Chapter 10: Gold mining is not easy
For Zhou Chongwen, today was an extremely ordinary day, but also unusual. After his failed marriage proposal yesterday, he had planned to take a few days off to adjust his mood before setting up the stall again. Who would have thought that he would be back so soon? And he also encountered a strange thing.
Su Luo, they had been neighbors for three and a half years. After several years of interaction, when he saw "Su Luo" for the first time at the market, he felt that this was not Su Luo.
Su Luo should be low-key, gentle, and shy, so how could she be so aggressive and talkative? Not to mention that after receiving the private money, she also instigated Widow Li to file a complaint.
So she was definitely not Su Luo. The numbers she wrote on the street corner and the account books she looked through at home further confirmed Zhou Chongwen's guess, but she was Su Luo, otherwise why would she let him check the marks on her body so fearlessly? He guessed a lot, and the ghost possession was the most likely one.
Perhaps it was the essence of Su Luo that made Zhou Chongwen not afraid of her. Although he still sighed for the shy and strong Su Luo, he quickly accepted the fact that this "Luo" was not the same "Luo" because she said that it was her responsibility and she would not abandon her brother and mother.
He looked up at the sky. He had been sitting here for nearly three hours. There was no business. Normally, he would have prepared to go back, but today he had to stay. Because Su Luo had not come back yet.
Just as he was about to look up at the sky again, a man sat down beside him in an extremely bold manner. Taking a glance, Zhou Chongwen began to pack up his stall and asked, "Didn't you say you would come back with a lot of gold and silver?"
Su Luo pursed his lips tightly, anger bursting out of his eyes. He stretched out his hand to grab a leaf from his head and threw it to the ground angrily, "This is too much! This is too much!"
Zhou Chongwen frowned, "What's wrong with your throat?" It sounded a little hoarse, not as clear as it was in the morning.
Su Luo said angrily: "It's what the storyteller said."
Zhou Chongwen was extremely surprised. "Storytelling? The way you said to make money is storytelling?"
Su Luo was about to vomit. The money she was talking about was certainly not storytelling. When she followed a lecherous-looking old man and successfully found the first brothel, she was thought to be looking for her husband and kicked out. She learned her lesson when she arrived at the second brothel. She entered through the back door and contacted the madam to ask for singing on stage . The income would be split 40% to 60%. Unexpectedly, the madam looked at her and asked the security guard to throw her out. He also said to her: How dare you mess up the place with your character!
Su Luo was so angry that she vomited blood. Fortunately, the brothel business in Zhuxian Town was very prosperous. She didn't believe that she couldn't find a way out in this brothel street.
But apparently she was too idealistic . People in ancient times were very vigilant, especially in the brothel industry, where they were always on guard against bad infiltration from their peers. So she didn't find a satisfactory job. No one was even willing to give her a chance. They either "kicked her out" or "threw her out". There was even an opera being performed, and when they came to the part where they said "beaten out with sticks", Su Luo came out on her own accord.
Fortunately, when God closes a door, he will open a window for you. A knowledgeable person finally appeared in the last small-scale wine shop. Although it was not as spacious as a regular brothel, it was still a stage for performance.
It was Su Luo's first time on stage, so she naturally sang the "Water Song Tune" which was regarded as a classic in many time-travel books. After the singing, the proprietress called her off the stage, reluctantly escorted her out the door, and said: Girl, this industry is not suitable for you. I have two customers in total, and you scared away half of them.
Su Luo was not convinced. Her singing was clear and melodious, so how could this be the result? The person who left must have had an emergency at home. So she said, there is another one, and he listened so attentively.
The proprietress patted her hands and said, "He will thank you. He has been suffering from insomnia for three days and just couldn't fall asleep. Today, with your singing, he finally fell asleep."
