East China Sea dust

Ao Zhan frowned slightly, raised his hand and put the two copper pieces back into the palm of the young man: "Really?"

"..." Zhang Qinglan took the lotus copper piece and nodded innocently.Then he said in a low voice: "The copper piece was buried shallowly in the water, so it shouldn't have passed much time."

Ao Zhan twirled his fingertips lightly, feeling the wetness in it. The soil under the pond was wet and sticky, mixed with dry water, and it felt very strange to the touch.

At this time, the twilight has completely disappeared, the sky has become pitch black, and there are only a few dim lamps and candles around, quietly emitting an orange halo.

The blood jade on the young man's neck flashed red, and the two lotus copper pieces, whose use was unknown for the time being, were taken back into Chongli.

Zhang Qinglan put Chong Lisai back under the collar, carefully smoothed the folds on the collar, and said softly: "There must be something weird hidden in this Jinglian Temple, and it has something to do with the gray robe."

Ao Zhan stood with his hands behind his back, and the scene of the two meeting Xuanlan in the mountains and forests for the first time emerged in his mind, and he gave a absent-minded "hmm".

Zhang Qinglan didn't care, and just took half a step back to widen the distance between the two.

With a smile on his lips, the young man followed Ao Zhan step by step, and took the initiative to pull his right hand hanging by his side: "It's getting late, why don't you go back to your room first."

Ao Zhan was noncommittal.

At the same time, a bell suddenly sounded in the originally quiet temple, far away from the bell tower in the northeast corner of the temple, breaking the tranquility of the night.

Zhang Qinglan paused as she walked out, quickly raised her eyes, and looked in the direction of the voice.

The bells in the temple have always been rung only in the early morning to inform the monks in the temple of the morning class time.

It's just that the night is getting dark now, and even the few young monks on duty in the courtyard have put down their brooms and gone back to their rooms to rest. It seems too unusual for the bell to ring at this time.

The two looked at each other, then quickly walked in tacit understanding and rushed towards the direction of the clock tower.

……

When they reached the bell tower at the destination, Zhang Qinglan realized that a group of monks had already gathered in front of the tower, holding torches in their hands, forming a circle around the bell tower, all of them looked dignified and said nothing.

A dozen or so monks frowned and said nothing, among them Xuanlan was the leader, forming a circle around the open space in front of the tower, looking menacing, very scary in the deep night.

Zhang Qinglan followed behind Ao Zhan, and quickly noticed a low weeping sound faintly coming from the crowd, the voice was thin...it seemed like a woman's voice.

After telling Ao Zhan what she had found in a low voice, Zhang Qinglan gradually approached the crowd, and the red light of the torch was reflected in a pair of black pupils, which could be seen on and off.

Ao Zhan stood in front of the young man, striding forward.

Soon, the monks on the periphery of the crowd spotted two people who had come uninvited, some of the young monks were intimidated by Ao Zhan's fierce aura, and subconsciously made way for them.

Zhang Qinglan followed closely behind the man, and quickly bypassed other irrelevant people, and stood beside Xuanlan.

After passing through the crowd, the field of vision immediately becomes wider.Zhang Qinglan soon discovered that it turned out that the besieged person was a woman who was sitting on the yellow mud floor, crying softly while pulling an embroidered handkerchief.

The cry heard before must have come from her.

Xuan Lan also held a string of sandalwood beads in her hand, standing upright on her chest with one palm.Noticing Ao Zhan and Zhang Qinglan approaching, he lowered his eyes and bowed slightly to them: "Amitabha."

Zhang Qinglan pointed to the strange woman who was kneeling on the ground, and said directly: "Master Xuanlan, my master and I just heard the ringing of the bell from here, what is it?"

Xuanlan frowned slightly when he heard this, and shook his head lightly: "The poor monk also heard the sound of the bell, and brought other disciples to investigate."

Soon, Xuanlan turned his head and whispered a few words to another monk beside him, beckoning him to explain something.

Hearing the conversation between Zhang Qinglan and Xuanlan, the young monk standing nearby stood up.

First, he glanced at the woman who was crying sadly, then turned to the young man, and explained in a low voice: "The bells in the temple seldom strike at other times except to remind brothers and sisters to wake up in the morning."

"Master Yuanming and I were the first to come to the bell tower just now. When we arrived, we saw this female benefactor striking the bell with a bell and pestle. At that time, she was already crying like this." The monk paused, and added Said: "We persuaded her for a long time before we persuaded her to come down from the bell tower."

Ao Zhan stood a little further outside, folded his arms, pursed his lips and remained silent.

Zhang Qinglan followed the cry and looked over, the torches around were bright, illuminating this small area very clearly.After taking a closer look, I realized that most of the clothes and decorations on the other party's body were exquisite and luxurious. Although the description was a bit embarrassing, they still couldn't resist the jeweled aura.

The woman cried miserably, with tears streaming down her face. A kerchief in her hand was covered with tears, and was tangled and twisted by a pair of jade hands. She couldn't see the original color and appearance clearly.

