly, and someone was passing by on the stone bridge above with rain, making a splashing sound, and shouting in his mouth: "Wei Zhengjue, you said that this wind is not cold, and I shivered as soon as the wind blew in my elbow." ”

A familiar voice that had not been heard for a long time replied, "Rain...... Don't look big now...... It's gone. ”

He listened, and quickly poked his head out from under the stone bridge to see that there was an old Taoist priest walking over the stone bridge, muttering in his mouth, he should be talking.

That back, he has been looking for a few years and has not found it, he has changed from a doll to such a big one, and he actually met it by chance.

Chen Tao opened his mouth and wanted to shout out to Daoist Wei, but he couldn't make a sound.

The figure was a little rickety, carrying an old sword full of rust and mottling, and at the head of a big horse, there was a young man showing his head and drinking.

After all, the movement under the bridge reached the ears of the old Taoist priest, and he slowly turned his head and saw Chen Tao, a light flashed in his eyes, and he remembered the dilapidated little medical hall in the dilapidated town, and the immature young man with bells in his ears.

The horse stopped, and the old Taoist priest jumped off the horse, and he touched his beard and looked at the thief's voice and said, "Thief'er, thief'er." ”

It's him, it's really him.

The old Taoist's face was much older than when he left, and when he saw the old man's mouth, he was still calling his nickname, and the thief sounded twice in a row.

"Daoist Wei, you're finally back!huh, and brought back a girl?" The thief looked over, and the girl was really delicate, with her hair tied behind her head, revealing a pale face, without a trace of dirt on it, without any light, and very white.

He walked in front of the old Taoist, Daoist Wei was also shorter, he used to be a very tall person, but now he is a head shorter than him, maybe he has grown taller, but Daoist Wei is indeed bowed down, as if he is carrying a burden weighing many catties in his robe.

"What girl?" said Li Wei'an immediately.

Daoist Wei was still the same as before, he laughed at every turn, the old skin on his face was wrinkled, and he asked curiously: "Daoist Wei, are you sick? Why do you look so old?"

When Daoist Wei left, he was only middle-aged, but now he looks like a real old man in his sixties and seventies.

The old Taoist priest spoke, and the thief could only hear the buzzing sound, all he guessed, the girl was holding an oil-paper umbrella, and the old Taoist priest had an umbrella on his back, but he didn't take it, just carrying a wine gourd in his hand.

"I'm not sick, I'm just old. It's been a long time, and the thieves are louder. The old Taoist priest didn't explain, just sighed, the thief was loud, he looked like he had some beards, and he looked like an ordinary person.

The shed was a little dilapidated, and the wind poured in. Li Wei'an pulled his clothes, a little too cold to sit down, and after looking at him for a while, he realized that he was a teenager, not very old, but his strength was very amazing, and it was very different from his thin appearance.

There are also three yellow-skinned refugees in the shed, all of whom are in shabby clothes, and there is a porridge shed on the side, which is also built by Chen Tao, who is a thief, and sometimes even the officials of the government will come to eat a bowl of gruel.

"You're still like this, you're used to being alone, don't you plan to find a daughter-in-law?" the old Taoist priest sat on the bluestone and looked at Chen Tao and said.

Chen Tao saw his mouth shape, nodded and said: "I'm also good alone, treating people, I'm very busy every day, Daoist Wei, you don't know how serious the epidemic is now, at least one family in this city has died, either died of illness or starvation." ”

"So you set up a porridge shed?"

Chen Tao nodded and said: "It's just a pot of porridge, but it's just a pot of gruel stewed with half a bowl of rice, and a bowl of porridge is all soup." ”

He filled 30,000 yuan and handed them to the three staring hungry men sitting on the ground one by one, the three men ate their stomachs in just two or three bites, and after eating, everyone and Chen Tao bowed down and handed over the bowl, thanking Chen Tao for his kindness.

"It's just a mouthful of rice porridge, can you use it like this?" Li Wei'an seemed to be talking to himself, but he was actually talking to the old Taoist priest.

Wei Zhengjue shook his head, looked at Chen Tao adding rice porridge to the three bowls, and said, "This porridge is naturally not worth much, but in the eyes of these people, they can live one more day." ”

"Besides, when you were in Bianjing, you used the emperor's money, you naturally don't know how much a pound of grain and rice is, and now the price of rice in Bianjing has risen thirty times compared to the time when the epidemic has not started, and even the wine in my gourd has also risen fifty times. ”

"The price of rice has risen thirty times? Your wine has actually doubled?" Li Wei'an was surprised, if Wei Daoshi only talked about money, he would not be too shocked if the price of a pound of rice was ten taels of silver, but in the past, the price of rice has risen thirty times in a short time, causing the rice wine to skyrocket.

