The sky was slightly bright, and before the rooster crowed, Wang Gu'an had already gotten up, and the thin futon really couldn't keep the heat, and Wang Gu'an also developed the habit of getting up early and going to bed late when he was an apprentice in porcelain. Wang Gu'an opened the door of the house, came to the small courtyard with soft soil, took a deep breath, stretched his waist, walked out of the yard, turned his head and saw a slender figure, bent over, carrying a bucket of water in both hands, and was opening the door of his yard with his shoulder.
Wang Gu'an retracted his sight, walked through the streets and alleys, trotted all the way to the east of the town, Mud Bottle Lane is in the west of the town, the easternmost city gate, there is a person responsible for the entry and exit of the town's business travel and night ban patrol, usually also collect, transfer some family letters sent back from outside, Wang Gu'an's next thing to do, is to send those letters to the people of the town, the reward is a letter and a copper coin, this is still the way he finally asked to make money, Wang Gu'an has made an appointment with that side, after the second dragon raised his head in February, he began to take over the stall business.
In Ye Tang's words, he was born poor, even if he was blessed to enter the house, he Wang Gu'an couldn't hold back. Ye Tang often said some obscure words, about the content moved from books, Wang Gu'an always didn't understand it, for example, two days ago, he talked about what kind of material was cold in the spring to kill the boy, Wang Gu'an didn't understand it at all, as for surviving the winter every year, there was a period of time after the spring was colder, the young man experienced it firsthand, Ye Tang said that it was called the spring cold, which was as powerful as the horse gun on the battlefield, so many people would die in these ghost doors.
The town is not surrounded by city walls, after all, not to mention the bandits, even thieves and thieves are rare, so nominally the city gate, in fact, it is a row of old fences that are crooked, and there is a place for pedestrians and vehicles to pass through, even if it is the face of this town.
When Wang Gu'an trotted past Xinghua Lane, he saw many women and children gathered around the iron-locked well, and the water well kept creaking.
Bypassing a street again, Wang Gu'an heard a familiar sound of reading not far away, there is a township school, which is opened by several large families in the town in partnership to raise money, Mr. Teaching is a foreigner, when Wang Gu'an was young, he often ran to hide outside the window, squatting secretly, and pricking up his ears. Although the gentleman was extremely strict when teaching, he did not scold and hinder Wang Gu'an, the children who "studied and learned", and later Wang Gu'an went to a dragon kiln outside the town as an apprentice, and never went to the school again.
Further along, Wang Gu'an passed by a stone memorial arch, because the archway building has twelve stone pillars, the locals like to call it the crab archway, the real name of this archway, Ye Tang and Liu Yangxian's statement is very different, Ye Tang swore that in an old book called the local county chronicle, called here as the university scholar's square, is the emperor's imperial archway, in order to commemorate the history of a great official's martial arts. Liu Yangxian, who is like Wang Gu'an, said that this is the crab workshop, we have been shouting for hundreds of years, and there is no reason to call it a bullshit bachelor's workshop. Liu Yangxian also asked Ye Tang a question, "How big is the official hat of the university sergeant, is it bigger than the wellhead of the iron lock well", and Ye Tang's face turned red.
At this time, Wang Gu'an ran around the twelve-foot archway, there are four big characters on each side, the font is strange, and it seems different, respectively, "Don't let go", "Xiyan is natural", "Don't ask for the outside" and "angry bullfighting". Listening to Ye Tang, except for a certain four words, the other three plaque stone carvings have been smeared and tampered with. Wang Gu'an was ignorant of these and never thought deeply, of course, even if the young man wanted to get to the bottom of it, it was in vain, he didn't even know what kind of book the local county chronicles that Ye Tang often talked about.
Not far after the archway, soon see a leafy old locust tree, under the tree, there is a trunk that I don't know who moved here, after a little chopping, under the two ends of the head and tail, there are two bluestone slabs, this big tree is used as a simple bench. Every summer, the people of the small town like to enjoy the shade here, and the elders of the wealthy families will fish out a basket of chilled melons and fruits from the well, and the children will form gangs and play in the shade of the trees.
Wang Gu'an was accustomed to going up the mountain and going into the water, ran to the gate of the fence, and stopped at the door of the lonely yellow mud house, his heart not beating or panting.
There are not many outsiders in the town, and it stands to reason that now that the cash cow fired by the official kiln has fallen, there will be no new faces. When Old Man He was alive, he once drank high, and said to Wang Gu'an and Ji Chenru, these apprentices, we are doing the only official kiln business in the world, and it is the royal porcelain for His Majesty the Emperor and the Empress. Old man He that day, his spirit was very different.
Today, Wang Gu'an looked out of the fence, but found that many people were waiting to open the city gate, no less than seven or eight people, men, women, and children.
And they are all strangers, the local people in and out of the town, whether they go to burn porcelain or do crop work, rarely go to the east gate, the reason is very simple, the road at the east gate of the town extends out, there are no dragon kilns and fields.
At this time, Wang Gu'an and those outsiders were facing each other across a wooden fence.
