The wind is cold and the snow is dotted.

Zheng Lin, who rushed to Mingzhou, did not expect that the weather suddenly changed and it would snow on the way. Although the snow was not heavy, it still affected the horse's degree. By the time he arrived in Mingzhou, he had already missed the agreed time.

"Why did you come? Fortunately, the people above were delayed by the snow, otherwise you would have to be scolded." In an invisible house, Zhang Niuyi looked at Zheng Lin who was pushing the door and got up and grabbed a dry cloth towel from the bamboo pole hanging behind the door.

Zheng Lin took the dry cloth towel and brushed the white snow on his head, face and shoulders one by one, and said lightly: "As long as the news they brought is useful, it's nothing to be scolded."

"Brother Lin, do you care about this mission very much? You didn't say such things before." The monkey inserted halfway through and said curiously: "Brother Lin had cared about this mission before. I thought you were idle, but now it doesn't seem to be idle, but it seems like you have any other thoughts."

Zheng Lin's expression did not change, and he glanced at the monkey: "You're thinking too much."

Before the task was completed, he did not want to express his plans so as not to affect his companions.

The monkey curled his lips, but he was tactful and did not ask questions. He looked at the snowflakes outside the window and yawned, saying, "I don't know when the people sent by my superiors will arrive. I'm almost sleepy."

Dabao rolled his eyes and couldn't help but laugh, "You've been sleeping all day long? Why don't you go to get a pig's fetus?"

The monkey smiled and said with a shy face: "If I am born into a pig, where can you find a good person like me who can help you relieve your boredom and warm your quilt?"

"Hmph!" Dabao turned his head, not wanting to look at his friend's obscene face anymore, it's so stingy!

Zhang Niuyi was very dissatisfied with the view that the two of them had a "cease-of-war" and was about to let them continue, when a sound of knocking on the door suddenly came from the yard.

The few people were instantly excited. The monkey was the first to rush out and open the gate of the courtyard, and welcomed a man dressed in black in black hat.

This person didn't stay for long, so he handed Zheng Lin a light and secret letter reminding him, "Get the time" and left in a hurry, and continued to rush to the next contact point.

After the monkey locked the courtyard door and locked the door of the room, the four of them sat down around the table, staring at the secret letter in Zheng Lin's hand with eight eyes.

Zheng Lin took a breath and carefully tore open the envelope and took out the folded letter paper. However, when he opened the letter paper, there was no word on it, only a simple portrait of a woman.

"Hey, the woman in this painting is the one we are looking for, right?" The monkey took the little statue and looked at it again and again, unable to help but ask the others.

"Aren't you talking nonsense? If it weren't for the person we were looking for, why did the superiors rush to send it here?" Dabao gave the monkey a blank look, very anxious about his IQ.

The monkey was dissatisfied and defended: "Aren't I uncertain? Besides, the portrait is so poor that I can only tell that it is a woman. If we really look for it in this way, we may be able to catch any person on the street, which is probably better than this one."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Niuyi took the portrait and looked at the oil lamp carefully, and said in a realistic manner: "It's not as outrageous as you said. At least the charm of this woman was drawn. As long as she is still alive, it shouldn't be difficult to find it as we look at it."

The monkey was not so optimistic and shook his head and said, "I think this matter is difficult! Think about it, a weak woman with a seriously ill child can escape the pursuit of a group of ferocious killers. It can be seen that she is not a simple person. Even if she is alive, she will hide in the mountains and forests. If we want to find her, she may not be able to do it for three or five years."

Dabao said indifferently: "Three or five years are just three or five years. There is no limited time on the left and right. As long as we can complete the task, it will be done."

"You guy is thinking too simple. There is no limit to the time for the boss now, but it is impossible to wait too long according to the degree of importance to this matter. Just wait, and we will set a deadline soon." The monkey analyzed it very well, but it does make some sense.

Zhang Niuyi wanted to say something, but suddenly realized that his companion sitting beside him had not spoken from beginning to end, so he turned his head and asked, "Brother Zheng, do you have any ideas if you don't speak?"

