I didn't intend to become a fairy

Chapter 668 What salt?

Yuezhou, at the foot of Tianzhu Mountain.

It is worthy of being a famous fairy mountain spot in the past——

Ten years ago, Yuezhou was still desolate, with only demons and ghosts, and no human habitation. When the imperial court first immigrated to the north, Song You, Sanhua Empress, and Yanzi came with them. At that time, Yuezhou began to have people. Until now, Yuezhou is far from returning to its peak period. Sitting on the crane and flying all the way, the population below is far less than that of the Central Plains states. However, there are already many people in Tianzhu Mountain.

There are even two tea stalls, a wonton shop and a soup stall set up at the foot of the mountain. Some local villagers have also converted private houses into thatched cottages to provide accommodation for tourists.

There were quite a few people going up the mountain today.

It's probably because of the Chinese New Year.

At this time, the Taoist was sitting in a tea stall at the foot of the mountain. Next to him were three bowls of steaming tea.

My cat turned into a girl, holding a water bag, and went to the syrup stall to buy syrup. She was bargaining with the stall owner, hoping that for ten cents the stall owner would fill her water bag.

Yanzi also turned into a boy, but he was on the other side to buy wontons.

The Taoist sat still, working hard and waiting for food.

"The guest officer is really stingy..."

The juice stall owner was finally persuaded by the girl. Maybe he saw that Song You was wearing a Taoist robe and that he was a Taoist, so he regarded the girl as a Taoist boy of a poor Taoist. He was short of money, so he was so entangled, so he agreed within a few words. , took the girl’s water bag.

Then I saw him holding a water bag in one hand, and scooping out slurry water with a wooden spoon in the other hand. The water was poured from the mouth of the bag, just like pulling a thread, without spilling a drop.

"Gurgling..."

Until the entire water bladder is filled.

Not a drop of pulp water was wasted.

The girl had a serious face and stared intently.

Others thought she was shocked by the stall owner's technique, but in fact she was observing whether the stall owner had enough food.

"Okay, my dear guest." The stall owner handed the water bag to the girl and asked her, "My dear sir, are you from the northwest?"

"No."

"Then why do you also like to eat syrup?"

"My Taoist priest loves to drink!"

"Master, are you from the northwest?"

"No, he likes to eat sour food."

"So that's it. I thought that several guest officials also moved here from Longzhou in recent years." The stall owner said to her with a smile, "I'll charge you ten cents."

"Give……"

In his tender white hands, ten copper coins, polished until they were shiny, were placed in the palm of the stall owner's hand.

"You count!"

"Not a penny less!"

Of course there are quite a few, not much more.

Sanhua Empress was satisfied and returned with juice.

Almost at the same time, the boy also brought three bowls of wontons to the table.

Three bowls of wontons and three bowls of steaming hot tea.

In this harsh early spring, at the foot of the mountain with thick fog and heavy humidity, it is a pleasure to have such a hot breakfast.

"Suck it..."

"There are a lot of people here." Sanhua Empress took a bite of wontons and said to the Taoist next to her, "When we came here the first two times, there was no one here."

“It’s good to have more people.”

"I don't feel like this before."

"yes……"

The Taoist turned his head and looked around.

Someone spoke with a strong northwest accent. They must have migrated from Longzhou and other areas after the climate in the northwest changed from wetness to drought. This matter can be regarded as related to him and the changes he brought about.

But with his current state of mind, he no longer feels anything about it.

It’s more of an accent from the southern states.

Very mixed.

I don’t know when they will be able to merge, or if they will always be like this.

"When you finish eating this bowl of wontons and drinking this bowl of porridge tea, you will no longer be able to become a swallow." Empress Sanhua lowered her voice and whispered to the swallow.

As for rice porridge tea, it is her unique name for this kind of tea that is made by adding a lot of ingredients, making it very filling.

"Isn't it true that Sanhua Empress can't change back into a cat?" Yanzi responded weakly.

