Chapter 232: Worshiping the car at night, meeting porters on the road
"Don't you guys take a break at night?"
"Why rest? You can cover a lot of distance in one night. If you want to sleep, just sleep in the car. My three sons will drive in shifts."
Zhou Shi had some concerns: "Is it too dangerous to drive at night?"
The boss of the car whipped the donkey on the buttocks and said: "This old guy and I have walked this road hundreds of times. Even if it is blindfolded, it can bring us to the capital. If you are not worried, why not come and pull us?"
Car."
This old man...
At this time, Agui came to the front car and asked when he would take a break. Zhou Shi could only reply helplessly:
"I have to let the guys make do in the car. Agui, you sit here while I go to the back and take a look."
He came to the back car, gave instructions to the driver, and then saw the three sons of the boss of the car in the last car.
The three sons seemed to be talking about something, but when they saw Zhou Shi coming, they immediately separated.
"Which one of you is the leader?"
The young man farthest away from him hesitated and raised a hand.
"This is probably the eldest son Daliang." Zhou Shi thought, recalling Boss Che's introduction.
To be honest, among these three sons, Daliang is tall and strong, Erzhuan has a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, and Sanwa is short and fat. The only thing they have in common is that they don't look like Boss Che. He is very suspicious of the origins of these three sons.
"We have to drive at night, shouldn't you brothers help dad?"
"He alone is enough."
"Do you need me to arrange for someone to keep a vigil?"
"No need."
What a boring gourd... Zhou Shi left angrily, but he kept an eye on it and quietly followed the car for a while to see what the three brothers were doing.
Seeing his figure disappearing next to the car, the three brothers immediately got together again, took out a few wooden cards from under their feet, took turns to play a few, and exchanged something in their hands.
"It turns out we were playing cards and gambling for money..."
He felt relieved and braved the cold night wind to return to the car where the furniture was being transported, and found that Xue An was also here.
"Hey, you picked a secluded place." Zhou Shi smiled and found a comfortable position to lie down.
"Well, the shopkeeper..." Xue An rubbed his eyes and complained, "I just fell asleep."
"Sorry, sorry, please go back to sleep."
"It's not that simple..."
"Then count? I heard that you can fall asleep faster."
"I'll try. One carp, two carp, three..."
While counting, Zhou Shi fell asleep in confusion until he heard Xue An's voice:
"Shopkeeper, the car seems to have stopped."
"Huh?"
Zhou Shi quickly got up and felt that the vibration of the car stopped, while the donkey pulling the cart stood with its head bowed as if asleep, with only its tail swaying slightly.
What's going on? Didn't Boss Che say he was going to drive at night?
He immediately became alert and asked Xue An to stay in the car. He knocked twice on the old counter where Mr. Mo was hiding to indicate that there was something wrong, and then went to the front car with the iron abacus in hand.
The first car is empty.
"What's happening? Where are Boss Che and his three sons?"
He walked around the car and found a series of messy footprints on the ground, leading to the direction of the road - a direction with a ball of fire.
On the road, Boss Che and his three sons gathered around a small fire, with their foreheads on the ground. Boss Che kept mumbling something.
It seems like... praying?
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Shi calmly walked behind Boss Che and listened quietly to his prayer:
"No traps in the mountains, no rain in the rivers, I wish the immortal family good luck, a safe journey, a safe journey..."
Blood leaked from Boss Che's fingers drop by drop and slowly flowed towards the fire. At first Zhou Shi thought he had cut his hand, but when he looked closer, he discovered that he was holding a dead dog in his hand.
.
Thick steam rises from the dead dog's wound, showing that this is a freshly killed sacrifice.
"There are no bandits in the mountains, there are no thieves in the water. Wish you all the best and a safe journey..."
Every time Mr. Che read a sentence, the three sons took turns to kowtow to each other. At the end, the old man threw the dead dog into the fire, making a crackling sound.
"Shopkeeper, come and kowtow too." He said, glaring at the fire.
"What are you worshiping?"
"The Cart God is also called the Traveling Bodhisattva in some places. It can protect pedestrians from being harassed by evil things. Please pay your respects."
The three brothers raised their heads and stared at Zhou Shi numbly.
He looked at the dead dog that was burned beyond recognition in the fire, and he could not help but feel disgusted, but there was still a long way to go, and he didn't want to conflict with Boss Che and the others, so he clasped his hands together and reluctantly bowed twice. "That's right. I should have asked your guys to come and pay their respects, but it's easy to ask the gods but hard to send them away. Let's talk about it next time."
Boss Che put out the fire, kicked the dead dog that had been burned to charcoal to the side of the road, dug out a small statue from the sand, wiped it, and put it back in his pocket.
"Go back to sleep, Shopkeeper Zhou, we will set off soon."
They left Zhou Shi behind and walked toward the convoy on their own.
Zhou Shi stretched out his legs and was about to follow, when suddenly something broke into his peripheral vision, and he quickly looked at his breath.
A vague figure stood not far away, leaning over to pick up the dead dog from the ground, weighing it, and holding it against his chest.
It glanced at Zhou Shi, took two steps back, and the aura lingering on its body dissipated.
As his thoughts moved slightly, Xiao Lin's voice sounded in his ears:
"It's not a resentful ghost, don't worry."
Zhou Shi was stunned for a while, shrugged, and strode towards the motorcade.
In the next five days, the team traveled day and night.
"Shopkeeper, you can't see the mountains on both sides of the road today."
"Yes, this means that I have left the mountainous areas on both sides of the river... You have been a little excited these past two days. Why, have you never traveled far?"
Agui smiled sheepishly and said, "I haven't walked this far."
In this world, most people's activities in their lifetime will not exceed a radius of a hundred miles. The furthest places people in Jiangdu City may have visited in their lifetime are the towns around Jiangdu.
"But I haven't seen anyone on the road these two days. It's so deserted... Oh, there's a... porter in front of me?"
In this place with no village or store? Zhou Shi felt strange and leaned out of the car. Sure enough, he saw a strong man walking towards them in the distance carrying a load of goods.
"Where are we going?" the porter greeted.
"Capital!"
"Oh, have a safe journey!"
Agui retreated into the car and suddenly felt something was wrong and said, "Shouldn't I tell him the destination?"
"Be careful next time, God knows if this guy is a spy for bandits? He heard that we are traveling a long distance, so he should immediately think that we have property in the car."
But what worries Zhou Zhen even more is the pole used by the porters.
A "pole" with a huge shovel blade on one end.
After nightfall, Zhou Shi quietly got out of the donkey cart and came to the roadside alone.
"Good evening, Shopkeeper Zhou."
The "porter" during the day walked toward him carrying a huge burial shovel.