dragon pen

Underworld, by the Wangchuan River.

The wrath of the wind.

The long line in front of Granny Meng has long been lined up to the point where the end of the line is. Everyone in the line looks confused or sad, as if they are still nostalgic for human things—there are people of all ages in the line, which is strange Most of them are children, most of them are biting their fingers and giggling, the rest of the old people are relatively calm, only the young people are whispering, discussing what should not drink that bowl of Mengpo soup no matter what, and want the person you love in the next life meet again.

Such discussions spread to the front of the line, and the beautiful woman in a red dress smiled contemptuously, raised her little finger covered in Danko, and used a small wooden spoon to scoop a spoonful of soup from the green water gurgling pot in front of her. Rudely stuffing it to the person standing in front of the pot at this moment who seemed reluctant——

The man dressed as a shabby scholar immediately said: "I won't drink it! I want to wait for my wife! I have made an agreement with my wife, I will never drink this bowl of Mengpo soup, and I will look for her in the next life and the next life!"

"Little brother, then you can think about it. Recently, the underworld pays attention to individualized management, and we don't force people who come to reincarnate to drink my mother's Wangyou soup, it's just—" Meng's voice dragged on, her eyes rolled After turning around, she said with a charming smile, "If you don't drink Mengpo soup, you will have to live in the ghost capital for 300 years after crossing the bridge. After 300 years, you can naturally reincarnate..."

"What?! 300 years!"

"Oh, I haven't finished talking yet, so why worry!" Po Meng laughed wildly, "Three hundred years later, although you are reincarnated with the predestined relationship with the person in the previous life, you can't tell what the reincarnation will be like." , whether you can be a human depends on how good your landing posture is, if you accidentally fall into a dog gnawing shit - no one can guarantee whether you will be reincarnated as a chicken waiting to be slaughtered on your wife's chopping board..."

"What?!" The scholar was startled and said angrily, "You guys, you guys are blackmailing me!"

"Don't!" Granny Meng's face was hurt, "The bowl of soup in your hand is not in charge of you taking money, how can it be called blackmail? The slave's family just saw that the little brother was born handsome, so they reminded you a little--"

Before Granny Meng finished her words, the scholar had already drank the bowl of green liquid, put down the bowl, wiped his mouth vigorously with his sleeve, stared at Granny Meng with red eyes, and left crying.

Granny Meng smiled, as if she had been used to this situation for a long time, she turned her head and said indifferently to the long line, "Next one!"

Amidst her yelling, the team reluctantly squirmed forward a little——

Behind Granny Meng, a man dressed in a black gilt-painted suit, with white hair and red eyes and sleeves closed said lazily, "Tsk tsk, today's young people are full of love."

"Why did your lord say that?" Po Meng asked without looking back as she scooped up a bowl of soup.

Zhu Jiuyin curled her lips: "Everyone is chirping."

"After death, all mortals set foot on the road to the Underworld with the appearance of the happiest moment in their lives. Therefore, it is not the young people who are grumbling, but these people are the most nostalgic for them when they were young."

Granny Meng bent down and handed the bowl of soup in her hand to a child who was not as tall as her pot. She smiled at him and touched his head. The child said "thank you" crisply, turned around and ran away to drink the soup ——

"That's why I have seen the most children. In life, people have to suffer a lot, birth, old age, sickness, death and poverty. These things are only too far away from children..."

Granny Meng looked at the child not far away holding the soup bowl and finishing it seriously.

"That's why children don't dislike your footwashing water."

"Master Zhu Jiuyin, if you are really in a hurry, why can't you harass those gods in the sky - there is a dog with a tiger's head and a tiger's brain squatting at the door, how cute, why bother to come to see this poor old woman handing out footwashing water?"

"I still have something to do in the underworld."

"My family heard that you grabbed our Lord Yama by the beard and asked him to check the life and death book for you, and to check the reincarnation of a person," Meng Po said, "It really is the style of Master Zhu Jiuyin. I heard that you reappeared in the Three Realms In the beginning, the sky in the underworld never cleared up."

Zhu Jiuyin pretended that she didn't understand Po Meng's sarcasm, but she just looked dissatisfied: "He didn't check for me."

