When they arrived in the village, the adults learned about the matter from the children's intermittent words. The mother of Xiaoliang said: "Xiaoliang is at home, I just came out of the house and saw him." As he spoke, he went home, and after a while, he came out by Xiaoliang's ears.

Old man Zhang was not here, Yang Lao Liu called someone to tell Haibao's parents, and then asked Xiaoliang: "You are back, where is Haibao?"

Xiao Liang said: "I dived in the water for a while, I was about to lose it, seeing that Haibao was still lying on his stomach, I wanted to tease him, so I took advantage of his inattention to swim quietly along the bottom of the river to the far shore and then came back." ”

Xiaoliang's mother beat and scolded Xiaoliang after hearing this, Yang Laoliu couldn't care much, and ran frantically towards the river with a few people. Hypertherm's parents then came running wildly.

The group fished for a while according to the location and surroundings pointed out by the child, but found no results, and expanded the search area a little. Time passed bit by bit, but there was still no trace of Haibao, and everyone's hearts became tighter and tighter.

It wasn't until the evening that everyone's hearts were cold. Who can dive for that long? Even if you find Hypertherm now, you'll probably be a corpse. Mrs. Zhang had already fainted from crying, and several women helped her back, helped her cook soup, and kept comforting her.

The scope of the search became larger and larger, and Yang Laoliu and Zhang Laotou rowed a boat and took the two fishermen in the direction of Yazui Village downstream, thinking that if Haibao was really still in the water, it would probably drift downstream.

Suddenly, someone pointed not far away and said, "There's a figure!" Everyone looked at it, but there was a man floating on the water, wearing a gray shortshirt and shorts. Hurry up and row over, it's not who Zhang Haibao is!

Everyone hurriedly fished Haibao onto the boat. Old man Zhang stretched out his hand to probe Haibao's snort, and suddenly couldn't hold back any longer, lying on Haibao's body and crying. In fact, everyone fished up Haibao, and they all sat in their hearts with the worst plan, and this result was also expected. The two villagers kept persuading Old Man Zhang.

Yang Lao Liu looked at Zhang Haibao, but said: "No, Brother Yang, don't be sad first, you see, Haibao doesn't look like a drowning at all." ”

Everyone looked at Yang Lao Liu in puzzlement.

Yang Lao Liu pointed to Haibao's stomach and said: "Drowning in the water, you must drink a lot of water, and your belly will be significantly enlarged.

Only then did everyone suddenly realize that Haibao was really like this.

Old man Zhang was so sad that he didn't notice this. At this time, after listening to Yang Laoliu's words, he understood, stopped crying, and said, "In this case, Haibao can still be saved?"

Yang Lao Liu said: "Maybe it's just a short period of suffocation, try it." As he spoke, he pinched his nails the middle of the Hypertherm.

Then everyone was taken aback, because Haibao suddenly jumped up from the boat with a "whoosh", rubbed his eyes and said, "Who hit me, who hit me?" Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he said embarrassedly: "I just dreamed that someone knocked on my head from behind." ”

Seeing that Haibao returned to normal in an instant, Old Man Zhang couldn't help but wipe his tears again: "Bao'er!".

Haibao said: "Daddy, what's wrong with you?"

Yang Lao Liu said: "Haibao, you picked up a life and came back." Everyone is anxious to find you for half a day, and your father is worried about death. ”

Haibao looked around, then remembered, and said: "I tried diving with Xiaoliang, I jumped into the water, and then I felt very sleepy, and I fell asleep unconsciously, it turned out that after sleeping for so long, it was going to be dark." ”

Old man Zhang said: "Nonsense, can you fall asleep in the water?" But because Haibao had just been out of danger, he didn't continue to blame him when he was talking nonsense. Everyone didn't take Haibao's words to heart.

When they returned home, it was needless to say how happy the people were. Everyone taught Haibao that they must never do such dangerous things again in the future, although Haibao felt that everyone was making a big fuss, but in order to reassure his parents, he agreed a little bit.

It's just that since then, Na Xiaoliang admires Haibao very much, and really never scolded Haibao again, and some people say that Haibao is not, and he is the first to stand up against it.

