33 The Death of Qin Shi Huang
◎During driving, if you find any fork in the road ahead, please choose carefully◎
Helan Dao was still waiting for the boss to weigh the cherries, but the boss raised his eyelids, slightly dilated his pupils, and hurriedly took the cherries off the scale. He bent down to take out another fruit scale and put the cherries on the new scale to be weighed.
"Watermelons and cherries are not from the same place, so they can't be weighed with the same scale," the boss explained.
Zhu Heng raised his eyebrows, and Helan Dao also turned his head at this time.
Their eyes met and they looked at each other.
He Landao immediately looked away and asked the boss, "Is there any difference between these two scales?"
The boss looked up at the two of them, his expression knowing. "From out of town, huh? Let me tell you, there's a huge difference."
Zhu Heng's eyelids twitched. It felt a bit strange to be considered a foreigner in his hometown.
The boss pointed to the giant statue at the end of the street. "See? Ever since that Qin Shi Huang's computer went on strike, the measurement standards used in different places have been completely messed up. Take the watermelons from Qi and the cherries from Yan, for example. One must be weighed on a large scale, and the other on a small scale. They can't be mixed up. In this world, people can be confused, but when it comes to weighing, they absolutely cannot be confused."
"If you use it wrongly even once..." the boss pinched his pinky finger and laughed self-deprecatingly, "you could end up bankrupt."
The boss took out a bag and deftly put all the 7 or 8 red cherries into it.
"All ready! A hundred pounds of cherries." The boss tied the bag and handed it over along with the watermelon. "Who's going to pay, you two?"
Zhu Heng's expression was rarely lively, and he glanced at Helan Dao as if he was afraid that the world would not be in chaos.
He only took the watermelon and raised his chin towards the bag of cherries: "Are you still going to eat this?"
Seeing that Zhu Heng had no intention of helping him out, Helan Dao took off his helmet with a half-angry and half-smile, without saying anything, and let himself breathe in the unbearable summer heat.
During the process, he kept staring at Zhu Heng with a faint gaze, and after a moment he smiled brightly.
"Eat, why not eat?"
Helan Dao took the bag of cherries with a smile, took out a stack of small cards filled with historical knowledge from his pocket, and handed them to the fruit shop owner.
The boss accepted it with a smile on his face and was about to send the guest away, but Helan Dao was in no hurry to leave. He held the bag of cherries and looked at him with a smile.
A full 100 pieces of historical information, of course the money has to be worth it.
"Boss, can you tell me more about the Qin Shi Huang computer strike you just mentioned? For example, roughly when did it happen?" Helan Dao asked with a smile.
The boss looked at him, then, while counting the history cards, replied nonchalantly, "Oh, you're asking about that? That was August 3rd, and everyone in town knows about it. If you don't believe me, you can go to the newsstand over there and ask. If you're lucky, you should still be able to find the newspapers that reported on Qin Shi Huang's death."
Everyone was stunned.
The whole city knows when the computers will go down, so why would they need to look for clues? This episode can't be that simple.
"If he died on August 3rd, you can tell by looking at the newspaper. It must be written in the newspaper." Tao Ran didn't believe it and rushed to the roadside newsstand pointed out by the fruit shop owner. He lowered his head and looked through all the news reports about that period in front of the newsstand.
The owner of the newsstand opened the newspaper in his hand, raised his eyelids, glanced at Tao Ran slowly, and asked, "Which day are you looking for?"
Tao Ran pointed towards the computer in the air and continued flipping through the pages without looking up. "Looking for the one from the day your computer stopped working."
“Pah.”
A city newspaper was thrown in front of him.
"Here," the boss said, his face unfazed, as if he was used to this kind of fussy, noisy customer. "This is the last one."
A hint of joy appeared on Tao Ran's face. He was lucky!
He happily picked up the newspaper and started reading. Before he could even make out the words on the newspaper, the boss called out, "Hey, you didn't pay."
Tao Ran suddenly realized what was going on. He tucked the newspaper between his elbows and rummaged through his pockets. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot."
But just when he turned halfway, he stopped again.
Tao Ran slowly raised his head and gave the boss a dry laugh: "Um... you don't accept RMB, right?"
