The rooms that Chu Qingxiao and others rented were not very big except for Chu Qingxiao who had a floor in the main house.
Apart from a small bed and a large wooden box that can hold some daily necessities, there is no more space for activities.
Zhu Quan didn't like sharing a bed with strangers, but the space on the side of the room was too small, so there wasn't much room for him.
So in the first half of the night, he was almost sleepless and tried to escape several times, but the other party tied the other end of the rope that tied his hands to the door and tied a bell there.
Whenever he tried to break free from the rope, the bell would make a tinkling sound.
The noise was too harsh and could attract the attention of these guys at any time. In addition, before falling asleep, Meng Ziliang vividly told him about his personal experience, which made Zhu Quan somewhat afraid of Meng Jin.
Zhu Quan, who was afraid of being severely beaten, stayed up until late at night in fear, and then he couldn't resist his tiredness and fell into a deep sleep.
By the time he woke up from his sleep, it was already bright.
"I said, how long do you want to sleep?"
When he opened his eyes, he saw the woman whom he regarded as a dominatrix, with her hands on her chest, staring condescendingly at him with an evil expression.
Zhu Quan shivered and quickly stood up.
"You...what are you going to do?" he asked, subconsciously grabbing the quilt on his body and holding it in front of himself.
Only then did he realize that the rope binding his hands had been loosened at some point.
"Come out to eat, and then go do business with me." Meng Jin did not respond to his question. After saying this, he turned around and walked out of the house.
After walking a few more steps, there was another pause at the foot. He glanced back at Zhu Quan who was wrapping his body in quilt with a contemptuous glance: "Stop blocking me. You are so handsome. You can't even compare to my brother. Who cares?"
look!"
…
Zhu Quan was somewhat unhappy with Meng Jin's last words.
But considering the huge gap in combat power between the enemy and ourselves, he finally failed to muster the courage to refute.
There, he packed up his appearance, which Meng Jin said was not very good, and then walked out cautiously.
When I arrived at the door, I saw sumptuous meals placed on the stone table in the small courtyard.
There are chicken, duck, and fish dishes that he can name, as well as all kinds of pastries that he can't name. It's a dazzling array.
Zhu Quan has never seen such a luxurious table of food in his whole life, and this is just breakfast.
He couldn't help but take another look at the layout of the small courtyard. It didn't look too big, with seven or eight people squeezed in. However, these guys didn't look like the kind of wealthy family.
Last night, he refused their dinner with the intention of not eating the food he brought in. At this moment, he had not eaten for most of the day. Looking at such a sumptuous meal in front of him and smelling the aroma coming from the tip of his nose, Zhu Quan felt very upset in his stomach.
He let out a grunting sound in a fit of enthusiasm.
"Let's go, let's eat."
"You have to eat enough, otherwise you won't be able to withstand my sister's torture." At this moment, Meng Ziliang, who lived in the same room with him yesterday, put a hand on his shoulder.
He half pulled and half dragged Zhu Quan, who had not yet reacted, to the stone table and sat down.
Zhu Quan, who had just sat down, was still a little embarrassed, but the people around him didn't pay attention to him.
They were just minding their own business, eating breakfast, joking with each other, joking, or exchanging business matters.
These are a pretty strange group of guys.
Apart from the Meng family siblings, there was a blind old man who always held a sword in his arms.
There is a female alcoholic who has been drinking since she met her. Apart from the blind old man, she should be the oldest one in the yard, well, the oldest in every sense.
There was also a pair of girls of similar age, but they seemed to dislike each other and kept arguing whenever they could.
The only person who looked like a normal person was the young man with a big sword box on his back. But at the moment, he was sitting there with a frown on his face, as if he had something on his mind. And beside him, there was another girl not like these.
The girl, who was so beautiful but had a pleasant appearance, was lowering her head to pack some unused fish on the table into a food box.
From her conversation with the young man, Zhu Quan vaguely heard that they seemed to be planning to give some of the unfinished meals to a few lonely elderly people on the street.
In this Tianxuan City, if you have no descendants, and you have worked hard for decades in your youth, you are not qualified to enter the inner gate.
When you reach old age and there is no way to earn spiritual iron jade that can be exchanged for money through Qinghuan Mansion, life in Tianxuan City will become extremely difficult...