"That's natural. Matters of life and death are all secrets." Meng Po smiled coquettishly, "If you pull Lord Yama's beard off, he won't let you do whatever you want—"

"That's why I came to look for you."

"..."

Granny Meng couldn't laugh anymore.

"Have you ever seen a bald donkey, who can jump up and down in his seventies and eighties, looking at the kind eyebrows and kind eyes, but the actual temperament is sly eyebrows-"

"My family has seen thousands of monks if not a hundred. Do you think all of them can become immortals? Most of them just came to my underworld to line up obediently. Besides, who can guarantee that the monk you are looking for will be the old man when he comes. appearance--"

"That must be."

"Ok?"

"Isn't that bald donkey's most glorious moment after reading scriptures all his life when he painted me on the scroll in Xilin Temple?" Zhu Jiuyin said with a gloomy face, "I just want to ask, who instigated it back then? It made him so daring as a mortal..."

"I don't remember, I don't remember, there are hundreds of people feeding soup every day in my family, how can I remember the old monk—"

At first Granny Meng was just listening, and her mouth was perfunctory, but at this moment, the action of scooping up the soup in her hand suddenly paused, as if she remembered something, and then slowly said: "The old monk has never seen it before. , but there is one young monk who is impressive."

"Oh?" Zhu Jiuyin raised her eyelids seemingly not very interested.

"It stands to reason that if he came to the underworld with a young posture, it means that the happiest time in his life was when he looked like this," Meng Po thought for a while, "but it is different from ordinary young people. The slave family didn't cry or make trouble in front of him, just drank the bowl of soup quietly, the slave family saw it strange, so they caught him and said a few more words to him..."

"You're free too."

"Curious," Meng Po said delicately, "I asked him, the little monk, and he said that all the family members are empty, but you set foot on Huangquan Road with such a posture, obviously you did not completely let go, and now you have drunk the Nujia so readily. Soup, why is there such a contradiction?"

Zhu Jiuyin was silent, and Meng Po said again: "The little monk glanced at me and smiled at me. Oh, that smile is so cute. He said, 'I can't take it, I can't let it go, it's the happiest time in my life. I met him when I was young, but after my soul returns to the underworld, I want to forget him the most'—”

Zhu Jiuyin was stunned for a while, and said for a while: "This monk, the root of wisdom is not clean!"

After Zhu Jiuyin finished speaking, she felt as if she had said this to someone before—after thinking about it carefully, she found that she couldn't remember it, probably because she had spoken too many times in her life and the objects were very complicated, so she really couldn't remember it all at once .

Meng Po: "Well, this little monk has a story. I asked again, since there are so many resentments towards the world, why are you willing to set foot on the road to Huangquan?"

Meng Po: "He replied again, 'I will send that man on the road with my own hands. From then on, no one will dirty the soil in front of my grave. I will never see you again in the cycle of reincarnation, and I will never see you again after reincarnation. In this way, my heart is very happy'—"

Zhu Jiuyin looked confused: "... Did this monk kill someone?"

Po Meng shrugged, showing a who knows expression.

"The reputation of the current monks is ruined by these people. Killing and setting fire to bully the dragon is simply too much."

Zhu Jiuyin looked emotional, thinking that the old bald donkey sealed me in the scroll back then would be no different than killing me... Hey, the combination of the old and the young and the two ruthless bald donkeys could not be a magic temple. The demon monk who came out, right?

Zhu Jiuyin was about to ask Granny Meng if the little monk said which temple she came from. At this moment, the line in front of Po Meng was a little commotion, and many people stepped aside timidly. The tight gate of the underworld was let out of the aisle where the two stood side by side——

Two figures, one black and one white, came from a distance, and after a closer look, they were Bai Wuchang, Xie Bian and Hei Wuchang, Fan Wujiu.

——Right now the people in line are all locked up by them personally, so it is not unreasonable to be so afraid of them now.

Seeing them approaching, Zhu Jiuyin frowned slightly and thought for a while, then walked out from behind Granny Meng, and stopped in front of the black and white ghost guards - the two ghost guards saw the man in front of them as if they had met God of Plague, Xie Bi'an's eyebrows trembled in fear, before he could speak, he heard Fan Wujiu beside him say: "My lord, you are still here."