"You can turn into a pot-bellied cat!"

"..."

The Taoist turned a deaf ear to their whispers and only paid attention to the voices of the tourists at the table next to him.

"Although Yuezhou has just begun to prosper, and business is easy to do, I'm afraid it won't last for many years. It's better to make plans in advance to avoid another disaster."

"Who says it's not..."

"Ugh……"

"Ugh……"

They both sighed.

The Taoist turned around and saw two short and thin businessmen with accents that sounded like they were from the Yuzhou area.

"I went up to Tianzhu Mountain today. It's a good luck and a bit of fairy spirit. I hope things go smoothly in the future."

"If you make enough money soon, you should go back to your hometown."

While eating wontons and drinking tea, the Taoist listened secretly. He couldn't help it anymore, so he turned around and asked curiously: "May I ask you two, haven't the wars in the north been put down? I heard that the demons and monsters in Yuezhou have also been restrained. Very good, why are you two so worried, and what disaster are you worried about?"

When the two businessmen heard this, they immediately fell silent.

Seeing that he was a Taoist, I felt a little relieved, and then looked at each other with doubts.

"Sir, this is..."

"I have just arrived in Yuezhou and don't know what's going on here. I just feel that this place is in ruins and is flourishing. I heard that you two were worried, so I couldn't help but wonder, so I asked for advice." The Taoist saluted, "Please feel free to rest assured. Absolutely no other meaning."

"Sir, you are joking. This place is located in the middle of Yuezhou. No matter where you are from, you must have been walking for a few days. There is no way to say that you have just arrived in Yuezhou. You must have just arrived here." One of them corrected with a smile.

"What you said is not bad. If we just talk about Yuezhou, it is vast and sparsely populated, and the land is also highly productive. It is indeed prosperous. However, Dayan is not like that." Another person lowered his voice and said, "Nowadays, the world is getting worse and worse. Ansheng, sir, didn’t you hear that King Wenhan of Yizhou rebelled a few years ago, and then the magistrate of Zhaozhou rebelled together with the local military town. In the past two years, King Liu of northern Yangzhou also rebelled. I heard that the court is now suppressing and jealous of the Zhenbei Army. It is becoming more and more powerful, and it is already known to everyone in the north that General Chen Beiwei, the clan brother of Lord Protector, is quite dissatisfied with this."

This person didn't go into detail.

But Song You already understood.

Yuezhou Hezhou itself is the passage connecting the northern border towns to the hinterland of Dayan. Decades ago, after the Saibei people failed to attack Hezhou, they turned south from Yuezhou, which turned Yuezhou into a dead land. What they were worried about was that the Zhenbei Army would rebel like King Wen of Han west of Yizhou, Zhizhou Zhizhou of Zhaozhou and King Liu in the north of Yangzhou, and then move south from Yuezhou, bringing about war.

Even without Chen Ziyi, the Zhenbei Army's cohesion has been greatly reduced, and it has been cut again and again, divided into several parts, and suppressed several times, but its strength is still not comparable to that of the previous ones.

The situation was unstable and there were rebellions everywhere.

In this era, communication is inconvenient and information has always been blocked. If a rumor is known to everyone, either someone is deliberately spreading it, or it is really a stormy time.

Either way, it's not good news.

The Taoist couldn't help but shook his head, feeling incomprehensible.

It has only been ten years since the last time I left Changjing and the last time I came to Yuezhou, but Dayan is already facing a storm.

Shinto is, after all, a subsidiary of humanity.

Things in the human world are much more difficult and complicated than things in heaven.

After thanking the two merchants, she turned around and saw that the bowl in front of her was almost empty. There were only two wild vegetable leaves, a single wonton and a glistening soup. She was using it. A small wooden spoon scooped up a spoonful of wonton soup and carefully brought it to the mouth.

He put it into his mouth, narrowed his eyes, raised his head slightly, and quickly smacked it in his mouth a few times, as if he was enjoying it very much.

