Zhenhai City is the largest and most prosperous city away from the river.
As for why the city by the river was called "Zhenhai", Zhao Rang didn't understand it either.
Probably because there has always been a local saying that "the Taishang River flows into the sea for 30,000 miles", so the locals think that the river and the sea are connected together. Along the river, you can reach the seaside, so the name of this place was given.
However, the reason why this city is prosperous is that it really relies on overseas goods.
To the east of the city, stretching for dozens of miles, is a good harbor.
The merchant ships going to the sea are as tall as pavilions and shuttle back and forth endlessly.
The ship is loaded with fresh seafood and all kinds of rare treasures that are not found on land.
Except for a few big families who personally ordered these things, 80% of them were traded in Zhenhai City.
When Zhao Rang arrived here, it was just dawn.
The fast-moving donkey seemed to have a grudge against him and was really difficult to control, so Qingqing drove him back to the first floor.
Zhao Rang rode a horse with four hooves on the snow given to him by Baihe Mountain.
Although it can't keep up with the speed of the donkey, it can travel thousands of miles in a day.
Traveling alone is very boring, so Zhao Rang only rests for a few hours when he is tired and tired. The rest of the time, the only sound in his ears is the "whirring" of the wind.
After entering the city, the sun has risen.
Zhao Rang found that there were surprisingly many people in the market today.
Even though the most important thing about seafood is freshness, there is no need to go out all over the city like this, right?
Before entering the city, Zhao Rang carefully read the notice posted at the city gate.
The government has ordered that it is prohibited to sell seafood privately in the streets and alleys of the city, and all transactions must be done in a specially designated open space next to the port.
But Zhao Rang can't control so much at the moment.
After running for most of the night, his stomach was already empty... only the cool breeze he drank in.
As soon as I opened the door, I burped a few times, and the cool breeze dissipated. I felt my chest was touching my back, and my eyes went dark, and I fainted to the ground.
After walking along the crowded long street for a while, Zhao Rang saw a stall selling breakfast.
Many people gathered around a big pot in front of the stall, waiting for the boss to open it.
The steam was steaming, instantly wrapping everyone in it!
As soon as the pot was boiled, the people who had been around just came in and sat down. It didn't matter whether they knew each other or not, as long as they could have a seat.
Zhao Rang didn't understand the market, and because he was hungry, he took a step slowly...
Looking inside, I saw that the entire shop was full and there was not a single empty seat.
He was about to leave when he was suddenly stopped by his boss:
"My guest, if you don't mind the crowd, you can sit here!"
Zhao Rang looked back and saw that the boss had cleared out half of his counter, just enough for one person to sit down.
“I don’t dislike it, I don’t dislike it, thank you boss!”
Zhao Rang thanked him repeatedly and sat down on the stool.
After riding a horse for a long time, it is a different kind of happiness to have a stool to sit on.
"Do you have an order?"
Zhao Rang asked the boss.
The boss smiled and replied:
"It's a small shop with no menu. Just the usual breakfast items!"
After saying that, the boss suddenly realized that Zhao Rang was not a local and did not know much about the food in Zhenhaicheng, so he took the initiative to introduce:
“Our seafood noodles are good! Each bowl has a big shrimp!”
Zhao Rang swallowed after hearing this, and then said to the boss:
"Give me a bowl of seafood noodles and a bowl of prawns!"
The boss asked with some uncertainty:
"Sir, do you want a whole bowl of prawns?"
Zhao Rang nodded.
He was too hungry to say a word.
The boss responded and immediately went downstairs to cook the shrimp.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t met a high-roller in a long time, but the boss’s face was red and he looked very excited!
Not long after, a steaming bowl of seafood noodles was served.
After Zhao Rang smelled the delicious smell, he couldn't bear it anymore. He picked up a large chopstick and put it into his mouth.
Even though he was so hot that he could breathe coldly, Zhao Rang couldn't bear to spit out the noodles in his mouth.
After finishing a bowl of noodles, Zhao Rang finally came to life again.
"Your shrimp, sir!"
At this time, the boss came over again carrying a big bowl.
The bowl is filled to the brim with red prawns!
Zhao Rang didn't waste any time, grabbed one directly, and chewed the shell and meat together.
"Boss, why is the city so busy today?"
Zhao Rang chatted with the boss while eating.
"Why did your guest say this?"
The boss was stunned by Zhao Rang's abrupt words.
“When I entered the city, I saw many people purchasing supplies, and there were many fewer stalls on the streets.
Zhao Rang expressed his doubts.
The boss laughed after hearing this:
"My guest is very observant. Recently, many outsiders have come to our Zhenhai City, but they are not here to play, but to hunt for treasure!"
"Treasure hunt?"
"yes!"
