"Borrow?"

Cheng was stunned, could he still borrow money like this? It was the first time he had seen it.

Growing up so big, he naturally borrowed things and lent things to others.

But they were all acquaintances.

We don't know you, so why should we lend it to you?

However, he didn't speak, with Brother Yuan beside him, and his brother-in-law also came over.

Yuan Xi looked at the embarrassed young man in front of him and said,

"I'm sorry, I don't borrow, the reason is very simple, I don't know you, there is no trust between us, you know, borrowing, is based on trust. ”

Chen Suisui's face was red, he gritted his teeth, his heart was rolling, the other party was right, but since he opened his mouth, he couldn't care about it so much, his voice was a little low, and he said,

"My name is Chen Suisui, I live in Taojiabao, Longjiang Town, I am sixteen this year, I am strong, I have a father and mother, and I can eat and be capable. This time I opened my mouth to borrow money, because my mother was seriously ill, and the family had no savings, so I was helpless, so I made this decision, Yuan Gongzi, now you know me. ”

In fact, after saying these words, he didn't know what the result would be, maybe it was a weak gesture.

To his surprise, the man named Yuan Xi actually spoke,

"Well, I know you. ”

After Yuan Xi finished speaking, he then asked,

"Chen Suisui, you can call me Yuan Xi, how much do you want to borrow?"

Chen Suisui was stunned for a while, and asked with some hesitation,

"Do you believe me? If you lend me money, aren't you afraid that you won't find me when you turn around?"

Yuan Xi was rummaging through the money bag on his body, and when he heard him say this, he said,

"Didn't you tell me your home and name? When I get back, I'll pass by here and look for you? By the way, how much do you want to borrow? I don't necessarily have it on me if it's too much!"

After turning over for a long time, he really didn't turn over the money bag, he remembered that the money bag was in the package, and the package was placed on the carriage, and then Zhang Zhongqian opened his mouth,

"Yuan Gongzi, I'll borrow it. ”

Chen Suisui didn't expect that the people in this caravan were not only reasonable, but also so good-hearted, thinking of this, his heart was even more uncomfortable, and he only felt that his previous thoughts were so inferior.

Turning around, the tall boy crouched there, his shoulders twitching slightly.

Cheng Shifei didn't expect it to be like this, looking at the young man squatting there, he suddenly felt very sad, he remembered what his father had said to him.

Maybe you don't think anything, but what you get when you are born is something that many people can't get in their lifetime.

That's a fact. Cheng Yunde didn't let his son breed any kind of pride in his heart, but told him not to take everything for granted.

Cheng felt that he had taken it for granted before.

He really wanted to step forward and pat the young man who was taller than Brother Yuan and was now squatting there, but he didn't move, because he was afraid that some of his actions would hurt people's hearts even more.

Compassion can be had, don't be pitiful.

Zhang Zhongqian didn't take out much money, but it was just a piece of broken silver.

He didn't speak, quietly waiting for the boy.

The man didn't flick when he had tears, he was not forced to cry by the hardships of life, but he was moved by a few words from the other party.

Wiping his eyes with his sleeve, the red-eyed Chen Suisui got up, and after turning around, he spoke,

"This son, although I said that borrowing may be like a mouthful, but I really don't want to, if your caravan has any manual work that needs manpower, I can help do some, don't worry, this is not the top of your money to borrow from me. ”

Zhang Zhongqian handed over the silver first, and then asked first,

"Is it enough?"

Reaching out to take the silver, Chen Suisui carefully put it in his arms, and then said,

"Enough is enough, this son, my name is Chen Suisui, my home is in Taojiabao, from this official road forward, there is a fork in the road near Longjiang Town, which is our Zhuangzi, it is easy to find. ”

After thinking about it, Chen Suisui wanted to make an IOU to this well-wisher, but he didn't have pen and ink on him, and he didn't have a valuable thing like paper.

Looking around, he said to the three of them,

"Wait a minute!"

