In early winter, the wind is slightly chilly and the sky is clear and clear.
In the afternoon, a high-speed railway carriage came on the road in Lin'an County.
Before the car stopped at the inn, a boy of seventeen or eighteen years old jumped out of the car carrying luggage.
In those days, there was no such thing as "getting off the bus only when you arrive at the station". As long as you were willing and not afraid of falling to your death, you could jump off the bus at any time without having to say hello to anyone.
Therefore, no one took Sun Yixie's move of getting off the bus early seriously.
This time he went home, but there was no "reverse high-speed rail". From Wuhan to here, he took the high-speed rail coach all the way, and when he crossed the river, he also took a big boat, so This part of the trip went quite smoothly.
When we arrived in Lin'an County, we had already stepped into the territory of Hangzhou Prefecture. Sun Yixie of this generation was already familiar with it, and there was no need to continue taking the coach.
He got out of the car at the moment, not for any other reason, but because he was a little hungry, and he happened to smell the aroma of food wafting in the wind, so he wanted to find it. .
The source of the fragrance is not far away, just on the street, just a few steps away.
But when Sun Yixie walked to the door of the store, he couldn't help but stop, because he found that not only did the restaurant not have a sign on the door, but it was also in tatters inside; he Looking in again, I found that there were only two tables in the store. One of the small tables near the corner was already occupied by customers. The aroma of the food must have come from that table.
Ordinarily, when most people see this kind of scene, they may not want to go in, but Sun Yixie’s thinking is weird, and he feels...the more this kind of store is, the more likely it is that he can try it. , what if I discovered some niche food?
So, Sun Yixie strode in, sat down at the only empty table, put his luggage on the stool next to him, and shouted at that time: "Someone is here." No? Eat!"
Unexpectedly, one of the three people sitting at the table in the corner stood up quickly, chewing rice. He ran up to him and said, "Hey, you're here."
Before the man came closer, he made eye contact with Sun Yixie, and both of them were stunned.
"Huh? It's you." Sun Yixie immediately found that the person who came looked familiar.
The "guy" mentioned in the book here is Zhang Ergui, the cook whom Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai met in the No Return Building in Luoyang City.
"Young Master Sun?" Zhang Ergui recognized him quickly, and immediately turned to the two people at the other table and said, "Boss Yuan, Mr. Xue, look who's coming. "
Actually, even if he didn't shout, the two people would have heard the conversation here. In addition, Sun Yixie's voice is quite distinctive, and it would be difficult not to be recognized.
"Oh, it turns out to be Sun Shaoxia, a rare visitor, a rare visitor!" Xue Tui walked over and raised his hand to salute enthusiastically.
"Young Master Sun, do you still remember the old man?rotten? "Yuan Fangzhi was older and couldn't walk as fast as Xue Tui. He arrived two steps later and said hello to Brother Sun.
"Master Yuan, Mr. Xue, and...Master Zhang . "Sun Yixie also recalled the looks of these three people again before remembering their names.
To be honest, it is really hard to recognize these three people now.
< p>The last time Sun Yixie saw them, these three people were all well-dressed and full of energy. But now, all three of them are wearing shabby and old clothes, and their faces are so dirty that they look like they haven't been washed. , the mental state between the eyebrows is also depressed, looking very stressed and tired."Ha, this is really fate, why are you here? "After glancing at them, Sun Yixie bowed to the three of them politely and asked.
When the three of them heard this, they looked at each other, and then they all showed a bitter expression. Expression.
"Hey...don't mention it. "This story-telling thing still has to be done by Xue Tui. "That night, the Bugui Building was set on fire. The three of us managed to escape. But the next day we heard that our boss and Zhengyi The people in the sect were all rebels, and they were all taken advantage of by Jin Yiwei.
“Fortunately, we are only responsible for cooking and accounting in Bugui Building, and we don’t know what the boss is doing on Jianghu Road, so Jin Yiwei didn’t make things difficult for us.
"It's just... We definitely can't stay in Luoyang City any longer. All the other shops in the city know that we used to be Buguilou's clerks. They are afraid that we have something to do with Zhengyimen and don't dare to invite us...
"We had no choice but to leave our country and come to the south of the Yangtze River to make a living."
When he said this, Sun Yixie thought with some hindsight: In this way, this The jobs of the three of us have been ruined, so Brother Huang and I seem to be somewhat responsible...
However, Brother Sun only thinks about this in his heart and will not say it out loud.
"Oh...so that's it." Sun Yixie paused for a few seconds, nodded, and then changed his look of confusion, "Hiss...that's not right..." He looked up Looking around, "With Mr. Xue's talent, Master Yuan and Master Zhang's craftsmanship... no matter where we open a shop, it should be packed with guests..."
