"Beep—"
A familiar sound rang in their ears. Gu Qingqing took out her phone and glanced at it: 3:00:01.
"Three hours have already passed?!" Wu You was very surprised. "Why didn't I hear the second time signal?"
"I heard it. We were still under that silver tree then." Gu Qingqing remembered clearly that Wu You was studying the trumpet sound played by the silver angel under the tree. "We only have 10 hours left. We have to hurry!"
"We currently have a silver leaf and a small handful of gold dust." Wu You began to calculate all the "disposable assets" the two of them currently possessed. "Although this leaf is silver, it fell from the silver tree in the palace of the Mongol Khan. It should be worth some money."
The two of them had now entered the bustling market. Shops lined the roadside, and there were also some stalls set up in front of the shops, selling food and daily necessities. The sounds of asking prices and bargaining rose and fell, truly a scene of ancient mortal life.
Gu Qingqing's gaze swept across the market. "I see they're all running small businesses; it's unlikely they'd need silver ingots."
Wu You also noticed that most people were paying with copper coins; the total amount of money these vendors carried probably wasn't even enough for a single silver ingot.
"If only we could find a bank or something like that, we could exchange our money for silver ingots," Gu Qingqing said.
"Banks, in ancient times they were called money shops or silver houses, right?" Wu You suddenly felt a flash of inspiration, managing to come up with so many ancient terms.
"The term 'money shop' or 'silver house' originated in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but China already had currency exchange institutions as early as the Song dynasty," Gu Qingqing said, looking around as she walked. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure what these institutions were called in the Yuan dynasty, or where they were located."
"Look, there's a shop over there!" Wu You, with her sharp eyes, quickly spotted a shop in the distance. In the steam rising from the nearby wonton stall, she could vaguely see two diamond-shaped signs hanging on the side of the shop, bearing the words "Silver Shop."
Gu Qingqing recognized the words and quickened her pace.
"This silver shop is a bank, right?!" Wu You exclaimed excitedly.
"Maybe not a bank, but it definitely deals with silver," Gu Qingqing said with certainty.
There were no customers in front of the silver shop, so the two strolled inside.
The shop was dimly lit, and a young silversmith was carving a piece of silver jewelry by the sunlight streaming through the window.
The so-called silver shop was actually a jewelry store.
"Are you two ladies here to have jewelry made?" There were no shop assistants, so the silversmith was the one who greeted them.
Wu You spoke first: "Master, do you make ingots here?"
"We make jewelry and silverware here. What do you want?" The silversmith looked puzzled, thinking he had misheard. "Ingots?"
Yes, ingots were the currency of this dynasty.
Was this equivalent to walking into a jewelry store in the Republic of China era and having them make a few gold bars?
"To be honest, I've never made ingots before," the silversmith admitted frankly.
"Then can you tell us where we can buy or exchange ingots?" Gu Qingqing asked.
The young silversmith stopped his work, thought for a moment, and said, "Are you in a hurry? Can you give us two days?"
"Yes!" the two replied in unison.
Two days? There were only ten hours left!
"If you have any silver ingots on hand, we can exchange them," Wu You said, mustering her courage.
The silversmith said, "My father is a craftsman who specializes in 'cooking'."
Wu You was stunned: "What...what did you say? Cooking?"
"That's right, making molds." Seeing that he couldn't express himself clearly, the silversmith also became a little anxious, so he simply rummaged through a wooden box at his feet and quickly took out a rusty object, like a heavy ladle, but with a shape that was wide at both ends and concave in the middle, like a fat ladle with a graceful waist.
Gu Qingqing and Wu You both froze, not making a sound for a long time.
Because they both clearly saw that this "ladle" emitted a light, a dazzling, multicolored light, just like the scene when they first discovered the gold hourglass.
This was exactly what they were looking for.
It was strange; they had expected silver ingots, but it turned out to be something so odd.
"This is a silver ingot mold," the young silversmith explained to the two. "It's made of iron, and it rusts after years of disuse."
With the silversmith's permission, Gu Qingqing picked it up and examined it closely. "The silver ingot mold you mentioned, is it the iron mold used to make silver ingots?"
The silversmith nodded hurriedly. "Yes, it's the mold used to make silver ingots and coins! Those coins are all cast from molds; this ensures they are of uniform weight." He then added, "My father used to work for the government; he was the official mold maker!"
Wu You was both excited and felt she had learned something new. She gently touched... Touching the rusty silver ingot mold, which was as precious to him as a golden hourglass, Wu You said, "Could you say this is the mother of the silver ingot?"
The silversmith was stunned, but seemed to understand Wu You's words. He smiled憨厚ly, "Yes, the mold is the mother of the silver ingot."
Wu You and Gu Qingqing both smiled with relief. They had traveled for so long in this world, witnessing the legendary most luxurious silver tree, the Mongol Khan's golden tent, and the theological debates of various sects, only to realize that what they were looking for was actually just a silver ingot.
No, it was the mother of the silver ingot, the silver ingot mold.
"Can we buy this?" Gu Qingqing asked.
Unexpectedly, the silversmith was very generous: "Take it, it's free. These are just old, damaged silver ingot molds. I have many more in this box!"
Gu Qingqing thought for a moment, then took out a silver leaf from her pocket: "This is for you, consider it an exchange."
The silversmith took the silver leaf, gazing at it intently, clearly captivated by its exquisite carving technique.
Wu You picked up the precious silver ingot mold and easily placed it in her leather pouch, as if it belonged there by right.
However, the silversmith insisted on returning the silver leaf to the two girls: "This craftsmanship is too rare, this thing is too valuable, almost worth a piece of gold! Here, take it back, I don't want it."
Neither of the girls wanted to take something that wasn't theirs for free.
