novelapdf Chapter 415 Salted Vegetables with Oil
Chapter 415 Salted Vegetables with Oil
Mo Chengyue pressed the second Tranquilizing Talisman next to Xiao Liu's feet. After the talisman was placed on the ground, faint golden patterns emerged on the surface of the paper, spreading out along the edge of the shadow and temporarily encircling the pair of red embroidered shoes in their original place.
"Don't fight over it. It's not after Xiao Liu himself, it's after the messenger's position."
Old Zheng gripped the iron spoon tightly, his throat dry.
"Would it be the same if I changed into it?"
Mo Chengyue pinched up a pinch of Red Sun Powder and sprinkled it in a half-circle along the toe of his shoe. The powder did not disperse on the shadow, but instead bounced slightly due to the dampness.
"Same here, whoever takes this job will have their shadow stepped on by their shoe."
Shopkeeper Hu raised the lamp a little higher, and as soon as the light came on, the floral stitching on the red embroidered shoes shrank inward, as if burned by the light.
"But it has already stepped on Xiao Liu. If it is not removed, he will be dragged away from the Earth God Temple's defense line."
Old Zhou added a sentence.
"It's not about leaving the Earth God Temple, it's about leaving this array of runes."
Xiao Liu's tears fell again.
"Can I stay here from now on?"
Old Zheng scolded him.
"You want a celestial master to draw a formation the size of a coffin for you, and carry you around every day?"
Xiao Liu sniffed.
"Can you carry it on your back?"
Mo Chengyue glanced at him.
"Yes, I'll sell you first to pay for the materials."
Xiao Liu immediately shut up, tears still hanging on his chin, but he became obedient.
The dried fish in the shed outside the window were still turning over, and the sound of their gills opening and closing seeped into the room, sending chills down one's spine.
The paper eye was burned black at the edges by the talisman fire, and the woman's voice could be heard intermittently from inside.
"The messenger has been chosen; you cannot deliver the message."
Mo Chengyue ignored it, first fixing Xiao Liu's shadow between the table leg and the wall, and then sticking a soul-protecting talisman on Xiao Liu's back.
Xiao Liu was pushed forward by the talisman stuck to him.
"Master, I feel a chill down my back."
"The coolness means you're still here."
"What if I'm not cold?"
"Then you should register with Lao Zhou."
Old Zhou was adjusting the wick of the oil lamp when he heard this and looked up at him.
"The watchtower only announces the watchman's shift; it doesn't care about reincarnation."
Xiao Liu cried even harder.
Why aren't any of you comforting people?
Shopkeeper Hu handed the Soul-Suppressing Coin to him, letting him hold the other end of the coin hole.
Hold on tight, don't let go.
Xiao Liu sniffed as he took it.
"Shopkeeper, you seem more like a living person than they do."
Old Zheng patted him on the back of the head, this time gently.
"Say less, save your life."
After checking the talisman thread near Xiao Liu's feet and confirming that the red embroidered shoes were fixed in place by the Tranquilizing Talisman, Mo Chengyue turned to look at the shed outside the window.
After the sealing talisman fell into the blue cloth fish basket, only a few scattered bright spots of golden light remained, and red mist was seeping into the basket through the seams. The dried fish arched up one by one, as if trying to spit out the talisman.
Manager Hu frowned.
"If true faith is spit out, all the previous efforts will have been in vain."
Mo Chengyue took out two blank talisman papers from his sleeve and spread them out on the table.
"So it shouldn't be lying in the basket."
Looking at the two pieces of paper, Old Zheng suddenly understood something.
"Do you want me to deliver again?"
Xiao Liu immediately shrank back, and the soul-protecting talisman on his back shone brightly.
"I'm not sending it. My shadow already has shoes; if I send another, wouldn't it require matching clothes?"
Mo Chengyue handed the array hook to Lao Zheng and told him to hold the hemp rope.
"You don't need to deliver, the fish will."
Old Zheng was stunned.
"The fish were all dead, how could you still send them away?"
Mo Chengyue raised his hand and drew a golden-blue feather pattern on the first talisman paper. He then took a very fine strand of the energy from the corner of the wedding boat talisman he had just copied and sealed it into the heart of the talisman.
"Dead fish have their advantages. They are full of moisture, salt, and fishy smell. When the red lantern boats have to pick out the live fish from them, they have to be covered in the smell first."
Xiao Liu asked with tears in his eyes.
"Does a ghost ship have any shame?"
Old Zheng was annoyed.
"It has a bow."
Xiao Liu nodded.
"Then let's fumigate the bow of the boat."
Manager Hu watched as Mo Chengyue folded the letter into thin strips, then picked up a small fish bone from the side of the table. The fish bone was the one Old Zhou had used to pad the lamp legs; it was dry, hard, and yellowish, with salt frost on the edges.
"Are you going to hide the letter inside the fish's belly?"
Mo Chengyue gently traced the edge of the thunder talisman, causing a small crack to appear in the middle of the fishbone. He rolled the true letter inside and then sealed it with a water-repelling talisman.
"I won't hide it in the talisman pouch, because the talisman pouch is too clean."
Old Zhou looked out the window.
Which fish is suitable in the basket?
Xiao Liu wiped away his tears and perked up again when he heard about the fish basket.
"Brother Fan has a big yellow flower. Its belly was ripped open, but he tied it back up with a bamboo skewer, saying it looks alright. Last time I wanted to buy it on credit, but he refused."
