Half Demon and Half Mountain

Although Shang Si did not agree to Huan Le's request, Huan Le still went to the study to report every day, rain or shine. The number of times was so high that he managed to get into Lu Zhifei's eyes.

On this day, he returned home with Lu Zhifei's special Su-style mung bean soup. The quaint food box contained exquisite lotus leaf bowls. The special balance device made the bowls never tip over, and even kept them warm.

This bowl is for Cen Shen, not for Agui.

"You young man, can you stop being so obviously biased? Now I don't even have soup?" Agui's short legs slapped on the floor.

Huan Le replied, "What mung bean soup do you drink for a turtle? You already have a pair of mung bean eyes."

"...Have you never been beaten since you were a child?"

"right."

Huan Le's "yes" made Agui roll his eyes angrily, then he turned his head and smiled and held a bowl to feed Cen Shen.Cen Shen was drawing a picture, and just as he was about to reach out to pick up the bowl, a spoon filled with clear soup was brought to his mouth.

"I made this bowl myself. It's still cold. Try it quickly."

Cen Shen opened his mouth according to his words, and in the next moment, the soup with the fragrance of mint moistened the whole mouth, and it also had a hint of cold sweetness.

Huan Le scooped up some more glutinous rice and mung beans, and slowly introduced while feeding them, "This is made of well water. The well water in the well in the study is like spring water, clean and sweet."

Agui complained: "Are you a helper in the kitchen?"

"Because Fourth Master never cooks, and Aunt Xiao Qiao is also a noble young master, her fingers never touch the sun." Huan Le paused, and added: "Brother Lu even praised me today."

"Then you should make something and take it with you," Cen Shen said.

Huan Le tilted his head and thought for a while. Reciprocity is the principle, "But what should I bring? Brother Lu can do anything I know how to do. He did a great job."

Cen Shen was silent for a moment, then said, "Let's roast the leg of lamb."

Huan Le nodded: "That's good, fourth master likes to eat meat, and drinking while eating meat is the best."

Having said that, Huan Le is not very good at using modern ovens.When he used to make barbecue, it was always on the prairie, breathing the fresh grass in the air, and he made the most authentic roast leg of lamb.

But Cen Shen didn't intend to let him intervene, he just ordered him to buy the ingredients, and cooked the food himself the next day.

It had been a long time since Cen Shen entered the kitchen last time.

Huan Le was worried that he would be tired, but also filled with sweetness in his heart, he followed Cen Shen's buttocks the whole time, and sometimes Cen Shen turned around and almost kissed him on the face.

"Go and sit at the door." Cen Shen pushed him.

"No." Huan Le hugged his waist, leaned over and smacked his face, "I just want to kiss you."

Cen Shen gave up, and simply instructed Huan Le to complete the next steps, while he leaned on the cooking table and watched, acting as a hands-off shopkeeper.

"Take it out when the time is up." After the leg of lamb was put into the oven, Cen Shen gave another warning, and then he was going back to the studio to continue drawing.

Huan Le hurriedly grabbed his hand, just held two fingers, and looked at him with aggrieved eyes, "Don't go, okay? Just stay with me for a while, can't you talk for a while? Just for a while."

Cen Shen looked at him, paused for a few seconds, and finally softened.

"Speak." He leaned back to Huan Le again.

Huan Le laughed, and asked, "I don't think I've ever asked, who did you learn to cook from, Cen?"

Cen Shen's tone was indifferent: "Self-taught."

In fact, Cen Shen didn't cook before. When Cen Yushan was still alive, he was the one who did the cooking.Homemade stir-fry, vegetables and tofu, it's that simple.After Cen Yushan passed away, Cen Shen began to travel around, but was forced to learn some wild survival skills.

Thinking back carefully, Cen Shen was suddenly in a daze.

When he moved to Xizi Hutong and renovated this small courtyard, he actually tried to live a positive and optimistic life.So he adopted a large area of ​​floor-to-ceiling glass windows, so that the sunlight can cover every corner without hindrance, and he also taught himself a lot of dishes and planting flowers.

