I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 63 You Monkey

The minor merits of the Imperial Guards must be established. The tasks assigned by Eunuch Huang must also be completed.

At dusk that day, in Zhuniapao Hutong in the south city, Wu Chengen's newly bought courtyard house.

Two dung workers, one thin and one fat, entered the courtyard. There were thirty-six dung channels in the capital, but they did not connect every courtyard.

Every seven days, the dung workers would go to each household's latrine to dig out the manure, which would then be flushed to the manure field outside the city via underground river water.

The thin dung worker was Lin Shisan in disguise, and the fat dung worker was naturally Sun Yue.

The two men entered the courtyard, and the servant Gao Laoba walked up to them with his big belly and big mouth pouting.

Gao Laoba asked: "Who are you two?"

Lin Shisan replied, "I am a dung worker from Zhuniapao Hutong. I am not here to remove dung today, but to help you arrange a dung pit. We can come here to remove dung on a daily basis."

Gao Laoba said: "There are so many rules in the capital. Our master has to wait in line for the official position. Even at home, he has to wait in line to dig out manure."

Lin Shisan smiled and said, "Or maybe the capital city is too picky."

Gao Laoba was a stingy man. He asked, "Does it cost money to empty the manure pit?"

Lin Shisan replied, "Not today. From next month onwards, I will give you 300 coins a month."

When he said this, Lin Shisan's eyes turned to the macaque Sun Wukong on the pomegranate tree in the courtyard. Wu Cheng'en did not tie up Sun Wukong, but let him be free.

Under the pomegranate tree, there is a monkey nest made of wooden boards.

This is the purpose of Lin Shisan's and his apprentice's trip, to step on the plate before stealing the monkey.

Gao Laoba muttered, "The black manure can be sold for money. Not only did you take it away for free, but we have to pay you."

"It's so profitable, I'll go dig manure tomorrow."

Lin Shisan said with a smile: "Master, you are joking. This kind of dirty work is not for a noble person like you to do."

After saying that, Lin Shisan took out a booklet from his ragged jacket and said, "Please give me some calligraphy, Master."

Lin Shisan kept calling Gao Laoba "master", which made Gao Laoba very happy.

Gao Laoba asked: "Do you have any writing brushes and ink?"

Lin Shisan said, "This precious house of the master is very respectable. It is obvious that the master is from a scholarly family. They should have writing brushes and ink, right? We didn't bring any."

Gao Laoba smiled and said, "You are a connoisseur." He sniffed and said, "Ah, wait, I'll go in and write my name."

While Gao Laoba was entering the house, Lin Shisan looked around the courtyard.

The walls on all four sides were less than ten feet high. If it were the experts in the Zhenfu Division who made a living by cutting secrets, it should be easy for them to climb over the wall and enter quietly.

If he had no martial arts skills, he could have climbed over the wall, but he would have made a big noise and scared Wu Chengen and his servant.

There is only one way - lure the monkey out and capture it outside the yard.

The macaques are intelligent. Lin Shisan was thinking about how to steal the monkey, and Sun Wukong on the pomegranate tree seemed to see what Lin Shisan was thinking.

Sun Wukong stretched out his monkey paw, grabbed two handfuls of snow from the tree branch, rolled them into a snowball, and threw the snowball at Lin Shisan's face.

"Snap." Lin Shisan subconsciously blocked it, and the snowball shattered to the ground.

Sun Yue cursed: "You stinky monkey, we are here to help you dig out the manure, and you hit us with snowballs? You don't know what's good for you!"

Sun Wukong bared his teeth at Sun Yue: "Ah, squeak, squeak!" It was as if he was cursing: "Don't think I don't know what you are up to."

At this time, Wu Cheng'en and Gao Laoba walked out of the main room.

Wu Cheng'en shouted to the tree, "Wukong, stop being rude. Go back to your nest."

Sun Wukong obeyed his master very well. He ran down the pomegranate tree and entered the monkey den under the tree.

Wu Cheng'en said to Lin Shisan, "I have just arrived in the capital, and I like to ask about the customs and habits. Can we chat in my courtyard so that I can learn about the rules of the capital's excrement business?" Writers from ancient times to the present have been full of strong curiosity about everything in the world.

