Chapter 0002: There is a White Tower outside the City
Mr. Wang decided that he had to go and see it with his own eyes.
After hearing what the second young lady said, Liu San knew that Zhao Yulin must be playing mad and stupid, and might do something weird again. He didn't dare to get involved, so he said that he had a stomachache and went to the toilet first, and he would come back after he finished.
Mr. Wang, somewhat displeased, called two servants, called Wang Deyi, and led by Wang Dehui, to Zhao Yulin's yard.
In the west wing of the backyard, Zhao Yulin was looking at the broken bed edge and found it very funny. Thinking that they would have to sleep on it for two more days, he had to find something to pad the bed flat, so he took Li Chuan out to look for it along the wall.
When he walked to the third pillar of the fence, he found three large bricks piled at the foot of the pillar. Looking upwards, he saw obvious signs of someone climbing over the wall. There was also a crooked yellow poplar tree leaning over from the outside on the wall.
Zhao Yulin thought that by moving these three bricks, he could cut off the thieves' chance of climbing over the wall and also make his bed a better place, killing two birds with one stone.
He asked Li Chuan to carry one brick, and he carried two big bricks and walked back.
As soon as the two of them had padded the edge of the bed, Wang Deyi came into the yard.
As soon as the boy entered the room, he shouted, "Zhao Yulin, where have you been hiding? Come out now."
When Zhao Yulin heard that the head of the Wang family had arrived, he had to play dumb and wait and see.
He came out of the inner room, put on an idiotic look, waved his dirty hands and said with a silly smile, "Hey, the bed is broken, hey, hey, fix the bed, hey, hey, fix the bed."
"What are you pretending to be?" Wang Deyi said.
He didn't believe it, so he went into the inner room and took a closer look, only to find that the big bed had been deformed, and bricks were placed under the edge of the bed. Fortunately, the craftsman made it solid, otherwise the decorative bed edges and panels would have fallen off.
Mr. Wang was also stunned when he saw this. What was going on?
No one would dare to cut corners or make fake furniture for the Wang family. How come the thick bed edge broke abruptly?
Zhao Yulin didn't care about all this. He just kept grinning foolishly and sat in the outer room drinking tea from a cup.
Wang Deyi came out, stared at him and asked, "What happened? Tell me."
Zhao Yulin was still laughing foolishly, and he was so angry that he wanted to hit someone again.
Seeing this, Li Chuan hurriedly said that he didn't know what happened, but the bed became rotten as soon as the young master got up and sat on the edge of the bed.
Mr. Wang stepped forward and called out to his nephew, asking him if everything was alright.
Zhao Yulin did not regard this beastly fellow as his elder at all. Instead of answering, he stood up and stretched his head over, almost touching Mr. Wang's face, and said with a silly smile that the bed was rotten, then touched his abdomen and said he was hungry.
This action frightened Mr. Wang so much that he took two steps back. He looked at Zhao Yulin in confusion. He saw that he was a handsome and elegant young man a few days ago, but now he looked like a fool. He was completely different.
He shook his head in disbelief and walked out first.
After the Wang family left, the kitchen brought food. Zhao Yulin ate and went back to practice calligraphy, but he couldn't calm down, so he asked Li Chuan to find Liu Huyuan to arrange a carriage to go out for a walk. He had not yet left the Wang family's yard when he arrived in Southern Song.
Li Chuan told him that the old people in the courtyard all said that Liu Huyuan was a very bad person who specifically bullied new servants.
He told Li Chuan not to be afraid, that guy wouldn't dare to do anything wrong.
Sure enough, when Li Chuan ran to find Liu San and said that Zhao Yulin was going out for a walk, Liu San immediately wilted like an eggplant hit by frost.
He told Li Chuan in a flattering manner that he could not make the decision and had to report to the master. As he spoke, he took Li Chuan to the teahouse.
Mr. Wang and his family were still there. When he heard Liu San say that Zhao Yulin was making a fuss about leaving the house, he began to disagree. Wang Deyi also shouted that he wanted to put Zhao Yulin under house arrest and trap him to death in this yard.
Later, he thought about Zhao Yulin's abnormal behavior of smashing the big bed and felt it was very strange. He thought that he should not tie up this idiot to death. What if this idiot did something stupid and made a scene in his house by beating and smashing things? That would be a disgrace to him.
Thinking of this, he asked Liu San to take care of Zhao Yulin and take him out for a walk. If he wanted to go back, he could let him go, but he was not allowed to run around. Then he told his butler Du Wei to quickly inform the Zhao family that Zhao Yulin had woken up and asked them to pick him up.
Liu San carefully waited for Zhao Yulin to leave the palace and walk along the street from north to south. This was his first time out of the palace, and even though he had the impression of the ancient town seen in later generations, he was still amazed to see the huge ancient city from the car window, with shops lined up one after another, and the ancient buildings and pedestrians everywhere.
He counted the shops and businesses one after another with great interest, and unexpectedly saw a "Zhao's Sincerity Pawnshop". He asked Liu San to stop the car and go in to take a look, perhaps it belonged to his Zhao family.
Liu San shouted and drove the carriage forward to a secluded place, then came up and said in a sobbing voice, "Please, Third Young Master, don't embarrass me. The master has told me that I can go anywhere, even back to the Zhao family, but I can't get off the carriage. We are only a few steps outside the mansion."
Zhao Yulin was happy in his heart, and said coldly, "Stop talking nonsense. I am not interested in the Zhao family or the Wang family. Just keep moving forward."