The days passed very peacefully, and in a blink of an eye, Zhang Haibao was already fourteen years old, he looked unusually strong, and he was taller, like a young man. This day is the annual spring equinox temple fair in the county, and early in the morning, Zhang Haibao and Yang Xiaoqing followed the adults to the city to sell fish. Yang Lao Liu and Zhang Lao Tou's stalls are not far away, and the two children each help their father sell fish in front of their stall. Yang Xiaoqing was younger, so she couldn't hold back her curiosity, looked around, and from time to time ran to Old Man Yang's stall to pull Haibao to play for a while and then ran back to her father's side. There are more and more people in the market, and the vendors are busy buying and selling, and the shouts and shouts are coming and going.

Zhang Haibao skillfully greeted the guests: "Sell fish! Sell fish! Delicious seafood!" and "Uncle, buy a fish!

The uncle took a look and walked over.

"Auntie, buy a fish, look, how fresh it is!"

The old lady squatted down, looked at the full pot of fish, and pointed with her hand and said, "Let's come to these two!"

"Good!" Hypertherm was overjoyed, and hurriedly tied the two fish with waterweeds and put them in the old lady's basket.

The old lady paid the money, and looked at Zhang Haibao and said to the old man Zhang: "Brother, you are really blessed! This young man is really a good boy!"

Haibao said: "Auntie, you have complimented you!

The old lady left with a smile, and the old man Zhang also smiled happily.

After more than an hour, more than half of the fish was sold. The street was bustling, Xiaoqing came over and took Haibao's hand and said, "Brother Haibao, let's go play!"

Old man Zhang said: "Bao'er, take your sister to play together! There are many crowds, so pay more attention!"

Haibao is still a child's heart in the end, and he wanted to play for a while, so he agreed, and left happily with Xiaoqing. Old man Zhang shouted behind his back, "Come back early!" "Got it!" the two children replied in unison.

The two walked all the way and watched all the way. Sellers of steamed buns, sellers of rakes, sellers of straw hats, sellers of kites, sellers of needlework, candy blowers, crickets, fortune tellers, acrobatics...... The variety of gadgets is overwhelming.

As he walked, he turned a corner and came to an open field, which was not crowded anywhere else, but there were hundreds of horses tied to wooden stakes one by one, black, white, brown, maroon, variegated, with different colors of fur, tall and short, fat and thin, and the scene was very spectacular. From time to time, the horses snorted, swept their tails, and ate a few grasses, allowing the people next to them to discuss and bargain, it turned out to be a horse market.

Hypertherm had never seen so many horses, so he couldn't help but walk over and look at the horses, and saw a snow-white pony, and liked it very much, so he stepped forward to touch the shiny mane and patted the horse's neck gently, the owner of the horse was an old man with white hair, who was talking to others, and when he saw that it was a child, he ignored it.

At this moment, there was a shout: "Get out of the way!" Looking up, there was a young man about the same age as Haibao in the horse market, dressed as a rich boy, surrounded by four middle-aged men dressed as entourage, all with arrogant faces, with large knives stuck obliquely in their waists, their faces were uglier than the other, and they screamed to open the way for the young man. When everyone saw this, they frowned and quickly avoided it, hoping to get as far away from those people as possible. The owner of the white horse just watched coldly from a distance, with no expression on his face.

The boy circled around the horse market and walked towards where Haibao and the others were, his eyes fixed on the white horse. Seeing this, the owner of the horse stepped forward and said, "Young master has a good eye, this is a good horse, with a good coat color, fast running, and light teeth. When he said that his teeth are light, he meant that the horse was young.

The young man ignored it and asked, "How much is this horse?"

The old man stretched out a finger and said, "One hundred taels of silver." ”

The young man was taken aback and said, "Is this horse worth a hundred taels of silver?"

An attendant next to him said: "It's not worth it! It's definitely not worth it! It's worth ten taels at most!"

Another attendant said, "I think it's worth five taels at most." ”

The old man said, "How many taels is the young master worth?"

The young man shook his head, pretending to be very sorry and said, "A good horse is a good horse, but the white fur is unlucky, and I think it is worth five taels of silver." ”

An entourage immediately chimed in: "That's it, White Horse is unlucky!"

The old man couldn't cry or laugh, and said, "The young master has taken a fancy to it, so I should give more price, five taels is too little." ”

A retinue said: "My young master has taken a fancy to your horse, that is your blessing! What nonsense! The young master said that five taels will be five taels!" As he spoke, he reached out and took out a knife from his waist, making a gesture to scare the old man.

Unexpectedly, the old man's face did not change and said: "Fifty taels of silver will be taken away, and one tael less will not be discussed!"