He walked to the side of the road, picked a thicker tree, patted the trunk, and scratched the trunk a few times, and then tore off a palm-sized piece of bark with a snap.

Walking back, Chen Suisui asked,

"Dare to ask Childe, how much is Fang Cai's silver?"

Growing up in Taojiabao, he had never seen much silver, and he mostly used copper coins in Zhuangzi, and sometimes bartered.

Zhang Zhongqian said,

"Not much, about two taels of broken silver!"

In fact, this piece of broken silver has three taels to say the least.

Chen Suisui didn't think much about it, but he didn't have a pen in his hand, so he bit his fingers, squeezed out the blood and wrote on the bark, and handed it to Zhang Zhongqian after writing, saying,

"Thank you Childe for trusting me, reaching out to help, and solving my urgent need, this is an IOU, and please be sure to accept it. ”

Zhang Zhongqian took it, and stretched his neck to see that the bright red blood had seeped into the bark of the tree, and there was a line of words written on it,

"I owe two taels of silver, and Chen is old. ”

Zhang Zhongqian smiled, and then said,

"Okay!"

Chen Suisui said,

"If I need it urgently at home, I won't be polite to a few people, so I will leave. ”

Chen Suisui and the three of them took their leave, and then rushed forward.

The three returned to the carriage.

Cheng Cheng first pressed the mouth and opened his mouth,

"Brother-in-law, you can get the money if you give him it, why do you still accept such an IOU? Besides, we may not be able to see this old man again in the future, so what's the use of this IOU? Could it be that when we return, we will go to Taojiabao to ask him for money? How painful is it for him to squeeze out so much blood and write?"

Zhang Zhongqian did not answer his words, but asked him,

"And what kind of person do you think he is now?"

Cheng Shifei pouted, rolled his eyes, and said after thinking about it,

"Actually, after thinking about it carefully, I still think it's weird, if he wants to borrow money, why didn't he open his mouth when Brother Yuan asked him before? I wanted to help him, but I didn't know how. And then I don't understand, why does he say borrow, you know, how can such an encounter be considered borrowing?

Zhang Zhongqian looked at right and wrong, and said,

"Xiao Fei, you grew up in Pingnan City, and the poor people you see are at most beggars in the city. Your brother-in-law and I are away from home, and we have seen a lot of things. There is a poem that says well, people at the time do not know the hardships of farmers, and they will say that the valley in the field is self-sufficient. Don't look at the farmer's words so nicely, although our status as a businessman is not high, but our life is actually much better than that of farmers. Most of the peasants rely on the weather for food, but this year is not all good weather every year, a great drought, a big flood can make many people unable to survive. ”

Yuan Xi also listened carefully, although the master talked to him about the life of the people in the world and the sufferings of the world, but the master did not talk much, only said that when he had the opportunity to see it with his own eyes in the future, he could feel the emotions that could not be expressed in words.

Worry about the suffering of others, worry about the lives of others.

Yuan Xi didn't understand, what did other people's sorrows and hardships have to do with me? This seems to be contrary to the truth that Master told him.

Then the Master said to him what the saint said,

If you are poor, you will be good alone, and if you are good, you will help the world.

Whether it's good for yourself or for the world, what you get may not be easy in another sense. Isn't the gain of the soul also something that you give back in exchange?

As for farming, he is still very clear, but he doesn't feel much about whether the peasants are bitter or not, because in the years he has been in Tianyu Mountain, Wang Lizhuang's annual harvest is very good, and when he exchanges those pheasants and hares for rice, everyone has surplus grain.

Zhang Zhongqian continued,

"Your brother-in-law and I are businessmen, and many scholars think that businessmen value profits, why is this so? Because the purpose of our business is to make money, which is called profit. But if you think about it carefully, isn't the peasants also plowing for the sake of harvest? Isn't this profitable? Scholars, who say that they are worried about the country and the people, in my opinion, if they don't give them so much money and don't have enough to eat, who will worry about the country and the people? Don't they have to think about not starving to death first?

