Go back to ancient times to engage in sideline business

Late at night, Qingjiang County, Dongcheng Gate.

A thin figure walked slowly through the corridor on the city wall.

The young man held a lantern in one hand and a bucket in the other, and walked with great difficulty.The armor suit that was supposed to glow coldly was worn out and yellowed, and most of its metallic luster had already faded away, leaving only a large carapace barely covering his frail body.

The winter moon night is very cold, and the Qingjiang River is just outside the gate of the East City. The cold wind from the river is wrapped in moisture, and the chill penetrates into the bones of people who travel at night.The waning moon in the sky is gradually covered by clouds, and tomorrow seems to be another cloudy and rainy day.

The armor on his body and the bucket in his hand were too heavy, but the bone-piercing wind on the city wall forced him to quicken his pace.

Reluctantly, he had no choice but to stand the lantern in his hand under the female wall, turned around and gritted his teeth, gathered all his strength, lifted a bucket of filth with both hands, and staggered into the depths of the night...

In the tower behind him, the lights were brightly lit.

The exuberant charcoal fire crackled in the basin, reflecting the circle of men around the table red.

The middle-aged man in the middle seemed to be the oldest, but he had the most firepower on his body. I saw that he had taken off his cotton jacket to his waist, and his upper body was only left with a single shirt with the front open, revealing his shiny black ribs.

The man's rough right hand pressed the upside-down rough porcelain bowl, and he roared angrily: "Open!"

The porcelain bowl was lifted, revealing three dice under the bowl.

"Four five six, Shunzi!"

"Aha! This one paid off!"

"Damn it! Lost again!" The man closest to the charcoal fire was paler than the other three people in the room. He angrily threw the money bag on the table and poured out the last fifty dollars from it. A copper coin, and waved his hand again: "Not coming!"

It took only an hour, and half of the money on his body was exported, and the capital was gone, and he was still playing a fart.

He put down the sleeves that were rolled up to the elbows, reached for the leather jacket hanging on the back of the chair, and murmured: "Damn it, I haven't won these days, what a motherfucker!"

"Isn't it a bad year?" The winning man stuffed money into his sleeve, while smiling at the losing city gatekeeper.

The middle-aged man who played with the porcelain bowl was very interesting, so he hurriedly helped Shouzheng to save face: "What's the matter! Hu Touer is too tired these days, go back and have a good sleep, and come back tomorrow to kill the Quartet. We all have money The bag is tightening!"

The two stunned young people on the side will only understand now, and they will say yes again and again.

The master who lost money was the city gate guard Hu Bingyi, the leader of the three city gate guards in the house, usually called Hu Touer.It's really not worth it to make your immediate boss unhappy for a few copper coins.

However, the speaker has no intention of listening and the listener has intention. After all, the gambling luck has not worked out for several days in a row, so it is inevitable not to ponder over the side door.

Hu Tou'er rubbed the stubble on his chin, and thought about it seriously, really, since this skinny monkey came to pick up his dead daddy's shift, he started to feel bad.Not only did he keep losing money playing dice, but he also kept making mistakes in business affairs.

Let's just talk about today, the skinny monkey was supposed to keep vigil the night before, but he fell asleep and missed the hour, and the city gate opened two quarters late.

In normal times, this is not a big deal, just let it go.

But this morning, the magistrate's old lady was in a hurry to leave the city, saying that she was going to the Guanyin Temple outside the city to grab some Laoshizitou incense.

The old magistrate pointed to the head of the magistrate and scorned for half an hour, then turned around and entered the county government office, and the magistrate pointed to the forehead and scorned angrily for an hour.

Damn it, since he took office, he has never been so angry!

Unlucky thing, shouldn't it really be against him!

"That guy, he's been here for half a month!"

"Does Hu Touer mean Tang Zhong?" The middle-aged man pushed the porcelain bowl aside, motioned for the two people next to him to put away their things and put on their cotton jackets, and then added: "I've been here for twenty days, and I'm taking him these days Know the rules."

"It's just a bird guard who guards the city gate. He does little things every day, and he's still familiar with the rules after studying for 20 days? What kind of bird rules did he learn!"

"After all, I'm still young, only seventeen, and I usually have no one to discipline me. It's normal for me to learn a lot of things slowly now."

"There is no one to discipline, so I will discipline his father well!"

Hu Tou'er stood up, shook off his leather jacket, then exhaled, and patted the middle-aged man on the shoulder: "Old Zhang, I didn't mean you, you are the oldest city gate guard here, what's the matter?" Just tell the young people to do it, don't do everything for others!"

After finishing speaking, Hu Tou'er turned his face and said to the remaining two young city gate guards seriously: "Guarding the city gate is not about visiting tea houses. I will do all the errands in my hand more carefully. I usually learn from Lao Zhang more. If something like this happened this morning, I will deduct all his salary for a whole year!"

Before the words were finished, the door creaked open.

There was a constant cold wind outside the house, breaking away from the lock of the latch, the door was blown open by the wind, and slammed against the wall with a bang.

The ashes and sparks on the charcoal fire were immediately blown into the air by the wind, whirling and greeting Hu Tou'er who was closest to the brazier.

Hu Tou'er saw the Xinna leather jacket on his body, and several black scars were scorched by sparks in an instant.

