dimly lit

The author has something to say: This time it's a purely sweet article, HE, with almost no abuse.The inventory is guaranteed, never abandon the pit, no one is cheating~

Han Ou sent incense, and there was a sound of frogs.Hanging hair and cicadas, thousands of verdant trees, a summer scene.

The market was crowded with people and it was very lively.Even if you hold a cattail fan in your hand, the fan will blow you hot air.The peddlers yelled vigorously while wiping their sweat with towels on their shoulders.

Shen Anhuai rubbed his Adam's apple a few times, and wandered aimlessly in the market.The Prunella vulgaris picked in the morning has just been sent to the medicinal material shop. Circles of lavender flowers are supported by emerald green leaves and wrapped in style.This kind of herb that grows sporadically on the mountain trails may seem inconspicuous, but it is exactly what the medicinal herb shop needs.

"Sour plum soup, cool and delicious, freshly brewed this morning!"

A fine layer of sweat oozed from the forehead of the sour plum soup peddler. He yelled with a smile and kept fanning the wind with a cattail fan to cool down the pot of sour plum soup in front of him.At the peddler's feet was a two or three-year-old girl with a pair of braids and worn-out clothes full of patches, giggling and shaking a tattered rattle.Shen Anhuai couldn't help but stop, asked the price, took out the silver and handed it to the peddler.

After receiving a bowl of refreshing sour plum soup, Shen Anhuai drank it down in one gulp.The sour and cool soup slipped into the mouth and flowed down the throat, and suddenly a comfortable refreshing feeling spread, and the hard work of picking herbs for half a day seemed to be swept away.

"Two more bowls!"

"Okay, this master is really happy. I dare say that this sour plum soup is the best in Xifang!"

After three bowls, Shen Anhuai felt much more comfortable.He wiped the corners of his lips, took out some silver and put it into the rough palm of the peddler, and went back in the direction of the poor street contentedly.

"Hey! Master, you have given me too much money, which is enough to buy me two pots of soup!"

"For the rest, buy two new clothes for the child."

After finishing speaking, Shen Anhuai waved his hand with a smile, and quickened his pace.The hesitant peddler left behind wanted to catch up and pay back the money, but was afraid that the stall and children would be left unattended, so he stood there giggling and thanked the distant figure loudly.

After walking for a while, suddenly a listless Taoist priest wearing a Taoist robe appeared in front of Shen Anhuai.The man sat on the side of the street, neither yelling nor wiping his sweat, just sat still.There were no vendors around doing business side by side with him, as if he was deliberately isolated.In front of him was a small stall with a lot of pearls and jade on it, and beside him was a bamboo pole, wrapped in a tattered vermilion banner, with four large Chinese characters "Lame and Half Immortal" written on it.

Shen Anhuai clicked his tongue, thinking that it was probably a lie again, so he walked straight forward.

"This benefactor, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Suddenly, the Taoist howled with grief, and Shen Anhuai was so frightened that he glanced around in a daze, and found that there were very few pedestrians, let alone looking at the Taoist, so he pointed at himself in bewilderment.

The Taoist priest nodded, holding his dirty skirt tightly with a heartbroken expression of wanting to cry.

Shen Anhuai clicked his tongue again, stepped over, and sat opposite the Taoist priest.Stepping on the bench arrogantly with one foot, he took out a simple cloth pouch sewn with colored thread on his body, took out a few small green fruits from it, and chewed it.Lifting his chin lazily, looking like a rascal, he looked at the Taoist priest and signaled him to continue.

The Taoist frowned.

"My lord, I'm a half-immortal, and I only tell fortunes for those who are predestined, and talk about fortune-telling."

The Taoist said, stroking his beard.

"Well, all the people in Xifang who can deceive you for money are probably predestined people."

Shen Anhuai didn't look at the Taoist priest at all, and gnawed the sour fruit on his own.

The Taoist choked on Shen Anhuai's words and almost broke his beard.He coughed twice and swallowed to calm himself down.In order to be able to trick this silly-looking young man in front of him into the bait, he endured it first.The devil is one foot tall, and the Tao is still ten feet tall.

"Even if there is a destiny, not everyone... No, I will help and give advice."

"Master, I don't have any mazes, but I'm a bit fascinated by gold. How can I pick up gold, master, can you give me some pointers?"

"This this this..."

The Taoist priest's heart was already overwhelmed, and he was burning with anger. If it wasn't for defrauding some money, he would have turned up the table and fought.

Shen Anhuai sneered, and was about to get up and leave.

"This immortal sees that you have a beautiful face and extraordinary appearance. I just took a closer look and found that your fortune-telling is different, so I stopped you."

The Taoist raised his voice pretending to be mysterious, and stroked the beard that was almost pulled off.

"Why is it different? Hey hey, am I going to make a fortune?"

Shen Anhuai really stopped.

"Master, you, if you are a daughter, you will be rich and prosperous in this life. Alas, what a pity, what a pity! As a man, it can only be the first time now, if it continues like this..."

"how?"

"I can't get rid of the pot. However, this immortal can help you. As long as... you buy this jade pendant of this immortal, wear it with you, and kneel down and pray devoutly every day for seven to fourty-nine days, you will have a chance to change your life."

"Jade pendant? Let me see."

"Okay, okay, please."

The Taoist priest's mood suddenly turned upside down, and he handed the jade pendant to Shen Anhuai with a smile, thinking in his heart that another fool had taken the bait.

I saw Shen Anhuai slipping the jade pendant into his hand and began to play with it seriously.Look left and touch right, and then hold the jade pendant in his hand thoughtfully.Yupei, it really looks like that.Although Shen Anhuai lived in a poor street, he often dealt with the shopkeepers and bosses of various herbal medicine shops, so he had seen some worldly experience.Real jade and fake jade, you can tell at a glance.

