The Three-Life Stone

As the morning light broke, the carriage slowly entered the city gate.

The town is very lively at the morning market, with the sounds of hawking all kinds of snacks, breakfasts, flowers, birds, fish and insects rising one after another.

A Jin seemed to be woken up from her sleep, but also seemed to have not fallen asleep at all.

Chen An woke up with sleepy eyes, opened the curtain and took a look, muttering, "We are in the county town now, will the old man buy some meat buns later? Meat buns are delicious, hehehe."

Chen An muttered and then lay down. Ah Jin saw Chen An lying there, his eyes rolling around and couldn't help laughing. Chen An turned his head and glared back at her, saying, "What are you laughing at? What's wrong with getting up earlier than me today? You're usually the one who can sleep the most."

"Okay, okay, I can sleep the longest, and our Chen An wakes up the earliest."

Chen An ignored A Jin out of guilt, but A Jin did not let him go.

"Er Gouzi, let's change our words."

"Change your name? What do you want to change? What's the matter with Er Gouzi? What are you talking about now? My name is Chen An now, and you gave it to me."

"Let's stop calling him old man and just call him Master, shall we?"

"The old man has always been our master. Once a teacher, always a father."

"It's not just calling me Master in my heart."

"That will take time to get used to. Why do you have to change your way of addressing me suddenly? I'm used to calling you old man." Chen An asked casually while lying down with one leg crossed over the other.

"It's not easy for the old man to raise us, we shouldn't..." A Jin was about to say a few words of advice when she was immediately interrupted by Chen An.

"Stop, stop, stop, you're not right lately." Chen An sat up and stared at Ah Jin. "You've been talking nonsense all the time lately. You were the most naughty one before, and you were the first one to call the old man the most fierce!"

"I'm too lazy to talk to you, huh."

A Jin's face turned cold. Forget it. Just call him an old man. Reverence is not all about the name. They are all insignificant little things.

Yes, Erya was the most naughty because she was spoiled by the old man. The old man never married or had children in his life. When he was young, he was the owner of a drama troupe. He worked from the drama troupe to the theater, and there were many actors following him.

There are some actors in the troupe who have been bullied and looked down upon, as well as some refugees who have been helped. They have suffered hardship themselves and cannot bear to see other people suffering, so they pay out of their own pockets to redeem the actors. When he meets refugees who lend a hand and are willing to join the troupe, he is willing to guide them patiently. If they want to leave after learning, the old man will not try to keep them. Some of them even complain that Xia Sheng is just an actor who pretends to be noble.

Some people are pretentious, and naturally there are also people who sincerely return the favor, and there are quite a few who can really stay. Not only did the troupe become famous, but the old man also received a lot of praise in this area.

When he was young, he had a very successful career and traveled all over the country. He was unwilling to get married because he thought it would be too hard to follow a woman who was a low-class actress.

When he got older, his apprentice grew up and gradually took over the theater. He was unwilling to get married. Even though he had left his status as a prostitute for various reasons, he felt that he was too old to waste time on a girl and had lost the idea of ​​spending the rest of his life with anyone.

Until now, the old man's apprentices are still in the theaters scattered around in several areas. Occasionally, people will come to see him, but he will not accept anything given to him except food. He has always believed that what he does is as he should, and that people in this difficult time should help each other, and he should not feel at ease accepting gifts afterwards.

Five years ago, an old man picked up a baby by the river. He thought the baby was dropped by a woman while washing clothes, so he took good care of the baby for three days and took the baby to the river every day. It was not until he was giving the baby a bath that he found a piece of paper with the date of birth written crookedly in the swaddling clothes. The old man realized that the girl was really abandoned. The world was in decline, women had a low status, and some poor families treated their girls miserably in order to delay having male children.

Maybe God saw that he had no children, so he gave him one. So what if it was a girl? He took care of her as his own child. He called her Erya as her nickname and Xia Jin as her real name.

When Xia Jin was a child, she liked people calling her Erya. When she grew older and saw that many people had their own names, she also became particular about them and seldom called herself Erya.

Three years ago, Erya could already walk. The old man took Erya for a stroll on the street and met a boy begging on the street. He looked half-dead, and the old man felt pity for him.

After the boy was taken home and washed and changed into clean clothes, it could be seen from the stains that the boy had a good-looking face. His clothes were torn and dirty, but the material was okay. His family should be good, and he was a boy, so he should not be abandoned. It was a pity that the boy's brain was not very good. He didn't know anything when asked. He looked to be only three years old. Maybe he was abandoned because of his stupidity.

Xia Sheng thought about it and felt that it was not necessary, because every child is a piece of flesh and blood of its mother.

If a child is lost, the old man will be very anxious, fearing that the child will not be found. Every day, he will take his two children for a walk in the nearby streets to listen for any news of missing children.

