On the Importance of Chinese Characters

Luoyuan City City Lord's Mansion

Zhao Xiang, the city lord who received the letter from Nan Xiaoling, stood up excitedly: "Great, it's finally here!" The brows that had been frowning for more than a month finally relaxed a little.

"What's the happy event for Dad?" Zhao Ruibao heard his father's long-lost laughter from a long distance away, and came to ask out of curiosity.

Zhao Xiangnian only had such an only son in his [-]th year, his wife died young, and the child had no mother, so he doted on him and beckoned him to come over, and said with a smile: "Someone came from the lord's mansion, saying that the master of the palace will come to us soon. Luoyuan City." Hearing these words, Zhao Ruibao's eyes lit up from time to time: "Really? That's great! That Xiong Lailiao took advantage of the absence of the principal for the past few days and persecuted his father in every possible way. Come on, let me see if that bullying black-haired monster dares to be so arrogant!"

Zhao Xiang looked at his son's excited look, and patted his shoulder: "I've been holding you back for a while, aren't you bored? When the boss comes, you can relax!"

"It's a bit boring." Zhao Ruibao was straightforward, and when his father asked, he told the truth, "I pushed Ah Wu to invite me several times, so maybe I don't want to talk to me anymore."

Zhao Xiang looked at his son's worried look, stroked his soft hair, and comforted him softly: "Be patient for a few more days." Zhao Ruibao nodded obediently: "My son knows."

"Go. Dad has to get ready to welcome the distinguished guests." Zhao Xiang sent his son out, ordered the people to clean up the prepared rooms in the mansion, prepared clean bedding and cleaning utensils, and started to tidy up the things that had fallen in Yuancheng over the years. Records of maps, population, tax revenue and expenditure, etc.

For a while, Zhao Xiang immersed himself in his official duties and was so busy that he didn't know the time.

Zhao Ruibao walked briskly to the martial arts arena of the City Lord's Mansion - it is natural for such a happy day to relax his muscles and bones.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he reached the entrance of the Martial Arts Field, a water whip swept towards his feet.

Zhao Ruibao was startled, and the moment his right hand was raised, a thin layer of black mist covered it. Facing the flexible water whip, he did not avoid it, and stretched out his hand to grab the whip in his hand.

The black mist on his palm circled around the water whip. The originally glowing water whip was wrapped in the black mist, and the clear color became gloomy as if it had been stained with some dark air. Some of the water droplets in the water whip quickly lost control, as if their vitality had been destroyed.

"Good treasure, no wonder you don't go out these days, you are practicing hard at home!" The water whip lost most of its power in a short time. Yuan Li raised his voice and laughed.

"Awu!" Zhao Ruibao looked in surprise when he heard his friend's voice.

Deng Wu came out from the base of the wall, walked up to him and slapped his head fiercely: "If you don't come in the next post, I can only come to invite you in person!"

"Are you going out?"

Zhao Ruibao's smile faded a bit, and Deng Wu raised his brows seeing his embarrassed look: "A new restaurant has opened in the city, and there are many animal tamers, singers, and funny people... ...that's interesting! Are you still not going?"

Zhao Ruibao heard so many funny things, and his heart, which had been held back for a long time at home, was like being scratched by a little furry paw, itching to move, but thinking about Zhao Xiang's exhortation, he endured it again and again, and still gritted his teeth: "Forget it, I still don't want to go, how many days?

"What are you going to do in a few days?! Just today! Let's go!" Deng Wu mercilessly grabbed his neck and pulled him away.

"No, my father won't let me go out!"

Zhao Ruibao struggled to push the person away, but Deng Wu laughed mercilessly: "Abao, Abao, your name is indeed correct. If you listen to daddy like that, do you mean you haven't been weaned yet?"

Zhao Ruibao grabbed his hand for a while, and Deng Wu turned his head to look at him: "You think about it, if you don't go today, I will never come to your door again!"

Zhao Ruibao's firm hand immediately gave it away. Deng Wu smiled and pulled the person out: "Okay Bao, let's go!" Zhao Ruibao was pulled out of the city lord's mansion by his friends, and before he left, he glanced at the gate worriedly. He comforted himself in his heart again: the head of the palace will be here soon, but going out to play for half a day, it shouldn't be a big deal.

