The eunuch quickly knelt down and said yes. After standing up, he continued: "Your Majesty, there is one more thing that you may not expect, and that is the age of this calligraphy master. ○"
"What's the matter with his age? To be able to reach this level as a master of calligraphy, I think he must be in his seventies or eighties. By the way, do you know his name? Since he is such a master of calligraphy, he should be very famous. Ah." Emperor Wanli asked with confusion.
The eunuch smiled and shook his head, and made a compilation to Emperor Wanli, "Your Majesty, I can't believe it. Those adults said that this calligraphy master is only in his twenties and has just arrived in the capital recently. His name is Chen Yi. "
"What, more than 20 years old, it is impossible, absolutely impossible. It is impossible for the calligraphy written by such a young person to be praised by Wu Bin and these ministers, let alone called a calligraphy master. Chen Yi I've never heard of it before." After hearing the eunuch's words, Emperor Wanli was shocked, and then shook his head vigorously.
The eunuch hurriedly knelt on the ground, "Your Majesty, I don't dare to lie to you. I only listened to what the adults said."
"Get up, I don't blame you, I just think it's impossible. In this case, let's pass on the decree and announce that Chen Yi will enter the palace. Well, wait a minute. You said that Chen Yi will hold a calligraphy gathering in a few days, then Will any ministers attend?" Seeing the eunuch's actions, Emperor Wanli waved his hand and asked him to stand up. Just when he was about to give the order for Chen Yi to enter the palace, he suddenly thought of something and asked the eunuch.
The eunuch thought for a while and shook his head, "I heard from those adults. They will let their own young masters attend. They should not be able to save their face."
Hear this. Emperor Wanli's eyes lit up and said, "Well, little Lizi, please prepare yourself. In a few days, you will come out of the palace with me to attend this calligraphy gathering. I want to see it with my own eyes. How can a man who is only in his twenties do this?" To write such amazing calligraphy.”
"My Majesty, not everyone can participate in this calligraphy party. You need to have at least five thousand taels of gold certificate to be eligible to be selected." The eunuch explained the rules he heard. come out.
Emperor Wanli waved his hand, "I'll leave everything to you. I haven't left the palace for a long time. You go and do it quickly, that's right. There is no need to announce Wu Bin's entry into the palace."
While Emperor Wanli was talking to the eunuch, Chen Yi was discussing jade carving with Lu Zigang in Lu Zigang's jade carving workshop.
Although they were communicating with each other, Lu Zigang never revealed the secret of the Kunwu Sword. He only conducted research on these jade-cutting tools with Chen Yi.
Chen Yi naturally did not mention Kunwu Dao. Compared with patience, he is far better than anyone else.
Even without Kunwu Dao, he benefited a lot from some exchanges with Lu Zigang. After all, Lu Zigang is a master of jade carving. Even if some of the credit belongs to Kunwu Dao, Lu Zigang's own jade carving skills are also very good. Extraordinary.
In the process of constantly identifying Lu Zigang, Chen Yi also learned about the origin of the Kunwu knife in Lu Zigang's hand. It was indeed unexpected that he got this important information, which gave him a little more confidence in achieving the plan.
That evening, when leaving Yusi, Chen Yi suddenly noticed that there were some people following him. After checking them, he couldn't help but smile, and walked to a nearby alley.
After arriving at the alley, the people following him immediately knelt down towards Chen Yi, "Hero, it's us, let us go. It's been five days. We've been living in dire straits these days. I’m really too embarrassed to see anyone.” These people took off the cloth from their faces as they spoke.
After a few days, the black marks on these people’s faces still haven’t faded away, and they look exactly the same as they did a few days ago.
They originally thought that even if Chen Yi didn't give them the antidote, maybe it would be gone after a few days of washing. However, these days have passed and the blackness on their faces has not been washed away at all. No matter how much they rub it, they can't wait to remove the skin. After rubbing them all off, the black color was still there, which tortured them almost to the point of becoming mentally ill.
Every day when they go out, their faces must be covered with cloth. As for stealing passengers’ belongings, they have no energy. They feel that in a few days, they will definitely go crazy.
This morning, they were waiting for Chen Yi here early in the morning, but Chen Yi got off the carriage and ran straight to the jade shop. They did not dare to chase him, so they had to wait here until now.
"Oh, is it already the fifth day? Time flies a bit." Chen Yi said with a smile.
"Hero, it's definitely the fifth day. We don't dare to lie to you." As they spoke, these people kowtowed to Chen Yi a few more times.
Looking at these people, Chen Yi waved his hand, "Everyone, get up."??Tell me what you did these days and how you felt. "
The leader, a strong man with a face as black as coal, bowed his hands to Chen Yi, "My hero, we have been staying at home these days and have not done anything harmful to the world. As for our feelings, we feel that we have some Thoughts of death."
