Not long after Ji Chenru came to Niping Lane, another rare guest came to the alley. The elegant blue-shirted scholar Zhao Yao looked a bit like the teacher Liu Chunshui.
Zhao Yao was the eldest grandson of one of the four major surnames in the town. Compared with those idle dandies like Lu Zhengchun, Zhao Yao, who was also born in a wealthy family, had a very good reputation. Many lonely elderly people in the town had received the favor of the young man. If this was the so-called "famous scholars raising their reputation in the wild" in the book, it seemed to overestimate Zhao Yao's ambition and be a bit of a villain's heart. After all, the boy had been kind to others since he was ten years old, year after year, without any slackness. Even the old people in Fulu Street who watched the young man grow up would give him a thumbs up. Every time they scolded their own children, they would always bring Zhao Yao out as an excuse, which made Zhao Yao have few close friends among his peers.
Lu Zhengchun's group is free-spirited and doesn't like to deal with a nerd who talks about all sorts of things all the time. Imagine everyone is excited to climb over the wall to peek at the pretty widow, and then someone is muttering "don't look at it if it's indecent" next to them. Wouldn't that ruin the mood? In short, the young Zhao Yao likes to deal with people outside Fulu Street in recent years. He has walked through almost all the alleys, big and small, except Niping Alley, because Ye Dan, a peer who often makes Zhao Yao feel ashamed, lives in this alley.
But if we really talk about friends, Zhao Yao probably only recognizes Ye Dan as his chess friend. Although he has been losing to Ye Dan in chess for so many years, the desire to win is the desire to win, and the obsession to win is the obsession. Zhao Yao has always admired Ye Dan, who is extremely talented. However, Zhao Yao is a little disappointed because his intuition tells him that although Ye Dan laughs and jokes with him and they usually get along closely, he seems to have never regarded him as a true friend.
Although Zhao Yao has never visited Ye Dan's house before, when he saw a certain house at a glance, he knew that this house must be Ye Dan's house. It was because of the spring couplets posted at the door. There were many characters, and they were all written by Ye Dan. The reason was simple. The style was really too varied. It can almost be said that every character was different. For example, the two characters "御风" were written in one go, as he wanted, and had a sense of floating. The character "渊" was next to the character "水", which was particularly profound and long-lasting. The word "奇" is written with great vigor and thunder! The word "国" is written in a calm and peaceful manner, like a sage sitting upright, without any flaws.
Zhao Yao stood at the gate of the courtyard and almost forgot to knock on the door. He leaned forward and stared at the words in a daze. He felt that he was about to lose the courage to knock on the door. It was because he practiced calligraphy diligently and copied many calligraphy works that he knew more about the great power, weight and spirit of those words.
Zhao Yao was sad and took out a purse, bent down and put it at the door, ready to leave without saying goodbye.
At this time, the gate of the courtyard suddenly opened. Zhao Yao looked up and saw that Ye Dan seemed to be about to go out with the maid Shi Hui. The two of them were talking and laughing.
Ye Dan pretended to be surprised and joked, "Zhao Yao, what do you want to do with this gift?"
Zhao Yao picked up the purse with some embroidery and was about to explain the reason, but Ye Dan took the purse away and said with a smile, "Oh, Zhao Yao is here to give gifts, accept it. But let's make it clear in advance, I am from a poor family, and I don't have any gifts that will impress Brother Zhao, so it's impolite if I don't reciprocate."
Zhao Yao smiled bitterly and said, "This bag of lucky money is my parting gift, no need to reciprocate."
Ye Dan turned to his maid and smiled knowingly, and handed the purse to her, "See, I said Zhao Yao is the most polite scholar in the town, what do you think?"
After the girl took the money bag, she held it to her chest. She smiled with her eyes narrowed, very happy, slightly sideways and made a thousand blessings, "Thank you, Mr. Zhao. My young master said that a family that accumulates good deeds will have more blessings, and people who do good deeds will have a blessed field. I wish Mr. Zhao a bright future and a long and prosperous future."
Zhao Yao quickly returned the greeting and bowed, "Thank you, Miss Shi Hui, for your auspicious words."
Ye Dan touched the back of his head and yawned, "Aren't you tired?"
Shi Hui smiled and said, "If I can get a bag of money every time, I won't be tired even if I make ten thousand blessings."
Zhao Yao said with some shame, "I'm going to disappoint Miss Shi Hui."
Ye Dan waved his hand, "Let's go, have a drink!"
Zhao Yao looked embarrassed, and Ye Dan provoked him, "What a fool! How can you only read rigid rules from reading, but not some famous scholars and romantics?"
Zhao Yao asked tentatively, "A little drink to ease your mood?"