But soon, the flowers all withered, and the extra vegetables were fed to the trash can, and he suddenly began to hate the sun.There was no warning, no reason, but one afternoon he suddenly opened his eyes and saw that the door was half open, and the sunlight was hitting his eyes directly, which aroused a burst of irritability in his heart.

Every period of self-rescue that ended in failure was gloomy, and thinking about it now, it seems like a lifetime away.Cen Shen never told these things to others, including Huan Le, he always felt that others were not obliged to listen to these rubbish and rubbish, as long as they could not bother them.

Sometimes Cen Shen would light a cigarette for himself. A cigarette is a real thing, and it can accurately tell you through the burning sensation in your lungs that you are still alive.

Huan Le was an accident.

Like, a strawberry on top of an ice cream sundae.

"My mother said that marrying a daughter-in-law means growing up. The daughters-in-law of our Huan family are all married in to enjoy the blessings." Huan Le took Cen Shen's hand, lowered his head, and carefully stroked the calluses on his palm and fingers , "My sister-in-law is much fatter than when she first came in. Every day she says she wants to lose weight, but my brother brings her delicious food every day. They also have a small kitchen, which is better than the ones in the parents' yard."

Cen Shen was tickled by him, "You still want to marry me?"

"Married." Huan Le nodded solemnly.He had even imagined in his mind the scene of Cen Shen wearing red clothes, without covering his head or sitting in a sedan chair, and they rode through the streets of Chang'an together on horseback.

But if his mother knew that he had sullied his innocence before marriage, she might break his legs, and he couldn't ride a horse.

"Can you ride a horse?" Huan Le asked.

Cen shook his head deeply.

This is not very good, Huan Le quickly said: "Then I will teach you. You modern people don't ride horses anymore, but riding a horse is very handsome, much more handsome than sitting in a car, which blocks most of your body."

Cen Shen didn't know why he suddenly wanted to teach himself how to ride a horse, just because it was so handsome?He shook his head and glanced at the oven, reminding him that the leg of lamb was almost done.

Huan Le hurriedly went to the oven to watch, and when the leg of lamb was roasted, he sent it to the study while it was still hot.

But this time, Huan Le brought back a bad news.

"Fourth Master is in retreat, and I haven't seen anyone else." Huan Le walked into the studio with a frown, still thinking about it over and over again in his mind, "Brother Lu told me to come back first, and he didn't say how long it would take for Fourth Master to retreat .”

"What happened?" Cen Shen asked.

Huan Le shook his head, "I'm not sure. Fourth Master seems to be very busy recently, he said he's going to investigate Liu Qi's affairs, but there's no need to retreat?"

Agui then said: "Maybe he is hiding from you, who told you to always look for him."

"Impossible, with Big Brother Lu here." Huan Le was very sure, "Besides, it's impossible for Fourth Master to go to seclusion just to hide from me, a little monster. Is he a big boss?"

After all, Huan Le couldn't figure out why Shang Si retreated.Is it really to prevent him from continuing to ask about Hei Qiye, or... His retreat is related to Hei Qiye?

Thinking of this, Huan Le went to ask Qiao Fengmian again. Qiao Fengmian was also quite surprised by this, as if he didn't know about it yet.

Your dad will always be your dad: I'll ask and I'll tell you.

On the other hand, Cen Shen's restoration work has made considerable progress.

Last time he repaired a part of the formation map, thus obtained Liu Qi's memory about Song Li.This time he repaired part of it again, so he saw the Master.

After the ghost banquet, the story of the master is still suspicious—the master should have no memory of being poisoned and died, because he was not reborn but changed his life, so how did he know what happened at the ghost banquet and rushed to save people? ?

In order to meet this memory frenzy, Cen Shen made complete preparations to prevent fainting like last time.But when boundless and heterogeneous memories flooded into his mind, he found that his preparation was still not enough.

