A few dilapidated houses, a well, a scorching sun, and a stinging sandstorm.

When Feng Shuzhu and Yi Dingjia walked to the door of a house, the dark and shiny cotton blue curtain was lifted from the inside, and then out came a man with dark skin and wrinkles on his face, who had been baptized by the wind and sand and sun for a long time, and could no longer see his age, but his eyes turned quickly, and he could see that he was a flexible person, but he grinned again, revealing a simple and honest appearance.

The man didn't speak, but leaned against the door frame, and looked Feng Shuzhu and Yi Dingjia up and down with a pair of eyes that seemed to be unable to open, as if he wanted to see where the two came from immediately.

Before Feng Shuzhu could speak, Yi Dingjia had already stepped forward quickly, threw back the blanket he was carrying, and shouted to the man: "Man, a pot of burning knives, two catties of sauce beef, and no water." ”

The man was stunned for a moment when he heard this, bared his teeth, seemed to be smiling, glanced at the two of them with his half-open eyes, and did not answer, turned and walked into the house.

After Yi Dingjia saw the man leaving, he turned his head and whispered to Feng Shuzhu: "This shop opened at the entrance of the desert is to kill people, especially for the original customers. As he spoke, he looked around and saw that there was no one else, so he said: "From now on, we have to rely on ourselves to drink water, although we have not yet entered the desert, but from here on, water is more expensive than gold and silver." Speaking of "more expensive than gold and silver," he twitched abruptly as if he had been pricked by a needle.

When Feng Shuzhu heard this, he suddenly realized, nodded, and cast an admiring look at Yi Dingjia.

Lifting the cotton blue curtain, the two walked into the store one after the other, Feng Shuzhu glanced around, and found that the light in the store was very dark, and the doors and windows were covered with thick blue cotton curtains. Except for an oil lamp on the counter, there was no light, but fortunately the room was not large, and only three tables were placed, two of which were full, and only one table on the inside was empty.

There were six or seven people sitting at the two tables, all of whom seemed to be merchants coming and going from the desert, all of them were eating quietly with their heads down, and when they saw someone entering the house, they just raised their eyes consciously or unconsciously, and lowered their heads to continue eating their own things.

On the surface, it seems to be a simple shop, but everyone who walks in has a strange feeling, as if it is full of vigilance and hostility, and everyone present is on guard against others around them.

Feng Shuzhu followed Yi Dingjia to the empty table, like an old customer who often came, pulled a stool out, and sat down calmly.

After a while, a person came over, but it was a man who was called a buddy by Yi Dingjia outside the door, and seeing him unhappy at this time, he walked to a distance of several feet from the table, threw a tin pot filled with wine on the table, and without saying a word, he turned around and walked back.

Yi Dingjia glanced at Feng Shuzhu and smiled.

I saw the man come over again, holding a large plate of cut beef, which was also thrown on the table, without looking at it, without saying a word, turning around and leaving, thinking that he did not have a good impression of Feng Shuzhu and Yi Dingjia.

Yi Dingjia didn't care, smiled slightly, picked up the tin pot, poured wine for the two of them, and said in a low voice: "You can't slaughter silver on us, that's what it looks like, don't care about him, they will have tricks tomorrow night, just let me arrange everything." ”

Feng Shuzhu nodded with a smile, picked up the shiny tin wine glass, gently brought it to his mouth, took a small sip, twisted his eyebrows, almost spit it out, raised his eyes and looked at Yi Dingjia, who was tasting wine with a calm expression, revealing a surprised gaze.

Yi Dingjia looked at Feng Shuzhu, smiled and lowered his voice: "How is it? To tell you the truth, Feng Shaoxia, this is a rare treasure, in the desert, as soon as the sun sets, you will know its benefits. After speaking, he drained the wine in the cup in one gulp, lifted the tin pot and poured himself another glass.

When Feng Shuzhu heard this, he hesitated slightly, followed Yi Dingjia's example, endured the strong and choking smell of wine, swallowed it, put down the wine glass, and quickly sandwiched another piece of beef, which was also just put into his mouth, and almost spit it out again. Frowning, he looked at the beef on the plate and thought to himself, where is this beef? How is it saltier than salt!

Yi Dingjia picked up a piece of beef, deliberately opened his mouth wide, put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times, swallowed it slowly, looked at Feng Shuzhu and said with a smile: "This beef has been soaked in salt water for five or six days, and then marinated in soy sauce, and before coming up, it was drenched in salt water again, and the production method can be said to be quite difficult." ”

Feng Shuzhu put down his chopsticks, frowned slightly, looked at the large plate of crimson sauce beef on the table, and said lightly: "These two catties of beef, if we eat it, I'm afraid we will have to drink a large vat of water to quench our thirst." ”

Yi Dingjia didn't answer immediately, but picked up another piece of beef, put it in his mouth and ate it with relish, took a sip of wine, and then said: "This is the store's mind, only after eating such salty beef, can you sell more water." ”

When Feng Shuzhu heard this, he turned his head and looked at the other people in the store, all of them seemed to be nothing, eating beef and drinking burning knife spirits, as if they were eating the best delicacy in the world and drinking the best wine.

