"Folk Tales" "Dead Man" pawn

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the largest pawnshop in Tianjin Weili was called Renxing Pawnshop, and the treasurer's surname was Liu.

　　

　　This evening, a customer came to the door of the pawnshop and wandered for a long time before he walked in and asked for a pawn. Although this person was wearing sunglasses, Liu Zhangcheng still recognized it at once: obedient, it was actually a horseman!

　　Why would Treasurer Liu be so surprised? It turned out that just last month, the Ma family announced to the outside world that the owner of the family, the horseman, had died of a violent illness and a big funeral, so was there a strange thing in this world that had come back from the dead?

　　When the horseman saw the situation, he simply took off his sunglasses and laughed bitterly twice before he said the original reason: A few days ago, he got the news that Li Long, the head of the mountain thief outside the city, was coming to the city to seek revenge. Ma Yuanwai had married Li Long in the early years, and he couldn't help but get scared. He heard that Li Long was clearly distinguished by his grievances and would not trouble others, so he came up with a method of cheating death, lying in a special coffin, hiding in the cemetery, and secretly delivering food and serving by his family.

　　Li Long arrived as scheduled, but he really did not embarrass others, but just abducted Ma Xin, the young master of the Ma family. He also said that if the Ma family could collect fifty thousand taels of silver to redeem people within ten days, to ensure that Ma Xin was unscathed, otherwise he would wait to collect the body of his young master. The Ma family could not come up with so much cash for a while, and only had more than 30,000 silver tickets to come together. When the horseman heard the family's words, the coffin board could not be suppressed at once, fortunately, there were several valuable treasures that accompanied him to "bury", which was originally a back road in case of staying, which just came in handy.

　　After speaking, the horseman took out a satin package from his arms and opened it carefully, and Liu Immediately narrowed his eyes. It was a jade statue of Guan Yin, more than a foot long, carved from a whole piece of fine Wada jade, obviously from the hands of a famous artist, and was extremely valuable.

　　The horseman said, "Can you see that this object can be twenty thousand taels?" Liu Treasurer nodded continuously, and Ma Li'er wrote down the pawn ticket, indicating that it was redeemed within a month, and then took out the silver ticket and handed it to the horseman. The horseman thanked him and hurried away.

　　After a little half a month, Ma Xin, the young master of the Ma family, personally came to redeem Dang. Treasurer Liu smiled and reminded him to guard against the return of the mountain thieves. Ma Xin said that he had discussed with his father and took advantage of the retreat of the mountain thief to move the family out of Tianjin.

　　After the greeting, Ma Xin was about to take the pawn ticket, but The Treasurer Liu suddenly changed his face: "Young Master Ma, the family has moved far away, and if you bring one more piece on the road, you will be more burdensome." Not to mention that your grandfather is a person who has died once, and if some people know that he is still alive, they will have to add a lot of trouble. In my opinion, it is better to leave the things behind, and I will send you a thousand taels of silver as a road fare, how? After saying that, he took out a silver ticket and handed it to Ma Xin.

　　Ma Xin's face was flushed with anger, and he pushed aside the silver ticket, pointed at the nose of The Treasurer Liu and scolded: "Surnamed Liu, you dare to take advantage of the fire to rob, but I am afraid that this thing is easy for you to eat, but it is difficult to spit it out!" ”

　　Early the next morning, several officials rushed into the pawnshop, and the leader of the group held a fist: "Liu Treasurer, I'm sorry, someone handed over the form in the county court, please take a trip." ”

　　Treasurer Liu strolled into the county hall, saw that Ma Xin was already kneeling to the side, so he prostrated his head to the county order and asked: "Qingtian Grand Master, Xiaomin has always obeyed the law and obeyed the law, do you have any words to ask me?" ”

　　The county order threw the pawn ticket at the feet of Liu Zhangcheng and drank: "Bold diaomin, this paper is written clearly, it is not yet a month's time, people take money to redeem it, why don't you give it to others?" ”

　　"You're listening to the Ma family's one-sided words." The Treasurer Liu was not in a hurry, turned his head and asked Ma Xin, "Look at the signatory on this pawn ticket, is it your grandfather?" Ma Xin nodded in acknowledgement.

　　Liu Zhangcheng smiled: "But your old man obviously passed away last month, and I went to see the hilarity on the day of the funeral." The date of opening this pawn ticket is the seventh day of the first month of this month, is he still a soul after death? ”

　　Ma Xin was red in the face and unable to speak. Seeing this, the county order instructed his men to go to the Ma family to investigate, and it was not long before they received a report: several neighbors testified that the horseman had passed away last month. The county commander was so angry that he slapped Tang Mu and scolded Ma Xin: "Your father is already dead, can the dead still go pawn?" Come on people, beat this stalker out of the way! ”

　　Ma Xin hugged his head and fled, and Liu Shougang stared at his wretched back and sneered secretly: Yellow haired boy, you are still tender when you fight with your grandfather!

