It was only at this point that Wu Hei truly believed these guys went to the legendary Golden Ruins purely for money.
Even he, who had lived in seclusion before, found it unbelievable. How could anyone else believe it if they found out?
Returning to the entrance of Miao Qing Hall, Wu Hei pushed Xiao Hei into the shop with some anger.
Seeing Gao Yunjie on the recliner behind the counter and Chong’er wiping things, Xiao Hei immediately greeted them cheerfully, “Second Uncle, Sixteenth Uncle.”
Chong’er smiled and waved the cloth in his hand.
Gao Yunjie stood up and smiled, “Xiao Hei is back.”
Seeing Wu Hei’s expression, the two did not need to think much to know that Xiao Hei, the spendthrift, had caused trouble outside again. He probably climbed over the wall to get out, as he certainly did not leave right under their noses.
The two were quite used to it. Xiao Hei’s nature was just too wild. Rules were too abstract for the little guy, and he had not yet formed a solid concept of them.
Now Gao Yunjie and Chong’er also had official Youjiaobu identities. There was no other way, as they could not keep working in the shops of Youjiaobu without an official identity. It would cause a lot of trouble if something went wrong. After Tie Miaoqing and Sun Ping left, there was no one to work in the shop. Wu Hei, the nominal boss, could not do all the work alone.
The reason there was still work in the shop was that everyone did not want the business to go bankrupt. They could not let so much money go to waste, so they were trying their best to keep it running.
They could still find ways to manage the owed money. However, if the shop failed to meet the sales quota and was taken back by Youya, no solution would work.
Everyone racked their brains and thought it over and over, finally finding some things to sell.
A sign hung at the door read, “Ice Souls sold at low prices.”
These were used Ice Souls with some loss in volume, making the particles a bit smaller.
After eating some of the frozen fairy peaches, some Ice Souls were left idle, which could perfectly be sold.
Since they were used, it was unlikely to sell them at a high price or the original price. They could only be sold cheaply.
However, they estimated that Ice Souls originally worth tens of millions could eventually be sold for around ten million. They did not know how long it would take to sell ten million worth, but they were somewhat confident it would help them avoid being at the bottom during the assessment every three years.
Over the past few months, although they only sold three, they had already recovered a good amount of the cost.
The Ice Souls bought for 350,000 each were sold for 280,000 each. As for future Ice Souls with even smaller volumes, they definitely would not sell for this price and would only get cheaper.
But cheap goods still had buyers. As long as they were not buying them as gifts to save face, these cheap items did not affect their practical value and were actually more cost effective.
As for the fairy peaches, they could not be sold at all. Customers found them useless anyway, as they only bought them for novelty and to save face. Who would want them looking like ghosts frozen in ice?
This group’s business was gradually finding its footing.
After standing up and watching Wu Hei and his son go inside, Gao Yunjie dropped the pleasantries and came out from behind the counter.
At first, he did not take Wu Hei too seriously and liked to act like an enlightened master in front of him. When Nan Zhu told him Wu Hei was a high level Shangxuan expert, he was shocked. That was a height he might never reach in his life. That was a true master!
After that, his attitude became respectful. He somewhat treated Wu Hei as the boss and agreed to let Wu Hei manage the income from their business.
Yu Qing and the others also agreed to let Wu Hei manage the money in this regard.
Gao Yunjie felt that Wu Hei might have realised he was being hunted by a group of people, and had started thinking about saving money to redeem the mortgaged shop.
But how to put it, getting along with Wu Hei had another kind of ease and comfort. Apart from the secret of Linglong Temple, there was almost nothing to keep secret, including the secret of Datou boiling water. In Yu Qing’s words, everyone had dirty hands. Plus, Wu Hei’s character was actually quite good, and his background was very clean. This was unlike dealing with Tie Miaoqing and Sun Ping, where they had to hide many things.
Even he, Gao Yunjie, felt that after knowing some of the situation, if they were to talk about friends, Wu Hei was the most suitable person to hang out with.
He walked out to the gate with his hands behind his back, watched the people coming and going on the street for a while, then turned back to stroke his beard. Looking at the sign of Miao Qing Hall, he thought of the departed Lady Miao Qing, who had a breathtaking beauty.
He remembered the days of being with the great beauty day and night. It was truly the most spirited period he had experienced in many years. Who knew that as soon as that bunch of guys led by Old Fifteen came back, they immediately took her away? It was so helpless! Now Miao Qing Hall was full of men, even a child, but no women. It was really boring.
He had asked about the pleasure quarters in Youjiaobu. They were shockingly expensive. He could not afford the money, so he had to give up the idea.
Returning to the inner courtyard, he saw Nan Zhu instructing the two one eyed men, “Xiao Dong” and “Xiao Xi”. Xiao Hei immediately ran over and shouted, “Fat Uncle, let us play chess.”
The little guy spoke much more fluently. In just a few short months, his progress was truly rapid.
There was no help for it. Hanging out and chatting with a chatterbox like Nan Zhu all the time, it was hard for his tongue not to become smooth.
His father would discipline him. Gao Yunjie acted formal in front of children. Mu Aotie was not good with words. Yu Qing forced him to practise calligraphy. Chong’er liked to hover around Yu Qing in his spare time and had no time to pay attention to him. Among so many people, only Nan Zhu would chat with him, a little brat.