The boss nodded and said:
"About half a month ago, a group of maritime merchants suddenly said that they had discovered a fairy island on the sea a hundred miles east of our city. The island was full of rare treasures, so you can pick them up at will! After the news spread, the surrounding people People from several cities rushed over. Those with boats went out to sea to hunt for treasure, while those without boats waited in the city to buy marine goods. Everyone thought they could take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune so that they could go home to buy land and marry a wife! "
Is there such a thing?
Zhao Rang was stunned when he heard it.
"Are there many treasures on Fairy Island?"
The boss thought for a while and said:
"There should be quite a few... There were merchants who came back a few days ago to replenish fresh water and food. I heard they said that there are so many treasures on the island that it is impossible to pick them all up!"
The more the boss talked, the more curious Zhao Rang became.
"Is there any danger on the Immortal Island?" he asked again.
The boss shook his head and said:
"I don't know about that... All the merchants who came back were very tight-lipped and never mentioned anything about the Fairy Island. I guess they were afraid that too many people would go there and the treasure wouldn't be enough!"
This is understandable.
As the saying goes, money moves people's hearts.
Faced with overwhelming wealth, no one will have trouble with money.
"By the way, Sir, I heard from those maritime merchants that there is a kind of sacred grass growing on the Immortal Island, and you can live forever after eating it!"
The boss suddenly said to Zhao Rang mysteriously.
Zhao Rang never believed in this kind of thing, so he smiled and said:
Is there any panacea for immortality in this world? It’s all a lie!
Seeing that Zhao Rang didn't believe it, the boss didn't say anything more:
"Anyway, I just heard it from hearsay. Let's do a small business to make ends meet. If we don't covet the wealth, we will lose our lives!"
After that, he turned around and continued working.
Zhao Rang finished eating the shrimp, wiped his hands, called the boss, and was about to pay the bill. Suddenly he realized that his baggage had not been taken off the saddle just now.
I got up and went over to take a look, only to see that the sky above the saddle was empty... Where was the shadow of the baggage?
"Guest officer?"
Seeing Zhao Rang standing blankly at the door, the boss asked, not knowing what he meant.
"Boss, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid I won't have the money to pay the bill!"
I thought the boss would be immediately anxious, but unexpectedly he just looked at Zhao Rang with a complicated expression. After a while, he said with some resentment:
"Sir, this is a small business, as you have seen! Don't have fun like this!"
Zhao Rang smiled bitterly...
How can he care about having fun?
I was very hungry before, so when I heard from the boss that there was still room to sit, I immediately got into the store, not caring about my luggage at all.
There are people coming and going outside now, and there are still many people waiting for a space to have breakfast. I don’t know when the baggage was lost. I want to find it, but I have no way to find it for a while.
"Do you think my horse is worth your meal?"
With no other choice, Zhao Rang thought of mortgaging his horse here, which would at least allow him to escape first. After finding the burden, he would come back to pay and redeem the horse again.
"Guest, this horse looks like a thousand-mile horse at first glance. It is enough to buy my shop!"
The boss was also a real person and did not take advantage of the opportunity to ask for excessive prices.
"Okay, then I'll mortgage the horse to you first. If I don't come back to pay the bill before dark, the horse will be yours. What do you think?"
Zhao Rang said.
The boss thought for a while and said:
"Sir, please wait a moment, I have to discuss this matter with my wife..."
Close to the Southland, the folk custom here is basically that women head the household.
The boss walked into the back hall, and after a while, he walked out with a stout woman. ?
The woman put her hands on her hips, looked at Zhao Rang first, then looked at his horse, and then said:
"You want to use this horse to pay for your meal?"
Zhao Rang said:
"I'll mortgage it to you for now. When I find the baggage, I'll come back and pay the bill!"
The woman asked again:
"Limited to today?"
Zhao Rang nodded and said:
"That's right! If it gets dark before I come, this horse will be yours!"
Seeing Zhao Rang's sincerity, the woman stepped forward and carefully inspected the horse. She found that there was no problem, so she readily agreed, and then asked her husband to take the horse to the backyard and serve it well.
Regardless of whether Zhao Rang comes back or not, the couple will not let the horse suffer. After all, they still have to sell it at a good price.
"Sir, my house only sells breakfast, but we live upstairs. If you see that the door has been closed when you come here, just enter the yard directly from the back."
Zhao Rang cupped his hands and thanked him, then asked:
"I wonder if something is lost on the streets of Zhenhai City, where do you usually go to find it?"
This kind of thing is best understood by asking a hawker like the boss.
In every city there are many idle people who want to get something for nothing. There is nothing the government can do about such people.
Caught them all in jail, and they thought it was a good place to have food, drink, and shelter from the wind and rain.
As time goes by, I just turn a blind eye and pretend not to see it as long as things don't get serious.
If you go to the government for something like losing a piece of baggage, they will at most send a famous teacher and a clerk to make a fake record, and then nothing more will happen.
Therefore, matters on the street must be resolved from the street.
When the boss heard Zhao Rang ask this question, he knew that this person must be a charlatan.
