39 Jun Lao
◎Is this your Daoist partner? ◎
Ying Jianhua had never seen the exquisite language passed down through the Huo family before, so he was genuinely stunned for a moment when he saw Huo Qing cursing loudly at the wall.
He must be still half asleep. Miss Huo Qing is clearly a polite and hospitable person, how could she...?
"You're awake? I bought some local specialties from Wanze City, would you like some?"
But Du Zhijin's voice told him that this was not his dream.
She was eating and watching the commotion when she heard the noise from his side. She immediately jumped down from the wall, which was two people high, without spilling a drop of porridge.
His attention was drawn to her: "You went out just to buy this?"
Du Zhijin looked away guiltily and gave a mumbled reply.
Ying Jianhua didn't suspect anything. She took one last look at Huo Qing, who was still fighting, and then went back inside. They were outsiders and shouldn't interfere in the affairs of their host family. Besides, Huo Bai probably didn't want them to know.
Yes, he quickly accepted Huo Qing's persona of being foul-mouthed, perhaps because Huo Bai didn't give him the impression of being pure white.
Du Zhijin followed him into the house carrying the porridge. Wanze City lived up to its name, with a large lake outside the city. The local specialty was porridge made with fish caught from the lake.
"It's said that eating this kind of fish can nourish the blood and replenish the body." She tried hard to recall what the vendor had told her, exaggerating its benefits. She couldn't remember clearly, but she knew it was a good thing.
Ying Jianhua slowly stirred the fish porridge with a porcelain spoon. He didn't know what method Du Zhijin had used, but the porridge was still piping hot. Upon hearing this, he corrected her, "It's for replenishing qi and blood, and strengthening the body's foundation."
"Oh, anyway, it sounds pretty mysterious?" Du Zhijin scratched his face, his hands busy rambling on and on.
For some reason, hearing him say such things made her feel embarrassed, like she had fallen asleep during a sermon and was being questioned by an elder. But Amo wasn't an elder, was he?
Ying Jianhua saw her reaction and smiled slightly.
No wonder she and Honghua get along so well; their expressions are exactly the same.
After breakfast, Jiangwei came over from the next room to discuss with them what to do next.
Du Zhijin: "Abai said that the symptom of Aqing being possessed by a ghost is screaming in the middle of the night. I asked several households around here, and it is true."
Huo Bai and Huo Qing both have the surname Huo, so to make it easier to distinguish them, Du Zhijin simply calls them A-Bai and A-Qing.
Ying Jianhua raised her eyebrows: "Which households?"
She paused for a moment, then said, "Two households on each side."
Jiangwei: "Ah, does that also include the household that dumped sewage into Aqing's house this morning?"
After he finished speaking, all three people present fell silent.
It's absolutely outrageous to dump sewage in someone else's yard.
Ying Jianhua coughed, trying to steer the conversation back on track: "Have you found out anything else? Like the feud between Huo Qing and his neighbors?"
“Yes, that’s true,” she said. “The family next door, uh, the one that dumps the sewage, is surnamed Chen. They were originally butchers. When Huo Qing came, their business dropped by half, which caused a lot of feuds, big and small, and things have been quite unsettled lately.”
Jiangwei listened and nodded.
It turns out that colleagues are always extremely jealous of each other when they meet.
But this doesn't seem to have anything to do with being possessed by a ghost? There are too few clues at the moment, and the three of them couldn't figure it out no matter how hard they tried. In the end, Du Zhijin made the decision: "Since we can't find any clues in the house, let's go and look in other places."
"For example, pork jerky."
Wanze City was a bustling commercial center, with its vegetable stalls several times larger than those in Jinxi City. A dazzling array of fresh poultry, fruits, and vegetables were on display, and even merchants from the Western Regions were selling grapes. Curious, Du Zhijin bought several bunches, and they each picked and ate one.
Huo Qing ran two butcher shops here, a smaller one in the East Market and the larger one, which was the one she frequented, in the West Market. When the group arrived at the shop, they exclaimed, "Hey, isn't that the shop across the street the one that dumps sewage next door?"