　　After some days, bandits suddenly broke out in the city, and the shops on the street said that the mountain thieves outside the city had mixed into the city. On this day, the Renxing pawnshop was about to close, and only one customer was still pawning a few worthless pieces of jewelry. At this moment, several strong men broke into the door, and Liu Saw that these people were not good stubble, and asked with a smile: "Several masters, I don't know if I want to pawn or redeem?" ”

　　The leader of the Hanzi had a fierce face, and when he heard this, he sneered, and the people around him immediately scolded: "What is blind to the dog's eyes, what we li ye has is silver, where can I use it as an object?" ”

　　The man known as "Li Ye" said: "The treasurer, the grandfather does not come to be a pawn nor to redeem, but wants to take care of you for a bigger deal." We have inquired about it, but you received a good treasure some time ago..." He stared at the Liu treasurer tightly, and as he spoke, he drew a dangling dagger from his waist and played with it in his hand.

　　Liu Zhangshi broke out in a cold sweat and had to take out the jade statue of Guanyin who was sent to the horseman. Li Ye suddenly stepped forward and grabbed him and said, "Where did this object come from?" Say quickly, what is your relationship with that surnamed Ma? ”

　　Treasurer Liu said busily: "This is the pawn that the horseman got here, and later it became a dead pawn, and I don't know anything else." ”

　　Li Ye sneered twice and said, "Tell you the truth, Lao Tzu is Li Long, the head of the mountain thief wanted by the government, do you know why Lao Tzu gritted his teeth when he mentioned the surname Ma?" In fact, in the early years of the surname Ma, he was a great thief of Jiangyang, and my Li family was a family of scholars, because he looked at the ancestral Guanyin jade statue of my family, and went to my house to kill people and goods, so he forced Lao Tzu to go to the road of thieves. Today is the day when God has eyes, let this jade statue return to its original owner. ”

　　The customer who had entered the door earlier had been very calmly in front of the visitor, but at this time he could not stay any longer, and quietly left, Li Long's men did not pay attention to him, and no one stopped him.

　　This Li Long snatched the jade statue and was about to leave, Liu Treasurer gave up his life, pulled his pants leg and shouted: "Such a treasure, just by your words, you want to take it away, is there any Wang Fa?" ”

　　Li Long kicked him over: "Today I will let you understand, or you will become a bully of Lao Tzu, but a bad reputation!" He ordered his men to bring a basin of water, and then put the jade statue of Guanyin into the water, and the words "Long Heir" were reflected on the surface of the water. Treasurer Liu did not expect that the jade statue had such a wonderful place, and he was stunned for a while.

　　Li Long said triumphantly: "These four words are engraved in the crook of Guanyin's arm, and they can hardly be seen in ordinary times, and can only be refracted by water." How, didn't the surname Ma tell you? He added, "If you want to talk about the Royal Law, a few of us will accompany you to the official palace for a while." However, the surname Ma is a great thief of Jiangyang, and if you sell the stolen goods for him, you are the same party, and in the end no one is innocent. How, do you want to go? Seeing that Liu Wasac slumped on the ground without squeaking, he sneered twice and led his men to seize the door.

　　Who knows, Li Long and his gang did not go far, they were surrounded by a group of masked people holding short knives, the leader of the people was not masked, it was the customer just now. He walked up to Li Long and said, "Li Da is in charge, I heard that the government has issued a very high bonus reward for you, do you think I should take you to see the official?" ”

　　Li Long completely lost the prestige he had just had, and said with a smile: "Don't misunderstand, my thief's head is fake, just to play a play for the Liu treasurer, but this object is really outside my family's old horseman, you see..."

　　The customer smiled and said, "Of course I know you are a fake thief, because Lao Tzu is the real Li Long." However, the surname Liu is indeed not a thing, although you have taken the name of Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu is not angry. ”

　　Fake Li Long was slightly relieved, rolled his eyes and said, "My grandfather once said that he was sorry for Li Ye, so he was also willing to pay you this treasure, hoping that you have a large number of adults and let us ma family go." ”

　　He was about to offer his son Guanyin with both hands, but Zhen Lilong waved his hand: "I and the surname Ma are a bit festive, but it is not as bitter as you made up a big vendetta." Lao Tzu has already taken revenge, this object has nothing to do with Lao Tzu, or return the object to its original owner. After saying this, he beckoned his men to leave.

　　This seems to be the end of it, but there is no impermeable wall in the world, and the news somehow spread out, and the business of Renxing pawnshop plummeted. It didn't take long for Treasurer Liu to give the pawnshop to someone else and sneak back to his hometown.