That tone seemed to be saying: My lord, you fucking haven't gotten out yet.

Xie Bi'an looked at Fan Wujiu with admiration.

"Yeah, how do we go if we haven't finished?" Zhu Jiuyin took a step forward, stepped on the Sansheng Stone, and stood guard in front of the bridge. Jiuyin saw its appearance in his eyes, and smiled indifferently, "It's the two of you, didn't you tell me to look at the little pets raised by me, why did they come back again? Those weird things in Wubei City Something ran away?"

"No, my lord, your pet is suffering from rabies. Seeing Lao Fan and me barking wildly," Xie Bi'an said sarcastically, "Especially after knowing that you sent us here, have you ever seen a husky transform into a Tibetan mastiff?"

Zhu Jiuyin's face was blank for a few seconds.

The blame-throwing temper he had developed all the year round made him want to say, "You two have been kicked out to shut up my ass." After thinking about it, he accidentally remembered the last time he had a conversation with Zhang Ziyao, and the way the latter was talking by the corner of his clothes, suddenly came to his mouth The words on the side swallowed back again, and he swallowed slowly: "Have you been kicked out?"

What do you say?

Guichai and Guichai looked at Zhu Jiuyin expressionlessly.

Zhu Jiuyin said "Oh", with a rare trace of guilty conscience on his face, he put his foot on the Sansheng Stone down—the ghost guard behind him took a long breath carefully—then Zhu Jiuyin again Putting his feet back, Zhu Jiuyin changed his expression under the gaze of the ghost guard who had been teased so that his face lost all expression, and said with a clever face as if remembering something: "You two are so courageous! You are quite fat, dare to lie to you, Mr. Zhu Jiuyin?"

Xie Bi'an's eyebrows almost flew into his forehead.

Fan Wujiu looked at Zhu Jiuyin calmly: "It's true and false, sir, you can tell by looking at it yourself."

"How can mortals see you ghost messengers?" Zhu Jiuyin said, "Can you still be kicked out? Do you think this gentleman is really a dog and can do it like this—"

"A few days ago, that young man was possessed by an evil spirit from outside. That night, he had a high fever and was haunted by nightmares. It happened that a man with powerful mana passed by the window, and he pulled out the filth for him, but the method was rough and blunt, so that some evil spirits remained in his body. In the young man's body, something happened that caused him to open his eyes." Fan Wujiu said expressionlessly, "What a coincidence."

Zhu Jiuyin: "..."

Xie Bi'an smiled, he put one hand on Fan Wujiu's shoulder, looked at Zhu Jiuyin who was full of embarrassment, he smiled like a fox: "Sir, such a rude big man who pulls out your pet's dirt, You don't just know each other, do you?"

Zhu Jiuyin calmly said, "I don't know."

Xie Bi'an: "Where's the evil god from outside?"

Zhu Jiuyin was still calm and calm: "Tell me to kill me."

Xie Bi'an clasped his fists together: "As expected of Master Zhu Jiuyin."

"This gentleman is not Hua Tuo alive, nor is he a god who specializes in treating difficult and miscellaneous diseases. In that case, what else can I do besides killing him?" Zhu Jiuyin raised his eyelids, "So...he Know everything?"

"It seems that you are very dissatisfied with you peeking at him sleeping in the middle of the night." Xie Bi'an said.

Fan Wujiu said: "The situation in Wubei City has been in chaos recently. If you are worried, why not go and see it yourself, and save the need to call a bunch of people around the boy—"

"Didn't I just tell you to go?" Zhu Jiuyin asked impatiently.

Xie Bi'an was taken aback: "Then what's going on with Sir Su Lian?"

Zhu Jiuyin snorted: "Smelly shameless cow, I want to lie there to cheat food and drink..."

Fan Wujiu said: "Sir Su Lian was not called by the lord."

Zhu Jiuyin rolled her eyes: "Of course not."

Fan Wujiu nodded: "It's no wonder that young man is kind to Master Su Lian."

Xie Bi'an laughed so hard that his eyes almost became slits: "On the way back, we were still wondering why they were both sent here and Lao Fan and I were rejected. Could it be that his looks didn't fit the young boy's eyes? Come—oh—it turns out that they were born differently.”

