I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 208 Golden Carp Brings a Child, a Boy and a Girl

"What huge and lively golden carp!"

When Xu Qing left Tongyue Restaurant, the fishmonger Yingzui should have already left the market, but when he came out, he found that the man was still circling around the nearby streets.

Looking at the fish basket again, Eagle Beak deliberately opened the lid and, with his long arms and legs, lowered the basket extremely low so that people around him could see the several large golden carp he had caught inside.

Located near the river, the area is popular for fishing and playing with fish. When the eagle beak circlees around a few times, many people come over to ask questions.

“Eagle Beak, this big golden carp is something else! Where did you find such a lucky spot to nest? We’re all old acquaintances, so don’t hold back, or it’ll seem rather uncouth.”

The one asking the question was a well-off playboy. The fish basket he was carrying was made of ivory woven from split silk, with the opening inlaid with Hetian jade. It was shaped like two fish holding a pearl, and the words "Good Fortune and Abundance" were engraved on the fish.

Even the lining of the fish basket is made of fish glue and covered with silk, so it won't leak a drop, let alone hold fish or water!

Looking at the fishing gear tucked under the man's arm, the fishing rod was made of Cuiyu bamboo from Nanyuan, and the fishing line was made of golden silkworm silk from Shu, known as the Dragon Beard Rope.

Aside from the Dragon King, any other fish, no matter what kind, will have their life worthwhile once it's hooked on this golden hook, even if it dies!

Unfortunately, this stubborn master was addicted to fishing, and despite having a fine fishing rod, he could only catch small whitebait and thin willow catfish all day long.

Every day when I went home, I either had to sneak away in the dark, or I had to buy two fish of a decent size from someone else and pretend that I had caught them myself before I dared to go home.

Otherwise, people will laugh at us.

Over time, two famous figures emerged in the fishing community. One was the "Hook-Nose Fishing Master," with long arms and legs, resembling an eagle spreading its wings. The other was the stubborn guy in front of us whose fishing tackle was more expensive than the fish.

Someone next to the playful man mocked him, saying, "Why is Grandpa He asking about these things? I heard that you've never caught a fish three fingers long with your golden hook. The only big ones you've caught were hooked by someone biting a reed stalk while diving."

"That's why they say it's like a human eagle's beak. Not to mention fish, even dragons in the sky can be caught with just a straw rope."

"Uncle He has a lot more to consider. He even uses gold and silver ropes to hook a small grass carp!"

Look how sharp his tongue is! He turned Grandpa He's face into a dark, purplish-brown color in an instant.

Grandpa He was so angry that his mouth twisted!

Then look at Eagle Beak, who is beaming with joy at being praised.

Just then, the manager of the De Shun Restaurant next door opened the window on the second-floor eaves and shouted, "Eagle beak, two hundred coins a fish, I'll take all of these fish, bring them up!"

Upon hearing this, Eagle Beak curled his lip, tilted his long neck back, and deliberately drew out his tone, saying, "This fish can't be sold. The manager of Rentongyue Restaurant said that the golden carp brings a child, and his wife is newly pregnant. He spent 'a whole tael of silver' to ask me to release this fish as a way of fulfilling his vow. I can't go back on my word."

"If you really want it, shopkeeper, wait until tomorrow. I'll go catch a few more good fish and bring them to you!"

Xu Qing carried the food box without taking it seriously. There were many talented people in Tianjin, and it wasn't unusual for someone to know how to fish.

However, by sheer coincidence, just as Eagle Beak finished speaking, a horse-drawn carriage happened to be driving by on the street.

Just as Eagle Beak finished speaking, a cold, clear voice suddenly came from inside the carriage to stop him.

"stop!"

The crepe-covered curtain was lifted, revealing a eunuch dressed in a crimson robe and wearing a silver-topped eunuch hat.

The eunuch was about twenty or thirty years old, with a pale face and no beard, and a sinister expression. When he lifted the carriage curtain, his attendants knelt on the ground as human stools, allowing him to step on them to get down.

