Xiongcheng has the prosperity of Xiongcheng, and remote towns also have the bustle of small towns. This small town located in the southeast of Liyang has always been far away from the flames of war. If it was a time of peace and prosperity, it would not be a problem, but there are some signs of war and chaos in the city of Zhou County, so this place looks particularly peaceful. There are some villages named after their surnames near the town. When they worship their ancestors and hang paintings, they are all amazing. Songjia Village even hangs a statue of an ancestor of an emperor named Song. The village of Shangshu, a small country, naturally felt that he was superior to others. It's just that the ancestors of this Songjia village were dignified, and the few people with the surname Wen in the village couldn't get the honor. In fact, the elders in the village, even if they have read books for a few days, even if they have carefully looked through the genealogy, they still can't tell how they are related to the Song Emperor. Carrying the genealogy of the small wooden box, I asked a famous old scholar in the small town, and I couldn't tell why. Who would have thought that it would turn out to be the most unmotivated young man in the village, a guy surnamed Wen. After going to other places for three years and then returning to his hometown, he said with certainty that the reason why people in our village engraved the word "Yinchuan" on the head of the tombstone after death was very particular. The seeds of reading half came out of Yinchuan County, and the Song Clan of Yinchuan was a first-class tycoon, who produced many civil servants and famous scholars. In the last years of Dafeng, the one who first established himself as a vassal town and then became the first emperor of the Song Clan The ancestors came from the partial branch of the Song family in Yinchuan. The origin of the Song family village must be that after the fall of the separatist forces of that side, they continued to move and migrate during the famous Nandu Nandu that has gone down in history, and finally took root here. After the young man surnamed Wen sorted out the context, the elders in the village more or less understood it, even if they didn't fully understand it, they pretended to understand it. Listen, it is both Yinchuan Song family and Gan Lunan It can be seen that although our Songjia Village has not even had a child born in a hundred years, our ancestors were very rich and noble, and it must be that our ancestors were too lucky hundreds of years ago Therefore, the descendants of future generations have to live in peace and contentment. It is really fate that has nothing to do with wealth and honor. The young man surnamed Wen was not well received in the village. Unexpectedly, after returning home with a lame leg, he seemed to be a completely different person. The restaurant in the town does odd jobs, not to mention relying on his elder brother and sister-in-law for support, and even sending money home. What is even more surprising is that the young man married a virtuous and charming daughter-in-law. This little lady made many young people surnamed Song look straight at her, regardless of whether they were married or not.
After Wen got married, he stopped living in the miscellaneous room in the restaurant, saved some money, and rented a small courtyard in the small town, three rooms, except for the window that was pasted with red and festive signs. The paper-cut wedding room, a small room is used to store sundries, and the remaining one is not empty. The bedding is brand new, and it is cleaned and spotless by a well-managed woman, because her man said that in the future, maybe There will be his brothers coming to the house as guests, so there must be a place to stay, otherwise it would be shameless, besides, asking friends to spend money to live in inns and restaurants is both extravagant and wasteful, not particular. She followed him, feeling the same reason in her heart. Although her family is not well-off now, she was born in a small family, and her family background can only be considered wealthy, but she is actually a woman with a big heart. At the beginning, she insisted on marrying him, and no one in the family was willing to agree. She didn't even have a dowry. She also gritted her teeth and didn't ask her parents for anything. Fortunately, she has seen people's hearts for a long time, and now she wants to take him back to her mother's house. Heartbroken, knowing that their father couldn't lose that face, and it was inconvenient to drink with that brother-in-law on the wine table at home, but each of them had been to her yard in private, and they didn't forget to bring wine and meat. family. She knew that when she had a child and her parents embraced her grandson and granddaughter, she would find her under the steps at that time, and she would completely lose all grudges against him. It's just that no matter how small the town is, the expenses are not small. Relying on the man's job as a shop assistant in a restaurant, the two of them can live comfortably, but once the family has a third small mouth, it will be hard to say. Fortunately, her The female red handicraft is notoriously pretty. There is a sister who runs a cloth shop at home. The exquisite small objects that she sewed one by one stitches are placed on the counter as an addition to the cloth buyers. The business of the shop is also booming. Three or two cents, so after this month, she will have two or three taels of money in the account, which is not much worse than a man who is in charge of the house.
