Chapter 41 shame and anger

When they arrived at Zhang Weichi's house, they found the door closed.After knocking for a long time, a servant of the Zhang family hurried out to open the door.Seeing that it was Maoxiang, the slender man wiped his big dirty hands with a wet cloth, and said with a smile, "The master is not at home." When asked where he went, he said he didn't know; Tea.Mao Xiang couldn't help feeling suspicious, so he said: "Then, I'll just wait for your master to come back!" Without waiting for the other party's consent, he crossed the threshold and walked into the courtyard.

Unlike Maoxiang, Zhang Weichi lived in Haining for generations. Although he was not a wealthy man, he had many relatives and friends in the city, and he had many more ways of living than Maoxiang.His house is not big, but it has not been burned, and the houses from the patio to the inside are still quite intact.At first Zhang Weichi also invited Maoxiang's family to move here.Maoxiang didn't want to bother his friend too much, so he insisted on refusing to do so, so he gave up.However, Mao Xiang still had no choice but to come to his door whenever he encountered a difficult problem that he could not solve...

"Sir, please sit in the main room, or my master will come back soon." The servant stood still when he saw the guest walking into the courtyard, and the servant followed up and said. "Well, is your master planning to move?" Mao Xiang asked curiously, looking at the boxes and cages scattered in the courtyard.Some of those cages have been closed and tied firmly with ropes; others are still open, revealing the clothes and quilts inside.Three women who looked like maids and mothers were busy cleaning up nearby. "Mr. Hui, it's not moving." The servant replied.

"It's not moving—what's the reason for that? Are you planning to flee?" "Sir, do you mean fleeing... fleeing? Oh, this, the master didn't say that. The villain doesn't know." The other party replied like this, but in normal times, Mao Xiang would not ask any more out of politeness.But right now, he was concerned about the movement of the rebel army in eastern Zhejiang, so he became serious as an exception: "I don't know? How could you not know?" "Hey, I'm talking about my husband!" A woman's voice came up, it was the middle-aged maid with a round face, "What is the master's plan, how will the villains know if they are servants? Probably, it is the master." Seeing that the weather is fine today, I don’t know why I ordered the little people to move out the boxes and cages to bask in the sun!”

If it is just to take out the clothes and quilts to dry, the owner will not fail to make it clear.But these servants all pretended that they didn't know, obviously deliberately deceiving and prevaricating.Moreover, the woman's tone of voice also clearly reveals a certain contemptuous meaning.Mao Xiang was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but feel angry, so he opened his eyes and reprimanded: "You bastard! Who do you think I am? How dare you play tricks on Mr. Ben? Ah!" The servants naturally recognized him as the master's friend, and they didn't dare to speak back when they were drunk by him, but they just kept their faces blank and went to clean up the boxes and cages on the ground.Seeing this, Mao Xiang became more and more anxious, and was about to ask loudly, when suddenly he heard a familiar voice behind him saying:

"Oh, it turns out that Pijiang is here! No welcome, no welcome!" Mao Xiang turned around and found that it was an old friend who had returned.Probably because of the haste of the journey, Zhang Weichi's chubby face was flushed, and beads of sweat were still oozing from his shaved forehead. "Hey, Pijiang, why don't you come in? Come in and sit down!" Zhang Weichi urged enthusiastically, but he didn't realize that the atmosphere in the courtyard was not right. "Quickly, serve tea!" After ordering the servant, he took Maoxiang's arm and led his friend into the main room.

"By the way, take out any food you have." Zhang Weichi wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, took tea from the servant, and ordered, "I've been running outside for a long time, and I'm hungry too." Already!" After the servant agreed to go, Zhang Weichi turned his face and asked: "Well, then, brother must have heard about King Lu sending troops across the river?" Maoxiang's eyes were still following the servant's back, "Well, something to eat? I wonder what he can bring out?" After thinking so excitedly, he suddenly came back to his senses, so he nodded quickly: "Well, my brother Just now I heard from a passerby that the King of Lu sent ten soldiers and horses to fight across the river. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’m about to ask my brother.”

