Hypocrites

Shen Yu pressed down the bamboo hat to cover his face, and hid himself in the crowd of Dongshi.In the midsummer, everyone was crying, and the tears were bitterer than sweat. Only Shen Yu was expressionless, his teeth biting his cheeks. He heard the child riding on his father's neck. He didn't know what happened, so he sang The ballad that spreads through the streets——

"Liuyili, there are always rewards..."

In Dongshikou Execution Ground, the executioner knelt on a group of prisoners under the bright sunlight.

"Four-legged animal, stand tall..."

"Lord Shen!" The crowd burst into tears, "Heaven has no eyes!"

"There are no thousands of households in two letters..."

Among the prisoners, Shen Yu saw familiar faces, parents, brothers, friends, and classmates.The father was disheveled and disheveled, but his eyes were as clear and sharp as ever. He could find his son out of the crowd at a glance. His bearded face moved like a smile or a silent mouth.

The executioner raised the guillotine, Shen Yu's eyes were about to burst, and there were people "thumping" kneeling on the ground one after another beside him. He stood up straight and saw the situation clearly over the heads of these people.

The little boy clapped his hands and sang the last line: "Choose one ghost out of ten!"

The guillotine fell, blood spattered five steps.

"There are often rewards in Liuyili. Four-legged animals stand tall. There are no thousands of households in two seals, and one ghost from ten miles will come to join."

The children were still singing, but their mouths were tightly covered by the adults, and the armored Ruyang garrison passed by in a group with swords, and their poisoned eyes shot out from under their helmets.

Shen Yu lowered his head, countless feet were exposed under the eaves of the bamboo hat, he sneaked into the crowd like a nimble fish and hid.The cloth shoes in front of him suddenly turned into high boots, and a soldier's voice sounded above his head: "The bamboo hat has been taken off."

Shen Yu froze, he knew that the garrison had already started to investigate.

"The bamboo hat has been taken off." The second time, the situation became delicate, and pedestrians spontaneously moved aside.With a movement of Shen Yu's hand in his bosom, someone bumped into him suddenly, pushed a sharp silver light back into his bosom, grabbed his arm and said to the officers and soldiers: "This is my son, too many people have separated, the soldiers Forgive me..."

That man was not as tall as Shen Yu's shoulders, short and strong, but Shen Yu was tall and thin, with broad shoulders and a straight back, he was out of tune with the common people around him.

The soldier didn't say any more, and used the handle of his saber to push Shen Yu's hat away.The man hastily pulled Shen Yu away and tried to stop him: "Master Jun, Lord Jun! My son's face is rotten, so he wore a bamboo hat to cover it up, for fear of dirtying your eyes!"

Wherever he could move Shen Yu, he couldn't stop the soldiers. He saw that the straw hat was torn open by a steel knife, fluttering down from Shen Yu's head, spinning and falling into the dust.

Shen Yu's face was exposed in broad daylight.

The soldier's face changed, the person who pulled him gasped, and the crowd around them were silent for a few breaths, and then whispered.

It was a face like a skeleton, with sunken eye sockets, bluish cheeks, and covered with dark purple blood webs.

The man immediately reacted: "It's true that there are sores on the face, and I can't see people. Please do me a favor, Mr. Jun!"

There is a portrait in the soldier's hand. The person in the painting has sword-like eyebrows and star-eyed eyes, with broad eyebrows and broad eyes. You don't need to look closely to know that there is no half resemblance to the person in front of you.He waved his hand and led the team away.The bamboo hat was trampled flat by several pairs of high boots, Shen Yu picked it up with a bow, shook the dust, and put it on his head as before.

The man patted Shen Yu's hand: "My son... let's go home with Dad."

Shen Yu recognized this person.

Opposite Shen's School, there is a family selling fish in the West Market. The husband and wife have a daughter who is just young.The husband was short and strong, with dark and rough skin, but the wife was tall and fair, and gave birth to a daughter who was as beautiful as a flower. I don't know how many neighbors came to propose marriage.The mother's eyes are higher than the top, and she doesn't like any of them. She doesn't want her daughter to marry a fisherman like herself.