Glancing at Yuan Xi, Zhang Zhongqian said,

Let Yuan Gongzi smile and say something off-topic. ”

Yuan Xi shook his head and said,

"I think what Zhang Gongzi said is very reasonable, Master told me that in everything, one needs to live first, and only then can you have the energy to think about other things when you fill your stomach. If a person can't even fill his stomach, he is asked to be a saint, which is not the right idea. Anyway, at least that's what I think, people have to live first. ”

Zhang Zhongqian nodded, looked at Cheng right and said,

"Xiao Fei, what Yuan Gongzi said just now, at least you have to live first. Do you think, how many poor people are in the world? It's not that I, Zhang Zhongqian, saw it and could solve it by giving a few taels of silver. It's easy to give money out, but after giving it out, what kind of impact it can bring, or the result, is really worth thinking about. There is a good saying, it is the principle of calling emergency help not poverty relief. The young man named Chen Suisui probably thought that if our people were unreasonable and went up to hurt him, he would ask for some losses because of his own injuries. ”

Speaking of this, he turned his head and asked Xiang Yuanxi,

"That's right? ”

Yuan Xi nodded and said,

"I'm afraid that's so, as you two saw just now, when he took the bark, he had good finger power. Although this old man has good skills, he has not done evil, which is why I am willing to help him. ”

At this time, Cheng Cheng said,

"Brother Yuan, didn't you ruin Chen Suisui's plan?"

Yuan Xi said,

"Although he can take advantage of this method, it is not the right way after all, and besides, our caravan, I don't want this kind of unreasonable thing to happen. ”

Zhang Zhongqian followed and said,

"This matter is on me, I didn't tell you enough, I'll explain it later. ”

After saying that, he continued,

"Let's go back to that Chen Suisui, according to Yuan Gongzi, it's a good thing that he didn't come up to carjack or steal. There is a saying that poor begets bad gall, and rich begets conscience. Let's not talk about whether it is right to have a rich conscience, after all, there is a saying called being rich and unkind. To say that poverty begets evil courage does not mean that poverty is a man's sin. It means that when a person's life is so difficult that he can't sustain it, in order to survive, he will be desperate for the word 'living'. or robbing houses, blocking roads and robbing, or doing some things that lead sheep by hand, stealing chickens and dogs, or selling children and daughters, and people are not human. Xiao Fei, think about it, is there a difference between the so-called evil?"

Cheng thought about it, and then said,

"Yes, no one scolds anyone for selling children and daughters, everyone beats them for stealing chickens and dogs, and they are afraid of gritting their teeth when they rob homes and houses. ”

Zhang Zhongqian smiled,

"It's kind of rhyming, but that's exactly what it's about. ”

Then asked Yuan Xi,

"What do you think of Yuan Gongzi?"

Yuan Xi said,

"If you divide it into good and evil, then it is all evil, and there is no difference. Evil is evil, and there is no difference between big and small. When Master talked to me about good and evil, he said that the so-called distinction between big and small is just a measure that the hearts of the world can tolerate. What does selling children and daughters have to do with others? But what about the children who are sold? The poor say that if they find a good family, they can still have enough to eat, while the rich people spend the money and feel at ease, and some people even think that they have done a good deed. I'm not a child to be sold, so I won't say much, but I think no one wants to sell their children if they can. ”

Zhang Zhongqian glanced at Yuan Xi and didn't speak, not because Yuan Xi was unreasonable, but because he had indeed seen ruthless parents who didn't treat their daughters as their own.

This person has a hundred kinds of hearts, and there are always some general and individual cases that are not.

Yuan Xi continued,

"As for stealing chickens and dogs, or robbing houses, it's just that the losses in front are smaller, and the victims can scold a few words behind their backs, while those victims who have been robbed and robbed are mostly suffering heavy losses, and even have worries about their lives, so it is called a great evil, and it is the most intolerable and the most fearful. ”

Yuan Xi looked at Cheng right and wrong, and then asked,

"Xiaofei, if you are given the ability, and you can't eat, there is no way, what will you do?"