Although it was a piece of adulterated jade, it was worth a few taels of silver when sold at a pawn shop, enough to buy a piece of rice cake for the group of children to eat.Shen Anhuai rolled his eyes, thinking about it.

"How about it, my lord? It's only 50 taels, not a loss. Let the girl from Zuiyuan Tower sing a song, and it will cost you ten taels."

The Taoist priest began to dance happily, and stretched out five fingers with a smile, as if the white silver was right in front of his eyes.

"Half Immortal, I just accept it with a smile."

After finishing speaking, Shen Anhuai grabbed the jade pendant and ran away with lightning speed.Fortunately, there were not many pedestrians, and Shen Anhuai ran fast enough.

"Hey, hey, I haven't paid you yet! Hey, robbery!"

Looking back, I saw the Taoist priest running like flying, holding the obstructing Taoist robe in one hand, his deceitful belongings in the other, and the flag with the words "Lame Immortal" waving in the wind.Shen Anhuai clicked his tongue and speeded up.After running for two streets, he finally got rid of the lame half-immortal with windy feet.

After Shen Anhuai, who was out of breath, confirmed that he had shaken off his lame half-immortal, he rested with his arms crossed for a while, pawned a jade pendant at a pawnshop, and bought familiar rice cakes around the corner.Weighing the remaining copper coins in the purse, he walked into a nearby medicine shop.

As soon as he stepped through the door, the smell of medicine came to his nostrils.Some of the servants were pounding medicines with brass pounding buckets, and some were grabbing medicines in the medicine cabinet behind them. It was a busy scene.I looked around and saw no acquaintances.

"Oh, Mr. Shen. But you came to catch Fang Zi?"

The shopkeeper saw an acquaintance coming, put down the account book in his hand, and greeted him.

"Yes, old Fangzi, it's for Grandma Zhang. Where's Boss Li, isn't he here?"

"Unfortunately, Boss Li is not here today, he went to Anyang. If he is, why don't you invite Mr. Shen to drink some wine at the Zuiyuan Building? Wait a minute, I'll get someone to make you a pot of tea."

"The shopkeeper is being polite. There is no need for tea. Let's talk about old times when Boss Li comes back."

"That's natural. The one who can talk to our boss the most is your brother."

The shopkeeper smiled and made a bow, turned around and his face immediately became cold again, and ordered the boy to grab the medicine.

For this scene, Shen Anhuai was well aware of it.Ordinary people born in poor streets, even with a clever mouth, they call these bosses brothers and get along well, but after all, they are poor people who even shopkeepers look down on them, just because of the boss's face, Just call Mr. Shen politely.

"Mr. Shen, this is the medicine you want. It's still the old way, so I won't go into details."

The boy smiled and handed over the medicine.Shen Anhuai thanked him, greeted the busy shopkeeper behind the counter, and turned to leave.

As soon as he walked to the door of the store, Shen Anhuai was suddenly bumped into his arms by someone walking towards him, and he covered his face in pain, only to hear a woman's rapid breathing and short surprise sounds from the opposite side.With the sound of broken porcelain, a strange fragrance came, Shen Anhuai rubbed his nose in pain, and slowly opened his eyes.

In front of her is a graceful woman, wearing a green smoked sweater made of fresh green silk, draped in a tulle embroidered with a hundred butterflies and flowers, with a slender waist and bright wrists, like an orchid.It's just covered with a dark veil, revealing only a pair of watery eyes.Although he couldn't see his face, his eyes revealed a mysterious and exotic style.

Although the woman was covered with a veil and hurriedly turned her head away, Shen Anhuai always felt a little familiar after scanning those eyes.

Looking at the ground again, it turned out to be a small tea-brown bowl of porcelain fragments on the ground.It's just that in the residue of the disk, there are a few long black worms the size of half a pinky finger wriggling, and some worms seem to have been scratched by pieces of porcelain, with tiny star spots oozing out from the vicinity of the worms wriggling.

Suddenly, an inexplicable feeling of nausea surged up.But Shen Anhuai still apologized, and knelt down to help clean up the mess.

As soon as her fingers touched the porcelain shards, the woman suddenly waved her hand and slapped her. Several red handprints appeared on Shen Anhuai's wrist instantly, and she flinched in pain. However, her fingers slid across the edge of the sharp shards, and blood dripped from the fingertips along the wound. After falling down, it smeared between the porcelain fragments and the few bugs, expanding the tiny blood under the bug's body.

The woman's reaction was beyond Shen Anhuai's expectation, and her exclamation also attracted more people's attention.The woman squatted down in a panic, quickly crushed the few bugs with more blood stains to death with porcelain shards, and took out a handkerchief to wrap the rest of the bugs.

"I... I'm sorry, let me help you."

The woman remained silent, picked up the pieces angrily, and ran out of the shop in a hurry without looking back.

"Mr. Shen, don't worry? There is hemostatic wound ointment in the shop, come and apply some."

Seeing this, the shopkeeper hurried over to check on Shen Anhuai's finger injury, and after confirming that it was not serious, he breathed a sigh of relief, led him to the back of the counter, found a plaster and handed it to Shen Anhuai.

"Shopkeeper, the worm brought by that woman just now...do you know it?"

"It was just far away, so I didn't see it clearly. But I have seen that woman. I just came to the store a few days ago to grab a few medicines. Because she looks like a foreign girl from a minority, unlike a local girl, I have an impression .”

A woman from another land, with a dark veil, black worms, and eyes that seem to have been seen before... Shen Anhuai suddenly thought of a woman whom he had met once.

Shen Anhuai clicked his tongue and sighed weird.After thanking the shopkeeper, he left the medicine shop with rice cakes and medicine.