dragon pen

"Su Lian, I had a dream last night."

Supporting his jaw with one hand, the laziness on the young man's face—probably because he just recovered from a serious illness, or for some other reason, the young man's usually fair skin now looks a little pale now, and he is fine. Bloody, with dark circles under his eyes... He lowered his eyes, and when he saw the little boy sitting across from him raised his head and looked at him inexplicably, he smiled, supported his chin with another hand, and added: "I dreamed of Zhu Jiuyin. "

Su Lian: "..."

Su Lian stared at Zhang Ziyao for a while - this was the first time he heard Zhang Ziyao take the initiative to mention Zhu Jiuyin in the past few days. Before that, the two of them were cautious, even talking about related matters seemed to be playing charades ... Su Lian felt that this seemed to be a good thing, so he stood up a little bit, pouted his buttocks, stretched out his hands, and pushed the almost untouched bowl of millet porridge in front of the latter towards him again, lightly Said: "This is not the reason why you can't even eat breakfast."

Zhang Ziyao took the bowl.

"In the dream I was a little monk, chanting scriptures, what are the Bodhisattvas, what Shurangama—"

"The Shurangama Sutra of All Bodhisattvas' Ten Thousand Practices?"

"...Ah, it's called this! Why, there really is such a scripture?"

"Although the "Heart Sutra" is more widely circulated, the "Shurangama Sutra" is actually a must-read classic for Buddhist disciples," Su Lian said, "When you meet a fake monk on the street, you may recite a few lines from the "Heart Sutra", but he may recite Without saying a single line of the Shurangama Sutra—this is a good way to distinguish the truth from the truth—you said just now that you are a young monk and you are chanting sutras, then what?”

"Zhu Jiuyin appeared." Zhang Ziyao said, "Still in that annoying appearance, he asked me if I was reading scriptures and waiting for him?"

"Well, this scripture is the code of breaking magic." Su Lian lowered his head and took a sip of porridge, "it is really suitable for him to read."

"I'm afraid it's useless to an old monster like him."

"It may be useful for a monk who has practiced deeply. Wasn't it a monk who sealed him in the scroll back then?"

Zhang Ziyao said "Oh", showing a thoughtful expression, and said slowly for a while: "It's true, he is both a young monk and an old monk, why is he having trouble with those monks..."

"Did he do anything to you in the dream?"

"..." Zhang Ziyao thought for a while, and under Su Lian's inexplicable gaze, he blushed and shook his head, and replied slowly, "No."

Su Lian: "Sometimes people say that dreams are the projections of past and present lives, or they may be the product of excessive obsession with certain people and things, after longing and daydreaming..."

Zhang Ziyao didn't know it was because of what associations he had made with these words, he showed a strange expression, and said in a strange way: "Could it be that you are implying that I miss Zhu Jiuyin?"

"No."

"That means that I have been entangled with that Laipilong in my previous life."

"...Neither."

"It's better not." Zhang Ziyao stood up and patted the non-existent dust on his buttocks, as if he wanted to pat off some bad luck, "otherwise these words sound like scolding."

Su Lian held a cup of soy milk and looked at the boy who was about to lose his temper when he said it.

After the discussion about the strange dream was over, Zhang Ziyao hurriedly ate two bites of breakfast and wanted to go out to continue to inquire about the whereabouts of the Yuan family, and because he had already decided to leave the city, so the carriage driver should be hired in advance , there are a lot of things waiting for him to do - after Zhu Jiuyin left, Zhang Ziyao seemed very busy every day - even when he was not busy, he would find something for himself to do, such as buying some buns to watch Look at those orphans and stuff.

Su Lian would be by his side most of the time, but when Su Lian woke up in the daytime today, he bluntly said that he was not feeling well and wanted to stay in the painting——Zhang Ziyao thought it was the negative emotional needs of children with secondary illness Being suppressed, it was not easy to ask too many questions, plus he had always been alone before, and now it was rare to have a chance to be as clean as before, so he readily agreed to go out by himself.

"Go," Su Lian sent Zhang Ziyao to the tent before stopping, "Go early and come back early, don't go outside after dark these two days, you are just recovering from a serious illness, your body is weak, and you are vulnerable to evil spirits."

One leg that Zhang Ziyao had just stepped out of the tent retracted again: "What is this saying?"

"After the red wolfhound appeared that day, the air in Wusai City changed," Su Lian said calmly, "I don't know if something ran in...or a group of things ran in." Come in."

Zhang Ziyao was taken aback for a moment, and his eyes widened slightly: "Didn't you say it earlier?"

Su Lian frowned slightly: "You don't know how to cast down demons, so telling you will only increase your troubles."

Zhang Ziyao raised his eyebrows: "Then you tell me now?"

"You were sick last night. People who are recovering from a serious illness are most likely to be targeted by those monsters and ghosts. Of course, for safety reasons, I must remind you-if a stranger strikes up a conversation with you on the road, don't pay attention."

