Hong Tao stood dumbfounded in front of a stone tablet that was two people tall.
The word "Tongyuan" is written on the stele, and diagonally in front is a tall fence gate, which is the entrance to Tongyuan.
Although he had imagined countless possibilities, Hong Tao never expected that what would appear in front of him would be such a scene.
She covered her nose and breathed carefully, walking into Tongyuan step by step.
On the main street, there are some scattered shops with open doors on both sides. The houses are small and simple, but most of the shops have their doors closed, and there is also a pile of dust and stones in front of the door. It has obviously been uninhabited for a long time.
Going all the way down the main street, there are many main streets branching off to the left and right, and more alleys and alleys branching off from the main roads, connected to each other, and housing or shops are located on them.
There is a ditch on both sides of the street. The ditch is covered with stone slabs. Every time you walk a hundred steps, there will be an opening. From this opening, you can see the ditch full of filth.
In some places, due to exposure to the sun, the ditches swelled, and filth overflowed into the streets. All human and animal excrement, including dead rats, can be seen everywhere on the streets.
The stench is overwhelming.
Hong Tao couldn't think of any words that could better describe the scene in front of her. She even felt that she could suffocate to death if she stayed any longer.
The entire Tongyuan was filled with this stench. Only then did she finally understand why the coachman was masked. All the scattered pedestrians on the street were masked.
But the stench that came out of the ground had fermented for who knows how many years, and had been exposed to high temperatures. Even if you pinched your nose, it seemed to be able to get into the nasal cavity through the gaps in the skin.
Hongtao felt like she could hardly breathe. She tried her best to resist the urge to run away, and stood on the main street, looking at everything in sight.
A man walked towards me, his face covered so that he could not see clearly, and he was leading a cow behind him. The cow stopped after a few steps, then pooped a pile of shit on the street, and then wagged its tail in comfort.
The ground is gone.
Hong Tao looked at the filthy stuff smoking and couldn't hold it back. She bent over and retched. After vomiting for a while, she heard someone say: "Brother Zhang, are you taking pigs for breeding?"
Hongtao stood up, wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, and looked at the source of the sound. A middle-aged man was holding a sow, and responded with a smile, "Yes."
Another person said: "When piglets are born, leave a pair for me."
Brother Zhang smiled and said hello again, leading the pig past Hong Tao.
Hong Tao stared at the round pig butt as if possessed by evil spirits, swaying it, until it was far away, then she looked back and sighed:
Tongyuan is indeed a frightening place.
...
Returning to Taoyaju, Hongtao picked most of the flowers in the yard and soaked them in a wooden barrel for more than half an hour before she felt her nose felt comfortable. Then she got dressed and came to Qingyu dejectedly.
"Junior Sister, Head, I may have to betray your trust." She couldn't stay in a place like that for a moment, let alone be a housewife there, haha~ For the first time, she felt that she had overestimated herself.
Zhufeng was full of doubts when Hong Tao came back and started picking flowers in the yard. Now he was even more curious and came around to ask, "What's wrong? Is Tongyuan so bad?"
Hong Tao chuckled stiffly, "It's not even good enough to describe it. I would call it frightening. It's even scarier than the Devil's Cave."
Seeing that she was really frightened, Shi'an said, "I'm going to see Zhang Dongli and ask him to come forward and change your place."
Qingyu shook his head and said, "I have other plans for Zhang Dongli, so it's not appropriate to use him for the time being."
Then he said to Hong Tao: "Second Senior Sister, in fact, I have already divined a hexagram for you. 'Fire and Wind Cauldron', the rotten air will be dispersed when it encounters the wind, and the new air will be reborn when it encounters the fire. This is the meaning of the tripod."
That place looks like a rotting rat, but in fact it is ridding the world of decay and creating something new, and it contains great opportunities."
Hong Tao's face fell, and she said with a sad face, "I am such a beautiful and dignified girl, isn't this just 'a flower stuck in cow dung'?"
Qingyu hummed for a while, smiled softly, and said slowly: "Don't worry, I'm here."
*
At that time, in the Si family courtyard, Si Chaoren was checking the account books when he was interrupted by Si Yuan, the chief steward.
"Uncle, I have found out what you asked me to inquire about the other day."
"Oh? Let's talk about it." Si Chaoren temporarily put down the account books.
"The Taoyaju family arrived in Yinzhou two months ago. They were refugees from Shuzhou fleeing famine. Now they have settled in Jiuquli." After Si Yuan finished speaking, he paused and then said solemnly.
: "This family, from the adults to the eight-year-old child, is not simple."
Si Chaoren was a little curious, "Please tell me in detail."
Si Yuan responded and told the news he had learned in detail.
"Their family has only been in Yinzhou for two months, and they have already bought fifty acres of land, mortgaged eight houses, bought a house in Jiuquli, and built a sensational mountain pavilion."
Si Chaoren was suspicious, "Didn't he say he came to escape? Where did they get the money?"
"This is exactly what's scary about them. I still can't believe it in my heart." Si Yuan continued: "When they came, they bought fifty acres of land. That land... was probably
The uncle of the He family planted all the medicinal herbs.
The second daughter of their family was in her early tenth year, but she was quite good at Feng Shui. At first, she worked as a shaman for rich families, and she probably earned some money through it. Then they opened a mountain pavilion and recruited twenty children from rich families.
Everyone in the inner circle knows that each person makes thirty taels, which is six hundred taels.
After that, they mortgaged eight more houses and rented them out as soon as they finished the mortgage, which netted them more than eight hundred taels a year. And the news they just got today is that the girl actually became a housekeeper, but she was assigned to another house.
Tongyuan.”
Si Chaoren was surprised, "How can that little girl be so powerful?" She was in her early ten years, not as old as his youngest son.
"That's not all." Si Yuan continued, "Their eldest son, who is only thirteen or fourteen years old, has become famous in the inner city. It is said that many officials line up to wait for his fortune telling. Once a month, a fortune will be told.
Counting ten pieces of gold, even if you have money, you won’t be able to arrange it.
What’s even more amazing is that the house that this family bought was originally the house of the second eldest son of the He family, He Mengyou. It later became haunted, so he asked Fang Ya to sell it, but it was bought by them. I don’t know whether it was intentional or unintentional.”
Si Chaoren was really surprised. He thought it was just related to the He family, but now he heard that he had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't explain it. So he thought about it, asked Si Yuan to step back, and then came to Si Denghan's house.
study.
Si Denghan was practicing calligraphy. Si Chaoren knocked on the door and said, "Father."
Stenghan continued, "Have you finished reading the account books? Are there any questions?"
"It's not about the account books, it's about another strange thing." Si Chaoren entered the room and relayed the news he just heard to Si Denghan word for word.
"...I always feel like something is wrong, but I can't put my finger on it. Father, is that person who ran away from the He family really that powerful?"
After listening to his son's words, Si Denghan stopped writing with a heavy expression on his face, "Are you sure he is the person from the He family who has more than a dozen people missing?"
"It should be true. Wen Zhi heard it with his own ears, but he seemed to have lost his memory. Anyway, from that tone, he had no intention of returning to He's family. At that time, Wen Zhi also suggested that I take this person as my own, so I let him
Si Yuan went to inquire about it. I didn't expect such a result."
Si Denghan pondered for a long time, then frowned and sighed: "Yinzhou, there is a big trouble."
"Big trouble?" Si Chaoren was confused.
Stenghan said solemnly: "This family is playing a big game of chess. In the family of five, one is based on farming, one is based on wealth, one is based on the people, and one is based on officials. And the remaining one is
, is most likely the person who played this game of chess.
They probably want to swallow up the entire Yinzhou."