??

Zhuang Yunzhou stayed in Xingjian City for two days, met with the shopkeepers of the Duobao branch in the northern territory, and intersected with the second and third generations of the six collars. After spreading out these basic interpersonal networks, he led people straight to Luoyuan city.

Luoyuan City is located in the most northeastern part of the entire Nanxiao Territory. The entire city is in the shape of an irregular long strip. It covers a large area and is a large city.Backed by the mysterious Wuxi trace of Guangbao, the narrow east side borders Guangyuanling, and the long south side faces Juliling.

As one of the few mysterious places that produce dark-type genius treasures, countless people go to Wuxihen to search for treasures every year.There are 160 cities and towns bordering this vast and mysterious area in the north, but limited by the terrain and the danger factor of Wuxihen, there are only four gates that can be safely entered and exited, and Luoyuan City is one of them.

Although the land of Luoyuan City cannot be planted with any vegetation due to the existence of no traces, and all daily necessities are bought and sold from other places, but only relying on the consumption of adventurers in Luoyuan City and the taxes paid by caravan shops, Luoyuan The city is considered one of the best big cities in Nanxiaoling.

But Juliling was caught between Guangyuan and Nanxiao, perfectly blocked by Luoyuancheng from Wuxihen, and could only watch such a large amount of wealth fall into the hands of others, how could he not be jealous?

This is the fundamental reason why Juliling designed the old dragon lord back then and forced him to sign the Origin Deed.Over the past hundred years, Juliling has absorbed huge wealth from Luoyuan City, and the local residents are almost breathless with heavy taxes. Every year, the tax revenue has to be subsidized by Nanxiaoling and Baopu Palace to barely make up for it.

"Has Juli received enough tax this year?" Zhuang Yunzhou was sitting in the carriage, beside him was someone sent by Long Jianlai to assist him in taking over the accountant of Luoyuan City. He is the one who knows the accounts of Luoyuan City the most these years.

"That's enough. When the former chief left, he had already given the tax to be paid this year to City Lord Zhao." The accountant hurriedly replied after hearing the question.

"How much tax did Juli collect this year?" Zhuang Yunzhou asked again. Over the past century, Juli has held on to that unequal contract and imposed heavy taxes recklessly. In the first 20 years, he could barely pay the Luoyuan City. , Later, it was necessary to rely on intrauterine relief.The taxes were taken away by Juli, but the people in the city still had to live, and the government departments also had to pay their salaries.

"Ninety percent this year." When mentioning this, the accountant felt rather hateful, "Back then, the old lord signed the source deed and handed over the taxation rights. Pay, if there is no strong support from the palace, once the tax is not collected, the origin deed of Luoyuan City will be extended."

Ninety percent is not a small amount... Luoyuan City's annual tax can almost catch up with a small leader, Juli leader will definitely not give up so easily, not to mention there is Tianmu Xiaoyu behind this year, Zhuang Yunzhou pondered, and suddenly asked : "The tax has been prepared, but does anyone else know?"

"Other than the previous chief and the inspector, only the lord, the city lord Zhao and I know about it." The accountant said, "Everyone is hiding it, and they only said that after the new chief came, the source deed expired and handed over to Luoyuan City." It is time to pay this last tax.”

Only in this way did Zhuang Yunzhou feel a little more at ease.Because of Shuyu's presence, Tianmu Xiaoyu can no longer overwhelm people with power like before, but according to Shuyu, Tianmu Xiaoyu is especially good at using tricks.

After thinking about it, he still ordered: "Speed ​​up."

A group of people speeded up their journey, compressing the original five-day itinerary to three days.

The tent was not well repaired, and the rapid march all the way made him quite bumpy, so when he saw the boundary marker of Luoyuan City from a distance, he breathed a sigh of relief in surprise: "Pass that boundary marker and you will arrive at Luoyuan City!"

Zhuang Yunzhou pushed open the carriage door and looked out in the direction of the accountant's fingers. With extreme eyesight, he saw the particularly conspicuous boundary marker at a glance.The place where the convoy was driving at this time was a winding mountain dirt road, which was the only road leading from the direction of Waking Sword City to Luoyuan City.

