During the rainy season, the sky is slightly overcast.
There was a light rain in Jiangling, and the tiled walls were stained dark gray. The rain slowly dripped from the cracks, pooled on the ground and flowed into a river.
Black clouds gathered above the head, and the cold wind gusts made people roll their hats.
Xu Zhen leaned on the low wall and watched for a while, and saw that there was no one outside, so she took out a stack of rice paper from home, put the scrolls in her arms, and walked unsteadily to Yunmofang.
Yunmofang is a bookstore that sells and buys books. It has a lot of traffic. It is said that books are sold very quickly. As long as you give me money, I will help sell any book.
A few days ago, Xu Zhen wrote a popular science book on flowers, birds and fish, introducing some common plants and animals in Jiangling, which are poisonous and which are edible. In this era when there is no "Compendium of Materia Medica", it is a rare good book.
It's a pity that the sales volume was not very good. A total of 20 copies were transcribed, but only 5 copies were sold in the end. When the deadline came, they were returned.
Today she brought another ten copies of "Guide to Winning the Imperial Examination", hoping that this kind of book, which is similar to the modern May Third, can bring her some wealth.
I didn't expect to hear noisy voices as soon as I entered Yunmofang.
She first went to the shop owner's trusteeship to sell books, and after finishing the trusteeship, she followed the sound and walked towards the noisy place.
At the alley next to the back door of Yunmofang, a servant in dark blue clothes was shouting with his hands on his hips, "Hit! Hit me!!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The cane made a sound as it whipped the gun, and a pool of dark red blood dripped on the ground.
At first Xu Zhen thought it was hitting a wild dog on the side of the road, probably biting someone or something, so she didn't have the nerve to go up and stop it.
After looking around for a while, she suddenly discovered that the dusty pile was not dog hair, but tattered clothes.
The person wrapped in the clothes was emaciated, lying face down, his hair was as dry and yellow as weeds, covering his back in a mess, and his lower part was all blood-stained.
The person who was beaten was a child who seemed to be seven or eight years old.
Is this worth it
Xu Zhen was quite frightened, she walked over and raised her voice and asked, "What's the matter?"
Several people stopped to look at her, and the servant who was leading the command did not continue to command, but glanced at Xu Zhen.
Seeing Xu Zhen's familiarity, he told her: "This kid is stealing books."
Xu Zhen said: "It's just stealing books, why do you act like you want her life?"
The servant said righteously: "This boy stole several books, he has no money to pay back, and there is no one at home, so he should pay for it with his life!"
Xu Zhen couldn't bear it, and quickly said, "Stop, I'll pay her back."
Several people stared at her, as if they didn't expect that there would be such a fool in the world.
Xu Zhen asked, "How much?"
The leading man came back to his senses and looked at Xu Zhen for a long time, but he didn't think that this person was rich, so he stretched out his hand and said casually: "Ten taels!"
Xu Zhen almost fainted.
Twelve taels? ! She traveled back and forth for almost three years, and finally recognized the currency unit. She saved twelve taels by doing odd jobs and writing books, but she didn't expect to hand it over now
But she couldn't leave the child on the ground alone.
It's one thing she can't stand it, and she also needs to benefit herself by helping the child.
—Because she is not an ordinary time traveler.
It is a smuggler who relies on "merit points" to survive. Once her merit points become negative, she will die and be dragged back to the underworld for criticism.
After all, this life was stolen from her.
As for how to obtain merit points, it is actually very simple to say, that is, to do good deeds, or to make bad people correct their evil ways.
Generally, on the second day after doing good deeds, you can receive merit points.
It's a pity that maintaining life still consumes a lot of points.
In the past month, she has searched everywhere. Although she has done a lot of good things, her current points are only five points.
There are too few points, if there is an accident, she will die.
So this child, she had to save.
Xu Zhen was about to take out the money when she suddenly thought of something.
She glanced at the servant, and asked cautiously, "Can it be cheaper..."
The servant shouted: "No!"
Xu Zhen didn't dare to delay any longer, she took out her purse miserably, grabbed two big money from the inside and handed it to the servant.
Seeing this, the servant was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect Xu Zhen to take out the money.
I don't know what this person is from.
He didn't think much, and smiled with his broken teeth, saying that the girl was kind-hearted, and reached out to take it.
Xu Zhen didn't want to part with it, and held on for a long time without letting go.
The servant became angry and said in a trembling voice: "If the girl doesn't let go, she will continue to whip the whip!"
Xu Zhen looked sad, let go of her hand, looked at it several times and finally gave up.
The beating people dragged the rattan and left.
Xu Zhen stepped forward and bent over to check the little girl's breath. The breath she felt between her fingers sprayed blood foam, which was so hot that it could make people burn.
