The fox minister in the late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 3
oh oh oh oh-

The crowing of the rooster resounded through the blue and dark colors of the mountains, white marks appeared in the eastern sky, and the misty mist gradually turned yellow. Soon, the golden morning sun broke through the clouds and mists and penetrated the mountains, shining on the villages at the foot of the mountains.

In the quiet mountain village, chickens crow and dogs bark, and smoke rises slowly from the roofs of houses.

The cool morning breeze blew into the window lattice, Geng Qing was wrapped in a mattress, which was densely stitched and full of patches, thin and torn.

Feeling the coolness of the early morning, I woke up, yawned, got up and put on my overshoes. Outside the yard, the fox was playing in the yard with a stone he picked up somewhere. Hearing the sound of the door opening, seeing Geng Qing coming out, he happily ran over, circling around, rubbing his tail against the young man's exposed calf.

"What a vixen."

The red fox stuck out its tongue, rubbing it more happily.

In the yard, Wang Qiujin tore wild vegetables and shredded leaves, mixed them with moldy wild rice and sprinkled them on the ground to feed the two hens at home. She was weak-tempered and couldn't get angry, so she sprinkled a handful of chicken food: "It's only two days old." , let alone lie down for a while."

"Back hurts from sleeping."

Geng Qing didn't refute, he laughed a few times, causing the woman to stare at him, "Go to the stove and eat, you take care of the house, mother will go to the fields to help your father with work."

"Let me help."

Geng Qing wanted to get the hoe, but was pushed back by the woman, so he had to go to the stove in the straw shed to take the bowl of black rice. It tasted like rice, with a slightly bitter taste, and the texture was rusty, as if the dust had not been sifted.

I chewed a few grains and stuck them to my fingertips. The black color was infected. I asked the busy women in the courtyard, and found out that the black tree juice was mixed with rice. The food that poor people often eat was also used for him. To make up for the body.

After breakfast, he habitually washed the dishes by himself. Geng Qing is a smart person. Now that he has gradually accepted this identity, he should not look too unfamiliar. He put away the dishes and helped the woman clean the courtyard. After tidying up for less than half an hour, people are also very tired, sitting under the eaves wiping sweat and panting.

The woman on the side looked relieved, handed him a crumpled handkerchief to wipe his sweat, and was about to go out with a hoe.

"Auntie."

With a handkerchief in hand, Geng Qing snatched the hoe from the woman, with a smile on his face, "Let me go, my body is almost gone, and I have to work hard to get stronger."

"I can't say enough about you. After you recovered from your illness, your mouth became sharp. If you can't move, come back and don't get tired."

The woman told her worriedly, Geng Qing smiled and took the hoe out of the village, saw the figure of the old man Geng from a few acres of land, took off his shoes, held them in his hand, and stepped barefoot on the mud on the ridge of the field. , imitating the old man's movements, digging a few hoes, and feeling that going to the fields and farming, you can't understand it by reading two time-travel novels. Half a day with a hoe, the palm of the hand rubbed off the layer of skin.

Sowing seeds in spring is meticulous work. The old man Geng dug the ravine, straightened up with a hoe, wiped off the sweat on his forehead, and looked at his son over there. His soles and calves were covered in mud, and it was quite clumsy to draw it out. Two, the old man sighed and smiled, and drove Geng Qing back.

"I'll help when I'm healthy, and go get your mother back."

The young man sat down on the ridge of the field to rest in embarrassment. Looking at the muddy water flowing through the drawn ravine, he felt a little pain in his palm. It really wasn't expected to do farm work.

'Something has to be done, right? '

On the way back, Geng Qing thought about this question. During the two days of contact, it can be seen from the food that the food is usually squeezed out between the teeth. I was willing to cook a little bit.

Suomei thought about it, when he was approaching the entrance of the village, he suddenly bumped into someone, only to find three lean young men standing there, about the same age as Geng Qing's body, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with dark skin, Together they look like three giant gophers.

The one in the lead is much stronger, with his arms folded like a bum shaking his feet.

"Dazhu. Have you been sick for the past two days? Did you bring something to eat when you came out? Give each of us three."

The other two didn't speak, just kept laughing.

Geng Qing probably remembered this dark young man as Geng Dachun, and he was considered a relative. He was a strong man, and he had a big appetite.

Geng Dazhu was dull before, so naturally he was bullied a lot.

this scene.
Geng Qing met quite a few when he was still in school, and he was not by nature to fight over a disagreement, even if he hit the other party, he would be injured, so it was not a good deal at all.

However, this kind of person is easy to push forward, and if he backs off a step, he will be able to ride on his head. That night, the three of them might be the ones who kicked their backs.

"Yo, Dachun, I almost ran into the three of you, didn't you eat? I have half a pancake here, why don't you share it."

Geng Qing turned over the belt, and there was half a pancake wrapped in it. Wang Qiujin gave it to the old man Geng before he went out.

Right now, he didn't hesitate, and gave it to the three of them without hesitation, which made Geng Dachun stare blankly at the half cake in his hand, and blinked at the back of the person walking into the village.

"Dazhu, weren't you very stubborn before? Why did you suddenly change your gender?"

The two companions next to him took the pancakes from his hands and broke them apart. They laughed and said, "Isn't this better? How generous, why don't you let him touch some eggs from home and let us taste the meat?"

"Just steal one of his chickens, isn't it good?"

Of course, the three of them just talked about it, squatting on the ground to share the rice cakes, and patted their buttocks to wander outside. Hens are not treasures. If they dared to steal them and eat them, the whole village would dare to chase them with hoes.

