Chapter 671
I was tricked by Aunt Ping
Chen Ji was increasingly unable to figure out Old Ears' identity. Sometimes he felt that the other party was a master, but then he felt that he didn't. Sometimes he felt that the other party was just a little old man who ran a ship, but then he felt that he didn't.
When it was Chen Ji's turn to collect his wages, Old Li weighed out the loose silver on a small copper scale and was about to pour it into Chen Ji's hand, but Old Ears reached out and snatched it away.
Old Li was taken aback: "What are you doing?"
Old Ears chuckled: "He owes me, so from now on I'll collect all his wages."
Old Li glanced at Chen Ji: "You guys figure it out, next."
Chen Ji returned to the deck empty-handed, only to see the boatmen sitting down in twos and threes, watching eagerly as Gou Sheng started cooking.
He sat down on the edge of the ship's gunwale, silently watching the wide river. There were more than ten cargo ships on the river beside them, some heading north to Beijing, and others heading south to Suzhou and Hangzhou.
A large ship approached from the opposite direction. Old Li was on the stern, waving the crescent-shaped flagpole three times to the left and two times to the right. On the approaching ship, someone was also waving a flag, waving it once to the left and twice to the right before stopping.
Chen Ji couldn't understand what was going on.
Old Ears suddenly sat down next to him and explained, "This is asking if we've encountered any Jiang devils robbing goods ahead. The other party replied that they have and paid two hundred taels of silver to pass through."
At this moment, the other side started waving their flagpole first, and Lao Li responded by waving his own flag.
Old Li explained with a smile, "The other party asked about the current price of tea in the capital. Old Li replied that it was a time when prices were high and that they should hurry up and ship the goods."
The flag bearer on the opposite ship waved his flag forward three times, and Old Li made the exact same flag signal.
Old Ears translated: "Have a safe journey, have a safe journey."
Chen Ji asked curiously, "Is that Lao Li's friend on the other end?"
Old Ears shook his head: "No, the world is a long and winding road, and people meet by chance. That's what makes the world interesting. But don't assume that everyone is kind. It's just that they do different businesses. Otherwise, they would definitely want to tear each other apart."
Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "Why did you answer my questions without charging me this time?"
Old Ears said frankly, "This time I don't want any money, I just want to show off a bit."
Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "In all these years of traveling around the country, have you visited all the famous mountains and rivers?"
Old Ears glanced at him: "What, is there a place you want to ask about? Don't worry, no one in this world has traveled more roads than this old man. If this old man can't answer it, no one else can either."
Chen Ji subconsciously said, "Then do you know this place, north of Chongwu Mountain, where the Yellow Sand River bends, where the bronze ox carries a sword..."
Old Ear interrupted, "Forgot the rules? Trade a story for them."
Chen Ji racked his brains trying to come up with a story that would attract her: "In Taiyuan Prefecture, there was a scholar who encountered a young and beautiful woman crying sadly. The scholar went up to ask her what was wrong, and the woman said that she was a concubine in a wealthy family who had been abused by the wife and had escaped. The scholar was blinded by lust and secretly took the woman back to his study to hide her, meeting her secretly every night without his wife's knowledge."
Old Ears became interested: "And then?"
Chen Ji recalled the story of Painted Skin: "A few days later, the scholar encountered a Taoist priest. Upon seeing Wang Sheng, the priest was terrified and exclaimed that he was possessed by evil spirits..."
The old man interrupted impatiently, "I told you, I don't listen to anything supernatural."
Chen Ji asked curiously, "I thought you only didn't listen to ghost stories because you looked down on the gods in heaven, but why don't you listen to them either?"
Old Ears picked at his ears: "Ghost stories are just meant to scare people, but those wandering ghosts were just pitiful people in life, what's so scary about them? Hurry up and change the story, or this old man will be gone."
Chen Ji pondered for a moment: "There was once a noblewoman in the capital who fell in love with a man more than twenty years her senior..."
"Oh?" Old Ears perked up again: "I've never heard of that before... Could this man have the talent of a prime minister, or is he from some aristocratic family? Qi, Chen, Liu, Hu, Yang—which family?"
Chen Ji coughed twice: "After a woman married a man, she discovered that he had married her only because she looked like his deceased wife. When the woman found out, she wanted to divorce the man, but he refused and only neglected her. When the woman was heartbroken, she fell in love with another man, but this man happened to be her husband's younger brother."
Old Ears widened his eyes: "Can't we go to another one?"
Chen Ji continued, seemingly oblivious to the situation: "She was having an affair with her brother and became pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. Unable to bear the thought of aborting them, she went back to her husband and slept with him, lying that the children were the other man's… Later, her husband discovered the affair between his brother and wife and murdered his brother…"
Chen Ji talked for a long time, and the old man listened with great interest. At the end, he asked, "You made this up, didn't you? In my memory, no one in the capital can match this account. What's the story called? Don't worry, as long as it's interesting enough, you can make it up for money."
Chen Ji honestly replied, "The Legend of Zhen Huan."
Old Ears pondered for a moment: "Alright, this story is worth a thousand taels of silver. If you want to ask me anything, you'll have to tell me another one." Chen Ji's eyes lit up. So valuable?
