A common tavern that connects all fantasy worlds

"Good sir, may God bless you." Ichab bowed and loosened the neck scarf on his collar a little.He said too much just now, which made him a little thirsty now...

Uncle Jiu shook his head and walked straight away: "I don't believe in your foreign gods."

After a delay in this strange tavern, it was now quite dark.The town is small, and only the tallest and largest shops and the homes of the gentlemen can afford such trendy gadgets as electric lights. The alleys where ordinary people live have been darkened, showing heavy shadows under the moonlight; the quiet street corners , and even vaguely heard the cry of frogs from the other side of the river.

Ichab followed closely behind the kind uncle, looking around while walking.

It's really like another world here, and the customs and habits are completely different from those in New York, the United States and even Europe.The few passers-by on the road who hadn't returned home were all dressed similarly to Uncle Jiu in front of him, with short jackets and long trousers, and one person even wrapped several layers of cloth strips around his calves, which he guessed might be used for the same purpose as socks.

The courtyard walls and gates on the side of the road are also a bit interesting to look at. Most of the gates still have portraits of people with staring eyes and blowing beards. action of something.Other than that, I can't see clearly. The light at night is really not very suitable for studying the culture of another world.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the two of them finally came to the house under the willow tree. Uncle Jiu opened the door first and walked in, beckoning to Ikab.

Only then did the young man walk in cautiously, and looked at his feet specially.

Why is the threshold so high!

"Originally two of my apprentices lived here besides me, but today one of the apprentices has something to do at home, and I asked the other apprentice to help him; you can sleep in his room for now, and tomorrow I will temporarily stay with the apprentices. The rooms are tidied up."

Uncle Jiu walked into the main hall, lit the kerosene lamp, and then sat at the table and said so.

"Thank you very much, generous gentleman. It sounds like you are a teacher, and your students live here too? Is this a family-style private school?" Yes, Iqab was puzzled at first, then sat down and asked impatiently.

"No, it's not a student but an apprentice. I'm here in Yizhuang... I hope you don't dislike it."

Hearing this answer, Ichab immediately became excited: "This is the mortuary? My God, you and your students must not be superstitious at all. Even in New York, few people would like to stay in the mortuary. … Speaking of which, your English is really good, it seems that English is also a common language in this world."

"It's the same in China, but someone has to do something about it." Uncle Jiu took out the kettle from under the table, ready to boil the water to make some tea, and replied after hearing this.

But after thinking about it, he felt that something was wrong, so he turned around and asked, "English? What is English? Haven't I been speaking Chinese?"

Ichab opened his mouth and said in surprise: "Oh! The boss said that people from different worlds can understand each other without any obstacles because of the relationship in the tavern. I didn't even realize that you didn't speak English, too Amazing."

Uncle Jiu covered his forehead with a headache, and said to Ikab, "Don't be too busy sleeping... tell me what you heard from there later."

Chapter 3 Even if Liu Jun's soul is here

On the long street in the early morning, two young men rubbed their hands in the mist and walked towards the willow tree.

The taller one has a slightly childish face, but he is a vigorous young man with a strong body and a breezy walk, with good facial features and a confident demeanor, except for his frivolous expression.

The shorter one was visibly less confident.Although his appearance is not ugly, but the combination of facial features inexplicably gives people a feeling of sadness; although he is young, he looks quite old, not to mention the wrinkles on his face, and there is still a watermelon head on his head, hanging down behind A pigtail braid, to put it nicely... it's pretty naive.

The tall man was walking while talking to the short man: "Wencai, you are so clumsy. If you hadn't knocked over my aunt's box, we would have finished moving long ago! Look, it's morning now, and my aunt is going to open We have to go back to Yizhuang to catch up on sleep."

"Then don't ask me to help you next time. Do you think I will?" Wencai, who was a little shorter, retorted angrily. Go deeper, how could I touch it?"

The two quarreled like this, but they still walked side by side to Yizhuang, making it hard to tell whether their relationship with each other was not good or too good.