Shen Yu had nothing to do with his family, but one of his classmates secretly dated the daughter of this family for a year or so.Later, when the mother learned that her daughter had made a private engagement with a poor scholar, she was so angry that she confined her at home and cut off the relationship between the two.

In order to help their classmates impress their future mother-in-law, a group of people in the school who usually wrote about state governance wrote love poems one after another. They cobbled together ten pages of paper, and Shen Yu also contributed two poems.The classmate recited affectionately in front of the fishmonger's house in the early morning, and was doused by the future mother-in-law with a basin of overnight foot-washing water, and lay in bed for three days in the cold.

Everyone laughed at him for having a long way to go.

Before the end of the journey, before a cup of tea, this classmate died in the East City Execution Ground.

The alleyways of Lifang were used by Shen Yu for more than ten years, and he could find his way even with his eyes closed.The fishmonger's house is still there, but Shen's school has been confiscated.

Walking to the door, there is already a familiar salty smell.

The fishmonger was extremely nervous, who lived in the neighborhood of Anjingfang, who didn't know Shen Yu from Shen's school, was seen and reported, the Shen family's today is his family's tomorrow.

Shen Yu was pushed into the courtyard door by the fishmonger, like a wretched thief.

"Why is your face like this?" The fishmonger watched him take off his bamboo hat.

Shen Yu opened his mouth, the flesh and blood bitten off during the execution made his mouth look like a mess, blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, he used his hands to catch it to prevent it from falling into the fisherman's house.

He is no longer wearing clean silk and satin clothes, but the burlap clothes are as rough as if he has just finished working as a helper in the East and West Market. If there is no shadow of the past in his back figure, the fishmonger would not be able to recognize him.

The fishmonger was a kind man, and he almost shed tears: "Sir Shen has shown great kindness to my family, Mr. Shen, you can rest assured that you can live in a shabby house and escape this extraordinary period. The school was closed down earlier, and the officers and soldiers have already left. I have searched Anjingfang inside and out, I think I won’t come here again, it’s still safe.”

Shen Yu was noncommittal, his bloody mouth even bled when he moved.

The house is quiet, with a three-bay hall, the main hall is dedicated to the spirit altar, which is the daughter of the fishmonger's family who died one step ahead of Shen Yu's classmate.

The fine print is full.

"Master Shen upheld justice for the little girl, and we will never forget it in our lives." The fishmonger said with tears.

Yet he was still wrong.Officers and soldiers quickly searched Anjingfang.

It came so fast, as if I had news.The courtyard door was slammed, the fishmonger was caught off guard, his face was pale, he dragged Shen Yu into the house, he couldn't hide under the kang, he didn't dare to hide in the cabinet, he searched and searched, and there were two large pottery jars in the corner.

Pickles were pickled in a crock, and when the lid was opened, the smell was pungent and made people's eyes hurt.The other tank is empty.

"Young Master Shen, feel wronged!" The fishmonger urged, the courtyard gate was about to collapse, and he hurried to meet the officers and soldiers.The sound of officers and soldiers banging on the door was heard one after another in the whole street. There were four people who entered the fishmonger's house. Their faces were sullen and their hands were rude. They turned over the piles of firewood and grass ash in the yard.

"My lord!" the fishmonger chased after them, "My lord! What are you looking for? The small family sells fish, and the fishy smell is strong. Don't smoke your lords!"

A soldier shook off the portraits, and for half a month, these portraits were plastered all over the streets and alleys of the city, but no one was caught.

"Someone reported seeing this person in Anjingfang yesterday."

"I know him!" shouted the fishmonger, "my house lives opposite the school, Shen Yu, the eldest son of the Shen family, is known as the three handsome men of Ruyang, and he is also the head of the seven sons of the Shen family. I don’t know, if he returns to Anjingfang and just enters the gate with his front foot, everyone will know about his back foot, and there’s no way he can hide it! Officer, I’ve never seen it before.”

