Lu Ming

Chapter 188
It was the day when the crossing team was fully preparing for the summit.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, Minwang Temple in the east of the city.

Minwang Temple, also known as Zhongyi Temple, is dedicated to the King of Fujian of the Five Dynasties: Wang Shenzhi.

The king of Fujian, Wang Shenzhi, is a household name in all parts of Fujian.This gentleman has been in office for 29 years, protecting the environment and benefiting the people, lightly paying taxes, rewarding industry and commerce, and encouraging land reclamation. Within three years, the people have no worries about food and clothing. , a moment of great rule in central Fujian.

Governments of all dynasties have repaired the Temple of the King of Min, and the most recent one was during the Wanli period more than 20 years ago.On weekdays, the Temple of the King of Fujian is full of incense, and many foolish men and women worship there.

A middle-aged woman is walking through the messy incense candle melon and fruit stand in front of the temple at the moment, and is walking into the temple.

This woman has rough skin, ugly appearance, sad eyebrows, and no makeup on her face; judging from her appearance, the woman is about 30 years old, wearing a green cloth skirt, with a thin bamboo basket on her arm, and dressed as a servant .

After stepping into the gate of the ancestral hall with the four characters "Shaoyue Kaijiang" engraved on the wall, the woman bowed her head all the way, followed behind the bustling pilgrims, passed through the vestibule, sacrificial gate, and backyard to the main hall.

After waiting patiently for a while, it was the woman's turn to get a futon.

Taking out the incense sticks from the bamboo basket, the woman began to complete a series of processes of offering incense, kneeling, kowtow, and praying to the peaceful, purple-robed and black-bearded statue of the King of Fujian on top of her head.

Finally, the woman sincerely shook out a wooden stick from the bucket.

After getting up, he took out a handful of copper coins, counted some carefully, and put the rest back into his pocket.Then the woman took the copper coins and bamboo sticks and went to look for the Taoist priest who released the sticks outside the temple.

"What is the benefactor asking for?"

"Seek good or bad luck."

At the next moment, the woman respectfully handed in the copper coins and bamboo sticks, and the Taoist then gave a hexagram of understanding: Zehuoge, dry seedlings get rain, and sign up.

After hearing the hexagram "It's beneficial to travel, win the top prize in business, the disease is getting better, and you will succeed in seeking fame", the woman was overjoyed, and after a few words of thanks, she turned around and left the Minwang Temple.

Walking south along the stone street in front of Minwang Temple, the woman came to the Caishikou of Luomaqiao in a short time.It's just that the closer she got to the entrance of the vegetable market, the woman's already relaxed face showed a trace of apprehension and fear, and the further she walked, the slower her pace became, and she almost stopped at the end.

At this moment, a figure suddenly rushed over from the diagonal, grabbing the woman's arm.

The woman who was about to open her mouth to scream took a closer look, Hao Xuan breathed out a sigh of relief: "Jiao Er, you bloody person, you scared the hell out of me!"

The visitor was a young man in his 20s.This person was wearing a half-worn parrot-green silk robe, a soft hat, a pair of thin-soled fast boots, and the sleeves were rolled up. He was dressed like a rascal idler.

I saw the idle man said anxiously: "Sister, hurry up, don't let the two uncles wait any longer!"

While talking, the idle man took his elder sister's arm and hurried forward.

The woman originally wanted to struggle to evade, but after thinking about the lottery she had just obtained from the Minwang Temple, she sighed secretly and let her brother take her into a restaurant by the road.

Now is not the time for guests in the restaurant, so there are not many tables in the building.The leisurely Han Jiao Er took his elder sister to the second floor and passed between two tables of men in green robes.Jiao Er smiled apologetically from side to side, and at the same time pushed Sister into the box.

There are two people in the box.Judging from the temperature of the teacups on the table, these two have been waiting in the room for a long time.

One of them was a big fat man.This man was about forty years old, bald and without eyebrows, with a fleshy face, and a fat body; he was wearing a double-breasted black velvet vest on his upper body, and a pair of fat soft pants on his lower body. A slap-wide gold thread Pixiu mouth belt, end to end is extraordinary, domineering side exposed.
This man's name is Wu Shigui, people in Jianghu call him Lord Wu, he is skilled in martial arts, and he is the boss of the underworld in the Luomaqiao area.Mr. Wu's family runs a gambling shop and a pawn shop, and he has apprentices and dozens of rogues under him, and Jiao Er is one of them.

Sitting next to Lord Wu was a middle-aged man with an ordinary face in a plain cloth robe.

After Sister Jiao entered the door, she saw the murderous Lord Wu sitting at the head, her legs softened half a bit, and she was about to kneel down to salute.However, Lord Wu changed his normal routine today, he got up quickly, and without waiting for Sister Jiao to salute, he helped the thin woman to sit on the chair.

"They're all neighbors in the neighborhood. They don't look up and look down. Sister Jiao doesn't need to be polite." Master Wu, who is usually fierce, tried to force a smile from his face, and said kindly.

Jiao Er saw that his elder sister bowed her head and did not answer, the situation was embarrassing, she couldn't help becoming anxious, and quickly smoothed things over with an apologetic smile: "Thank you, Mr. Wu, for your kindness, um. This elder sister is worried about her nephew's condition recently, and she is a little out of her mind. , redemption."

Mr. Wu first laughed, then shook his head, and then said to the woman who had kept her head down: "Sister Jiao, don't think about it any longer. It's not a precious thing to change two worthless bottles. , Neighbors, can someone Wu still harm you?"