Thirty times the price of rice, many families can't afford to eat rice, so they go to eat other grains, Jiangnan people like to eat rice, rice rises, then eat northern millet rice, millet to buy Jiangnan at most, northerners then rise the price of millet rice, millet prices rise, everyone rushes to buy millet and wheat, the balance of grain in the market is chaotic, there are many people in Jiangnan, when the epidemic comes, people are panicked, if they are not really hungry, every family hides in the house and does not dare to go out.

Chen Tao didn't hear it, but just served 30,000 gruel to the three hungry men, and the three of them ate it in two or three bites, and they didn't ask for it anymore, thanked Chen Tao for his kindness, wrote it down in his heart, and then rested in the shed on his back.

Chen Tao brought a bowl of porridge to Daoist Wei and Li Wei'an, and in the porridge, you could see that there were few stewed rice grains, but Li Wei'an took a look at it and said, "You drink it yourself, I don't need it, I still have dry food in my baggage." ”

"Let's eat, let's go to Jiangnan, and we have to save some dry food. Daoist Wei said, walked over to add another half bowl to himself, and drank it all.

Li Wei'an looked at Chen Tao looking at him, but he still listened to the words of the old Taoist, raised the bowl, and ate cleanly. This is a prosperous era, but also a troubled era, Song Liao said peace, there has been no war for many years, Song and Xia have also made peace, the military disaster is gone, but the epidemic has risen.

Eating the rice in the bowl in his mouth, Chen Tao took the bowl, filled him with another bowl and said: "Young people, eat more to have strength, so that you won't be hungry before nightfall." ”

"If the young man eats more, then the priest will eat the third bowl. Li Wei'an pointed at Wei Zhengjue and said.

Wei Zhengjue was eating the rice grains in the bowl, turned his head to look at him, and said, "What kind of friendship do I have with the thief? I have saved his life, and I have the grace to save my life, so what's wrong with eating an extra bowl of porridge like this?"

Wei Daoshi didn't see Chen Tao when he spoke, but just said to Li Wei'an: "He is not that old, I don't know what happened to him, the first time I saw him, he looked just older than me." ”

"It's been less than ten years, and I'm old. Daoist Wei said lightly behind him, as if he was old, his body was rickety, and his voice was old, but he was still the same Daoist Wei who was on the grave, looking down at Chen Tao and calling two thieves in a row.

The thief put down the empty bowl, took out some dry wood from the bamboo basket, placed it in the shed, and tried to poke the fire with a fire fold, but he didn't expect that the fire ashes in it were damp and could not be used.

A fire fold was handed to him, and Li Wei'an whispered to the thief: "Use mine." ”

The fire was not big, there was not much dry firewood, and the wind was sheltered by two bundles of bamboo rafts around the shed, so it was finally not extinguished.

Wei Daoshi stretched out his hand, grabbed the thief in his hand, put it on the pulse, and thought carefully, the thief has been seeking medical treatment for more than ten years, and the old doctor has left him a lot more refined, and many incurable diseases are now at his fingertips, and he is well-known in the entire Jiangnan.

The old Taoist priest's pulse is stable, there is really no major illness or minor illness, but a state of qi aging, it is really a pulse that only an old man has, the thief did not say it for the time being, he thought in his heart, and the fingers that took the pulse also pressed down for two minutes, the veins were clear, and the weak pulse was lifted after a breath.

Li Wei'an watched from the side, Daoist Wei was sick? As far as the old Taoist priest himself said, he was not very old, but he was just an old man, all the way south, but there were more and more white occurrences, and a few wrinkles also grew on his brows, and he really looked like an old man.

I didn't see much when I rode a horse, just when I got off the horse, the back of the stiff man was really very different from what my father said about Wei Laodao, he was a swordsman, with his back bent, how to perform swordsmanship?

It must be that my father lied to himself again, deceived himself into taking such an old man, and persuaded him to come back at all times, but he knew that the old Taoist priest would change his hexagram as soon as he went south, and persuaded himself to go to the south of the Yangtze River.

Chen Tao raised his eyes to look at the old Taoist, and Daoist Wei was also looking at him, tilting his head, waiting for him to speak.

Chen Tao thought for a while and said: "Looking at the pulse, your essence is insufficient, but the pulse is stable, the breath is insufficient, and there are hidden dangers in all internal organs, but it looks like a real seventy or eighty-year-old old man." ”

The old Taoist priest didn't speak, and withdrew his hand: "It's probably cold in the north, and I caught a cold when I went down to the south of the river, it's okay, I'll just raise it for a few days." ”

"It's okay to lie to others, but it's hard to lie to yourself. Chen Tao stood up and said, "Don't talk about raising it for a few days, even if you eat it with elixir for more than ten years, it won't be better." ”

His voice was not loud, because he couldn't hear it himself, he just stood up, Li Wei'an let go of his arm, and he was stunned.

The old Taoist priest raised his eyes, touched his waist, and there was a wine gourd, took it out and poured wine, and smiled: "It's not that serious." ”