Copper Coins

"I—" Jiang Shining quickened his pace under Xue Xian's urging, and opened his mouth with some hesitation, "I still feel a little inappropriate."

"What's wrong?" Xue Xian asked while touching his golden bead.

"Running without authorization, leaving Master alone." Jiang Shining replied.

Xue Xian glanced at him angrily: "I said, are you a nerd still sleepwalking? He is a ghost hunter, and we were caught. You have seen someone who escaped from a prison and was called to jail." head?"

"I haven't seen it before." It was true at first glance, Jiang Shining thought about it twice, and couldn't help but said: "But——"

Xue Xian: "No but."

Jiang Shining: "But——"

Xue Xian: "No but."

Jiang Shining looked at him helplessly.

Xue Xian put his whole body on the gold beads, and said shamelessly, "That's how I reason."

Jiang Shining: "..."

There is a curfew in Ningyang County at night, and fences and locker rooms have been erected on some cross streets with four connections.The four gates of the city in the south, east, west and north are closed tightly. Ordinary people want to go out of the city during this period, and they probably have to take refuge in the ground.

However, this curfew is not so troublesome for these two non-human beings.

Jiang Shining's cardboard body showed some advantages at this time, it could be pressed into a thin piece if necessary, and it was a good hand for walking through doors.

"Turn east."

"Turn into the alley next to the wall at the previous street."

"Go straight and turn west."

Xue Xian's tricks are smarter than a dog's, he can always see the night watchman in the shadows from a distance, and he commands with confidence and determination.Jiang Shining was soft-tempered, and was used to Xue Xianzhi's teasing. Once the other party opened his mouth, he would be satisfied without thinking too much.

As a result, Jiang Shining believed his evil, and after walking for a long time, he finally couldn't help but stop, and said with a sad face: "Ancestor, please do me a favor, shut up."

Xue Xian glanced at him: "What? Didn't you walk well, and didn't let the night watchmen notice."

Jiang Shining said in a bad mood: "Well, I didn't notice it, but I have met this silk cloth shop at least three times, and if I listen to your detours, I won't be able to leave the city next year."

Xue Xian put his arms around Jin Zhu and said, "Hiss—the sky is a bit gloomy, we need to find a place to stay earlier."

Jiang Shining: "..." This rascal who wants to save face.

Without Xue Xian's blind command, Jiang Shining's pace was much faster.Soon he turned out from the place where they circled three times and walked on the right path.

"This building looks familiar." Xue Xian looked around and felt that this street was very familiar.

Jiang Shining said "hmm": "You don't know the way, we just came here this morning, why did you turn around and forget."

After his reminder, Xue Xian finally came to his senses. Go a little further on this street, turn east from the intersection, and you will be able to see Master Liu's house.It is quiet at night, if there is some noise somewhere, it will sound much clearer than in the daytime.When they passed by the street, they glanced at the familiar door of the house, and could vaguely hear some small human voices in the house, which sounded like arguing, or something else, always, it was not a peaceful appearance.

Jiang Shining paused slightly.

Xue Xian turned his head and glanced at the Liu family's house, and said, "What? You want to see him be rewarded for his evil deeds?"

"That's Mr. Liu's own business, and it has nothing to do with me." Jiang Shining shook his head, didn't stop, and walked towards the city gate.

It's probably due to the nature of a doctor, after all, he still can't watch others suffer with his own eyes, but this may be the most obvious difference between him and Mr. Liu and his ilk.

There are many mountains and forests outside Ningyang County, but most of them are gentle and beautiful, and few are dangerous and steep.

In the early years, because the national teacher was a monk, there were many mountain temples in the mountains and fields of the state capitals, and the incense was once prosperous.However, in the past few years, for some reason, winter has come earlier and earlier, and even the south has been snowing heavily.It is said that the auspicious snow heralds a good year, but in the past few years, the rain has not been abundant, the harvest has not been good, and the people's life has become more and more difficult.It is difficult to live by yourself, let alone go to the temple to add incense money.

As a result, there are more and more abandoned temples in the mountains, which have become temporary resting places for many passers-by.

When Jiang Shining took Xue Xian to rest in an abandoned temple on Jiguan Mountain, it was already snowing outside.

Xue Xian picked a good seat as soon as he entered the temple - this shameless scoundrel directly scooped up the dry thatch from the ground, spread it on the base of the Buddha statue, and sat down leaning against the Buddha statue without hesitation.Without hurrying, he naturally didn't have to deliberately maintain the appearance of the paper man, but changed back to his true self.

He was dressed in black, sitting in a slack posture, boneless, with his elbow resting on the lotus platform of the Buddha statue, his chin loosely supported by his curved knuckles, and his other hand was still fiddling with his precious golden bead.

