Cheng Yu took the bamboo tube from Father Zhang and looked at it carefully. He saw three neat characters etched on the bottom of the sealed tube: Qian Jiang Zhang, which must have been used by his family to send letters for a long time.
If I had not met him this time, how would they have exchanged letters in the past?
Cheng Yu immediately asked Mr. Zhang.
Father Zhang looked a little embarrassed when he heard this, he laughed a few times and replied respectfully:
"Sir, I don't know. In the past, I would go to the teacher from the neighboring village to polish my pen. But the teacher was old and passed away because he couldn't bear the cold last winter. Moreover, and..."< /p>
"It's okay for me to say it, my father-in-law."
"Moreover, the familiar merchants who were always in charge of sending letters have increased several times in recent days. In the past few days, they have doubled again on this basis.
It turned out that the recent journey to the capital was filled with refugees, and some dangerous sections were infested with bandits, rebels, and water thieves. Businessmen had to form gangs to gather enough people before they dared to go on the road, and they had to go around many more roads. Therefore, in the past, a letter only cost two taels of silver, but today it has increased to more than 20 taels. Although the little old man has no worries about food and drink, but..."
"Oh? Traders who are accustomed to traveling have to take detours, so how do I know that I will be able to reach the capital safely?"
"This... this little old man has lived for decades, and he still has some good eyesight in seeing people. His demeanor and magnanimity are definitely not comparable to those of those peddlers and lackeys, and it may not be possible for him to be a big man in the capital, and... ”
"And what?"
Jia Fei interjected and asked.
"Furthermore, the little old man thinks that your husband is not only capable, but also gentle and polite. He must be a man of many blessings, so this letter from me must be delivered."
After speaking, Father Zhang took out a twenty-tael silver ingot with residual warmth from his arms, handed it to Cheng Yu and said carefully:
"This is a little bit of my thoughts, and it is also the normal price of a letter at the moment. Please accept it, sir."
Cheng Yu looked at the shining silver ingot in the other person's hand, thought for a moment and then reached out to take it.
Behind him, Jia Fei saw a look of surprise on his face. He originally thought that the Great Bird Immortal would be so impatient that he would not take any money from him, but to his surprise, he actually accepted the money without any hesitation.
Talking about the refugees and bandits, talking about the high mountains and dangerous rivers, for him it is just a smooth road. If Father Zhang doesn’t know the details, how can he not know it himself?
Jia Fei slightly tilted his head and looked at Cheng Yu, but when he saw him, he asked Father Zhang again:
"How many taels of silver can my husband earn throughout the year?"
"To tell you the truth, sir, I can still make a living with this skill of making tofu. It's just that the past few years have not been as good as before, but at the end of a year, there is always a surplus of forty or fifty taels."
Cheng Yu nodded. In such a world, there can still be a surplus of dozens of taels a year. It seems that this old man who makes tofu is at least a middle-class person in this world, so only a letter worth two taels of silver can be paid.
Get up.
He stretched out his right thumb and index finger and pinched the silver ingot gently. The silver ingot was as hard as dough, and a small piece was ripped off.
"The piece I pinched is about 20 taels, which is enough according to the price of sending letters in the past. You can keep the rest, but I will definitely deliver the letter to you!"
Cheng Yu deliberately emphasized the tone of his last sentence because he was worried that the other party would mistakenly think that he was perfunctory.
Father Zhang stretched out his hand to take the silver ingot thrown by the other party, looked at the missing corner, and said for a moment:
"Oh sir, is this... does this make sense? Oh yes, I am so confused that I even forgot about sir's retouching fee..."
"It's the polishing fee, that's it."
Cheng Yu pointed to the two empty bowls on the ground and said.
……
Father Zhang was extremely grateful and sent Cheng Yu and Jia Fei all the way to the entrance of the small village. They gave up after they repeatedly persuaded him.
Looking at the backs of two figures, one white and one green, walking diagonally up the mountain along a path, Mr. Zhang put his hands in his sleeves and turned around to go back to the house.
What he held in his hand was the silver ingot with a corner pinched off. He turned around and looked behind him again.
Huh?
In the blink of an eye, a thin layer of mist suddenly appeared on the mountain, and the two figures, one white and one green, were gone.
Father Zhang turned back and chased him to the entrance of the village again. He looked around blankly, but where could he find anyone?
He stared at the clouds and mist on the mountain for a while, then looked down at the silver ingot in his hand.
On the mountain...
Yesterday!
Suddenly, Father Zhang's whole body was shaking like chaff like an electric shock. In the end, his legs went weak and he fell to the ground with a "plop".
It was only because his legs and feet were still healthy that he didn't fall.
"Daddy!"
His daughter came back to the village from outside the village to visit him. She saw her father fall on the ground at the entrance of the village for no apparent reason. She hurriedly shouted and ran over to help him up slowly.
"Dad! Are you always sick? Why are you shaking all over? Did you fall?"
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, help me back first!"
After Zhang said this with a wave of his hand, he raised his eyes to look at the clouds and mist in the mountains.