On the other side, Geng Qing was not in a hurry to go home, and wandered around the village. After all, everything in the village was still unfamiliar to him, so it wouldn't hurt to look around and get acquainted.

Occasionally, I meet an old man who stays at home to take care of his baby, or sits under the eaves to eat the soles of his shoes, and greets them with a smile.

Most of the people in the village are surnamed Geng, and they are closely related. Geng Qing's seniority is naturally lower. As a salesman in his previous life, he was thin-skinned. What the other party called was a comfort.

Sometimes I make a mistake, but the other party doesn’t get annoyed, corrects the address, and instead happily says that he’s “better to greet people after a serious illness”, “It wasn’t like this before, but now his mouth is really good” and so on. .

After strolling around, Geng Qing also got a good idea of ​​the situation in the village. Turning around the road ahead, a courtyard without a fence came into view.

From the inquired information, we know that this house was originally a relative with the surname Geng in the village, who later fell ill and died, leaving only a woman there.

Before they passed, I saw Widow Zhang piled firewood in her arms, looked at the sky, and went out to work in the field.

The clothes are still dripping on the drying racks set up by a few wooden sticks in the yard, and I think they were washed only in the morning.Seeing her leave, Geng Qing looked at the coarse sackcloth dangling on top of them, and saw a pair of big white underpants with reddish spots on them. Even if there is something for menstruation these days, how can poor people With those, the corners of his mouth couldn't help ticking.

'Big spring. Hehe. '

After looking around for no one, he went straight to the yard, stretched out his hand to tear off the underpants and rolled them up in his hands, went round and round to Dachun's house, stuffed them in the crack of the dilapidated window, only one corner was exposed, and then carried the hoe again. Turning to an aunt's house, there was only an old woman in the yard, and she was drawing water from the well. According to his seniority, he had to call grandma.

"Grandma, let me come."

Geng Qing said, put down the hoe hastily, went to help pull up the bucket, and poured the water into the tank, which made the old woman next to her laugh so hard that her face was full of joy.

"Da Zhu, are you coming back from the ground?"

"Hey, just came back, why don't you just watch grandma fetch water? Come and help me." Geng Qing turned around and smiled while pouring water, "Grandma, from now on I can do this heavy work, but this disease is just right, It’s just that sometimes I’m in a daze for a while, and I’m like an ordinary person for a while, and I’ve forgotten some places in the village, so take me for a walk before noon.”

"Thank God you're getting better."

The old woman took out a handkerchief from her pocket, handed it to the young man, and said a few words: "The water is ready, enough, let's go, grandma will take you around the village."

"Good."

Geng Qing wiped his face, took the hoe and put it on his shoulder, waited until the old woman came out from the house, and followed behind.

In fact, the situation in the village has probably been written down. Along the way, I still patiently listened to the old woman pointing at each house. When I arrived at Dachun's house, Geng Qing glanced at the corner of the cloth exposed through the window, and casually joked. .

"Other people's clothes are hanging outside, but this spring they are stuffed in the window cracks."

Most of the old people in the countryside have the problem of meddling with other people's business. They looked around and said, "I don't worry about it this spring, I throw it everywhere."

In the past, he tore out the clothes in the seam, and was going to hang them outside to dry in Dachun, but when he shook them off, he found a pair of big pants, with spots of blood on the crotch.

It doesn't look like a man.

"Hot!!" The old woman came here, she didn't know what it was, she put away her underpants coldly, threw them to the door, spat out a mouthful of saliva, then pulled Geng Qing and left, "Da Zhu , don't imitate Geng Dachun, you are really shameless!"

"If you don't study, you don't study."

Geng Qing suppressed a smile, pretended to be curious and wanted to ask, but was stared back by the old woman. After that, she walked around the village. The old woman seemed to have something on her mind, and said that she would take him around next time, and hurriedly So I ran to the entrance of the village and went door to door asking who it was.

'Hehe. Look at some. '

Going back to the house at the back of the village, I walked past a row of evergreens that were half a person tall. In the yard, Wang Qiujin sifted the old rice with a dustpan. Face to face, let Geng Qing walk aside, but he coughed several times in succession.

"Cough cough. Stand far away from Da Zhu, and be careful of choking cough cough!"

Looking at the flying dust and the squinting and coughing old woman, Geng Qing suddenly had an idea in his mind. In his previous life, besides doing business, he was more interested in building some weird things, and he also made some farm tools.

I vaguely remembered that there might be something that could be used, even a small one would do.

"Mother, do this later."

Geng Qing went to the thatched shed to put down the hoe, and called out to the woman to take the dustpan and put it on the ground, "Do you have a saw at home?"

"What do you want this for? Only carpenters are there. There are no craftsmen in our village."

Wang Qiujin looked at his son suspiciously. Since he recovered from his illness, he has either been in a daze or said some weird words. Unfortunately, the family cannot afford a mage.

Right now, he still follows his will.

"At home, there is only a hatchet, do you want it?"

The hatchet is fine too, but the delay is longer, Geng Qing rolled up his sleeves, took the hatchet his mother found, went to the back of the house and moved some thick logs, and started chopping firewood in the courtyard , The splashed ground was full of sawdust, and from time to time, he picked up branches and drew on the ground, making a pattern that the woman could not understand.

It didn't take long before there was an earth-shattering burst of scolding outside, from the beginning of the village to the end of the village.

"Geng Dachun, you shameless—"

(End of this chapter)