It is still the side of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, Lantian County, less than fifty miles away from Chang'an, the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and the sky is gradually revealing the white belly of the fish.

A round of rising sun is hidden in the morning glow, and the entire eastern sky is rendered gorgeous and red.

At this time, it was still early in the morning, but Niujia Town, Lantian County, had become noisy, but seeing that there was an endless stream of pedestrians in the town, and the cars and horses outside the town were crowded, there were merchants who came to buy goods, there were people who came to deliver goods, there were merchants who came from afar in the Western Regions, and there were also dealers who came from the grasslands of eastern Liaodong.

Niujia Town has become a well-known commercial distribution center, ten years, ten miles of expansion, and now even Lantian County is also included, several major industries have fed hundreds of thousands of people who beg for a living.

There is white dew in the morning, wet clothes, there are merchants who come from afar to wipe their faces with cloth towels, and there are also merchants who stay at the inn overnight and are washing with basins.

A group of blue-eyed and high-nosed pedestrians suddenly appeared outside Niujia Town, this group of pedestrians was abrupt among the Han people, but the strange thing was that the people of Niujia Town did not show surprise at all, but there were some shopkeepers who covered their noses with one hand and waved the other hand, and said in a very disgusted tone: "Go farther, go farther, the smell on your body is smoking, go over there to set up a stall, we are not allowed at the door of our house." ”

It turned out that this group of blue-eyed and high-nosed pedestrians were all bearded, and they had begun to make a living in Lantian County several years ago.

Unfortunately, they don't have goods to sell like other merchants from the Western Regions, nor do they dance fierce whirling dances like the seductive orchids, who seem to have come from a farther place......

They have no other means of earning a living than using a small card to help people tell fortunes.

This kind of fortune-telling small cards, they religiously call them tarot cards, but unfortunately the people of the Tang Dynasty don't believe this, and the business of this group of blue-eyed and high-nosed beards is very poor.

But the strange thing is that they are not depressed, for several years, they have always insisted on begging for a living in the town, neither going to the more prosperous Chang'an, nor thinking of leaving here to return to their homeland, every few days without business, these bearded people will go to sell coolies to earn some money.

When they are full, they will find an exotic carpet on the side of the street, and then take out the beautiful tarot cards one by one with a reverent face, and wait quietly for someone to come and count them.

It's a pity that they are not very accurate, and in the first few years, there were still people who coveted the strange, so they would come to patronize, but in recent years, the business of these bearded people has become worse and worse, and now few people look for them.

There are a lot more people who watch jokes.

For example, Liu San in the town is like this, he will wait for this group of beards to appear every day, and then laugh and mock twice, and then he will pull the occasional foreign merchants to say a few words.

Liu San always speaks in a conclusive manner, he often says to others: "Have you seen this guest officer, there is a group of liars who set up a stall over there, and they hold some small cards to tell fortunes all day long, but they have never calculated accurately......

Then his old partner would suddenly jump out from the side, laughing and saying, "Ahaha, you see they started to lay out the carpet again, I remember when they set up the stall, the carpet was not like a human thing, and now look at it, the black paint is as ugly as a rag......

With the existence of this hum two generals, the fortune-telling business of the beards is even worse, and the strange thing is that this group of beards always does not refute or explain, and comes every day with the morning sunrise, and chases the sunset and leaves lonely every night.

They were so poor that they couldn't afford to live in the cheapest inn in Niujia Town, and the people of Niujia Town knew that the bearded men had settled in a small col outside the town.

Niujia Town is becoming more and more prosperous, so prosperous that the shops in the town have a taste of every inch of land, and this group of bearded people came early in the morning with morning dew, but they did not find a place to set up a stall for half an hour.

No matter which shop they go to, they will always be waved and scolded to leave, and the bearded people will not pray and refute, but will continue to look forward in great despair.

Unfortunately, I still can't find it!

The bearded people are very thin people, and they are very tightly wrapped up and down, whether in spring and autumn, winter or summer, they always wear the cap attached to their clothes, and the people of Niujia Town were once curious to lift it, but it caused the beards to resist desperately.

These bearded men are very cowardly and rarely resist anything, but there is only one thing they resist fiercely, and that is that no one is allowed to lift their coats and hats.

Today, they didn't find a place to set up a stall, and the bearded men were obviously very lonely, but they were still unwilling to continue looking.

At this moment, a round of rising sun in the east finally broke through the clouds, and the heavens and the earth suddenly shone brightly, and the vast golden light filled the heavens and the earth.

The thinnest leader in the beard turned his head slowly, his blue eyes staring at the rising sun, his big bright eyes narrowing slightly, and a lonely sigh suddenly came out of his mouth.

"The West has despaired, and the last hope is only here, however, my teacher, Aya has not found the hope you said, and I dare not lift my coat and hat in the East......"

This Aya sighed in a voice that was a woman.

