Shen Tang pointed at himself with a surprised expression.
It feels like winning a small lottery prize.
Not much money, but unexpected.
However, Shen Tang's attention was always very strange. She thought about Gong Xiqiu's words carefully and found something wrong: "Wait a minute, I heard you asked the landlady about He Yin earlier, and I thought you were here to visit me. Co-authored Am I just by the way?"
At first I was quite touched that my friend remembered me.
Thinking about it again, she made the wrong payment???
The clown is herself!
Gong Xiqiu was not embarrassed about being caught. Instead, he was confused by Shen Tang's question: "Aren't these all the same?"
Shen Tang resolutely said: "It's different!"
That--
Gong Xiqiu tilted his head in confusion.
Ask in a soliciting tone: "Then I apologize?"
Shen Tang admired his superiority very much.
"Well, okay, then I accept it."
You can't break up with your best friend just because of a minor conflict.
Gong Xiqiu apologized succinctly, and Shen Tang accepted it as a matter of course. Only the onlookers could not understand the logical connection. This, maybe this is the reason why they can become close friends, while outsiders can only be confused?
"Parents, please have some tea."
The "boy" brought a pot of tea.
Shen Tang looked at the pierced ears on the "little guy's" plump earlobes, smiled meaningfully at Gong Xiqiu, and asked, "What about you?"
She gave a little thumbs up...
Gong Xiqiu looked at his little finger blankly.
"What... does this mean?"
Gu Chi: "The little finger belongs to water and refers to the younger generation of children."
With Gu Chi's erroneous knowledge, Gong Xiqiu understood and said hurriedly: "This is not a junior in the clan, but a person who was rewarded by my adoptive father. I saw that she was pitiful and smart, so I stayed with me as a maid. Help with living expenses.”
Originally, the people who took care of his life were all officials.
With this maid, Gong Xiqiu no longer has to worry about finding the pearls thrown around. I didn’t want to take her with me when I went out this time. The pressure of traveling day and night is a bit heavy for a weak woman. I just considered Gong Xi If Qiu was not there, some cheap guy might come to look for trouble, so after thinking about it, I decided to pick him up.
Shen Tang: "..."
One dares to explain and the other dares to answer.
Her desire for gossip was extinguished.
The topic turned back to that strange young man.
"You said that the young man just came to me, did he come to seek refuge with me, or did he come to seek revenge from me?"
Shen Tang is very confident in her own charm, but there are not many people in the world who can appreciate her. In addition, her reputation has not yet been fully established, so she should not be able to attract high-end talents to actively join her grass-roots team. The young man has excellent bones, don't look at others. His appearance is poor, but the details of his breathing and walking clearly show that this young man is a practitioner with a solid foundation.
With this condition, why bother to find her?
The probability of defecting is low, but the probability of seeking revenge is high.
Gong Xiqiu's answer was unexpected. He said: "He should have defected. When he rescued him earlier, he kept saying that he wanted to find Mama to repay his kindness. He said it was his sister's order before she died. It's a pity that he didn't How to know the way..."
"His sister?"
Shen Tang was even more confused after hearing this.
There is absolutely no impression in my mind.
Have you ever saved his sister?
Seeing Mama's reaction, Gong Xiqiu knew that she was also surprised, so he suggested: "How about calling someone here to ask?"
Shen Tang said: "Alright."
Gong Xiqiu asked the "boy" to go to the stable in the backyard of the inn to call the young man over. After a while, the young man came over step by step dragging a heavy chain. Gong Xiqiu pointed to the empty seat and said to the young man: "Sit down. , I have something to ask you."
The boy hadn't taken a shower for an unknown amount of time.
His exposed skin was covered with dirt, and there was an indescribable sour odor floating around his body. Although his clothes were ragged and his head was ragged, he was not at all embarrassed when facing outsiders. When Gong Xiqiu asked him to sit down, he sat down generously. sit down.
"She's the one you're looking for."
Gong Xiqiu pointed at Shen Tang.
After hearing this, the young man's calm eyes finally changed, and he turned his head sharply in the direction pointed by Gong Xiqiu. He said three words without thinking: "Is it you?"
Perhaps because he hasn't spoken to outsiders for a long time, the boy's voice is much deeper and hoarse than that of his peers.
"What is me?"
The young man followed up and asked, "You bought my nephew for forty coins? Where is he now?"
Forty cents?
Buy his nephew?
When did it happen?
Shen Tang vaguely felt that this matter was familiar, but couldn't remember it for a while. Gong Xiqiu helped Shen Tang sell Amway for free, and he wanted to force the following words into the young man's mind: "As expected of Mama, I really feel good about it. He is kind and has the heart of a Bodhisattva! It turns out that there is such a connection. Don’t worry, your nephew will live a good life with my Mama!"
