Along the way, they grabbed almost all the pedestrians and street vendors" attention. Those people firstly looked at the coffin on Gao Jue"s shoulder, then Gao Jue, and finally focused on He Danggui from head to foot.
Although Tu"er Town was small, it was not unusual to see one or two coffins carrying dead people on the street every day. But a strange thing that attracted people"s attention appeared. Even very poor family would hire at least two or three men to carry it as long as they could afford it. Why was that man carrying the coffin alone? Who was he? How could he have such a strange power? Therefore, the attention of the pedestrians was distracted from the coffin to the person carrying it. They could tell from his physique and expression that he looked like a stubborn man, so they frustratedly turned their gaze to the person behind him instantly.
With a closer look, many people were deeply attracted. At a glance, they found a young girl in yellow. Her skin was fair and her eyebrows were very beautiful. She even looked better than those women in the paintings.
They saw that she wore a yellow cloth s.h.i.+rt with small sleeves and narrow waist, and a pair of small linen shoes. Her black hair was simply coiled on her head with a red lacquered chopstick. A few strands of hair on her temples were scattered but not disordered. Such a bad dress on her was like putting a legendary luminous pearl in a beggar"s bowl. She was so dazzling. For the most villagers who hadn"t seen any beauties, this girl was as beautiful as a fairy in their eyes.
Suddenly, the girl smiled slightly. A moving and thoughtful expression appeared on her fair oval face. Then she turned around and said something to a young Taoist nun who shared a similar age beside her. People nearby couldn"t help listening to what she said, so she raised her head to see what happened. Her eyes looked like clear water. She glanced around and might not have looked at anyone deliberately, but those who had been glanced had the feeling that "she was looking at me".
Jing Renxing, the shopkeeper of Coffin Shop of Jing, kowtowed three times to the G.o.d of Wealth"s joss in the inner hall, burning joss sticks and praying, "G.o.d bless me, many people have died for disasters this year, which allowed me to earn a lot of money. I wish more people will die next year, and then I can make more money!" After praying, he asked the shop a.s.sistants to open the door and start the business of a new day.
When the shop a.s.sistants removed the third door panel, a small and beautiful face flashed in front of Jing Renxing. He ran out of the shop unconsciously, only saw the backs of three people and the tall man walking in front carrying a coffin on his shoulder. Jing Renxing"s eyes were very narrow. It looked similar in others" eyes whether his eyes opened or squinted. He looked at them for a moment, and his eyes suddenly lighted. It seemed to be a coffin made of fragrant wood! How could people in Tu"er Town use a fragrant wooden coffin to carry the dead!
After their figures disappeared in Jing Renxing"s vision, he licked his lips unhappily and walked back to the coffin shop.
Under the command of He Danggui, Gao Jue carried the coffin through two streets and walked around in front of the Coffin Shop of Jing. Then he walked through three streets and put the coffin at the door of Coffin Shop of Li. The shopkeeper and the a.s.sistants followed the sound to see it.
Gao Jue held his arms around his chest and looked at the sky. Zhen Jing followed He Danggui into Coffin Shop of Li.
Not until Gao Jue changed his gesture to cross his hands behind his back and started to check his shoes did He Danggui walk out of the coffin shop with Zhen Jing, telling Gao Jue to carry the coffin and go on walking. Gao Jue didn"t refuse.
Zhen Jing covered her mouth in shock, shaking her head constantly and mumbling, "140 liang silver for a coffin?! A year"s harvest of the crops in my family is only worth 2 liang sliver. That means this coffin would cost 70 years of crops of my family! No, no, no, we also need to pay for food and clothes… Xiaoyi, why are we leaving? Aren"t we going to sell it to them? It"s 140 liang silver!"
He Danggui smiled, "This shop is small and merely has customers, and they definitely don"t have enough working fund at hand, so I wasn"t planning to sell my coffin to this shop at first. This coffin would be my first pot of gold. I would like to try my best to earn more. By doing so, I would have more choices with more money in my future business dealings."
Zhen Jing was so curious, "But why is your coffin worth such amount of money? How much did you pay for it?"
