At noon, I knew that the barking did not stop.

In the three hundred and twenty-fourth years of the Ming Dynasty, the territory was already the most prosperous, but there were clouds of strife above the Tianfu court. Outside of Yingtianfu, the atmosphere of slaughter in Jiangnan Province is also a lot stronger. In Jiangnan Province, in the alleys of Mu Village, Jiangyin County, an old yellow dog the size of a man lay in the shade, yawning, and was content.

At the entrance of the village, there is an old mulberry tree that is thick with three people hugging each other, but it has been a long time, bare and has not many leaves, only a few thick branches, very ugly. Two children who have cut their heads are climbing the old tree and playing.

The sun is shining, and the old mulberry trees don't produce much shade. However, the two children were still laughing and unhappy.

The two children are smart-looking, both five or six years old. Among them, the thinner child is surnamed Xu, and his name is Hongzu, but it is a name often taken by the laity, probably because the ancestor has light and the family is in the middle, and the elders hope to revitalize the family. In the end, it's just wishful thinking.

"Azu, have you been playing a little less lately?" The other child's face was white and red, and his flesh was a little fat.

Azu drooped his face a little, and said worriedly: "Hey, don't mention it, my father always asked me to recite the Tao Te Ching, but it's annoying." ”

"Hmph, my family is different. The fat-faced baby laughed, "My father said, when I grow up, let me take care of the family's two hundred cows!

Azu was a little envious: "Ah Ming, your family has a livelihood of raising cattle. Unlike our family, we can only eat green vegetables and radishes every day, and it takes a long time to eat a meal of meat. ”

Ah Ming patted his chest, grinned, and smiled simply: "Don't worry, I will eat beef every day in the future, and you will be indispensable, we are good buddies!"

Azu was full of emotion, and was about to say a few words, when suddenly he heard the voice under the tree.

The two children poked down, but found an old bull-nosed man resting under the tree, still holding a yellowed pamphlet in his hand, laughing.

They looked at each other, and no one knew when the old man was lying under the tree.

Ah Ming was not afraid of life, and he was courageous, but he shouted: "Old man, what are you laughing at?"

Lao Dao put away the booklet, and his eyes were a little bright: "Little donor, wealth is not exposed, and the family is rich, it may not be a good thing." ”

Ah Ming was stunned, his eyes rolled slightly, and he laughed out loud: "Old man, I think you are poor, don't beat my cow's idea." ”

The child's words are unscrupulous, and the old Tao is not angry, and he hummed in his mouth: "Beef is gluttonous, but the poor Tao is not greedy for things outside the body." ”

Got up and picked up the whisk sitting under his buttocks, simply dusted his legs, and walked out of the alley. Only then did the two of them see this old way clearly. He was wearing a tattered Taoist robe, and he didn't have any luggage, except for the dust, but he carried a small flag behind him, on which two words were written crookedly: fortune telling.

Although the two children have only finished their studies, they can still understand it. Ah Ming laughed: "Azu, you see that this old man is a magic stick, and he is also a fortune teller hahaha." How can a Taoist priest say that beef is delicious. ”

Azu was thoughtful, but nodded.

The old road walked steadily, but he didn't hear it.

Suddenly thinking of something, Ah Ming quietly put his ear to Azu's ear and whispered, "No, why didn't Rhubarb bite him?"

Azu was also stunned. Rhubarb is the old yellow dog lying on his stomach in the alley, and the village chief has been raising him for three or four years. Almost as long as he could walk, the big dog guarded the entrance to the village. Rhubarb is human, and everyone in the village is cordial, but if people outside the village trespass in, they will be chased by it and run up a few streets.

The old man with the bull nose is clearly not from the village, but he was not picked up by the rhubarb, which is really strange.

"Leave him alone, let's get caught. Armin shook his round head and climbed down from the tree.

Azu answered, and followed down the tree, forgetting the old man and treating it all as a trivial matter.

Children's words are unscrupulous, and childlike innocence is not easy.

......

After about two or three hours, the sun was red on the top of the mountain, and the sky was not so hot.

The pastoral village is generally large, but the population is not large. Most of the hundreds of households in the village have a vast smoke of cooking, and the fragrance of rice slowly wafts throughout the village, which makes people feel a little relaxed. Ah Ming and Ah Zu both grabbed two or three in their hands, but they all folded their wings and couldn't scream.

Azu snorted hard and took a breath of air, smelling the aroma of rice, which contained the green vegetables and radishes he was most familiar with, the eggs and fish that he could occasionally eat, and a particularly fragrant smell, like beef.

It must have come from Amin's house, but Azu drooled when he thought about it.

Ah Ming didn't seem to be so hungry, but muttered: "The sun is going down, I don't scream anymore, I can't find it." ”

It was not early, and Azu looked at Ah Ming: "Go home, you should have dinner." ”

Ah Ming nodded, but asked with some expectation, "Do you know tomorrow?"

Azu wanted to agree a little, but after thinking about it, he still shook his head: "Tomorrow I will memorize the Tao Te Ching." ”

"It's pathetic. Amin had some sympathy. Just finished studying in the village, according to the rules, the child has to go out of the village private school, and he has to pass the hurdle of seven years old. Both were only about to be five years old, and could have played for a short time. But Azu's father is a little strict.

Ah Ming's family is a big cattle farmer, and he is not a scholarly family, so it doesn't matter if he wastes it for two years. Besides, Ah Ming's father didn't plan to let Ah Ming read the later books, and he probably stopped reading Mengxue. It is enough to be able to write your own name. As for the elegant things like reading and composing poems, Ah Ming's father had a headache when he read it.

