After the snow, the sky is clear.

The blue sky is thousands of miles, there are no clouds and no wind, the earth is like a qiong, covered in silver; a round of red sun, reflecting the glow and shining brightly, the snow is boundless! The capital city is picturesque, clean as jade, crystal brilliant and dusty, and the beauty is flawless!

It's just that the weather is even colder than when it snows!

In this prosperous capital city of Luoyang, there are magnificent palace courtyards, charming streets and alleys full of traffic, rich and luxurious mansions of the powerful, but also poor and poor alleys.

The name of this humble alley is also worthy of its name, it is called Hanmen Alley. This alley, located on the outskirts of the west gate of Luoyang Capital, is a low, old and dilapidated house, which is the rental house of those third- and fifth-class merchants in the capital. These businessmen started with the rent of such a dilapidated house, and slowly occupied a place in the prosperous place of the Luoyang capital by running some small businesses. However, the people who live in such poor places are often either lazy, drunkards, cowards, or coachmen.

The original Wang Biao's slave Alai family now lives in this cold alley. Alai had many dreams in his life, and when he was still sixteen or seventeen years old, his maternal uncle patted him on the shoulder and said:

"Child, you're not too young, stop wandering outside, you should find something to do!"

He sneered and said:

"Uncle, you can stand and talk without back pain, and now I don't have the skills to support my family, and I don't have the ability to drink three or six, where do you tell me to make a living!"

"Son, on the ground of the capital," said his maternal uncle with a sigh, "as long as you are industrious and serious, it will not be a problem to support your family!"

Therefore, after three months, his maternal uncle was at the house of the governor of the king and gave him an errand to drive a carriage. At first, when he received a monthly salary of twenty taels of silver, he was satisfied and happy! However, after a few years, the prosperity of the capital city took his eyes on him and his heart as poor. Therefore, he began to complain about life, and at first, complained that the reward of the Governor Wang's family was too little!

Finally, one day he parked the carriage outside the palace gate because he sent the king to the court, and waited for the dispersal of the court with many official coachmen. So, he met Chen Jitang, the coachman of Hu Yuanwai's family. In the process of chatting with the world, he learned that in addition to the fixed monthly interest of 20 taels of silver per month, this Chen Jitang will be rewarded by the master every month, and it will exceed the basic salary several times every month!

Since then, he has been unhappy, complaining, and complaining whenever he meets people. Therefore, one autumn morning, the coachman of Hu Yuanwai's family suddenly found him, and gave him two hundred taels of silver for no reason, and the two of them had a sumptuous banquet in the restaurant, which was also paid by Chen Jitang. At that time, Chen Jitang didn't say anything else, but told him:

"Hu Yuanwai heard that your carriage was extremely well controlled, and he respected it very much, so he asked me to send this silver!"

A few days later, Chen Jitang sent her another two hundred taels of silver, and also went to the restaurant to have a big meal, and also gave a lot of gifts, and did not say anything else, still saying that Hu Yuanwai praised him for his skill in riding horses.

is such a favor, after a few times in a row, Ah Lai's heart has already been spent, and only Hu Yuanwailang is the best person in his eyes. Suddenly, one evening, Chen Jitang sent him five hundred taels of silver tickets, but this time they did not go to the restaurant to eat and drink, but secretly discussed some things.

Chen Jitang told him:

"Your father and son, the governor of your family, are insatiable people, and now they are all targeted by the imperial court, and when the case is discovered, you just need to stand up as a witness and say a few words. Moreover, our Master Hu also wants to take a ride in the good carriage you drive!"

Alai then asked:

"What do you want me to say when you give evidence?"

"You say that on the evening of the tenth day of the eighth month, you saw these two men with your own eyes," he said, showing him the portraits of Wu Shuang and She Gang, and continued, "driving a carriage into the palace, and you helped them carry boxes of heavy boxes of gold and silver into the palace." ”

After listening to his words, Alai knew that this was a slanderous deed, so he was a little afraid and hesitated! However, when Chen Jitang took out a silver ticket of 1,000 taels from his cuff and shook it in front of him, he very decisively dragged the silver ticket and grabbed it in his hand.

