Chen Pingan ate the sugar-coated haws that he had not tasted for nearly ten years, and carried the locust branches back to Muping Lane. He passed by a house that was even more dilapidated than his ancestral home. Chen Pingan felt guilty and thought about whether to follow him first. Master Ruan borrowed some money to repair this house. Although he had lived in this Mud Bottle Lane since he was a child, Chen Ping'an had never seen anyone living in this house. He had chased and fought with the Mountain Monkey on the roof before and deliberately killed it. After being deceived, a big hole was made in the roof by an old ape. Chen Ping'an felt that he had to take care of this mess, otherwise he would inevitably be exposed to wind, sun, rain and wind in the future. Maybe the house could still be restored. After twenty or thirty years, I'm afraid I won't be able to survive even five years now. The pillars of the house will decay very quickly. This is very similar to Chen Ping'an's body that was forcibly "taught" by Cai Jinjian, both of which are leaking from all sides. Therefore, Chen Pingan became more and more worried, thinking about how to repair this ownerless house. No matter how glamorous and elegant it was, it was solid and solid.
It’s not that Chen Ping’an has never thought about taking out a gold fine copper coin and exchanging it for real gold, silver or copper coins, such as Old Man Yang at the Yang’s Shop or Master Ruan at the Blacksmith Shop, but Chen Ping’an has never thought about it. Ping An has an intuition. Things like gold and copper coins are truly rare. Every time one is used, one is lost. As for silver and copper coins, they can be earned anywhere, it just depends on the amount of effort. So Chen Pingan decided to ask Master Ruan for a loan first. If he couldn't borrow it, he would use gold and copper coins to solve the problem. He would definitely feel distressed, but since some imminent problems are clearly before his eyes, he can't pretend to turn a blind eye. , Chen Pingan is very afraid of owing others.
Chen Pingan returned to the courtyard and placed the locust branch given by the little girl against the courtyard wall. The priceless sword-sharpening stone was still in the basket, but of course it would not be gone. It was left in the yard openly and openly, and Chen Ping'an had already moved it into the house. If time was not tight, Chen Ping'an would have dug a deep pit ten feet high in the yard, buried the inconspicuous but valuable sword sharpening stone, and chopped it into pieces. Longtai, just hearing the name, feels more precious than those three bags of gold and copper coins.
Chen Ping'an heard the crow of chickens in the yard next door. When Song Jixin and Zhigui left the town, they didn't pay attention to the cage of old hens and chickens. They were probably a little hungry at the moment. Injured, Chen Pingan went inside to pick up the bunch of keys, then brought a handful of rice from his home, walked to the door of the next door, opened the chicken coop, and squatted down to reveal his fingers. After feeding the chickens, Chen Pingan opened the door of the kitchen to see if there was any leftover grain such as rice, so as not to let it go bad and become moldy. When he entered the kitchen, Chen Pingan was eye-opening. There was a big vat of rice. When he opened the lid and saw that Chen Ping'an was full, there were all kinds of pots and pans in the cupboards. There was also a row of hams and dried fish hanging on the wall. Everything was neatly tidied up, fresh and clear, and objects of all sizes were not miscellaneous. chaos.
Chen Ping'an was suddenly attracted by a pair of firewood near the stove. He walked closer and squatted down. Sure enough, it was the time when he saw Zhigui chopping up a wooden man with a kitchen knife. She didn't know how to chop at all. firewood, so I spent a long time cutting it.It had little effect. Chen Pingan could smash the wooden figure about the same height as a man into pieces with three or two strokes. At this moment, Chen Pingan squatted and lowered his head, and found that the wooden figure was very strange. There were many carvings on it. The red spots were all over the body, sparse and irregular. Some places were densely packed together, and some places only had a cinnabar-like red dot far away. Chen Pingan picked up a wooden man's arm and looked carefully at each red dot. Next to it, there are actually extremely tiny ink-colored characters engraved on it. The red dots are the size of rice grains, and the strokes of those small characters are even thinner and invisible. Thanks to Chen Ping'an, with ordinary people's eyesight, they might only be seen as red. Just dots and black spots.
