Chapter 158 Zhixing Bookshop (2/2)

It was inconvenient to bring Qianmo and Xiaoxun around in town. Shen Lian told them to have fun by themselves. Moreover, Shen Lian had been sharing his divine Qi with Qianmo, and there was a connection between both of them. As long as they were not too far apart, they would not lose their connection.

Yue Tuo Kingdom was not as quiet as Hanhai Kingdom. The people were friendlier and docile, as they were under the influence of Buddhism for a long time.

However, a lot of them remained poor. While some people were clothed in merely tattered rags, the princes and marquises remained rich. The princes and marquises would go out with a rank of servants, but they were not too crude and rude. The poor people were not angered by the sight of them. If anything, the poor people looked up to them in admiration and fear. They did not think that they were poor because of they were being deprived by the rich people.

Some even wished that they would be reincarnated into a rich family in their next life.

Shen Lian ended up on a street. Even though he was in the secular mortal world, he still preferred quietness. He ended up on a quiet street where people were selling antiques. The vendors were old and neatly dressed. After all, the poor people would not have time, money, and energy for this sort of hobby.

Most things on sale were old Buddhist scriptures, wooden fish, and some instruments used by the enlightened monks. Every now and then, Shen Lian saw some calligraphies and writing instruments.

However, Shen Lian sensed that most of the things were not as ancient as they looked like, and only some of them came from a long history.

Moreover, some old items would not worth much no matter how much time had elapsed.

The shop with the lot number thirteen was a bookshop. The items inside were new and arranged neatly. Because everything seemed like recent work and did not have dust on it, there were not a lot of visitors.

The bookshop had an interesting name, it was Zhixing Bookshop.

Shen Lian did not come here intentionally, but he felt that this shop gave off the most comfortable aura out of all the other shops on the street.

The others did not notice this and only Shen Lian did. Perhaps coincidentally, Zhixing Bookshop was located at the central spot of the area where the Qi of earth converged. The Qi dynamic was the calmest here, and with a bookshop built atop, the aura was even more righteous and proper. A lot of the distracting Qi amidst the Qi of earth were eliminated.

If one were to stay here for a long period of time, the person would be calm and at ease.

Shen Lian was in the bookshop browsing through the items. He was surprised by the fact that a lot of the items here had a long history. Items that were truly ancient gave off a different feeling. For those with a sensitive spirit, seeing the sediments of time on the items was akin to seeing flames in a night sky.

Shen Lian was attracted by a slightly tilted item. The container was hung in the air, and there were two curvy iron rods supporting it. It seemed to be a water container. However, it was empty, and the container was tilted to one side.

”Why, do you recognize this?” A gentle voice spoke.

Shen Lian turned and looked at the owner of the voice. He could sense the person from a long time ago. He was looking at an elegant middle-aged man with grey sideburns and was dressed in the way a scholar would.

His looked were not remarkable, but he captured Shen Lian’s attention. It might be his scholar background.

He took great care of himself, and his nails were neatly trimmed. Even though there were lines at the corner of his eyes, it added to his appeal.

”Are you the owner of this shop?” Shen Lian asked.

”This is my shop, but it’s only open once a month. Most of the time, there are no visitors. The fact that you are here might be the work of fate,” the scholar smiled.

”I didn’t think that you are only open once a month. Though, your items are really clean,” Shen Lian replied.

”I send people to clean them regularly. This is not my bread and butter. Though, I must say you are the first person who walked in and took notice of this,” the scholar sized Shen Lian up and seemed to have taken an interest in him.

”It looked familiar to me. I think I might have read about it somewhere,” Shen Lian replied.

Yue Tuo Kingdom subscribed to Buddhism. However, the scholar in front seemed to have originated from Confucianism. Judging from his appearance, he seemed to be living a comfortable life.

The scholar smiled and nodded, ”Indeed, one of the scriptures had recorded about this. There are not a lot of people who are so studious that they would remember something like that. If you can tell me with accuracy about the texts that wrote about it, I will gladly give it to you as a gift. What do you think?”

”It seems that you will have to give it to me then,” Shen Lian smiled.

He was confident, but even more so, he found the owner of the shop to be an interesting character.