If the memory about Song Li is just a small pond, then Master is like a vast ocean.Countless images and sounds made Cen Shen lose all senses for a moment, as if his whole body was not his own.

It took a long time for Cen Shen to recover, leaning on the edge of the table and letting out a sigh of relief.

He didn't dare to read those memories right away, glanced at Huan Le who was still busy in the kitchen from the corner of his eye, picked up the cup and drank several sips of water, and then slowly opened the memories.

The feeling this time was very different from Song Li's. In Song Li's story, Liu Qi was just a calm bystander and did not have much interaction with Song Li.Cen Shen can often see Song Li's figure from some hidden angles, as if sitting behind a surveillance camera and watching, it feels quite weird.

But this time, Liu Qi became a character in the story, and Master stood beside him.

Huan Le seems to have said that Liu Qi is Master's... friend?

Cen Shen continued to look down, because the memories were messy and not arranged in chronological order, so the content Cen Shen saw was also scattered and disorderly, and it was difficult to sort out some order from it.

Sometimes they walked and chatted slowly on the streets of Chang'an.Most of the time it is the master who is talking, and Liu Qi is listening, saying nonsense things that have nothing to do with life changing or magic tools, for example, the master finds out that the owner of the tavern he often goes to is secretly adding water to the wine, for example, he is the most proud and the most Bad student Huan Le, his writing is really nonsense, which makes the teacher very distressed.

Sometimes they sit facing each other and drink tea, in a tea house by the roadside, or on a smooth boulder on a certain hill.The master seems to be really poor. He always wears two white clothes from washing to wear, and always exchanges the steamed buns he brought for the meat in Liu Qi's food box.

Sometimes they would also appear in places like the Hongjin Courtyard. The girls in the Hongjin Courtyard seemed to be very familiar with the master, and they would always talk and laugh with him when they met, but it was not the kind of smile they would give to guests.Liu Qi usually just watched from the sidelines, he was too indifferent, the girls didn't seem to like him very much.

Too many trivial pictures seem meaningless.But it was this kind of meaninglessness that surprised Cen Shen—that Liu Qi would actually have another friend with whom he could communicate normally.

But how did they know each other?

Cen Shen rummaged carefully, but couldn't find the source after searching for a long time. Instead, he was overwhelmed by too many memories and had a headache.Huan Le came over to ask him to eat, and when he saw his pale face rubbing between his brows, he hurried over with big strides.

"What's the matter, Cen?" He nervously grabbed Cen Shen's wrist.

"It's okay." Cen Shen breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "I restored a part of the formation map, and saw the master in Liu Qi's memory."

Huan Le froze, and couldn't help tightening his hand.

Cen Shen was in pain, but he didn't make a sound, until Huan Le came back to his senses, and then continued: "I haven't seen any useful information yet, but they seem to be friends."

Huan Le regained his composure and said, "Yes, Master told me."

For the rest, Huan Le didn't ask, he smiled and helped Cen Shen up, "The meal is ready, let's go eat first, we can talk about anything after dinner."

Cen Shen obediently followed him to the kitchen, sat at the dining table and watched his busy back and forth, feeling a tinge of distress in his heart.Huan Le should really want to know about his master, but he is afraid of knowing more details, conflicted and sad.

"I saw my master say that your articles are nonsense." Cen Shen sometimes felt that Huan Le didn't look like an ancient person.

Huan Le bit off a large piece of pork belly in one bite, and his cheeks bulged like a hamster, "If you do a good job, you can't marry a wife."

Recently, Huan Le has always talked about the words "marrying a daughter-in-law".

Cen Shen didn't accept his fault, but picked another piece of meat for him, and said, "Is this the reason why you ran away from home to join the army?"

"Can you not mention running away from home?"

"No."

Huan Le bit his flesh bitterly. In fact, there was another reason for him to run away from home—his mother started arranging marriages for him, but no matter how they talked about the girl, Huan Le wouldn't be tempted.

