When Zhou Shi woke up, he found himself in a broken house and hungry.
Turning over, a dilapidated Buddha statue entangled in spider webs came into view.
Here is...
Strange memories flooded into his mind, and Zhou Shi quickly understood that he had traveled through time.
Daliang, Tianzuo seventeenth year.
The owner of this body is also named Zhou Shi, from Zhoujiadian.
In this world, Zhou Shi lost his father when he was young, and his mother dragged him away until he was ten years old. In order to pay off his debts, Zhou Shi sold three acres of farmland at home and went to Jiangdu with his silver to make a living. After fifteen years, he grew from a waiter to a waiter.
The young man became the chief shopkeeper of Fengde House in Jiangdu.
It's a pity that one of the two young bosses in Fengde Building was a prostitute, the other a gambler, and uneducated, so the old boss handed over the ancestral business to an outsider, Zhou Shi.
As soon as their old boss died, the two prodigal sons were concerned about the Fengde Building business and wanted to sell off their property to squander it.
Of course shopkeeper Zhou Da, who had been favored by his old employer, would not allow them to lose the property they had worked so hard to build. The two boys actually accused Zhou Shi of coveting Fengde Building and drove Zhou Shi out.
This week, the shopkeeper is also a stubborn person. You said that I am greedy for your ancestral property. I will not take any of the silver shares given to me by my old boss. I only want a set of abacus given to him by the old shopkeeper, and return to Zhoujiacun with a breeze in my sleeves.
Settled in a dilapidated temple that has been deserted for a long time.
What a courageous big shopkeeper...Zhou Shi, who came from time-travel, couldn't help but criticize, but it was this integrity that made shopkeeper Zhou not drink water for three days, and he died last night because of his blood and blood. Now he lives in this skin.
Zhou Shi, a well-known shopkeeper in Jiangdu, has become Zhou Shi, a top keyboard student.
He smiled bitterly. The big shopkeeper of Fengdeyuan was probably equivalent to the manager or director of the top hotel in the province. This was an identity he had never imagined in his previous life when he only wanted to return to his hometown and work as a civil servant.
It's a pity that the shopkeeper has become the former shopkeeper, and now his body has not eaten for three days. If he is hungry for two more days, he will follow the footsteps of shopkeeper Zhou.
He rummaged through his pockets and searched the temple again. Not to mention any money, he didn't even see a copper plate.
It’s hard to handle...
He was worried about the idol.
Hunger was eating away at his body and spirit at the same time. It felt as if a hole had been opened in his body and the contents of his body were being let out. There was no pain, but it was more uncomfortable than being cut with a knife.
This is a feeling Zhou Shi has never experienced in his previous life.
What should I do... Shopkeeper Zhou’s memory still remains in his mind, and with the knowledge from his past life, maybe he can go to Jiangdu to make a living again...
But Jiangdu is hundreds of miles away from here, and when he gets there, he may not even have a breath left.
Hungry, hungry...
Can a living person be choked to death by urinating?
After thinking again and again, he finally made up his mind. He put on the cloth shoes that he had worn for countless years, reached out and picked up the neatly folded coat on the bedside.
Under the small coat is the only item that Shopkeeper Zhou took away from Fengde Building - an abacus left to him by his old employer. Different from ordinary abacus, this abacus is entirely made of iron.
He weighed it, felt the weight of the iron abacus, and moved the beads twice more.
An inexplicable feeling of familiarity came to my heart. This is the imprint left by this body using this abacus for many years.
Bring it with you, you can sell it for money when you are really desperate...
He took a final look around the temple, his eyes resting on the statue for a long time.
This statue made a seal with its hands and its face was blurred, as if... it had been deliberately destroyed.
There is an indescribable weird feeling.
He didn't want to stay long, so he hesitated for a moment in front of the decayed door panel, and finally squeezed out from the crack in the wall.
The long-lost sunshine... Zhou Shi squinted his eyes and walked onto a path with an iron abacus in his arms.
