Chapter 121 Staying at the Inn
The sun was rising, and after the carriages had left Shuiyun Town, Bian Qing and Su Yulang felt a little better.
Su Ziyi, who was sitting in the front driving the car, didn't feel anything at all, and didn't try to comfort the two people. He just sat in the front and thought about the next step. It wasn't until Bian Qing opened the curtain and sat next to him that he said: " Are you okay?"
"It's okay." Bian Qing's voice still sounded a little muffled.
In fact, to be honest, it is impossible to say that Bian Qing has any deep feelings for Luoshan Village. It's just that he has stayed in Luoshan Village for twelve years, especially in the past two years, and his life has been peaceful and peaceful, which has given him a great sense of security. So when he left, the lack of this sense of security would inevitably make him feel at a loss. down.
However, his mood has almost recovered now.
After all, he is not a child who still needs the protection of adults, but an adult who has already learned to analyze the pros and cons. He naturally knew that leaving Luoshan Village was the most advantageous choice for them now. Not mentioning the fifty-year agreement between Su Ziyi and Doctor Li, the threat from the Guang Family was enough for them to be wary of.
Therefore, he must cheer up and grow up as soon as possible, and strive to help Su Ziyi as soon as possible, instead of just feeling sorry for himself on the sidelines.
"Where is Yulang?" Su Ziyi asked after seeing that Bian Qing was indeed fine. After Bian Qing took a deep breath, he completely calmed down: "I got up too early this morning, and the child hadn't had enough sleep, so he just leaned on me and fell asleep again." The carriage shook. It's shaking, and it does make people feel sleepy easily.
"Cover him with more quilts. The spring head is still a little cold, so he won't catch a cold." "It's
already covered." As long as it was about Su Yulang, the two of them always had something to talk about. Just talking, the two of them were talking. We talked about our future plans.
"I have estimated that if we keep traveling by land instead of water, it will take about four to five days to reach Qixia Town at the current speed." After all, the previous statement that Qixia Town is three to four hundred miles away from Qingcheng is also a straight line. Due to the distance, if you drive there, you will definitely need to take a lot of detours, so in total, it will take a lot of time.
"It's not bad." Bian Qing calculated in his mind: "It feels quite close." "Of course, after all,
this is also the outermost area of the Yuan Kingdom. A little further out is the Meteor Fairy Forest." Su Ziyi said disapprovingly.
"By the way, what can I do after I settle down in Qixia Town?" Bian Qing felt very uneasy when asked about this. He could do housework and farm, but these tasks were completely useless in Qixia Town, which made him very worried. He was worried that after arriving in Qixia Town, he would only be supported by Su Ziyi and would not be able to help at all. Just thinking about it, the panic in my heart surged up again.
"What are you doing -" Su Ziyi couldn't guess what Bian Qing was thinking. He just lengthened his voice and said his plan: "There are so many things. I have already planned it. There must be a lot of cultivators and ordinary people in Xianlin, and the demand for elixirs must be huge, so I decided to set up a shop to sell elixirs -" This plan was already within Bian Qing's expectation, so he He nodded without much surprise.
"It just takes me a lot of time to refine the elixir, so you need to do the running of the shop and the purchase of materials." Su Ziyi suddenly turned his head and looked at Bian Qing, which made Bian Qing stunned. "Have you read all the herbal illustrations and books I showed you before?" After Bian Qing learned to read, Su Ziyi showed the herbal illustrations to Bian Qing as a pastime, and Bian Qing also became interested because he was willing to learn new things. He enjoyed watching it, and if it wasn't for the fact that he had no talent in alchemy, Su Ziyi really wouldn't mind teaching him the art of alchemy.
Bian Qing made a mental assessment first, and then said with great confidence: "I've finished reading it a long time ago, and I've memorized most of it." "That's good." Su Ziyi turned around and expressed satisfaction with Bian Qing's learning speed:
" Then I'll leave all this stuff to you. Also, when you are doing business with others, if you see something novel or useful to us, you might as well buy it." Su Ziyi added: "Especially some books , that will be very useful to us."
