In the middle of the night in the cold winter, the firewood room leaked everywhere, and the cold north wind poured in.

There are holes in the ceiling, and you can even see the starry sky in the dark night. Naturally, there was no bedding in the firewood room, but fortunately, there were more than a dozen thick piles of straw, which could be used as quilt covers.

Su Chen and Ah Chou spread the thick straw on the cold ground and burrowed into the straw pile, which was warmer than a quilt, but the sharp straw blades were a little piercing.

The leaks in the four walls of the firewood house have also been plugged by straw piles.

The two teenagers huddled in the straw pile to keep warm, and the heat was warm and comfortable.

"By the way, Brother Chen, why did you come alone this time? Didn't you usually come to the county seat with your father to sell fish?"

Ugly is a little strange.

"I came to the county this time, not to sell fish, but to run away from home..."

Su Chen shook his head, his body shrunk in the thick straw pile, his clear and flawless eyes looked gloomy, looking at the starry sky through the hole in the ceiling, his slightly childish face was extremely dazed.

He told Ugly everything that had happened.

The family is in great difficulty this year, and there is still a shortage of boat donations from the county government and silver from the giant whale gang, and his father and mother plan to sell him to a good-hearted family in the county as a slave. In addition, there is also the fact that he has a strange disease of bluestone tears, and he told Ah Ugly one by one.

He didn't want to be sold into slavery, and he couldn't continue to stay in Zhouzhuang's hometown, so he could only come to Gusu County alone to earn a living.

But there is no family in the county, and there is nowhere to stay for a while, so I can only temporarily ask my brother and ugly to help, at least there is a place to stay, there is a mouthful of food to eat, and I will not die of hunger and freezing on the streets of the county.

When Ah Chou heard this, he almost jumped up, and couldn't help but be anxious: "Brother Chen, don't agree to sell yourself as a slave! Those big families in the county town treat domestic slaves like pigs and dogs, and no one cares if they die."

Don't look at me at the Eagle Inn as just a handy guy, often scolded by the big shopkeeper and guests, but they don't dare to really kill me. If I am killed, the county commander will definitely send officials to take people and put them in prison.

But if you sell yourself to a big family, you are the lowest domestic slave, if you make a mistake and are directly beaten to death by the master's family, no one will call the shots for you, and the yamen will at most fine the master's family with one or two pieces of silver.

Don't listen to what those people say about whether they are kind or not, that's all nonsense! Even if the owner of this family is kind-hearted, but one day he doesn't want you, and when he sells it, you dare to say that the next master is just as good-hearted? If you sell yourself as a slave, you will not be able to make your own decisions!"

Ah Chou's anxious face turned red, for fear that Su Chen would be confused for a while, so he agreed to sell him to himself.

"I didn't want to sell myself to others as a slave, so I ran away from home and came to Gusu County, thinking of finding a job to support myself. ”

Su Chen's expression was gloomy, and he was a little strange to see Ah Chou so excited: "But Ah Chou, why are you reacting so much?

Ah Ugly's eyes were red, his expression was indescribably sad, and he buried his head and said: "You also know, I am an orphan, I have not had a father and mother since I was a child, I only know that my surname is Fei... However, in fact, I also have a sister. When I was a child, she pulled me up, and one winter I had a cough and had no money to treat it, and I couldn't get through it, so she had to sell herself to a big family in the county town as a maidservant in order to raise money for my treatment.

Unexpectedly, only half a month later, the hostess of the family said that she seduced her master, so she sold her to a green building in the city. Over the years, I have been a buddy in the inn, working hard to earn money, and I thought that one day I would redeem my sister from the Qinglou... But~, I'm so useless, I can't earn a few copper coins a year!"

Su Chen was silent, not knowing how to comfort the ugly.

Even if he didn't ask about the ransom money, he knew that if he wanted to redeem people from the Qinglou, it would be an unimaginable amount of money, at least a dozen taels, or even dozens of taels of silver.

That is many times more difficult than his family's annual payment of the county government's boat tax and the extortion of the Giant Whale Gang.

It's not that the ugly is useless, this is not the silver that an eleven or twelve-year-old boy in the inn can earn.

After a while, Ugly recovered from his grief, these things were not something he could solve, and it was useless to be sad. He asked a little strangely, "By the way, Brother Chen, what's the matter with your bluestone tear disease?" ”

"My disease is very strange, every time I cry, I drop blue tears, and soon they will turn into bluestones. Oh, it's the little bluestone in this bag. Then I will get seriously ill and lose half of my life. It is necessary to take at least one wild ginseng herb for ten years to replenish the vitality. ”

Su Chen said, took out a small cloth bag from his arms, and poured out more than ten small bluestones from the cloth bag.

