Chapter 36: Rebellion Tax

The two Junior and Senior Brothers met late, and it wasn't until the sun was high that Wang Lingyuan remembered he still had to go to the guard room to work.

However, compared to the reunion of Junior and Senior Brothers, being absent from work for half a day was not worth mentioning.

Before leaving, Wang Lingyuan didn't forget to warn: "A few days ago, some unfamiliar corpse-driving craftsmen came to the guard room to collect corpses. In my opinion, they don't look like they are from Xiangyin, I'm afraid they are wild routes from somewhere."

"You need to know that fellow practitioners meet, and they are particularly jealous." Wang Lingyuan said earnestly: "The ownerless corpses in the patrol government office were originally cheap things. Even if they were sold to the righteous village, at most they would only be one or two taels of silver. But Junior Brother bought them at four or five taels each, which has already caused dissatisfaction among some fellow practitioners. I see they don't look like easy people to deal with, I'm afraid they will blame Junior Brother for this and bring trouble. Junior Brother is still young and doesn't know the dangers of the martial arts world. You still need to pay more attention on weekdays, don't let these Yin Sect people take advantage of you..."

Where did Wang Lingyuan know that the corpses of those fellow practitioners he spoke of were already cold? After a few days, I'm afraid there would only be a pile of rotten soil and bones left. How could they have the ability to find trouble with Xu Qing?

No matter how dangerous the Jianghu is, can it be more dangerous than his Junior Brother?

Although Wang Lingyuan's reminder was late, people's kindness is never too late.

Xu Qing accepted the favor and sent him to the entrance of the coffin shop before stopping.

Before leaving, Wang Lingyuan also promised that he would take care of his business more in the future, and if there were ownerless corpses, he would try his best to send them to him first.

Xu Qing thought to himself, can they be considered an industry monopoly?

Thinking that there would be a steady stream of corpses sent over in the future, he couldn't stop being happy!

Old Man Hu at the coffin shop on the street saw this and thought there was some happy event.

"Xu boy! Your mouth is split so wide, is there any happy event? Could it be that good things are coming, and you are going to add population to your family?"

Xu Qing raised his eyebrows when he heard this. Isn't it going to add population? But it's not a living person.

At the shop entrance, when Hu Baosong learned that the two were just Junior and Senior Brothers, he became listless again: "I have stayed on this street for sixty years. People in various shops have changed one after another. I don't know how many people I know in the middle, and I don't know how many wedding wines I have eaten. Now that I am old, I don't have many days to live, and I don't know if I have a chance to eat a cup of your wedding wine."

Speaking of this, Hu Baosong suddenly became interested, and even his dim old eyes became brighter.

"Xu boy, I think you are a steady and hardworking person. Since you are not in a hurry to marry a wife, and there are no elders around you, why don't you inherit me? In the future, you and I, one old and one young, will make do with living..."

Xu Qing hurriedly stopped when he heard this!

I recognize you as a neighbor, but you want to be my father?

"Old Man Hu, I know you are alone and urgently want to find a candidate to provide for your old age, but you don't have to be so urgent. To say something unpleasant, even if you really let go of your hands one day, I don't mind spending money to prepare mourning clothes and coffins to handle your funeral."

Over there, Old Man Hu, who was lying on the chair and basking in the warmth, scolded with a smile: "Handle the funeral? Could it be refining the old man into a walking corpse and selling it to the coal kiln to dig coal?"

This old man...

Xu Qing suppressed the surprise in his heart and said with a smile: "That can't be. Even if you sell your old arms and legs, you won't be able to sell them for a price. Besides, I am always honest and upright, and we are all neighbors, so helping with the funeral can't be considered anything."

Hu Baosong clicked his tongue twice and said: "Okay, if I come to find you for the funeral myself, don't regret it."

"..."

Xu Qing felt more and more wrong the more he listened. Why did these words sound so hair-raising in Old Man Hu's mouth?

Two days passed in a flash. On this day, Xu Qing heard that two murder cases had occurred on Changdeng Street. During this period, Wang Lingyuan even made a special trip to the mortuary shop, saying that if he wanted to learn the skills of examining corpses and clarifying cases, he could go to the mortuary to find him when the patrol government office finished work.

With such an invitation, Xu Qing was absent-minded all day, feeling that a day was like a year.

He hadn't touched a corpse for two full days, and his heart was like a cat scratching and a dog biting, and he was already itching to try.

The child of Wu Yaoxing next door was still reciting classics, thinking it was for the spring exam in a few days.

The landlady of the incense and candle shop opposite was holding a needle and thread basket, standing at the door of the shop, borrowing the bright daylight, rubbing the thread shuttle and winding it onto the winding board.

