Because he was too tired, after paying the January room fee, Zhu Pingan asked for a plate of small dishes and two steamed buns and ate them hastily, took a hot bath in a wooden barrel, and went up to the couch early to rest.
This side of Zhu Pingan was sleeping soundly, but he did not know that his great name had already spread in a small area near the inn.
Scholars, all about drinking wine and reciting poems and fugues, when eating dinner in the lobby, I don’t know who read out the poem that Zhu Ping An did at the Ten Mile Pavilion in a mocking tone, and then the whole lobby was full of laughter, and then someone accidentally said that the talent who was bitten by the snake and smelled the crowing bird was sleeping soundly in the woodshed, and then there were all mocking voices, and Zhu Ping An’s fame spread in a small area near the inn. Zhu Pingan’s name was thus spread in a small area around the passenger station.
Zhu Ping An, who was sleeping soundly, did not know, of course, even if he did know, he must have laughed it off.
In the early morning of the next day, a white frosty fog filled the city of Huai Ning County, the sun had not yet risen, but the eastern sky was erupting with a light morning sun.
The scholars who had been drinking and composing poems for a night were all immersed in their dreamland, but the inn’s firewood room had already been pushed open, and Zhu Pingan, who was wearing a blue shirt and robe and carrying a school bag diagonally, walked out with a piece of black wooden board in his hand, and covered the door of the room to walk out in an elegant manner.
Out of the inn, outside pedestrians are scarce, frost and fog in the county town of Huai Ning has a different flavour.
Green stone board bloom frost flowers, cold branches dyed black white frost, simply a ink landscape painting.
In ancient times, most of the county is based on the mountains and water, Huaining County is no exception, according to a river named Pangjiang, and the river through the moat into the city folded a round trip.
Zhu Pingan stepped on the green stone slabs and walked towards the river, and in the morning sun there were small boats cruising in the river, and the beautiful Pangjiang River looked particularly beautiful and mysterious in the morning mist.
Zhu Pingan walked down to the river’s edge, found two neighbouring boulders, placed the black wooden board on one of the higher boulders, lifted up his robe and sat on the lower boulder, took out the brush and bamboo tube from his slung bag, and began his daily morning routine.
Practising in winter and summer, Zhu Pingan waved his brush and ink on the frosty riverside, dipping into the clear water.
After the fog dissipated and the rising sun rose, Zhu Pingan collected the black wooden board of the brush, and pulled out a copy of Zhu Xi’s annotated “Spring and Autumn Annals” from his schoolbag, and read it with great interest. Zhu Xi is a very interesting person, this is a table in the serious inconsistency of the person, not to mention the nasty between him and Su Shi, just look at him on the one hand, advocating the survival of the reason of heaven, extinguish the human desire, on the other hand, but he himself is three wives and four concubines also to the greenhouse to find fun, it is known. However, his understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics is still very high, at least the contemporary rulers and the great Confucian scholars are very much in agreement.
“Look, a sour showman, giggle.”
The big girls and small daughters-in-law who came to the riverside in the early morning in groups to wash and pound rice, seeing the teenager who sat on a rock by the riverside to read without noticing that his robes were already wet with a long hemline, could not help but giggle one by one.
Doors don’t go out, two doors don’t step, this is the ancient requirements of the big girl small family, the general people’s family is not so concerned, of course, men and women are much stricter than the modern day, men and women can’t be alone, but now so many big girls and small daughters-in-law together, not afraid of gossip, boldness is also big, see Zhu Pingan this teenager naive look, can’t help but laugh, even there are bold There was even a bold daughter-in-law who teased Zhu Ping An verbally.
“That little Xiucai is looking so seriously, but is he reading a book about men and women fighting?”
“Giggle, giggle, giggle,” the daughters-in-law who had passed through personnel laughed one by one.
Of course, there are also young girls who have not yet left the court who were bashful with a red face and chased after the bold daughter-in-law to find fault.
