Paintings of Terror

"Di-"

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

"It's been three hours?!" Wu You was very surprised, "Why didn't I hear the second chime?"

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

"We currently have a silver leaf and a small handful of golden sand." Wu You began to calculate the "disposable property" of the two of them, "Although this leaf is silver, it is the silver tree in the court of the Great Khan of Mongolia. The leaves that fell from the tree are probably worth some money.”

The two of them had already walked into the bustling market at this time, there were many shops along the roadside, and there were some stalls in front of the shop, selling some food and daily necessities, the voices of asking prices and bargaining came and went, it was really worthy The above is the ancient world of mortals.

Gu Qingqing's eyes wandered around the market: "I think they are all doing small businesses, and it is difficult to use ingots."

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

"It would be great if we could find a place like a bank, where we can exchange our money into ingots." Gu Qingqing said.

"A bank, in ancient times, was it called Qianzhuang or Yinhao?" Wu You only felt that he had a flash of inspiration, and unexpectedly popped up so many ancient exclusive terms.

"The term Qianzhuang or Yinhao began in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but my country has had currency exchange institutions since the Song Dynasty." Gu Qingqing looked around while walking, "Unfortunately, what are these institutions in the Yuan Dynasty called? Where, I am not very clear."

"Look, there's a door over there!" Wu You had sharp eyes, and soon saw a shop in the distance. In the heat from the nearby wonton stall, he could vaguely see two pieces hanging from the side of the shop door. The diamond-shaped signboard had exactly two characters written on it - Silver Shop.

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

"This silver shop is a bank, right?!" Wu You was very excited.

"Maybe it's not a bank, but it must be dealing with money." Gu Qingqing said with certainty.

There were no customers in front of the silver shop, so the two walked in.

The light in the shop was a bit dim, 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 store.

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

Wu You spoke first: "Master, do you make ingots here?"

"We are here to make jewelry and silverware. What are you going to do?" The silversmith looked puzzled, thinking he heard it wrong, "Yuanbao?"

Yes, ingots are the currency of this dynasty.

Is this equivalent to walking into a jewelry store during the Republic of China and asking them to give you a few gold bars?

"To be honest, I have never made ingots." The silversmith confessed frankly.

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

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

"Urgent!" The two said in unison.

two days?Now there are only ten hours left in total!

"If you have ready-made ingots in your hand, we can also exchange them." Wu You said bravely.

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

Wu You stared: "You, what are you talking about? Cooking?"

"That's right, Zhifan." Seeing that he couldn't express clearly, the silversmith was a little anxious, so he rummaged through a wooden box next to 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, just like a fat spoon with a graceful waist.

Gu Qingqing and Wu You, both of them froze, and didn't make a sound for a long time.

Because they all saw clearly that this "spoon" emitted a light, a colorful glare, very similar to the scene when the golden hourglass was first discovered.

This thing is what they were 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 model," the young silversmith explained to the two. "This thing is made of iron, and it will rust after many years of use."

With the permission of the silversmith, Gu Qingqing picked it up and looked at it carefully: "The silver ingot model you mentioned just now, is it the iron mold used to make silver ingots?"

The silversmith nodded hurriedly: "Yes, it is the mold for making silver ingots to make ingots! Those ingots are all cast by fans, so that they can be unified." He then said, "My father was working for the government back then, and it belonged to the government. Master Caster!"

Wu You was both excited and felt that her knowledge had increased again. She lightly touched this rusty silver ingot fan. To herself, this thing was as precious as a gold hourglass: "Can it be said that this is a gold ingot? Mother."

The silversmith was stunned, but he seemed to understand what Wu You said, and he smiled honestly: "Yes, Fan is the mother of silver ingots."

Both Wu You and Gu Qingqing showed gratified smiles. The two of them have walked in this world for so long, and they have seen the most luxurious silver tree in the legend, the golden tent of the Mongolian Khan, and the theological debates of various sects In the end, I realized that what I was looking for was actually just a piece of silver ingot.

No, it's Yuan Bao's mother, Yin Ding Fan.

"This, can we buy it?" Gu Qingqing asked.

Unexpectedly, the silversmith was very generous: "Take it, you don't need money, these are all damaged silver ingots that have been used for a long time, I still have a lot of them in this box!"

Gu Qingqing thought for a while, and took out the silver leaf in her pocket: "This is for you, let's count it as an exchange."

The silversmith took the silver leaf and stared intently, apparently overwhelmed by its exquisite carving skills.

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

The two girls were unwilling to ask for other people's things for nothing.

Seeing the silversmith's persistence, Wu You smiled and said, "Well, master, I'll ask you a question. If you can answer it, you've done me a great favor, and this leaf will be my reward; if you If I can’t answer, I’ll take the leaves back.”

