Yang Xiaoyang followed behind the old man who looked like a housekeeper with grief and confusion, and for some reason Xie Yan asked them to go to the backyard.

How can you serve guests in the backyard?

But Yang Xiaoyang saw that Li Congwen didn't care at all, so he didn't think much about it.

After a while, they came to a high wall with a door and a brass bell tied to a rope above it.

The old man pulled the rope and waited a little longer, and then he heard the brass bell on the door ring, and then he opened the door and led the man in.

There was a small courtyard and a hut behind the wall, and Yang Xiaoyang's eyes turned around, but he didn't see half a figure.

He always felt that this place was a little indescribably weird.

The housekeeper waved his hand at the stone table and chair in the courtyard, and when he saw a few people sitting down, he shouted to the room in the courtyard: "His Royal Highness, the third prince and his friends have arrived!"

Yang Xiaoyang was stunned for a moment, and he didn't understand what Xie Yan was doing.

Then he saw a small hole open in the window of the room in front of him, and a hollow copper pipe came out of it, and a slight voice came from inside, "Brother Li, long time no see." ”

Yang Xiaoyang was dumbfounded, he never expected to meet His Royal Highness the legendary Prince in such a legendary way.

Oh, and I didn't meet each other.

The old man who had brought them saluted the men, walked out of the courtyard and closed the door.

Li Congwen looked at the brass pipe for a while, and chuckled: "Xiao Yan, are you still afraid of people?"

There was no sound coming from the brass pipes.

"How's it going?"

There was silence again.

Li Congwen thought for a while and asked, "The businessman you wrote about Jia Shu is going to say that the more people spend, the richer they become?"

This time, a voice came from inside the brass pipe, "Now our money comes mainly from labor. ”

Yang Xiaoyang nodded when he heard this, but he still didn't understand, it stands to reason that money will become richer and richer if it is not spent.

"And then?" Li Congwen then asked.

"I grow grain in the field, and someone buys my grain with money, and I want more food for myself, so I exchange my labor for money. If no one buys my food, I will only grow enough food for myself, and then I will have less money to sell. ”

Li Congwen opened his mouth wide, "It's that simple?"

"Of course not, but it's complicated that you don't understand. ”

Li Congwen was stunned, opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he was speechless.

Yang Xiaoyang almost laughed out loud, this Xie Yan spoke like Li Congwen.

He felt that the expression on Xie Yan's face in the room at this time should be serious.

.......................

Twenty-four years of Anyan, autumn, southern Xinjiang.

Chu Sleeve looked at the gray and white rabbit lying motionless in the cage with an expressionless face, and asked quietly: "Yang Qi, the rabbit you caught for me is now fat like this, and he is not willing to move, what should I do?"

Yang Xiaoyang glanced at the rabbit that was already bigger than Xiaohua, and said casually: "It loves to eat and is not willing to move, can it not be fat?"

Chu Sleeve looked at the vegetable leaves in his hand, and then looked at the hopeful eyes of the rabbit in the cage, silently raised his hand high, and unexpectedly saw the rabbit's red eyes looking up.

She sighed, "You have to find a way to make it move, lose some fat on its body, or the cage will not be able to close." ”

"I can't turn it off and change it to a bigger one. Yang Qi sat on the bamboo chair and comfortably felt the coolness of the autumn breeze.

Chu Sleeve saw that the rabbit's eyes always followed the vegetable leaf in his hand, smiled slightly, and said to Yang Qi: "You grab this vegetable leaf and run in front, let it chase behind." ”

Yang Qi was startled, imagined the scene of being chased by a fat rabbit in his mind, and hurriedly shook his head.

Then he saw Chu Sleeve looking at him quietly, Yang Qi swallowed his saliva, smiled like a bitter gourd, and nodded.

..........................

"Is your father in the house?" Li Congwen was embarrassed for a moment and changed the subject.

"He's in the capital. ”

Li Congwen was not surprised, "What news is there in Beijing?"

There was no sound coming from the brass pipe sticking out of the window, but a piece of letter paper poked out of the crack in the door.

The corners of Li Congwen's mouth twitched, he got up and picked up the paper, opened it and looked at it, and fell into deep thought.

Yang Xiaoyang looked at his expression, and didn't know whether to look at it or not, so he had to wait.

After a while, I saw Li Congwen turn his head to look at him, his face solemn, "Your father has never been to the court since he issued the decree to let all localities build academies. ”

Yang Xiaoyang's pupils shrank, and he immediately turned his head to the side, lowered his eyes, and pursed his lips, "Most of him doesn't want to go to court." ”

Li Congwen opened his mouth to say something, but found that all those words were stuck in his throat, and finally had to turn into a sigh.

At this time, Yang Xiaoyang caught a glimpse of another piece of paper being stuffed into the crack of the door of the hut, and his heart sank suddenly.

Li Congwen picked it up and glanced at it, looking inexplicable.

Yang Xiaoyang pretended not to care and looked at it, stunned for a moment.

It reads: You two can go, and stay in my house.

Yang Xiaoyang knew that these two definitely did not include Li Congwen, but how afraid of people was His Royal Highness the Prince?

Yang Xiaoyang put the box on his back, and before leaving, he gestured to Li Congwen with his eyes, and then walked out of the courtyard with Ju Yeqi, and was taken to the guest room by the old man waiting at the door.

