Ancient Assassin Meets Modern-day Career Woman

Chapter 46: Spirit

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In rainy weather, the signal is worse than in sunny weather.

Twenty-Seven searched for a long time before he found the place. Seeing that the message had finally been sent, he immediately turned around and went back - Ruan Qing needed someone to take care of him.

And she was afraid that animals might hurt her in the deep mountains.

He ran at full speed, rushed back to the ancient courtyard deep in the mountains, and headed straight for the back room.

Ruan Qing's bag is still there, but Ruan Qing is gone.

Twenty-Seven's heart sank, and he immediately rushed to the yard and called her loudly: "Ruan Qing? Ruan Qing?"

No one responded. But when I looked down, I saw footprints on the corridor. It turned out that she went forward.

Twenty-Seven's figure flashed, and he flew directly to the roof of the front yard: "Ruan Qing!"

He used his true Qi to make sounds, and the sound could be heard far away even in the rain. Faintly, Ruan Qing's voice was heard from the front: "I'm here—"

She is in the front hall.

When Twenty-Seven discovered this place, he did not come from the front of the building. He came from the side and jumped directly into the back room.

He was surprised: "What happened?"

I've only been there a few times.

Ruan Qing hurriedly pulled the paper back: "Dry your hands! Don't bring any water! Don't ruin this!"

It was the Taoist temple that Uncle Seventh had gone into the mountains for several times but couldn’t find.

Twenty-Seven walked past the plaque and walked in quickly.

Ershiqi has known Ruan Qing for half a month and has only seen her laughing, scolding and getting angry. This is the first time he has seen her cry like this.

Twenty-Seven felt relieved, and flew directly from the roof to the eaves of the front yard, then turned around and floated down to the ground.

Ruan Qing shouted from inside: "Twenty-seven..."

The incense table was in a mess, and the candlesticks had long since fallen over.

After finally controlling his emotions, he sniffed and finally said, "Twenty-seven, this is the Taoist temple."

It was obvious that Ruan Qing's crying was related to the yellowed papers in her hand, so he reached out to take it and have a look.

Because Zaojiao grew up in the mountains, the farthest place he has ever been to is a village in the mountains.

But Ruan Qing specifically said that this was a "Taoist temple", meaning that this was... the legendary Taoist temple where she planned to let Erqi borrow his identity.

The master said that when he was older, passed the exams, and wore the crown, he would give him the name of a Taoist. He also promised to take him down the mountain to travel and see the world.

Twenty-Seven walked up to Ruan Qing and said, "I know. Why are you crying?"

Now the box was open, and Ruan Qing was standing in front of it, lighting it with Erqi's mobile phone, holding a stack of yellowed papers in her hand, crying loudly.

Because the masters, uncles, and uncles claim to be wild men in the mountains, not concerned with worldly affairs.

But before he passed the examination, he heard that there was an invasion by foreign tribes at the foot of the mountain, with people being burned, killed and looted, and living in misery. The Taoist priest, who usually never left the mountain and cared about worldly affairs, put on a neat Taoist robe, carried a sharp sword, asked Zaojiao to look after the house, and then went down the mountain together.

This entrance is a temple-style building.

Because it was picked up under a soapberry tree, the master gave it the nickname "Soapberry".

It is said that Old Wu was a notorious bandit who was beaten into submission by his master and then tied up and taken to the mountains to sweep the ground and chop firewood for the temple.

The master imprisoned Old Wu for several years, and after seeing that he had truly reformed, he set him free and allowed him to leave. But Old Wu refused to leave and wanted to stay in the temple.

The man who wrote this suicide note was named Zaojiao, and he was the legendary little Taoist boy.

The master said that if he had the Tao in his heart, what was the importance of wearing a Taoist robe or combing his hair into a Taoist bun? It was not important.

He did not convert, but he followed everyone to do morning and evening classes, recite scriptures, and work every day.

Twenty-Seven looked at her and couldn't understand her emotions at all.

Twenty-Seven unbuttoned his raincoat, wiped his body and dried his hands before Ruan Qing handed him the papers.

Ruan Qing wiped her face, trying to calm herself down, but she burst into tears again.

The plaque had fallen to the ground and cracked. The rain washed away the dirt on it, and the three characters "Sanqing Temple" were clearly visible.

"The legends are all true," she said. "They really went down the mountain to fight the Japanese invaders and they really never came back."

As he spoke, tears suddenly burst out again.

Traditional Chinese characters, arranged vertically, the writing is quite ugly.

