As summer gradually sets in, the pier becomes so hot that even the wild dogs looking for food can no longer stay and disappear.
The rickshaw drivers sat under the shade of the trees, picking up towels on their shoulders to wipe sweat every time they spoke a word or two. It seemed that even speaking and listening itself had become extremely laborious.
They lazily squatted or sat next to their cars until they heard the whistle of the ship, and finally there was light in their eyes and they stretched their necks.
When the boat docked, before the sampan connecting the boat to the shore was put down, the coachmen rushed out and crowded the shore.
"Master, madam, do you want to take a car?"
"I just happened to be on my way. After this trip, I'm going home for dinner, so take my car."
"Brand new car! I'm very strong, I'm sure I can't knock you over!"
The coachmen were busy talking to the guests coming off the boat, soliciting business and bargaining.
Some happily led the guests away, some complained repeatedly, saying that they really couldn't make much money on this trip, and some were cheating and were scolded by knowledgeable guests, then smiled and went to greet other guests. Then he resorted to his own obvious tricks, and the dock became very lively for a while.
One of the young coachmen was new to the industry, and he was only allowed to pick up guests here after paying a head fee according to the rules.
He was not as strong as those old coachmen, and he was not as slippery, so he was inevitably at a disadvantage among the crowds of solicitors, being squeezed out far away and unable to intervene.
Dunlin is not a very busy pier, or in other words, most ships load and unload cargo here, and there are actually not many passengers boarding and disembarking.
Many people come here by boat from the previous port, and there are few direct routes from other areas.
If he missed this trip, his income today would not be guaranteed.
Of course, there is no need to consider the rent, because like other coachmen, he spends the night in his own car, which saves a sum of money to be paid to the watchman.
But there is no way to save money on car rentals and meals.
Even if they don't care about anything else, the coachmen must ensure that they can eat two taels of minced meat every day. If they don't feed oil, water and food into their stomachs, they will not be able to pull the car and the people sitting on it and run away. Can't get up.
When the young coachman was distressed, he finally caught a glimpse of a man walking out with a suitcase in the crowd.
The man was wearing a white suit, a gentleman's hat, and a pair of yellow round sunglasses hanging on his face. The lenses just covered his eyes. The legs of the glasses had an unusual curved shape, which made people aware of him at a glance. With his unrestrained and unrestrained personality, he should be the son of a certain family.
[Oh, another fake foreign devil. 】
The driver hurriedly stepped forward with a smile on his face, "Sir, do you want to take a ride?"
Yin Xiu nodded, handed the box he carried to the driver, and then followed the driver slowly to the side of the rickshaw.
"Sir, where are you going?"
Yin Xiu didn't answer, but took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to the coachman.
"Uh," the coachman scratched his head in embarrassment, "Sir, I can't read."
"It's okay."
Yin Xiu took the note back and read out the address on it, "Go to Xiaoyu Township."
"Okay! Sit tight!"
The rickshaw started running slowly, shuttling through the streets.
Yin Xiu looked at the street scene around him and felt that the streets in Nanyang were indeed different from those in Kyushu or Hong Kong Island. Both sides were filled with betel nut trees and palm trees, as well as some unnamed flowers.
The wind blew on Yin Xiu's face, making him feel warm and drowsy.
The coachman was sweating profusely after running in front for a while, and big beads of sweat kept rolling down his neck.
Yin Xiu opened her pocket watch and took a look at the time. The sunlight reflected by the pocket watch suddenly caught the driver's attention, causing him to take a second look without anyone noticing, and then secretly turned his head away, pretending that nothing had happened.
"Is there a Majia Village in Xiaoyu Township?" Yin Xiu suddenly asked him.
"Majiacun?"
The driver slowed down to adjust his breathing and speak more clearly.
"Sir, I often visit Xiaoyu Township, but I have never heard of Majia Village."
"No?"
Yin Xiu scratched his face and asked him again: "Maybe the name is different? If you think about it carefully, is there a village where many people named Ma live, so it is called Majia Village or Majiagou?"
The coachman replied: "Sir, my surname is Ma. People here call me Xiaoma, but we don't have Majia Village there."
"Do you live in Xiaoyu Township?"
"I don't live there."
"Well..."
Yin Xiu rolled her eyes, "In other words, is there a village in Xiaoyu Township that outsiders don't usually enter? By the way, the people living there should be Tang people, not locals."