These are what he has accumulated since he was a child, and they are carefully kept close to his body.

Each one is as round as a teardrop, and it vaguely seems to exude a soft light of green, which is quite mysterious.

It's just that Su Chen thought that after these bluestones dripped out of his eyes, half of his little life was almost gone, and he had lingering palpitations about these little bluestones.

"What a beautiful little bluestone, these are made of your tears?"

Ah Chou looked strange, took a small bluestone, and bit it hard, almost breaking his teeth, "It's so hard, I can't bite my teeth!"

He looked through it carefully, and he couldn't see what it was, but he thought that the bluestone was very beautiful, like a small pearl jade.

"Some doctors in the county town have seen it, and they say that it is a sick stone, and they dare not touch it! However, I have always carried them with me since I was a child, and they are similar to ordinary small stones, and I have not found anything special. I slept in the same bed with my younger siblings, and they didn't get me. ”

Su Chen said, sighing softly.

This bluestone tear monster disease has been his heart disease since he was a child, and he never mentions it to others easily, so Ah Chou didn't know it before.

Ah Chou didn't care about this strange disease, but he was very surprised by these shiny bluestones, and said with a smile: "My sister often says that if you don't die in a big disaster, you will be blessed!

Brother Chen, you said that this bluestone is so beautiful, could it be a very valuable jewelry? I have seen a jewelry store in the county, which specializes in selling this strange red, red, green and green small stone, and sells it to those big ladies, it is always valuable. If this bluestone can also be sold for money, then you will be rich. ”

Su Chen pursed his lips, shook his head with a wry smile and said: "It's definitely not a gem, or the doctors in the pharmacy won't recognize it?" My father once took it to ask the old master of Hanshan Daoguan, Hanshan Zhenren, who has great powers, and even his old man can't see the fame." If it's really valuable, Hanshan Zhenren must have seen it at a glance. My family doesn't have to worry about the silver to buy ginseng medicine, a ginseng plant is a tael of silver, and my family is dying of sorrow. ”

Ah Chou scratched his head, it was right to think about it, he was very worried about Su Chen's strange illness: "I work as a guy in the inn, and I can barely earn one or two silver a year for three copper plate wages every day." The money earned after a year of hard work is barely enough to eat. It's too difficult to help you earn money to buy ginseng medicine. Brother Chen, you are running away from home now, what kind of job do you want to find in the county?"

"Originally, when I came to the county seat, I was also thinking about finding a job as a buddy. But outside the inn in the afternoon, I saw you being bullied by the big shopkeeper, and I thought that being a buddy was not a long-term solution. You still have to find a promising job. ”

Su Chen said seriously, "When I was at Ximen Wharf, I overheard a wealthy businessman say that the Medicine King Gang would recruit a group of disciples and apprentices in Layue.

I thought about it for a long time in the afternoon, and I planned to try it tomorrow in the Medicine King Gang. If I become an apprentice of the Medicine King Gang, and the Medicine King Gang has a lot of medicinal materials, maybe I don't have to spend money to buy ginseng medicine. You even have the opportunity to learn the art of medicine and become a high-ranking pharmacist. ”

"Do you want to go to the Medicine King Gang?"

Ah Chou was suddenly taken aback, "That's a big gang in the rivers and lakes! Are you going to go into the rivers and lakes? If you are wandering in the rivers and lakes, your head is hanging on the belt of your trousers, and you may fall off at any time! If you are killed, the government will not care about you." ”

For the civilians of Gusu County, the rivers and lakes are another world.

The high-rollers of the major gangs in Wu County were rampant, generous, and their status was extremely high, and even the county officials did not dare to offend them, and the common people were even more in awe.

But those monstrous powers and riches were all bought with superb force and lives.

If a large family in the county town dies of a domestic slave, the county government will also send a servant to inquire about the cause of death and fine a sum of silver. But the gangs in the rivers and lakes died, and the county government officials turned a blind eye and never asked, just as if they didn't see anything.

"I didn't think about it that much. If this bluestone tear disease can't be cured, maybe one day I can't afford to get sick, I can't afford to sell ginseng medicine to save my life, and I will die directly. I went to join the Medicine King Gang, and maybe I could live a few more years, but it was all for nothing. ”

Su Chen shook his head, not caring about the dangers on the rivers and lakes.

No matter how dangerous it is, it will not be worse than his bluestone tear disease.

After he left home, he didn't have much to worry about, he just wanted to support himself.

If you can fight hard to become a pharmacist, you will also be a big man with face in the county, then even if you get through this life, you don't have to live a hard life, and you will be looked down upon.

