The first snowfall in Wuhang City this year came earlier than in previous years. The government also set up porridge shacks at the east and west gates of the city. In each place, there were two large iron pots stewed with rice bran every day.
People queue up to get the thick porridge made from grains, and each person gets a bowl. Occasionally, wealthy households in the city show kindness and bring a truck full of rice and noodles to distribute.
Even in Jiangzhou, this year's harvest is not good, not to mention the neighboring Huizhou, which has just been hit by a severe drought and locust plague. There is no harvest in this state. It depends entirely on the disaster relief grain released by the court, but it is still starving.
Due to the miserable conditions in the countryside, tens of thousands of hungry people left their homes and came to Jiangzhou this year, nearly the population of two or three middle-sized counties in Jiangzhou.
Earlier, the governor's office of Jiangzhou adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards these hungry people, but with the influx of these people, the cases reported daily by the government offices in Wuhang City kept all the government officials busy. As a last resort, this city of Wuhang City
The gate captain received an order that no hungry people were allowed to enter the city at the eight city gates. If anyone forced their way into the city, they would be captured and killed.
After the chaos in the city subsided a little, the civil servants in Wuhang City discovered that the number of corpses carried out by the hungry people outside the city was so many that they could not even be buried in the mass graves outside the city. Some of them did not even have straw mats to wrap the corpses.
It was just left on the roadside to be eaten by wild dogs, which ruined the scenery. They allocated food to give porridge, and also mobilized people from the government office to bury the hungry people who had died in the wilderness properly, so as not to frighten the nobles who came out of the city to enjoy the snow.
It stained their eyes.
However, the women in Rouge Alley have free time to entertain themselves every year except the first day of the first lunar month.
From then on, it was another year of good times and beautiful scenery, with tears in my eyes pretending to be happy.
However, it's snowing, and it's rare for Rouge Lane to be quiet. There are only a few prostitutes there regardless of rain or shine.
Those at the end of the alley have a solid financial foundation, so they don't have to worry about what will happen to them during the day. However, those at the end of the alley can only earn a day's worth of copper coins, so they will inevitably go hungry at this time.
After staying in Rouge Alley for some days, Wei Changpan had a rough idea of the Rouge Alley in Wuhang City without the need for Sister Cui to tell him. The river houses on both sides of the Longpu River that passed through the city were also places of sensuality.
The place where Wei Changpan lives is one of the few in Rouge Alley that does not engage in the flesh business.
Sister Cui, who also worked in this industry when she was young, played the pipa delicately and softly. She was sold to Rouge Lane in the countryside when she was too poor to survive, and she learned it after being beaten with bamboo boards many times.
He was not good-looking and could not become a popular oiran. He could only be a humble courtier, but he was lucky enough to be able to perform as an artist without selling himself.
Then, if Sister Cui didn't mention it, he wouldn't ask.
Even if the two-story house in the middle of Rouge Lane is a bit dilapidated, the monthly rent is ten taels of silver. In this place with only three people, there are four rooms on the second floor, and two small rooms owned by Father Yan.
They lived separately from Mama Sun. One of the two larger rooms was originally filled with sundries, while the other was Sister Cui's residence. The former was also the place where she dressed up. How could there be such a big living person like Wei Changpan suddenly there?
, so we can only throw out all the debris to make room for one person.
For this reason, Father Yan, who regretted things the most, said it to him many times, intentionally or unintentionally. This stingy man was also a well-known storyteller in Rouge Lane. He was so skinny that he wore a patchwork gown hanging on his body. He was also desperate at the beginning.
He fell hungry in front of this door, but was rescued by the kind-hearted mother Sun. After drinking a bowl of rice soup, he came back to his senses. From then on, he made a living as a storyteller here, and 80% of the money he received was collected to subsidize the expenses of the building.
The rest was left to Father Yan to drink by himself.
As for Mrs. Sun, she worked as a nanny in a brothel in Rouge Lane for half her life, and she was famous for her good intentions. Unfortunately, she accidentally broke the rules of the building one time and was kicked out, so she went with Sister Cui.
Living together, the lives of the three people in this building are arranged in an orderly manner.
The customers in Rouge Alley went out on an empty stomach early in the morning after being hungover. Except for the porridge and cakes that could satisfy their hunger, even those with some status were not willing to patronize this congee and cake pick-up that was unavoidably demeaning. Mother Sun knew what these customers were thinking.
So I asked Sister Cui to spend some money to tidy up the first floor of the building, and she would make some exquisite snacks, which would be a way to make money. Although it was not a business that made a lot of money every day, if she met a wealthy businessman who spent a lot of money
Come here, eat to your heart's content, and give as a reward, which is a considerable sum of money.
It's just that this kind of thing that requires luck doesn't happen every day, so the most reliable income is half of it from Father Yan's storytelling, and the other half of it is Sister Cui's pipa and beauty.
It is an unwritten rule that in Rouge Alley, you must have at least one coin of silver to pay for the night. In addition to the women in Rouge Alley, there are also a considerable number of cooks, horsemen, servants, and handymen, who cannot afford this one coin of silver.
, but they also had to have some fun, and Father Yan’s storytelling became a way for these people to take a break from their busy schedule. From noon to nightfall, all the furnishings on each floor of the building were removed, allowing the group of people holding benches to
When I came in, I heard about the book, and when I heard that something important was missing, the rain of copper coins and the rare broken silver were thrown in at the same time.
