Chapter 10 Hot Money

Chapter 10 Hot Money

Chapter 10 Hot Money

Pei Yuan joined the Jinyiwei just for money.

He has no extraordinary sentiments, nor is he a man of integrity.

He couldn't make ends meet and wanted to find a way to make money, so he borrowed a large sum of money to join the Jinyiwei.

Even going back further, his family's hereditary military position in the Jinyiwei was purchased from Emperor Jingtai by spending 600 dan of grain.

Pei Yuan did not deliberately extort money. It was Cheng Zhihu who took the initiative to give the gift. Even if he took it, it would be considered a clean stream in the Ming Dynasty officialdom.

Under normal circumstances, Pei Yuan would not only accept it with a smile, but would also accept it with great joy.

A silver ingot of fifty taels was almost equivalent to Pei Yuan's annual income.

Moreover, Captain Han asked him to come and get the silver as compensation for military pay, and he might not ask about it afterwards.

Besides, Han Qianhu was an official from Nanjing. Once he left this time, even if he came back in the future, he would not remember the fact that he had withdrawn six taels of silver from a temple.

If Pei Yuan was a little more ruthless and took both silver ingots for himself, there wouldn't be any trouble at all.

One hundred taels.

It is enough to solve endless troubles and bring about earth-shaking changes in Pei Yuan’s current embarrassing situation.

However, there was one thing that made Pei Yuan feel extremely hot.

Because his mission this time was to get the money.

——Captain Han asked me to take six taels, so it must be six taels!

One cent more or one cent more is not six taels.

Even if Captain Han had only given him the task of delivering a message, Pei Yuan would have dared to accept the one hundred taels with peace of mind, but Captain Han's task for him was to withdraw the money.

Jinyiwei are military households!

Pei Yuan still remembered the words his father used to threaten him since he was a child.

——"Violation of military orders will result in execution!"

Although his father had a bad character and was greedy for money, he always abided by the rules throughout his life and never disobeyed military orders.

Pei Yuan made up his mind and felt choked with regret.

He looked at Cheng Zhihu and said word by word, "Captain Han asked me to come and get six taels of silver. Six taels is six taels. One cent more or one cent more is not six taels."

Cheng Zhihu looked a little surprised. He didn't expect that he would not be able to do a favor.

He smiled and explained hurriedly, "Don't misunderstand, sir. This is just my humble servant's intention. In my early years, I was taken care of by Captain Han. Today, I met Captain Pei. Isn't this another way out for me?"

Pei Yuan sighed, and said no more, and said stiffly, "Six taels is six taels."

Cheng Zhihu was sweating with anxiety.

Sometimes not being able to give a gift is more troublesome than not giving a gift at all.

At this time, the monk outside coughed, and Cheng Zhihu had an idea and found an excuse to leave.

After a while, Cheng Zhihu came in again.

He seemed to have regained his resolve. He smiled awkwardly and spread out his hands, revealing a piece of silver in his hand. "I am so reckless. This is the six ounces of silver that the Lord wanted."

Pei Yuan nodded, took the silver, weighed it briefly, and felt that the weight was about the same, so he stuffed it into his sleeve.

At this time, Cheng Zhihu turned back and ordered, "Bring it here."

The monk outside who was in charge of reception quickly handed in a brocade box.

Cheng Zhihu opened the brocade box, and inside was a half-foot-tall green-glazed porcelain vase.

Cheng Zhihu smiled and explained, "This is not a valuable item. It was left here by an old Taoist priest." He added, "It was last winter. I saw an old Taoist priest who was dying and freezing in the alley outside. I was kind-hearted and brought him back to Zhihua Temple to be taken care of."

"The old Taoist woke up and told me that his death was almost over, but because I was too nosy, he lived for another half a day. He was afraid that he would not be able to clear his karma, so he gave me this green-glazed porcelain vase."

Seeing Pei Yuan looking at the celadon porcelain vase, Cheng Zhihu quickly added, "I've had someone look at it. This celadon porcelain vase is not from a famous kiln, and it's not worth much, but it has one good thing, which is that it's a bit interesting."

"The old Taoist said that there is a little ghost inside. If you light a stick of incense in front of the bottle at midnight every night, the little ghost will be controlled, and at dawn, there will be an extra copper coin in the bottle. I tried it once and it worked. Although this thing is not very useful, it is also interesting."