Ye Dan rolled his eyes and said, "Getting drunk!"
Zhao Yao was about to speak when Ye Dan grabbed his neck and dragged him away.
When the maid Shi Hui locked the door, the four-legged snake tried to sneak out, but she kicked it back into the yard.
When she passed the house next door, she quietly tiptoed and glanced at Ji Chenru's tall figure. The latter also noticed her and immediately smiled brightly. When Ji Chenru was about to say hello to her, she had already retracted her gaze and walked away quickly.
There is a restaurant in the town, but it is really small, but the expenses are not small. However, Zhao Yao is a descendant of the Zhao family after all, and he has a good reputation. He is a famous miser. Today, I don't know what's wrong with him. He patted his chest and said that he would not charge a penny. It is a great honor for his restaurant to have two scholars come to the small shop to drink. The two young masters should accept his money. Ye Dan immediately smiled and stretched out his hand, asking for money on the spot. The shopkeeper was annoyed and tried to save his face, saying that he would owe it to Mr. Ye tomorrow and send a few jars of good wine. Zhao Yao wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it. The shopkeeper always knew the strange temper of Mr. Ye in Niping Lane, so he was not really angry. He personally found a quiet window seat for the three people on the second floor.
Ye Dan and Zhao Yao didn't talk much, and Ye Dan didn't persuade anyone to drink, which made Zhao Yao, who was originally ready to die, feel very strange.
Looking from the window on the second floor of the restaurant, you can just see a plaque of the Twelve-legged Archway, which is the right place.
Ye Dan asked, "Is Mr. Liu really not leaving the town with you?"
Zhao Yao nodded and said, "The teacher changed his schedule temporarily and said he would stay in the school to finish teaching the last penultimate chapter, "Knowing Etiquette."
Ye Dan sighed, "Then Mr. Liu is going to tell us a great truth, teaching the world for the Confucian saint, telling us that in the beginning, there was no law in the world, and the saints used etiquette to educate all living beings. At that time, the monarchs all advocated etiquette and believed that those who violated reason and etiquette would be punished, so there was law, etiquette, etiquette, law, etiquette first, then law..."
Zhao Yao was already slightly drunk and his speech was a little slurred, and asked, "Do you think it's right? Why didn't the teacher just teach the last chapter, "Abiding by Etiquette?"
Ye Dan answered irrelevantly, "Before leaving the town, there are things like baboon, water ghost, gods and monsters. If you believe in them, they exist, and if you don't believe in them, they don't exist. As for how Mr. Liu teaches and how students listen, it's up to fate."
The maid Shi Hui also drank a glass of wine, looking playful and dizzy, and she didn't even look at the towering archway from beginning to end.
The twelve-legged archway, the base of the stone pillars are the nine kinds of strange beasts of the nine sons of the dragon, and the other ones are the white tiger, the black tortoise and the red bird.
The townspeople have lived here for generations, and they are no longer surprised.
Zhao Yao couldn't help but burp, stood up staggeringly, and said: "I bid you farewell, and hope to see you again."
Ye Dan thought about it, and stood up, smiling: "We will definitely see each other again, Zhao Yao, don't worry about having no friends on the road ahead."
Zhao Yao, with his eyes blurred, bit his tongue and said sincerely: "Ye Dan, you should leave the town as soon as possible, everyone in the world knows you, you can do it!"
Ye Dan obviously didn't take it seriously, and waved his hand and said: "Let's go, you are drunk and talking nonsense, which is disrespectful to the gentleman."
After Zhao Yao and Ye Dan left the restaurant, they parted ways. Before leaving, Zhao Yao, who was probably emboldened by the wine, asked, "Ye Dan, do you want to go to the official residence of the kiln supervisor to take a look? I can convince the doorman..."
Ye Dan said a word from his teeth with a cold face, "Get out!"
Zhao Yao left sadly.
Maid Shi Hui looked at the back and whispered: "Master, I mean well."
Ye Dan sneered: "There are many good people in the world who have good intentions, but end up doing bad things and getting bad results. Aren't there many?"
She thought about it and it seemed to be such a boring truth, so she stopped insisting.
Fulu Street where Zhao Yao lived was in the north of the town, and Niping Lane was in the west where poor families gathered. When Ye Dan and the maid walked side by side through the archway, she looked up at the plaque "Qi Chong Dou Niu" and looked like an old man in his twilight years.
The girl, whose real name is Wang Zhu, smiled without showing her teeth.
After Zhao Yao returned to the ancestral home on Fulu Street, the servant told him that the ancestor was waiting for him in the study and he had to go there immediately without stopping for a moment. The drunken blue-shirted scholar immediately felt a headache and rushed to the study.