Jiang Shining rubbed the center of his brows, feeling that seeing this ancestor made his brain ache: "Even if it's an abandoned temple, it's somewhat dignified. Can Buddha statues be seated casually?"

Xue Xian patted the Buddha statue's leg: "I'll share half with you, and if you don't like it, just squeak."

He also waited for a moment in a serious manner, then raised his chin at Jiang Shining: "Look, there is no squeak."

Jiang Shining: "...you can make as much noise as you like, I don't care."

He blew on the dusty candlestick in front of the Buddha statue, and asked Xue Xian for a fire stick. While trying to light the damp old candle wick, he had to prevent the flame from touching himself.

"Where did you get the fire-inch stick?" Jiang Shining asked casually after lighting the fire-inch stick and flicking out the flame at the end of the fire-inch stick.

"I picked it up from Bald Donkey's cloth bag before I left." Xue Xian said without blushing.

Jiang Shining had no choice but to say, "It's also the first time I've seen someone who's been in a big prison run away and dared to take the prisoner's stuff along with him."

Xue Xian: "He doesn't lack this either."

Whenever Xuan Min was mentioned, Jiang Shining always felt a little sorry.He couldn't help but asked Xue Xian: "Do you dislike that master? Because he arrested us?"

Xue Xian shook his head.

"Then why are you in such a hurry to get rid of him? Excuse me to be honest..." Jiang Shining pointed to himself and then to Xue Xian, "We can't lift our hands on our shoulders or carry them. Trouble, then you will have to bear it. I only have a medical bell all over my body, which is worthless, but your gold beads are hard to say, in case someone is watching—”

Xue Xian held the beads between his fingers and turned them in front of the candle.

There was a reason why he ran out overnight, and the reason was on the golden bead of the real dragon body.Now that his body has not recovered, the connection with the golden bead is really illusory, even if he is holding it in his hand, he has almost no sense of the golden bead, just like holding a very ordinary bead.

But Xuan Min is different.The abnormal movement under the skin and bones of his waist was very strange, once it could be regarded as an illusion, but twice it could not be ignored.

Although Xue Xian still hadn't seen him act seriously, he was almost certain that Xuan Min was not that simple.

Currently he can't have any perception of Jin Zhu, but Xuan Min is not sure.He brought Jin Zhu with him, the longer he stayed by Xuan Min's side, the more likely Jin Zhu would be influenced by Xuan Min.If the golden bead was abnormal, then he wouldn't be able to recover the dragon body.

Besides...

Xue Xian said to Jiang Shining: "His origin is unknown, and his purpose is even more unclear. He is neither like a charlatan who earns a living, nor like a decent monk who goes around helping out with compassion. Occasionally, with the snap of his fingers, I even I can feel that he has a kind of coldness."

Jiang Shining was at a loss: "What is cold and hostile, I can understand what you say."

Xue Xian gave a "tsk", glanced at him, and said with disgust: "To put it bluntly, he is different from ordinary monks. I couldn't figure out why he was different before, but now that I think about it, it's probably because he is less abiding by the admonitions." Don't you think, at some point, he even dared to commit murder?"

"..." Jiang Shining held back for a while, then shook his head and said, "I don't think so, but I'm ashamed to say that I'm really afraid of him for no reason."

Xue Xian said angrily: "That's it, it's just a meaning."

Speaking of unknown origin, Jiang Shining suddenly remembered something: "By the way, did you smell some medicine in that room before?"

"I heard it. I'm still a little puzzled. That bald donkey still drinks medicine?" Xue Xian replied.

"I grew up smelling the smell of medicine, and I'm quite sensitive to it." Jiang Shining thought for a while, and said, "The smell of medicine in that room is somewhat familiar. The medicines are [-]% similar."

Xue Xian questioned, "What kind of disease is it for?"

Jiang Shining hesitated for a moment, then said, "Soul-lost disease."

People who suffer from loss of soul often sleepless nights, palpitations and nightmares. Occasionally, when they wake up, they forget what happened before.

"Dementia? That bald donkey?" Xue Xian snorted, waved his hands and said, "Where does he appear to be in a panic? How is it possible?"

-

"It really doesn't look like there is a memory defect, but—" Jiang Shining thought about it for a moment, and then said: "As far as I have seen, some people who have lost their souls are more obvious, because of memory loss or confusion, they When talking about things, they are a little bit hesitant, and they look sluggish and lack energy all day long. But there are others who are not. It seems that they are naturally defensive. I will try my best to bypass the part of my memory that is missing, and only talk about what I remember. If you don’t get along well, you really don’t see any problems.”

Xue Xian shrugged his shoulders when he heard this: "Even the latter, who is more defensive, won't wander around in the street, right? Since he doesn't want people to notice, he must act cautiously and avoid too much contact with others to reveal his clues. Which amnesiac? Traveling around alone, provoking people and ghosts? Then it’s not called amnesia, but insanity.”