"Okay, tell me!" The silversmith was also a little curious.

Gu Qingqing didn't know what kind of medicine Wu You sold in the gourd for a moment.

Then I heard Wu You say: "It's like this, our family is here to visit relatives, and we have seen a lot of strange things along the way. For example, a few days ago, when we were driving at night, we saw a group of people , drove a donkey cart, and transported a large cart of strange goods, all of which were such big, long, and thick gray lumps..."

When Gu Qingqing heard this, she couldn't help admiring Wu You's tact.

Isn't this the weird scene Wu You saw in that gray sky?Those gray rectangles, although I don't know what they are for, but it can be inferred that they are valuable and should belong to some 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 feeling worried: "Fortunately, you didn't make a sound at that time. If those tin robbers found you, they might die."

"Stealer of tin?" Wu You heard this word for the first time, "Stealer of tin, do you mean that those big gray pieces are all tin?"

"Yes, those guys seem to be delivering tin lumps to people, but there is a way inside. Tin is the least heat-resistant, and it will melt when exposed to heat, but it won't melt the surface, it will melt from the heart. , so when heated to a certain degree, the outside of the tin block can be poked open, and the tin water inside will flow out." After all, silversmiths are in the metal business, and they know a little bit about the business, "Tin water is tin, They can be used to make all kinds of tinware, and you can also use [-]% tin and [-]% copper to make bronze wares."

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."

There were already two treasures in the cowhide pockets, and the two walked out of the silver shop. The bustle of the market outside was coming to an end, the sky was getting dark, and it was dusk at dusk.

The two girls found a secluded place, and Wu You still couldn't hide his excitement: "I didn't expect this silver shop to be in the right place! Not only did we find the silver ingots, but the silversmith also helped us solve a big problem!"

"You mean...gold, silver, copper, iron and tin." Gu Qingqing also thought of this.

Wu You nodded vigorously: "Yes! Our next step is to go to the world of stealing tin! Although it is a bit dangerous, we can deal with it skillfully! We have even been to the Golden Tent of the Mongolian Khan!"

Gu Qingqing is not as optimistic as Wu You: "'Gold, silver, copper, iron and 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 go numb when he thought of the scene he saw in the blood-red sky.

"My deduction method may not be very scientific," Gu Qingqing said calmly, "I think that no one would want 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 this, 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 go in, and it should not be deterring. .

Gu Qingqing saw Wu You's eyebrows opened, and continued: "This is my analysis, if only one of the three options of red, silver and gray you see is correct, it is the silver world we are in now.

"There may be two that are correct, then there will be two options, one is the silver and gray world is correct, if this one is true, it means that we have to collect all five kinds of 'gold, silver, copper, iron and tin' Metal, it is possible to find the woodblock fragments of New Year paintings; second, the silver and red worlds are correct, then we need to find out the similarities 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 statement. "

Listening to Gu Qingqing's analysis word by word, Wu You thought of the final frame of the three-dimensional sky. The silver world left a tree, the gray world left those tin blocks, and the red world left a red stone mountain. Ghost blood dripped down from the mountain, making the whole mountain red with blood...

"Qingqing! I suddenly remembered something!" Wu You shook Gu Qingqing's shoulders in excitement, shaking him several times, "Didn't I tell you that I could see unclean things when I was young?" I was caught by things a few times, and I got seriously ill several times because of it. Later, my grandma said that it was haunted by ghosts. Later, my grandma 'tricked' me to cover my eyes It’s good, I remember the two years when I was blindfolded, my great-grandmother gave me a string of red agate bracelets to ward off evil spirits! I remember she also said that it was ghost blood Agate, from Danqiu, ghosts are afraid of seeing it!"

Gu Qingqing was fascinated when he heard it: "Danqiu? So, it seems that there is also a record in the Jin Dynasty's "Supplements of Relics", which said: 'There is a lot of ghost blood in the field of Danqiu, and if it turns into Danshi, it is also agate. '"

"Look, look! Agate is made of ghost blood! That is to say, the blood-red mountains I saw last are actually the mountains of Danqiu! The stones on them are agate!"

Gu Qingqing nodded again and again: "Think about it carefully, it was also said in "Youyang Miscellaneous Zu": the brain of a horse is transformed into blood of ghosts. It seems that there is indeed such a saying in ancient myths and legends."

"Based on this calculation, these worlds are gold, silver, tin and agate." Wu You began to try to classify them, "Gold, silver and tin are easy to explain, they are all metals that can be smelted, but agate is different from them. If it is What about gold, silver and agate, are these considered... treasures?"

"Gold, silver, agate..." Gu Qingqing seems to have realized something, "gold, silver, glass, clam, agate, pearl, rose. These are the seven treasures of Buddhism mentioned in the Lotus Sutra."