The town has been busy these two days. Before and after the end of summer, the southeast of Liyang has had the custom of the Ghost Festival since ancient times, and there are also some activities to worship the ancestors and welcome the autumn. Although the Ghost Festival is said in their local dialect, it is Lord Yan showed great mercy and specially opened the gate of ghosts during this period, allowing the deceased to return to their hometowns to meet the younger generations in the yang world, so as to comfort the lovesickness separated by yin and yang. In fact, it just sounds a little intrusive. Adults and children don’t shy away from anything. They just think it’s something to join in the fun. Monks and Taoists will start to give alms, and ordinary people will also erect lanterns and release river lanterns, especially young children. Being able to stand in the arms of parents or stand on tiptoes on the bridge railing, or lie on the bluestone slabs on the river bank, with colorful lotus lanterns all over your eyes, makes your heart happy and happy, which is no less than the Mid-Autumn Festival when you can eat mooncakes. Yesterday he went to the village to pick up his nephew, intending to let his wife take the child to go shopping. It happened that the daughter-in-law was ingenious and made two big bamboo baskets of river lanterns, and she was going to sell them by the bridge. I believe that with her craftsmanship, she would be out soon. The guests on the night tour sold out. He had watched her weave and tie lanterns in the yard before, with various styles, such as flowers, birds, fish and insects, lotuses, turtles and cranes, dragons and phoenixes. He really didn't know how there were such clever hands in the world, so he sat on the bench If you want to enjoy the coolness, you can't help it anyway, and if you want to help, it will only be a waste of help, and you can only have fun secretly. His little nephew, a scholar, was a bit cautious at first when he arrived in the small town. He took him to a restaurant during the day, obediently listened to people's stories in the corner, and listened with great interest. Duo, as an uncle, I like and worry about him. What I like is the child's honest temperament. What worries me is that I am afraid that I will be too honest and will suffer a lot when I grow up. The restaurant where Xiao Er, surnamed Wen, is located is now a well-known place in the town. Although most of the restaurants in the town now hire storytellers to tell stories about the world, their stories are always the freshest and most novel. Naturally, it is all his credit. It was he who spent a lot of saliva to convince the shopkeeper of the restaurant. Don't be stingy to pay the storyteller a sum of travel expenses to the county city or even the state city, so when this building It is the first time that the restaurant tells about the women's martial arts leader in Daxueping who watched snow and realized longevity overnight, the first to tell about the debate on Buddhism and Taoism in Wudang Mountain, the ancestral home of Taoism in the Northwest, and the turbulent changes in Wudi City, the holy land of rivers and lakes, and the hundreds of horses from Wujiajian Tomb going north Cool, it can be said to be a sensation in the town. After dinner, the common people are led by the storytellers in the restaurant. The business of the restaurant naturally rises, but the business is booming. He secretly paid for the first toll for the "learning from the scriptures" in the county city, and never asked the wine to pay for it. The shopkeeper of the restaurant asked for dividends. In addition to the copper coins rewarded by the restaurant guests after they drank too much, the restaurant paid him. What was the first day he entered the restaurant, and it is still the same amount now. The shopkeeper stood behind the counter with a smile every day, watching the waiter surnamed Wen running errands diligently all the time, watching the active young man serving tea and wine every day and smiling, and he didn't know what the old man was thinking.
