Chapter 58: A Chance Encounter with Neighbors

It was called a large city, but in truth, it wasn't very big. Most of the shops were concentrated in one area, making it not difficult to browse.

At this time, many peddlers were gone and many storefronts were closed, but those shops that had permanent facades and whose owners lived in the city were still largely open.

Most were shops selling oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, rice, flour, wine, and tea.

Lin Jue first asked for prices and compared a few shops before selecting some sauce, vinegar, and clear oil. Seeing some hanging noodles for sale, he bought a little of those as well. As for things like rice and flour, ordinary peddlers from outside the city or farmers would sometimes bring some into the city to exchange for money to buy other things; buying from them might be cheaper, so he decided to wait and buy those tomorrow morning.

Passing by a pharmacy, he bought some cinnamon, bay leaves, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, dried fruit, and angelica dahurica. Although Third Senior Brother and Junior Sister didn't know why he was running to a pharmacy to get herbs when they were out buying food, they listened to him anyway.

Before they knew it, the sky was gradually growing dark.

"Let's just buy these for today. We'll buy the rest tomorrow morning; it'll be livelier in the morning, and there will be more goods."

"We'll listen to Lin Shixiong."

"Shixiong, please don't tease me."

"Haha..."

"Where are we staying tonight?"

Lin Jue looked at the sky and couldn't help but ask.

"That's up to you. In the past, as long as it wasn't cold, whenever I came to the city with Master or Shixiong, or when I came alone, I would mostly stay at the She Shen Temple unless I was invited by someone to help drive away evil spirits or treat illnesses and was hosted by them. If it was cold, I'd spend money to find an inn or a guesthouse. If it was just Third Shixiong and me, sometimes on a whim, we'd go to a restaurant to drink, and if we got drunk, we'd sleep at the restaurant. We might also suddenly meet a drinking buddy, and if we drank to our hearts' content and hit it off, they might invite us to stay the night at their home," Third Shixiong said. "See which one you choose."

"Hmm..."

Lin Jue and Xiao Shimei looked at each other.

With Xiao Shimei here, obviously they couldn't go to a restaurant to drink. The weather wasn't cold right now, and using the sky as a quilt and the earth as a bed would suffice for the night; it didn't seem necessary to spend money on an inn.

"Then let's go to the She Shen Temple."

"Then we have to go left!"

"Alright..."

Lin Jue said this, but his footsteps slowed down.

He saw an old man walking toward them carrying a carrying pole. The old man held a bamboo skewer in each hand, and between the skewers was red, translucent sticky candy. He was walking toward the outside of the city, his hands constantly stirring.

Whether it tasted good or not, he didn't know, but it looked very fun.

Lin Jue couldn't help but glance at the Shimei beside him.

The old man selling candy walked toward them from their left.

Yet Xiao Shimei deliberately turned her head to look to the right.

But on the right, there was only a teahouse.

A teenage girl, born in the countryside, who hadn't eaten many snacks—how could she not be interested in candy? This Xiao Shimei had been curiously watching the city sights the whole way; how could she not be curious about the candy?

Walking along the way, Lin Jue was walking side-by-side with her; how could he not have observed her strangeness?

In fact, Lin Jue knew her thoughts completely.

This kind of thinking belonged to children from poor families, and also to children who were not doted upon. It was called inferiority, and it was also called self-awareness, but the world loved to call it "being sensible."

"Third Shixiong!"

Lin Jue stopped very naturally.

"What's wrong, Shidi?"

"We've walked all day, my feet are soft. Shixiong, buy us some stirring candy to eat," Lin Jue said so naturally.

Xiao Shimei was stunned and quietly glanced at Third Shixiong.

Yet she saw Third Shixiong didn't hesitate at all.

"Alright!"

He asked for the price, then took copper coins from his bosom, bought two stirring candies, and handed them to Lin Jue and Xiao Shimei.

"Shixiong, if we spend money so recklessly, won't Master scold us?" Xiao Shimei held the two bamboo skewers in her hand, stirring them, but couldn't help lowering her voice to Lin Jue, as if afraid that Master, a hundred miles away, would hear.

"What of it? We've worked hard for this trip; this is deserved," Lin Jue said with a smile. "Besides, Third Shixiong paid for it himself."

"Eh! That's not it! It's still using the money from the temple!" Third Shixiong also smiled, then said to Xiao Shimei, "Shimei, no need to worry about these things. It's rare to come to the city once; if you see anything you want to buy, whether it's food, something to use, or something to play with, just say so. We only need to buy enough of the things we need to purchase; let us handle the rest."

"Then what if there isn't enough money for the purchases later?"

"Junior sister, how can you say that! Buying things, how much to buy—isn't that all up to Senior Brother Lin to decide?" Seventh Senior Brother lectured, "Life is short. If you clearly have money on you and have finally made it into the city, yet can't even bear to buy a few snacks to eat, then what is the point of cultivating this Dao? Wouldn't that be no different from the secular world down the mountain?"

Xiao Shimei opened her eyes wide in a daze.

Lin Jue agreed wholeheartedly and nodded repeatedly, also stirring the candy in his hand while walking, as if he had found a touch of childhood innocence.

Then he divided half, bent down, and handed it to the fox at his feet.

"Eat..."

This little thing probably hadn't eaten it either.

It was laughable to say, but Lin Jue had previously thought it was truly not picky and would eat anything, until yesterday when he learned: actually, it was just young and hadn't eaten anything, so it had no way to compare. He feared that all along, it had thought food was just what Sixth Shixiong and Third Shixiong had made in the previous two months.