Zheng Lin came back to his senses

Come, he shook his head with a confusion in his eyes and shook his head: "This portrait is indeed not carefully enough. It is not up to me to find the difficulty of finding it. I still have to find the place to work."

Zhang Niuyi did not notice the abnormality of his companion and agreed: "We should indeed start with the land, at least we should understand the terrain clearly. First, we should roughly understand the general direction that this woman can hide, otherwise it will be difficult to find without direction."

Dabao thought so, so he simply suggested: "No further delay, we will leave tomorrow so that people elsewhere will take the lead and take away our credit."

"Don't worry, I don't know when this snow will fall. I can't walk fast even if I can't get on the road. It's better to wait." Zhang Niuyi dislikes traveling on snowy days the most. The white snow alone can blind people's eyes, so he doesn't want to suffer this.

After hearing this, Dabao felt it made sense and said nothing. Zheng Lin and Monkey had no objection, which was considered to have reached an unanimous agreement to rush on the road after the snow stopped.

It was getting late, and the four of them discussed the search for someone for a while, and then they returned to their rooms.

After spending a day and night on the horse's back, Zheng Lin's bones were almost disintegrating. He took off his coat and middle clothes and lay on the bed. He was obviously sleepy, but his eyes never closed.

When I first met the woman in the portrait, my eyebrows and eyes that were not special were unexpectedly familiar with him. If I were not too familiar with the people who appeared in reality, he would not be able to connect the two people with a portrait alone.

He thought he had read it wrong, but now when he thought about it carefully, the overlapping eyebrows and eyes were clearly carved from the same mold, and even the experience was surprisingly similar.

I also lived in the capital, and I also had a child around me, even the ages of one big and one young, so how could I teach him not to think too much?

"No, it's not you!" Zheng Lin looked at the woman in the portrait, covered her eyes with her hands to comfort herself: "How could it be you? You have married, your husband died of illness, Huan'er was born to you for ten months of pregnancy, and now you are my fiancée, how could it be the woman who jumped into the river with her child?"

She smiles like a flower, she looks angry but not angry, and she looks fresh and lively, and she is as gentle as water. She has no similarity with the woman who doesn't speak in the portrait.

Zheng Lin tried his best to find out that there was no similarity between the two. All evidence was purely coincidental. However, the woman's earnest advice appeared in her mind before leaving. She cared about herself and hoped that she would go home as soon as possible. She was her fiancée, the woman she was going to accompany her for the rest of her life. Not anyone, she could only be her own wife.

In the heart, men are silently and resolutely, without any doubt, completely separate their beloved women from the women in the portrait, so as not to let them have a slight collision.

The portrait of the woman was caught in a ball by a big hand. The man made the most important decision in his life without any hesitation.

Mulberry leaves, who were almost exposed in Lijia Village, were ignorant of this crisis that passed by. As the Chinese New Year was about to come, they were thinking about whether to take the opportunity to spend a small fortune and have a prosperous year.

"I think you don't think about it anymore. You can write, so you can simply go to the town with the third brother to set up a stall to write Spring Festival couplets, and ask a few young people to help sell it. You can always earn 180 cents a day."

Sanglin sent the last batch of flower sauce this year to Suxinzhai. Seeing that some shops in the town had already put up Spring Festival couplets and sold them, there were still many people buying them, so he suggested that the mulberry leaves, which had not yet figured out what to make, wrote Spring Festival couplets to sell.

"Selling Spring Festival couplets? I, a woman, have anyone bought it?" This is the first year that Sang Ye will be after returning. I don't know if the Spring Festival couplets I wrote have a market in Taoyuan Town, a small place. I didn't think about this at the beginning. Now after listening to my second brother's proposal, I was a little moved.

"Why no one bought it?" Sang Lin was confident and encouraged him vigorously: "Your handwriting is no worse than that of the third brother. In previous years, the third brother set up a stall in the town to write Spring Festival couplets, and passers-by rush to buy it. If you are worried that others will not buy what you wrote, you will write it at home and then sell it. People don't know it was you who wrote it."

