Chapter 140 [New Year is coming]

   Coming out of the east gate of Xingqing Fucheng, Fang Chang walked along the official road.

  The coldest time has just passed, and the snow is still on the ground.

  Due to sunlight, the remaining snow is no longer as soft as it was when it was first formed. A hard crust has formed on the surface, which is still white, but if you touch it with your hands, it will feel like sand, which is uncomfortable.

  There seemed to be more people around than usual.

  He has very good hearing and can hear conversations far away.

  A small number of people are from relatively good families. They heard that two Mr. Jian in the city opened a school with extremely cheap prices. They came from the surrounding villages to enroll their children.

  Almost everyone else came to the city to take advantage of the years ago. Even if they didn’t do some shopping, they could still feel the prosperity and satisfy their eyesight.

  Fang Chang stopped under a big tree with all its leaves gone.

  He gently untied the gourd at his waist, pulled off the cover, but only held it in his hands.

   Turning his head, Fang Chang looked over the Xingqing Mansion.

  The literary spirit there is like a dragon and a tiger, but it turns into a surging river and sea in an instant, spreading all over the air, extremely thick, and spreading far and wide in all directions, with a magnificent momentum.

  Fang Chang knew that this was Jian Zhengqing and Jian Zhengchu's reaction to the celestial phenomenon.

   And not only that, the aura above Xingqing Fucheng is faint, like adding the foundation of a building, which makes the luck of the human race, which was a little dark due to the catastrophe, appear to be much more stable.

  It is really a lot of merit.

  Fang Chang raised the gourd, raised his head and took a sip of sorghum wine, then smiled at what he saw.

  He covered the wine gourd again, tied it around his waist, turned his head and continued walking eastward.

  ...

  …

  The temperature is rising slightly, and the New Year is approaching.

  Fang Chang still walked very slowly. With a leisurely mood, he appreciated everything on the road and everything he encountered.

  Whether it’s dead grass or trees, gravel or snowdrifts, they can all arouse his interest, but compared with these, the myriad things among the people on the road are much more interesting.

  He didn't need to cover up the state of "Why should we meet each other?" He just walked along the official road like an ordinary passerby.

   Occasionally, when I feel interested, I walk along the rice paddies for a while, pass through villages and towns, and take some long detours, just to get in touch with interesting people and things while seeing more scenery that I have never seen before.

   Ahead is another small town.

  The new year is coming soon, everyone has been free for a long time, and the preparations for the new year have come, and it is time to play.

  The money and silk obtained from selling grain at the end of autumn are taken out and taken to the market to exchange for various food utensils for the New Year, and then a few feet of cloth are pulled for the family, clay figurines and bamboo whistles for the children and grandchildren, and wooden hairpins for the daughter.

  Compared with villages, the streets of towns are more spacious, more stalls can be placed, and they are often the geographical center of the surrounding villages. Therefore, when it is the turn to have a market here, the scale will be much larger, known as the "bad market".

   This is the busiest and most crowded time of the year for the market in the town.

   People are next to each other, crowded, bustling. If you wear a little thicker clothes, you will see sweat on your forehead before you finish shopping in the market.

  White hot air in the pot and stove floats upwards, and disappears with the breeze. There is a mixture of various smells in the air, which is not pleasant, but full of life.

  The sounds of yelling, talking, bargaining, the sound of food sizzling in the oil pan, and the sound of poultry clucking were also mixed together, rushing head-on.

On the stalls on both sides, there are densely packed New Year's goods, such as rice noodles, pig's head, smoked chicken, sausage, dried vegetables, wine, onion and ginger, sugar cubes, sugar melon, sesame sugar, rice cakes, sesame oil, mature vinegar, dim sum, salt, dried tofu, tofu Silk, New Year pictures, window paper, fruit, skin jelly, red paper, preserved fruit, tendon, straw paper, cloth...

   There are also clay sculptures, windmills, sugar figures, face masks, wooden knives and guns, candied haws, flower head ropes, firecrackers that children love...

  In front of the stalls, there are quite a few people around each of them. They rummage around and ask questions at the same time. The stall owner often responds swiftly and without any confusion. In the gap, the two parties are still bargaining.

  In this situation, the stall owners are not annoyed at all, because only those who pick and bargain hard are the most sincere buyers.

  Fang Chang walked into this unremarkable ordinary town.

  The market-goers passing by will subconsciously keep a distance of one foot from him, so that he avoids crowding, just like a fish slipping into the water, walking smoothly in this market full of stalls and pedestrians.

  He stopped in front of a stall that was frying tofu cubes.

The owner of the fried tofu stall is busy. He set up a small stove, heated a thick iron plate to boiling hot, carefully spread a thin layer of meat oil on it, put the marinated tofu cut into square slices on it, and fried it The fried six sides are browned, the sound is pleasant, and the aroma is tangy.

  The countryside doesn’t pay much attention to queuing, they are all gathered together. When Fang Chang walked in, the people next to him subconsciously stepped aside, one foot away from him, but their eyes were still looking at the burnt tofu.

  He asked: "How do you sell this tofu?"

The stall owner replied without raising his head: "Three slices for one penny, ten slices for three pennies. Customers, don't think that the tofu is not very valuable, but I use the ingredients carefully. I added salt and used good meat oil. It’s very affordable. Get some, it’s guaranteed to be delicious, and you’ll want to eat it more.”

   "Twenty pieces here." Saying so, Fang Chang handed out six Wen coins.

   "Okay~~!" Seeing that there was a business coming, the stall owner was very happy, took the money immediately, and took out a few slices of tofu and put them on the iron plate.

  The advantage of the rotten market is that there is no need to stop the fire, and there are constant customers, which greatly saves costs. In terms of daily income, today is the most unmissable day of the year.

  Because it can always be sold today, the production arrangement of the stall owner is different. There are always batches of tofu being fried on the iron plate, so that Fang Chang can get his own portion without waiting for a full cooking cycle.

  Someone with two children passed by the stall. The children were attracted by the aroma and clamored to eat.

   Fortunately, tofu is not expensive, this person couldn't resist, so he came over and took out three Wen to buy it.

"Guest wait a moment, I'll fry the portion that this person wants first." As he said, he turned on the stove below to make it even hotter, and then his hands became more nimble, and the friction between the small shovel and the iron plate The sound is more rapid, like a simple and short percussion music.

   Fang Chang looked at the person next to him. There were patches on the other person's clothes, but his complexion was good. He didn't look like a wealthy family, but he was well-fed.

  He was the first to speak, and chatted up: "This old man, are you here to catch the bad market?"

   "Yeah, it's all the same. The people who go out today are almost all people going to the market." The middle-aged man smiled cheerfully: "I am the same way. Come here to play with the children and buy some New Year's goods by the way."

   "Our mansion had a bumper harvest this fall. Although the price of grain has fallen as usual, and it hasn't slowed down until now, we have harvested a little more after all, and we can have a good year..."

  During the conversation, the stall owner took out a straw paper, carefully placed two stacks of tofu on it, and handed it to Fang Chang:

   "Guest, your fried tofu."

   Thank you for your reward.

  

  

  (end of this chapter)