Chapter 1

Cheng Qianxu was ten years old, and he was too tall to keep up with the years.

As the sun approached, he carried the firewood from the gate of the courtyard into the main room. The whole bundle of firewood could not be held, so he had to run back and forth twice, and then he wiped off the hot sweat and buried himself in the fire to cook with peace of mind.

There are guests at home these few days, his father is busy with the guests, washing dishes, cooking, burning fire, chopping wood, etc., all of which fall on Cheng Qian's head, turning him into a short-legged spinning top, which can be whipped up anytime, anywhere. Weary wind.

Because he was too short, although Cheng Qian was able to get the pot stand, it was still a little inconvenient to operate the cauldron, so he found a small stool in the corner of the main room to step on.

The four legs of the stool are different in length, and the inside and outside are in and out. Cheng Qian has learned to step on the stool to cook since he was six years old. After nearly falling into the pot countless times and turning into human broth, he learned how to be different from this. The footsteps of Qi coexist peacefully and maintain a precarious balance.

One day, when he was standing on the stool and adding water to the cauldron, the eldest brother came back.

Cheng's eldest brother is already fifteen years old, and he is a big boy. He smelled of sweat and silently walked into the main room, glanced around, and then lifted the younger brother off the stool with one hand. He pushed lightly on his back, and said in a muffled voice, "I'll come, you can play."

Of course, Cheng Qian wouldn't go out to play without heart. He called out his big brother obediently, and then squatted to the side silently, pulling up the bellows.

Cheng Dalang looked down at him and said nothing, but his eyes were a little complicated.

The Cheng family had three sons, Cheng Qianxing Er, and until the night before the guest arrived, Cheng Qian was still called "Cheng Erlang".

Dalang knew that the word "Erlang" might have come to an end now, and this simple nickname, together with his second brother, was about to change his face and travel to another country.

The guest who came the day before was a Taoist priest with an ominous surname. He boldly called himself "Real Man Mu Chun", but just based on his appearance, I am afraid that this real man may not have any real skills.

Zhen Zhen originally passed by this place during his travels and came to ask for a bowl of water to drink, but he did not expect to meet Cheng Erlang.

Cheng Erlang had just come back from outside at that time—there was an old boy at the entrance of the village who had failed for a long time. He accepted students to teach and read. The knowledge of the old boy was very sparse. don't like it, only accept real money and silver, Brother Kong Fang, and the amount is not accurate - every time spend it, will reach out to the students to ask for it.

As a human being, he is really not worthy of preaching and teaching the books of sages and sages, but there is no way, it is not easy for children in the countryside to study.

With the Cheng family's family background, there is definitely no spare money for the sons to read, but those arrogant and arrogant people also seem to have some kind of strange attraction to Cheng Erlang. .

Lao Tongsheng felt that every spit star was the product of painstaking efforts, and he refused to let people listen to it for nothing.

Cheng Erlang had no choice but to turn into a monkey and hide in the big locust tree at the entrance of Lao Tongsheng's courtyard. Every time he eavesdropped, he could hear the hot sweat on his forehead "self-cultivation and family-level peace".

Last night, Cheng Erlang was wearing such a hot sweat. Driven by his father, he brought a bowl of water to the guest, but the strange guest did not accept it. He stretched out a hand as thin as a cold branch. Using some bizarre exercises, he just gently lifted Erlang's face, and looked at the child who tried his best to imitate the "scholar's sourness".

I don't know what the real person saw from this look, anyway, after reading it, he nodded smugly, and said to the Cheng family in a serious manner: "I think this son is very qualified, and he may be able to dive into the sky in the future. , maybe there is a great fortune, not something in the pool."

When the real person said this, Dalang was also there. Dalang followed the apprentice of the shopkeeper outside. He met some people who traveled from south to north. He felt that he was a little knowledgeable. bad thing.

Dalang just wanted to scornfully refute this liar, but before he could speak, he found that his father had actually listened to this nonsense, and suddenly understood what he was in a panic.