After such a shocking incident that morning, even though they knew the neighbors' surname was Chen, Du Zhijin and his two companions still subconsciously referred to them as the "sewage dumpers."
The two families had a long-standing feud. As soon as Huo Qing arrived, the waiter across the street slammed his knife down, as if he were chopping Huo Qing's bones, not meat. Huo Qing rolled his eyes and went to the back to prepare the goods to be sold that morning with the helpers.
There were not only adults in Chen's shop, but also a boy of about eleven or twelve, who had probably been called there by his parents to help. He stared at the grapes in Jiangwei's hand, his eyes gleaming with longing, and he unconsciously swallowed.
Jiangwei noticed and, after obtaining Du Zhijin's permission, picked two grapes and handed them over. The child was startled, then delighted, and was about to happily accept them when a hand descended from the sky, snatched the grapes, and then threw them away forcefully. The glistening skins rolled into the mud and were crushed underfoot.
The grapes are gone, and the child wants to wail, but no one cares about him right now.
The man who threw the grapes was a middle-aged man with a fierce face. He was glaring menacingly at Du Zhijin and the others: "You dare to eat grapes from anyone? Have I been starving you?"
The child pouted, his eyes brimming with tears, on the verge of crying. Du Zhijin frowned, about to step forward to argue, but Huo Qing, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, beat him to it: "Which damned bastard is making such a racket so early in the morning? Don't you have a rooster at home? I think you should stop calling yourself 'Butcher' and start calling yourself 'Rooster.' Call him whatever you're missing, and I'll call him more often to make up for it."
Huo Qing's retorts were swift and relentless, seemingly containing some hidden metaphor, and were extremely aggressive. The middle-aged man's face turned ashen. Du Zhijin silently withdrew, no longer attempting to argue with him.
I thought this would be a verbal battle that would last at least half an hour, but as soon as Huo Qing came out, the middle-aged man immediately changed his tune and went quiet, shouting that he wouldn't bother with a "drowsy ghost," slapped the child hard, and left.
A drowning ghost?
Ying Jianhua keenly caught the unusual word the man uttered, and a thought flickered in her mind.
The scholar Qian from Jinxi City is said to have died from a "drowning ghost." I wonder if the "drowning ghost" the man is talking about is the same one he's thinking of.
Just as he was about to remind Du Zhijin of this matter, he heard Huo Qing say to them, "Gentlemen, as you can see, I have many miscellaneous matters to attend to at this shop, so it's really inconvenient for me to entertain you. How about we wait until after noon when I'm free to entertain you?"
According to Huo Bai, her sister never revealed anything about being "possessed by a ghost"; she only heard about it from the family's servants. Therefore, in her letter to Huo Qing, she did not mention that Du Zhijin and the others had come to exorcise the demon. She only said that some of her friends wanted to do business in Huzhou and wanted to learn from her.
Since the host had spoken, they, as guests, couldn't stay any longer. Since Ying Jianhua also had some questions, they decided to find another place to discuss them further.
Huo Qing recommended a teahouse to them, just two streets away, not too far. Ying Jianhua also noticed that the teahouse had honey-glazed meat jerky as a dim sum, and he couldn't help but suspect that the shop had business dealings with Huo Qing.
Upon asking the waiter, it was indeed true! Not only that, but when Huo Qing was mentioned, the waiter was full of praise: "Miss Huo has so many ideas! Ever since she came up with this honey-glazed meat jerky recipe, our business has improved a lot. Seven or eight out of ten customers, like you, will order a plate to try it out!"
Du Zhijin nodded in agreement.
Jerky is usually salty and savory, and it can easily become greasy if it's grilled until crispy or burnt. But adding honey changes everything. The sweetness of the honey immediately cuts through the greasiness of the meat juices, making the flavor richer. The combination of the two makes for a very nice appetizer, and even Ying Jianhua couldn't help but eat a couple of slices.
After hearing what the waiter said, Du Zhijin and Jiangwei simply remarked that Huo Qing was truly cut out to be a businessman, but Ying Jianhua had other thoughts.
A single item might not sell, but what if you add something else to it?
Looking at Jiangwei's face, which shone brightly in the sunlight, he had an idea.