"Yes!"
The coachman immediately replied: "There is one. I heard that there are many women who know magic living there. That village is run by women, and locals generally don't go near it.
And I heard that those people seemed to have the surname Ma. ”
“Isn’t that Majia Village!?”
"But it's not called Majia Village, sir." The coachman emphasized.
"Anything is fine," Yin Xiu lay on the backrest, "Take me there, everything else is fine."
"Okay!"
The driver quickened his pace, and after about a stick of incense, the rickshaw crossed the road and stopped in front of a village.
It is said to be a village, but it is actually a wall on the outside. Inside, there are more than a dozen houses of different heights, row upon row, and it looks more like a "community".
"Sir, we've arrived at the village where Ma family women live," the coachman said.
"You just refuse to admit that this is Majia Village?"
"This is really not Majia Village, sir, even if only people named Ma live here." The coachman insisted.
"Okay."
Yin Xiu sighed, took out a silver dollar from his pocket, and threw it to him, "Is it enough?"
"That's enough, sir, that's enough."
The driver thanked Yin Xiu profusely after taking the silver coins. Before pulling the cart away, he shouted to Yin Xiu: "I wish you a happy stay in Majia Village!"
Yin Xiu didn't look back. He raised his hand to indicate that he heard. Then he picked up his suitcase and planned to cross the unnamed stone monument that should be regarded as the village sign.
At this moment, a young voice suddenly called him.
"Stop, this is a private place. Did you get permission to come in?"
Yin Xiu turned around and saw that it was a little girl about twelve or thirteen years old, wearing local clothes, short sleeves and long trousers. If it weren't for the two buns, she would have looked more like a little boy.
What surprised Yin Xiu even more was that the girl's features looked a bit like Ma Xiaoyu's.
"What's your name? Who are you? What are you doing here? Do you have another purpose?" She asked a series of questions.
When Yin Xiu heard this series of questions, he felt his eardrums trembling. He smiled and said: "Before asking others' names, it is polite to state your own name first, right?"
"What? Are you secretly scolding me for not having a tutor?"
[Oh, exactly the same speaking style as Ma Xiaoyu...]
But the girl didn't care about Yin Xiu. She just continued: "Listen, my name is Ma Xinyi, and I am a descendant of the exorcist Ma family."
"Of course I know you are a descendant of the Ma family, because your temperament betrayed you." Yin Xiu smiled and said: "My name is Yin Xiu, and I am a Maoshan Taoist priest."
"Maoshan Taoist?"
Ma Xinyi glanced at Yin Xiu and couldn't connect his fashionable attire with that of a Maoshan Taoist priest.
However, she remembered someone who didn't dress like a Taoist priest on weekdays, so she didn't have much doubt about Yin Xiu's identity at this time.
She just rolled her eyes and asked, "Do you have any proof?"
"I haven't gone to get the ultimatum yet, but this is something I carry with me."
Yin Xiu took out a piece of talisman paper from his pocket and shook it at Ma Xinyi.
Ma Xinyi immediately recognized that it was the cinnabar yellow paper unique to the Maoshan School. She had never seen the fakes on those street stalls, but it was precisely because she had never seen the fakes that she could see the real thing.
She had vaguely recognized Yin Xiu's identity in her heart, but she was not yet confident about him.
"Then what are you doing here?"
Being questioned by a little girl one after another, Yin Xiu was not angry, but just found it funny.
"I'm looking for Ma Xiaoyu...the Heavenly Master."
"Many people are looking for her."
Ma Xinyi seemed to have known that Yin Xiu would say this, so she was just calm.
"Huh?"
On the other hand, Yin Xiu felt something was wrong. He frowned, "A lot of people are looking for her? Among those looking for her, are there any as handsome and charming as me?"
"You?"
Ma Xinyi shook her head, "Not really, it's just..."
"I just want to find someone to marry. Is there any problem?"
Ma Xiaoyu appears.
After not seeing each other for several months, she became more elegant and more beautiful.
She wore a white dress, a straw hat decorated with ribbons on her head, and a pair of simple sandals on her feet, revealing her distinct toes and delicate insteps.
Yin Xiu was very happy to see her, and walked a few steps over to hug her. However, Ma Xiaoyu folded her hands, took a step back, and turned her head to the side, with a cold look on her face.