The sun rose from behind them, and the hawkers carrying tofu had already started to walk around the streets, and the loud and clear cries of selling kicked off the prelude to the day.

The two young men came to the gate of Yizhuang with familiarity, and sure enough, they saw that the latch of the main entrance had been pulled open, and through the half-covered door, Uncle Jiu could be vaguely seen sweeping away the floating dust on the stone slabs in the courtyard. .

"...Master! Why is it so early, let me come." The tall apprentice obviously had good eyesight, so he hurriedly opened the door and went in, walked to Uncle Jiu and took the broom.

"...I'm getting older, I feel less. You two didn't make trouble yesterday, did you goof off?"

Wencai also came in, closed the door again, quickly fetched a bucket of water from the well on the other side, and scooped up the dust on the ground with a scoop for cleaning.While working, he still did not forget to complain to the master: "Master, Qiusheng played while working, which kept us both up all night."

"Oh, you're called a thief and catch a thief." Qiu Sheng wasn't angry, but started bickering with Wen Cai again.

As a master, Uncle Jiu has long been used to the two apprentices not wandering around, so he simply went back to the porch to light a cigarette, watched them chatting while doing things, and ordered: "If you are tired, don't do it, go and make up for it." I have a feeling. Last night, there were dead people outside the city who were not claimed, and the mayor arranged to be cremated with the previous batch, and we are going to the east of the town to perform an act.”

"Wow, it's free again. Is there no money for incense sticks?" Qiu Sheng knew that he was not making any money as soon as he heard it, so he couldn't help but complained while sweeping the floor.

"You guys, all you care about is money." Uncle Jiu glared at him while smoking a suffocating cigarette, "...Are you afraid that you won't make money in this world? Why insist on making money in such good deeds. You need to know that people can be bullied The sky cannot be deceived, I would rather go hungry than take away people’s wealth. It’s already very miserable for a person to die without a name and family, and if you continue to take money from others, it will be detrimental and you will suffer retribution!”

Qiu Sheng didn't dare to refute, so he could only lower his head and mutter: "...I didn't say I wanted to get money from the dead... Wouldn't it be enough to ask the mayor to pay?"

While the master and apprentice were talking, the door of the room where the coffin was parked rang, and Ikab came out.

Last night, the two had a long talk by candlelight. This handsome guy became interested when he knew that Uncle Jiu was the "mortuary owner" in the town. He thought of trying his so-called "scientific identification" on the dead in Yizhuang, so he treated Uncle Jiu in every possible way. plead.

On the one hand, Uncle Nine couldn't bear his slander; on the other hand, he was also very curious, how would this foreigner's thing be different from "Washing Wrongs"?It is rare to have this opportunity, and it is not impossible to confirm each other.

So the two made an agreement: post-mortem can be done, but one must not take off the clothes of the dead to humiliate them naked; two, the face and limbs of the dead must not be damaged; Corpses are chosen.

Even so, Ikab was excited enough, he worked all night after he got in, and of course he didn't sleep in Wencai's room.

Uncle Nine was much smarter. First, he took a look at the corpses himself, guessed the cause of death based on the evidence he learned and found in the first half of his life, and then went back to his room to rest on his own. He planned to confirm with the foreigner in the morning.

Seeing Ikab coming out now, he hurried up to meet him, and asked with a smile, "How is it going? Is there any result?"

"I have some, and I'm going to ask you for confirmation." Ikab smiled reservedly, and then saw two other young people about his age looking at him in the yard, and quickly turned his questioning eyes to Uncle Nine.

Uncle Jiu stretched out his hand: "These are my two apprentices, Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai. You two, this is Mr. Ke, a friend that Master just met."

"No, you two can call me by my name. My name is Ikab. Qiusheng, Wencai, hello."

Ichab reached out to shake hands with the two men, saw that they were working, and quickly rolled up his sleeves to help.

Wencai and Qiusheng, who had met no more than three foreigners in their life, stood there at a loss, seeing that Uncle Jiu was so angry that he coughed quickly as a reminder.