Today, the storyteller in the restaurant was full of spirits and spittle, and said that it was a swordsman named Qi Jiajie in our Liyang capital. Asked for a peerless famous sword from the Dongyue Sword Pool with high mountains and rivers and high sword spirit, and then the Qi Jiajie people first went to the foot of Wudang Mountain in Beiliang, a small town not much more famous than the town they were in, After the flying sword arrived, it swept across thousands of miles, and handed out a sword to the young king with a different surname who was sitting in the northwest border. Yea, rising from the ground, standing proudly above the sea of clouds bordering the border between Beiliang Road and Lianghuai Road, actually blocked that flying sword that was powerful enough to kill immortals! The storyteller was eloquent, and the old man himself was dumbfounded when he spoke to the hearty point, not to mention the audience in the restaurant who were drinking and eating with the story, everyone was dumbfounded, stopped their cups and chopsticks, and their minds were shaken. At the end, I haven't heard the most annoying sentence "Let's listen to the next chapter to break it down", of course I have to ask the restaurant for another pot or two of wine. The nephew surnamed Wendian Xiaoer was the first time he heard people tell stories, and it was the first time he heard people talk about people in the Jianghu. Fisting, pricking up ears, widening eyes, I just feel that listening to Jianghu affairs is more interesting than reading sage books.
A story always has an end, and when the restaurant closes, the storyteller’s story ends. It’s night outside the building, and the restaurant is about to close. After eating Xiaozao, the waiter named Wen came to the table with his nephew, and they had a good meal. This makes the child who has never seen the world very happy, but after all, he is a young scholar who has studied in a private school. When he eats, he seems to be sitting upright. The big fish and meat that can only be eaten during the New Year's Eve, the children dare not pick up a few more chopsticks, but the shopkeeper of the restaurant helped the children pick up a lot with a smile, and the rice bowls were piled up. The children were a little embarrassed and looked at their uncle timidly. Let's eat, your grandpa, the shopkeeper, is a kind person in the town, very generous. The child smiled shyly at the shopkeeper, and the old man laughed loudly. While pouring a glass of wine for himself and the waiter, he pointed to the second floor with his chopsticks, and told the well-behaved child that he would come to the restaurant frequently in the future. Grandpa will help you find a spot next to the patio fence on the second floor. The old man drank a glass of wine with the waiter, and joked that this kid is not like you, he is honest and lovable. The waiter in the shop proudly said that is, he has the same temperament as my brother, he is lucky, he is a good student, and if he does not keep it in the future, he will be a scholar. The child retorted solemnly and said that the teacher said that it would be good if he could pass the Tongsheng test in the future. The old man who respected the scholars most all his life touched the child's head, feeling that the Daoxian County Examination and House Examination are all stumbling blocks, the shopkeeper grandpa told you here, every time you pass a door, our restaurant will give you a bag Big red envelope, in case you get fame, whether you are a child student or a scholar, don't forget to write a plaque for our restaurant, and give the shopkeeper grandpa a face. The child nodded vigorously and said happily to the old man that his uncle bought me a lot of pens and paper, but I am not willing to use them now. I still use branches dipped in water to practice calligraphy by the village stream as before, and I also dial on the ground when grazing cattle. In the future, the husband said that the stupid bird can make up for its weakness by flying first, and there will always be a time when it writes a good handwriting. At that time, it will write a big plaque for the shopkeeper grandpa and hang it up. Probably because it was rare to drink, the uncle who was the waiter in the shop joked that if you study well, you will be successful in reading, and it will be easy for a guy who has studied to lure his wife back home in the future. The nephew who secretly liked a girl of the same age in the village blushed and glared at his uncle. The man surnamed Wen smiled at the shopkeeper of the restaurant, drinking and drinking.
After dinner, he asked his nephew to go home first, and he had to clean up the restaurant himself, and then meet at the bridge in the town.
The shopkeeper of the restaurant looked at the young man who was busy cleaning up the dishes, drinking wine, and said slightly drunk: "When I took you in, I never thought that such a day would come. On the way, you won’t come to my small dilapidated place to eat and wait to die. I would never have thought that you helped the restaurant make a lot of money. To be honest, this year has made more money than the restaurant has earned in the past ten years.”
The young man raised his head and said with a smile: "A good shopkeeper will be rewarded with good rewards, as it should be."
The old man smiled and asked back: "Should?"
The young man wondered, "Shouldn't it be?"
The old man said with emotion: "Good people are rewarded with good things. A kid like your nephew is willing to believe it. An old guy like me can't believe it."
