Two bowls of salted soybean milk and a plate of osmanthus cake, this inconspicuous "Lao Wang Restaurant" is said to have been located on Confucian Temple Road for more than 30 years.

After leaving the market for a long time, after arriving at the Confucian Temple Road, Yi 17 looked at the crowded street and was still a little uncomfortable, this is the favorite street of the old Shanghainese, with white walls and black tiles, and two copper rings hanging on the black door, inside or a courtyard or a courtyard, and the shops and houses on both sides of the street are mixed together.

High-rise buildings and corner towers echo each other, many buildings are under construction, and outside the walls, antique shops, bookkeeping shops, handicraft shops, specialty snack bars, history and trends collide again.

It was already afternoon when they arrived, and many of the shops had just opened, which seemed to be a special feature of the place.

The shop of "Lao Wang Restaurant" is not big, there are only four tables in the store, the weather is a little stuffy, two people sit in the pergola outside the restaurant, eat afternoon tea, and also observe the "Ruifeng incense candle shop" opposite.

The shop of the incense candle shop is not small, and there is a second floor, where many battery cars and shared bicycles are parked at the door, and there are five golden italics written on the wooden signboard with a black paint background.

The incense and candle shops have a lot of customers, men, women and children, and even some students enter the shop.

According to the owner of the restaurant, Ruifeng incense candle shop is very famous in the Confucian Temple Road, is a century-old shop, many people who come to the Confucian Temple to pray for blessings will come here to buy incense, especially the students facing the exam, parents take their children to the Confucian Temple to pray for blessings, expecting their children to get a good score in the exam, will first come to Ruifeng incense candle shop to buy incense, not only because the price of incense candles is cheap, it is said that it is also very effective.

Although Yi Seventeen was a northerner, he couldn't get used to drinking this soy milk, so he pushed the bowl in front of Li Qianchen after tasting it, and picked up a piece of osmanthus cake instead.

Shanghai's crystal osmanthus cake is very unique, different from the northern osmanthus cake, the crystal osmanthus cake is crystal clear in appearance, a bite is soft and glutinous and sweet, especially the dried osmanthus sprinkled on the crystal osmanthus cake, after the entrance, full of osmanthus fragrance, as if in the osmanthus forest, it is intoxicating.

Seeing that Yi Seventeen closed his eyes, Li Qianchen glanced at the soy milk in front of him, and was a little crying and laughing, obviously he came to investigate the special Jialan incense, but he ate afternoon tea here.

"Hmm...... It's so delicious! It is completely different from the osmanthus cake we ate in Nanjing before, and I must learn it after I go back, so that I can eat such delicious osmanthus cake at any time in the future. ”

"Okay, then wouldn't I have another mouthful?" Li Qianchen smiled bitterly in his heart, every time Yi Seventeen learned to cook a new dish, his Five Organs Temple had to suffer.

Silently pushed the soybean milk bowl aside, he couldn't get used to drinking this soy milk, Li Qianchen looked at the incense candle shop opposite and said: "Shanghai Confucian Temple has been built for more than 700 years, after several dynasties to have its current scale, Confucian Temple Road is named after the Confucian Temple, it can be said that it is an older street in Huangpu District." ”

"Indeed, compared with the prosperity of Huaihai Road, the historical atmosphere here is more intense."

"Just now the owner of the shop said that this Ruifeng incense candle shop is a century-old shop, famous far and wide, all pilgrims would rather take a detour to buy incense here, rather than go to the incense candle shop near the Confucian Temple to buy, if the incense here is more effective, I don't think it maybe."

Yi Seventeen licked his fingers and said uncertainly, "Why do you say that?" ”

Li Qianchen explained: "Ordinary people burn incense in the temple and kowtow to the gods, they all pray, but the Temple of Literature is different from ordinary temples, the Temple of Literature is a branch of the Temple of Confucius, although the temple is also dedicated to Confucius, but the Temple of Literature is designed to promote the benevolence of the law, not worship. ”

The so-called seeking wealth and worshiping the God of Wealth, asking for a son to worship Guanyin. If you don't even ask God in the wrong place, how can you be blessed?

"There is no yang god in the human world, all the temples worship the yang god, all of them are the luck of the gathering of mortal willingness, the heavenly transport tools are in all directions, Nanjing Confucian Temple, Qufu Confucian Temple, Yanjing Confucian Temple, Jilin Confucian Temple, these four major Confucian temples have holy relics to suppress, and the Confucian Temple here is not among them."

Li Qianchen's words reminded Yi Seventeen of a volume of Tantra in the Ten Directions, the Three Realms has a long history, and all cultivators seek to become immortals all their lives, but there is no heavenly realm in Tantric records.

The heavenly realm is also the divine realm, and there is no heavenly realm that is no god, although there is no true god, but there is a false god gathered by the power of willingness, and the power of mortals and incense are enshrined to form luck, and then the luck is suppressed by the temple of the gods, which becomes the temple today.

Yi 17 speculated: "Although there is no holy object suppression in the Confucian Temple here, but the prosperity of literature here, it is useless to pray for blessings but outstanding people, buy the incense of Ruifeng incense candle shop can achieve good results, this is just psychological comfort, people who take the exam have confidence, calmly answer, the results will naturally be good, people feel that it is incense, so the explanation seems to make sense." ”

Yi 17 has also participated in the college entrance examination, although the results are average, but he has experienced the tense atmosphere in the examination room, no less than going into battle to kill the enemy, the candidate's psychological quality, the ability to resist pressure, is very important, a good attitude is crucial.

