When the young man walked out of Niping Lane, he happened to meet Ye Dan's maid Shi Hui. After sending the tall woman to Gu Can's house, she did not rush home, but walked through the alley and visited the small shops in Xinghua Lane. Although she did not buy anything, she was still in a good mood, jumping all the way, cheerful and light.
The girl who grew up in the countryside and wild water, who seemed to have a scent of green grass, was different from those ladies of high-roofed houses and deep courtyards.
After seeing the boy in straw sandals, she did not lower her eyebrows and eyes as before, slightly speeding up her pace and passing by sideways. Instead, she stopped and stared at this neighbor who she did not often deal with, wanting to say something but stopping.
Wang Gu'an smiled at her, trotted past her, and then ran faster and faster.
Shi Hui stood quietly at the entrance of Niping Lane, turned her head and looked at the shabby boy running in the sun, who looked like a wild cat with tenacious vitality, wandering around. He didn't look good, but he didn't seem to starve to death.
The girl was not popular in the town. Due to the strange temperament of the boy Ye Dan, the maid named Shi Hui always gave people a feeling of being out of place, whether she went to Tiesuo Well to fetch water, went to the market to buy things, or bought stationery for her boy. She didn't have any playmates of the same age, and never liked to talk much when she met acquaintances. For the people in the town who preferred lively and festive occasions, such a girl was really difficult to get close to.
In this regard, Wang Gu'an's situation was actually somewhat similar to that of the maid Shi Hui. The difference was that although the boy didn't like to talk, his personality was definitely not annoying. On the contrary, the boy was gentle and friendly by nature, and never had any sharp edges. It was just because of his poor family background and he went to Longyao to burn porcelain to make a living early, that he didn't seem to be so familiar with his neighbors. Of course, the neighbors in Niping Lane do have some inexplicable fears about the boy's birthday. The fifth day of May is considered an "evil day" when the five poisonous animals appear in the town's folk customs. The boy was born on this day, and his parents died one after another. Wang Gu'an became the last child in the family at an early age. Naturally, people would feel uneasy, especially the elderly who like to join in the fun under the old locust tree. They are particularly distant from the boy from Niping Lane, and privately warn their children not to approach him. But whenever the children look reluctant and ask why, the elderly cannot explain it.
At this time, a slender figure walked out of the alley and stood beside the girl. The maid Shi Hui turned her head and walked forward without saying a word. The man turned around and walked side by side with her in Niping Lane. It was the school teacher Liu Chunshui, the only scholar in the town and a serious Confucian student.
The girl kept walking with a cold face, "It's good for us to keep out of each other's way, isn't it? And don't forget, sir, you were the one who had the advantage of time, place and people before, and I, a little slave, could only swallow my anger. But recently, your Dharma field, which is tens of millions of miles away, seems to have some problems, right? So now you are just the well water, and I am the river water!"
Mr. Liu, the uninvited guest in Niping Lane, smiled and said, "Wang Zhu, forget it, I will just follow the local customs and call you Shi Hui. Shi Hui, have you ever thought that although you are blessed by heaven and earth and born at the right time, do you really think I don't have a way to win? Or do you think that the four elusive saints who came here thousands of years ago and set the rules in person were just talking, without leaving any tricks? In the final analysis, you are just sitting in the well and looking at the sky. The sky is high and the earth is vast, which is far from the scene at the well mouth."
The girl frowned, "Mr. Liu, don't try to bluff me. I'm not my young master Ye Dan. I'm not interested in your high-sounding words, and I never believe them. Sir, you might as well speak frankly. I'll accept it whether it's a fight to the death or a good breakup."
The middle-aged scholar said slowly, "I advise you to get out of this cage and not to push your luck. It's not good for anyone. Especially after you and him embark on the road of cultivation, whether you become a Taoist couple or not, you should restrain your sharpness and not be domineering. This is not a threat, but some of my heartfelt words at the time of parting, which can be regarded as a kind reminder."
Logically speaking, the two people's statuses are very different, but the maid Shi Hui is neither humble nor arrogant, and even has a momentum that is slightly more powerful than the scholar. She sneered, "Goodwill? For thousands of years, you great practitioners have been high above, marking the ground as a prison, using this place as a farmland, harvesting one crop this year and pulling one bundle next year, year after year, for thousands of years, why is it that only now do you think of "being kind to others" with me, this evil obstacle? Haha, I heard the young master say a sentence that many of you regard as a criterion, which is that those who are not of my race must have different hearts, right? So it's not Mr. Liu's fault, after all..."
Mr. Liu continued to move forward, took a step lightly, and smiled, "Oh?"
One step later.
The maid Shi Hui's face changed slightly.
The two of them stood in a place without knowing when, and it was pitch black everywhere, and only above their heads, countless rays of light with a sacred aura fell down.
They were like being at the bottom of a deep well, with the golden sunlight slowly falling from the well mouth.
The middle-aged scholar was wearing a blue shirt, with bursts of light flowing on his shirt.
His noble spirit was upright and fair.
