Chapter 81: Goudan Looking for a Job [Jinjiang Authentic Edition Exclusive Release·County Town Tricks Deep…
The old woman sighed upon seeing this. She more or less understood the child's awkward personality. Because his parents died early, his family was extremely poor and he had to eat for free at hundreds of homes all day long. It would have been fine if he just wanted to eat for free, but this child didn't talk much and his personality wasn't very pleasant. He ate for free all day long and couldn't even say nice words to please others. How could anyone in the pavilion like him?
She took the wooden basin in her hand and walked forward a few steps. She bent down and placed the full basin of kapok on a large flat rock by the river. She took out two wild vegetable rice balls wrapped in dry lotus leaves from her arms, handed them to the silent boy, and said:
"Goudan, just eat these two rice balls. Even if there were fish around your fishing rod, they would have been scared away by the loud roar of your stomach."
The skinny young boy with tanned skin couldn't help but blush when he heard this. He looked up at the old woman shyly with his two dazzling black eyes like a puppy. He saw that she raised her eyebrows at him and pushed the two rice balls in her hand towards him. The unbearable physical discomfort from hunger overwhelmed his reason.
The young boy put down the fishing rod and rubbed his sweaty hands on the washed-white clothes. Then he stood up from the ground, took the two rice balls with both hands, whispered "Thank you, mother" to the old woman in front of him, and couldn't wait to tear open the lotus leaves and wolfed down the wild vegetable dumplings.
The old woman sighed and said, "Eat slowly, so you don't get a stomachache later."
The young boy, who had not eaten for half a night, nodded gratefully. After he ate most of the rice ball in his right hand, his empty stomach felt a little full, and he slowed down his eating speed, silently observing the old woman's movements.
I saw the old woman bend down and scoop a few scoops of water from the river with a large gourd ladle that was turned upside down on the wooden basin. She poured it into the wooden basin on the stone and began to carefully rub a ball of light yellow and whitish flocs in the basin.
He had seen his mother do this before, and understood that the basin contained willow catkins, reed catkins and other kapok fluff that the women had been collecting since spring. Because it was mixed with a lot of impurities, they had to squat by the river in the warm summer weather to wash it out bit by bit before they could fill the quilt with these flocs in autumn to keep warm.
The old woman's hands were very skillful. She washed and rubbed the vegetables at the same time. Her fingers moved flexibly and she carefully picked out the grass seeds and stems mixed in the clumps of flocs. There were many water droplets splashed from the basin on her gray hair on her forehead. This scene was very similar to that time. Looking at the old woman's movements in front of him, the little boy recalled his life a few years ago when his mother was still alive. The movement of chewing the vegetable balls slowed down. When he lowered his eyes, a mist quickly appeared in his eyes, and quickly disappeared in the blink of an eye.
He puffed up his cheeks and ate the slightly bitter wild vegetable rice ball in his hand in big mouthfuls. Then he ran to the river to wash his hands, bent down and stood beside the old woman, silently helping her sort out the clumps of kapok mixed with impurities.
The old woman glanced at the child, a smile flashed across her eyes, but she did not speak.
On hot summer afternoons, the old man and the child stayed by the river washing cotton for more than a month.
Every day when the old woman came to the river, she would bring two wild vegetable dumplings to the little boy.
Light and shadows flow by the river, and aquatic plants grow wildly.
In the blink of an eye, it was the tenth day of the sixth lunar month. The old woman cleaned the last ball of kapok she had collected at home. Looking at the dark and thin young man who had eaten the rice ball and silently helped her with the work, she sighed:
"Goudan, I've already washed all the kapok trees in my house. Starting tomorrow I won't come to the river to wash them."
The young boy was struck by lightning when he heard this. After a moment of recovery, he bowed to the old woman and said, "Grandmother, thank you for the rice balls you gave me these days. When I grow up, I will definitely repay you."