"...Uh, ah, no need, your clothes are not suitable for work, we will finish sweeping in a while."

Seeing Uncle Jiu winking at him, Qiu Sheng cleared his mind and answered quickly, thinking at the same time: This foreigner speaks Chinese really well.

Wen Cai also nodded to the foreigner, turned around, and moved a lot faster.How much time would it take for two young men to sweep the yard, how could they need help from others?

Ikab is not the kind of person who pretends to be polite, so he didn't force himself to work when he saw this, but walked to Uncle Jiu and sighed: "Your 'apprentices' are two good guys."

You have never seen them mischievous.

Uncle Jiu thought about it, and then said, "Since we have a result, come, let's talk in the room."

As soon as he sat down in the room, Ikab said eagerly: "Then I'll just talk about the first one, the one in the third coffin on the left hand side. Visually, his dead body is emaciated, without trauma, and there is no compression on the main blood vessels and trachea." There are no traces of nails on the hands, there are no traces of blood in the mouth and nose, but there are traces of white secretions, and the skin is purple. My guess is... Sudden death due to internal organ disease."

"That's right. "The Record of Washing Injustices" says: Dead, the muscles are not sunken, there is saliva in the mouth and nose, and the complexion is purple." Uncle Jiu nodded and motioned Ikab to continue.

"The second one is the deceased in the first coffin on the right. There is blood from the mouth and nose, the chest cavity is collapsed but there is no visible trauma wound, and the right foot has scratch marks. It is presumed that the fatal fall was from a height of at least twenty feet.

"The third one, the deceased in the third coffin on the right hand side, had a knife wound on the back of the waist, rolled flesh, a flat wound about two inches long; his fists were clenched tightly, his skin was pale, and there was a lot of blood on his clothes. He was held behind his back. The knife attack stabbed the spleen, and he lost a lot of blood and died.

"The last is the deceased in the fifth coffin on the right hand side, and the sixth and seventh coffins on the left hand side. Their weight is seriously insufficient compared to their height and age characteristics. The fat and muscle layers are very thin, which can be seen directly from the surface. Skeletal shape, hands clasped to chest, is...frozen and starved to death."

Ikab said, took the wet towel that Uncle Jiu handed him, wiped his hands, and sighed contentedly.

"It's all right." Uncle Jiu sighed, holding back his hand, and arched his hands towards him: "Sure enough, a hero is born as a boy. The gangsters in the town have been doing this for decades, and they still deal with things in a daze; now In a different world, only the cities would have 'forensic doctors', and there would be no experts in this field in the towns."

"Isn't this the role of 'knowledge'? I'm just applying the knowledge I got from the 'book' to practice. In terms of age, as long as you are willing to learn, it doesn't matter what age you are. Moreover, how can you say that there are no experts here? Uncle Jiu, aren’t you one of them?”

Ichab smiled shyly, his eyes sparkled, and then said: "That's why I like science... There is a clear and stable derivation logic, starting from the real objective existence, based on reproducible and rigorous experiments. proof, so anyone can understand and apply it, and get the same accurate results. Every step we take will become a further step and stepping stone for future generations, and finally uncover all the mysteries of this world..."

Uncle Jiu looked at his expression and couldn't help but ask, "Including the 'vampire' you mentioned?"

"Including vampires..." Ichab replied, while thinking silently: "Including God."

By the way, that vampire in the bar is wearing an elaborate mechanical prosthesis.He doesn't know much about this subject, but mechanical prosthetics must be something that science can explain, right?So why can't vampires?

"...Also, Uncle Nine," he said suddenly, thinking of other things, "this is China, right? Then maybe the two of us actually come from the same world? Could it be that I can go back to New York directly by boat, Don't pass by that place..."

"If what you told me is true, then we don't have to be afraid of that tavern, let alone what's inside. You've been there three times, why wait until today if they want to attack you? But, you want to take a boat Of course it is also possible. Tonight I have a ritual ceremony, so I can't see you off, so go back to the guest room and rest for a while... I'll take you to the provincial capital tomorrow. It's easy to go, and I'll be there in less than a day by carriage." Uncle Jiu nodded promised.

