Cheng Qianxu was ten years old, and he was very rough and could not keep up with his age.

As the day approached Zhongtian, he carried the firewood from the gate of the courtyard into the main hall. The whole bundle of firewood was a little unmoved, so he had to run back and forth twice. Then he applied a handful of sweat and rested his head to burn the fire and cook.

These days, there were guests at home. His father was busy accompanying guests, washing vegetables, cooking, cooking, chopping wood, etc., all the matters fell on Cheng Qian's head, making him a short-legged top, and a gust of exhaustion could be blown at any time and anywhere.

Because he was too short, although Cheng Qian was able to get the pot, it was still a bit inconvenient to operate the big pot, so he found a small stool from the corner of the main hall to step on it.

The small stool has four legs with different lengths and goes inside and out. Cheng Qian learned to cook on the stool since he was six years old. After almost falling into the pot and turning into human flesh soup countless times, he learned how to live in peace with this uneven footrest and maintain a balance of wind and rain.

That day, when he was standing on a small stool and adding water to the big pot, his elder brother came back.

The eldest brother of the Cheng family was already fifteen years old and was a big man. He walked into the main hall silently with sweat, glanced around, then carried the young man off the stool with one hand, pushed him on the back lightly and severely, and said in a muffled voice: "I'll do it, you go play."

Of course, Cheng Qian wouldn't really go out to play heartlessly. He called out brother obediently, then squatted aside silently, and pulled up the bellows.

Cheng Dalang looked down at him, and said nothing, but his eyes were a little complicated.

The Cheng family has three sons, Cheng Qian Xinger. By the night before, before the guest arrived, Cheng Qian was still called "Cheng Erlang".

Dalang knew that the word "Erlang" is probably called to the end now, and this simple nickname and his second brother were going to change their appearance and travel far away.

The guest who came before the first day was a Taoist priest, whose surname was no good, and he called himself "Mu Chun Zhenren". However, just by looking at his appearance, this real person might not have any real skills. He only saw a sparse goatee, half open and half closed with a pair of triangular eyes, and a pair of lonely and thin feet were exposed under his floating robe. He didn't see how fairy-like, but he looked like a fortune teller who was cheating.

The real person was passing by here during his travels and came to ask for a bowl of water, but he didn't expect to meet Cheng Erlang.

Cheng Erlang had just run back from outside at that time. There was an old Tongsheng who had been unable to pass the exam at the entrance of the village. He recruited students to teach them. The old Tongsheng's knowledge was very loose, but Shu Xiu was extremely vicious. He looked down on all the bacon and fruits and vegetables in the farm. He was willing to collect real money and silver. He had no accurate amount. Every time he spent money, he would ask the students for it.

As a person, he is really not worthy of preaching and teaching the books of sages, but there is no way. It is difficult for children in the countryside to study, and within a radius of dozens of miles, he can no longer find a second teacher who can teach.

With the Cheng family's family background, there is definitely no spare money to support the sons to read, but those cumbersome Zhihu seem to have a strange attraction to Cheng Erlang. He cannot go openly and have to eavesdrop on the spot.

Lao Tong felt that every spitting star was produced by hard work and refused to let people listen in vain. He often came out to patrol halfway through the talk.

Cheng Erlang had to transform into a monkey and hide in the big locust tree at the entrance of Lao Tongsheng's yard. Every time he eavesdrops, he could hear the hot sweat of "cultivating oneself and managing the family and pacifying the world".

Last night, Cheng Erlang was driven by his father to bring a bowl of water to the guest, but the strange guest did not answer. He stretched out a hand as thin as a cold branch, did not touch the bones, nor did he use any strange techniques. He just gently pulled Erlang's face and looked at the child who was trying hard to imitate the "scholar's sour spirit" of the scholar.

I don’t know what clues were seen from this glance. Anyway, after reading it, he nodded in a silence and spoke to the Cheng family seriously: “I think this child has good qualifications and may be able to climb the sky and hide in the abyss in the future. Maybe he has great luck and is not something in the pool.”

When the real person said this, Dalang was also present. Dalang was following the shopkeeper's apprentice outside and met some people who came and went from north to south. He felt that he had some knowledge and had never heard of a pair of people who could tell the quality of the qualifications by just one eye.