His mother asked him what kind of girl he wanted?

He said it was beautiful.

But none of their beauty was the kind of beauty he wanted.

"Ah Cen, how about I write you a parallel essay?" Huan Le had another whim.

"Parallel prose? Why?" Cen Shen was once again at a loss.

Huan Le tilted her head to look at him with a smile, "Praise you."

Cen Shen: "..."

Cen Shen rejected Huan Le's parallel essay praise and sent him off to wash the dishes.

After Huan Le washed the dishes, he brewed another pot of red dates and wolfberry tea with Nanyingte dew added to find Cen Shen. He stopped walking as soon as he walked through the corridor to the door of the studio.

Today's Cen Shen was uncharacteristically not sitting in front of the workbench and immersing himself in research. He was wearing a black silk coat and sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing with a game of chess in his hands, with Agui nestled by his feet.

"Can you play chess?" Cen Shen asked.

"Go?" Huan Le put down the teapot and sat cross-legged.

Cen Shen shook his head, "Gobang."

Huan Le was stunned, "What kind of chess is backgammon?"

Thanks to Huan Le's cleverness, it only took 3 minutes to understand the true meaning of backgammon, and then played with Cen Shen enthusiastically.

While playing chess, Cen Shen said, "Master once married a wife, didn't you?"

"That's right." Huan Le was still a little bit embarrassed when he brought up this matter, "Master is a very ordinary butcher's daughter, but unfortunately she was not healthy and left early. When I met my master, she had passed away for many years. The abbot in the temple said that Master's fate is not good, and he is doomed to have no relatives and be lonely all his life."

Turning the topic around, Huan Le said again: "But my master can see it for himself, and never complains about others. My mother wanted to be a matchmaker for him again, but he also refused, saying that there is nothing wrong with being alone."

"That's fine." Cen Shen responded lightly.

"Did you see my mistress?" Huan Le asked.

"No." Cen Shen shook his head, "But that should be the first meeting between Liu Qi and your wife."

It was July and a half of a certain year, and the river lanterns once again connected the entire river channel of Chang'an City.The door of ghosts is wide open, so the master follows the mighty army of ghosts and embarks on the road to visit relatives.

But the master seemed to have no relatives alive, so he walked very leisurely, stopping here, looking there, and finally stood on the Nanliu Bridge, looking at the prosperity of the world, and sighed.

Liu Qi happened to pass under the bridge, heard a sigh, looked up at him, and just heard him complaining——

"How can there be no wine on such a beautiful day..."

A wife who has no relatives, naturally no one will light river lanterns and serve fine wine to him today. After finally coming out of the Tower of Rebirth, he can see the joy in the world, but it is beyond reach.

What a mournful word.

My wife was also reincarnated early, I don't know where she went, but she was cast into a rich family in this life.

The more the master thought about it, the more he sighed, smelling the aroma of wine in the air, seeing a young man in brocade clothes meandering past him with the wine in his hand, he kicked a stone off the bridge depressedly.

Right on the top of Liu Qi's head.

"Brother, please be rude." The master hurriedly apologized.

Liu Qi didn't speak, just looked up at him, his eyes were like the staring of death, which made Master even more embarrassed.He apologized again, but he just glanced at it from the corner of his eye, and he was stunned.

Because Liu Qi still has a shadow.

"You..." The Master looked at the person standing at the bow in astonishment, "Are you human?"

Liu Qi still didn't answer, and the boat stopped sailing.As soon as he lifted his foot, he came to the bridge and was face to face with his master.

The master took a step back vigilantly, but ran away without turning around. Instead, he looked him up and down suspiciously, and asked hesitantly, "Are you a celestial master? Come to catch ghosts?"

Liu Qi: "No."

"Then you want to hit me back?"

"……Do not hit."

The master breathed a sigh of relief, and sat down on the bridge railing.

Liu Qi looked at him silently, feeling a little curious about this human being who was the first to meet after coming to ancient times.It never occurred to him that he would be hit on the head with a stone.

