Chapter 151: The Heart-Weighing Scale, The Hundred Illnesses Cabinet (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Lang Xiao Ba hesitated for a moment before saying, "Actually, even if we ignore the Pingtian Society's attempt to establish a temple entrance, they will find it difficult to set one up.

The Sanhuo Niangniang Society will not agree in the first place.

The members of the Sanhuo Niangniang Society firmly believe that San Huo Niangniang is still alive; as long as she is alive, a temple cannot be established, so they cannot tolerate other societies setting up temples within the city.

As soon as anyone spreads such news, the Sanhuo Niangniang Society will come to 'weigh' whether you have the qualification.

Even if you pass the Sanhuo Niangniang Society's test, the strange entities within the city will not submit.

Establishing a temple entrance in the city is essentially the same as establishing a hall entrance; one must not only satisfy the living but also gain the consent of the strange entities."

Song Lu, full of interest in such "jianghu anecdotes," said, "Let's go find the Sanhuo Niangniang Society!"

Fu Jingyu said, "Ask them to help find Zhang Laoya while we are at it."

Xu Yuan stood up and said, "Then let's go together. Captain Lang, please lead the way."

Most of the various hall entrances in Zhan City are located in Nancheng.

A large number of boatmen, laborers, carriage drivers, and porters rely on the canal docks outside the city for their livelihood; they are the main source of the society's members.

Lang Xiao Ba led everyone to Chengnan, passed the Zhan City Government's Nancheng Patrol Office, turned east, and entered a bustling main street.

"This is Guanglan Street. You lords may not feel there is anything special about it, but for the societies making a living in the marketplace, only those who can establish a hall entrance on this street can be called a big shot in Zhan City!"

Song Lu looked with particular curiosity and pointed at a restaurant, "Which society's hall entrance is this?"

"This is the 'Five Flavors Tower,' where our Nancheng Patrol Office often eats; it is a legitimate business."

Song Lu blinked, "Didn't you just say..."

"Not every place on this street can be a hall entrance," Lang Xiao Ba said with a bitter smile. "Such a prime location would be wasted if all were used for hall entrances; most are legitimate businesses.

Moreover, the hall entrances here strive to maintain order and do not allow other societies to cause trouble or make disturbances.

After all... the owners here pay significantly more in regular fees every month than those elsewhere."

After walking a while longer, Lang Xiao Ba pointed to a brothel ahead and said, "That is the Pingtian Society's Zhan City branch."

Xu Yuan took a look and made a mental note of it.

Lang Xiao Ba pointed out four hall entrances along the way, "Including the Sanhuo Niangniang Society, there are only five families qualified to enter Guanglan Street in Zhan City. For others to enter, they must kill one of them off with real swords and spears."

Song Lu had already gained some experience; along the way, these hall entrances were either brothels or gambling dens, so she looked for similar establishments on both sides of the street, assuming they must be the Sanhuo Niangniang Society's hall entrances.

"Captain Song," Lang Xiao Ba suddenly called out to her, "You've passed it; this is the place."

Song Lu turned back to look: Huode Jishi Hall.

"This is a pharmacy?"

"This is the place," Lang Xiao Ba said with a smile.

The Sanhuo Niangniang Society's hall entrance is different from others.

Several quite magnificent carriages were parked at the pharmacy entrance, but ordinary people in tattered clothes also came in and out.

Regardless of wealth or poverty, every person entering displayed a particularly conflicted and hesitant expression at the door.

Those coming out, however, had faces interwoven with hope and pain.

A shop assistant inside, seeing someone blocking their entrance, jumped out with a dark face to scold them, but upon seeing Lang Xiao Ba, immediately switched to a smiling face, "Oh, isn't this Lord Lang? What wind has blown you here..."

Lang Xiao Ba gave him no good look and pointed at the people coming and going around, "How many people have you scammed this time?"

"How can you call it scamming? You know that we of the Sanhuo Laomu Society all carry a 'Moral Fire' on our backs; if we truly do something against conscience, we will be the first to be burned.