"Okay." Bian Qing nodded in agreement, but he was still worried: "Can I do it? I have never been exposed to these things." "It's okay if I haven't been exposed to them.
" Su Ziyi chuckled: "You don't have to have done many things before you can do them. You always have to get in touch to know whether you can do it. No matter what the result is, it's time to practice now, and don't worry about being cheated. Don’t dare to start, just do it with confidence.” Especially things like eyesight require a lot of experience and knowledge to accumulate. They started a little late, and they really won’t be able to do it if they don’t hurry up.
"Okay." When Bian Qing heard this, he also felt that this was the truth, so he no longer resisted.
Driving is always a bit difficult, but fortunately they are not alone. After Su Yulang climbed out of the carriage sleepily, the family of three slowed down the carriage and started eating lunch. On the road that followed, Su Yulang couldn't help but be surprised when he saw anything he didn't recognize, and asked his parents what they were. After this, the road was not very boring.
When it was almost dark, they reached a small town safely.
The town is only half the size of Shuiyun Town, and it looks old and small. Perhaps because of the inconvenient transportation and lack of special products, there are no big houses in the town. They are all red brick or yellow mud brick houses. If they were not too close together and there were signs hanging at the door, Su Ziyi would really You might think this place is a village.
It's just that it's still half daylight, but the shops here are basically closed. Pedestrians on the road in twos and threes looked over curiously when they saw Su Ziyi and his party. Su Ziyi ignored these people and drove the carriage on his own. As soon as he entered the town, he saw the red flag with "stack" written on the wooden pole hanging high at a glance. He moved the reins under his hand, and the old man moved. The horse walked obediently in that direction.
"Are you staying here tonight?" As soon as the carriage stopped, Bian Qing lifted the curtain and poked his head out. He looked sideways and found that the two-story wooden inn was in terrible shabby condition. There were black things stuck on the door frames, windows and coffins. It was obvious that it had not been cleaned for a long time. This made him, who was slightly mysophobic, frown. He frowned.
"That's all I can do. I took a look. I'm afraid this is the only inn in this town -" In fact, Su Ziyi was very disgusted when he looked at this dirty inn, but in this place with no village in the front and no store in the back. , as long as you can find a place to stay, don't push too much: "And this is probably the best house in the whole town." After hearing what Su Ziyi said, Bian Qing looked around and found that there were
still That's true.
He sighed and got into the carriage again: "Okay, but if we don't bring the mattresses with us later, I'm really worried that their things may not be clean." "Okay." Bian Qing said The words were exactly what Su Ziyi was thinking.
Maybe it was because the business was so bad, Su Ziyi drove his carriage and stopped at the door for a while without seeing the waiter coming out again. In desperation, he got off the carriage and walked to the lobby. He found that the lobby was also empty, but there was a vague smell of oil smoke in the air. Su Ziyi guessed that there were still people in the inn.
He walked in a side direction following the smell of oil smoke, and then heard the sound of cooking. He thought that this place must be the kitchen. He turned a corner, and the kitchen appeared in front of him. He saw a thin man with his back to him, waving a spatula, and devoted himself to cooking.
"Ahem -" Su Ziyi coughed twice, but the cooking sound was a bit loud, so his voice was suppressed. Therefore, Su Ziyi had no choice but to walk a few steps forward, walk around the person, and pat the person's shoulder: "Hello, are you the owner of this store?"
"Hey -" The man didn't expect anyone to be there at all. He was startled by Su Ziyi's slap. He jumped a few steps away and came face to face with Su Ziyi. And by the firelight in the kitchen, Su Ziyi took a clear look at the man in front of him, and then he was a little surprised to find that the man in front of him was actually a twin.
The pair had come to their senses at this time, and looking at Su Ziyi's outfit, they guessed that he was a guest who came to stay. Although he was still frightened, a smile appeared on his face and he came over: "Sir, do you want to stay here?" "
Yes." Su Ziyi nodded.
The other party nodded when he saw it, and the smile on his face became more sincere. He shoved aside the firewood in the stove, and led Su Ziyi towards the lobby. As he walked, he apologized sheepishly: " Sorry, I didn't hear you just now."