Wang Kunshu, who was standing by, couldn't bear to watch it any longer and winked at Xie Shen.
Xie Shen understood. He walked to the newsstand and smiled gently at the owner. "Boss, which era of history do you want?"
Tao Ran breathed a sigh of relief and gave Xie Shen a grateful look.
However, the next second, I heard the boss sneer.
The other party snatched the newspaper from Tao Ran's hand, waved his hands repeatedly, and said with disgust: "Another bunch of poor freeloaders, get out of here, I won't sell it to you anymore."
Who are you calling poor? Who are you calling freeloaders?
Miss Wang Kunshu has a bad temper. As soon as she heard it, she got angry and started scolding.
The boss was no pushover either. Facing the ferocious Wang Kunshu, he remained unmoved: "I don't accept banknotes, nor do I exchange historical information. Go away."
Wang Kunshu frowned and questioned him, "You don't accept this, you don't accept that, then what do you want?"
"I only charge a small amount of money. Do you have any?" The boss raised his voice, and his tone was full of sarcasm.
"Ant Nose Coin?" Tao Ran looked at everyone. With his limited knowledge, he only knew that this should be a kind of ancient currency. As for other things, he was not sure.
"Yibi coins are copper coins used by the Chu State during the Warring States Period," Wang Kunshu explained. It was rare for her to be able to do two things at once while confronting her boss. She turned back to look at him, let out a sigh, and continued to argue with him, "Look, where are we? Where can I find Yibi coins for you?"
The boss insisted on asking for money: "I don't care. This is a newspaper printed by the Chu Newspaper Company. We only accept the currency used in Chu. This is the rule. If you can't accept it, you'd better leave as soon as possible. I won't sell it to you even if you force me to."
Wang Kunshu slammed the table, rolled up his sleeves and was about to take action.
Seeing that things were going increasingly wrong, Xie Shen quickly reached out to stop them, took out a Chu-style ant-nose coin that he had collected for a long time from his pocket, and handed it to the boss.
"I'm new here and don't know the rules here. Please forgive me." Xie Shen always spoke in such a gentle and elegant manner, like a spring breeze, silently nourishing and soothing the restless people.
"Hmph, that's pretty good." The boss took the money and handed over the newspaper.
As soon as he got the newspaper, Xie Shen immediately opened it and read the headlines. The smile on his face that had not yet disappeared gradually cooled when he saw the content of the newspaper.
"What's wrong?" Everyone gathered around to look, their eyes fell on the newspaper, and they all fell silent.
The newspaper was filled with a bunch of words that looked like birds and insects. Not a single word could be recognized, and it made my scalp tingle.
"This should be...bird and insect book." Xu Wenjun said.
Zhu Heng glanced at her and asked, "Bird and Insect Book?"
"It was a type of artistic writing common in the Wu, Yue, and Chu regions during the Warring States Period. Because it used bird or insect patterns to decorate the characters, some looked like birds, others like fish or insects, hence the name 'bird and insect script.'"
Zhu Heng glanced at the bird-and-insect script on the newspaper and asked Xu Wenjun, "How much can you understand?"
Xu Wenjun paused, then continued, "I only know the basics. However, the characters from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, while varied in form, aren't completely incomprehensible. Tracing their origins, they're largely inherited from the bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. By deduction, we should be able to guess some of their meaning."
Xu Wenjun's research has always focused on the history of the Qin and Han dynasties, and she has not had much experience in the pre-Qin period. Although bird-and-insect script has been popular for a long time and many people used it in the Han Dynasty, she is unable to fluently identify what is written in bird-and-insect script. This should be the best job of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period group in the archaeological team, and she is really unable to do it.
"That's enough." Zhu Heng said to her.
He pointed at the newspaper, first at the small text below the computer photo of Qin Shi Huang, then at the opening paragraph of the report, a few words that overlapped with the image. "If I'm not mistaken, this should be the part about time in the report. Can you see if you can translate it?"
Being able to quickly lock onto text that appears multiple times in such a short time and infer the content related to time requires truly keen observation skills.
Xu Wenjun glanced at Zhu Heng in surprise, and then accidentally made eye contact with He Landao.
