"Di-"
A familiar voice rang in the ears of the two, Gu Qingqing took out the phone and glanced at it: 3:00:01.
"It's actually been three hours?!" Wu You was very surprised, "Why didn't I hear the second time?"
"I heard, we were still under the silver tree at that time." Gu Qingqing remembered clearly, Wu You was studying the trumpet sound blown by the silver angel under the tree at that time, "We only have 10 hours left, You must hurry up!"
"We currently have a silver leaf and a small handful of golden sand." Wu You began to calculate the current "disposable property" of the two of them, "Although this leaf is silver, this is the silver tree in the palace of the Mongolian Khan. The fallen leaves are probably worth some money anyway."
The two had already entered the lively market at this time. There were many shops on the roadside, and there were also some stalls in front of the shops, selling some food and daily necessities. The voices of asking prices and haggling came one after another. The above is a scene of ancient red dust.
Gu Qingqing's eyes roamed the market: "I think they are doing small businesses, and it is difficult to use them as ingots."
Wu You also found that most of the money paid by the merchants was copper coins, and the sum of the money on these merchants was probably not enough for one ingot.
"It would be great if we could find a place like a bank, and we could exchange our money for ingots," Gu Qingqing said.
"Bank, was it called Qianzhuang or Yinhao in ancient times?" Wu You only felt that he had a flash of inspiration, and unexpectedly came up with so many ancient terms.
"The term money bank or silver number began in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but there have been currency exchange institutions in my country since the Song Dynasty," Gu Qingqing looked around as she walked, "Unfortunately, what are these institutions in the Yuan Dynasty called? I don't know where."
"Look, there's a door face over there!" Wu You's eyes were sharp, and he soon saw a shop in the distance. In the heat from the wonton stand next to him, he could vaguely see two pieces hanging from the side of the shop door. The diamond-shaped signboard has just two words written on it - Silver Shop.
Gu Qingqing saw these two words clearly, and quickly quickened her pace.
"This silver shop is a bank, right?!" Wu You was very excited.
"Maybe it's not a bank, but it must be dealing with silver." Gu Qingqing said with great certainty.
There were no guests in front of the silver shop, and the two walked in.
The shop was dimly lit, and a young silversmith was carving a piece of silver jewelry in the sunlight by the window.
The so-called silver shop is actually a jewelry store.
"Are the two girls here to make jewelry?" There was no one in the silver shop, and it was the silversmith who greeted them.
Wu You was the first to speak: "Master, do you make ingots here?"
"We are here to make jewelry and silverware, what are you going to do?" The silversmith looked puzzled, thinking he had heard it wrong, "Yuanbao?"
Yes, Yuanbao is the currency of this dynasty.
Is this the equivalent of walking into a jewelry store in the Republic of China and asking people to hit a few gold bars
"To be honest, I have never made ingots." The silversmith confessed frankly.
"Then can you tell us where can you buy or exchange ingots?" Gu Qingqing asked.
The young silversmith stopped his work, thought about it, and said, "Are you in a hurry? Can you hold it for two days?"
"Urgent!" The two said in unison.
two days? There are only ten hours left now!
"If you have ready-made ingots in your hand, we can also exchange them." Wu You said with courage.
The silversmith said: "My father was a craftsman who specialized in 'rice making'."
Wu You was stunned: "What, what did you say? Cooking?"
"That's right, Zhifan." Seeing that he couldn't express himself clearly, the silversmith was a little anxious, so he simply rummaged through a wooden box beside his feet, and quickly took out a rusty thing, like a heavy spoon , but the shape is wide at both ends and concave in the middle, just like a fat spoon with a graceful waist.
Gu Qingqing and Wu You were both stunned and didn't make a sound for a while.
Because they can clearly see that this "spoon" emits a light, a colorful glare, which is very similar to the scene when the golden hourglass was first discovered.
This is what they were looking for.
It's really strange. I thought it was a silver ingot, how could it be such a strange thing.