Dalang was about to argue contemptuously about this liar in the world, but before he could speak, he found that his father had listened to these lies, and he suddenly understood what was coming.

The Cheng family was not rich, and his mother gave birth to a younger brother again a few years ago. The younger brother was having a difficult time, which made his mother feel weak after giving birth. In this way, the family lacked a strong labor force who could work and had an extra pot of medicine that had to take medicine all day long. She was not rich and was even more struggling for a while.

The year is not good, and there has not been a drop of rain for several months. It seems like a big wasteland without harvest. The three brothers... I am afraid they can't afford it.

Dalang knew what his parents were thinking. He had been apprenticing for a year and a half. In another year and a half, he could make the family come back and pay for money. The Cheng family's future hope was that the younger brother was still in his infancy. Naturally, he could not give up his parents, and only Erlang was left in the middle, which was purely unnecessary and it was useless to keep it. If he could be sent to the passing Taoist priests to lead them to practice immortality, it would be a place to go.

After the cultivation is completed, it is because the old Cheng family's grave has grown grass and has a great fortune. It doesn't matter if it cannot be completed. He asked him to follow others, whether he can go around the world or cheat, and he has enough food to grow up, even if he can get out of the way.

The short-sighted leader of the Cheng family quickly agreed and quickly agreed to the "buy". The real person left a ingot of silver. They handed over the money and the other. Cheng Erlang changed his name from then on. That afternoon, he would cut off his relationship and set off with his master.

Dalang is a few years apart from his second brother. He usually has nothing to say to each other and is not very close. However, the second brother has been sensible since he was a child, never cried or made trouble, and never caused trouble. He picked up the leftovers of his elder brother, and gave in to his younger brother and his sick mother even though he had to work first and never complained.

Dalang didn't say anything, but he loved his younger brother in his heart.

But there is no way, the family is poor and cannot afford to support it. Before the Cheng family's Dalang set up a family, he didn't count any big or small matters.

No matter what, it is just a kind of flesh and blood. Can you sell it if you say it?

The more Dalang thought about it, the more he felt uncomfortable. He wanted to use a big iron spoon to shoot the old liar's forehead, but after thinking about it, he didn't dare to - then again, if he really had the courage, he wouldn't have to follow others to get an apprentice and run away. Wouldn't he be richer when he robbed the family?

Cheng Qian was not completely ignorant about his parents' plans and his elder brother's depression.

He is not as premature as a child prodigy who became a poem at the age of seven and worshipped the prime ministers for thirteen years, but he has many ordinary minds.

My father got up early and went to bed late, and my elder brother was busy with the moon. My mother could not let go of his elder brother and younger brother. Therefore, in the Cheng family, although no one beats and scolds him, no one took him seriously. Cheng Qian knew all this well. He was born with tactfulness and tried not to be annoying. The most extraordinary thing he had done in his life was just climbing the big tree of the old boy and listening to the nonsense books of sages.

He worked diligently and diligently, treating himself as a small jogging hall, a small craftsman, a small servant - just not a son.

Cheng Qian didn’t know what it felt like to be a son.

The child should have talkative and jumped up and down, but since Cheng Qian is not his son, he naturally does not have the privilege of being too talkative and naughty. He has something in his heart and endures it and does not reveal it. In the long run, the words cannot be scattered everywhere, so he has to look inward and poke many bumpy eyes into his small chest.

Cheng Qian, who had rain on his chest, knew that his parents had sold him, but he felt a little strangely calm, as if he had expected such a day.

Before leaving, Cheng Qian's sick mother got out of bed for the first time and called him aside tremblingly. She stuffed him a small package with red eyes, putting a few pieces of cakes inside, and putting them in them. Needless to say, the clothes were still something his elder brother couldn't change. The cakes were made overnight by his father's first night.

After all, it was the flesh that fell from his body. His mother looked at him and couldn't help but put her hand into her sleeve and took it out. Cheng Qian saw her tremblingly pulling out a hanging of copper coins. The bumpy and dark-colored copper coins suddenly tugged Cheng Qian's cold heartstrings slightly. He was like a frozen little beast, shaking his nose in the snow and smelling a little mother's smell.

