The second watch is the time when people are the most tired and sleep the most maturely. At this time, a raging fire suddenly broke out in a haunted and abandoned house far north of the capital.
The fire swept through the entire wooden building in an instant, and the flames engulfed half of the house.
"The water has leaked!" The voices of "The water has leaked!" sounded one after another.
Then the doors of each house were suddenly pushed open, and people shouted one after another, and people rushed out of the house with buckets and washbasins, carrying water.
But the fire was really too big. This house was an old house, and because no one had taken care of it over the years, the beams and rafters were all rotten. Now the flames crackled and burned fiercely. There were just a few pots there. A few buckets of water can put it out.
The flames were burning like fire, and all the people around him were awakened.
The people's faces were full of fear and horror, and they didn't know how the fire started.
But fortunately, it was this haunted house that was burned, and because of its unlucky nature, no one had lived in it for more than ten years. And because the owner of this house was originally considered a wealthy person in this area, when he built the house, he deliberately distanced himself from his neighbors, leaving roads around the house, and did not fight with any of his neighbors, as if he was afraid that poor people like them would stain his property. Like a door lintel.
At first, this operation was scolded by many people, but now, looking at the wide alley that can accommodate two carriages running parallel, everyone couldn't help but mutter: "With this alley blocking it, no matter how big the fire is, it can't burn it." Someone else’s house.”
"At first I thought this family was arrogant and couldn't stop him if he didn't share a wall with his neighbors. Now I have to say that it's a good thing his family didn't share a wall with his neighbors, otherwise everyone would be in trouble."
This is not false, it is a real situation.
After all, Dakuan Hutong is like a fire zone. No matter how big the fire is, no one else will be affected. And if there is no such wide alley and the two families share a wall, then a fire here will burn directly to the next door, and then from next door to the next door, eventually burning half of the street. Some are small, and some can even burn half of the city.
But fortunately, this family is alone, now they can only bring trouble to themselves. They, the neighbors, are not harmed by him, but it is pitiful for their family, and now they only have a single Miaomiao, so they pour two basins of water to extinguish the fire, just as they have exhausted their last friendship.
The man was muttering to himself when he suddenly heard someone next to him say, "No, why did I hear a few days ago that this house was sold?"
The mother-in-law didn't believe it, pointed at the aunt who spoke and said: "Sold? Why haven't I heard of such a big thing? Are you kidding me? This shabby house has unlucky feng shui. It can be destroyed in twenty or thirty years. After a family of dozens of people were killed, this place is still haunted. If it wasn’t for the head being filled with paste, who would buy this crap?”
"Hey, my aunt, you can find out if you go to the Yamen and check it out. How can you still fake it? Oh, I remember now. I was selling sesame cakes at the Yamenmen that day, and I seemed to hear something vaguely At one point, it was said that the house had been sold. The new buyer was also very determined and said that only the brother and sister were left in the family. Hey, don't the two brothers live in this house? ? It’s life-threatening, but don’t burn people to death!”
This aunt had a loud voice, and everyone around her heard what she said. Immediately everyone became anxious, this is human life, so why not save someone's life?
Therefore, the people who had been waiting for the house to be burned down now started working anxiously with basins and buckets, pouring basins of water on it, but it did not help at all to start a prairie fire.
Just as luck would have it, at this moment, a thunder suddenly exploded in the sky, and then a heavy rain poured down in a hurry.
It just rains without any warning. Some people who have been alive for decades say they have never seen such rain.
When it rains, there will always be some wind and the temperature will drop, right? If that doesn't work, let's have two flashes of lightning first, and then a thunder forecast. The rain is good, but there is also thunder, but there is only one, and the thunder falls before the rain falls. Who has seen such an evil thing?
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, but it couldn't stop the people from gossiping.
With the rain helping, the people were no longer busy putting out the fire. They went together to take shelter from the rain in neighboring houses. While hiding from the rain, they discussed whether the evil sect was really evil, and there was probably some kind of ghost in this house.