Once the boots touched the ground, the purple-robed eunuch raised his chin forward, and someone immediately brought Eagle Beak to him.

"Let me see your fish."

"This fish is good, we'll take it!"

“Sir, this fish already has an owner,” Eagle Beak said cautiously.

The eunuch gave a sinister smile: "Pay back whatever price someone else sells it to you for. We're taking this fish today!"

After speaking, the eunuch reached into his pocket and took out a silver ingot. The ingot was small, about ten taels, and had a unique shape. It was official silver from the palace.

Eagle Beak, greedy for money, immediately forgot his previous promise when the eunuch handed him the silver. He put down his fish basket, bent over, and stretched out both hands at the same time, staring at the silver ingot as if he were receiving his own child.

Seeing this, the eunuch chuckled and with a flick of his wrist, the silver ingot veered off course and fell to the ground.

Eagle Beak hurriedly picked up the silver ingot and said with a smile, "Sir, this golden carp is yours, and consider this fish basket a gift from me."

Why would this eunuch insist on having these golden carp? The reason is simple: it's because of Eagle Beak's words, "Golden carp bring children, so the fish should be released to fulfill a vow."

What kind of people are eunuchs? They are people who have no children, whose lineage has ended, and whose family line has been cut off!
Others would release the golden carp out of reverence, hoping for many children and blessings in the future, but eunuchs did not.

A rootless person has no scruples; what do things like golden or silver carp, or bringing children, have to do with him?
"Cook this fish, and our family will dine in your building today."

The eunuch in the crimson robe looked up and his eyes met those of the owner of Deshunlou Restaurant.

The latter readily agreed and then closed the window, presumably intending to come downstairs to greet him personally.

It was at this moment that the eunuch who wanted to eat fish suddenly heard someone calling from behind.

"Brother Zhang, it's been a long time."

"Are you Manager Xu from the funeral home?" Zhang Jun looked at Xu Qing, whose appearance hadn't changed much, and felt a strange mix of emotions.

"Exactly."

Looking at Zhang Jun, who had changed so much, Xu Qing felt quite emotional.

An oil seller took out his savings from selling oil over the years and sent his beloved girl all the way to Tianjin to visit relatives. However, the girl turned around and went to a brothel, where she chose an old man to complete her marriage ceremony.

The girl said that everything was out of necessity, and that once she had saved enough money to redeem herself, she would elope with the oil seller.

What a big pancake! It's a double-cooked roti.

Even so, the oil seller still believed the other party. After entering the patrol office, he gave all of his monthly salary to the girl he admired to redeem her from her servitude.

But who could have imagined that this woman, who was an expert at making cakes, would later fall in love with a protector of the Tianxin Sect and become obsessed and insane, even stabbing the man who was willing to give everything for her with her sharp blade?

The former oil seller, the former yamen runner, is now Eunuch Zhang.

Xu Qing was amazed by the magnitude of a person's transformation.

Zhang Jun was equally surprised, but what surprised him was—why are you still doing your funeral business?
“Brother Xu, not to criticize you, but what’s so great about the business of dealing with the dead? Why don’t you come to the palace with me? At the very least, becoming a palace attendant would be a piece of cake.”

"Brother Zhang."

Zhang Jun suddenly frowned and interrupted, "Brother Xu, just call me Eunuch Zhang. I don't feel comfortable with this title right now."

"."

Xu Qing was speechless.

Inside Deshunlou, Xu Qing sat with his old friend who was shortchanging him, and said, "Everyone thinks my business is unlucky, but when it comes to handling funeral arrangements, you need someone like me to step in."

