At dusk, the boat arrives at Xuedian Lake. Boats from Jiangsu and Zhejiang can go from Xueyian Lake down to Dahuangpu to the East China Sea. It is a place with busy waterway traffic. The lake scenery is also very beautiful. The setting sun shines, the lake water jumps with gold, and the reeds in the shallows are full of flowers.
When the wind blows, the "sand" makes the sound of rain. Yang Tieya, a master of calligraphy and painting in the late Yuan Dynasty, wrote in a poem: "Half a banquet pavilion in Dianshan Temple, with three awnings on three sides to carry a boat at the mouth of the lake. When the reed leaves are rustling, the wind is like rain, and the waves are flat and the water is like the sky."
The wine in Gu Lai Village is dull and tasteless, and you can buy fish regardless of money. Tomorrow I will pass under the Chuihong Bridge and I will stop with you to pay homage to the three wise men." It can be said that there is a painting in the poem.
Zhujiajiao Town on the east bank of Xuedian Lake is crowded with businessmen and tourists, and the market is bustling. Zhang Yuan and his party anchored the boat in Zhujiajiao Town that night. The cabin was spacious and they did not need to stay in an inn. They only went to the market to buy some clean food and boarded the boat. Zhang Yuan was led by Mu Jing.
Yan accompanied him to the post house in the town with the Xiaokanhe sign and asked the postmaster for two carriages, and set off for Jiaxing early tomorrow morning.
The night was dark and the lights on the boat were bright. It was quite lively with more than a dozen people on the same boat. Zhang Ruoxi originally wanted to read a few pages of a book for her younger brother, but Lu Chun and Lu Jie kept asking their mother or uncle to tell stories, and they got tired of playing shadow puppets for a day.
, Zhang Ruoxi and Zhang Yuan each told a story to the two little brothers. Mother Zhou and the two maids took the two of them to bed. Only after the two children fell asleep, the boat became quiet.
Zhang Ruoxi finished reading the last dozen pages of the fifty-fifth volume of "Xing Li Enshu" for her younger brother Zhang Yuan, and then watched Zhang Yuan write a four-character eight-part essay on four books in half an hour. Zhang Ruoxi had never studied eight-part essays.
, but he has read a lot of ancient prose. Zhang Yuan’s craftsmanship is very much rooted in ancient prose. He has a cold eye and a gentle heart, and his romantic style is also a literary eight-part essay. Zhang Ruoxi occasionally turned around under the lamp and saw Mu Zhenzhen sitting on his knees and sitting quietly in a corner.
Listening quietly, he smiled and asked, "Are you really literate?"
Mu Zhen really wanted to nod but was embarrassed, and looked at the young master with some embarrassment.
Zhang Yuan smiled and said: "She is really smart. She can recognize a lot of words without a teacher. This time she came to Qingpu with me and I taught her to recite four ancient poems along the way~
She memorized all the precepts and the Chibi poems before and after, and then asked her to read the four texts by herself, and she might even recognize them. I haven't asked her these past few days, sister, you can give her a test."
Zhang Ruoxi saw that her younger brother was still interested in teaching Mu Zhenzhen how to read. She was really interested in this fallen girl. She smiled and said, "If Zhenzhen can read, that's even more amazing. She is both civil and military." "The eldest lady."
"Mu Zhenzhen blushed.
Zhang Ruoxi said: "I don't mean to make fun of you, I just think you are awesome. Where is your little Panlong stick, let me see it?" Mu Zhenzhen coyly took out two sticks, one long and one short, from behind the hatch to use them with both sticks.
Connected with an iron chain, Zhang Ruoxi held the short stick curiously and gently shook the other long stick. Zhang Yuan hurriedly leaned away and said, "Sister, please don't dance around, you will hit yourself." Zhang Ruoxi Bai said.
He glanced at his younger brother and said, "You treat me like a child." He returned the small coiled dragon stick to Mu Zhenzhen and said, "Show me Zhenzhen dance someday. You need to practice this regularly, right?"
