novelAbuy Chapter 342 Mutual Harm
Chapter 342 Mutual Harm
Shao Shuyi indeed treated Huang Jing and his party very well.
He even spent a fortune to invite Guan Yanyan, a famous opera singer from Jiangyin who was spending the Spring Festival at home, to perform and enrich his cultural and entertainment life. However, Huang Jing had something on his mind, and by the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he finally couldn't hold back and resigned.
Shao Shuyi only briefly tried to persuade them to stay, sending men to load some food, water, and dry rations onto their boat, and offering them a few small gifts before letting them depart. Most of Lin Shanyi's group followed them on the boat. The boat departed on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and with favorable winds and currents, it took seven or eight days to reach Haimen Port.
At this moment, an inconspicuous little boat quietly sailed out of a reed bed, crossed into the sea, and after slightly adjusting its course, headed straight north. The two sides were too far apart to notice each other.
A white wind howled and turbid waves surged into the sky off the coast of eastern Zhejiang. The small boat bobbed and sank in the sea, finally docking at Chepu Port at the end of the month to replenish its food and water supply and to repair the vessel.
In the afternoon, a man in his early thirties disembarked from the boat, accompanied by three or five followers, and quietly arrived at a small courtyard outside Chepu City. A burly man in the courtyard was sharpening a knife. Upon seeing the newcomer, he was slightly startled and said, "You..."
"What? It's only been a short time, and you've already forgotten me? We met before the New Year." The man chuckled and sat down on a tree stump.
"You are foreign"
The visitor gestured to stop him from speaking further, saying, "Enough, stop talking. I've come here today to ask you to do something. If you do it well, I'll give you ten thousand catties of salt every month; if you don't, you'll have to consider the consequences."
The burly man was silent for a moment, then gave a self-deprecating laugh and said, "So be it. Seeing my decline, the salt-producing areas of Xiasha and Qingcun have turned their backs on me. I can't get any salt in western Zhejiang anymore. What other options do I have now?"
"That's right." The man pulled a letter from his pocket and handed it to the burly man.
After taking the item, the burly man glanced at it and his expression changed several times.
"Just do as I say, don't ask any questions," the man said. "If you're short-handed, you can have your sworn brother help you. Remember, be careful, don't give yourself away."
The burly man nodded with a complicated expression.
The visitor didn't say anything more to him and simply said, "I'm leaving."
After taking only two steps, he stopped again and asked, "Does your distant relative still live in Yuhangmen?"
"Okay, I got it. I'm off."
The burly man escorted him to the door, and then asked, "About the ten thousand catties of salt..."
The newcomer glanced at him impatiently and said, "What's promised to you is yours. What, are you afraid my family will renege on our debt?"
The burly man used to be a big shot in Songjiang Prefecture, but now he was disheveled and his spirit was no longer what it used to be. When the newcomer glared at him, he felt a little short of breath and subconsciously said, "How dare I, how dare I."
The newcomer snorted coldly and left, surrounded by his entourage.
The burly man bowed respectfully, and after the person had disappeared from sight, he suddenly turned around and returned to the courtyard.
"Big Brother." Several subordinates gathered around him, looking at him cautiously.
"I'm going back to Songjiang tomorrow, I have something to do," the burly man said.
They all looked at him in surprise.
"Don't worry." The burly man waved his hand and said, "I have a place to stay in Songjiang Prefecture, so don't fret."
The group looked at each other, saying nothing.
On the other side, the small seagoing vessel left Chepu on the second day of the second lunar month, heading west and quietly arriving in Hangzhou.
After disembarking, the group spent the night in a shop at the dock. The next day, they disguised themselves again, crossed half of Hangzhou, and arrived at a fortune-telling shop outside Yuhang Gate.
The shop faces the canal and is not far from the dock.
Boats were packed tightly together on the river, their masts like a forest. Boatmen shouted as they loaded and unloaded cargo, while porters on the dock carried sacks back and forth, their feet making a slapping sound as they stepped on the wet, slippery stone slabs.
Shops lined the riverbank, their wine and tea banners fluttering in the February chill.
Actually, this location is quite good, and it's very popular.
When the man in his thirties arrived at the fortune-telling shop, he first looked around.
The fortune-telling shop had only one storefront, with a cloth banner hanging under the eaves that read "Li Banxian" (Li the Half-Immortal).
The shop door was half-open, and a couplet was pasted on the door panel. The first line was "Several times I wanted to reveal the secrets of heaven," and the second line was "I only fear that mortals will laugh endlessly." The ink looked like it was newly written, and it still carried a bit of the fragrance of ink.
After the man entered, an old Taoist priest who was reading a book in the shop looked up and asked him with a puzzled expression, "What brings you here, sir?" "I've heard of your divine predictions and would like to have my fortune told."
"Oh?" Master Li closed the book, placed it on the corner of the table, pointed to the chair opposite him, and said, "Sit down. Are you asking about good or bad fortune, your future, or something else?"
The man did not sit down immediately, but leaned close to Li Banxian's ear and whispered a few words.
The fortune teller's eyes widened suddenly, then calmed down after a moment. He said, "My fortune telling isn't cheap; it costs five ingots per reading. Can you afford that?" The man laughed heartily and said, "Not to mention five ingots, I can afford ten."
"Young Master Yu, this Taoist priest is being unreasonable. He charges five ingots for a fortune telling. Isn't he ripping people off?" one of the attendants who had come over shouted. "Shut up! What kind of status does a half-immortal have? Is five ingots expensive? Enough nonsense, bring me ten ingots," the man sneered.
