The old Taoist who seemed to have passed away stood there, talking to himself, not knowing what he was talking about.
Suddenly, he kicked the bench away, and laughed loudly: "Be a Taoist priest! From now on, I will be Huishan Keqing! The first class!"
Obviously, even if the old man intends to continue setting up a stall to get a lottery, no one is still interested in asking for a lottery.
A slightly joking voice suddenly sounded in the ears of the old Taoist priest, "Old Immortal Chief, this is Wudang, where the Taoist priests are all over the mountain, it is inappropriate for you to speak like that."
Just when the old Taoist was full of pride, he frowned and turned his head to look around. When he saw a young man who he thought could barely be called Yushu Linfeng, the old Taoist snorted coldly, "So what? Waiting for you at the top of the mountain! Even if Chen Laoshen and Yu Laoren are two, if Pindao meets them now, he must be able to ask for a cup of tea!"
The young man stretched out his thumb and exclaimed, "Amazing!"
The woman next to the young man laughed angrily: "Old Wu, it was this young master who spoke to you just now, are you fooled by lard?!"
The old Taoist was stunned, and immediately changed his expression, and said with a smile: "It's the impolite Daoist who is rude, son, don't blame me."
The old Taoist strode towards the woman's stall, the sleeves of his Taoist robe dangling violently, and he looked like a dragon and a tiger walking like a tiger, "Sister Han, come here, come here, help me and this young master to get two Wudangchun sesame cakes, remember to put the cakes Make it bigger, my brother is not short of that money, besides, we have never been stingy!"
The woman shook her head, feeling a little helpless.
She was dexterous in her hands and feet, and practice made perfect, so she quickly handed each of them a piece of Wudangchun biscuit, which was steaming hot and full of fragrance.
When he took the spring biscuits, the old Taoist wanted to touch the woman's hand, but the latter withdrew his hand more quickly, not letting the old Buxiu succeed.
The old Taoist took a big mouthful of spring pancakes and said with a smile: "Sister Han, why do you still do this hard work? You can't earn a lot of money if you get up early in the dark, or why don't you accompany me to Huishan Mountain?" ?”
The woman rolled her eyes and said, "What are you doing in the Central Plains?"
The old Taoist smiled and said, "Brother, my thoughts, sister, don't you know?"
The woman was taken aback for a moment, and then she became angry from embarrassment: "Get lost!"
The old Taoist did not give up and said: "Sister, didn't your man disappear outside the Liangzhou Pass very early? What happened after so many years of remarriage? Your family is orphaned and widowed. How pitiful, there is a reliable man to take care of you." That's a good thing. Besides, didn't you let my brother release the sign before?"
The woman, who was already extremely angry, turned pale, stepped forward, pulled the spring sesame cake from the old Taoist's hand, and dropped it on the ground, "Get lost! I won't sell spring sesame cake to anyone, and I won't sell it to a disgusting person like you! It's too much money, I think it's dirty!"
The old Taoist was not angry, but said with regret: "Oh, sister Han, you are a good woman, but it is a pity that you don't have a good life. Forget it, let's treat it as if we have no destiny."
The woman ignored this old and disrespectful guy.
The old Taoist sighed to himself, then turned his head to smile at the young man and said, "Come on, the poor Taoist has to go to the Central Plains to enjoy the blessings by himself. The green mountains will not change the green waters, my son, if we go to Huishan to play in the future, Just report the name of the poor."
The young man smiled and said, "Okay."
The old Taoist left gracefully.
The young man asked: "Old Taoist, don't you even want a stall?"
The old Taoist didn't turn around, waved his hand, and said, seemingly open-minded: "What do you want to do with such worthless objects? It's a shame! If you like it, it's yours!"
When the old Taoist went far away, the woman whispered to the young man: "I didn't even tell you what my surname is, and even gave him his name. I have seen thick-skinned people, but I have never seen such thick-skinned ones." Fortunately, I heard that this old guy is from Hezhou, otherwise we would really lose face in Beiliang."