"Brother Chen, in this way, you have really decided to go to the rivers and lakes!"

Ah Chou Chang suddenly looked at Su Chen with great admiration.

He has been a partner at the Sky Eagle Inn for several years, and has met many high-rollers in the inn, and he has always been in awe, but he has never had the bold idea of becoming a high-roller himself.

Brother Chen'er is going to the rivers and lakes... That's right, why don't I go to the rivers and lakes with me? Maybe I can become a hero!

A strange light surged in Ah Ugly's eyes, and a bloody impulse suddenly appeared in his heart, and his whole brain became hot.

He also doesn't want to be a handyman in the Eagle Inn for the rest of his life, he is yelled at by the shopkeeper of Wang Da every day, he is either beaten or scolded, and he wants to get ahead of himself in the life of a subordinate!

If one day he becomes a high-roller, he will no longer be bullied by the shopkeeper, and he can still eat big fish and meat at the Sky Eagle Inn every day, so that the snobbish shopkeeper will grovel and wait, serving him tea and water.

It is even possible to earn a lot of money to redeem her sister.

The innkeeper can't make a lot of money at all, and only by going to the rivers and lakes to become a big hero can he become rich.

Right!

That's it!

"Since Brother Chen'er is going to go to the rivers and lakes, I will go with me. I didn't want to do it in this broken bird inn for a long time, I was always bullied by the big shopkeeper and the big guys, beating and scolding every day, and suffering from their bird anger!

Ah Chou must be in his heart, and he shook his fist excitedly.

He was not interested in the medicinal arts of the Medicine King Gang, but was very envious of the martial arts of the high-rollers of the Aquila Gate, so he simply went to the Aquila Gate.

This Skyhawk Inn is the property under the Skyhawk Gate, and he is also familiar with the Skyhawk Gate.

"Okay, I'll go to the Medicine King to help learn medicine, and you go to the Aquila Gate to learn martial arts. In the future, our brothers will be successful in learning and art, a big pharmacist, a big high roller, and we will go through the rivers and lakes together!"

Su Chen couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard that Ah Chou also wanted to go to the rivers and lakes together, so that he would have a good brother in the rivers and lakes in the future.

"Well, as soon as it's dawn tomorrow, let's set off and join the gang!"

The two ignorant and reckless teenagers, the more they talked, the more excited they became, thinking that after the two of them went to the Medicine King Gang and the Heavenly Eagle Gate, they became masters in the gang, and their status soared.

Their desire to get ahead has never been as strong as this moment!

After chatting for an hour or two, Su Chen and Ah Chou said that they were tired, and their sleepiness became thicker, and the small firewood house gradually fell silent.

Outside the house late at night, a cold wind was blowing.

The cold wind, which was as cold as a knife, poured into the broken house with a howl of ghosts and wolves, and the firewood room became even colder.

Ah Chou had a sweet dream, waving his fists and punching a few times, occasionally muttering and giggling, already in a dream to become a young high-roller and break through the rivers and lakes, beating the king's shopkeeper and the fall of the people, no one dared to bully him.

Su Chen shrank in the straw pile, being frozen awake from time to time, shivering tightly wrapped in a tattered linen coat, trying to get into the depths of the straw pile.

He endured the straw and silently thought about the words of the rich businessman of the Li family.

"The Medicine King Gang will recruit a group of apprentices every year, and it is estimated that it will be these days! Tomorrow morning, I will go to the Medicine King Gang! From tomorrow, everything will be different, and life will be better!"

Su Chen was finally tired and tired, nestled in the straw pile and gradually fell asleep, dreaming one beautiful dream after another.

He dreamed that he joined the Medicine King Gang, and after studying hard for more than ten years, he became a great pharmacist, and became famous in the rivers and lakes, and even had the honor to meet Hanshan Zhenren, the number one person in Wu County, again.

Hanshan Zhenren is really the highest person in the world, and told him how to cure this strange disease.

Su Chen cured the strange disease, no longer became a burden to the family, returned to his hometown and returned to Zhouzhuang Water Town, which was greatly admired and respected by the fishermen of Zhouzhuang, and became the pride of his father, mother and younger siblings, and the pillar of the family.

Then he returned to the Medicine King Gang to practice martial arts, and became a big high-roller in 20 years, he held a green sword, stepped on the ripples of Taihu Lake, and beat the group of giant whale gang bandits who were entrenched in Taihu Lake to rob their homes and rob their houses.

It was very cold in the thatched hut, and from time to time Su Chen woke up from the freeze and fell asleep again.

Su Chen was constricting his thin and thin body in the straw pile, and the thought of going to the Medicine King Gang in his mind became clearer and stronger.