Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 13 Showdown
Jiangjin County is one of the hometowns of liquor.

This place is damp and cold, and the terrain is all hilly. If the slope is steep enough, even a wheelbarrow cannot be used. People can only work on their shoulders or in a backpack. Although this makes them shorter, it increases their resilience.

So people in this place can drink alcohol, and they can drink strong liquor!

The strongest liquor produced by Longjingshan Distillery can reach 60 degrees of alcohol, and the price is 30 wen per catty. Together with a jar containing 10 catties of liquor and one or two taels of Chen Jue's money, the proprietress gave him six silver coins and 30 wen in change.

Chen Gu took the silver coin, looked at it, frowned and said, "You have to give me at least fifty coins, otherwise you have to give me all copper coins."

The proprietress opened the drawer with a sullen look on her face and gave Chen an extra fifty cents, muttering, "That idiot has a pretty sharp eye!"

It is actually a good idea to use silver coins as a supplement to copper coins, gold and silver. After all, gold is too precious, silver has to be divided into different qualities, and copper coins are too heavy.

But silver coins are easy to tamper with. During the circulation process, some people will scrape off silver flakes from them and accumulate them over time. Moreover, the value of silver coins varies depending on their type.

The silver coins currently minted in the country are unified and can all be used as 100 coins, but there are still foreign silver coins in circulation that can only be used as 70 coins.

Chen Ju now has a foreign silver coin in his hand, as well as two Jiaqing treasure silver coins that were obviously scratched.

Chen Gu only earned nine cents a day chopping wood, so naturally he was unwilling to suffer a loss.

After collecting the change from the proprietress and placing the jar of wine on the wheelbarrow and securing it with a straw rope, Chen Gu quickly pushed the wheelbarrow back.

After so many days, Chen Gu got used to the intensity of chopping wood and his speed increased a lot. This was mainly because a thick layer of calluses had formed on his hands, and he would no longer get injured from chopping wood all day.

But it was still not much faster. It had changed from working all day long to being able to deliver the firewood and come back without being late for meals.

Today, Chen Gu took a detour to go to Bai's Restaurant, and plus the time wasted buying white wine, when he returned home, Liu Er had already prepared dinner and was waiting for him.

Seeing Chen Kui taking the wine jars off the wheelbarrow and placing them in the corner, Liu Er couldn't help but frown and asked, "Why did you buy so much wine?"

"Set fire!" Chen Gu said bluntly.

There was probably something wrong with Liu Er's health because he would get a prescription of Chinese medicine every other day, and one prescription of Chinese medicine could be boiled four times, which meant that Liu Er was actually taking medicine every day.

Maybe this is why he accepted Chen Gu as his disciple and trained him to be so strong.

Liu Er probably doesn't have much time left.

But on the surface the old man didn't seem to have any major problems. He could eat, sleep, walk, jump, and had good hearing and eyesight.

Although Liu Er was sleeping when Zhang Haomin came to see Chen Gu twice, and Chen Gu used the sound of chopping wood to cover up their conversation, Chen Gu could not guarantee that Liu Er did not notice.

So, Chen Gu stopped pretending and came clean.

Liu Er looked at Chen Gu strangely and asked, "Just because the Bai family might steal your secret seasoning recipe, you want to burn down their house? It seems that even you don't value that crappy secret recipe that much, right?"

MSG can indeed increase the flavor of dishes, but when it comes to seasonings, the Bai family actually has something better, which is opium shells. As a seasoning, that thing is much better than any cheap MSG.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the Bai family would go too far because of the MSG. Chen Gu understood this when he found out that the Bai family ran a smoking den.

But Chen still asked Zhang Haomin for a gunpowder gun, went to Bai's restaurant to observe the terrain, and bought some strong liquor, intending to set fire to the house. The reason was opium.

A century of humiliation, that is hatred engraved in the genes. If history had developed normally, it would not be long before the entire Sichuan Basin would be growing opium on a large scale.

Under the misty smoke, it can be said that everyone will inhale the sweet smell, which is something Chen Gu absolutely does not want to see.

As for how much impact burning down a restaurant of the Bai family, or even reducing the entire Bai family to ashes, would have on the overall situation, Chen Gu was too lazy to think about it.

Whatever he can do is fine. Chen Gu would feel uncomfortable if he didn't do anything.

"Old man, you are sweating from time to time, you must be in pain, why don't you take a few puffs of opium to relieve the pain?
That thing is very useful for relieving pain, and you have money!" Chen Gu said irrelevantly.

Opium is very expensive, but that is for the imported top-quality opium. Locally produced opium is still quite cheap. At least with Liu Er's monthly salary of two taels of silver, he can still afford it. Of course, one cannot be too addicted.

"That thing can indeed suppress pain and make people feel euphoric, but it can also turn people into neither human nor ghost!" Liu Er paused and asked in surprise, "Are you going to attack the Bai family because of the opium?"

"Let's not talk about this anymore, let's eat. After eating, I still have to go find the sour scholar to study with me!" Chen Gu sat down on the dining table and picked up his own large ceramic basin.

Seeing Chen Gu picking up a piece of cabbage with chopsticks and starting to eat rice, Liu Er couldn't help but frowned, "The Bai family is not that simple, or in other words, none of the ten major families in Jiangjin is simple. Don't get yourself involved."

After Chen Gu swallowed the food in his mouth, he said, "Don't worry, I still have to collect your body, and I won't seek death easily."

Liu Er thought for a moment and said, "In our line of work, we don't care about life or death, let alone what happens after death. The reason I accepted you is that I don't want to break this inheritance.

Besides, I don’t want to suffer too much before I die. If I really have to die, you don’t have to be lenient. As for after death, you can do whatever you want.”

"Okay!" Chen Gu nodded, and ate even more fiercely. After finishing his meal, he threw down his chopsticks, stood up and said, "Let's go first. You wash the dishes today, so that the sour scholar won't be waiting anxiously."

"Haha, I just like your hard-heartedness and cold-blooded ruthlessness." Liu Er laughed heartily.

Chen the Assassin first went back to his room and put away the silver and copper coins. After thinking for a while, he took out another silver coin and put it on his body before going out to the Suan Xiucai's house.

On the way, Chen bought two kilograms of brown sugar and one kilogram of salt.

In this era, students had to pay tuition fees to their teachers. This was a custom that started from Confucius.

But Chen Gu had no money before, so naturally he had to make up for it now that he had money. Although the gift was not much, it was a token of his thoughtfulness.

After knocking on the door, it was soon opened. The one who opened the door was Suan Xiucai himself. Seeing Chen Jue holding something in his hand, he couldn't help but ask, "Where did you get the money, kid?"

"I picked it up on the road!" Chen Gu said casually.

"Picked it up?" The sour scholar frowned and asked, "Is it silver or copper coins?"

"One silver coin!"

The sour scholar smiled and said, "That's fine. Anyone who can throw a silver coin doesn't need it. What do you buy?"

(End of this chapter)