The sound of the piano sounded slowly in the dimly lit dilapidated Taoist temple, like the sound of Sanskrit, echoing in the lonely wilderness valley, the cold wind quietly stopped, the deep night sky was dim with stars and moons, and the whole world was immersed in an ethereal rhyme of no desire and no desire.

At the end of the song, Zhu Daolin slowly opened his intoxicated eyes, and was surprised to find that the Xuanming Daoist, who had been listening quietly, had changed to a solemn treasure with five hearts facing the top at some point.

Zhu Daolin showed a proud smile on his face, lightly put his beloved guzheng back into the box, tidied up the surrounding sundries slightly, lifted the copper kettle that was half empty above the small charcoal stove and walked out of the door, and walked briskly to the calm Qingtan dozens of steps away to replenish water.

The morning light rose, the earth woke up, Xuanqing Daoist slowly opened his eyes, first glanced at the oil lamp that was still swaying on the coffee table, and then looked at the steaming copper kettle on the charcoal stove, couldn't help but sigh faintly, stood up and walked out with a complicated expression, muttering in frustration, "It's not as good as a doll's concentration" and opened the empty door, and left quietly with his head down.

As soon as the old road left, Zhu Daolin, who was sleeping on the low couch by the wall, immediately covered his head with the quilt and laughed non-stop, laughed enough before he lifted the quilt and got up, walked to the foot of the wall in a few steps and quickly opened the largest and longest wooden box, opened the packaged military quilt and threw it on the couch, turned around and moved out the top Polaris Nanmu table clock in the box, carefully erected the classical table clock with a length and width of 36 cm and a height of 1.65 meters in front of the wardrobe between the two low couches, and then took out the pocket watch and looked at it, and opened the carved glass panel of the clock. Set the time to take out the key, and while quickly winding the mechanical grandfather clock, he muttered proudly:

"I'll see how much concentration you have, Uncle Shi, although these table clocks assembled with German movements cost Lao Tzu more than 30,000 oceans, but they are definitely worth the money, such quality, such precision craftsmanship, Emperor Chongzhen in the Forbidden City may not have the opportunity to enjoy, if he doesn't take out ten thousand taels of silver, Lao Tzu won't let him look at it, haha......"

More than half an hour later, the old Taoist who had finished practicing the Five Poultry Opera pushed the door in peacefully and entered, seeing that Zhu Daolin was still asleep in his original position, he shook his head and walked to the back of the coffee table, pulled the cushion on the side and sat down cross-legged, and began to brew morning tea in an orderly manner.

As soon as he picked up the teapot, a majestic bell suddenly sounded behind him, so frightened that Lao Dao threw away the teapot and jumped up, turned around quickly and let out a roar, and put on a Tai Chi posture with both offense and defense in the bell ringing eight times in a row.

"Haha, hahaha! Hahaha......"

The last bell has not disappeared, Zhu Daolin on the low couch by the wall has been paralyzed with laughter, Lao Dao's face is blue and white, white and green, it took a while to react, immediately put away the gong frame and swept to the edge of the low couch in two steps, and annoyed Zhu Daolin, who was laughing non-stop, "crackled" and beat him hard, so that Zhu Daolin cried wolf and begged for mercy.

"Lao Tzu killed you, a beast that is neither big nor small!" After the old Taoist scolded viciously, he kicked the wailing Zhu Daolin again, and then clapped his hands and began to tidy up his appearance.

Zhu Daolin, who was in severe pain all over his body, hummed for a long time, got up with difficulty like a resentful woman, and looked at the old man who sat down to wipe the teapot again with grief: "I'm sorry, uncle, I just wanted to surprise you, I didn't expect you to react so violently." ”

"Still?" The annoyed old man yelled.

Zhu Daolin hurriedly got down, held his aching stomach and shoulders, and sat timidly opposite Lao Dao: "Uncle Shi has seen the Western table clock?" The machinery inside is extremely precise, and the shell is all made of fine carved nan wood, and the red-haired devil said that this kind of superb table clock has an error of only one second a day, uh...... That is, about one-fifth of the time of one breath, the little nephew bought four this time, and spent a total of eight thousand taels of silver, the height is almost the same, and the appearance is different, I want to sell it for ten thousand taels of silver, I don't know ......"

"Wait! You repeat, how much silver did it cost to buy four seats? The shocked old man couldn't help but get angry.

Zhu Daolin had no choice but to repeat: "It cost a total of 8,000 taels of silver to buy back the four seats." ”

"Impossible!"

Lao Dao excitedly pointed to the beautiful table clock swinging leisurely between the two couches: "I took you to the Chaotian Palace abbot house real people, there is a similar Western table clock, not half the height, it is three years ago the rich side of Hangzhou retired celebrity Zhou Hexiang to the Chaotian Palace gift, really spent 24,000 taels of silver from a Buddhist machine missionary to buy back, you are so big and so high a clock, no matter the material or style, it is better than the Chaotian Palace, only two thousand taels of silver how can you buy back?" ”

In the face of Lao Dao's strong questioning, Zhu Daolin was a little unsure, he checked the purchasing power of silver in the Ming Dynasty on the Internet, according to the price of grain, one tael of silver is equivalent to two hundred and eighty yuan, after repeated calculations and trade-offs, he converted the unit price of the table clock into eight thousand yuan into silver, and then multiplied it by sixty times, and came up with two thousand taels of silver per seat, which he thought was a reasonable price, so in the face of Lao Dao's questioning, he could only insist on his own opinion:

"I don't care how much money others spend on buying it back, it's just the price I spend, whether you believe it or not, anyway, I believe it! If you don't want to go, then according to the price said by the rich gentleman in Hangzhou, you can sell it for 24,000 taels of silver. ”