Xu Fengnian asked with a smile: "Listen to the accent, sister-in-law is from Lingzhou, Northern Liang?"
The woman's eyes were strange, and it took a while before she said, "Why do you ask this?"
Xu Fengnian, who was swallowing Wudangchun biscuits, almost choked.
The woman covered her mouth and laughed, "Look, I scared you, my sister-in-law is teasing you."
Xu Fengnian really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he walked towards the stall next door while biting the spring sesame cake, lifted up the bench, turned his head and smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, the guy who invited me to eat spring sesame cake has run away, or I'll untie the lottery for you, and I'll treat it as a cake." money?"
After the frightening woman's tossing, the woman's stall business was deserted. She sat on the bench and stretched out her hand to beat her waist lightly. Looking at the young man with a gentle smile, she doubted: "Will you Release the sign?"
Xu Fengnian nodded and said, "It's my job!"
The woman shook her head and said with a smile: "My lord, no old fellow can deceive people. How could sister-in-law be fooled by this? Don't worry, the cake money is fine. Please, sister-in-law."
Xu Fengnian asked curiously: "Sister-in-law, why did you come here from Lingzhou to set up a stall here in Wudang Mountain?"
The woman said calmly: "My natal family is here. Some time ago, I came to the mountain to burn incense and pray for blessings. After seeing the scene here, I thought that I just happened to know these crafts. Earn more."
Xu Fengnian smiled and asked: "I guess the children of my sister-in-law's family are all studying in the Mengguan School? That's right, here in Beiliang, books are expensive, and the money is the most expensive."
The woman stopped talking again, and stared blankly at Xu Fengnian.
Aggrieved Xu Fengnian said helplessly: "Sister-in-law, I'm really not the kind of old man Wu!"
The woman couldn't help laughing and said: "I really can't bear to be teased, it's not like our men in Beiliang."
Xu Fengnian feigned anger and said, "Sister-in-law, don't curse."
The woman waved her hand, brought a small bench and a bowl of calming soup, sat opposite Xu Fengnian, and said with a smile: "The cake is for you, and this bowl of calming soup is considered as a lottery. My sister-in-law is illiterate, but Don't lie to me."
After Xu Fengnian finished eating the spring pancakes, he leaned over and took a big sip of the calming soup, "How can it be."
The woman holds the bamboo tube in both hands, with devout eyes.
Xu Fengnian sat upright, smiling and saying nothing.
After the sign was placed on the table, she held the head and tail with her thumbs and index fingers, probably because she was illiterate, so she didn't need to take a closer look.
She also handed it to Xu Fengnian with both hands.
That silent heavy solemnity seems to be giving life.
The ordinary people who have never had a relationship with history always believe that there are gods three feet above their heads, and that death will be like life, so they are willing to believe in the blessings of the afterlife, and they will tirelessly climb high to burn incense and pray for blessings.
Xu Fengnian took out the bamboo sticks. After reading the signed text, the corners of his mouth turned up, and he said softly: "'Forget the feet, it's suitable for walking on. Forget the waist, it's suitable for wearing.' The seventy-second lot, the last sign."
The woman is illiterate, but the content of the signature can be roughly understood. As for the two characters on the signature, it is more concise and to the point, beyond doubt.
She smiled in relief.
Xu Fengnian took back the bamboo sticks and put them in the bamboo tube, took a sip of the calming soup, and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law is a good person and good rewards come."
She smiled calmly.