"You have yin and yang eyes, so you can see ghosts?" the master asked again.

"En." Liu Qi perfunctory.

The master seemed to have completely given up on him, cleared his throat, stood up again, patted the non-existent human dust on the hem of his clothes, bowed and said: "Brother, it is fate that you and I meet by chance, why don't we go together Go for a drink?"

Liu Qi: "..."

All in all, Liu Qi was fooled by his master and went to the tavern in the alley.Today's tavern's business is good, but it's not too good. Only one of the guests in the room is alive, and it's a monster.

This monster is Liu Qi. Opposite Liu Qi sits the ghost Master, and two beggar ghosts and a chivalrous ghost sit at the two tables next to him, making the whole tavern feel ghostly.

The waiter served two jugs of wine, then hid in the back kitchen, refusing to come out.

"This wine smells really good." The master salivated when he smelled the scent of the wine close at hand, but he is a ghost, and he is a good ghost who keeps his own place. Except for the food offered to him, he is not allowed to touch anything in the world.

Liu Qijing just showed him a drink, and had no intention of pouring him wine at all.

"This wine is really fragrant." The master repeated.

So three times.

Liu Qi glanced at him expressionlessly, then picked up the wine glass, flipped his wrist, and the wine was spilled on the ground.The Master was heartbroken when he saw it, and was about to reprimand him for his wasteful behavior when he suddenly saw that the wine glass in front of him was full.

"Uh..." The Master was at a loss for words.

"Drink." Liu Qi looked cold and hard.

The master swallowed, but finally couldn't resist the aroma of the wine, and drank the wine in the glass.Regardless of whether he spilled it on the ground or not, what goes into the stomach is good wine.

"Tsk." The master smacked his mouth, still wanting more.

But he suddenly felt a little cold.

When I turned around, I found that all the ghosts in the tavern had gathered around them, looking helplessly at the flagon on the table.

"Get lost." Liu Qi's face darkened.

The ghosts were very lonely, but they still refused to disperse, so they turned their begging eyes to the Master.The Master's face showed annoyance, because the ghosts gathered here must have nowhere to go.

I have no relatives to worship, and I can't remember the way home. Now I can't even drink wine. It's really sad.

The master cupped his hands again: "Brother, good people are rewarded with good rewards."

Liu Qi: "I'm not a good person."

"Coincidentally, I'm not a good person either, everyone is like-minded, why don't you help me?"

"..."

So after a while, Liu Qi was fooled into ordering three jugs of wine and poured them all down on the ground, almost scaring the waiter to death.

"Hey." After drinking too much wine, the master started nagging again, "I met a little friend at the Tower of Rebirth last year, and promised to set up a memorial tablet for me this year and provide me with a good meal, but I missed the appointment, and I was so angry also."

Having said that, Cen Shen looked at Huan Le.

Huan Le paused, and asked: "Then their meeting should have happened in the year after the ghost banquet? At that time, Master has not been changed, and Master and I drank in the pagoda and formed a year-end friendship?"

Huan Le really didn't remember anything about that incident.But he doubted that if he really made an agreement with Master, he would never forget it. After all, Master did not fall into the well that time, and Shang Si did not seal his memory.

Cen Shen replied: "He forgot to tell you his name."

Huan Le: "..."

The master is sometimes quite out of tune, often forgets things, and asks Huan Le to take the blame for him.

"What happened later?" Huan Le asked again.

"Later Liu Qi asked him if he remembered your name." Cen Shen said, and was silent for a few seconds before saying again: "He doesn't remember your name either."

Huan Le had expected it a long time ago, "I see..."

Cen Shen: "But he remembers that you are a dog."

what?

Can you say that again?

Huan Le felt that he was going to be pissed off by his master, what does it mean to remember that he is a dog?And he is not an ordinary dog, he is a wolf dog with the blood of the wolf king, okay?

Anyway, annoying in every sense.