Sword of Coming

The sky was slightly bright, and before the cock crowed, Chen Pingan had already gotten up. The thin quilt could not keep the heat, and Chen Pingan also developed the habit of getting up early and going to bed late when he was an apprentice in firing porcelain. Chen Pingan opened the door and came to the small yard with soft soil. After taking a deep breath, he stretched and walked out of the yard. He turned his head and saw a slender figure, bent over, holding a wooden bucket of water in both hands, using Pushing open the gate of her own courtyard with her shoulder, it was Song Jixin's maid, who should have just returned from fetching water from the iron lock well on the other side of Xinghua Lane.

Chen Pingan retracted his gaze, crossed the streets and alleys, and trotted all the way to the east of the town. Mud Bottle Alley was on the west side of the town, the easternmost city gate. The next thing Chen Pingan will do is to send those letters back to the people in the small town. The reward is a letter and a copper coin. Make an appointment with there, after February 2, when the dragon raises his head, he will start to take over the business of this stall.

In Song Jixin's words, he was born poor and poor, even if he was lucky enough to enter the family, Chen Pingan couldn't afford to stay. Song Jixin often said some obscure words, which were probably borrowed from books. Chen Pingan always couldn't understand them. As for surviving the winter every year, it will be colder for a period of time after spring. The young man has experienced it firsthand. Song Jixin said that it is called the cold spring, which is as powerful as the carbine on the battlefield, so many people will die when these ghost gates are closed. .

The town is not surrounded by city walls. After all, there are very few thieves and thieves, not to mention bandits, so in name it is a city gate, but in fact it is a row of old and crumbling fences. There is such a place for pedestrians and vehicles to pass through. The face of the town.

When Chen Pingan trotted past Xinghua Lane, he saw many women and children gathered beside the iron lock well, and the well wheels kept creaking.

After going around another street, Chen Pingan heard a familiar sound of reading not far away. There was a school there, which was opened by a partnership of several big families in the town. The teacher was a stranger, and Chen Pingan’s young Sometimes, I often ran to hide outside the window, squatting secretly, and pricked up my ears. Although that gentleman was very strict in teaching, he did not scold and stop Chen Pingan, who were "stupid in studying and learning". Later, Chen Pingan went to a dragon kiln outside the town as an apprentice, and never went there again. school.

Going forward, Chen Pingan passed a stone archway. Because the archway building has twelve stone pillars, the local people like to call it the crab archway. The real name of this archway is very different from that of Song Jixin and Liu Xianyang. The salary collection vowed to say that in an old book called local county annals, it was called Dashifang, which was an imperial gift archway from the emperor, in order to commemorate the martial arts and martial arts of a high-ranking official in history. Liu Xianyang, who is as bumpkin as Chen Pingan, said that this is Crab Workshop, we have called it for hundreds of years, there is no reason to call it a nonsense University Scholars Workshop. Liu Xianyang also asked Song Jixin a question, "How big is the official hat of a bachelor, is it bigger than the wellhead of the iron lock well?" Song Jixin blushed when he asked.

At this time, Chen Pingan ran around the twelve-foot archway. On each side there were four large characters with strange fonts, which appeared to be different. "Angry Bullfighting". According to Song Jixin, except for a certain four characters, the other three plaques and stone carvings have all been smeared and tampered with. Chen Pingan was ignorant of these things and never thought deeply about them. Of course, even if the young man wanted to get to the bottom of it, it was futile. He didn't even know what the local county chronicles that Song Jixin often talked about were.

Not far after passing the archway, I soon saw an old locust tree with luxuriant branches and leaves. Under the tree, there was a trunk that was moved here by someone. With two bluestone slabs, this big tree was used as a simple bench. Every summer, people in the small town like to enjoy the shade here. For wealthy families, the elders will fish out a basket of frozen melons and fruits from the well. When the children are full, they form gangs and gather in the trees. Frolicking in the shade.

Chen Pingan was used to going up and down the mountain, so he ran to the gate of the fence, and stopped at the gate of the lonely yellow mud house, his heart beating and his breath not breathing.

There are not many outsiders in the small town, so it stands to reason that now that the money tree of the official kiln firing has fallen, there will be no new faces. When old man Yao was alive, he once got drunk and told apprentices such as Chen Pingan and Liu Xianyang that what we are doing is the only official kiln business in the world, and it is imperial porcelain for His Majesty and Empress. No matter how rich you are, no matter how powerful your official position is, if you dare to touch him, you will be beheaded. Old man Yao had a very different spirit that day.

Today Chen Ping looked outside the fence, but found that many people were waiting to open the city gate, there were no less than seven or eight people, men, women, old and young.

Moreover, they are all strangers. When the local people come in and out of the town, no matter whether they are going to burn porcelain or do crop work, they seldom go through the east gate. The reason is very simple. land.

