A fragrance wafted over, and a young man came over with noodles, babbling and signaling them to eat. It turned out that he was a mute. The young proprietress followed behind, looking at this side with some surprise. Chu Qiao was stunned and stared at her. The proprietress seemed to sense that she was looking at her. She smiled and said, "Miss, you are right. I am blind and cannot see anything."
As soon as the noodles were served, Li Ce started to eat.
Chu Qiao was suddenly embarrassed and said sheepishly: "Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," the lady boss said softly with a peaceful smile, "I've been blind since I was a child, but I don't think it's a big deal. It's just a little inconvenient to go to the street to buy groceries."
Chu Qiao took two bites and the noodles were delicious. She suddenly remembered something and looked up and asked, "You can't see, so how do you know I'm a lady?"
"I can smell the fragrance of magnolia on you. It's still fresh. I guess it must be a freshly picked flower bud."
"Oh," Chu Qiao nodded and said, "You have a very good nose."
"If you can't see with your eyes, other things will be easier to use." The proprietress smiled.
At this time, the sound of drums and music came, and at the corner ahead, a shadow play troupe set up a stage. As soon as the actor opened his mouth, a group of children swarmed up and surrounded the troupe in an instant.
The child from the noodle stall heard the noise and ran out quickly. Chu Qiao didn't even get a good look at her because she had already plunged into the crowd. It was a pity that she was very young, no more than seven or eight years old, short and thin. She was squeezed out of the crowd in a few seconds and fell to the ground, immediately opening her mouth and bursting into tears.
Upon hearing the sound, the proprietress gently patted her busy husband. When the husband saw this, he immediately ran over, picked up the child, wiped her tears with his sleeves, stuffed a fruit in her hand, put her on a stool, and went back to work.
The child was sobbing, tears constantly falling from his big dark eyes. He looked as if he had suffered a great injustice and was extremely pitiful. Chu Qiao stared at her for a while and said, "Li Ce, do you have children?"
"Yes," Li Ce said as he ate, "If you walk by the river often, you will get your shoes wet."
Chu Qiao seemed not to hear his words, and said quietly: "Children are so nice, they laugh when they are happy and cry when they are unhappy. Their joy, anger, sorrow and happiness are all so simple and direct."
"You can do that too." Li Ce took a sip of the noodle soup, raised his head and said, "Hey, Qiao Qiao, just eat well and don't be so sentimental. Listening to you talking, I feel uncomfortable even when I drink the soup."
Chu Qiao glared at him and lowered her head to eat her noodles. Then she heard the troupe start to sing amid the beating of gongs and drums. The tune was pleasant and the voice was good, but he spoke in the Bian Tang dialect with a strange intonation, so Chu Qiao couldn't understand most of it. Li Ce pricked up his ears and listened carefully, but before he finished a paragraph, he suddenly turned his head and spat out a mouthful of tea!
Chu Qiao escaped the disaster, but the child sitting behind Li Ce suffered. He was sprayed all over his head and face, and was so confused that he even forgot to cry.
Li Ce quickly stood up and went over to wipe the child's face, saying as he wiped: "Look at your mother's expression and you'll know that no matter how young you are, you're still a beauty. I'm so rude, so rude."
Chu Qiao asked in confusion: "What's wrong with you?"
Li Ce smiled and waved his hands, saying, "Nothing, nothing."
The child came over, sat next to Chu Qiao, stretched out a white little hand, and said, "Give me money."
Chu Qiao was stunned and asked, "Money?"
The child nodded: "He sprayed my clothes dirty. He will wash them for two cents."
Li Ce became interested and said with a smile: "What do you want the money for?"
The child said seriously, "I want to go to the opera."
"Qian'er, stop messing around!" The proprietress said with a stern face, "Come here quickly! Don't disturb the young lady while she's eating."
"It doesn't matter," Li Ce waved his hand, "She's not hungry anyway."
Chu Qiao hadn't eaten properly for a long time, so she was naturally hungry. Upon hearing this, she picked up a piece of noodles with chopsticks and took a big bite.
The little girl sat aside with her chin in her hand. She seemed to have a good impression of Chu Qiao and asked her, "Can you sing opera?"
Chu Qiao shook her head: "No, will you?"
The child said frustratedly: "I can't do it either."
"Then do you understand?"
"Of course I understand," the child looked at Chu Qiao and asked doubtfully, "You don't understand?"
Chu Qiao nodded.
The child immediately became interested and said, "Then I'll tell you."
After that, regardless of whether Chu Qiao liked to listen or not, he began to talk excitedly: "This play tells the story of a prince and a beauty."
Li Ce curled his lips and said, "The prince is real, but the beauty is not necessarily."
"You are so ignorant!" said the little girl. "Of course the people around the prince are beauties. How could the prince be attracted to anyone other than a beauty? Just like the prince in our palace, his palace is full of beauties. When I grow up and become a beauty, I will also live in his palace."
Li Ce smiled when he heard this and gave her a thumbs up, praising her: "You are still very knowledgeable. Keep working hard. I am very optimistic about you."
