vernacular

Chapter 15

For fear of blocking the way of pedestrians, Lin Zhanyu has been squatting and standing in the corner of the alley from morning to noon.

At noon, the sun finally came out of the gloomy sky, and the person he had been waiting for finally appeared in his sight.

Seeing Wei Qingyun's figure from afar, the young man didn't feel tired or hungry at once. He stood up abruptly, ignoring the numbness in his legs, and ran towards the man, almost staggering in the first few steps. .

"Brother!" He waved to Wei Qingyun.

The other party saw him and smiled happily at him.

It wasn't until Lin Zhanyu got close to him that he realized that his senior brother had been out for half a year, and he was dark and thin.

Perhaps because of the cold weather in the north, Wei Qingyun actually put on a thick cotton coat. This was the first time Lin Zhanyu saw his senior brother dressed so thickly.

The boy's voice has been bad all these days, so his body training has been extraordinarily hard.Wei Qingyun looked at the person in front of him, and found that the kid had grown taller again, and the top of his head could almost reach the tip of his nose.

His heart was full of the child who was standing here waiting for him when he and Qiao Li came back from Tianjin last time, but when he looked up and down, he noticed some things that he had never paid attention to before, such as when the other party added angular shoulders and cheeks, And the increasingly handsome face against the gradually stretched facial features.

The hazy snow in the south of the Yangtze River and the affectionate old friends relieved the fatigue of returning guests. The new year is approaching, and the alleys are becoming more and more lively.

Everything is telling Wei Qingyun that he is home.

Lin Zhanyu originally wanted to take the luggage from his senior brother's hand, but Wei Qingyun carried all the luggage in one hand, put his free hand around the boy's waist, and directly picked him up face to face.

The person being hugged was taken aback, only then did he realize that his previous doubts were all in vain.Even if he hits the wall again now, Wei Qingyun can still follow him.

"Little Pole, do you miss Senior Brother?" Wei Qingyun put him down and asked with a smile.

"Think about it." Lin Zhanyu pushed him away instinctively, and after recovering, he realized that because it was inconvenient to go out, Wei Qingyun did not bring a small sandalwood box with him, so the sandalwood smell on his thick cotton coat and cotton vest It has faded so much that it can hardly be smelled.

Instead, he was covered in dust and dust, and seemed to still have the coolness of the northern winter.Mixed with the fragrance of grass and trees, the smell of dust and soil becomes very friendly.

"Let's go." Wei Qingyun gave him a gentle push, and his smile became more and more sincere.

Lin Zhanyu was not the only one waiting for him. Qiao said with a smile that he had prepared a large table of meals at home, not only prepared anchovy shrimp and squirrel fish, but also went to the street to buy salted duck and Jinling meatballs.

Wei Qingyun smelled the fragrance as soon as he entered the yard, and he yelled at Boss Qiao in the room: "Master!"

Loong Lane

Qiao smiled and walked quickly to the door: "Go and put your luggage down."

After the two of them washed their hands and sat down, Wei Qingyun looked around and found that Qiao Li was not there.He feigned dissatisfaction: "Eh? Where did that little Joe go?"

"Yes." Lin Zhanyu also felt something was wrong: "I saw him this morning."

"He went out to work with your master brother, and he won't come back at noon." Qiao explained with a smile while giving Wei Qingyun a piece of duck meat: "Come, eat more."

"Okay." Wei Qingyun said with a smile: "Master, I met a Boss Zhao in Datong. He heard that there is such a person as you in Nanjing. I will give him your personal letter and follow him and his apprentices to the north. Stay until the end of the year."

Qiao smiled and nodded, smiling gratifiedly: "Thank you for your hard work."

"What's the matter." Wei Qingyun waved his hand: "In fact, in the north, this business is not easy to mix. They have traveled to many places and worked harder than us."

At the dinner table, Brother Wei told Qiao Xiaoyan briefly what he had seen and heard in the past few months, and said: "I wrote down some of the northern songs they sang, and they are all in my bag. I will take them out after eating." Come and see."

After taking a few bites of food, he suddenly thought of another thing: "By the way, Master, there is a brother named Zhang among Boss Zhao's apprentices, who is quite interested in our Nanjing. He wanted to come and see."

"Okay." Joe said with a smile: "You write to him later, just say that we open the door to welcome him."

"Okay." Wei Qingyun responded immediately.

After entering the twelfth lunar month, I get busy, cleaning the house, buying new year's goods, shopping, and the city is full of New Year's celebrations.

Seizing the opportunity of the large number of people, Qiao Xiaoyan said that he and his apprentices had far more outings than usual, especially Wei Qingyun.He hadn't been here for half a year, and many old judges missed him very much.

It was the first time I took Lin Zhanyu to the tea shed after I came back. A kind-faced old man saw Wei Qingyun and deliberately smiled and teased: "Brother Wei, why have you lost so much weight? Could it be that your master is stingy and treated you harshly?"

He also smiled and replied: "No way. I have been busy and hard these days, and the weight on my body has been reduced."

Someone pointed to Lin Zhanyu beside him: "This little pole is improving so fast, it will catch up with you."

After the young man heard this, he wanted to be modest and pretended to refute, but he didn't expect his senior brother Wei to put his arms around his shoulders directly: "Yes, a famous teacher produces a good apprentice."

Lin Zhanyu didn't realize until now that time is the best nourishment and the most powerful force.

In the spring when he first started, he used to rush to find Wei Qingyun, hoping that the other party would teach him all the tricks overnight.But now he found that he couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry.

