Chapter 75 – Can people still sleep?

In the eagle’s mouth mountain bandit cottage overnight, the next day at dawn, while the sun is not out of the mountains, the day is not too hot, Su Yan and his party went down the mountain, continue to run to Yan’an Province.

Wang Wu and Wang Chen saw him off. Su Yan instructed them beside the carriage, “It’s just enough to rob a few rich gentry who are unkind to the rich, don’t do anything to harm the heavens and the earth, and don’t easily jeopardize people’s lives.”

The two thief head brothers nodded their heads in agreement. Su Yan pulled Wang Chen aside again and scolded him in a low voice, “Especially you! If you dare to bully men and women again, the law will not tolerate you! If you can’t find a good match, go to a brothel, don’t cause trouble to good families, or even if you are recruited in the future, you will be punished for adultery, do you hear me?”

When Wang Chen heard this, he knew that the conversation between the brothers outside the door was known to him, embarrassed and ashamed, he bowed his head and said, “I know. I won’t dare to do it again in the future.”

Only then did Su Yan ease his face, waving his hand and saying, “Go back, take care of yourself.”

The wheels crushed the uneven mountain road, and the two carriages gradually drifted away under the escort of the Tee Riders. Wang Chen tsked and complained to his brother, “Obviously you agreed to play together, why did you only scold me?”

Wang Wu patted the back of his head, “Because your voice is louder than mine.”

Three days later, the walls of Yan’an City were visible.

In the post station outside the city, the contract, the post minister dare not be slow, busy personally welcome the imperial historian to the upper room. Su Yan, however, was not in a hurry to go back to his room, standing at the entrance of the post station compound, seeing that a hundred feet away across the official road, the open space crowds gathered, and around them were erected shade sheds, which appeared to be a makeshift market, so he asked, “What’s across the street?”

The post master replied: “It is a dental company. Because the official road is crowded with people, there are many traders setting up stalls along the road, so there are teeth to form a market of their own accord, threading the needle for buyers and sellers, doing some meat, salt, beans and grains, and also parking goods, settling merchants, hiring people on behalf of the carriages and ships, and so on.”

Oh, the ancient agency. Su Yan feel fresh, then urge Jing Hong chase and he went to see the fun. Chu Yuan heard, uneasy, personally brought seven or eight guards to go with.

Su Yan did not want to be noticeable, but Chu Yuan because he was alone bathing wash into the horse thief’s nest matter, conscious of the negative grace, sorry for the emperor’s mandate, insisted on going with, Su Yan also had to agree.

As soon as the result of the stars and the moon set up, the elite like ghosts of the teeth will know that there is a non-rich or noble characters, twelve enthusiastic surge up, talking about the introduction of goods.

A middle-aged toothwoman led a few young children crowded to Su Yan in front of, open voice, words vulgar greeting: “Nobleman, come to see these dolls, cheap sale! Look at this girl, how watery, raise another two or three years, will be able to comb together. And this pair of twin male children, don’t look thin, eyebrows and eyes, and then grow a little open is a good boy, also can cao, also can do rough work, and then not help to turn a sale, earn a lot of no less.”

Before Su Yan could react, Jing Hongchu stopped his sword sheath in front of the toothwoman and frowned, “What’s with the filthy language, get lost!”

The children ranged from five or six to about ten years old, with grass markers stuck between their hair, the younger ones clueless, the older ones crying and wailing. There were a few withered men squatting by the trees in the back, looking this way and wiping tears from their eyes with the corners of their tattered clothes.

Su Yan was compassionate and asked the toothwoman, “Where did the child come from?”

The toothwife hurriedly said, “It’s not abduction! All the deeds are clean! These are the parents who voluntarily sold them, and you see, the ones by the tree are the dolls’ fathers.”

Su Yan walked over and asked, “Why do you want to sell your child, you gave birth to it yourself, doesn’t it hurt?”

A withered man cried, “If you sell them, you can still live; if you leave them at home, you will starve to death with your master and mother.”

The other one also said, “The horse we worked so hard to raise died, and the government wants us to pay for the silver, but we don’t have any silver! The house, the fields, everything we can sell, even if we sell the two dolls, we can only afford to pay half!”

“I only ask that your lordship be kind enough to buy my doll and give it a mouthful of food.” The man who spoke first begged on his knees.

“As for us old farts, we can live one day to count one day, and when we die and take a straw mat and bury it in the earth, we will also be relieved ……”

Su Yan looked at these desperate farmers and horse households, let out a long sigh, turned around and walked to the toothwoman and said, “I’ll take all these children, how much silver?”

