Taboos in the Underworld: Starting from being paid a lot of money to beg for a child

"Senior sister, let's eat quickly and go find the old carpenter after eating."

I quickly put the rice into my mouth.

"Ah."

The senior sister also speeded up her eating speed, and her little mouth was soon covered with oil.

Seeing my senior sister devouring her food, I couldn't help but smile.

"What are you laughing at?"

The senior sister burped, put down the bowl and chopsticks, and asked me doubtfully. I smiled and said:

"The way you were eating just now seemed like a girl from our village, a little friendly."

The senior sister also laughed:

"In front of you, everything seems to be okay, as long as you don't hate it."

After dinner, following the address given by Officer Yang, my senior sister and I drove to find the old carpenter, which was in a small alley in the old city.

The alley is very deep, and it took me almost half an hour to find it by following the door number.

It was a very old house, with two floors, and the lower part was made of bluestone, which was different from other houses.

This old house is dilapidated and dilapidated. Houses like this are rare in urban areas where land is at a premium.

The house is not large in size, and there is an old wooden door with a copper lion's head nailed on it.

The lion's head holds a large door knocker in its mouth. This thing, which was only available to wealthy families in the past, looks extremely out of place hanging on this simple wooden door.

I imitated the scene on TV, grabbed the knocker and knocked on the door, not knowing why.

The sound the ring made when it clicked on the wooden door was clear and penetrating, not like the sound of metal hitting the wooden board at all.

I waited for about twenty seconds without a response, just when I was about to continue knocking on the door.

The door opened.

An old man with white hair stuck his head out and stabilized the still shaking knocker with his hand.

"Who are you looking for?"

When I saw this old man, I knew he was the carpenter that Officer Yang was talking about.

Because his fingers were covered with calluses, but there were no calluses on the tiger's mouth.

At the same time, I also realized that I had forgotten to ask Officer Yang what the old carpenter’s last name was.

"Hello, Master. I was introduced here by Officer Yang. I have something to trouble you with. My surname is Liu, and this is my senior sister, whose surname is Wen."

I said respectfully. Speaking of which, the relationship between carpenters and Taoist priests is not simple.

According to legend, Zuluban, the old carpenter, was also a man proficient in the art of ghosts and gods.

Of course it's just a legend, but I know that many family members use carpenter's ink fountains and ink fountain threads as soul collecting tools, and the effect is quite good.

The ink fountain line is used to play straight lines, which is the crystallization of human wisdom.

It was mixed and refined with cinnabar, incense ash and grave soil, and was blessed with spells and talismans.

The ink pipe thread can be used as a rope to tie up ghosts, and the effect is quite good.

The commonly used ruler in Taoism is also derived from the carpentry profession. It is said that "the ink line determines the three corpses, and the ghosts are shocked by the Yin ruler."

It is enough to show that these things for carpenters are not simple.

"Oh, are you here? Come in."

After the old man finished speaking, he turned around and walked towards the door.

My senior sister and I followed suit and walked in.

After entering, the door at the back closed automatically and made three "dong dong click" sounds, as if it had been locked by itself.

The entrance is through a passage three or four meters long.

The passage is less than three meters wide, with a wall on the left and a staircase leading to the second floor on the right.

The air in the room was a little sluggish, and the smell of wood was everywhere.

Passing through the passage, there is a relatively spacious living room. Apart from this living room, there are no other rooms on the first floor.

There are no tables or sofas in the living room.

On the opposite side of the living room, there are various wood carvings and various carpenter's tools.

On the left are some tables, chairs and furniture, on the right are some logs and wooden boards, leaving a quick area in the middle.

A solid wood board nearly ten centimeters thick was placed on two three-legged wooden shelves. The board was about three meters long and less than thirty centimeters wide.

On the wooden board lay an ink fountain, a editor's knife, and a plane for whittling wood.

Behind the wooden boards is a coffin with an unfinished lid.

There is an exquisite armchair next to the coffin, which is also the only chair in the entire living room for people to sit on.

The other finished chairs were turned upside down and placed on the table.

After the old man entered the door, he picked up a cut wooden board next to him and placed it on the bottom of the tripod stand, and said:

"You, senior sister and junior fellow apprentice, are worthy of each other. Could it be that you are from the Taoist family?"

I nodded and said:

"Well, yes, Master Huiyan, what is your name, Master Huiyan?"

"My surname is Lu, what do you want from me?"

