In the early morning, the sky was just bright, and a rooster crow resounded through the ancient temple.

I woke up from a big dream at night, and I was sweating profusely.

He sat up with difficulty, feeling sore all over, and secretly scolded the old monster Lan for being ruthless and unreasonable at all.

Looking around, he found that he was actually lying in a temple, and everything was exactly the same as he had seen in his dream.

It's just that except for the old locust tree, which is still flourishing, everything in the temple is dilapidated, and half of it is not scattered.

Thinking back to the dream of the total, a little funny, and feel very wonderful, is stunned, suddenly felt a pain in the back of the hand, looked down, only to see the big rooster Luhua did not know when he ran out of the bamboo basket, is with a sharp beak gently pecked him, saw that he woke up, a cooing groo, as if to protest to him, this time was locked up for too long, turned around and flew up to the locust treetops, hidden.

The night slowed down a little, listened to the movement, there was a noise of cars and horses outside the temple, suddenly remembered something in the dream, got up and got a bucket of water from the well, washed away the sludge that was somehow full of mud, suddenly felt a lot of spirits, picked up the bamboo basket from the courtyard, took out the only remaining set of clean clothes from it and put it on, wanted to call down the reed flower, but the big rooster came to the temper, how could he not come down, but he could only tell a few words, let it not run around, and went out of the broken temple alone.

Kushui Temple is deep in a narrow alley, surrounded by old houses that have fallen into disrepair and are uninhabited.

Ye Yu walked out of the alley, came to the street, saw people and cars coming, there was a feeling of being in a different world, everything seemed familiar.

Looking at the faces in front of the various pavements on both sides of the road, some can even call their names and surnames.

His heart was excited, slightly discerning the direction, and ran towards the bluestone archway in the distance, if I remember correctly, there should be a bun shop below.

Sure enough, when I came to the archway engraved with the words "the world is bustling", I saw a fat man with a short figure standing on the side of the road, shouting at the top of his voice, and kept handing auspicious words to the passing merchants, but no one took care of his business.

Ye Mo walked over to see how the fat shopkeeper would react when he saw him.

But he didn't expect the other party to see him, and he took the initiative to wave at him and give him two buns, which were very different from the dream, making his cheeks a little hot.

It seems that dreams are dreams after all, and they can't be taken seriously.

In the morning, I walked the streets and alleys at night, and turned around several alleys around this old street called "bustling" in the west of Taiping City.

He found that most of the places were the same as he had dreamed of, with only a few high-walled compounds in discrepancy.

For now, everything has to be considered in the long term.

Before he could find a way to get out of the city, he had to try to fill his stomach.

The boy followed his father to hide in Tibet over the years, and he did not sleep in the open air, starved and frozen, but he never became a beggar for a day as he dreamed.

In the words of his father Zhang Laotie, a man can bend down and kneel, but his backbone must not be broken.

He has hands and feet, and he can make ends meet by finding odd jobs.

But what he didn't expect was that there was a strange rule in this Taiping City.

But all the business that is bought and sold, no matter how big or small, must be paid according to the head of the business.

Two pieces per person per year, converted into silver, about two hundred taels, is simply outrageously expensive.

If it is placed in Middle-earth, I am afraid that this money is enough for ordinary farmers to save for ten years.

When the people in the street heard that he was a foreigner, and that he was too young to do any heavy work, they refused to hire him.

After wandering around for a whole day, touching a nose of ash, Ye Yu could only turn back to the broken temple first, and while it was not dark, he swept out a meditation room in the backyard and used it as a temporary residence.

The hard bed was left by the predecessors, and with some hay, people could sleep.

Put a few planks together and put them together with bricks to form a table.

There was no window paper, so they replaced it with a curtain torn down from the front hall.

Then he took out the fire fold from the bamboo basket and lit a candle, and the room suddenly became popular.

Lying on the freshly made bed, Ye Yan held a straw stick in his mouth, pondered carefully for a while, and decided to try it outside the city tomorrow.

There is no endless road, since you can't do odd jobs to make money, others can't care about relying on the sky to eat.

Thinking of this, he closed his eyes, got rid of distracting thoughts, and concentrated into the air pocket, and the inner inner lake was as clear as a mirror, reflecting a round of bright moon, and he fell asleep after a while.

The world is impermanent, there are many wind and rains, and you can't hide from it, but everything can always get through.

......

Early the next morning, I washed up at night, picked up the bamboo basket and went out again.

The well water in the temple is so bitter that it is impossible to swallow.