It's my responsibility to make him unable to go home, that's not to say, of course I also have an obligation to take care of him until he boards the ship.

Ikab also smiled shyly, and the long eyelashes on his big eyes trembled: "Thank you so much. If I have the opportunity, I will come back to China to see you. I don't have many friends."

It's as if it's going to work out...

Uncle Jiu thought to himself, this young man is good at everything, he is humble and polite, he is serious in his work, and he is also good-looking. Because I am too young, I always feel that any whole-hearted action must have the desired result.

It's just... Life is unsatisfactory, nine times out of ten.

Those who died of cold and hunger, didn't they hold hope and try their best to survive?

Chapter 4 should also play different games until death

The next day, on the way to the provincial capital in a carriage, Ikab seemed a little out of his mind.

He also participated in the "Chinese religious ceremony" last night, and saw a lot of novel things, but most of them were confused.As a believer in science, he naturally does not believe in ghosts, so after asking Uncle Jiu "why burn the yellow paper" and got the answer "for ghosts to use underneath", he was in a bad mood.

He began to realize that Uncle Jiu in front of him was not only the "mortuary manager" he thought before, but also had religious functions; this gray-haired middle-aged man was more like a Western priest last night, wearing a bright yellow In a neat professional suit, he presides over funeral ceremonies, consoles the dead, and appeases the living in this vast land he doesn't understand.

More importantly, he found that people really need these.Before Uncle Jiu was ready to finish, everyone was distracted, whispering in low voices, and looked worried; but after Uncle Jiu presided over the cremation ceremony, everyone seemed to calm down suddenly and gained a certain level of confidence. comfort.

In this land, science and religion are so inseparable... that the most forensic person in town is also a "priest".

Of course, this idea also proves that although he loves science, he has not seriously read the history of science... Before the Enlightenment, the situation in Europe was probably the same. It constitutes a magnificent and strange cultural picture of human beings.Even Sir Newton, whom he admired so much, proposed the "first driving force"!

Unable to read his mental activities, Uncle Jiu thought that he was uneasy because of the imminent journey, so he comforted him: "Although it is far away from the provincial capital, you are a foreigner, so you should first go to Hong Kong to find a foreign company. Take the kind of boat that only carries foreigners. I asked a few gentlemen in the town and they all said 'HSBC Bank', I don't know what it is, but you should be fine."

"Oh, oh? I, I don't know, maybe it's a British bank." Ichab replied absent-mindedly, and Uncle Nine didn't bother him when he saw this.The ancients said that "the feeling of being close to the hometown is timid", but I didn't expect that foreigners are similar to us Chinese in this respect!

In fact, even if you only arrive in the provincial capital, there are already many foreigners.The last time his ninth uncle came to the provincial capital to do business was a few years ago, but at that time there were already foreign ships moored here, a lot of foreigners, foreigners, and a foreign church called "Sacred Heart Cathedral" Many local people believed in foreign religions and went to worship.

It’s just that this journey is still a bit long... It’s fast to take a carriage, but you have to rush from morning to night. The sun outside the car window rises and sets, and the two people in the car are about to fall apart. Outskirts of the provincial capital.

After leaving Ikabu in a teahouse on the side of the road, Uncle Jiu and the coachman went to the carriage dealer to pay the bill, and told Ikabu to wait for him here for a while before leaving.

Today, Ikab, who turned out to be a chatterbox and became a little quiet, sat in the teahouse for a while, and began to look at other customers around him when he was extremely bored.

It was getting late, and the lights were turned on in this relatively upscale teahouse; on the other side of the light, there was a gentleman in a top hat and a fur coat sitting there.

When Ikab saw him, his eyes suddenly lit up, thinking that there are so many "foreigners" in the provincial capital!Look at that gentleman's flaxen hair, big nose, and green eyes, he is clearly a Westerner!

Thinking of this, he let go of the chaotic thoughts in his heart for the time being, and walked over there.