It's a pity that the two young people who bought the house, you said you should always ask around when buying a house, but in the end they bought this ghost house quietly, and they were severely cheated. If that's all, forget it, you can still sell it and sell the house to an unsuspecting outsider, at least you can reduce the loss. Now it's better, the house was burned in the flames, and in the blink of an eye, only a desolation was left.
Everyone was sighing, gossiping that the new homeowner's fate was not good. They won't be able to get close to this family in the future. The people living in this house are all evil.
While everyone was talking about it, in the Sang house in Liushu Alley, Sang Nianyue watched the red light in the southern sky gradually dimming until it turned into black. After being worried all night, she finally let go.
She and Su Jin said, "Li Cheng and the others will come back soon. Ask them if the fire has implicated other people, or has it shocked the elderly and children in the neighborhood? If so, ask someone to send something over early tomorrow morning. Apologize again and make amends."
Su Jin responded: "Don't worry, girl, I will convey your message to Li Cheng when she comes back."
As she said this, Su Jin couldn't help but sigh in her heart. Uncle Li's mouth seemed to be open. He said it would rain after the second update tonight, and as expected, it rained. And he came as he came, without stumbling at all, as if he was joking.
"Yes, I also think this matter is very mysterious." Sang Nianyue answered.
It turned out that Su Jin unknowingly expressed her feelings, and Sang Nuanyue heard it, which reminded her that Uncle Li's contribution to handling this matter so perfectly was indispensable.
Uncle Li's mouth really seemed to be open. At first they didn't believe it, because it wasn't a dull day and the weather didn't change. How could it rain? Even the moment before it started to rain, Sang Nianyue was thinking that Uncle Li had been magical all his life, but he must not make mistakes at the critical moment.
You know, in order to deal with this matter cleanly, they played a big game. Not only the books must be burned, but the house must also be burned. Although the house is dilapidated, the foundation is good. As long as the beams and windows are properly repaired, the house can still be lived in.
But when the fire went down, the house was completely reduced to black coals. There are still so many books, no, just thinking about those books makes Sang Nianyue uncontrollably feel distressed.
The fire was quite big. If there was no rain to extinguish it, the house would be burned down to the point where not a single blade of grass would grow. But just say it's strange or not, the rain comes at a moment's notice, without giving anyone any time to react.
And with the blessing of heavy rain, the rainwater was directly extinguished, and it would never affect the nearby people.
While Sang Nuanyue was thinking about things, Su Jin had already made her bed and urged her: "Girl, go to bed quickly. If you have anything to do, we'll talk about it tomorrow. After solving the big problem, girl should be able to sleep well this time." Sleep."
Sang Nuanyue took off her clothes and got into bed with only her underwear on, and said to Su Jin: "Although the matter has been resolved, this disaster really happened out of nowhere. I still can't figure out who wanted to make things difficult on purpose. We are siblings."
"If you can't figure it out, stop thinking about it. When it's time to know, the girl will naturally know."
"That's what I say, but when I think about it, there is someone behind the scenes plotting against our siblings. If one plan fails, there may be another plan. How can I sleep?"
Su Jin was also a little sad when he heard this, but he couldn't let this day pass because of future disasters.
Su Jin said: "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain. When something happens, we will find a way to solve it. A living person can't suffocate to death? Besides, we have so many people in our hands, even if something happens to us, Son, it's easy to solve it if you think about it. Girl, don't think about this anymore, go to bed quickly."
Sang Nuoyue went to bed and got up early the next day.
But this time she learned two pieces of good news from Su Jin.
The first one is that although the families near the haunted house were panicked when the fire broke out, they felt at ease when they learned that the fire point was that haunted house. Most of the children never woke up from the beginning to the end, and the elderly were not shocked even if they woke up.
The second is that things went very smoothly and everything developed as expected. If nothing unexpected happens, they should not be troubled by the word "treasure" in the future.
In addition to these two pieces of good news, there are two other pieces of news, which cannot be said to be bad or good, but Su Jin felt that the girl should know it, so she made it clear in a few words.
Among the two pieces of news, the first is that when the fire first broke out, the first people who ran out of their homes saw several people jumping out of the haunted house. Their arms were full of things. I don’t know if they were something. baby.
