In the 20th year of the Yuan Dynasty of the Jokhang Kingdom, at the border with Kuanzhou, it was the tenth day of the second lunar month.
At Xu time, Wu Jin carried two stacked baskets on his shoulders, held them steady with his right hand, bent down deeply, and carried the wooden frame with his left hand, and walked step by step to Yuhua Street.
After finding a place with many people, he set up the wooden frame and stabilized the basket. He cleared his throat and shouted loudly: "Cooking cakes! Oil cakes! Sugar cakes!"
The young man's voice was clear and loud, entering through the window, and was quickly submerged in the floating music.
The bright light is like a swaying shadow in the cold wind, like a swimming fish, or the fleeting charm of the prostitute's eyes and brows. It suddenly floats to Wu Jin's face, mixes with the aroma of food, and floats on the cage.
superior.
As the night darkened, there were more and more tourists, and as the night darkened, there were fewer and fewer tourists. The vendors chatted in groups and chatted about the anecdotes of the Flower Street. Wu Jin froze his feet back and forth, put his cold hands in his sleeves, and looked at the flowers on the other side.
The Yan Pavilion.
After taking a breath, he shouted again at the top of his voice: "Sugar cakes - fragrant and sweet - seven cents each!"
"Oil--"
The sound of horse hooves suddenly sounded on the road, covering up his voice, and all the whispers disappeared, leaving only the horse's hooves stepping across the bluestone in an orderly manner.
A dozen yellow-flowered horses were led out by servants, and four or five sedans were carried up one after another, waiting in front of the gate. At the same time, two servants opened the door from the inside, with firelight, the smell of wine, powder, and the sound of music.
In an instant, layers upon layers were laid out.
The first to come out of the door were six guards. They stood neatly beside the horses, smiling and squinting, as if they were wax figures.
A series of laughter followed.
A group of men wearing various colored brocade robes came out with red faces and drunken eyes. They came to the sedan with a smell of wine. However, they did not say goodbye and got on the sedan, but continued to wait for the people inside to come out.
Wu Jin lowered his head to look at the dozen or so cakes left. When he raised his head again, he saw a person coming out of the gate of Yan Guan. He was wearing a crane cloak and carrying a little girl with her hair in a horn bun on her shoulders. A cluster of light from the lantern in the corridor shone on all the people.
on her.
Her hair is black and green, there are no headgear or earrings, her eyes are long and large, her dark eyes are slightly hidden, her face is soft and childish, and a red gold "long life" necklace hangs around her neck, which shines brightly under the light.
Sensing Wu Jin's gaze, the little girl lowered her head condescendingly and looked at Wu Jin, showing the traces of her deep and long double eyelids. Then she stretched out her hand and pointed: "Cake."
The servants who followed quickly ran over without asking the price. They just asked Wu Jin to make the cakes quickly and asked for them all.
Wu Jin hurriedly took out the oiled paper, tied each bag tightly, bit into the handed one penny, and took out the copper coins to find some money. When the servants saw that the masters had already mounted their horses, they didn't want the twenty or thirty cents.
, took the cake and chased after him like a gust of wind.
The sound of horse hooves echoed through the streets again, leaving only a trail of smoke for the vendors.
Just when everyone was envious of Wu Jin's good luck today, a man carrying a load walked quickly from the corner of the street and said loudly to Wu Jin: "Brother Jin, your father fell into the Xiongshi Gorge and was just brought back!"
You go back quickly."
After Wu Jin heard this, his heart sank suddenly, and his face turned three points white in an instant.
His father was carving grottoes for Buddha statues in Xiongshan Temple. The sides of Xiongshi Gorge were as steep as a knife, and there were rapids below. People standing on the edge of the cliff would be dizzy and their feet would tremble, let alone fall into the deep stream.
He thanked the messenger loudly, squatted down, picked up the cage on his shoulders, carried the wooden frame, held the cake cage with one hand, and ran home quickly.
It was almost midnight, and the moon could not illuminate the sky no matter how bright it was. Wu Jin ran all the way from the brightly lit market to the remote and dark Shishi Street. The stone road under his feet became narrower and narrower, and finally he stepped into the mud.