"What's going on up ahead? Why are so many people stuck there? I'm in a hurry to get home and cook." "I heard it's because my younger brother was missing for several years but has now been found." "Oh? Is that true? Excuse me, let me see!"
Inside the private rooms of a teahouse along the street, several young women who had been chatting and drinking tea heard the commotion below. They exchanged glances, each seeing a burning fire of gossip in the other's eyes, and decided to openly listen through the windows.
In the middle of the throng, there stood a woman whose face was obscured and whose gender could only be determined by her clothes, and a man whose bright face could not be concealed even by coarse linen clothing.
Judging from their appearances alone, the two certainly didn't look like siblings. The woman echoed this sentiment: "Nonsense! My brother and I both toiled in the fields since childhood, toiling in the soil all day long. How could he have skin as fair and delicate as yours? I don't know which wealthy young master you are trying to mock me, but I simply won't believe you!"
The crowd nodded in agreement. Yes, the woman's palms were calloused, clearly indicating she was used to farm work; her family must be poor. Children from poor families rarely have "fair and delicate skin."
Just as everyone was getting bored and wanted to leave, the man who called himself "younger brother" spoke up: "Sister, you, you really don't recognize me? I'm Hong'er... Look, we both have a mole on our wrists. Mother said we are a pair of stars from heaven, and we've come down to earth to repay her kindness."
Upon hearing this, the siblings then revealed the moles on their wrists, causing an uproar among the crowd.
"Hong'er!" "Sister!" The two embraced and wept uncontrollably. Because the previous events had been so bizarre, no one noticed that the siblings were pinching themselves while crying. The woman upstairs, after hearing this, found it quite strange: "They really are siblings? Then why do they look so different?"
As if hearing her thoughts, the older sister below asked the same question: "But, Hong'er, what have you been through all these years that has turned you into this? I don't even recognize you anymore."
Yes, yes, these two siblings really don't look alike. The sister isn't ugly, at most she could be described as pretty. But the brother is much more handsome! He has fair skin, big eyes, and even thick, black hair. The two seem to be completely unrelated.
Just as everyone was eagerly waiting to know the whole story, the younger brother smiled shyly and told the truth in detail: "It's a long story. After I parted ways with you, my sister, I was taken in by a Taoist priest. I drank the immortal water with him every day, so I naturally didn't look like an ordinary person."
"Ah, ah, I see." The older sister responded dryly, and everyone assumed she was just overjoyed and hadn't quite recovered yet, so they didn't pay any attention and asked the younger brother, "Which Taoist priest is it?" "Does the magic water have any other effects?" "Brother Hong'er, do you have the magic water with you? Let us see it for ourselves."
The room quickly descended into chaos. The women in the private rooms whispered instructions to their servants, and before long, Hong'er and her brother were "invited" to the teahouse.
Half an incense stick later, Jiangwei carried a heavy money bag, unable to believe that she could earn several hundred taels in such a short time.
Ten bottles of the "immortal water," each costing one hundred taels, were sold, totaling one thousand taels. After deducting costs, and with only a few lines of dialogue exchanged, they actually made a net profit of five hundred taels?
The five hundred taels were divided into three parts. The two people in charge of the performance each took one hundred taels, and the remaining three hundred taels were all given to Ying Jianhua. They all agreed that Ying Jianhua, who came up with the gimmick of "siblings searching for relatives," was the key to the success!
Ying Jianhua didn't refuse, and demurely accepted the three hundred taels and their praise. Du Zhijin exclaimed, "So reading books is this useful? If it were me, I definitely wouldn't have come up with such a wonderful plot."
Jiangwei opened his mouth, wanting to say that reading serious books wouldn't have the same effect. But seeing the joy radiating from Yingjian's eyebrows and eyes, he swallowed his words.
It must be because he hasn't read enough books! Perfect timing, now that he's rich, he can buy the entire Overbearing Immortal series, and he wants to become a learned and well-read person like Young Master Amo!
At this moment, Jiangwei was unaware that he had gone astray. After hearing a string of praises, Ying Jianhua felt completely at ease and, unusually, even found him pleasing to the eye: "You're not bad either; you can memorize lines at a glance. Were you really just a farmer before?"