The Zhao family is a low-key family in the town, and their wealth is restrained. Unlike the Lu family, they are arrogant and like to call themselves a scholarly family. Their study is also very antique.
An old woman holding a cane is standing next to a desk, stroking the tabletop. Her weathered face is full of sad memories.
After the old woman smelled the strong smell of alcohol from the eldest grandson outside the door, she was not angry. She smiled and waved, "Yao'er, come in, why are you standing at the door? It's nothing for a man to drink a little wine. It's not like drinking horse urine. It's not shameful!"
Zhao Yao smiled bitterly and stepped over the threshold. He saluted the old ancestor respectfully. The old woman said impatiently, "Reading too much is the bad thing. There are so many rules and regulations that make scholars feel stuck in a wall all their lives. It's very annoying. Take your grandfather for example. He is the best in everything, but he only talks about big principles with me. It's really annoying. Especially his manners and demeanor, he deserves a beating. I just can't argue with him. It really makes me want to hit him with a cane..."
The old woman suddenly laughed at herself and laughed, "I almost forgot that I didn't need a cane at that time."
She asked with a smile, "Why, did you drink with the ungrateful little bastard named Ye?"
Zhao Yao said helplessly: "Grandma, I have told you so many times that Ye Dan is very talented, has a high level of comprehension, and learns everything faster than others."
The old woman sneered: "He is the smartest, but your grandfather has been a three-year-old child, and he has watched that little thing to death. Do you want to know what your grandfather said?"
Zhao Yao quickly replied: "Grandson doesn't want to know!"
The old woman didn't care whether her precious grandson was willing to listen or not, and said to herself: "Your grandfather said, 'At a young age, he is very cunning. It's a pity that the one who ruined the reputation of the ancestors must be this person.'"
Then she pointed at Zhao Yao, "Your grandfather also said, 'Gentle, respectful and frugal, it's nothing special at first, but the one who cultivates the vitality of future generations must be my grandson!'"
After the old woman finished speaking, she smiled, "Old man, you have been jealous all your life, and finally said something nice."
Zhao Yao was about to speak with some doubts, but he heard his grandmother sighing: "Old, old!"
The boy had to take back his words, smiled and stepped forward to hold the old woman's arm, "Grandma is as old as the Southern Mountains, and still very young."
The old woman stretched out her dry palm and patted the back of her precious grandson's hand, "Better than your grandfather, who knows how to talk nonsense when studying, and can also say nice things to people."
The boy smiled and said: "Grandpa is really knowledgeable. Mr. Liu also said that Grandpa has a good way of studying and has a deep understanding of the word "righteousness".
The old woman immediately showed her fox tail, and couldn't hide her smugness, but she pretended to sneer: "That's not right, it doesn't matter who picked the man!"
Zhao Yao pursed his lips tightly and held back his laughter.
The old woman took Zhao Yao to the chair behind the desk. The boy found a wooden sculpture of a sleeping dragon on the desk. It was lifelike, but for some reason, after careful observation, he found that the green wooden dragon had no eyes.
The old woman picked up a brush that had been dipped in ink. It was a brand new small cone brush made of old locust branches. She held it with both hands and handed it to the eldest grandson tremblingly.
When Zhao Yao took the brush without knowing what was going on, his shoulders sank. It turned out that his grandmother put her hand on his shoulder. He sat down in the seat that only the head of the Zhao family could sit.
The old woman stepped back and said solemnly: "Zhao Yao, take a seat! Today, you will add the finishing touch to the dragon for the ancestors of the Zhao family!"
————
The dilapidated clay statues were tilted on the ground covered with weeds, and no one cared about them.
This has been the case for thousands of years, and even clay statues continue to fall here. The townspeople are not only used to many things, but they also no longer have much respect for these statues.
The elderly occasionally nag their children not to come here to play, but the children still like to play hide-and-seek, catch crickets, etc. Maybe when these children grow up and become old, they will also tell the children not to play here. Generation after generation, it has been like this, without wind or rain, without waves, and it is plain and ordinary.
Here, the falling heads, broken torsos, and separated palms seem to be barely pieced together by people, just to maintain the original appearance, but this is the only face left.
A young boy in straw sandals hurriedly ran here from Niping Lane, holding three coins in his hands. When he arrived here, he walked around and muttered to himself, then found a statue very skillfully, squatted down, looked around, and saw no one, so he quietly put the copper coins into the crack of the statue.
He stood up and went to find the second and third statues, doing the same thing.
Before the boy left, he stood alone in the lush green grass, clasped his hands together, bowed his head and muttered: "Sui Sui Gu'an, Sui Sui Gu'an, I hope you can bless my parents so that they don't suffer in the next life... If possible, please tell my parents that I am living well now, don't worry..."