At that moment, the young man wearing self-made straw sandals was only a little envious of the thick clothes on those people, which must be very warm and could withstand the cold.
The people outside the door were obviously divided into several groups, not a group of people, but they all looked at the thin young man inside the door, most of them looked indifferent, and occasionally there were one or two people, their eyes had already passed the figure of the young man, and looked farther into the town.
Wang Gu'an was a little strange, didn't these people know that the imperial court had banned all the dragon kilns? Or do they know the truth and think they have an opportunity?
There was a young man wearing a strange high crown, with a slender figure and a green jade pendant hanging from his waist, he seemed to be impatient, and walked out of the crowd alone, and wanted to push open the unlocked fence gate, but when his fingers were about to touch the wooden door, he suddenly stopped, slowly withdrew his hand, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the straw sandals boy in the door with a smile, and did not speak, just laughed.
In the corner of Wang Gu'an's eyes, he inadvertently found that those people behind the young man seemed to be disappointed, playful, frowning, and sarcastic, with subtle emotions and different emotions.
At this moment, a middle-aged man with messy hair suddenly opened the door and scolded Wang Gu'an: "Little bastard, is it in the eyes of the money?" Come to call the soul so early, you rushed to reincarnate to see your dead ghost father?! "
Wang Gu'an rolled his eyes, the young man didn't care about these harsh words, as soon as he lived in this rural place with a total of few books, he would be annoyed if he was scolded a few words, so he simply found a well and jumped down, saving worry and trouble. Second, this middle-aged bachelor who guards the door is often teased and teased by the people of the town, especially those bold and spicy women, not to mention scolding him, there are many people who beat him. In addition, this person also likes to brag with children wearing open crotch pants, such as what Lao Tzu was at the city gate back then, a good fight, beating five or six big men all over the ground to find teeth, the ground is full of blood, the whole two-zhang wide road in front of the city gate is similar to a muddy road on a rainy day!
said angrily to Wang Gu'an: "Your little, I'll talk about it later." "
No one in the town takes this guy seriously.
But whether outsiders can enter the town or not, men have the power of life and death.
He reached for his crotch as he walked to the wooden fence gate.
This man with his back to Wang Gu'an, after opening the door, from time to time collected a small embroidered bag from someone, put it in his cuffs, and then let them go one by one.
Wang Gu'an gave way very early, and the eight people were roughly divided into five groups, and walked towards the town, except for the young man who wore a high crown and a green pendant hanging from his waist, and walked by two children of seven or eight years old, the boy wearing a festive red robe, and the girl looked pink and delicate, as if she were keeping up with good porcelain.
The boy was half a head shorter than Wang Gu'an, and when the child passed by him, he opened his mouth, although he didn't make a sound, but there was an obvious mouth shape, he should have said two words, full of provocation.
The middle-aged woman holding the boy coughed slightly, and the child retracted slightly.
The little girl behind the woman boy was led by a burly old man with frost and snow, she turned her head to Wang Gu'an and said a lot of words, not forgetting to point at the boy of the same age in front of her.
Wang Gu'an couldn't understand what the girl was saying, but he could guess that she was complaining.
The burly old man glanced at the straw sandals boy.
Just being looked at intentionally or unintentionally, Wang Gu'an took a step back purely subconsciously.
Like a mouse sees a cat.
After seeing this scene, the little girl who was originally chirping like a little yellow finch suddenly lost the interest of fanning the flames, and turned her head to stop looking at Wang Gu'an, as if one more look would dirty her eyes.
It is true that the young Wang Gu'an has never seen the world, but it does not mean that he can't read his face.
When the group was far away, the man at the gate smiled and asked, "Do you want to know what they said?" "
Wang Gu'an nodded and said, "Yes." "
The middle-aged bachelor was happy, and said with a smile: "Complimenting you on your good looks, it's all good words." "
Wang Gu'an tugged at the corners of his mouth, thinking to himself, you are stupid to me?
The man saw through the young man's mind and smiled even more happily, "If you are not stupid, can Lao Tzu let you deliver the letter?" "
Wang Gu'an didn't dare to refute, for fear of annoying this guy, and the copper coins that were about to arrive would fly away.
The man turned his head, looked at those people, stretched out his hand to rub his chin with hulila, and whispered: "That woman just now, two legs can kill people." "
Wang Gu'an hesitated for a moment and asked curiously, "That lady has practiced martial arts?" "
The man was stunned, looked down at the young man, and said seriously: "You kid, you are really stupid." "
The boy was confused.
He asked Wang Gu'an to wait, strode to the house, and when he came back, he had an extra stack of envelopes in his hand, not thick or thin, about a dozen copies, after the man handed it to Wang Gu'an, he asked: "Fools have foolish blessings, and good people have good rewards." Do you believe it or not? "
Wang Gu'an held the letter in one hand, spread his palm with the other, and blinked, "I said that a letter is worth a penny." "
The man was annoyed and angry, slapped the five copper coins prepared in advance on the back of the young man's palm, waved his big hand, and said arrogantly: "There are five coins left, owe it first!" "