An hour later, after the sound of the jade-inlaid wheels rolling over the bluestone faded away, the people in the building near the end of Rouge Lane went about their daily lives. The bottom of the copper basin that Sister Cui used to wash was leaking.
It was completely unfit for repair, so it was used as a charcoal basin, which was deeper than the old one to save carbon.
Mother Sun bought the charcoal from a charcoal seller outside the south of the city who cut firewood for burning charcoal. Although it is difficult to generate and has a lot of smoke, it is cheap and resistant to burning. The poor families in Wuhang City competed for it.
The charcoal seller, who only had enough clothes to wear and food in his mouth, had to bribe the city gate sergeant on duty with a few coins of wine money every time he entered the city. The income from an ox cart with more than a thousand kilograms of charcoal was very limited.
The charcoal seller worked hard for more than ten days to bring an oxcart of charcoal into the city, but it was empty in less than an hour. Wei Changpan and Sun's mother walked twice before carrying the charcoal load back to a hundred jin, but it was cheaper than what was sold in nearby shops.
It’s dozens of dollars cheaper.
One hundred kilograms of charcoal can't be burned for many days. When Sun's mother took Wei Changpan away again, the ox cart containing a thousand kilograms of charcoal was nowhere to be seen. People around heard comments that the old man sold the charcoal and led the ox cart out of the city.
The hungry people intercepted them, killed the money, robbed the cattle, and ate them among the hungry people. When the city officials went out to look for them, they saw only naked and emaciated corpses. They could not find any of the murderers who were holding a piece of half-cooked beef in the wild and gnawing at the hungry people.
, or dozens or hundreds.
Since then, Wuhang City has lost an insignificant old man selling cheap charcoal.
He piled the charcoal in the copper basin until it was about 30% full, lit the roots and stuffed the firewood inside. Wei Changpan blew hard into the gaps in the charcoal pile. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to generate the charcoal.
It was only then that he saw that the charcoal was red. He got up in embarrassment and went to the kitchen water tank to pour water to wash away the charcoal dust on his face. There was only this charcoal basin in the huge hall. He could feel some warmth if he got closer.
Standing a little further away is still the same as falling into an ice cellar.
Mother Sun was busy preparing today's meal in the kitchen. She peeled and boiled the red potatoes, and added some soup made from unknown vegetable leaves with a few oily stars floating in it. Sister Cui said that once meat is served in half a day, it is mostly like a slut.
The butcher's half-thrown, half-sold goods were cooked properly by Sun's mother in thick oil and red sauce, and were no worse than the veal pot.
However, there were still three days left before the half-full mouthful was left, so there was only red sweet potato and vegetable leaf soup.
Sister Cui didn't want to open the door to let passers-by see the shabby people in the building eating and drinking. As soon as the man in white left, she asked Wei Changpan to put the door back.
Two meals a day,
The little food in the morning was gone long ago, and Wei Changpan's belly was empty. It was also the time when he was growing tall, and his appetite was as much as that of Sister Cui and the three of them. It is true that a martial artist's body is more powerful than ordinary people, and his appetite is often much larger.
Many heroines and fairies traveling around the world eat and drink only lightly in order to save their face, and suffer a lot.
The steaming red sweet potato and leaf soup was served. There was no oil or salt, but after being hungry for a long time, no matter how poor the meal was, it tasted sweet.
The oil lamp was lit, and the dim light like a bean could only keep the food from being eaten into the mouth. As usual, the lamp lit by Father Yan did not make much light. The other three people knew very well that if they did not light the lamp, they would not be able to eat it.
He could pull the food into his mouth smoothly, but Father Yan would not even give him such a big light.
He fumbled to bring his bowl of red sweet potato over. Sun's mother had divided the red potato among them. Sister Cui and she only had more than half a bowl. Father Yan's bowl was fuller. Only the bowl in front of Wei Changpan was piled high. He weighed it roughly.
The portion of the Xiahai bowl is enough to make you seven or seven and a half full. He scratched his head and took the chopsticks handed over by Sun's mother. When he saw Sister Cui put a piece of red sweet potato into his mouth, he also started to eat it.
Hongyao was extremely hungry, so he swallowed most of the food in the bowl and then drank some vegetable leaf soup. When it swelled, it filled up a whole bowl. A porridge and a meal were hard to come by. Wei Changpan grew up in a farmhouse, so he naturally knew that food was precious and the size
Leftovers are a bad habit that you should never have.
After finally filling the bowl with all the food, Wei Changpan felt something was coming out of his throat, and he quickly concentrated on suppressing it. Sister Cui and the other three waited for him for a while, when Wei Changpan put away the bowls and chopsticks on the table, put them into the wooden basin, and carried them away.
Washing in the Longpu River next to the building, the outside of the building is bright, but the lights are dim. There are fewer colorful boats in the river than at other times of the year, but the laughter of men and women is still the same.
I don’t know when the rule was made, but if there are prostitutes in the houses facing the Longpu River, no matter how embarrassed they are, they have to light red lanterns and hang them. Naturally, they are hung from the beginning to the end of the Rouge Lane, but
The brothel at the end of the alley has elegant palace lanterns painted with landscapes, flowers and birds, while the houses at the end of the alley can only hang bamboo strips and red paper.
Although they are both prostitutes, the alleys are like heaven and earth. The women in the alleys don't even bother to share the wells, and very few distinguished guests are willing to condescend to the houses at the end of the alleys that are heavily made up to attract customers.
The brothel has the rules of a brothel. Standing at the door with red lanterns to attract customers is considered too low-priced by many distinguished guests, so Rouge
The owners of the big brothels in the lane spent a lot of money to hire calligraphers to write plaques, and built the buildings in a unique style. Some looked like the academies in Wuhang City, and some spent high prices to transport carts of yellow sand and women from the Western Regions. Some even worse.
He made the beautiful daughter of one of the conquered lords of the kingdoms destroyed by Yao the oiran.
A building like Cuijie is different from a place at the end of an alley where peddlers and goons come in and out, and wealthy nobles at the end of the alley come and go. In addition to Cuijie's tricks, there are other reasons why it can operate to this day, but it cannot escape the so-called
Things are unpredictable. If you are lucky enough not to be affected by natural disasters, how do you know that there are no man-made disasters?
Sister Cui was about to go upstairs, but her attention was attracted by the light reflected from outside the building. It was like the bright light of a lantern, which made the area look like daylight. Involuntarily, Sister Cui opened the door. There were many people outside.
"Wang Cuicui?" A woman in the crowd outside asked tentatively.
"Yes." This real name, which had not been called for a long time, was suddenly spoken, and Sister Cui hesitated for a moment before agreeing.
"From now on, the rent in this building will be free." The woman who once lived in the same brothel with Sister Cui has now retired and is doing the job of training newcomers. Although Sister Cui left, she has no one else.
Even though they were going back and forth, they still knew that she had opened a house in Rouge Alley where she lived as a performer instead of selling her body.
Sister Cui pondered for a moment, and she guessed the reason for this unreasonable incident. She didn't want to ask any more questions: "Then I'll just thank you."
"No need to thank you, I just wanted to say something to help you run an errand." The woman smiled bitterly, "Who would have thought that the child you took in like a wild dog would fall into the eyes of that young master."