Something happened to the brown gang.
To be more precise, something happened to Hua Weng.
A few days ago, the Ghost King wanted to build a temple outside the city. His minions in the world were "buying" land at low prices, and Fuguifang was one of them.
Hua Weng naturally looked down upon it, but how could others dare to offend Cave City?
The shopkeeper of a warehouse adjacent to Hua Weng's Di shop begged Hua Weng and wanted to give Hua Weng a bargain in his warehouse. Because Hua Weng often helped his neighbors, although he guarded the huge Di shop next to the dock, he didn't have much money in his hands. Save more.
The shopkeeper then made a strange suggestion, asking Hua Weng to borrow his money to buy his warehouse without any interest and only asking for repayment in installments. It sounds like a pie from heaven, but one thing has to be done according to the rules of Qian Tang. Zengfu Temple, one of the thirteen temples, is asked to be the guarantee deed, and something of similar value must be pledged, that is, Hua Weng Di shop.
When Hua Weng hesitated, the shopkeeper increased the price again.
He had already negotiated a big deal, which was to convert his warehouse into a granary and lease it to a Xiangzhou grain merchant. Most of the warehouse has been renovated, and the rent from the grain merchants has also pushed into Zengfu Temple. He transferred the business to Hua Weng. As long as the granary passed the inspection, Hua Weng could get the rent from Zengfu Temple, and the money he paid back to the shopkeeper during the referral was more than enough.
The pie was stuffed into his mouth.
Hua Weng finally nodded.
…………
There is an inconspicuous small temple hidden in Fuguifang.
A stone general is enshrined in the temple.
More than two hundred years ago, General Shi escorted a group of people to escape chaos in the south of the Yangtze River. On the way, he encountered a rebel army. He protected the people from leaving alone with his sword, but he died of exhaustion.
Later, someone picked up his side sword and built a small temple in Fuguifang to worship his side sword.
The world is forgetful and nostalgic.
Two hundred years later, General Shi's deeds have dispersed like foam in the water, and the residents moved a piece of Taishan stone from nowhere and put it in the temple to worship together.
Over time, the two merged into one, a roughly carved stone statue holding a tightly wrapped long sword.
People from nearby people come to worship from time to time, and the incense is not popular, but it has not stopped for hundreds of years, but they don't know whether they are worshiping Shi Tiejian or Shi Gandang.
Hua Weng took a broom and cleaned the cobwebs on the head of the stone statue. Not long ago, the old temple Zhu died, and the insects took advantage of it and wanted to be the master of the temple.
"I thought I could hide away for a while with my old friend."
"The cat found you. It told me that it saw an old ghost who lost his soul and went to the temple."
Li Changan sat on the threshold of the temple, hanging yellow mud from the soles of his shoes on a branch. Qiantang is rainy and foggy, and the roads are muddy.
"I often hear people say that after some people mess up, they like to run to the temple, clamoring to become a monk and practice Taoism. But how innocent are the Buddhas and gods? They took on debts for nothing."
Hua Weng put down his broom and came over with a glare.
"You brat is rude!"
The Taoist priest laughed loudly: "You always keep silent and disappear. Most of the living and dead people in Fuguifang are worried about you. You are always thinking about things. Now it seems that you are not discouraged and your temper is not diminished!"
Hua Weng's trouble is simple.
His granary was about to be completed, but two groups of workers suddenly got into a fight, smashed the half-built granary to pieces, and abandoned the project.
Seeing that the acceptance period was approaching, Hua Weng looked for the shopkeeper, but he disappeared without a trace. He wanted to continue the renovation at his own expense, but all of Qian Tang's projects had to go through the guild. When he found the guild, the guild refused to talk and instead asked for the workers' medicine money.
Obviously, the pie from the sky is poisonous, and this deal is a trap from beginning to end.
Not only did Hua Weng not take advantage, he also had to pay for his own shop.
"It's just a profiteer who works for the tiger." Li Changan said seriously, "If it's not convenient for the gang to mobilize troops, leave it to me."
Hua Weng silently picked up the rag and cleaned the dust on the altar table.
His silence was the silent answer.
"Again, the so-called rules?" Li Changan frowned.
Hua Weng didn't answer.
"Are we going to stick to this rule even if it ruins Fuguifang?"
Li Changan is not an alarmist.
Didian belongs to Hua Weng, but it is not only related to Hua Weng.
The first stop for local newly dead ghosts and newly arrived living people from other places is often Fuguifang. Most of them have nothing to live on and are helpless. Although the shops in the Hua Wengdi store are pigeonholes, the charges are very low, and the commissions at the wharf run by the Brown Clothes Gang are also low. Therefore, many poor dead and living people relied on Hua Weng's protection and survived the most difficult time at the beginning.
Now that the store has been lost, the poor and poor have no place to live in peace.
Without the strong backbone of Hua Weng, how could anyone resist the ferocious power of Cave City?
Once the ghost king sets up a temple in Fuguifang.
With the arrogance and ferocity of that group of ferocious ghosts in Cave City, how could the fat water from the dock be allowed to escape? How can we tolerate the surrounding shanties as an eyesore?
I'm afraid that by then, all the living people in Fuguifang will be like the dead, and the dead will all be like the ownerless souls in the ditch.
The movements of Hua Weng's hands finally stopped.
He stared at the stone statue for a long time.