Li Congwen cleared his throat and said softly: "Xiao Yan, I want to ask you to find someone named Zheng Ji in Ezhou City." ”

"Got it. ”

Li Congwen looked at the motionless copper pipe, and evoked a smile, which was unusually handsome under the light of Qinghui, "Let me tell you, on the way here this time, I met a person who is not a person." He's a demon and a human child, much more powerful than you, but he's not afraid of people at all, but he always wants to pretend to be like a human, and every time I look at his awkward expression, I feel uncomfortable......"

An emaciated teenager in the room sat in the shadow under the window, listening to Li Congwen babbling about his experience on the road, and couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth.

His Royal Highness, who has not seen many people and has not been seen by many people, has an unusually beautiful face, but he looks extremely weak in the shadows.

......

Yang Xiaoyang carried the box on his back and followed the old man with Ju Yeqi, and had the honor to appreciate what the mansions of the high-ranking officials and nobles in their prime looked like.

Yang Xiaoyang saw the beautiful flowers and plants in the house, and there were several small ponds, sparkling, and there were fish and shrimp swimming in the ponds.

"How many are from Chang'an?" Just as Yang Xiaoyang was enjoying the scenery of the Duke of Chu's mansion, the old man in front suddenly asked with a smile.

"I did pass through Chang'an. How do you know, senior?" Yang Xiaoyang raised his eyebrows and asked curiously.

"You don't have to call me senior, just call me Lao Zhou. Old man, I am the housekeeper of the house, if the two of you need anything, you can just ask. Lao Zhou waved his hand, and then said: "It was the carriage of several people who told the old man that the carriage should be the family of the Duke of Weiguo." Grandpa Duan used to talk to His Royal Highness the son of my family, and I still remember the old man. ”

The old man's words reminded Yang Xiaoyang of Duan Qing's down-and-out mansion, and then looked at the magnificence in front of him, and suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Obviously, he is the same as the prince of the country, but Duan Qing wants to move out of the capital, behave with his tail between his legs in Chang'an, and live a careful life.

Grandpa is also quite difficult.

Yang Xiaoyang thought of Yang Qi's news again, and was a little depressed for a while.

Seeing that Yang Xiaoyang didn't speak, Ju Yeyan took over the conversation, "Is there a hereditary replacement for His Royal Highness the Prince?"

Lao Zhou nodded quickly when he heard this, and the smile on the old man's face bloomed, "Yes, yes, our Royal Highness the Prince of the World will double Mingwu's taxes with a letter, and there is no need for the grandfather to say more, General Yang gave the grandfather a heirloom."

In the future, as long as Ming Wu is still in the first day, the title of the Duke of Chu will be in one day, and he will rest with the country! Moreover, the grandfather still has jurisdiction over the fiefdom, how many nobles can have this power now?"

Yang Xiaoyang looked at Lao Zhou, who was as happy as he was knighted, and couldn't help but smile, and the incomprehensible worries in his heart dissipated.

However, now there are relatively few farmers in Ezhou City, and most of the grain has to be bought from the south, which can be regarded as an explanation to the imperial court. Lao Zhou sighed when he said this, said no more, led the two to the guest room and bowed and retired.

Yang Xiaoyang didn't have to think about it to know that this was the price of gaining jurisdiction, and he felt more and more that this court was like a place to eat people.

"Little lamb, yesterday you said you wanted to buy me a sugar gourd!"

Xiao Di's voice interrupted Yang Xiaoyang's thoughts, only to realize that he had come to the house.

Looking at Xiao Di's puffed up face, he couldn't help but pinch it, "I'll ask someone to buy it for you later, and buy you two more strings as compensation, okay?"

Seeing a pot of oranges on the table, she hurriedly peeled one for Xiao Di to let her breathe a little.

"Little lamb, little lamb, why do you say that Brother Xie Yan is afraid of people?" Xiao Di said and spit out several orange cores in a row.

Seeing this, Yang Xiaoyang took the orange to his mouth and gave it all to Xiaodi, "I don't know, maybe I was scared when I was a child." ”

"Phew, this is so sour. Xiao Di's face was so sour that she screwed it together, but she didn't want to spit it out, "Then can we help him?"

I've never seen anything like this in my life.

In order to dispel Xiao Di's thoughts, Yang Xiaoyang hurriedly said: "You are very capable of Brother Wen, and only he can speak, so you have to find him, I can't." ”

"Hmph, lamb, you're so stupid. ”

Yang Xiaoyang laughed dryly a few times and peeled a few more oranges.

Stupid is stupid, it's better than work.

"Little lamb, little lamb. ”

"Huh?"

"When are we going to fight?"

Yang Xiaoyang sighed, "The corpse is not so easy to find, you can't dig other people's ancestral graves, right?"

"What is the difference between an ancestral grave and a solitary grave?"

"Ancestral graves often have to be worshipped, but lonely graves are much more pitiful, and most of them are left unattended. Therefore, let's try to find a lonely grave and suffer less from others. ”

Yang Xiaoyang knew that this was a lie, but it was just used to deceive himself, but he needed a reason, whether it was true or false.

"Oh, anyway, we're going to look for someone within seven days of death, and his soul is still there. We have to make it clear to others that his body after death is used to save people, so he won't be angry. ”

Yang Xiaoyang was stunned for a moment, lowered his head and smiled bitterly.