Zhang Ziyao said "oh", thought for a while and said, "You suddenly said that you were not feeling well this morning, so it must have something to do with it, right?"

"Perhaps." Su Lian didn't seem very concerned, "Are you going? Or don't go out at all..."

"That's it."

Zhang Ziyao didn't want to be bored in the tent all day—let alone for such an inexplicable reason, so he went out while dealing with Su Lian, and walked out of Su Lian's sight for a while. He slowed down his pace with a sigh of relief: Since Zhu Jiuyin left, Su Lian has really played a role in managing affairs.

Unlike Zhu Jiuyin, Zhang Ziyao never dared to resist what Su Lian wanted to do.

"...Eh, so, has Su Lian grown taller recently?" Zhang Ziyao suddenly stretched out his hand and stroked his chest. After a long time, he shook his head in confusion.

Next, Zhang Ziyao originally wanted to buy steamed buns at the shop he often goes to first, but when he arrived at the bun shop, he found that the shop owner had closed the stall early. When Zhang Ziyao went, he was cleaning up the steamer with a happy face. Zhang Ziyao thought it was strange I went up to ask, and then realized that it wasn't the boss who wanted to be lazy, but that today's buns were sold out!

"Usually, it was only half sold at this time. I don't know what happened today. I have been busy since the morning. I have been busy wrapping buns with lotus leaves and collecting money, and I haven't even raised my head!" The man saw Zhang Ziyao is a regular customer, so he is willing to say a few more words, "No, just now, another business came to the door, and I was about to catch it, but I found out that the buns were all sold out! Ah, what a good man is rewarded." ah!"

"How do you say that?"

"To tell you the truth. I met a dirty baby on the way home yesterday. Seeing how hungry he was, I just thought of your generosity before, so I gave the buns left over from the day's sale to that child. ..." The owner of the steamed stuffed bun shop said, "He left without saying thank you, and I was wondering why this kid was so rude——"

As he spoke, he pointed to the back corner——

"Who knew he appeared again this morning! Sitting motionless in the corner, I offered him something to eat but he refused to take it - I saw that he was dirty and wanted to drive him away, but then I went to buy buns People came to the door one after another, and I was so busy that I didn't have time to take care of him..."

Zhang Ziyao looked in the direction he was pointing at, and sure enough, he saw a scrawny kid in ragged clothes kneeling in a corner of the shop. His eyes were deeply sunken, his lips were chapped, and his body was dirty...

Looking at Zhang Ziyao, he was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and stood up, turned around and made the decision to leave the bun shop—he didn't walk through the main entrance, but opened the window and crawled out of it.

"Maybe it's this kid who made my business prosper! Do you think that good people get good rewards!"

The voice of the owner of the steamed stuffed bun shop sounded in his ears, and Zhang Ziyao was speechless, thinking that there was still such a strange thing—not to mention the burden-carrying people on both sides of this street, there were no less than five serious steamed stuffed bun shops. This shop is next to two steamed stuffed bun shops...

At this time, Zhang Ziyao seemed to have remembered something, stepped back and looked at the two sides, only to find that the owners of the two shops next to him looked gloomy, and when they heard that the owner of this shop was happy, they looked envious and jealous hatred--

Zhang Ziyao had no choice but to choose one of them to buy some steamed buns. The owner of this shop opened the steamer and the neatly arranged steamed buns seemed to have not moved. The white and chubby ones looked better. He picked two Wrapped it up for Zhang Ziyao, then sighed.

"What's the matter?" Zhang Ziyao asked.

"Today is really unlucky," said the owner of the steamed stuffed bun shop. "I don't know what happened. I stepped on dog poop in the morning, and then I was bitten by a dog—do you think it's strange, I stepped on dog poop I still feel unlucky, but the dog lost his temper first!"

"..." Zhang Ziyao heard it interesting, and couldn't help showing a smile, "And then?"

"I finally went to pack it up, and rushed to open the store, but today, for some reason, all the customers went to the next door—look at my buns, they are no worse than the next door. In the past, I sold them better than the next door. Well, today it seems like I've been bewitched by an evil spirit... Hey, hey!"

While he was complaining, the owner of the steamed stuffed bun shop next door happily collected his things and went home. Some people stood in front of his empty stall and watched for a while, making sure that there was no one inside, so they turned around and took care of the two neighbors. The business of the shop...

Zhang Ziyao stood at the intersection with the steaming buns in his arms and looked at them for a long time before carefully leaving with the buns in his arms - he distributed the food to the children at the foot of the city wall, and even stayed and chatted with them about the bun shop as an anecdote ...

Unexpectedly, one of those children, who was buried in eating steamed buns, heard Zhang Ziyao's description, suddenly raised his head and said vaguely: "Xiaoguopuo, Wu Dayi and Dauni are deeply touching in the book—"

Zhang Ziyao: "Put down the buns and talk."