"It's okay."
At this time, Bian Qing and Su Yulang, who were walking behind, also walked in with small parcels in their arms. When they saw Su Ziyi following a Shuang'er, they were stunned for a moment. Then he greeted him: "Husband." In front of outsiders, he always called Su Ziyi like this. Su Ziyi had long been used to it, so he nodded and walked over.
"There are quite a lot of empty rooms now. How many of you can we open?" The pair looked at the three members of the Su family. After their eyes stayed on Su Yulang for a while, they said with a smile again. Bian Qing looked at Su Ziyi, and Su Ziyi took over the conversation and said: "Two rooms, you and Yulang will live in one room later, and I will live next door to you." His last words were obviously meant for Bian Qing. .
"Okay."
"Okay, will you guys come up with me first?" Seeing that the three of them had opened two rooms, the couple felt extremely happy. They took the keys from the counter and wanted to lead the three of them up. , but didn't want to be stopped by Su Ziyi: "We still have a carriage outside. Can you please arrange it with the boss? The money will be based on your price." "Okay, okay, okay." After hearing the other party said
, Driving the carriage, Shuang'er couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "It's such a big deal." However, the expression on his face did not change. At Su Ziyi's request, he went out first and took the Su family's carriage to the back to place it there. He also promised Su Ziyi that he would feed it enough horse grass.
As soon as the shopkeeper Shuang'er left, Bian Qing breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the stool with his hand and prepared to sit down. Then he was surprised to find that he had wiped the dust on his hand: "It's been a long time since I cleaned it." Su Ziyi and Su Yulang were also amazed by this. They had never seen anyone doing business like this before.
Fortunately, the boss left quickly and came back quickly.
After a while, they came in from behind and took them to the second floor. When they found that Su Ziyi and others were staring at the spider web in the corner, they blushed and smiled: "I'm sorry, on weekdays Not many people come to stay at the store, and I take care of it all by myself, so it’s inevitable that it will be a little messy.”
A little messy?
After hearing what he said, the three people in the Su family were speechless, but they didn't mean to cause trouble. Bian Qing asked out of curiosity: "Are there very few people passing by here on weekdays?" Perhaps it was because he seemed much kinder than Su Ziyi. When he asked this question, the two children didn't feel nervous at all, and they took it easy. He replied: "It used to be okay, but in recent years the neighborhood has not been very peaceful. There are a lot less people passing by, and sometimes there is not even a customer for several months." At this point, he also smiled bitterly: "
If Unless this inn is passed down from my ancestors, I would not be happy to open it." He sighed and said worriedly: "It's a pity that even if you don't want to open it, you can't sell it." While he was talking, several people had already come to check out the room
. Outside, shopkeeper Shuang'er opened the door with the key and led several people into the house. The situation in the house was much better than Bian Qing thought. Except for the tables and chairs that were still not very clean, there was no smell of dust. Bian Qing thought it was probably because the windows were always open for ventilation.
"I will bring the mattress up later. Don't worry, it will be absolutely clean." After opening the door to another room, shopkeeper Shuang'er came over and assured. Bian Qing saw that he was not a cunning person, so he believed him, nodded and said: "Then I'll bother the shopkeeper." "Hey, it's my duty, no trouble." The other party smiled and went downstairs. Went to get the quilt.
"That's it for today." After looking at the room, there wasn't much to fault except that it was a bit old. Su Ziyi said, "Just now, the shopkeeper was cooking. You can ask him later to see if you can contribute some money." A meal? We're too lazy to go out to look for food anymore, and looking at this town, we probably won't be able to find anything to eat if we go looking for it at this time." "Okay." Bian Qing responded quickly
. Then when the shopkeeper Na Shuang'er came in with the mattress in his arms, he told them what they were thinking, and the other party didn't agree. While helping them spread the mattress, he also promised that he was good at cooking and would never do it. Let them down. Bian Qing had never seen such a Shuang'er. After several exchanges, he exchanged names with the other party, and found out that the other party and Yang Xu were from the same family hundreds of years ago. They both had the surname Yang, but their last name was Liu.