Lao Dao immediately shouted: "You loser! Do you understand the market? Such a big, high, and elaborate Western bell, I'm afraid the emperor has never seen it, how can it be sold for 24,000 taels of silver? Stupidity! I can't do this for you, I'll do it myself, and then you go to the ferry to call an ox cart back, and send this thing to Chaotian Palace as soon as possible, if those few fat-headed and big-eared cow noses don't offer 100,000 taels of silver tickets with both hands, I won't let them touch it, dare not say a word, Lao Tzu will turn around and leave, and sell it to Deng Million Mansion in the east of the city! ”

Zhu Daolin was shocked: "Uncle Shi, they are all the same family, I'm afraid it's not appropriate to sell it to Chaotian Palace at such a high price, right?" ”

Lao Dao was furious, stood up and counted angrily: "You know a fart? Chaotian Palace is not only my Shangqing faction in it, it is the common place of the world designated by the Taizu of this dynasty during the Hongwu period, and it is also headed by the Zhengyi sect of Longhu Mountain, my Shangqing faction, Quanzhen faction and other sects have never had the opportunity to take charge of Chaotian Palace, what is even more irritating is that the current presiding officer Zhenglin Zhenren receives millions of offerings from believers every year, and lives a life of spending all day and wine, but he is extremely stingy with his peers, knowing that Lao Tzu is running around year after year and year after year. Determined to rebuild our Ziyang Temple, which was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but he never gave Lao Tzu a copper plate, to deal with this kind of uncultivated and selfish people, what kind of friendship do you talk about? Now it's hard to seize an opportunity, if you don't earn his money, you're not afraid of losing your life? ”

Zhu Daolin was completely speechless, stunned for a long time, and pointed to a row of boxes by the wall: "Uncle Shi, there are a lot of such utensils in those boxes, you see ......"

"Those put it first, the scarcity is expensive, and it is the best policy to sell it slowly one by one, I am in charge, first use five days to sell the four Western clocks one by one, it is estimated that the silver left after deducting your capital should be enough to rebuild the Ziyang Temple where you and I will live in the next few decades!" Lao Dao said with a dry mouth before sitting down again: "What are you looking at me?" Why don't you hurry up and make tea? ”

"Oh......"

Zhu Daolin hurriedly moved, feeling depressed, thinking that you are a dead old man who can really settle accounts, if you can really sell one hundred thousand taels of silver, the four big clocks are four hundred thousand taels of silver, and Lao Tzu's capital adds up to only eight thousand taels of silver, even if the capital of eight thousand taels of silver is deducted and returned to me, it is only a fraction of four hundred thousand taels of silver, how can you not see that the sanctimonious old man is so shameless before? Does it cost 400,000 taels of silver to rebuild a broken Taoist temple?

The matter has come to this point, it is too late to regret it, Zhu Daolin, who is determined to make up for the blind sheep, can only hit the idea on other items that have not yet been taken out, and secretly swear that all the previous pricing must be overturned, and refer to the shameless price of the old way to make a false report of a hundred times, otherwise, what year and month can he become the biggest tyrant in the Ming Dynasty? And how can we quickly and efficiently loot the countless antiques, calligraphy and paintings in Jinling City and resell them? How can you have the capital and courage to go to the Qinglou and Huafang on the Qinhuai River to have a long experience?

Zhu Daolin, who was worried, silently made tea, respectfully poured it for Lao Dao, and was about to pour a cup for himself, when Lao Dao spoke again: "After drinking this cup of tea, you immediately go to the ferry to call an ox cart back and give it to ...... When you get to the ferry, you can buy something to eat to fill your stomach. ”

Zhu Daolin's eyes widened, staring blankly at the five copper plates taken by the old Taoist on the coffee table, and forced a smile on his stomach: "Uncle Shi, didn't you say that you would send the glass statue of Yuan Shi Tianzun back to Maoshan Ancestral Court for worship today?" If you go and call a bullock cart......"

Lao Dao waved his hand to interrupt Zhu Daolin's words: "The matter of returning to the ancestral court of Maoshan is temporarily slow, and the matter of rebuilding the Ziyang Temple is even more important, originally I planned to send the Tianzun Treasure Statue back to the ancestral court, and by the way, I asked the ancestral court to allocate a sum of money to rebuild the Ziyang Temple, and now there is a better and faster way, what are you doing if you are willing to go far and far?" ”

"But, I ...... Didn't you always say that you want to enter my name into the Golden Book of the Ancestral Court? Zhu Daolin was not angry in his heart, and tried every means to make Lao Dao unhappy.

Lao Dao immediately rolled his eyes, and Zhen Zhen said an excuse that Zhu Daolin never dreamed of: "Well, this, I didn't think about it before, and now it seems that on the day when the reconstruction of Ziyang Temple is completed, I should invite the presiding uncle of the ancestral court and a few Dharma protectors, and then invite fellow disciples to hold a grand refuge ceremony for you, so as to be worthy of your contribution to my Shangqing faction!" So don't worry, calm down, it will be a matter of course in a year at most. ”

Zhu Daolin was completely convinced after hearing this, and under the urging of Lao Dao, he angrily picked up five dirty copper plates, turned around and went out to the ferry five miles away to find an ox cart.

Zhu Daolin, who was hungry, came to the ferry, and saw at a glance that the coachman who delivered grain, oil and salt to the Taoist temple last time was squatting on the side of a pile of steaming cow and eating flatbread.

Zhu Daolin suddenly lost his appetite, walked to the coachman with a smile on his face, generously rewarded him with five copper plates given by Lao Dao, and after a while, he lay on the car plate pulled by the old cow and returned to the Taoist temple in the sound of "chirping, chirping".