Without waiting for a right or wrong answer, he asked again,

"If you don't have the ability to escape the government's tracking, and stealing things is even more difficult to be discovered, what will you do? If you don't have the ability, you can't steal, and you have all the strength left? But if you don't have the field for you to plant, will you go?"

Cheng didn't answer, but he was thinking about it himself.

Yuan Xi said,

"I believe that the vast majority of people are unwilling to do the things that everyone spurns about. And when there is no other choice, it is the lesser of two evils. But once you take that step, what will you think? Will there be a second time after that? Over time, you will get used to it? Forget the guilt and anxiety in your heart? I believe that Chen Suisui is very resistant to this thing in his heart. ”

Zhang Zhongqian continued,

Indeed, when he said the borrowed word, it was actually much better for him than the last one. Xiao Fei, you may think that for us, borrowing and wanting is the same, but if you think about it, how do the beggars in our Pingnan City beg? People, they all have self-esteem. Just the word 'borrow money', how difficult it is for Chen Niansui to say it. In the face of his self-esteem and his mother's serious illness, he chose to back down. So I lent him money to save the emergency. Xiao Fei, giving is different from lending, although I really didn't think that he could pay it back, or ask him to pay it back. ”

Cheng Shifei thought of the conversation between Brother Yuan and Chen Suisui, and then raised his head and asked,

"Brother Yuan, do you want to help him?"

Yuan Xi smiled, and then said,

"I'm just reasoning, I know him, I can lend him money, as for whether he is still my business, whether he wants to pay it back or not, it's his business, right, Zhang Gongzi. ”

Zhang Zhongqian nodded, then picked up the piece of bark and said,

"I'll have to keep this particular IOU. ”

Cheng was puzzled, and asked,

"Brother-in-law, what's the matter? Are you really going to ask him for money when you come back?"

Zhang Zhongqian smiled,

"Of course not, when we return, how can we have time to go to Taojiabao, it's not time-consuming enough. As I said before, businessmen value profit, and in fact, for businessmen, faith is the most important quality. But everyone who buys and sells loves to deal with honest people. In this way, you can come and go and be mutually beneficial. And the untrustworthy person may take advantage of the small profit for a while, but in fact, he is unpopular and cannot make a big deal. This IOU can be regarded as a proof of faith, it is his letter from Chen Sui, and it is also my letter from Zhang Zhongqian. ”

Yuan Xi glanced at Zhang Zhongqian and didn't speak, but his good impression of him in his heart increased a few points.

If Zhang Zhongqian relied on the wealth of his family, he directly said to Chen Suisui, there is no need to pay it back, it is not a big deal, it is also a good deed, a good deed, but in Yuan Xi's opinion, it is far inferior to receiving a seemingly useless IOU.

Kindness that is willing to consider a little more is more acceptable.

Yuan Xi believed in the boy named Chen Suisui.

As the convoy continued to move forward, the boy named Chen Suisui was long gone.

Chen Suisui ran all the way to Longjiang Town, and his mother's prescription was always in his arms.

With the strength of his feet, he ran to Longjiang Town in less than half an hour, inquired about the location of the pharmacy, he rushed away, entered the pharmacy and grabbed the medicine according to the prescription, and when he paid the money, he found that the silver he had borrowed was as much as three taels or seven dollars, and it cost less than one or two silver to catch the medicine.

Carefully putting the recovered silver coins back into the small money bag between the rags, Chen Suisui hurriedly rushed to Taojiabao with a few bags of medicine.

When he was almost in Zhuangzi, he slowed down and ran towards his home at the speed of ordinary people.

According to the old man in Zhuangzi, the mother was overworked, plus some women's internal diseases, and was not affected by timely conditioning and treatment.

Fortunately, in the current era, he and his father can do more farm work together in the fields, and his mother is not idle at home, in addition to cooking, he also often washes and washes.

This made Chen Suisui, who told his mother to give him these washing jobs, angry and helpless.

