kingnovel Chapter 1084 Bedtime Story
Chapter 1084 Bedtime Story
The bright moon hangs high in the sky, and the chirping of night insects accompanied by the sound of rippling water create a unique lullaby.
Inside Shen Zheng's room, the lights were dim, and four people were lying sideways on the small bed.
Shen Zheng was squeezed in the middle, looking at the dancing lights, and spoke slowly: "The stone monkey drifted on the sea for months and finally saw the land. He paddled his raft to the shore. On the beach, there was a man who was about to perform a trick to make a living. The stone monkey's eyes lit up, and he ran over to him in his grass skirt and asked: "You are so skilled in martial arts, are you a god?"
Her voice was soft and gentle, and in the quiet night, it felt as warm as being wrapped in cotton.
Yu Nanshu closed her eyes and leaned against her, asking curiously, "Is this person a deity?"
"Definitely not." Cui Jinyin leaned over to the other side and muttered, "They're all gods, how could they possibly be performing tricks for money?"
Feng Qianzhi nodded, a hint of worry in her voice: "Will the Stone Monkey be deceived by him?"
Shen Zheng smiled and shook her head, saying softly, "He didn't lie to the stone monkey. Instead, he pointed the stone monkey in a direction, saying that the gods all lived on the mountain over there. The stone monkey craned his neck to look, and the onlookers realized that he was a real monkey, not a human in disguise."
"They must be scared to death." Yu Nanshu chuckled: "If monkeys could talk, I would be scared and run away too."
Cui Jinyin retracted her hand from outside the quilt and asked, "Teacher, what next? Will they beat the stone monkey?"
Shen Zheng paused.
The boat swayed, and the lights in the house swayed with it. She curled her lips and smiled: "To know what happened next, please wait for the next chapter. Okay, it's time for you to go to bed. Close your eyes."
"what--"
The little girls were very disappointed. They said a lot of nice things and pestered Shen Zheng to talk to them for a while longer.
Shen Zheng still shook her head, "Don't be greedy, go to sleep obediently, we'll talk tomorrow night."
Seeing that Shen Zheng didn't buy their tricks, they had no choice but to close their eyes obediently.
They couldn't help but wonder: would the stone monkey be beaten? Could they find the immortal? Would the immortal take him away as a monster?
A series of questions filled their heads. As they thought about it, their breathing gradually slowed down and disappeared into the warm night.
Shen Zheng quietly got up, tiptoed out of bed, and tucked the quilt in for them.
In the dim firelight, she took out the scroll sent by the Ministry of Works during the day, gently unfolded it, and a piece of thin paper with words written on it floated down.
After seeing the contents on the paper clearly, her eyebrows curved and she smiled silently.
After a moment, she put away the thin paper and looked at the scroll.
The painting shows the Huihe Dam after its completion, and her wearing a crimson official robe.
In the painting, people are coming and going on the dam, and several food stalls are lined up in a row, with a strong smell of fireworks. She is standing on the dam with her back to the wind, and the hairband behind her head is blown up and fluttering all the way to the far right side of the painting.
On the left side of the painting, a poem is inscribed in small characters: "Red robes stand by the water, and their contributions are among the people."
There is a long line of small characters in the blank postscript at the end of the scroll.
The Huihe Dam, now complete, irrigates thousands of acres of farmland, bringing significant benefits to the people. Fellow workers at the Ministry of Works, grateful for their hard work, created this map to commemorate their achievements and present it to Shen Zheng as a souvenir. May the dam endure, and may Lord Shen continue his ambitious plans in Tongan and live up to the people's expectations. Minister of Works Yue Zhenchuan, Vice Minister Zhou Henlin, and Water Resources Officer Zeng Tongshi jointly inscribed this inscription and presented it to Shen Zheng.
......
The next morning, on deck.
The morning sun is orange and the river breeze is cool.
It only took Mr. Qiao and Cheng Yu half an evening to make 108 small wooden blocks.
Everyone gathered on the deck, picked up the wood curiously, and looked at it left and right.
"These wooden blocks..." Liang Fu looked at them several times, wondering, "They're completely blank, with no calligraphy or painting on them. How can I play with them?"
Shen Zheng smiled, took out the tool box that she had prepared long ago, and said to Yu Shizhang, "I'll have to trouble you, uncle, to pick up my old trade again."
Yu Shizhang looked at the carving knife in the box and suddenly understood, "What to carve?"
Shen Zheng took out a piece of paper and wrote three words on it - Tiao, Wan, and Tong.
"There are thirty-six pieces of cards each, namely, the "Tai" card, the "Wan" card, and the "Chong" card. As she spoke, she drew patterns on the paper. "The "Wan" card is the simplest, with no pattern, just "10,000" to "90,000." The "Tai" card isn't complicated either. "One" is a chicken, two is a pole, and three is a mountain..."
Every time she said one, she drew a pattern on the paper.
Yu Shizhang's gaze remained fixed on him as he nodded, "I see. Where's the card?"
"The tube card is a pancake." Shen Zheng began to draw pancakes on the paper. "One tube is a big pancake, also called one pancake. Two tubes are two pancakes, also called two pancakes, and so on."
"No more?" Yu Shizhang asked.
He was a little confused. How could such a simple deck of cards be played?
"That's it, that's all." Shen Zheng said deliberately, "But be careful when carving the cards. Don't leave any marks on the back of the cards, so that people with good eyesight don't steal them and mark them."
Shen Zheng hinted at something, and Shen Xingjian coughed uncomfortably.
Although he never memorized cards deliberately, he could remember the scratches and paint colors on the backs of the cards with just one glance.
To be more specific...it's not his fault, right?
Yu Shizhang glanced at Shen Xingjian, picked up the carving knife box and said, "Give me two days, and Old Qiao and Yu will come and help me."
Shen Zheng nodded. "There's only tung oil on the boat, no lacquer. After carving, apply a thin layer of tung oil. When we get to Jingzhou, we'll buy some lacquer and color the cards."
As the sun rose higher, the morning mist faded into pale white like cotton wool blown away by the wind.
......
Two days later, early in the morning.
In just two days, the tower ship had left the Fujian ship several miles behind.
On the deck, Su Yan swung his arm and threw the white cloth wrapped with stones in his hand out.
The cloth strip drew an arc in the air, hung steadily on a tree on the shore, and fluttered in the wind.
Su Yan nodded with satisfaction, threw out two more, and finally clapped his hands and said to Shen Zheng: "Sir, the mark we made this morning has been left behind. The lucky ship will be able to see it when it passes by."
The three cloth strips, white, red and green, are the symbols of their agreement with the Fuchuan.
Three signals are thrown every morning, noon and evening to report safety to the Fu ship behind. If the signal is continuously interrupted or disappears, the Fu ship will dock at the nearest pier to inquire about the news of the tower ship.
Although this method cannot be foolproof, it still adds a layer of protection to the safety of the ship.
The boat moved forward slowly. Shen Zheng held a roster and called Su Yan who was about to go for training.
"Su Yan, go call Xiang He over. I have something to tell you."
After Su Yan brought Xiang He back, Shen Zheng asked them to sit down.
"Yesterday I looked at the roster of the county soldiers. Everyone has their own strengths and their own preferred weapons. So when I return to Tongan County this time, I will recruit craftsmen to start a furnace and forge new weapons for you."
"New, new weapon?" Su Yan thought of the steel sword he saw in the training ground that day.