"I'm content with my lot. Even if I occasionally encounter lonely elderly people who have no one to care for them, I'm willing to act as a junior, helping them with their burial and preparation. And when it's time to pay respects, I can tell which graves aren't burning paper money. As long as my shop is still here, I won't let them stop burning incense and paper money." Seeing Zhang Jun frown, Xu Qing calmly added, "I'm all alone. If I end up in a coffin, I'm afraid there won't be any living people burning paper money and keeping vigil for me. So I'm thinking of accumulating good deeds now, so that if I ever pass away, there will always be one or two people who remember my kindness and come to mourn me."

"Does Eunuch Zhang agree or disagree?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jun's furrowed brows relaxed abruptly, and he asked, "Manager Xu, have you never planned to get married and start a family?"

"."

Xu Qing glanced at Zhang Jun. Who was it that just said they would take him to work in the palace?

Once a person becomes a eunuch, he is bound to be narrow-minded, and Xu Qing did not believe that Zhang Jun was concerned about him.

"White bones and flesh, beautiful faces and skeletons, in the end, they are nothing but a handful of yellow earth. In my eyes, getting married and having children are the thoughts of ordinary people. Do you think I am an ordinary person, Eunuch Zhang?"

"Haha! Brother Xu, you still have such insightful views!"

Seeing Zhang Jun laughing so hard he was shaking, Xu Qing knew the time was ripe.

Taking a sip of wine, Xu Qing suddenly said, "Father-in-law, those golden carp look beautiful, but they don't taste as good as ordinary carp. Why don't you sell them to me to hire a cat? What do you think?"

"Hiring a cat?"

"To be honest, sir, I have a black cat at home that I hired two years ago. In a few days, it will be the anniversary of the cat's acquisition. If I could give it these golden carp, I think it would be very happy."

"No problem, no problem. Consider this golden carp a gift from me to Brother Xu."

Zhang Jun didn't care whether Xu Qing was telling the truth or not; he only knew that Fang had touched his heart and made him happy, which was more important than anything else.

At this time, the golden carp had already been delivered to the kitchen. As for whether the golden carp was dead or alive, Zhang Jun didn't care at all. After all, even dead fish could be used to feed cats, and even if the fish were alive, it would become dead fish once it entered the cat's mouth.

Surprisingly, when the man brought the fish basket back, not a single fish inside was damaged.

Zhang Jun's attention wasn't on the fish basket. He hadn't really wanted to eat fish before. In the end, it was just that Eagle Beak's words had upset him and stepped on his broken tail.

Otherwise, Zhang Jun wouldn't have gone out of his way to buy fish to eat.

Xu Qing's attention was focused on the fish basket, but he didn't show any surprise when he saw that the fish were all alive and well.

Only the owner of Deshunlou and the head chef in the kitchen were sweating profusely behind his back.

Others might not know, but the two of them did. Those golden carp were incredibly strange. You might just grab a razor blade, turn around, and find that you weren't slicing carp, but a pile of white paper.

These pieces of white paper aren't edible. If they were to be wrapped in oil, salt, and sauce and served to people, their Deshunlou restaurant's signboard would probably disappear from Tianjin completely by tomorrow.

Zhang Jun and Xu Qing were from the same hometown, and now that they had met again, Zhang Gonggong was deeply moved.

After drinking a lot of wine, the two started talking, and Xu Qing learned quite a bit about it.

For example, Zhang Jun is currently the Seal Attendant of the Mirror Bureau, his godfather is the Seal Master of the Bureau, and the Seal Master's godfather is also the Chief Steward of the Bureau.

Xu Qing couldn't help but think of the Wu brothers, who also had godfathers, and he even thought about finding a capable person to be his godfather.

However, although he didn't have a godfather, he did have a godmother.

His good godmother had lived in the courtyard of the coffin shop for hundreds of years, and her body was much stronger than the shady locust tree in the Shuimenqiao villa.

However, Xu Qing did not use the peach tree as his substitute; his substitute was still the shady locust tree at Shuimen Bridge.

Even the title of godmother was only used by Xu Qing out of consideration for Xuan Yu.

These things were unknown to outsiders. Xuan Yu might have sensed something, but he didn't know how much Xu Qing had secretly done behind his back.