Or is this an innate talent of fox spirits?
Upon hearing this, Jiangwei shook her head and stammered, "The village occasionally hires opera troupes to perform, and I've secretly watched a few times..."
Ying Jianhua nodded and casually said, "Perhaps you can try learning it later. Alright, the goods are sold out, let's get down to business. Did you hear the manure being dumped... cough, the Chen family said Huo Qing is a 'drowning ghost'?"
Du Zhijin nodded, indicating that she had heard it too, while Jiangwei lowered her head in shame.
Sure enough, I'm still as useless as ever.
Ying Jianhua didn't notice his disappointment and asked Du Zhijin, "What do you think? You said you wanted to go and see where Huo Qing often stayed. Did you notice anything unusual?"
She thought the "drowning ghost" was a major discovery, but to her surprise, her answer was still no.
No? Ying Jianhua frowned. Nothing here, nothing there—could this monster possess extraordinary abilities to deceive everyone?
Things suddenly became tricky.
"If that's the case, then we're completely helpless?"
Du Zhijin was more optimistic than him: "There's no need to be so pessimistic. The monsters of today are very different from those of the past. Take the illusionary monster we encountered before, for example. Since it knew how to spread rumors and hide itself, perhaps this so-called 'drowning ghost' is the same."
Jiangwei, also born a demon, straightened her back, wanting to explain that she was an honest demon. But seeing the expressions of the two, she felt it wasn't the right time to speak and silently stopped talking.
Ying Jianhua said, "Yokai are unpredictable... How should we deal with them? Find locals? But which local would pay attention to the changes in yokai, unless they are local cultivators?"
After saying that, both of them were stunned.
The local cultivators... Isn't the Master Baopu that Du Zhijin mentioned right here in Wanze City?
However, it was inconvenient to bring Jiangwei along on this trip, so Du Zhijin asked him to search for traces of demons along the moat and the edge of the great swamp. Foxes have a keen sense of smell, and Jiangwei didn't see anything wrong with accepting this task; he had long wanted to do his part for his benefactor.
Watching Jiangwei walk away, Ying Jianhua said quietly, "You really know how to coax people."
With just a few words, he made the fox very happy.
"Huh?" Du Zhijin pointed to himself. "Knows how to coax people? Me?"
If she knew how to coax people, she should be the first one to coax him, okay?
"Hmph." Seeing through the meaning in her gaze, he awkwardly turned his face away, enduring the heat rising behind his ears, and said, "Anyway, go find your senior first."
Originally, Ying Jianhua thought that a senior who could earn Du Zhijin's respect would at least have long queues, just like Liu's Steamed Bun Shop, if not bustling with customers.
Unexpectedly, she led him through a maze of streets, away from the bustling city, through deep alleys, and to an inconspicuous, dilapidated shop.
If it weren't for the plaque hanging at the top, one would never have realized that this was actually a business establishment. It was sandwiched between two walls, about three feet wide, not wide enough for two people to fit at the same time.
"Zhufeng Hall." He looked it over and read the words on the plaque. Du Zhijin nodded, indicating that this was the residence of the senior Baopu.
Ying Jianhua felt a sense of doubt, but then he thought, "The truly wise hide in plain sight," and perhaps the "Zhufeng Hall" in front of him was just dilapidated.
But Du Zhijin's next actions shattered his illusions. She took a deep breath, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted, "Jun—Old Man—"
Jun Lao —
old--
Ying Jianhua felt a buzzing in his ears, as if he had lost his hearing. Just as he was about to remind Du Zhijin to be quieter, he saw the movement of a living person finally coming from the previously stagnant and dark room. He squinted and saw the appearance of "Old Jun".
His hair was gray, and half of his face was covered by a black iron mask, revealing only a pair of eyes with loose eyelids but sharp eyes.
An elderly yet mysterious figure, if... she didn't reek of alcohol.
Is this a senior who enjoys drinking?
As he struggled to reconstruct his understanding amidst his doubts, Du Zhijin spoke up. She stepped forward and introduced, "Master Jun, this is a friend of mine. We have come here to ask you to help us forge his hairpin into a weapon."