The boy waved his hand, and the attendant put the broadsword back into his waist. The boy said, "Fifty taels is fine, but I want to try this horse first." He glanced at a few of his entourage.

One of his attendants squatted down on the side of his horse, and the young man mounted his horse on the back of the attendant, and the other slashed the reins attached to the stake with a large knife, and the boy slapped the horse's ass and ran away. As soon as the horse ran two steps, the old man rushed up with an arrow and pulled the reins, and the horse stumbled and threw the young man to the ground, and one of his attendants flew up and kicked the white-haired old man, and the old man seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and dodged this kick and immediately turned around to fight with the man who kicked him. The young man was so angry that he drew the knife from the waist of the attendant beside him, and was about to slash at the old man.

Zhang Haibao on the side saw that the old man was about to be stabbed with his back to the young man, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and threw himself at the young man with a "whoosh". The young man was caught off guard that there was another person beside him, and he was hit by Haibao, the knife in his hand fell, and his whole body fell to the ground under Haibao's pounce, and his head just hit the stake that tied the horse, and immediately got up with a big bag, and his hands were full of blood when he touched it. Seeing this, the four attendants rushed together, and one of them tore off his shirt to bandage the boy's wounds.

The old man hugged his fist to Haibao and said, "Thank you little brother for helping!" and sneered at the young man: "I don't have any money to pretend to be a young master, I want to rob my horse, but I don't have a door!"

The young man said angrily: "Who said that I have no money! How much money does my family have, I will scare you to death if I say it! Little ones, take out the money to let them see it!"

An entourage agreed, took out a blanket from his body, touched it into the jacket casually, took out a piece of silver, and shook it in front of him: "See, old man, have you ever seen such a big ingot?" and shook the blanket in his hand with a rattle, and said, "There are a lot of them here!"

The old man didn't look at it, and said to Haibao with a smile: "Little brother, do you say that ingots are real or fake?"

Haibao was speechless and said, "This, I don't know. ”

The few people were enraged by the old man's arrogant attitude, and they all glared, wanting to pounce forward and fight again, but the young man pointed at Haibao with his hand and said, "Where did you get out of the stinky boy, are you in the same group as this old man?"

Haibao said: "No, I don't recognize this old man. Everyone has something to say, and you can't hurt people with your hands. ”

The young man said, "You can see clearly, this old thing did it first!"

Haibao said: "Obviously, you grabbed other people's horses first, don't bully the old man!"

The young man sneered and said, "What a chivalrous and courageous man!" Wang Balamb, the old man can't be bullied, you can be bullied!" After speaking, he pointed at Haibao and said: "Beat me hard! Don't spare this stinky boy and tell him to be nosy!"

The four entourages rushed towards Haibao together, Haibao saw that these people were hideous-looking, tall and carrying knives, and felt a little scared in his heart, but his face did not show the slightest fear, he dodged backwards, and said with a fist: "I don't want to fight, I just want to persuade you not to make a big deal about it, it's not good to hurt anyone." ”

A man said: "You hurt our young master, ruined our good deeds, if you don't pick your skin today, it's cheap for you!" After speaking, he reached out to his waist and pulled out a big knife, and several other men also picked up the big knife and rushed up.

At this time, Yang Xiaoqing was already crying anxiously next to him, and shouted loudly: "Brother Haibao, don't beat me Brother Haibao!" At this moment, I saw the white-haired old man raise his hand, and he didn't know what trick he used, only to see that the four men suddenly weakened, swayed, and stood unsteadily, the steel knives in their hands fell to the ground one after another, covering their stomachs with both hands, and wailing in pain. The old man said to Haibao: "Little brother, go quickly, don't worry about the old man's affairs." ”

Haibao was taken aback, but he didn't expect this old man to have such skills, but he originally had sympathy for this old man, and seeing that he had hurt these people, he was afraid that he couldn't get out easily, and asked, "Then ...... you?"

The old man said: "I wanted to sell the horse for some silver, but who knew that these beasts were so mixed up, and my horse could not be sold, so I better go." ”

As soon as the words fell, I heard a crisp voice say, "Don't want to go, return me to the horse!" A woman leapt over the crowd and landed steadily in front of the old man. But I saw that the woman was seventeen or eighteen years old, dressed in a water-red dress, with a graceful figure, a beautiful face, and anger between her eyebrows.