There were no good roads in the countryside, they were all trampled by pedestrians. He hoped that this road would take him to places with dense crowds, so that he could find a job.
The path became wider and wider, with more and more fields on both sides, and his stomach became increasingly uncomfortable.
The sun began to set to the west, and just when he was so hungry that he felt dizzy, his eyes suddenly lit up——
A flag with the word "wine" hangs high!
Restaurant or inn? Zhou Shi didn’t think much about it, and hurriedly approached the white flag symbolizing work and food——
White flag?
Strangely, in this body's memory, the flagpole hanging in restaurants and inns in the countryside should be a flag with red letters on a black background. How can there be a flag with black letters on a white background? And the flagpole is not erected in front of the building, but behind... The customs are different, or
Your boss’s personal hobbies?
He really couldn't care about that much anymore. He steeled himself and stepped into the store.
The store was no bigger than that dilapidated temple, with only one floor. Zhou Shi almost touched the spider web on the door.
After adapting to the dimness of the store, Zhou Shi saw several Eight Immortals tables neatly placed in the store, but there were no matching benches.
Hmm... In Shopkeeper Zhou's memory, there are indeed some restaurants that don't have benches, but...
"Store, shop! Is anyone there——"
"Who?"
A figure stood up slowly from behind the counter.
Zhou Shi was shocked.
The person who emerged from behind the counter was very short, severely hunched, not even as high as Zhou Shi's chest, but his head was unusually large, looking like a strange rock in the dim light.
His eyes - Zhou Shi secretly took a deep breath. Under his long and disheveled hair, the old man's left eye was completely white and he was blind. His right eye had no eyelids and looked more than twice as big as an ordinary person's!
What a serious disability...
The man saw Zhou Shi's face turned pale and said in a hoarse voice:
"Haha, the little old man got sick when he was young and looks terrible. Please don't blame me, sir. Don't blame me."
Zhou Shi unconsciously stroked his heart and said accordingly: "It's true that strange people have their own differences. It's strange that I don't see it very often. Are you the store owner?"
"Not bad. Although the restaurant is small, the wine and meat are enough for the guests to have a full meal. But what should we order to go with the wine?"
I don't have any money... He rolled his eyes and took in the details of this small shop, and immediately took it into consideration.
"This store is too dark, even in broad daylight." He deliberately walked a few steps in the store and said.
"Haha, just because the little old man is lame and has difficulty walking, he can't buy a lampstand..."
"This place is also very strange." Zhou Shi knocked on the Eight Immortals table next to him and said, "These tables are good items, but they don't have matching benches... Didn't you buy them?"
The old man's right eye turned slightly and looked at Zhou Shi.
"Yes, it was thrown away by a large household."
"Oh, actually it's not a problem if there are no seats. The coolies nearby will be satisfied as long as they have a place to stand and drink a bowl of hot wine. Why not put the table away and use it after the benches are ready. But..."
He shook his head and said: "These tables are not well arranged."
The strange old man probably also saw that Zhou Shi was an expert. He grinned, revealing the few remaining rotten teeth, and said with a smile:
"Excuse me, what's wrong?"
"Too crowded."
Zhou Shi stretched out his arms and gestured while saying:
"The tables and chairs in the restaurant should be 'far away but not distant, close but not obstructive'. The distance should allow guests at different tables not to disturb each other, but if you meet an acquaintance from the same company or a close friend over wine, you can touch the glasses without getting up; <
/p>
"It's close enough that guests and waiters serving food can move freely through it without being hindered."
The strange old man touched his chin with his deformed and curled left hand and said, "That makes sense. Sir, you seem to know the ways of doing business very well."
The job is half done! Zhou Shi was secretly happy in his heart, but his face didn't show it at all.
"Exerting awards means being proficient in how to deal with people, doing calculations, greeting guests, and being able to walk on the stove when necessary without showing any signs of timidity."
If an expert hears this, he will shout loudly that the stupid boy doesn't know how high the sky is, but he has his own confidence in it.