Shen Tang: "Shut up!"
Gong Xiqiu didn't expect that he would be attacked, so he lowered his head with an aggrieved look and quietly moved his eyes up to observe Shen Tang's reaction.
Shen Tang: "..."
When Gong Xiqiu was making a joke, she remembered the matter of "forty coins to buy a nephew." Last year, when she was still in Xiaocheng, Sibao County, Shen Tang's base was a bandit stronghold on the mountain. In order to further expand the bandit stronghold, Due to lack of manpower, Shen Tang decided to go down the mountain to buy with Qi Shan, and it was on that trip that he bought Lu Jue.
Before meeting Lu Jue, Shen Tang saw a woman holding a baby on the side of the road. The boy's skin was cold and he had died in the woman's arms. However, the woman was obviously unconscious, or she was unwilling to accept her son's death. The facts look crazy.
Shen Tang took pity on the woman's motherly heart, so he spent 40 yuan to buy the body from her and buried it in the back mountain.
Apart from this, there is nothing else.
Shen Tang swallowed his saliva and secretly said that he was off the map!
Where can she find a nephew for the boy now? That woman must be the boy's sister. If you look closely, there is indeed some similarity between their eyebrows. But why didn't the woman tell him that his nephew had died? Where is it?
"Ahem, this matter is actually..."
Gu Yan
Shen Tang looked at the young man with a troubled expression.
When Gong Xiqiu saw this posture, he knew something was wrong. He pretended to adjust his sitting posture and changed the posture from the cross-legged posture to a very casual and rude sitting posture. His body was slanted and his center of gravity was leaning on the low table. The muscles under the dark clothes were already " Ready to go" status.
Shen Tang confessed directly: "At that time, your sister was holding him and sitting by the roadside. I thought that the child was sick and was still breathing, so I thought about going over to have a look. Who knew that he had no pulse at all? She has been dying for a long time. She has a big belly, and she must have been suffocated by Guanyin soil. Your sister asked me if I wanted to buy it. I saw that she was in a state of confusion, which was really pitiful, so I paid for it and buried her alive. …The above words are absolutely true! If you don’t believe me, I can tell you the location of your nephew’s tomb.”
As she told the story, the young man's eyes dimmed little by little, without any suspicion, and he was furious, obviously mentally prepared. He sighed: "My sister's family only has so much blood. I thought I could find him and put him away." Raise him well, and find out about Mr. Shen from time to time... I didn't expect it to be like this..."
The only blame is that he went back too late.
No wonder the others.
Why didn’t the young man doubt Shen Tang’s words?
Naturally, it was because after he went back and saw his sister who was all skinny except for her huge belly, he realized what had happened to his family. Except for his nephew, everyone in the family of five had the same death condition. The young man repaid his nephew for being alive. There was a glimmer of hope, but his reason told him that it was unlikely.
My nephew is too young, and the two older ones have died in infancy. Can he survive until he is bought and raised by a kind-hearted person?
Shen Tang's answer made his long-suspended heart fall to the ground, but the heavy sound made him feel lost and sad...
"Condolences."
Shen Tang could only feel so relieved.
After hearing this, Gong Xiqiu roughly understood what was going on. He couldn't help but refuse to open and lift certain pots. He looked slightly dissatisfied and accusing, and asked: "You are also a brave warrior after all. You can even protect a few ordinary people." Don’t you have any skills?”
Shen Tang rolled his eyes at Gong Xiqiu.
Said: "The outside world has different customs from your clan."
In the Gongxiqiu ethnic group, babies are usually raised by the mother and her natal uncle. The tribesmen live close together, so it is convenient for them to take care of each other. But in the outside world, when a woman marries her husband's family, it is impossible for a boy to marry as her brother-in-law.
Even if you want to seek shelter, it will be difficult.
The boy was good-natured and not angry.
He just lowered his head silently and didn't say a word.
In fact, it's really not his fault.
The boy was lucky. His bones were discovered when he was still a child, and he was taken as his apprentice. Because a brave warrior came out of the family, which invisibly brought glory to the faces of his parents and sisters, and her elder sister also found her. A wonderful marriage.
The man is considered a wealthy family from a nearby village.
The boy returns home once every three years. Every time he goes back, he sees that his family is living well. Even when Sibao County was captured by Zheng Qiao for the first time, his family fled in time. In the past few years, except that the living conditions are not as good as before, everything else has been better. good.
Letters from home also report good news but not bad news.
As a young man, he studied with peace of mind and achieved success before he was born.
