"Twenty coins for low-quality goat hair brushes. Thirty coins for a piece of yellow paper. Fifty coins for mountain ink. Thirty coins for a white stone inkstone. Five coins for a clay porcelain water pot. A total of one hundred and thirty-five coins!" The servant boy said weakly after hearing what Shi Feizhe said.
Met another poor guy!
"Brother Zhang clearly ran into a ragged man yesterday and bought dozens of taels of goods in one go! Why can't I run into the same guy?" the book boy muttered to himself.
"Um... is there anything cheaper?" Shi Feizhe asked again. He was really living off his savings. Although he had a few ounces of silver, he didn't know how long he would stay in Sancai Town.
Food and lodging all cost money! When he was in Yiyang City, he had experienced the embarrassment of a penny that could make a hero fall. The feeling of being hungry and unable to sleep was so uncomfortable.
"No!" The boy's face suddenly fell, and he felt very unhappy. He felt that he was wasting his time!
"Do you have any hard charcoal pencils?" Shi Feizhe had seen hard charcoal pencils in Yiyang City.
"Those are used by rough guys like carpenters and bricklayers. This is our study! We don't have them! We don't have them!!" said the book boy, shaking his head.
As if hearing Shi Feizhe want to buy charcoal pencils, the big man with a fat face in the corner looked up at Shi Feizhe and continued copying the book.
"Then give me a cut of yellow paper!" As he said that, Shi Feizhe started to take out money, carefully counted out thirty coins, and gave them to the servant.
The book boy quickly took a piece of cheap yellow paper from the bookshelf and gave it to Shi Feizhe. Then he went outside the study and started shouting, "Exclusive to Fangxinzhai..."
The so-called "yellow paper" refers to a sheet of paper as thick as a knife, about 1.5 centimeters thick. The sheet of paper is roughly the size of a book, and each sheet is relatively thick and of low quality. Shi Feizhe counted them, about a dozen or so.
I don’t know whether the paper in this world is more expensive or the paper in Sancai Town is more expensive.
After leaving the study, Shi Feizhe bought two hard charcoal pencils and then went to Sancai Manor.
Hard charcoal pencils are made from sintered willow wood strips, about the same thickness as pencils, and are often used by carpenters and masons. They leave hands covered in black stains, making them rather unsightly, and the writing is difficult to preserve, so few people use them for writing or copying secret manuals.
But Shi Feizhe didn't care about elegance at this moment. He just needed a secret manual, record it, and then practice it step by step.
The closer he got to Sancai Manor, the more people there were. Following the flow of people, Shi Feizhe arrived at the entrance of a manor with a roof with flying eaves.
There are two big stone lions at the entrance of the villa. The gatehouse occupies about four or five rooms. In the middle of the six red pillars are two gray-red gates.
Looks very grand!
On either side of the gatehouse were walls two people high. A nanmu plaque hung on the gatehouse, with the three large characters "Sancai Manor" inscribed on it.
"Line up for registration! Line up for registration!" The doorman of Sancai Village, with bulging muscles and a loud voice, stood at the door and gestured to the people at the door to line up.
"I am Zhan Ming from Sancai Manor. I am honored to meet all the heroes from the Jianghu!" He was the first to bow to all four directions, and then said:
"Our Master Zhan has made his martial arts secrets public. Anyone can go to West Manor and read them! However, all heroes who come and go must abide by a few rules. It's convenient for us, and for everyone else!"
"First, the martial arts secrets are all in the West Manor. You can all watch and discuss them, but don't go to the East Manor. That's where Manor Master Zhan and I live, and there are female family members there, so it would be inconvenient. If you mistakenly enter, we will mistake you for bandits and kill you. Don't blame us for not telling you in advance!"
"That makes sense!" echoed the person queuing for registration.
They came here for the martial arts secrets in West Village. If they sneaked into East Village and were mistaken for bandits and beaten to death, they would have deserved it!
"Secondly, everyone who enters West Manor needs to register briefly! If there are fights or murders in the future, we'll have a clue based on the registration! Otherwise, West Manor will be in chaos, with constant murders and disputes, making it seem like we, Sancai Manor, are standing by and watching!"
"Third, after dusk, all heroes please leave early! We do not provide accommodation!"
"Fourth, the martial arts secrets on the stone tablet have not yet been fully deciphered by this village. If you practice incorrectly and become mentally ill, don't come to this village to cause trouble!"
"Fifth, there's a big cat in Xizhuang. It's very powerful. Don't provoke it, or you might lose your life!"
Big cat? What big cat? Shi Feizhe was puzzled.
The big man finished speaking in one breath and then bowed to the people in the queue. It can be said that he was very polite!
Then people started to register. The registration was very simple, just requiring the visitor's appearance, name, and sect of origin.
It doesn’t matter whether the name is real or not, as long as you remember the general appearance and that this person exists.
There were a few people from other places who were unwilling to cooperate, but after seeing the muscular man perform the Qi release, with one hand holding ice and the other holding fire, they all registered obediently.
If these people who have not practiced true qi encounter a big man, they will most likely be slapped!
Shi Feizhe also registered at Sancai Manor and followed the crowd westward to Xizhuang.
Although it was called West Village, compared to the high-walled courtyard of East Village, it was actually just a flat piece of land with five or six thatched huts and a few stone benches. In the middle of the flat land were rows of stone tablets, engraved with martial arts secrets. There were probably hundreds of them!
It is now around nine or ten o'clock. There are already many people studying the stone tablet in front of it. There are also people sitting on the ground in the straw hut, thinking hard.
But more people were watching a big cat.
It’s not that everyone has never seen a cat, but this cat is really big!
It looks like a gray tabby cat with tabby patterns. The fur from its chin to its chest is white, and its four paws are also white. Its fur is shiny and it's obvious that it eats well!
What was surprising was its size. Shi Feizhe estimated it to be about three or four meters long, like a giant tiger! If it weren't for the gray markings on its body, it could easily be mistaken for a tiger.
At this moment, it was lying lazily not far from the entrance of Xizhuang, with its paws pressed against its abdomen as if kicking its hands, squinting its eyes, as if basking in the sun. It was not at all shy about the people watching it.
Next to it, there were two wooden basins and a wooden sign with sixteen words written on it.
"Big cats are pettable, five taels each. Feel free to feed them, but they don't eat beef!"
There is a cat's paw print below this line of words.
As for the two wooden basins, one was filled with silver, and the other was full of food residue, and seemed to be a cat food bowl.
Shi Feizhe has never seen such a big cat in his two lifetimes!
So he stood there and watched for a while. It was really hard to say which one was more precious, the martial arts secret book or this thing!
"This is Mr. Cat! He is really majestic!" Some onlookers couldn't help but want to touch it, but perhaps they were short of money, so they raised their hands and put them down.
"You know it?" someone asked.
"Legend has it that Mr. Cat has lived for hundreds of years and is a great demon in the realm of the real person!" the man said, "Masters in the realm of the real person are rarely seen. Now that I can see a great demon in the realm of the real person, how can I not be excited!"
"A great demon in the realm of a real person!"
"How many hundreds of years have you lived?"
"Fuck..."
The onlookers also exclaimed in amazement. The longest-lived martial arts master only lived for 149 years. Now, with a great demon that had lived for hundreds of years before them, how could they not be surprised?
Five taels of silver to touch it, it's not expensive indeed! But they are all poor grass-roots people, they really can't afford it, so they just talk about it.
"Meow~!" The big cat made an unhappy sound and looked up at them.
What I mean is, please speak more quietly, you’re disturbing my sleep!
The cat guy could have snatched it, but he still let you touch it. He's so gentle!