Jiang Yanfeng said: "That's because the immortal is kind and compassionate. She loves every living being in the world equally. She is selfless and bright..."
Luo Mingyue couldn't bear to listen any more. Jiang Yanfeng really seemed like a charlatan...
Hu Ziqiu listened very carefully and took the initiative to say, "Tell me more about Miss Luo. I want to know more about her."
Jiang Yanfeng smiled slightly, "Okay."
He took Hu Ziqiu around the village to familiarize himself with the environment and introduced him to the villagers.
In the afternoon, Jiang Yanfeng taught the children to read and write as usual.
Hu Ziqiu was also in the classroom. He walked around curiously and found that each child had a brush in his hand. There was a small dish of ink on the upper left corner of the table, and a stack of cut rice paper on the upper right corner.
The children are very serious in practicing calligraphy, and it can be seen that they cherish this kind of life.
Hu Ziqiu said: "When I first came to your village, I thought your living conditions were extremely difficult. I didn't expect you to have so many pens, inks, and rice paper..."
Jiang Yanfeng said: "These were all given by the immortals. Before, I only let the children practice calligraphy with brushes dipped in water. It was only in the past two days that they started using paper and ink."
Seeing how well behaved the children were, Hu Ziqiu praised them, "They study much more seriously than I do."
Jiang Yanfeng glanced at him and said, "Because you come from a wealthy family, even if you are not good at studying, you can still have enough food and clothing."
Hu Ziqiu said, "Who said that? Actually, I worked very hard, and I even passed the exam to become a scholar... My brothers are all awakened, and I am the only ordinary person. Although they all dote on me, they hide many things at home from me, saying that it is not appropriate for me to know... Can you understand that feeling? I am obviously the person closest to them, but I seem to be excluded by them. I also used to get up early every day to practice martial arts, but one day I was captured by a wanted criminal. The wanted criminal was an awakened, and he used me to threaten my family..."
Jiang Yanfeng asked: "And then?"
Hu Ziqiu said: "I fought hard, but he watched me struggle like a cat playing with a mouse. When I thought I was going to escape successfully, he crushed my hope..."
"My martial arts skills were destroyed and my limbs were broken. Later, my eldest brother rescued me. It took me a long time to recover."
"While I was lying on the hospital bed, I suddenly understood a truth. No matter how hard I try, I will only be an ordinary person in this life, because blood is innate. As long as I can't awaken my blood, I will only be a burden to my family."
Jiang Yanfeng patted Hu Ziqiu's back soothingly and said, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Think about it from another perspective. If you were an awakener and you had a brother who was an ordinary person, would you dislike him?"
"Of course not! I will protect him..." Having said this, Hu Ziqiu was suddenly stunned. He pursed his lips and his brows visibly relaxed.
Jiang Yanfeng added: "Having a family is already a blessing. I don't have any brothers or sisters, and my parents and relatives are all dead. Now I am alone, but am I not living well?"
"Ah..." Hu Ziqiu opened his mouth, his expression a little flustered, "I'm sorry for bringing up your sad story."
Jiang Yanfeng said: "It doesn't matter, I'm not the only orphan in our village."
As he spoke, Jiang Yanfeng stretched out his hand and pointed at Chen Qi who was sitting in the corner, saying, "Look, that child with dark pupils and a cold expression. He is also an orphan. I adopted him as my brother. Now we are a family."
Jiang Yanfeng's voice was calm, and he didn't sound sad at all. His expression was also gentle and peaceful, with the friendly temperament unique to a witch. However, Hu Ziqiu's heart seemed to be grasped by a big hand, making him feel extremely uncomfortable. He said in a dry voice, "I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have brought up this topic..."
Jiang Yanfeng said: "It's really okay."
At this time, a ten-year-old boy who was closer to the two of them raised his head and said, "Brother Jiang, do you want your grandparents? I don't have parents either, but I can share my grandparents with you."
Jiang Yanfeng touched his head and said, "Thank you, but I have a younger brother, that's enough."
A five-year-old girl nearby shouted, "Daddy and I are the only ones left in my family... Mommy seems to have gone to a very far place, and Daddy said that after a few decades, Mommy will take him away, and after another few decades, Daddy and Mommy will come together to take me away..."
Another said, "Alas, my parents ran away with my brother, leaving me and my grandfather alone."