"This is a silver ingot fan," the young silversmith explained to the two of them. "This thing is iron, and it will rust if it is not used for many years."
With the permission of the silversmith, Gu Qingqing picked it up and looked at it carefully: "Is the silver ingot fan you mentioned just now an iron mold for making silver ingots?"
The silversmith nodded hurriedly: "Yes, it's the mold for making silver ingots to make ingots! Those ingots are all cast by Fan, so that they can be unified." He then added, "My father worked for the government back then, and belonged to the official family. Casting teacher!"
Wu You was not only excited, but also felt that she had gained knowledge again. She lightly touched the rusty silver ingot fan. For herself, this thing was as precious as a gold hourglass: "Is it possible to say that, this is a gold ingot? Mother."
The silversmith was stunned, but seemed to understand Wu You's words, he smiled honestly: "Yes, Fan is the mother of silver ingots."
Both Wu You and Gu Qingqing showed gratifying smiles. The two of them have been in this world for so long, and they have seen the most luxurious silver tree in the legend, the golden account of the Mongolian Khan, and the theological debates of major sects. , and finally realized that what he was looking for was actually just a piece of silver ingot.
No, it's Yuan Bao's mother, Yin Ding Fan.
"Can we buy this?" Gu Qingqing asked.
Unexpectedly, the silversmith was very generous: "Take it, no money, these are silver ingots that have been damaged for a long time. I still have a lot in this box!"
Gu Qingqing thought for a while, but still took out the silver leaf in his pocket: "I'll give this to you as an exchange."
The silversmith took the silver leaf and stared intently, apparently stunned by his exquisite carving skills.
Wu You picked up the precious silver ingot fan, put it in his cowhide pocket, and put it in easily, as if this thing should belong here.
Unexpectedly, the silversmith insisted on returning the silver leaf to the two: "This craft is too rare, this thing is too precious, it is almost worth a piece of gold! Give it back to you, I don't want it."
The two girls were unwilling to ask for other people's things in vain.
Seeing that the silversmith was so persistent, Wu You smiled and said, "Well, master, let me ask you a question, if you can answer it, it will be a great help to me, and this leaf will be my reward; If I can't answer, I'll take the leaves back."
"Okay, say it!" The silversmith was also a little curious.
Gu Qingqing didn't know what medicine Wu You's gourd was selling for a while.
Then I heard Wu You say: "That's it, our family came here to visit relatives, and we saw a lot of strange things along the way. For example, a few days ago, we were traveling at night and saw a group of people , drove a donkey cart, and brought a whole load of strange goods, all so big, so long, so thick, big grey lumps…”
Hearing this, Gu Qingqing couldn't help but admire Wu You's agility.
Isn't this the weird scene Wu You saw in that gray sky? Those gray rectangles, although I don't know what they are for, can be deduced that they are valuable and belong to some kind of metal - this question is really suitable to ask a silversmith for advice.
After listening to Wu You's description, the silversmith couldn't help but feel worried: "Fortunately, you didn't make a sound at that time. If those tin thieves found you, their lives might not be guaranteed."
"Pirates of tin?" It was the first time Wu You heard the word, "Pirates of tin, do you mean that those big gray lumps are all tin?"
"Yes, on the surface, those men are transporting tin blocks to people, but there is a doorway here. Tin is the most insufferable and will melt when it is heated, but it will not melt on the surface, but from the heart. , so when heated to a certain degree, the outside of the tin block can be poked open, and the tin water inside will flow out." After all, the silversmith is in the metal business, and he knows a little bit about the way of business, "Tin water is tin, You can use them to make all kinds of tin ware, and you can also use 30% tin and 70% copper to make bronze ware.”
Wu You and Gu Qingqing suddenly realized that the scene in the gray sky was the process of stealing tin.
In the end, the silversmith accepted this precious silver leaf, and in Wu You's words: "You deserve it."
