Forced to accept apprentices for connections

However, Shen Roujiao took it, glanced at it, and threw it back coldly, "Liar, this is not my master's letter at all."

It was said to be a letter, but in fact it was just half a page of paper, and the handwriting on it was as bad as dog crawling. You could tell with your heels that it was fake, and there was no way it could have been written by Zhou Huaiyue, who was good at calligraphy and painting.

"Uncle Lu handed it to me personally, it can't be fake." Gu Changgeng stiffened his neck and refused to admit defeat, forcing the letter into her hand. "After you read it, if you still say it's fake, I'll eat it!"

Uncle Lu?

He calls Mayor Lu uncle?

Shen Roujiao picked up the letter with suspicion, staring at Gu Changgeng again and again, still unable to believe it, "You went to find Lu...?"

"Well, take a look, it's genuine!" Gu Changgeng couldn't wait any longer. He grabbed Shen Roujiao's arm and put the letter in front of her eyes.

Hello: I am fine and safe, don't worry. When you see this letter, I have already left Xiaonanchuan City. Due to the emergency, I cannot tell you the reason in person. I will explain it one by one when I come back. There are more than a hundred sheets of herbal medicine introductions on the desk, all with illustrations. I compiled them. You may use them when you set up a herbal medicine purchasing station. Also take good care of Jixiang Ruyi and yourself, and practice your handwriting! Huaiyue.

It's him!

It seems that no one else can put Shen Roujiao behind the dog except him.

It’s just the last sentence: How dare he say that and ask her to practice calligraphy? Why doesn’t he look at how ugly his own handwriting is?

"Can I take this letter back to compare the handwriting?" Although she was 90% sure that it was Zhou Huaiyue, since it was a matter concerning human life, Shen Roujiao felt that she should be ten thousand times more cautious.

"It was originally meant for you. Just take it." After Gu Changgeng said this, he stared at her without blinking, as if he had something else to say. Duan Baisheng next to him couldn't bear to watch it anymore.

"Now that the things have been delivered, you can leave. We are still in class." Duan Baisheng stood between the two of them and drove him away with his eyes.

Gu Changgeng looked at the eyes of the people watching him, raised his hand and touched the back of his neck awkwardly and said, "Well, senior sister, I'm leaving first. I'll find you after school!"

After he finished speaking, he ran away with a red face amid a burst of booing.

"Junior, you're so embarrassed in front of so many people!" Shen Roujiao looked up at his running back, said casually, and then lowered her head to read the letter.

Tsk tsk tsk.

If you look closely at this word, it seems okay, but it is just an appearance.

so!

There is not a single word on his paintings, simply because the words are ugly!

It's really weird.

Chinese calligraphy and painting have been one family since ancient times, but they have completely separated in his work.

You asked me to practice calligraphy, are you planning to let me write? Haha, isn't that too good of a dream? I won't agree to that.

Dream!

…

After school, Gu Changgeng finally waited for Shen Roujiao. The first thing he said when he saw her was, "I've made up my mind about becoming your disciple."

Become a disciple?

"You went to the mayor, did you want me to become his disciple?" Shen Roujiao's eyes were full of doubt and puzzlement. He wouldn't take it seriously, she thought he was talking nonsense.

"Yes, didn't you ask me to ask your master? Unfortunately, when I went there, he had already left by train. I didn't get to ask him." Gu Changgeng could hardly hide his disappointment in his tone.

"Gu, Chang, Geng!" Shen Roujiao called out his full name in a raised voice, as the next second might be filled with terrible wind and rain.

"I was wrong?" Hearing the anger in her tone, Junior Brother Gu weakly admitted his mistake, as if he had really done something wrong.

"This is for you!" Shen Roujiao took out a wad of money, a total of 100 yuan, from her schoolbag and stuffed it into Gu Changgeng's hand.

?

money?

What does it mean?

"A red envelope for you. I want to thank you for helping me solve a big problem. Although I haven't become your master yet, you can keep the gift money. Just buy whatever you want. Don't be polite!" Shen Roujiao was so happy that she didn't know how to express her gratitude, so she wanted to give him a big red envelope.

Gu Changgeng didn't know the previous situation, nor did he know that Shen Roujiao had not been eating or sleeping well these days, and was worried about Zhou Huaiyue's affairs, so he couldn't understand what the senior sister meant, but when he looked at the money in his hand, the thought flashed through his mind again.

"Or, I will take you as my master! In this way, I don't need your master's consent, as long as you agree." Gu Changgeng is flexible. He counterattacked with the Great Shift of the Universe, switching the positions of master and disciple.

Shen Roujiao pointed at herself, then at Gu Changgeng, and snorted coldly, "Me, your master? Junior brother, I am not worthy!"

How could she be so worthy of being called Master by the son of the county head? She was afraid that she would not be able to curry favor with him, so how could she dare to be so pretentious? She was not like Zhou Huaiyue, who was really capable and was convinced by Shen Roujiao's calling her Master.

What could Gu Changgeng learn from her? Do business? Make money? His family had the strength to drive a sedan, so they were not short of money.

"Then take the money back! I don't want this red envelope." Gu Changgeng's face fell and his voice became unpleasant.

"It's not what you think. It's not that I look down on you, it's just that there's nothing much to teach you." Shen Roujiao was afraid that he would think too much and that she would lose him as a connection.

You can rely on yourself to run a small business, but to run a big business you have to rely on your connections. Often the size of your connections determines how big your business can be.

It is not easy to accumulate connections, and Shen Roujiao does not want to lose top connections like Gu Changgeng. They have been asking people everywhere to find out, but he can do it easily. He can meet the mayor whenever he wants. How powerful is this?

