A new rain had just fallen, and the stone pavement was wet. Renyazi asked the children to squat under the eaves, waiting for the maids in the house to come out and lead them. Xia Houlin was buried in the crowd, rubbing the mud on his feet every once in a while, and there was a hard dagger on the edge of his ankle, which Uncle Duan gave him for self-defense when he went out.
He is good-looking, especially his eyes are like his mother, full of stars in the night, shining brightly. Along the way, there are often little girls talking to him, but he ignores them all.
In his eyes, he is different from these girls. They have long hair and short knowledge. They only know that if they are sold into the Xie Mansion, they will be able to eat and wear warm clothes. He is different from Xiahou Rin. He is the youngest assassin of Qiye Jialan. He is not here to be a servant, but to kill.
He held his head as if nothing had happened, and glanced around. There were few people in the early morning, and the alley was deserted. There were a few beggars squatting at the entrance of the alley, and their heads were dozing off little by little.
Xia Houluo thought to himself that there must be someone from Jialan among the beggars. When he successfully infiltrated Xie's residence, someone would throw a note from outside the wall and tell him the target of the assassination. Maybe someone will come to his window in the middle of the night and tell him where Galan's inner life should be.
Although he had never participated in the assassination of Garan, his mother always said that when he told stories to put him to sleep—the Garan assassin was elusive, hiding in the market, killing invisible.
He stayed on the mountain for twelve years, practicing the knife under the instructors, playing pheasants and chasing hares in his free time, and finally had the opportunity to go down the mountain to participate in the assassination. Uncle Duan said that if he succeeded this time, he would be engraved on the Galan. The nameplate makes him a real assassin. Although he has not tried it with others, his mother is the strongest assassin of Garan, he is his mother's son, and he will definitely become the strongest assassin.
Ren Yazi came over and counted the number of children. He lowered his eyebrows, held his breath, and squatted obediently.
Assassins are like this, they are never inconspicuous.
The two maids and a few maids opened the door and stepped out from the threshold. Ren Yazi put on a smiling face and greeted him: "Everyone is here. They are all neat and smart children. A child hangs five copper coins. This is the cheapest price in Jinling City."
The leading mama asked the children to stand up, check one by one, and made sure that there was no child missing nose or eyes, arms or legs, and no crooked melons. Xie House.
Xia Houlin's ears were sharp, and when he heard the man weigh the silver tael in his hand, he spat, "Poor and sour!"
Several maids and maids were wearing half-old jackets, only the leading one wore better, with a jasper bracelet on her wrist, and a patch on the last woman's jacket.
"Hey, the one in the gray jacket over there, come here." Hearing a sudden call, Xiahou Rin raised his head and saw the leading nanny pointing at him.
Xia Houlin walked over, and the mama pushed him to the woman who had the patch on the jacket, and said, "This child looks very clever, please take it back to your hospital, don't say that the madam has treated the third young master badly."
"Mother Liu, let the slave maid be alone. Madam transferred two maids in a row before. We only have slave maid and a little maid left in our courtyard. It's not enough to be used." Like a walnut, wrinkled, as if puckered by bitter blisters.
Mammy snorted coldly and said: "The third young master is just a little old child, how many people do you need to serve? Is it possible to call all the people in the house to serve you third young master? Now I just bought these children, I will give you one to make up for the lack and have fun, how dare you make an inch?"
"Don't dare, Madam Liu calm down, one is enough." The woman quickly bowed to apologize, took Xia Houlin's hand and left.
There were many calluses on the woman's hands, which made Xia Houlin's hands a little painful, but Xia Houlin was used to it. His mother's hands were rougher than these hands because he held a knife all the year round.
"You will call me Aunt Lan from now on. What's your name?"
"Xiahou Rin." He pretended to be obedient and replied timidly.
"Which one is it?"
"'Outside the vast green fields, the shadows fall across the waves'."
Aunt Lan glanced at Xia Houlin in surprise and said, "You can still memorize poems?"
Xia Houlin was taken aback, he forgot that those who were sold by others were all children from poor families, not to mention reciting poems, even if they were large characters, they could not recognize a few. He hurriedly lied and said, "I've always listened to what others said, that's all I can say."
Aunt Lan smiled and said, "It's good to be able to recite poetry. Our young master Jinglan likes to read books the most. If you can memorize a few sentences, you will be able to please him. Do you know how to read? Have you read books? "Ziwen", have you read it?"
If erotic pictures and swordsmanship are calculated, "after reading a little, I can write my own name."
Aunt Lan patted Xia Houlin's hand and smiled gently: "It's already very good, I can only recognize a few of them."
Along the way, I met many maids and servants, and Aunt Lan always stopped to salute from a distance, or avoided them and took a detour. The maids and servants turned a blind eye to Aunt Lan, and Xiahou Lin couldn't help but murmured in his heart.
"I heard that the master is going back to the house tomorrow, and the eldest lady is so happy. Let's be quick and easy, and the master's house will be cleaned up today." The two girls in front were talking, and Aunt Lan bowed and wiped them with them. over the shoulder.
"Why are you happy? I heard that the master offended Eunuch Wei in the palace and was released. Let's be careful and don't touch the bad."
"It's true, my lord, why bother to offend Eunuch Wei? It's nothing."
As the voice faded away, Xia Houlin walked with his head down, and a round-faced maid who looked at thirteen or fourteen years old came towards him and said, "Aunt! This servant is here to pick you up. Hey, why did you bring back a hairy boy?"
"Come on, Xiaolin, my name is Sister Lianxiang." Aunt Lan said.
"Sister Lianxiang." Xia Houlin greeted obediently.
