Mysterious World Tour

Chapter 268 The Face of a Scholar

Watching Hong Guzi hurriedly go up the mountain, Tan Mo turned around and saw several people walking into the dining hall of the Lotus Temple. Those people had long hair, both men and women, and they were wearing monk robes, but they were not silk brocade clothes, but coarse linen cloth commonly used by ordinary people.

They didn't look like pilgrims, and judging from the direction they were walking, they seemed to have come out of the monks' quarters in the outer courtyard.

Tan Mo looked at Jing Xukong and Jie Bodhi, his eyes confused.

"That person was Cao Xueshi, a scholar in the Qing court, and a squire in the nearby Luojiang County. Because of some things, he abandoned his family business and fled. Now he has nowhere to stay, so he came to live outside the temple temporarily. There is a token left by the eldest brother more than ten years ago in his leg. After careful inspection, the second brother confirmed that it was left by the eldest brother, so he took them in." Jing Xukong said in a low voice.

Jie Bodhi looked at Jing Xi Xu Kong and Tan Mo, and knew that his third senior brother was unwilling to deal with the scholar Cao, so he stood up and went to meet him.

Born into a family of officials, he was well educated for many years, so he was not rude to others.

After a while, Jie Bodhi led the scholar Cao over and said, "Junior brother, scholar Cao wants to see me."

"Cao has long stopped talking about scholars, not to mention that the emperor has passed away, and among the many princes, only the Prince of Teng is left. According to the etiquette, if the Prince of Teng is not qualified to sit on the throne, he can be selected from the descendants of other princes, not to mention... hey." As he spoke, the scholar Cao seemed to be touched by his worries and sighed.

Then he looked at Tan Mo and others, bowed and said, "Since Cao lost his power and his family fell into decline, he has become more and more verbose. I hope you can forgive me."

"I am Ming Wuyan, and I meet Mr. Cao." Tan Mo put his legs together and bowed.

"Hello, Master Ming Wuyan. You are exhausted. Are you just back from outside?" Seeing Tan Mo saluting, the scholar Cao's eyes clearly lit up, and then he approached Tan Mo and asked.

"Really?" Tan Mo nodded, "I wonder if Mr. Cao needs me to do something? I will definitely agree if I can do it."

"Master, you are very advanced in Taoism. I am not talented. I have some books. I think they are just what you want. I am about to take my family on a long journey, but I can't take those books with me. How about you take a look?"

Tan Mo was delighted when he heard this. He immediately agreed, "I am not talented, but I am a book lover. I will definitely give Mr. Cao a satisfactory price."

He could see that the former scholar Cao was in a very poor state. Otherwise, why would he and his family come to live in Lotus Temple temporarily? He also took out the token left by his senior brother Lotus Monk more than ten years ago.

Seeing Tan Mo's understanding of the music, Cao Deping couldn't help but feel relieved. The Qing Dynasty collapsed, and countless families were scattered, and his Cao family was one of them.

After the family fell into decline, the valuables in the family were constantly sold off. Now, there are only some books that his family has collected for generations.

Originally, Cao Deping was reluctant to sell it, but after eating a bite of tree bark out of hunger, Cao Deping immediately put aside his face as a scholar and prepared to sell the book.

However, it was not until then that Cao Deping realized that the book could not be sold just because he wanted to.

It was difficult to find a suitable buyer!

In addition, his Cao family was already in a state of decline, and they could not even have enough food. They were starving and cold, and those wealthy families did not even let him in.

In desperation, Cao Deping accidentally discovered a token left by the Lotus Monk more than ten years ago.

He forgot to take out the book that he had put in his legs. Later, the book became a banned book of the Qing Dynasty. Cao Deping didn't want to burn the book, so he hid it secretly, and the token was also hidden for more than ten years.

When he found the token, Cao Deping took his family to the Lotus Temple overnight, and finally drank a mouthful of hot soup and ate a mouthful of hot rice.

During those months, Cao Deping was also looking for a buyer for the book. Originally, he preferred the Lotus Monk.

After all, the Lotus Monk was a well-known monk. It was not a disgrace for his family's collection to be in the Lotus Monk's hands. And the most important thing was that the Lotus Monk was literate and would give him a very high price.

But the Lotus Monk was not outside the temple.

In this way, Cao Deping lived outside the temple for many months, but he waited and waited, but he never waited for the Lotus Monk. During that period, Cao Deping learned a piece of news.

There was a junior brother outside the Lotus Temple. He was a big shot in front of the only daughter of Prince Teng and had a good relationship with Prince Teng. Although he was not very old, he knew thousands of words and could speak eloquently. If he had not become a monk and the Qing Dynasty collapsed, he might have been able to take the imperial examination and come back.

So Cao Deping set his sights on the junior brother in the Lotus Temple.

A big shot in front of the little princess, and an acquaintance of Prince Teng, how could he be poor with such an identity?

Knowing thousands of words and speaking eloquently, he must be a book lover.

And he was very young, didn't it mean that he would be easy to fool? In this way, wouldn't the price of his books in the Cao family be higher?

Therefore, after being awakened by the noise made by Tan Mo, he asked a little monk and found out that the "junior brother" he had been waiting for for many days was the one who came back. He immediately brought his family to find Tan Mo and had a meal of hot porridge.

The food at the Lotus Temple must be pretty good.

Especially in this world.

Tan Mo first asked his junior brother from the outer courtyard to prepare hot porridge and salted duck eggs for the family of Cao Xueshi, and then personally cut a large bowl of pickles and brought it over. After the family of Cao Xueshi had eaten, he asked him to take him to read books.

Cao Deping did not even lead the way. Those books were all in Shandong and were not brought by them. After all, their family was in such a situation at that time that all the servants had run away and they were starving. How could they have the energy to take care of those books?

Following Cao Deping's family to Shandong, Tan Mo saw the books that Cao Xueshi mentioned in a small courtyard. He flipped through them casually. They were all very old books, and there were many treasures among them. There were even a few rare Buddhist scriptures that Tan Mo had heard of but had never seen before.

That surprised and delighted Tan Mo. Fortunately, the Cao family had fallen into poverty. Those books that were usually difficult to obtain were all bought by Tan Mo at a cost of ten taels of gold.

Carefully packed in two boxes, one on each leg of Tan Mo. The two boxes together weighed nearly 200 kilograms, but in Tan Mo's legs, they were as light as nothing.

He brought the book to the temple gate, and suddenly saw a sedan chair.

There were several familiar guards and maids beside the sedan chair.

At that time, a familiar crisp voice came over, calling his name: "Xiao Muyu, I'm back!"

Tan Mo looked over and saw that it was indeed the little princess.

Waving her little legs, she stood beside the graceful princess, her little face smiling like a flower.

Very beautiful and sweet.