Fan Wujiu was so serious: "To untie the bell, you need the person who tied it. Your Excellency, if there is any conflict, you must resolve it yourself..."

Xie Bi'an nodded: "How can I always climb the window to peek when people are asleep."

Zhu Jiuyin: "..."

Zhu Jiuyin was so teased that she almost lost her old face.

He murmured, "That's enough, that's enough" and then stretched out his hands to chase away the ghostly messenger duo. After that, he rolled up his sleeves, turned around and found a reason to escape, passed the Naihe bridge, and ran away without a trace after a while.

The people standing by the bridge watched a show for free for no reason, those who drank the soup held up their bowls, those who scooped up the soup held up their spoons, and now they stretched their necks with relish, seeing Zhu Jiuyin gone, they were still reluctant to part——

Meng Po: "What's the matter with that adult?"

Xie Bi'an: "I have committed too many crimes, and I have met someone who has come to collect his crimes."

Fan Wujiu glanced at Xie Bi'an.

Xie Bi'an: "What are you looking at?"

Fan Wujiu: "Why should I be charged if I didn't do anything wrong?"

Xie Bi'an poked him: "For whom did I hang myself?"

Fan Wujiu: "Why did I drown? Because someone was late."

Xie Bi'an: "Oh..."

Meng Po smiled and said: "They are all enemies, but they also have to be taken to heart. The one who collects the bill can collect it? You should have seen the little monk I met back then. He couldn't collect it, so he simply took it. People killed..."

Fan Wujiu touched his neck expressionlessly.

Xie Bi'an patted him on the shoulder: "I won't kill you."

Beside the Naihe Bridge, in front of Po Meng's booth, the team began to slowly move forward again.

The wind was still howling by the Wangchuan River.

……

Yangjian, in the city of Wubei.

After confirming with Su Lian that what happened the night before was not a dream, Zhang Ziyao stared blankly at the Buddhist scripture in his hand, his mind was full of that little Shani who claimed to be "Shan" lying on the bed talking to him.

I also had questions and answers with it, and chatted happily.

Shivering, Zhang Ziyao got up and respectfully put the scriptures aside, wiped his face, then scrambled out to arrange a carriage and prepare to leave Wusai City overnight——

After the commotion last night, I heard that I had opened my yin and yang eyes. Zhang Ziyao felt as if he was in the ghost town of Fengdu while walking in the city of Wusai. He felt that even the horses grazing on the roadside looked at him in the wrong way... …

He added money like his butt was on fire and arranged for the carriage to leave overnight tonight. After the arrangement was made, he felt a little relieved.

Zhang Ziyao thought about leaving tomorrow, so today he went to look at the children under the city wall again, made up his mind, and went to buy buns again - when he came to the street that he was familiar with these days, the one he often bought at the beginning The steamed stuffed bun shop was closing down happily again, and the shops next to it were gloomy as usual. This time Zhang Ziyao made a special trip to notice that in the shop with good business, next to the steamer, the skinny and ragged child was standing there, quietly. looking at him...

Zhang Ziyao suddenly looked away as if his eyes were hot. The shop owner saw the young man standing still in front of his door, and asked him what he was doing strangely.

"The borrowed luck must be repaid," the young man frowned slightly, "Boss, let the kid in your store go earlier."

After hearing Zhang Ziyao's words, the boss showed an unhappy expression as if he had heard some bad words - Zhang Ziyao didn't expect him to be happy after listening to the persuasion. Without waiting for his answer, he turned and walked towards the bun shop next door. As usual, I bought all the buns in the whole bun shop out of my pocket, and then I wobbled and carried them to the gate of the city.

Zhang Ziyao almost became the most popular person at the city gate.

Seeing him coming, not only the children were overjoyed, but even the ink beasts outside the city wall were moaning and chirping. Their big heads were placed on the city wall to grind and grind, dropping countless gravel and sand, and their big tails slapped and slapped on the ground. There's a pile of sand rolling up there...

Zhang Ziyao distributed the buns to the children, kept a few, and threw them to the ink beast through the wall, confiscated the buns with his mouth wide open, then poked his head down for Zhang Ziyao to touch——

Zhang Ziyao's face was clearly painted by Zhang Ziyao himself, but his temper was strange and he didn't know who he looked like.

