On the morning of the second day when Wu Shibao was released, that is, when he was wandering around the ghost market with the shopkeeper, two messengers from the Jiuye Mansion, one with a lantern and the other with a mule, came to the prison of the Criminal Department and took Nie Xiaoxuan into the mansion. When the prison came to call Nie Xiaoxuan, he and Ku Bing were still sleeping soundly. The prisoner kicked Nie Xiaoxuan with his foot and said, "Get up, I congratulate you!" ”

Nie Xiaoxuan was frightened when he heard this. The rules of the year, whenever there is a solution or a red business trip, it must be before the fifth watch, the prison said "Dao Xi", the evil is more auspicious, he immediately pushed the Ku Bing and said: "Brother, I may pass away when I leave...... If you can go out, send a letter to my house. Remember this day clearly, lest your children and grandchildren remember the day of death wrong......"

The prison patted Nie Xiaoxuan on the shoulder and said, "What do you think, it was the Ninth Master who sent someone to invite you." At this time, the two messengers were already waiting impatiently, and shouted outside in succession. The prison pulled and pushed, drove Nie Xiaoxuan out of the door, and locked it again. Ku Bing slept soundly, although Nie Xiaoxuan heard this clearly, he didn't understand the meaning for a while, and when he pondered the meaning, Xiaoxuan had already gone out. He chased him to the cell door and shouted, "Go with confidence, I will never forget your instructions." Xiao Xuan heard the shout, and turned around and said: "Tell your niece, I don't have anything else to worry about, I'm afraid that the ancestral craft will be broken." Tell her to find Uncle Wu......" Before he finished speaking, a messenger grabbed him and said, "What's the matter, the ninth master is waiting there!" Tell him to wait for the old man, you and I can't afford it. Let's go! When they went out, they helped him onto the mule and trotted all the way out of the front door...... Wait, at that time, the prince and grandson all lived in the inner city, who was this ninth master, and why did he live outside the front door alone?

The ninth master is the old and young master of a certain prince, and at the age of twelve he was awarded the title of "second-class general of the town". Originally, he was about to be awarded the title of Beizi, because he and Pu □ were not on good terms since childhood, and when the Queen Mother of the West named Pu □ as the eldest brother, he said a few words that he did not like after drinking, which reached the ears of the Queen Mother, and since then he has been snubbed and delayed the future of Beizi. With this pimple in his heart, the ninth master is addicted to the sound of dogs and horses on the surface, but on the inside, he talks to King Su and makes friends with foreigners. He spent money to redeem himself for a famous prostitute, and bought a house along the West River outside the front door as an outer house. In fact, he avoided the eyes and ears of the palace and ran his "Westernization Movement" in this place. He wears foreign satin, hangs foreign watches, smells foreign smoke, listens to foreign dramas, and shows that foreign goods are higher than domestic products everywhere. The most powerful evidence is that the eldest brother took refuge in the Queen Mother and eventually collapsed; Wooing foreigners by himself, Gengzi will be able to raise his eyebrows in the future. According to the Xinchou Treaty, the Qing government wanted to send people to Tokyo to make amends to the Japanese government. The imperial court set the envoy to Japan to be Na Tong. King Su told Na Tong that if he wanted this matter to go smoothly, he had to let the ninth master be an attaché. Na Tong told Lafayette these words, and made it clear that it was a foreigner to want the ninth master to go abroad. Although Lafayette did not wait to see the ninth master, he did not dare to refuse. Jiu Ye has been busy preparing for foreign release these days, and he has forgotten about Nie Xiaoxuan. On this day, because he was going to give gifts to the Emperor of Japan and Commander Yamaguchi and other ministers, he looked at the set of eighteen-beat cigarette bottles again, and then remembered that there was still a person in the prison of the Criminal Department, so he asked people to call Nie Xiaoxuan. Jiu Ye's habit is to smoke at night and go to bed in the morning, when the order is given, it is exactly the second half of the night. It was already morning when the subordinates took Nie Xiaoxuan to the small mansion outside the front door, and it was time for the ninth master to sleep. The steward put Xiao Xuan in the horse number, and waited for the ninth master to wake up in the afternoon.

