Chapter 127 Casino

Yuan Ming was also startled when he heard the old man say this, and he was a little confused.

"Sorry, I'm offended, I'm offended, please don't mind it." The old pipe's eyes flashed and he apologized repeatedly.

"Take me to the guest room quickly." Yuan Ming waved his hand and said.

The old man hurriedly nodded and bowed to the front, greeting and leading the way, leading Yuan Ming out of the back door of the lobby, along a corridor, and into the inner courtyard.

There were many trees planted in the yard, and the environment was quite quiet, but the rooms passed by along the way were almost all dark.

"There are many people in this town, but the business of this store doesn't seem to be very good." Yuan Ming secretly complained in his heart.

When he came to the backyard, he saw the dull young man again, feeding hay to his horse.

He followed the old pipe to the innermost guest room, which was simply furnished and could only be regarded as tidy, but Yuan Ming was generally satisfied. It was much better than the village inn he had stayed in before, and the price was naturally much higher.

"Guest, please stay here peacefully. Do you need a meal at night?" the old man asked.

"No, I don't want anyone to disturb me if I have nothing to do at night." Yuan Ming said, throwing a silver coin over.

There was roasted beast meat in his storage bag, so he didn't plan to eat the food provided by the store.

"Okay, no problem. Then you can rest early." The old pipe took the silver coin, his eyes lit up, put it in his mouth and bit it, and was about to turn around and leave.

At this time, Yuan Ming suddenly asked: "By the way, shopkeeper, do you know that there is an old incense workshop called "Jixiangfang" in this town?"

Hearing this, the old pipe paused, took out the silver coin in his mouth and put it in his pocket.

"Are you asking this to buy incense and candles? If you need these, I have opened a grocery store, and I sell them in the store. I will definitely give you a discount." The old pipe asked with a smile.

"I don't buy incense, I want to learn the craft of making incense. Do you know where the workshop is?" Yuan Ming shook his head and asked.

"Oh, I know this place, but it's a bit remote. If you really want to find it yourself, it's probably hard to find. How about this, I'll take you there tomorrow morning?" The old pipe said with a simple smile.

"Thank you very much." Yuan Ming thanked him.

The old pipe turned around and closed the door for him, and walked into the yard.

The young man who fed Yuan Ming's horse had not left yet, and seemed to be waiting for him.

"Dad, how is he, is he rich?" The young man's expression was still dull, but he spoke very fluently.

The old pipe immediately raised a finger to his mouth, motioning the young man to follow.

After the two left the backyard, the old pipe lit up the pipe again, took a puff, and a wisp of white smoke came out from the corner of his mouth, and then he slowly said: "What a pity..."

"What, a poor guy? He has a horse to ride, so he can't be a poor guy, right?" The young man raised his eyebrows and said in surprise.

"If I had come half a year earlier, I might have earned another bounty, but now... it's a bit embarrassing." The old pipe didn't answer his son's question, and pondered.

"Dad, what are you talking about?" The young man asked puzzledly.

"Nothing, this young man is a nobleman in our family, we have to treat him well." After saying this, the old pipe smoked a cigarette, walked outward, and went to the front yard.

...

The next day, the curfew was lifted not long ago.

Yuan Ming woke up from his practice, got up and stretched, moved his body, and rushed to the front yard.

The old pipe was sitting at the door of the lobby, staring at the people on the street outside.

The city gate had just been opened not long ago, and there were already many vendors doing small businesses on the street, but they were just coming and going, and there was no business to attract.

The old pipe smoked a cigarette, his eyes were a little erratic, and I don't know what he was thinking.

Yuan Ming came forward to say hello, and he got up in a hurry.

The two exchanged a few words, and the old pipe slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, I almost forgot that I promised to take you to find the incense workshop yesterday."

As he said that, he called his son to the front to look after the store, and he took Yuan Ming along the street outside to walk into the town.

The bustling Tiehu Town was naturally far from the Dajin Capital that Yuan Ming had seen before, but the surrounding buildings were more southern Xinjiang style, and the hawking sounds were different and had a different flavor.

The old pipe was like a qualified tour guide, telling Yuan Ming about the situation in the town as he walked, and he would meet one or two acquaintances on the road from time to time and say hello.

The two walked along the main street for a cup of tea, and the old pipe took Yuan Ming to turn from the side and walked into a side alley.

Along this narrow side alley, they walked for a long time until they could no longer hear the bustling sounds of the main street, and they finally came to the location of the incense workshop.

But when they arrived, Yuan Ming was greatly disappointed.

It was a courtyard of medium size, with a copper lock hanging on the gate, covered with spider webs and a thick layer of dust.

The stone steps in front of the courtyard were also full of fallen leaves and debris, and it looked like no one had lived there for a long time.

"Is this the incense workshop?" Yuan Ming frowned.

"Yes, it's here. Look, their sign is still there." The old pipe pointed to a dirty and shabby plaque on the lintel with his pipe and said.