After that, the two chatted casually, mostly she said and he listened. She talked about the rural scenery of Lingzhou in her eyes. Of course, at most it was the education situation of the two children in the family. She said that the older children were not bad and not so naughty, although no one had ever heard of Mr. Xueshu's praise. Most of the time, most of them failed the exam, and even passing the county exam to become a child student is probably not easy, but every time she watched the child turn on the lamp to study, and put on the look of shaking his head that is unique to scholars, she would be very happy for no reason. . At the same time, the younger child gave her a headache. She would rather go to work in the fields than go to a private school to endorse. At a young age, she wanted to fight and kill barbarians. She finally said that she doesn't know how other places in Beiliang are like now. In the past two years, at least in the private schools in Lingzhou, children can get very cheap books, so cheap that people from poor families like her feel cheap, yes Because there was a senior official surnamed Xu in Lingzhou before, it was his idea. It seems that the senior official said that there are few people in Beiliang, but there can be more scholars. She didn't know if it was true or not, anyway, those few elementary school books were indeed a lot cheaper than the previous five or six years.
So she said that the senior official surnamed Xu is a good person, but it's a pity that he left Lingzhou to become an official in Liangzhou.
Xu Fengnian smiled softly, looked into the distance, and said softly: "Orange, everything is good, but the quality of the wine is not good."
The woman didn't understand and didn't ask any more questions.
There was business at her stall, and the woman asked, "My lord, can I have that lottery back?"
Xu Fengnian smiled and said: "Then I have to look for it, sister-in-law, you go and do it first, and I will send it to you when I find it."
She nodded, and when she got up, the woman suddenly blushed and said, "My lord, you can call me aunt, but don't call me sister-in-law!"
Xu Fengnian was at a loss, the woman snorted coldly, and went to the stall next door to get busy.
Xu Fengnian shook his head, and without knowing it, he lifted the bamboo tube upside down and poured out the bamboo sticks. After Yuchi Duquan and Xuanyuan Qingfeng, five of the original 108 marriage sticks were missing.
He found the bamboo stick that the woman had shaken out, got up and sent it.
She found that this young man who was idle enough to be a fortune teller still didn't seem to understand what she meant, so she was a little embarrassed instead.
She glanced at the bamboo stick and carefully put it away, raised her head and asked, "Which stick? Don't lie to me."
Xu Fengnian shook his head and said seriously: "I'm not lying."
She smiled and said: "Go, go, sister-in-law won't delay you cheating money."
Xu Fengnian, who was a little depressed, sat back at the table, resumed his old business, knew the way, and began to solicit business.
It's just that the goatee old Taoist left such a mess, good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles, and the nearby stalls believe that Xu Fengnian is a magic stick who seeks money, and he is young, and he doesn't wear a bluffing Taoist robe at the moment. People don’t have the impression that they can’t do things well. Groups of pilgrims and tourists pass by, obviously not interested in stopping to draw lots. It’s rare that two or three young women are hesitant to talk and want to come forward to draw lots, but they are all given to their families. Elders or men of the same age around him declined the matter. Xu Fengnian could only sip the calming soup, really bored. Xu Fengnian gradually changed from sitting upright with a dignified appearance, to crossing his legs, and then to lying on the table shaking the sticks, and finally, he just shook out a bamboo stick by himself, and threw it back casually without looking at the sign.
The woman next door wiped the sweat from her forehead, and teased, "How can you do business like this? The most difficult thing in the world is to take money from other people's pockets. You are welcome!"
Xu Fengnian sighed: "Do you really want me to borrow a Taoist robe from Wudang?"
The woman wondered: "The young master doesn't look like someone who is short of money, how rare is that little money?"
Xu Fengnian subconsciously glanced in the direction of the hut, and said with a soft smile, "My wife is the most worthless, she only likes to collect copper coins, big and small, she doesn't dislike them, just like a miser."
The woman was overjoyed, "It's also thanks to your wife's absence!"
Then she persuaded: "Women run the house like this, son, you want to open it up."
Xu Fengnian believed it deeply, "Swallows hold mud in their mouths, so little makes more, that's the reason."
The woman let out a long breath, raised her hand and stroked her sweat-soaked temple hair, "Sister-in-law is going back first."
Xu Fengnian asked strangely: "Going down the mountain so early? With so many pieces and pieces, can you move them?"
