Unparalleled Concubine

"Brother... brother, what are you doing?"

The charcoal girl was wearing only straw sandals, and her two little feet were turning purple from the cold. She squatted beside Li Xin, watching the big brother using the hatchet for chopping firewood at home, and cutting the wood that he and his grandfather had burned with great difficulty. carbon.

The black charcoal fell all over the ground, which made the little girl very distressed. Although she was young, she knew that the charcoal that these grandpas worked so hard to burn could be sold for some copper coins to buy and eat. It can be done in winter, but by the beginning of spring, there will be no charcoal to burn, so grandpa can only go to the mountains to cut firewood and go to the city to sell some firewood.

Firewood is much cheaper than charcoal.

Therefore, only in winter, the little girl can occasionally see some meat, and in other seasons, even a full stomach is an extravagant hope, so she can't help but feel distressed when she sees Li Xin wasting charcoal like this.

Li Xin stopped what he was doing, raised his head and grinned at the little girl: "Girl, you can't make money by simply selling charcoal. My brother will find a way to earn some money and buy you a pair of cotton shoes to wear."

After he finished speaking, he began to concentrate on peeling the charcoal, and the charcoal dust was flying on the ground.

The little girl couldn't stand it any longer, and immediately ran to her grandpa who was burning charcoal to tell the truth. The old man stopped the bellows, walked over to Li Xin's side with a bowed body, and saw that the young man was cutting the charcoal on the ground into the shapes of animals. , Among these animals are tigers, brave and so on. Although each of them is not lifelike, they have finally formed a shape and look quite decent.

The old man squatted down and looked at it, then picked up a piece of charcoal in the shape of a tiger, held it in his hand and looked at it, then shook his head slightly, and said in a hoarse voice: "Your mind is very active, it seems that you want to take these Ordinary pine charcoal and bamboo charcoal, sold as animal charcoal?"

Li Xin was slightly surprised, and raised his head to look at this ordinary-looking old charcoal seller. He stopped the hatchet in his hand, and coughed in embarrassment: "Old man, do you know animal charcoal?"

The charcoal seller said in a low voice: "The old man has been burning charcoal for more than ten years. Naturally, I heard from those people in the city that the rich and noble people in the city will not use ordinary charcoal, but animal-shaped charcoal. These charcoal The price of bamboo charcoal is hundreds of times more expensive than ordinary bamboo charcoal, and some are even equivalent to gold..."

Speaking of this, the charcoal seller shook his head and said: "Although I don't know why this animal charcoal is sold so expensive, but the old man once inquired that a piece of animal charcoal can save at least a day and a night, or even longer, so burning animal charcoal is the least expensive." It must be made of iron wood, ordinary pine and bamboo will not work."

Animal charcoal is special charcoal for nobles. This kind of charcoal is not directly burned, but first burned into carbon, and then ground into carbon powder by humans, then mixed with spices and other powders, and then made into molds. Looking like a beast, this kind of charcoal can even be burned for days and nights. Not only does it have no smell of smoke, but it also has a strange fragrance.

But as the charcoal seller said, this kind of animal charcoal can only be fired with high-density wood, as they only have pine charcoal and bamboo charcoal here, it must not be possible.

Li Xin also saw a miscellaneous book in his previous life, which introduced all kinds of charcoal in ancient times in detail, so he had a whim.

However, after hearing what the charcoal seller said, he was not depressed, but smiled mysteriously: "Old man, although we can't make real animal charcoal, we just need to make a similar shape, and the boy will naturally have a way to make these things Sell ​​it."

The charcoal seller glanced at Li Xin with some hesitation, finally shook his head, and sighed softly: "Forget it, young people have more eyes, so I'll let you do it, but you are not allowed to spoil too many things, engrave fifty catties at most, and sell them for sale." It doesn’t matter if you can sell it or not.”

The price of bamboo charcoal and charcoal is generally not very expensive, about five or six yuan a catty. This year's weather is cold, and charcoal is a little more expensive, but it will not exceed ten yuan a catty. A charcoal seller can do it in a day It is not a big deal for him to burn hundreds of catties of charcoal, so it is not a big deal for him to produce half a day's output.

Li Xinxin secretly complained that he did not learn carving professionally, at most he was an amateur woodcarver, and it would take a lot of time to carve out a piece of fake animal charcoal. It's hard for him.

In this way, Li Xin has been busy in this wooden house for a whole day. Since there is no light in the house, after the sky is completely dark, there is no way to continue carving charcoal. Thirty sticks of fake animal charcoal weighed about ten catties in total.

However, after a day of carving, he became more or less proficient in his craft, and the animal charcoal he carved in the second half of the day was much finer than the one in the morning.

It was still very cold at night. There were only two beds in this room. The charcoal seller slept with his granddaughter. Li Xin slept alone on a relatively small bed, hugging a pile of straw bedding, shivering from the cold. trembling.

