5. Setting up stalls
New friends
This time she did not forget the book of fate. After confirming that there was no one outside the cave, she slipped out with it.
It rained all night last night. Dewdrops the size of soybeans were still hanging on the weeds at my feet. The smell of damp earth was carried by the breeze and penetrated my nose.
My heart feels heavy, as if a huge rock is pressing on it, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable.
Li Jintang walked back and forth around the mountain three times and called out several times but received no response. She hugged her knees and sat on the ground in a daze for a while, thinking of the scene yesterday when Xie An took her to escape from the coffin room in front of all the monsters.
This monster was so strange. How come it only captured him while she was unharmed?
Forget it, Fuzi must have wanted to leave when she was alive. Now that she is still alive, she should take advantage of this life and take his share with her.
But does that mean he's no longer the protagonist? Li Jintang was deeply frustrated. She stayed where she was for a moment, then stood up, brushed off the dirt that had accidentally stained her hands, and chose the path she intuitively felt was right, heading south.
"Stop, stop!"
Less than half an hour after he walked out, he heard the order book in his arms screaming.
Li Jintang stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"
The fortune book jumped onto her shoulder and rustled the pages. "If you go any further, we'll end up in the swamp. Turn this way quickly. There's a small town."
She turned her head away and saw a blue map shooting out from the book, looming and seemingly shattered at the touch.
"You can't remember it, can you?"
"I can't recall the past, but I've been here for so many years, I should be able to conjure up this little map," the fortune-telling book muttered as it jumped into her palm, urging her, "Hurry up, hurry up, or I'll forget it."
“…”
She sighed. Although she didn't completely believe it, there was no other way at the moment.
At first, Li Jintang was afraid he'd fall, so he walked very slowly. But then he realized it seemed to be stuck to his hand, and he couldn't get rid of it, so he quickened his pace. After walking for another half an hour, he could vaguely hear some noise. Looking ahead, he saw a town.
"What are we doing in town?" She walked around the street aimlessly, and seeing no instructions from the fortune book, she couldn't help but ask.
"There's an accomplice in this town!" The fortune teller said confidently, "Take another turn, and you'll definitely run into him."
She wasn't a character in the book, so where did her accomplices come from? Li Jintang no longer believed it, but since she had no map and couldn't tell the direction, she had no choice but to do what it said.
"Stop, stop," he quickly flipped through a few pages of the fortune book, making her palms feel cold and itchy, "look there!"
Li Jintang raised his eyes when he heard the voice.
A few feet away, a restaurant stood prominently. A few wooden tables were scattered outside. The owner stood in the middle, one hand on his hip, pointing his other finger at a man's nose and yelling, "You come to eat without money? Do you believe I'll break your legs?"
As soon as he yelled, four or five passing townspeople gathered around him, stood aside, and pointed at him with squinting eyes: "Look at this young man, he looks like a decent person, how could he do such a thing?"
Li Jintang stood not far away and watched for a moment, puzzled, "Why did you ask me to stop?"
"They're accomplices! I knew it the moment I smelled them; they have the same scent as you." The fortune teller jumped over and rummaged through her purse, pulling out a few copper coins and placing them in her hand. "Go and save your accomplices."
"Two people?" Li Jintang then realized that there was a girl of the same age as himself standing next to the man. However, because the girl was petite, she was completely obscured by the man.
She hesitated for a moment, then listened to the order and shouted, "Do you still want to go home? They are all good people. If you just follow them, you will definitely be able to leave."
This time Li Jintang did not hesitate any more and walked forward with the copper coin in his hand.
The shopkeeper continued to curse: "If you don't pay today, you can't leave. I have plenty of ways to deal with you!"
The young man kept apologizing, but the girl's face turned red all the way to her neck, and she wished she could crawl into the ground.
Suddenly, a pile of copper coins rained down on the wooden table, making a clanging sound. Li Jintang stood in front of the shopkeeper and said, "Is this enough?"
The shopkeeper's expression immediately softened when he saw so many copper coins. He bent down and picked up the coins one by one, counting them three times before waving his hand and letting the people go.
The three of them walked out together, straight to an open space, leaving the group far behind. The young man just now shook her hand, tears of gratitude: "Thank you very much for your help, young lady. I, I have no way to repay you, if you are willing..."
"No, no." Li Jintang quickly waved her other hand, thinking that she had only paid some money and could not afford any big gifts.
The young woman also stepped forward and said, "If you need anything, please tell us two. As long as it is within our ability, we will definitely do it for you."
"Don't waste time talking to them." The fortune-telling book turned a few pages again, and this time a line of words appeared on the page. "Read it as it says."
Li Jintang glanced at them, paused for a moment, and then asked, "May I ask your names, and why are you here?"
"My surname is Qu, and my name is Lingfei." Qu Lingfei bowed to her, then looked at the girl beside him and said, "This is my junior sister, Qiuyan. If you ask why you are here—"
He paused, his brows furrowed slightly, and continued, "My junior sister and I left the Immortal Sect. One day, we learned that an evil spirit was causing chaos down the mountain. Following our master's orders, we descended the mountain to quell the rebellion. Unexpectedly, the evil spirit was very cunning. It chased us all the way here, and somehow ended up here. Later, when we wanted to leave, we couldn't."
After hearing what he said, Li Jintang thought to herself that this storybook actually contained three realms: immortals, demons, and monsters. She had thought she'd be able to return home after leaving here, but now it seems like it will be even more difficult. She felt a sense of loss, but she didn't want anyone to see it, so she forced herself to cheer up.