Yi Dingjia said in a low voice: "In fact, in the depths of the desert, this beef is indeed a rare delicacy, when the old man was the hungriest back then, lizards, poisonous snakes, insects, that has been eaten!"

Hearing this, Feng Shuzhu was silent for a while, picked up the wine glass, took a sip of wine, and said, "Then I can get the help of my predecessors this time, it seems that Feng Mou's luck is really good." ”

Hearing this, Yi Dingjia squinted his eyes and smiled, took a bite of beef, glanced at the people at the other tables, stretched his head forward, and lowered his voice: "We agreed to divide the ...... , don't forget the wind Shaoxia. ”

Feng Shuzhu also learned to be Yi Dingjia, took a bite of beef, drank another sip of wine, and also lowered his voice and said: "Seniors, you can rest assured, gentleman." With that, he lifted his glass.

Yi Dingjia immediately understood, and also picked up the wine glass and touched it with Feng Shuzhu, and said heavily: "Heavier than Jiuding!"

The two smiled and drank a glass of wine.

After that, Yi Dingjia glanced back at a nearby table a few times, and said mysteriously: "Feng Shaoxia will wait here for a while, and the old man will come when he goes." ”

Although Feng Shuzhu didn't know where Yi Dingjia was going, he still nodded.

I saw Yi Dingjia stand up, hold a wine glass, and walk to a table next to him with a smile, and without the consent of those people, he pulled a stool and sat down.

Feng Shuzhu only glanced at it, and he could already see from the appearance characteristics of the deep-eyed eagle nose that those people were Hu people from the Western Regions.

Seeing Yi Dingjia and those Hu people "gurgling" a few words of nonsense, he then raised his hand to toast the glass.

The Hu people didn't seem to care, and kindly drank with him and invited him to eat a few pieces of beef.

Yi Dingjia put down his chopsticks and exchanged a few words with those Hu people, and those people looked at Feng Shuzhu at the same time and looked up and down.

Feng Shuzhu naturally understood that they were talking about themselves, so they no longer watched, but drank and ate meat with a calm expression, but continued to pay attention to the corner of his eye.

Seeing that those people shook their heads, Yi Dingjia had an embarrassed expression, and said for a long time, those people seemed to hesitate for a while, and then discussed a few words with each other in a whisper, and then turned their eyes to look again and again, and nodded reluctantly.

When they arrived here, Feng Shuzhu had already understood, and they seemed to have reached an agreement, so they continued to pay close attention. Seeing that the Hu people cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks on the table and made a vacant space, one of the taller Hu people took out a cloth bag from under the stool and put it on the table.

The Hu man patted the cloth bag, nodded to Yi Dingjia, and put a hand inside.

Yi Dingjia also followed the example of the Hu man and reached in from the other end.

The hands of the two seemed to be clasped together in the cloth bag.

The Hu man didn't speak, but shook his head, withdrew his hand, didn't look at Yi Dingjia, picked up the chopsticks on the side, and ate the beef by himself.

Seeing this, Yi Dingjia lowered his head and thought about it, muttered a nonsense, and put his hand into the cloth bag.

Seeing this, the Hu man hesitated, put down the chopsticks in his hand, and put his hand in again.

The two shook hands again, and the Hu man thought for a long time, looked at his companion's eyes again, and finally nodded.

Feng Shuzhu naturally understood that this was a way to set the price when running the rivers and lakes to do business, in order to prevent others from peeking into the transaction, so he didn't pay attention to it, but continued to eat meat and drink calmly.

Seeing that the deal was reached, Yi Dingjia had a smile on his face, drank another glass of wine with those Hu people, then got up and walked back, and after sitting down again, he was relieved and said in a low voice: "Our luck is really good this time." ”

Feng Shuzhu pretended to be confused and said, "Oh?"

Yi Dingjia lowered his voice very low and said, "Those Hu merchants have already agreed, and they can take us for a while." After speaking, he said with an exaggerated expression: "You know, they have camels and sheepskin water bags." ”

Feng Shuzhu nodded, and said calmly: "I'm afraid those Hu merchants won't give us a ride in vain." ”

Yi Dingjia coughed lightly, glanced back at those Hu people, and then said, "The two of us, they will collect 10,000 taels of gold." He raised a finger as he spoke.

Feng Shuzhu was stunned for a moment, glanced at Yi Dingjia, and said indifferently: "They also believe in this promise." ”

Yi Dingjia rolled his eyes and snickered: "I guess it's because of our good face." ”

Feng Shuzhu didn't say anything when he heard this, but glanced at the Hu people, and his eyes fell on the scimitar they were carrying on their waists, the handle of the knife had already been sharpened to a dark and shiny, and there was a faint trace of blood red on the gauntlet. Turning his head, he looked at Yi Dingjia, who looked old and frail on the outside, and thought about himself as a scholar without the power of a chicken, and vaguely understood everything, but he was still silent immediately.

Listening to Yi Dingjia said again: "There are seven of them in a group, counting the two of us, there are nine people in total." Nine is the easiest to count, and it seems that we are really lucky. ”

The corners of Feng Shuzhu's mouth moved, smiled bitterly, and said, "The senior is really a master!"