When the ninth master bought the cigarette bottle of Hu Ji's eighteen beats, the more he looked at it, the more he loved it, lest Nie Xiaoxuan burn a set and sell it to others, and his set would not be a unique product, so he hurriedly arrested Xiaoxuan and wanted to tell him not to burn this trick again. Now that so much time has passed, his heat is over. Besides, he wanted to give the "Eighteen Beats" to the Orientals, but it was a unique product and did not belong to him, so he planned to reward a few taels of silver and let Nie Xiaoxuan go back. If Nie Xiaoxuan had walked faster in the morning, or the Ninth Master had slept later, this would have been the case. However, Nie Xiaoxuan was a step late, and at the end of noon in the afternoon, the ninth master woke up, and the people below said that the monks of Haiguang Temple, Qian and Nie Xiaoxuan, were waiting for him to summon him and asked him who he saw first. "A monk who enters Beijing and an official who leaves Beijing". This thousand came to the capital from Hengshan, Hunan, holding a gold plate in his hand, and in the gold plate he put his right hand that was chopped off and fried in boiling oil, and he raised money from the princes and ministers, and vowed to build a Manjushri dojo, which was rumored to be a strange news in the nine cities for a while. The ninth master has always loved to provoke the leaky son to watch the excitement, so he naturally passed on him first. The ninth master put on civilian clothes and came to the hall inside the weeping flower gate with his shoes on, and the people led the monk in. The monk inquired, the ninth master sat down, asked some gossip, and the monk took out the fate book to recruit from the ninth master. The Ninth Master said, "Slow! Said that you chopped off your hands and made a vow to raise a dojo. I have the money, but I can see the real chapter. I didn't even see your hand, so why do I need money? You open the red cloth and I'll see. The monk hurriedly inquired again and said, "Amitabha, don't stain the eyes of the nobles. The ninth master said: "You don't talk nonsense, open it and I'll take a look!" ”

The monk had no choice but to kneel on the ground, lift the red cloth, and raise the scorched hand above his head. The Ninth Master was looking down, his move was as black as a bird's claw, and a severed hand almost touched his nose. The Ninth Master shuddered, slapped the table and said, "Bastard!" Where is this manpower, what kind of claws did you get to blow up the paste, and the Mongolian incident in Beijing came? The monk said, "Good, the little monk vows to build the temple, and he is sincere, how can he do something to deceive the heavens and deceive people?" The ninth master said: "You have to be sincere, when I cut off that hand in front of me, I don't need you to call Hua, how about I pay for the temple for you to build alone?" "The monk sweated like rain, and kowtowed again and again. The ninth master said: "Come on, put his left hand on the threshold, and chop it off with a knife in front of me!" With a sound of Hura, two goshkhas came, and he grabbed the monk, pulled him to the door, rolled up his sleeves, put the remaining left wrist on the threshold, and pulled out a steel knife with a whoosh. The monk was startled and fainted. The ninth master waved his hand, and Goshha put away the knife. The ninth master said: "Splash him up with a basin of water!" ”

Goshha brought two basins of cold water and poured them on his head. The monk woke up with a cold war, saw that his hand was still on his arm, shook it and didn't hurt anywhere, and quickly kowtowed to the ninth master. The Ninth Master laughed and asked, "How was this just now?" The monk cried and said, "Scared the poor monk!" The ninth master said: "You slammed your rotten hand and almost touched my nose!" You scared me, yelled at me not to scare you? Okay, take the book and go to the steward, and say I'll give five hundred taels of silver. ”

The monk walked away in a daze. The Ninth Master was very happy by this incident, so he asked someone to pass on Nie Xiaoxuan. Nie Xiaoxuan came to the door, did not dare to enter suddenly, and knelt down and kowtowed through the door. The ninth master was in a good mood, and he felt funny when he saw Xiao Xuan's tattered clothes, and he also felt funny when he saw his trembling demeanor, so he smiled and said, "You stretch out your hand and I'll take a look!" ”

Nie Xiaoxuan was puzzled, and hesitantly stretched out his two hands. After being in prison for a long time, he couldn't wash every day, and his hands were dirty and thin, and he was very ashamed. But the ninth master didn't care about this, and after reading the palm of his hand, he asked him to turn over the back of his hand, and then said to the people on both sides: "Tut-tut, you all look at it, this is also called a hand!" The monk's hand, the light will knock on the wooden fish, and when it is chopped down, it will raise thousands of silver; This hand will burn 'Gu Yuexuan', how much should it be worth to be able to draw Cai Wenji! I bought it, you can make a price! ”

Nie Xiaoxuan said: "Isn't that set of cigarette bottles Qian Jiuye already rewarded the little one?" ”

"It's not about buying a smoking bottle!" The people below joked, "The ninth master wants to buy these hands that can be used as cigarette bottles!" ”

Nie Xiaoxuan replied: "If you go back to your master, this hand grows on the small body, it can do things, and it will be worthless if you chop it down!" ”

Nie Xiaoxuan was originally angry, but the Ninth Master thought that he was witty in answering, so he said: "Okay, even if someone sells me with a hand, I want to sell my hand alone." Let's make a note, we have to sell it together, and in the future, the 'Gu Yuexuan' you make is only allowed to sell me alone, and it is not allowed to be taken out, and I will give you a lot of silver." If you want to just sell your hands, you can't do it after you sell your hands, I will raise you Ninth Master. ”

When Nie Xiaoxuan heard this, his whole body softened, and he didn't dare to answer anymore. The ninth master said: "Butler, take Nie Xiaoxuan to the horse to take care of it, and I will give him a day to let him think about it." If you can't come up with an idea next night, you'll have to listen to me. ”

Nie Xiaoxuan shouted repeatedly: "Ninth Master is gracious, Ninth Master is gracious!" "Come over two Goshkha and take him away. The Ninth Master laughed for a while, and instructed the steward to prepare ten taels of silver for Nie Xiaoxuan tomorrow, send him an old dress and let him go, and tease him first today.

