Paintings of Terror

"Beep—"

A familiar voice rang in their ears, and Gu Qingqing took out the phone and glanced at 3:00:01.

"Three hours have passed?!" Wu You was very surprised, "Why didn't I hear the second time signal?"

"I heard, we were still under the silver tree at that time." Gu Qingqing remembered clearly that Wu You was studying the trumpet sound of the silver angel under the tree, "We only have 10 hours left. We must hurry!"

"We currently have a silver leaf and a small handful of golden sand." Wu You began to calculate the "disposable property" of the two people. "Although this leaf is silver, it is the silver tree in the Mongolian Great Khan court. The fallen leaves are probably worth some money no matter what."

The two of them have already embarked on the lively bazaar. There are many shops on the roadside, and there are some stalls in front of the shops, selling some food and daily necessities. The sound of asking prices and bargaining are one after another. It is a scene of ancient red dust.

Gu Qingqing's gaze swept across the bazaar: "I think they are doing small businesses, it is very difficult to use ingots."

Wu You also found that most of the money paid by people was copper coins, and the sum of the money on these vendors probably wasn't enough for a piece of 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.

"Banks, were they called money houses or silver accounts in ancient times?" Wu You only felt that he was inspired by so many ancient exclusive terms.

"The idea of ​​money houses or silver names began in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but my country has had currency exchange institutions since the Song Dynasty," Gu Qingqing walked and looked around. "Unfortunately, what are the names of such institutions in the Yuan Dynasty? I am not very clear about where."

"Look, there is a door face over there!" Wu You's sharp eyes quickly saw a shop in the distance. In the heat from the wonton stall next to him, he could vaguely see two pieces hanging from the side of the shop door. The diamond-shaped signboard has exactly two characters written on it-Yinpu.

Gu Qingqing saw these two words clearly, and quickly quickened his pace.

"This silver shop is the bank?!" Wu You was very excited.

"Maybe it's not a bank, but it must be dealing with silver." Gu Qingqing said very positively.

There were no guests in front of the silver shop, and the two wandered in.

The light in the shop was a little dark, 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 shop.

"Are the two girls here to buy jewelry?" There was no man in the silver shop, and it was the silversmith who greeted them.

Wu You took the lead: "Master, are you making ingots here?"

"We sell jewelry and silverware here. What are you going to do?" The silversmith's expression was a little confused, thinking he had heard it wrong, "Yuanbao?"

Yes, ingots are the currency of this dynasty.

Is this the equivalent of walking into a jewelry store in the Republic of China and asking someone to pay a few gold bars?

"It's true that I have never made ingots." The silversmith told him frankly.

"Then you can tell us, where can I buy or exchange ingots?" Gu Qingqing asked.

The young silversmith stopped his work and thought for a while and said, "Are you in a hurry? Can it last for two days?"

"Hurry!" the two people said in unison.

Two days? There are now ten hours left!

"If you have a ready-made ingot in your hand, we can also change it." Wu You said with courage.

The silversmith said: "My father is a craftsman who specializes in making rice."

Wu You stared, "You, what did you say? Cooking?"

"That's right, make a fan." Seeing that he couldn't express himself clearly, the silversmith was a little anxious, so he 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, like a fat spoon with a graceful waist.

Gu Qingqing and Wu You, both of them were stunned, and they didn't make a sound for a while.

Because they all clearly saw that the "spoon" gave out a light, a colorful glare, just like the scene when the golden hourglass was first discovered.

This thing is what they are looking for.

It's really strange. I thought it was a silver ingot. How could it be such a strange thing.

"This is the silver ingot fan," the young silversmith explained to the two of them. "This thing is made of iron. It will rust after years of use."

With the permission of the silversmith, Gu Qingqing picked it up and examined it carefully: "Is the silver ingot model you just mentioned, an iron mold for silver ingots?"

The silversmith nodded hurriedly: "Yes, it is the mold for making silver ingots to make ingots! Those ingots are all cast by Fan, so that they can unify the weight." He then said, "My father worked for the government back then. Founder!"

Wu You was both excited and felt that she had gained insight again. She lightly touched the rusty silver ingot fan. To herself, this thing is as precious as a gold hourglass: "Can you say that, this is an ingot mom."

The silversmith was stunned, but he seemed to understand Wu You's words a little, he smiled honestly: "Yes, Fan is the mother of silver ingots."

Wu You and Gu Qingqing both smiled with relief. They have walked in this world for so long, seeing the most luxurious silver tree in the legend, seeing the golden tent of the Mongolian Great Khan, and seeing the theological debates of major sects. , I finally realized that what I was looking for was actually just a piece of silver ingot.

No, it's Yuan Bao's mother, Yinding 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 after a long time. I still have a lot in this box!"

Gu Qingqing thought for a while, still took out the silver leaf in her pocket: "This is for you, it counts as an exchange."

The silversmith took the silver leaf and stared intently, obviously stunned by his exquisite carving skills.

Wu You picked up the precious silver ingot fan, put it into 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 of them: "This craft is too rare, this thing is too precious, almost worth a piece of gold! Give it back to you, I don't want it."

The two girls were reluctant to ask others for nothing.

