Chapter 206: Golden Carp Delivering Children, Boy and Girl

"What big and fresh golden carp!"

When Xu Qing left Tongyue Restaurant, logically speaking, the fish seller Eagle-beak should have already left the market, but when he came out, he found that this person was still circling the nearby streets.

Looking at the fish basket again, Eagle-beak deliberately lifted the lid, and with his long hands and feet, he hung the fish basket very low, just so that the people around could see the few big golden carp he had caught in his basket.

Linjiang is near the water, and there are many people who catch and play with fish. Eagle-beak circled around two or three times, and many people came over to ask questions.

"Eagle-beak, these big golden carp are quite something! Which feng shui treasure land did you find this nest in? We're all old acquaintances; don't hide it, otherwise, it looks like you're not generous."

The one asking was a wealthy playboy. The fish basket he was carrying was woven from ivory, with Hetian green jade inlaid at the mouth, shaped like two fish holding a pearl, with characters engraved on the fish: "Good Fortune and Abundance."

Even the lining of the fish basket was mounted with fish-bladder glue and silk; not to mention holding fish, it wouldn't leak a drop even if it held water!

Look at the fishing gear tucked under his arm: the fishing rod was made of green imperial bamboo from Nanyuan, and the fishing line was made of golden silkworm thread from Shu, known as the "Dragon Whisker Rope."

Except for the Dragon King, no matter what fish it was, as long as it was on this golden hook, it was as good as dead for a lifetime, and it was worth it!

Unfortunately, this playboy had a big appetite but poor skills. Holding the best fishing rod, he could only catch small white strips and thin willow fish all day long.

Every day when he went home, he either had to sneak back in the dark or buy two fish of decent size from others and pretend he caught them himself, just to dare to go back.

Otherwise, it was easy to be laughed at.

Over time, two famous people appeared in the fishing circle: one was the eagle-nosed, long-handed, long-footed "Divine Angler Eagle-beak," and the other was this playboy whose fishing gear was more expensive than the fish.

Someone mocked the playboy beside him: "Master He, why are you asking about these? I heard that your golden hook hasn't even caught a fish three fingers long. The only few big ones were hung on the hook by people biting reed stalks and diving underwater."

"No wonder they call him Eagle-beak; not to mention fish, even if it were a dragon in the sky, he could hook it with just a straw rope."

"Master He has too many considerations; even for a small grass carp, he has to use a golden rope or a silver rope to hook it!"

Look at how sharp that mouth was; it immediately turned Master He's face the color of liver paste.

Master He was so angry his mouth was crooked!

Look at Eagle-beak again, he was laughing happily from being praised.

Just at this moment, the shopkeeper of Deshun Restaurant next door opened the window on the second-floor eaves and shouted: "Eagle-beak, two hundred wen each, I want all these fish, send them up!"

Eagle-beak curled his lips upon hearing this, tilted his long neck, and deliberately elongated his tone: "These fish can't be sold. The shopkeeper of Tongyue Restaurant said that the golden carp deliver children, and his wife just became pregnant. He spent 'one whole tael of silver' for me to take these fish to release and fulfill a vow. I can't go back on my word."

"If the shopkeeper really wants them, another day, another day I'll go catch some good fish and send them to you!"

Xu Qing carried the food box and didn't take it to heart. There are many capable people in Jinmen, and knowing how to fish is nothing strange.

However, as luck would have it, just as Eagle-beak's voice fell, a carriage happened to drive along the street.

Just after Eagle-beak finished speaking, a cold, stopping shout suddenly came from inside the carriage.

"Stop!"

The crepe-covered curtain was lifted, and a eunuch dressed in a dark purple robe and wearing a silver-topped eunuch hat revealed himself.

The eunuch was about twenty or thirty years old, with a pale, hairless face and a sinister expression. When he lifted the curtain, a follower acted as a human stool, kneeling on the ground for him to step on as he got down.

Once his boots touched the ground, the purple-robed eunuch lifted his chin, and immediately someone went over to bring Eagle-beak to him.