Now, he has already proved his master, and Wang Zhi's father and son have also been imprisoned for this! However, until now, when the snow was flying, Chen Jitang had not shown his face, let alone waited for Hu Yuanwai to recruit talents. Because, he had conceived too much of the prospect before, so he did not cherish the money that he had obtained without much effort, and as a result, he did not have long to squander.

Since the palace was raided, the trees fell and scattered, and the slaves went separately to make a living. Therefore, at the beginning, because he had a few money in his hand, he took his family to live in Cui Sanye's Full Moon Inn, and waited for Hu Yuan to invite him to catch the carriage. However, he wanted to see the days go by day by day, but Hu Yuanwai's letter of seeking talent was delayed! As a last resort, he had no choice but to take his family to Hanmen Lane and rent an old and narrow house to live in.

Now, fate is not good, and he has become a poor worm who eats and drinks confused!

On this day, the weather was unusually cold, and the whole family did not have a decent winter coat, except for one on him, which was a strong shield from the wind while driving in the palace; his mother-in-law had already told him last night that there was no rice in the rice tank! Therefore, he tossed and turned last night. Early in the morning, he went to look for his mother-in-law's makeup, and finally, he found that there was a jade bracelet that could be used as a few dollars. So he took the bracelet and left.

But when his mother-in-law saw it, she threw herself out of her bed, and like a leopard, she swooped down on the sheep with swiftness, and, with a roar, said:

"Lazy worm! you have to leave me with this bracelet, this is my mother's dowry that she took off from her hand. ”

But he was so short of life that he had only hunger in his belly, and all he could hear in his ears was the groans of hunger, so he was as cold as a wolf, and with a flick of his arm, his mother-in-law fell to the bedside and wailed, and four or five hungry children also awoke from their dreams, and they stared into frightened eyes, and the world was dark and cold, and there was hunger as far as could be seen!

During this time, Alai was familiar with the pawnshop, and he could be seen almost every three or five corners. The shopkeeper wore a warm hat and a cotton robe, and held the jade bracelet he had just handed over, and held it up to the air, looking up at the sun, but his eyes peeked at it from time to time, standing in front of the counter, trembling from hunger and cold. Obviously, the market price of this jade bracelet at that time could be worth at least five hundred dollars. However, the shrewd and cunning shopkeeper also saw through the mood of the comer-waiting for the master who had no rice to cook.

So, the full man did not worry about the suffering of the hungry man, and the shopkeeper deliberately used his set of soft grinding and hard bubble means, and he procrastinated and said:

"W-well!"

"What's wrong?

So the shopkeeper shook his head, and said with a reluctant look:

"It's hard to say, I'm afraid you'll be annoyed, brother. ”

"Annoyed ball, let's talk about it!"

"This jade bracelet fell fiercely a few days ago!"

"Shopkeeper, just say it! How much?"

"The price is stupid!"

"Stupid, how much?"

"Forget it, take it back! I have a lot of them here, and I can't sell them, you see!" So he opened the cabinet and brought out a tray of jade bracelets to show him.

Alai's heart was half cold, and finally, he repeatedly looked at the bracelet in his hand with pure color, and asked ruthlessly:

"How much is it worth? ”

The scheming shopkeeper also thought it was time to make a deal, so he pretended to be very embarrassed, crossed his five fingers at him, and stretched out his hand.

"Five hundred dollars!" Alai shouted in surprise.

The shopkeeper shook his head ruthlessly.

"Fifty cents!"

The shopkeeper still shook his head.

In the end, Alai said discouragedly:

"Five bucks?"

The shopkeeper nodded with an embarrassed face, in fact, he really wanted to scream excitedly in his heart!

Alai hesitated again and again, looked at the freezing snow on this day, and the wrinkles on his face were suddenly as dense as the terraces of the Loess Plateau. Finally, he sighed deeply from his chest, and put the jade bracelet on the pawn counter with a clatter, and at the same time stretched out his thin and weak palm to the shopkeeper, and took the five coins thrown by the shopkeeper with a sad heart, held them in his hand, and cooled in his heart, without saying a word, he turned his head and left.

Looking at his lonely back, the shopkeeper showed a knowing smile. (To be continued.) )