The best things are like jade in the rough, which needs to be carefully polished over a long period of time, and endure obscurity, loneliness and struggle before it can show an amazing luster.

The young man stood behind the table, tilting his head slightly to look at the people around him, and cooperated with each other according to his master's teaching, observing each other's rhythm.

Once Wei Qingyun talked too much, so he said jokingly: "You are so wordy, why don't you get on the road."Brother Wei turned his head and met his gaze with a smile, with approval in his smile.He suddenly realized that before he knew it, he had "on his way".

Everything is moving forward in an orderly manner, life is full and stable, but one thing seems not so normal.

Lin Zhanyu found out that Qiao Li especially went out early and returned late these days, and he was not at home on New Year's Eve when the family was reunited.

Wei Qingjun also found out.He was really puzzled. On the afternoon of Chinese New Year's Eve, when he was washing the vegetables, he deliberately asked Qiao who was in charge of the spoon with a smile, "Master, Xiao Qiao who is celebrating Chinese New Year is always away from home, so don't cause trouble outside."

"No." Joe replied with a smile.

"But this morning, I went to the elder brother's place, but he didn't go out, and said that he hasn't seen Xiao Qiao much recently." Wei Qingyun was still confused: "If you say that person has gone to work, I don't believe it."

"It doesn't matter." Boss Qiao took out the dishes and said in a steady tone, "He is my son and my apprentice. I understand him. He is not a troublemaker."

Qiao laughed and said that, Wei Qingyun and Lin Zhanyu looked at each other, knowing that they were not good enough to say anything.However, their doubts did not last long, and they had an answer that night.

At that time, the New Year's Eve dinner was about to start, but Qiao Li hadn't come back yet.Wei Qingyun couldn't hold back his temper: "No, master, I'm afraid something will happen to Xiao Qiao, so I'll go out and find him."

"Don't be afraid, wait a little longer." Qiao said with a smile that although he also frowned, his expression was extremely firm: "If he doesn't come back after a while, you and Zhan Yu go out to find him."

As soon as he finished speaking, the gate of the courtyard creaked suddenly.Lin Zhanyu hurriedly stood up and looked out, and saw not only his senior brother Qiao coming back, but also several men he had never seen before.

Wei Qingyun had already run out, only to see Qiao Li being carried on his back by one of the men, his right leg was bandaged, and he was frowning, looking seriously injured.

It was snowing lightly this day, and the few people probably stayed outside for a long time, their hair and coats were covered with snowflakes.

"Little Qiao!" At the signal from Qiao Xiaoyan, Wei Qingyun quickly locked the door and led those people to Qiao Li's room in the backyard.

Lin Zhanyu followed behind them, only to hear Wei Qingyun asking eagerly: "What's going on? Who are you?"

Those few men were dressed inconspicuously, if they mixed with the merchants and common people in the city, no one would recognize them.

Qiao Li was put on the bed. His leg injury was very serious. Although he had been treated, it still made him grin his teeth in pain.

"Brother." Xiao Qiao called him softly, and shook her head at him.

Wei Qingyun looked at Qiao Li, and suddenly understood in a flash of thoughts.He took a few glances at the silent person standing in the room, and as if enlightened, he hurriedly asked, "Is there no blood left on the road?"

One of them replied: "No." He sighed: "Comrade Xiao Qiao was accidentally shot this afternoon. But don't worry, we concealed it in time, and his identity has not been exposed. Now that he has undergone surgery, the doctor said that as long as It’s easy to give birth, and there will be no major problems.”

"Master!" Wei Qingyun's eyes were red: "Why didn't you tell me?"

Qiao said with a smile that he was holding back tears and didn't say anything.

Before Lin Zhanyu could understand why, Wei Qingyun pushed him outside the door: "Keep an eye on it, and don't let outsiders in."

Although the young man didn't know what happened, he listened to what his senior brother Wei said, so he stood obediently at the door with a focused expression like a guard on guard.

The people inside chatted in low voices for most of the night, but Lin Zhanyu basically didn't listen to the sound of firecrackers outside.But then, between the sound of firecrackers, he vaguely heard a sentence, which was spoken to Qiao Li by a voice he was unfamiliar with.

The man's tone was a little heavy: "Comrade Xiao Qiao, the situation in Nanjing is not optimistic. The organization means that we must hide our identity and wait for the right time."

"I see." Qiao Li probably bled a lot, her voice was weak and tired.

Seeing her son injured like this, Qiao said with a smile that she had no intention of caring about other things, and Wei Qingyun was taking care of everything.

He invited those people to stay at Qiao's house for a meal, and then took advantage of the night to send them away. When he came back, there was already a faint light in the sky.

Wei Qingyun didn't sleep all night, and his nerves were tense. At this moment, he finally relaxed, as if he had collapsed.

However, when he walked into the yard with his head down, he found that Lin Zhanyu was standing at the door of the house waiting for him.

"Senior brother," seeing him coming back, the young man walked forward quickly: "What's going on?"

Wei Qingyun moved his lips, and finally took Lin Zhanyu's arm and walked to the backyard, and rejected him with a sentence that the young man could not refute: "Children should not meddle in the affairs of adults."

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The annotations are as follows:

Padding words, referring to some words before Zhenghuo;

The Boss Zhao and Brother Zhang mentioned by Qingyun both had prototypes. They were Mr. Zhang Yongxi, a representative of the Southern School of cross talk, and his master, Mr. Zhao Shaofang, a famous cross talk artist. ;

"Stingy, Basuo, and Shangluzi" are all Nanjing dialects, which respectively refer to stingy, long-winded, and doing things according to the rules.