"Let me take a look at your fish..."

"These fish aren't bad; I'll take them!"

"Master, these fish already have an owner," Eagle-beak said cautiously.

The eunuch gave a sinister laugh: "Whatever price others pay you, you pay them back the same. I'm determined to have these fish today!"

After speaking, the eunuch reached into his bosom and took out a small silver ingot. The ingot wasn't large, about ten taels, with a unique shape—it was official palace silver.

Eagle-beak's eyes lit up at the sight of money. Seeing the eunuch hand the silver right in front of him, he immediately forgot his previous promise completely. He put down the fish basket, bowed his body, stretched out both hands, and stared eagerly at the silver ingot as if he were receiving his own biological child.

Seeing this, the eunuch chuckled, tilted his hand, and the silver ingot shifted direction and fell to the ground.

Eagle-beak hurriedly picked up the silver ingot and laughed: "Master, these golden carp are yours. Consider the fish basket a gift from me."

Why did this eunuch insist on having these golden carp for no reason? The reason was none other than Eagle-beak's words: "Golden carp deliver children, and I'm going to take the fish to release and fulfill a vow."

What kind of person is a eunuch? He is someone without sons or daughters, someone whose roots have been cut, someone whose family line is severed!

Others feel awe and want to release the golden carp to seek more children and blessings in the future, but the eunuch is different.

A rootless person has no scruples. What golden carp or silver carp, delivering sons or daughters—what does that have to do with him?

"Cook these fish. I want to dine in your restaurant today."

The eunuch in the dark purple robe looked up and happened to meet the eyes of the owner of Deshun Restaurant.

The latter hurriedly agreed, then closed the window, presumably intending to come downstairs to host him personally.

It was also at this moment that the eunuch who wanted to eat fish suddenly heard someone calling from behind.

"Brother Zhang, long time no see."

"Are you Shopkeeper Xu of the Funeral Service?" Zhang Jun looked at Xu Qing, whose appearance hadn't changed much, and felt very subtle inside.

"Indeed."

At this moment, Xu Qing looked at Zhang Jun, who had changed quite a bit, and also felt very emotional.

An oil seller, taking the oil-selling money he had saved for many years, traveled thousands of miles to send the girl he loved to Jinmen to seek relatives, only for the girl to turn around and plunge into a brothel, choosing an old man to complete the "combing" ceremony.

The girl said everything was forced by life, and once she saved enough money to redeem herself, she would definitely run away with the oil seller.

What a big pie—and a twice-reheated flying pie at that.

Even so, the oil seller still believed her. After entering the patrol office, his monthly salary was, without exception, given to the girl he admired to redeem herself.

But who could have imagined that this woman, who was a master at making pies, would later fall in love with a protector of the Heavenly Heart Sect and become obsessed with him, stabbing the person who was willing to give everything for her with a sharp blade?

The former oil seller, the then-government office runner Zhang, was now Eunuch Zhang.

Xu Qing marveled at the great change in a person.

Zhang Jun was equally surprised, but what he was surprised about was—why are you still doing your funeral business?

"Brother Xu, it's not that I'm lecturing you, but what's so good about that business of the dead? Why not come into the palace with me? Not to mention anything else, becoming a palace attendant would be easy."

"Brother Zhang..."

Zhang Jun suddenly frowned and interrupted: "Just call me Eunuch Zhang, Brother Xu. I don't feel comfortable hearing that title now."

"..."

Xu Qing was speechless.

Inside Deshun Restaurant, Xu Qing sat with his old acquaintance who was missing a few pieces, and said: "The world thinks the business I do is unlucky, but when it really comes to handling funeral arrangements, someone like me has to step up."