“Ten ……” The tooth woman hesitated and said, “Thirty taels of silver.”

Chu Yuan immediately drank: “Rambling price! The capital a twelve or thirteen year old boy only sells three taels of silver, but also less than a few years to eat–“

Su Yan raised his head to stop him from continuing, took out three ingots of silver from his money pouch and handed them to the toothwoman.

The toothwoman received it with a smile on her face, took one ingot for herself, handed the remaining two ingots to the seller, and escorted the children to kowtow to the nobleman, saying auspicious words incessantly.

Su Yan didn’t care about her, walked to the tree, threw the money bag to those withered men, said: “The money here is enough for you to pay for this year’s horses. Take the children back, whoever gave birth to them will be responsible for raising them, and if you want to sell them again, God will not tolerate it. In the future, when the days are better, send them to study.”

Those hans completely froze.

The children pounced on them, howling for their masters and fathers, and holding their heads in a ball of tears, big and small.

“…… This is to meet the living Buddha who saves the suffering!” The hans kowtowed with tears and snot toward Su Yan’s departing back, “Living Bodhisattva ah ……”

Su Yan no longer in the mood to stroll through the bazaar, back to the guest room of the post station, his heart is still hard to bear, murmured: “People live, how can it be bitter like this?”

In his previous life, he lived in a peaceful era, the country is strong and rich, although there are also poor people, but even if they are poor, but not so poor as to sell their children. This life is not to say that from childhood, but also food and clothing, concentrate on reading and study, never worry about the livelihood. The golden list became an official, in the capital of the prosperous area, but also did not face such a painful and unspeakable human suffering.

Jing Hongchu was silent, Su Yan couldn’t help but ask him, “What about when you were a child, were you also so bitter?”

“A little better. My parents died early, at least no one sold me.” Jing Hongchou’s tone was calm, “When I was eight years old, there was a locust plague, there was really nothing to eat, my sister wanted to sell herself for a bag of stale rice. I dragged her to her death, and bit a human tooth, almost killed by the other party, so I didn’t sell it.”

“You ……” Su Yan could not help but hold his arm with both hands, his eyes reddened, and his throat was too sore to speak.

Jing Hongchou looked at Lord Su whom he was determined to follow, and suddenly smiled extremely shallowly, “I’m better now.”

He usually look silent, eyes cold and sharp with brake, talk always like a grain of hard stone, in addition to the face of Su Yan when softer, by excessive teasing occasionally one or two will also blush, most of the time is a sharp blade in the shadows, sealed in the body of the grievances of the ghosts have not been washed. This time abruptly revealed a little smile shadow, as charred black dead wood sprouted new green shoots, talk about not how good-looking, but moving.

After Su Yan was stunned, she gave him a comforting hug and said, “It will be fine in the future too.”

This embrace is too warm and sincere, with a body temperature heat that he dares not bear for fear of defilement. Jing Hongchou slipped down from between Su Yan’s arms, half kneeling, one hand pressed the knee, one hand pointing to the ground, his voice was difficult to suppress a slight tremor: “Adults saved my life, repeatedly sheltered in times of crisis, and kindly took me in. I …… subordinates pulverize my bones, not enough to repay the kindness of adults in one case.”

Su Yan had a headache and squatted down to be at eye level with him, “Can we talk nicely and not move around to be gracious and kneel?”

Lord Su does not understand, grace is a hoop, must be tightly hooped in his gradually greedy and delusional heart, embedded in the flesh and blood. Whenever a point or two of urgency, will be strangled with intense pain, reminding him to be careful with his words and behavior, do not spoil the existing good. This good, how hard-won, how carefully treasured, Lord Su does not understand. Jing Hong chased down his eyes and did not look at him, “I know, my subordinate, your lordship does not expect to be rewarded for the kindness he has given, and does not like good deeds to be hung on the lips of people.”

Su Yan helplessly rubbed his brow, “…… Well, you can just assume that I don’t like it in my heart, can you get up?”

Jing Hong chased after him and rose, saying, “My lord rest, my subordinate will retire.”

Su Yan, however, called out to him, “We’re not staying at the post, we’re staying in the city.”

“?”

“The post station is filled with officials traveling from the south to the north, so we can’t see the local livelihood; we’ll go into the city to stay at an inn, and tomorrow we’ll go to the market and the fields and wander around.”

Jing Hong chased no objections, and immediately notified the two boys to load half of the unloaded luggage back into the carriage and move into the city.

At dusk, a group of people found a large inn, asked for seven rooms. The original Chu Yuan arrangement is twenty guards four a bunk, two boys and Jing Hong chase a, Su Yan live in a room.