Seeing the silversmith’s persistence, Wu You smiled and said, “Let’s do it, Master, I’ll ask you a question. If you can answer it, even if it’s been a great help, this leaf will be my reward; if you If I can't answer, I will take the leaf back."

"Okay, say it!" The silversmith was also somewhat curious.

Gu Qingqing didn't know what medicine Wu You's gourd sold.

I heard Wu You say: "That's it. Our family came here to visit relatives. We saw a lot of strange things along the way. For example, a few days ago, we drove at night and saw a group of people. , Drove a donkey cart, and transported a lot of strange goods, all of which were such big, long, and thick gray chunks..."

When Gu Qingqing heard this, she admired Wu You's agility.

Isn't this the weird scene Wu You saw in that gray sky? Those gray squares, although I don't know what they are used for, it can be presumed that this thing is valuable and should belong to a certain kind of metal. It is really appropriate to ask a silversmith for this question.

After listening to Wu You's description, the silversmith couldn't help but feel worried: "Fortunately, you didn't say anything at the time. If those tin thieves found you, maybe their lives would not be guaranteed."

"Snake thief?" Wu You heard this term for the first time. "Stealing tin, do you mean that those big gray pieces are all tin?"

"Yes, those guys seem to be transporting tin blocks to people, but there is a doorway here. Tin is the least resistant to heat. It will melt when heated, but it will not melt the surface, but start from the heart. , So heating it to a certain degree, you can poke the outside of the tin block, and the tin water inside will flow out." After all, the silversmith is in the metal business, and the doorway in business is more or less known, "Tin water is tin. They can be used to make all kinds of tin ware, or 30% tin and 70% copper can be used for 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."

Two treasures were already heavily packed in their cowhide pockets, and the two people walked out of the silver shop. The excitement of the market outside was nearing its end, and the sky was getting darker, and it was the twilight hour.

The two girls looked for a quiet place, but Wu You still couldn't hide their excitement: "I didn't expect this silver shop to be in the right place! After finding the silver ingot fan, the silversmith helped us solve the 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 where tin is stolen next! Although it is a bit dangerous, we can deal with it cleverly! We are people who have even been to the golden tent of the Mongolian sweat!"

Gu Qingqing is not as optimistic as Wu You: "'Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Tin' is just an idea, and it cannot be easily determined now."

"But, the blood of those ghosts must have nothing to do with metal!" Wu You felt his scalp numb when he thought of the scene he saw in the blood red sky.

"My presumption method may not be very scientific," Gu Qingqing is not impatient or impatient, "I think no one wants to enter the world of ghost blood. If it is a wrong option, isn't this setting meaningless? ?"

"I didn't understand." Although Wu You said so, his heart was active. No one wants to enter the world of ghost blood. If it is a wrong road, it should attract people to enter, and should not be prohibitive. .

Looking at Wu You, Gu Qingqing opened her brows and continued: "I analyzed it this way. If only one of the three options of red, silver and gray is correct, it is the silver world we live in now.

"There may be two that are correct. Then there will be two options. One is that the silver and gray worlds are correct. If this is true, it means that we have to gather five types of'gold, silver, copper, iron, tin' Metal, it is possible to find the woodblock fragments of the New Year picture; the second is that the silver and red worlds are correct, then we need to find the similarity between ghost blood and gold and silver, which is also a clue.

"The third possibility is that all 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 saying. "

Listening to Gu Qingqing’s analysis word by word, Wu You remembered the last three-party sky freeze frame. The silver world left a tree, the gray world left those tin blocks, and the red world left red stone mountains. Ghost blood dripped down from the mountain, making the whole mountain red blood...

"Qingqing! I suddenly remembered something!" Wu You shook Gu Qingqing's shoulders when he was excited, and shook the other side several times. "I didn't tell you that I could see dirty things when I was young. I was caught up by things a few times. For this reason, I was seriously ill for several occasions. Later, my grandma said that it was because of ghosts. Later, my grandma’s “practice” blindfolded my eyes. That’s all right. I remember that in the two years when I was blindfolded, my grandma gave me a bunch of red agate bracelets for me to wear to ward off evil spirits! I remember she said that it was ghost blood Onyx, from Danqiu, ghosts are scared of seeing it!"

Gu Qingqing could hear: "Danqiu? So, there seems to be a record in the "Supplementary Notes" of the Jin Dynasty, where it says:'Danqiu's wilds are full of ghost blood, which turns into Danshi, and so is agate. '"

"Let's see, you see! Agate is ghost-blooded! That is to say, the last blood-red mountains I saw are actually Danqiu mountains! The stones on it are agates!"

Gu Qingqing nodded after hearing it: "Think about it carefully. It was also said in "Youyang Miscellaneous Cu": Horse brain is transformed by ghost blood. It seems that there is such a saying in ancient myths and legends."

"If you count this, these worlds are gold, silver, tin, and agate." Wu You began to try to classify. "Gold, silver and tin are all smeltable metals, but agate is different from them. If it is What about gold, silver and agate, these are all... baby?"

"Gold, silver, agate..." Gu Qingqing seemed to realize something, "Gold, silver, colored glaze, clam, agate, pearl, rose. This is the Seven Treasures of Buddhism mentioned in the Lotus Sutra."