The old woman who had been looking at the young boy kindly did not feel relieved after hearing this. Instead, she slammed the wooden basin she had picked up onto the rocks by the river. Under the young boy's astonished gaze, her gray eyebrows raised, her left hand pinched her waist, and her right hand pointed at the young boy's nose, cursing loudly with full force:
"Bah! You bastard! I'm an old woman who can take care of myself, but you, a young man with all your hands and feet, can't even support yourself. How dare you say such big words? I'm willing to feed you these days because I pity you for losing your parents so early and your life is not easy. Fortunately, you are still a decent person. I don't expect you to repay me in the future by relying on a few rice balls. It's good enough for you to be able to support yourself with your small body!"
The young boy, whose heart was originally in his throat, listened patiently to the old woman's words, which were openly scolding him but actually caring about him secretly. His panicked heart instantly became warm, and he bowed to the old woman in gratitude, but his expression became bitter in the next moment.
He is only eleven years old now. He can't do much farm work in the fields, nor can he do any business. His father had some friendship with the head of the pavilion, and they had fought in the battlefield together when they were young. After both his parents died of illness, he would often go to the head of the pavilion's house to have a meal.
Unfortunately, the wife of the pavilion chief was really powerful. Every time he went to her house, she would look at him sideways, and either put down the bowls or the basins with a lot of noise, or stand in the yard, pinching her waist and cursing at others.
He knew that they didn't want to give him food, but in order to avoid starving to death, he pretended not to understand. However, when he ran to the pavilion chief's house with an empty stomach at the end of April, he could clearly smell the fragrance of food, but the pavilion chief's wife insisted that all the food at home had been eaten. Seeing that the pavilion chief was standing there without saying a word, he finally understood that the couple was unwilling to give him another bite of food.
He was ashamed, angry and annoyed. In a fit of rage, he ran back home, rummaged through his drawers and made a simple fishing rod. He squatted by the river to fish and never went to the headman's house again.
He was quite patient when fishing. Even if he was growling with hunger, he would squat by the river for a whole morning. But the fish in the river were obviously more patient than him. They would swim anywhere but not towards his hook.
Alas, the world is so big, how difficult it is for him to support himself.
Seeing the young boy's dejected look, the old woman patted the child's skinny shoulders and shook her head and sighed:
"Goudan, when you live in this world, you must lean on the mountain and it will fall, and lean on the water and it will flow. I know you are pitiful, but I can only feed you temporarily, not for the rest of your life."
"As the saying goes, a tree that doesn't move dies, but a person who moves lives. It's already hard to find a place to eat in our small town. Why don't you go to the county town and see if there are any restaurants or inns hiring? You can get a meal there."
When the young boy heard this, he looked up at the old woman. The old woman didn't say anything else. She sighed deeply, bent down, picked up the wooden basin and went home.
Watching the old woman's figure disappearing little by little, the young boy lowered his head and kicked the small stones under his feet with his torn straw sandals. He looked at the setting sun in the distance, which was like a salted egg yolk, slowly falling towards the end of the river, his eyes filled with unspeakable confusion.
The place where he stayed was formerly the territory of Chu, but is now the territory of Qin.
The farthest place the eleven-year-old Goudan had ever been to was the home of the headman. He had no idea what the Huaiyin County, which was often mentioned by adults outside their small township, looked like. He also had no idea how big the Jiujiang County, to which Huaiyin County belonged, was, or where its borders started and ended.
But Goudan understood that what Piaodamu said was right. Now even the richest family of the pavilion chief in the pavilion did not want to give him a bite of food. He was already hated by everyone in the pavilion and could not survive at all.
go out!
I can only go out and take a look!
Gou'er sighed deeply and stood by the reeds by the river, watching the big, round setting sun in the west slowly slide into the horizon. It was getting dark, and swarms of big mosquitoes were buzzing above the grass by the river, as if they were trying to carry him away together.
Having made up his mind, Goudan shook his head to drive away the swarm of mosquitoes that were flying towards his face. He bent down to pick up his simple fishing rod, and walked back to his dilapidated home in silence with his head down, holding the fishing rod in his hand.
The next morning, the sky was still dimly lit.
Gou'er found ten Qin Banliang coins at home, and used a stone lock with a broken corner to lock the two dilapidated wooden doors of the house from the outside. He wore the short sword left to him by his father around his waist, and a khaki cloth bag sewn by his mother on his back. He wore a short shirt that was washed white, and a pair of straw sandals with holes in it, and walked out of the house. He looked up at the sky, went to his parents' grave to bid farewell to them, and then carried his bag on his back and walked on the winding dew-soaked path towards Huaiyin County.