Jiang Shining nodded: "Yes."

"But even if it's not a mania, that bald donkey has some other problems." Xue Xian recalled how Xuan Min suddenly sat down on the table in the middle of his sentence, and said seriously: "Such a person with unclear origins and no depth. He must have a reason for coming to Ningyang County. But this day, he only did two things that had nothing to do with him—arrested the two of us, dismantled The Feng Shui formation of the Liu family."

After Jiang Shining heard this, he couldn't help but add: "He also rescued the old lady of the Liu family, called for a medical bell for me, brought out the gold beads for you, and—"

Before he finished speaking, he stopped.Thinking about it this way, Xuan Min's actions seemed to have no clear purpose.It's fine if it's a little effort, but in fact these things dragged him to spend a whole morning in Liu's house, which can be described as time-consuming and laborious. What exactly is he planning?

"The meaning in his words earlier seems to be that he intends to send the Buddha to the west, and bring your medical bell to your sister." Xue Xian played with the gold beads, and said again, "I happened to have been to Anqing. Ningyang is not thousands of miles away, but at least it is separated by a river. If it is really aimless to help, it is too enthusiastic. That bald donkey has a face of ice and snow, and the north wind is blowing, which can be related to the word enthusiasm Does it matter at all?"

After finishing speaking, Xue Xian couldn't help imagining what the bald donkey would look like when he became enthusiastic.

A moment later, the wicked man trembled from his hair to his waist, and said expressionlessly, "Help, I'm scared to death."

Jiang Shining: "..."

Although this ancestor looked unreliable, what he said was indeed reasonable.But when it comes to helping people without knowing the purpose, Jiang Shining turned his head to look at him: "The first day you came to Ningyang County, didn't you not do your business, just made me a cardboard body..."

Xue Xian said smoothly: "That's different."

"To be honest, I never really figured out why you chose to come to my abandoned house with so many houses in Ningyang County." Jiang Shining shook his head and said, "It's cold and dark, and your taste is also ingenious. I really love to find guilt for myself.”

"I'm happy, can you stop me?" Xue Xian retorted.

When the ancestor who couldn't speak well talked back, he didn't even look at people, only admiring his precious beads.

The candlelight was warm and yellow, giving Xue Xian's pale skin a little vitality.Although he opened his mouth and said nothing, he really had a good-looking appearance. The candlelight cast a shadow under his long, thick black eyelashes, and his lazy and half-closed eyes reflected the oily yellow Jin Zhu and the heavy snow outside the door.

There are so many houses in Ningyang County that can shelter from the wind and rain. Why did you go to the Jiang Family Medical Hall and spend a whole day getting a paper body for this scholar...

Xue Xian couldn't remember the detailed reasons. His lifespan was much longer than that of ordinary people. If he could remember every detail of every day clearly, his dragon head would probably explode.

He only remembered that one winter, he went to the north for business, and happened to pass by Ningyang County on the way back.

It should have been an evening, Ningyang County was snowing as hard as it was tonight, there were few pedestrians on the road, and even the stalls in taverns and restaurants had been closed early, and the whole street was a little deserted.

At that time, Xue Xian had not yet had his muscles and bones removed, and his legs and feet were convenient.His real dragon body is naturally not afraid of the cold, and the wind and snow are just winter decorations to him.So, wearing a thin black robe, he walked unhurriedly in the snow.As a result, as soon as he reached an alley, someone grabbed his arm.

Xue Xian has an independent personality, and he has always disliked being too close to others, and of course he is not used to being teased and teased.

He frowned and turned his head impatiently, and saw that the person holding him was a middle-aged man in a gray jacket, holding an oil-paper umbrella and a square wooden box with a cloth strap on his shoulder. The footprints came from the alley.

Xue Xian couldn't remember the appearance of that middle-aged man, but he only remembered that he had a beard and had a kind and friendly appearance.

As soon as he grabbed Xue Xian, he pointed to the back of his hand and said, "With such a deep wound, if you don't apply medicine or bandage, the skin and flesh will be frozen. In this wet and cold weather, if you freeze for two days, it will rain and snow every year. It all hurts, and you are the one to suffer."

The middle-aged man was chattering a bit, as if he was talking to his own junior, and he didn't see him at all. Xue Xian was taken aback when he heard it, and subconsciously glanced at his hand.

The hand held by the middle-aged man was indeed injured, it was left behind by the rain and thunder when he was careless.To him, this kind of injury is like being scratched a little by a branch while walking, and he forgets it in a blink of an eye, and he will recover in two days.But in the eyes of ordinary people, it is indeed quite bluffing - after all, it traverses half of the back of the hand, the blood is congealed on the edge of the wound, the flesh is turned out, and the bone can be seen deep.