The Cheng family was not rich at all. His mother gave birth to a younger brother a few years ago. The younger brother had a difficult birth, so that his mother had been so weak after giving birth that he could not be a child. As a result, the family lacked a strong worker who could survive, and there was an extra one who could not survive. The medicine jars that take medicine in the sky are not rich at all, and they are even more stretched for a while.

The year is not good this year, there hasn't been a drop of rain for a few months, and it looks like a great famine with no harvest. The three brothers... I'm afraid they won't be able to support them.

Da Lang knows what his parents think. He has been an apprentice for a year and a half, and in another year and a half, he will be able to make money back at home, which is the hope of the Cheng family in the future. Naturally, the parents couldn't give up, and there was only one middle Erlang left, which was completely redundant and was useless to keep.

If he succeeded, it was the grass growing on the tomb of the old Cheng family that hit the fortune. If he didn't succeed, it was nothing. Let him go with someone else, whether he was going to the rivers or lakes, or swindling and cheating.

The real person Mu Chun and the short-sighted head of the Cheng family went back and forth, and they quickly negotiated the "sale". The real person left behind a piece of silver. They had money in one hand and people in the other. , This afternoon, he will cut off the ties and set off on the road with his master.

Dalang is a few years younger than his second brother, and he usually has nothing to say when they are together. They are not very close, but the second brother has been sensible since he was a child. He never cried or made trouble, and he never caused trouble. Let the younger brother and the sick mother, only Gān lead the way and never complain.

Dalang didn't say anything, but he felt sorry for his younger brother.

But is there any way? The family is poor and can't afford to support him. Before the time when his Cheng family Dalang was established, he said nothing about big things and small things.

No matter what, it's still flesh and blood, can you sell it if you want to sell it?

The more Dalang thought about it, the more unpleasant he felt. He wanted to use a big iron spoon to slap a hole in the forehead of the old liar. Wouldn't it be more profitable to fight and rob houses?

Cheng Qian was not completely ignorant about his parents' plans and his eldest brother's frustration.

He wasn't precocious, and he couldn't compare to those prodigies who wrote poetry at the age of seven and worshipped thirteen images, but he had a lot of common sense.

Dad wakes up early in the morning and sleeps in the dark, the eldest brother wears the stars and wears the moon, and the mother sees the eldest brother and the younger brother, and she can’t let him go. Therefore, in Cheng’s house, although no one beats him and scolds him, no one takes him seriously. He is also naturally sensible, and tries not to be loud and disgusting. The most outrageous thing he has ever done in his life is to climb a tree that was born to an old boy, and listen to sage books that don't make sense.

He is conscientious and industrious, treating himself as a trotter, a small long-term worker, a small servant - just not a son.

Cheng Qian didn't know what it was like to be a son.

Children should be talkative and jump up and down, but since Cheng Qian is not a son, he naturally does not have the privilege of being talkative and naughty. There were many pitted hearts poked out of his small chest.

Cheng Qian, who had the rain on his chest and hit the beach, knew that his parents sold him, but he felt a little strangely calm in his heart, as if he had expected such a day.

Before leaving, Cheng Qian's sick and young mother fell to the ground for the first time in the world, called him to the side tremblingly, and stuffed him a small package with red eyes, which contained a few changes of clothes and pasta cakes, not to mention clothes. , still his elder brother can't change it, and the cake was made by his father day after night.

After all, it was the flesh that fell from his body. His mother looked at him and couldn't help but put her hand into her cuff and took it out. Cheng Qian saw that she was trembling and took out a hanging copper coin. The pitted and dark copper coin suddenly Gently moved Cheng Qian's indifferent heartstrings, he was like a frozen little shòu, wiggling the tip of his nose in the ice and snow, smelling a little bit of motherhood.

But the hanging money was also seen by his father, the man coughed heavily beside him, and his mother had no choice but to carry the hanging money back with tears in her eyes.

