The young man sat back on the bench and straightened his back. "Old shopkeeper, I can't thank you enough for your kindness!"
The old man twirled his fingers and joked, "Don't just say that. You'll speak with money in the future."
The young man suddenly laughed. "Old shopkeeper, aren't you afraid that I'll go back on my word in the future and refuse to pay the dividends after paying back the three hundred taels of silver?"
The old man raised his eyebrows. After that, he pointed at the young man's chest and his own eyes. "The reason for this deal is that I believe in your conscience and my own eyesight!"
The young man and the old shopkeeper each poured a cup of wine and raised their cups. "It's all in the wine!"
The two drank the wine in one gulp.
After the old man finished his wine, he said, "You should go and see your wife. Oh right, go to the back of the cabinet and get a jug of Green Ant Wine. Treat it as my celebration for you finally having your own business."
The young man stood up and laughed. "Sure!"
The old man reminded him, "Celebration is one thing, but the wine will be on your tab! This Green Ant Wine is not cheap. It's said that a jug from Beiliang costs less than two taels of silver. In Lianhuai, it costs more than one tael of silver. And from Gangnam-do to here, it costs four taels of silver. How is this selling wine? It's more like selling silver. You should drink slowly. Don't drink until you've drunk all the wine. "
The young man chuckled. "I can't bear to drink it myself!"
The old man asked curiously, "Why? Are you giving it to your brother or your father-in-law?"
The young man who went straight to the counter suddenly paused, turned around and grinned. "Neither. I'm saving it for my brother. In the future, when he comes to my house to eat and drink, I'll treat him with this wine. Back then … a long time ago, when I was hanging out with him, he always said that this Green Ant Wine was the most delicious wine in the world. At that time, he always liked to use this wine to covet me. Later, we separated. There was one time when I passed by his hometown alone. I was in a hurry and didn't get to drink it. I don't know what it tastes like. "
The old man said unhappily, "What tastes like? It's just that it's expensive. Other than that, I don't like to drink it. It's too strong and too strong. It burns through the throat and has a strong aftereffect. In my opinion, it's not as good as our home-brewed rice wine. "
The young man smiled and said, "That brother of mine is half a Jianghu man. Riding a horse to drink wine, he naturally has to drink the strongest wine. Drinking that soft rice wine is not considered a hero!"
The old man was amused. "Oh, so you're from the pugilistic world. Also, from what you've said, you've traveled quite far in the pugilistic world, haven't you?"
The young man scratched his head. "It's just that I've gone far."
The old man rolled his eyes. "You've suffered before, haven't you?"
The young man laughed it off.
The old man sitting alone at the table raised his cup and drank slowly. He looked at the waiter who was carefully holding the wine pot from afar and asked without any reason, "Wen Hua, the storyteller in our restaurant said several times that the northwest vassal king admitted that he had a brother in Jianghu who happened to have the same name as you? Then shouldn't your brother's surname be Xu as well? "
The young man stood in the distance, a brilliant smile on his face. "What a coincidence, it really is him!"
The old man laughed and waved his hand. "Brat! Get lost! "
The old man who had no wine in his cup shook the wine pot. It was empty. He turned his head and looked at the young man who was walking towards the door of the restaurant. The young man was limping, but he didn't give off a miserable or funny feeling. The old man suddenly laughed and asked, "Wen Hua, are you really not that famous swordsman in the capital?"
The young man who was holding the pot of Green Ant Wine slowly turned around and made a face. "Shopkeeper, do I look like him?"
The old man smiled and didn't answer. He waved his hand again.
The old shopkeeper returned to his seat. There was no more wine in the pot. The bored old man thought for a while and looked at the door. He laughed at himself and said, "You don't look like him. That's right. Can you look like him?"