The cowhide pockets had already loaded two treasures heavily, and the two walked out of the silver shop. The lively market outside was drawing to a close, the sky was getting dark, and it was already twilight.
The two girls found a slightly secluded place, and Wu You still couldn't hide his excitement: "I didn't expect this silver shop to be in the right place! After finding the silver ingot fan, the silversmith also helped us solve a big problem!"
"You mean... gold, silver, copper, iron and tin." Gu Qingqing also thought of this.
Wu You nodded vigorously: "Yes! Let's go to the world of stealing tin next! Although it is a little dangerous, we can deal with it skillfully! We are people who have even been to the golden tent of the Mongolian Khan!"
However, Gu Qingqing is not as optimistic as Wu You: "'Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron and Tin' is just an idea, and it can't be easily concluded now."
"But, the blood of those ghosts must have nothing to do with metal!" Wu You felt his scalp tingling when he remembered what he saw in the blood-red sky.
"My method of inference may not be scientific," Gu Qingqing said calmly, "I think that no one would want to enter the world of ghost blood. If it is a wrong choice, wouldn't this setting make no sense? ?"
"I didn't understand." Although Wu You said this, his heart was open. No one wanted to enter the world of ghost blood. If it was a wrong path, it should attract people to enter, not discourage people. .
Gu Qingqing saw Wu You's raised brows, and continued: "That's how I analyzed it, if only one of the three options of red, silver and gray you see is correct, it is the silver world we are in now.
"There may also be two correct, then there will be two options, one is that the silver and gray worlds are correct, if this one is true, it means that we have to collect all five kinds of 'gold, silver, copper, iron and tin' Metal, it is possible to find the woodblock fragments of the New Year picture; the second is that the world of silver and red is correct, then we need to find out the connection between ghost blood and gold and silver, which is also a clue.
"The third possibility is that these three worlds are correct. Then, we have to analyze what is the relationship between gold, silver and tin and ghost blood? Can ghost blood represent iron or copper? As far as I know, there is no such statement. "
Wu You listened to Gu Qingqing's analysis word by word, and remembered the last picture of the three-sided sky frozen, the silver world left a tree, the gray world left those tin nuggets, and the red world left a red rock mountain. Ghost blood dripped down the mountain, making the whole mountain blood red...
"Qingqing! I suddenly remembered something!" When Wu You was excited, he shook Gu Qingqing's shoulder and shook the other person several times, "I didn't tell you that I could see dirty things when I was young. I was caught up with things a few times, and because of this, I was seriously ill for several times. Later, my great grandmother said that it was being entangled by a ghost. Later, my great grandmother's 'practice' blindfolded my eyes. Well, I remember when I was blindfolded for two years, my great grandma gave me a bunch of red onyx bracelets to wear to ward off evil spirits! I remember she also said that it was ghost blood Agate, from Danqiu, is afraid of ghosts!"
Gu Qingqing was fascinated by it: "Danqiu? So, there seems to be a record in the "Supplementary Notes" of the Jin Dynasty, which said: 'Danqiu's wild is full of ghost blood, and when it turns into danshi, it is also agate. '"
"Look at it! Agate is made of ghost blood! That is to say, the blood-red mountains I saw last were actually the mountains of Danqiu! The stone on it is agate!"
Gu Qingqing nodded again and again: "Think about it carefully. It was also said in "Youyang Zazu": The horse's brain is transformed by the blood of ghosts. It seems that there is such a saying in ancient myths and legends."
"In this way, these worlds are gold, silver, tin and agate respectively." Wu You began to try to classify, "Gold, silver and tin are easy to explain, they are all smeltable metals, but agate is different from them. If it is What about gold, silver, and agate, these are all… darling?”
"Gold, silver, agate..." Gu Qingqing seemed to have come to a realization. "Gold, silver, glazed, clam, agate, pearl, rose. These are the Buddhist Seven Treasures mentioned in the Lotus Sutra."