Sword comes

The sky was slightly bright, and before the cock crowing, Chen Ping'an had already got up. The thin bedding couldn't keep the heat, and Chen Ping'an also developed the habit of getting up early and going to bed late when he was an apprentice firing porcelain.Chen Ping'an opened the door and came to the small yard with soft soil. After taking a deep breath, he stretched out 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. Her shoulders pushed open the door of her own courtyard. It was Song Jixin's maidservant. She should have just returned from the iron lock well on Xinghua Lane.

Chen Ping'an retracted his gaze, walked across the street, and trotted all the way to the east of the town. Mud Bottle Alley was in the west of the town, and at the easternmost gate, there was a person in charge of the town's business travel and night patrols, and he usually collected and handed over some The family letter sent from outside, the next thing Chen Ping'an will do is to send those letters to the people in the town. The reward is a letter and a copper coin. This is the way he finally made money. Chen Ping'an has already I made an appointment there, and after the second dragon raised his head in February, he started to take over the business of this stall.

In Song Jixin's words, he was born poor, and even if he was lucky enough to enter the house, Chen Ping'an couldn't hold back.Song Jixin often said some obscure words, probably from books, but Chen Ping'an always didn't understand. As for surviving the winter every year, but after the spring, it gets colder for a period of time. The youngsters experience it firsthand. Song Jixin said that it is called a cold spring, and it is as powerful as a carbine on the battlefield, so many people will die in these ghost gates. .

The town is not surrounded by a city wall. After all, let alone bandits and thieves, there are very few thieves. Therefore, it is a city gate in name, but it is actually a row of old fences that are crooked. There is such a place for pedestrians and vehicles to pass through. The face of this town.

When Chen Ping'an trotted past Xinghua Alley, he saw many women and children gathered beside the iron-locked well, and the reels of the well kept creaking.

Going around another street, Chen Ping'an heard a familiar sound of reading not far away. There is a village school, which was jointly funded by several big families in the town. The teacher is a foreigner, and Chen Ping'an is a small school. At times, I often ran to hide out the window, squatted secretly, and pricked up my ears.Although that gentleman was extremely strict when he taught, he did not scold or block Chen Ping'an, the children who were "reading and learning". Later, Chen Ping'an 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 Yangxian. Song Jixin swears that in an old book called local county annals, it is called Dashifang, which is the royal archway given by the emperor, in order to commemorate the martial arts and martial arts of a high-ranking official in history.Liu Yangxian, who is as bumpkin as Chen Ping'an, said that this is the crab workshop, we have called it for hundreds of years, there is no reason to call it a shitty university scholar's workshop.Liu Yangxian 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 Ping'an ran around the twelve-legged archway. There were four large characters on each side, and the fonts were strange and different. "Furious Bullfighting".According to Song Jixin, except for a certain four characters, the other three stone carvings on the plaques have been smeared and tampered with.Chen Ping'an was ignorant about these things and never thought deeply about them. Of course, even if the teenager wanted to get to the bottom of it, it would be futile. He didn't even know the local county annals that Song Jixin often talked about.

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

Chen Ping'an was accustomed to going up and down the mountain, ran to the gate of the fence, and stopped at the gate of the lonely yellow mud house, his heart was not beating and he was not breathing.

There are not many people outside the town. It is reasonable to say that now that the money tree made by the official kiln has fallen, there will be no new faces.When old man Yao was alive, he once got drunk and told his apprentices Chen Ping'an and Liu Xianyang that we are the only official kiln business in the world, the royal porcelain for His Majesty the Emperor and the Empress. No matter how rich you are, no matter how big your official position is, if you dare to touch it, you will be beheaded.The old man Yao was very different that day.

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

And they are all strangers. The local people in and out of the town, whether to burn porcelain or do crop work, seldom go to the east gate. The reason is very simple. land.

At this time, Chen Ping'an and the foreigners were facing each other across a wooden fence.

At that moment, the boy wearing the self-made straw sandals was just a little envious of the thick clothes on those people. It must be very warm and could be frozen.

