Unparalleled Concubine

  Chapter 3 Shanzhai version of animal charcoal

   "Brother...Brother, what are you doing?"

The charcoal girl was only wearing a straw sandal, and her two little feet were frozen purple. She squatted beside Li Xin, watching the big brother using the hatchet to chop wood at home, cutting the firewood that he and his grandfather had to burn out with great difficulty. carbon.

The black charcoal fell to the ground, which made this little girl very distressed. Although she was young, she knew that the charcoal that these grandfathers worked so hard to burn could be sold for some copper money to buy food, and their work, only I can do it in winter, but when spring comes, I can’t burn charcoal anymore, so my grandfather can only go up the mountain to chop firewood and go to the city to sell some firewood.

  The price of firewood is much cheaper than that of charcoal.

   Therefore, only in winter, the little girl can occasionally see some meat and fish, and in other seasons, even fullness is an extravagant hope, so she can't help but feel a little distressed when she sees Li Xin wasting charcoal so much.

  Li Xin stopped the movement in his hand, raised his head and grinned at the little girl: "Girl, you can't make money by simply selling charcoal. My brother wants to make some money and buy you a pair of cotton shoes to wear."

   After he finished saying this, he began to concentrate on cutting the charcoal, and the charcoal dust on the ground was flying.

The little girl couldn't stand it any longer, and immediately ran to the grandfather who was burning charcoal to tell the news. The old man stopped the bellows and stooped to Li Xin's side, only to see the young man cutting the charcoal on the ground into animal shapes. , Among these animals are tigers, Pixiu, etc. Although they are not lifelike, they have finally become shapes and look quite similar.

The old man squatted down and looked at it, then picked up a piece of charcoal in the shape of a tiger, held it in his hand and looked at it, then shook his head slightly, and said in a hoarse voice: "You kid is very lively, it seems that you want to put these Ordinary pine charcoal and bamboo charcoal, sold as animal charcoal?"

   Li Xin was a little surprised, raised his head to look at the ordinary-looking old man selling charcoal, he stopped the hatchet in his hand, and coughed a little embarrassedly: "Old man knows animal charcoal?"

The charcoal seller said in a low voice, "The old man has been burning charcoal for more than ten years. Naturally, I have heard from the people in the city that the rich and noble people in the city do not use ordinary charcoal, but animal-shaped charcoal. These charcoal The price of bamboo charcoal is hundreds of thousands of times more expensive than ordinary bamboo charcoal, and some are even equivalent to gold..."

Having said this, the charcoal seller shook his head and said, "Although I don't know why this animal charcoal is so expensive, the old man once inquired that a piece of animal charcoal can save at least a day and a night, or even longer, so the least animal charcoal is burned. It has to be made of iron wood, not ordinary pine and bamboo.”

Animal charcoal is a special charcoal for nobles. This charcoal is not directly burned, but first burned into carbon, then ground into carbon powder by people, and then mixed with fragrant powder such as spices, and then made with molds. In the shape of a beast, such charcoal can even burn for days and nights, not only without the smell of smoke, but also with a strange fragrance.

   But as the charcoal seller said, this kind of animal charcoal can only be burned with high-density wood, like they only have pine charcoal and bamboo charcoal here, which is definitely not possible.

   Li Xin also had a whim when he saw a miscellaneous book in a previous life that introduced various kinds of charcoal in ancient times in detail.

However, after hearing the words of the charcoal seller, he was not depressed, but smiled mysteriously: "Old man, although we can't make real animal charcoal, we just need to make a similar appearance, and the boy naturally has a way to make these things. sell it."

The charcoal seller glanced at Li Xin hesitantly, finally shook his head, and sighed softly: "Forget it, young people have a lot of heart, so you can let you go, but you are not allowed to waste too many things, at most 50 catties are engraved and sold. It doesn’t matter if you can go out or not.”

The price of bamboo charcoal and charcoal is generally not very expensive, about five or six cents a pound. This year, the weather is cold, and charcoal is a little more expensive, but it will not exceed ten cents a pound. Burning hundreds of catties of charcoal, so taking out half a day's output is not a big deal for him.

Li Xin secretly complained that he was not a professional sculptor, at most an amateur wood carving enthusiast, it would take a lot of time to carve a copycat version of animal charcoal. It's hard for him.

In this way, Li Xin worked in this wooden house for a whole day. Since there were no lights in the house, after the sky was completely dark, there was no way to continue to carve charcoal. Thirty shanzhai version animal charcoal added up to about ten pounds.

   But after a day of carving, his craftsmanship has become somewhat proficient. The animal charcoal carved in the second half of the day is much finer than that in the morning.

It was still very cold at night. There were only two beds in this room. The charcoal seller slept with his granddaughter. Li Xin slept alone on a relatively short bed, holding a pile of straw bedding. trembling.

   This is the first day he came to this world and felt the coldness of this world. After all, for the first two days, he was in a state of coma, and the whole person was unconscious.

For a whole night, Li Xin didn't fall asleep very much. At most, he slept half asleep for an hour or two. When the sky just woke up, Li Xin, who couldn't bear it, got up from the bed, and he didn't. After having breakfast, the simple charcoal seller greeted him, and then he carried the carved imitation animal charcoal from the basket and went into the city to sell charcoal.

He had seen the way into the city from the memory of the unfortunate child, so he could feel where the capital was. After walking seven or eight miles, the heat brought by the exercise gradually dissipated the chill on his body, and Li Xin raised his head. When he turned his head, he saw a majestic and majestic city standing in front of him.

   This is the capital, the capital of the Jin Dynasty.

   Thirty years ago, after the Dajin ruled the world, the capital of Dajin became the center of the world, and it became the largest heroic city in the world. This city wall, about ten meters high, looked extremely spectacular.

  Li Xin looked up for a moment, then sighed slightly in his heart.

After   , I guess I will have to eat in this big city.

  I was a rural child in my previous life, and I could live like a duck in water in a first-tier city. Now, I can live like a person in this city!

  Thinking of this, Li Xin secretly clenched his fists, carried the charcoal basket behind him, and strode towards the east gate of the capital.

   Today's goal is to buy a pair of thicker cotton shoes for the little girl, and get yourself a decent quilt by the way!

  Li Xin secretly cheered himself up.

   A rough voice interrupted Li Xin's ambition.

   "Boy, where did you come from? Is it a local? Is there a guide?"

  Li Xin looked up and saw a burly man, dressed in a soldier's shirt, standing in front of him.

  The boy swallowed his saliva, obediently took out the road guide from his arms, and handed it to him.

   "From Yongzhou, to the capital... looking for relatives."

   Through the memory of the unfortunate child, he knew that in this unknown era, without a guide, he could not go out. He and his uncle naturally had a guide, otherwise they would not be able to get out of Yongzhou, let alone come to the capital.

  The so-called road guide is a certificate issued by the local yamen, proving who this person is, where he came from, where he is going, and what he does.

   And Li Xin's road guide was issued by the Qiyang County Yap, Yongzhou Prefecture, and the reason written above was to seek relatives.

   The soldier guarding the gate glanced at the worn cloth shoes on Li Xin's feet, then looked down at Lu Yin, and then stared at the wooden basket behind Li Xin.

   "What's inside?"

  Li Xin forced a smile on his face: "The bamboo charcoal I got at home, it's getting cold, I'll give it to my relatives in the city."

   This soldier glanced at Li Xin, then waved his hand: "Go in."

  Li Xin nodded and walked in from the city gate.

   After Li Xin was far away, the soldier found a piece of white paper, secretly wrote down Li Xin's name, and then hid the white paper in his arms.

   (end of this chapter)