you touched my years

Chapter 4 Strange Old Man
Zhongshan Square behind West Street and Alley is her favorite place to go. Apart from being the center of the old city, it is also the place with the most dense population and the most shops. Liu Xiaoyu strolls there a few times a day, discarding old newspapers, Soda bottles can always fill a sack quickly.

Her daily itinerary is almost uniform and regular. After going to Zhongshan Square, she will go to the old city alley behind Liu Xiaoyu’s alma mater primary school not far from there. There are two completely different worlds from Zhongshan Square. Zhongshan Square is fashionable and avant-garde, while Old City Lane, just like its name, is extremely simple and full of vicissitudes of history, and it is also very old. Generally, there are more waste products here.

Old City Lane belongs to the southernmost part of City A, and is already close to the suburban counties, but at this time, City A has no planning and renovation. Even though it belongs to the farthest place, for Liu Xiaoyu, walking for an hour makes no difference, and The reason why Liu Xiaoyu goes there every day is because there is a very dilapidated bookstore there.

The books sold there are almost all textbooks of different grades collected from other people's homes, or some newspapers and magazines, in the story club, and there are also some ancient books that she can't understand.Liu Xiaoyu walks back and forth for 2 hours every day just to read those textbooks that people can read for free.

This life is the same as the previous life. She dropped out of school after the summer vacation of the third grade of elementary school. At this moment, she has not encountered community integration. Even if she doesn’t study, no one cares about her. She remembers that the previous life was also when she was 3 years old. I just re-entered the school. At that time, it was already 12 years of compulsory education. It's just that Liu Xiaoyu's situation is special. The Liu family is used to Liu Xiaoyu's service, and also used to Liu Xiaoyu's cowardice and incompetence. It's whatever you want.

The knowledge of the previous life has long been lost in the long river of history. She is trying to recall the knowledge of the previous life little by little from scratch. Those who have learned and have not learned are all in her mind over and over again. A few times, she tried hard to remember those words or formulas that were a bit obscure to her. If she wanted to live a different life, she would have to put in a hundred times more effort than others.

Page 24, this is the page number of the content she ended today. I will continue to read it tomorrow. There are only a few people in the store at the moment, and they are more or less picking up the worn-out books that the boss has piled up at the door. Liu Xiaoyu glanced at it , except for some old magazines, there are some ancient books. These books are different from those that Liu Xiaoyu knows. She knows that these so-called ancient books, as the name implies, are books with age.

Liu Xiaoyu collects and sells rags every day, and more or less comes into contact with some knowledge that she has never dabbled in before, such as antiques, such as picking up leaks.

She doesn't have extra spare money to buy some old things in the hope that the profit will be doubled or even hundreds of times. She can only stay quietly and watch others be happy or sad or rise or fall.

Helping to clean the public streets outside the bookstore every day is what Liu Xiaoyu uses to pay for her studying and reading books. She doesn't want to owe others anything. As long as she can do these things, she will do them to the best of her ability.

The street outside the shop is not the later concrete road, but the kind of stone road with a little moss. It is very simple and old, but it is extraordinarily shiny under the daily caress. Liu Xiaoyu put the broom aside, Looking at the old man at the door looking through books, she was a little curious, because she knew this old man, and he was also an old man who often picked up waste on this street. They all called him Man Ye.

Man Ye is about 50 years old, with gray hair, deep wrinkles on his forehead and eyes, and a beard of the same gray color. His skin is morbidly pale. His back is a bit lumpy. There, occasionally a few low coughs.

The reason why Liu Xiaoyu noticed him was because the way he held the book gave her an indescribable taste, elegant, yes, very elegant, especially because he always wore an old-fashioned half-breasted shirt. Holding a simple book outside the old bookstore in the ancient city, the charm is indescribably dreamy and distant.

His curved back always likes to lean against the corner, comfortable and comfortable, if not for the snakeskin pocket at his feet, his existence is almost a condensed portrayal of this old city alley.

He rarely buys books, just like Liu Xiaoyu, he will appear here every day, but the boss seems to know him, and has always been polite to him, even if he sometimes stands for hours, the boss will not say a word .

Liu Xiaoyu collected the garbage, put them in the corner, and when he looked up, he could see the books in the old man's hands. They were words that Liu Xiaoyu had never seen before. On the old and yellowed pages, there were pictures and words. Things jumped between the papers, and he watched them intently.

As he flipped through the papers, Liu Xiaoyu unexpectedly saw his right hand with only two fingers. The pages of the book that were gently twirling with the thumb and forefinger looked extraordinarily fragile. The illusion of turning into ashes.

But for some reason, those strange characters also came into her mind, and they have not dissipated for a long time. Those small pictures that look like animals and living utensils are particularly strange and mysterious. "Is this the meaning of 'Auspicious Ruyi'? "

Liu Xiaoyu blurted out the mysterious words that had gone through in his head, and the person who asked this question was naturally the focused old man.

Liu Man turned his head slowly, with a little surprise in his eyes, not because it was a little girl who disturbed him, but because the little girl actually said the meaning of the pictograph correctly.He had to be curious.

"Why does it mean good luck?" Liu Mancang did not put down the book in his hand, but pushed it in front of Liu Xiaoyu naturally.

Liu Xiaoyu was already embarrassed by the abrupt utterance just now, she would not be so impolite usually, but those strange little characters really interested her.

"I think it's like..." Liu Xiaoyu's voice was a little soft, but still clearly audible. Liu Mancang looked at her, didn't speak, pointed to another sentence and asked, "What about this sentence?"

"Well, it kind of means that the weather is going well." Liu Xiaoyu looked at Liu Mancang quietly after finishing speaking. Although Liu Mancang was surprised at the moment, his face was still calm. This girl has some talents. He put the book in his hand back to its original position and stopped talking. It seemed that such a small episode had no meaning at all, and it seemed that Liu Xiaoyu had indeed disturbed his reading pleasure and tranquility. Before Liu Xiaoyu apologized for disturbing him, he Holding the snakeskin bag at his feet, he disappeared into the alley.

A strange old man, reading a strange book, then walked away strangely, leaving behind a little girl with a strange face. Such a scene, in this thick summer morning, is particularly eye-catching.

(End of this chapter)