The girl's face was hideous at first, but she soon returned to a numb look of indifference, murmuring: "Sixty years of Buddhist chanting, like thunder in my ears, never stopping. Sixty years of Taoist talismans, like maggots on the tarsal bone, biting hard. Sixty years of righteousness, covering the sky and the sun, leaving nowhere to hide. Sixty years of military sword energy, like a bull turning over, splashing everywhere. Every sixty years is a reincarnation, for three thousand years, there is no peace... I just want to know where the so-called roots of the Tao are. I can see and hear the black and white words on the teacher's books, the subtle words and meanings when the teacher taught and answered questions, but I can't find it..."
She stared at the upright middle-aged man, who was not only an unknown teacher in a remote village, but also Liu Chunshui of the Confucian Shanya Academy, a scholar who even the powerful Diao Temple of the Sui Dynasty had to respectfully call him "sir".
The girl suddenly smiled and asked, "Sir, why are you teaching me? How are you going to persuade me to be good? If I remember correctly, your Confucian sage and one of the Taoist ancestors have both proposed 'teaching without distinction'?"
The man shook his head and said, "It's useless to tell you ten thousand words of sage teachings."
The girl seemed to be chatting with the Confucian scholar casually, but in fact, she was like a taut bow, constantly looking around with the corner of her eyes, looking for clues to break the deadlock.
The Confucian scholar turned a blind eye to this and sneered, "I know that you actually have endless anger, resentment, and murderous intentions. I am not intolerant of different kinds of people, but you should know that it is never the true teachings of the Three Religions to have compassion at will and to practice mercy without restraint."
"Our young master often says that it is the most boring to argue with scholars about reason." The girl pulled the corners of her mouth and narrowed her strange golden pupils, "It turns out that Mr. Liu really has a last burst of light, and naturally he is more difficult to mess with than before..."
He smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if the reason doesn't make sense, but as long as I, Liu Chunshui, am alive and qualified to sit here for one day, you, an ungrateful evildoer, don't think of showing your fangs and claws!"
The girl pointed at herself and asked with a smile, "Am I ungrateful?"
The middle-aged scholar said angrily, "When you were weakest, you had to bow your head and take the initiative to sign a contract with others. Who saved you in the snowy day in Niping Lane? And who has been eating away his remaining luck bit by bit over the years?!"
The girl smiled and said, "When you are hungry, you have to find something to eat and fill your stomach. Isn't this a natural thing? Besides, he didn't have much luck to begin with. If he died early and was reincarnated early, maybe there would be some slim hope in his next life. If he is allowed to stay in the town, hey, it would be really..."
The scholar waved his sleeves and shouted softly, "Shut up!"
The scholar angrily scolded, "The great way is mysterious, the law of nature is clear, how can you judge it with one word?! Everyone has their own destiny and fate, what qualifications do you have to make choices for others?!"
Above the girl's head, a golden hand with dazzling light appeared out of thin air. It was majestic, like the Buddha subduing the devil with one palm, and like the Taoist suppressing the evil spirit with one hand. It pressed down on the girl's head swiftly, forcing her to kneel down instantly and knock her forehead heavily on the ground.
The sound of knocking was thumping.
The girl bowed her head, supported herself on the ground with both hands, and struggled to get up. She laughed sinisterly without showing her face: "You can force me to bow my head, but I will never admit my mistake!"
The majestic golden hand grabbed the girl's head, lifted it up and pressed it down, and kowtowed again.
This time the sound was as heavy as spring thunder.
The scholar said in a deep voice: "Don't forget! This ray of life was given to you by the saints, not by you! Otherwise, let alone suppressing you for three thousand years, how difficult would it be for thirty thousand years?!"
The girl, whose head was always pressed down, said hoarsely, "I won't follow your bullshit path!"
The scholar raised his arm high and slapped the void in front of him, "How dare you! Suppress me!"
In the center of the golden light cast from the wellhead, a white jade seal emerged, more than ten feet long and wide, square and upright, with eight ancient characters engraved on the seal, some of which were extremely bright red and dazzling, and countless purple lightnings lingered around the seal, making a hissing sound.
With Liu Chunshui's order, it was truly the legendary law of words. The huge seal fell from the sky and hit the back of the girl who was already kneeling on the ground.
This huge seal containing the pressure of heaven seemed not to be a real object. It did not press the girl to the ground, but it was quickly embedded in the ground with wind and thunder, leaving no trace, like raindrops with little thunder.
But a moment later, the girl's whole body seemed to be broken by a heavy object, and she collapsed on the ground like a puddle of mud, extremely miserable.
Even so, the girl had one hand with five hooks, and she tried her best, and the five fingernails seemed to be carving words on the ground.
Liu Chunshui had no expression on his face, and said coldly: "Three kowtows are for you to pay respect to heaven and earth! The people! The way!"
The girl's eyes were dull and she did not respond.
Liu Chunshui waved his sleeves lightly, dispelling the suffocating majestic majesty, "I, Liu Chunshui, am just a corrupt scholar under the saint's tutelage. I can suppress you to kowtow three times. After you go out, once you do whatever you want, are you not afraid of encountering a more unreasonable existence than you, who will crush you with one finger?"