The old man looked directly at the busy shop waiter, "The customers who come here to drink, eat and listen to books think that you have no temper, but I don't think so, I always think that you..."
The young man joked, "Is the shopkeeper trying to say he's worthless?"
The old man laughed and scolded: "Fuck your mother's fart, I really don't know how your daughter-in-law thinks of you!"
The young man pointed to his own face, and said with a playful smile, "My parents raised me handsomely, shopkeeper, you really envy me."
The old man waved his hand, "I don't want to talk nonsense with you, I want to tell you something serious today."
The young man restrained his smile and stood by the wine table with his hands tied, "Shopkeeper, just speak up if you have something to do. I, Wenhua, have no promises, but I always remember who treats me well, and I dare not say anything." I don’t have the ability to repay favors, but if you want to say that you get a share of kindness, even if it’s not finished once, I, Wen Hua, will have to pay it back in my life. So shopkeeper, don’t Be polite to me. Shopkeeper, if you weren’t willing to take me in, I might not know where to cut firewood and burn charcoal or work as a part-time job for some family. Starving to death, even if I save money to buy paper and pen for my nephew, it will be difficult.”
The old man smiled, looked up at the young man with sincere eyes, put down the glass in his hand, "Most of the things in the restaurant are covered by you alone, and I, the shopkeeper, have a lot of leisure every day, so the storyteller said that those who are floating around The rivers and lakes stories, or the gifted scholar and beautiful woman and the wild fox Zhiyi, I have heard it in my ears, and I have heard some of them, but there are a few words that I remember in my heart. I am very concerned about it, saying 'It is difficult to be kind since ancient times'. The more I ponder, the more I understand this truth. This is true in business transactions, and even more so in making friends with people. So later on, I will trust you to handle the money and money in this restaurant. Take care, at first I was not without worries, and I really wanted to see if you would keep some in your pocket because of this. After all, the big business in the world is accumulated one by one, but I am very happy. Unexpectedly, from the beginning to the end, you didn't take a single copper coin. It's clear on the books, and it's clean under the books. , so, you kid is a kind person."
The young man said in a deep voice: "Shopkeeper, this is too much to say. I, Wenhua, can have a stable life today because of the kindness of the shopkeeper. If I continue to steal money from the restaurant without conscience, I, Wenhua, will really be a bad person." I can't do this kind of thing!"
The old man nodded, "You know, I'm not young, and I've been thinking about going to the county town to buy a big house for the elderly all my life. It just so happens that my two daughters and son-in-law are living there. The water that my daughter poured out, but there are no parents in the world who don’t care about their children. My two daughters were not married well. Yes, I want them to be more prosperous, and I don’t need to rent a house to send them under the fence. As for me, I used to be powerless, and the three or four hundred taels I saved were not bad in the county town. Your Wenhua fortune has been doubled, eight hundred silver, as long as it’s not a place like Qingtu Lane and Hai’er Lane where the rich and powerful gather together, it’s almost enough to buy a decent house. It just so happens that you are in the restaurant. I was thinking about whether to give you the wine estate... "
The waiter in the shop was stunned, and said with a wry smile: "Old shopkeeper, even if I sell such a big restaurant, I will definitely not be able to afford it."
The old man smiled and said: "This restaurant used to be worth about one hundred and eighty taels of silver, but now it's different from the past, so it should be valued at three or four hundred taels. It’s more clear, so I thought of a compromise, see if it works. The restaurant is converted into three hundred taels of silver. You don’t need to rush to pay for this money. You can pay dividends every year. Just don’t forget it, but the ugly words are up front. , I paid off the three hundred and two taels of the principal for buying the restaurant, and if the restaurant still makes money in the future, I, the old shopkeeper, still need you to honor the dividends every year. As for the exact amount, I don’t force it, you see Let’s do it, anyway, take care of your own home first.”
The young man hesitated to speak.
The old man waved the young man to sit down, "Don't feel indebted to me, I am smart, I know that you will definitely be able to make the restaurant business bigger and bigger in the future, with your kindness, how can you pay less dividends every year? If you live in a big house in the county city, you can get a sum of money for nothing every year and make a lot of money."