Then Qu Lingfei continued, "Later, my junior sister and I were chased here by monsters, and we discovered that there are two types of monsters in the monster world. One is the man-eating monster that hunted us, and the other is like the ones in this town, who have transformed into human form and most of them don't feed on humans."
"I wonder how the girl is..."
He paused, only to be nudged by the girl next to him. Qiuyan said, "You've said so much. Now it's my turn to talk to my sister."
Before Li Jintang could respond, the young woman took her hand and said with a smile, "Sister, I felt a sense of familiarity the moment I saw you. I wonder who you are and why you've come here?"
The other person's voice was so gentle that her heart softened and she almost told him everything about her experience of traveling through a book.
"I don't know either," Li Jintang shook his head and evaded the question, "I just remember waking up here. I can't remember how I got here."
"So, my sister is also trapped here. Why don't you follow me and my senior brother from now on? We'll eventually be able to escape one day." Qiuyan smiled and said, "I don't know what to call you."
Li Jintang asked her to call her "sister come, sister go", then she remembered that she had forgotten to tell her name, and hurriedly said: "My last name is Li, just call me Jintang."
"Sister Atang, you are so well-behaved," Qiuyan said, liking her the more she looked at her. "It's just me and my senior brother on this trip, and he's got a bad temper, which really annoys me. If you're willing to come with us, I'll do my best to protect you."
After she finished speaking, she lowered her eyes to look at her half-empty purse and said with a smile, "This is to pay you back for your meal."
"No need to ask for money for the meal." Li Jintang felt an inexplicable kinship with this elder sister. He also heard that they were from the immortal world, so they must be the decent people in the storybooks. He nodded and said, "Sis, I should be grateful if you are willing to take me with you."
Naqu Lingfei stood aside, watching the two of them chatting happily back and forth, and felt a surge of joy in his heart. However, he was worried that it was getting late and would delay their journey, so he couldn't help but clear his throat and urged, "You two can chat slowly on the way, why don't you get going first?"
The tone of his voice rose in the last sentence, and it was obvious that it was a pleading tone. Qiu Yan looked at him and then withdrew her hand, but her eyes still lingered on Li Jintang: "Are you tired, Sister Tang? If you can't walk anymore, you can rest here for half a day."
"No need, no need," Li Jintang said hurriedly, not wanting to waste anyone's time. "I can walk very well. I used to walk with my sister for three days and three nights without feeling tired."
After she said that, she hated herself for speaking too quickly.
She had just avoided the question of 'who is it', but now she mentioned her elder sister again, and she was afraid that she would be questioned again.
Fortunately, the other party didn't pay much attention. He just nodded and said, "Then let's hurry on while it's still daylight."
"Slow down."
Qiuyan pulled her hand and was about to leave when she heard Qu Lingfei shouting beside her. She turned around and glared at him, saying unhappily, "What's wrong again?"
Qu Lingfei asked, "Do you know what to do next?"
Qiuyan thought about it and realized that she really didn't know. However, she didn't want to give in to him, so she asked him, "Then do you know?"
Qu Lingfei shook his head and said, "Since we don't know how to get out, why not stay here and earn some money to cover emergencies?"
The fairy world uses spirit beads as a means of transaction, while the other three worlds use silver, so they do not have any silver on them to purchase items here.
After thinking about it, the two of them both felt that it made sense. They also thought about how to make money. After a discussion, the three of them finally decided to set up a small stall on the roadside and use magic to perform some simple spells to attract passers-by to stop.
The three of them found a conspicuous spot on the roadside. They were worried about not having enough money to rent a stall, but they heard a loud bang and in an instant a bamboo shed appeared beside them, firmly covering the three of them.
"Sister Atang, I didn't expect you to be so capable."
Li Jintang was originally staring at the greenhouse in a daze, but when someone suddenly praised him, he was a little confused: "It's not me..."
I heard a few coughs.
She tilted her head and looked: "Is it you?"
This time she learned her lesson and used her spiritual power to communicate with the Book of Fortune, so others could not hear clearly even if they were close to her.
"What else?" Mingshu said with a proud look on his face, "Who would have thought I had such a talent?"
Li Jintang was amused by it and when he turned around, he saw that the two men had already walked into the shed.
A quarter of an hour later——
"Just pass by and take a look..."
Li Jintang didn't know any magic, so he took the loudspeaker that was conjured up from the fortune-telling book. When he got tired of shouting, he stopped and looked at the passers-by.
Seeing someone looking over here, Qu Lingfei immediately used his spiritual power and a ball of fire rose in the palm of his hand. The fire grew stronger and stronger, but there was no scar on his hand, which caused the onlookers to exclaim in surprise.
Li Jintang, watching from the side, couldn't help but praise him, "Brother Qu is amazing! I can't perform such magic at all."
"What's the big deal?" Qiuyan snorted, glancing at his unresponsive expression. "I've become much prettier than him, Sister Atang, just wait and see."
After he finished speaking, he waved his hand and broke off a branch from the Chinese tallow tree nearby. With a flick of his wrist, the bright red petals flew all over the sky, and in the blink of an eye, they turned into several dancing butterflies.
"Sister Atang, what do you think?"
Li Jintang nodded and said, "Sister, your skills are truly amazing."
This sentence made her smile brightly: "If you want to learn, I will teach you someday."
The cheers from the surroundings grew louder and louder, and money fell in front of the stall like water.
If you make money too easily, it will easily arouse envy. A few people dare not be greedy and just want to quickly manage the money and close the stall.
At this moment, a sudden gust of evil wind blew up, sweeping up a table and chair in front of the stall. Fortunately, Qu Lingfei withdrew his hand quickly, so that the silver was not scattered all over the ground.
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