books44 Chapter 18 Missed the Appointment? It's My Fault
Chapter 18 Missed the Appointment? It's My Fault
Ma Chun and Song Jinghua are from two different places.
Ma Chun lived in Hongcheng, and Song Jinghua lived in Tangcheng, thousands of miles apart.
The two people who had no connection with each other got to know each other because they both went to a place called Qiantang to play, so they traveled together.
Unexpectedly, the two of them shared the same ideals and hit it off right away, becoming close friends.
After playing for about a month, the two parted ways and agreed that during the Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival, Ma Chun would go to Song Jinghua's house, and the two would drink and chat until they were drunk.
The Lantern Festival arrived in a flash, and Song Jinghua arranged for the old servant to prepare wine and food early in the morning.
Song Jinghua started looking out the door early in the morning, hoping to see his friend.
But he waited from early morning to noon, then to evening, and then to midnight, but he still didn't see Ma Chun.
From the initial joy, to full of anticipation, to full of disappointment, to a little disappointment, "Could it be that Brother Ma forgot our agreement?"
The old servant saw that his young master had not eaten anything all day just to wait for someone, so he advised him: "Young master, why don't you eat less?"
"Uncle Cheng, I have no appetite, just leave it there for now."
The old servant tried to persuade him again. After all, he had watched him grow up with his own eyes: "Young Master, please eat something. Otherwise, your body will not be able to bear it."
Seeing that the young master still didn't respond, the old servant muttered, "Could it be that something has tripped up Young Master Ma? Or has he forgotten his promise to you, young master?"
Song Jinghua's eyes lit up. "Yes! He must have been delayed by something. I know him, he would never break an appointment without a reason. He values his promises more than his life."
Song Jinghua was right.
Ma Chun started walking towards Tangcheng from his hometown a month ago. There was no one else in his family, so he was alone and it would be the same if he didn't spend the New Year at home.
Halfway through the journey, we encountered a city-wide search for thieves and martial law was imposed for two days.
After coming out, he hurried on his way and encountered another group of bandits. Seeing that he was alone, they wanted to drag him up the mountain to join their group. He refused and was beaten half to death. It took him another half a month to recuperate before he was able to ride a horse.
As the time to reach Tang City drew closer, he became increasingly exhausted.
On the day of the Lantern Festival, he was still riding at full speed. The horse was so tired that it was vomiting blood, and he himself was so exhausted that his whole body was falling apart, but he still had to move forward.
Passersby couldn't bear to watch and advised him, "Sir, why don't you take a break? Not only you, but your horse can't bear it anymore.
Besides, if you have something urgent to do and you're worried about missing the deadline, you can send a carrier pigeon and explain the situation. I believe the other party is not unreasonable and will understand you."
Ma Chun was vexed. "Why didn't I think of sending a letter by carrier pigeon earlier? Now the agreed time has come and I can't make it in person, so even if I send a letter, it won't arrive. What should I do?"
Night fell in the blink of an eye, and Ma Chun became even more anxious. "I've heard ghosts can travel a thousand miles in a single day. Why not become a ghost and try?"
Just do it, without any hesitation.
Duoduo sighed: [The ancients really valued promises.]
[That's right. Isn't there an idiom that says a promise is worth a thousand gold?]
Then he really turned into a ghost and rushed to Ma Jinghua's house at three quarters past midnight.
Standing at the gate, a relaxed smile on his face.
The old servant saw it and quickly called out: "Master Ma?!"
When Song Jinghua heard the sound, he ran out quickly, hugged Ma Chun and laughed: "I knew that Brother Ma would never say anything wrong!"
Ma Chun also laughed: "I'm late."
"It's not too late. It's not even four o'clock yet. We can still have a drink. Come on! Uncle Cheng, prepare the wine!"
The two of them drank so much that they fell asleep on the table.
The next morning, Song Jinghua was half asleep when he heard a voice: "Brother Song, after seeing you yesterday, I have no regrets in my life. After all, humans and ghosts go their separate ways, and I am leaving. Take care of yourself."
When he opened his eyes, he found that he was the only one in the room. Ma Chun was nowhere to be seen. Thinking of what he had just heard, and thinking of his cold body when he first saw him yesterday, and the strange encounter they had mentioned during the meal, Song Jinghua fell silent.
It turns out to be true. There are people who are willing to turn themselves into ghosts in order to keep their promises.