Seeing the silversmith's persistence, Wu You smiled and said, "How about this, Master, I'll ask you a question. If you can answer it, you'll have done me a great favor, and this leaf will be my reward; if you can't answer it, I'll take the leaf back."
"Alright, go ahead!" The silversmith was also somewhat curious.
Gu Qingqing had no idea what Wu You was up to.
She listened as Wu You said, "It's like this, my family and I came here to visit relatives. Along the way, we've seen many strange things. For example, a few days ago, we were traveling at night when we saw a group of people driving a donkey cart carrying a large load of strange goods—all of them were this big, this long, and this thick gray blocks..."
Hearing this, Gu Qingqing couldn't help but admire Wu You's quick wit.
Wasn't this exactly the strange scene Wu You had seen in that gray sky? Although she didn't know what those gray rectangular blocks were for, she could deduce that they were valuable and must be made of some kind of metal—asking a silversmith for this question was the most appropriate thing to do.
After listening to Wu You's description, the silversmith couldn't help but look worried: "Luckily, you didn't make a sound at the time. If those tin thieves had discovered you, you might have been killed."
"Tin thieves?" Wu You had never heard of this term before. "Tin thieves, you mean those big gray blocks were tin?"
"Yes, those men were ostensibly transporting tin blocks, but there's a trick to it. Tin is very sensitive to heat; it melts when heated, but not on the surface. It melts from the inside out. So, if heated to a certain temperature, the outside of the tin block can be broken open, and the molten tin inside will flow out." The silversmith, being in the metal business, knew a bit about the ins and outs of the trade. "Molten tin is tin. It can be used to make all kinds of tinware, and you can also use three parts tin and seven parts copper to make bronzeware."
Wu You and Gu Qingqing suddenly understood. So, the scene in the gray sky was exactly the process of tin theft.
Finally, the silversmith accepted the precious silver leaf, saying to Wu You, "This is what you deserve."
The leather pouch was already heavy with two treasures. The two left the silver shop; the bustling market outside was nearing its end, and dusk was falling.
The two girls found a slightly secluded spot. Wu You still couldn't hide her excitement: "I didn't expect to go to this silver shop! We found the silver ingot mold, and the silversmith even solved a big problem for us!"
"You mean... gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin." Gu Qingqing had also thought of this.
Wu You nodded vigorously: "Yes! Our next step is to go to that world of tin thieves! Although it's a bit dangerous, we can handle it cleverly! We've even been to the Mongol Khan's Golden Tent!"
Gu Qingqing wasn't as optimistic as Wu You: "'Gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin' is just a possibility; we can't be certain yet."
"But those ghosts and that blood definitely have nothing to do with metal, right?" Wu You felt a chill run down her spine thinking of the scene she had seen in the blood-red sky.
"My reasoning might not be very scientific," Gu Qingqing said calmly. "I think no one would want to enter that world of ghost blood. If it's a wrong option, wouldn't this setting be meaningless?"
"I don't understand." Although Wu You said this, his mind was racing. No one would want to enter the world of ghost blood. If it was a wrong path, it should attract people to enter, not deter them.
Seeing Wu You's brow relax, Gu Qingqing continued, "This is how I analyze it. Of the three options you see—red, silver, and gray—if only one is correct, then it's the silver world we're in now.
"It's also possible that two are correct, which would result in two options. One is that the silver and gray worlds are correct. If this is true, then we need to collect all five metals—gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin—to find the fragments of the New Year's woodblock print. The other is that the silver and red worlds are correct, then we need to find the connection between ghost blood and gold and silver, which is also a clue."
"The third possibility is that all three worlds are correct. Then, we need to analyze the relationship between gold, silver, tin, and ghost blood. Can ghost blood represent iron or copper? As far as I know, there is no such claim."
Wu You listened to Gu Qingqing's analysis word by word, recalling the final image of the three worlds frozen in time: the silver world left behind a tree, the gray world left behind the tin blocks, and the red world left behind a red stone mountain with ghost blood flowing down it, making the entire mountain blood red…
"Qingqing! I suddenly remembered something!" Wu You excitedly shook Gu Qingqing's shoulders, making her sway several times. "Didn't I tell you that when I was little, I could see unclean things? A few times I was even followed by them, which made me seriously ill several times. Later, my great-grandmother said that I was being haunted by ghosts. Later, my great-grandmother performed a ritual to blindfold me, and that's how I got better. I remember that for the first two years after I was blindfolded, my great-grandmother gave me a string of red agate beads to wear for protection! I remember she also said that it was ghost blood agate, from Danqiu, and that even ghosts and monsters were afraid of it!"
Gu Qingqing listened intently: "Danqiu? In that case, it seems that there is also a record in the Jin Dynasty's 'Shi Yi Ji' (Records of Lost Tales), which says: 'The fields of Danqiu are full of ghost blood, which turns into red stones, which are agate.'"
"Look, look! Agate is transformed from ghost blood! That means those blood-red mountains I saw at the end were actually the mountains and fields of Danqiu! The stones on them are agate!"
Gu Qingqing nodded repeatedly. "Thinking about it carefully, the *Youyang Zazu* also says: 'Horse brains are transformed from ghost blood.' -- It seems there is indeed such a saying in ancient myths and legends."
"If we calculate it this way, these worlds are gold, silver, tin, and agate." Wu You began to try to categorize them. "Gold, silver, and tin are easy to explain, they are all smeltable metals, but agate is different. If it's gold, silver, and agate, are these all considered...treasures?"
"Gold, silver, agate..." Gu Qingqing seemed to understand. "Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, giant clam shell, agate, pearl, rose quartz. -- These are the seven treasures of Buddhism mentioned in the Lotus Sutra."