The children chattered and discussed. Some of the older ones were silent and didn't want to talk, concentrating on practicing calligraphy. The younger ones chatted for a few sentences and then went off topic. One said, "My dad is the most handsome man in the world."
The other said, "My mother is pretty."
"I don't believe it. No matter how pretty your mother is, she is not as pretty as an immortal."
"Then your father is not as pretty as the immortal."
"Of course, immortals are the most beautiful. I want to marry an immortal when I grow up."
"You are a girl, how can you marry an immortal?"
"I don't care. I just want to be with the immortal. Brother Jiang said a few days ago that the immortal can use the stone sculpture to come down to earth and save all living beings. I asked him who all living beings were, and he replied that it was everyone, which must include me. The immortal wants to save me."
"I think your understanding is wrong. The immortal loves the world and can't live with just you. She needs to accompany everyone."
"No, I want to be alone with the fairy. Are you trying to snatch it from me? You are so bad!" The little girl burst into tears and hiccuped as she cried. "I... I am afraid to sleep alone at night... If I marry the fairy... she will be able to coax me to sleep."
After all, they were a group of children, so their speech was inevitably childish and their ideas were all kinds of weird. Jiang Yanfeng quickly began to coax the children.
At this moment, Hu Ziqiu suddenly raised his hand and slapped himself twice.
The crisp sound of the slap stunned the children. Everyone fell silent and stared at Hu Ziqiu, not understanding why he hit himself.
Even the little girl who was crying just now stopped crying. With two lines of tears on her face, she looked at Hu Ziqiu with a silly expression.
Hu Ziqiu said sadly: "I really deserve to die..."
It felt like every child present was more pitiful than him, and in comparison, his troubles were the least worth mentioning.
"ah?"
"Brother, what's wrong with you? Why do you say you deserve to die?"
"Brother, please don't die. My parents wanted to live so badly but couldn't. Why did you take the initiative to ask for death? Brother Jiang said that this is a disrespect for life."
A group of children stopped practicing calligraphy and simply gathered around.
Hu Ziqiu's eyes turned red, and he shook his head and said, "You misunderstood. I don't really want to die. I just feel that I said something wrong today... You are all good children. It's my fault. I shouldn't have said anything nonsense..."
He felt so guilty that he wanted to crawl into the ground. He had to slap himself twice when he woke up in the middle of the night. Why did he bring up his brothers for no reason? He had his parents and brothers to love him. Why should he be dissatisfied? Why did he have to bring up other people's sad stories?
Hu Ziqiu didn't like children before, but at this moment, looking at the children who gathered around him, each looking at him with clear and worried eyes, made him feel even more ashamed, but in his heart he felt healed and was so moved that he wanted to cry.
Then Hu Ziqiu couldn't hold back and really burst into tears.
Jiang Yanfeng: "…" Now you don't have to coax the little child, you have to coax the "big child".
In the corner, Chen Qi sat calmly in his seat. After writing the last word, he put down his brush and looked at Hu Ziqiu thoughtfully. For some reason, he always felt that something was wrong with Hu Ziqiu.
Chen Qi lowered his eyes, raised his fingers and calculated for a moment, then cast his gaze on Hu Ziqiu again, his eyes filled with pity, "No wonder you are so emotional, you are so old and still crying like this, it turns out that your soul is incomplete..."
Those with incomplete souls have great flaws in their character.
Then, Chen Qi closed his eyes and continued to calculate. After he finished, his expression became even more strange. He jumped down from his seat and walked to Jiang Yanfeng.
Chen Qi said: "Brother, come out with me for a moment."
Jiang Yanfeng didn't ask why. He glanced at Hu Ziqiu and found that the latter was crying so hard that it was unbearable to watch. However, there was a group of children around him to comfort him, so there shouldn't be any big problem. Jiang Yanfeng followed Chen Qi out of the classroom.
Chen Qi said: "This guy named Hu Ziqiu was cursed."
Jiang Yanfeng asked: "What curse?"
Chen Qi said, "I got a glimpse of his past. All the direct descendants of the Hu family are awakened, except him... But in fact, his bloodline qualification is the best among his brothers. It's just that during his first birthday party, someone cursed him and took away a wisp of his soul, causing him to be indifferent to family affection, but at the same time he is also very obedient."
Jiang Yanfeng was puzzled, "Be obedient?"