Zhu Quan had seen countless such examples.
Probably because of this, his inner dislike for everyone has changed a lot.
"Hello? I said, do you want to eat? If you don't eat, we will leave." But at this moment, Meng Jin's voice suddenly came.
The woman's cold voice made Zhu Quan's good impression of everyone disappear in that moment.
He did not dare to look at the other party, so he quickly lowered his head. Based on the principle that no matter how he died, he could not starve to death, he began to feast on the food on the table.
…
"Why did you bring me here?" In front of Qinghuan Mansion, Zhu Quan stared at Meng Jin with wide eyes and a sick look on his face.
"I told you, I will never practice swordsmanship again, let alone come to this place that eats human blood!"
The expression on Zhu Quan's face was slightly excited, and he spoke to Meng Jin at that time.
It seems that he is very resistant to Qinghuan Mansion.
Meng Jin heard from his father Zhu Renzhao that Zhu Quan's mother accidentally died while going out with the inner sect disciples to kill the outer gods because she took on the task of Qinghuan Mansion.
"You have to know that Qinghuan Mansion is not the culprit. If you want to hate, you should hate the foreign god who killed your mother, not..." She said a few words.
But when he mentioned his mother, Zhu Quan's expression changed, and his eyes looked at Meng Jin with a bit of resentment that he had never seen before.
"You don't know anything, I don't need you to teach me how to do things!" Zhu Quan said coldly.
Meng Jin was stunned for a moment, probably feeling Zhu Quan's excitement at this moment.
She was silent for a while, and finally decided not to continue this topic that displeased Zhu Quan, and instead took out a piece of letter paper from her arms.
"You can hate Qinghuan Mansion, or you can hate Tianxuan Mountain."
"But everything you have was given by your father. As a man, you can't just accept it all with peace of mind, right?" At the same time, she said sarcastically.
These words obviously hit Zhu Quan's pain point. He blushed and retorted: "I didn't!"
Meng Jin responded to his words, but looked down at the letter in his hand and said: "You are eighteen years old this year. According to the prices in Tianxuan City, you need at least five taels of silver for your monthly accommodation, clothing and food.
Twenty taels of silver, totaling one thousand five hundred and twelve taels in eighteen years."
"That's not even counting the blood-coagulating pills you needed for monthly practice, as well as the purchase of various practice books. Also, a few years ago, your father hired an inner disciple to help you with your practice. These first few and zero points add up to
Together, it’s still five hundred taels.”
"After all is said and done, you owe your father two thousand taels of silver."
"What do you mean?" Zhu Quan seemed to have noticed something. He looked at Meng Jin and asked in a low voice: "My father asked you to come to me to collect debts?"
"You and your father are in the same boat. Since you can't get along well and you're not willing to accept his teachings, shouldn't you pay him back what you owe him?" Meng Jin asked in return.
"So, he gave birth to me and raised me just to let me live in the way he prescribed for me? Once I have other ideas, I am guilty? I should give him back what he gave me, right?
"Zhu Quan asked rhetorically.
Meng Jin frowned: "I didn't say that you must follow the path your father has given you."
"But at least you can't waste your life."
"How do you know I'm wasting my life?" Zhu Quan asked again.
"Besides, no one stipulates that everyone must practice swordsmanship when they are born, right?"
"Is it just because I was born in Tianxuan City that it is a heinous crime not to practice swordsmanship?"
Meng Jin sneered: "No one says you must learn swordsmanship, but at least learning swordsmanship is the right way!"
"If you don't follow the right path, you just want to be idle. Is it right?"
When Zhu Quan heard this, he raised his head and looked straight at Meng Jin, then gritted his teeth and said, "No."
"Learning swords may be the right way! But learning swordsmanship in Tianxuan Mountain..."
"It's not the right way!"
Meng Jin didn't quite understand the meaning of Zhu Quan's words. She was about to say something more, but Zhu Quan turned his head and looked at Qinghuan Mansion in front of him.
"Don't you just want me to pay back the money I owe my father?"
"Can!"
"But I, Zhu Quan, even if I die from exhaustion on the way to repay my debt, I will never touch my sword on this mountain again in this life!"
After saying this, Zhu Quan turned around and walked into the Qinghuan Mansion in front of him with a very determined attitude.
…
East of the city.