Pushing open the wooden door and entering his own small courtyard, he didn't have time to rest, so he went straight to the room, shouting while rummaging,

"Mother, mother, where is the jar of medicine in our house?"

Chen's mother, who was sewing pants for her man in the back room, heard the door knocking, so she put down the needle and thread in her hand and walked out. Hearing her son's shout, she slowed her pace, otherwise she would have to catch her breath for a while if she was too anxious to walk a few steps. She leaned on the door frame and said to the room,

"Don't worry, it's on the other side of the bowl shelf, slow down, don't break the bowl. ”

A churning sound came, and the uneasy Mother Chen slowly walked to the door of the room, and just saw her son holding a blackened jar and asked,

"Mother, this is it!"

Chen's mother nodded, and Chen Suisui went to the water tank to scoop up some water and brush the dusty jar.

The small stove made of red clay was filled with firewood, and the medicine jar sat on it, and the herbs and water were tumbling in the jar, and Chen's mother told her son to pick up a few pieces of firewood and pour it with water to make charcoal.

She told her son that if the medicine can't come in a hurry, she should simmer slowly.

Chen Suisui looked at the medicine jar while telling his mother where his money came from.

But there was one thing he didn't tell his mother, and that was his initial idea.

——————————————

The person who came stood in front of Yuan Bingde, bowed his head,

"Your Excellency!"

Yuan Bingde looked at this person who only showed a pair of eyes and asked,

"Did you ever notice your existence when he came?"

The man said,

"The villain has a unique way to hold his breath, and he is confident that he will not be discovered by anyone, even if the head of the Xuanyi Sect comes, he may not find the existence of the villain. ”

Yuan Bingde said with a smile,

"It's worthy of a shadow, so you are more powerful than the head of the Xuanyi Sect?"

The man called the shadow continued,

"The adults laughed, the villain is just good at concealment, if the villain makes a move, it will naturally be discovered by the master. ”

Yuan Bingde walked through the bookcase with his hands behind his back, sat on a chair, looked at the person waiting next to him and said,

"You heard what I said to He Zhen just now, if you are added, how many more can you be sure?"

The shadow was silent for a moment, and spoke,

"One percent, my lord, if you hit it with one hit, it's ten percent, I'm afraid I don't have a chance to make a move. ”

Yuan Bingde said,

"You act when you see the opportunity, the people of the Sword Pavilion may not really act according to my plan, and they don't know about your existence, so you don't have to make a move. ”

With his fingers tapping on the table, he asked,

"How do you hide your identity?"

Sakurako replied,

"This matter does not bother the adult, as long as the adult has the next person, the villain has a way to become one of them, the adult only needs to cough lightly three times, and the villain can know the adult's intentions and act at the opportunity. ”

Yuan Bingde nodded and said,

"Go down!"

The shadow figure flickered and disappeared behind the bookshelf.

The shadow is the trump card in Yuan Bingde's hands, and even his father Yuan Shixin doesn't know the existence of this person, he is like a shadow, protecting Yuan Bingde's safety in front of Yuan Bingde.

Yuan Shixin can't forget the person he saw when he was seven years old, the person who gave him the shadow.

——————————————

The warm rain and sunny wind are beginning to break the frost, and the willow eyes and plum cheeks are already feeling the spring heartbeat.

There is no good dream when you are alone, and you still cut the lights at night.

The lack of moon hangs dredging paulownia, and there are beautiful women looking at the moon late at night.

Lu Guanju thought about his father's words, but he thought of that person.

Farewell to the lakeside, sent people away, but left lovesickness, I don't know if he remembered himself.

I don't know what I remembered, the jade cheeks were slightly red, Lu Guanju lost his mind for a while, and the handkerchief he was playing with was sent out of the window by the wind, fluttering, and hanging on the tree outside the window.

Lu Guanju looked at the fluttering scarf, and thought in his heart, how good it would be if he could float in front of him.

Who sent the brocade book in the clouds?

Close the window of Xiaoxuan, gently untie Luo Shang, and lie on the bed.

She thought quietly,

This is what my mother said she liked.