Along the way out of Yellow Earth Town, most of the snow on the official road had melted and the road was muddy.
The New Year had just passed, and there were few pedestrians on the road. Apart from him, there were only a few sellers carrying ladles who disappeared and appeared on the official road.
Jiang Fa carried the ghost-headed sword on his back and walked northward steadily.
After walking for about half an hour,
When passing Clear Creek Bridge, there was a tea stall at the head of the bridge, so he ordered a bowl of hot tea and ate two boiled eggs with the tea.
The stall owner was an elderly man, hunched over and warming himself by the stove. Seeing that he was dressed as a warrior, he didn't dare to come forward and talk to him casually.
Jiang Fa sat on a bench holding a tea bowl, looking at the stream covered with a thin layer of ice under the bridge in trance.
Not long after I sat down, two people came from the other side of the bridge.
One man and one woman.
The man was in his early thirties, of medium build, wearing a half-worn gray cotton robe, carrying a blue cloth bag on his shoulders, and his shoes were stained with yellowish-brown mud.
He was born with a dark complexion, a short beard on his chin, and small eyes that narrowed into two slits when he smiled.
The woman is in her twenties, has a slender figure, wears a coarse cotton-padded jacket, and has a clean and delicate face.
She followed the man with a low eyebrow and a small bamboo basket in her hand. She looked like a country girl visiting relatives, timid and cowardly.
The man asked for two bowls of tea from the stall,
Seeing that there was no one at the Jiang Fa table, he called the woman to come forward and sit down.
Jiang Fa glanced at the two of them casually and didn't look much further.
"Sister, drink something hot first to warm yourself up."
The man pushed a bowl of tea in front of the woman, and then took a big sip himself.
He has a bold personality. When he saw Jiang Fa sitting across from him, he couldn't help but grin. "Is this little brother going to Qingshan County too?"
Jiang Fa glanced at him and nodded.
The man's eyes lit up and he laughed and said, "What a coincidence! My sister and I also went to Qingshan County to join my uncle. He did some small business in the county town and opened a cloth shop. Let me go there after the year to help."
He said, pointing to the woman next to him. "This is my sister. She has never traveled far since she was a child. She has a soft temper. After walking for such a long time, the soles of her feet are blistered."
Seeing her brother mentioning herself in front of strangers, the woman hurriedly lowered her head, the tips of her ears turned red, and she was a little shy.
"Visiting relatives?" Jiang Fa raised his eyebrows.
"It doesn't count, it doesn't count." The man waved his hand and said with a smile, "My mother passed away early, and my father is not in good health. There are only two in the family, me and my sister. My uncle is doing well in the county. Why don't we, brothers and sisters, go over and help out? You said it's freezing during the Chinese New Year. If not my uncle, who would be willing to run so far?"
When the man saw that Jiang Fa was willing to talk to him, he immediately talked non-stop.
Jiang Fa said "hmm" and didn't ask any more questions.
The man was extremely talkative, and in just a few words he revealed all his details, saying that he had saved some capital by working as a helper in the countryside, and planned to open a small shop in the county town later this year to do some small business.
"Brother is a martial artist, right?"
His eyes fell on the ghost-head knife Jiang Fa placed beside the table, with a hint of awe and curiosity on his face that was rare among villagers.
Jiang Fa said "Hmm", and seeing that it was still early, he added a new bowl of tea to himself.
"No wonder, it looks different." The man chuckled, picked up the tea bowl and took a sip, then turned to the woman next to him and said, "Sister, do your feet still hurt? When you get to your uncle's house later, let your sister-in-law boil a pot of hot water for you to soak."
The woman's voice was like a gnat, and she whispered softly, "It doesn't matter."
The man finished drinking a bowl of tea and saw that his sister's bowl had also reached the bottom. He stood up, patted the dust on his pants, and raised his hand to Jiang Fa: "Brother, we still have to hurry, so we'll take a step first. We'll meet again if we are destined."
Jiang Fa nodded slightly.
The two of them followed the official road in the direction of Qingshan County.
Jiang Fa was in no hurry to leave.