Pei Yuan had just heard about some things about the Evil Suppression Thousand Households Office from Captain Han today, and he had become more resistant to the talk about demons and monsters.

Chen Toutie's face turned pale with anger, and he stared at the green-glazed porcelain vase with some fear.

Pei Yuan thought to himself that if he followed Captain Han to do things, he might have to deal with all kinds of dirty things. It would not be a bad thing to have more experience at this time.

Moreover, although one penny is not much, burning incense on time is trivial and sounds ordinary, but this unusual incident alone is enough to sell this green-glazed porcelain vase for dozens of taels of silver.

Pei Yuan immediately accepted the brocade box with a smile.

Although the mouth of the small white porcelain cup on the table was not facing the few people, all the words were heard by Han Qianhu and Yuan Baihu through another white porcelain cup.

Yuan Lang glanced at Captain Han and breathed a sigh of relief. "It looks like he can be used. How about letting him try to capture the monster this time? If he does it well, I don't mind him becoming the sixth captain."

Han Qianhu listened, picked up the inkstone and looked at it out of boredom, and said calmly, "We want to use it, but they may not be willing to do so. This guy has been trying to figure out our background."

Pei Yuan then asked Cheng Zhihu about the inside story of choosing Taoist priest Zhenji, and then turned to inquire about the things happening in the martial arts world.

Cheng Zhihu said in embarrassment, "I have retired from the sect for a long time. I even asked my eldest son to withdraw from the Huashan Sect. I want to find him some proper job."

"There are no officials supporting our Zhihua Temple. Even if we act as a go-between for those people in Jianghu, we have no chance to help them. If you want to know about the situation in Nanzhili, why don't you go to Daci'en Temple to ask? They have a lot of dealings with Nanjing."

Pei Yuan inquired in detail and found out that some temples looked quiet and peaceful, but in fact they were secretly doing business of taking money from people to ward off disasters.

Those gangsters used violence to break the law and do evil things. Some officials could not stand it and naturally had to retaliate.

They usually eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures, and the money they offer to the temple is not taken in vain.

When the sponsor is in trouble, the temple naturally has to display the boundless power of Buddhism.

For example, the rapist Shili Xiang, who held the naked daughter of the city inspector in his arms for a whole night but did not harm her at all, had a reward of three hundred taels of silver offered for him at the Da Ci'en Temple.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that the mastermind behind this incident is Zhang Yanling, Marquis of Jianchang, who has just been impeached.

It was well known that Zhang Yanling was arrogant and domineering. When he was impeached, he could not find a reason to fight back, so he resorted to such despicable means to disgust the inspector who was patrolling the city.

But the inspector could not get any evidence, and even if he did, he could not do anything about the Marquis of Jianchang's power.

Later, a chivalrous man from the martial arts world approached the imperial censor and threatened to sleep with Zhang Yanling's daughter to help him vent his anger.

Unfortunately, the imperial envoy who patrolled the city was a family of poetry and literature, and he was unaware of the danger and was cheated out of five hundred taels of silver.

The imperial censor who was patrolling the city was so angry that he took sick leave and did not attend court.

……

Unable to afford to offend Zhang Yanling, the patrolling censor and his family could only target the lecher Shili Xiang, and they took the formal route and went to the Da Ci'en Temple to make a wish.

If the matter is accomplished, he will go to Da Ci'en Temple to fulfill his vow and pay the Buddha the money.

Pei Yuan asked clearly, but with some embarrassment.

He wanted to go to Da Ci'en Temple to learn more about the situation in Nanzhili, but Captain Han gave him a small white porcelain cup only to ask him to come to Zhihua Temple to withdraw money. If he misused it, he might get into trouble.

Pei Yuan did not bother the two masters with one thing, and continued to ask Cheng Zhihu, "Is there a Taoist priest Zhenji in Da Ci'en Temple? Are you familiar with him?"

Cheng Zhihu looked a little embarrassed. "Yun Weilin is an old man in the Zhenxie Qianhu Office, and he doesn't think highly of me. His son Yun Buxian has some connections with my son, so I can let my son take you there. But my son went out this morning and hasn't come back yet."

(End of this chapter)