She pointed to a young woman who came slowly from the mountain road outside Luzu Pavilion, and said with a smile: "She is my niece, she sells rouge and gouache at Yuqing Temple higher on the mountain, and it is estimated that it was sold out early. It’s going to be later to come to help me, so I’m going to be lazy today and go down the mountain earlier.”
Xu Fengnian got up and said: "From here, there are still many mountain roads to go down the mountain. Sister-in-law, let me help you choose a section of the road?"
She shook her head and said resolutely: "No, I see a lot of things here, but they are actually not heavy."
Xu Fengnian joked: "Sister-in-law, just treat me as ill-intentioned and send you to the memorial archway at the foot of the mountain, okay?"
The woman spat softly, glared at Xu Fengnian, who had nothing to hide, and said with an angry smile: "You are not afraid of resentment, my sister-in-law is afraid! My niece is very hot. Why, could it be that you fell in love with her? That sister-in-law Instead, she can be a matchmaker."
Xu Fengnian glanced at the young woman who was getting closer, gasped, her waist was not a willow tree, but a big pagoda tree, and said with a wry smile: "Let's forget it."
Before her young niece approached the two adjacent stalls, facing Xu Fengnian, she lowered her brows and eyes softly, and asked softly, "What are you thinking?"
At this moment, she saw that young man, handsome in appearance, especially with clear eyes, as clean as the elephant washing pool she saw when she first climbed Wudang Mountain when she was young.
Xu Fengnian said: "I have been to Liangzhou Pass, Huaiyang Pass, and Hutou City."
She said calmly, "That's it."
Xu Fengnian grinned.
She asked for no reason: "Do you think the barbarians from Beimang will fight all the way here, will they fight all the way to Lingzhou?"
Xu Fengnian looked resolute, and said: "As long as there is only one of our Beiliang iron cavalry left, then the horseshoes of the northern mang barbarians will not be able to step on every grass and tree in Beiliang pass."
She nodded, and then said with a smile: "The tone is really loud, as if she is a high-ranking official."
Xu Fengnian laughed and said, "I'm not an official."
She said angrily, "It's needless to say."
Xu Fengnian still didn't want to give up, "Sister-in-law, don't you really need to help carry the burden?"
What she said next made Xu Fengnian stunned, "Don't be a sister-in-law, I've seen a lot of people from the Jianghu these days, listen to them, our young prince used to have a catchphrase when he was wandering in the Jianghu, what is it called 'It's delicious! Dumplings are more fun than sister-in-law!'”
Xu Fengnian wiped his face with his hand, distraught and indignant.
Has no one mentioned the phrase I said on the top of Daxueping, "It's still a fart"? Isn't it more bullish than this mantra
Besides, this sentence was also given to me by some idle wooden sword ranger who heard it somewhere and insisted on teaching me.
The woman's eyes narrowed, she stopped talking, and turned to pack her things.
Xu Fengnian looked at her back, and finally didn't dare to address her sister-in-law anymore, but asked: "Is there any deduction or arrears of the pension money from the government?"
She froze, didn't turn around, shook her head and said: "No, his old corporal often sent us extra silver a few years ago, but last year he didn't."
She paused for a moment, then said softly: "I only heard this spring that the old Corporal died in Hutou City."
She never turned around after that.
She actually knew that the marriage lottery she shook out first was not the bamboo stick in her arms. She was illiterate, but she firmly remembered the number of words on that lottery.
But that's not a big deal.
Ordinary people, no matter how hard life is, as long as there is hope, they will be able to survive.
Her hope lies in her two children. As for whether the lottery drawn today is good or bad, it doesn't really matter.
In the end, before she and her niece took up the burden and left, she inadvertently caught a glimpse of the young man who always seemed to be clean. He sat upright behind the table, with his hands clenched on his lap, quietly.
He doesn't look like a young man, but rather like an old man, the spring breeze is gone, and he can only bask in the warm autumn sun in silence.