I do research in ancient times

As a loyal reader of "The Legend of Dongshan Heroes", Cui An hastily embarked on a journey to Ding'an City before he could buy the single book that he had been thinking about.

But there is nothing to regret, after all, "Ding'an Daily" came out of Ding'an City. If there is a pamphlet for sale, then people in Ding'an City will definitely get it first-hand, and it may be faster than the speed of merchants. on many.

With this understanding, Cui An's journey has become particularly exciting.

He has always been an "idleman" away from the family, and because of Cui Yingxue's incident, he is dissatisfied with his elders and his in-laws, the Lu family, and has never participated in the clan's political affairs. Instead, he has always been close to the craftsmen in the city.

His elder brother was angry with him, but there was nothing he could do about him.

After all, back then, the Liu family married Cui An was irritable and dissolute. The two did not agree with each other and would fight when they met. Cui An got angry and simply moved out of the Cui family's ancestral house.

His marriage is a covenant between the Cui and Liu families, and the Lu family is involved in the middle, so it cannot be cut off before the contract is fulfilled.

But it's impossible for him to face Liu Shi's high-spirited horse face every day.They are all from the direct line of the aristocratic family, and no one is inferior to the other, so why should she suffer from her birdishness? !

Cui Anshan is good at painting and calligraphy, and he also runs some shops under his name. He can live comfortably all his life without relying on supplies from the public.

Now, except for the holidays, he doesn't go back to his ancestral house easily, and he doesn't bother to ask what absurd things happened to Liu's daughter.

The Cui family felt that Cui An was useless, but he felt that the whole family was not sober.

Now the Cui family is really getting worse every year. It has become a canary raised by the Lu family. It seems to have no other use except for marriage. The patriarchs of several generations, including his own brother, have a temperament that is cautious and timid, but also sensitive and suspicious. , it is a habit to let the Lu family take the lead when things happen.

Cui An could see early in the morning that his clan's decline had already begun, but the clansmen were still indulging in the glory of the past, thinking that the word "Cui" was written on the second page of the family tree, and that they were really the second family under the family and above ten thousand surnames. .

As everyone knows, without the protection of the Lu family, the Cui family can't even be considered second-rate!How many years has it been since the Cui family produced a decent character! ?If you can't make it, you can't make it, and they all lie under the family's reputation and eat the shadow of their ancestors.Apart from carefully cultivating and marrying into the Lu family's little ladies, what else does the Cui family have to offer?

The Cui family is nothing more than a hen for the Lu family to breed and breed, not as good as a craftsman who works hard to make a living every day.

His cognition becomes stronger the closer he gets to Ding'an City.

The border town is bitter, cold and dry, and the environment and climate are supposed to be inferior to those of the people living in the Central Plains. However, almost none of the people living in the border town live in chaos.

He rarely saw such a scene in Qijiang City or Cui's ancestral house.

Cui An especially liked this style.

He felt that Qijiang City was as comfortable as stagnant water. What was hidden under the prosperity was rigidity and lifelessness. Everyone was living with masks, step by step, without hope or strength.

But Border Town is different.

The big ship passed by several piers along the way, and he saw some women counting the goods on the shore. They all held booklets made of the same material as "Ding'an Daily", and they would write and draw on them from time to time, recording something.

Women actually know how to count?This is a rare thing!

Even in South County, only young ladies from big aristocratic families can learn some superficial arithmetic skills, just to be in charge of Zhongfu in the future as the clan's wife. Generally, those who come from small families don't have such opportunities!

There is also the sound of reading from the village. If the sun goes down, if you go to the shore for supplies, you can hear "The Legend of Dongshan Heroes" in the village. The narration is vivid and wonderful.

If you look carefully, you will find that the lecturer is not a celebrity or virtuous person, but just an ordinary farmer.Cui An is a book fan himself, and after rereading "The Legend of Dongshan Heroes" on "Ding'an Daily" for countless times, he can tell with just one ear that this guy has completely copied the original text in the newspaper!

"Are you also...the heir of poetry and books?"

Once, he couldn't bear his curiosity and lowered his voice to test the other party.

Cui An is a caring person. He thinks that this man is probably a descendant of a family in decline, and he came to the border town because of life.If you directly ask which family name someone is from, it's like poking at someone's wound, so he switched to a tactful way of asking.

Unexpectedly, the other party scratched the back of his head and looked back at him blankly, as if he couldn't understand what he was saying at all.

"What kind of family heirloom? My ancestors collected night incense, both dry and wet. How can this thing be cooked..."

He paused, suddenly remembered something, and clapped his hands.

"Oh, aren't you talking about retting fat?!"

"That's right, that's right, Mo Zong's master said that the fertilizer needs to be soaked before it can be cooked, and the ripe fertilizer will not burn the crops. It is wet ripe, it is wet ripe!"

Cui An was confused when he heard it, and it took him a long time to figure out that he was a soil and fertilizer maker in the village, so where did he come from?

The reason why he was able to tell "The Legend of Dongshan Heroes" was because when he was studying fertilizer in Jiuling City, he went to listen to the lectures in the city every night, and he also recognized a lot of words by the way, and now he can barely understand it. Some simple articles too.

"Nine Ling City?"

Cui An raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't it Ding'an City? What is this Jiuling City?"

Hearing his question, the farmer raised his chest.

"Lang Jun, are you from the Central Plains?"

"Jiuling City is in our border town, which is even more miraculous than Ding'an City. It was built by Mo Zong himself!"

"Mo Zong, do you know? It is the school founded by the Great Virtuous Sage himself. The mechanism and equipment are like gods. They don't need animals or people, and they can be moved by adding some coal to the millstone! There is also a sledgehammer that is pushed by water, without paddles. The big boat that can move is all built by Mo Zong!"