So mother's smell was like a mirror and water moon, flickered, and without Rong Chengqian smelling it, it disappeared again.

"Come on Erlang," his boring mother took Cheng Qian's hand and led him to the back room. After walking two steps, he gasped for breath.

Tiredly, she sat down on a wide bench, pointed to the small oil lamp hanging from the roof, and asked feebly, "Erlang, do you know what that is?"

Cheng Qian looked up indifferently and said, "Immortal Everbright Lamp."

This small lamp with a small appearance is the heirloom of their old Cheng family. According to legend, it is the dowry of Grandma Cheng Qian. The lamp is the size of a palm. It can emit light on its own, illuminating that square foot for a long time.

I can't figure it out if don't go through the process, what's the use of this piece of shit hanging here other than attracting bugs in summer?

However, since it is a fairy, it doesn't have to have any practical use. As long as it can be used to show off when the neighbors are visiting from time to time, it is a treasure that can be passed down from generation to generation to the villagers.

The so-called "fairy utensils" are things that "immortals" have engraved spells, and ordinary people can't imitate them. There are many types of fairy utensils, and their uses are even more varied. There are lamps that do not need to be oiled, and paper that is not afraid of fire. It is warm in winter and cool in summer. The chuáng and so on, to name a few.

In the past, a storyteller who ran rivers and lakes came to the entrance of the village. He said that in the bustling big city, there were houses built with "immortal bricks". The sun was like a glazed roof, and it was as splendid as a palace. The spells written by the immortals can avoid hundreds of poisons and cure hundreds of diseases. A broken bowl costs four taels of gold, but it is still highly sought after.

"Immortal", also known as "one who cultivates truth", also known as "daoist" or "real person" - the former is usually a self-proclaimed person, which can sound a little modest.

It is said that they start by introducing qi into the body and communicating with heaven and earth. No matter how deep their cultivation is, they can still not eat grains, go to heaven and enter the earth, and even become immortal and transcend tribulation to become immortals... All kinds of legends are widely spread, but true immortals grow A few noses and eyes, no one has seen it, just listening to it is amazing.

The immortals are uncertain, and the good immortals are even more rare, and the dignitaries are flocking to them.

The lady of the Cheng family bent down, looked at Cheng Qian earnestly, and asked in a warm voice, almost flattering: "Wait, when Erlang returns from his studies, I can also make an ever-bright lamp for my mother?"

Cheng Qian didn't answer, just raised his eyelids and glanced at her, thinking coldly in his heart: "I think beautifully, you sent me out today, and I don't care whether I can learn it or not, whether it is dead or alive, whether it is a pig or a dog, I will I'll never come back to see you again."

The wife of the Cheng family was stunned for a moment, and she found that the child was not like his parents, but a little bit like her family's eldest brother.

Her eldest brother is the little piece of green smoke that came out of her family's ancestral grave. He didn't look like a farmer since he was a child. After being admitted to a scholar, everyone said that her family lost a Wenqu star.

However, Wen Quxing probably didn't want to stay in the world for a long time, and before he had time to be admitted to Juren, he died of illness.

When the eldest brother died, the wife of the Cheng family was still young, and some of his impressions were blurred. Now, when he suddenly recalled, it was the same when that person was alive. No matter whether he was happy or full of anger, he just took such an understatement and didn't hold back. Vibrant, but also frightening, no matter how close you are.

The lady of the Cheng family involuntarily let go of the hand that was holding Cheng Qian, and at the same time, Cheng Qian took a half step back without a trace.

In this way, docilely and without saying a word, he stopped the life and death of the mother and son abruptly.

Cheng Qian thought that what he did was not out of resentment, and resentment was unreasonable—his parents had the grace of life and upbringing for him, even if their kindness was halfway through and half of the upbringing stopped him, at best It's just balance.

He looked down at his toes, and said to himself in his heart, it's nothing if his parents don't see him, and it's nothing to sell him to a Taoist priest with triangular eyes.

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