Upon hearing this, Ying Jianhua hurriedly handed over the hairpin, but unexpectedly, Jun Lao not only did not take it, but instead leaned closer to look at his appearance.
He held his breath, expecting to hear some profound proverb when she opened her mouth, but instead he heard only one sentence—
"What a handsome young man. Gu Zhang's disciple, is this your Daoist partner?"
See the picture: ?
Du Zhijin said helplessly, "Elder Jun, I've already said this is my friend, a friend! Not a Daoist partner!"
Master Jun: "What? First friends, then Daoist partners?"
Du Zhijin: "No! Not a Daoist couple! We're friends!"
Master Jun: "Oh, not friends, but Daoist partners."
The two of them, one big and one small, repeated the words several times before Ying Jianhua finally understood why Du Zhijin had shouted them out earlier.
Because Grandma Jun is hard of hearing!
After exchanging the same greeting several times, they eventually got carried away and started calling each other "not friends, but Daoist partners." Du Zhijin, exhausted, used his trump card, holding up one finger and saying, "One hundred taels."
Upon hearing this, Master Jun's voice immediately changed: "Five hundred taels."
See the painting: ? ?
Now you can hear it clearly, right?
Du Zhijin shook her head and confessed, "I only have one hundred taels. If you can't accept it, we'll find someone else." With that, she pulled Ying Jianhua away. Ying Jianhua was momentarily dazed as she was dragged out of "Zhufeng Hall."
This scene seems so familiar! The coy, hesitant conversation, the hesitant steps, the neck poised to turn back at any moment... Isn't this the bargaining method he taught her? The problem is, is this even a suitable time to bargain?!
After thinking it through, he grabbed Du Zhijin and whispered urgently in her ear, "Stop haggling! There's no one else but Master Jun."
Du Zhijin was puzzled: "But didn't you always say that before?" "The occasion is different! Five hundred taels it is, I'll pay." After saying that, he pulled her back into "Zhufeng Hall" and smiled apologetically: "I'm sorry, Elder Jun, she was just joking with you."
Old Master Jun also laughed, but there was a hint of mockery in his laughter, and he pretended not to see it.
"Sit down, everyone sit down."
Ying Jianhua strongly suspected that Master Jun's attitude had changed drastically because he overheard the phrase "five hundred taels," but he had no evidence. After agreeing on the price, Master Jun took the jade hairpin and examined it carefully. His first question was, "Gu Zhang's apprentice, where did you get this?"
He was about to answer that the item was his when Du Zhijin reached out and pressed his hand down, signaling him to be quiet. He was startled, and heard her say, "I don't know its exact origin. It was a reward I received from a family after I helped them exorcise a demon."
Old Master Jun did not answer immediately. The eyes hidden beneath the mask lost their cloudiness and became like sharp blades tempered with cold stars, as if they could see through all the truth and falsehood in the world.
Ying Jianhua felt uncomfortable with her gaze, her heart inexplicably raced, and her palms became slightly sweaty.
Why? Did he do something to offend this person?
Just as he was getting deeper into his thoughts, Old Master Jun withdrew his gaze: "It's a good thing. It doesn't need much modification. In the end, I still made a profit on these five hundred taels."
Du Zhijin hurriedly said, "Since that's the case, how about three hundred taels..." "What? You want to add another three hundred taels? Oh dear, how can I accept this? What kind of relationship do I have with your master? No thanks, no thanks."
They started talking nonsense again. Seeing Elder Jun enter the secret room behind the door with the hairpin, she explained to him, "Don't be afraid. My master said that there is no junior in the sect who hasn't been tricked by Elder Jun. She has only three loves in her life: forging, drinking, and swindling."
“Before, we would call her Baopu Zhenren because of her seniority, but later we got annoyed and started calling her Junlao. Actually, she is much younger than the other Zhenren.”
Ying Jianhua wanted to laugh along with the funny story she was telling, but when she tried to smile, she found that she couldn't laugh at all.
He couldn't help but care about what Old Master Jun said and what he looked at.
What's wrong with my mother's hairpin?
[Author's Note]
Double update! Done!
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