She didn't dare to move around, so she asked the servants to help find a medical worker. After the trauma was treated and some herbal medicine was stuffed into the little girl's mouth, she felt relieved.
The servant was still standing by.
Xu Zhen asked, "Where is her home?"
The servant said, "I don't know."
Xu Zhen thought for a moment and felt something was wrong: "Then how do you know that there is no one in her house, so she can't pay back the money?"
The servant took Xu Zhen's money, and after being instructed by the owner, he answered patiently: "The owner occasionally saw her in the abandoned temple, she doesn't look like someone who has a place to live."
Xu Zhen expressed understanding, it turned out to be a little beggar.
To save people to the end, she borrowed a stretcher, asked the servants to help, and sent them to her home together.
Xu Zhen's body is not too poor. The house is covered with tiles, and the outer walls are plastered with white lime. There are not many relatives in the clan. There are three earthen houses in total, and she uses them all alone.
Now there is a little beggar, so Xu Zhen wants her to live in a room alone.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the person was put down, the little beggar suddenly turned sideways, vomited out all the herbs in her mouth, and stood gray-green on the white quilt, accompanied by a strong stench.
Xu Zhen screamed: "My quilt!"
Then there was another mouthful of black blood.
Xu Zhen was even more frightened, and hurriedly said, "Don't die."
She brought warm water for the little beggar to dip her lips, and helped wipe her face and body with a towel, wiped off the dust on the injured area, and reapplied the medicine.
Towards evening, Xu Zhen was taking a nap, but was awakened by the sound of heavy breathing.
She rubbed her eyes and reached out to touch the little beggar's forehead, almost scalding her hand from the high temperature.
She put on a plain robe casually, ran to the pharmacy in a panic, grabbed the medicine for cooling down, and fed it to the little beggar little by little.
The little beggar drank a mouthful and spit out twice, his lips were chapped and blood began to ooze again.
Xu Zhen was very distressed, she insisted on gulping it down, and then jumped on the bed to rub the back of the little beggar: "I spent more than ten dollars to save you, if I don't give me more merits, I will not let you go."
The little beggar on the bed frowned even more tightly.
In the middle of the night, it rained heavily outside the window.
Xu Zhen was awakened by the sound of falling rain, and thought of the little beggar she had brought back, so she reached out and touched it.
However, within the reach of the arm, there was no obstacle at all.
Xu Zhen tried her best to open her eyes, raised her hand to light a candle to see what was going on, but just as she stretched out her foot, she kicked something soft.
She yelled, "Damn!"
The soft object on the ground moved, revealing two faint lights.
Xu Zhen thought she saw a ghost, so she retracted her legs in fright.
She took several steps back, and after waiting for a long time, she took advantage of the moonlight to look at the light on the ground, and finally found that it was the light reflected from a pair of eyes.
Looking at the details, this pair of eyes are beautiful in shape, they are peach eyes that are popular in later generations, the curvature is just right, and the tails of the eyes are raised upwards, but unfortunately, the beauty is ruined by several messy scars.
It seems to be holding on forcibly now, its eyes are scattered, and it can't see the focus.
Xu Zhen was relieved when she found out that it was not a ghost.
"How are you?" she asked.
The little beggar didn't pay any attention to it, she was still stretched out, and she didn't know what she was looking at.
Xu Zhen asked, "What's your name?"
The little beggar still ignored her.
Xu Zhen didn't care, and introduced herself directly: "My name is Xu Zhen, I bought you for twelve taels just now, and I even found someone to see a doctor for you, he is your benefactor."
The little beggar's eyelids gradually drooped.
Xu Zhen asked: "Are you going to sleep? You have to remember that you still owe me ten taels. Let your parents bring it over sometime."
The little beggar moved her lips.
The voice was too soft, Xu Zhen could only guess: "Are you asking me to go directly to your house to withdraw money? Where do you live?"
The little beggar moved her lower lip again.
Xu Zhen couldn't hear clearly, so she leaned over and asked, "Where?"
The little beggar said in a very low voice: "Get lost."
Xu Zhen almost died of anger.
She was treated like this after saving someone. If it wasn't for the merit, she would have thrown him out.
"Little white-eyed wolf." Xu Zhen scolded. After scolding, she rolled up the quilt and covered herself, and continued to sleep.
The moon is bright and the stars are thin, under the faint moonlight, the bedroom is empty and dark, as quiet as a deep well.
Any weak sound can be amplified countless times and become a nail to penetrate Xu Zhen's ear.
Whether it is the sound of frogs or breathing.
Beside him, the sound of wheezing breathing became heavier and heavier, as if deliberately opposing Xu Zhen.
Xu Zhen got upset, cursed, then turned over again, looking up at the night sky fixedly.