The old man was still busy with what he was doing. He pulled out the ink fountain line and fixed it on one end of the board.

Then pull the ink fountain to the other side and pull up the ink fountain line with your fingers.

With a "pop" sound, the ink fountain line left a straight black line on the wooden board.

This Master Lu seemed to have a weird temper. I quickly pulled my backpack forward, took out the longest peach wood nail from it and said:

"Master Lu, I would like to ask you to help me make these peach wood nails into a peach wood sword, and..."

"and many more."

When I pulled out the large peach wood nails, Master Lu suddenly stopped me from saying anything else.

He just grabbed the editing knife in his hand, threw it on the ground, and walked towards me quickly.

"What's wrong? Master Lu"

He didn't answer me, but reached out and took the peach wood nail from my hand, looked at it carefully and said:

"Aged soul-fixing peach wood?"

I nodded and said directly:

"Yes, Master Lu has a sharp eye. This peach wood nail has been used to nail an evil ghost for decades."

Since he directly said the word "Dinghun", it means that he is also a person who knows ghosts. For such a person, I don't need to be secretive. After all, I have something to ask of him now.

"Well, that's such a good thing. Do you want to make it into a mahogany sword?"

Master Lu asked with some confusion.

I nodded and said:

"Yes, Master Lu, this peach wood nail is too big, it will be easier to make it into a peach wood sword."

"Oh, what a pity. If it were made into three swords, it would be more powerful against evil spirits."

Master Lu stared at the peach wood nail fondly.

I was a little confused and didn't know what he meant.

"Master Lu, please make it clear. To be honest, I am going to deal with evil spirits, and there are quite a lot of them. I don't know what you mean?"

Although this peach wood nail is big, it cannot be made into three swords. There is not enough wood at all.

"I'm talking about arrows, arrows from the bow."

Master Lu turned back to the chair and sat down, and began to measure with his fingers.

"Oh, but you need a bow to use arrows, and I don't know how to shoot."

I walked to Master Lu and squatted down and said.

Master Lu didn’t answer my words anymore and just said:

"You can also make it into a mahogany sword. Two thousand, ten thousand, or twenty thousand. Which one do you choose?"

Let me go, this master feels like a lion with his mouth open. It costs at least [-] to make a peach wood sword?

Just when I was complaining in my heart that he was really evil, the senior sister said directly:

"Master Lu, it's [-] yuan. Come pick up the goods in the evening."

Master Lu shook his head and said:

"Haha, if you come to pick up the goods at night for [-], it will cost you [-]."

Depend on! I almost cursed out loud, this was a bit too dark.

In the past, it only took an hour for the master to make a mahogany sword.

This old man wants three days, and the price is so outrageous.

Even the senior sister frowned at this price, and she seemed to think that Master Lu was a little overpriced.

"Do you want to do it or not? If you don't do it, forget it."

The old man said directly, but he still held on to the peach wood nail.

"Do!"

I gritted my teeth and said, compared to rescuing Yu Bingqing and dealing with that old bastard, 5 yuan is nothing.

It's just embarrassing that I don't have that much money in my hand.

Sometimes it is true that money is scarce when it is used. I had no idea about it before, but now I feel that money is very important.

Senior sister also nodded and said:

"Do it, junior brother, I'll pay for it." She obviously saw my embarrassment.

Master Lu chuckled and said:

"Okay, you can pick it up at eight o'clock in the evening. The money needs to be in cash. I don't have a bank card."

I nodded and said:

"Okay, we'll come back tonight."

Although I said it very lightly, I actually felt a pain in my heart.

It’s not that I think Master Lu is a liar, I just feel uncomfortable spending [-] yuan to make a mahogany sword.

Just when we were about to turn around and leave, Master Lu suddenly said:

"Oh, if this thing could be made into an arrow, it would be perfect."

Master Lu mentioned arrows again, and my heart began to thump, so I turned around and asked:

"Master Lu, if I still need arrows, can you still make me a bow?"

Master Lu saw me turning around and asked doubtfully:

"Do you have other adult soul-fixing Taomu?"

Without saying a word, I took out all the other eight short peach wood nails from the backpack.

Master Lu's eyes lit up when he saw the eight short peach wood nails. He stood up from the stool and said:

"This... this... this, where did you get all these soul-fixing peach trees?"

I didn't answer his question, but said directly:

"If you can make a bow, I would like to make these peach wood nails into arrows."

Master Lu was stunned and pointed at the corner of the stairs, where an inconspicuous crossbow hung...