Copper Coins

Luomei Street is the most prosperous street in Wolong County. Because there are many red plum trees planted between the houses and small buildings on both sides of the street, in winter, especially in snowy days, the red petals of the red plums fall on the white snow, dotted with stars. The whole street can be regarded as a scene in Wolong County. It is really beautiful, so it is called Luomei Street.

There are inns, pawn shops, restaurants, restaurants, and naturally other shops.There are three or five silk shops alone, sandwiched among some cosmetic and jewelry shops.

Xue Xian is difficult to serve, he is wrapped around Xuan Min's wrist, he neither wants to be seen by passers-by, nor is he willing to be covered by the sleeves, he insists on letting Xuan Min take care of his sleeves , just enough for him to reveal a pair of eyes.Then it didn't take long for him to mess up the sleeves by stretching his head and tail, and always asked Xuan Min to tease him again.

What's wrong with always pulling up your sleeves while walking on the road?

At first Xuan Min ignored him a few words, but later he became more restless, Xuan Min glanced down at him, and simply flicked his sleeves, completely blindfolding him.No matter how much he played on his wrist, he didn't let him out again.

Xue Xian stood the dead body in the dark expressionlessly for a while, without saying a word, left a tooth mark on each of his fingers, biting from thumb to little finger, and finally just kept holding on to it.

Xuan Min moved his little finger twice, but seeing that it didn't work, he simply let him go, as if he wasn't the one who was bitten.

In fact, if you want to say how angry Xue Xian is, that's not the case.He really has a bad temper, he is about to go to heaven at every turn, and he is used to being arrogant, so he has no scruples about doing things directly.But that doesn't mean that he really gets angry when he encounters a little trivial matter.

The reason why he made such a fuss was purely to find trouble for Xuan Min.

At first, it was because Xuan Min took him in, which made him feel a little bit annoyed by the loss of prestige.It became a habit to make a fuss, as if he didn't find something to do for Xuan Min, he felt uncomfortable all over.Even after going through several dangerous situations together, the initial annoyance has long since dissipated, and he still can't help but come out like this from time to time.

Probably Xuan Min was too indifferent and calm, unlike anyone Xue Xian had met before, so that he always wanted to provoke Xuan Min and see how this bald donkey would be when he was not calm and indifferent. What does it look like.

Maybe it's just bored and wants to have some fun with this bald donkey... Xue Xian thought so.

In fact, even such occasional superficial introspection is unprecedented for this ancestor. Generally speaking, it is either full or hungry.

Xue Xian felt that he was hungry, so he lazily lowered his head, looked at the tip of his tail that swayed slightly following Xuan Min's steps, and said, "Bulk, you still owe me a meal."

Xuan Min didn't have the eccentricity of talking to himself on the street, so he ignored him.

Unexpectedly, the evil barrier loosened his teeth and bit his little finger, moved his claws, and climbed up a few steps along his wrist. : "Can't you hear? Then I'll talk to your ears."

Xuan Min: "..."

The tips of Xue Xian's claws softened a lot like his scales, and it didn't hurt at all when the hook crawled on Xuan Min's hand, but it was a little itchy.It's okay when it's not moving, but when it moves... In short, it's very annoying.

Xuan Min immediately frowned, moved his fingers hidden in his sleeves, and pinched that evil's disobedient tail, pulling him back again.

Xue Xian squinted his eyes, his two paws were on the skin of Xuan Min's arm, and he was dragged down, the tips of the claws were drawn into a line.

Xuan Min: "..."

His eyebrows frowned even tighter, and he didn't care much, so he replied to Xue Xian in a neutral tone: "When did you owe it?"

A passerby just happened to pass by and gave him a strange look, probably thinking that the monk talking to himself was a little abnormal, but after looking at it for a while, he was taken aback by Xuan Min's cold demeanor, and hastily lowered his eyes and walked away.

Xue Xian resented when he thought of this, "When you broke into Jiang's medical hall, you disturbed my meal. That nerd went to the restaurant to buy it for me early in the morning at five o'clock, and it took a lot of effort to bring it back. , are all the signboards of that restaurant, you can’t taste that taste anywhere else, and after spending money but not using two chopsticks, you messed it up.”

He dragged his tune and asked lazily: "Do you think you are a little guilty? Should you make me up?"

It's justified and well-founded.

To this ancestor, can you say "shouldn't"?Said he can turn the sky upside down.

Seeing that there was a ready-made clothing store in front of him, and the passers-by shrank their necks and passed by Xuan Min, he didn't want to say more, so he gave a faint "hmm" as a reply, turned his toes, and entered the store.