In the end she couldn't breathe anymore, she sat up, dragged the little beggar to the bed, covered her with a quilt to let her breathe, and dared not fall into a deep sleep until her breathing became stable.
In the early morning of the second day, the rainstorm stopped, and there was a lot of cicadas singing outside the window.
Because Xu Zhen had something on her mind, she got up early and summoned the stowaway system to check her merit points.
Since the points are not the same every time, before checking, Xu Zhen has a special pleasure—
Guess the number.
Before opening the merit point interface this time, she tried her best to guess: ten o'clock, ten o'clock, ten o'clock!
Open it and take a look: eight o'clock.
Xu Zhen: "..."
Although less than expected, it is still a good number.
After all, you can only get one or two points for helping people carry burdens and build houses.
This time at the same time, it is not a loss to get a few points, it just costs more money.
And eight o'clock means that I can easily live for eight days.
She was a little happy when she thought that she would not have to worry about the next eight days.
It was dawn, and the sun shone in.
Xu Zhen turned her head, and found that the little beggar was lying flat on her face quietly, her complexion had turned pale from the gold paper.
She looked at it for a while, and found that the little beggar had a slender figure, sunken cheeks, long eyelashes, and deep eye sockets, and seemed to be of foreign descent.
Although the dynasty did not exist in history, there were Hu people and the like, who were divided into dozens of small countries and confronted the Han people from north to south.
Hu and Han are incompatible, and they will definitely beat each other when they meet each other. If this little beggar has been in exile, he must have suffered a lot.
She reached out to caress the little beggar's face.
As soon as he touched it, the subordinates suddenly opened their eyes, their eyes were shining brightly, and they looked much more energetic than yesterday.
Xu Zhen withdrew her hand and asked, "Are you awake?"
The little beggar said nothing.
Xu Zhen asked: "I forgot to ask you yesterday, what's your name?"
The little beggar moved slightly, several pieces of skin fell off her chapped lips, revealing her dark red flesh.
Xu Zhen hurriedly took a water bottle and a towel from the side, and dipped her lips.
While dipping, he said: "I don't blame you for what you scolded me yesterday, you can talk well today, okay?"
The little beggar Hua stared at Xu Zhen for a long time, but said nothing in the end.
Xu Zhen was a little disappointed, and patted her head: "Then you can take care of yourself with me, and if you want to leave, wait until your health recovers before leaving."
The little beggar must be a little tired, her eyelids drooped, as if they were about to close.
Xu Zhen said, "Little dumb."
The only response to her was an inaudible breathing.
After Xu Zhen finished scolding, she was ready to go out to work.
When passing by her room, she saw the "Encyclopedia of Popular Science on Flowers, Birds and Fish" returned from Yunmofang. It would be a pity to lose it, but it is useless to keep it.
Xu Zhen was struggling with this, when she suddenly had an idea, she picked up ten books and took them to the market, preparing to set up a stall to sell them.
There are already many people sitting in the market.
She squatted in a corner and waited for the buyer.
After waiting for a long time, an old man with gray beard came.
The old man knelt down tremblingly, looked at the books on her stall and asked, "What kind of book is this?"
Afraid that he might not hear, Xu Zhen answered loudly, "Flowers! Birds! Fish!"
The old man glanced at her and said, "I can hear you."
Xu Zhen immediately lowered her voice and asked, "Then do you want to buy it? If you buy it back, it will guarantee that your production of flowers, birds, birds and fish will double!"
The old man shook his head.
Xu Zhen sighed.
The old man continued to squat, squatted for a while and said, "I can't read clearly, what is written on it?"
Xu Zhen said: "What are the symptoms of flowers, what to do and so on—" She was halfway through speaking, and saw that the old man's fingers were full of dirt, and asked, "Old man, do you grow flowers at home?"
The old man nodded: "Someone gave me a lot, but I don't understand these things, and I'm about to die of flowers."
Xu Zhen said: "Different flowers and plants have different ways of raising them." She flipped the book to the old man, "Look at this kind of grass, it cannot be exposed to light, and this kind of flower needs to be watered every 20 days, otherwise it will rot easily."
The old man stared at Xu Zhen's drawing, a little fascinated, and asked, "What else?"
Xu Zhen said, "You can buy the rest and see for yourself."
The old man looked up at Xu Zhen, he often came to the market, this was the first time he saw Xu Zhen, he always felt that this person was a liar, but the content of the book was very attractive.
He saw the small sapling pictured on the next page, which was the one planted in his home. He had just glanced at it briefly, and he only saw the words "Water once every seven days, thoroughly".
I don't know if it's true or not, and I don't know what else to pay attention to.
The old man hesitated for a moment, asked the price, and learned that it only cost three yuan a copy, so he finally bought a copy and left the market.