After all, he is a three-year-old boy, the apple of a family's eye. The old man dare not think about the family falling apart because of this.

No one came to inquire about him for two or three months. The neighbors speculated that he might really be unwanted by another family, or he might be a person lost in another town and walked into their village but couldn't find his family. He might have suffered a brain injury and since he had no memories, they could just treat him as their son. If the old man didn't want to stay and be their son, they could send him to the government and report to the authorities. If no one claimed him, then that would be fine.

The old man had no selfish motives. He adopted the child and told him the truth. He would keep an eye on him in the future. What he found out later would determine whether the child stayed or went somewhere else.

The boy stayed and was called Ergou for convenience. He was not given a name because there was no need. He was no longer a child, and if he found his biological parents he would have to return home.

Xia Jin knew Ergou's future and gave him this name in advance. After all, he didn't even have time to call him by this name in his previous life.

It is a bit difficult for the old man to raise two children at once, not only physically but also financially.

A boy is three years old and a girl is two years old, both of them are very naughty.

When the children were naughty, the old man let them play as they pleased and would clean up after them when they were tired and had a rest; when the children were in a good state, the old man would use a branch to teach them simple words. The girl was often distracted and paid attention to the butterflies flying nearby and the ants crawling on the ground, and she just couldn't remember what words she was taught; the boy was occasionally a little distracted, and was a little more sensible than the girls, so he would learn one or two words and usually help take care of the girl.

Thinking that the two children's future education would be an expense, he decided to pave a path for them early on. As for where the path would lead, it was no longer something he could decide.

When they were older, the old man would usually teach them some simple acrobatics, such as balancing bowls on their heads and swinging handkerchiefs. He would also teach them some simple singing. The two children found it fun to learn some of these. But because he was afraid that their basic skills were not solid, he specially spent money to hire a master to teach Ergou the basic skills of martial arts and Erya the basic skills of dancing. This was not to let the two children follow in his footsteps.

The old man planned to return to his old business, and the child followed him as a child to save some money before making other plans. He sold the house and used a small portion of the money to buy a carriage. From then on, he traveled around with the carriage as his home.

However, the three of them were old and weak, and the two children could not think of anything the old man could do, so the old man took them to find his former apprentices. The old man was not going to seek refuge, nor did he need help. Firstly, it would not last long, and if the two children got used to the help, hard days were still ahead; secondly, he could still move, and he could contribute to the troupe if they went to it. He earned money through labor, and as long as it was their share, it would be enough.

It's not easy for anyone these days, and he just wants to support his children on his own.

The baby was still young and couldn't really do anything, it was good enough that he didn't make any trouble. The old man thought that there was only so much the three of them could do and staying in one place all the time would cause trouble to others, so they would move on to the next place every once in a while, and by the way, they would look for any family who had lost a child, visit the opera troupe of their former apprentices to see if there was anything they could help with, or see if they were suitable for performing acrobatics in public.

Maybe they were in a grassroots opera troupe, maybe they were performing at weddings or funerals, or maybe others were performing on the road. The old man also set up a stall nearby to perform acrobatics, and the two children acted as mascots. After a few months of stumbling around, he came to the temple in the field to rest and supervise the learning progress of the two children. After a rest, he came to the county town again.

Thinking of this, Xia Jin did not blame him. At that time, he was just a little kid. How could he not understand so much? He was just a naughty child. Seeing Xia Sheng calling them old man every day, they just did the same.

The old man didn't care about this at all. The age difference was too big. He couldn't expect the two children to recognize him as their father. He was also not used to hearing them call him grandpa all the time. It was too noisy. Instead, the old man felt younger after hearing that.

"But I am no longer that ignorant kid!" Ah Jin thought to herself but didn't dare to say it out loud. She would do it, she said to herself.

"We're here. Let's go to a restaurant today." The old man parked the carriage and shouted into it.

"Wow, let's go to a restaurant." Chen An suddenly jumped out, "What are we eating today, old man?"

The old man laughed at Chen An's greedy look. A Jin walked out slowly, looked at the old man, smiled slightly and didn't say much.

Xia Sheng looked at the two children and always felt that there was something different, but he didn't think too much about it.

"Let's make wontons today, and give each person a tea egg."

"Hahaha, the little old master is so nice, can we buy some meat buns to take away later?" Chen An held the little old man's hand and jumped as he walked excitedly.

The old man looked at the satisfied look on the child's face and his wrinkles deepened: "Er Ya wants to eat meat buns, it's okay, if you want to eat them, we can buy them tomorrow, there's no need to rush."

"The old man is so nice."

A Jin looked at Chen An and the old man with a slight smile on her lips. At this moment, she felt at ease and very happy.