She sighed again and walked slowly towards a corner of the street, where there was a very narrow clearing, next to which was a stinky ditch where sewage flowed, and this place should not be driven away, and she decided to let the people set up a stall here today.

It was true that no one drove this place, but no one would come either, and the pedestrians on the streets walked quickly and coveredly, and the smell of the stinking gutter was more smoky than the beards.

Aya set up the carpet lonely, and then knelt on the ground with a reverent face, knowing that no one would come, but still looking at the street with longing.

Perhaps it was her piety that touched the gods of the East, and today there were two distinguished guests in front of Aya's booth.

This is a real honored guest, because Aya knows these two people, although the other party may not recognize herself, but Aya has known these two people early.

These two people are a man and a woman, the man is the mayor of Niujia Town, and the woman is the economic subordinate official of Niujia Town, Aya has also heard that the female economic subordinate official of Niujia Town is extremely powerful, and his father-in-law is the former His Royal Highness King Zhao of Xifu, oh, now he is no longer the King of Xifu Zhao, I heard that His Royal Highness has established his own powerful empire, and he is now the emperor.

The arrival of the distinguished guest was delightful, but Aya did not have much fluctuation in her heart, she just bowed respectfully, and then asked very quietly and politely: "May I ask the two distinguished guests, but do you want to divination?" ”

It has been several years since she arrived in this land, Aya's Chinese is very round, and after she saluted, she didn't care whether the other party agreed or not, and took out her tarot cards by herself.

"Interesting, really interesting...... the woman opposite smiled leisurely, and said with a strange voice: "You should have heard of my name, and you dare to count tarot cards for me?" ”

Aya was stunned, as if she didn't understand what she meant.

The woman opposite is Tian Xiu'er, and at the same time, Li Chunfeng, who was given the name of Taoist Yuan Tiangang as a closed disciple, she suddenly leaned down and squatted in front of Aya's stall, giggled and said: "You have been in Niujia Town for eight years, in fact, I paid attention to you eight years ago, you have been in the hinterland of my Tang Dynasty for so long, you should know that this girl is a child of Taoism in the Central Plains......"

The words have been clarified, and it is useless to cover up, Aya nodded respectfully, then saluted again, and replied softly: "You are right, Your Royal Highness the Titled County Lord, Aya does know your identity, and she also knows that you are the new white lotus of the Central Plains Taoism!" ”

These words made Tian Xiu'er slightly stunned, and she couldn't help but be curious: "Since you know that I am a Daomen white lotus, do you dare to continue to talk about fortune-telling in front of me?" ”

Taoism has safflower, white lotus, and green lotus leaves, and the safflower is as delicate as blood, representing conquest and killing, so the safflower is the protector of the Central Plains, such as the Ziyang Zhenren back then, such as Han Yue and Xu Buyan now.

The white lotus root hides in the mud and has insight into all things, so the white lotus root represents the science of Daomen calculation, and the research is all about exhausting the principles of heaven and earth.

As for the green lotus leaf is easier to understand, hanging the pot to help the world, saving life and death, this is the way of medicine of the Daomen, there are many representatives of the past dynasties, such as Bian Que, Zhang Zhongjing, the previous generation of the green lotus leaf of the Daomen is the divine doctor Sun Simiao, who is now almost eighty years old, but has not yet found a closed disciple.

It is said that the old man was very impatient, and not long ago he went all the way to Lingnan, and he found his nephew, Emperor Zhaowu of the Chinese Empire, and asked Han Yue to help him find an apprentice.

Tian Xiu'er learned to kneel on the ground like Aya, seemingly not caring about the dirty stinky ditch next to her, and behind her stood Niu Laosan, the mayor of Niujia Town, and when she saw his wife kneeling on the ground, she also wanted to learn to do it.

How do you know that Tian Xiu'er turned around and scolded coldly, and said with a face full of hatred: "This is a matter of scholars, your brain is not enough, the glass firing factory has been under great pressure to ship these days, if you are idle, you can go over there to do scheduling ......"

Niu Laosan was scolded for being a bloody dog, but his face did not reduce the anger at all, but he stood up with a smile, and said with a simple face: "Madame is talking about miles, I really want to go to the glass factory to have a look, there are cement factories and brick kilns, and jade processing factories, oh, it's really a lot of things, I'm gone, I'm gone, Mrs. is here to do a good job, and the things in the town let me come to ......."

As he spoke, he walked with his feet raised, and in the blink of an eye, the meteor disappeared at the end of the street.

Tian Xiu'er and Aya didn't pay attention to Niu Laosan leaving, the two still knelt on the ground and looked at each other, after a long time, Tian Xiu'er suddenly smiled and said meaningfully: "As a woman, cover your face under the face towel all day long, this girl is really sorry for you, don't Western people love beauty?" But how do I remember my stepfather once saying that Western women prefer to show their faces more than Eastern women? ”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, suddenly leaned forward slightly, stared straight into Aya's eyes, and said solemnly: "If my guess is right, you should be beautiful, why hide your appearance, no one in my Tang Dynasty dares to do anything to bully men and women......"