Wuxihen is a huge depression surrounded by mountains. Luoyuan City is located at the foot of one of the peaks called 'Laha Shizhu'. Can go to Luoyuan City.The boundary marker is in the middle of the road. Against the background of the black mountain, the snow-white almost translucent boundary marker can be regarded as a fairly obvious landmark.

Through the clouds on the mountainside, Zhuang Yunzhou also saw a few convoys moving slowly like ants on the winding road ahead. They were fully loaded with goods, and after turning a corner, they were covered up and emerged from a further place. .

Fang Qiling lay down on the car window and looked down with great interest, feeling very good: "No wonder it is called Luoyuan City, a city located under the abyss."

As the convoy progressed, the walls of Luoyuan City finally appeared in front of everyone.

Not as tall and majestic as imagined, the city walls of Luoyuan City look quite old, with traces of corrosion on every wall brick, dilapidated and old, it really doesn't look like a big city should have.

The team defending the city is headed by the multi-eyed bear clan and the spirit clan, occasionally mixed with other races of the sky clan, standing on both sides of the city gate, one on the left and one on the right. From the perspective of equipment, the armor of the multi-eyed bear clan is not only in the material The workmanship is excellent, compared to the Spirit Race, I don't know how many times better.

The team leader of the multi-eyed bear tribe seemed particularly arrogant. When entering the city, all the spirit tribe people even charged higher entry fees than other races.And for this kind of situation, the city guards guarding the gate of the Spirit Race seem to be used to it.

Zhuang Yunzhou didn't want to make extra troubles, so he readily paid double the entrance fee, and the group finally entered the city smoothly.

After the convoy had gone a little further, the accountant smiled wryly and said, "Since Juliling took over Luoyuan City, all the officials of Juliling's department, big and small, have treated Luoyuan City as an object of exploitation at will. The taxes levied on the people of Luoyuan City are already very heavy, but behind the scenes, the people have to be stripped of another layer by these Juli factions."

"If it wasn't for the secret support and subsidies from the palace and the lord these years, the life of the people in the city would have been even more difficult. In the past hundred years, no less than 50 people in the city have left because they couldn't bear the taxes..." The accountant shook his head and sighed He breathed a sigh of relief, and laughed again, "Fortunately, the [-]-year period is about to expire."

"—Ah, ahead, the City Lord's Mansion is here!"

The convoy stopped in front of a small courtyard. If it hadn't been identified by the accountant, no one would have thought that this dilapidated small courtyard was the residence of the lord of a large city.

"Raoqi, go and find a better place for me." Tianmu Shuyu only took a look at the courtyard where even one tile was missing, and then directly instructed the maid beside her.

Fang Qiling shook his head helplessly, ignoring Tianmu Shuyu, who was so particular about everywhere, got off the carriage, and walked forward together with Zhuang Yunzhou.

However, as everyone got closer to the courtyard gate, the feeling of being followed became stronger. Fang Qiling couldn't help frowning secretly in this state of high alert. He said: "Strange, this door is not closed during the day on weekdays? Could it be that you have gone out?"

Zhuang and Fang looked at each other, and they both keenly sensed that something was wrong. Fang Qiling let go of his spiritual sense, and the powerful spiritual power soaked the entire courtyard without leaving a trace, and faintly caught a few crying and strange sounds that were suppressed by force. A beastly roar.

Fang Qiling loosened his brows and said: "There is no sound of fighting, it seems that something happened in the house, and I was out of control for a while—let's reveal my identity through sound transmission."

The account room had Zhao Xiang's imprint of the sound transmission stone, and upon hearing the words, he obeyed the order to transmit the sound to him, and soon there were hurried footsteps coming from the courtyard.

The door opened from the inside with a 'squeak' sound, and the butler in ordinary clothes greeted him while apologizing: "It's late to open the door, please don't blame me. The city lord has something to do and can't greet him in person, so he ordered me to wait for the lord to plead guilty." .”