The father and daughter helped them back to the small courtyard in front of Tofu Fang. Father Zhang picked up the few pieces of white paper left on the table, and the white paper made a soft "squeak" sound in his hands.
The daughter looked at her father suspiciously, not knowing why, but Father Zhang's eyes, which were dim at first, could see very clearly at this moment. The white papers had been lightly imprinted by the previous two letters.
A gust of breeze blew by, and the cold spring morning breeze still carried some strength. Father Zhang, who was already trembling, felt goosebumps falling down his body when the wind blew.
He carefully collected several pieces of white paper, stopped his hands from shaking, carefully picked up the pen and inkstone on the table, and looked at them up and down, left and right.
Father Zhang's daughter supported her father and saw him repeatedly looking at these two ordinary objects. She felt that her father had gradually stopped shaking in her hands, and even his breathing had calmed down, so she spoke softly.
Asked:
"Dad, what's wrong with you?"
……
On the top of an unknown hill, Cheng Yu and Jia Fei sat cross-legged on a big rock facing each other.
"Just now at the foot of the mountain, why were you distracted while staring at the kit?"
When Jia Fei heard Cheng Yu's direct inquiry, he mysteriously took out two clay dolls from the brocade bag, a general and a maid. It was the first round when Cheng Yu "tortured" the dead souls of Gray Nine Thorns.
The two clay dolls shown.
"These two complete ones were running from one side to the other in the kit. After I removed them, they were able to return the same way."
Jia Fei said and reached into his bag again. After searching around for a while, he found two incomplete ones: a warrior puppet with a broken arm and a headless civilian puppet.
She pointed at the former and continued:
"Well, originally I remembered that only the left arm was broken, but when I looked at it later, I found that the right arm was also broken and its position had changed. It must have been that when he was running in the bag, he lost his balance with one arm.
, the other arm was also broken."
She showed the headless civil servant to Cheng Yu again and said:
"This headless one is the one I was at the foot of the mountain just now. I happened to see it stumbling around like a headless fly inside. I thought it was quite strange and that's why I lost my mind."
Cheng Yu felt strange and took the four clay dolls one by one. He then asked Jia Fei to take out all the remaining clay dolls in the bag and stand them neatly on the boulder.
There were originally four pairs of clay figures in the kit, including generals, civil servants, warriors, and maids, for a total of eight.
In order to "force a confession", Cheng Yu deliberately found a few asymmetrical ones.
At this moment, the eight clay dolls are divided into two groups like mirror images. One side is the one that Jia Fei said can move, but half of it is incomplete.
The four on the other side all have to be tailed, very neatly.
On the surface, there is no difference between these eight clay dolls.
However, Cheng Yu and Jia Fei connected with the ventilator, and with the help of the cat demon's blue light magic eye, they could see that the soles of the four clay dolls on the left had a very faint dark black aura flowing through them.
No wonder Jia Feiyan must say that they are running.
I think that at that time, he used water to perform magic, and combined with the ice plate condensed from the snowflake mark on his right forehead, it was the soles of the four clay dolls that were supported.
Cheng Yu unfolded his consciousness to investigate. The four clay dolls started from the soles of their feet, and as they went up, their aura became weaker and weaker, until they completely disappeared at the knees, leaving only mud bodies.
From this, it seems that these clay dolls have not yet developed their spiritual intelligence, but are just contaminated with some water aura.
Among the five elements, metal can generate water, and water depends on metal.
No wonder they would run back to the Golden Light Blade after removing it, instead of going elsewhere, even if they would be broken by the Golden Light Blade.
Unexpectedly, an unintentional move at that time would lead to such unexpected gains.
Cheng Yu closed his eyes and concentrated, and separated four strands of spiritual thoughts to attach to the soles of the four clay dolls.
In Jia Fei's eyes, he could see black clouds rising up from the soles of the four clay dolls, and the eight legs that had been squeezed out of clay actually began to move.
"Interesting and interesting, can these four be controlled by your thoughts?"
Cheng Yu nodded, and the four clay puppets immediately took a step in the direction of Jia Fei in unison, making Jia Fei clapped his hands and said happily:
"It's so wonderful that it can make him step onto the stage and become my supporting role."
After saying that, Jia Fei jumped up and stood on the boulder first to hold Yun's hand, while beating gongs and drums:
"Bang bang bang bang... bang bang bang bang... choke!"
The cat demon looked down and saw that the four clay dolls on the ground were also imitating her and walking on the stage. Especially the warrior doll, although it had lost its arms, it no longer fell under Cheng Yu's control.
A bit funny.
Jia Fei was so happy that her round eyes curved into crescents, but she couldn't hide the excitement and gleam in her eyes.
Looking at her clean and swaying figure, Cheng Yu knew that during this period, he was trapped in the troupe and had no chance to sing, and the cat demon was hungry for theater again, so he accompanied her to enjoy the show.
After his interest finally faded, Cheng Yu subconsciously rubbed his eyebrows and at the same time moved his eyes to the other four ordinary clay dolls on the right, thoughtfully.