The Ten Directions of Heaven and Earth

The old beggar looked at him and smiled, "Hey, since the whole Qingzhou City is so big, you just go from restaurant to restaurant slowly. Old man, I will wait for you in the bamboo forest twenty miles west of the city. I will only wait for three days. Once these three days are over, The old man is just traveling around the world..."

As he spoke, he walked outside the pavilion humming a tune, and his figure slowly disappeared into the night.

Xiao Chen couldn't figure out this person's intention for a while, but he just wanted to do as he was told. Let's see which restaurant chef in Qingzhou City can cook these four dishes.

Early the next morning, he went to the restaurant and asked the shopkeeper whether the steamed seabass and braised carp in the front were good, but the Linyuan fish and water clear fish in the back. The shopkeeper was really confused after hearing this. Yun asked the young cook, who also shook his head and said that he had never heard of these two dishes.

Xiao Chen went to many restaurants that day, but without exception, no one knew what the hell Linyuan Xianyu and Shui Qingwuyu were.

On the third day, Xiao Chen searched almost all restaurants, large and small, and came to a restaurant called "Zui Xian Restaurant" this morning.

When the shopkeeper saw the two shining ingots of gold in his hand, his eyes gleamed. However, when he heard the name of the weird dish, he felt a little confused, but he also vaguely felt that Linyuan Xianyu was so charming. The four characters were somewhat familiar, as if he had heard them some time before, but he couldn't remember the specific year.

"Um... Sir, please wait a moment. I'll go to the back and ask Lao Xu if he knows how to cook these two dishes."

As the shopkeeper said this, he was about to walk to the kitchen at the back. Xiao Chen said, "I'll join the shopkeeper. If you can make these four dishes before tonight, I'll give you ten ingots of gold."

"Okay, sir, please don't worry. Lao Xu is an experienced cook here. He must have heard of these two dishes."

The shopkeeper was surprised and delighted, and enthusiastically led him to the kitchen. These ten ingots of gold were no joke, they were equivalent to the income of the entire restaurant for several years.

When we got to the kitchen at the back, we saw that the chef was an old man in his late sixties. I heard from the shopkeeper that when he was a child, Lao Xu worked as a cook in this restaurant. During the Chinese New Year, he never visited relatives and stayed in the store. I have lived alone for most of my life. I have never married or had children, and I rarely talk to others. It has been like this for almost thirty years.

"Old Xu, come here, come here!"

The shopkeeper was very excited and kept waving. Master Xu was cutting vegetables. He turned around. He was a little greasy. Looking at the clean young man in white in front of him, he subconsciously stepped back, for fear of getting oil stains on his clothes. .

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "This guest wants four dishes. Listen carefully. They are steamed sea bass and braised carp... These two are your specialties. It shouldn't be difficult, right?"

Master Xu nodded. No change could be seen in his cloudy eyes. He looked very silent and even a little clumsy.

The shopkeeper smiled again and said, "Then you should listen carefully to the next two items. They are 'Lin Yuan Xian Yu' and 'Shui Qing No Fish'..."

To be honest, even when the shopkeeper said the names of these two dishes, he felt a little ridiculous. How could there be such names in the world? I just hope that Lao Xu can be smarter and not just make two dishes at random.

Unexpectedly, after Master Xu listened, his cloudy eyes seemed to suddenly glow with light, and even his hands trembled involuntarily. When he looked at Xiao Chen again, his whole expression was different.

Seeing his hesitant look, the shopkeeper became very anxious and winked repeatedly, "Old Xu? I'm telling you, don't be stupid at this time. This guest officer gave me ten gold ingots, wouldn't you? Say something?”

"Yes... yes, I will... I will..."

Master Xu kept nodding and talking intermittently as if he was talking in a dream. Even his body couldn't help but tremble. The shopkeeper finally breathed a sigh of relief. Ten ingots of gold, that's ten ingots of gold! This time, I could wake him up even from his dreams.

"But……"

Just when the shopkeeper was looking beautiful, Master Xu raised his head again, glanced at Xiao Chen tremblingly, and whispered, "To make this 'Linyuan Envy Fish', no other fish can be used, it must be mandarin fish." Okay, and this mandarin fish can only be found in Taihu Lake in Suzhou. We only buy it from Suzhou after the late spring in March every year, but it is only the beginning of spring now..."

