"Whether it's an iron sword or a wooden sword, whatever suits my heart is good." After saying that, Gu Ning'an looked at Carpenter Zhao and asked with a smile, "I wonder if Carpenter Zhao can make wooden swords?"
"Can you...can you?" Carpenter Zhao protracted his tone, and his sunken eyes revealed a bright light: "As long as anything that can be made with wood, there is nothing that my Zhao's Carpenter's Shop cannot do!"
"Okay!" Gu Ning'an clapped her hands: "Then I'll leave this matter to you."
"Um..." Carpenter Zhao, who always felt something was wrong, stared at Gu Ning'an for a long time before responding: "Okay, sir, let's choose the wood."
Hearing this, Gu Ningan immediately pointed to the corner of the shop: "I want that piece."
Looking in the direction it pointed, there was a log standing at the base of the wall.
The log is completely black, with tree-like lines on its surface. If you get closer, you can still smell a faint smell of burning.
"Sir, are you talking about the one standing upright in the corner?" Carpenter Zhao thought he was looking in the wrong direction, so he asked again.
Gu Ning'an nodded: "Yes."
After receiving an affirmative answer, the corners of Carpenter Zhao's mouth twitched: "Sir, why don't you take a look at the piled wood next to you... mahogany, nanmu, and huanghuali are all pretty good..."
Gu Ning'an waved his hand and said: "Let's take that one... Judging from the growth rings on its fracture, it's probably a century-old tree."
"Sir, do you really not want to think about it anymore?" Carpenter Zhao pointed at the charred log and said seriously: "To be honest, that log did come from a century-old willow tree."
"But it has been burned by thunder and fire and can no longer be made into logs. I picked it up just to use it as firewood..."
Gu Ning'an smiled and nodded: "It's burnt on the outside, but it's good on the inside."
Seeing that Gu Ning'an insisted on this "firewood", Carpenter Zhao stopped trying to persuade him and just nodded: "Okay, then the sword made by then will be as brittle as a dead branch, and it has nothing to do with Zhao's craftsmanship. .”
"It's hard for this clever woman to make a meal without rice..."
Gu Ning'an waved her hand: "Just do it with peace of mind, Gu is not the kind of unreasonable person."
"With your words, I feel relieved." Carpenter Zhao let out a long sigh and continued: "There is no charge for the wood. It is just a found thing... The labor fee for making the sword plus those wooden chopsticks will be charged sir." How about two coins?"
"It's done." Gu Ning'an flipped his palm, placed the two coins on the wooden board in front of him, and said with a smile, "Just let me know when you're ready."
Carpenter Zhao stepped forward, picked up the silver coins, weighed them, and said with a smile, "No problem, Mr. Gu, do you have any requirements for the style and pattern of the sword blade?"
Gu Ning'an waved her hand: "No need for patterns, just keep everything simple."
"Okay."
"I'll finish it later and send it to the hospital for you, sir."
Gu Ning'an cupped his hands and thanked him: "Then I'll bother Carpenter Zhao."
"It doesn't matter." Carpenter Zhao pointed at the money in his palm and said with a smile, "Sir, you don't ask for much, so I finally earned these two dollars."
Gu Ning'an responded with a smile: "Finally, you won't talk about those two coins in the future?"
Carpenter Zhao blushed and touched his nose awkwardly: "Of course I won't talk about it anymore."
"Gone." After leaving those two words behind, Gu Ning'an turned around and walked out of the shop. After Carpenter Zhao said goodbye to each other for a while, he returned to the shop and was surprised to find that there was a small earthen jar on his wooden board from unknown time. .
Zhao Carpenter picked up the earthen jar and ran out of the shop. He shouted to Gu Ning'an at the end of the street, "Sir, did you leave an earthen jar behind?"
"Long time no see, I'd like to invite you for a cup of tea." Gu Ning'an's long voice came down the wind.
Hearing this, Carpenter Zhao couldn't help but be startled, and then responded loudly: "Thank you sir!"
In the distance, Gu Ning'an's figure gradually disappeared from Zhao Carpenter's sight...
Carpenter Zhao brought the earthen jar in his hand closer and smelled it. Even though the lid of the earthenware jar was not opened, he smelled a faint scent of tea.
"You can tell as soon as you smell it, this is good tea!" Carpenter Zhao looked at the two coins in his left hand, then at the tea pot in his right hand, and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Immortal, Immortal...Immortal also brought it with me Personally speaking, I don’t mess with you, and I’m easy to get along with.”
…
At noon, when the sun is at its strongest, there are many old people chatting and playing chess under the shade of the trees on the street.
Gu Ning'an, dressed in a white shirt, looked particularly eye-catching under the sunlight. Many people would talk about him when they saw him: Where did this handsome gentleman come from?
Gu Ning'an had just come back not long ago, but there were quite a few people who knew him dressed like this. After all, in Lexiang County, which is not big or small, something strange happened, and it was related to gods and ghosts. The words naturally spread quickly.
Many villagers who knew little about it and liked to gossip gave him many weird titles...
Many times, when they saw Gu Ning'an approaching while they were gossiping, they immediately fell silent and looked at the ground with a guilty conscience. When he was farther away, they started gossiping again.
However, the gossip topics of the villagers were not too outrageous, and Gu Ningan also thought it was human nature, so even if he heard it, he just smiled at them and pretended that he had not heard it.
Gu Ning'an walked through a narrow alley and turned out to take a shortcut home when he saw a canvas signboard for "Sun Kee Yokan" floating in the wind under the shade of a tree.
Grandma Sun tidied up the wooden table beside her quickly, with a faint smile on her face.
Gu Ning'an walked quickly to the stall and asked with a smile: "Grandma Sun, I haven't seen you setting up a stall for two days."
Grandma Sun, who was holding bowls and chopsticks, looked up with confusion in her eyes: "Sir, who are you?"
This is another time when he forgot about himself... Gu Ning'an paused and said, "Gu Ning'an, I am a regular customer."
"Gu Ning'an..." Granny Sun muttered, and a sense of familiarity arose in her heart. After thinking for a long time, her brown-black eyes couldn't help but tremble: "Mr. Gu, you are Gu who lives in Ansi Courtyard. gentlemen!"
"Oh my God! How many years have passed and you haven't changed at all!"
"Where has Mr. Gu been all these years?"
"Did you take the merit test?"
Seeing that Granny Sun had forgotten who she was a few days ago, and then remembered herself from more than twenty years ago, Gu Ning'an felt confused. He activated his magic power to cover his eyes and carefully looked at Granny Sun's three souls of heaven, earth, and human.
At this moment, Grandma Sun's heavenly soul and human soul were constantly churning, but only the earthly soul remained turbid, even darker than before.
The turbidity of the heavenly soul descends to the earthly soul, causing past memories to return, but recent ones are easier to forget.
Wanting to understand this, Gu Ning'an responded with a smile: "I have been walking around the rivers and lakes over the years and looking around. I am tired of walking and looking. I am thinking about your mouthful of fresh yokan, so I came back here..."