He had to run to the alley across the street, fetch water from the well, fill it with a water bladder, and go out of the west gate to a forest in the distance.

Outside the Taiping City, the four fields are flat, the Qianmo is vertical and horizontal, there are farmland everywhere, the seedlings have been knee-high, look at it, lush and green, quite a bit of the taste of the water town in the south of the Yangtze River.

Walking up a gentle slope at night, the breeze blows, and you can smell a light scent of grass.

He exhaled slowly, his mood improved a lot, and he knew that no matter how much he worried about his father's safety, it was useless now, so he turned his energy to focus on his immediate eyes.

To eat from the sky is to rely on the mountains to eat the mountains and rely on the water to eat the water.

At the beginning of Yemeiling, his father opened the furnace to cast knives, and often stayed in front of the furnace for ten days and a half months, such as chopping wood and burning charcoal.

Now, as long as he concocts it according to the law, sells charcoal to save money, and buys a fishing net, he can be self-sufficient.

Came to the old forest, Ye Yan climbed a tall tree, first checked the terrain, took out a few bird eggs to satisfy hunger, and then began to do business, found a dead tree with the thickness of a bowl, took out his black iron firewood knife from the bamboo basket, cut a gap on the side of the root, and chopped several times in reverse, kicked lightly with his foot, the old tree several feet high fell down, and then cut off the miscellaneous branches and branches, cut the trunk into several sections, and after a while, it was done.

It didn't seem to take much effort, but if this act was seen by others, it would definitely make your jaw drop.

Not to mention how a child can swing a heavy iron knife like flying, how sharp the firewood knife is, just say that the target of this cutting tree, each knife can fall into the same gap impartially, the depth is uniform, I am afraid that only the cook who is used to touching the cutting board can do it, and the swing and cutting room, the action is not stagnant, just like a farmer cutting rice and threshing, very familiar twisting, it makes people feel even more incredible.

Yelu collected the dry firewood into a bamboo basket and went to the river.

Although his Sumeru is rough on the outside, he has a lot of things on the inside, and he can even hold a living thing such as a reed flower, so it is natural to put down a pile of wood.

According to the memory of returning to the city with the blue old monster before, he walked to the west for a while, came to a river, saw that there was no one in the four fields, the river was not wide, and estimated that it should be a tributary of the big river he had seen before, anyway, as long as there was water, there were no more requirements, he found an open space, piled the firewood into several piles, spread it on it with the dead branches and leaves he picked up, dug pits and mud, sealed the firewood pile little by little, only left a few air outlets on it and the roots, took out the fire thing, ignited it from above, and waited for the smoke to dissipate, the fire inside gradually rose, and then plugged the mud pile leakage, and finally sealed the air hole, so he didn't care。

It takes several hours to burn charcoal, and the night is not idle, so he picks up a few sticks, makes a harpoon, goes down to the river to poke a few small fish, hastily fills in the temple of the five organs, and then finds a leeward stone stone, sits down and closes his eyes to recuperate.

About two hours later, the sun was setting west, and the charcoal was finally burned.

Ye Xuan picked up the clumped sealed soil, cooled the charcoal, put it in a bamboo basket, and then got up and went back to the city.

This back and forth, the journey is not long, but it is not short.

When he returned to Taiping City, it was already dark, and most of the shops on the bustling street had been closed.

In desperation, he could only try to knock on doors from door to door, hoping to sell the charcoal as soon as possible and exchange it for some silver so that he could find a night stall to buy something to eat.

But I don't know if it's the middle of the meal, people are busy cooking in the backyard and don't hear it, or if there is some other reason, there are very few people who are willing to open the door to take care of him.

When I heard that he came to sell charcoal, they all shook their heads again and again.

The more I pondered about it, the more I felt that the people of this Taiping City were strange, and it seemed that the people living here were very xenophobic, and there was nothing to be done, so they could only go home hungry.

When I walked around the corner, I accidentally looked up and saw a light flickering in the distance, so I walked over with the mentality of trying it one last time, and I could already smell the smell of vegetables after a distance.

In front of it is a wonton stall, with bamboo lanterns, hanging stoves, and tube stoves, and the boss is a rickety old man, who is cooking things by the stall.

Next to it is a wine shop with a narrow door, half of the door is open, and you can faintly hear someone talking inside, thinking that they are waiting for food.

Ye Mo walked over and asked the old man if he wanted to buy some charcoal.