Only Xu Qing was leaning on the counter, bored and gnawing on candles.

However, the candles bought today were a bit stinging to the mouth. Maybe the landlady of the incense and candle shop changed suppliers.

Xu Qing felt more and more wrong the more he ate, so he simply went to the door to ask for guilt.

The landlady was struggling to rub the thread shuttle, and suddenly felt dark in front of her eyes.

She looked up and saw that it was the little Manager Xu from opposite standing at the door with a serious face.

"Something?"

"Of course! Look, this is the candle I just bought from your shop. Smell this taste, look at this oil color, it's clearly not the right path!"

Xu Qing handed over a broken candle, like an old scholar who had just come out of the wax shop.

He chattered for a long time, and finally Xu Qing said earnestly: "Even if incense and candles are burned for statues and the dead, we can't just fool around, right? After all, who can guarantee that incense and candles won't be burned for ourselves one day? So this professional ethics must be there, and we must never do business that cuts corners and loses virtue..."

The landlady was scolded, but she couldn't refute it, because this matter was indeed her fault.

But it was really strange. She had only imported this batch of much cheaper new goods from the wax shop yesterday. Looking at the appearance, she couldn't see anything, so how could the little manager opposite see that it was wrong at a glance?

After much persuasion, the landlady finally agreed with a red face that she would import goods in two batches in the future. The good candles would be at the original price, and as for these slightly inferior ones, they would be sold at a reduced price.

On this side, Xu Qing had just finished handling the candle matter when he saw a group of uninvited guests coming from the street corner.

Jingxia Street was a well-known funeral street. Besides passersby, no one would come to wander around, but this group of people not only wandered, but also ran house to house.

Seeing the other party coming out of Hu Baosong's coffin shop and making noise in the shroud shop, Xu Qing was puzzled: "What are these people from the Tax Department doing here when they have nothing to do?"

The landlady of the incense and candle shop also ignored the needlework in her hand, stood on tiptoe and looked, and then her face changed suddenly, saying: "It must be coming to collect money again!"

"Collect money? It's not a festival, and it's not time to collect taxes. What money are they collecting?"

The landlady was clearly also from the street corner intelligence organization and knew quite a few national events.

"What else could it be, it must be the rebellion tax!"

What the hell? Xu Qing's brain didn't turn around for a while. Rebellion tax? What kind of rare thing is this?

Fortunately, the landlady gave an explanation.

"These days, there is a so-called Heavenly Heart Sect, secretly throwing money and booklets into the courtyards of streets and alleys. Each household has at least half a string of money, and some have a whole string, saying that the Mother of Heavenly Heart follows the heart of heaven, and the current Son of Heaven is fake..."

The landlady stopped talking when she said this, and instead said: "How do we commoners know what the Heavenly Heart Sect is? This is the government coming out to say it's a rebel, and the money issued is also to bewitch the hearts of the people. It can't be left to us, it must all be collected."

Hearing this, Xu Qing suddenly realized. It turned out to be this rebellion money!

While the two were talking, the people from the Tax Department had already arrived at the entrance of the paper-craft shop diagonally opposite.

Facing the tax official's questioning, Wu Yaoxing looked embarrassed: "Official, the booklet issued by the Heavenly Heart Sect was burned by me, I really can't take it out."

"Burned? You say burned, so it's burned? Could it be that you hid it privately and became a believer of the Heavenly Heart Sect!"

Wu Yaoxing waved his hands repeatedly: "I dare not! To tell you the truth, my boy is going to take the spring exam this year. As soon as I saw that booklet, I was afraid of causing trouble. If it delayed the child's exam for an official career because of this, wouldn't it be a sin? So I threw it into the stove and burned it with a fire."

The people from the Tax Department went in one ear and out the other, and didn't care whether it was burned or not. Anyway, those who had booklets would collect two strings of dirty money.

If you burned the booklet, or wiped your ass and lacked pages, you would have to take out four strings of money, otherwise you would be a believer of the Heavenly Heart Sect, and if you talked about it, it would be a rebellion, and if you really talked about it, it would be a capital crime of execution and confiscation of property!

Xu Qing didn't know when he had already come to the front. Hearing the other party's remarks, he thought this was not collecting the rebellion money that the Heavenly Heart Sect used to win over the hearts of the people, this was clearly a way to rob them of their hard-earned silver!

Seeing that things were not right, he hurriedly returned to the shop, took a few taels of Qingxia silver and a few strings of Qingxia money, and just happened to make up the number of eight strings.

At the entrance of the paper-craft shop, taking advantage of the time Wu Yaoxing went in to get money, Xu Qing gave out the eight strings of money without missing a single coin.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 37 =====