The owner of the tailor shop is a middle-aged couple. The man is fiddling with the beads on his abacus while he settles the accounts. The woman has a copper hand warmer in her arms and is knitting something with her head bowed. Intricate knots.

Xuan Min walked almost silently, and was wearing a monk's robe like clouds and snow. He was very dusty, but at first glance, he looked a little like a mourner.

When the proprietress Yu Guangyun entered the store, a white shadow suddenly appeared, and her hands that were weaving the knot suddenly trembled.

"Oh, you scared me to death!" She patted her chest and raised her head in shock. When she saw that it was a young monk, she was taken aback, and her expression became a little weird.

In this winter, there are far fewer people walking around, not to mention that it has been gloomy today. Earlier, I heard that there was a strange heavy rain with lightning, thunder, and white waves, and now the black clouds are pressing down When we got down, the north wind was blowing, which seemed to mean another rain and snow, and the pedestrians were even more hurried.

The couple's ready-to-wear shop has not made any money today, and they finally hoped for someone to come in, and it was another monk.

What can a monk do?

The proprietress subconsciously looked at Xuan Min's hand first.

He didn't carry a bowl, so he didn't come here for alms.

However, the face of the proprietress did not look much better because of this. After all, monks have a somewhat special status these days, and it all has something to do with the current national teacher——

As we all know, the national teacher is a monk, and he is also a very powerful monk.It is said that his eyes and hands are open to the sky, and he can change the situation. Most importantly, he has lived for a long time, so long that almost no one can tell how old he is.He has followed five generations of emperors in total, and he has been a national teacher for more than a hundred years.

Ordinary people can see the national teacher at most once a year, and that is when the winter solstice is held to worship the heavens on Mount Tai. The mighty battle will go from the capital to the foot of Mount Tai. With both eyes, you have to look carefully.

But the national teacher always wears a silver animal face mask, a wide monk's robe, and a scarlet cassock covering his hands and feet.No face, no age.

Someone once said swearingly: The national teacher is almost like a demon. Although he can't see his face and hands and feet, he can tell by looking at his neck. He is definitely not an elderly person.When a person is old, the wrinkles on the neck cannot be covered.Longevity is all that matters, if you live for a hundred years and still not grow old, it is very scary.

But someone also said that he had seen the Tianji team once, and the national teacher in the team still had wrinkles on his neck, but it was not old-fashioned, more like a middle-aged man.

Some people also said that the national teacher has been changed for several generations, and he only wears a mask all the time to prevent others from seeing it.

In short, there are different opinions, and it is difficult to distinguish true from false.People are always in awe of such mysterious and unknown things.But this national teacher is not only mysterious in appearance and age, it is said that his temper is also particularly weird, unpredictable.There are many rumors about the national teacher in the capital——

Some people said that the national teacher seemed to be practicing closed-mouth meditation, and he was silent all day long, and it was as cold as snow in the sky, which made the waiters worry all day long, not knowing whether they were doing right or not, whether it was good or not.It is also said that the national teacher has practiced sorcery, and every few years, he will bring back one or two children who are said to have Buddha nature and wisdom roots, but after a few years, those children disappear without a trace.Some people speculated that maybe it was made into a medicine man by the national teacher, or some other evil thing, and they swore that the place where the national teacher lived would have a smell of blood from time to time, which made people dare not think about it, and felt horrified.

None of these rumors can find an exact source.After all, no one dared to come out with their real names and surnames to chew on the tongue of the national teacher, and some people who had openly opposed the national teacher in the past did not end well in the end.

Therefore, the common people believed those rumors even more.

In addition, although the national teacher has indeed quelled many natural and man-made disasters, every time a disaster is quelled, some weird things will happen one after another, so that the common people are more afraid of the national teacher, and always feel that he can be regarded as a generation of demon monks. Maybe one day when an evil disease breaks out, no one can stop it.

This year's winter solstice ceremony, the national teacher rarely showed up.It was just because there were rumors that he had suffered a sudden catastrophe and had to retreat and cultivate.To put it lightly, it is because something difficult happened, and to put it more seriously, if you don't even show up to sacrifice to heaven, it must be a matter of life and death, maybe your lifespan is almost at the end!

In this regard, the common people applauded secretly.

In the early decades, before the rumors related to the national teacher had spread among the people, the temples in the state capitals of the country were extremely prosperous, and even the treatment of monks among the people was much better.But since those rumors spread, the monk's image has become a little more subtle.