The rickety old man was slightly stunned for a moment, looked up and saw a dirty and muddy child standing in front of him, shook his head slowly, and seemed to see that he had just arrived, sighed slightly, put a bowl of noodle soup from the pot and put it on the edge of the car, and made a gesture to him, and then sent the two bowls of wontons that had just been made to the house, collected a few silver coins and came back, seeing that Ye Yu did not touch the bowl of soup, and silently poured the soup back into the pot, shook the bell, and pushed the cart away, without saying a word from beginning to end.

......

Night scratched his head, but he didn't expect the old man to be a mute, and he was deflated.

Just as he turned to leave, a young man walked out of the wine shop next to him, his face was no more than eleven or twelve years old, taller than him, with a thin figure, wearing a short body cloth, holding a bowl of wontons in his hand, raising his eyebrows and looking him up and down, and said, "Hey, foreigner, right?

Yelu stopped and asked, "What's the head?"

The thin boy said: "It's just the mouth, there are nine lines and eighteen dang in Taiping City, if you want to make a living here, you have to join the gang first, otherwise no one will dare to buy your things."

Ye Yu didn't expect Taiping City to have such a rule, and said strangely: "Why?"

The thin boy shrugged: "Because this is the rule, it is not allowed to buy and sell privately, it is not allowed to form a party for personal gain, it is not allowed to hide strange goods privately, and it is not allowed to ......"

Listening to the young man say more than ten times in a row, Ye Yan was a little angry: "Who set this bullshit rule? I can't rely on the sky to eat?"

The thin young man laughed, and felt that the child in front of him was very interesting: "The person is not big, and he is quite impulsive, and the rules are naturally set by the city lord, but it is to ensure the safety of this side, if you live here for a long time, you will know the benefits of these rules."

Ye Mo couldn't figure out what good it could be if he didn't let this do it or do it, so he said angrily: "What if you don't follow the rules?"

The thin boy lowered his head slightly, blew into the big bowl, and drank a mouthful of soup: "Then you will be punished with a penny, and if you are heavy, you will be kicked out."

Ye Yu said depressedly: "What is the moon girl?"

The thin boy pulled a mouthful of dough into his mouth, and found that it was still very hot, so he simply put the big bowl aside: "The monthly salary is part of the money, you should treat it as tax money, and you have to pay it every month, but if you have a skill, you can complete the work assigned by the head, and you can also use the work to offset it."

Ye Yan said: "It's the protection fee!"

The thin boy nodded, and lowered his voice again: "Alas, do you want to join the gang?"

Ye Mo blinked: "How to enter?"

The thin boy stretched out a hand: "Give me five cents, I'll take you there"

Ye Su rolled his eyes and threw the bamboo basket in front of him: "I have no money, only this basket of charcoal!"

The thin young man sighed, as if he felt a little helpless, and squinted at the charcoal in the bamboo basket, as if he was fighting between heaven and man.

At this moment, I suddenly heard a man's voice from the house: "Iron furnace, who are you talking to, hurry up and go to sleep!"

"Okay, this is coming" The thin boy hurriedly agreed, and whispered to Ye Yan: "Forget about the charcoal, if you want to join the gang, come to me tomorrow morning, my name is Feng Tielu"

Ye Yu looked at him with a strange expression, thinking that there must be something strange in it, so he hesitated a little and did not answer.

The thin boy smiled slightly: "You haven't eaten yet, have you?"

The night was silent, but his stomach was rumbling.

The thin boy picked up the bowl of ravioli that was still hot and handed it to him: "This bowl is for you, remember to tomorrow morning, don't wait for it"

Seeing that there were figures shaking in the room, Yelu didn't say anything more, only thanked him lightly, didn't go to receive alms, picked up the bamboo basket, turned around and left the wine shop.

At this time, a middle-aged man who was a little depressed crossed the threshold and came behind the thin young man, and happened to see this scene, his face was slightly condensed: "Those who treat people with sincerity should also respond with sincerity, it is not good for you to send ecstasy soup like this."

The thin boy disagreed: "Dad, you are the most honest on this street, you can compare your heart to your heart, if I tell the truth, do you think he will still drink this soup?"

The middle-aged man snorted coldly: "So you lied to him for his sake?"

The thin boy said, "Of course."

The middle-aged man's eyebrows were cold, and he grabbed the young man's ear: "That is the case, why did you give him soup to drink?"

The thin boy grinned and begged for mercy: "Oh yo, light, I won't dare next time, isn't this a monthly scruple yet?"

The middle-aged man snorted coldly, and the strength in his hand increased: "Don't you compare your heart to your heart?"

The thin boy gasped: "Oops, I know it's wrong, I really know it's wrong"