Without saying a word, the middle-aged man dragged Xue Xian, who was unresponsive, hurriedly walked a short distance to the alley where he came, and stopped in front of a red-painted gate.

It was probably his home, and I saw him raise his hand and push open half of the door, and shouted inside, what seemed to be someone's name, and said: "Bring the sleeve stove on my desk."

After speaking, he opened the lid of the wooden box and carefully applied medicine to Xue Xian's injury without delay.

The people in the room quickly walked to the door and handed out a small copper sleeve stove.

Xue Xian glanced at it, and found that the person holding the sleeve stove was a middle-aged woman, with a kindness similar to that of a middle-aged person.And behind her there was a boy poking his head, who looked about seven or eight years old. When he met Xue Xian, he smiled at him.Pointing to Xue Xian's hand in a serious manner, he said, "Don't touch water for two days, especially cold water."

"Go, go read your book." The woman turned her head to drive him away funny, then turned her head to Xue Xian and said, "It's really not easy to get wet, especially in this kind of day, you must raise it carefully, otherwise it will cause pain. It happens every year."

It's exactly the same as what the middle-aged people said.

"Are you hurrying or are you going? Do you want to go inside to warm up for a while?" The middle-aged man wrapped his hands in linen cloth and tied them carefully avoiding the pain, and asked kindly.

"No, there is still something to do." Xue Xian replied, paused, and then added a little awkwardly: "I'm sorry, thank you."

"Then take this sleeve stove with you, this kind of injury needs to be covered." The middle-aged man couldn't help but stuffed the half-palm-sized sleeve stove to Xue Xian.

Although Xue Xian was not afraid of the cold, he could still tell the difference between warm and cold.When the hot sleeve stove touched his palm, he raised his head and glanced at the door of that house, there were four characters written on it - Jiang's Medical Hall.

Then one year, he passed by Ningyang by chance, and while no one was noticing, he entered Jiang's courtyard in a grand manner, put the copper sleeve stove and a small bag of gold beads on the stone table, and left leisurely.

This time he went to Ningyang County again, thinking of the Jiang Family Medical Hall, he planned to take a look along the way, but he saw such a dilapidated scene.The old red-painted wooden door and the medicine garden in the courtyard were completely changed, leaving only Jiang Shining, a lonely ghost.

He conveniently gave another hand.

After all, not all people in this world are as dirty-hearted as Mr. Liu, some people are ungrateful, and some people know kindness and virtue.

Xue Xian glanced at the heavy snow outside, and leaned his back against the Buddha statue.

Jiang Shining suddenly asked: "Before you leave, you asked me to wait by the door, what did you do at the master's desk?"

Xue Xian responded lazily, and said, "I saved something by the way, so I should be thanking him for helping me get back the golden bead."

What he left to Xuan Min was nothing but a piece of dragon scale from his original body.At any rate, it is a part of the body of a real dragon. Although it is not as dead as human flesh and bones, it is much more valuable than wild ginseng and ganoderma.The bald donkey was sick, although he didn't know the reason, but the medicine given by the dragon scale would help to some extent.

Ordinary people would not be able to recognize the dragon scale when they saw it. Just looking at it, it is a round thin slice, the size of an elm coin, with a black luster.It's just that there will be some special smell faintly, like the damp smell of rainwater hitting the rocks, and some...indescribable fresh and sweet smell, like freshly peeled and transparent shrimp.

Xue Xian opened his eyes silently, and muttered expressionlessly: "I'm a little hungry."

In the upper room on the second floor of Guiyunju, Xuan Min still sat at the table with his eyes closed, maintaining the posture before Xue Xian left, and did not move for a long while.

There was a piece of yellow paper spread out in front of his desk, on which was the dragon scale left by Xue Xian. The special smell slowly dispersed like this, floated in the air, and floated to his nose.

Xuan Min frowned, opened his eyes suddenly, and the spider-like mole on the side of his neck quietly changed back to its original shape.

He lowered his eyes and glanced at the table, only to see a few large characters scrawled on the yellow paper in front of the table: "The panacea can cure all diseases, believe it or not."

Xuan Min took a look at the black disc lying next to the dog crawling character, then suddenly remembered something, and took out a folded thin paper from his bosom.

He unfolded the paper and smoothed it out, and there were two words written at the beginning: looking for someone.

Next to these two words, there happened to be a black disc drawn, which was exactly the same as the one on the table.

missing...

Xuan Min frowned, made a careful comparison, then folded the tissue paper again and put it away, holding the thin piece that was left behind, and sat quietly under the candlelight.

Outside the window, the cold wind was wrapped in heavy snow, slapping the gatehouse lightly.

Whether it is the trails in the mountains or the narrow streets in the city, it is dark, long and far away.

Volume [-] Untitled