Azu's family background is relatively ordinary. Ah Zu's father and mother usually plough and farm, work at sunrise and rest at sunset, and outsiders seem to be just authentic farmers. But for some reason, Azu was seen by his parents as a future student.

It has only been a few days since the completion of Mengxue, and Azu's daily life and rest are regularly and tightly organized by his father, waiting for five days, one, three and five have to memorize the Tao Te Ching for a whole day, and although they can go out to play, they are not allowed to go out of the village.

Although Azu's father was a farmer, he had some ink in his stomach. There were a few days when Azu couldn't get up in the middle of the night to go to the thatched house, but at night he seemed to see his father in the main house carrying a lamp to write and draw.

Azu also had some guesses in his heart, probably because his father had read some books when he was young and wanted to be a literati, but he failed to pass the examination of Guozijian. Now that I am a farmer, I have some thoughts in my heart that my son will become a dragon, and I want my son to be better than my peers.

Azu himself also wanted to fulfill his father's wish, but after all, the Tao Te Ching is really obscure, not to mention the truth and geometry, just some of the words in it are like ghost paintings, and they can't get into the brain if they are written down. It's a child's heart again, and when I go out to play crazy the next day, I leave it behind.

The two said goodbye to each other and ran home separately.

The rice is fragrant.

......

Azu's house is the most ordinary adobe brick, which can only be regarded as decent in the village. Rich peasant houses such as the village chief's house and Amin's house were all built with fine red bricks, and the large courtyard with black tiles covered with the roof. But Azu is quite satisfied, at least leisurely, thinking that there is an old beggar in the village, who lives in a thatched hut, which leaks when it rains, then it is pitiful.

In the main room, there was a boxy wooden table, not big or small, almost four feet wide and long. A family of three sat around the table, and his father Xu Si'an sat at the head of the family, standing very upright.

There were four dishes on the table, and in addition to the usual greens and turnips, there was also a plate of peanuts and a small plate of beef.

"Wow, beef. Azu exclaimed, stretching out his hand to grab it.

Xu Mu immediately stretched out her chopsticks and knocked on his dirty hands: "Have you cleaned your hands?"

Azu was in pain, put away his hand and laughed there, hurriedly ran to the well behind the house to pick up water to wash his hands, and came back to pick up chopsticks and clamp them.

The table is almost normal for ordinary people, but it is a little wide for Azu, a five-year-old child. Azu riveted his strength and stretched out his hand, but he couldn't hold a piece of beef.

Xu Si'an looked amused, stretched out his chopsticks and put two pieces into his bowl, and asked, "What did you play today?"

"Thank you, Dad. Azu stuffed beef in his mouth and spoke a little slurred, "I caught it in the woods in the village." ”

Xu Si'an nodded and didn't say anything.

"That's right, Daddy. Azu asked while eating, "When did you buy the beef?

Families generally don't have any spare money to buy beef. Since the beginning of the Azu memory, I have also tasted it at the village banquet.

Both of them were a little silent, and the whole main room was a little quiet, except for the sound of Azu chewing beef.

The candle by the window was dripping with wax and oil.

Mother Xu spoke, and her voice was soft: "Zu'er, today, Ah Ming's father is here." ”

"Huh?" Azu's mouth stopped chewing on beef, "What is he doing here?"

The corners of Mother Xu's mouth trembled, and she couldn't speak, but Xu Si'an said it in one breath: "Ah Ming's father, let you in the future... Play less with Amin. ”

"Why?" Guessing something in his heart, Azu spit out the beef in his mouth to express his dissatisfaction, "Is it because our family is poor?"

Mother Xu was a little silent, Xu Si'an stopped and stared at Azu, her tone was a little serious.

"Zu'er, do you like to read?"

Azu was stunned, for the first time in five years, his father asked himself this sentence. As soon as Azu raised his head, he saw Xu Si'an's eyes staring at him with burning eyes, and his scalp was a little numb.

was stared at a little evasively, and Azu stammered: "Happy, I like it." ”

"Really? You tell your dad honestly. ”

Listening to Xu Si'an's tone, Azu was young after all, and he was a little scared, his eyes were red, and he was about to cry.

"You're scaring the kids. Mother Xu hurriedly protected Azu.

Xu Si'an stared at Azu for a long time, and finally sighed: "Don't cry, men don't flick when they have tears." ”

"Alas, after all, I can't escape these fames. ”

Xu Si'an's tone softened a little, which made Azu feel a little relieved. But he didn't understand the meaning of his father's words, and he was a little curious.

"Dad, what is fame?"

Xu Si'an smiled, but his words were full of sadness: "Fame, people's hearts are rotten." ”

With the local wine in the small cup, I swallowed it in my throat in one gulp, and then took a peanut and ate it in my mouth. Xu Si'an spat out a breath of wine, a little drunk.

Azu heard it in a fog.

"Beef gluttony. Zuer, pour it out, feed the dogs. ”

Xu Si'an's voice was full of alcohol, and he didn't know if he was drunk and said stupid.

Azu was stunned, as if he had heard this somewhere, but it came out of the old Taoist mouth at noon. But if you think about it, the two are not related, probably just a coincidence.

In the dark night, the silver moon and the lonely star, the branches of the old trees at the entrance of the village were rattling in the evening wind, the yellow dog was eating beef, and the pond was full of frogs.