my weird life.

Chapter 266 Going to the Market (12)

The night is dark and windy.

The cold wind blows and rustles the forest leaves,
Even if there is a three-eyed pot stove standing on the open space, it is still burning at this time,
But there are no walls around to shelter from the wind, so the chill flows here,
Unless you stay by the stove, you will inevitably feel cold.

Li Yueshan weighed the fried oil left in the earthen pot—it was not less than last night, he looked satisfied, covered the pot, put the oil pot under the table, and turned to look at Su Wu and Li Zhuer , smiled and said: "Tonight is the first time you have been in charge of the stove,

Well done.

Tomorrow, I will do the deep frying tricks.

If you still have time to spare,
The old man will also tell you one or two key points.

All right,

Tomorrow there will be more things to do, then you and Zhu Er will go to the nearest rice shop to buy rice grains, and by the way, send the ironware to Blacksmith Zhu for smelting, make some good cooking utensils, and make some self-defense weapons .

Now at this time, the two of you should go to the temple to sleep for a while.

Doze off, Pearl,

Go back to the temple and sleep! "

Sitting by the firewood stove, Li Zhu'er, who was pretending to be dozing off, opened her eyes when she heard the words, and said with 'drowsy eyes': "Understood, Master."

She got up slowly,
Seeing Su Wu walking ahead,
Busy and took another step to keep up.

The two walked through the bamboo forest one after the other,
In the open space, the master's instruction to Gou Sheng sounded: "It's almost midnight now, so you follow the old man and practice your hand strength here.

I will drop a stone on each of your hands,
Then you come to grab the rice, as much as I ask you to grab from the bowl, you will grab as much as you want,
One grain cannot be more, one grain cannot be less..."

"Don't doze off!

You son of a bitch, stand up straight! "

……

In front of the temple,
The firewood in the brazier was almost exhausted, and the charcoal was glowing dark red.

The temple is divided into two areas by a piece of cloth,
Li Qingmiao was sleeping in the left area with the dumb girl Xiuxiu in her arms.

She was a light sleeper,
In addition, the brazier was gradually extinguished, and the coldness in the temple was severe. Even if the body was covered with a quilt, it was still difficult to resist the cold, so he did not fall asleep.

I saw Su Wu and Li Zhu'er walking into the temple one after the other.

"Brother, I will call you tomorrow morning,

Let's go buy food and come back. "Li Zhuer whispered to Su Wu,
There was hope in his tone.

"Ah."

Su Wu answered her.

Li Zhu'er walked to the side where Li Qingmiao and Xiuxiu were resting, separated by the rags,
Gently lifted the corner of the quilt and got into the bed.

She turned her back to Li Qingmiao, and looked at Su Wu who walked out of the temple, brought a bundle of firewood, and ignited it in the brazier.

With the fire rekindled in the brazier,
The warm atmosphere began to flow in the small temple again.

Li Qingmiao opened her eyes in the dark, silently looking at Li Zhuer's back,

Eyes turn slightly,

You can see the figure adding firewood to the brazier.

She sighed silently.

Obviously the temple below is warmer than before,
But she felt more and more lonely inside.

Su Wu filled some fuel into the brazier, then went back to lie down on the other side of the rag barrier,
close your eyes,

First go and urge Li Heigou to practice the way of protecting the Dharma of Ma Lahan,
Then withdraw your mind,
Started to practice 'Buddha Mahamudra'.

……

Several hours passed by suddenly.

When it was just dawn, Li Zhu'er's whispered voice rang in Su Wu's ear: "Elder brother, elder brother!

get up soon

Master asked us to buy rice..."

listen to her voice,

On the bright sun that Su Wu was contemplating in his mind, suddenly layers of ripples rose,
Instantly shattered and vanished.

he opened his eyes,

I saw that Li Zhuer's skirt covered the rough cloth shoes on her feet,

The woman squatted beside the bed, staring at Su Wu on the mattress without blinking.

The eyes of the two met, she stood up in a panic, and said: "Get up soon, we are going to buy food after eating!"

finished speaking,
Li Zhuer ran out of the temple as if fleeing.

Su Wu sat up from the bed, lifted the quilt on her body, and covered Gou Sheng who was sleeping on the inside with it,
Instead, walk out of the temple.

In the open space outside the bamboo forest.

Li Yueshan waited for Su Wu to wash his face,

Handed him half a bowl of leftover pork stew from last night, and a few black corn buns: "We don't have enough food for ourselves. If you go to the rice store to buy rice, you must remember that you only need to buy brown rice, not the best white rice." People like us eat it.

I chatted with the villagers a few days ago,

I heard from them that brown rice should cost [-] yuan to buy a stone.

When the time comes you buy it with silver,
About seven cents and five cents of silver should be able to buy a stone of brown rice.

I will give you ten taels of silver to buy a lot of grain!

The rest of the money is reserved for the blacksmith's wages - these irons can be exchanged for cooking utensils with him, plus a few self-defense weapons, it is enough, and there is still a lot of surplus, but let him make weapons for us, After all, he took a little risk,
Give him some money, and he can't shirk it. "

Li Yueshan moved over the small wooden box that Su Wu had given him earlier,

A new brass lock was added to the keyhole of the wooden box.

He took out the key and opened the lock,
open the box,

Take ten pieces of silver from it, wrap it in cloth,
Hand it over to Su Wu.