When you want to practice rituals or exorcise evil spirits, you have to hold your nose and go to the temple to invite people, but when there is nothing to do on weekdays, most people still detour when they see monks, and it is best not to make friends.

But it's all coming to the door, we can't drive people out, besides, Xuan Min has a good appearance.The landlady's eyes flicked across his face, she calmed down again, put the knot in her hand on the counter, stood up and said, "This master wants... to buy ready-made clothes?"

The proprietress murmured in her heart: This monk's monk's robes still come to a tailor shop to buy?

Xuan Min didn't explain too much, just said "Yes", and then went to sweep around the patterned robes in the shop.

The proprietress silently tightened the hand stove, thinking that this monk is really cold-tempered, so cold that people can't be enthusiastic even if they want to.

She poked the boss who was doing the accounting with her elbow, and said, "Stop fiddling with the abacus beads. I'll do the calculation later, and greet people first."

The boss is a slow person, rubbed his waist and eyes, then raised his head, and said in a slow tone: "What kind of ready-made clothes does my little master want? The monk's clothes shop has never done it, but if necessary, you can also tailor one overnight. You have to measure the size of Master's robe."

"No need." Xuan Min replied.

The proprietress: "..." always popping out one word and two words, how do people do this business?

Xuan Min looked like someone who had never been in this kind of shop, standing in the shop in a white robe, quite out of place.He didn't pick too much, he flipped through the two winter jacket sleeves nearby, glanced at the approximate length of the sleeves, and roughly recalled the length of the evil barrier when he transformed back into a human form, planning to buy a few at random.

As a result, the ancestor on his wrist was not happy.

"This jacket is so thick that it can block the eyes of the city wall, and you can roll off the ground after wearing it." Xue Xian couldn't help but dislike it, "Anyway, I don't want it, so you can buy it and wear it yourself!"

He also knew not to be too presumptuous in this shop, his voice was kept very low, and his voice passed through the gap of his robes into Xuan Min's ears.

The proprietress looked at Xuan Min for a moment while holding the hand stove, then her eyes followed his hands and landed on the jackets and robes, and she immediately understood: "Master is buying for someone?"

Xuan Min let out a "hmm", still looking at the ready-made clothes.

"Do you have any requirements or preferences?" The proprietress thought for a while, and then said, "May I ask, what kind of people are you buying for? Maybe we can also help recommend a few."

Xuan Min's gaze fell on a jacket...that was quite eye-catching in color, recalled Xue Xian's tantrum that was all over the place, and picked a brief description: "A pheasant spirit who chases people to peck like that .”

Boss lady: "..."

Xue Xian: "..."

Boss Chronic has a pair of smiling eyes. He pointed to the jacket with hot eyes and said, "The jacket in front of Master is not bad. It is bright in color and looks fresh."

Mixed a bunch of colors, as if just peeled off a pheasant, really suitable.

Xue Xian quietly said: "You probably don't want to live..."

In the end, Xuan Min bought three sets of ready-made clothes for him under the constant threat of pinching and biting by his ancestor.The black color of Yishui was as thin as the monk's robe on Xuan Min's own body. When it was placed on the cabinet, it just made a pair of black and white impermanence with Xuan Min's mourning dress.

When the proprietress wrapped it up for him, her expression was quite indescribable. She seemed to feel that it was cold just by looking at it, and she couldn't help but hugged the hand warmer in her hand tightly.

When Xuan Min put the silver on the counter, the corner of her mouth twitched even more.I thought that this monk probably hadn't been out of the temple very much, and he really didn't know the prices of the things in the market.Buying a house in this county is only more than 20 taels of silver, how can you throw so much money out for buying three clothes.

The boss silently picked up the small copper scale and weighed the amount of silver, while at the same time instructing the boss's wife to find copper coins for Xuan Min.

When Xuan Min put his hand on the counter, Xue Xian happened to see the knot on the counter.

He stared at the half-finished knot for a moment, poked Xuan Min with his paw, and while the couple wasn't paying attention, he crawled up to Xuan Min's neck and said softly: "It's a surprise, look at the knot. Does it look like the pattern carved under the stone lock?"

The stone lock was really heavy, and it was impossible to carry it around.Xuan Min borrowed some crude tools from the Lu family, and rubbed out the patterns on the bottom of the stone lock.Xue Xian stayed in Xuan Min's secret pocket for a long time, and he almost used it as a nest. He stuffed everything in it without seeing anything, including the patterned paper and the things he rolled at the bottom of the river. iron plate.