The butler smiled, and although he tried his best to keep calm, his unconsciously clenched fists, slightly anxious footsteps, and the occasional frown that couldn't help but frown all showed that he was abnormal.

Both Fang Qiling and Zhuang Yunzhou's hearts sank, but they didn't show their expressions on the surface. Zhuang Yunzhou always smiled gently: "Everyone has a time when they can't get away. The city lord is too polite."

The butler smiled: "Thank you for your understanding, my lord—please!"

After Zhuang Yunzhou and his party entered the courtyard, the butler closed the door again, and then lost his composure, and hurriedly said: "There is an eyeliner outside the door—my lord, please go to the meeting room as soon as possible, my lord."

Zhuang Yunzhou's heart trembled, and he said quickly, "Lead the way!"

The butler led the people directly into the meeting room. After entering, Zhuang Yunzhou found that all the doors and windows of the meeting room were tightly closed. In the corner beside the hall, a young man was firmly tied to the beam with a rope thick as a thumb, struggling desperately.His eyes were wide open, his expression was crazy, his mouth was stuffed with a kerchief, and his throat still made a roar similar to that of a strange beast, which was not like a normal person.

The city lord Zhao Xiang was standing in front of the young man, holding his head with his hands, pouring all the energy from his whole body into the young man's temples. After a long time, the young man's expression gradually stabilized, he closed his eyes, and passed out.

After the young man passed out, Zhao Xiang seemed to be swimming in the water, his face was pale and his body was covered in sweat.

Busily stuffing a pill into his mouth to reply, Zhao Xiang walked up to Zhuang Yunzhou to salute: "Zhao Xiang has met the principal!"

Zhuang Yunzhou waved his hand: "City Master Zhao doesn't need to be too polite. But, this is—?" He pointed at the young man on the pillar.

Zhao Xiang glanced in the direction of the young man, and suddenly knelt down with a face full of shame: "That's a dog—I, the Zhao family, are ashamed of the support of the palace for so many years, and of the centuries of Luoyuan City." The oppressed people!"

"This year's taxes - lost!"

"Lost it?!" Zhuang Yunzhou's heart sank suddenly, and his previous ominous premonition really came true.

"How did you lose it? How did you lose it?!"

"It's me!" Zhao Xiang was ashamed and angry at the same time, "I fell into the trap of others!"

It turned out that a few days ago Deng Wu took Zhao Ruibao out to the newly opened prosperous feast restaurant. The young man who hadn't been out for a long time was attracted by all kinds of strange and interesting things in it as soon as he entered, listening to jokes, watching juggling, and watching fancy martial arts performances ...Everything is fascinating, and I am so happy to play with my playmates.

Deng Wu and his party are all well-off in their families, even the City Lord's Mansion has been saving on food and clothing these years, but for the only son, Zhao Xiang has never cut short his expenses.The generous young master was served by the beautiful maids in the building.

Such a group of youths who are full of vigor and are at the age of being competitive are not the opponents of specially trained women, and they are led away to places they shouldn't go in a few moments.

Zhao Ruibao was too well protected by Zhao Xiang, with a soft personality, and could not stand the repeated accusations of others.When a lovely and pitiful maid, Lihua, said that if she didn't attract enough guests, she would be sent to wait on men by the landlord, Zhao Ruibao felt compassion and followed her to the gambling table.

He didn't play much at first, betting very restrainedly.However, he couldn't hold back his luck, winning big and losing small, and soon the bustle of the table attracted the attention of others. The praise and praise of the crowd and the admiration of the beauties whose looks and temperament were all in line with his own made the unsteady young man very upset. enjoy.

In this day alone, he won millions of source crystals and a number of natural materials and earth treasures mortgaged by others, which was worth half a month's tax revenue in Luoyuan City!

Money came so easily, this is something the young man never imagined, thinking of how his father was troubled by money because of Luoyuan City, what he saw and heard this day quietly planted seeds in Zhao Ruibao's heart.

In the next few days, he quietly went to the bustling feast. The bets went from small to large, and from the nervous trembling at the beginning to the big money later, it took only three days.From winning a lot of money at the beginning to losing money after a plummet...

