Chapter 140 An old acquaintance from Beitian Alms Home
I have to admit that Xie Lingjiang’s eyes are very stressful.
The Jade Lady Fairy's breathing became softer unconsciously, and her breathing rate almost became chaotic.
At this moment, she was sure of one thing.
Xie Lingjiang has entered the seventh rank and has been promoted to the middle rank Qi Practitioner. If I remember correctly, the seventh rank orthodox Confucian Qi Practitioner is called a book-turner.
The Jade Fairy saw the Zhu Fei aura faintly emanating from Xie Lingjiang's body, perhaps due to his ups and downs of mood swings.
The only thing she can do at this time is to carefully hide the fluctuations of spiritual energy on her body, and never reveal her flaws.
The atmosphere between the two of them was silent for a while.
finally.
"Never been."
Xie Lingjiang slowly withdrew his gaze, looked down at the red string on his wrist, shook his head and spoke.
The big stone weighing on the heart of the Jade Lady Fairy was temporarily put down.
Xie Lingjiang frowned slightly and asked again:
"By the way, isn't Senior Brother going to inspect the Beitian Nursing Home? The inspection will be completed so quickly?"
The Jade Immortal thought about her words and said:
"I went to see you, but there was nothing to find out. I still couldn't bear to leave you, so I came back..."
After a pause, she glanced at Xie Lingjiang and spoke more smoothly:
"Get ready to go down the mountain. You go change clothes first."
Xie Lingjiang looked at "Ouyang Rong" for a while, then nodded and moved his eyes away from his face.
She turned to Master Shandao, borrowed a waiting room in the back hall, went to the back of the hall, and changed into men's clothes.
The Jade Fairy took a long breath.
After that, as if he cherished his words like gold, he answered Master Shandao's conversation.
When she caught a glimpse of a hidden figure outside the hall, she turned around and went out.
Taking advantage of Xie Lingjiang's absence, the Jade Fairy came straight to Liu Liu, turned her back to him, looked at the scenery outside, and asked coldly:
"How's it going over there?"
"The female fairy has a clever plan. Sure enough, Ouyang Lianghan went to the Beitian Nursing Home. He has been caught in the net and cannot escape. Now Liu Qi is watching over there, just in case. The female fairy is really..."
The Jade Fairy frowned and interrupted:
"Ouyang Lianghan has something called a skirt knife on his body. Go and get it. I am not wearing this knife. The Xie family seems a little suspicious."
Liu Liu raised his eyelids and glanced at the slender figure of "Ouyang Rong" in front of him, who was dressed in official uniform. The more he looked at him, the more he was amazed, and he respectfully replied:
"Skirt knife? It's a saber, right? I seem to have some impression of it. I'll go and get it, little one."
"Slowly, forget it if you can't get it."
The Jade Fairy looked at the sky, her brows furrowed, and she said in an impatient tone:
"Okay, let's go quickly, Xie Lingjiang is about to come out, I will go and deal with it.
"We will take her and the gang of detectives at the door down the mountain to pick them up later.
"Now you go to Beitian Nursing Home to collect Ouyang Lianghan's body. Everything is going as planned."
The Jade Fairy said nothing and turned around to enter the palace again.
Liu Liu glanced inside the palace and left quietly.
…
The changes in Beitian Nursing Home have been quite dramatic.
"Your Majesty, please come this way."
A middle-aged monk with rosacea in yellow robes spread his palms towards Ouyang Rong and welcomed him into the courtyard.
As soon as Ouyang Rong entered the door, he was warmly welcomed by Senior Brother Xiu Du in Xiufa Mouth.
Ouyang Rong entered the door with his hands behind his back. He looked left and right along the way.
This time the county government funded the renovation and expansion of Donglin Temple, which indeed brought many good changes to Beitian Alms Home.
For example, the dry well in the underground palace next to the bamboo forest in the courtyard is increasingly surrounded by railings and wooden boards.
It should be unlikely that the scene like before, where several old, weak, disabled, and mentally ill people fell in at the same time and gathered to play house.
Ouyang Rong nodded with satisfaction.
"Has the County Magistrate been here before?"
Seeing that the young magistrate almost didn't need him to lead the way, and could expertly turn left and right to enter, Senior Brother Xiu Du asked with curiosity on his face.
"That's right..."
Ouyang Rong dealt with it casually.
Do I have to tell you about the fact that I sneaked here every night to jump into a well while I was recovering from illness?
Senior Brother Xiu Du looked dazed and patted his forehead. He seemed to have a bad memory:
"Oh, little monk, I remembered it. It seems that the magistrate made a mistake and fell into a well... It's a sin, a sin."
Ouyang Rong couldn't help but look back at the rosacea-red face of the monk in charge of the Beitian Almshouse.
