MTL - Attack Stream of Life-Chapter 3
In mid-August, it should be cool in theory, but this time of year is still very hot, so there are no people on the street, everyone prefers to hide in a shady place to drink herbal tea, as long as you build a pergola, there will be Business. Qingchuan walks all the way through the alleys, from the south to the north of the city. This is a commercial area with many inns and shops. Those who can't afford to rent shops will find places to set up stalls on both sides. Most of the good places are occupied for a long time, and only some inconspicuous corners are still empty.
This year is the year of the imperial examination, and there are many students in the inns who are studying and taking exams here. They are all scholars. Qingchuan knew at a glance who were scholars. Most of them were well-dressed. The materials were fine cotton or silk-cotton blends. At first glance, they were much better than the burlap on Qingchuan's body. There were no patches, and the colors were bright. He was holding a book, a fan, etc. in his hand. His skin was fair and delicate, and his expression was a little reserved. At first glance, he had never experienced the hardships of life or the fatigue of life.
Reading is not something that children from poor families can insist on. Just one year of repairing can overwhelm the farmers. Plus the cost of pen, ink, paper, inkstone and books, it can’t hurt. The admission rate of the imperial examinations was so low that not many were admitted to the school, not to mention the scholars and juren. It is difficult to breed a true dragon in shallow water. No matter how good the seedlings are, if they are born into ordinary people, it will be extremely difficult to take the imperial examination all the way.
When the original owner's father was still there, the family still had some assets. The original owner also studied for two years and knew a few words. Later, his father fell ill and passed away, and the family collapsed. Then I went to Mongolia to learn, but learned the craft from a clay figurine. At any rate, learning the craft does not require two taels of silver a year, and can save a mouthful of food.
Qingchuan found a herbal tea stall on the roadside, a large bowl of herbal tea for a penny, and one free refill. If you want to drink something good, there are options such as mung bean soup and sour plum soup. The store also sells fried soybeans and fried peanuts as snacks to pass the time. Because the price is not expensive, even if the picker is tired from walking, he is willing to spend a penny to rest and cool down.
There are too many people, and they are unwilling to leave immediately. It is inevitable that they have to say a few more words and gossip about all kinds of rumors and gossip that are popular today. Although this herbal tea stall was small and well-equipped, Qingchuan stole his eyes and glanced around. There were foot traders, coolies, second-rate people wandering the streets, people who came from the country with mud spots on their legs, and women who were not good families at first glance.
Across Qingchuan is a father and son, pushing a wheelbarrow with fruits and vegetables beside them, the image is very downcast, the father can even make patches with the same color cloth, the child is like a little beggar , The body is patched with patches, and the feet are bare, and thick calluses have been worn out at a young age.
Although the cocoon was separated from Qingchuan by a table, he could still smell the strong smell of sweat. From this point of view, it is the working people at the bottom, who are poorer than Qingchuan's class.
The father and son asked for a bowl of tea, and the father drank the child. Compared to the dullness and numbness of being a father, this child is a little more agile, his eyes wandering with curiosity, both longing and fear. His eyes met Qingchuan, and he was startled, and immediately shrank back. It took him a long time to carefully raise his head to look at Qingchuan, and smiled at him.
Qing Chuan also returned a smirk, he is now tender, with baby fat on his cheeks, and sweet little dimples when he smiles.
The child seemed to be encouraged and laughed even more stupidly.
Qingchuan felt it from his sleeve, took out a few hard candies in the dark pocket and put them in front of the child, this thing is very cheap, one point can buy two catties of hard candies . He had eaten a few, which were made with concentrated syrup. It was too sweet, but in this day and age, even this kind of cheap fruit candy is a rare luxury, right?
There are five candy cubes in total, and they are squarely wrapped in white oil paper. The child looked at him and the candy on the table.
The child's father reacted and raised his hand subconsciously, "This, this..."
"Excess sugar, give it to the children." Qing Chuan also took out one, "Well, after taking it apart, it's sweet." What he took apart was a lychee-flavored one. , translucent white, translucent like a gem, and sweet in the mouth, with the sweet aroma of lychees, one can hold for half an hour.
Qingchuan was enjoying his meal, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the expressions of the people at the next table were wrong. The young man of class blue satin walked up to him, took a bend and sat on the bench beside him, staring straight at him.
“???”
The young man was followed by two burly men, the kind of brawny men who could participate in the fighting competition in modern times.
Qing Chuan hesitated for a while, wondering if it was an illusion, he always felt that the violent young man in front of him was actually begging him for candy.