"That's not it. "Xue Tui continued, "That's what I thought at the beginning..." He shook his head bitterly, "I thought twice before setting off... I am from Shaoxing myself, and my hometown is not too far from here. Master Yuan and Master Zhang is also from the south, so he will be more comfortable here than in Luoyang; plus Jiangnan is a land of plenty, so I thought business would be easy here, but who knew..."
Xue Tui said this Before he finished speaking, he heard a burst of noise outside the store door.
Immediately afterwards, three or five guys who looked like local gangsters filed in from the door and stood in the store with a loud roar.
"Hey! Guys, it's a good day today." As soon as the fat man in the group came in, he looked at Brother SunSitting there, he immediately shouted loudly, "Where are the guests? Can you give us some money today?"
Hearing this, Sun Yixie turned around and looked at the group of people, Then he looked at Xue Tui and asked: "Mr. The bully, named Zeng Erbao, relied on the fact that his brother was the county's chief catcher, so he bullied the county... In fact, when our store first opened, there were many customers and the tables in the room were full. A few days later, Zeng Erbao came here with his gang of gangsters to cause trouble. They said they had eaten too much in our place to extort our money... If we didn't give it, they smashed our store. We also smashed tables and chairs and beat people... I went to report it to the police, but was beaten out by the head catcher Zeng Dabao. In the end, we had no choice but to give money... But after we gave it, they came every now and then. , as soon as they came, no other customers dared to come, and in the end the store became like this..."
Xue Tui is a scholar, and he is still a bit noble at heart, so he said this in a pinch.
In fact, Xue Tui couldn't tell anyone about the many bad things done by a lowly person like Zeng Erbao.
In the past few months, in addition to being beaten and scolded in the store, rocks were thrown at the residences of Yuan Fangzhi and Zhang Ergui, as well as at Xue Tui's home.
Sometimes those gangsters would run outside Xue Tui’s house late at night and deliberately make a scene. In Xue Tui’s house, besides his wife, he also had children. The children were often frightened by this. He would cry all night, unable to sleep, while those gangsters laughed outside the house.
Xue Tui has walked past the yamen gate many times. Sometimes he went specifically to find Zeng Dabao when he was not around, but other yamen servants did not dare to offend Zeng Capt. No one dared to help him. Notify the case.
Some people may ask, why didn’t he go to Laos to voice his grievances?
Everyone, this matter is not that simple. The government office is not what you see in the TV series. You can knock the grievances there if you want...
This As soon as the drum of injustice is sounded, the master must be summoned to court.
So there are usually government officials watching next to the injustice drum. If you want to play the drum, the government officials watching the drums must first ask you what the matter is. If you are not wronged as deep as the sea, . If there is a major case to be appealed, he will not let you complain at all - for example, "Zhang San next door owes me two green onions and refuses to pay back." If he asks you to complain, he will have to tell you in court. Fight together.
As a "child prodigy" who once had an ambition to be an official, Xue Tui knew the laws of Dashu very well, so he knew that if a small case like his was harassed by local ruffians, it would be difficult to solve the problem by force. If he complains of injustice, he will definitely be punished... With his body, if he is punished for a meal, he will die or be disabled, and his family will only be in worse misery in the future.
However, Xue Tui could not move anywhere else.
Because when he left Luoyang, all his belongings there were sold at low prices., the little money in exchange, except for travel expenses, was basically invested in this store. If this store disappeared, Master Yuan and Master Zhang might be able to find other places to work, but Xue Tuike would have to Living on the street with my family.
Fortunately...he met Sun Yixie today.
"Hey! Shopkeeper Xue, what are you saying sneakily?" The next second, Zeng Erbao stepped forward and stepped on the table where Sun Yixie was sitting. At the end of the bench, Xue Tui's whisper was interrupted, "What?" Zeng Erbao said, tilting his head, turning his face, and looked at Sun Yixie closely, "Is this your friend?"
"Yes." Before Xue Tui could reply, Sun Yixie responded first, "Mr. Xue, Master Yuan, Master Zhang... are all my friends. Do you have any advice for me?"
The moment he said "friend", Xue Tui, Yuan Fangzhi and Zhang Ergui felt relieved, because they all understood that when Sun Yixie said those two words, it meant He was ready to take care of the matter in front of him.
"Drink~ You really dare to admit it." Hearing this, Zeng Erbao raised his head with a smile and exchanged glances with his group of boys; his group of boys also smiled in cooperation. When I got up, I didn't know why I looked very embarrassed.
"That's good..." After Zeng Erbao finished communicating with his younger brothers, he put his face in front of Sun Yixie, squeezed his face and said, "Your friend owes you to me. It's a lot of money, you can pay it back for him."
"Heh..." Sun Yixie laughed at that time.
This smile seemed a bit baffling to the gangsters, but in the eyes of Xue Tui and the others, it made people's scalp numb.
At this moment, Xue Tuina said in his heart: Mr. Zeng, you are going to be in trouble...