Recalling this, Su Luo said in confusion, "I think I sang well." Zhou Chongwen said, "Then sing it for me." After the song, Zhou Chongwen looked around, not knowing what he was looking for. Su Luo asked, of course, and he replied, "It's early spring, how come there are flies?"
Su Luo puffed out her cheeks and glared at him, continuing to recall her own miserable journey.
After leaving the brothel street, Su Luo was hungry. Just then, a steamed bun shop on the street had freshly baked buns. A row of steamed bun cages were placed on the open-air stove. The steaming buns looked delicious. He swallowed his saliva and unconsciously muttered a sentence praising the buns: "The bamboo board hits it like this. Hey, let's not praise anything else. I will praise this traditional delicacy, Goubuli buns." What is so good about this Goubuli bun? It has a thin skin, a large filling, and eighteen folds, just like a flower. This is to describe buns, you can't use it carelessly. Say that this girl is beautiful, like a flower, you must not say that this girl looks like a bun!
The authentic Shandong quick talk has an allusion. Su Luo's family was not well-off at the beginning, and he experienced hard times when he was a child. He could not afford meat buns. At that time, this joke was very popular. It was played over and over again on TV and radio every day. Over time, Su Luo developed an inexplicable liking and desire for meat buns. From then on, whenever he saw buns, he would automatically dub it in his mind.
She didn't want to buy anything, nor did she have the money to buy it. She just wanted to stand there and smell the smell. Unexpectedly, when she was praising the buns, the bun shop owner heard her. The fat, middle-aged bun shop owner insisted that she perform a segment in public to promote the buns, and the reward was a tray of buns.
Su Luo was moved, and started to sing, even dubbing it herself: Dangligedang, dangligedang, dangligedangdangligedang.
This performance was undoubtedly a success, and even attracted customers from the teahouse next door. The storyteller in the teahouse was unhappy, thinking that Su Luo had stolen his business, and he wanted Su Luo to pay him. Su Luo hadn't even gotten the tray of buns yet, so how could he afford to pay him back? The two sides argued for a while, and finally, at the suggestion of the bun shop owner, they set up a competition on the street, with Su Luo and the storyteller on each side, and they would see who could attract more customers with their mouths. The winner would get ten trays of buns and the other party's apology.
One has to say that the bun shop owner will definitely achieve great things in the future. Even though it was none of his business, he still managed to use his bun shop as an advertisement. The tea drinkers were naturally happy and started to make a noise. Su Luo immediately rolled up his sleeves and started to fight.
The storyteller had naturally seen big battles before, so he started with the story of Yue Fei's defeat of Jin Wushu. Marshal Yue was from Henan, and the people of Henan were proud of Marshal Yue. He also told a classic story, which immediately won the applause of the whole audience. Su Luo saw that the other party had taken the lead with the topic of pleasing others, so he naturally did not want to be outdone. He opened his mouth and said that in the late Southern Song Dynasty, the loyal descendants Guo Xiaotian and Yang Tiexin, who lived in seclusion in Niujia Village outside Lin'an, suffered a disaster and were killed by the Southern Song government who colluded with the Jin prince Wanyan Honglie...
One is about a famous general who fought against the Jin army and was loyal to his country, the other is about a great hero who served his country and his people. One wins because of the large number of fans of General Yue, the other wins because of his boldness, carefulness, and thick skin, and shamelessly plagiarizes the classics of later generations. For a while, the two sides fought evenly, and the crowd gathered more and more, listening attentively. One of them was talking excitedly, and the other was beaming with joy. After competing for an hour, they felt a little sympathy for each other. Just as the two looked at each other and laughed three times, and were about to hold five trays of buns each to seek reconciliation, a sudden change happened outside the venue.
It was at that time that Su Luo realized that the industry of collecting protection fees had a long history and covered a very wide range. Even storytellers had to pay protection fees.
Su Luo had no money, and finally handed over five trays of steamed buns with great reluctance. Amid the farewells of "Come again tomorrow" from his tea friends, he left this sad place step by step.