"As for me, I find joy in it. Even if I occasionally meet lonely elderly people with no one to care for them, I'm willing to be a junior for once, to shroud and bury them. Even when it comes to paying respects, if there's no paper burned at a grave, I can tell. As long as my shop is still here, I won't let them be cut off from incense and paper money." Seeing Zhang Jun frown, Xu Qing continued unhurriedly: "I am all alone. If I lie in a coffin in the future, I'm afraid it will be hard for living people to burn paper or keep vigil for me. So I think about accumulating more yin virtue now. If there really comes a day when I'm gone, I think there will always be one or two people who will remember my kindness and come to mourn."

"Does Eunuch Zhang think so or not?"

Hearing this, Zhang Jun's frowned brow suddenly relaxed, and he asked: "Has Shopkeeper Xu never thought about marrying and starting a family?"

"..."

Xu Qing glanced at Zhang Jun. Who was the one who just kept saying he wanted to take him into the palace to work?

Once a person becomes a eunuch, their heart is bound to be small. Xu Qing didn't think Zhang Jun was caring about him.

"White bones, flesh and skin, pink skulls—in the end, it's just a handful of yellow earth. In my eyes, marrying and having children is the thought of a vulgar person. Does Eunuch Zhang think I am a vulgar person?"

"Hahaha! Brother Xu still has such insight!"

Seeing Zhang Jun laughing until he was shaking, Xu Qing knew the timing was ripe.

Taking a sip of wine, Xu Qing suddenly said: "Eunuch, those golden carp look good, but they aren't as delicious as ordinary carp. Why not sell them to me to feed my cat? I wonder what the Eunuch thinks?"

"Feed your cat?"

"To tell you the truth, Eunuch, I have a black cat at home that I hired the year before last. In a few days, it will be the anniversary of hiring the cat. If I have these golden carp to give to it, I think it will be very happy."

"Easy, easy. Consider these golden carp a gift from me to Brother Xu..."

Zhang Jun didn't care whether what Xu Qing said was true or false. He only knew that what was said hit the mark in his heart, and making him happy was more important than anything else.

At this time, the golden carp had already been sent to the kitchen. As for whether the golden carp were dead or alive, Zhang Jun didn't care at all. After all, dead fish could also be used to feed cats, and even if they were live fish, once they entered the cat's mouth, they would become dead fish.

But strangely, when the waiter brought the fish basket back, not a single fish inside was damaged.

Zhang Jun's attention wasn't on the fish basket. He didn't really want to eat fish earlier; in the end, it was just because what Eagle-beak said made him unhappy and stepped on his broken tail.

Otherwise, Zhang Jun wouldn't have been bored enough to buy fish to eat.

Xu Qing's attention had been on the fish basket, but when he saw that the fish were all alive and well, he didn't show any strange expression.

Only the shopkeeper of Deshun Restaurant and the head chef in the back kitchen were wiping cold sweat behind their backs.

Others didn't know, but they knew that those golden carp were very evil. You would just slice them with a knife, and when you looked back, you would find that what you were slicing wasn't carp, but a pile of white paper scraps.

These white paper scraps couldn't be eaten. If they wrapped these things in oil, salt, and sauce and sent them to the table, I'm afraid the Deshun Restaurant's signboard would disappear from Jinmen tomorrow.

Zhang Jun and Xu Qing were fellow townsmen, and now that old acquaintances had met, Eunuch Zhang felt very emotional.

After drinking a lot of wine, the two opened up, and Xu Qing learned quite a few things.

For example, Zhang Jun was now a Seal-Attending Official of the Mirror-Reflecting Division, his godfather was the Seal-Holder of the division, and the Seal-Holder's godfather was the Superintendent of the division.

Xu Qing couldn't help but think of the Wu brothers who also had a godfather, and he felt like finding someone capable to be his godfather.

However, although he didn't have a godfather, he did have a cheap godmother.

His good godmother had been growing in the courtyard of the coffin shop for hundreds of years, and her bones were much tougher than the Yin locust tree in the Water Gate Bridge courtyard.

However, Xu Qing didn't use the peach tree as his substitute, his substitute was still the Yin locust tree at Water Gate Bridge.

Even for his godmother, it was only because of Xuanyu that Xu Qing called her that.