Zhu Pingan was embarrassed by these people, not that the bold daughter-in-law’s words to say embarrassed, in modern times read countless films how he would be embarrassed because of this level of words, but not in so many big girls and small daughters-in-law of the surroundings of the habit of reading books, he is not a monkey in the zoo.
“Good morning.”
Thus, Zhu Pingan collected his poetry book, took the black wooden board and greeted those big girls and little daughters-in-law from afar, then got up and left.
“Ya, don’t go, you haven’t answered if it’s true.”
Behind them came the playful laughter of a group of women.
After the frost and fog dissipated, the city of Huaining County gave Zhu Pingan a hazy impression, with wet green stone roads, a clear river running through the city, and a city wall made of green masonry standing in the distance, full of poetic meaning.
Following a tempting aroma, Zhu Pingan sought a snack on the street, asked for a bowl of bean flowers, two pot stickers, the shopkeeper gave a small dish of home-pickled small vegetables, and ate beautifully.
Bean flower sprinkled with a pinch of coriander, poured with the shop’s secret flavouring material, it looks colourful and fragrant; pot stickers through the meat of the pork, small vegetables is also crisp and refreshing, taste great.
The only drawback is that the shopkeeper is not a tofu shih tzu, but an older woman.
That said, they often see in modern novels in the male protagonist encounter a tofu shih tzu or wine shih tzu or even pork shih tzu and so on the bridge, how their own in the Ming more than eight years have not encountered.
Despite his regrets, Zhu Pingan still ate and left with a shy stomach.
Eat and drink enough Zhu Pingan, looking for a few passers-by, asked for directions, then turned left and right along the street.
On the way, he spent a penny of silver to buy a packet of good dim sum, let the shopkeeper wrap it in red paper, and spent money to buy some fruits in a bamboo basket from another shopkeeper, and walked in the direction pointed out by the passers-by.
Walking and searching, about half an hour, Zhu Pingan came to the destination – Hundred Herb Hall.
This is a large pharmacy, more than five times larger than the one in Leansan Mountain Town, people come and go in the pharmacy, and there are six doctors just sitting in the pharmacy.
Zhu Pingan walked in with fruits and snacks, and an apprentice of the medicine hall came over and asked, “Dare I ask if you want to ask for a consultation?”
Zhu Pingan shook his head, arched a salute and replied, “Not also, the kid leaning against the mountain town under the river village people, eight years ago, fortunate to have Hu old doctor’s wonderful hands, pick a life, parents all day long in the field to do the work is unable to come to pay thanks, deep regret, today the kid specially to pay thanks to the old doctor Hu.”
The apprentice thought for a moment and said to Zhu Pingan, “Then you wait a moment, I will go and ask the benefactor.”
It turned out that this apprentice was actually the apprentice of Old Divine Doctor Hu, and after the apprentice finished speaking, he walked towards the back of the medicine hall. After about a quarter of an hour or so, the apprentice returned.
“I’ve kept you waiting, the benefactor said that he doesn’t remember this matter and asked you not to take it to heart.” The apprentice returned and relayed Old Divine Doctor Hu’s words, adding, “In fact, Enshu has saved countless people, and has encountered this kind of situation many times, so please don’t take it to heart. The things also please take the gongzi back, the benefactor never accepts gifts.”
Zhu Pingan stood there thinking for a long time, took out a ten taels of silver silver ticket from his sleeve, and spoke, “Old Divine Doctor Hu’s demeanour is admirable, but I am also uneasy in my heart, in this way, this silver ticket will be taken as the payment I put in the medicine hall for the patients who have no money to buy medicines, although it is small, but it is a token of my appreciation.”
The apprentice did not dare to make a decision, and went to report to the master, and after a while came back to inform Zhu Pingan, saying that the master had agreed.
The divine doctor who never accepted gifts was able to accept this meagre ten taels of silver for those who had no money to pay for treatment.
It is really a divine doctor who is determined to help the world.
Zhu Pingan admired Hu’s medical character and medical ethics, if modern hospitals could have one tenth of Hu’s medical character and medical ethics, the doctor-patient relationship would not be so tense!