Red Rabbit Lane.
The midday sun is fierce.
Two ropes were tied around Zhu Quan's body, tightening his clothes that were soaked with sweat.
He gritted his teeth and trudged forward in the alley. The other end of the rope was connected to a wooden cart filled with goods.
He has already pulled this wooden cart from the north to the west of the city, a distance of nine miles. He has no cultivation level, and all his strength has been exhausted. Every step he takes at this moment is all based on the breath in his chest.
Hold on.
Meng Jin, who was following him, had her hands on her chest, somewhat surprised by this. She thought that with the temperament of a playboy disciple like Zhu Quan, he would probably be defeated before he could hold on for long, and then she could take advantage of this.
Make a request to let him go back and continue practicing swordsmanship.
But unexpectedly, Zhu Quan actually had some backbone, and he gritted his teeth all the way to this point.
"Don't blame me for not reminding you. You've worked so hard this time and you can only earn three pieces of spiritual iron jade, which is six cents of silver. The difference between two thousand taels is not even a cent!" Seeing that he was too stubborn, Meng Jin couldn't do it.
With a sarcastic expression, he was ready to psychologically break Zhu Quan's persistence.
But when Zhu Quan, who was immersed in pulling the truck, heard this, he just glanced sideways at Meng Jin.
But this time, the anger and fear in this young man's brows, which were sweating profusely, were gone.
He just smiled hard and said, "You don't have to bluff me, let alone talk to me."
"You are just a person who accepted a commission from Qinghuan Mansion, and you just want to make money from my father."
"Even if I only earn six cents a day, sooner or later I will pay it all back. But can you wait that long?"
When Meng Jin heard this, his expression suddenly changed, a little ugly.
"People like you are the most hateful. If you want to make money, make money well. You must give yourself a righteous name."
"You don't even know what I've been through, and then you tell me what to do? Don't you think you're ridiculous?"
"You are just like Tianxuan Mountain. It never wanted to help anyone. It just made a promise to be an inner disciple, and then let millions of people stay in this city."
"Let them work here all their lives for such a vain goal."
"But I never told them that a large number of them had no talent at all from the beginning, or were not suitable for swordsmanship at all, and were destined to be impossible to become inner disciples."
"Even if someone really achieves it through their own efforts? But what do these achievements have to do with Tianxuan Mountain from beginning to end?"
"What kind of famous and upright sect is just a moth parasitic on the common people in the world with the title of the leader of swordsmanship in the world? It maintains its glory by sucking the blood of millions or even tens of millions of people."
!”
"I will never learn to sword! In other words, I will never learn to sword under the boundaries of Tianxuan Mountain!"
"You can't change me!"
"Never!"
"Because I know that I am right!" Zhu Quan said, his face turned pale due to overwork, but at this moment, the look in his eyes was extremely firm.
Meng Jin was stunned, but for a moment she didn't know how to refute.
In fact, she had discussed with Chu Qingxiao and others a long time ago that some of Tianxuan Mountain's decisions were indeed worth discussing.
But she was unwilling to be suppressed by such an unlearned guy. At that time, she said: "But... you said it nicely, even if you think Tianxuan Mountain is not good, you shouldn't idle around every day.
Bar?"
"The world may not be so good, but the more bastard the world is, the harder you should fight so that you can protect the people you should protect."
"Instead of following a bunch of no-nonsense friends and having fun every day!"
"We didn't live in debauchery, my friend, and we didn't do anything wrong!" Zhu Quan retorted loudly.
"As for your friends, if they really regarded you as friends when I took you away that day, how could they let you go?" Meng Jin asked with a sneer.
As soon as this statement came out, Zhu Quan was about to refute something.
But at this moment, several figures suddenly appeared in the alley ahead, blocking their way.
Meng Jin frowned, feeling something bad in his heart. At this moment, he looked behind him and saw several figures appearing in the alley behind him, blocking his retreat.
"In Tianxuan City, are there people who are robbing homes?" Meng Jin muttered, but put one hand on the silver gun behind his back.
Just as she was saying this, a young man in his early twenties walked out of the group of people. He was wearing a green shirt and had a bookish air about him that was incompatible with this Tianxuan City.
He looked here at that time, looked past Meng Jin, looked at Zhu Quan beside her, and said.