"Let's go! Let's take a look!" Su Li made a quick decision, stuffed Lingbao into Xiao Jue's arms, and rushed out with Luo in tow. Xiao Jue followed closely behind, holding Lingbao. Chenbao put away his abacus, Erbao looked around curiously with his pacifier in his mouth, and Sanbao sobbed while trying to save his "sunken ship".

The door of the general's mansion quietly opened a crack.

The scene before them petrified the experienced Su Li and Xiao Jue.

Across the street, I saw that a large section of the wall of Wang Pozi's house, which had been in good shape, had been demolished, and in its place stood a shrine hastily built with fresh wood and red silk. Inside the shrine, an old pickle jar, black with three noticeable cracks on the edge and stained with suspicious brown vegetable stains, was placed on a table covered with yellow cloth, like a shrine for the deceased. In front of the jar, three thick, low-quality incense sticks were inserted in the incense burner, and smoke was curling around. The enshrined pig's head was grinning, and two huge carp were staring at the gate of the general's mansion with their eyes wide open. Wang Pozi, wearing a brand new (but obviously ill-fitting) brown silk dress, was kneeling on a cushion with great piety with her son, daughter-in-law, and two little grandsons, performing the ritual of three bows and nine kowtows in the direction of the backyard of the general's mansion! She was muttering to herself:

**"The Chaos Heavenly Secret Jar is above! His Highness Ling, bless me with your golden mouth and jade teeth! I pray that the jar god will bless my little grandson to open his mind and enlightenment, so that he can become as wise and insightful as His Highness Chen in the future! I, the queen mother, and my entire family will offer sacrifices to you every day and will never dare to neglect you! Constant incense and plenty of pig heads!"**

Even more outrageous is that on both sides of the shrine are a pair of crooked couplets with wet ink:

**First couplet:** A cracked jar can gather wealth from all directions (the cracks represent chaos?)

**Second Line:** Vegetable stains still carry the blessings of generations to come (are vegetable stains the remnants of auspiciousness?)

**Horizontal banner:** If there is a cylinder (cylinder), it must be responded to!

A gust of morning breeze blew by, picking up a few fallen leaves and the ashes of burning paper money, which clung to the pig's nostrils. The atmosphere was solemn (?), yet tinged with an indescribable absurdity.

"This...this..." Su Li clutched her chest, feeling her blood pressure soar. "A Luo, go! Tell Mrs. Wang to tear this thing down immediately! What a mess!"

Ah Luo grimaced, "Madam, I've told you! I've worn my lips out! Granny Wang said this is her family's ancestral 'Small Chaos Jar,' and it's from the same kiln as our 'Big Chaos Jar,' sharing the same origin! The crack in her jar is called 'the beginning of chaos,' a truly auspicious sign! She also said...she also said she saw the pacifier bank's golden light test yesterday, and her jar made a 'humming' sound, resonating with ours! She absolutely refuses to tear it down, saying that doing so would cut off her grandson's path to becoming a scholar!"

Su Li's vision went dark. Resonance? The sound of her pet, Lingbao, chewing his toes, almost resonated with this broken jar!

Chen Bao's little face was as tense as a piece of iron, and the abacus beads made rapid "crackling" sounds. It was obvious that he was performing high-speed calculations and logical deductions, trying to understand this "belief economics" that was beyond his cognitive scope.

Erbao Su Heng seemed to be attracted by the pig's head on the altar. He pointed with his little hand and shouted incoherently: "Pig! Big pig! So delicious!" His saliva flowed down the golden pacifier.

Sanbao Su Yu was still sobbing: "My boat... wuwu... Grandma Wang is so mean... she demolished the wall... the wind blew and the boat sank..."

Lingbao was in Xiao Jue's arms. He seemed to find the kowtow of the person opposite him very interesting. He straightened his little body and imitated it, giggling.

At this moment, the palace guard commander came tumbling over, sweat pouring down his face, even more panicked than the last time he reported the tribute blocking the gate:

"General! Madam! Something terrible has happened! I just received an urgent pigeon message from the government office and the City Defense Department! It's not just Mrs. Wang's family! The whole city... no! Several surrounding counties are in chaos!"

"What's wrong again?" Su Li's voice was shaking.

"The people... the people have gone crazy!" The palace guard commander's voice was filled with tears. "Every household is offering pickle jars! Rice and water jars have all been smashed to make room! The price of pickle jars at the market has increased a hundredfold! There's no demand for them! Those who don't have jars are offering pickle jars and pickle jars!"

"That's not all!" He gasped, handing over several urgent reports with feathers stuck in them. "At Liu's Rice Shop in Dongcheng, the owner cleared out all the rice and flour in the shop and filled it with eighteen newly bought pickle jars. He hung a sign saying 'Chaos Rice Shop' and announced that he's switching his business to renting auspicious jars!"

"The embroiderers at Xicheng's Jinxiufang went on strike. They dismantled their embroidery frames and used gold and silver thread to embroider 'Chaos Auspicious Shields' on their pickle jars! Orders are backlogged for three years!"

"The most outrageous thing is... Qingyang County, three hundred miles from the royal city!" The commander of the palace guards suddenly raised his voice, filled with disbelief and horror. "The county magistrate... the county magistrate... he took down the plaque that read 'A Clear Mirror Hangs High' in the county hall! He piled the county seal, the fish-scale register, and all the official files... in front of a sauerkraut jar that his wife had brought as a dowry! He's declaring that from now on, all official business in Qingyang County must first be reported to the 'Sauerkraut Jar God' and can only take effect after the jar god's 'auspicious aura' has permeated and approved it! Now all government affairs in the county are completely paralyzed, and the people who have filed complaints are crowding the county hall gate, waiting to kowtow to the sauerkraut jar and appeal!"

"Plop!" A'Luo's legs went weak and she sat down on the ground.

Su Li held onto the door frame, feeling dizzy.

Xiao Jue held the giggling Lingbao in his arms and looked at the absurd scene of Wang Po's family kneeling devoutly across the street. He then looked down at his ignorant little daughter in his arms who just thought it was fun. Finally, his gaze fell on the pickle jar No. 7, which was now "deified" in rumors in his backyard. He was silent for three full breaths.

He slowly uttered a sentence, his voice low and complex, with a sense of the vicissitudes and absurdity of seeing through the world:

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