Liu Chunshui sighed, "You are indeed suppressed and detained here, and you are not free, but have you ever thought that there is no absolute freedom in the world? I, the Confucian saint, formulated various rituals, isn't it to seek another kind of freedom for all living things? As long as you don't go beyond the rules, don't violate the rules, and just abide by the etiquette, one day, the world is so big, there is no place you can't go?"
The girl raised her head and stared at the middle-aged Confucian scholar.
Liu Chunshui took a step forward.
The world returned to normal, and he and his maid Shi Hui returned to Niping Lane, the sun was warm, and the spring breeze was gentle.
The girl stood up shakily, her smile was pale, and her teeth were slightly exposed. "I have taken note of your teachings today."
Liu Chunshui stopped talking and turned away.
She suddenly asked, "Even if I am ungrateful to Wang Gu'an, why did you, as an outstanding disciple of the saint, stand by and watch? Why did you only look favorably upon your disciple Zhao Yao and my young master, but treat Wang Gu'an, who has an ordinary background, with nothing in mind? Isn't this just like a merchant doing business? If a rare commodity is worth keeping, they will carefully cultivate it, but if it is a crude commodity, they will just deal with it perfunctorily, and they don't care whether it can be sold at a good price or not?"
Liu Chunshui smiled, "Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman should strive for self-improvement."
The girl was at a loss.
When the figure of the middle-aged scholar disappeared at the end of the alley, the girl suddenly showed disdain on her face and spit fiercely.
She limped back to her yard. When she passed Wang Gu'an's house, she wrinkled her nose and frowned. She was a little confused. It was just because the Taoist practice of that damn scholar collapsed, the town was leaking everywhere, like a small boat with water leaking everywhere. She was still busy with her own affairs, and she had to plan carefully for the future, so she was too lazy to care about it.
When she pushed open the gate, a roughly inconspicuous four-legged snake came out from some corner, quickly crawled to her feet, and she kicked it away angrily.
————
In Wang Gu'an's house, the young Taoist sat at the table, watching his nose and his heart.
The black-clad girl who was dying not long ago, was now able to sit on the bed by herself, sitting cross-legged, without a veil, revealing a memorable face.
It's not that the girl is stunningly beautiful, but she is too heroic, which makes people forget her outstanding appearance.
The girl's eyebrows are not like willow leaves but like narrow knives.
When she stared at the young Taoist with a scrutinizing look, the latter felt a rare sense of embarrassment. He clearly did not do anything bad, but he felt guilty.
The young Taoist coughed and quickly distanced himself from the matter. "Miss, we agreed in advance that I was the one who saved you, but it was someone else who carried you into the house, helped you take off your veil, washed your face, etc. His name is Wang Gu'an, the owner of this dilapidated house, a poor boy who looked like charcoal. Both his parents died. He worked as a kiln worker and asked me for a talisman paper. That's basically it. If you have anything else to ask, I will tell you everything I know."
The young man in straw sandals was sold out completely.
The girl nodded, not angry, but said openly and sincerely: "Thank you for saving my life."
The young Taoist, who was even more nervous, laughed dryly: "It's okay, it's just a small favor, I hope you're fine."
The black-clothed girl asked: "Isn't the Taoist from Dongbao Pingzhou?"
The young Taoist asked back: "Isn't the girl from Dongbao Pingzhou either, right?"
She hummed.
The Taoist also hummed.
The young Taoist wearing a lotus crown on his head smiled and said, "My last name is Lu Chen, and I don't have a Taoist name. You can call me Taoist Lu."
The girl nodded slightly and glanced at the Taoist crown of the young Taoist.
The young Taoist hesitated for a moment, then plucked up the courage to say, "Although the boy did something that was not in accordance with etiquette, I had to make up my mind in an emergency. In addition, I never thought that the girl would recover so quickly, so I was offended. I hope the girl will not blame me."
The girl smiled and said, "Master Lu, I am not an unreasonable person."
The young Taoist laughed and said, "That's good, that's good."
The girl raised her eyebrows, and the young Taoist's smile became rigid and stiff.
She looked around with a calm look.
She said casually: "I heard that 'Master Ruan', the best swordsmith in this continent, plans to open a furnace to forge swords here, so I followed him all the way here, hoping that he can help me forge a sword."
The young Taoist sighed: "If it is really him, it is not easy to let him forge a sword himself."
The girl in black was obviously a little troubled, "It is very difficult."
At this time, the boy was holding a bag of herbal bags in his left hand and a small package in his right hand. He knocked on the door symbolically, then stepped over the threshold quickly, put the herbs on the table, and said softly: "Master, please see if you have caught the wrong one. If so, I will change it immediately."
The boy kept holding the package and turned to look at the girl. The girl in black, who was sitting cross-legged on the wooden bed, looked at the boy in straw sandals.
The girl in black said calmly: "Hello, my father's surname is Ning, and my mother's surname is He, so my name is Ning He."
The boy in straw sandals subconsciously said: "Hello, my father's surname is Wang, and my mother's surname is also Wang, so..."
The boy looked a little embarrassed, but soon smiled frankly: "My name is Wang Gu'an!"