hotmtlnovel Chapter 32 Love you, old man, let's go make money!
Chapter 32 Love you, old man, let's go make money!
This indicates that the person is not old, but has an extremely stable lower body and minimal fluctuations in their center of gravity when walking.
Those who practice external martial arts.
Combined with the traces of the earthen chariot just now, it's clear that this is a little devil who is proficient in both Wuhou Qimen and external martial arts.
In this remote and impoverished place, there are not many people who can meet all these conditions at the same time.
He followed the footprints for a while, but the footprints did not lead back to Qixia Town; instead, they continued southeast.
After about ten miles, the footprints would blend into the footprints of other pedestrians on the official road, making them impossible to distinguish one by one.
But that was enough; it was about ten miles away, heading southeast, which happened to be the same direction they were going to Zhejiang.
Yuan Jingui stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.
The two Quanxing members behind him, one with his arms crossed and frowning, and the other cracking his knuckles, looked menacing.
"Brother Yuan, should we go for it or not?"
"On the way."
Yuan Jingui nodded.
-----------------
The location of Sanyi Gate is roughly in the Zhejiang area.
Starting from Sichuan, the journey to Zhejiang is extremely long.
Even though Zhuge Yan was an extraordinary person with far greater stamina than ordinary people, he never actually thought about walking there.
Leaving aside how tiring the journey must have been, let's just talk about the time it took.
Three months later was the 80th birthday of the Lu family patriarch. Before leaving home, Zhuge Yan had made an appointment with his father, Zhuge Duan, to attend the Lu family's birthday banquet.
If you rely solely on walking, going to Sanyi Gate first and then to the Lu family's place, it's highly unlikely you'll make it in time.
Moreover, due to his previous life's habit of using unreliable maps, Zhuge Yan's navigation skills had long since deteriorated to a point where they were practically nonexistent.
If we get lost halfway, who knows how long we'll be gone!
Fortunately, it was 1931, the 20th century. Although public transportation was not as developed as in the 21st century, it still had all the necessary services.
According to the information Zhuge Yan had gathered along the way, if one wanted to go to Zhejiang, it would be best to first travel by water or land to Chongqing, and then from Chongqing, either by water or by plane, to Shanghai.
Taking a plane would be fast, but there's a problem—Zhuge Yan has no money.
A few years ago, Chinese airlines launched the Wuhan-Chongqing route, a flight from Chongqing to Shanghai that takes only a few hours.
But airfares aren't cheap, and ordinary people simply can't afford them.
In those days, a single flight on a commercial airliner cost several hundred dollars, equivalent to several years' savings for an average family.
The travel expenses given to him by his father, Zhuge Duan, before his departure, plus the miscellaneous expenses along the way after he descended the mountain, were far from enough.
"What should we do? Should we make the sacrifice and travel by boat?"
After a brief moment of thought, Zhuge Yan immediately made a decision.
What's there to feel aggrieved about? I love you, go make some money!
Okay, so a new problem has arisen.
How can I raise enough money to buy a plane ticket in a short period of time?
You can't just steal or rob, can you?
The thought had barely formed when Zhuge Yan immediately nipped it in the bud.
The Wuhou Sect has extremely strict family discipline. Even if a disciple is slightly naughty, there are a lot of family rules to follow, let alone forcibly taking or plundering.
"There's no other way; it seems I can only go back to my area of expertise."
-----------------
A few days later, the mornings at Chaotianmen Wharf were more bustling than in any other town in Sichuan.
The Yangtze and Jialing Rivers meet here, their muddy yellow waters mingling with their clear blue waters.
On the dock, shirtless laborers carrying loads shouted work chants, and the wooden planks creaked under their feet.
Zhuge Yan, dressed in coarse cloth and carrying a rattan bag on his back, was walking uphill along the Chaotianmen Wharf and found an open space near Chuqimen.
This place is neither too far nor too close to the dock, and there are many merchants coming and going, but few other people.
He found a relatively flat piece of bluestone and took out the travel money his father, Zhuge Duan, had given him before his departure from his bag. The cloth bag was heavy with loose silver and copper coins.
Zhuge Yan thought for a moment, then pulled out a neatly folded white cloth from the bottom of his bag.
This was brought from the Wuhou Sect before I left. I originally intended to use it to change clothes, but now it comes in handy.
He spread a white cloth on the ground and weighed down the four corners with several stones.
He then rummaged through his bag and found a writing brush and half a block of dry ink. He ground the ink with the puddle by the roadside and wrote several large characters on a white cloth.
"Wuhou Qimen, with unerring predictions. He doesn't charge money, only a plane ticket."
After writing it, he glanced at it and felt that the sign was a bit too straightforward, but then he thought that the more straightforward the better.
If you can understand it, then you've found the right person; if you can't understand it, there's no need for him to explain.
Airplane tickets are still a rarity these days, and a fortune teller who can charge "only one plane ticket" as a fee for divination is enough to attract attention just for that gimmick.
It was just dawn, and the fog on the dock had not yet dissipated, leaving a thin layer of dew on the stone pavement.
Zhuge Yan sat cross-legged behind the white cloth, placed his luggage beside him as a cushion, and rested his hands on his knees with his palms facing the sky.
All those years of meditation practice were not for nothing. His breathing calmed down in a few breaths, his heartbeat slowed, his back straightened but not overly tense, and he entered a semi-meditative state.
The bustling dock, with its throngs of people coming and going, seemed to be separated by a layer of water.
The Qimen Dunjia formation had silently spread out three feet beneath his feet, and the central palace was fixed, encompassing all the aura within three zhang around him.
The first person to stop in front of his fortune-telling stall was a middle-aged merchant wearing a melon-shaped hat.
The merchant looked at the words on the white cloth, then at Zhuge Yan, and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Fortune telling is free, but requires a plane ticket? Where did this greenhorn come from? He hasn't even grown his hair yet, and he's already trying to learn fortune telling."
What do you think a plane ticket is? Just two pieces of paper?
Zhuge Yan opened his eyes and glanced at him.
One glance, not a scrutiny, not an examination, but a deduction.
The Qimen Dunjia divination was operating silently, and the aura emanating from that person was analyzed into a list of directions, deviations in the Five Elements, and tendencies toward good or bad fortune.
He's just an ordinary person, and his impact on the world is negligible. Predicting his fate would be incredibly easy.
Zhuge Yan compared his facial features with the data he had already deduced, verifying several of them. Then he closed his eyes and spoke softly:
"You came down from the dock, but the ship hasn't left yet; we're waiting for a cargo ship from Hankou."
The merchant wearing the melon-shaped hat paused for a moment.
He did come to wait for the boat, but the young man couldn't have known beforehand, and he didn't tell anyone.
"Your shipment consists of medicinal herbs, including Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, and Angelica sinensis, about forty bags in total. A dozen or so bags are damp. The person who received the goods is a Mr. Chen from the Hankou Wharf."
Zhuge Yan continued speaking with his eyes closed.
"Your wife sewed you a talisman yesterday and told you to carry it with you, but you thought it was ugly and stuffed it into a box."
The amulet has a red background with yellow embroidery, and the words "Peace" are embroidered on it.
The air remained still for a full five breaths.
The merchant's mocking expression vanished as if wiped away by an invisible hand; his lips moved, his eyes widened, and he froze in place as if he had been frozen in place.