At this time, Chen Ping'an and those outsiders looked at each other through a wooden fence.

At that moment, the boy wearing the self-woven straw sandals was just a little envious of the thick clothes on those people, which must be very warm and able to withstand the cold.

The people outside the door were obviously divided into several groups, they were not in the same group, but they all looked at the thin young man inside the door, most of them looked indifferent, and occasionally one or two people looked beyond the boy's figure and looked further into the town .

Chen Pingan was a little strange, don't these people know that the imperial court has banned all dragon kilns? Or do they think they have an opportunity because they know the truth?

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 impatient to wait, and walked out of the crowd alone, intending to push open the unlocked gate of the fence. When his fingers were about to touch the wooden door, he stopped suddenly, slowly withdrew his hands, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the boy in straw sandals inside the door with a smile. He didn't speak, just laughed.

Out of the corner of Chen Ping's eyes, Chen Ping inadvertently noticed that the people behind the young man seemed to be disappointed, some were entertaining, some were frowning, some were sarcasm, and their emotions were subtle and different.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with messy hair opened the door suddenly, and cursed at Chen Pingan: "Little bastard, did you lose money? You came so early to wake up your soul, and you rushed to reincarnate to see you Damn parents?!"

Chen Pingan rolled his eyes. The young man didn't care about these harsh words. He lived in this rural area where there were few books. If he was scolded a few times, he would get annoyed and jump into a well. Go on, don't worry. Secondly, this middle-aged bachelor who is the janitor is often the object of teasing and teasing by the townspeople, especially those bold and aggressive women. Not to mention scolding him, many beat him. In addition, this person also likes to brag to children wearing open crotch pants. For example, when I was at the gate of the city, there was a fight. A road that is ten feet wide is almost like a muddy road on a rainy day!

He said angrily to Chen Pingan: "I'll talk about your crap later."

No one in town took this guy seriously.

But whether outsiders can enter the town, men hold the power of life and death.

As he walked towards the wooden fence door, he reached for his crotch.

The man with his back to Chen Ping'an, after opening the door, collected a small embroidered bag from time to time, put it in his cuff, and let them go one by one.

Chen Pingan gave way early, and the eight people roughly divided into five groups and walked towards the small town. In addition to the young man wearing a high crown and a green belt hanging from his waist, two children aged seven or eight passed by one after another. A festive red gown, the girl looks pink and tender, like fine porcelain.

The boy was half a head shorter than Chen Ping'an. When the child passed him, he opened his mouth. Although he didn't make a sound, there was a clear mouth shape. It should have said two words, full of provocation.

The middle-aged woman who was holding the boy coughed lightly, and the boy restrained himself a little.

The little girl behind the woman and the boy was led by a burly old man with a head full of frost and snow. She turned her head and said a lot of words to Chen Pingan, not forgetting to point out to the boy of the same age in front of her.

Chen Pingan couldn't understand what the girl was saying at all, but he could guess that she was complaining.

The burly old man glanced sideways at the straw sandal boy.

Just being glanced at intentionally or unintentionally, Chen Pingan took a step back purely subconsciously.

A mouse sees a cat.

After seeing this scene, the little girl who used to twitter like a little squirrel suddenly lost her interest in fanning the flames. She turned her head and didn't look at Chen Pingan any more, as if one more look would dirty her eyes.

It is true that the young Chen Pingan has never seen the world, but that doesn't mean he can't read his face.

When the pedestrians left, the gatekeeper asked with a smile, "Do you want to know what they said?"

Chen Pingan nodded and said, "Think about it."

The middle-aged bachelor was overjoyed, and said with a smile, "I praised you for being good-looking, it's all good things."

Chen Pingan twitched the corners of his mouth, thinking that you think I'm stupid?

The man saw through the young man's mind and smiled even more happily, "If you are not stupid, I can let you deliver the letter?"

Chen Pingan didn't dare to refute, for fear of offending this guy, the copper coins he was about to get would fly away.

The man turned his head, looked at those people, stretched out his hand to rub his unshaven chin, and said in a low voice, "That woman just now has two legs that can pinch people to death."

Chen Ping hesitated for a moment, and asked curiously, "Was that lady trained in martial arts?"

The man was stunned, looked down at the boy, and said solemnly: "You boy, you are really stupid."

The teenager was confused.

He asked Chen Pingan to wait, and strode towards the house. When he came back, he had an extra stack of envelopes in his hand, about a dozen of them, not thick or thin. Good people are rewarded. Do you believe it?"

Chen Pingan held the letter in one hand, spread the palm of the other hand, and blinked, "A letter is worth a penny."

Furious, the man slapped the five copper coins he had prepared in advance on the boy's palm, waved his hand, and said proudly, "I owe you the remaining five coins!"