When he got close, he found that the gentleman was reading a newspaper by the light of the teahouse, spreading it out on the table.

"Ahem... hello sir, good evening."

He cleared his throat and saluted the gentleman.

"Oh my god, hello... Sorry, I didn't expect to meet a gentleman from the civilized world in a small teahouse outside the city, especially the tea here is completely different from our 'tea'." The gentleman who was a little flustered by his sudden greeting got up and returned the salute, and took off his hat and gave him a friendly smile.

"No, no, I'm the one who bothered you... According to your accent, are you British?"

"Yes, and you must be an American from your accent. You dress rather retro."

The two looked at each other and smiled, and the gentleman invited Ichab to sit down and drink tea together.

The two chatted casually about the weather and various folk customs in China that foreigners find novel. Seeing that the gentleman was easy to talk, Ikabu boldly proposed: "Although I am sorry, I can borrow your newspaper." Take a look? By the way, how long ago was this newspaper?"

"Of course, please." The kind gentleman replied, "It's just that this is a newspaper from a month ago... Because this newspaper was not published in Hong Kong, it was transshipped from India."

Ichab smiled a little embarrassedly, took the newspaper from others and put it in front of him.But before he saw the content of the news, his face turned pale, and his expression quickly became serious.

Seeing that he was in a bad state, the British gentleman quickly looked at the newspaper in front of him, and saw the news on it: "The economic crisis has made the United States miserable-Missouri farmers dumped milk into the Mississippi River."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, are your relatives or friends running farms in Missouri? This economic crisis is really making the world miserable. My friend told me that 500 million people in the UK have lost their jobs." The British said, at the same time I thought to myself that this American is stupid in China... Hasn't this economic crisis been going on for several years?He wouldn't know until now, would he?

"...Ah, thank you, thank you. I have to get in touch with my friend quickly, sorry..."

Ichab stood up quickly, stammered towards the gentleman, and then hurriedly turned around and rushed out of the teahouse.

The Englishman sighed.Now some media have called the economic crisis sweeping Europe and the United States the "Great Depression". Really, when will this world end?

Ikab, who walked out of the teahouse, had no time to care what the gentleman was thinking. All he could think about was the time in the newspaper: March 1932, 3 in the Gregorian calendar.

He may not pay attention to information that is not related to him because of his personality, but he will not even forget the time he lived in... When he was in New York, the hottest topic was "How will we usher in the 19th century", this year It should have been 1799!

He may be able to return to the United States by taking a boat, but it is absolutely impossible to return to the New York where he works... No passenger ship has the function of traveling through time.

Uncle Jiu was walking from the other side of the street, and saw this foreigner standing on the street outside the teahouse, he hurried over and asked, "Who is this?"

The smile on Ikab's face was uglier than crying, and he said emptyly: "It seems that I can't go back by boat... I actually lived more than 100 years ago, and we really existed in two worlds."

"...haha, so what the boss said is true again?" Uncle Jiu was already laughed out loud by this matter, "Then that 'vampire' is indeed impossible to hurt you, why don't you just go back from the tavern That's enough? By the way, don't forget to put your hat on, too."

"Ah... don't we have to go back to 'Renjia Town'..." Ikab didn't turn the corner for a moment.

"Not necessarily."

Uncle Jiu pulled him to the other side of the intersection and pointed out a wooden door for him.

Pedestrians around didn't realize it, but in Uncle Jiu's eyes, it was the door of that strange tavern with the blue wine flag hanging.

[22. No. 22]

"Ah...we're not [-]% sure yet..." Ikab still wanted to struggle, but Uncle Jiu had already grabbed his hand.

"[-]% or [-]% is enough. I also brought a yellow paper talisman and a mahogany sword this time. Besides, I will burn more paper money for you and do a great job, so that you can have a good time down here."

Uncle Jiu patted the bag on his shoulder, dragged Ikab to the other side of the door.

Ichab yelled "Why pre-arrange the religious ceremony for me, am I dead?" as he was dragged through the darkness and into the warm lights of the tavern.