"Little brother! I probably know what you're talking about! It's probably something like a 'fuzi'." The child pulled the bun out of his mouth. If they die unfortunately, they will turn into lucky sons—they are yellow and emaciated, and they are unattractive and have bad luck, but such a person can bring good luck to the whole family..."

"Anything like that?"

"A little to the east is a place called Yunqi Country, where there are constant wars, and Fuzi came out of them. They call him 'Zashiki Doji'" the child said, "It's just that they didn't just bring Good luck, but to steal some good luck from those around you and bring it back to your own home..."

Zhang Ziyao thought about the owner of the steamed stuffed bun shop next door who stepped on dog feces and was bitten by an angry dog.

It's bad enough.

"But you said you also saw that child, probably not." The child turned his head away again, "I heard that these things are invisible except for the owner's house, so ordinary people can't avoid them..."

"That's right, and why did things from Yunqi Kingdom come here?"

While Zhang Ziyao was talking, he felt guilty, thinking of what Su Lian said in the morning about "something came in" for no reason...

Zhang Ziyao thought for a while, and suddenly felt that what Su Lian said was completely reasonable——

It was right not to tell him these things, lest he worry again.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ziyao shook his head and forced himself not to think too much, bid farewell to those children happily eating buns, and prepared to go to the bookstore to have a look——

After being away from home for so long, I didn't read many books, but I was forced to draw a lot of paintings.

This is not in line with Zhang Ziyao's personality who has the ambition to be a civil servant and prime minister in his heart—painting a black beast guarding the border—this is really not doing his job properly for him.

Zhang Ziyao felt that it was time for him to study the homework he had left behind. Under the guidance of kind people, he managed to find a bookstore with great difficulty——

As soon as he stepped into the threshold, Zhang Ziyao felt that the bookstore today became even more strange than the bun shop.

At this moment, the bookstore is full of young and beautiful girls, but there are not many books on the bookshelves. These girls are sitting or standing, crowded between the bookshelves——

Some of them sat silently in a corner, holding a book of military tactics in their hands and read it carefully, with heroic looks in their eyes, wearing a suit of armor, and their spears were placed beside her; Chatting, chatting about female red weaving, eyebrows dancing; some with plump bodies, while flipping through the ingredients book, muttered, "This is wrong, how can Buddha jump over the wall put the ingredients like this?" "This is also wrong, the chicken cooked in this way is burnt" "Ah, this is good, this is good, it looks so delicious"; some crescent eyebrows are lightly drawn, as if they are sadly reciting love poems;

Others are pulling the girl who is sad and reciting love poems, and happily talking about how loving she and her lover were yesterday——

There is chatter in the bookstore, as if you can see all kinds of worldly things in these tall, short, fat, thin, joys and sorrows at a glance.

Zhang Ziyao was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly he was a little confused: based on his understanding of the capital, even in such a place where Tiancang's thinking is open, there are very few women who can read...

In this remote city of no sorrow, on the contrary, the women are all literate and talented, surpassing the capital city?

Zhang Ziyao looked at the girls crowded in the middle of the bookshelves, and felt embarrassed to approach them, so he walked along the bookshelves to see what reading materials he was interested in. At this time, he suddenly saw the famous Xiaosha standing in a slightly deserted corner. A woman dressed in a ninny dress, she has a shaved head and a delicate face, which makes people feel as calm as water at first glance. At this moment, she is looking up at a book on the shelf with a blank expression——

Zhang Ziyao thought she wanted to pick up the book but couldn't reach it, so he walked over, stood on tiptoe and took the book down, muttering, "Do you want this book?"

The woman seemed to be taken aback, she turned her head, looked Zhang Ziyao up and down, then looked down at the book in his hand——

Zhang Ziyao followed her gaze and found that the book he was holding in his hand was, by coincidence, the "Surangama Sutra of All Bodhisattvas Ten Thousand Practices Volume Eight".

"Sir, take the book away." The woman did not pick up the book, but said softly, "It is destined for you, and maybe one day it will be able to help you."

Zhang Ziyao held the book, feeling a little at a loss——

He is not a monk and cannot read the scriptures, so how could the scriptures help him?

Then under the current situation, the voice of the person in front of him seemed to be persuasive, but he couldn't refuse, so he nodded foolishly, and actually forgot to take other books, just grabbed this one Hastily went to check out with the bookstore owner——

When handing the money to the bookstore owner, the boy couldn't help complaining: "I've never seen a bookstore crowded with so many people, but there are not a few good books on the bookshelves, and the bookshelves are empty. How do you do business like this?" Can I go down?"

"What?"

The owner of the bookstore was puzzled when he heard this, but when he put the scattered silver back into the boy's palm, the boy had already turned and left...

Looking at the back of the boy leaving, the bookstore owner looked around his bookstore——

I saw that there was no one in the bookshelves, but the bookshelves were full of books, covering astronomy, geography, female red cooking, poetry and songs, military secrets, Buddhist quotations, everything.

Why did this young man say such absurd complaints?