He Danggui signed Gao Jue to walk towards Coffin Shop of Jing and talked slowly, "In ancient times, a general of Country Shu named Guan Yu was killed by Lv Meng, a subordinate of Sun Quan from Country Wu, and his head was cut off and sent to Cao Cao of Country Wei as a present. Cao Cao thought this was Sun Quan"s tricks of letting him be the scapegoat. So, he used fragrant wood to make a body for Guan Yu and buried it well. Three days later, the ghost of Guan Yu returned and killed his enemy, Lv Meng, fulfilling his revenge. Since then, a story had been told among the public that if a person who died wrongly was kept inside a fragrant wooden coffin, this person would bless his families and punish the guilty ones. However, the fragrant wood is too expensive. In ordinary times, even a wealthy family would only cost a few liang of fragrant wood on burning joss sticks. Seldom had people used fragrant wood to make coffins."
Zhen Jing blinked her eyes, "Well, you"ve been treated nicely by your family then, preparing a fragrant wooden coffin for you.
He Danggui nodded, "I"m the only child of my mother. She was listening to Scriptures when she heard about my death, and then she said something about "The immortals want me dead". The Taoist nuns in Sanqing Temple comforted her and advised her to make a high-cla.s.s fragrant wooden coffin for me, saying that children died in their preteen was carrying a strong grievance and it"s bad for the elders" health, but fragrant wood would help defuse the dead"s anger. So, my mother took 500 liang silver from her dowry…"
"500?!" Zhen Jing"s voice were like a duck being stepped on its neck.
"Let me finish," He Danggui tapped on Zhen Jing"s shoulder to comfort her a little bit, "500 liang silver were only used to buy the fragrant wood. Another 30 liang silver for the craftsmen were paid by Luo"s Family. Fragrant wood"s texture is soft and it would only take a half day"s work to make an elegant fragrant wooden coffin. My coffin was made from 5 different fragrant woods. The sleeper for the dead ones to pillow—the one I pried away and gave to you—is a high-cla.s.s lignaloes and it is worth over 300 liang silver…"
Zhen Jing reached inside her clothes hurriedly. He Danggui comforted her again with patting. She smiled, "Things like lignaloes would not get a fair price in Tu"er Town. That"s why I pried it away so that I can sell it in Yangzhou City in the future. In this way, the cost of the coffin is 230 liang silver, which means, we need to sell it at least at a price of 230, so we could earn some money. You know, no matter buying the materials or paying the craftsmen, they all depend on Luo"s Family. That is to say, if a normal rich person wants to buy this, it will be much more expensive, 270 at least."
After listening with her mouth open, Zhen Jing asked a reasonable question, "So, these things all happened after your "death" and you didn"t go back to Luo"s Family yet. Why do you know it so clearly?"
He Danggui winked and lied, "Well, did you forget? I wrote to my mother before and she told me these things in her reply."
In fact, she heard about these things after she went back to Luo"s Family in the previous life. At that time, her mother was abandoned by her stepfather, so she became sad and cared about nothing. But when she heard her daughter was reborn, she was very excited and thought it was because of her prayer and wors.h.i.+p. So, she had been living in Sanqing Temple to listen to the Scriptures intently, and forgot about the expensive fragrant wooden coffin. Later, when she finally remembered and sent people to ask for it, the coffin had already been sold by Tai Shan at a low price. It was said that Coffin Shop of Jing, which purchased coffins in Tu"er Town, had made a killing, sold the coffin and bought a rural housing. Therefore, Jing"s Family became the richest family in Tu"er Town.
A few days ago, He Danggui recalled this "history" in her past, and she made a decision. She wanted to make money through her coffin and decided that she must sell the fragrant wooden coffin in Tu"er Town. If she took it back to Luo"s Family, Second Mistress Luo would definitely give a pretext to confiscate it and hide it in her small warehouse.
Jing Renxing, the shopkeeper of Coffin Shop of Jing, was still concerned about the fragrant wooden coffin. Then he saw three people—a tall man carried the coffin, a beautiful girl in yellow and a Taoist nun with a round face come back.
"Well, well, well, where are you going? The coffin is heavy. If you want coffins and heavers, just come to my shop!" Shopkeeper Jing stopped them hurriedly when they pa.s.sed by. It seemed he was soliciting business, but actually he just wanted to confirm if he was wrong about the coffin.
General coffins were always painted with two coasts of black paint. The fragrant wooden coffin was only painted by ba.s.swood glue to prevent it from insects and stink, keeping the fragrance at the same time. He only saw the appearance of the coffin in distance just now, but now he approached to smell and touch it. He finally confirmed that the coffin the man in black carried was a fragrant wooden coffin, and it was definitely cla.s.sy!
Shopkeeper Jing found the man in black was staring at him when he recalled himself. Then he noticed that he stepped on the man"s feet while he threw himself to touch the coffin!