The young man stood on tiptoe, patted Mo Beast's big head, and told him: "From now on, you will guard the city of Wusai here, and if any strange things come, bite them away. Find two men in black and white—"

Zhang Ziyao paused while speaking, and suddenly felt extremely reluctant, so he lowered his voice and muttered, "Be good."

The black beast seemed to know that Zhang Ziyao was about to leave, and made a moaning sound, unwilling to let him go. Zhang Ziyao withdrew his hand and was about to say something, when a timid voice came from behind him——

"Little brother, are you leaving?"

Zhang Ziyao turned around in a daze, only to realize that there was a kid behind him at some point. He was wearing black clothes with no original patterns, dark brown eyes, and a dirty turban. The facial features are exquisite, except that the tip of the nose is a little gray, but the face is clean.

He looks quite noble, like a child from a down-and-out noble family.

It's a strange face.

At this moment, he was holding a bitten bean paste bun in his hand, and there were a few dirty handprints on the steaming bun.

Zhang Ziyao's eyes swept over his face, subconsciously frowned slightly, and then relaxed, he squatted down a little, and said kindly to the child: "Yes, I'm leaving tonight."

The child tugged at the hem of his clothes.

Zhang Ziyao looked at his hand——

He seemed to be taken aback, and withdrew his hands as if he was afraid of soiling Zhang Ziyao's clothes. Zhang Ziyao smiled, stood up straight and walked to the corner. The child followed Zhang Ziyao staggeringly. His legs were too short, so he simply grabbed the bun with one hand.The other hand reached out and grabbed Zhang Ziyao's sleeve.

However, the boy's sleeves seemed to be a little slippery, and they slipped out of his hands in a short while——

He paused, and as if unwilling to give up, he simply put the bean paste bag in his mouth, threw his hands together, and tightly hugged the hand of the boy in front of him!

The two dragged each other to the corner, Zhang Ziyao sat down next to the city wall, and the child rubbed against him, spat out the red bean paste bun he was holding in his mouth, and said "huhahuha" into the air as if he had been scalded. He took a few deep breaths, then turned his head to look at Zhang Ziyao, his dark brown pupils were shining brightly: "Isn't Wusaicheng bad? Why are you leaving?"

Zhang Ziyao was silent for a while.

"Because there was no reason to stay, so I simply left," Zhang Ziyao said, "I've been away from home for too long, and I want to go back and have a look."

"Did you have a reason to stay before then?"

"Probably yes, I came to this place by chance," Zhang Ziyao said with a smile to himself, "And then something happened, and I felt unhappy staying here, so I decided to leave."

"What is it?"

"When I came, the small carriage was full of people. At that time, I thought they were noisy and crowded," Zhang Ziyao answered irrelevantly. "Now when I go back, it's only me and one of them. I hired a big carriage, but I don't know Who should be in the car."

The child fell silent.

After a long while, there was an "oh" sound: "Is it because someone left the little brother, so the little brother feels unhappy?"

"Not really, the most angry thing is that I tugged on his sleeve to keep him, and he left without looking back."

The child lowered his head and took a bite of the red bean paste bun, and said vaguely, "Maybe that person has some difficulties..."

"Who knows?" Zhang Ziyao rolled his eyes, "Stop talking about me, tell me about you. I've never seen you in so many days. Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I just came to Wusie City yesterday," the child said absently while holding the red bean paste bun, "I was born in a noble family, and three generations of my ancestors were important ministers in the court, but I couldn't stand my fate. Both parents died before birth, they were murdered by stepmother, and they have been displaced ever since—"

Zhang Ziyao lowered his eyes and said indifferently: "Both parents died before birth, did you jump out of a rock?"

Child:"……"

"You don't know how to cherish the opportunity to lie and make up a story for you."

Zhang Ziyao patted his buttocks and stood up, and pulled off the child's turban. Seeing the silver hair hanging down, he was not surprised at all, but looked coldly at the pretty little face that was stupefied and said coldly——

"Leaving and leaving, what are you doing all this time? Zhu Jiuyin, are you bored?"