As soon as he came out, he heard that the Pig King rebels were wreaking havoc in Sibao County. The crops had not been good in the past two years, and God did not reward him. He felt a thump in his heart, and went home while asking about it. When he returned home, he realized that so many things had happened at home. .
His parents were blackmailed and forced to death by bullies on the way to escape. With tears in his eyes, he buried their bones in the ground again and went to look for his sister. When he found them, the smell of corpses in the simple shabby house was so high that the sister who used to have bright eyes and good eyes looked like a corpse that was about to rot. Withered bones hugged their belly and huddled next to their rotting husband.
The young man had just recovered from the shock of the death of his parents, but was shocked to death by the corpses in the broken house. He felt that the world was spinning before his eyes. My sister was still breathing, and after drinking the hot soup, her spirits improved significantly.
But the young man knew that this was a return to the past.
My sister was conscious and told him that her nephew had been bought by a kind-hearted person and that he would live a good life. If there was a chance, he would help take care of him. She kept describing the appearance, clothes, and voice of the kind-hearted person, and her muddy eyes were filled with gratitude and expectation. .
She was grateful for Shen Tang's kindness, looked forward to her son's happiness, and breathed her last in the expectation of happiness.
The young man settled in his sister's family.
From then on, he embarked on the road to find his nephew.
After losing all his blood relatives in just a few days, the young man's inner sorrow and anger was pent up in his heart, and it was difficult to vent. He held on, and looked around for bits and pieces of information about Shen Tang like a normal person. By chance, he encountered the bully who had killed his parents and bullied women and children.
The boy's nerve called reason was broken.
He beat the bully's head into paste with one punch after another, and was finally caught and exiled. During the exile, he heard the guards talking about the governor of Ha Yin Fu Gu. The young man unexpectedly discovered that this person might be the person he was looking for, and he became violent. He wounded the officer and escaped.
As a result, he fainted from hunger and was picked up by Gong Xichou. The latter heard that he was looking for the governor of Heyin County and agreed to take him on the road with him without saying a word. The young man stayed with An Xin and worked as a temporary groom, and he thought it was a way to repay Gong Xiqiu. Xi Qiu’s kindness.
"He also has a rough life." Shen Tang looked at the young man with pity, "Do you have a place to go? If you have no place to go, you might as well follow me? I will move your nephew's tomb later. Although Heyin is small, it is still a big place. A place to stay.”
The young man pursed his lips and seemed to be hesitating.
He originally went to Shen Tang to take care of his nephew, but now that his nephew is gone, he doesn't necessarily want to stay. It's just that Shen Tang's invitation poked his weakness and made him shaken.
Gong Xiqiu said: "What is there to hesitate about?"
The young man looked at him and said, "It's more suitable to follow your parents."
Gong Xiqiu was also a brave warrior, and his intuition told him that this person was very strong, and even a head-on confrontation might not be able to shake him.
In comparison, Shen Jun seems too gentle and weak.
Gong Xiqiu did not welcome him.
He muttered in an imperceptible voice: "Follow me? I don't even know when I will die suddenly and in vain..."
He patted the young man's shoulder and laughed loudly: "I dare to pat my chest and assure you that Mama is definitely the best person in the world. If you miss her, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Even if you follow someone else now, maybe in the future Why should we go to such trouble with her anyway? It’s better to do it in one step, don’t you think?”
juvenile:"……"
He didn't quite believe it.
But judging from Shen Tang's behavior of buying a corpse just to comfort his motherly heart, he is indeed a good man. A good man may not be a wise man to knowledgeable people, but to the common people, he is a good man. Words are a great thing.
After a long time, the young man said: "My surname is Xianyu."
"Salted fish?"
The boy didn't hear the question.
It's just a gesture of surrender: "Xian Yu Jian."
"I am willing to listen to Mr. Shen's orders."
————————
"I didn't expect that I would be able to pick up a brave warrior during this trip. He is still a good seedling." In private, Gu Chi and Shen Tang joked, "It seems that Master Lang's daydream was not in vain."
Shen Tang pouted: "Have you had enough teasing?"
Gu Chi realized what was going on and stopped talking.
Shen Tang asked Yu Zi to find a set of clean clothes to send to Xian Yujian. This was also his subordinate. The treatment should keep up with him. The most basic thing was to clean up his personal hygiene.
"Is the invitation to Zhang Yongqing ready?"
Shen Tang has limited time for this business trip.
There are too few people in the Caotai team, and almost everyone has multiple jobs. She has been out there for too long, and the few literati in her nest should rebel. She plans to make a quick decision and resolve the matter here as soon as possible. Gong Xiqiu also followed She had similar thoughts.
The next day, we made an appointment to come together.