"What, you're here to propose marriage too?"
"Proposing marriage?" Yin Xiu was stunned for a moment.
"Of course I'm proposing!"
Ma Xiaoyu glared at him and said angrily: "Isn't it like this in novels? The heroine is abandoned by a heartless man and is disheartened. At this time, there is often a valley owner, a prince, a young hero and the like coming. Marrying her made her forget about that libertine, so it was natural for me to propose marriage.”
"But, sister."
Ma Xinyi suddenly interrupted, "Aren't the people who come to us all the old men in their 70s and 80s? They are all clan leaders, village chiefs and so on. They come from all over the country to beg us to exorcise evil spirits and catch ghosts. And when are you planning to get married? Already?
We have never heard of this. Didn’t you say you have to wait for someone to come and then..."
Before she finished speaking, Ma Xiaoyu's hand had already covered her mouth.
"When I recite scriptures on weekdays, why don't I see you so articulate and eloquent?"
When she controlled Ma Xinyi's mouth and turned to look at Yin Xiu, Yin Xiu looked at her with a smile.
Ma Xiaoyu couldn't help but blush, turned around and walked out.
Yin Xiu quickly followed behind.
Ma Xinyi was stunned as she watched, and for a moment she didn't know what she said wrongly, which made Ma Xiaoyu so angry.
She didn't know why Yin Xiu wanted to catch up with her.
The two seemed to have known each other before, but just now they were at war with each other, which made people feel nervous.
She was stunned in place, and when she reacted again, Ma Xiaoyu and Yin Xiu had already walked out and disappeared from her sight.
"What are you following me for?"
Ma Xiaoyu turned around, her face still angry.
"If you don't go to a big city like Dunling to live happily, why do you come to a small country place like this? There are no bars or nightclubs here, so it's not a place for a young man like you to stay."
Yin Xiu spread her hands, "Who do you think I am? Bars and nightclubs, that's where Liu Banxian only went!
Last time, he insisted on asking me to go to a nightclub with him. He said that a golden cat named Takizawa Yua was coming, but I refused to agree. For this reason, he even broke up with me and we will never have contact with him again. ”
Phew!
Ma Xiaoyu was amused by him and glared at him, "This is obviously a Japanese name, why is it related to the golden cat?"
"Stage name, that's a stage name."
Yin Xiu also took the opportunity to move forward and finally took Ma Xiaoyu's hand.
Ma Xiaoyu glared at him and swung and hit her hand. Seeing that she couldn't break free, she finally just let Yin Xiu hold her soft hand.
"I thought you died outside, or met another confidante somewhere, and didn't plan to come back."
Ma Xiaoyu's tone was still quite angry, but her eyes were already a little red.
"How is that possible?"
Yin Xiu comforted her softly: "I just took the wrong route. As soon as I finished doing things in Gaotan, I didn't have time to deal with all my injuries, so I rushed back without stopping."
"Really?"
Hearing that Yin Xiu was injured, Ma Xiaoyu couldn't help but feel a little worried, and her tone softened a bit.
"That doesn't matter."
Yin Xiu smiled and said: "In order to come to see you, I will send knives from the sky and the ground..."
"Don't talk nonsense," Ma Xiaoyu sealed his mouth with her fingers to prevent him from talking any more.
So Yin Xiu took the opportunity to grab her other hand and squeezed it gently.
"Actually, my original intention was to come to Dunlin, but something unexpected happened, so-so-so-so..."
Yin Xiu told the story about the pilot mishearing the place name, and added some embellished stories, and finally told the whole story that it was difficult, thrilling and legendary. Ma Xiaoyu was sometimes nervous, sometimes smiling and amazed.
Finally, after Yin Xiu finished telling everything, Ma Xiaoyu no longer had the anger before and just smiled.
The two of them got closer and closer, allowing Yin Xiu to smell her fragrance.
"To put it that way, I did everything wrong." Ma Xiaoyu's ears turned red.
"Did you do something wrong?"
Yin Xiu smiled, "You are right about one thing."
"What?" Ma Xiaoyu asked him.
Yin Xiu's eyes were filled with brilliance, and Ma Xiaoyu couldn't help but lower her head.
"I mean, I'm really here to ask for [marriage]."
He raised Ma Xiaoyu's cute and cute chin and put his face close to her. (End of chapter)