Turn back slowly.
Li Changan thought he would still say the old saying, "If we are not willing to follow the rules, who will be willing to follow the rules with us?"
But.
"Taoist Master Xuanxiao."
The old ghost's rare politeness made Li Changan stunned for a moment.
He sighed deeply: "You do better than me."
Li Changan: "In business, there are losses and wins, it all depends on luck..."
"No." Hua Weng interrupted, "I'm talking about the Ten Coin God."
The "Ten Money God" is an unexpected product for Li Changan, and he has never been too interested in it. But the clinker was unintentional. The incense of Shiqian God was booming earlier than the business of medicinal drinks. It had already left Fuguifang and spread to the sixty-four cities in the city.
The opportunity for its development is also funny.
Maritime trade in Qiantang was prosperous, but the waves were dangerous, and 45 out of 10 sailors never returned. Their wives were often left alone to guard their homes, unable to support their families.
There are many immigrants in Qiantang, including single and strong men.
Naturally, there is widespread talk of "extension".
The "opportunity" is such a man and woman.
The woman took care of her children, and her husband was away at sea for work, so she could not support the family alone. The man was a refugee who had fled, his family members died on the way, and he was alone.
The two sides were introduced and came together.
But before long, they discovered that they both had problems.
First, there is the woman. Although she seems to be smart and capable, she is actually a complete shrew. The most famous deed is that she blocked the door of her parents-in-law and scolded her in different ways for a whole day. Even the chickens and dogs, the rain and dew, were scolded all over! Her husband did not go to sea to work, but he could not bear the pain and sold himself to Southeast Asia.
The man's problem is simple, the man is a ghost.
One night at midnight, the woman lit incense at the entrance of the road, and Li Changan was summoned.
He originally thought that the two sides were entangled with each other, but who knew that the two sides were entangled, but one side loved the other's strong and honest nature, while the other was greedy for the other's fair skin and plumpness, but the other was afraid of the other's tongue-tied tongue, and the other was also afraid of the other's. To cause harm to others.
Inviting the "Ten Money God" to come is not to seek points, but to seek unity.
He asked Li Changan, the wild god, to be the intermediary to sign a contract, requiring people not to curse ghosts and ghosts not to harm others, so that He and Meimei could continue to live together.
Li Changan was speechless and received ten coppers for his hard work and a cold pig's head as matchmaker money.
Since then, the reputation of the Ten Money God has spread widely among the people.
"Where can there be such a god in the world?" the Taoist priest complained. "What you say about 'inviting household gods' is just sending ghosts to other people to hire workers. You are just a ghost fan. There are also contracts with people and ghosts, which are all trivial. Little things..."
There are so many trivial and bizarre things about the Ten Coin God that it actually makes the Taoist priest a chatterbox.
Hua Weng listened with a smile and nodded repeatedly.
"Okay! That's it."
"What's so good about it?" The Taoist priest was stunned.
"The little Taoist priest is also a ghost, can't you see clearly?" Hua Weng said, stroking his beard, "In Qiantang, once you become a ghost, as long as the spiritual tablet is not offered to the temple for viewing, it does not matter whether you have good or bad deeds in front of you, everything will be fine. You are not allowed to interact with him. When relatives and friends meet, they are not allowed to reveal their identity. Although they live in the same city, the yin and yang are always separated. The dead and the living are like neighbors who hate each other. They are vigilant all day long and do not dare to slack off. The living have to waste their wealth and make offerings to gods and Buddhas. Pray for a breath of peace. The dead have no choice but to huddle in the mud, struggling for reincarnation and body, always trembling, not daring to take a step beyond the thunder pond."
"Although what you have done is not a big deal, it can resolve the entanglement between humans and ghosts. It also allows those ghosts with skills to do what they were good at in life, without having to fight for food with the poor at the dock."
"The old man has been a ghost for more than two hundred years. He built a restaurant and claimed to help the poor. Now it seems that he just built an old tomb to protect a few wild ghosts from wind and rain. What's ridiculous is that now even this old tomb is useless. Otherwise it won’t be guaranteed.”
"You did a good job, better than me. You built a bridge between the living and the dead in Qian Tang."
Li Changan wanted to say that Hua Weng was too presumptuous.
But he was one step ahead and blocked the Taoist priest's words with his hand.
"We have been harassing my old friend for a long time."
Say no more and go out.
But the moment he pushed open the door of the small temple courtyard, his steps suddenly stopped.
There was a dense crowd of people outside the door. Just as Li Changan said, most of Fuguifang were looking for him.
Faces with different expressions filled the streets, and he knew every one of them, and he knew everyone's situation: guarding a shack, working a day's work and eating a day's food.
Without Fuguifang, one can imagine what the future will be like.
Hua Weng was filled with bitterness and wanted to apologize.
But the waist has been stiff for hundreds of years, and I don’t know how to bend down for a while.
The words were stuck in my throat and it was difficult to get them out.
"Old Hua!" someone shouted, "It doesn't matter if you lose your store, as long as you keep opening your mouth, the brothers will build you another one brick by brick!"
"Let him build a temple, and we'll guard the dock and don't provoke him."
"Mr. Hua, don't worry, we will collect the money to pay you back tomorrow."
All the words were filled with concern. Although panic and confusion were inevitable, there was no trace of blame.
unconsciously.
The old man was in tears.