Someone got up early this morning and chased them in the direction they were running, and picked up several books from the ground. At first he was not sure it was "stolen property", he just thought it was some scholar who carelessly left something behind.
But there are many "mean" people in Beicheng.
The people here are different from those in Nancheng. The people in Nancheng are just poor, but they are good people. If the family is ambitious and their children are also ambitious, then they can grit their teeth and send their children to study.
But there are many sluts in Beicheng, and they have slut status.
What does humble status mean? It refers to those people who do the nine popular things. Such as silversmith, sedan chair carrying, midwifery, frog hunting, hair cutting, matchmaking, ghost hunting, etc.
It can be said that most of the people in Beicheng are engaged in these unspeakable professions. It cannot be said that there is not a single scholar here, but there are so few that they are like a hidden gem in the ocean.
And books are so precious, what kind of person does it take to leave them all over the floor and still not come back to look for them?
This is obviously unusual.
If we think about it again, someone stole something from the haunted house and escaped in the chaos, then it becomes obvious. Is this book obviously stolen property?
It's just that I've only heard of people stealing other people's gold and silver, or even worse, stealing books, but I've never heard of people stealing books. I wonder if this is unusual?
Because this matter was so rare, it quickly became known to everyone in Beicheng.
Regardless of whether this matter was done by Li Cheng and others, or by something else, everyone in the whole North City is talking about it. There are books hidden in the ghost house, but the gangsters can't even steal the books. They accidentally set it on fire. He hit something in the house and the fire started immediately.
There are countless books in the ghost house. They may have all been burned. Isn’t this an evil act?
Another thing is that because they know that the haunted house has been re-bought by someone, and the buyers are a brother and sister, some people are worried that the brother and sister have been killed or knocked down by the smoke lit by the gangsters, so even if the flames are raging, , but there was still a kind-hearted man who broke into the house to see what was going on, despite everyone's obstruction.
The result was great. No one saw it, but we did see several large boxes of books being burned.
There were several big boxes of books. The top box was opened and half of the books were burned. The man thought that maybe the lower box contained books, so he braved the thick smoke in the room and kicked open the upper box. Then, at the risk of being burned, he miraculously rescued the lower box of books. out.
When Sang Nuanyue heard this, she couldn't help but be surprised: "A box of books was rescued? Are the books with words or are they new blank books?" Sang Nuanyue's heart was completely lifted, and she was shocked. I wish I could jump up.
Why did such a mistake happen? It’s really fatal!
"Don't worry, girl, it's just a false alarm. The book is not new, it has writing on it." Su Jin was still frightened when talking about this matter, "Fortunately, Li Cheng and the others did a good job and piled all the blank books in the corner. . The upper row near the corner contains those disgusting sayings, but the outer row of boxes is full of carefully prepared books, which contain those girls who are reluctant to burn. Let's just say that this arrangement is meticulous. Careful? If Li Cheng hadn't done everything to perfection, then when everyone opened the box and found that it was filled with blank books, would it have exploded or not? "
By then, those bad guys must have realized that this was a "game", and the family would have to become uneasy again.
Fortunately, Li Cheng worked carefully and considered every aspect carefully. Therefore, after the people in Beicheng looked through the box of books, they became more convinced that the books placed in the ghost house were all good books, with annotations on them. If anyone could have a few books like this, It's not a problem if I'm afraid of getting the top prize in the exam.
Sang Nuanyue moved her lips a few times and asked Su Jin: "Who spread this rumor?"
"Anyway, they are not from us. I heard that people from the yamen came over, and after reading those books, they said that the annotations were great. Then they spread the word to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and it was passed on like this. I heard that many scholars heard about it Xin has already gone to Beicheng to read."
Sang Nuanyue's face became even more distorted when she heard this, "Why did this happen? By the way, the book belongs to our family, shouldn't it be returned to us?"
"I can't do it now, because it was taken to the Yamen as evidence."