The young man sat back on the bench and straightened his waist, "Old shopkeeper, thank you for your kindness!"
The old man made a finger-twisting gesture and joked: "Don't talk about it, you will talk about money in the future."
The young man suddenly smiled and said, "Old shopkeeper, you are not afraid that I will renege on the debt in the future, and you will not be willing to pay dividends after paying off the three hundred taels of silver?"
The old man raised his eyebrows, then pointed to the young man's heart, and then pointed to his own eyes, "The reason for this deal is that one is to trust your conscience, and the other is to trust my own eyesight!"
The young man himself and the old shopkeeper each filled a glass of wine, and after toasting, "It's all in the wine!"
The two drank it down.
After the old man finished drinking, "You kid, hurry up and visit your wife. By the way, go to the back of the cupboard and get a jug of green ant wine that just came in. Let me congratulate you kid on finally having your own family business."
The young man got up and laughed loudly, "Alright!"
The old man did not forget to remind: "Celebrate your return, and you have to charge the money for the wine! This green ant wine is not cheap. It is said that a pot of it from Beiliang Road costs less than two renminbi, and when it comes to Lianghuai, it costs more than one liang of silver. , and then from Jiangnan Road to our place, tsk tsk, it’s a total of four taels of silver, this is not selling wine, it’s almost as good as selling it directly for silver. Take it easy, kid, don’t drink it and you’ll see the bottom of it.”
The young man said, "I can't bear to drink it myself!"
The old man asked curiously: "What's the matter, is it for your brother, or for my father-in-law?"
The young man who went straight to the counter suddenly paused, turned his head and grinned and said, "Neither, keep it for my brother. In the future, he will come to my house to eat and drink, and treat him with this wine. Back then... a long time ago, I and When he was hanging out together, he always said that green ant wine was the most delicious wine in the world. At that time, he always liked to seduce me with it, and then we separated. When I passed by his hometown alone once, I walked away I was in a hurry, didn't drink it, and didn't figure out what it tasted like."
The old man said unhappily: "What's the taste? It's just that it's expensive, and there's nothing else. I don't like to drink it. It's too strong and too strong. It burns through my throat and has more stamina. In my opinion, it's really not as good as our home-brewed The rice wine is delicious."
The young man smiled and said: "My brother is half a Jianghu man. He drinks wine with his horse. Naturally, he must drink the strongest wine. Drinking that soft rice wine is not a hero!"
The old man was amused, "Yo, you are still from the Jianghu, and according to your words, your kid traveled quite far in the Jianghu back then?"
The young man scratched his head, "It's just a long way to go."
The old man rolled his eyes and said: "Have you suffered so much?"
The young man laughed it off.
The old man sitting alone at the wine table toasted and drank slowly, looked at the waiter in the shop who was holding the wine jug carefully, and asked for no reason: "Wen Hua, the storyteller in our restaurant has mentioned several times that the Northwest feudal lord admitted that he had an acquaintance in Jianghu’s brother, who happens to have the same name and surname as your kid? Then, shouldn’t your brother’s surname be Xu too?”
The young man stood in the distance with a bright smile on his face, "Coincidentally, it really is!"
The old man laughed loudly and waved his hands: "Stinky boy! Get out!"
The old man who had no wine in his glass shook the jug until it was empty. He turned his head and looked at the young man who was walking towards the gate of the restaurant. He was limping, but he didn’t feel miserable or funny. The old man laughed loudly and asked Said: "Wen Hua, are you really that famous swordsman who moved the capital?"
Holding the pot of green ant wine in both hands, the young man turned around slowly and made a face, "Master, do you think I look like me?"
The old man smiled and waved his hand again without answering.
The old shopkeeper sat back on his seat, and there was no wine in the pot and cup. The bored old man thought for a while, looked at the door, and laughed at himself: "It doesn't look like it, it's right, can it look like it?"
