Young master, why not become a corpse immortal?

Chapter 58 A Gust of Wind, A Disease
Lin Jiang held the Buddhist prayer beads in his hand and held his breath.

The little golden figures in his palace seemed to receive a command, waving their little arms and moving golden energy toward his ears one by one.

Soon, Lin Jiang heard the prayer beads in his hand murmuring softly:
"Benefactor, let me shave your head."

Become!

He's mastered the art of eavesdropping!

Lin Jiang felt a surge of joy.

The method of eavesdropping allowed Lin Jiang to hear many wonderful sounds, including the baby's voice.

In order to practice this technique, Lin Jiang specially borrowed the Buddhist beads that had been used to shave Chen Dajiang's hair from the storeroom and began to play with them day and night.

After three days of listening, Lin Jiang finally heard the sound of this treasure.

This means you've mastered this skill quite well.

Can you hear me? Can you have a conversation?

Lin Jiang asked about the prayer beads, and the prayer beads paused for a moment:
"Benefactor, let me shave your head."

It seems unlikely.

The quality of this Buddhist prayer bead is not good enough, so I have to keep asking for more valuables, I wish I could shave everyone's head.

After finding the accountant and returning the Buddhist beads to him, Lin Jiang planned to go find the Zeng brothers again.

While the art of eavesdropping is interesting, it is clearly less practical than the method of sight.

It's unclear what the final clever words will look like.

But before he could leave, the accountant stopped him:

"Young Master, you don't need to go out today. They've already left."

"Is the person gone?"

Lin Jiang scratched his head.

He had originally planned to continue learning skills from those three brothers today, but to his surprise, the accountant told him that the three had already left.

"Yes, they received the message this morning and left in a hurry. They only left a letter for me to give to you."

The accountant handed Lin Jiang a letter.

It's quite thick, and contains a lot of information.

Upon opening it, the letter was quite long, but the explanation of the cause and effect was very short.

It only mentions that the three brothers suddenly encountered some trouble and had to leave early, but it doesn't explain what exactly happened.

The rest of the content is all about the cultivation techniques, a large section filled with details of these three skills.

"Those three brothers are quite dedicated." The accountant glanced at the letters and remarked, "They didn't collect much silver, but they prepared quite a few lesson plans. They're a decent bunch."

Lin Jiang nodded as well.

While learning the skills, Lin Jiang was always worried that the Zeng brothers had ulterior motives, but in the end, the three brothers did nothing until he left.

Maybe they're just short of money and only teaching a few basic skills temporarily.

The three skills cost a total of ninety taels, which is not a small sum.

"Furthermore, young master, try not to leave Cangsong these next couple of days," the accountant said with some concern.

"Ok?"

"An army has arrived from the east of Cangsong these past two days. They look quite imposing, and I don't know whose men they are. They're not far from Cangsong; we might run into them as soon as we leave the city," the accountant explained.

"Don't be fooled by the fact that our hometown of Chongqing is peaceful and quiet; things are in complete chaos outside."

"These soldiers, if they are under the prime minister's command, then it's nothing, they're all kind, and if you really run into them, they'll just tell you to leave quickly."

"But if it's one of the general's men... his head might not be safe."

"Are the general's soldiers so fierce?"

"They're very fierce!" the accountant said in a low voice. "They have a bad reputation outside, and no one dares to mess with them."

"So people from outside the town can't get in either?"

"No, the main thing is not to take risks. Why risk it?"

Lin Jiang nodded.

The original owner also knew what the accountant was talking about. Seven years ago, after the emperor stopped managing affairs, the entire Daxing was like this lake in the pine forest. On the surface, it was calm and still, like a mirror, but in reality, several eddies had been stirred up. Once you got caught in one, you could never get out.

The general supports the eldest prince, the prime minister supports the third prince, and the eldest prince supports neither.

None of the three parties wanted Daxing to descend into civil war, so they remained deadlocked.

It's unclear how long this balance can last.

Lin Jiang really didn't want to get involved with these officials, so he simply listened to the accountant's advice and stayed home these past two days to hone his skills.

Learning eloquent speech without instruction is quite difficult. It's not simply about telling a lie; one needs to manipulate one's breath to make the words sound melodious and enchanting, causing the listener to lose their guard.

Since Lin Jiang had no one to practice with, he simply flattered the maids, making them dizzy with infatuation.

Later, his grandmother came out, grabbed his ear, and scolded him, "If you're not going to eat, don't shovel it away," before Lin Jiang stopped training.

A few days later, the accountant informed Lin Jiang: "Those soldiers have already left."