It wasn't until yesterday that this perception was changed.

"Ying en..."

This little thing seemed to like it quite a bit.

Just as Lin Jue straightened up, he saw a group of people walking toward them, all dressed as merchants. Each one was either dejected or weeping, leading mules along the street.

Lin Jue couldn't help but be stunned—

It was actually the neighbors from Shu Village.

"Shu San Shu Shu?"

This group of merchants was about a dozen people, all wearing similar clothes. At first glance, Lin Jue only recognized the middle-aged man at the very front, but looking carefully, he had some impression of almost everyone.

At the same time, the middle-aged man in front also heard his voice and subconsciously turned his head.

In his grief, he didn't recognize him at first glance and only felt puzzled. After looking at Lin Jue carefully for a few moments, he opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"The Lin family boy?"

Hearing his shout, the others also recognized Lin Jue, but at this time, most of them had no heart to care about anything else; even if they felt a bit surprised, they remained silent.

"It's me."

Lin Jue looked at them in surprise.

Third Shixiong and Xiao Shimei both stopped their footsteps with him and looked at them in confusion.

"Aren't you heading to Jiangnan? I remember that you wouldn't pass through here. Why have you walked here? And why are you all wearing these expressions?" Lin Jue asked with a frown.

"Sigh! Don't you know? There was a great flood here this summer, and many places were submerged. Many of the roads we were originally going to take became like vast oceans, and we couldn't walk them, so we had to take a detour. And we don't know how the village is, whether it was harmed by the mountain torrents, so we didn't dare to delay on the road and had to rush home to see."

The middle-aged man said, then couldn't help but sigh. He didn't answer the last question, but instead looked at Lin Jue. In these times, the attachment to one's hometown was heavy; even in his grief, he still held some concern for him:

"Didn't you used to study in the village, preparing to take the imperial examinations? Last time I went home, I heard you had encountered evil spirits, that your heavenly soul was unstable, and that you felt the village lacked talent, so you went out to study and visit famous teachers. We were still discussing your situation. How is it now... how are you wearing a Daoist robe and walking with Daoist priests?"

"That's a long story..."

Lin Jue organized his words and said concisely: "For me, taking the imperial examinations is hopeless. My unstable heavenly soul can only be resolved through diligent cultivation. Fortunately, I have studied under a famous teacher at Mount Yishan, and now I can be considered to have found my footing outside."

"Oh my, your uncle and aunt are very good people. You studying in the village, with our help, wasn't a burden to them."

"That's not the reason..."

"Right!"

The middle-aged man seemed to remember just then, looked at Lin Jue, then at the young Daoist beside him, his eyes lit up, and then he asked: "You said you studied under a famous teacher at Mount Yishan? Is that true?"

The others heard this and also seemed to suddenly think of this point, as if grabbing a straw, and looked at Lin Jue.

"Naturally it is true."

"Since it is a famous teacher, do you know magic?"

"Naturally I do."

"Can you catch demons?"

"I also know some methods for catching demons."

"Then where is your teacher?"

"At the temple, a one-day journey away." Lin Jue looked at them, having a guess, "Shu San Shu Shu, what did you encounter?"

"Sigh..."

Shu San Shu Shu immediately showed a bitter and sorrowful expression.

"It's because of the detour that we walked here. Who would have thought, we only found out after we arrived, that starting this month, strange things have been happening in this city. The silver of the households in the city is always being stolen, and nothing works. Some people have seen demons come to steal it at night with their own eyes, and others have been harmed."

"This trip we went out on, besides the money for this trip, there was also the payment for the first half of the year's goods. Hearing about this, we thought staying at an inn wouldn't work, but if it was demons, staying at a temple would be fine, right? It just so happened there was a She Shen Temple in the city, so we borrowed a room in the temple for the night."

"Who would have thought, the doors were locked, the money was put away, and we even arranged for people to keep watch at night, but in the middle of the night, without a sound, the silver was stolen."

"This trip took a full two months. The money from two months of buying and selling, plus the payment for the first half of the year's goods, is all here! We were just waiting to take it home to subsidize the family. If the home also suffered from the flood, we might have to rely on this silver to repair the house. Now it has flown away. How can I explain this to the clan elders when I go back? And how can I explain it to the families of these young people!"

Shu San Shu Shu was extremely anxious.

Lin Jue looked at this group of people. Shu San Shu Shu was the oldest, and the rest were mostly young people in their twenties; he should be the one leading the team.

"Have you reported it to the officials?"

"Reporting to the officials is useless. Even the silver in the county office was stolen. Now every household can only lock their silver in iron cabinets, otherwise they can only store cloth and money. Cloth and money won't be stolen."

"So that's how it is..."

Lin Jue couldn't help but feel troubled.

These were people from the same village.

The Shu surname, living together as a clan, was able to let the Lin family move in; there must have been some friendship back then, but that was too far away. Lin Jue wouldn't talk about that, only about the recent ones.

The Shu family couldn't be said to have been as kind as a mountain to the Lin family, but after his uncle became critically ill, the village had more or less taken care of them. His predecessor's father, in order to support his studies, needed money. The Shu Village merchant team was originally formed by people of the same surname and clan, but they made an exception to let him join; this was also a friendship.

However, at this time, it was no longer just Lin Jue alone, but the Daoist temple coming down the mountain, with Shixiong leading the team, and Shixiong was standing right beside him.

Lin Jue had no choice but to look at Shixiong.

Naturally, if Shixiong was unwilling, he would go to help himself.