Modern knowledge coupled with the memory of the shopkeeper of Fengdeyuan, a famous building in Jiangdu, is his confidence!
Thinking of this, Zhou Shi deliberately sighed: "Alas——"
"Why does the guest sigh?"
"I just hate that my mother is old and sick, so I have to say goodbye to my old employer. But where can I be a shopkeeper in this country? What will I eat? Alas -"
Zhou Shi just opened his mouth and talked nonsense, playing a tragic card.
He lowered his head, as if he might shed tears at any time.
However, the strange old man didn't seem to be impressed immediately. He hesitated for a while and then said:
"Ahem, it's really hard for me to manage this restaurant by myself. If you don't mind that my place is small -"
"I don't mind, I don't mind!" He continued quickly, "I have been wandering for half my life and have never met the Lord..."
"No need, no need." The strange old man waved his hand and said, "Then, from today on, you will be my shopkeeper. I don't dare to say anything about wages. As long as the shop's surplus is, it will be half of yours."
So generous? There was a flash of doubt in Zhou Shi's heart, but he was eventually overcome by hunger.
"Um, have you eaten..."
"Come on, let's sign it first."
Sign...what? Zhou Zhen was confused when the strange old man returned to the counter with a lame leg and took out a roll of bamboo slips.
The productivity of this world should be in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so why are bamboo slips still used?
Zhou Shi rummaged through the remaining memories in the body and found that the bamboo slip was what the strange old man called "莂". The contract written on the bamboo slip was cut open in the middle, and each party kept half of it as a certificate. p>
So what if someone uses a fake one to get things done? So there is a word "tong" on the front of the bamboo slips, which can be closed after being cut in half. This is the origin of "contract".
"莂" has been preserved as a tradition in this world and is used in some formal occasions.
"Here, sign your name here."
The strange old man handed over the brush with a curled hand. Zhou Shi rolled up his sleeves and wrote his name neatly on the bamboo slip.
The strange old man suddenly twitched the bamboo slip and flicked it, and the bamboo slip automatically split into two halves, one in two...one half in two.
"Hehehe, welcome, Shopkeeper Zhou."
The old man smiled sinisterly, which made Zhou Shi feel a little scared.
"Um," I was really hungry and couldn't care less about that, "I left in a hurry and didn't have lunch. Do you have..."
"Yes, yes." The strange old man shakily took out a steamed bun and a plate of pickles from under the counter, "Let's make do with it. Let's put it on the table."
This steamed bun is not the steamed steamed bun mixed with white flour and sugar that Zhou Shi ate in the supermarket in his previous life, but is made from real steamed stick noodles. It is not only dry, but also irritating to the throat, and there are some chicken feathers, grass, straw and sand in it.<
/p>
He endured the discomfort in his throat and swallowed the steamed bun that was as cold as stone, feeling that he finally had a rather empty sense of fullness in his stomach.
He was so focused on chewing his first meal in three days that he didn't notice the strange old man limping to close the door.
"Thank you. Boss, what do you call me?"
"My surname is Mo, just call me Mr. Mo."
"Mr. Mo." Zhou Shi nodded and said, "When should I go to the counter? Tomorrow?"
"No, tonight."
Mr. Mo opened his almost toothless crooked mouth and smiled.
"Tonight?" Zhou Shi was stunned. It was already dark. Whose business was he doing? How could he come to a hotel for dinner at this time?
"Not bad."
As he spoke, he felt a chill on his spine and numbness on his scalp, as if a cold wind was blowing away in the closed store.
He turned around quickly and almost screamed in fright.
Several people walked straight through the closed door and entered the store.
These "people" lowered their heads, their faces blurred, and green light seemed to be flashing all over their bodies.
And Zhou Shi can even see the tables in the store through their bodies - these people are translucent!
Looking down again, these people have no feet at all! Under the illusionary clothes, there is only a burst of mist!
"Oh, didn't I tell you?"
He turned his head mechanically and faced Mr. Mo's huge, strange eyes without eyelids.
"My inn does not entertain the living, only the dead.