Nan Zhu actually liked to act formal too. Because he was a confident fat man, once a fat man became confident, he would feel he was different from other fat men. He often put on a serious look, but he could not keep it up for long. As soon as he opened his mouth, his true colours would show.
Only Nan Zhu could hold a stone and explain it to a child who could not understand for half a day.
Because they were relatively close, Xiao Hei called the others by their numbered uncle titles, and only called Nan Zhu “Fat Uncle”.
Nan Zhu did not like this title and preferred the numbered title, but Xiao Hei simply could not change his habit.
“Play chess?” Nan Zhu was stunned. He looked at Wu Hei, who had a gloomy face, and then looked at the sky through the skylight. He immediately chuckled, “Xiao Hei, is it not time to practise calligraphy? Do not use me as a shield. If you do not go soon, your dad will beat you again.”
Xiao Hei looked back at his father, who had a bad expression, and immediately became dejected. His father rarely beat him before, but now he always beat him for practising calligraphy. He hated practising calligraphy more and more. However, there was no other way, so he could only go with a discouraged face.
The “Big Stick” clinging to his back would occasionally change the way it attached itself.
When passing through spacious places, it could lie diagonally on Xiao Hei’s back.
When encountering inconvenient places, such as crowded streets, it was not good to lie horizontally or diagonally as it would scratch passers by. The Big Stick would automatically adjust to stand straight up on Xiao Hei’s back.
Now entering Yu Qing’s courtyard and passing through the moon gate, standing straight was too tall and it would hit the top of the door. The Big Stick quickly lowered its height and adjusted to a diagonal lying position.
Only when Xiao Hei actively carried it on his shoulder would it completely retract its jointed legs, without needing to worry about its lying posture.
After getting along for a long time, the two were quite tacitly coordinated, truly inseparable.
Xiao Hei just called it Big Stick.
As soon as he entered the small courtyard and saw Yu Qing and Mu Aotie talking on the steps under the eaves, Xiao Hei, with his hair dishevelled, politely said, “Ninth Uncle, Fifteenth Uncle.”
Yu Qing hummed in response without saying anything else, and waved his hand, “Go to the study to practise calligraphy. Still copy those basic strokes a hundred times.”
Xiao Hei did not make a sound and went with his head down. He had to go, or his father following behind would definitely beat him again.
After he went to the study, Yu Qing was amused and asked Wu Hei, who was walking over, “You do not look happy. Did this kid run out to mess around again?”
Wu Hei said, “He went to the Danyun Pavilion again.”
Yu Qing sighed with his hands behind his back, “This kid is indeed hard to teach. As long as he is not watched, his mind wanders who knows where. You do not know, last time I secretly watched him practise calligraphy, and found he actually took off his shoes and socks and held the pen with his toes to write. He is too naughty, hard to teach!”
He did not know how many times he had said it was hard to teach. Wu Hei looked at him with a somewhat unfriendly gaze, really wanting to ask, have you really taught him with heart? Who said my son had potential in the beginning? I threw in 15 million taels, and now you start saying this?
At least in his personal view, the man did not seem to teach the boy with heart. For months, he repeatedly let his son copy things by himself. After copying basic strokes for months, he was still copying, while Yu Qing was either cultivating or doing other things.
However, he could only keep his dissatisfaction in his heart. There was one point he still admired. This man was a legitimate Jin State Conference Yuan who fought his way out of thousands of talents, and was the number one talent in the world with full marks in all four subjects! When mentioning the Tanhua, everyone in the world knew it was him, making all other Tanhuas in history pale in comparison.
Moreover, he had also seen with his own eyes Yu Qing’s casual handwriting when teaching his son in the study. Even he, who did not understand much, could see it was beautiful, finding that this number one talent in the world was truly worthy of his name.
He kept in mind that with his son by this man’s side, over time, he would definitely be influenced to some extent.
Even if he could not reach this man’s height, a third of it would be fine.
Just then, Nan Zhu came back.
Xiao Dong and Xiao Xi also carried over buckets full of clean water and several washed basins. After putting down the things, Nan Zhu waved to signal them to leave.
Mu Aotie immediately took the things into the room, and Nan Zhu and Yu Qing also went inside to make various arrangement preparations.
Wu Hei, who followed in, sensed something was wrong and asked, “What are you doing?”
Yu Qing raised his hand to touch the back of his neck, “Surgery! Cut it open to see what is really going on.”
Wu Hei fell silent.
He also knew about the abnormalities that appeared on these three. About half a month after returning from the Golden Ruins, the three of them had strange physical changes. They started to feel a bit itchy at the back of their necks. Yu Qing was the first to show symptoms and had the most obvious ones.
It was not the kind of itch on the skin. They all felt the bones under the skin were itchy, which they could not scratch.
All three felt there was some abnormal change in the bones at the back of their necks. But when they used their energy to investigate, everything was fine. When others used their energy to help investigate, it also felt normal. They even found a good doctor in Youjiaobu, who also said it was normal and that they were not sick.
This was really strange. If one person had an illusion, it would be fine, but it seemed unlikely for all three to have illusions.