I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 36 Rebellion Tax

The two brothers felt that they had met too late. It was not until noon that Wang Lingyuan remembered that he still had to go to work in the classroom.

However, compared with the recognition of fellow apprentices, being absent from work for half a day is nothing.

Before leaving, Wang Lingyuan reminded him, "A few days ago, a corpse driver I didn't know came to check on the room and collect the bodies. From what I saw, he didn't seem to be from Xiangyin. He must have come from somewhere else."

"You should know that colleagues often get jealous when they see each other." Wang Lingyuan said earnestly, "Those unclaimed corpses in the patrol office are cheap things. Even if they were sold to the charity cemetery, they would only fetch one or two taels of silver at most. But you bought them for four or five taels of silver, which has already caused dissatisfaction among some colleagues. I see that they don't seem to be easy to mess with, and I'm afraid they will take their anger out on you and cause trouble. You are still young and don't know the dangers of the world. You need to be more careful on a daily basis and don't let these people from the Yin Sect take advantage of you."

Wang Lingyuan had no idea that the bodies of his companions had already gone cold. In a few days, they would probably be just a pile of rotting bones. How could they have the energy to cause trouble for Xu Qing?
No matter how dangerous the world is, can it be more dangerous than his junior brother?
Although Wang Lingyuan's reminder was a little late, it is never too late to show kindness.

Xu Qingcheng expressed his gratitude and accompanied him all the way to the door of the coffin shop before stopping.

Before leaving, Wang Lingyuan promised him that he would take better care of his business in the future and that if there were any unclaimed bodies, he would find a way to send them to him first.

Xu Qing thought, can this be considered an industry monopoly?
He couldn't stop laughing when he thought about the endless supply of corpses coming in the future!
When Old Man Hu in the street coffin shop saw this, he thought there was some happy event.

"Xu boy! You're grinning so wide, what's the good news? Could it be that something good is about to happen, and your family is going to have a new addition?"

Xu Qing raised his brows when he heard this. It turned out that they were going to add more people, but the ones they added wouldn't be living people.

At the shop entrance, when Hu Baosong learned that the two were merely apprentice brothers, he immediately lost interest again. "I've been on this street for over sixty years, and the people who work in the shops have changed so many times. I can't even count the number of people I've known on my ten fingers, and I don't know how many weddings I've attended. Now that I'm old and I don't have many days left to live, I wonder if I'll ever have the chance to drink a cup of your wedding wine."

Speaking of this, Hu Baosong suddenly became interested, and even his dim old eyes brightened a little.

"Xu boy, I see that you are a hardworking person. Since you are not in a hurry to get married and you don't have any elders around you, why don't you adopt me as your son? From now on, you and I can live together as an old man and a young woman."

Xu Qing stopped immediately after hearing this!

I treat you as my neighbor, but you want to be my father?
"Uncle Hu, I know you're alone and desperately want to find someone to take care of you in your old age, but you don't have to be so anxious. To be frank, even if you really pass away one day, I wouldn't mind paying for your funeral rites and taking care of your affairs."

Over there, Uncle Hu, who was lying on a chair basking in the sun, laughed and scolded, "Dealing with my funeral? Are you going to turn me into a zombie and sell me to a coal mine to dig coal?"

This old man
Xu Qing suppressed his surprise and said with a smile, "That's impossible. Your old arms and legs won't fetch much even if you sell them. Besides, I've always been an honest and decent person. We're all neighbors, so helping out with the funeral arrangements isn't a big deal."

Hu Baosong clicked his tongue twice and said, "Okay, if I come to you in person for the funeral, don't regret it."

"."

The more Xu Qing listened, the more he felt something was not right. Why did these words sound so creepy when they came from Old Man Hu's mouth?
Two days passed in a flash. One day, Xu Qing heard that two murders had occurred on Changdeng Street. During that time, Wang Lingyuan even came to the coroner's shop and said that if anyone wanted to learn the skills of autopsy, they could wait until the patrol office was closed and then go to the morgue to find him.

With this invitation, Xu Qing was distracted the whole day and felt that the days were long.

He hadn't touched a corpse for two days, and his heart was itching to do something, just like being scratched by a cat or a dog.

The children from Wu Yaoxing's family next door are still reciting scriptures in a hurry. I guess they are making a final sprint for the spring exam in a few days.

The proprietress of the incense and candle shop opposite was standing at the door of the shop, carrying a sewing basket. In the bright sunlight, she was twisting the thread shuttle onto the thread winding board.

Only Xu Qing was idle, leaning against the counter, gnawing on the candle out of boredom.