Speaking of this, he paused again, suddenly stretched out his hand and pointed to his face, and said with a smile: "Look at me again, this girl is actually not beautiful, but I have to clean up my face every day, so that people can see my face from time to time!" ”

Aya was stunned for a moment, then shook her head and smiled bitterly, her face was still hidden under the hood and face scarf, and suddenly looked up at the rising sun in the east, and said extremely lonely: "We are used to covering up, and we are not used to taking off our own face towel." ”

Tian Xiu'er was a little curious, and couldn't help asking, "Why is that?" ”

Aya spoke bitterly, and it took a long time before she replied softly: "Because I am afraid of death......"

This time it was Tian Xiu'er's turn to be stunned.

Aya glanced at her faintly, her tone suddenly became a little envious, and she whispered: "Your Royal Highness, Honorable Titled County Lord, you should be glad that you have a powerful father-in-law, whose outstretched wings can cover the sky, so any storm can't blow you, and we can't, let alone stormy weather, even the rain as thin as a cow's hair will wet your clothes." ”

These words are obviously talking about the weather, but in fact, they are secretly talking about people's hearts. Tian Xiu'er nodded thoughtfully, and suddenly said, "So, you have encountered a danger to your lives in the West?" ”

Aya suddenly cheered up, and explained loudly: "We are not afraid of the danger of life, even if we are burned at the stake, we still retain the piety of our faith, what we are afraid of is the loss of learning, what we are afraid of is the loss of dreams, my teacher told me, go to the East, only by going to the East can we continue our faith, in the land of the East, a hundred schools of thought can survive......"

Speaking of this, he stopped abruptly, and said in a panicked tone: "So we came all the way to the East, only to find that what the teacher said was an era hundreds of years ago, which was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of your Han people, and only at that time did the resonance of a hundred schools of thought be allowed." ”

There were suddenly tears in her eyes, and she grabbed the delicate tarot cards on the ground suddenly, and said loudly: "Honorable Titled County Lord, do you really think we can't let go of the tarot cards?" The reason why we insist on using it every day seems to be to use this tool to tell fortunes and make money, in fact, it is to remind ourselves that we can't forget our origins, the land of Datang is too beautiful, and the people's lives are too rich, if we can't always remind ourselves with tarot cards, then we are likely to be influenced by the culture of Datang and forget our origins, which is a very terrifying thing, more terrible than being tied to the stake......"

The tone of these words was very excited, causing the sentences spoken to be a little verbose, but Tian Xiu'er was in awe, and suddenly saluted solemnly: "Today, Fang Zhi's righteous father is right, whether it is the East or the West, there are respectable people, you have come all the way from afar, I Tian Xiu'er is here to apologize solemnly, I'm sorry, I have been following you for eight years, but I have never extended a helping hand, I'm sorry, this is not a respect for learning, if my father-in-law knows about this, he will definitely be very disappointed in my approach." ”

Tian Xiu'er also did not use the same as the one who spoke, but learned from Aya to use a vernacular similar to the West, although it sounds a little verbose and not as beautiful as Chinese, but this can make Aya feel the respect in the words to the greatest extent.

There were obvious tears overflowing in her eyes, her hands clutched her tarot cards tightly, she held the tarot cards on her chest, and muttered to herself: "Only the East can continue to dream of yourself, but unfortunately I have only seen one in the past eight years, this is no longer the Spring and Autumn Warring States of the Hundred Schools of Thought, thank you, Your Royal Highness the Title of the Titled County Lord, your encouragement is very timely, so that the light of hope that is about to be extinguished will no longer shake......"

However, it just doesn't shake anymore!

Aya didn't know how long she could hold out, and she didn't know how long her companions would last.

Tian Xiu'er suddenly reached into her arms, and then took out a letter very solemnly, she unfolded the letter with a serious face and handed it forward, and suddenly smiled: "Look at it, the letter written by my father-in-law invites you to Lingnan, where he wants to establish a bigger research institute......"

Aya was stunned for a moment, and it took a long time to react, and exclaimed: "King Zhao of Xifu... Oh no, Emperor Zhaowu of the Chinese Empire? ”

She was very excited, and reached out to snatch the letter, but saw a line of poetry written on it: It is difficult to live in the south of the Modao Mountains, and it is better to watch the fish than the Danube. There is no burning stake in the East, and I love erudition deep in my heart.

Aya exclaimed again, attracting the partners next to her to come over in a panic, Aya pointed to the letter with trembling hands, and said with a shocked face: "Look at this poem, this is our text......"

The bearded men looked shocked and stared at the letter with blank eyes.

Tian Xiu'er suddenly stood up with a smile, and then waved to the street not far away, and then she turned around and winked mischievously at Aya, and said with a smile: "Go to Lingnan, my father-in-law is waiting for you there, but don't seduce my father-in-law, otherwise our friendship will turn ......to ashes."