When Father Yan started talking about his dry mouth, it was almost time for Sister Cui to come down and help him out. She played the pipa in one hand, and together with the skin she exposed intentionally or unintentionally, it seemed that she was trying to remove the souls of these people.
The children were all taken away, and they couldn't help but hand over the few copper coins they had kept for gambling in their pockets.
For these cooks, grooms, servants and handymen who couldn't read a single word, Father Yan was so sleepy that he seemed to be taking a nap when he talked about the famous princes and generals in the past dynasties.
Everyone pricked up their ears to listen, especially when it came to the fighting scenes. Sister Cui was twisting her hands so fast that people couldn't see her gestures, and Father Yan slapped Xingmu again, and the heat was up.
Wei Changpan, who was already able to go to the ground, helped Mother Sun clean up the bowls and chopsticks used by the guests who had snacks in the morning. As he walked a little faster, the voice of the short and fat Mother Sun came again:
"Panzi, Panzi, be careful, your legs and feet are not very sharp yet, so that old guy named Yan will do all this work."
In fact, Wei Changpan's injury healed much faster than Sister Cui and Sun's mother said, and even twenty years faster than he expected. The splint was removed a few days ago, and he originally thought that he would be able to walk around today, but he has already discovered that
The dozens of broken bones on his body have almost recovered to the point where he can even practice boxing.
I don't know when Wei Changpan, who was given the nickname "Panzi" by Sun's mother, came out of her sight. He held the bowl and chopsticks in his hands and walked quickly towards the Longpu River. The two wells at the head and end of Rouge Alley were farther away.
That is to say, when you need to pick up water, wash clothes and wash dishes, etc., it is more convenient to walk to the riverside in a few steps.
In the early years, the water in Rouge Alley was drawn from the Longpu River, but now that a dyeing shop has been opened upstream, the water from this river always tastes bitter in your mouth, so you go to the well to get water.
The snow stopped last night, but it was still very cold. There was still snow on the roof tiles. When the sun rose to the middle of the sky, there was still a thin layer of ice on the bank of the Longpu River. It was not crystal clear, but also had a black and purple tinge.
The colors are so good, I think the dyeing shop upstream is actually using real materials.
Wei Changpan smashed the ice with his fist, stretched the wooden bucket down the bluestone steps on the shore, skimmed off the dirty foam next to it, then fetched a bucket of water, put the dishes and chopsticks in and washed them.
It was cold, and the dregs remaining on the cups, plates, and bowls were frozen firmly on top, and the blisters could not be melted away. He breathed on it, and the warm white air rushed on it, and the dregs melted away in a short time.
It's clean, there's no oil or water, and it's not difficult to wash.
After the old loofah was completely dried up, the tendons on it were removed by Wei Changpan
After peeling off the outer shell, you can get twice the result with half the effort when washing dishes.
He was wearing Yan's father's old cotton-padded jacket, which was obviously a bit shorter, revealing his wrist where a broken bone had pierced the flesh. The scar was still horrific. He had been resting for three months, but the other hand still managed to pinch it with a little force.
With a dull pain.
We really can't blame the bone-setting doctor that Sister Cui hired for not being clever enough. That day, Wei Changpan was pulled by someone driving a cart after a bumpy ride. Several of the broken bones on his body were broken, and it took three consecutive attempts to find all of them.
I was so tired that the doctor was amazed when he prescribed Sister Cui's medicine. He said that he had never seen so many broken bones and he could still hold on till now. The broken bones did not puncture the internal organs, which was considered a blessing, and he had many needs.
I only left after paying three taels of hard-earned money.
Sister Cui also told him all these things. She was lighting an oil lamp on the dining table on the first floor last night, and she was calculating with great skill, like a competent accountant.
Wei Changpan watched her making calculations while Sister Cui turned over the accounts kept by Sun's mother while checking some details with the other two people.
Thirty-seven taels and five cents. After erasing the fraction, thirty-seven taels and then crossing out Wei Changpan's remuneration for helping out in the past two days and deducting any extra, there is still thirty-seven taels left.
"How can you pay back this money?" Sister Cui finished doing the calculations, dipped her pen in ink, and wrote down these words on the account book beside her. She couldn't say that she had any skill or skill, and it wasn't even pretty.
"I still."
"What should I give you in return? The little bit of silver you had in your pocket has already been taken away, and you asked someone to pass on the news to your family? Or did you pawn the knife you had on you with the jade?"
"neither."
"I'll work to pay off your debts, and I'll leave after I've paid them off."
With the help of the dim and swaying vegetable oil lamp, he looked at Sister Cui in front of him. Under the flickering light of the lamp, this woman's face without heavy makeup looked more and more aged, and the wrinkles on her forehead were as deep as a knife or an axe.
"No need." She shook her head, lifted her hand from the greasy table, and put it on her thigh, "There are three people here. It's enough to support ourselves, and there are enough people to do the work. There is no need for a servant, let alone
How can you do heavy lifting like you do now?"
Mother Sun couldn't bear it anymore and gently tugged at the frayed corner of Sister Cui's muslin skirt, but Sister Cui quietly patted it away.
"What else can a man do if he doesn't do anything good but works in a woman's place?" She said sternly, "A good man should aspire to be everywhere, so why stay here and waste your youth."
Go to all directions... Are you being hunted to the ends of the earth by the people from Songfeng Mountain and Gelutai...
There are a few people who survived the iron plate with the ugly calligraphy on it, the people on Qihu Lake.