"It's true. I have only heard about it in the past two days. In recent months, the south has indeed become a big mess. Lu Fan, who is in charge of Shaoxing's state, claims to have an army of 100,000, and Tang, who proclaims himself emperor in Fujian King, there are also many soldiers and horses..." Speaking of this, the servant's footsteps sounded again, and the food was brought out. It turned out to be steaming sweet potato and rice.However, there is only one bowl and only one pair of chopsticks. "Hey, where's Mr. Mao's?" Zhang Weichi asked in surprise.

"Return to the master," the servant put the rice and chopsticks in front of Zhang Weichi, while bowing his head respectfully and replied, "Just now, the villain asked Mr. Mao, and Mr. Mao said that he had already used it!" "Oh, so my brother has already used it?" Zhang Weichi turned to Maoxiang inquiringly. At first, when he saw that only a bowl and a chopstick were brought out, Mao Xiang was quite puzzled, because even though it was just sweet potato and rice, the delicious smell made him salivate immediately, hungry, and wanted to have a bite too.For a moment, he still guessed that the other party might serve it out twice, but unexpectedly, it was the servant's face-to-face nonsense that got into his ears, and he couldn't help being surprised.However, when he came into contact with the liar's cunning eyes hidden under his nose, he felt a bit uneasy, and somewhat came to his senses - he remembered that when he entered the door just now, he scolded them because of a moment of anger, and it seemed that they remembered their hatred In his heart, he deliberately took revenge on himself at this moment. "Ah, how dare these hateful idiots do this!" He blushed immediately, thinking with mixed feelings of embarrassment, "What nonsense, sweet potato and rice! In the past, there would be treasures from mountains and seas, dragon liver and phoenix marrow. Why did you blink your eyes! Now it's just a tiger in Pingyang, and you end up being bullied by these dogs!" However, anger turned to anger, and out of pity for his face, he had no choice but to bite the bullet, nodded, and said:

"Brother, please help yourself, little brother—well, I have already used it at home!" After saying this, in order not to be tempted by the bowl of rice, he gritted his teeth, kept his face away, and refused to look at Zhang Weichi; at the same time, he tried not to think about those servants' proud grimaces. Fortunately, Zhang Weichi might be really hungry, maybe he felt that it would be impolite to eat alone in front of his friends, so he finished the bowl of rice in two or three strokes, and then picked up the teacup again—— "Well, what did Brother Shicai say? Oh, that's right - I heard that when we escaped from Haining, King Lu's troops crossed Qiantang from the south and captured Fuyang and Yuqian. West Zhejiang. This time he sent a lot of soldiers, needless to say, to besiege Hangzhou. Now on the Qiantang River, there is a lot of fighting every day!"

