Neighbor

1-10 VOLUME 1

Chapter 1 If the city wall can't stop it, the boy will climb over the wall.

In the old dynasty, roads and walls were built between the city and the square, and city gates were set up in four directions. The gate was called "阓", and the local dialect called "阓" (阓) as "hui", so there were the west gray gate and the east gray gate. call.

The city is used for business, and the square is a residential area. This dynasty removed the barriers to the market and opened shops all over the residential areas. Only the walls remained.

Xihuimen leads directly to Yawai Street. The residents in Yawai Street are all ordinary people, and their lives are generally decent. The Li Erkun family, who lives next to the wall, is the poorest.

Li Erkun was a sailor. He sailed on a sea ship two years ago and has never been heard from again. There are many sailors who have not been heard from, and most of them are dead. Navigation is extremely dangerous, with violent storms, getting lost and running aground on rocks, and people and ships sinking together; there are also those who encounter pirates and are tied alive and thrown into the sea to feed the fish. In the vast ocean, no one knows and no news can be reached.

Li's wife, Ayun, raised two children by herself, a ten-year-old boy named Li Guo and a less than two-year-old girl named Guomei.

In the early morning of autumn, a procession marched through Yawai Street to Xihuimen. The official who opened the way was neatly dressed in soap. Behind the official was a man riding a tall horse. The man was forty years old, with fair face and beautiful beard. An official in Yan Xian's attire. Behind the official came a sedan, which was tightly covered with curtains, and inside was a female family member. Next to the right side of the sedan is a boy of eleven or twelve years old. The boy has bright eyes, white teeth, and outstanding appearance. There is a beaded gold pendant hanging around his neck, and his shoulder-length hair is tied with a red beard. He is a noble young man. The boy got off the horse and rode a snow-white pony with colorful harness and bells, which jingled all the way, which was very eye-catching. There were so many onlookers, and the boy seemed bored. The childishness in his brows was still there, but he looked proud. Behind the sedan, there were seven or eight servants, some female and male, some carrying burdens, some carrying boxes, all with packages hanging on their shoulders, covered in the dust.

Li Guo squeezed into the crowd to watch. He was short in stature and had nimble limbs. Li Guo had two sheep's horns tied on his head and a coin tied with a red string on his wrist. It was already autumn, and he was still wearing a large short-sleeved backpack, exposing most of his arms. This child from a poor family has small arms and legs, fair skin, and picturesque eyebrows.

The young master rode past Li Guo on a white horse. Li Guo watched intently. His attention was completely seduced by the little pony, but he failed to see clearly the appearance of the man on the horse.

The mud splashed by the horse's hooves spread on Li Guo's feet. Li Guo squatted down, took off a broken straw shoe, and rubbed it with the sole. When he raised his head again, the foal had gone far away, and only a few servants could be seen.

It is not a new thing that officials with their families have moved into the Yafang again.

This official came from the capital and was assigned to the Changping Department for promotion. He was a tea and salt promotion officer.

The house where Cha Yan Tiju and his family lived was the vacant large house diagonally opposite Li Erkun's house. The locals used to call this large house Jing Gong's house, and Jing Gong was probably the honorific title of the first owner of the house.

There is only a wall between Jinggong's house and Li's house, and the two families are very close to each other. So close that the second-floor windows of the two houses looked at each other, less than two feet apart.

In the past, this house was occupied by the official Tixueguan. After the official Tixueguan moved away, it remained vacant for a year.

When people walk away in loneliness, the trees in the courtyard will also grow lonely, not missing the flowering period and not missing the fruiting period.

The courtyard of Jinggong Residence is full of flowers and plants. In the corner near Li's house, there is a pear tree, which is particularly tall. It cannot be traced back to the year when it was planted. The new owner moves in when it is fruitful.

During the season when pear blossoms were flying like snow, Li Guo had already missed this pear tree. Li Guo was disappointed that a new owner suddenly came to Jing Gong Mansion.

The Li family is already an extremely poor family. There is no news about Li Erkun. The Li family has cut off their source of livelihood and relies on Li's wife Ayun to do laundry and help earn some money to buy food. At home, we often have one meal but no next meal. Li Guo is a clever and restless boy. He will pick melons when the melons from the melon farmers in the suburbs are ripe. He will pick flowers from the flower farmers' flower beds when lotus flowers and peonies are in bloom. When the fishing boats dock in the east harbor of the city, he will pick them from fishermen's nets. After shaking out the trash fish, the vegetable market behind the Yamen Square was closed. He would go to the vegetable market and ask for two wilted radishes or a taro.