He took out a boiled egg from his bag, peeled the shell slowly, and ate the egg with the half-warm tea.
The old man at the tea stall was hunched over, clearing the tables and chairs, humming an unknown ditty.
He sat for another quarter of an hour, until the sun came out from behind the clouds, and then he stood up slowly.
Put down the three cents of tea money, pick up the ghost-headed knife on your back, and walk north along the official road.
After the snow melted, the official road was muddy, with ruts and footprints mixed together.
After walking less than two or three miles, two figures appeared on the roadside ahead.
Jiang Fa took a closer look and saw that it was the brother and sister from before.
He originally wanted to wait until they were far away, but these two people really didn't walk very fast.
The brother and sister heard the footsteps behind them. The brother turned around and recognized him. He immediately smiled and waved, "Hey, it's you again, little brother, what a fate!"
Jiang Fa responded with a smile and quickened his pace to catch up.
"This road is so bad, my girl's shoes got stuck in it twice."
The man shook his head and smiled bitterly, reaching out to help the woman beside him.
"Sister, come and have a rest against the tree. Let's wait for this little brother. We will have a companion when we walk together."
The woman gave a low "hmm" and leaned against the tree.
Jiang Fa walked about half a step beside the man, his eyes swept across the remaining snow on the roadside that had not yet melted, and he said casually, "We will walk on this road for half an hour, and it will be dry after Bluestone Slope."
The man nodded. He was obviously a chatterbox. As long as someone talked to him, he would start talking here and there, from the prices of Lin County to the extravagance of the state capital, from his uncle's cloth farm to the interesting stories of catching loaches in the countryside when he was a child.
Jiang Fa listened, interjecting from time to time, and even took the initiative to ask where his uncle's cloth shop was located, what kind of fabrics he sold, and how much his annual turnover was.
The man answered with such excitement that he almost revealed the birthplace of his uncle's little wife.
His sister frowned when she heard this and gently tugged on his sleeve. "Brother, please stop saying a few words. How can you say this to someone you met for the first time..."
The man laughed, "What are you afraid of? It's not something shameful."
Jiang Fa smiled and said, "My eldest brother is a sweet-tempered person. I have been bored all the way and this is just the right time to relieve my fatigue."
As he spoke, he looked at the man and said, "Does your uncle's cloth shop specialize in silk and satin, or does it also make cotton? I heard Qingshan County that the price of cotton has increased by 30% this year compared to previous years, and everyone in the cotton business has made a fortune."
The man's eyes lit up. "Is there such a thing? My uncle is in the cotton business! My brother knows his business. Could it be that our family also does business?"
"No, I just listened to some senior brothers chatting a few words in the martial arts hall."
Jiang Fa waved his hand and glanced casually over a piece of snow on the side of the road that had not yet melted. There was a series of faint animal tracks printed on the snow. Judging from the size of the paw prints, it should be a lynx.
There was a trace of curiosity on Jiang Fa's face, and he suddenly asked the man, "Brother just said that your uncle opened a cloth shop in Qingshan County? I wonder which street it is? I have been in Qingshan County for more than a year, maybe I have been there."
The man was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Hey, it's not a big shop. It's Willow Lane in the west of the city. It's the second shop at the entrance of the alley. The signboard says 'Zhou's Cloth Shop'. If you are free, you can go and sit there. My uncle's surname is Zhou and he is known as Shopkeeper Zhou."
"Willow Lane..." Jiang Fa touched his chin and nodded thoughtfully, "You know, your uncle has been doing this for some years, right?"
"It's been a few years. I heard from my mother that she worked as an apprentice in Fucheng in the early years, and then went out to work on her own. It took me half a lifetime to save up for that shop."
As the man spoke, he took out a deflated tobacco pouch from his arms and knocked it on the root of the tree.
"The reason I'm going this time is to help the old man and learn how to calculate accounts and inspect goods, so that I can make a living on my own in the future."
"Brother is very pragmatic."
The man smiled bitterly when he heard this, "What can I do if I'm not pragmatic? I have a few acres of thin farmland at home, and the years are good and bad. I have to dig in the ground for food. I won't be able to make a fortune even if I starve to death."