The bone broth is really fragrant.

Just when Song You was surprised that she ate so quickly, and even wanted to pretend to praise her for it, he lowered his head and found that there were more wontons in his bowl than when he was first served.

"...Sanhua Empress, what does this mean?"

"What meow?"

"Have you finished eating Sanhua's wontons?"

"There's one left in the bowl!"

"What's going on in my bowl?"

"What?"

Empress Sanhua held the spoon and stared at him blankly. Her little face was expressionless and serious, and her eyes were clear and firm, and she didn't look like she was lying.

"A bowl of wontons is enough for me, why does Sanhua Empress do this?"

"What meow?"

Sanhua Empress looked left and right, and said seriously: "Eat quickly, it's time to climb the mountain after eating."

"Looking at the left and right, he..."

The Taoist said while shaking his head.

"Want to add salt?"

The girl leaned down and stared at him with concern.

"..."

The Taoist sped up.

After eating, pay and go up the mountain.

Yuezhou itself can't be called warm. Fortunately, the weather has been good recently. It can only be called slightly cold at the foot of the mountain. However, when we reach the mountain, the chill becomes obviously worse. Fortunately, my stomach is bulging and there is food in my belly, so my body will naturally warm up, and I don't have to worry about the cold when I move around.

I walked slowly up the mountain, feeling pretty good.

There are many people walking together on the mountain.

"There are so many people." It didn't take long for Sanhua Empress to transform into a cat again. Her belly was not bulging, and she walked with the Taoist with small steps. This also proved from the side that she really didn't eat much, and she walked with I lamented again, “With so many people, it’s not convenient at all.”

"Miss Sanhua, don't smell it, it's cow dung."

"Oh……"

The cat immediately ran back.

That afternoon, the group reached the top of the mountain.

There are really a lot of tourists during the New Year.

Obviously, most of them are not refugees who immigrated to the north. They should be local officials, businessmen who come to do business, or literati and tourists who come here because of their reputation.

Some people even built simple wooden houses on the mountain and collected money to provide temporary accommodation to these tourists.

As for the stone pillar-like Tianzhu Mountain in front, there are also many tourists on the mountain paths, climbing up the mountain like ants with difficulty. There are also curls of cigarette smoke floating into the clouds from the palace on the top of the mountain.

"Excuse me, my Majesty..."

The Taoist grabbed a man who had just come down from Tianzhu Mountain and politely asked, "Is there someone already in the palace on this mountain?"

"Since there is a palace, there must be people there." The tourist replied. After thinking for a moment, he looked at Song You again. "Sir, you must have been here before, right? There was no one in the whole Yuezhou before. On Tianzhu Mountain Naturally, there is no one in the palace, and now that there are people in Yuezhou, naturally this place cannot be empty."

"Who is he?"

"It's an old gentleman and three young gentlemen who take care of the palace above and entertain pilgrims."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"It's two sentences, nothing worth mentioning."

The tourist waved his hand and left.

The remaining calico cat followed the Taoist at his feet, sitting and licking the hair on his arms. When no one was around, he whispered to the Taoist: "There was no one here last time. Where did these Taoist priests come from?" Whoever gets here first, does it belong to him?"

"Tianzhu Mountain is so famous, how can it be so simple? It is more likely that it was decided by the government and the ancestral hall."

"I see……"

Sanhua Empress suddenly looked disappointed.

It turns out that not only being a deity and sitting on the altar of a temple requires a government seal, but also being a Taoist priest in a temple and helping to clean the temple also requires a government seal.

She thought it was first come, first served. In that case, they had been here many years ago when there was no one here, climbed the mountain, entered the palace on the mountain, and cooked porridge in the palace on the mountain. The palace on the mountain should be theirs.

"Let's go."

It was getting later and later, and fewer and fewer people were climbing to the top of Tianzhu Mountain. The Taoist also took Mao'er and the boy up the mountain.

(End of this chapter)