For example, some writers often write about characters visiting brothels, but how can they know what’s going on there if they have never been there?

Wu Cheng'en had just arrived in Beijing and was curious about everything in the city. He could chat for half an hour with the man selling sauce and boiled pig offal at the entrance of the alley.

However, whether in Jiangnan or the capital, wealthy families have rules that do not allow dung workers to enter the house.

Wu Cheng'en sat down at the stone table under the pomegranate tree and made a "please" gesture: "Please sit down."

Master and disciple Lin Shisan sat down beside the stone table.

Lin Shisan thought to himself: Fortunately, Sun Yue's family runs a manure field outside the city. Otherwise, if Wu Chengen asked, we would definitely be exposed.

Wu Cheng'en said, "In my hometown Huai'an, there are rules for removing excrement. There are excrement gangs in the city. I don't know about this in the capital."

When Old Wu asked about manure, Sun Yue talked nonstop: "Hey! There are thirty-six manure roads in our capital. There is a manure tyrant in each road. Each manure tyrant runs a manure shop."

"Although manure stinks, don't underestimate it. Every manure business earns thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver a year."

"In the entire capital, there are thousands of dung workers who depend on the thirty-six dung shops for their livelihood!"

"Outside the capital, there are hundreds of manure farms that buy manure from manure dealers and resell it to farms in the suburbs of Beijing."

Sun Yue was talking with great excitement, his mouth spitting. Wu Cheng'en listened with great interest, and occasionally sighed: "Oh? There are such rules", "Ah, very interesting."

At this moment, the restless Sun Wukong took advantage of everyone's lively conversation and quietly went behind Sun Yue.

Behind Sun Yue was an empty dung bucket that he brought in to conceal his identity.

Although they were all members of the Sun family, Sun Wukong wanted to play a trick on Sun Yue. He lifted up the empty dung bucket, suddenly jumped onto the stone table, and put the dung bucket on Sun Yue's head.

Sun Yue was talking excitedly when suddenly a dung bucket was put on his head: "Hey, why is it so dark? It stinks! Who put a dung bucket on my head?"

Wu Cheng'en cursed: "Wukong! You naughty monkey!"

Sun Wukong played a trick on Sun Yue. He quickly climbed up the pomegranate tree, looked up at the sky with squinting eyes and whistled.

It was as if the dung bucket was not knocked over by it.

Lin Shisan quickly took the dung bucket off Sun Yue's head.

Gao Laoba cursed, "Monkey brother, you are courting death again. Be careful or the master will ask Wu Jing to strangle your head with a string!"

Wu Cheng'en apologized repeatedly: "Excuse me, you two, excuse me."

Lin Shisan was afraid that he would be exposed if he stayed any longer, so he decided to take advantage of the situation and back off: "Dad, it's getting late. We have to go back to the dung shop. There is a bathhouse in the dung shop. We can wash up and go home."

Wu Cheng'en was a very generous wealthy man. He took out two coins from his sleeve and handed them to Sun Yue: "This money will be used as the money for your bath."

The master and his disciple took the silver and were about to leave. "Pah, pah," Sun Wukong on the pomegranate tree threw two more snowballs, hitting Lin Shisan and Sun Yue in the head.

He is indeed a naughty monkey.

The owner, Wu Chengen, was so angry that he said: "You naughty monkey!"

Lin Shisan and Sun Yue fled in panic, leaving the courtyard in two steps.

After leaving the courtyard, Sun Yue complained: "I thought this was a good job. Damn, even stepping on a plate makes me stink. Fortunately, the dung bucket was empty, otherwise I would have swallowed the dung."

Lin Shisan said: "The macaque is intelligent. He saw that we were going to steal it, so he took action."

Sun Yue rubbed his nose and said, "But Master, the Wu family didn't tie the monkey up. This is a good thing for us."

Lin Shisan said: "Macaques are not pigeons. They are very smart. They will not easily leave their homes where there is ready-made monkey food to eat."

"But I do have a way to capture him."

(End of this chapter)