He thought for a moment and then continued, "An emperor, traveling incognito outside the palace, met a woman named Xia Yuhe. The two fell in love and pledged their love. Xia Yuhe gave birth to a daughter, Xia Ziwei, out of wedlock, but the emperor left without saying goodbye... Years later, Xia Yuhe passed away. Ziwei, carrying keepsakes, went to the capital to find her father. On the way, she met a woman from the martial arts world named Xiaoyanzi... The two entered the palace together, but due to a series of misunderstandings, Xiaoyanzi was mistakenly given the title of Princess Huanzhu, while the real princess, Ziwei, was reduced to a maid. And the emperor fell in love with Ziwei..."
Old Ears scratched his gray hair: "My head is itching from listening to all this... Where the hell did you find these ridiculous stories? They're way too melodramatic."
Chen Ji said matter-of-factly, "Then don't worry about it, as long as it's interesting. If you like listening to these kinds of stories, I have plenty more."
Old Ears moved closer to Chen Ji: "Tell me another one."
Chen Ji reached into Old Ear's sleeve and took out the boatman's wages, along with Old Ear's share: "That was also a thousand taels of silver. You still owe me four hundred and ninety-six taels, six fen, and four li."
Old Ears laughed in anger: "You've got guts, what did you ask just now?"
Chen Ji repeated, "North of Chongwu Mountain, where the Yellow Sand River bends, there's a bronze ox carrying a sword. What place is this?"
Old Ears closed his eyes: "The first of the three western classics is Mount Chongwu, which is south of the river... This is not the territory of Ning Dynasty, but in Longyou Road of Jing Dynasty."
He opened his eyes and looked at Chen Ji: "Chongwu Mountain is a place of ancient legends, but after traveling all over the country, I think only 'Zhongwei Xiangshan' north of Guyuan matches the description in ancient books. And there really is a Yellow River flowing through the north of Zhongwei Xiangshan. I have heard a strange story. More than 300 years ago, the Yellow River breached its banks and changed its course, revealing a bronze ox at the bottom of the riverbed. A bronze ancient sword was stuck diagonally on the ox's back. People called it the River-Suppressing Bronze Ox or the Sword-Carrying God."
Chen Ji was shocked. The other party had actually managed to escape from the Hidden Sword Land. Wu Yun meowed in Chen Ji's arms, "So fierce!"
Chen Ji pressed further, "Are the bronze ox and the sword still there?"
Old Ear recalled, "It should still be there. It is said that this bronze ox is strange. Even officials in the Dao Seeking Realm cannot move it. It seems to grow on the ground. I also went to look for it out of curiosity, but the bronze ox was submerged by the Yellow River."
Chen Ji looked Old Ears up and down, as if he had struck gold. Old Ears gave a forced smile: "I can tell from your expression that I've lost out big time. You won't be able to fill the gaps in your story anymore. I want to hear the real story."
At this moment, Gousheng shouted, "Dinner's ready!"
Old Li waved his hand from the stern: "Eat, then go to sleep!"
The boatman went to the pot and saw that Gou Sheng had cooked a large pot of pork and mutton offal, and sprinkled a handful of pepper on it. After taking a sip of the hot pepper soup, his body warmed up instantly.
Old Li ladled out a bowl and took it to the top deck of the stern. Chen Ji watched his back as he entered the room, but he didn't know why the ship owner kept the door closed.
Old Ears also filled a bowl, took a bite and frowned: "The food on your boat is still so awful. Can't you hire a boatwoman? After eating this food on your boat, I'm afraid to die, for fear that I'll have to eat this stuff again when I pass away."
Old Li came out of the stern and, hearing his sarcasm, laughed and replied, "What's there to be picky about when you're out on a ship? As long as you can bring back some money to give to your parents and wife, that's enough."
Old Ears put the bowl on the deck, got up, and went into the cabin: "Time to sleep."
After finishing their meal, the boatmen went back to the cabin together. To make room for cargo, the boatmen's bunks were stacked into upper and lower bunks, and the boatmen lay in the wooden troughs as if they were sleeping in coffins.
Chen Ji lay there, and after only a few breaths, the sounds of snoring rose and fell. The next moment, a torrent of ice energy poured out from his dantian, filling his limbs and bones in the blink of an eye.
Chen Ji kept his eyes tightly shut, his teeth chattering from the cold, but he refused to let his consciousness sink into the black sea of clouds.
The dark cloud noticed his unusual behavior and pressed its body tightly against his chest, protecting his last remaining heart.
Chen Ji fell into a deep sleep, and it was unknown how long it took before he slowly woke up.
He opened his eyes and saw dark clouds shrinking into a ball on his chest. The boatmen had all disappeared, and the sound of crashing waves came from outside the boat.
"Thank you," Chen Ji touched the dark clouds, got up and went up to the deck, but was shocked by what he saw: the Anlan was drifting on the boundless sea, and when he looked back, he could no longer see the land.
Old Li was directing from the stern, while the boatmen were busy on the deck. Old Ears, who was on the mast lookout, saw him walk onto the deck and slid down the mast: "I couldn't wake you up for six hours. I thought you were dead."
Chen Ji turned to look at him, and asked hesitantly, "Why did the ship go out to sea?"
Old Ears gloated, "Didn't the person who arranged for you to board the ship tell you that it was loaded with a full load of cow sinews and horns that could be used to make bows, and that it was originally intended to be sold to Jingchao?"
Chen Ji stood there, stunned.
No wonder this ship has officers guarding the cargo, no wonder it needs an old hand like Old Ears who has connections in both the Ning and Jing dynasties. He was deceived by Aunt Ping; she didn't want him to stay in the Ning dynasty, risking his life, and only wanted him to leave for distant lands. (End of Chapter)