They walked along the river to the vicinity of the mountain wall, and when they approached the vicinity of the grotto, there were many people gathered near the sixteenth cave in the east.

Among these people, there are many five big and three thick husbands, painters with paints in their hands, and craftsmen with carpentry rulers on their backs, led by a middle-aged Taoist who is a little hunchbacked.

Looking closely, this middle-aged Taoist has a very typical northwest complexion, his complexion is like sauce, rough and dry, his oval face is wide and blessed, the heavenly court is full, his slightly flat facial features are spread out on his face with slightly protruding cheekbones, he is not tall, his waist is slightly hunched, he is wearing a blue-gray Taoist robe that reaches to his ankles, and he is wearing old cloth shoes with straw soles on his feet.

I don't know how many years this robe has been worn, it has been washed and faded and delineated, there are traces of detachment on the cuffs, elbows, knees, legs and feet, and there are heterochromatic patches on the body from time to time, coupled with the gray hair that emerges around the round hat, which makes this Taoist priest look very haggard and anxious, and the whole person looks gray, as if it is contaminated with a layer of wind and sand.

The man was standing near the Sixteen Caves, gesturing back and forth with the craftsmen in the vicinity, and at their feet, he saw the deep pit of the abutment.

There is no doubt that this person must be Wang Yuanji, a Taoist priest.

Syllable!

Xu Xiake patted Wang Daoist on the shoulder, he turned his head to see that it was Xu Xiake, looked up and down, and scratched his ears: "Hey, what kind of wind blew Brother Xu here, didn't you say that you can't stand the lonely travel, are you going to find your best friends, why are you back ......?"

Before he finished speaking, when he saw five or six faces behind Xu Xiake, he immediately understood what was going on: "Oh, it turned out that they were brought here." ”

"Daoist Wang, don't come unharmed."

Xu Xiake made a gesture of a Taoist, and this Taoist also arched his hand: "Don't be so hypocritical, it's only been less than half a year since you left." ”

After that, he signaled the surrounding craftsmen to start working, and took Xu Xiake to the eaves of the cave near the big Buddha hall in the middle section, and the temporary shelter outside the eaves of the cave was placed with some sundries such as kettles, stoves, firewood, etc., and it was estimated that this was the temporary residence of the Taoist priest.

Open the shelter and enter the gatehouse, they walked into the grotto, this grotto has three horizontal rooms, the middle is large and the two sides are small, there are round arcades connecting the three grottoes, there are few murals, colored sculptures, Buddha statues, shrines in the grotto, like the latest digging cave, there are yellow-brown stone walls exposed everywhere.

The grotto in the middle was knocked into a part by the Taoist priest to the east, and the portrait of the three Qing Dynasty of Taoism was placed, and there was a tea house that resembled a couch under it, the grotto on the left was the place where the Taoist priest slept, and there were many rough bookshelves, desks, and meditation pads in the room on the right.

Everyone sat in the grotto, and Daoist Wang brought in a clay pot: "Come on, come on, the northwest is bitter cold, and there is no good tea, I usually drink some raisins and sand date kernels boiled water, you may not be used to drinking it, but the taste is really good." ”

"Daoist Wang, how are you raising the money in the Taiqing Palace? I think it's already been built, so I've raised all the money. ”

Xu Xiake drank the sweet and sour sand date water, recalled the craftsmen and lifu just now, and said in his heart that what they wanted to build was probably the Taiqing Palace that Wang Daoshi said.

With these words, Daoist Wang put down the teapot and wiped the beads of sweat on his face: "It's so easy, I've finally saved a hundred oceans, hurry up and let people build the foundation and the first floor of the temple house first, and then there will be no money to build it up, I have to continue to save money." ”

"Then you can sell a few more volumes of scriptures." Xu Xia joked.