This was the first day he came to this world and felt the coldness of this world. After all, he was in a coma for the first two days, and he was completely unconscious.

For a whole night, Li Xin didn't fall asleep much, at most he slept half-asleep and half-awake for an hour or two. When the sky just dawned, Li Xin, who couldn't take it anymore, got up from the bed and didn't After breakfast, the simple and very simple charcoal seller said hello, and then went to the city to sell charcoal with the basket of carved imitation animal charcoal on his back.

He had seen the way into the city from the memory of the unlucky boy, so he could feel where the capital was. After walking seven or eight miles, the heat from exercise gradually dissipated the chill on his body. Li Xin lifted his Turning his head, he saw a majestic majestic city standing in front of him.

This is the capital, the capital of the Jin Dynasty.

Thirty years ago, after the Great Jin ruled the world, the capital of the Great Jin became the center of the world, and also the largest city in the world. The ten-meter-high city wall in front of me looks extremely spectacular.

Li Xin looked up for a moment, then sighed slightly in his heart.

From now on, I guess I will plan and eat in this big city.

In my previous life, I was a rural child, and I was able to get along like a fish in water in a first-tier city. Now, I can also live like a human being in this city!

Thinking of this, Li Xin clenched his fist secretly, carrying the charcoal basket behind his back, and strode towards the east gate of the capital.

Today's goal is to buy a pair of thicker cotton shoes for the little girl, and get myself a decent quilt by the way!

Li Xin secretly cheered himself up.

A rough voice interrupted Li Xin's ambition.

"Boy, where did you come from? Are you a local? Is there any guide?"

Li Xin looked up, and saw a burly man, wearing a soldier's clothes, standing in front of him.

The boy swallowed, obediently took out the guide from his arms, and handed it over.

"Come from Yongzhou, come to the capital... to find relatives."

Through the memory of the unlucky boy, he knew that in this unknown era, he could not go out without a guide. Naturally, he and his uncle also had a guide, otherwise they would not even be able to leave Yongzhou, let alone come to the capital.

The so-called luyin is the certificate issued by the local government office, which proves who this person is, where he came from, where he is going, and what he is doing.

And Li Xin's guide was issued by the Qiyang County Government of Yongzhou Prefecture, and the reason written on it was to search for relatives.

The soldier guarding the gate glanced at the worn cloth shoes on Li Xin's feet, then looked down at Lu Yin, and then stared at the wooden basket behind Li Xin.

"What's in it?"

Li Xin forced a smile on his face: "The bamboo charcoal I made at home, it's cold, I gave it to my relatives in the city."

The soldier sized up Li Xin, then waved his hand: "Go in."

Li Xin nodded and bowed, and walked in from the city gate.

After Li Xin walked away, the soldier found a blank piece of paper, secretly wrote down Li Xin's name, and then hid the blank piece of paper in his arms.

Chapter 4 May I ask how to get to the brothel?

In the capital, the largest street is Desheng Street. This street runs across the entire capital, from the west gate to the east gate. 30 years ago, when Emperor Wu of the Great Jin conquered the world and swept the world, he passed by this street when he returned to the court. So it was named Desheng Street.

Since then, this street has become one of the symbols of the capital, and also the most prosperous street in the capital.

Although it has been snowing heavily for three days, the sky outside the city is still white, but there are not many traces of heavy snow left on Desheng Street. After all, this is the capital city, and the street is usually cleaned by special people, and people come and go Wherever you go, leave no trace of nature.

At this time, on the street of Desheng Street, a young man who was not particularly tall was walking shyly on the street with a bamboo basket on his back.

This young man is naturally Li Xin.

The reason why he flinched was not because of fear, but because of the cold.

Right now, he only has two pieces of clothing, one undershirt and one overshirt. This is autumn attire, and now it is the twelfth lunar month, and the year will soon be approaching. The cold wind is blowing on his body, making him shiver uncontrollably.

Fortunately, today is the sun, and the sun shone on his body, which finally made Li Xin feel more comfortable. He looked around on the street for a while, and then his eyes locked on a fat middle-aged man with a mustache Li Xin stepped forward and patted the middle-aged man on the shoulder.

"Hello big brother, my younger brother is new to the capital, and I have something to ask my big brother."

The middle-aged man stopped and looked back at Li Xin. After seeing Li Xin in single clothes, there was some contempt in his eyes, but as a commoner in the capital, he still had to carry his "identity". The middle-aged man coughed and began to look at Li Xin squarely.

In his opinion, the young man in front of him probably came to visit relatives in the capital and wanted to ask him the way, so he put his hands behind his back, looked at Li Xin with a smile, and said, "Little brother, do you have any questions?" , Mr. Wu has lived here for decades, and there is no place in the capital that I am not familiar with."

Li Xin bowed to thank him, and then asked solemnly, "Brother, where is the biggest brothel in the capital?"