Peach Blossom Dyeing Jinge

The tall man commanded the fellow craftsmen, carried the unconscious colleagues on their shoulders, and walked towards the door one by one.

The crying woman also stood up, straightened her clothes, and followed behind the team step by step.

Lu Dongqing had already walked to the door, and suddenly remembered something, turned to the beggar, and asked, "Little brother, do you want to..."

Before he finished speaking, the beggar waved his hand and said impatiently: "I won't go, I'm just a beggar, and I don't bother to care about the affairs of heroes." After finishing speaking, he raised his voice and shouted, "Miss Boss, what are you doing?" No wine, I just said so much, my throat is dry—"

"Without shochu, there is only half a jar of opened sorghum rice wine left..."

"Rice wine is also fine, bring it to me!"

"Okay, okay, I'll get it for you."

The landlady's tone was full of reluctance, but she turned around obediently and hurried to the back kitchen.

The beggar sat back in the corner, as if nothing had happened, and continued to play with the lice in his hair.

In the tavern, only the hard-working proprietress and the surly beggar are left, which is really a strange combination.

Lu Dongqing glanced at the backs of the two before turning around and going out the door.

The team walked through the desolate streets and alleys, all the way to the west of the town. At the end of the alley, there was a forked mountain road, leading to houses surrounded by several courtyard walls on the mountainside.

The tall man stopped and explained to Master Dongqing: "That is our porcelain kiln. My surname is Song, and my name is Song Ren. I am the foreman of the porcelain kiln. They all call me Brother Ren."

Lu Dongqing nodded, and reported her and her master's name together.

Song Ren looked behind him, and said in a low voice, "The one you rescued just now is called Qi Gui, and his wife is following behind. The two of them used to work in a porcelain kiln in the mountains, but after the business there closed down, they moved out. gone."

Lu Dongqing also asked in a low voice: "Did any accident happen to the children of the two?"

Song Ren sighed: "It happened last year. It was wet and rainy in summer. The rocks in the mountain slipped down and broke a suspension bridge. It happened that a group of children were playing by the bridge that day, and they also suffered... Sigh, our Yushan used to be a sacred mountain. , now it seems that the gods in the sky probably don't care about us anymore."

Seeing his solemn expression, Lu Dongqing didn't ask any more questions, but followed him up the steps to the porcelain kiln halfway up the mountain, and pushed open the courtyard door.

This is the first time he has come to this kind of place. As soon as he stepped into the yard, he felt the strange smell of soil. This is a place for firing porcelain. The corner of the wall is facing a handful of unformed porcelain clay. Not far away are two rows of turntables. On the shelf are rough cans that have just been drawn.

On the opposite side of the courtyard is a furnace for firing porcelain, which is huge in scale, with an arch as high as a person, and the furnace body spreads out along the mountain like a long dragon.The fire in the stove never goes out all day long, making the whole yard steamy with smoke.

There is also a single-family room in the yard, which is specially reserved for glazing. On the cabinets on the walls of the room, there are a variety of porcelain blanks from small to large, waiting for the craftsmen to paint them with glaze.

When Song Ren opened the door and entered, there were already seven or eight people busy in the room, each carefully sketching on the surface of the porcelain blank with pens of different thicknesses.

How many exquisite tributes in the imperial city come from here, from the hands of this group of simple craftsmen.

Song Ren looked around for a week, and said: "The shift has changed, everyone, go and have some food, we will take over."

After hearing his words, the craftsmen stopped their work one after another, stood up slowly, wiped off the plaster on their bodies, and retreated to the door one by one.

Seeing them passing by one by one, Lu Dongqing seemed to have a bad complexion, pale skin, and heavy dark circles around their eye sockets, so she couldn't help asking: "They seem to have not rested for a long time, and the porcelain kiln is so busy?"

Song Rendao: "That's right, it's late autumn now. When the new year comes, the government will come to collect taxes. We are all rushing to work on the handed-in porcelain. We have to finish it before the collection."