Sang Ye thought about it and felt that although selling Spring Festival couplets was just a small business and could not make much money in a day, it was because it was not technically available to mass-produce, and it was something that every family needed was not afraid of not being able to sell. So after a little thought, he said:

"Then sell Spring Festival couplets,

I have been writing at home these days. When my brother comes back from vacation, I will go to the town with him. When he writes Spring Festival couplets, I will sell them."

Sang Lin felt that this arrangement was appropriate, so he said, "When I come back, you can discuss it with me! By the way, my elder brother and I are almost moldy these days. Tomorrow, I will take advantage of the snow to go around the mountains to see if I can catch some pheasants and hares to come back to have a tooth sacrifice."

Sang Ye frowned and said in disagreement: "It's very dangerous on the mountain when it snows. There is no shortage of money for eating wild game at home. If you want to eat it, I'll go to the town to see if I can buy it. Don't risk running up the mountain."

There are countless pheasants and hares in the mountain fifteen miles away from the village, and it is even more common for tigers, wild boars, blind bears and blind people. Usually, no one dares to go deeper, for fear that they are not lucky, just like Widow Li's man, and they will be slapped to death when they meet blind bears.

Sang Lin smiled and said, "Are you stupid and running towards dangerous places? Don't worry, besides me and my elder brother, there are more than a dozen people in the village. Let's go around the mountain and try our luck and never go inside."

"No, it's still not possible." Sang Ye was still worried. He was about to persuade him when he saw his mother coming in, so he told him about his second brother and eldest brother's plan to enter the mountain. He hoped that his mother could persuade his two brothers to stop them from taking risks.

After hearing this, Mu didn't take it seriously: "Let them go there, I'll go there a few times after it snowed in previous years. They've been familiar with that place for a long time, so there's no danger."

Seeing that my mother said the same thing, the second brother looked like he had to go, and Sang Ye couldn't stop him anymore. He just told him: "You and your elder brother must not enter in the mountains. Even if you are lucky enough to meet a beast, it will be very dangerous if the snow is slipping. You must not take risks."

Sang Lin is not a person who can't listen to the words, and he is quite steady. After hearing his sister's words, he patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, even if ten cows come to pull me and my elder brother, we will not step into the deep mountains."

Mang Ye nodded and felt a little relieved.

The next morning, the two brothers of the Sang family went out with dry food, water, and a few simple hunting tools. Under a few big trees at the entrance of the village, they walked towards the direction where the mountains were located with more than a dozen young people of the same generation.

This time, everyone brought enough dry food for three days. After three days, they would return regardless of whether there was any harvest. They would try their luck when it snows next time.

Group activities like this are almost called the old custom of Lijia Village. They have never been interrupted since more than 40 years ago. After all, they are still poor. I hope to catch wild game and exchange it for a good money so that my family can have a good New Year.

There are naturally some things to say if there will be danger, otherwise Widow Li's man would not die. However, there are not many such accidents. Over the years, only two or three others were released, just like Sang Hushi, who accidentally fell down the mountain and broke his legs or arms.

Although I knew that there was little chance of danger, Mang Ye, who had experienced this for the first time, was worried about his two brothers while writing Spring Festival couplets.

It was not until two days later that the bad news was still coming back, and the worry disappeared a little. Soon, Sangyu, who was too idle to stay at home, went to the town to set up a stall to sell Spring Festival couplets.

On this day, the snow had stopped for several days, but the sun had not come out, the weather was still cold and tight, and the snow buried in the calf showed no signs of melting. This kind of weather is not suitable for going out. Even if the Chinese New Year is about to be over, not many people would run to the street to buy New Year’s goods.

Looking at the scattered pedestrians on the street, Mang Ye stomped his feet and angrily, while saying to his younger brother whose cheeks were red, "No one will come to buy them from the left and right, why don't we knock on the door from door to door?"