"Why is there nothing to teach? I want to learn how to make stinky tofu from you, and I also want to learn how to make the soup for Chuan Chuan Xiang, and how to make friends." Seeing that Shen Roujiao could chat with various stall owners at the market, and those friends liked her very much, with real love in their eyes, not just politeness or small talk, Gu Changgeng was very envious.

He had no real friends since he was a child. His two childhood friends were both in Beijing. When he came to this strange place with his parents, Shen Roujiao was the first friend he wanted to make.

"Do you really want to worship?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Do you really want to worship?" she asked again, and he nodded again.

"Are you sure you want to worship?" she asked, but he didn't nod.

"Why are you so long-winded!" The money was handed out again, and Gu Changgeng pointed at the money in his hand with his chin to Shen Roujiao.

Shen Roujiao pushed the money to him and said, "Call me Master!"

"Yes, hello, Master!" Gu Changgeng was excited for the whole night after his success.

…

The green train was traveling on the yellow land. The small white poplars on both sides of the road were tall and straight, stretching straight to the sky. Their spirit of striving upward was like people in struggle, strong and unyielding.

Since meeting Shen Roujiao, Zhou Huaiyue, who had originally been completely asleep, was moved by the scene and when he saw Xiao Baiyang, he actually thought of himself and her.

I wonder if Shen Roujiao will blame him for leaving without saying goodbye after seeing the letter. During the 60-hour long journey, Zhou Huaiyue took a pen and sketched the scenery along the way in his notebook during the day, and slept on the hard sleeper after dark.

A few people were playing poker next door, but he didn't go over to join in the fun.

Finally, in the middle of the third night, Gu Changgeng was woken up by a flight attendant who said, "Comrade, don't sleep any more. The next stop is Ping An."

We were supposed to arrive at 6pm, but the train was delayed for more than five hours, and it was already 12am when we walked out of Pingan Railway Station. We could only rest in a nearby guesthouse for one night and then go into the mountains the next day.

That night, Zhou Huaiyue slept uneasily, and was still swaying after closing his eyes. He had a strange dream. In the dream, Shen Roujiao cried with red eyes and said that he was a treacherous man. Zhou Huaiyue was so anxious that he opened his shirt, pulled her hand and put it on his chest, "Whoever is treacherous is a dog!"

Who would have thought that Shen Roujiao suddenly changed her attitude, climbed onto his waist, her eyes rolling, her fingertips sliding from his Adam's apple all the way down to his abdominal muscles, and she said softly and charmingly: "Men are all dogs!"

…

Because of this dream, Zhou Huaiyue had to go to a nearby department store the next day to buy a few pairs of underpants, and then return to the guesthouse to wash and fix them.

It was already ten o'clock when we got on the bus to Nanshan Village. The bus snaked along the country road, turning big S and small S, winding and twisting. It didn't arrive until three o'clock in the afternoon.

Zhou Huaiyue, who was carrying a simple backpack, got off the bus and saw a casual road sign hanging on a big tree by the roadside, with a red painted arrow behind Nanshan Village.

Walking along the village path, he saw a natural pond with lotus flowers blooming beautifully and dragonflies standing on the lotus leaves. The blue sky was reflected on the water surface. The quiet and wild atmosphere won his heart.

Passing the pond, the view suddenly opens up to a flat field for drying grains. Village houses are scattered in the fields and at the foot of the mountain. Smoke is rising from a few houses, and the air is filled with the warm wood fragrance of burning firewood.

"Young man! You're from another place." A gray-haired lady looked at the green backpack in his hand and approached him to talk.

"Yes. Auntie, I'm looking for Lao Xiao. Can you show me the way?" Zhou Huaiyue walked to the old lady's side and asked, pointing to a room at the foot of the mountain.

There is an ink painting on the outer wall of the room, with a sophisticated composition and lofty artistic conception created by the blank space.

"You're pointing at the wrong one! That's the one." The old lady pulled his hand and moved it two inches to the right. Looking in the direction of her fingertip, she saw a mud-brick house with black tiles, and smoke was coming out of the chimney.

"Thank you, Auntie." Zhou Huaiyue stepped out before he finished speaking.

"The old man is teaching the children how to write!" The voice of the old lady behind him floated in the air.

Zhou Huaiyue walked and jogged until he reached the front of the house, but he suddenly stopped and didn't dare to go forward. He was timid.

We haven't seen each other for six years. Is he really okay?

Only after he calmed down his complicated emotions did Zhou Huaiyue start walking.

Looking in from outside, an old man with silver hair was sitting in front of a square table, holding a brush, explaining to a few children what "leaking roof marks" were.

"The roof leaks, and rainwater flows down the wall, leaving extremely abrupt and powerful marks on the uneven wall surface." Zhou Huaiyue repeated in his mind every word he had taught him.

At that time, he was very naughty and annoyed what he said most, such as "traces left by leaking roof, drawing with cones on sand, folding forks, and printing ink pads". He would feel sleepy just by listening to them. He only liked painting and hated practicing calligraphy the most. He always thought that he would have plenty of time in the future. However, who could have imagined that a ten-year catastrophe would ruthlessly destroy all art, including Chinese painting and calligraphy.

Many of the famous calligraphy and paintings he collected with great effort were labeled as "Four Olds" and burned. That day, he said with tears in his eyes: "More than 100 kilograms of calligraphy and paintings took a long time to burn, as if my soul was burned with them."

But now, he is still painting, still teaching, and still persisting. He has not given up!

"Dad!" Zhou Huaiyue's eyes were filled with tears, like ink spots smearing in water, blurring his vision.