He faintly smelled some alcohol and glanced at the water stains on the sleeves of Xiu Du's yellow monk's robe.
Hmm, why do you feel that something is not right with you monks at Donglin Temple?
Isn’t it true that one family does not belong to the same family?
It seems that her hair is slightly normal, but maybe, maybe, maybe... it will soon be led astray by Master Shandao?
Ouyang Rong saw through Xiu Du's minor violations but did not tell them.
It's okay to drink alcohol, just don't have sex.
"Why is there no one there?"
Ouyang Rong turned around and asked.
Before, he remembered that the courtyard was full of patients running around, and it suddenly became so quiet and orderly. Ouyang Rong was a little uncomfortable with it.
Xiu Du said hurriedly: "We are all waiting for the magistrate in the inner courtyard. The young monk will take you there right now."
"Okay, I've wanted to come and have a look for a long time."
Ouyang Rong smiled and followed Monk Xiu Du through the front building to the backyard.
The inner courtyard is surrounded by whitewashed walls, surrounded by bamboo groves, three gatehouses with hanging flowers, and hand-curved verandahs on all sides.
It is not one courtyard, but several adjacent courtyards separated by white walls, and different disabled patients move around in different courtyards.
With a soft sound, the wooden courtyard door was pushed open from the outside inward.
At Xiu Du's respectful invitation, Ouyang Rong entered first.
He looked around curiously.
I saw a lot of stone tables, benches and chairs in the courtyard. Many old, young and disabled people with missing arms and legs were sitting or lying in the courtyard to bask in the sun. They seemed to be waiting for lunch.
What Ouyang Rong didn't know was that among the disabled people in the distance, there was a one-armed young man sitting at the stone table.
The one-armed young man slowly raised his eyes, which had been lowered for a long time, and cast a quiet gaze on him.
Finally came.
Ajie was silent.
He tightened his arms tightly and wrapped a piece of cloth in his arms to disguise the scabbard of a long stick.
Watching Ouyang Rong slowly approaching.
Ajie suddenly remembered.
That year in Chang'an, his first sword seemed to have been obtained by killing someone for a rich man.
But that year, he was still a disabled beggar with only one life left.
The muffled sound of the sword cutting into the target's lungs was still fresh in Ajie's memory until now, and she occasionally heard it again in her dreams.
But at that time, there was someone behind him that he wanted to protect, and the target of the assassination was not a good bird.
He thrust out the sword without hesitation.
And now…
If Gui Niang knew about it, she would probably never make osmanthus wine for me again...
Ajie thought silently in her heart, her lowered eyes watching Ouyang Rong's footsteps getting closer and closer not far away.
Yes, "Gui Niang" is not just the name of Ajie's beloved sword that was imprisoned in Yunmeng Jianze Tao Valley.
It is also the name of an ordinary deaf-mute woman who lives with him.
They were all crippled beggars on the streets of Chang'an.
So...when did his heart start to become cold?
Ajie was silent, hugging the sword tightly in her arms, and had no answer.
Ajie only knows that since she lost the "Gui Niang" and fell from the sixth grade to the seventh grade.
He could no longer let go of the new sword in his arms.
I can't let go anymore.
At this time, the sound of children playing was heard.
A little boy with missing arms and a deaf-mute girl with a runny nose were playing happily and trotting past the one-armed Ajie.
Two disabled children used a bamboo pole as a horse to ride together, seeming to be playing the bamboo horse game popular among country children.
The laughter reached the ears of Ajie, who was holding the sword.
Ajie's eyes didn't look at them, but silently fell on someone in front of them.
"Lord County Magistrate, please..." "Okay..."
The young magistrate had penetrated ten feet around him, and even Ajie could clearly hear the young magistrate's voice through the lively noise around him.
This voice... was unmistakable. It was the young man who had handed him coins in the dark alley and showed concern and advice.
Ajie sat on the stone bench, silently holding the sword, and he confirmed again.
At this moment, Ajie saw that the young magistrate named "Ouyang Rong" seemed to have noticed him after he approached. The young magistrate's eyes showed some surprise and joy, and he turned towards him who was about to unsheath his sword.
He walked over quickly and waved hello calmly:
"Hey, you...you are here as expected. By the way, do you still remember me? We met once."
We only met once, but this young county magistrate who was busy with everything still remembered him... Ajie pursed her lips.
His body became more and more tense as he sat on the stone bench, and he hugged the sword tightly in his arms.
The swordsman's eyes seemed to be swaying for a moment as his body trembled.
But the next second.
Ajie's body suddenly relaxed, and her eyelids drooped like a sick tiger.
Before a top qi practitioner charges up his strength to draw his sword or strikes, he will never tense up and stiffen his muscles like a boxer in the market.