After the young man left the restaurant, he walked quickly to the small bridge. Along the way, the river flowed continuously along both sides of the river. As far as the eye could see, the quiet river was full of lighted river lanterns, dotted with stars, like the starry sky in summer night. According to the folklore, after a person dies, those wandering ghosts who have nowhere to turn to, if they can find the river lantern with their name written on it on the Ghost Festival, they can be reincarnated. Back then, he heard from his brother who planed the rivers and lakes together that there is a saying in Buddhism that you can hold a lamp to reincarnate, especially the resentful ghosts who cannot be freed in the underworld. comfortable. One of his guilt in this life is that he and his elder brother can only support one person to study, and his elder brother gave him the opportunity, but he doesn't like to study, and he doesn't know how to cherish it. There are rivers and lakes of swords and swords. So now he likes to talk to his nephew more than his brother and sister-in-law, and wants the child to study hard. The paper and pens he bought for his nephew are the most expensive and best in the town. What a glorious family lintel, but he thinks from the bottom of his heart that a man is full of knowledge when he reads books, and he can write well. He doesn't need to ask for help for the Spring Festival couplets every year, or if he has a child in the future, he can go to the book and name the child himself. big good thing.
Practicing swords, if you want to become number one in the world, there is only one person in the world after all. Harder than fists, there are always martial arts masters with harder fists. However, the truths that scholars read from books are by no means the truths spoken by emperors, generals, dignitaries and dignitaries, and they must be bigger.
When he arrived at the familiar bluestone bridge, his wife had already sold two baskets of river lanterns, and his nephew had the last one in his hand.
She waited until he approached, and asked softly: "Why do you want me to keep one? And write the word Beiliang?"
He smiled and said: "The young man I told you about, he is from Beiliang, and now there is a war in the west, so I want to pray for him."
The three of them walked down the bridge together and came to the bank. He bent down and gently put the river lantern into the river water.
The three simply sat side by side on the shore. He rubbed his nephew's head, asked the child to help hold the pot of green ant wine, raised his head and smiled at his wife: "If there is a chance to meet in the future, if that guy calls your sister-in-law , don't agree, you must call your sister-in-law."
Her eyes were curved, and she said with a narrow smile: "You two are also arguing about this kind of thing."
He laughed happily and said: "Other things can not be disputed, but this is the only thing that must not be compromised!"
She blushed slightly, and said helplessly: "Then you still think about becoming in-laws with him in the future? You said that when you made a baby kiss at the beginning, he also agreed?"
He said in a bold tone: "Dare he not agree?!"
His daughter-in-law smiled, for some reason, her man doesn't pay attention to anything and doesn't care, only when it comes to his brother, he will be very proud.
Sometimes, she even got a little jealous.
She didn't know what her man and his brother went through together that made her man so reluctant to let go.
And she knows better than anyone else that this man surnamed Wen Minghua can actually afford and let go of everything, even the face that a man should care about the most, he always let go of it.
He looked towards the river, and said softly, "Daughter-in-law, don't worry, I'm not thinking about the rivers and lakes I walked through that year, I'm just thinking about my brother."
Then he turned his head and grinned, "I can't help it. I know that without me in the arena, no matter how good he is, he will find it meaningless."
Look, listen, this tone again.
She gave him a blank look.
He snorted and said, "Daughter-in-law, don't you believe me, who am I, and who is my brother? We two brothers walked the rivers and lakes back then, but..."
Suddenly seeing his daughter-in-law looking at him with a playful smile, he immediately changed his words: "That's definitely full of righteousness! Well, of course, it's just a bit of a mess, full and hungry three meals."
She pursed her lips and smiled.
He bowed his head and said to his nephew: "Your cheap uncle always likes to recite a poem, let me tell you, have you seen it in books? The sunrise is ten feet high, and everything in the world is as fine as a hair. Wild man Seeing injustice angrily wears out the eternal sword in my chest."
The child who just started school in the village school was naturally confused and shook his head vigorously.
He raised his head again, staring at the bright water surface full of river lanterns, the breeze was blowing on his face, and his face was peaceful.
He seemed to be talking to himself: "Keep the green ant wine for you, and keep the house empty for you. Xiaonian, if you still treat me as a brother, don't die outside Liangzhou Pass."