Chen Pingan tried to put the broken limbs back together. It didn’t take long for the wooden man to reappear in its original shape. Fortunately, the wooden man did not lack any big pieces. Unfortunately, many pieces were put together. In some places, the red dots and black characters have been chopped off or scraped away by Zhigui's kitchen knife. It is estimated that only 70% of the relatively complete red dots and ink characters are left.
Chen Pingan stood up and opened the window to make the kitchen light more transparent. Then he continued to squat down and looked over carefully, not daring to miss any details. This took almost an hour. . Although Chen Ping'an doesn't know most of the ink characters, he still tries his best to remember their stroke structure.
Chen Pingan has always had hopes deep down in his heart for reading and literacy.
When he was working as a kiln worker, many times after Chen Pingan climbed to the top of the mountain and looked out at the town, in addition to looking for the location of Mud Bottle Lane, the second place he often wanted to know was the school building. private school. When I was young, there was a dark and thin child who would often go to school and squat against the foot of the wall with the sound of books above his head. Although he could not understand what was being said, the child would inexplicably feel at ease and peace of mind, and his heart would be very peaceful. One day The grievances I suffered disappeared as soon as I heard them.
However, for the orphans of Mud Bottle Lane at that time, studying was a much more luxurious thing than sugar-coated haws of sugar. You could just look at it from a distance.
At this time, Chen Pingan closed his eyes and relied on his memory to build a complete wooden man in his mind.
If there were any vague memories, Chen Pingan was not in a hurry to open his eyes to check the truth and skipped it first. As a result, from beginning to end, there were about forty or fifty uncertain Zhu Dot and Ink characters on the wooden figure. .
Recognizing and remembering the omissions one by one, Chen Pingan took a deep breath. He wanted to do it again, but as soon as he closed his eyes, his head felt swollen and he felt dizzy. Chen Pingan decided not to force himself anymore. Some efforts cannot be made without exerting all your strength, otherwise it will only make you busier and more chaotic. After Chen Pingan learned how to make porcelain, he felt deeply about this. It was not because he was talented, but simply because he was scolded by Old Man Yao all day long.
Chen Pingan messed up the wooden figures again and stacked them in the corner of the stove. After walking out of the stove and closing the courtyard door, he thought about it and decided to go to the east gate of the town and look for it again. The servant will become a formal apprentice in the blacksmith shop in the future. He will probably live there, so it is unlikely that he can deliver letters. Therefore, Chen Ping'an wanted to say hello to the bachelor, but he looked for it once before and couldn't find him..
After Chen Pingan trotted to the east gate of the town, the yellow mud house was still closed and locked. He sighed and sat on the tree where the gatekeeper Zheng Dafeng often sat. On the pier, the small town is no better than entering the mountains, but there is no such thing as the mountain god's seat. Chen Ping'an sat there in a daze, rarely taking a break from his busy schedule.
I don’t know how long it took, but there was a sound of rolling wheels on the road in the town. Chen Pingan turned around and saw an ox cart in front of him, followed by two carriages with carriages. There are a group of children sitting on the oxcart, and there are two familiar faces, Li Baoping in a big red cotton-padded jacket, and Shi Chunjia with two blushers. In addition, they are probably the Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, and Dong Shuijing that Shi Chunjia mentioned. Three young men from school.
The five children on the oxcart were chattering and bustling.
The coachman was an unfamiliar face of a middle-aged man. The old man who used to sweep the floor at school was sitting behind the coachman.