These things were unknown to outsiders. Xuanyu might have felt something, but it didn't know how many things Xu Qing had done behind its back.

And Xu Qing's purpose had always been very simple. Destined to be unable to walk with others, if he could luckily have a sensible cat to accompany him, he hoped that after seeing through the rise and fall of dynasties and experiencing the vicissitudes of life, that cat would still have its fate undiminished.

Xu Qing didn't have much friendship with Zhang Jun. If it weren't for the fact that the shopkeeper of Tongyue Restaurant wanted to fulfill a vow to him and release the golden carp, he wouldn't have sought Zhang Jun to chat.

An incomplete eunuch, after entering the dark palace walls, would change his whole appearance.

At this time, Zhang Jun had drunk too much wine, and his words were full of the filthy things he had experienced when he first entered the palace. He had no one to confide these things to, and he didn't dare to confide them.

Outside the palace, there were ears behind the walls; inside the palace, there were ears every two steps. If you said one wrong word, there would be one more corpse in Enji Village tomorrow.

Enji Village, the place where eunuchs were buried.

Xu Qing noted down this place name; his interest in the dead had always been greater than in the living.

In the middle, Zhang Jun mentioned the Mirror-Reflecting Division coming to Linjiang County to find someone. Xu Qing had heard of this long ago. The Mirror-Reflecting Division had many strange people, and the Hall-Messenger Huang Xiaoliu didn't dare to investigate deeply. Xu Qing didn't know who they were looking for from beginning to end.

It wasn't until Zhang Jun mentioned this today that he understood that the Mirror-Reflecting Division was looking for the person who killed the godson of the Imperial Superintendent Eunuch Feng Dehai and the godson of the Mirror-Reflecting Division Superintendent Liao Jinzhong.

So after all the trouble, the storms in Linjiang County these days were all caused by him.

Xu Qing noted this down. When he returned to the Mortuary Service Shop, he casually left a silver ingot, the weight exactly the same as when Zhang Jun bought the fish.

Carrying the golden carp back to his shop, Xu Qing hadn't even entered the door when a black shadow darted out.

Xuanyu jumped onto the threshold and looked Xu Qing up and down.

"What are you looking at? I bought the signature dish of Tongyue Restaurant. Do you want to eat?"

Xuanyu withdrew its scrutinizing gaze and asked: "What dish is it?"

"Official-roasted sole, sautéed fish slices..."

When Xu Qing took the dishes out of the food box, the curious Xuanyu climbed up the fish basket and took a look inside.

"What big goldfish!"

Seeing Xuanyu about to use its claws to touch them, Xu Qing reminded: "These are golden carp for delivering children, returned by the believers of the Baosheng Temple. We're going to release them by the river later. Don't be greedy for their bodies."

After eating the fish from Tongyue Restaurant, Xu Qing carried the fish basket, with a black cat following closely behind, insisting on coming along.

A cat going to release fish? Unheard of.

But today, everyone got to see it!

On the banks of the Baisha River, Xu Qing found a place with abundant water energy and released the fish back into the living water.

When there were only two left, Xuanyu followed suit, learning from Xu Qing, standing on its hind legs, pushing the fish basket, and pushing both the basket and the fish inside into the river together.

One zombie and one cat were doing a good deed for the day, and just as they were about to turn back home, they suddenly heard a timid call from not far from the pier.

Xu Qing and Xuanyu turned their heads and saw a little boy and a little girl standing by the river. Both children were barefoot, wearing cloud-patterned dresses, both looking pink and tender, white and fresh, with an immortal air about them!

The little girl seemed shy and timid, not daring to come forward. The boy was bold and placed something on the ground.

"Thank you, benefactor, for saving us. This is a small token of appreciation from our master. I hope you will accept it."

After speaking, the child, like a stray cat coming to someone else's house for food for the first time, turned around and took the girl's hand as soon as it made contact with humans, and jumped into the river.

Xu Qing looked into the distance and only saw two golden lights disappearing into the water.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 207 =====