27 Cows Play the Piano

  "Do you want sugar?"

  Zhang lowered his head and asked in a low voice, never looking up at Zhen Mingshu, and took a bowl of tofu flower from the pot and handed it to him.

  "It doesn't matter." Zhen Mingsu smiled wryly and took it over. "By the way, I'm Zhen Mingsu, what's your name?"

  This was his opening remark every time he came to drink soy milk in the past few days, but unfortunately Zhang never responded to him once.

  He didn't mind either and continued talking: "Is this your tofu stand? Business seems to be going well."

  "I'm from out of town, I just got out of prison a while ago, and I don't know the area well. If it wasn't for you that night, I might be dead by now. A great kindness doesn't need to be thanked, if there's anything you need help with in the future, just let me know."

  Zhang still kept her head down, without any intention of talking to him.

  "Hehe, sorry to disturb you while you're doing business, I'll go eat over there."

  Zhen Ming was sipping his tofu pudding when he suddenly felt several piercing gazes directed at him. The young men, who looked like scholars and were sitting at the tofu stall's tables, had put down their bowls and were staring at him with hostility in their eyes after seeing him chatting with Zhang Shi.

  Especially that old man who always sat in a rocking chair, his eyes looked like he was guarding against thieves.

  Zhen Ming bitterly walked to the riverbank's stone dam and sat down, drinking while secretly observing the people coming from all directions.

  Sitting around the tofu stall, they were mostly young people in their early twenties, wearing silk robes and adorned with more than two exquisite jade pendants at their waists. Their hair was all coiled on top of their heads, held high by a single hairpin.

  These people all hold a paper fan in their hands, with paintings of flowers, birds, mountains and water, or beautiful women, or poems and songs written on the fan paper, and several bright red celebrity seals are stamped on it to show that this fan is famous and expensive, showing the noble status of the owner.

  A young man dressed in brocade, wearing a precious jade pendant, with the appearance of a scholar, instructed his book boy to take out the four treasures of the study from his book bag and arrange them on the table one by one. He himself paced back and forth under the tree, deep in thought, muttering to himself.

  Suddenly, he walked quickly to the table, grasped his brush and wrote a seven-character poem in an instant.

  Having finished writing, he threw down his brush, strolled to the riverbank, clasped his hands behind his back, and stood with his back to the crowd, gazing out at the rushing waters of the Luo River, unable to calm himself for a long time.

  "Good poem!" His book boy exclaimed, and loudly read out that seven-character absolute sentence on the rice paper:

  "The rolling waters of the Dongting River flow eastward to the sea, never to return. The goddess dares to defy the Jade Emperor's decree, transforming into a tofu vendor in front of people."

  The young scholar finished reciting and exclaimed: "Young master, your six steps have become a poem. Even if Cao Zijian were to come back to life at this moment, he would probably be ashamed not to be as good as you. I must bow down to your extraordinary talent!"

  The young scholar turned back, smiled sadly and said: "In the past and present, I have only regarded you, Zijian, as a kindred spirit. If one can get someone who understands him in his life, what else can he ask for? Unfortunately, it's hard to find such a person. Now that you're not here, I can only sigh in vain."

  Saying that while pretending to be nonchalant, he sneaked a peek at the beautiful tofu seller, his face flushed with excitement, it was simply laughable.

  Zhen Ming was sipping soy milk when he heard the poem and almost spat it out.

  Look at that tofu Xishi, who was called "sentimental Luo Shen" by literary youths. She obviously didn't understand the praise implied in this poem, and instead had an air of being oblivious to everything outside her own little world, busily minding her own business.

  The literary youth saw Tofu Xishi without any reaction, slightly awkward, but soon recovered his high spirits, sighing repeatedly: "Zijian is no more, my heart is worried, playing the lute to a cow, what can I do?"

  After finishing speaking, he sat back on the stool, with one hand behind his back and the other holding a book, shaking his head and pretending to read.

  After a lifetime of hardships, it's not easy to finish the last mouthful of tofu pudding. Holding the bowl, I walked up to the tofu stall and handed over the empty bowl, saying with a satisfied face: "This is the best tofu pudding I've ever had in my life."

  Tofu Xi Shi poured the bowl into a bucket of clear water beside him.

  "Actually, I don't think playing the zither for a cow is scary at all. At least you can still hear the sound of the zither. What's really scary is... do you know what?"

  The movement of Tofu's hand paused for a moment.

  "The most frightening thing is that the cow plays the piano for you, and the cow is also very intoxicated. That's really a cry of despair."

  Tofu Westerner let out a snort of laughter and immediately realized her own loss of composure, hastily lowering her head.

  Her smile made the people sitting around the tofu stall gaze at her with bright eyes, and then they stared at Zhen Mingshu's back of the head with an abnormally jealous look, if their gaze had radiation, Zhen Mingshu would have been filled with malignant tumors by now.

  After drinking soy milk, Zhenming turned around and left with a bitter face.

  Two middle-aged men, one tall and one short, walked towards me. One of them was a burly man with a height of over 1.8 meters, holding a short rod like a fire poker in his hand, wearing a black robe with the front open, revealing a thick patch of black chest hair. The other was a stout dwarf-like man with a door-slit eye, walking together in a striking contrast of heights.

  Two men walked past Zhenming's bitter body, one of them, a burly man, intentionally or unintentionally bumped into him.

  He didn't react for a moment, was knocked to the ground, and the crutch in his hand also fell to the ground. He turned his head to look at the person who bumped into him, that man with a face full of scars and a rough appearance, even uglier than him, also turned around, glared at him fiercely, and growled: "What are you looking at? Get out of here, beggar! Watch it or I'll beat you up!"

  Zhen Mingsu frowned and averted his gaze, avoiding their eyes. The two men saw that Zhen Mingsu knew better than to mess with them and flashed a mocking smile before turning around and walking towards the tofu stall.

  He now only wants to find something he can do to earn some money to buy medicine and cure the tuberculosis that has been tormenting him for half a year, without wanting to cause any more trouble.

  ……

  There are many shops and stalls on the street, including Chinese medicine stores, wine houses, baozi tea stalls, vegetable stalls, pork shops, ironwork shops, rice shops, etc.

  Zhen Ming had a hard time searching for half a day, entering many shops and asking if they wanted to hire someone. As a result, without exception, the shop assistants saw his crippled and thin appearance, thinking he was a beggar coming to the door, pushing and shoving him out, almost using a broom to sweep him away.

  Finally, he came to a large iron shop with luxurious decorations and the largest area among all the shops he had seen. If it were in the 21st century, this would be equivalent to a state-owned enterprise.

  He hesitated for a moment, then walked in. As soon as he entered the door, a tall and sturdy man with a bare back, a full beard, and dark muscles came out to greet him, asking in a loud voice: "What does the guest need? Today is a chaotic day, thieves are rampant, going out has a good weapon to defend oneself, thieves dare not act rashly. The products of this store are all high-quality, the price is fair, the quality is superior, and they help people forge heavier and more powerful weapons, with discounts for large quantities."

  Upon hearing this rather modern-sounding advertisement slogan, Zhen Ming couldn't help but lift his head and take a good look at the big man.

  Perhaps due to the ironwork, his skin had a bronze color, he was nearly two meters tall, his eyebrows and hair were curled up by the high-temperature charcoal fire, his eyes were like copper gongs, and his muscles were as solid as iron blocks.

  "Excuse me, is the boss in?"