Zhao Yulin was thinking in the carriage, this thief was so afraid of him, if he knocked him a little more, maybe he could do something for him.
He was aimlessly looking at the street scene outside the window when Liu San spoke again: "Third Young Master, we are almost at the city gate."
Zhao Yulin saw a white tower in the southwest corner and told him to go out of the city to visit the tower. Liu San hesitated for a moment and called the driver to go to the city gate.
Haha, these soldiers guarding the city all knew him. They greeted Liu San and let the carriage pass without even looking at who or what was in it.
Zhao Yulin's carriage passed a long covered bridge, went three miles west, and arrived at the foot of the White Pagoda.
He got off the car to see the White Pagoda. There was a broken stele in front of the pagoda. From the inscription on the stele, it should be built by a filial son to commemorate his ancestors. It has been here for hundreds of years. The tall pagoda stood upright on the bank of the Minjiang River, with 13 floors.
Zhao Yulin walked into the White Pagoda and found an inner room about six or seven meters square, where two beggars lived. Climbing up the stairs, he found that the five floors below had inner rooms with windows on all four sides, which was a very good place to shelter from the wind and rain.
After coming down, he asked Liu San to ask the two beggars to leave, and asked Li Chuan to guard the door. Then he sat on the stairs alone and looked at Liu San with amusement without saying a word.
Time passed by minute by minute. Liu San had no idea what Zhao Yulin was up to. He thought Zhao Yulin was going to deal with him again. He was so scared that he fell to his knees in front of Zhao Yulin, shouting "Young Master, please spare my life," saying it was none of his business.
He said that it was the eldest son Wang Deyi who kicked Zhao Yulin over in order to avenge a personal vendetta. This young man was uneducated and liked to play tricks on people for fun.
Zhao Yulin still looked at him with a forced smile without saying anything. He picked up two straws from the ground and tied them into knots repeatedly in his hands.
Liu San was an old hand, and seeing this, he thought Zhao Yulin was hinting at an attack on him, and he was so frightened that he trembled all over, saying in a shivering voice that he was just a dog, and asked the Third Young Master to just let him go.
Then, Liu San, trembling, took out two large silver bars from his arms and presented them with both hands, begging him for mercy, saying that he would have to pay tribute to him in the future.
Zhao Yulin thought about it and decided to accept it, otherwise the thief would feel uneasy, so he asked Li Chuan to take it first.
When Liu San saw Zhao Yulin speak and take the money, he calmed down and stopped swaying and shaking.
Zhao Yulin warned Liu San not to tell anyone about his affairs. People who practice martial arts should uphold a righteous heart and do good deeds. If they do evil again and deviate from the path of chivalry, he will never let them off easily.
Liu San quickly agreed and promised not to do it again.
Zhao Yulin waved his hand and called them out. The three of them left the White Pagoda. The sun had already risen above their heads. He asked them to go to the pier to see if there was anything delicious.
Liu San led the carriage to Chengyi Restaurant on the east side. Zhao Yulin got off the car and walked inside. The store was clean, but there were very few diners. This was what he liked most because it was quiet.
Liu San respectfully asked Zhao Yulin to walk in front.
He went upstairs to the second floor, and the waiter shouted and led them to Room No. 1, which was close to the river.
This room overlooks the dock and the river, and is indeed a good choice. Zhao Yulin went in and sat down, while Liu San stood by and tried his best to please him, groveling and introducing each family's warehouse and business one by one.
Zhao Yulin was very satisfied with what he heard, and nodded to him with a smile, which was rare. The thief was praised and shouted happily to the driver outside to get some wine from the car.
Later, when the wine and food were ready, Zhao Yulin simply divided it out in half and started eating first. However, he frowned after drinking the lychee green tea.
Upon seeing this, Liu San stepped forward and said in a long-winded manner that this was the best-selling product of the Wang family on the market, and he really had no way of getting the tribute wine to be sent to Lin'an.
Zhao Yulin didn't answer and continued eating. After he finished eating, he asked them to come to the table to eat and sat down to have tea.
Finally, I said that it was not easy for the Wang family to reach this level of soju.
However, in his opinion, Litchi Green was just a fruit wine, which was terrible.
The speaker may not mean it, but the walls have ears. Chen Zhongshun, the owner of Chengyi Restaurant, knew that the third young master of the Zhao family had arrived, so he hurried upstairs to serve him. As soon as he went upstairs, he heard Zhao Yulin say this, and his mind immediately started to flutter. He slowed down his pace and leaned against the wall to eavesdrop.
Liu San was dumbfounded. What? This was Litchi Green, a famous tribute wine. How could it be considered rotten in Zhao Yulin's eyes?
He looked at Zhao Yulin helplessly.
Zhao Yulin looked at Liu San with a silly look on his face and said it was a piece of cake. He would brew some new wine for him to try one day, and then he would know what real winemaking was.
Liu San's eyes bulged as big as spades after listening to this. He thought that Zhao Yulin must have tasted the most delicious wine in the world to have such a level of attainment. He was truly a hidden talent.
The eavesdropper outside the house almost fell to the ground. Damn, where did this god or the awesome king come from? He actually ignored the pinnacle of current winemaking technology and regarded them as dust and garbage. You know, the wine brewed by his Chengyi Distillery with great effort is not easy to sell. If this is not bragging, then it must be a god descending to earth.
The shopkeeper recovered his breath and hurried downstairs.