Chapter 122: Various ways of mortals
It was dark, and the three of the Su family finally had a hot dinner.
Just as Yang Liu promised by patting her chest, the three of the Su family felt very comfortable eating this meal, even though it was just some common vegetables and there was no meat or starch.
"Your craftsmanship is really good." Due to the previous conversation, Bian Qing had a good sense of Yangliu. After swallowing one bite of the dish, he praised it.
"So-so-" Yang Liu said modestly, but with a big smile on his face: "I learned it all from my mother-in-law. When they were still there, he was in charge of the kitchen." Because it was Minato. We ate together, so there was nothing special about how many people there were. After Yangliu closed the store, they started eating around a table and chatting while eating, which was quite interesting.
"It's a pity -" At this point, the happiness in Yang Liu's eyes dimmed, but he soon cheered up again and greeted them: "Everyone, eat quickly. Although there is no meat, I promise, I will make it." The food is much more delicious than meat." "It's delicious, Uncle Yangliu is so awesome." Su Yulang had been able to observe people's emotions since he was a child. When he saw the strange color on Yangliu's face, he immediately picked up his rice bowl and started to praise him.
Praise from a child is the best way to make people let down their guard. Hearing Su Yulang's praise, Yang Liu's face was full of smiles. He pushed the vegetable bowl in front of him in the direction of Su Yulang: "If it's delicious, eat more." "Yeah, yeah
. ." Su Yulang was very happy about this.
Unlike Bian Qing and Su Yulang, Su Ziyi has been watching with cold eyes. Compared to other things, he was more concerned about what the shopkeeper Shuang'er meant when he said, "The neighborhood has not been very peaceful these past few years."
Although Su Ziyi desperately wanted to know the answer, he did not ask directly. Because he could see that the other party was a little afraid of him, he glanced at Bian Qing, who was sitting opposite. Bian Qing was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood what he meant, nodded slightly, and changed his face to a worried expression. He said to Yang Liu, "By the way, Yang Liu, why did you say it was not peaceful here before?"
In order to lower the other party's defense, Bian Qing first fabricated a half-truth and half-false reason: "Due to an accident at home, my husband and I had to bring I am taking my child to live with my aunt in Qixia Town. After hearing what you said, I am really worried." He sighed in a pretentious manner: "After all, for ordinary people like us, really-" He didn't say the whole thing, but The unfinished meaning in it is enough for the other party to make up for it.
Sure enough, when he heard what Bian Qing said, Yang Liu was stunned for a moment, and then said: "So that's it -" Then he lowered his head and pursed his lips, and glanced at Bian Qing quietly, but when he saw Bian Qing still had a look on his face After looking at him with a look of seeking knowledge, he sighed helplessly in his heart, with a bit of bitterness in his tone: "Actually, it's not a strange thing." He stopped the chopsticks in his hand and stared at the candlelight, feeling a little faint.
He looked lost in thought: "I wonder how cultivators and ordinary people get along with each other in your hometown, Brother Bian Qing?"
Huh?
Bian Qing didn't expect that the other party would ask this, but he still answered the other party: "In our village, there is only one practitioner who is on the second level of Qi training. He is also the only doctor in our village. He is a very nice person. Everyone in the village is very kind." I respect him very much." He concealed the friction between Dr. Li and their family and described it in the image of the villagers.
Listening to Bian Qing's description, Yang Liu's eyes burst with envy: "It's really good." Hearing what he said
, Bian Qing subconsciously asked: "Is this happening here because of the cultivators making trouble? Did you come out?"
