"What good are you anyway? You can't even get counterfeit silver! I think we should just give up on this small business. You'll ruin it all sooner or later!" An old woman dressed in coarse linen clothes pointed at the old man opposite her and kept cursing, stomping her feet as she did so.
The old man looked aggrieved, ignoring his wife's scolding, and started wiping the table with a rag. "If we don't do business, we'll starve! I clearly saw it was gold before I accepted it, but who knew that after just one afternoon, the gold would turn into stone! I even gave that person a lot of loose silver. How could gold turn into stone like that?!"
To confirm whether the gold was fake, he even took a bite out of it before putting it in his pocket.
Who knew that when it came time to hand the money to his wife, she would take out a stone instead!
"I...I think you're getting old and your eyesight is failing, otherwise how could you mistake a stone for silver! Now look what's happened, we don't even have money to buy salt anymore." The old woman twisted the old man's ear, her voice so loud it could be heard three miles away.
An Honghan frowned and reached out to cover Xi Xizhi's ears.
Before he could even extend his hand, the previously timid little sable suddenly darted out of the carriage in a flash.
"Hu Qu, stop the car." An Honghan gave the order, and the wheels gradually came to a stop turning.
When An Honghan stepped out of the carriage, he saw the sable standing arrogantly on someone else's stall table.
The old woman and the old man were seeing such a clean-cut little mink for the first time. So much so that when they first saw it, they forgot their argument. Then, when they looked behind the mink, they were even more taken aback. What a handsome young man!
An Honghan was dressed in a dark blue brocade robe, and his whole demeanor was cold and imposing, making strangers stay away.
After staring blankly for a while, the old man finally reacted and asked, "Sir...sir, what would you like to eat?"
Lynn patted his dusty clothes and said slowly, "Bring me a plate of braised pork, shredded pork with green peppers, and steamed pork with rice flour. If you have any chicken, duck, or fish here, bring them all up as well."
"We don't have chickens, but we do have eggs. How about I make you some bitter melon omelet?" The cooks were all elderly women. Upon hearing that this was a big deal, they immediately took it seriously and smiled broadly.
Lynn took out a silver note from his clothes and handed it to the old woman. "This will do. You two go and cook."
Xi Xizhi waved her claws wildly at An Honghan, chirping incessantly.
When she overheard the two elderly people arguing, she felt that this incident resembled the behavior of a certain old geezer.
Although she knew perfectly well that this guess was unlikely, Xi Xizhi still didn't want to give up even the slightest hope.
Seeing Xiao Diao's unusual gesticulation, An Honghan frowned again, but followed Xiao Diao's lead and called out to the two of them.
"Wait a moment, I have something to ask you." When traveling, An Honghan changed his way of referring to himself.
When Xi Xizhi heard this, she actually felt a little uncomfortable.
The old woman and the old man stopped and turned around. "Sir, what do you want to ask? If we know the answer, we'll tell you everything."
At this moment, Liu Fuqing and Situ Feiyu's carriage also arrived at the tavern.
They got off the carriage and were walking this way.
An Honghan looked at Xi Xizhi. He only knew that Diao'er meant to prevent the two from leaving, but he had not yet figured out her intentions.
Xi Xizhi understood, walked to the edge of the table, and tugged at An Honghan's clothes.
An Honghan picked it up without hesitation.
Then, Xi Xizhi's little paws began to write her intentions stroke by stroke on the back of An Honghan's hand.
'Keep asking them about the gold turning into stone.'
Could there be more to this than meets the eye? An Honghan knew that Xi Xizhi's decision wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing; there must be another reason.
"You just said that gold turns into stone? Is that really true? I'm quite interested in that. Could you tell me more about it?" An Honghan pulled out a chair, sat down, and looked like he was all ears.
The old man was taken aback. "Yes...yes."
Afraid of keeping these distinguished guests waiting too long, the old woman left the old man behind to tell them the story, and went off to cook.
Xi Xizhi lay on An Honghan's lap, her round eyes darting around excitedly as she looked at the old man, waiting for him to speak.
Being stared at by such an adorable pet, the old man was overjoyed. He draped the rag over his shoulder and sat down in the chair opposite An Honghan.
"It's really too strange to tell you the truth. My wife and I have been running this tavern for decades, and this is the first time we've ever encountered gold turning into stone. To be honest, we run a small business, and we always hide the money very carefully after receiving it, so there's absolutely no way anyone could switch it under our noses." The old man rambled on for a while, repeatedly assuring everyone that he was absolutely not seeing things. When he received the money, it was definitely gold, but in the end, the gold turned into a piece of rotten stone that you could find anywhere.
Actually, turning stone into gold is not difficult.
As long as you have profound Taoist skills and the ability to obtain the "Midas touch" magic manual, you can succeed with a little practice.
In her previous life, Xi Xizhi's master somehow managed to obtain this secret manual through trickery and deception.
Xi Xizhi was fortunate enough to see it twice, but at that time her cultivation was not enough to learn this spell. She and her master stayed in the deep mountains and forests all year round and did not have the silver used in the mortal world. So whenever her master went out, he often used this trick to buy things from the market.
However... this spell is ultimately flawed. After all, everything in the world has its own meaning, and no one can change the essence of something. Therefore, the spell of turning stone into gold is not a heaven-defying existence. To put it more simply, it is just an illusion.
After a while, the stone will automatically turn back to its original state.
When Xi Xizhi overheard the elderly couple arguing, her intuition told her that it was because of this incident that her master was behind it.
But she dared not have too much hope, because she knew that this world was completely different from the world before.
How could the master jump from one interface to this one?
'Ask the old man what the person who used the silver looked like.'
Xi Xizhi slowly wrote in An Honghan's palm.
Following Xi Xizhi's instructions, An Honghan asked the old man again.
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