We open our doors to sell life-saving medicine, and the prices are not set by us.

They come to buy medicine only when they have exhausted all other options; selling to them is truly accumulating virtue and doing good deeds!"

Lang Xiao Ba was too lazy to argue with him, "Who is in charge of the hall entrance today?"

"Ge Huotou is here."

"He is not qualified; which Huoshi is present?"

The shop assistant glanced at the official robes on Xu Yuan and immediately said, "Please, lords, come inside first; I will go to the back hall to ask."

The shop assistant led the way first; as soon as Xu Yuan entered, he saw a portrait one zhang high enshrined in the main hall, causing Xu Yuan to almost trip over himself.

The woman in the portrait, who else could it be but Wang Shen in her youth?

Below the portrait, a huge medicine cabinet leaned against the wall, and a large scale stood in the middle of the open space.

The scale beam was as thick as a child's arm and seven chi long, yet it had no markings.

The scale weight was strangely just a bamboo cage the size of a fist.

Those seeking medicine were queuing up on the side.

When it was a wealthy old man wearing a square Pingding hat and a hempen robe, he clasped his hands toward the medicine cabinet and said, "I seek medicine for my young son."

After a moment, the medicine cabinet clanged open a single medicine drawer.

The attending pharmacist took the medicine pill inside, placed it into the bamboo cage of the scale weight, and said to the old man, "Pay up."

The old man gritted his teeth, took four silver notes from his bosom, and placed them on the scale pan.

Each silver note was worth one hundred taels!

But the scale weight side did not move at all, pressing down heavily.

The attending pharmacist then smiled, "It seems this young son does not hold much weight in your lordship's heart."

The lord gritted his teeth again, took out four hundred taels worth of silver notes and placed them on top; the scale weight was lifted slightly.

The lord had to increase the price again; finally, he placed a full sixteen hundred taels worth of silver notes on the scale, and only then did the beam barely balance.

The pharmacist took the silver notes and handed the medicine pill to the lord, "Very well, take it back for your Young Master to take; the medicine will surely cure the illness upon arrival."

The old man left with a grieving face.

The next person was a poor scholar seeking medicine for a chaste courtesan, his beloved confidante.

In the end, the scholar, with a grieving face, wrote a note stating "Debt to the Sanhuo Laomu Society for five years," placed it in the scale pan, and bought that single medicine pill.

This would delay things by five years, making it impossible to take the imperial examinations for official rank.

But there were also those who, after speaking their request for medicine to the medicine cabinet, found the cabinet remained utterly still.

This meant the person could not be saved; that individual would then collapse entirely onto the ground, weeping bitterly.

Song Lu watched with eyes wide open. Lang Xiao Ba said, "What is being weighed is the weight of the person they wish to save in their own hearts.

They must place on the scale pan the highest price they are willing to pay for the patient before they can take the life-saving medicine pill."

"This craftwork is truly miraculous," Song Lu praised.

A layer of pride surfaced on the shop assistant's face: "Such a 'Hundred Maladies Cabinet' and 'Heart-Measuring Scale'—the Three Fire Old Mothers Society possesses three sets in total, all left behind by San Huo Niangniang in years past."

As they spoke here, the scale beam suddenly tilted level with a shift.

If this scale were a person, it would be as if... it had been concentrating intently on some task, when suddenly someone nearby spoke a word, catching its attention.

Fu Jingyu also nodded and offered a word of praise: "Clever!"

The shop assistant smiled, raised his hand, and guided the group toward a door on the side: "My lords, this way, please."

Xu Yuan and the others followed.

No one present noticed that the scale beam slowly tilted level, following Xu Yuan's movements.

Just as Xu Yuan's figure disappeared behind that door, the "scale weight" suddenly crashed heavily to the ground with a thud.

What was originally a light, floating bamboo basket had actually smashed a hole directly into the green brick floor of the main hall!

(End of this chapter)