"I didn"t mean to, young man, don"t be too testy. Well, how about coming to my shop, and I will offer you some tea to make amends." Shopkeeper Jing stooped with a posture of inviting them in. The man in black looked at the girl in yellow behind him. The girl chuckled and her clear voice was like small claws scratching to Shopkeeper Jing"s mind, "I"m also thirsty, and it"s not appropriate to get in a teahouse with a coffin. Let"s stay here for a cup of tea from the shopkeeper."
Shopkeeper Jing welcomed. Then they walked into Coffin Shop of Jing.
"I wonder where you are going. Why do you carry an empty coffin and walk in the street in the early morning?" Shopkeeper Jing politely served a pot of oolong tea and wanted to pour for them in person.
He Danggui smiled slightly and thanked him, "I"m flattered. I can do it by myself."
Then she took the boiling pot and warmed the tecup one by one. She extended these cups in an arc shape and took the spout of purple clay teapot with one hand, using her fingers to hold the lid and showed a gap between the spout and the lid. After a movement called Guangong Xuncheng, she poured the tea into the cups. When the tea was about to pour out, she slightly shook her wrist and dropped the rest tea into these cups, making the color of tea perfectly even and appropriate. The dark purple pot was so delectable in her pure white hands. The whole movements were done at one go naturally and smoothly.
"Please enjoy it." He Danggui got a cup of tea first and smelled, then she said with a smile, "Nice tea—Dongding oolong tea." Although it was inferior Dongding oolong tea, the scent of it was still memorable.
When Shopkeeper Jing served the tea just now, Gao Jue"s eyelids drooped with his charming face like a stone, obviously showing his dislike of the tea. However, seeing He Danggui"s tea art seem to change the waste into the valuable, he also got himself a cup of tea and smelled the refres.h.i.+ng scent as expected.
If Liao Zhiyuan and Duan Xiaolou had been here, they would have cried out. Gao Jue still looked expressionless, but there was a smile in his dark eyes. Everyone familiar with Gao Jue knew that the look was his most "friendly" expression. The last time he had this kind of expression was at the feast for celebrating his daughter"s first month of life.
Shopkeeper Jing also picked up a cup of tea and sipped, then said with surprise, "Oh my! That"s quite enjoyable! Young lady, you are excellent! I usually drink this tea, but never know it can taste so great! And I made the tea first, but you just made such a wonderful aroma through several operations. I can"t imagine how great the taste would be if you performed the whole process."
He Danggui took a sip of tea with a smile and continued to the topic which Shopkeeper Jing mentioned, "One could be a master in his own special field. I can just make tea. That"s not a big deal. But it"s admiring for you to know it"s an empty coffin within a simple glance."
"That"s right." Shopkeeper Jing squinted his small eyes with pride, "I have taken up funeral industry for more than 30 years, and I know things about coffins and the dead very well. I know clearly the material, weight and value of a coffin and whether there is a dead person or not, even the number of dead people in it within a glance."
"Oh? That"s magical." He Danggui asked with a lively interest, "The coffin is sealed. How could you know the coffin is empty or not, shopkeeper?"
Shopkeeper Jing came near her and whispered mysteriously, "This is a secret of the funeral industry and I"m not supposed to tell you, but you and I are congenial. So, I"m willing to tell you… The dead person…is the heaviest. When people walk through with a dead person carrying in the coffin, the footprints on the ground would be deep and evident, and the middle of these prints would be black…Also, while carrying those empty coffins, not only are the footprints shallow but people who carry the coffins have to stand straight!"
Hearing his tone was spooky, Zhen Jing s.h.i.+vered. But He Danggui chuckled. She thought he was weird. What kind of foundation was that? Gao Jue could stand straight and leave shallow footprints even if he was asked to carry a stone lion.
Seeing that He Danggui didn"t buy his explanation, Shopkeeper Jing emphasized, "I"m serious. The coffins relate to something ominous and evil! Eh? By the way, where were you intend to go? Why are you walking on the street with an empty coffin?" Meanwhile, he glanced at the fragrant wooden coffin which was in the room center and sounded out, "I think your coffin is not bad."
Zhen Jing asked at once, "How much do you think it is worth?" The shopkeeper of Coffin Shop of Li was willing to buy the coffin with all his money—140 liang silver. And this shop was three to four times as big as Li"s and their decorations were better, too, so he might offer a higher price.
Shopkeeper Jing"s eyes moved quickly, and he said authoritatively, "In my opinion, this coffin should be worth between 80 and 100 liang silver."
Zhen Jing felt disappointed to hear such an answer.