Sang Yu felt guilty about not listening to her elder sister's advice in the morning and insisting on pulling her out to sell her Spring Festival couplets. When she heard her sister's advice, she felt it was very feasible, so she hurriedly said, "Sister, you're here to watch. I'll take a few pairs of Spring Festival couplets to knock on the door."

"I'm so cold that I'll go with you." Sang Ye said, and began to roll Spring Festival couplets.

Fortunately, I expected that there would be no business. I only brought ten pairs of mulberry leaves with me who had written at home. When I arrived in the town, I saw that there were not many pedestrians, so Sangyu did not take out the pen and ink. Soon, the ten pairs of couplets were rolled up and the rope hanging on the couplets was also put away.

Brother and sister held the Spring Festival couplet and knocked on it

The door of a family happened to be before the family could buy it. Seeing that they had already arrived on a snowy day, the handwriting was well written and the meaning of the Spring Festival couplets was good, I happily bought a pair.

This is not the first time Sangyu sells Spring Festival couplets, but it is the first time that they are delivered to someone to buy them like this. And they sell one pair very smoothly. I immediately became confident and took my elder sister's hand to the second family: "Sister, this area is full of families that are not short of money. As long as they have not had time to buy Spring Festival couplets, maybe we can sell dozens of pairs."

Sang Ye held the five cents he had just obtained, and a great sense of accomplishment surged in his heart. This sense of accomplishment had nothing to do with the amount of money.

"Okay, it's still early, let's run around the town."

"Yes." Sang Yu nodded repeatedly, her face that had not yet completely escaped from her childishness was full of the passion and vitality that young people should have.

There are more than 20 days left before the New Year, and most families in the town have not bought Spring Festival couplets. It is snowing now, so the whole family is staying at home to keep warm.

When I saw the Sang siblings who came to sell Spring Festival couplets, the owner was so surprised that he bought it with great money like the first family.

The ten pairs of Spring Festival couplets brought by Mangye were sold out soon. Sangyu had to take out his pen and ink, find a corner to shelter the wind, spent two minutes, and wrote down twenty pairs in one breath.

After the twenty pairs of Spring Festival couplets were sold, only two were left, and it was already noon. The brother and sister ran for a whole morning and were already hungry. They held their last strength to sell the last two pairs and found a small restaurant to fill their stomachs first. In the afternoon, they finished writing the remaining twenty pairs of red paper and then went home.

"Sister, a pair of Spring Festival couplets cost five cents. Remove the red paper and ink. We can earn three cents in one piece. We sold thirty pairs this morning, earning ninety cents, which is more than what I earned in one day in previous years!" After selling the last two pairs of Spring Festival couplets, Sang Yu took the bill and unexpectedly earned so much, and she laughed happily for a moment.

The innocent young man smiled and two charming dimples appeared on his face. Seeing the mulberry leaves' index fingers, he couldn't help but poke them again: "Let's continue writing and selling in the afternoon. If the weather is not good tomorrow, I can earn as much as today!"

The boy's handsome face was poked red by his sister's fingers. Of course, this was shy. He was embarrassed to hide and couldn't escape, so he simply gave up and struggled: "Let's write more when we go home today, and when the weather gets better in the future, we can buy more."

"Okay, go buy some ink strips before you go back. The ones at home are almost used up." Sang Ye became more and more eager, touched his brother's face again, feeling the smooth and tender feel was very good.

Sang Yu's face turned redder, and she began to worry about her prospective brother-in-law whom she had never met: "Well, it's time to buy it, and there is only half of my ink stick left."

The brother and sister walked into a remote alley awkwardly, intending to take the shortcut to find a restaurant on the street. Suddenly, a sharp, intermittent sound came into their ears from not far away:

"Help, help, help, help, help, help"

Off topic

Xiaoyezi: It is not good to deceive yourself

Xiao Linzi: I think it's good^^

ps: I would like to remind you here that the person with Xiaoyezi's portrait has poor painting skills. The painter who asked someone to copy has never seen a real person before, so the drawings are not very similar. This can be seen from the words of the monkey!
Chapter completed!