short-lived

At the age of sixteen or seventeen, it was also the time when he loved to play and make trouble. Paper kites were too expensive, so Xie Baobao made the skeleton by himself, and then pasted it with paper.

Zhou Xiaochu looked at Xie Baobao who drew eyes on the paper kite with a pen, and somehow felt that he had a very gentle feeling.

The three of them were flying a kite in the field, Xie Baobao was pulling the string, the paper kite was flying with the wind, and the wind was blowing the broken hair on his forehead, he had grown into a handsome boy.

Zhou Xiaochu himself may not have realized that his gaze has been lingering on Xie Baobao, from the hand holding the thread to the eyes staring at the sky.

He looked at Xie Baobao's side face, saw him smile, and then handed the thread in Lin Xiqing's hand.

That night, Zhou Xiaochu had a dream. In the dream, he arrived at a place surrounded by fairy spirit, with a vast sea of ​​clouds, beautiful mountains and rivers, and exquisite buildings.

He was wearing a white dress embroidered with silver silk, a blue belt, and a jade pendant with tassels.

Several people led him to a grove of apricot blossoms, and sat down in front of a long table.

Suddenly, someone said in front of him: "Today's speech meeting, all you immortal friends can say anything you want to say. You don't have to be cautious, you can do whatever you want."

When a person came forward to talk about Taoism, he felt that his mind was not here, so he just bowed his head and drank tea.

By chance, I raised my head, and at some point, a person was sitting in front of the long desk opposite, a few feet away, that person seemed to have sensed it, and turned his eyes to look at this.

Those were a pair of eyes with their own distance, they only passed by in a hurry, and then moved back.

The wind blew loudly, and the apricot blossoms fell one after another. At that glance, the light was fleeting.

He asked the person next to him: "Who is that?"

A bystander said: "You don't know him? That's Xianjun Xie Yu, who palms the north with you."

When he woke up, Zhou Xiaochu lay quietly on the bed.There was silence around him, and he was still immersed in his dream, in the apricot forest.

"Who is that?"

"That's Xianjun Xie Yu."

Even though in his dream he was clean from dust, Zhou Xiaochu is now rolling in the mud.

Before dawn, he packed up and went to the fortune teller.

The fortune teller has no name, and his surname is Zhou. Others call him Zhou Banxian. He has no children. He said that Zhou Xiaochu was his apprentice, so it was fate, so he regarded this apprentice as his half-son, and this apprentice will also have to provide for him in the future.

In the fortune-telling business, one needs to understand the yin, yang, and gossip. Zhou Xiaochu has followed Zhou Banxian for so many years, and he has learned a little bit, but fortune-telling is still mysterious and mysterious. No one can tell the fortune. Most of the time, he has to rely on deception.

Zhou Xiaochu has been skinny and shameless for so many years, and he is also very good at deceiving people, and he doesn't feel that he has any guilt in his conscience.But if you stay in one place for a long time, you have to change it, otherwise there will not be so many people sending money.

Zhou Banxian said he wanted to leave, so Zhou Xiaochu had to follow.

For Zhou Xiaochu, Yuqian Town had nothing to miss, so he left as soon as he left. From then on, the world is big and the world is his home.

The only person who has contact with him here is Bao Bao Xie, but Bao Bao Xie is not short of him in his life.

Xie Baobao will have a happy relationship with Lin Xiqing in the future and have children.If there were no disasters or difficulties, he would grow old in peace and be buried in the land outside Yuqian Town.

So Zhou Xiaochu left Yuqian Town one day without telling anyone.

The days outside are not easy, you eat and sleep in the open air, and you get a full meal when you are hungry.

For fortune-telling on the street, I just bluff the people who come here and ask them to pay some money to relieve the disaster. Most of the daughters' families are counting marriages, of course there are also some who are not. They are here to see Zhou Xiaochu.

Zhou Xiaochu's mother was a prostitute, and she was quite pretty when she was young. He followed his mother's face and was good-looking.Some people even went to the street to tell their fortunes, and finally told him to go to a place called Qingliu Lane to be a servant.Thinking of his mother's last situation, Zhou Xiaochu refused.It looks good and can be eaten as a meal, but it doesn't last long.

After three years, Zhou Banxian died.

When he died, Zhou Xiaochu was by his side.

He said: "Master, tell me my fortune, what do you think I will do in the future?"

Zhou Banxian smiled, looked at Zhou Xiaochu's face, and said, "Do you believe what Master said?"

Zhou Xiaochu didn't speak.

"You, if you want to be born into a rich family, you will be too small to come into the world, but you are born into a poor family, and you will be like this for the rest of your life. You are destined to have no relatives, no friends, and no marriage, but God doesn't know why it is pity on you. , with a certain fate with you, it is like passing water, you must not go, don't force it, you can go how you came."

After Zhou Banxian finished saying this, he stayed on the bed for a while before he swallowed his breath.

This time Zhou Xiaochu didn't cry, he buried his master's body on a broken mat and buried it in the suburbs, then knelt down in front of the grave and kowtowed a few times.

For another three years, he had had enough of wandering outside and seeing people enough, and one day he suddenly remembered the white sugar biscuits he had eaten that year, and returned to Yuqian Town.

The original scenery is still the original scenery.

The willows are sprouting new shoots, green and tender, and catkins are floating all over the town.Elm money also grew out, and the children climbed up the tree and stroked it to eat.

Those children ran around, reminding Zhou Xiaochu of him and Baby Xie when they were young, fighting for money, one by one was more ruthless than the other.Xie Baobao broke his mouth, and he left a few footprints on Xie Baobao.

At that time, they hated each other, and they couldn't play together.At that time, Zhou Xiaochu hated Xie Baobao, naturally.But after being outside for a long time, when he was tired and tired, recalling these was actually a kind of comfort to him.

Zhou Xiaochu returned home, cleaned the yard, and went into the house to tidy up.After finishing the work, he went out and met a neighbor nearby, and inquired about Xie Baobao's recent situation.

The neighbor sighed and said: "He, I can only say that his fate is not good. It happened not long ago. Do you remember that he has a cousin? That girl is very beautiful, but when she went out once, she was killed by the young master of the Li family." She fell in love with her, so she snatched her away and let her be a child. The girl was very strong, and she refused to obey, so she was hit to death. The Li family had some relationship with the county magistrate, and they refused to uphold justice, which made the old Xie family angry. "

Hearing this, Zhou Xiaochu's lips and tongue were a little dry, and he hurriedly asked, "What about him? Where's Baby Xie?"

The neighbor glanced at the door of Xie's house, shook his head and said: "He went to Li's residence to ask for an explanation, but he was beaten out, broke a leg, and almost died."