This seems to mention the sadness of the Taoist priest: "Don't mention it, those foreigners are not a good thing, and I don't know what's going on, in the past few years, there have been foreign devils who have come to me to buy scriptures, and I said that I don't sell them and I'm angry, I'm a lonely old Taoist, how can I offend them." ”

"Later."

Wang Taoist walked to the left grotto and took out a scroll of scriptures, and everyone looked at it carefully, it was the scroll that was aged by soy sauce just now: "I came up with an idea, I will take the empty scriptures and copy some scriptures by myself, and then use soy sauce to make them old, smear some sand or something, it really looks like those scriptures in the grotto, anyway, these people can't understand our words, and they can't find that I deliberately made it old." ”

"That's it, I raised a lot of money by selling fake scriptures to foreigners, so that I can lay the foundation for the Taiqing Palace first, and as for the future, I will continue to sell the scriptures."

"Daoist Wang, why don't you go to the Political Yuan, these things are national treasures, you let the Political Yuan allocate funds to send people to protect the treasures, just a lonely Taoist priest is working blindly, how much money can be raised."

Wang Daoist waved his hand with a look of disgust: "You think I haven't looked for it, a few years ago, I found the commissioner of Dunhuang City, and told them about the situation of the Thousand Buddha Caves, and they repeatedly assured me that they would find the province to allocate money to me to protect the national treasures, and set aside about two thousand silver yuan. ”

"At least a thousand oceans."

Song Siyuan has not been in contact with officialdom, this atmosphere in the Republic of China has been around for a long time, but no matter how much it is intercepted at all levels, at least a thousand oceans must be retained.

"Huh!"

Daoist Wang stretched out four fingers: "From the province to the state to the county, there are forty oceans left in my hand, and for this reason, these people have also sent a lot of commissioners to guide the work, and the hospitality accommodation and food supply are all put in, and I have to pour money into it." ”

"Ahh

Everyone was dumbfounded, they couldn't imagine that the Northwest Political Yuan had reached this point of darkness, and it was almost eaten and wiped clean.

Daoist Wang was quite helpless when he mentioned this, and sat back on the tea house and curled up his legs: "Later, I can be regarded as a good learner, these officials and masters are already immeasurable Tianzun without asking me for money, where do I dare to ask them for money?" If you ask for money, isn't that a tiger's mouth pulling out teeth, and it's better for me to copy more scriptures and sell them. ”

Yue Guanchao looked at this Wang Daoist, in order to build the Taiqing Palace, it is estimated that this is all he can do, in the case of fundraising cannot be raised, it is understandable to use this way, he continued to ask: "Then you have to sell it more expensively, you are pouring soy sauce and vinegar, how much does a volume of scriptures sell?" ”

"A big ocean, what's wrong?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone gasped.

"Do you think I'm selling it too expensive?"

Wang Daoshi's eyes were suspicious, a piece of ocean was not a big deal in the eyes of foreigners, and for the local people, it was half a month's salary.

Song Siyuan thought for a moment and shook her head: "It's not that it's too expensive, but it's sold too cheaply." ”

She was curious just now, why there are more foreigners in the northwest, and now it seems that most of these foreigners who come to the northwest are from the investigation report of Stanstein!

Their purpose is to investigate certain ancient tombs or ruins in the northwest, like Steinhein, and then return to the West with the scrolls, so that they can get ahead in the West and even make a lot of money.

Not only in the northwest, but also in order to obtain the investigation report, these foreigners like to go to uninhabited secret places, such as snowy plateaus, Manchurian grasslands, and even tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia.

For them, the Western world has been almost explored, and if they want to explore more secret places, they can only turn their attention to East Africa, South America, and East Asia.

Since the Middle Ages, the East has been a very mysterious foreign land for them, full of gold and silver, and it is worth them to cross the ocean to explore, this kind of fanaticism for the East has reached the point of obsession, and it is understandable that they came to the northwest in groups.

Since Westerners come to pan for gold, they must not want to return in vain, they must want to get something back to the West, so that they can take advantage of cultural differences to sell a lot of money.