In a small courtyard in the southwest of Chongyi Fang, a teenager was crouching on the stone mill in the courtyard and writing hard, and from time to time he would look up at the sun in the west, and his face also showed an anxious look, because the book he was copying was borrowed by someone else, and he would have to return it tomorrow, but with his current copying speed, I am afraid that he will not be able to finish copying it today.

This young man's name is Zhou Xing, a native of Chang'an, and this small courtyard is his home, but his parents died two years ago, so he is the only one left in the family, and in order to make ends meet, he rented out the house in his family, so that the rent collected can barely sustain his life.

This small courtyard is not big, and the house is a little simple, in fact, when his parents were alive, they were just ordinary people in Chang'an City, and they usually made a living by doing some small businesses, but his parents were very far-sighted people, so Zhou Xing was sent to a private school to study since he was a child, in order to let him change his fate through reading in the future.

However, it is a pity that since the death of Zhou Xing's parents, the situation at Zhou Xing's family really cannot support him to continue reading, so he has mainly relied on self-study in the past two years, and the biggest difficulty in self-study is that he can't find books to read, so he can only be cheeky to borrow them everywhere, but because books are too precious, most of the time he is disappointed, and occasionally when he can borrow books, he will also copy the books as soon as possible, so that he can read them in the future.

The sunset slowly fell, and the light in the yard was getting darker and darker, Zhou Xing couldn't help but open his eyes wide, trying to see the handwriting on the books clearly, so as not to copy the mistakes, and at the same time he was more and more anxious in his heart, because his family was poor, and the rent he usually collected was only enough for him to eat and drink, and he was not even willing to light the oil lamp at night, and it was too luxurious for him to light the lamp and copy the book, so he had to finish copying it before dark.

But it's a pity that as the sky gets darker and darker, Zhou Xing wants to read the handwriting on the book more and more difficult, and sometimes he needs to lie on the page to barely see clearly, so that his copying speed is also slower, and he still hasn't copied a small half of the whole book, so it can be said that he can't finish copying it today anyway.

"That's it~" In the end, Zhou Xing couldn't read the words on the page clearly, which made him sigh, and then he abandoned the pen in his hand on the stone mill with some anger, but he didn't expect to use a little too much force, and as a result, the brush rolled on the stone mill and fell to the ground.

Although the brush is not expensive, it is also bought by Zhou Xing with money saved by frugality, and if the brush is not washed after use, there will be no way to use it next time, which makes him hurry to pick it up, but because it is too dark, he can't see where the pen fell for a while, which makes him secretly anxious, and quickly looks for it around the stone mill.

It's a pity that Zhou Xing hasn't found it yet, but he suddenly heard a crisp "click" under his feet, which made him stunned, and then hurriedly bent down to pick up the brush that had fallen before from his feet, but unfortunately the barrel of the brush had been stepped on by him into two sections at this time.

"My pen!" Looking at the brush that was broken into two, Zhou Xing couldn't help but scream angrily, when people were unlucky, they stuffed their teeth when they drank cold water, and the books they borrowed were not finished, but they also stepped on the brush that he bought with frugality, if he wanted to buy another one, I am afraid that he would have no money for a day's meal.

Zhou Xing is only fourteen years old this year, even by the standards of the Tang Dynasty, he is not an adult, and since the death of his parents, he has also suffered a lot, and now seeing the broken pen in his hand, it suddenly triggered his grievances over the years, and finally he couldn't help but feel sad, so he held the stone mill and sobbed in a low voice.

Now Zhou Xing is just a teenager who cried because of the loss of a pen, but after a few decades, this person will be famous all over the world, but he is notorious, because this Zhou Xing is one of the most famous cool officials during Wu Zetian's reign, many tortures were invented by him himself, but the wicked have their own wicked grinding, and later he was subdued by another cool official to Junchen with the trick of inviting the king into the urn, and the idiom of inviting the king into the urn also came from him.

Although Zhou Xing in history is notorious, but in fact he is also a very poor person, although he was born in a civilian background, although he has read, especially the study of the law, but because he could not pass the Jinshi, he was excluded by some people in the officialdom, obviously very capable, but he has not been promoted, it is also this period, so that his psychology has some distortions, and later after gaining power, he is especially cruel to those officials from the imperial examination, and he has used his ability in the wrong way, and he has not fallen into a good end, which is also sad and lamentable.

But before Zhou Xing could cry for too long, he suddenly heard a familiar footstep outside the courtyard gate, which made him hurriedly stand up and wipe his tears, and then saw that the courtyard door was pushed open, and a tall figure walked in, Zhou Xing also hurriedly greeted him and said, "Brother He, you're back!" ”

"yes, it's dark, have you eaten?" I saw this tall figure also come over, although the sky was relatively dark at this time, but by a little afterglow of the sunset, I could still see that this person was about thirty years old, with a square face and a wide mouth.

This person's name is He Chujun, it is worth mentioning that he will also be one of the famous ministers of the Tang Dynasty in the future, but because of his opposition to Wu Zetian, he also asked Wu Zetian to open the coffin and poke the corpse after his death, and it happened to be Zhou Xing who carried out this matter, but few people know that the two of them had a relationship before.

"No, I copied the book you borrowed from me for a whole day, but I still haven't been able to finish it." Zhou Xing shook his head very frustrated at this time and said, He Chujun is not only his friend, but also a tenant in his family, and when he learned that he was studying on his own, he also tried his best to help him, and the book he copied today was borrowed by the other party, so at this time he also had great respect for He Chujun.

"Forget it if you haven't copied it, I'll see if I can borrow it again in a few days, and then you can continue to copy it." He Chujun also heard the sense of loss in Zhou Xing's words at this time, and immediately stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder.

He Chujun's background is much better than Zhou Xing's, his father once made the assassin of the Sui Dynasty and sealed the county duke, but unfortunately when He Chujun was ten years old, his parents also died, but his father had many protégés and gave him a lot of property, but he refused.

Later, when He Chujun became an adult, he entered the Guozijian to study with the help of his father's old friend, because it was not far from the Guozijian, and the rent was cheap, so he rented it in Zhou Xing's house, but now he probably would never have dreamed that Zhou Xing in front of him would not even let go of his body after his death.