Xu Qing's goal has always been simple: destined to be unable to travel with humans, if he could be lucky enough to have a sensible cat to accompany him, he hoped that even after he grew tired of the rise and fall of dynasties and experienced the vicissitudes of life, the cat would still be alive.

Xu Qing and Zhang Jun were not close friends. If it weren't for the fact that the manager of Tongyue Restaurant wanted to fulfill a vow by releasing golden carp, he wouldn't have sought out Zhang Jun for a chat.

An incomplete eunuch will undergo a complete transformation once he enters the dark and gloomy palace.

At this moment, Zhang Jun had drunk too much, and his words were full of the sordid things he had experienced when he first entered the palace. He had no one to confide in, nor did he dare to confide in anyone about these things.

Outside the palace, there are ears on every wall; inside the palace, there are ears every two steps. If you say the wrong thing, there will be another corpse in Enji Manor tomorrow.

Enjizhuang, the place where eunuchs are buried.

Xu Qing memorized the place name; he was always more interested in the dead than the living.

In the middle of the conversation, Zhang Jun brought up the matter of the Mirror Mirror Division coming to Linjiang County to look for someone. Xu Qing had heard about this matter long ago. The Mirror Mirror Division had many extraordinary people. Huang Xiaoliu, the head of the Mirror Mirror Division, did not dare to investigate further. Xu Qing never knew who the person they were looking for was.

It wasn't until Zhang Jun brought this up today that he understood that the Mirror Bureau was looking for the person who killed the adopted son of Feng Dehai, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, and Liao Jinzhong, the supervisor of the Mirror Bureau.

So it turns out that all the turmoil in Linjiang County these past few days was caused by him.

Xu Qing remembered this incident. When he returned to the coroner's shop, he casually placed a silver ingot there, the exact same weight as when Zhang Jun bought the fish.

Carrying the golden carp back to his shop, Xu Qing hadn't even entered when a dark figure darted out.

Xuan Yu jumped onto the threshold and looked Xu Qing up and down.

"Why are you looking at me? I bought Tongyue Restaurant's signature dish, do you want some?"

Xuan Yu withdrew her scrutinizing gaze and asked, "What dish is it?"

"Braised squid, stir-fried fish slices."

As Xu Qing took a dish from the food box, the curious Xuan Yu peeked into the fish basket.

"What a huge goldfish!"

Seeing that Xuan Yu was about to reach out and touch it, Xu Qing reminded her, "These are golden carp that the believers of Baosheng Temple are offering as a way to fulfill their vows and grant children. They are going to be released into the river later, so don't be tempted by their bodies."

After finishing the fish at Tongyuelou Restaurant, Xu Qing carried the fish basket, with a black cat following closely behind.

A cat going to release fish? Unheard of.

But today you have witnessed it!
On the banks of the Baisha River, Xu Qing found a place with abundant water vapor and carefully released the fish back into the flowing water.

When only two fish remained, Xuan Yu followed Xu Qing's example, stood up, and pushed the fish basket, along with the fish inside, into the river.

As the two, a zombie and a cat, were about to turn back and go home after doing a good deed, they suddenly heard a timid shout coming from not far from the dock.

Xu Qing and Xuan Yu turned their heads and saw a little boy and a little girl standing by the river. The boy and girl were barefoot, wearing dresses with cloud patterns. They were both fair-skinned and had a delicate, rosy complexion, exuding an ethereal aura.
The little girl seemed shy and timid, not daring to approach, while the boy was bolder, holding something in his hand and putting it on the ground.

"Thank you for your help, my benefactor. This is a small token of my master's appreciation. I hope you will accept it."

After saying that, the child, like a stray cat visiting someone's house for the first time, turned around, grabbed the girl's hand, and jumped into the river as soon as he came into contact with humans.

Xu Qing looked into the distance and saw two golden streaks of light disappearing into the water on the river surface.

(End of this chapter)