Chapter 47: A Letter from Home Was Worth Ten Thousand Pieces of Gold
With the mountains high and the emperor far away[1], the grass grows thick, and bandits abound.
After a night's rest, Song You headed towards Lingbo County from the ferry crossing, a journey of nearly a hundred li. Apart from the winding and difficult mountain paths, the dense forests and tall grass, they encountered two groups of mountain bandits along the way who stopped them.
However, upon seeing he was a genuine Daoist, both groups of mountain bandits let him go without any trouble.
Speaking of silver money, Song You did still have some silver on him. He had left home with about twenty taels of silver. The traveling merchants on Jinyang Road had given him more than ten taels, and he had earned another twenty taels as the reward for catching the earth-traversing burglar. However, the cost of living in Yidu was quite high, and he had not skimped on his living expenses during his six-month stay there. Despite earning some random income from drawing talismans, he had spent nearly twenty taels.
He had planned to buy a horse or mule with the remaining money and save some as funds for resuming his journey after the beginning of spring. After that, he spent extravagantly when he had money and was frugal when he didn't. Actually, it didn’t matter to him. Unexpectedly, he acquired the horse without spending any money, saving a very significant amount.
If the mountain bandits had known he had almost thirty taels of silver on him, they might not have let him go so easily.
It was already the morning of the second day when Song You arrived in Lingbo County. He used the sun to determine the north, though not very accurately as the sun did not necessarily rise exactly in the east and the city was not divided precisely into east, west, south and north. After some searching and asking around, he finally reached the north of the city.
It was already close to midday.
He located Ganzao Alley and inquired about Chen Han’s home. By the time he reached their door, the sun was already high over his head. Standing at the doorstep, he hoped that this Chen Han hadn't moved and that he was home that day.