Fortunately, they were all small and light, otherwise Xuan Min's monk robe would have fallen to pieces.

Xuan Min took out the piece of paper from his secret pocket, compared it calmly——

The pattern on the paper is like a weird totem, round in shape, with an insect beast with its legs spread out lying on top, I don't know if it's a bat or something, and there are cirrus moiré patterns underneath.

After all, the effect of knot weaving is somewhat different from that of carving. At first glance, they are not exactly the same, but after careful identification, they are indeed similar.It's just that the carved insects and beasts have a sense of ferocity in their simplicity, but the ones made of knots are quite round and tender.

Xuan Min and Xue Xian had never seen this kind of pattern before, and they were even prepared to find it difficult to find, but they didn't expect to have some clues so quickly.

"What is this knot tied for?" Xuan Min put away the tissue paper and tapped the counter.

The proprietress was counting the copper coins according to the boss's words, when she heard the words "Oh", she replied, "Blessings are safe and smooth."

She looked up to see Xuan Min's expression, and added: "It's not common, isn't it? I learned this pattern a few years ago, and I haven't seen it anywhere else, but it's really good. My son wears this knot, It survived a few disasters, but the knot always broke."

Xuan Min: "Where did you learn it?"

"Shitou Zhang's daughter-in-law." After the proprietress finished speaking, she remembered that Xuan Min was probably not a local, so she explained: "Shitou Zhang is a well-known stonemason in our county. No. His daughter-in-law is handy and likes to make pretty things, and I learned it from her."

Stone Zhang?

Xue Xian thought of the stone lock that sank in the river, and thought that there was also a stone over there, and this one was also a stone, so it couldn't be such a coincidence, could it?

Xuan Min naturally did not miss such a coincidence, he picked up the wrapped clothes and copper coins, and asked, "Where does that Shizhang live?"

"Go east along the street, and in Hugua Lane, there is a pile of stones piled up at the door."

The carvers in Huizhou Mansion are well-known, and many people come here to find the craftsmen here to carve things.So the proprietress didn't suspect him, so she reported the place quickly.

Unlike Xue Xian, Xuan Min couldn't figure out the direction. He went out the door and turned around three times before arriving in Hugua Lane.

The characteristics mentioned by the proprietress are really conspicuous. Standing at the end of Hugua Alley, you can see a hill of stones piled up by the door of a house inside.

He walked up to the door of the house and knocked on the bronze knocker.

However, there was no movement inside the door for a long time...

"Is this little master also looking for Shitou Zhang?" A middle-aged man passing by Xuan Min said, "He is not at home, I live in the house next to him, and his house has been vacant for more than half a month. It was dark all day long, and I couldn't hear a sound, maybe I was invited away by some master from other places."

As the middle-aged man spoke, he muttered to himself again: "But his wife is not here, maybe he went out to see relatives? It's not sure, anyway, knocking on the door didn't work. Several groups of people have come here in the past half month, and they all ran away in vain." Let’s go, come back after a while.”

After he finished speaking, he glanced at the sky, didn't say any more, and left in a hurry. After a few steps, he entered the door of a house not far away.

Seeing him enter, Xuan Min withdrew his gaze, and stood in front of Shishi Zhang's house with his hands down.

Xue Xian moved his paw uncomfortably, and there was no one around, so he poked his head out of his cuff and took a breath.

Xuan Min flicked his slender tail with his finger, frowned and asked, "Why do you feel so hot all of a sudden?"

"Not only is it hot, but it's also very swollen." Xue Xian's slender tongue hung out from the half-opened dragon's mouth, quite half-dead.

This feeling is not unfamiliar to him, the last time his whole body swelled up like this, it was in Grave Island.As a result of the heat expansion, he finally returned to his body.This feeling came up again this time, how could he skip it at will?

Xue Xian stuck out his tongue, and said to Xuan Min: "Excuse me, you can knock on a door, or climb over a wall. The Zhang family has hidden something in this stone."

Xuan Min: "..."

Xue Xian thought for a while, and then added: "After turning inside, it's best to find an empty room and put me down, including the clothes."

Xuan Min's palm had already covered the gate of the Zhang family, he paused and asked, "Why?"

Xue Xian laughed dryly, and said calmly: "My body is swollen so much, I'm afraid I can't maintain this shape. If I don't change my shape, I have to change back to my original shape. It won't be a problem to crush half of Wolong County, but you will change." A little monk who made cakes."

Xuan Min: "..."