Chen Qi nodded: "Yes, he will listen to whoever he likes, and he has no dignity at all. I saw that he was infatuated with Feng Yaer in the past. Even if Feng Yaer asked him to kneel at the door of her room for two hours, he did it obediently. When Feng Yaer wanted his blood, he directly put two large bowls of it and wanted to keep putting more. He almost killed himself. Fortunately, the [Xuan Yi] saved him... In short, whenever Hu Ziqiu encounters something related to his sweetheart, he will become brainless and have no principles. Now he no longer likes Feng Yaer, but likes the immortal instead, so he will become very obedient to the immortal."
"In addition, it's not just Hu Ziqiu who has problems. In fact, Feng Ya'er has also been cursed. She is the most favored child in the city lord's family. She doesn't need to consider other people's faces. She will directly say who she likes or hates without any euphemism. But she hates Hu Ziqiu, but at the same time she orders him around in various ways, and she orders him to do things for her every now and then... This is very unreasonable. She has so many servants and maids around her. Why would she order the young master of the Hu family around?"
"Feng Ya'er is just unruly, but not stupid. She knows that her family has a good relationship with the Hu family. Even if she doesn't love Hu Ziqiu, she shouldn't humiliate him like this, but she did it anyway... Mr. Hu has been resentful about this for a long time, but he can't persuade his youngest son. There is really nothing he can do."
Hearing this, Jiang Yanfeng asked: "Who cast the curse?"
Chen Qi said, "He is a man shrouded in shadows. The Lord of Fengya City is a [Prophet], and [Grudge Shadow] will restrain [Prophet], so it is difficult for the two to live in peace. Therefore, whenever there is an awakened [Grudge Shadow] in the city, the Lord of the City will expel him and drive him away. However, there are exceptions to everything. There is a [Grudge Shadow] who hides very deeply and has not been discovered. He has been lurking in the city. He has very evil abilities, such as casting curses, binding souls, plundering, etc. It was he who cast the curse on Young Master Hu and the Lord of the City's daughter."
Jiang Yanfeng asked: "Why did he target these two people?"
Chen Qi said, "I don't know. I guess he wants to be the city lord, so he wants to sow discord between the city lord and the Hu family... He seems to have cursed some people, but I can't predict it. [Grudge Shadow] will affect my ability. I don't know his identity, nor do I know what grudges he has with the city lord... I can predict so many things because I am not only a [prophet], but also a believer in the immortal. The immortal seems to have a kind of transcendent power. The more devoutly I believe in her, the more positive feedback I can get. So my predictive ability is stronger than most [prophets]... As for the city lord of Fengya City, he still doesn't know that he has been targeted."
[Grudge Shadow] can only restrain [The Prophet], so the person hiding in the dark has been using some insidious means and making secret plans, not daring to act openly, because there are many other awakened people in the city. If the city lord dies, the other awakened people will lock on the murderer [Grudge Shadow], and the murderer will definitely not escape, so he has wasted so many years.
Chen Qi added: "Hu Ziqiu was cursed. Theoretically, he would love Feng Yaer for the rest of his life. However, because he met the immortal, the curse was partially resolved, but not completely resolved. Therefore, Hu Ziqiu fell in love with someone else and fell in love with the immortal... But I saw that the Hu family is virtuous and worthy of being saved, but the mayor of Fengya City... To be honest, he is not a good person."
If Zhuge Chengnian were here, he would nod with deep understanding, because even a small town like Hulu Town does not prohibit refugees or civilians from entering. However, the guards at the gate of Fengya City stopped Zhuge Chengnian because of his tattered clothes, and even asked for a huge amount of silver. All of this was instructed by the City Lord's Mansion.
As for why the guards let Luo Mingyue enter the city, the reason was very simple, because Luo Mingyue was a woman, Fengya City allowed women and children to enter the city, and there was also a Qianmo Inn in the city, which allowed outsiders to eat and stay for free, but there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. Any outsider who entered the Qianmo Inn would "disappear" soon.
After listening to this, Jiang Yanfeng patted Chen Qi's head and said, "Okay, I understand. I will tell the immortal what you said."
Chen Qi nodded, "That's good."
Jiang Yanfeng added: "It's rare that you talk so much today. I'm a little uncomfortable with it."
"I don't want to explain so much, but I see that the future of Fengya City is shrouded in a thick bloody light, and countless people are wailing in pain, grief and despair... Foreseeing this scene makes me feel heavy."
Chen Qi sighed softly and said, "Once, when we were at our wits' end, we were saved by an immortal. So, I hope others can also be saved in times of danger."