At a glance, Chen Pingan saw that except for those who came from the four major surnames of Li in Fulu Street, The little girl in the red cotton-padded jacket and the other four children were completely different just by the way they dressed. Shi Chunjia’s ancestors had lived in Qilong Lane for generations, guarding the old shop called Lucui. They had no worries about food and clothing, but they were not She is rich and powerful, so the little girl can only dress comfortably and warmly, but next to Shi Chunjia is a stern-looking peer, wearing a brand new and expensive black fox fur, with a pale face and cold eyebrows. Li Huai's father, Li Er, is a well-known loser in the town. Li Huai also has a sister named Li Liu. However, his father, mother and sister all went out to make a living, leaving only Li Huai to be fostered at his uncle's house. , now he also has to leave his hometown and follow the old man named Ma to the cliff academy. The last boy had a thin spring shirt, so he wore two mended outer shirts. He was full of poverty, and at first glance he looked like a poor boy who grew up in a poor alley.
Li Baoping, Shi Chunjia, Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, Dong Shuijing.
Five meng boys from a small town rode in an ox cart that could not protect themselves from the wind and rain, heading towards the sacred place in the hearts of countless scholars in East Aquarius Continent, the Cliff Academy, one of the seventy-two Confucian academies. At this moment, the five children will definitely not know that in a continent full of dynasties, countless wealthy and powerful families, even if they sharpen their heads and use up all their favors and incense, still want to send their children away. Enter it, follow the Confucian gentlemen with wide sleeves and broad sleeves, and learn from the Confucian sages to cultivate their moral integrity and govern the country and bring peace to the world.
Of course they don’t know how rare it is to be able to call Qi Jingchun sir. On the contrary, these children now only think that Mr. Qi has many rules, often has a straight face, and is not approachable at all. Mr. Qi occasionally laughs, and the children don't even know what they have done right to make Mr. Qi so happy.
Li Baoping's sharp eyes saw Chen Pingan sitting on the tree pillar. He jumped out of the oxcart with lightning speed, staggered a bit, quickly ran to Chen Pingan, and stood up suddenly. He was determined, but he didn't seem to know what to say. In the end, he just puffed up his chest and said, "I'm going to a place far, far away." His little face was full of pride.
The old man wearing a high crown said solemnly: "Li Baoping! ”
Although he was not very happy, the old man still asked the driver to stop the oxcart. The little girl curled her lips, but turned around and ran towards the oxcart. She suddenly heard the guy behind her calling her name and turned around Finally, she saw him raising his fist towards her and shaking it slightly, probably asking her to work hard.
Li Baoping also waved her fist at him, indicating that she would work hard.
Chen Pingan smiled knowingly, feeling that the efforts of this little girl in a red cotton jacket were mostly spent on playing, and her footprints would be left everywhere in Shanya Academy.
Chen Pingan looked up. The old man sweeping the floor, whom he had met several times in the school, nodded to himself, and Chen Pingan subconsciously smiled and returned the gesture.
At the same time, someone on the carriage behind gently lowered the curtains.
Although there was only a glimpse, Chen Pingan saw the face of the man clearly. It was the scholar who went to the blacksmith shop to find Master Ruan.
Chen Pingan watched the ox cart and carriage drive out slowly. Small town.
If Chen Ping'an could fly with his sword in the air like Ning Yao and overlook the thousands of miles of mountains and rivers that had just taken root, he would be shocked by all kinds of strange phenomena.
Countless birds and beasts of all kinds are entrenched on the border between the Li Zhu Cave and the Great Li territory. Outside, there are countless of their kind rushing here crazily, as if they are absorbing the energy. What.
On that invisible border, they neither dare to take a step forward nor take a step back.
There is also an old woman standing within the boundary. At the end of the stream, her upper body was exposed from the water, and her crow-green hair fell down like a waterfall, spreading around her body like a black lotus.
The old woman's face was originally as mottled as dead tree bark. At this moment, she looks like a woman who is less than forty years old.
There is also the Piyun Mountain, which seems to be arched by the ground, rising slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The cave sky was shattered and turned into a blessed land.
Everyone born and raised in the small town of Lizhu Cave Sky, whether rich or poor, good or evil, will have an afterlife.