As long as he can eat anything, he is very enthusiastic. If he can sell it for a little money, that would be great.

It is not difficult to understand that he has been thinking about Cong Jing's mansion since the pear tree bloomed.

The Li family cooks once a day and never cooks again every day. After eating the only meal of the day, which might be radish rice soup or wild vegetable pancakes, or steamed taro, Li Guo licked his fingers, savoring the deliciousness of the food, and started to go out for a walk again.

Wandering around, he stood under the city wall and looked up at the pear tree planted in Jinggong's residence.

The pear looked a little green, but given time, it would be juicy and sweet. Wiping his saliva, Li Guo ran to the port in the east of the city. He was a child with no one to discipline him, so he had nothing to do all day long, just wandering around.

As for Guomei, Ayun is tied behind her back. This baby is very thin. No matter what work she does, Ayun always takes her with her.

If she is older, she can be taken care of by Li Guo. Of course, she must be able to raise her. If she has a headache and fever, there is no money to treat her.

More than ten days later, the pears in Jing's residence were ripe and exuding an attractive fruity aroma. Li Guo brought a wooden ladder and climbed up to the second floor of his house.

The Li family's house is narrow, small, and slanted. The materials used in the construction were poor and it could barely survive three generations. Even when a typhoon blows in the harbor every year, it will tremble in the wind and rain, as if it is about to die.

The second floor of Li's house is an attic. It was severely damaged by the typhoons the year before and the year before last. It is no longer habitable and has become a utility room.

Li Guo pushed open the broken pottery jar, climbed to the wooden window lattice, picked up the wooden bars, and propped up the wooden window. The window was broken, hanging in mid-air, and was precarious.

Leaning out the window, Li Guo used his eyes to measure the distance between the wall and the window of his house. For Li Guo, a child, the distance was about the same as the wall, but for a child, it was a bit far. But the child was nimble, so Li Guo jumped out of the window and landed safely on the wall, effortlessly.

In broad daylight, Li Guo did not dare to do such a thing over the wall. But at night, wouldn't it be nice to take advantage of the darkness, sneak in, and return home with a full load?

At night, while his mother was sleeping, Li Guo tied a small basket around his waist. He jumped from the attic window to the wall, and then walked along the wall until he came to a position close to the pear tree. The pear tree is much taller than the wall. Several branches and leaves jump out of the wall. It is very convenient to step on the wall and pick pears.

He picked one off, wiped it on his clothes, and ate it in three or five bites. At night, no one would notice the little man on the wall.

After quickly picking up a basket full of about eleven or two, Li Guo returned the same way. When he jumped back to the window of his house, he saw from the corner of his eye that the room on the second floor of Jing's residence was suddenly lit up like daylight. Li Guo wisely lay down on the ground and dusted his face.

At the moment when Li Guo was lying on the ground, a boy suddenly popped out of the east window of Jing's residence. The boy was wearing a white coat and holding a scroll in his hand. The boy was reading at night and heard a noise outside the window. He held up a candle and came over to check. The boy looked at the neighbor's window and vaguely remembered that the window was usually closed, but today it was open, which was suspicious.

The attic was dark, the moonlight couldn't shine in, and I couldn't see my fingers. Li Guo's house did have an oil lamp, but he was reluctant to light it on weekdays. Li Guo didn't light the lamp, which caused Li Guo to miss the mark when he got down the wooden ladder. In panic, he hooked one hand on the wooden ladder and hugged him with the other. The pears in the basket slid down the wooden ladder cautiously.

"Guo, is that you?"

A voice came from the next door in the darkness.

"Mom, it's me."

Li Guo replied.

"It's so late, why don't you go to bed."

Ayun muttered. However, she was exhausted from working hard during the day and had no energy to discipline her naughty son.

Zhao Qimo was eleven years old and promoted Zhao Zefu's youngest son. His elder brother got married and established a career and was working abroad. Qimo was underage and followed his father to travel to Fujian.

Qi Mo grew up in the capital and can speak Mandarin and Wu dialect. When he followed his father to this place where the language was different and the customs and habits were different, it was inevitable that he would feel conflicted.

Usually bored, Qi Mo paid attention to the dilapidated and dilapidated house outside the wall. He soon discovered that someone was stealing pears from his yard.

Within a few days, one side of the pear tree was climbed so hard that the branches and leaves fell off, leaving the pear fruit empty.

Arrogant little thief, he stole all this into Tiju's house, and he still got it.