But when Su Yan finished washing and bathing, and was ready to go out of his room to have his evening meal, he saw Jing Hongchou holding his sword, standing outside the door, and asked in a startled manner, “What are you doing standing straight here?”

Jinghong chased, “Vigil.”

“No need, this is an inn in the city, not like the wilderness, it’s fine.”

“Your honor also said it was fine last time at the lake, and it turned out–“

Su Yan surrendered: “Fine, fine, if you want to keep watch, but you have to take turns on duty on the next night, don’t just stay up by yourself. Let the fellows bring another cool couch in, just rest in the outer room, by the window, here, for the guards on watch to lie down.”

When he finished the first sentence, Jing Hongchou was about to agree. When she heard the latter sentence, she immediately regretted and said, “Those brocade guards are all unembroidered pillows that are neither pretty nor useful, and even if they fight with a few rattlesnakes, they will be injured and lose your honor’s face. It is better not to let them enter the house to keep watch, I am enough for one person.”

In all fairness, Su Yan think he is biased – where is a few horses, to the field to see, the great number of one or two hundred, each bow horse skillful, although ordinary hands, but the battlefield is not a single fight, the head of the family name of Yang will command, the strength of the whole team is not to be underestimated. Jinyiwei ride can be one against ten, do not lose the wind, kill each other seventy or eighty people, their side only seriously injured a person, slightly injured seven people, is already very remarkable.

But after all, there is a difference between close and distant, Su Yan did not want to refute Jing Hongchou’s face, so he laughed and said: ”Yes, my family’s A chou is good-looking and useful, more than them to give this lord a long face. If you insist on not changing shifts, then don’t change it, and sleep in my outer room. Just let the two boys sleep in one room, Xiao Jing sleeps poorly and loves to snore, only Xiao Bei can stand him.”

Jing Hongchou was teased by him to no avail, the previous words of disliking the brocade guards, but like intentionally belittling the others and raising their own value, immediately turned around and went downstairs to find the inn mate, only leaving Su Yan with a stiff back.

Suyan ate and laughed behind him.

Half a month of long-distance traveling, from Su Yan himself to the guards, boys, all exhausted, to the city post, can not help but relax the mind, eat and drink enough just want to sleep.

Su Yan into the house looked at the Western enamel pocket watch, only seven o’clock in the evening, while yawning, while removing the outer robe and shoes, wearing profane clothing to the pillow mat, belly on a large towel, almost instantly fall asleep.

Jing Hong chased him into the room after bathing, and through the draped curtains, he heard Su Yan’s steady and long breathing, and knowing that he was asleep, he also undid his outer clothes and lay down on the cool couch, resting his sword on the pillow.

He was trained to control himself from going into deep sleep when necessary, and to sleep lightly with his eyes closed to recuperate, the slightest breeze could wake him up.

Not long after lying down, not far from the window, the sound of beating drums and blowing trumpets suddenly sounded. Jing Hong chased with a sharp opening of the eyes, jumped up, landed quietly, pushed open the window slit to look out, like from the direction of the city gates.

Su Yan was woken up and asked in a daze, “…… What’s the situation?”

Jing Hong chased after the street to see torches blazing and silhouettes, and guessed, “Perhaps it is a procession to welcome the bride.”

Suyan let out an “oh” and fell asleep again.

The sound of golden drums stopped after a long time, I guess the bride was sent to her husband’s house, Jing Hong chased back to lie down on the cool couch, and closed her eyes again.

Two quarters of an hour later, the sound of beating drums and blowing horns resounded again, still coming from the street in the direction of the city gate.

Su Yan was woken up once again, closing his sore eyes, and said in displeasure: “Another marriage? What auspicious day is today, everyone rushes to the sedan chair!”

Jing Hong chased helplessly, “I’ll make you two cotton plugs to plug your ears.”

After stuffing cotton in his earhole, Su Yan continued to sleep.

In less than half an hour, he was once again awakened by the sound of golden drums. He sat up angrily in a sound sleep and pounded the bed: “What kind of shitty hotel! The soundproof effect is so bad, but also let people sleep! No one cares about the noise nuisance, I’m going to call 110!”

Half of his strange words Jing Hongchou did not understand, and did not mind, only frowning at the window, “Several times a night, afraid that it is not what to welcome …… the bride.”

The clamor came distantly from the marketplace, and one of the voices was particularly shrill:

“Look at the killing–“

“…… The imperial historian is going to cut off the head of the thief and bandit, everyone come and see!”