Lu Dongqing was puzzled and said, "Turn it in? Could it be that all the work for the whole year has to be turned in? Then what do you do?"

Song Ren smiled wryly and said: "If the payment is paid in full, the official is in a good mood, and he will leave some odds that the official car can't transport, so that we can earn some silver for a good year. If the payment is not paid, we will have nothing. Not even a piece of silver or a whole copper coin will be left behind."

"The taxation is so strict for a small porcelain kiln?" Lu Dongqing frowned, "How can the common people live with such a fatuous Majesty?"

Hearing this, Song Ren immediately shook his head and waved his hands, as if facing a formidable enemy: "Little brother, you can't talk nonsense about this."

Lu Dongqing had no choice but to change his words: "I don't know why Brother Ren brought Qi Gui here?"

Song Ren pouted in the corner: "There is a cellar in this porcelain kiln. It borrows the remaining heat from the stove outside. It will not be cold in late autumn. Inside... you should see it with your own eyes."

Lu Dongqing couldn't guess why he was covering up, so he could only cast his gaze in the direction of the cellar.The entrance of the cellar was covered with a bamboo curtain, and the descending steps were narrow and trembling, with faint light shining from below. Lu Dongqing watched as a group of craftsmen hurriedly carried Qi Gui down the steps, and then followed Song Ren to drill together. go in.

After walking a few steps, he felt the coldness blowing towards his face, which was much stronger than what he saw in the tavern, and even the hot porcelain kiln fire could hardly cover it up.

He faintly felt that the cold air was extremely bad, and immediately turned around and asked, "Master, are you feeling alright?"

Lu Zhengqiu shook his head: "Not very good."

His heart trembled, and he asked: "What's wrong?"

Lu Zhengqiu said again: "Not to mention that I didn't eat the braised pork, I climbed the mountain for a long time on an empty stomach, and I was fed the cold wind, and now I have to go down to the cellar, my mouth is dry from the fire, do you think I can take care of it?" ?”

Lu Dongqing: "..."

Lu Zhengqiu raised his eyebrows at him: "What's wrong?"

Lu Dongqing said: "If you feel uncomfortable later, you must not bear it, and you must tell me."

Lu Zhengqiu shrugged: "Hey, didn't I tell you all the truth?"

"Master, you know that I'm worried about you." Lu Dongqing pouted and protested at him with her eyes.

Lu Zhengqiu laughed a few times, and patted him on the back: "As expected of my good apprentice, he is bold, careful, steady and reliable. If I follow you, let alone go to the cellar, even if I go to the dungeon, I have nothing to worry about. of."

Lu Dongqing knew that this was Master's joke to tease him, but the joy of being praised still made him blush.

Sometimes, he really hates his overly honest reaction. Humans are not dogs, so there is no reason to wag their tails when they are praised.

He knew it was unreasonable, but he couldn't control himself at all, so he could only squeeze his fists and worry.

He quietly looked away, pretended nothing happened, and complained in his mouth: "It's all right, how can you say it's going to hell."

Lu Zhengqiu straightened his expression and said: "It's not entirely true, since Qi Gui is called an evil spirit, isn't the place where the evil spirits are locked up the hell?"

"A place where evil spirits are kept?"

"Listen carefully."

When Lu Dongqing heard the words, she stopped making a sound, and instead pricked up her ears to listen carefully to the sound coming from the bottom of the steps.

He heard the sound of breathing, one after another, with constant intervals, it was not just from one person, but the breaths of several people overlapped together.

The sound of breathing was heavy and hoarse, mixed with moans of pain, as if sandpaper was grinding his throat, and every sound made people feel numb down the spine.

The steps of the cellar were longer than he had imagined, and it was said that they were dug deep to prevent the stored porcelain from getting damp.

However, it is not just porcelain that makes this breathing sound.

He went forward to chase a few steps, caught up with Song Ren's back, and asked, "Who lives down here?"

Song Ren frowned, and said slowly, "The same person as Qi Gui."