While crying, the man did not forget to shout: "Is the abbot of your temple here? I want to see your abbot!"

Ao Zhan got a headache from the too high-pitched voice, his face seemed to be covered with frost, he almost grabbed the young man by his collar and dragged him back.

Zhang Qinglan noticed the man's irritable face, and immediately took a small step back, rubbing against Ao Zhan.

Quietly holding the cold palm of the other party, Zhang Qinglan calmed down and said in a low voice: "Maybe it will be related to the gray-robed man, let's wait and see."

Xuanlan took a step forward, motioned the little monks around to help the woman who was crying miserably, and said softly: "My benefactor, you seem to be in a panic when you ring the bell in the middle of the night, what's the matter?"

The woman was helped up by the little novice, only to feel dizzy for a while, and almost fell to her knees again.

It took a while before he recovered from the dizziness, seeing Xuanlan's compassionate brows and peaceful demeanor, he let go of his defenses, sobbing and said: "Master, help...help me."

The other monks were quite confused by her nonsensical words, so they could only look at each other and quietly looked at Xuanlan.

Xuanlan shook his head, fiddled with the beads in his hand a few times, and said softly: "Yuanming, Yuanzheng, please send this benefactor to the guest house first."

The group had no choice but to help the woman up temporarily, preparing to take her to the room prepared by the temple for temporary pilgrims.

Zhang Qinglan stood aside, looking thoughtfully at what happened in front of him.

The woman's temple hair is slightly disheveled, her forehead and cheeks are covered with a fine layer of sweat, the corners of her eyes are red from crying, and her skirt is stained with grass and dust... Such behavior seems more like rushing from somewhere to ask for help in a temple. of.

Naturally, Ao Zhan also noticed the abnormality on the opponent, frowned coldly, and looked at the group of people in front of him: "It's weird."

At this moment, a hurried monk suddenly appeared in the sight of everyone, with a solemn expression, and went straight to Xuan Lan: "Suddenly dozens of young men with the appearance of servants appeared outside the temple, and they have been besieged for a long time. .”

When the young monk said this, he caught a glimpse of the woman surrounded by the crowd out of the corner of his eye, and his voice suddenly stopped.

After stagnant for a long time, just then cleared his throat, and said strangely: "The group of people... asked us to hand over the 'people', otherwise we will use a fire to burn down the Jinglian Temple."

As the voice fell, I saw the woman who had almost calmed down suddenly screamed shrilly, her whole body trembling, squatting on the ground and curled up into a ball, as if she was extremely frightened, she couldn't help but whisper: " They're coming...they're still coming."

Whether it's the servant who suddenly appeared outside the temple, or the behavior of the rich woman in front of him, people are confused and can't figure out the situation.

Even though Xuanlan was calm, she couldn't figure it out for a while, so she could only frown deeply, nodded to the younger brother who came to report the letter, and said in a deep voice:

"Go out and see."

After Xuanlan finished speaking, she turned around and looked in the direction of Zhang Qinglan and Ao Zhan, with an apologetic look on her face: "To avoid accidents, I kindly ask the two benefactors to go back to their rooms to rest first."

Zhang Qinglan glanced at the terrified woman calmly, then quickly withdrew her attention, met Xuanlan's earnest eyes, and replied, "That's natural."

"Master, you should also proceed with caution."

Xuan Lan nodded, and quickly led some of the monks out of the bell tower, and hurried towards the gate of the temple.

The remaining young novice monks supported the shivering woman and left to the guest house.Not long after, there were only the two of them left before the clock tower.

Zhang Qinglan stared at the direction where Xuanlan's back disappeared: "The people outside the temple should be targeting the woman from before."

Ao Zhan looked at the young man's thoughtful expression, raised his hand and rubbed the soft black hair on the top of the other's head: "Do you want to watch the excitement?"

Zhang Qinglan knew that Ao Zhan always sneered at the worldly affairs that had nothing to do with her, and she was ready to sneak away after returning to the house, but she didn't expect Ao Zhan to ask herself, so her eyes lit up slightly.

The young man nodded, and the corner of his mouth curled up in a slight arc: "Think."

Before the words fell, the scenery in front of him instantly became blurred.

There was the sound of whining wind, and Zhang Qinglan felt surrounded by waves of weightlessness, with Ao Zhan's powerful forearm across his waist, embracing his back.

When she came back to her senses, Zhang Qinglan realized that the two of them had already stood on the roof of the house closest to the temple, with bluestone tiles under their feet, condescending, and could see the situation outside the temple. Be clear.

I saw that outside the wall of Jinglian Temple, it was indeed surrounded by a group of servants holding sickles and spears in their hands.

The robes worn by the servants were of the same style, with a huge "Yu" character embroidered with red embroidery thread on the fabric on the back, and a round cap on the head with a plush red ball.

The servant was menacing, with a rough face like a wolf and a leopard.The leader was riding a tall horse, holding a long knife in his hand, and said proudly to the monk in front of him:

"As long as you hand over that bitch/person, you bald donkeys will be spared."