But slander cannot be said in the street, otherwise it will be heard by interested people. Honest businessmen like them can't stand these bastards who come to look for trouble every three days, so they pulled Zhao Rang to a quiet place aside and said:
"Over there at the dock in the east of the city, we call it the water market. It's managed by a general manager. It sells all kinds of seafood. On the west side of the city, it's where people go to buy daily necessities. We call it the dry market, and there's also a boss who speaks. Do the math. Sir, your baggage will most likely be sold by thieves in the dry market."
Zhao Rang thanked him again, then asked for directions, and strode towards the west of the city.
In the baggage were Zhao Rang's own things, as well as the gifts given to him by his master's uncle in Baihe Mountain when he came down the mountain.
Money is a trivial matter, but the main thing is that Qingqing gave him a token for the first floor in the bag!
This is a top priority.
Without this token, the person responsible for responding to the matter by the river would not be able to identify Zhao Rang's identity.
If you want to explain it clearly with your mouth, you will definitely have to spend a lot of time!
What's more, Zhao Rang didn't want his whereabouts to be discovered when he came here.
If someone recognizes this token and passes it as a message to the spies sent by the Southland, things will become more complicated.
This is Zhao Rang's first return to Zhenhai City, and he is not familiar with the roads in the city at all.
Fortunately, the city was built fairly squarely, so Zhao Rang always found someone to ask for the direction of Hanshi every time he came to a fork in the road, and he was still able to get there accurately.
But when he arrived at Hanshi in the west of the city, he was suddenly dumbfounded.
Here...it's a bit too lively!
Both sides of the street are crowded with vendors setting up stalls.
The middle of the street was crowded with people strolling and shopping.
Trying to find a thief here is like looking for a needle in a haystack!
But Zhao Rang had no other choice but to be patient and start from the street, carefully searching stalls one by one.
In order to make himself see more clearly, every time he passed a stall, he pretended to be a customer who wanted to buy something, and picked up the things on the stall and looked at them.
When a stall owner asked, he said he would have a look and then walked to the next stall to continue looking.
After just searching for a long time, Zhao Rang had already walked through half of the entire dry market.
However, his baggage seemed to disappear out of thin air, without even a trace.
Zhao Rang couldn't help but start to feel anxious.
Judging from the position of the sun, it was already afternoon.
There are only more than two hours left before dark.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
After a moment, Zhao Rang's eyes suddenly lit up!
He realized that he might have been thinking in the wrong direction from the beginning!
The thief can spend the money in the bag directly, but even if the thief doesn't know the token, he will never sell it on the dry market!
Dragons and snakes are mixed here, and there are people of all kinds from all walks of life.
Once the token appears and is recognized by someone, not only will the token be lost, but the thief's own life may also be at stake here!
After figuring this out, Zhao Rang was ready to leave Hanshi.
He recalled that his boss had told him earlier that the water market and dry market in Zhenhaicheng were both managed by their respective bosses, so the thieves who came here to steal must be inextricably linked to the local snakes.
With so much money in the bag and a terrifying token, if this thief was smarter, he would not make his own decision. He would definitely send it to the local boss for him to make a decision.
Therefore, if you want to retrieve your baggage, you have to go to the water market in the east of the city!
After making up his mind, Zhao Rang was ready to leave.
At this moment, he suddenly noticed something very familiar placed on a stall not far ahead.
It was a palm-sized lacquered wood box.
There is also a talisman attached to the box, which is what Baiheshan used to seal the treasure.
This box was very familiar to Zhao Rang, because what it contained was the gift given to him by his uncle when he came down the mountain!
I didn’t expect that this thief would really dare to bring things to the dry market to sell!
But from the look of the box, it seems like this thing hasn’t been opened yet...
Ordinary thieves are also afraid of the methods of cultivators. If they open the box rashly, they may be hurt by the restrictions left by their great uncle!
Zhao Rang strolled over slowly, pretending to be very interested, picked up the lacquered wooden box and asked:
"Boss, what's in this box? How to sell it?"
The stall owner is a middle-aged man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks.
Seeing Zhao Rang pick up the box, he immediately put on a smile and said:
"Your Majesty, you have good eyesight! I got the things in this box from a Taoist priest in Baihe Mountain. It is a big treasure of the Xian family! If you want it, I will make it cheaper for you. You can take it for fifty taels of silver. Walk!"
Zhao Rang nodded after hearing this, but said nothing.
Seeing that Zhao Rang was not moved, the stall owner moved closer and said mysteriously:
"Don't worry, sir, I'm sure there are good things in this box! Think about it, the Taoist priest would put a talisman on a box. He must be afraid that the things inside will escape!"
After hearing this, Zhao Rang could no longer bear it. With lightning speed, he stretched out his hand to tear off the seal on the wooden box and said:
"Look, nothing seems to have escaped. Are you lying?!"
The merchant never expected that Zhao Rang would act like this.
He was stunned for a moment, then immediately abandoned the stall and plunged into the crowd, disappearing without a trace.