This time, the mountains were high and the rivers were long, and the road was difficult. "Goudan", who used to survive in his hometown by eating at other people's houses, never came back.
…
Two days later.
Huaiyin County.
Goudan, with messy hair and a dusty face, was carrying his dusty bag on his back. He looked like a little black puppy that had accidentally wandered into a butcher's shop and was already starving.
During the past two days of traveling, all he could find were wild vegetables and unripe wild fruits on the roadside. Relying on these sour and bitter plants, he finally arrived at the Huaiyin County mentioned by adults from the small town.
Early in the morning, the morning market in the county town is bustling and lively.
Goudan smelled the fragrance coming into his nose from all directions and felt dizzy.
Is this the county town?! It's much busier than the countryside.
Goudan pulled the strap of the bag on his chest and swallowed his saliva as he looked at the various stalls on both sides of the street where people were shouting and hawking their wares.
"Steamed buns, selling steamed buns, these are big meat buns made according to the latest recipe from the Shaofu in Xianyang City~~~~"
"We sell tofu soup! Tofu pudding! Soy milk! They're all carefully made according to the recipes of the imperial capital! They're delicious!"
"Steamed buns! Steamed buns! Selling steamed buns!"
"Wild vegetable dumplings! Wild vegetable dumplings for sale!"
“…”
"…Selling meat! Fat taken from the well before dawn…"
[Steamed buns, steamed buns, tofu...] Gou'er pulled the strap of his bag as he walked, smelling and looking. He had heard of these new foods before and knew that they were delicacies that suddenly spread from Xianyang City to Chu last year. It was because a stone mill workshop was built in the pavilion that he heard about them from the villagers.
Before the stone mill was built, he could still beg for wheat rice and bean rice from the villagers, which they did not like and did not want to eat. However, since the stone mill was built, wheat and beans have become the raw materials of delicacies, and he can only eat wild vegetable dumplings.
Fortunately, as the Shaofu's "Wild Vegetable Atlas" was passed down from generation to generation, many wild vegetables that were originally unknown to the villagers were picked and mixed with wheat flour to make vegetable dumplings.
He has eaten all kinds of wild vegetable dumplings from spring to summer.
Walking from the beginning to the end of the street, Goudan found that what he loved smelling the most was the smell of meat buns. He couldn't help but stand in front of the bun steamer and sniff the charming aroma.
The snack vendor selling steamed buns looked at the dirty little beggar wandering in front of his stall, and couldn't help showing a look of deep disgust on his face. He waved his hands repeatedly to drive him away:
"Little beggar, please go away quickly. These are all valuable things. I won't give them to you!"
When Gou'er heard this, his face turned red instantly. He turned around angrily and annoyed, dragging the strap of his bag and walked out of the street quickly.
He has a name and a surname! His ancestors were also nobles! He can speak elegant language and has a sword made of precious metal. He is a poor boy from a poor family, but he is not a nameless beggar!
Just wait and see! When he finds a job! Once he gets his monthly salary, he'll run to the bun stall and buy all the buns from the other stall right in front of that nasty man!
He was so angry that he died!
Unfortunately, imagination is rich, but reality is very skinny. Between Gou'er's beautiful imagination and cruel reality, there are a hundred and eight meat buns with thin skin and big fillings.
It was the second year since the founding of the Qin Empire, and the centuries of turmoil had just subsided. The job market in Huaiyin County was extremely bleak.
Goudan, who left home for the first time to seek survival, did not understand how difficult it was to find a job to make a living in this world.
He thought that since he was from a poor family, had a name and surname, knew a few words, and could speak elegant Chinese, as long as he worked hard, he should be able to find a job with free food and lodging, and earn thirty qinbanliang a month. However, when he followed Piaodamu's instructions and went to inns and restaurants to try to find work, the servants didn't even bother to look at his ID or biography. They swatted him like a fly, either telling him to get out! or to get out quickly!
Goudan was completely shocked!
The county town is full of tricks, he wants to go back to the countryside!
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