After the young man left the restaurant, he quickly walked towards the small bridge. Along the way, there was an endless stream of people on both sides of the river. As far as the eye could see, the quiet river was full of lit river lanterns. It was like a starry sky on a summer night. According to local folklore, after a person died, if those wandering ghosts could find the river lantern with their name on it on the day of the Hungry Ghost Festival, they could be reincarnated. Back then, he had heard from his brother, who was a dog in Jianghu, that there was a Buddhist saying about reincarnation through a lantern. Especially for the resentful ghosts who couldn't be free in the netherworld, they could be free by relying on the lotus lantern on the river in the world of the living. One of his regrets in this life was that he and his brother could only afford for one of them to study. His brother gave him the opportunity, but he didn't like to study and didn't know how to cherish it. He only thought about doing chivalrous deeds all day long and yearned for the Jianghu where blades flashed and swords flashed. Therefore, he liked to nag his nephew even more than his brother and sister-in-law, telling him to study hard. The paper and brush he bought for his nephew were the most expensive and the best in town. He didn't hope that his nephew would pass the imperial examinations and become a scholar, nor did he want to bring honor to his family. Instead, he felt from the bottom of his heart that if a man studied hard, had a belly full of knowledge, and could write good characters, he wouldn't need to ask others for couplets every year. In other words, if he had a child in the future, he could go to the books and name his child.
When it came to swordsmanship, there was only one person in the world who wanted to become the best in the world. When it came to fists, there would always be martial arts experts in Jianghu whose fists were harder. However, the principles that scholars read from books were definitely not the principles that emperors, kings, generals, ministers, high officials, and dignitaries spoke out. They would definitely be a bit more important.
When he arrived at the familiar bluestone bridge, his wife had already sold two baskets of river lanterns. His nephew was holding the last one in his hand.
She waited until he came closer before softly asking, "Why do you want me to leave one? Do you still want to write the two words' Beiliang '? "
He smiled and said, "The young man I told you about is from Beiliang. Now that there's a war in the west, I want to pray for him."
The three of them walked down the bridge together and came to the shore. He bent down and gently placed the river lantern into the river.
The three of them sat side by side on the shore. He rubbed his nephew's head and asked him to help hold the bottle of Green Ant Wine. He looked up and smiled at his wife. "If you have the chance to meet him in the future, don't agree to it if he calls you sister-in-law. He must call you sister-in-law."
Her eyes curved as she smiled mischievously. "You two are also fighting over this kind of thing."
He smiled happily. "We don't have to fight over other things, but we can't give in on this matter!"
She blushed slightly and said helplessly, "Then you still want to become in-laws with him in the future? You said that he agreed to your marriage when you were a child? "
He said boldly, "Does he dare to not agree?!"
His wife smiled. She didn't know why her man didn't care about anything. Only when he talked about his brother would he be especially proud.
Sometimes, she even felt a little jealous.
She didn't know what her man and his brother went through together that made him so reluctant to let it go.
She knew better than anyone that this man with the surname Wen and given name Hua was actually able to take on and let go of anything. He even let go of the face that a man should care about the most.
He looked at the river and said softly, "Wife, don't worry. I'm not thinking about the Jianghu that I went through back then. I'm just thinking about my brother."
He then turned his head and grinned. "I can't help it. I know that without me in the Jianghu, no matter how well he does, he'll feel that it's meaningless."
Look, listen, it's that tone again.
She rolled her eyes at him.
He snorted. "Wife, don't believe me. Who am I? Who is my brother? When we went through the Jianghu back then, it was …"
Suddenly, he saw his wife looking at him with a playful smile. He immediately changed his words. "It was definitely filled with righteousness! Yes, of course, it was just that we were a little miserable. We were full for one meal and hungry for three. "
She pursed her lips and smiled.
He lowered his head and said to his nephew, "That cheap uncle of yours always likes to recite a poem. I'll tell you. Have you seen it in a book before? The sun rises ten feet high in Fusang. Everything in the world is as thin as a feather. A wild man sees injustice in anger and tears the ancient knife in his chest. "
The child who had just started learning in the village was naturally confused. He shook his head vigorously.
He raised his head again and stared at the bright river with lanterns floating on the water surface. The cool breeze brushed his face and his expression was calm.
He seemed to be talking to himself. "I'll keep the Green Ant Wine for you and empty the house for you. Xiaonian, if you still treat me as a brother, don't die outside Liangzhou Pass."
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