July.

In Lingzhou, the heat is still unstoppable during the day.

Although it was already past the beginning of autumn a week ago, Xu Yan and the others did not feel even a trace of coolness from the beginning of autumn in the continuous journey for more than 20 days.

The area of Jingning Town is very large, containing a total of 24 townships, of which only 6 townships are in the south of the city, and the remaining 18 townships are all in the north of the city. After traveling for almost a month, Xu Yan and the others finally had to get out of the scope of Jingning Town, because they were about to enter the northernmost part of Jingning Town, the last township bordering Wuyang Town, Qiulu Township.

In Qiulu Township, there are thirteen villages, among which only Qiulu Village, which has the same name as the township, contains a market, so the population is the largest, with about hundreds of households.

After Xu Yan and the others came to Qiuluhou Village, it was three o'clock in the afternoon, so after the sweaty two arrived at the entrance of the village, they did not have time to enter the village, so they entered a tea stall on the edge of the village entrance and began to rest for a while.

According to Xu Yan's own route, he didn't need to pass through here, as long as he walked straight into the area of Wuyang Town in the previous Meiqi Township, and then continued to go north along the official road, but he learned from Gu Xueqing's mouth that her hometown was in a place called Yanxi Township, and there was only more than two hundred miles left from here, so he decided that it was better to send her back first.

As far as he is concerned, choosing to enter Qiulu Township from Meiqi Township is a big turn, but at most it will delay him to reach the town of Wuyang Town for about a day, and the impact is not great.

In Qiulu Village, there are not many strange passers-by who pass by here on weekdays, the reason is that this village is far away from the official road outside, but in the deep mountains, at the same time, there is really no shortcut here, if it is not for the people who have lived in this mountain and river since childhood, basically few people will come here. Therefore, when a young man like Xu Yan, who was dressed as a scholar and had a very lively face, came to the village, he immediately attracted a wave of curious eyes. Of course, although the people here looked at him curiously, and there were even young women who whispered about it and exchanged their heads with each other, Xu Yan did not feel any malice in them.

Ignoring the curious glances of passers-by, Xu Yan and the others chose a square table to sit at the tea stall under the grass shed, and he smiled and shouted to the shopkeeper in charge of the tea stall: "Shopkeeper, come and quench your thirst with a pot of tea." ”

The scale of this tea stall is very small, with only two tea tables, and all of them are placed in the open air (although it is in a grass hut), which is completely incomparable to Lao Qiao's Songyang Teahouse, but it is much better than Lao Qiao's teahouse in Xu Yan's opinion, that is, the name written on the guise of it fluttering in the wind.

The name of the tea stall is called "Entering the House", which undoubtedly looks very joyful, and people who don't even know the inside story will cry and laugh because it contains another layer of meaning, which is to enter the house.

Xu Yan didn't know why the owner of this tea stall chose such a name, if it was because the other party had not gone to a private school, it would be a big joke.

The owner of this tea stall is a middle-aged man who looks to have passed the age of confusion, extremely tall, estimated to be about an inch shorter than Xu Yan, but his body is extremely thin, like a monkey, no different from skin and bones.

When the shopkeeper heard someone shouting, he was used to not seeing a few passers-by patronizing his tea stall day after day and was drowsy, but suddenly a spirit stood up, and he shook his head to make sure that he was not delusional, and then hurriedly replied with a smile: "Okay!"

The tea was ready-made, because Xu Yan saw that the shopkeeper only scooped out a pot of tea from a large porcelain vat and brought it to them, not like the teahouse in the bazaar, which needed to be brewed on the spot, and even had to go through a tedious process such as washing the tea. But this is understandable, after all, this is just a tea stall for passers-by to temporarily rest and quench their thirst, and a pot of tea is only sold for a few pennies, far from being like in the teahouse, and the shopkeeper can also provide some snacks such as peanuts and melon seeds for people to discuss or recreation for a long time.

After the middle-aged shopkeeper brought a pot of tea and put it on the table, he immediately took out two upside-down porcelain bowls from the table and cleaned them with tea first, and then poured seven or eight full of tea into each of the two porcelain bowls, handed them to Xu Yan and Gu Xueqing respectively, and continued to say: "Look at the two of you's dress, this is to go to the county town to study?"

After Gu Xueqing left Songyang Town, in order to conceal her identity and cause unnecessary trouble, she disguised herself as a man and became a young scholar like Xu Yan, so most of the time, especially in the face of strangers, she kept silent.

Xu Yan took a sip of the tea in the bowl, and suddenly felt extremely cool, obviously the other party had brewed it in advance early in the morning to let it cool, and after he heard the other party's question, he replied with a smile: "The store has good eyesight, my brothers and sisters are going to study in the county town." ”

When the middle-aged shopkeeper heard this, he smiled and asked, "Then why did you two come to our poor country? Why don't you take the official road outside, the road outside is much easier to walk than the mountain road here, and the distance is shorter than ours." ”

Xu Yan replied bluntly: "Don't hide it from the store, we have indeed been walking on the official road before, no, my cousin thinks that before going to the county town, I can go to Yanxi Township to visit a relative who lives there, and we can only turn the road from Meiqi Township to come to you, but this weather is really hot, obviously it is already autumn, but it is still as hot as in the hot summer." ”

As he spoke, Xu Yan couldn't help but wipe away a string of sweat droplets hanging from his chin.