"What are the three handsome men of Ruyang, the seven sons of the Shen family, all of the Shen family are rebels!" the officers and soldiers yelled, "Watch your tongue when you talk nonsense!"

"Yes! Yes!" the fishmonger obediently followed the officers and soldiers into the main room. The kang was turned into a mess, the cabinet was opened, all the sundries inside were swept to the ground, and all places where people could hide were searched carefully.

The more the fishmonger watched, the more frightened he became. This posture seemed to confirm that he was hiding him at home.

Two pottery jars stand quietly in the corner.The officers and soldiers finally did not intend to let it go, the fishmonger pleaded: "This is a pickle jar, Mr. Jun, the smell is very strong..." He saw the officers and soldiers' hands reaching for the wooden cover, and he wanted to close his eyes in fear. Gai Zi, his family will go to hell with the Shen family.

The officers and soldiers glanced into the tank: "There is nothing."

Shen Yu was not in that empty tank.The fishmonger almost kneeled on the ground.But where could Shen Yu hide?His eyes followed the hands of the officers and soldiers to another jar full of salty pickles. As soon as the lid was opened, the strong smell made the soldiers cover their noses. One of them picked up the plow rake in the corner and stabbed the sharp fork. Put it in the tank and give it a stir.

Nothing was found.

The fishmonger sent off the four soldiers, and returned to the pickle jar with trembling legs. He couldn't imagine Shen Yu's blood oozing from the hole in his chest pierced by the plow while soaking in the pickled pickles.

"Young Master Shen..." He called out in a low voice while supporting the pot, but there was no response.The fishmonger rolled up his sleeves tremblingly, and was about to save someone, when suddenly there was a sound on the beam, and a few grains of dust fell from the beam onto the fishmonger's shoulder.Shen Yu jumped down from the pitch-black high beams, the fishmonger was dumbfounded, there was neither ladder nor climbing rope in the house, he couldn't figure out how Shen Yu got up.

"It's fine, it's fine." The fishmonger didn't struggle too much.

He hoped to provide Shen Yu with a shelter, even though his family was barren, it was better than Shen Yu's wandering on the streets, surrounded by grass and trees.But this intention was quickly rejected sharply by the wife who closed the stall and returned home.

The fishmonger's wife entered the house wearing a rattan basket with salted fish on her back. The moment she saw Shen Yu, she let out an earth-shattering scream.

It's hard to say whether she recognized the court prisoner at a glance, or was frightened by Shen Yu's haggard face.In fact, what was different from Shen Yu's impression was that the fishmonger's wife had also changed from being charming to an old man, not even half of her former beauty, as if her face was full of wind and frost, describing her misery.

"Evil ghost! Calamity!" The fishmonger's wife went crazy and threw the dried fish in the basket at Shen Yu.

The fishmonger repeatedly stopped him: "You can't do that! Mr. Shen is a great benefactor!"

"Plague God! It wasn't you, why would my Yingying go away at such a young age! The imperial court rebelled against the party, and my mother will send you to death!"

The fishmonger pushed his wife into the back room to prevent her from shouting hoarsely to make the neighbors listen, and it took half an hour to persuade them to calm down.

"What does Yingying's death have to do with Mr. Shen? You mother-in-law, don't be indiscriminate! We can't sit idly by and let Mr. Shen hide for a few days to avoid the limelight."

The fishmonger's wife hugged her daughter's leftover clothes, weeping and crying, and what she said was like an oath: "I'm going to the Yamen to expose you and ask you to be with your benefactor, the old man, Huang Quan!"

"You are not allowed to go anywhere!" The fishmonger put two locks on the door of the back room and turned back to the main hall.

It was empty inside and out, and Shen Yu had disappeared.Not a single footprint, not a single drop of blood was left.

The innermost part of Anjingfang is Shen's School, which has been sealed by the government, and all the elegant garden landscapes of the past have grown wildly and desolate.

Taking advantage of the darkness, Shen Yu slipped into the school, climbed over a wall, and fell into another courtyard next door.