However, the candles I bought today taste a bit pungent. Maybe the owner of the candle shop changed the supplier.

Xu Qing felt that the food was not tasty enough, so he went to the door to ask for an explanation.

The proprietress was struggling to spin the thread on the shuttle when she suddenly felt a darkness in front of her eyes. She looked up and saw the shopkeeper Xiao Xu standing at the door with a serious face.

"Is something wrong?"

"Of course there's something wrong! Look, this is the candle I just bought from your store. Smell the scent and look at the color of the oil. It's obviously not right!"

Xu Qing handed over a broken piece of candle, like an old scholar who had just come out of a candle shop.

After rambling on for a while, Xu Qing finally said earnestly, "Even if the incense and candles are burned for idols or the dead, we can't just mess around with them, right? After all, who can guarantee that someday the incense and candles won't be burned for ourselves? So we must have professional ethics and never engage in any business that cheats on weight and damages our virtue."

The proprietress was scolded a lot, but she couldn't refute it. After all, she was indeed in the wrong.

But it's really weird. She just bought this batch of much cheaper new goods from Waxing yesterday, and there's nothing special about their appearance. How come the shopkeeper next door could tell there was something wrong at a glance?
After much persuasion, the boss lady finally agreed with a blushing face. She would purchase goods in two batches in the future. The good candles would be sold at the original price, while the inferior ones would be sold at a reduced price.

Here, Xu Qing had just finished dealing with the candle issue when he saw a group of uninvited guests coming to the street.

Jingxia Street is a famous funeral street. Apart from passers-by, no one would usually come here for a stroll. But this group of people not only strolled around, but also ran from house to house.

Seeing them coming out of Hu Baosong's coffin shop and making a commotion in the funeral clothing store, Xu Qing wondered, "What are these people from the Capital Taxation Bureau doing here when they have nothing better to do?"

The proprietress of the incense and candle shop, not caring about her needlework, stood on tiptoe to take a look, and then her face suddenly changed. She said, "It must be here to collect money again!"

"Collecting money? It's not a festival, and it's not tax time either. Why are they collecting money?"

The proprietress obviously came from an intelligence organization in the village and knew a lot about national affairs.

"What else could it be? It must be the rebellion tax!"

What the hell? Xu Qing was confused for a moment. Rebel tax? What kind of weird thing was this?
Fortunately, the boss lady gave an explanation.

"These days, there's this guy called the Tianxin Sect who's been secretly throwing money and pamphlets into the yards of the neighbors. Every household gets at least half a tael of silver, and some even get a whole tael. They say that the Tianxin Mother is following the will of Heaven and that the current emperor is a fake."

The proprietress quickly stopped talking at this point and said, "How would we ordinary people know what the Tianxin Sect is? The government has come out and said they are rebels, and the money they give out is also to incite rebellion. They can't leave it to us, they have to take it all."

Xu Qing came to his senses immediately after hearing what he said. It turned out to be the rebellion money!

While the two were talking, people from the Capital Tax Bureau had already arrived at the door of the paper-making shop diagonally opposite.

Faced with the tax collector's questioning, Wu Yaoxing said with embarrassment, "Sir, I burned the booklet issued by the Tianxin Sect, and I really can't get it out."

"Burned? You burned it just like that. Did you hide it secretly and become a follower of Tianxin Sect?"

Wu Yaoxing waved his hands repeatedly, "I dare not! To be honest, sir, my son is going to take the spring exam this year. When I saw the booklet, I was afraid it would bring trouble to me. If this happened and delayed my child's exam, wouldn't it be a sin? So I threw it in the stove and burned it."

The people at the Metropolitan Taxation Bureau ignored the rumors and didn't care whether the burning was real or not. Anyway, they had the booklet and took the dirty money of two taels.

If you set fire to the booklet, or if there are missing pages when wiping your butt, you will have to pay four hundred coins, otherwise you will be a follower of the Tianxin Sect, and at the worst, you will be a traitor, which is a serious crime punishable by death and confiscation of property!

Xu Qing had come close without knowing when. When he heard what the other party said, he thought to himself that this was not the money the Tianxin Sect used to collect to win over the people's hearts and minds for rebellion, but a way to rob them of their hard-earned silver!
Seeing that something was not right, he hurried back to the shop and took out a few taels of silver and a few strings of money, which just made up the total of eight strings.

At the door of the paper-making shop, while Wu Yaoxing went in to get the money, Xu Qing gave out eight hundred yuan in cash without a penny less.

(End of this chapter)