Old Zheng gritted his teeth.
"How come you even remember whether the fish's belly is ruptured or not?"
Xiao Liu spoke with righteous indignation.
"That one is the biggest."
Mo Chengyue nodded.
"That's it."
Manager Hu carried the white paper lantern to the window, the lamp cord casting a faint light that just illuminated the edge of the second row of blue cloth baskets in the shed.
"Red Mist is watching closely, how are you going to slip it in?"
Mo Chengyue hung the fishbone letter inside the hook, then wrapped it in a layer of ordinary oil paper, which was also smeared with salted vegetable soup from Old Zhou's table.
Old Zhou frowned as he looked at the bowl of pickled vegetables in his hand.
"That's for my porridge tomorrow morning."
Mo Chengyue pushed the bowl back.
"If you want to drink porridge again tomorrow morning, this bowl of pickled vegetables is a great help."
Old Zhou fell silent and slowly moved the bowl back in front of him.
"Then apply more."
Old Zheng's lips twitched.
"Old Zhou, you're pretty good at calculating."
Mo Chengyue lowered the rope again, and the hook slid along the outer wall toward the shed. This time, it didn't go straight for the blue cloth fish basket, but instead circled around a pillar behind the shed and first knocked over the lid of a broken wooden bucket next to it.
The wooden bucket lid fell to the ground, and the salty, fishy smell of seaweed rushed out. The red mist was disturbed by that smell, and the red dot in the dried fish's eye shifted its direction.
Xiao Liu's eyes lit up, and he stopped crying.
"Can seaweed really save lives?"
Mo Chengyue stared at the landing point of the array hooks.
"No, but you can make it disgusting."
Old Zheng chuckled in a low voice.
"This method may be harmful, but it works."
Shopkeeper Hu didn't laugh. She stared at the red embroidered shoes in Xiao Liu's shadow. Water was seeping out of the embroidered thread on the shoes, and the edges of the Qingxin talisman had already been soaked and softened.
"The shoes are waiting for you to get distracted."
Mo Chengyue flicked the hemp rope with his finger, and the hook bounced off the crossbeam of the shed. The hook tip grazed the mouth of the blue cloth fish basket, and the oil paper ball with the fish bone letter hanging on it fell into the open belly crevice of the largest dried fish.
The bamboo skewer was gently pushed back, and the fish's belly closed again.
The dried fish in the shed all turned their heads, the red dots fluttered around in the black for a while, and then all stared at the original talisman bag.
Old Zheng asked in a low voice.
"Did it work?"
Mo Chengyue pulled back the hemp rope, the hook bringing back a fishy and salted vegetable smell. He disgustedly tossed the hook out the windowsill.
"The real goods have been loaded onto the ship."
Xiao Liu whispered a reminder.
"It's not about getting on the boat, it's about getting the fish."
Mo Chengyue looked at him.
"You still have the mood to pick words?"
Xiao Liu raised his hand to wipe his face.
"I'm afraid that crying for too long will make me seem weak."
Old Zheng snorted.
"You were already being incredibly pathetic."
Xiao Liu clutched the Soul-Suppressing Coin and retorted in a low voice.
"My shadow was stepped on by a shoe, and I'm not allowed to cry? That's too much to ask."
The female voice in the paper eye laughed again, the laughter interrupted by the burning talisman fire.
"You can't hide anymore; the red light has already shown its way."
Mo Chengyue picked up the second blank talisman paper, dipped it in the water stains forced out by the red lines on his palm, and wrote a few words on the paper.
Manager Hu took a closer look and his brows furrowed.
"Mo Chengyue will definitely board the ship tonight."
Old Zheng's expression changed.
"Immortal Master, you can't just write these words carelessly."
Xiao Liu was so frightened that he gripped the Soul-Suppressing Money even tighter.
"Will writing it down make it come true?"
Mo Chengyue folded the fake letter carefully, without affixing any water-repelling talismans to the outside, but instead affixing a half-worn seal, which deliberately revealed the aura of a wedding invitation.
"If it wants to see it, let it see it."
Manager Hu's eyes were wary.
"You want the embroidered shoes to carry away a false letter?"
Mo Chengyue placed the fake letter next to Xiao Liu's shadow. Sure enough, the tip of the red embroidered shoe slowly turned around, and dampness crept along the floor toward the corner of the paper.
"It stepped on the messenger so it could wait for the message before leaving."
Old Zheng looked at the paper package uneasily.
"But what if it believes it?"
Mo Chengyue pressed down on a corner of the fake letter with his finger, not letting go immediately.
"I believe it. They'll have people lined up at the dock tonight, waiting for me to board the ship."
Manager Hu then asked.
"Don't you believe me?"
Mo Chengyue released his grip, and the fake letter was slowly swallowed by the dampness in the shadows and disappeared into the sole of his shoe.
"If the enemy doesn't believe it, they will be eager to verify it."
Old Zhou flipped the old ship's nameplate to the side with the engravings and ran his fingertip along the seven marks in a group.
"Verification will reveal what it truly intends to guard."
Mo Chengyue nodded.
"True faith goes into the belly of a fish, false faith goes into embroidered shoes; the red-light boat now either chases after rotten fish or chases after lies."
Xiao Liu asked, sniffling.
"And what about me?"