The two courtyards are back to back and close at hand, but one is in Anjingfang and the other is in Shengpingfang. If you walk from the main entrance, you have to pass through two gates. No one would have thought that the seemingly unrelated courtyards are only separated by a wall.

The officers and soldiers searched all over Anjingfang, but they never searched Shengpingfang. Shen Yu was able to hide in this small courtyard that was also abandoned and escaped disaster.

The courtyard has been unoccupied for a long time, but the doors and windows of the main room are closed and locked. Shen Yu considered that the sound of forcibly breaking the door would arouse the vigilance of the neighbors, so he has never slept in the room for half a month, and has been sleeping in the stable that can provide shelter from the wind and rain. .

The summer was scorching hot, but Shen Yu felt bitingly cold at night. He was curled up in the haystack of the stable, hungry, and the blood oozing from the rotten cheeks kept swallowing, and the fishy smell stained the dream——

He dreamed that the day his father took office as Ruyang county governor, the Shen residence was full of people, the household limit was limited to clothing, and there was an endless stream of people giving gifts, celebrating, and marrying relatives.

The gift list held by the door boy was almost higher than his head, he picked the topmost one, and sprinkled it with golden light, the gift money was so generous that it was shocking.

"The governor of Ruyang, the prince's young master, personally entrusted by Mr. Shen..." He took the golden card into the study and read it to his father.

Shen Jin was writing, without raising his head, he wrote the word "Jing" with one stroke: "I'm all back, I don't know why."

He said: "This letter was written by Shaofu Shi Shan Guangyi. Will you also withdraw it? Shan Guangyi is the nephew of Shan Guan."

Only then did Shen Jin raise her head and glance at her son: "You still have these messy relationships in your heart?"

After the words were written, the banners were spread on the desks—with an open mind and a clear mind.

He laughed and flattered his father: "You are the prince's young teacher, the future emperor's teacher. Of course, others want to get in touch with you, so there is no need to accommodate them."

The high-pitched congratulatory voices of the ceremony officials in the front yard were like several suonas, creating an extraordinary atmosphere.He threw the golden box casually, and the book boy hurriedly caught it with both hands, so as not to fall to the ground.

"Open the door, officers and soldiers search."

The noise woke up Shengpingfang before the crowing of the cock.Shen Yu opened his eyes the moment his military boots stepped on the bluestone bricks. For half a month after hiding in the gutter, he thought he would die in his sleep every night, but the mornings always came as scheduled.

This uninhabited yard was soon knocked on the gate.

"Master Jun, there are no people living in this house."

"An unoccupied yard needs to be checked even more!"

He heard the sound of a knife being drawn, and the copper lock of the gate would be cut off immediately. Shen Yu got up from the haystack in the stable, and the strong nausea caused by excessive hunger made him dizzy for a while.

However, the break-in he imagined did not happen.The door was quiet for a moment, someone spoke vaguely, and then the brass lock was opened by the key.

The stables were in the east courtyard, and the officers and soldiers entered from the west courtyard. The door lock of the main room was broken, and there was a burst of chaos.

If he wanted to climb over the wall and return to the school next door, he had to go through the West Courtyard, and there was no way out now.Shen Yu's mood relaxed instead. Someone came to the east courtyard, and he drew out the dagger in his arms.

Those who came in were not officers and soldiers, but wore long gowns and leather crowns, and carried a bunch of copper keys in their hands.It was he who opened the door locks for officers and soldiers.

When the man saw Shen Yu in the stable, he was horrified by his appearance, and was about to scream when he breathed out, but Shen Yu covered his mouth and locked his throat, and pulled him into the stable.

"Uh! Uhh!" The man struggled desperately.

Shen Yu whispered into his ear: "Little Mr. Cui, it's me." His voice seemed to be mixed with gravel, which made people's ears hurt, and a thick blood flowed from Shen Yu's mouth into Cui Ji's nose .

Cui Ji stopped earning, and his surprise was beyond words.The officers and soldiers shouted, looking for Cui Ji, Shen Yu let go of him, and took two steps back, his life was in the hands of this well-dressed old acquaintance in an instant.