Yuan Ming went up and took a closer look. The two words "Auspicious" were still vaguely engraved, and as for the third word "Lou", only the word "Mu" on the left was left.

"What's going on? Moved?" Yuan Ming asked in confusion.

"I'm not sure either. Please wait a moment. I'll ask for you." Old Tobacco Pipe said, and went to a house next door and knocked on the door.

A woman in coarse cloth came out of the door, said a few words to Old Tobacco Pipe, and then closed the door and went back.

"I've asked clearly. The neighbors said that the owner of this workshop got addicted to gambling a year ago and lost all his family fortune. After his wife ran away with someone half a year ago, he was rarely seen." Old Tobacco Pipe walked up to Yuan Ming and said.

"He's actually a gambler..." Yuan Ming was stunned when he heard this.

"What do you think we should do? Should we go back or should I ask for you again?" Old Tobacco Pipe asked.

"I still want to see him first." Yuan Ming thought that since he was here, he had to ask.

"Okay. Then I'll ask for you again." Old Tobacco Pipe said.

"Thank you very much. If you can really find him, I will definitely reward you." Yuan Ming hurriedly thanked him.

Upon hearing this, Old Tobacco Pipe's eyes lit up.

"You say, should we go to the casino to try our luck? Once this person gets addicted to gambling, it's hard to quit. He can stay at home, but he doesn't have to stay at the casino." Old Tobacco Pipe suddenly said.

"That's right. Even if we can't meet him in the casino, we might meet someone who knows him." Yuan Ming thought it made sense.

"That's right." Old Tobacco Pipe nodded in agreement.

"Then how many casinos are there in this town? How about you tell me where they are and we can go and look for them separately?" Yuan Ming said.

"No, no. Although there are several casinos in this town, there is only one closest to this place, called 'Shanhe Gambling House'. As the old saying goes, 'Go to prostitutes far away and gamble near'. If that person wants to go, he will probably go there. It's still early, let's go and take a look together." Old Tobacco Pipe laughed.

Yuan Ming naturally nodded without any objection.

The two quickly left the alley and returned to the main street.

They walked a distance to the north and immediately saw a tall building with a towering gate.

This building has three floors, each floor is about two feet high, and the whole building is built with nanmu. What is more special is that on one side of the building, there stands a rockery about three or four feet high, and on the right side, there is a small river about two feet wide, which half surrounds the building. It seems to be dug out by humans.

Outside the gatehouse, there is a string of diamond-shaped wooden signs, one side of which is engraved with the points of the dice, and the other side is written in the southern Xinjiang language "Shanhe Gambling House".

Yuan Ming followed Lao Yandai, and the two walked to the gambling house one after the other. They saw two sturdy men standing outside the gate of the gambling house, and a heavy curtain was hung on the door.

Lao Yandai greeted the two men familiarly, and then stepped forward to lift the curtain.

The moment the heavy curtain was lifted, chaotic shouts, mixed with the sound of dice hitting and the sound of Pai Gow smashing the table, came from inside.

There was also a stuffy and unpleasant smell, which also hit us in the face.

Old Tobacco Pipe took Yuan Ming in and saw nine gambling tables on the first floor of the gambling house.

Yuan Ming took a quick look and found that five of the tables were playing dice guessing, the other three were playing Pai Gow, and he had never seen the last table before. He only saw a pile of black and white round small stones.

"I'll go ask for you." Old Tobacco Pipe said, and walked to a dice gambling table.

Yuan Ming himself was not idle either, and came to a Pai Gow table.

There were only seven or eight people playing cards on the table, and there were more than ten or twenty people watching nearby, all of them blushing and itching to play.

However, some of them were short of money, and some had no space to play, so the expressions on their faces were somewhat different.

Yuan Ming patted the shoulder of a slovenly middle-aged man outside. The latter looked back at him and asked impatiently:

"What are you doing?"

"Brother, can I ask you something?"

As soon as Yuan Ming finished speaking, the middle-aged man waved his hand impatiently and said, "I don't know, I don't know..."

After that, he turned his head to look at the gambling table.

Yuan Ming had no choice but to pat the short man next to him who was standing on tiptoe and stretching his neck to look inside.

The latter turned his head to look at Yuan Ming, but he was not as impatient as the previous man, but he also said in a cold tone: "What are you doing?"

"Brother, I want to ask you something?" Yuan Ming said.

"What is it, tell me quickly, I'm busy!" The short man frowned.

"Do you know where the owner of the 'Jixiangfang' in the town has gone?" Yuan Ming said.

"Are you talking about Wusang?" The short man raised his eyebrows and asked.

Yuan Ming then remembered that he had always thought that there wouldn't be too many setbacks in finding such a time-honored workshop that had been operating for so many years, so he never thought of caring about the name of the owner.

He subconsciously wanted to ask the old pipe, but when he turned his head, he found that the old man had disappeared without a trace.