Zhang Yuandao: "I rarely see her practicing." He looked at Mu Zhenzhen and said, "You have to practice martial arts. Don't think that dancing with a gun and a stick is a despicable thing. But I admire people who have martial arts. Do you think you can't do martial arts?"
Where would you be now?"
When Mu Zhenzhen heard what Zhang Yuan said, a chill ran down his spine. If she didn't know martial arts, she would be dead by now. Then she heard the young master say again: "Of course, if you don't know martial arts, I won't teach you."
You come out and show your face."
Zhang Ruoxi sighed and said: "Lu Yangfang went too far. He mentioned to Lu Lang a few days ago that he wanted to buy Zhenzhen, and Lu Lang scolded him. I didn't expect that he would dare to take it by force without giving up. Now he
It's hard work.
After talking for a while, it was already late at night. Zhang Ruoxi went back to the back cabin to rest. This kind of boat of the Lu family is not as long and narrow as ordinary boats. It is relatively wide and fat. It has two large cabins, facing each other, with a three-foot aisle in between.
, there are small cabins at the bow and stern of the ship. The three boatmen live in the small cabin at the front. The small cabin at the back is the kitchen and the two boat girls live. Zhang Ruoxi, her two children, two maids, and
Zhou Ma was in the back cabin. Zhang Yuan, Mu Zhenzhen, Wu Ling, and Mu Jingyan lay down on a piece of paper in the front cabin. Mu Zhenzhen folded Zhang Yuan's clothes and put them aside, then went to blow out the lights and make a bed next to them.
He undressed and lay down, moving lightly and making no sound at all.
It was late at night, and there was still the faint sound of the city in Zhujiajiao Town not far away, as pervasive as the moonlight. Zhang Yuan thought about "being cautious" and "conscience" in his mind for a while and was about to fall asleep when Mu Jingyan's voice sounded.
The sleepiness that had just enveloped Zhang Yuan was suddenly lifted away, and he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Suddenly he heard Mu Zhenzhen on the other side of the bed whisper softly: "Master" Zhang Yuan turned sideways to face her, and saw Mu Zhenzhen's eyes in the moonlight.
Cancan was scattered on the pillow, and she could only hear her whisper: "Master, my father has disturbed you, hasn't he?"
Zhang Bi said: "Well, a little bit." Mu Zhenzhen said: "Then the maid asked daddy to move the quilt to the small tent to sleep." He stood up and said: "Forget it, don't wake your daddy, I'm sleeping.
After a while, Zhang Yuan heard Mu Zhenzhen snoring slightly, which made him have special ears.
As for Ling, he recited the fifty-fifth volume of "Xingli Jinshu" silently before falling asleep. When he woke up the next morning, it was already bright and three carriages from the Zhujiajiao Town Posthouse were already waiting on the shore.
Mu Jingyan hired four more porters to move a load of utensils from the ship and made five large loads. He also picked up a load and followed the carriage. On the evening of March 12, he arrived at the Jiaxing Canal Wharf, where the Shang family's ship in Kuaiji
A Sanming-tiled boat with a white awning was waiting. The boatman was very happy to see Zhang Yuan back so soon. It was hard to wait here with nothing to do.
At dusk three days later, the white-covered boat docked at the canal port outside Hangzhou. Look at the size of the port.
The small boats did not see Qin Liangyu's red-headed camphor boat. They must have gone back to Shizhu in eastern Sichuan. I don't know where Qin Minping lived. Maybe he lived in the Weaving Bureau outside Yongjinmen. Didn't Qin Minping want to build a shrine for Eunuch Zhong?
?
Zhang Yuan was standing on the bow of the boat watching the sunset over the canal. Suddenly he saw a big soldier running over the stone pillar, kowtowing to Zhang Yuan on the bank and saying, "Master Zhang is back. I have been waiting here since yesterday." Zhang Yuan
I recognized this Shizhu native soldier, his name was Ma Kuoqi. He was the one who went to Eunuch Qiu's father's house last time to perform a bitter trick. He was tall and burly, and was good at enduring hardships. When I asked, I found out that Qin Minping had sent him to wait here.