When the thin shopkeeper heard this, he nodded approvingly. He glanced up at the thick cotton wool-like clouds floating in the sky, which already had a hint of gloom, before he replied: " Although the weather is cloudy today, it is unusually very hot, obviously a sign of heavy rain, since your brothers are going to Yanxi, then you have to leave our autumn furnace as soon as possible, otherwise after the rainstorm, the mountain road behind it will not be easy to walk, not to mention that the whole mountain road will become full of mud, that is, after you enter the junction of the two towns, you have to cross a stream, if the amount of rain is a little larger, wait until the water surface of the stream is full of the paved steps in the stream, then you can only wait for the water to recede before you can cross the stream。 ”

Xu Yan attached great importance to this kind reminder from a stranger, and thanked the latter when he opened his mouth: "Thank you for the reminder from the store, then my brothers and I will set off immediately after drinking tea, hoping to cross the stream smoothly before the rain falls." ”

When the shopkeeper heard this, he smiled and nodded, but before he could say anything more, a young woman with a very special look walked into the tea stall on the street.

The reason why this woman is called special is that her appearance is extremely beautiful, and secondly, the clothes she wears are colorful and completely different from ordinary people. For example, on her neckline, sleeves, and right placket, she is inlaid with colorful lace, which looks colorful as a whole, but Xu Yan can also see that the main color of the woman's clothing is still mainly blue, and in addition to dressing, on the woman's head, there is also a red velvet thread wrapped with three thousand green silk, and tied into a braid and coiled on the top of the head.

Seeing this scene, he basically didn't have to think too much, Xu Yan knew that the other party must be from a special ethnic group on the Wuzhou Continent, not an ordinary woman in the market.

After the thin shopkeeper saw the woman, the smile on his face gradually faded, and then he directly left Xu Yan and the two to talk to each other, until a cup of tea, and when the woman left from the tea stall with a bag of tea, the shopkeeper returned to Xu Yan's table and smiled a little awkwardly.

Xu Yan saw the young woman who was leaving, intentionally or unintentionally, glanced at himself, and with a smile on the corner of his mouth, he couldn't help but feel a little surprised in his heart, but on the surface, he could only respond to the other party with a smile.

After the young woman left the tea stall completely, the shopkeeper seemed to feel the doubts in Xu Yan's heart, so she took the initiative to explain: "She is my sister's own sister, and she came to the township to pick up tea." ”

When Xu Yan heard that the woman was the other party's sister-in-law, he didn't think much about it anymore, just nodded with a smile and said, "So that's the case." But then, after drinking a bowl of tea, he suddenly remembered the name of the tea stall, and he stopped talking.

Seeing that Xu Yan looked like he wanted to speak but didn't seem to be able to speak, the shopkeeper continued to fill his bowl with tea, and said with a smile: "Childe, do you have anything you want to say to Zaixia? If you want to know something from Zaixia's mouth, you might as well say it directly." ”

Xu Yan saw him say this, so he asked: "Actually, it doesn't matter, I just want to ask the shopkeeper, why do you want to give this tea stall such a name as 'house', you know, the meaning of the word house is ......"

Seeing that Xu Yan didn't finish his words, the shopkeeper who had passed the age of confusion smiled slightly, and replied bluntly without any concealment: "Because I am a wealthy person, I chose such a name, but most of the people who live here are poor people who have never attended a private school, so there are not many people who know the original meaning of the word "house". ”

Xu Yan couldn't help crying and laughing when he heard that the other party deliberately chose such a name to laugh at himself, so he said again: "It turns out that the store knows the meaning of these two words, and I thought you were ......."

"You think I haven't read, do you?"

The shopkeeper who lost a few firewood chuckled, directly interrupted Xu Yan's intermittent words, and then said in a calm tone: "Actually, when I was young, I was a scholar like my son, but when I went to get famous, I repeatedly fell first, and I died of this thought, and then in order to make a living, I had to go back to this Qiulu Village where I was born and raised me to plant some tea for sale, and by the way, I set up a tea stall." However, reading people are good at everything, but there is a little bit of badness, often self-esteem, self-righteousness, so in my high-spirited age, I don't look down on the girls in the township, until nearly thirty years later, I suddenly woke up to my life has missed the golden time to marry a wife and have children, and finally can only go to She Township to find a girl to get rich. ”

As he spoke, the shopkeeper, who mentioned his past and was a little embarrassed, suddenly felt dizzy and almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, Xu Yan, who was sitting on the bench, saw that he didn't feel good, and gave him a hand at the critical moment, but as everyone knows, with such a gentle grip, Xu Yan felt that there was something wrong in his skinny body.

So, Xu Yan immediately controlled his perception and directly entered the other party's body, wanting to find out.

Almost five breaths later.

It wasn't until the thin shopkeeper had recovered that he fully understood the reason.