Sang Nianyue was speechless when she heard this, but after thinking about it carefully, she felt that this was human nature. After all, there was such a big fire, and it was a home invasion, and such a huge amount of wealth was damaged. It was reasonable for the yamen to take it seriously and temporarily preserve the evidence.
After saying this, Sang Nianyue couldn't help but ask about the man who rescued a box of books from the burning house, and confirmed that he was really not burned. Sang Nianyue said to Su Jin: "I should give some thank you gifts. This is There is no one in the house. If there is someone, I think this man will save people's lives. He has a good character, and we can't let a good person's heart be cold." Besides, those books alone are worth a lot of money, and others have worked hard to give them You were rescued - although it's not of much use to them, but if someone else rescued you, they should be rewarded with some gold and silver.
Su Jin responded when he heard the words, "I have written down this matter, but I guess if the young master knew about it, he would have thanked people in person. The young master went out before dawn."
"You went to Beicheng, didn't you?"
"right."
After all, such a big thing happened, how could the master not come forward?
If we had to collect books "secretly" before, but now the books have been stolen and burned, then does the owner's behavior of collecting books have any meaning in hiding it from everyone?
Therefore, not only did Qing'er go to Beicheng, but she also cried bitterly and fell off the carriage with a complexion as if a mountain was falling apart.
Then, the people in Beicheng knew something else.
That is, it turned out that the people who bought this ghost house were the famous Sang brother and sister who opened a bookstore in Nancheng. It's just that they didn't know who they offended, or maybe someone just didn't like them, so there was an inexplicable news that there was a treasure hidden in the Sang family's books.
Then the two siblings were troubled. Even if they lived in their own house, they could not have peace day and night. With no other choice, they decided to buy a new house and hide the books here. They also planned to move here secretly. Unexpectedly, as soon as this book was moved out of the house, someone would target it. A few days later, gangsters came to steal books.
Just say, are these siblings pitiful?
They had done a good job and were grateful to the people of Nancheng, but the gangsters burned the treasures passed down from their ancestors. If this person goes to hell in the future, he will not be beaten into a pulp by his ancestors.
Su Jin spoke vividly, and Sang Nianyue listened with interest. But thinking about those burned books again, Sang Nianyue felt distressed again.
She was so distressed that she didn't even eat breakfast. Finally, Qing'er came back from Beicheng. When she heard that her sister hadn't eaten, she ate a bowl of bird's nest soup without her, and then told Sang Nianyue about the follow-up. matter.
What follows is actually very simple.
After all, if the book is burned and the house is burned, just report it to the official.
But the reporting officer didn't need him to go to the Yamen in person. After all, the officers had already been waiting at the ghost house.
So, Qing'er told her about the "treasure hiding", as well as the fact that gangsters came to the house repeatedly, and why she had to buy a house to relocate the books.
What he said was so true that it made people feel the same.
Then, because the incident was spreading, the people in Beicheng were spreading the word, so even the police officers had a preconceived idea that this was what happened.
The matter of reporting to the police was easy to handle, but the subsequent pursuit of the criminals was somewhat troublesome. After all, there was already a curfew when the fire broke out, and Beicheng was full of small alleys. The gangster just found an alley and got into it. Who would know where he ran?
Catching the gangster is more difficult, so you have to take your time.
Fortunately, Qing'er is not in a hurry. What he is "anxious" now is books.
But those books must be kept as evidence and kept in the Yamen. After hearing the news, many scholars came and wanted to read the books passed down by the Sang family's ancestors. Qing'er "couldn't wipe it out". After discussing with the people in the yamen, the books were opened to the scholars.
As a result, many scholars now go to the Yamen to look at the Sang family's collection of books.
And those books are very good, and the annotations are even more astonishing. As a result, the news that someone could win the first prize after reading the Sang family biography spread like wildfire, and now it is known all over the city.
After listening to her brother's story, Sang Nianyue felt like she was in a state of ridicule.
So, just like that, the two siblings have become famous figures in the capital?
Is it so simple that their ancestral books have become highly respected must-reads for scientific examinations?
Why is this so ridiculous?
But what’s even more ridiculous is yet to come.