Cui An listened with gusto as the fat man spoke with joy and spit, his eyes sparkled.

He is a person who likes mechanisms. He has dealt with Gongshu Jiangpai a lot before, and his understanding of machinery is far beyond ordinary people.

Although I don't think the person in front of me is lying, but there is no mechanism in the world that can be activated by adding coal, most likely this guy is wrong.

But the first impression of Mo Zong was firmly embedded in his mind, and he was even full of curiosity about everything in the border town.

Cui An simply took root on the deck, and spent almost every day watching around except sleeping. He wished he could solve the mess of the Lu family immediately, and then go to the legendary Jiuling Lake to see it in person. one look.

Mo Zong... well, yes.

The old boy Lu Tao mentioned before that the Mozong created by the great sage himself was exiled to the border town.The Great Virtuous Sage was questioned by the Gongshu craftsmen because of his skills before, and he was disgraced. This matter is still talked about by the Gongshu craftsmen from time to time.

Unexpectedly, after a few generations, Mo Zong would have a powerful figure who could build a city outside the Great Wall! ?

The more Cui An thought about it, the more itchy he became. After all, he hadn't competed with the craftsman Gongshu for several years.

After Cui Yingxue's incident, he never saw the craftsman Gongshu who was familiar with him again.He went to the previous village to ask, but the family left early in the morning and disappeared.

Hearing this news at the time, Cui An was both ashamed and uneasy.

Auntie asked him for help, and without thinking, he recommended Gongshu's family to her.Later, because he was going to marry Liu's daughter, he went to Xieyang with his entourage and guards. He was not in Nanjun when the accident happened in Qijiang City. After returning, everything was settled, and he just rushed to see my sister, and she disappeared. Yu died.

He had inquired about it in private, and he only knew that it was the side branch of the Lu family who thought about it, saying that the direct branch of the Lu family had given birth to ominous twins.

At the beginning of this matter, Cui An actually didn't believe it.

He was also at Lu's house when my sister gave birth, and only heard a cry. Granny Wen was also holding a baby boy. If there were twins, sister would not have told him.

Most of this matter is still a sideline slander.

Although he didn't want to see Lu Tao, A Zuo was his elder sister's flesh and blood, and he couldn't tolerate someone putting their minds on a newborn baby.

A Zuo is the child of Lu Cui's family's direct marriage, and the next generation head of the Lu family. If he wants to pour dirty water on A Zuo's head, then he has to ask him if Cui Jiale is happy!

Cui An was very firm about this idea.But as time went by, some doubts arose in his heart.

For example, Mo Yupei, who was never found.

He tried Ah Zuo once.At that time, Azuo was still a baby, after hearing this, he showed him his own white fish pendant openly, saying that there was only one Yuyu pendant.

A Zuo didn't seem to know that there was a black jade pendant, and neither did Lu Tao. Presumably, sister didn't explain to them before she died.

But that day at his sister's bedside, he heard the word "cuttlefish" with his own ears.Although the jade pendant is two pieces, there is a mechanism that can combine the two into one. My sister only mentioned the black fish, probably because of another mystery.

After that day, Cui An never asked about the jade pendant again, and privately sent people to find out the whereabouts of Gongshu craftsman.

Helplessly, he is just an idler in the Cui family, and he doesn't have any reliable cronies in his hands. When it comes to A Zuo's status in the Lu family, Cui An is quite cautious, and the matter of finding someone has always been fruitless.

Sometimes Cui An would talk about it, that his incompetent uncle probably wanted to disappoint his sister's entrustment.

He couldn't find the craftsman Gongshu, and he didn't know if the doll that his sister sent away was a doll. He was in Qijiang City, and his every move was under Lu Tao's eyes.

After many years, if the child is still alive, it is God's favor, and it has nothing to do with the Lu Cui family.

It's okay, it's fine, anyway, it's not a clean place, so there's no need to keep a good seedling dirty.

It's just that I owe it to a doll like A Zuo, if he can be taught well, he may not be able to become a glorious gentleman, not the kind of Xibei like Lu Tao, but a real, celebrity-like son of a family.

Thinking of Auntie, Cui An was in a daze, and didn't notice a Donghu-style cargo ship coming towards him.

Now that they are sailing in the waters under the jurisdiction of the frontier army, this kind of barbarian boats will appear in sight from time to time, and Cui An does not find it unusual.

He knew that the Feng family had a trade relationship with Donghu, and through Ding'an City, the pink mineral salt and fur products from Donghu also flowed into the Central Plains and South County, and were very popular among wealthy families.

The moment the two ships crossed, Cui An naturally looked at the opposite ship.This was originally an unconscious movement, but at the moment when it inadvertently swept across a certain place, the pupils shrank sharply.

Cui An almost jumped up from the deck with a "thump", stumbled and rushed to the side of the ship, his two hands clutching the railing so hard that no blood was visible.

What did he see? !

He saw an all-too-familiar face!He has been watching the facial features and outline for 19 years, watching him grow from a soft and fragile baby to the elegant Zhilan Yushu of the Lu family, he absolutely right no will admit wrong!

Is...is...is Azuo...? !

No, not right.

Not Arzo.

Zuo never laughed like this.

His smile is the same as Lu Tao's, it is measured and measured, and it is just at the level that makes people feel like a spring breeze, but it will not reveal the inner emotions too much.

Azuo would not show such a narrow expression, he would not approach and chat with people without manners, and he would not wear blue-gray clothes, because this color is exclusive to servants in the Lu family.

This is not Ah Zuo, but it has exactly the same face as Ah Zuo.Their eyebrows and eyes look like sister's, but their noses are the standard Lu family's appearance. There are differences in expressions and movements between him and Ah Zuo.

Apart from... the kid with the cuttlefish pendant, would there be such a coincidence in the world?