"If this is just an ordinary incense and candle shop, this explanation is reasonable, but Ruifeng incense and candle shop sells special garan incense, it can't be simply looked at from a conventional point of view, take this special garan incense as an example, not only can raise corpses, but also can attract ghosts, if the candidate writes with divine help, then it is God who helps him, or is it a ghost?"

When Yi Seventeen heard this, his hair stood upside down instantly, and a trace of cool air penetrated into his skin along the pores, giving him goosebumps on his arm.

……

Before entering the Confucian Temple Road, Yi Seventeen had already hidden the marked mirror in a safe place, and the Ruifeng incense candle shop was sitting facing east and west, and a burst of sandalwood wafted out before entering the door.

The store is laid out in the word "Hui", a large glass display cabinet is placed in the center of the store, the display cabinet is divided into two layers, the upper floor is placed with all kinds of long incense, most of which are used for worship, and the lower layer is mostly incense, which calms the nerves and purifies the air.

In the north, there is a half-person high mahogany cabinet, the east cabinet is placed with all kinds of idol clay sculptures, there are the statue of the God of Wealth, the statue of Guanyin, the statue of Rulai, the statue of Guan Gong, etc., and the floating cabinet on the south side is the incense burner of various styles.

The mixture of various scents in the store makes people's heads swell, and the two of them pretend to be pilgrims after entering the door, browsing casually, secretly observing the counter.

The owner of the shop is actually a young man with long hair, the man has fair skin, a thin face, cinnabar at the center of his eyebrows, and an antique outfit.

Jialanxiang is placed in the southeast corner of the display case, the packaging with black edges on a yellow background, on which is painted a Buddha's hand holding a lotus seal and holding a Jialanxiang, and the cigarette turns into the traditional "Jialanxiang" three red characters.

Yi Seventeen picked up a box and smelled it, but it was just ordinary garan incense, only the smell of sandalwood and agarwood, and there was no corpse gas.

Li Qianchen suddenly glanced at Yi Seventeen, and asked Yi Seventeen to look in the direction of the counter, and when Yi Seventeen looked over, he saw the shopkeeper looking at the two with a smile.

"Boss, how do you sell this garan incense?" Yi Seventeen took the garan incense in his hand and took the opportunity to talk.

The man's voice was clear: "Five hundred and one boxes." ”

"Five hundred and one boxes? So expensive? Can it be cheaper? Yi 17 pretended to bargain, but the man said indifferently: "Those who can know this incense will not take a penny, and those who do not know this incense will not let it go." ”

Yi Qiqi laughed when he heard this: "What you sell is not a brocade robe, I'll buy a few more boxes if it's cheaper." ”

"Buddha has a fate, incense to know the incense, the two have nothing to do with this incense, or choose something else."

Yi Seventeen was about to continue to mediate, but Li Qianchen suddenly secretly reminded that while chatting, the customers in the store had already left, leaving only a man in a dark green shirt in front of the counter, with his back to them.

"The flowers bloom on the other side, the soul goes to no return, according to your opinion, is this incense on the other side of the shore related to us?" Li Qianchen did not continue the topic of Jialanxiang, and instead picked up the "other side incense" on the side.

Yi Seventeen was secretly alert, there were originally five or six customers in the store, and it was very crowded, but he didn't notice the customers leaving, and he was obviously unconsciously on the road.

"The return party has come, the loss is gained, the so-called fate is cause and effect, I think the fate of the two is a lot, this other side of the incense and the two have a fate, if the two want, you can give it to the two." The man's speech was very zen and meaningful, as if he was suggesting something.

"Thank you for the incense, I see that the boss is indifferent and elegant, and there is Zen in his words, I also love Buddhism, I don't know if the boss can reveal his name, let's make friends."

Li Qianchen didn't mention Jialanxiang anymore, but instead talked to the young shopkeeper, but Yi Seventeen knew that the more Li Qianchen was like this, the more dangerous it proved that this place was more dangerous.

"Bolu, erudite, Lushan." Bo Lu smiled faintly and looked at Li Qianchen calmly, as if he had already known the identities of the two.

"Bolu? It's very much in line with the temperament of Boss Bo. Yi Seventeen took a sentence and put down the Jialanxiang.

Li Qianchen's face changed drastically and said, "It turned out to be you!" ”

"It seems that the ninth master finally remembered, the two came from afar, and they have been waiting outside for a long time to find out, if they don't fulfill the friendship of the landlord, they will be rude." While speaking, Bo Lu lightly planned to dish, and suddenly there was smoke in the store, Yi Seventeen grabbed Li Qianchen and was about to run away, but he heard Bo Lu say: "The two are here for him, then I will hand him over to the two." ”

White smoke was filled, but there was no taste, Li Qianchen grabbed Yi Seventeen's wrist with his backhand and shook his head slightly, signaling Yi Seventeen not to panic, only to see that the smoke was faintly visible, and the man standing in front of the counter slowly turned around and staggered towards them.

When the smoke gradually disappeared and Bo Lu was nowhere to be seen, Yi Qiqi looked at it intently, which really startled him, this man wearing a dark green shirt and a top hat turned out to be Zhou Yanwen.

It's just that it is not what it looked like when they first met, Zhou Yanwen has gray hair, wrinkles are stacked, his eyes are blue, and he is not half angry on his body, it is actually a corpse.

"He's dead?" Yi Seventeen is unbelievable, in order to be immortal, Zhou Yanwen can be said to have taken great pains and done all the things against his will, but he died so easily?

"It's just an outcast." Li Qianchen was not surprised, when he entered the door, he faintly felt that it was Zhou Yanwen standing in front of the counter, but the smell in the store was strange, so he couldn't confirm it.

"Abandoned son?"

"Let's go, we'll talk about it when we get out."