Around noon, when it was time to eat, I saw Uncle Mute coming to the house with his servant in a hurry.
When Sang Nuoyue heard the sound and rushed to the outer courtyard, she thought something had happened to Chongwenzhai.
After asking about it, I found out that something had indeed happened, but it was not a bad thing, but a good thing. Because of the commotion in Beicheng, those things spread to Nancheng, and the books in their Chongwenzhai were robbed by everyone.
Although Uncle Dumb repeatedly asked the boy to shout at the top of his lungs, "The Sang family's books do not have the magic power to win the first prize", "When buying books, you still have to look at your own needs and don't blindly follow the trend", "Shop rationally and do not return or exchange in the future" "Study The books in it are slightly different from those in the Sang family collection."
But no matter how much the boy screamed, no one listened to him.
Those scholars were like crazy. After entering the bookstore, they swarmed up and jumped on the bookshelves.
Those with deep pockets don’t care what kind of books you have on your bookshelf and whether they are useful to them. They are like giving blood to them. Not only did he grab it himself, but he also called on his good brothers and personal servants to follow him. He's afraid that if he doesn't get enough, he'll suffer a loss and won't be able to pass the exam.
These people don't care about money and just grab books one by one. Then while someone was moving books out, someone threw gold peanuts and gold ingots directly to Uncle Mute.
Let’s not talk about the Golden Peanut. After all, it is small, and one can only be exchanged for twenty or thirty taels of silver at most to buy more than ten books. But the gold ingot was so big, it had a net weight of ten, and it would cost more than a hundred taels to exchange for silver. Then the gold ingots were thrown away one by one. Uncle Mute's scalp was numb when he saw them, and he was afraid that the gold ingots would smash a hole in his table.
Being able to make buying a book look like buying a follow-up product is a scene that Uncle Dumb has seen for half his life. This is the first time he has seen it.
Such buyers are those whose families are not short of money. As for those poor students or those with limited family resources, would you say you are jealous or not when you see this scene?
But this is not the time to be jealous at all. They have little money, but they borrowed the money. If they can't buy more than a hundred copies, why can't they buy five or six? After all, they have less to buy, so they can choose carefully. I can’t believe that the books they carefully selected are not as good as those books that people just move out because they can’t stand anything.
But you have to be selective?
Haha, I'm afraid the book will be snatched away by someone before I even finish reading the first line.
Just say how ridiculous this thing is, but it actually happened.
Therefore, in just one hour, Chongwen's shop, which was originally in good order and had books arranged in a proper manner, was completely robbed as if it had just experienced a bandit crossing.
Even pens, inks, paper, inkstones and other items sold in bookstores have been sold in large quantities, and are about to bottom out.
I heard people say that the books written by the Sang family can help people take the first place exam, so wouldn’t it be a blessing to use the pens, inks, paper and inkstones sold by the Sang family and become more confident in taking the top exam?
So, under such very unreliable rumors, the items in the store were almost sold out. At this time, Uncle Dumb came over in a hurry to restock.
However, after Sang Nuoyue heard what Uncle Ya said, she flatly refused: "Uncle Ya, have you forgotten that all the Sang family's books were hidden in the ghost house, and now they were all burned in the fire? Turned to ashes.”
Qing'er echoed her sister and said, "Yes, yes, uncle Ya, you can't transport books out of Sang's house, otherwise the game we made before will be revealed, right?"
Upon hearing this, Uncle Mute's heated head suddenly cooled down.
His brain was cold, and Uncle Dumb was awake. At this time, he couldn't help but slap himself on the forehead. He was so old and confused. He was also so blinded by the speed of his income that he even forgot about such an important thing.
Now is the time to make money. The most urgent thing now is to fool those gangsters and suppress the "treasure hiding" matter.
The girl and the young master have been busy with this for many days, and they have lost a lot of weight. He finally succeeded, but it was almost ruined because of his lack of sobriety today.
However, seeing this opportunity to make money just blow away in the wind, Uncle Dumb felt very distressed.
There are only a few times in this life when people can get excited. If you miss this time, I don’t know when the bookstore will be as grand as it is today.