Seeing that he had another physical problem, and the latter helped him, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty and said, "I'm really ashamed, my old problem has been committed again." ”

After Xu Yan heard this, he just shook his head calmly, signaling that he didn't mind, and then asked quietly: "I don't know how the store's body has become so skinny?"

After the shopkeeper pulled out an empty bench next to him and sat down, he sighed and replied: "When I was young, I accidentally had a strange illness, although the condition was relieved with the help of my insiders, but for some reason, my body is getting thinner and thinner, and my spirit is becoming more and more sluggish. When the shopkeeper said this, he paused for a moment before he smiled again and continued: "I'm not afraid of your jokes, in fact, before I got sick, my body was a little fat, and I looked stronger than my son now." ”

Xu Yan didn't ask him about the specific cause, but then asked, "I don't know when the store first got sick?"

Sensing that the other party showed a hint of suspicion, Xu Yan took the initiative to explain: "The shopkeeper doesn't have to worry, I don't mean anything else, it's just that my grandfather was a country doctor, and I grew up with him since I was a child, so I also learned some lame medical skills." ”

When the shopkeeper heard this, he was relieved and said: "I didn't expect that my son was so young and so knowledgeable, you were much more productive than I was back then, and as for my illness, it actually occurred shortly after I married my wife." ”

The shopkeeper pondered for a moment before adding, "To be exact, it should be the third month after the wedding." ”

When Xu Yan heard such an answer, he immediately turned his head and glanced at Gu Xueqing, who had always been silent, and then said to the latter: "It seems that the person in front of him has the same cause as the old man in Zhangjia Village, but judging from his current condition, he should still be saved." ”

When Gu Xueqing heard Xu Yan say this, she couldn't help but feel a little surprised in her heart, and asked in a voice, "Is the little junior brother planning to save his life?"

Xu Yan replied in a calm tone: "I'm afraid that if I can save him for a while, he may not be able to live, and I just met him in Pingshui, and I have no friendship, so there is no reason to save him at all, but since he was kind to us at the beginning, then ......."

Xu Yan didn't continue, but Gu Xueqing then saw him take out a poison-avoiding pill from his storage bag and hand it to the middle-aged man, and said to the latter: "If the store has written to me, you might as well wait for the stall to go home in the evening, and then you can take this pill, maybe it will have some effect on your symptoms, but I am not sure if it can cure your disease." ”

The middle-aged shopkeeper saw that the other party suddenly gave him the pill, and he was immediately a little at a loss, not knowing whether he should take it or not, but Xu Yan didn't have time to spend it with him, so he directly took out an empty porcelain bottle and put the pill on the table, then stood up and said to him: "Okay, the time is about the same, my brothers have to continue to hurry, so I won't stop for more, you don't have to care too much about the store, you don't have to take this pill or not, you can choose for yourself." ”

Looking at the backs of Xu Yan and the others, slowly entering the village, the shopkeeper who opened the tea stall was still a little hesitant, but in the end, he still carefully put away the pill in his hand.

......

After passing through the entire Qiulu Village, there was really only a narrow mountain road left for Xu Yan and the others to walk, and even within the range of the stream, most of the places they had to walk along the ridges of the farmland beside the stream.

And it wasn't until the two of them walked deeper and deeper along the mountain path, and almost two hours or so had passed, that they were really close to the junction of the two towns.

Xu Yan looked at the already cloudy sky above his head, and said to Gu Xueqing behind him: " According to the map display, we are not far from the stream that the shopkeeper said, about two miles away, presumably as long as we pass through the bamboo forest in front of us, so although the rain is about to fall, it should not affect our crossing of the stream, and as long as we cross the stream, even if the sky will immediately darken, we can find a shelter from the rain over there and camp for the night.

Gu Xueqing didn't have any objection to this, but replied briefly: "Okay." ”

Xu Yan saw that she didn't have any opinions, so he walked directly into the bamboo forest without stopping, but then he took out the bamboo hat from his storage bag and put it on his head, and at the same time he didn't forget to say to her: "Senior Sister Gu might as well take out the bamboo hat and put it on earlier, this rain may be about to fall." ”

After Gu Xueqing heard the other party's proposal, she hummed softly, and then took out a bamboo hat from the storage bag and put it on the top of her head.

And the truth was just as Xu Yankou expected, only half an hour after they entered the bamboo forest, the sound of salsa sha slaying leaves sounded in their ears.

Immediately afterward, torrential rain poured down, and lightning and thunder roared in the sky.

"Zheng!"

The sound of a guqin was extremely inopportune, and even a little abrupt, suddenly sounded from the bamboo forest.

This couldn't help but surprise Xu Yan and the others, who were hurrying in the rainstorm.

So, Xu Yan looked in the direction of the sound of the piano, and found that in this bamboo forest where birds don't, there was a bamboo house that looked very elegant, and in the bamboo house with the gate open, you could also see a beautiful woman playing the piano.

The woman was dressed in the same costume as the one he had seen at the tea stall at noon, and even her face was at least seven points like the latter, the only difference being that the woman who was playing the harp wore a silver phoenix crown on her head, not a red thread.