Chapter 17 The sixteenth grocery store

The house was built so low that you could almost touch the beams with your hands. The chalk on the wall had peeled off, and on it were pasted a woodcut picture of Master Guan observing the Spring and Autumn Period, a piece of family motto by Master Zhu, and a handwritten The exhortation to the world is written very neatly.There is only one window and one door in the room, and the door is hung with a blue cloth curtain that has been washed white. A table for the Eight Immortals, although very dilapidated, was made of mahogany, and it was placed opposite the door.On the table there is a teapot with a spout, three tea bowls, and a shrine. Inside it is not Guan Fuzi, but Guanyin, who is holding a fat baby in his hand.

There were three camphorwood boxes piled up in one corner, and a dressing table that had obviously not been used for a long time in the other corner. A rhombus bronze mirror was covered with dust, and several wooden combs were broken. Other than that, there is only one bed.A large carved wooden bed with four wooden pillars for hanging a curtain, on which a woman sleeps, covered with three thick quilts.The woman's hair was disheveled, her face was yellow, and she looked indescribably tired and haggard. Although she was asleep, she still moaned from time to time. The air was filled with a strong smell of medicine, and a shrill woman's voice was making noise outside, saying that the eggs in this grocery store were too small, that the oil was mixed with water, and that the salt was too expensive.

When Ma Rulong woke up, he was in such a place.He originally thought he was dreaming. Apart from dreaming, how could a person like him come to such a place.Fortunately, despite his hangover and his head hurting like hell, his memory hasn't been lost yet. He immediately remembered how he had come here.His first reaction was to jump up from the chair, rush to the dressing table, pick up the bronze mirror, and wipe off the dust on it with his sleeve.He felt as though his hands were shaking. ——What exactly did Yu Linglong do to his face?Of course he was anxious to see what he had become?

What he saw was not himself, but Zhang Rongfa, definitely not himself, definitely Zhang Rongfa.When he looked in the mirror, it was as if he was looking at the picture that Da Wan had shown him. When a person looks in the mirror, what he sees is another person. How does he feel?People who have never experienced this kind of thing would never even dream about how he feels in his heart now. Although he didn't remind himself often, he also knew that he was a handsome man.Even those who hate and hate him the most cannot but admit this.He couldn't help but ask himself. "In the future, will I return to the way I was before?" Of course he couldn't answer this question himself, he only hated himself for not asking Da Wan and Yu Linglong before.

The noise of quarreling outside had finally calmed down, and the woman on the bed hadn't woken up yet.Of course, Ma Rulong couldn't help but go to see her, and was startled again. This sallow, emaciated, sick and haggard woman, without even a gleam of radiance, is really the beautiful woman he saw when he lifted the sheet in the autopsy room in that yamen?Ma Rulong clearly knew that he would become like this, but he still couldn't help being afraid and surprised.When she woke up, she suddenly found that she had suddenly become like this, what would happen to her?Ma Rulong has already begun to sympathize with her.

Now "Zhang Rongfa" has seen himself, the house he lives in, and his wife.What is his grocery store like?What kind of person is his honest and loyal buddy Zhang Laoshi?Of course he couldn't help but want to see it. A grocery store is usually a very "miscellaneous" place full of all kinds of "goods".Oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, rice, eggs, duck eggs, salted eggs, preserved eggs, dried shrimp, pickles, rock sugar, needlework, knives and scissors, nails, toilet paper... Everything an ordinary person needs in their daily life can be bought in a grocery store. This grocery store is also like this, with a dilapidated sign hanging at the door. "Zhang Ji Groceries".

Outside the door is an alley that is not very narrow. When it is windy, the sky is full of dust and sand, and when it rains, the road is muddy. The neighbors are all poor people, and children with runny noses are crying all day long in the alley. Fighting and playing, feces from chickens, ducks, cats and dogs are everywhere, and children's clothes and diapers are drying at the door of every house. In this kind of place and this kind of family, apart from amusing children, there is almost no other entertainment.Of course, the heroes and heroes in the Jianghu would not come to this kind of place.Ma Rulong never dreamed that he would become the owner of such a grocery store.

Zhang honestly has a short, fat figure, a sloppy appearance, a round face, eyes that never seem to wake up, and a big red wine-stained nose.Zhang Laoshi was not very polite to his boss, he didn't even bother to say anything, he didn't even bother to look. In such a shabby shop, what about the boss?so what buddyAnyway, everyone is eating and waiting to die, and they can endure every day.Ma Rulong was very satisfied with this situation, but if Zhang Laoshi was a talkative person and was particularly flattering to him, he couldn't stand it. Where is the original owner and wife of the grocery store?Of course, Yu Wu has made proper arrangements for them, and their lives must be much better now than before.Ma Rulong couldn't help asking himself: "How long will I have to live like this?"

Business came again, a young daughter-in-law with a big belly came to buy brown sugar for a penny.At this moment, Ma Rulong heard a cry, although the voice was not loud, Ma Rulong had never heard such a panic and tragic cry in his whole life.Xie Yubao must have woken up, must have discovered this terrible change.Ma Rulong hardly dared to go in and face her. The pregnant little daughter-in-law looked at him and shook her head and sighed: "The boss's illness seems to be getting worse and worse." Ma Rulong could only smile wryly, lifted the blue curtain, and walked into the back room.

Xie Yubao was struggling to get up from the bed, her eyes were full of panic, anger, and fear that could never be forgotten after one glance, and she screamed loudly. "Who are you? What is this place, and how did I come here?" "This is your home. You have lived here for eighteen years, and I am your husband." When Ma Rulong said these words, he felt like a weasel.But he couldn't help but say: "I see, you are seriously ill again, and you don't even recognize your own home and husband." Xie Yubao looked at him in surprise, no one could describe the expression in her eyes.

The pregnant little daughter-in-law also poked her head in from outside the curtain, and sighed, "The proprietress must have a bad burn, that's why she's talking nonsense like this. You'd better make some brown sugar ginger water for her to drink." Before he finished speaking, Xie Yubao had already grabbed a thick bowl on the small table by the bed, and threw it towards them with all his strength. It's a pity that she was so "ill" that she couldn't even drop a bowl.She was even more frightened, so frightened that her whole body was shaking. She knew her own martial arts, where did that amazing martial arts go?The little daughter-in-law finally sighed and went home with the brown sugar. Within half an hour, the neighbors would know that the proprietress of the grocery store was going crazy.Xie Yubao was really going crazy.She has already seen her hands, a pair of soft jade hands like boneless spring onions, have now become like chicken feet. Where else?She stretched her hand into the bed, and suddenly withdrew it again, as if a poisonous snake had bitten her in the bed.Then she saw the mirror again, and she struggled to crawl over it, and took a look in the mirror.Just one look, and she fainted. Ma Rulong bent down slowly, and picked up the pieces of the broken bowl from the ground.In fact, he didn't want to do it.What he really wanted to do was to slap himself seventeen or eight times, and then tell this girl surnamed Xie the truth. But he can't feel sorry for Da Wan.Da Wan trusts him, and he should trust her too.She must have deep intentions in doing this, and it is good for everyone.Ma Rulong sighed a long time, walked out slowly, and told his staff, "Today we close early."