They were speaking loudly, which quickly attracted the attention of several passersby who stopped to watch.
Next to the fortune-telling shop was a fruit and wood shop. A customer was buying candy, but upon hearing the commotion, he abandoned his purchase and came over to see what was happening. Within moments, six or seven people had gathered.
Another follower seized the opportunity to shout, "Aren't you saying this is excessive? My young master invited Master Li to tell the fortune of our master, and he wants to charge ten ingots of paper money. How strange!"
The onlookers were also astonished. Even if Master Li was skilled, he couldn't possibly charge ten ingots for a single divination; was he obsessed with money?
Immediately, someone laughed and scolded, "Master Li, you're practically half-buried at the neck, and you still charge ten ingots for a fortune telling? Aren't you afraid of incurring bad karma?" Master Li glared at them and said, "What do you know? This fortune telling is difficult; it takes a great deal of my effort."
The crowd listened with skepticism.
In that short time, several more people arrived, making a racket and constantly asking what had happened.
Li the fortune teller ignored the person outside the door, grabbed a piece of paper, looked at the birth date and time on it, and muttered to himself: "Ren is water, Chen is dragon. When Ren and Chen meet, it is an image of a dragon entering the abyss. Hai and Zi combine to form water, which is too strong. It needs Geng metal to generate it and Xin metal to moisten it. With both metal and water being strong, the waves are surging." He paused here, looked up at the "Young Master Yu" who had asked him to tell his fortune, and then looked away again, continuing: "This person is no ordinary merchant. He has the appearance of a dragon, and is not someone to be confined to a pond."
"Young Master Yu's" lips twitched, but he didn't say anything.
Upon hearing this, the onlookers gasped in astonishment. What kind of divination was this?
Master Li's calculations were not yet finished.
He picked up a pen, drew a few lines on the paper, then had his apprentice bring a compass. While looking at the pointer, he said, "The day pillar sits on the wealth vault, and it's also a Kui Gang (a star in Chinese astrology), indicating a headstrong and independent nature, disliking being commanded. Wealth enters the tomb, and is further afflicted by the Owl God (another star in Chinese astrology). You must have suffered a lot in your early years. With abundant water and no control, your major life events will likely occur in the waters of rivers, lakes, and seas..."
As they were talking, they somehow pressed some mechanism, and the compass needle suddenly flew out and gently fell to the ground.
The crowd of onlookers, which had grown to more than twenty, were dumbfounded. What was going on here?
At that moment, Li Banxian's expression suddenly changed drastically, a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and after a muffled groan, he said in a trembling voice, "This fate—I dare not calculate it. Take it away quickly. Xiao Wu, see the guest out."
At his call, his apprentice Xiao Wu emerged from behind the curtain, stretched out his hand, and said, "Guests, please don't make things difficult for my master. You should leave now." Young Master Yu stamped his foot, had someone leave ten ingots of paper money, and hurriedly departed.
The onlookers rushed in, all asking what had happened.
This sensational news quickly spread throughout the vicinity of Yuhangmen, and by evening, with the help of some well-meaning individuals, more and more people knew about it.
In a certain restaurant, a scholar-like man spoke eloquently: "Young Master Yu, please calculate the birth chart of Shao She from Jiangyin. Jiangyin means 'general in the yin.' An ancient saying goes, 'When the general star is in the yang, he will be a general of the court; when the general star is in the yin, he will be a hero among the common people.' This Shao She..."
At this point, he shook his head and sighed, "That's enough, I won't say any more, how can I continue?"
The others nodded in agreement, saying, "Let's drink and eat, and stop talking about this."
What was said casually was taken seriously by the listener. A merchant-looking man nearby overheard this and couldn't help but come over to inquire. The scholar was initially reluctant to speak, but unable to bear being pestered any longer, he recounted the fortune-telling incident that had occurred that morning.
The merchant was greatly surprised upon hearing this and exclaimed, "Could it be that Jiangnan is about to descend into chaos again?"
The scholar sighed, "Who knows? Things aren't peaceful right now; who knows what might happen?"
The merchant sat back down, deep in thought, and the two men who had been traveling with him asked him questions again...
Within just a few days, the news spread to many places in Hangzhou, especially in merchant gathering places like the State Guild Hall, where it was widely discussed and became a major source of information.
As the story progressed, it became quite outrageous.
For example, Shaoshe in Jiangyin has twenty-eight boats, which correspond to the twenty-eight constellations in the sky;
For example, since the beginning of winter, some fishermen have seen a dragon-shaped black shadow on the surface of the Jiangyin River, churning among the waves, with a faint golden light. Later, the dragon shadow went towards Matuosha.
For example, a fisherman cast his net one night and pulled up a stone with the character "Shao" on it. He threw it and got it back, and he got it back every time he threw it three times.
Some people even dissect the character "邵" (Shao), pointing out that removing the "ear" radical from it results in "召" (Zhao), a homophone for "赵" (Zhao), implying that Shao Shuyi is a descendant of the Song dynasty and is destined to restore the lost territories. All these kinds of rumors, spread by some unscrupulous individual, are incredibly exaggerated and difficult to verify.
By the fifteenth of February, even the high-ranking officials in the government had heard about it.
They are cunning and naturally don't talk about it as much as ordinary people, but they inevitably mention it in private conversations. Some treat it as a joke, some think about it, and some even seem to believe it and actually look up classic texts to compare it, which is really a waste of time.
On February 20th, the Hangzhou River dredging project was completed. The Left Prime Minister, Duo'er, visited the construction site in person and subsequently heard some rumors.