"Almost." Yang Liu smiled bitterly. At this time, he was not in the mood to eat, so he simply put his chopsticks on the rice bowl while slowly explaining the matter to the Su family who were also a little tasteless: " We don't have as good luck as you -"
"When you first entered the town, did you find that the town was terrible? In fact, it was not like this twenty years ago." Yang Liu fell into memories: "This town is called Tianyi Town, because there is no special output in the surrounding area, has not attracted the attention of aristocratic families or other forces. As a result, for many years, only people from the government have been here to manage the residents of the town." "Nor are the officials sent by the government. Practitioners are ordinary
people like us, and they are honest officials, so apart from the daily taxes they have to pay, there is nothing else, so everyone has a very easy life." It can be seen from his look that this paragraph It is indeed a time worth remembering: "In addition, it is much closer to Qixia Town from here, so many merchants will settle here, and by making money from passers-by, everyone is living better and better. The better."
"But, how can such good days last forever?" A trace of sarcasm appeared on Yang Liu's face.
"There will never be less cultivators among the people going to Qixia Town." He clenched his fists: "And if there are cultivators, there will naturally be disputes; and if there are disputes, then fighting is inevitable. I I don’t know the name of that cultivator, but everyone in our town remembers that just because of his sword, he carved a big hole on the hillside of the town.” “It doesn’t matter if the mountain was split, that’s what matters.
” It was this cultivator who had some unlucky fate, and green warm water with a strange fragrance gushed out of the opened hole. They said that the green warm water was called "Qingji" and it was a very precious refining agent. Medicinal ingredients." Upon hearing this, Bian Qing and Su Ziyi trembled in their hearts.
Qingji?
It's actually Qing Ji?
How could such precious Qingji appear in such a place?
What is Qingji? It is recorded in "Dan Code; Jin Chapter" that Qingji, slightly poisonous, is a warm liquid metal that appears green in color. Its fluidity and ductility are very good, so most people often see it when they see it. Would mistake it for water. The reason why Qingji is precious is that as long as it is neutralized with the corresponding spiritual grass, it can become a yellow-level fifth-grade elixir - an essential material for the Foundation Establishment Pill!
So when they heard the word "Qing Ji", how could Su Ziyi and Bian Qing not have any ideas in their minds?
That's foundation building!
It's just that they just think about these things. Qingji is precious not only because of its efficacy, but also because the conditions for its production are very harsh. Without the support of thousands of years of spiritual energy, even if there is a source of Qingji, it will wither long ago. And even if there is no dryness, the amount of Qingji produced by a vein source is very limited. If you don't hurry up, the opponent will evaporate into the air very quickly.
Therefore, those who have always been able to obtain Qingji are all lucky.
Yang Liu really regarded the three people of the Su family as ordinary people like him, so he kindly explained to them what "Qing Ji" was. After explaining it clearly, his tone was mixed with a lot of resentment: "But it's because of Qingji that this small town with a lot of people suddenly attracted the attention of many people." "
Shijia There was an endless stream of people, and even the upper-level officials sent cultivators to investigate. But because the number of Qingji was limited, everyone wanted to get more, so after a dispute, a fight started." Yang Liu lowered his eyelids with pain in his eyes: "The cultivators never care about the lives of ordinary people when they fight. As they continued to fight, most of the town was gone, and even the magistrate who went to lead the way died together."
"Those adobe and red brick houses in the town were built in the back." "After
their fight, the only ones that were still intact were our wooden building and a few houses next to it. Thanks to the solid construction, otherwise our place would have collapsed a long time ago." "
It's just that they have finished fighting, but our hard days are not over yet. People from the aristocratic family and the government are shoveling down the entire mountain, and they find that they can no longer find anything. After Qingji, they also withdrew. But if they left, how could other unscrupulous cultivators feel better? With a sense of luck, more and more rogue cultivators came to the town after the family left. I want to see if there is any missing Qing Ji."
"They came when they came, but I didn't expect that their cruelty was no less than those from the aristocratic family." "
Originally, most of the people in the town died because of the previous fight for the aristocratic family's government. After the casual cultivators came, because there were no servants around them, People, as a matter of course, enslave other people who are still alive in the town, and the good old days of everyone are gone forever. The government, which should have stood up, also remained silent because of the replacement of a magistrate who only knew how to camp. Be silent."
"Just like that, people died every day because of the bullying of those practitioners. It wasn't until the officials above discovered that something was wrong and sent out other practitioners that this farce ended completely." "It's just that by this time, the entire town had
already The desolation is terrible."
