Trinity Traitor: From One Person to the Other

Chapter 309 Are you eight years old?
"Hey, don't! Brother, Grandpa, dear father, I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong!"

Unexpectedly, this strong man was so open-minded. When he saw He Songling's gun, he immediately gave in and even called his own father.

This is only natural. Although this strong man is an extraordinary person, he is also a descendant of the Qing Dynasty. He personally witnessed Yuan Shikai entering Beijing and saw Baldy leading troops to the Northern Expedition. He has much more experience than those extraordinary people who practice in the mountains in the south.

At least he knows how powerful cannons are.

Especially when he saw He Songling holding the huge muzzle of the repulsion gun towards him like a pistol, he instantly felt a crisis of being torn to pieces.

If he hadn't given in quickly enough, would he have been able to survive so many major events in modern times?

Now He Songling has no way to deal with it.

"No, my friend, you should at least be tough. It's very difficult for me to deal with you. Where is your dignity as a noble of the Qing Dynasty?"

"The Qing dynasty has no backbone at all. Back then, the Empress Dowager took the little emperor and let the foreigners chase him around. The royal gardens were burned down. How could they have any backbone? Besides, the Qing dynasty is doomed!"

The sturdy man in the air laughed and said, "Sir, I haven't had my braids cut off for many years, and I even changed my surname to a Chinese one, so don't mention the past."

"No, you..." He Songling subconsciously wanted to use Da Zhangwei's accent, but then he thought of what the strong man had just said and switched back to Mandarin: "You are really a talented person. Then you can call me Na Ye?"

"No, no, I don't dare. Just call me kid." The strong man laughed dryly and said, "I am your biological son."

"I'll go to yours!"

He Songling loosened his grip and slammed the sturdy man to the ground with a bang. "How old are you and how old am I? How could I have a son as old as you?"

"Master, I was born in the twelfth month of the first year of the Xuantong reign. I am only twenty-seven this year, but I look older..."

This guy is 27 years old? He Songling felt the same as when Zhang Muzhi saw Ma Bangde's son, but he also knew that such things were hard to predict.

Once a person is over 95, they are basically all old. The fat black crosstalk performer in his previous life was older than this strong man when he was . And the dog trainer Pan Hong, who was said to be born in , was only when he traveled through time...

How can you reason with this thing?

But this guy, who looks big and strong with a muscular build, said he was born in 2009. I can't believe this at all.

"Are you really born in 2009?"

"Ah? What?"

"In the Western calendar, it's 1909, the first year of the Xuantong reign of your Qing dynasty."

"Yes, yes, it's genuine." The sturdy man said with a wry smile, "I didn't expect you to have studied abroad. No wonder you are so powerful and knowledgeable. If you had told me this earlier, how could I, a stinky old man from the Qing Dynasty, dare to act so arrogantly in front of you?"

"Blame me?"

"No, how could that be possible! I was wrong, sir, please forgive me!"

When the sturdy man heard this, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed twice. The floor tiles in the store were actually kowtowed into powder, which was finer than the coarse grain noodles that ordinary people could eat at that time.

You have to know that He Songling is very rich. He lives in the center of the city, next to the high-end inn in Chongwenmen. The floor tiles are all paved with bluestone, the same material as the outer city wall. It is normal to break it and shatter it into pieces; but it is not easy to break it into such a fine powder with two heads, even for extraordinary people. At least He Songling is sure that Shuiyun and Tian Jinzhong, who are so powerful, have to put in a lot of effort to achieve this.

But if you run into a young man from the Qing Dynasty pretending to be a big shot in an inn, and he has abilities comparable to those of outstanding disciples from major sects, it's too terrifying. I can only say that this is truly the capital city, where hidden dragons and crouching tigers are hidden.

"Get up, pay for the floor tiles at the store, and bring me a bowl of fried liver, two bowls of bean juice, fried dough sticks, and some pickled vegetables, okay?"

He Songling waved his hand, and the three people stood up involuntarily.

"Yes, yes, that's what I said. You two, go buy me breakfast!"

At this moment, the strong man did not mention that offal was food for the poor, nor did he mention that it smelled bad. He just went to the shopkeeper and asked, "Shopkeeper, I broke two tiles on the floor. How much do you want? I'll compensate you."

"Five dollars."

"How much?" the strong man exclaimed, "Are you robbing?"

"Well, sir, we have our own story. Our shop was built by relatives of high-ranking officials. The floor tiles we used were the damaged gold bricks from the Jinluan Palace. We also used the same bricks for the city walls."

The shopkeeper told the truth: "Five dollars, that's the cost price. If it doesn't work out, you can just go on and don't have to pay for it."

The gold bricks in the palace are not made of gold. Even the emperor is not rich enough to pave the floor with this stuff, not even the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It does not mean that one piece is worth one or two taels of gold.

Rather, it is because this brick was specially made in the imperial kiln, and because of its hard and fine texture, it makes a clanging sound like metal when struck, hence the name "gold brick". The "gold" in this gold brick refers to the metal "gold", which has the same meaning as the "gong to withdraw troops" and the "gold" in the five elements.

Even so, a brick is less expensive than one or two ounces of gold, but the difference is not far off.

In theory, the bricks fired in this imperial kiln were for the exclusive use of the imperial palace. Unqualified ones were destroyed on the spot and strictly prohibited from being circulated. If anyone was found using them privately, he would be beheaded on the spot, or even have his property confiscated and his family exterminated.

But the Qing Dynasty... Later on, high-ranking officials of the third and fourth ranks could buy and sell at will. What could not be made out of just a few floor tiles, even defective ones?

The strong man surnamed Na was in a dilemma. The shopkeeper said that he didn't need to pay, but the first thing He Songling asked him to do was to pay for the floor tiles. How could he not pay?
He walked back to He Songling in small steps, lowered his head and whispered, "Master, well, I, I, I'm short of money..."

"Aren't you a jerk?" He Songling glanced at the walnut in his hand, the teapot, the birdcage, and the bird in the cage behind him. "This set alone costs a hundred dollars. Don't you have five dollars?"

"It's all for the sake of face..." The sturdy man patted his face in shame.

"We were like this when the Qing Dynasty was still in existence. We were Qing nobles after all, so we couldn't come out to farm and work. We could only rely on our ancestral inheritance. The problem was that we spent all our money. In the end, many of the old people were starving to death, and they still had to keep up appearances. Now, it's even more..."

"Yiyu, I understand." He Songling nodded: "Since you have no money, I will give it to you and you can sell your body to pay it back." He Songling thought that this kid was quite capable. It would be convenient to recruit him as a subordinate. It would also be convenient to have a local guide in the capital.

But the strong man obviously misunderstood.

His expression was uncertain at first, then he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, sir, whatever you say is fine. I don't have the money. I'm in good health, so I don't know if you're in the front or the back. I want to be in the front. Can you give me a little more money..."

"???"

(End of this chapter)