It still hurts to think about it, but Uncle Dumb knows the severity. He just sighed and made a "I listen to the girl" gesture.
After Uncle Ya left, Qing'er asked Sang Nianyue: "Sister, does our library really have to be so empty?"
"At least it will be empty in the next few days. You know, even going to the surrounding bookstores to buy books now takes time. Besides, since we have made a name for ourselves, why don't we try our best to select some good books and become a Chongwen store? With your ability, can we take our Sang family’s bookstore business to a higher level?”
"What do you mean, sister?" Qing'er couldn't help but come over and ask.
Sang Nuanyue touched his head and said with a smile: "This is a good opportunity, an opportunity for our bookstore to take advantage of the wind."
Although the "treasure hiding" thing was ridiculous at first, and it did bring them a lot of trouble and distress, after such a operation, the matter was finally solved, and they also got an unexpected surprise.
That's when the reputation of the Sang family's book collection spread, and it even boosted the business of Chongwen Store.
Although the progress of this matter is somewhat magical, it is completely beyond everyone's expectations. But it also corresponds to the saying, a blessing in disguise?
What a great opportunity this is. Usually, hard work and operation may not bring such great exposure to the book store, but now all these are coming, and they are coming with fierce momentum and momentum. If you can't seize this opportunity, , she will regret it for the rest of her life.
Sang Nianyuejiang discussed with his brother Haosheng how to run the bookstore in the future.
She had always felt that she did not have much talent for business, and even running a bookstore was a trial and error process. It was all thanks to what I had seen and heard before, as well as Uncle Ya’s help, that the bookstore was able to operate smoothly until now.
However, Qing'er looked at her sister who was glowing in front of her, and couldn't help but sigh in her heart. He didn't know how much talent his father had in business, and he didn't know how many talented people his ancestors had. He only knew that Chongwen The bookstore will flourish in the hands of my sister, and one day, perhaps, it will surpass the reputation of these old bookstores in the capital and take the lead.
These are all things that cannot be said for sure.
He didn't dare to think about it before, could he do it later? With a sister with such a keen sense of smell and such an inexplicable destiny, why should he worry about anything?
Now there is Nancheng, and there is Beicheng. Maybe after that there will be East City and West City. This is like a general conquering a city. Now people in the south city and north city recognize Chongwen Shop. Then one day, people in the entire capital will recognize Chongwen Shop, and scholars all over the world will recognize Chongwen Shop.
When Qing'er left her sister's place and went back to the backyard to rest, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
He couldn't hold it in anymore, so he said a few words to Li Cheng, and then Li Cheng became busy in his mind.
Although he looks silly and silly, he is also very sincere and gives people a very reliable and loyal feeling, but Li Cheng himself is a good showman and a flexible person.
He heard Qing'er mentioning those books and mentioning that thanks to the help of Lord Marquis, he also heard Qing'er asking where those books were obtained from. He wanted to buy another batch. Li Cheng couldn't help but mutter in his heart, here and there. What money can buy?
Do you think that annotation can be written by just any scholar?
That's serious. How about the annotations made by the Marquis himself when he was reading?
Of course, the books were definitely not those used by the Marquis, but were specially copied and shipped over. But Mr. Hou has won the Three Elements, and his level of knowledge will be remembered in history. A simple pointer from Mr. Hou can benefit people a lot. After reading his comments, the reader will know whether he has benefited from it or not.
Therefore, it is no wonder that people in North City and South City now hold the remaining box of books on the altar. After all, those books have capital.
It's not a big talk. If someone really reads all the books annotated by the Marquis, and doesn't talk about getting the top prize, at least becoming a Jinshi will be a piece of cake.
But some of the Marquis's books can be taken out, but some must not be shown. The more you do, the greater the chance of exposure.
So that’s the end of it.
Don't even think about getting more books from the Marquis's study, but the Marquis likes Young Master Qing'er very much. If Young Master Qing'er proposes to go to the Marquis's library to have a look, or asks the Marquis to mention it, A few words of instruction, I think the Marquis would be happy to do so.
(End of chapter)
