"They're dead! They're all dead! These bloodsucking bullies are finally dead!"
"Heaven has eyes! No, the Mountain Goddess has eyes!"
An excited pancake vendor threw off his headcloth, knelt on the ground facing east, and began kowtowing repeatedly until his forehead turned red, without even realizing it.
"I told you long ago, those two girls selling things are no ordinary people! You still didn't believe me! When you open those boxes, some come out of candy, some out of spices, and some even have silver beans! Isn't this divine intervention?" A woman who had just bought a blind box was now holding the small wooden box in her arms as if it were some rare treasure.
A man next to him who hadn't managed to snag a blind box was pounding his chest in frustration: "Oh dear! Why did I hesitate? I should have bought more. Maybe I'd gotten a lucky one and wouldn't have to fear these corrupt officials anymore!"
"You're kidding me!" A pedantic scholar waved his fan, his face showing an expression that said, "I've seen through everything."
"This is called a miracle! Do you understand? These fools from the Kong family think they can threaten the gods by capturing a few believers, but little do they know that in the eyes of the Mountain Goddess, they are not even ants! This is called courting death!"
…
next door.
The Kingdom of Bailing.
A prolonged downpour triggered flash floods.
Although it did not flood the city, it destroyed large areas of farmland outside the city.
Nowadays, people with pale and sickly appearances can be seen everywhere in the city, and a lingering sense of sorrow permeates the air.
In the busiest street in the east of the city, the flow of people was sparse, and a small stall quietly set up in an inconspicuous corner.
The stall owner was a young woman in a plain white dress with dark gold cloud patterns embroidered on the hem. As she moved, it seemed as if there was flowing light swirling within it.
Her appearance was unremarkable in the crowd, but her eyes were as clear as an ancient well, carrying a hint of compassion and a touch of detached indifference.
Next to it was a small cart set up by the system, with a fryer on it. The fried dough sticks in the fryer were golden and crispy. Next to it was a bucket of warm soy milk, and the rich aroma of soy milk wafted out across half the street, making people's mouths water.
On Yu Luo's side, there was a neatly stacked pile of small wooden boxes, each about the size of a palm, which looked equally ordinary.
Under the influence of divine power, the surrounding people did not find the appearance of this stall abrupt at all, as if it had always been there and had been there for many years.
"Have you heard? Something big has happened in the neighboring Peacock Kingdom!" A man who had just received government relief grain whispered to his companion.
"Who doesn't know? The Kong family, the Qian family, the Li family—those domineering aristocratic families—were all wiped out overnight! They say they offended the gods and were punished by heaven!"
"That's right! Everyone says it was a mountain goddess who appeared to him. Tsk tsk, what a scene! The divine light was dazzling, and the wicked man knelt down and repented on the spot, gave away all his wealth, and then died suddenly! It was truly gratifying! It's a pity that we are too far away to witness the miracle and share in the divine light."
As they were talking animatedly, their stomachs began to rumble uncontrollably.
Following the aroma, Zhang Tie arrived at Yu Luo's stall. Looking at the golden fried dough sticks, he swallowed hard and asked, "Boss, how much are these fried dough sticks and soy milk?"
The system, now transformed into a young girl, blinked its eyes playfully and announced the prices: "One coin for a fried dough stick, one coin for a bowl of soy milk."
"Hey, it's not expensive!" Zhang Tie readily pulled out two coins. "One set, please!"
After drinking a bowl of hot soy milk and taking a bite of a crispy fried dough stick, the weakness that emanated from my bones was instantly dispelled.
Zhang San let out a satisfied burp, his gaze falling on the pile of small wooden boxes beside him.
"Young lady, what are you selling here?"
Yu Luo smiled faintly, her voice clear and melodious like the clinking of jade: "Blind boxes, three coins each, what you get depends entirely on luck."
"Blind boxes?" Zhang San scratched his head, having never heard of the term before. "Three copper coins each? That's too expensive! Three copper coins is enough for my wife to buy half a pound of brown rice, enough for the whole family to eat porridge for two days!"
He shook his head, thinking the girl was a bit ruthless.
Rather than spending three coins on a shabby wooden box of unknown origin, it's better to just have a fried dough stick.
Having eaten and drunk his fill, Zhang San walked home contentedly.
As soon as I reached the alley entrance, I heard my wife and several neighbor women chatting noisily together.
"...Oh dear, you haven't heard, but in the Peacock Kingdom, before the Mountain Goddess manifested, there were two girls setting up a stall on the street!"
"Really? What are you selling at the stall?"
"Who knows? The things that immortals sell are beyond our mortal imagination! I've only heard that one of the girls sells a kind of small wooden box!"
Zhang San stopped in his tracks, his heart skipped a beat.
He leaned closer and overheard his neighbor, Aunt Wang, whispering mysteriously, "My distant nephew who does business in the Peacock Kingdom sent word back that that wooden box is extraordinary! Someone spent three coins to open it and found a magic pill inside. His mother, who had been paralyzed for ten years, was able to walk again right after taking it!"
"My Goddess of the Mountain!" a group of women exclaimed in unison.
Another aunt from the Li family chimed in, her face brimming with undisguised envy: "That's not all! Someone even wrote a prescription, took it to a pharmacy, and the shopkeeper immediately offered a hundred taels of silver to buy it! And what's more, the most amazing thing is that a winery reportedly wrote a recipe that produces wine so fragrant it can be smelled for miles around, known as 'Immortal's Intoxication'! Now, all the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital of the Peacock Kingdom are practically wearing down the threshold of that winery!"
"Good heavens, this isn't a wooden box, it's a gold nugget!"
"If that fairy who sells boxes could come here, I'd buy it for three taels of silver, let alone three coins! I'd risk everything to try my luck!"
A group of people's eyes lit up, as if they could already see themselves prescribing the miraculous medicine.
Zhang San stood outside the crowd, his heart pounding.
A girl as beautiful as a fairy sells small wooden boxes for three coins each...
Isn't this the stall from just now?
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He grabbed his wife and said, "Tell me quickly, isn't the girl next to the one selling boxes selling fried dough sticks and soy milk? Their stalls are connected, and those boxes are made of wood and bamboo?"
His wife was taken aback: "I think so? But those boxes do have bamboo tubes in them. I heard someone made a recipe for bamboo tube rice..."
The neighbors immediately erupted in chatter: "Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly what my nephew said in his letter! One woman sells boxes, and the other, the other one seems to be selling food!"
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