"So you mean you want to save Ma Chun?" Sheng Jiang asked Song Jinghua.
"Yes. It's hard to find a true friend in life, one is enough. After he died, I never got drunk with anyone again."
"I understand. A thousand cups of wine are not enough when you are with a good friend, but a single word is too much when you are not on speaking terms with one another."
"Ginger, ginger, hurry up, today is the Lantern Festival, Ma Chun can't hold on any longer!" Duoduo urged.
Ginger teleported and instantly caught Ma Chun who was about to fall off the horse.
"Brother, your horse is about to die. Aren't you sad?" asked Jiang.
"Brother Song? Why are you here?" Ma Chun calmed down and actually saw Sheng Jiang.
"I calculated that you won't be able to reach Tang City today, so I came to pick you up in advance." Sheng Jiang said nonsense seriously.
Ma Chun smiled: "Although I don't know who you are, I think the fact that you can use Brother Song's body to meet me means that you must be related to him."
"Merger and acquisition, correct. If you can't reach Tang City today, are you planning to turn into a ghost and float there? After all, ghosts don't have a physical body to encumber them, so they can travel thousands of miles a day."
"That is indeed the plan."
"What a pity! You became a ghost because you couldn't keep your appointment on time; but he never got drunk again in his life because he had no confidant."
Ma Chun was silent.
"Actually, if you can't make it on time, you could send him a message in advance, like a carrier pigeon? Let him know the reason and apologize sincerely. He might understand, and it might even test your friendship. Isn't that right?"
Ginger said, "I have a magical bird that can travel a thousand miles a day. If you give your letter to the magical bird, it may not be able to ensure that it arrives on time, but it can ensure that the message is delivered on time."
Ma Chun's eyes lit up, "Really?"
"Of course it's true." Sheng Jiang took out a bird and said, "Look, just write down what you want to say on a piece of paper and tell it where to send it. It will arrive in one day at the fastest and two days at the slowest. If the distance is close, it will arrive in half a day."
"How could there be such a strange bird in the world?" Ma Chun wrote a letter on the spot, sealed it, and told the spirit bird that he would send it to Hongcheng.
Two days later, I actually received a reply.
Ma Chun was very excited.
Sheng Jiang said, "We can do business with spirit birds. If someone as honest as you couldn't keep their promise due to an accident and then committed suicide, wouldn't that be a shame? If there were a spirit bird that could help them deliver messages and fulfill their wishes, wouldn't that be wonderful?"
Ma Chun was overjoyed and immediately decided to open a small shop in Xincheng where he lived and start a mail delivery business, focusing on speed and efficiency.
At first, he was an honest businessman.
Later, the customer base included wanderers who missed home, scholars who were studying abroad... and more and more people.
It even alarmed the imperial palace. The emperor believed that sending confidential letters by such a spiritual bird would be much faster than by the post station.
That’s great, and it saves the horse from being exhausted to death.
This was calculated.
Sheng Jiang took out a spirit bird of another color to distinguish them.
As for spiritual birds, she had plenty of them. Furthermore, this type of bird wasn't very intelligent initially.
I originally didn't plan to keep Ginger, but since this thing is stupid but really beautiful, I kept it.
After staying in her space for a long time, I gained some knowledge, but not too much, and could barely understand some of what people said.
In this era, society still has some spiritual energy, which is enough for spiritual birds to reproduce and thrive.
The emperor was delighted and appointed Ma Chun and Song Jinghua as imperial merchants, specifically responsible for providing spiritual birds to the royal family.
"Ginger, how did your society suddenly become so great? And even brought out the spirit bird?" Duoduo asked curiously.
"Perhaps in modern society, we see too many dishonest and deceitful people. I always feel that trustworthy people like Ma Chun are rare. I feel touched and hope to protect a few of them." Sheng Jiang sighed.
In fact: there is no room left in the space for the spirit bird to live!!!
These things are pretty, but they can actually reproduce. They have no natural enemies in space, so they fight among themselves, resulting in large numbers of casualties every day. It's better to let them out and find something to do!!! It'll also give me some peace and quiet.
Even though so much has been taken out, there is still a lot of space left, and it still chirps every day.
So annoying! ! !
Spirit Bird: You old idiot, you're so high and mighty, yet you treat us like workers. If you hadn't taken the entire secret realm away, would we be homeless and have to live in your space?
Sheng Jiang: [Duoduo, quickly call Song Jinghua back, let's retreat!]