North Street in the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty is extremely busy.
This kind of bustle is different from that of East Street and South Street. The people living nearby here are all poor, the kind of people who worry about their next meal after the last one. Moreover, most of them are outsiders.
Here, the government has to come to sweep the place several times a month, because many outsiders have no money to renew their public inspections when they expire and are unwilling to return home. Every time, they always catch a lot of people, and either fine them or drive them out.
Therefore, people here try their best to make a living.
From performers who swallow swords and break stones on their chests to vendors selling all kinds of snacks, almost all of them have special skills.
The indigenous people here are relatively ordinary people. They cannot afford to go to high-end teahouses and opera troupes, so they can only find fun on North Street.
After the reputation of North Street spread, people from nearby areas also came to join in the fun and buy some small items. Gradually, North Street became more and more prosperous.
There is a small stall under the big banyan tree on North Street, where a little girl is selling clay figurines.
The little clay figures made of yellow clay have lifelike faces, and they can also be made into various pretty little skirts and clothes.
In addition to clay figurines, they also make rag dolls using various scraps of cloth. This small stall does very good business, and can sell more than a dozen clay figurines and rag dolls a day.
Actually, we could sell more, but the girl can’t handle so much goods.
The little girl herself is pretty, with big eyes, a small mouth, a high nose bridge, and black hair. When she smiles, her two dimples are as sweet as if they were filled with honey.
The little girl's name is Yi'er, and she is fifteen years, six months and eighteen days old.
There are always people bullying others on North Street, but the little girl is never bullied.
One reason is that she is pretty and the vendors in the market automatically protect her.
Secondly, I heard that her mother is a fierce person, and anyone who dares to touch her will be beaten up.
However, few people have seen her mother. I heard that her mother was also a character who did nothing but lie around at home.
People who have never seen Yi'er's mother would think that she must be a fat woman with a bloated brain and a bloated stomach after hearing about her story. However, people who have seen her would not say so.
Her looks and figure are better than even the top girl in Zuihualou.
Yi'er would go to the yellow mud mountain to pick up yellow mud every evening.
She makes clay figures using only the yellow mud from here, which has a very good viscosity and is neither too wet nor too dry and hard.
In the past, the foot of the yellow mud mountain would disappear at dusk, because it was just a yellow mud mountain and people could not hunt or chop wood.
There is a small river to the north of Huangni Mountain, with reeds growing along the riverside. Some people fish here during the day, but in the evening, there is almost no one here.
However, that day Yier found a man sitting on a big rock beside the reeds. He was not fishing, but just sitting quietly, watching the flowing river.
And this happened for several nights in a row.
One day, after picking up some yellow mud, she went directly to the river to make clay figures, wanting to see what the man was doing.
It was not until the end of the You hour that the man finally got up and walked back along the river.
Only then did Yi'er realize that he was a cripple.
That person looked very unhappy.
However, after walking a few steps, he squatted down and there was a sound of gasping.
Yi'er looked over and saw him grabbing a black snake with one hand and throwing it out.
Yi'er was surprised. There were always poisonous snakes in this reed field. Although she didn't see clearly what the snake corpse he threw out was, but seeing that he couldn't stand up, it must be a poisonous snake.
She dropped the clay figure and ran over quickly.
The man's face turned blue and he was squatting, unable to get up.
Yi'er held his arm with one hand and asked with concern: "Were you bitten by a poisonous snake? Be careful when you get up, don't use too much force all at once."
The man was a little surprised, but he broke away from her help and said indifferently: "I don't need your help."
Yi Er knew that he was embarrassed. People here are very particular about not touching each other, so she didn't let him go. She said, "It's okay. My mother said that when we go out, we should help each other."
"This little bit of poison is not enough to poison me..."
He fainted before he could finish his words.
Yi'er was startled, and then she remembered what her mother said: where there are poisonous snakes, there must be herbs that can cure the snake venom.
She searched around quickly, not caring whether it would be useful or not, and grabbed a handful, crushed it with a stone, untied his boots and socks, lifted up his trouser legs, and pressed it against his teeth.
Then, she grabbed his arms, forced him up a little, and bent over to let him rest on her back.
Fortunately, her mother had made medicine for her since she was a child. Although she didn't know much about kung fu, she was as strong as an ox.
I carried him to a dry place, put him down and looked at the wound. It seemed to be quite swollen.
"Wake up? What's your name? Where are you from? Where should I send your body if you die?" Yi'er patted his cheek, trying to wake him up.
However, he must have been deeply poisoned and did not react at all.
Yi'er felt that these herbs would not be able to detoxify, but she didn't understand medical knowledge.
After rummaging around in his arms for a while, he found that all his belongings were gone except for a pancake, a dagger, a purse, a string of candied haws and a blood antelope horn.
She thought about it, then went to the reeds, grabbed a handful of grass, crushed it and stuffed it into his mouth.
Then, they stuffed pancakes and candied haws into his mouth, and then stuffed some blood antelope horn powder scraped with a dagger into his mouth.
Finally, I gave him some yellow mud.
"I have no other choice. I have used everything I can." Yi'er was sweating profusely, and he hadn't woken up yet. "I can't leave you to find a doctor. There is no doctor nearby. We have to go back to the city. It will take two or three hours to go back and forth."
The sky had darkened, and Yi'er gathered some dry firewood and started a fire. Although the weather was not cold, he was shivering the whole time.
Yier ate all the remaining pancakes and candied haws, but she still felt hungry. One pancake could not satisfy her at all. She had to eat five or six pancakes and three or four bowls of rice in one meal. Steamed buns were better. She would be full after eating about ten of them.
When I was hungry, my hands and feet felt weak, and I felt sleepy.
She yawned, feeling a little exhausted, "I'd better take a nap. Just a nap will be fine."
She tilted her head to the side and fell into a deep sleep.
When King Liang woke up, the moon was already hanging overhead.
All around, there were the sounds of insects, wind, and even breathing.
He turned his head and saw the face of a woman who was sleeping soundly.
The woman had a pretty face and a sweet sleeping expression, but...she was sleeping next to a man like this? And she was sleeping so soundly
He remembered that he was bitten by a snake when he was walking by the river just now.
Unexpectedly, after all the swordplay and saber-wielding, he was knocked down by a small poisonous snake by the river.
(End of this chapter)