By the time Zhao Ruibao, who no longer took chips seriously, came to his senses, he had already lost nearly a year's tax money from Luoyuan City!

Later, City Lord Zhao discovered that the tax money was lost.After interrogating everyone in the mansion, all the clues point to one person——the young master of the city lord's mansion, Zhao Ruibao!

Zhao Xiang couldn't believe it at all. He ordered someone to tie up Zhao Ruibao. Just after asking about it, the experienced Zhao Xiang keenly sensed that his son had been tricked. Just as he was about to ask in detail, Zhao Ruibao suddenly went crazy. Not only did he go crazy enough to bite off two pieces of his own father's flesh, but he also desperately wanted to kill himself.

Fortunately, the rope used for punishment earlier became a life-saving tool. Zhao Ruibao was rescued in time because he was bound and unable to move.

"It's all because I have no way to teach my son. If this evil obstacle has a strong will, he would not have stepped into the trap so easily! If I hadn't found out the whereabouts of the tax money from him, I would have killed him with one blow!"

Zhao Xiang was really out of breath. He was riding on the head of others and swallowed his breath for a hundred years. He was finally able to get out of the current situation, but was completely ruined by his son!In the past few days, he was so angry that he vomited blood several times.

"He was hit by the soul trapping spell." Tianmu Shuyu, who had been observing the boy silently since entering the door, finally confirmed what she was thinking, turned around and said calmly.

"Soul Trapping?" Fang Qiling raised his eyebrows.

Tianmu Shuyu nodded: "It is another secret art of our Tianmu family, usually practiced by women. This secret art can control people's mind without leaving any traces, making people lose themselves, and it is a small incident that happens every day. Change, and no one else will notice when your temperament changes drastically in the end."

"He is quite special. He has been restricted. If someone asks about the key points, he will go crazy to the point of self-destruction. If he doesn't understand this technique, he will keep looking for death to ensure that the secret of the performer will not be revealed. "

Tianmu Shuyu sneered: "Oh, this chess piece should have been buried when you were on the road. I said that Tianmu Xiaoyu's method of capturing Luoyuan City was so brutal, but there was another trick!"

Tianmu clan!It was only then that Zhao Xiang discovered that the young man following behind turned out to be a pair of unique blue-colored double pupils. He had one pupil, and Huoguang TV remembered what such double pupils represented—the eyes of the Tianmu clan!

"I beg Mu Zi to save me, this scoundrel! He is the only one who has clues about the tax. Now there are only 6000 days before the handover of Luoyuan City. Tens of thousands of catties of titanium spar... the source crystal is easy to talk about, but the moon-watching sand and titanium spar cannot be collected in twenty days!"

Tianmu Shuyu shook his head: "It's not that I don't save him. This is a secret technique of our clan. If the person who cast the curse hadn't lifted it personally, otherwise, to pull out the secret technique, he needs to soak in the Xingshen Spring for [-] days. Only in this way can he guarantee his sanity." Waking up perfectly."

The disillusionment of hope caused Zhao Xiang to lose all his strength and collapse on the ground. Firstly, he fell short in the last step for a hundred years of patience. After the son woke up, he recovered the tax money and saved his life.

Fifty days...it's too late!

Zhao Xiang turned his head and stared blankly at his comatose son, tears flashed in his eyes, he gritted his teeth suddenly, staggered to his feet, ran over, and slapped his forehead with a palm full of energy, trembling and hoarsely said : "Now that the foundation of the family and the century-old support in the palace have all been destroyed in your hands, and you have become like this again, I can no longer keep you!"

Fang Qiling felt that something was wrong when he looked at Zhao Ruibao from the side. Seeing him doing something, he was shocked, and quickly dodged over and grabbed his wrist, flung him back, and threw him to the floor in the hall.

Zhuang Yunzhou was also taken aback by his sudden action, he quickly knelt down to stop him, and shouted: "City Master Zhao, what are you doing?!"

Zhao Xiang choked with sobs and roared: "My Zhao family is ashamed of the people and the palace! Let this scoundrel atone for his sins!" He staggered to his feet and walked towards Zhao Ruibao again.

"... I have a solution for the tax issue!"