Chapter 112【The Burrow Gossip】
"Excuse me, who is your Excellency?" The old man raised his hand, returned the salute generously, and then asked.
"Idle people in the mountains in the clouds." Fang Chang said with a smile, "Long below."
The old man in front of him turned out to be a very high-ranking cultivator. He had practiced here for many years.
"In Xiagushan, I live here. Your Excellency, please come in and chat." After finishing speaking, the old man turned sideways and raised his hand.
Fang Chang looked in the direction he indicated, and there was a small courtyard behind Chai Fei, and inside was a very old house.
Adobe walls, straw mud roofs, it looks like three rooms, but there are traces of recent repairs on the outside, I don't know if it was done by the old man in front of him, or with the help of young and strong neighbors.
It seems that it is the colleague in front of him, who lives in seclusion in the downtown area.
Following the footsteps of the old man, Fang Chang walked into the small courtyard.
Looking around, this small courtyard is not big. Although there are no trees planted in it, there is a well with a high rim and a brick well platform.
The ground of the yard has been swept clean. The surface of the soil is mixed with fine sand, and there is no grass. It seems that the owner should be a careful person.
As a practitioner, it is normal to have no children, so Fang Chang guessed that this old man must be living alone.
The main room in the middle has an open door and serves as a kitchen at the same time. It is the layout of a small family. Both the courtyard door and the house door face south, and the hut on one side should be a utility room.
Let Fang Chang into the main room on the east side, set up a kang table, and the two sit cross-legged on both sides.
The old man picked up the empty teapot next to him, put some tea leaves in it, then pointed to the water tank outside the house, filled the pot with water, then pointed to the teapot again, put a teacup in front of Chang Fang, and dumped the pot.
As the water flows into the teacup, heat rises up.
He seemed to feel that the other party was a little slow to treat him like this, and he said with a little apology: "There is no hot water at home, and there is no time to boil it, so I have to cook it by magic. Please forgive me, and my family is poor, and I don't have good tea to entertain. The guests laughed..."
"Don't dare." Fang Chang said with a smile, "I live in the mountains, and the tea I drink is picked by myself, so I'm never picky."
Both sides looked at each other and smiled.
Picked up the teacup and tasted it, it was indeed quite ordinary, the tea leaves were a little broken and had a slightly bitter taste.
However, this is very consistent with the simple furnishings in the old man Gu Shan's house.
Gu Shan also picked up the teacup and took a sip of it happily. The other party smiled and said: "When I was playing chess just now, I accidentally felt that there were more people next to me than usual, but when I looked up, it was you. I have lived in this small town for fifty years. I have never seen such a clean and dusty person, and seeing the spiritual energy around him, I think he is a practitioner."
Fang Chang put down his teacup and cupped his hands in a salute: "Then I should call you senior."
The old man Gu Shan shook his head:
"I can't afford it, I can't afford it, there is no distinction in practice, and there is no limit to the difference. There is no teacher, and I am a peer."
"Your Excellency, you can directly call me Gu Shan or Old Man Gu. The address is nothing more than a code name. It is fine to call me so that people can understand it and be called so that people know it."
Hearing the words, the corner of Fang Chang's mouth slightly raised, and he said with a smile:
"During the years of practicing cultivation, some people called me 'Fang Xianchang', others called me 'Mr. Fang', and others called me 'Guest Officer' and 'Your Excellency', I answered them all."
The two laughed a few times together.
After the old man stopped laughing, he said happily: "Yes, yes, but I am contradicting myself. You can call it whatever you like."
"Mr. Gu was playing backgammon just now?" Fang Chang said while holding a teacup. In order to maintain the atmosphere of the chat, he still followed the good advice and didn't call the other party 'Senior Gu'.
"Well, there are a lot of residents in these streets, and they are very busy when it snows in winter, but no one knows how to go, and no one wants to learn it. But it doesn't matter to me, it's just for fun anyway, and backgammon is also very interesting " said the old man Gu Shan.
The two chatted for a while, talking about new things from all over the world, and exchanging some problems in practice, which felt very beneficial.
Although the old man Gu Shan "hides in the city", he has a lot of friends and is well-informed, at least much better than Fang Chang who spends most of his time nestling on the fairy cliff.
When Fang Chang talked about the entrance fee of Yongjia Fucheng, which was twice as expensive as other places, Gu Shan smiled:
"This matter is actually new. Of course, not all city entrance fees in the world are based on a penny, but at least Yongjia Mansion in Lizhou was also charged a penny ten years ago."
"It's just that there was a county magistrate who searched hard at the beginning and doubled the entrance fee. The next two county magistrates didn't pay much attention to this matter, and they were followed as usual."
At least in this kind of agricultural society with a low degree of centralization, things like taxes have always been easy to raise, but extremely difficult to lower.
If you want to mobilize taxes, you don’t know how many hands and how many layers of relationships will be in the way, and senior officials are often bullied by old officials, so it is easy to reduce taxes and increase burdens.
Fang Chang understood these things very well, but he disliked them being messy and troublesome, and didn't like to think about them.
But I heard the old man in front of me say:
"Not long ago, the local city **** sent an officer to send me a letter, which asked for some things, so I happened to have something to go to the county government to solve in the past few days."
"Meeting is fate, why don't you go with me? When you meet the county magistrate, you can mention the city gate tax issue, maybe it can be resolved."
Fang Chang was a little interested in Gu Shan's invitation, he nodded and said, "I'm very happy."
The old man Gu Shan nodded:
"It's better to hit the sun than choose the day, let's go now."
"Okay." Fang Chang replied, then got up, and put the package and oil-paper umbrella on the kang head back on his back.
The old man Gu Shan next to him didn't change his clothes, he just sorted it out a little, then opened the cabinet, took out a small blue silk purse, and tied it around his waist.
As practitioners, both of them are very unrestrained, moving as they say, without delay.
When going out, Gu Shan explained the cause and effect of the following things to Fang Chang:
"A few days ago, the county magistrate Qi of our government went to the Town God's Temple to pray for blessings. When he prayed, he said a distressing thing about himself, which was known to the City God. This is a big matter, and Wen Chenghuang didn't dare to neglect it, so he immediately started. Try to resolve this."
"This Wen Chenghuang knew that I was here, and would occasionally communicate with me on weekdays, so he thought of me, so he sent a letter to a patrolling officer, asking me to go and solve the problem for Qi County Magistrate. "
Fang Chang said: "We just went directly to the door like this? Does the county magistrate know about this?"
"Of course." Gu Shan said with a smile, "Wen Chenghuang has already prepared everything. He dreamed up the county magistrate Qi in advance, telling him that someone will solve the matter for him. When we arrive at the county office in a while, we will go through the side door, just say ' When Wang Bailing's old friend came to visit, the county magistrate knew it was us."
Thank you for your reward
(end of this chapter)