Helan Dao looked normal.
He was not surprised at all. After all, he had reviewed Zhu Heng's performance in the first episode. This guy was sometimes a complete madman who ignored the rules. When he got really crazy, even the system couldn't cope with it.
Of course, in other words, it can be said that he was unable to withstand it.
"Can you do it?" Zhu Heng asked again.
Xu Wenjun came back to her senses and nodded.
She roughly scanned the report, repeatedly checking the context, and finally confirmed the time recorded in the report. She came to a conclusion that no one expected: "It's June 3rd."
June 3rd?
Tao Ran started to question Xu Wenjun in a threatening tone: "Are you sure? Hey, didn't the fruit shop owner say it was August?" That's a full two months off.
Xu Wenjun felt unhappy after hearing this and glanced at Tao Ran coldly: "If I'm wrong, chop me up."
Tao Ran immediately got scared. He took two steps back and wanted to look for Zhu Heng, but when he turned around, he found that Zhu Heng had returned to the newsstand owner at some point.
Without even a word of greeting, he asked directly, "When did Qin Shi Huang's computer stop working?"
The boss looked at Zhu Heng expressionlessly and said, "It's in the newspaper, go read it yourself."
Zhu Heng held down the newsstand with one hand, his deep eyes slightly raised, adding a touch of life to his cold and indifferent face. "I've read it. The newspaper says he died on August 3rd. I came to verify it with you."
Tao Ran: "The newspaper said six..." The words of correction were almost about to come out of his mouth, but were covered by Helan Dao.
Tao Ran's eyes widened. At the same time, he saw Zhu Heng, who was not visible from the newsstand owner, stretched out four fingers and waved them behind his back to the crowd, making a gesture to let everyone know.
Helan Dao whispered in his ear: "Don't say anything, Brother Zhu did it on purpose."
Seeing that he had almost calmed down, Helan Dao finally let him go and wiped his palms with his sleeve.
Suddenly, the boss's voice, an octave higher, came from the newsstand.
"August 3rd?!"
The newsstand owner's emotions, which had remained relatively calm until then, reached a peak. "Who said August 3rd? Everyone in this city knows that Qin Shi Huang died on June 3rd. If you don't believe me, just turn on the TV; that's what the news reports."
Zhu Heng usually doesn't talk much and always gives people a cold and dull impression, but at this moment, he pretended to be suddenly enlightened and said "Oh" to show that he was willing to learn.
I deliberately said something different from what was in the newspaper, and sure enough, I was able to get the boss to tell me what he said.
But if everyone in the city knew the day Qin Shi Huang's computer stopped working, why didn't the fruit shop owner and the newsstand owner agree? Was the date they were looking for June 3rd or August 3rd?
He thought that someone must be lying here.
Zhu Heng thanked his boss and turned to leave.
A Galaxy bus passed by in front of him, and Zhu Heng suddenly froze in place.
It was a very familiar public transportation bus numbered 1634, starting from the Third Middle School of Dixing and heading to—
It was supposed to be bound for the Galactic Hospital.
But now.
Zhu Heng stared at the No. 1634 bus that was about to stop at the platform.
The terminal cursor on the bus body was flashing the words "Welfare Home".
The moment the vehicle braked, Zhu Heng rushed out.
Before the bus started again, he stepped into the door without hesitation.
Perhaps because he ran too fast, Zhu Heng grabbed the handrail and took a short breath.
Someone slowly handed over a bottle of water.
Zhu Heng didn't need to look up, just by looking at the familiar, beautiful, slender fingers, he could recognize that it was Helan Dao.
"Don't be so anxious, we can catch up." Helan Dao held the pull ring with one hand, leaned over gently, and spoke with a smile.
Behind him, the rest of the people got on the bus one after another.
When the last passenger stepped onto the bus, the door slammed shut, and at the same time, an emotionless electronic broadcast voice sounded from inside the bus.
"Welcome to bus No. 1634. This bus is heading from Dixing No. 3 Middle School to the Welfare Institute. We are expected to arrive at our destination in 5 minutes."
"If you encounter any fork in the road ahead, please choose carefully, because every decision you make will affect your entire life."
"Please, think twice along the way."
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