Lighting a lamp costs fuel, and few people light lamps on Shishi Street. It was also the same at this time. He walked sideways in the darkness, his elbows constantly hitting the debris piled on both sides, and the empty rooms on both sides were crowded.
Pressing against him, he was out of breath.
His cold hands grasped the cage and the wooden frame. He slowed down when he saw a little light coming out of the darkness and the crowds of people.
"Brother Jin is back!"
"Hurry in, oh, how pitiful."
"Brother Jin is only fourteen this year. Life will not be easy in the future."
The crowd of onlookers made a way, Wu Jin lowered his head and walked through, bumping his shoulders against several solid chests before entering the door.
There was a strong smell of medicine floating in the yard. His younger brother Wu Yi was standing outside the door crying. He looked up and saw Wu Jin. He quickly wiped his tears and stepped forward and took the wooden frame: "Brother...father..."
Wu Jin steadied herself, put the cake basket in place, and whispered, "I'll go take a look."
He walked to the door of the main room. There were two or three women standing in the room, talking about comforting Wu's mother. A doctor was sitting at the Eight Immortals table prescribing prescriptions. Wu's mother's eyes were red, waiting to get the prescription to fill the medicine.
"Auntie, I'm back."
When the women heard the voice, they all turned to look at the door. They saw Wu Jin standing by the door with his hands lowered, with a strong and determined look on his face. He could be the boss of half of the family. He was also the only one in Shishi Street who was admitted to the state school, and his future was promising.
It's a great thing, but it's a pity.
If a family lacks a strong labor force, it will be difficult to study and study in the state. However, the four treasures of the study cost a lot of money.
The doctor also opened the prescription and handed it to Wu's mother. Wu Jin recognized that the doctor was the famous "Li Yi Tie". One stick could save someone's life. The consultation fee was two taels of silver. She didn't care about Wu's father's condition and quickly opened the short prescription.
He went to the cupboard, took out all the money he had saved at home, and scraped together the money he had earned today. He put together two ounces of money and gave them to the doctor.
Wu's mother sent the neighbors and the doctor out, and Wu Jin hurried back to her room. She took out the two hundred coins from under the pillow and gave them to her younger brother, asking him to grab some medicine.
After his younger brother also went out, he immediately went to see his father's injury.
Father Wu's face was as golden as paper, his eyes were closed tightly, the quilt rose and fell with his body, and then suddenly collapsed in the lower half - his legs and knees were down, and there was no trace.
"Aniang," he said with a little tear in his eyes, not looking at Wu's mother who came in, "I, I won't study for now."
Wu Mu's yellow and thin face suddenly became sharp: "No! Just read your books, you don't have to worry about these things. Go out and go to bed. We have classes tomorrow!"
"Mom, it's the same thing if I wait until Dad gets well before going to school. I'll make more cakes to earn money for renting the house next month."
Wu's mother pushed him out with her rough palms: "I have a way, you don't have to worry about it, I can make cakes. I mean, brother, I will be enlightened later. Didn't you also work as an apprentice for three years and sell cakes for one year?
I didn’t become enlightened until I was twelve years old.”
She pushed Wu Jin all the way back into the house, lit the oil lamp, then went out to light a fire and boil the medicine.
She tried her best to turn this door into a barrier to isolate Kaiwu's messy family affairs, so that the Wu family could have a bright and shining reading seed.
Wu Jin sat down at the table and listened silently to what was going on outside. It wasn't until he heard his brother coming back that he spread out the bamboo paper, polished the white inkstone, took the chicken quill pen, dipped it in ink and wrote: "Yuan Zhang...
..."
As soon as you put down the pen, the ink floats on the paper and scatters, making it difficult to form the words.
The paper, pen, and ink are not good, and the characters are half an inch long, so it is difficult to write.
Wu Jin raised his pen, plucked out the stray hairs, and wrote again: "On the tenth day of the second lunar month of the 20th year, the weather is fine. I sell two baskets of cakes. My father is seriously injured. I hope he will get well."
After a long pause, he smoothed out his words and put down the pen again: "God knows how much money our family has."