"Finally gone." Lin Jiang sighed. "I don't know what I would have done if I had stayed here for two or three days."

He hasn't left the house for the past two or three days and is feeling restless and uncomfortable.

Just as he was about to go for a stroll in the streets, the accountant stopped him. "Young master, the Spring Festival banquet is coming soon. Our water business has just taken over the Mao family, and we're busy inside and out. If you have some free time, please visit a few shops, show your face, collect a bill, and relax a bit."

Seeing that the accountant was indeed in a difficult situation, Lin Jiang was naturally willing to help him. After obtaining the locations of several shops, Lin Jiang went to stroll around the streets.

The streets of Cangsong were quite lively. Since it was near a large lake, there were naturally many shops selling fish.

Steamed, pickled, roasted, and freshly sliced ​​goods were sold at two stalls on both sides of the road, with shouts and calls of vendors filling the air.

There are also flower girls who sell flowers, and passersby often stop to take one or two flowers from her hands.

Little Ginseng peeked out from his sleeve, watching the people on the street. After a long while, he muttered something under his breath:
"There are so many people, much more than over in Baishan."

"Baishan is still not as prosperous as this place."

Although they are all county towns, there are differences between them. If a town is near water, it can have more people; if it is near a commercial area, it can have even more people. With more people, the town will naturally become more prosperous.

Lin Jiang followed the route, visiting each shop one by one. Some of these shops belonged to Manager Liu, some to Manager Qiu, and a few originally belonged to the Mao family.

The manager of the Mao family was somewhat indifferent to Lin Jiang, but he still paid the bill.

But how much of that is genuine remains to be seen; we'll have to ask the water company's accountant to check later.

After walking around all morning and visiting all the shops, Lin Jiang also bought a lot of delicious food and drinks along the way.

After finishing his chilled perilla drink, Lin Jiang felt it was about time and decided to go back to rest.

Amidst the bustling crowd on the road, Lin Jiang spotted several children running joyfully toward him. The child in the lead held a small, bright red flower in his hand.

They ran past Lin Jiang's legs, and Lin Jiang smiled and bypassed them, but his eyes fell on the bright red flower.

This flower... looks familiar.

After staring at the flowers for a while, Lin Jiang suddenly called out:
"Wait a moment."

The children stopped and looked at Lin Jiang timidly.

"These flowers are beautiful, where did they come from?"

“If you leave the town and keep heading south, there’s a plain over there,” the child holding the flowers said. “A brother gave them to us.”

"I'll trade you a candied hawthorn."

Lin Jiang bought candied hawthorns from a traveling merchant next to him.

How could a child resist the temptation of candy? He immediately exchanged it with Lin Jiang with a smile.

Once the children had run far away, Lin Jiang turned to twirl the flower in his hand.

The flower was enveloped in a faint black aura.

Misfortune, ominous, death.

It's not a good product.

However, when Lin Jiang approached it and took a gentle sniff, he could feel wisps of golden energy flowing into his body.

There seems to be some kind of spiritual power above that can be transformed by one's eating and drinking habits.

However, Lin Jiang still felt something was off about this thing, so he searched around and found a torchbearer nearby, so he borrowed a torch from him.

Just throw the flower directly onto the torch.

With a series of crackling sounds, the flower vanished, and the vital energy disappeared as well.

Lin Jiang was satisfied and planned to go home.

On the way back, I happened to pass by a traditional Chinese medicine shop. I sniffed and smelled a herbal scent.

The medicine being decocted is for catching a cold.

The original owner had learned a lot about herbs, and he could tell a general idea just by smelling them.

In addition, he heard coughing.

"Cough cough, doctor, my child has been sick for a long time."

"It must be a cold. I see you're sick too. Let him take this medicine first, and I'll prepare two more doses for you."

The doctor in the house was preparing medicine, but he immediately started coughing as if his throat was itchy.

"Cough cough."

In his previous life, Lin Jiang would unconsciously cough when a patient coughed, perhaps as a strange form of empathy?

"Cough cough."

The street vendor selling grilled fish started coughing and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"Cough cough."

The laborer who was pushing the cart started coughing, his legs felt weak, and he could barely stand.

"Cough cough."

The child who was playing fell to the ground, panting heavily.

Lin Jiang stopped in his tracks.

Before he knew it, everyone around him had started coughing. They were clearly in very bad shape, their faces flushed, as if they had contracted a severe plague.

Lin Jiang immediately went to the child's side.

A red bead appeared on the top of his forehead.

(End of this chapter)