When Master Wu said this, he lifted a silk handkerchief on the table, revealing two snow-white silver ingots underneath, and then looked at Sister Jiao playfully.

The next moment, Sister Jiao slowly raised her head, showing struggle and panic all over her face: "Master Wu, stealing from the master, if the incident happens, I can't afford to wait for the poor and small households!"

"Why should I?" Master Wu laughed loudly at this moment: "Sister Jiao, don't be afraid, those bumpkins who are waiting to come from Zhangzhou dare to act wildly in my city of Fuzhou? If there is any trouble in this matter, it will all fall on me !"

After thinking about it, Master Wu leaned over to Sister Jiao and said: "After finishing this ticket, you can find an excuse to quit your job and take the reward money to help your son recuperate first. When my nephew recovers, Rui Fuzhai How about I find you a job as a sweeper at the shopkeeper of the horse? The monthly fee is only high but not low!"

Seeing the panic on Sister Jiao's face gradually receding, Master Wu's face became more and more pleasant: "You can take the 20 taels of silver now, if the money is used up and my nephew's illness is not cured, you can come to me again .Neighbors in the neighborhood, can you still see death without saving them?"

While Sister Jiao was struggling, the gentle and unremarkable middle-aged man on the side opened his mouth with a slightly weird accent and said, "Forget it, your son has a cough like that, and ordinary people can't cure it. In this way, Yin Zi You take it away, I will send someone to deliver the medicine in the afternoon, it will be effective today, and it will be packed within 7 days, how about it?"

Sister Jiao opened her mouth wide at this moment.

After being slightly startled, Mr. Wu laughed "hohoho": "Sister Jiao, with Mr. Song's action, your son's life is saved. This is a blessing from the previous life! Why don't you hurry up and thank you Over grown-ups?"

I didn't bother to think about how this old man knew about his child's illness. The next moment, Sister Jiao knelt down in front of Song Jia with a "plop" and said, "My lord is merciful. I don't want the money and women. I just ask the old man to cure her." my child"

Song Jia smiled slightly at this time, and reached out to take the bamboo basket that Sister Jiao brought in, and then put the two ingots of silver on the table and a pair of blue-glazed plum vases less than 10 inches high into the basket, and then used Cover with a coarse cloth.

After bowing and stuffing the basket into Sister Jiao's hands, Song Jia said softly, "Is there any reason not to get rewards for doing things? We can feel at ease after you take the money."

"Traveling is beneficial, business wins the top prize, the disease is getting better, and the pursuit of fame will be fulfilled" these words floated in Sister Jiao's mind. At this moment, she finally stopped hesitating, and her eyes gradually revealed a trace of determination.

In the afternoon of that day, seeing her 10-year-old son fall asleep peacefully for the first time in many days after taking a few strange white pills, Sister Jiao knew that it was time for her to ask for leave and it was time to go to work.

Carefully hiding the pair of plum vases under the bamboo basket, Sister Jiao walked all the way to the door of a shop not far from home.

The location of this shop is not good, it is not at the intersection or downtown, but in the middle of a small street.

Arriving at the door of this silk and satin shop named "Hengguangkang", Sister Jiao straightened her skirt a little, greeted the man in Tsing Yi with two big arms and round waist at the door, who didn't look like a buddy at all, and walked straight into the door .

Heng Guangkang's silk and satin shop, which seems to have no business, is the same as most shops in the Ming Dynasty, with a shop in the front and a bed in the back.

Sister Jiao went all the way through the front shop, entered the courtyard, and then walked past a dozen or so men who were practicing gun sticks in the backyard without changing her face, and entered the woodshed.

After coming out of the woodshed, Sister Jiao wrapped her head scarf and sleeves, carried a broom and dustpan, and began to clean the whole yard.

At around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Sister Jiao finished cleaning the outside room, and began to clean the master's study with a bucket, a rag and a duster.

The shopkeeper of "Hengguangkang" is surnamed Zheng, and the name of Zheng Zhilong's is Zheng Sancai.

Zheng Sancai is the cousin of Comrade Zheng Zhilong who has not released the fifth service.This person was able to speak eloquently, write and calculate, and won the trust of Zheng Zhilong, so he was assigned to this important part of Fuzhou as the director of the Fuzhou Office of Zheng's Pirate Group.

Generally speaking, most of the people who come to Hengguangkang's silk and satin shop to do business are not here to buy silk, but to buy flags. In recent years, if shipowners want to pass through the Jinxia area safely, it is best to buy a Gan Zheng's recognition of the flag is more appropriate.

Of course, not many people buy high-end consumer goods such as flag recognition.Therefore, Director Zheng Sancai's daily business needs to be completed before 10 o'clock in the morning.

So every afternoon, Sister Jiao would clean the two large and small study rooms in the second courtyard and the backyard.

Sister Jiao worked extraordinarily hard today, carrying a bucket, going in and out of the two study rooms to clean for a long time.Twice among them, the wooden bucket in Sister Jiao's hand did not actually contain water, but a plum bottle covered with a rag.

There used to be a pair of blue-glazed plum vases on the shelves in the large and small study rooms.These two sets of porcelain are not particularly expensive things.It was the general goods that were bought from a street porcelain store when it was first renovated.Therefore, plum vases of the same style and specification can be easily found in porcelain shops.

Sister Jiao's task today is to replace a plum vase from each of the two study rooms.

In the evening, Sister Jiao handed over the two replaced plum vases to the connector. At the same time, an unremarkable team, surrounded by a green bamboo sedan chair, also came to the back door of the governor's yamen in Fujian.

(End of this chapter)