It’s time for Zhang Yuan to return.
Zhang Yuan asked Qin Minping where he lived, but it was at an inn outside Yongjin Gate. Qin Minping and twenty soldiers booked that inn.
Ma Kuoqi said: "Master Zhang is going to meet my Lord Qin now."
Zhang Yuandao: "Go back tomorrow morning. My sister is here and I have to take care of her."
Ma Kuoqi remembered something and said: "Mr. Zhang, I have something to report. When I was waiting for Mr. Zhang's boat at the river port, I saw someone inquiring about Mr. Zhang and asked him when he left.
?”
Zhang Yuan asked: "What kind of person is he?"
Ma Kuoqi said: "There are two people. They are both wearing green clothes and short coats. They don't look like good people." Zhang Yuan asked: "Who did those two people ask about me?" Ma Kuoqi said: "They are the porters at the port.
, the porter inquired.
Zhang Yuandao: "Please help me ask the porters if they know what the two men in Tsing Yi do?"
Ma Kuoqi then went to ask, asking the porters and porters who were in groups of three or five. After a while, he ran over to Zhang Yuan and replied: "Mr. Zhang, there is a porter who says he is a trader." "A trader."
?" Zhang Yuan didn't quite understand.
Ma Kuoqi didn't know what a beating business was, so he called the porter over and asked Zhang Yuan to question him. The porter told Zhang Yuan that a beating business was specifically about avenging someone's death and beating people as a profession. The earliest was
In Suzhou and Songjiang, there is such a business. They are all bad young men with no family and bad people who travel around to take advantage of the past. They form cliques and gangs, bully the weak and the widowed. The thugs in the business are also called green hands. The brave ones
With bare hands, some carrying scales, shovels and short sticks, they would deliberately pick fights in places where the person designated by the employer to retaliate often passed by, and then swarm them, punch, kick and severely injure them. Generally, they did not dare to injure anyone's life. Zhang Yuan listened and immediately
I remembered that Yao Fu once hired a gangster to interrupt student Liu Yingcai's tui due to a dispute in the school. The gangsters were not many in number and had not yet formed a gang. But in the metropolis of Hangzhou, since they dare to call themselves a gangster, then
There must be a large group of people. The gangsters were asking about him at the canal dock. They must have been entrusted by someone to beat Zhang Yuan. The person who ordered him also knew his whereabouts. Who could this be? It belongs to Yao Fu.
Family or Dong Zuchang?
Zhang Yuan rewarded the porter with dozens of coins. After the porter thanked him and left, Zhang Yuanzheng told Ma Kuoqi to inform Qin Minping and sent ten soldiers to wait for orders. However, he saw the porter running back again, looking nervous.
He said: "This young man, those two men are here again, they are the young masters of the gang." After saying that, he moved away.
Zhang Yuan raised his eyes and saw two evil young men, wearing green short clothes, high handkerchiefs and fine nets, and tightly tied kutui. They were coming this way asking questions. There was a porter who was trying to avoid him, so he was violently kicked.
He was pushed and fell to the ground. Zhang Yuan turned around and said to Mu Jingyan who was already standing at the bow of the boat: "Uncle Mu, take the stick and knock down the two bachelors in green clothes and bring them here for questioning."
Ma Kuoqi immediately said, "I'll catch them both." He strode towards the two evil boys.
The two evil young men saw that Ma Kuoqi was tall and majestic and was coming with bad intentions. One of them, Qingshou, was still making a fuss and shouted: "What do you want to do?" Before he could finish his words, he was punched on the chest. Before he could fall back, he was hit again.
Big dustpan-like hands grabbed her chest and lifted her up.
Seeing that the situation was not going well, another evil boy pulled out his tui and ran away. Ma Kuoqi grabbed one of the people and was too late to pursue him, so he dragged the captured evil boy back and asked Zhang Yuan to question him.