The fiery air in the room was instantly blown away, and a steady stream of cold wind poured in from the door opening.

Hu Tou'er had goosebumps on his back, and his heart was like falling into a cave of ice.He stared at the thin figure at the door, grinding his back molars vigorously.

"Get out! Get out of my sight!"

The winter night was cold and long, there was no starlight in the sky, and there was no light in the houses in the city. Tang Zhong curled up by the city gate, staring blankly at the lantern at hand.In the cold night, the only thing that accompanied him was the slightest bit of light from this star.

I don't know why, although I have worked hard to do things, but I still make too many mistakes, which is just annoying.

Shouzheng hated himself, and the three city gate guards hated him. Is it true that he is as they said, he is rustic and stupid, and he is not suitable for this place at all.

But, if you don't bite the bullet and stay, where can you go?If you can't stay any longer and you don't have any money, how will the young and old in the family live?

Thinking of this, the grievance and embarrassment in Tang Zhong's heart melted into tears, dripping silently.

The night is so long, the black color is boundless, it seems that it will never end.There was no charcoal fire around him, and the old cotton coat on his body was too thin, Tang Zhong was so cold that every bone ached.

The fire was dim, and the candles in the lantern were about to burn out. Tang Zhong stretched out his hands to close them. The chilblains all over his fingers had already made every joint thick and red. Now he was close to the candle, and he couldn't feel any itching.

Leaning in the corner, it seems that it is not as cold as before.There is the city gate beside him, and he will guard here, and when Mao Shi arrives, he will immediately get up and open the city gate.This time, he won't be late again, absolutely not.

As long as they behave better, as long as they don't make mistakes, they won't hate themselves, right?

Can I take a rest on time?In a few days, the salary was paid, and when he was resting, he immediately went to ask the best doctor in the city, and went to the village to see a doctor for his grandmother.

Until then, everything will be fine.

Thinking of this, Tang Zhong felt that the pain all over his body was no longer unbearable, maybe his body had gradually adapted to the cold.

The numbness of the limbs spread inch by inch, and the mind became more and more dizzy, Tang Zhong only thought it was sleepiness.But he didn't want to sleep, he just wanted to wait for dawn and do his errands.

As the night darkened, he felt that the armor on his body was getting heavier and his eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.The flames of the lanterns flickered for a while, and then suddenly went out, and the black color in front of Tang Zhong's eyes became thicker and thicker...

Before Mao's time came, a ray of sky light appeared slightly on the horizon. Under the east gate of Qingjiang County, there were already several people waiting to open the gate. They were all merchants who were going out of the city to collect vegetables.

The carts carrying vegetables and the mules pulling carts were parked a few steps away, and merchants gathered in twos and threes, holding their torches high, and after testing each other's eyes, they all hesitated to move forward.

The flames slowly approached, and finally gathered in the corner of the city gate, reflecting on a man in armor.

Mao time was getting closer and closer, and more and more people gathered together.These boat runners and merchants got together and whispered to each other, and there was a sudden noise in the passage.

Finally, after a rough shout, the crowd suddenly retreated to give way.Two city gate guards held on to their spears and strode in.

"This guy actually fell asleep."

"Old Zhang, you are smart, you said you want to come down and take a look, otherwise you will definitely miss the time with this thin-skinned monkey, and you will have to be reprimanded by then!"

While talking, one person poked the thigh of the man on the ground with a gun, but when there was no response, he impatiently kicked the other man's calf.

"Hey! Wake up the skinny monkey! It's time to open the city gate!"

Seeing that the people on the ground were still indifferent, their faces were covered by slightly larger helmets, and they couldn't see their descriptions clearly, the young city gate guard squatted down and pushed the opponent's shoulder angrily.

"Sleep late, let's see how I deal with you in a while!"

Unexpectedly, the place where his fingers touched was icy cold, Tang Zhong's upper body leaning against the wall collapsed from the stress, and his helmet rolled down, revealing a pale face.

The young city gate guard was so frightened that he immediately collapsed to the ground and screamed.Old Zhang who was standing behind was calmer. He immediately stopped the young gate guard, took a few steps forward, and put the lantern in his hand forward.

The warm yellow light of the fire reflected on the pale face, there was an indescribable mystery, and there was no trace of life on the thin face.

Lao Zhang stretched out his finger and probed under Tang Zhong's nose, a gloomy look flashed in his eyes.

Old Zhang turned his head to the side, and told the people behind him: "Deng Erhu, hurry up and tell Hu Touer that Tang Zhong froze to death by the city gate."

The young city gate guard was still panicked, paralyzed on the ground and unable to get up for a long time. Old Zhang didn't bother to care about him, and walked out on his own.When the time came, he had to ask another person to come down and open the city gate.

Passing by the crowd, Lao Zhang casually muttered: "Hey, poor man, this winter is really cold, he froze to death at such a young age."

At this moment, several exclamations erupted from the crowd. Lao Zhang turned his head and saw a pair of staring eyes.He couldn't help but stop and look back following everyone's gaze.

I saw Deng Erhu, who was sitting paralyzed on the ground, trembling like chaff, moving back tremblingly.And the corpse opposite him was propping up his body little by little with his hands on the ground...

The crowd of onlookers scattered like frightened birds and fled in all directions.

"Cheat! Fake the corpse!"