Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 317 Fang Xiangsi

Of course, the transactions that take place on the street are small ones, the larger ones, or the ones that don't want to be known, take place in a tavern at the end of the street, which is open for business day and night. Especially during her main business hours, the tavern is named "Qunxian Pavilion" after the city where it is located, but most people who are in the gray area prefer to call it "Fang Xiangsi". The goddess of funerals and the dead. It is said that when the dead are buried, Fang Xiang will appear beside the grave to drive away the ghosts that disturb the dead.

The reason why this small restaurant has such a name probably has something to do with the location near him.There is a small cemetery for the poor a few hundred steps away from the west side of the tavern. The wasteland that only ends at Jinguangmen.Here lay the corpses of servants, of strangers, of strangers, and of the destitute; and over them the dogs and crows feasted.The putrid stench of this dreary wasteland affected the air all around.It's hard to imagine that this place is only a few blocks away from the majestic palace.

There is a signboard with Fang Xiang hanging on the door of the restaurant. According to legend, Fang Xiang is a fierce god with a bear-skinned body, golden four eyes, dark clothes and Zhu clothes, and the handwriting of a poor and poor artist adds to it. Kind of ugly.A small lamp dangling by the wind, shining on this poor evil spirit, added a bit of terror.But in any case, this dim light is enough to arouse the attention of the guests and attract them to the door of the restaurant; More or less expelled some.

As soon as the guests enter the small and low door and walk down the steps made of random stacked stones, they can enter a damp room that is smoky and blackened by the charcoal fire.

On the right side of the door, there is a stove built against the wall.A bright flame was burning under the stove, on which all kinds of food in various containers were cooked.Among these foods are the store's specialty lamb blood sausage and the never-changing chowder meatballs; no one wants to know what the raw materials of the chowder meatballs are.The chef who cooks these foods is An Wuniang, the proprietress and female shopkeeper of this restaurant.

On one side of the stove, in a small open alcove, there is a small wood-carved Bodhisattva statue, which Chang'an people at that time often enshrined to protect their homes.In honor of this revered deity, a small ever-burning lamp was lit there.Beside the stove stood a dirty little table and a little red-painted stool.This stool is for An Wuniang to sit on in her free time.

Along the walls, to the left and right, and also in front of the stove, stood several old dining tables.Around the table were rough benches and lame square stools.

A black pottery hanging lamp was hung from the ceiling, and four lamp grasses were placed inside the lamp.The light, together with the blazing fire in the hearth, constantly drove out the darkness that enveloped the cellar.

Another door was opened in the wall opposite the door that had served as the entrance to the tavern.Inside that door was another smaller and cleaner room.An oil lamp with only one grass in it was lit on the corner of the wall, dimly illuminating the room, and in the half-light, only part of the floor and two dining tables could be seen, which was regarded as the guest room of the winery.

In the first year of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Dahongxiao Emperor Linde, on the Lantern Festival, about a quarter of an hour after Wu o'clock, the guests in the Fangxiang wine shop were particularly crowded.The noise and noise not only filled the entire hotel, but also resounded through the entire alley.An Wuniang and her Tuyuhun slave girl with tattooed cheeks were busy making arrangements to satisfy the hungry customers clamoring for them from all directions at the same time.

An Wuniang is a tall, wiry, rosy-cheeked woman of forty-five who already has a lot of gray in her dark chestnut hair.She had been a beauty in her youth, but now her straight face was disfigured by a scar on her left cheek.No one knows the origin of the scars on her face, and can only guess from her hair color and surname that her ancestors should be Hu people.But the people on this street didn't care about these things. Her attentive attitude and cheerful disposition still attracted many customers, especially her superb cooking skills, which were unanimously praised by everyone.

Those who come to Fangxiang Winery are all low-class people: carpenters, potters, blacksmiths, dyer craftsmen, and some hopeless drunkards-gravediggers, jugglers, actors, disabled veterans, beggars pretending to be disabled, Chang'an Bad boys and whores.But An Wuniang is not demanding on the guests, and she doesn't ask them all the details, because this is not the place where nobles, scholar-bureaucrats and Wuling teenagers come.In particular, in the eyes of the magnanimous An Wuniang, since the sun hanging high in the sky is the same for the noble and the poor, and since some people open restaurants and hotels for the noble, then the poor should also have their own wine shop; In addition, An Wuniang is also very sure: the Zhenguan Tongbao and Daye Tongbao taken out of the pockets of a murderer or a liar will be taken from the nobles or Wuling teenagers who live in Taipingfang and Guanglufang next to the imperial palace. The money that comes out makes no difference.

"An Wuniang, what the hell, haven't you brought that damn chowder over here?" shouted an old soldier with scars all over his face and chest.

"I bet that Chen Qi brought the meat from the wasteland of Jinguangmen for her. It was the meat from the dead people who hadn't been pecked by the crows. These are the meatballs that those evil spirits eat." Ingredients!" shouted a beggar sitting next to the veteran.

There was a resounding roar of laughter at the vicious joke of the pretended crippled beggar.But look at Chen Qi, the grave man, a short, stout man with a red nose and an indifferent expression.He seemed very displeased with the beggar's joke, so he sneered and said loudly, "An Wuniang, listen to me, honest man: when you made chowder balls for this filthy Hu Jiu (that's the beggar's name), You put in that rotten piece of meat that he tied to his chest with a thread, pretending to be a bloody wound. In fact, he has no wound at all, but he just tricked those honest and kind people to give him more money."

This retort was followed by a deafening burst of laughter.

"You bastard, you dare to make fun of me. Be careful when you walk at night, and be careful not to be knocked on the head from behind and thrown into the cemetery. Everyone will never see you again, a drunkard!"

(End of this chapter)