He couldn't help but take out another handful of candy from his sleeve and gently put it in front of the young man, he could clearly hear the sound of gasping around him, and he looked at him like It's a strong man watching to tease Godzilla.
Now, the two big men behind him immediately chased after him.
As soon as the three of them left, the small herbal tea stall seemed to have unlocked the seal and became noisy again, no, it was even worse than before.
"That's it, right?"
"The madman of the Jin family..." The person who spoke was covered with a hand.
"Shut up, don't want to die? I heard that they are already first-class masters, we..."
Qingchuan couldn't hear the words behind, he understood the words 'first-class master' and blinked his eyes. There were many people nearby, so he drank the remaining sour plum soup in one gulp, stood up, waved to the child, and turned to leave.
I walked to a secluded place where Qingchuan whispered to the system, "This is a martial arts world?"
"You can't beat it, don't meddle, stay away, don't kill yourself."
"The world of martial arts." Qing Chuan touched his chin, ready to move. But thinking of his own fighting power of 0.5 goose, and this thin and small body, he silently dispelled his eagerness to move.
Forget it, is it bad to live?
In the evening, the clay figurines began to set up stalls one by one, and Qingchuan ate at the fly restaurant next to him. Good guy, a bowl of noodles without meat costs 13 cents. He ate it Noodles drank the soup, took a walk on the stomach, and turned around a few stalls.
As the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, everyone’s promotion is also related to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but because it is not as easy as modern people to accept the further study and edification of art, most of the patterns made are rough. There are also finely made, which are the craftsmanship of the master, and generally do not appear on the stalls, they will be sold in the store, or there is a small shop of their own, the price is also very high, more than ten times that of the stall.
It's good, and it's less risky to inherit the tradition. The craftsmen at the bottom can't stand the risk at all. They don't have the wealth, and a big wave will capsize.
I have seen other people's works, Qingchuan has a bottom line in my heart, I feel very confident, I am very happy, humming songs all the way, holding a sweet-scented osmanthus in my hand Together, in clumps, hidden behind the leaves, but the aroma is very strong.
He saw the sweet-scented osmanthus tree planted by the roadside. He didn't know whether it was domestic or wild. As long as the flowers bloomed, in addition to bees and butterflies, they could also attract many furry children, sitting high on the tree, While swaying his feet, he stretched out his hand and picked up a bunch of leaves, picking out a piece of leaves, and carefully putting the rest of the sweet-scented osmanthus in his pocket. Those younger children who can't even climb trees, they pouted their butts and picked them up on the ground. Most of these children were wearing open-crotch pants, or they simply wore a bellyband and no pants. They played crazy for a day. Also pitch black.
Qingchuan thought it was interesting, so he watched from the side until the sound of parents calling for their children to eat came from the alley.
"If you like it, just give birth to it yourself." The system saw him reluctantly and said.
"You will always worry about it when you are born. Do you still want me to do tasks? And ah, I can't take care of it well."
"Never gave birth, how do you know it's not well taken care of?"
"Is the obvious thing okay?" Qing Chuan laughed, "It is impossible to have a child, it will never be possible."
After lunch on the second day, Qingchuan came out with a trolley. He came early, and there were still a few vacant seats, next to which were selling wooden ornaments and small paper lanterns. There were wooden blocks on the wagon, which were stacked into three rows of stairs. He took a blue cotton cloth from the box, spread it on the wagon, and pressed several pebbles on both sides.
The bottom row is a small rabbit, the size of a walnut. Sell one for four cents, buy three for ten cents.
In the second row, there are big rabbits that are turned over. The children have big fists. The rabbits often carry a small flower, a small bow, a hat, a gold ingot, a pestle and other decorations. This will be a little more expensive, six cents a piece, and two for ten cents.
The third row is the pure handmade boutique, there are big and small, the price is different, the highest old couple will cost one or two silver, and the low rabbit will also need half a string of money (50 wen ), and if you buy two, you can get one of the following remodeled rabbits.
The price of the remodeled rabbit is not high, and the shape is cute. If the child likes it, Ruthless can buy one. If there are many children in the family, there is a discount when I hear it, and I am willing to buy three to take home Divide and play. There are also those who like big rabbits. The ones with gold ingots and small flowers sell best, and young girls also like them.
Qingchuan sat on a small stool for an afternoon, and sold nearly 200 rabbits, all of which were bought in pairs. Even people in a small alley would be willing to buy one, no matter what, it would be more affordable than a small paper lantern with more than a dozen letters on the side. If the clay doll is well preserved, it will not be damaged for a few years.