The people outside the door were obviously divided into several groups. They were not a group of people, but they all looked at the thin teenagers inside the door. Most of them had indifferent expressions. .

Chen Ping'an was a little strange, could it be that this

Some people don't 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 slender young man wearing an odd tall crown, with a green jade pendant hanging from his waist. He seemed impatient to wait. He walked out of the crowd by himself, and wanted to push open the gate of the fence that was unlocked. When his fingers were about to touch the wooden door, he suddenly stopped, slowly retracted his hand, put his hands behind him, and smiled at the boy with straw sandals inside the door. He didn't speak, he just smiled.

From the corner of Chen Ping's eyes, he inadvertently noticed that the people behind the young man seemed to be disappointed, entertained, frowning, sarcastic, with subtle and different emotions.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with messy hair suddenly opened the door and scolded Chen Ping'an: "Little bastard, have you lost your money? I came so early to urge my life to call my soul, and you rushed to see you after reincarnation. Damn father and mother?!"

Chen Ping'an rolled his eyes, and the boy didn't take these harsh words seriously. When he came to live in this rural place with few books in total, if he was scolded for a few words, he would be annoyed, so he would just find a water well and jump into it. Come on down, take it easy.Second, this middle-aged bachelor who guards the door is himself a person who is often teased and made fun of by the people in the town, especially those daring and pungent women. Not to mention scolding him, there are many who beat him.In addition, this person also likes to brag to children who wear open crotch pants. For example, what Laozi was at the gate of the city, and he fought so hard that five or six big men were all over the place looking for teeth, and the ground was covered in blood. A wide road is like a muddy road on a rainy day!

Angrily to Chen Ping'an, he said, "I'll talk about your rubbish thing later."

No one in town took this guy seriously.

But whether outsiders can enter the town, men have the power to kill.

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

The man with his back turned to Chen Ping'an, after opening the door, from time to time collects a small embroidered bag from others, puts it into his cuff, and then let him go.

Chen Ping'an gave way very early. The eight people were roughly divided into five groups and headed to the town. In addition to the young man wearing a high crown and a green pendant on his waist, he also walked past two seven or eight-year-old children. A red robe of a festive color, the girl looks pink and tender, like good china.

The boy was half a head shorter than Chen Ping'an. When the child passed him, he opened his mouth. Although there was no sound, he had 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 then the child calmed down a little.

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

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

The burly old man glanced sideways at the straw-shoe boy.

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

Like a mouse sees a cat.

After seeing this scene, the little girl who was chatting like a little oriole suddenly lost her interest in fanning the flames, and turned her head to stop looking at Chen Ping'an, as if one more look would stain her eyes.

It's true that the young Chen Ping'an has never seen the world, but it doesn't mean that he can't understand his face.

When the group of people left, the man at the door asked with a smile, "Want to know what they said?"

Chen Ping'an nodded and said, "I think so."

The middle-aged bachelor was happy and said with a smile: "It's all good words to praise you for your good looks."

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, can I let you deliver the letter?"

Chen Ping'an didn't dare to refute, for fear that he would annoy this guy, and the copper coins he was about to get would fly away.

The man turned his head, looked at those people, stretched out his hand and rubbed Huli's slack chin, and said in a low voice, "That lady just now, her legs can be pinched to death."

Chen Pingan hesitated for a moment, and asked curiously, "That lady has practiced martial arts?"

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

The young man was confused.

He asked Chen Ping'an to wait, and strode towards the house. When he came back, he had a stack of envelopes in his hand, neither thick nor thin, about ten copies. After the man handed it to Chen Ping'an, he asked, "Stupid people have stupid blessings. Good people are rewarded. Do you believe it?"

Chen Pingan took the letter in one hand, spread his palm in the other, and blinked, "It's agreed that a letter is worth a penny."

The man became angry and slapped the five copper coins he had prepared in advance on the palm of the boy's palm, waved his big hand, and said arrogantly, "If you have five coins left, owe it first!"