"Oh, if you want to die, then just die and save me the antidote." Hearing the strong man's words, Chen Yi couldn't help but smile, waved his hand and said, "If you want to die, that's all."
"Heroes, we have changed our ways and will never do those sneaky things again. Please let us go." Hearing Chen Yi's words, these strong men knelt down to Chen Yi again, in addition to begging After that, they really had no other choice and couldn't beat Chen Yi again and again.
Chen Yi was not interested in staying with these people for a long time, so he immediately asked: "You have really changed your past."
"I will definitely change my ways and won't do those things again." These strong men said seriously.
Chen Yi nodded, waved his hand and said, "Go get a basin of water."
Hearing Chen Yi’s words, the strong man in the lead quickly asked two people to fetch water. Soon, a basin of clean water was brought over.
Chen Yi took out a packet of powder from the storage space, poured it into the water, let them mix it for a few times, and then said: "Okay, just use this basin of water to wash your face." Then, he Heading towards the alley entrance.
Seeing that Chen Yi was about to leave, these strong men didn't even bother to wash their faces, and knelt down again, "My hero, take a step slowly."
"What do you want to do?" Chen Yi couldn't help turning around and asked.
"Heroes, we want to follow you, please accept us." These strong men kowtowed heavily to Chen Yi. They felt that Chen Yi was a strange person, and if they followed him, they would definitely be able to achieve great success.
Looking at these people, Chen Yi said with some boredom: "I'll accept you, I don't have enough free time to support you."
"My hero, we all have some martial arts skills. We just want to follow you and give you food to eat." These strong men said quickly.
Chen Yi looked at the identification information of these people again. They did have some martial arts, and some of them were not bad in character, but just went astray. After thinking about it, he nodded, "Go to Xinglong Pawnshop tomorrow morning and find Xu." Shopkeeper, just tell me I asked you to go and tell me my name, Chen Yi."
Xinglong Pawnshop is indeed short of some manpower. He asked shopkeeper Xu to recruit some strong men, and he did recruit some. However, apart from being strong, these guys don't know any skills at all. Just like the second strong men, they all rely on strength.
Xinglong Pawnshop is not big now, but Chen Yi’s goal is not just to let shopkeeper Xu guard a pawnshop. After this calligraphy gathering, the time has come for them to formally establish an auction house.
Hearing Chen Yi's words, these strong men kowtowed several times, "Thank you, hero, thank you hero."
Early the next morning, there were still six days left before the calligraphy gathering. Chen Yi still got up early at home and went to Li Wensheng's home. Erzhuang was still living in Li Wensheng's home. On the one hand, he was protecting Li Wensheng, and on the other hand, he was Do some work at Li Wensheng's house.
When they arrived at Li Wensheng's home, Chen Yi found that the fat middle-aged loan shark had arrived. A group of his men were staying outside the yard, but the fat middle-aged man was inside the yard, talking to Li Wensheng. The two men next to him were talking. He was looking at him eagerly, as if he was about to activate the bulldozer function if he disagreed.
"Oh, Fatty, why are you here again? Why are you having such a big fight? Isn't the money returned to you?" Chen Yi walked slowly to the yard and looked at Fatty and said.
When the middle-aged fat man saw Chen Yi, his face suddenly lit up with joy, "Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen, you are finally here. I have been waiting for you for a long time. I am not here to cause trouble, but to give you money."
"Brother Chen, he did say that he was here to give money, but I don't believe it." At this time, Li Wensheng said with a strange expression, it is really like what Chen Yi said, this guy is here to give money.
Chen Yi smiled, "Oh, I'm here to give you money. Do you believe what I said before?"
"I believe it, I believe it, Master Chen. If you had already said that you had such extraordinary abilities, I wouldn't dare ask for half a penny."
The middle-aged fat man said with a wry smile. In the past few days, the news he had heard the most was that a calligraphy master named Chen Yi wrote a piece of calligraphy that shocked the wealthy families in the capital, including many young masters. , all went to sign up for the next calligraphy party.
This was only part of what he heard. As for the confrontation with Mr. Liu, Mr. Wu was polite to them, and there were countless rumors.
He couldn’t believe it was this person he met at Li Wensheng’s house before, but heIt was he who secretly went to Xinglong Pawn Shop to have a look and found out that it was really Chen Yi. That made him give up and come over obediently with the money.
"Hey, I told you earlier. If I had told you earlier, would you believe it?" Chen Yi said lightly.
The middle-aged fat man smiled bitterly again. This time, he was in trouble, but fortunately he had made an agreement with Chen Yi before. Otherwise, with Chen Yi's friendship with those young men from aristocratic families, he would probably die without knowing how. (To be continued)