When the steward saw that the ninth master was happy, he flattered and said, "Master, the hundred sheep and slaves you asked the slaves to prepare are ready." and those who have rented a mutton bed shall have three taels of silver a day. How useful we are to command your minions! ”

When the ninth master heard this, he became more and more happy, laughed and said, "Use it now." Send a shepherd to drive them to the door of the Yishun Teahouse, where they will wait for me. ”

Yishun Teahouse is located east outside Xuanwu Gate, not far from Hufang Bridge. It was originally a place where pear orchards and antique shops came and went, and the princes and nobles rarely patronized it. The ninth master loves to be happy, and sometimes changes into a homespun robe worn by the people, packs it in blue, mixes it with the inferior people, and hangs out outside the front door. This day I dressed up again, and I happened to meet a monkey in the glass factory. The monkey player prepared a small cart and put it on the back of the goat, so that the monkey could drive the car around in a circle. The ninth master looked happy, and spent more than a dozen taels of silver to buy it all with the sheep and the car. He wanted to buy monkeys, but people didn't sell them, so he asked the monkey to carry the monkey on his back, lead the sheep himself, and go back to the palace together, and he wanted to give the old prince a performance. When he walked to the Yishun Teahouse, he called the monkey to wait for him at the door, and he led the sheep into the house to drink tea. After entering the door, he had just found a place to sit down, and the runner came over and said, "This lord, we don't want to bring the sheep in here for tea." The ninth master said, "I'll rest my legs and leave." The sheep don't occupy a seat, why can't they enter? There was a young shopkeeper sitting on the counter, a newborn calf, and he said, "It's okay to lead the sheep, and the sheep will also receive a tea payment!" ”

"That's easy to say!"

After drinking tea, Jiu Ye really threw down two tea money. The guy was still hesitant, and asked the young shopkeeper with his eyes, and the young shopkeeper said angrily: "What do you see, you can't accept it?" "The ninth master got on fire, and when he came back, he instructed the housekeeper to borrow a hundred sheep for him, and if he couldn't borrow it, he had to buy it!

After the ninth master instructed the housekeeper, he took a few puffs of cigarettes, ate snacks, asked someone to get on the horse, and went straight to the Yishun Teahouse. When he got to the door, he handed over the horse and led him to the counter. In the afternoon, there was a storytelling in the teahouse, and Xiao Shi Yukun was invited to say "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", and there were seventy percent of them. At this time, the book had not yet been opened, and the people in the café looked out through the window, and saw two people in red tasseled hats looking at a flock of sheep on the street, neither advancing nor retreating, and many carriages, horses and pedestrians were intercepted there, and people could not estimate what was going on. The ninth master came to the counter, and when he saw a bearded man sitting there, he asked, "Where is the young shopkeeper?" ”

The young shopkeeper was settling accounts in the back room, but when he heard someone looking for him, he poked his head out and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

The ninth master said: "I came to drink tea a few days ago, and you charged me two tea money, one for people and one for sheep, but there are you?" ”

When the young shopkeeper heard this, he looked at this man again, and remembered the events of that day. This is also a wealthy person who feels that the whole city of Beijing can't recruit him, so Suo Xing took a step closer and said: "There is such a thing, what's the matter?" It was cheap that day, and today it will come and the money will rise, and a sheep has to receive tea for two people! People have two legs, sheep have four legs, and I collect money by legs! ”

The ninth master nodded, threw down a piece of silver and said: "A sheep is four big money, a hundred is four hundred big money, you weigh this silver, you don't need to look for more, it's a tip!" After saying that, he shouted outside, "Blasting me in!" ”

As soon as he had spoken, one of Goshkha opened the curtain of the door, and the others crackled their whips, and the sheep poured in like a tide. When the tea drinkers saw that the cry was not good, they had to take the road to go, and the door was crowded with sheep, and there was no place to insert their feet, so they had to open the window and jump out. For a while, the street also knew that this teahouse was lively, and they all opened the window to look in. When the sheep entered the door, they bumped. This is a group of goats, not sheep, climbing the ladder high, even the Buddha shrine of the king of the stove has been overturned. The teapot and bowl made a crisp sound. The young shopkeeper still wanted to have a seizure, but the old shopkeeper quickly pulled him and said, "Don't do your job, kowtow." Didn't you see the yellow ribbon in him? ”

Jiu Ye looked at the excitement and laughed for a while. Go to the gate and ride a horse to the palace of Su to discuss the matter of giving gifts to the Japanese.