Chu Qiao glared at Li Ce.
The little girl continued, "One day, the prince's country was destroyed, and his father, mother, brothers and sisters were all killed. The prince was homeless on the street, and he met a beautiful girl. The girl saved the prince, and they fell in love."
The little girl stared at Chu Qiao and said seriously, "He loves her, and she loves him too. They swore to be together forever, never betraying or abandoning each other."
The child's eyes were serious, even a little sacred. Chu Qiao looked into her eyes and suddenly her heart felt as if it was pricked by a needle, causing a slight pain.
The troupe's tune was low and hoarse, like icy water flowing through the palm of your hand, sounding inexplicably depressing.
The little girl went on to say, "But the prince was still unhappy, and his revenge had not yet been avenged, so the beauty decided to help the prince restore his kingdom."
Li Ce added: "She is a woman with no money or friends. How can she help the prince to restore his country?"
"I told you she's a beautiful lady," the little girl said impatiently, "beauty means money, beauty means weapons, beauty means an army, you don't understand this, you're so old."
Li Ce laughed out loud when he heard this, and the troupe's music suddenly became passionate. The actors' voices were clear and loud, like the sun breaking through the horizon.
"Then, the beauty met the general. The general was the prince's enemy, but he also fell in love with the beauty. Seeing the beauty sad, he was also sad. At this time, the little prince of another country met the beauty. He also liked the beauty, but unfortunately the beauty did not like him."
The little girl spoke seriously, dipped her finger in tea, drew four little people on the table, and said: "Later, the prince sent people to ambush and let the beauty meet the general for negotiation. The beauty didn't know, but the general did. However, he still came, so he was killed by the prince."
"Ah!" Chu Qiao's eyes jumped and her heart suddenly sank.
The child wiped off the little man on the table and continued, "So the prince restored his country and became the great emperor. The beauty was very sad and left the great emperor. She was taken away by the little prince. The great emperor was very angry and sent troops to attack the little prince. The little prince was not very strong and was also beaten to death by the great emperor."
The little girl wiped out another little man, indicating that he was dead too.
"Beauty was very sad. She walked and walked until she became sick, and then she died."
The beauty was also wiped off, leaving only a little man on the table. The novel said: "So, the emperor was the only one left in the world."
Li Ce stared stupidly and asked, "Is it over?"
The child nodded and said calmly, "It's over."
"What kind of drama is this?"
The child said, “This is a tragic play.”
At this moment, Chu Qiao had no intention of watching Li Ce and the child bickering. She looked at the little man left on the table, a little dazed. The night wind blew, the troupe's play had ended, and the boss came out with a tray and asked for tips from the audience. Most of the people watching the show were children. They had no money, so they dispersed at the first shout. Only the empty stage was left. On the curtain, a little shadow puppet stood there alone. He was holding a small sword, baring his teeth and claws, looking very powerful. However, when he looked around, there was nothing on the table. Even the warriors were gone.
After dinner, the two continued to wander the street. The story told by the child just now made Chu Qiao feel a little depressed. She couldn't grasp her own thoughts. She just felt a little sad, but she didn't know why.
There are many people and temples on this road. Bian Tang is an open country with various sects, including a kind and fat Buddha, a beautiful water god, and a descent god with talismans painted on his forehead. Fortunately, the people here are simple and honest, and they will never fight with each other just because you believe in Buddha and I believe in the Goddess of Luo River. As Chu Qiao walked along, she received many wooden signs handed to her by believers, just like modern flyers.
There was a crabapple tree in full bloom by the roadside, with its flowers bright red. When Chu Qiao and Li Ce passed by, the wind blew and the flowers fell like rain, one by one, on their clothes, as if they were dotted with rouge.
Li Ce pointed at the crabapple tree happily and said, "This tree is really nice. I'll have someone move it back later."
When the passers-by heard this, they looked at them carefully, as if they felt that this man was so arrogant despite his young age, so they looked at them with a hint of surprise in their eyes.
"Look, there's a circus ahead!" Li Ce suddenly shouted with great interest, pulling Chu Qiao and starting to run. There were so many people outside that the two of them standing outside couldn't squeeze in at all.
Li Ce's eyes rolled, he reached into his arms, then took a handful of silver bills and went to the stall next to him to exchange them for a pile of loose copper coins, which he pocketed with the hem of his clothes. He clumsily climbed up a step next to the circus, stood on it, and shouted loudly: "Free money! Grab it!" Then he threw out handfuls of coppers.
People were stunned for a while at first, but after a while they saw that there was really a fool throwing money, and they all crowded over, pushing and shoving each other, making it very lively.
Seeing this, Li Ce threw out all the money on the hem of his clothes and pulled Chu Qiao to squeeze in through the crowd. But when I squeezed to the middle, I was dumbfounded. It turned out that the jugglers were also there to steal money. Now, they were the only two standing there, like fools.
(End of this volume)
Volume 5: Yanbei War Song