He became more and more confused as he talked, and the shopkeeper quickly interrupted, "Ah! I remembered that a few days ago I just had someone bring back dozens of kilograms of mandarin fish from Suzhou. It was in the pond in the backyard. I, I Go get it now..."

"Shopkeeper, please slow down..."

Master Xu stretched out his hand to stop him, shook his head and said, "This Linyuan fish must be a mandarin fish from Suzhou. Don't I know if there are mandarin fish in the backyard?"

After that, he looked at Xiao Chen again and continued, "Suzhou is about two thousand miles away from Qingzhou. It takes half a month to go there and back. If the young master can wait, I will send someone to Suzhou to get the fish and wait for half a month." Just come back in a few months."

The shopkeeper was stamping his feet anxiously, thinking to himself, Lao Xu, Lao Xu, it’s okay for you to be stunned on weekdays, how can you be so honest now? Without mandarin fish, there would be no mandarin fish. With your skills, wouldn’t you be able to make a delicious dish from other fish? This time it was better, I watched ten gold coins fly away.

"It doesn't matter, I will get the mandarin fish before evening."

Xiao Chen said slowly, the distance of two thousand miles may be very far for ordinary people, but for him, it is just a matter of one or two instants.

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment and looked at him blankly, "This... this, more than two thousand miles away, in the evening, sir... are you kidding..."

"I'll get it."

As Xiao Chen said this, he walked out. The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment. He wanted to say something, but he hesitated. Xiao Chen said, "Don't worry, as long as the four dishes are ready, ten ingots of gold, one ingot is a lot." "After that, he walked outside.

After leaving the restaurant, Xiao Chen immediately went outside the city. He had to hurry up and there was only the last day left. When it got dark, the old beggar left.

Thinking of this, he took out his flying sword and instantly turned into a sword light and headed towards the southern sky. He had never been to Suzhou in this mortal world, but with the map, it was not difficult to find it.

Around noon, he arrived at Suzhou City, where he saw a gentle drizzle in the sky, vast mist on the lake, young willows sprouting new leaves on the shore, and pedestrians hurrying on their way.

What a misty rain in Jiangnan.

Unexpectedly, there is something so poetic and picturesque in this mortal world. Xiao Chen walked in the rain, but he really couldn't figure out the old beggar's intention. He knew that there were no mandarin fish in Qingzhou, but he wanted to come to Suzhou by himself.

He suddenly thought that it was already spring, and when Weiyang woke up, he would take her to visit the city of Suzhou to get rid of the distracting thoughts in his mind and no longer think about the path between good and evil.

If there is an afterlife, I will no longer be a Taoist disciple, and you will no longer be a demon sect witch.

…

At noon, Xiao Chen came to Taihu Lake on the edge of the city. He saw drizzle falling on the lake, which was quite peaceful.

At this time, a fisherman's song suddenly sounded by the lake: "Egrets are flying in front of Xisai Mountain, peach blossoms are flowing in the water, mandarin fish are fat, green bamboo hats, green coir raincoats... There is no need to return in the slanting wind and drizzle."

The person singing the lyrics was a white-bearded man wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat, and he was leisurely fishing. There was a water jar beside him, with several mandarin fish swimming in it.

Xiao Chen walked over and asked with a smile, "Old sir, how do you sell this mandarin fish?"

“I’m not selling this mandarin fish.”

The white-bearded man smiled. After he finished speaking, he sang a fishing song again. Xiao Chen said with a smile, "In this season, the old gentleman is probably the only one fishing here in the entire Suzhou City. Sir, please give me a price."

"If I say I won't sell it, I won't sell it."

With a smile on his face, the white-bearded man was contentedly alone, without even looking at the people next to him. After saying this, he slowly put down the fishing rod in his hand, picked up the water jar next to him, and poured out all the fish in it. Back to the lake.

…

Mandarin fish "Egrets fly in front of Xisai Mountain, and mandarin fish are fat in peach blossoms and flowing water." - Zhang Zhihe, Tang Dynasty.