But his father also saw the hanging money. The man coughed heavily next to him, and his mother had to take the hanging money back with tears in her eyes.

So my mother's smell was like a mirror and a moon. She fooled her for a while, but she didn't smell it clearly and then disappeared again.

"Erlang is here," his unpleasant mother took Cheng Qian's hand and led him to the inner room. After walking for less than two steps, she started to pant.

She looked for a wide bench and sat down tiredly, pointed to the small oil lamp hanging on the roof, and asked weakly: "Erlang, do you know what that is?"

Cheng Qian looked up indifferently and looked at it: "The immortal eternal light."

This small lamp, which is not astonishingly beautiful, is the heirloom of their Cheng family. It is said that it is the dowry of Grandma Cheng Qian. It is the size of a palm, without a wick, and does not require lamp oil. The ancient ebony base is engraved with a few lines of talismans, and it can shine on its own and illuminate the square place for a long time.

Even if I don’t have the process, I can’t figure it out. What is the purpose of this broken thing here, besides attracting insects in summer?

However, since it is an immortal weapon, it does not have any practical purpose. As long as you visit neighbors and neighbors, you can show off your clothes. For rural villagers, it is a treasure that can be passed down from generation to generation.

The so-called "immortal artifact" is something that "immortals" carved with talismans, and ordinary people cannot imitate it. There are many types of immortal artifacts, and their uses are all kinds of, including lamps that do not need to be added to oil, paper that is not afraid of burning, beds that are warm in winter and cool in summer, etc.

There was a storyteller from the entrance of the village who came to the world. He said that in the prosperous city there was a house built with "Immortal Bricks". The sun was like a glazed roof, and it was as magnificent as a palace. There was a layer of talismans written by high-level immortals outside the rice bowl used by wealthy people. It could avoid all poisons and eliminate all diseases. A broken bowl costs four taels of gold for a piece of porcelain, but it is still popular.

"Immortals" are also called "Taoists" or "True Persons" - the former is usually called themselves, and they can sound a little more modest.

It is said that they use the introduction of urging qi into their bodies and communicating with the world. No matter how deep their cultivation is, they can still fast and not eat, go to heaven and earth, and even live forever, overcome tribulation and become immortals... All kinds of legends are widely circulated, but the true immortal has a few noses and eyes, and no one has seen them, but they just listen to them as magical.

The immortals are unpredictable, and good immortal weapons are even more rare, and the great officials are flocking to them.

The lady of the Cheng family bent down, looked at Cheng Qian with great sincerity, and asked in a warm voice, "When Erlang returns from his studies, can he also make a bright lamp for his mother?"

Cheng Qian did not answer, but just raised his eyelids and looked at her, thinking in a cold heart: "I think beautifully. You sent me out today. In the future, no matter whether I succeed or not, whether I die or live, whether I am a pig or a dog, I will never come back to see you again."

The Cheng family's wife was stunned. She found that the child did not look like her parents, but had a shadow of her eldest brother.

Her eldest brother was the small piece of green smoke that emerged from her ancestral tomb. He had never looked like a farmer since childhood. He looked picturesque. His parents spent all their money to support him in school. He also made great progress. He passed the exam for scholar at the age of eleven. People say that her family had a Wenquxing.

However, Wenquxing probably didn't want to stay in the world for a long time. Before he could pass the imperial examination, he died of illness.

When the eldest brother died, the Cheng family’s wife was still young, and some of her impressions were blurred. Now I suddenly recalled that the same was true when that person was alive. Whether he was happy or angry, he just looked at him in such an understatement, so reserved and unrestrained, and it made people feel scared and could not get close to him.

The Cheng family's wife involuntarily let go of the hand holding Cheng Qian. At the same time, Cheng Qian took a step back without any trace.

In this way, he gently and without saying a word, and ended the separation between mother and son.

Cheng Qian thought that his actions were not out of resentment, and resentment had no reason - his parents had the grace of life and the grace of raising him. Even if their kindness was given up halfway and they didn't want him halfway, then at best they would be worthy of merit and demerit.

He looked down at his toes and said to himself that his parents didn't have him in their eyes, and that was nothing. It was nothing to sell him to a Taoist priest with a triangle eye.
Chapter completed!