After hearing this, everyone felt very heavy in their hearts. The young Su Yulang even had tears in his eyes, while Su Ziyi and Bian Qing were very silent. They had lived in aristocratic families, so they naturally knew how those people treated ordinary people, but they did not expect that the real situation of real ordinary people was much worse than they imagined.
There is no security.
Facing the threat from practitioners, he didn't even have the ability to stand up and protect himself.
He can only live and die like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
After Yang Liu said so much, he no longer felt so uncomfortable in his heart. He even picked up the cold vegetables slowly and started to eat: "In that incident, many people lost their families. The cruelty of cultivators , The inaction of the government has given rise to a rebellious spirit in the hearts of a large number of people." "The
leading man shouted loudly, and rushed directly into the government office with other angry people, leaving the already completely empty The government office was smashed to pieces, and finally a fire was thrown——" At this point, there was a strange excitement in his tone: "Anyway, by the time the new magistrate came here to take office, the entire government office had been burned to the ground. It's so dark that no one can live in it." "
And those who burned down the government buildings didn't dare to stay in the town anymore, and just took their things and hid in the mountains and forests." "Because the number of cultivators in the government buildings was also small
. There were so many troubles caused by ordinary people that they couldn't condescend to come here. Therefore, the newly appointed magistrate could only send ordinary soldiers to hunt them down, but those soldiers didn't know much about the terrain here. How can they compare with the local people? It didn't take long before everything came back in vain." "
Later, the magistrate sent troops several times, but with the same result. It didn't take long for the matter to be settled. ."
"But even so, this town shouldn't be what it is now?" Bian Qing asked doubtfully. After all, when people are gone, new people will always arrive; when houses are gone, new ones will always be built; when money is gone, subsequent merchants will naturally come with money... So, how did it become like this?
"Generally speaking, it is indeed like this." Yang Liu's smile was very bitter: "In the beginning, those people were just like heroes among other living townspeople. No matter how the new magistrate threatened, everyone gritted their teeth. , saying that he did not know. In desperation, the county magistrate sent people to guard the town and surrounding villages, because even if those people could hide again, they still needed food." "Under such strict defense, those people did
survive The situation was very bad. Of course there was some food in the mountains, but how could it be possible for so many people to support it? So after surviving for less than half a year, those who were originally regarded as heroes by the people in the town took up their The butcher's knife was swung at the passing merchants." "
And among the merchants, who is the richest? It must be those going to Qixia Town, so they don't need to cast a wide net and guard the road leading to Qixia Town outside the town. It's just at the intersection." At this point, Yang Liu stopped talking. But Su Ziyi and Bian Qing already understood what he meant without him having to say it.
There are so many bandits, who can feel at ease?
The so-called town can only be called a town when there are many people, and for a town to prosper for a long time, peace and stability are essential. But at this point, Tianyi Town has lost its qualifications.
After all, for ordinary people, nothing is as important as life.
"That group of people are also very discerning." Pressing down the emotional fluctuations in his heart, Yang Liu spoke again: "They will never touch anything belonging to the aristocratic family or the government, because they know that once they anger the other party, they are likely to send cultivators Come here. When the time comes, no matter how many tricks they have, they will not be able to escape the tricks of the practitioners." "
After the magistrate failed to encircle and suppress them several times and found out that they did not come to harass the town, he was still worried. Slowly let go. In addition, he was not originally a person who was devoted to the people. He just wanted to live a happy retirement life here, so within a few years, he turned a blind eye to these things. Close one eye."
"Even if a surviving merchant comes to the government office, he will deal with it by saying "the other party is too cunning." Over time, the reputation of bandits outside Tianyi Town spreads further and further, and there are fewer and fewer ordinary people. Merchants were willing to come to Tianyi Town to settle down, so they all chose to take a detour to a town farther away. In the end, the originally bustling town turned into the desolate place it is now."
"That's why I would say that this area is not very stable."
"If you are going to Qixia Town, you'd better leave early tomorrow to avoid being discovered by them."