It was the rabbit in the top row, the one who asked the most questions and bought the least, only eleven in total, and finally sold one, the rabbit holding the honey pot Baby, one ear stood up and the other was pulled, and his chubby hand was holding a miniature wooden spoon. The family of three went out for a stroll, and the little girl liked it very much. It looked like there was some money in this family (well-clothed and clean, wearing jewelry), so I bought it without any counter-offer.
There is no curfew in the city, so at dusk, there are still many people hanging out after eating. It is cool and free now, and many grandfathers and grandsons come out. The stall on Qingchuan's side immediately became hot. He brought a total of more than 500 rabbits in a box. When he got home, there were only a hundred left. The place where the rabbits were kept was full of copper coins.
When he came home, he took the red rope and stringed it, one hundred in a string, and a little more than eleven. On this day, I earned more than one or two points. Even if you count the previous effort, it would only be more than a month. What's more, he has more than 2,000 bunnies, and he can sell them for two days.
That's enough for a family of five or six to live. Prices in the provincial capital are high, but twenty taels are almost enough for a family of six to eat for a year and earn one tael a month, which is considered acceptable among the common people in the market.
The next day Qingchuan came again, still the same old place, with the two neighbors on the side. The two little bosses picked up a rabbit clay figurine from Qingchuan yesterday, and today their faces towards Qingchuan are so good. When there were not many people at noon, they would sit and chat in the shade of a tree. The people who sold the wooden hairpins also brought their children with 20 cents to the side, saying that the daughter-in-law at home was sick and the children were not taken care of. Qingchuan saw that they were well-behaved and even stuffed them with candy.
Yesterday, Qingchuan was afraid of missing the time to buy things, so he didn’t even eat dinner, but today he remembered his lesson and made two local sandwiches, cut two large steamed buns, sandwiched the scalded vegetable leaves and Fried eggs and bacon sauce are delicious even cold. Sure enough, it was right to be prepared, more people came to buy mud rabbits today than yesterday.
"This is the one! My rabbit was bought at his house."
Old customers came with new customers. The new boy stood in front of the stall and picked carefully. He was holding a few copper coins in his hand and his eyes were wide open. Although they are all rabbits from the same mold, Qingchuan is very casual in coloring, so each rabbit is different. Children can only buy one, which often makes it difficult to choose.
There are some adults who say that it is for the children at home, but they don’t pick them very much.
One for four children, three for ten, one big rabbit for six, two for ten, rabbit doll buy two get one rabbit, the shape is optional. This round appearance is only in our family, and it is elsewhere. If you miss it, you have to wait for the Mid-Autumn Festival next year, as long as it doesn’t get wet, it can be stored for several years, you…”
A silver ingot was placed in front of him. Seeing that there were ten taels, Qing Chuan was stunned and raised his head.
Today, the young man who had changed into a moon-white satin and blue gauze looked down at him. His originally pretty facial features seemed unruly because of his slightly aggressive expression. He stretched out his pale fingers, and one by one, there were six of the bunnies he liked.
Bunny has a special small box. Qingchuan specially bought a wooden box, and each one is only a few cents. He packed up the bunny and was about to look for money, but saw the man pick up the simple wooden box with three hands, turn around and leave without leaving a word, so cool that he has no friends.
How many clay dolls that add up to less than one tael for ten taels? drink! Fat sheep.
"It's really generous, these people from the rivers and lakes... It's easy to get money, and it's fun to spend money. This young master of the Jin family is rich and powerful, and he looks good, it's a pity."
"What a pity? People in Jianghu have a lot of wealth, how dare you marry your daughter?"
The lantern seller sneered, lowered his voice and said, "If you don't say anything else, just say that Young Master Jin's mother..." Who does not know in the city that Young Master Jin's father's practice went wrong, and he went into trouble and killed all his family members. There were hundreds of young and old, and there was only one loyal servant left to protect Young Master Jin's only seedling, and then that one. The man left, and I heard that he is now the number one expert in the world. Young Master Jin saw all this, and he went crazy. Usually, it looks fine, but when he gets crazy, he doesn't recognize his six relatives, just like his father."
'Hey! '
Qing Chuan looked down at a little rabbit that he had crushed.
Seeing that his expression was wrong, the wooden hairpin seller asked, "What's wrong?"
Qing Chuan smiled, "It's really surprising."
"No, who wouldn't be startled when they heard it? Although it was twenty years ago, I still feel chills when I think of it. Alas, you said that these Jianghu people are all They all have good skills, can't they live peacefully? If you have to fight to the death, it's like crazy when you hear where there are secrets."
The two little bosses were talking lively, but Qingchuan couldn't help but look in the direction where the tall young man was leaving, playing with the broken rabbit in his hand for a long time.