Lian Xiang glanced at Xia Houlin and said dissatisfiedly: "What's the matter with a hairy boy? We have to take care of it. The eldest lady deceives people too much. Every day, people are required to sweep, wash clothes, and weed, and we can also do the splitting technique. Can't it?"
Aunt Lan grabbed Lianxiang and shook her head: "Forget it, don't talk about it, it's enough for the three of us to serve the young master. Hey, why did you come out? How could you let the young master be alone in the room?"
"It's okay, the young master is taking a nap."
Aunt Lan was worried, and the three of them accelerated their pace and rushed to Qiuwu Courtyard. Xia Houlin only felt that they had crossed the entire mansion, and the surrounding scenery became more and more dilapidated. It took a stick of incense to see the corner gate of Qiuwuyuan. Before entering the door, the three heard the sound of pots and pans knocking over, and a roar of a teenager.
"Give me back the book! Give me back!"
Aunt Lan and Lianxiang rushed into the door, Xia Houlin followed, and saw Lingding's yard in a mess, a half-year-old boy was pressed to the ground by several servants, his face was covered with dust, a fat head and big ears white The fat-faced man stood beside him, his nose and ears were like round meat balls, perfectly round and shiny. Since entering the mansion, all the people Xiahou Lin saw were thin and thin, and all the oil and water of the whole mansion was on this man.
Jinling teenagers have the habit of smearing fat and powder. The fat man is afraid that he has a deep self-knowledge about his appearance. He also applied rouge gouache, but he was a little too aggressive. , making Xia Houlin's head dizzy.
"What do you mean by returning it to you? This book is mine in the first place. Even if I don't need it and leave it out, it's mine. Who allowed you bastard to pick it up and look at it?" He said, "Just like you, still studying? Why, do you want to take the imperial examinations? Want to be an official? Dream of you, the son of a cheap servant, you can only be a servant for this uncle for the rest of your life!"
"I slaughtered you! I slaughtered you! Don't scold my mother! Don't scold my mother!" The boy struggled, his face flushed with anger, and bloodshot eyes.
Lianxiang and Aunt Lan knelt on the ground and kowtowed, crying, "Eldest young master, let go of the third young master, let go of the third young master!"
"Get out of the way! Come on, do a search for me to see if he still has my books hidden? Search them out and tear them up!"
The housekeeper turned inside and out, and almost overturned the entire yard. Even the straw paper in the hut was torn off, and a pile of shredded paper was piled up on the open space. The books are not too many, and with the addition of the straw paper, they can only form a small pile.
The third young master stared blankly at the shredded paper on the ground, slowly raised his head, and stared at the fat man with gloomy eyes, and said, "If I rise up one day, I must die without you..."
Before he could finish speaking, a servant kicked him to the ground and laughed loudly: "It's still skyrocketing? No one can change the life of rolling in the mud!"
Xia Houlin squatted on the edge of the wall, his heart was full of fire, his hand unconsciously touched the dagger in his boot, and then he thought, no, the assassin can't expose himself. He forced himself to move his hands away and huddled quietly into a quail.
The fat man squatted in front of the third young master, grabbed a handful of confetti from the ground, pinched his face with his left hand, and stuffed the confetti into his mouth. The third young master couldn't stop struggling, but Jiading pressed him tightly and laughed when he saw his coughing non-stop. Aunt Lan and Lianxiang wanted to rush up, but were stopped by other housekeepers, so they could only watch the third young master lying on the ground with red eyes.
"Xie Jinglan, listen, that bitch of yours got you when my father was drunk and climbed into my father's bed. You are just a bastard, and you still want to study and become an official? Die this heart. , My mother gave you a face, so that you still have the name of a young master, if you are restless, this uncle will let you and your immortal slave go to the bucket."
The fat man threw a handful of confetti on top of his head, and the confetti fell all over his face like snowflakes. A group of people laughed and walked away.
Aunt Lan and Lian Xiang helped Xie Jinglan up, and they patted the ashes on his body, tears in their eyes.
"How can the eldest young master bully the third young master like this? He doesn't want these books. The three young masters have not picked them up from the warehouse, so they have torn up all these books." Lian Xiang was indignant and saw Xie Jinglan sipped. His lips softened, his expression softened, and he said, "Master... Or we should stop reading, alas, there is no paper or ink, and now the book is gone, let's forget it."
Xie Jinglan ignored her, and Aunt Lan brought a broom to clean up the shredded paper on the ground. Xie Jinglan stood up to stop her and said, "Don't sweep them, put them in the house, and I can stick them up."
"But it's all broken like this, and it's still a book with several books together. Can it be glued back?"
"Yes, leave me alone."
"By the way, Xiao Lin, who was brought back by the servant today, is literate and can help the young master. Xiao Lin, where are you, come here quickly, and greet the young master."
Hearing this, Xia Houlin hurried over and gave Xie Jinglan a crooked bow. When he got closer, Xia Houlin could see the appearance of this young master. Although his face was full of dust, he couldn't stop the beautiful expression between his brows. The tip of his eyes seemed to be swept by an ink pen, slightly raised to outline a romantic scene, but his face was pale, sick, and he didn't look like he had eaten enough.
It turned out to be a sissy, no wonder there is no backhand. Each of the men in Galan is strong and strong, and when they take off their clothes, they are muscles. Xia Houlin has been in the mountains all the year round, and all he sees are the men who have been tempered and fought back from the dead.
Xie Jinglan lifted his eyelids and looked at Xia Houlin, seeing that his temples were messed up, some dirt was rubbed on his face, gray and black, like a mud monkey, couldn't help frowning and said, "What is this? I don't want to, go back."
Xia Houlin: "..."