Mao Xiang frowned and listened intently, her heart beating fast again.After confirming that the situation that he thought was hopeless, there was a turning point, and it was possible for him to get rid of the embarrassing situation in front of him and return to the camp of "his own people". He couldn't help being very excited.This mood became more urgent because of the unreasonable humiliation just now.If you hadn't heard about it before, maybe you would raise your arms.He was about to ask the other party for more details, but he heard Zhang Weichi say: "The Tatars have recently sent troops to station in Haining, and sooner or later there will be wars here again, so it's impossible to live here. Fortunately, there are not many things left, just some daily necessities, just put them together randomly, and it's over—hey, Brother, please use tea!" Mao Xiang instinctively picked up the cup, and after hearing this, he stopped immediately: "Brother, are you planning to escape?" He asked suspiciously, and then remembered the boxes and luggage he saw when he entered the door. "Well," Zhang Weichi nodded, "Since I have shaved my hair, I can only run away with the Tartars! Otherwise, when the Southern soldiers come over, I won't be able to survive!" Mao Xiang was startled suddenly: "Ah, I can't survive? How do you say that?" "Yes." Zhang Weichi raised his head and gave a wry smile, "I heard that the South believes that anyone who shaved their hair becomes a Tartar. Once caught, they will all be killed! A few days ago when the Southern soldiers attacked Kanpu Many villagers were killed because of this. At that time, a distant relative of my brother was also caught, and it was only after being mixed with the dead that he saved his life!" "Then, don't the Southern soldiers know that they were forced to shave their hair by the Tartars?" Mao Xiang asked anxiously, feeling his voice trembling slightly at the same time. "Those villagers also begged them so hard at that time. But Nan Bing said that this hair style and clothes were passed down from their ancestors. Whoever shaves it will betray their ancestors and destroy their ancestors, and become a tiger, wolf, beast like the Tartars." , even worse than tigers, wolves, and beasts, they are just ghosts who lead the way for tigers and wolves and cannibals. It will be a curse if you keep it, you must kill it!" Mao Xiang choked, dumbstruck.To be honest, when he was forced by his family to shave his hair, although he was suffering in his heart, he hated himself for being too soft-hearted and worrying too much. In the end, the result was humiliation and humiliation, trying to survive, but never imagined that in this way, myself—and my family members, in the eyes of my former compatriots, turned into tigers, wolves, beasts, and damned ghosts! "But, this is obviously wrong, it's nonsense!" He stood up abruptly, and retorted angrily, "The people are obviously forced, and we are all forced! How come we are different? We are not different! We ..." He wanted to argue loudly.However, when his eyes fell on Zhang Weichi's half-glossy skull and the braids behind him, he couldn't help thinking of his disgusting and shameful appearance, his voice dropped, and I kept silent; after a long while, I finally sat back on the chair dejectedly. "I heard that the southern soldiers are busy taking turns fighting against Hangzhou these days, and they don't care about Shanghai and Ning for a while." Zhang Weichi said again, "Once he is free, he might arrive right away. Brother, you have to plan on your own. !" "..." "Well, brother, it's better to plan for yourself!" Zhang Weichi repeated. "So, when did brother know about this?" Mao Xiang asked gloomyly, without looking up. "This—it's only two or three days!" Zhang Weichi's tone was a little vague, and then he explained, "I wanted to inform my brother earlier, but I didn't know whether the Nanbing would come or not, so... ..." Mao Xiang glanced at the other party sharply, and a resentment suddenly surged in his heart: "Huh, it turns out that he has heard the news for several days, but he is only busy with his own way out of the city to avoid disaster, and has left me behind. Until today I Barely looking for it, that's why I've made my own plan! It's already at this point, what else can I do early? What's the 'plan' to 'do'?" "Oh, look, I'm so busy and dizzy!" Seeing Maoxiang's sullen face and not speaking, Zhang Weichi blinked, obviously remembering something, and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time, your father and your body must be healthy?" Mao Xiang didn't say a word right away, until Zhang Weichi was a little puzzled by the silence in front of him, and he said lightly: "Please ask me more, please be safe." "Oh, that's good! That's good!" Zhang Weichi nodded again and again, paused, and reminded, "However, we have to make our own plans - Haining is too close to the river, it's best to hide Farther away, the farther the better!" Whether it is in Haining now or in Haiyan a few days ago, Maoxiang's family can be said to live in a remote place, and it is only thanks to Zhang Weichi's arrangement to take care of them that they barely survive until today.If they leave Haining again, the family will have a long way to go, and they don't know where to go.But this time Zhang Weichi did not inform himself of the news for a long time, just now he was in such a tone, it seems that he no longer intends to continue to make arrangements... "Hmph, what's 'early plan'! It is nothing more than you want to put our family Get rid of it as a burden, so that you can escape for your own life! No wonder you ate so comfortably alone the meal just now!" He thought with extreme annoyance. The sound of horseshoes came from the streets outside again.Because the two friends stopped talking for a while, the rain-like voice sounded so cold and ruthless, like sharp nails, knocking into people's hearts... Finally, Mao Xiang stood up and gave a loud cry He walked towards the door without making a sound. "Hey, Pijiang, where are you going?" Zhang Weichi asked strangely, seeing that his expression was a bit off. This time, Mao Xiang took the initiative to stop.He turned his body, looked at the bewildered friend, and said lightly: "Where are you going, brother, you don't have to worry about it. All in all, I won't bother you again from now on!" After finishing speaking, he turned around and strode out, letting Zhang Weichi call loudly from behind, and never looked back.