Rather, the whole body is in a state of relaxation that seems to be tight but not tight, and seems to be loose but not loose.
One blow is a full-strength kill.
He is a good official, Ajie decided...
No beheading,
Leave the whole body intact.
With an end to hesitation in her heart and a complete decision, Ajie relaxed her whole body, and the cloth-wrapped sword in her arms became looser.
He nodded slightly towards Ouyang Rong, who was walking towards him, as if waiting for a greeting and response, waiting for Ouyang Rong to come to his door.
finally,
Ouyang Rong came within three steps, which was the best distance for drawing a sword.
But what was a little strange was that Ajie noticed that Ouyang Rong's footsteps turned slightly to the left and bypassed the stone table. It seemed that she... recognized that the sword in his arms was a sword, so she realized the danger and ran away?
Unfortunately, it's too late.
Ah Jie, whose muscles were all relaxed, looked extremely calm. He easily raised his hand and pulled out...
In an instant, a look of fear and astonishment burst out from the eyes of the one-armed swordsman, just like thunder rising from a flat lake, setting off waves of waves.
His muscles, which were originally relaxed, suddenly became tense.
Just like a bow with a fully loaded arrow and full of tension, the arrow shaft will leave the string and run away in the next second.
That's right, it's a run away, a run away regardless of one's own safety!
But even though Ajie was as frightened as a tsunami in her heart, her body in reality did not dare to move at all.
With his Qi locked by someone else's close approach, he sat on the stone bench obediently. His face and body were like a newly carved marble statue, fresh and stiff.
Ajie watched helplessly as Ouyang Rong walked around him and walked towards another stone table very close to his side and behind.
Under the warm sunshine near noon, Ouyang Rong stopped in front of the table, smiled and asked loudly:
"Long time no see, you should still remember me, right?"
In front of this stone table, there was a slender girl wearing a blue and white plain skirt sitting alone at the table.
She had a pair of eyes that were like autumn water in a stream. At this moment, her long eyelashes fluttered and she tilted her head slightly, as if in a daze, without replying.
Also... speechless.
The slender girl's right hand, which was placed on the stone table, was missing a little finger.
After Ouyang Rong arrived, her slightly bent fingers that were holding the table shrank into her plain white sleeves, as if she wanted to hide them.
It turned out that when Ouyang Rong entered the courtyard, he did not recognize at first sight the young man with a broken arm, Ajie, whom he had only met once in a dark alley.
Instead, he recognized another old acquaintance from the Beitian Almshouse—a mute girl with a severed finger whom she had spent time with in the Pure Land Palace.
"By the way, you...do you have a name?"
In front of the stone table, Ouyang Rong bent slightly to ask, and then paused in his words, as if he found that asking a mute her name was a bit too much.
He smiled apologetically, straightened up involuntarily, looked around, and murmured curiously:
"Well, that old Taoist priest wearing a crane cloak should be here too..."
Facing Ouyang Rong's close approach to talk to him, the slender mute girl lowered her head. For a moment, her hands had nowhere to rest. She took them back from the table, and her hands were lowered by the sides of her slender body.
Seems a little introverted and reserved.
At this moment, behind the gentle and kind Ouyang Rong, a certain swordsman from Chang'an was stiff and did not dare to move at all.
And this slender mute woman never looked at the latter from the beginning to the end.
Facing Ouyang Rong's curious eyes.
The mute girl lowered her head deeply, not daring to look at Tan Lang.
Next to another stone table.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ajie finally dared to move a little.
He slowly turned his head and looked at the slender mute woman beside the stone table behind him with a stiff face.
I don't know when this woman appeared and sat not far behind him.
He hadn't even noticed it before.
As a swordsman who has vaguely touched the threshold of high-grade swordsmanship, within ten steps of his body is the absolute territory that can make the enemy's head roll.
But at this moment, someone came in uninvited.
In other words, he is now in her absolute realm.
When you come to visit, you are mainly a guest.
Ajie broke into a cold sweat.
From the corner of my eye, I could see clearly.
The slender mute woman has no sword and nothing on her body.
But the one-armed swordsman who fell to the seventh level but was almost invincible at the same level had his hands hovering in mid-air trembling.
He didn't dare to touch the copper-colored hilt of the sword in his arms.
Ouyang Rong may not be able to see anything.
I even feel that the profile of the slender mute woman in front of me in the sun is very delicate, clean and comfortable. She belongs to the kind of weak and attractive type that is not too stunning at first glance, but makes men want to see her more and more.
It also evokes a strong desire for protection, without the slightest hint of threat or murder.
But in the eyes of swordsman Ajie.
Just sitting there quietly, she was the sharpest sword in the world.
There is no scabbard in the world that can hold it.
It’s not that Junior Sister has no doubts... Everyone, don’t call Junior Sister stupid, scold me.