At midnight, on the main street of the provincial capital.
After two days of running around in the open air, the master and his apprentice finally arrived in the city and were ready to find a place to satisfy their hunger!
The two walked towards the commercial street.
The provincial capitals of the Republic of China were dilapidated and incomparable to those in later times, but the streets were still very lively.
At a glance, the main streets are bustling with traffic, including bicycles, rickshaws, and light rail trams.
People are coming and going on both sides of the street.
There were rickshaw drivers, men and women in fashionable Zhongshan suits, students in Republican-era school uniforms, foreigners in suits, and local tycoons in robes.
In an open space not far away, some wanderers were performing to make a living.
An old man in his sixties, with a skinny body, was dancing with a pair of wooden hammers in his hands.
There was also a half-grown child with a dusty face on the side, holding a broken gong in his hand, beating it and shouting with all his might.
At a glance, you can see all kinds of people and the atmosphere of daily life.
The times seem to converge at this moment, interweaving a completely different atmosphere.
"Extra, Extra! Students from many universities in Kyoto are boycotting classes, and workers are on strike to protest the ongoing civil war in the Beiyang government."
"Extra, Extra, the King of the Northeast has swept across the region, and has control over the three provinces."
This is the newsboy calling.
Newsboy, a profession that is very contemporary.
Most of them were poor children who barely made a living by selling newspapers. Sanmao in "Sanmao Wanderings" did this.
Having stayed in Longhu Mountain for many years and had no access to information, Zhang Zhiwei was planning to buy a newspaper to learn about the current situation.
Suddenly, there was a commotion ahead.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an old man wearing a melon-shaped hat who was caught by the patrol.
"Gentlemen, is there anything I can help you with?" the old man said with a nod and a bow.
The patrol surrounded the old man and said, "Take off your hat and let me see it. I can smell the sour odor from your hat from a long distance away."
Upon hearing this, the old man knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, begging the patrol to let him go.
"Gentlemen, please spare my life, please spare my life, please just treat me like a fart!"
"Why are you kneeling? The Qing Dynasty has fallen. You are not allowed to kneel. If you stand up, we don't want your life. We just want you to cut off your braid!"
As the patrolman spoke, he pulled the melon-shaped hat off the old man's head.
The braids were exposed under the hat.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China officials prohibited people from having wild boar skin hairstyles, and all braids were cut off, on the grounds that the hair on their bodies was given by their parents.
This order was initially met with strong resistance across the country.
The previous dynasty's nearly three hundred years of rule had made the long braid a deep-rooted necessity in the minds of many people.
When the order to forcibly cut off the queues was issued, people could be seen crying and kowtowing on the streets begging to keep their queues.
Now, the shaving order has been implemented for some time, and except for some people who are very servile, many people have adapted to the new hairstyle.
The old man in front of me is very slave-like.
He knelt on the ground, kowtowed one after another, and slapped himself in the face while kowtowing, looking extremely skilled.
I think he kowtowed and slapped himself a lot in the early years.
Having seen this kind of person many times, the patrolmen were unmoved. They grabbed the old man's braid and, starting from the roots, cut it with a pair of scissors.
A dirty long braid that had been kept for decades and washed only once every six months fell to the ground.
The old man touched his head in despair, confirming that his braid was gone forever. His body softened and he fell to the ground.
“Oh my God!”
He wailed, holding the long, smelly braid in his hand, pressing it against his face, tears streaming down his face.
"Pah, what kind of character is that?"
The patrol cursed and pushed everyone away: "Let's go, everyone disperse, there's nothing to see!"
After the patrol left, the remaining crowd watched for a while, touched their thick hair, and then walked away.
Only the old man was left, still holding his braid and wailing, looking as sad as if his son had died.
Zhang Jingqing seemed to be used to this. He didn't look at it much or comment. He just walked ahead with his hands behind his back.
Zhang Zhiwei followed closely behind, he could not empathize with this kind of thing.
Whether in terms of aesthetics, practicality, or other aspects, there is nothing good about the boar skin hairstyle.
After this interruption, the newsboy walked away. Zhang Zhiwei was too lazy to look for him as eating was more important.
They happened to see a restaurant on the side of the road. The decoration looked quite luxurious, so the master and disciple walked in.
"Excuse me, how many people are there?" asked the waiter at the restaurant.
Zhang Zhiwei placed a few silver dollars on the counter and said, "Give me whatever you want to eat."
Having just wiped out a group of bandits and earned dozens of dollars, Zhang Zhiwei is now not short of money and is very generous.
Zhang Jingqing did not say much about this. The Taoist priests of Zhengyi Sect did not have as many rules as those of Quanzhen Sect.
"Master Dao, please wait, the delicious food will be served soon!"
The waiter swept the money into the tray, poured tea attentively, and then went to the kitchen to shout, asking for all the signature dishes to be served.
Don’t be fooled by TV dramas where people always give out huge amounts of money as rewards.
But in fact, these days, the purchasing power of the ocean is not low.
One dollar is equal to two medium dollars (silver dollars with a face value of 50 cents), ten small dollars (silver dollars with a face value of 10 cents), or one hundred copper dollars (copper coins with a face value of 1 cent).
Like the waiter mentioned earlier, his monthly salary is probably only two dollars, and the chef in the kitchen probably makes around five dollars.
The current prices are as follows: rice is three cents per pound, millet is one cent, beef is 15 cents, mutton is 13 cents, pork is 11 cents, sugar is 10 cents, cotton cloth is about 12 cents per foot, and vegetables vary in price.
Two dollars is equivalent to 66 kilograms of rice.
If converted into millet, it would be 200 kilograms, enough for food and drink for the whole family.
The dozens of dollars in Zhang Zhiwei's hand were nothing in the eyes of those dignitaries.
But for an ordinary poor family, it is a huge sum of money, and the whole family will not have to worry about food and clothing for several years.
Stroking the big head pattern on the ocean, Zhang Zhiwei thought to himself, it really proves the old saying, killing people and setting fires will earn you a golden belt, while building roads and bridges will leave no corpses.
Soon, various meat dishes were served.
Both the master and the disciple were cultivators and could eat a lot. Before long, most of the delicious food and wine on the table had been eaten up.
There was a thick pile of dishes next to Zhang Zhiwei.
The dishes next to Zhang Jingqing were piled higher than his.
It's like the scene in "The Young Master" where two apprentices and their master eat boiled chicken.
Well... I just need an apprentice.
After eating and drinking their fill, Zhang Jingqing and Zhang Zhiwei stayed in the restaurant for one night. Early the next morning, they set off for the train station.
The Taoist priest is naturally not a pedantic person. If he can take a train, he certainly won’t ride a horse.
Zhang Zhiwei wholeheartedly agreed with this.
Speaking of which, he had never ridden on this coal-fueled steam locomotive, so he couldn't help but feel curious and wanted to see it for himself.