The fat old man thought for a while,

He counted more than a hundred copper coins from the box, and saw that Qingmiao and Xiuxiu were sitting not far away eating with a bowl, Zhu'er was sitting opposite them, chatting with each other while eating, no one paid attention to this place,

So he stuffed the more than one hundred copper coins into Su Wu's palm,
Said: "Keep this money for yourself,

See if you want to buy something or eat something when you go to Jishang.

Pearl follows you busy,

You can also exchange these copper coins for a copper bracelet for her to wear. "

"What bracelet are you wearing?

It can't be eaten as a meal. Su Wu suddenly felt that Master's proposal was a waste of money, and he opened his mouth to refute it.
Unexpectedly, the master gave him a hard look,
Picking up the chopsticks from the stove's own rice bowl, he knocked on Su Wu's head: "Why don't you get the hang of it?"

"..."

Su Wu looked at him.

Finally, I didn't say any more, but I made up my mind in my heart,

Bracelets are a must.

Buy a bracelet for Li Zhuer,
But they don’t buy things for Qingmiao, Xiuxiu, and Gousheng.

Brothers and sisters will inevitably feel that the master is partial, and if things go on like this, it is not conducive to the unity of the kitchen team.

Therefore, if you want to buy something, you have to buy something that everyone has a share of.

Hulu Hulu ate up a bowl of stewed vegetables and black corn buns made of sweet potato noodles,
Su Wu pushed the platoon cart and set off with Li Zhuer.

"Slow down on the road!"

"Let Mizhuang send someone to bring us the food, you and Zhu'er remember to follow closely!"

"Let's open the temple at noon and get dirty, you two have to come back before this time!"

Before leaving, Master's instructions are always indispensable.

The rice village that Su Wu and Li Zhu'er are going to this time is in the relatively prosperous Zhujiazhuang within a radius of [-] to [-] miles.

As a nearby villager, Li Zhuer,

Naturally, I know how to get to Zhujiazhuang from here.

After the two were out of Master's sight, Su Wu found a secluded corner,
Drag Li Zhu'er and Pai Ziche to the shadow world.

Li Zhu'er showed him the way,

He flies through the shadows.

Originally, it took the two of them more than half an hour to reach the place,

It only takes a few minutes to arrive now.

Zhujiazhuang was built by the river.

There is a ferry by the river,
Small boats lined up row upon row on both sides of the river,
On the river slope, there are several logging camps.

Some coffin shops are next to the lumberyard, and grey-haired old men often come in and out of the coffin shop to choose the style and material of the coffin.
After choosing, he bargained with the shopkeeper, and then carefully took out the purse hidden on his body,

Pay the deposit and leave contentedly with the contract.

Most of these old people are not buying life materials for their own families,
They paid the deposit for the life material,
The vast majority are for themselves.

Walk along the avenue on the river slope to Zhujiazhuang,
You can see crowds of people in Zhujiazhuang market, yellow and thin men standing on the side of the road and chatting, occasionally someone is lighting a bag of cigarettes, and a pipe of cigarettes is passed back and forth among several people.

Before these men,
Then you can see women and boys kneeling on the side of the road with straw signs on their heads.

People pass by these people,

His eyes would not stay on them even for a moment.

Or someone stopped to ask a question or two,

Suddenly, a few men with big arms and round waists will pop out from the side, facing the ferocious strong man, pushing and shoving the inquirer, and driving them away from this place.

"That's a thug hired by the dentist,
They can't see others hiring people here, so they want to scare them away.

After several episodes have passed, those families who have no choice but to sell their children and daughters can only sell their children and wives to them according to the price they want to pay..."

Li Zhu'er saw that Su Wu looked at the strong men who pushed and pushed the passers-by from time to time, so she explained to Su Wu in a low voice.

Su Wu nodded slightly upon hearing this.

The current world is becoming more and more chaotic, and it is already the end of the dynasty.

At first glance,
At present, there are a lot of people gathered in this ordinary market, and it looks quite lively and prosperous.

But a closer look reveals that,
Most of the people gathered here are idle, sallow and emaciated people,

Their eyes scrutinized every passerby,

more looking for opportunities,

I want to get some money from past visitors to maintain myself and even the livelihood of my family behind me.

Su Wu and Li Zhuer stayed here for only a few minutes,
I have already discovered that at least seven or eight people are staring at me,
Going against the crowd, they gathered towards themselves.

"Let's go." Su Wu said to Li Zhu'er, telling her to follow him closely,

Then he took her around in this street,

Throwing off a few stalkers,
Came to the first stop of their trip - the gate of Xinglong Mizhuang.

In front of the gate of Mizhuang, there are a few big and three thick men guarding with sticks. As long as anyone dares to rush up, the sticks in their hands will be smashed down without mercy!
There were several pools of blood left on the ground.
It shows that many people tried to crowd into the rice farm to snatch the rice.

But their actions all failed.

"If you want to buy rice, you line up one by one into the shop.

If you dare to boo again, your heads will be smashed to pieces! "The leader of the thugs looked at the faces of the crowd, raised the stick in his hand and threatened.

Under his intimidation, the crowd did not dare to move rashly,
Su Wu dragged Li Zhu'er out of the crowd,

Shouted to the thug leader: "I want to buy rice!"

What the thugs guard against is that there are crowds swarming up,

In an attempt to rob rice farms of food.

He wouldn't be too wary of people like Su Wu and Li Zhu'er.

The leader paused for a moment on Li Zhu'er who was behind Su Wu, and said, "Go in!"

(End of this chapter)