But as soon as he saw the plaque of "Sanqing Temple", he knew that this was a Taoist temple.

However, right in the middle where the incense burner should be placed, there was a box, which was still well preserved.

It was not written in one go. It was supplemented several times at different times.

The hall was dark, and the clothes on the statues of the Three Pure Ones had long been torn and tattered. The statues had also been cracked, and one was even completely cracked, with half of its body falling to the ground and shattered.

I had no choice but to lower my head and look at the light from my phone. It turned out to be a letter, or should I say, a suicide note.

Even the odd jobber Old Wu went there.

With a crying sound.

The soapberry was an abandoned baby that the master found under a soapberry tree. Since it was a boy, people guessed that it was probably an illegitimate child of a rich lady, who was thrown into the mountains to fend for himself.

The name of the Taoist temple is "Ye Ren Guan".

These are the original words of our Master.

As far as Zaojiao can remember, Lao Wu has been in the temple. The brothers often use Lao Wu's past to scare him, but Zaojiao never believes it. Lao Wu looks kind and gentle, and he drools while taking a nap in the sun. He doesn't look like a bandit at all.

But everyone wanted to go out of the mountains to suppress the bandits, so Lao Wu sharpened his wood-chopping axe to an extremely sharp point, put it at his waist, and prepared to go along.

Suddenly he became fierce.

Zaojiao felt that what his brothers said might be true. He might really have been a big thief.

In short, everyone went down the mountain together, leaving only the soapberry to guard the house.

Be careful with the candles, don’t burn the temple down, the master said, I’ll test you again when I come back, I’ve already thought of a Taoist name for you.

Zaojiao wanted to know what his Taoist name was in advance, but his master was very mean and refused to tell him in advance, and told him to do his homework well and wait for him to come back to check.

Zaojiao has always been very obedient and has taken good care of the house, not letting the candlelight burn down the temple.

He was growing up every day, slowly growing from a child to a teenager, and from a teenager to a young man. His own clothes had long been outgrown, but luckily there were clothes left by others in the box, clothes for more than a dozen people, and if he wore them sparingly, there would still be enough for him to wear for many years.

He took care of the vegetable garden and crops, cooked his own meals, swept the fields himself, recited scriptures and did his homework. He never dared to be lazy.

Otherwise, if my master or forefather comes back and I fail the exam, I don’t know when I can have my own Taoist name.

Occasionally, I would go out of the mountains and bring some wild animals to exchange for oil and salt.

The villagers said that he was the only one left and asked him why he didn't go out to live in the mountains.

He said he had to take good care of the house, otherwise what would he do if his master, ancestors and fellow brothers came back and beat him up

The villagers looked subtle, as if they wanted to say something.

Zaojiao seemed to know what they were going to say, but he didn't want to hear it, so he turned around and went back to the mountain.

One day, he rescued a group of babies in the mountains.

They were wearing green clothes and a red cloth circle on their arms.

He asked them what they were doing in the mountains. They said they heard there was a Taoist temple in the mountains and they came to destroy it.

Zaojiao was shocked and asked them why they wanted to destroy his Taoist temple.

The children looked at each other, and finally said weakly that Taoist temples and monasteries were all feudal and superstitious and belonged to the four olds, and now the four olds must be destroyed.

They explained it to him.

In short, the world outside has changed dramatically and is no longer the same as before.

He actually knew about it, and the villagers also talked about it before. He didn't like to listen, and every time they wanted to say something, he turned around and went back to the mountains.

But this time, he finally asked: Have the bandits outside the mountain been pacified

The kids were confused and had no idea what the thieves he was talking about were.

He said: People from overseas island countries who came across the sea, are ambitious, crazy, and want to swallow an elephant like a snake.

The kids understood and said: It was settled a long time ago, we were liberated a long time ago.

Soap nuts don’t care about liberation or not.

He said to himself: My master and his men went down the mountain to suppress the bandits. Now that they have suppressed the bandits, why haven’t they returned yet

The children understood and showed the same subtle expression as the villagers, as if they were hesitant to speak.

Zaojiao never listened to those people, actually it was because he knew what they were going to say, he just didn't want to listen.

This time, he looked at these young and immature children, talked to himself, and suddenly burst into tears.

I finally had to face the fact that my master, my great-grandmaster, my uncles, my uncles, Lao Wu and my fellow brothers would never come back.

The middle-aged man sat on the ground and pounded his fists, crying like a child, and scared the kids wearing red armbands.

He cried his heart out, stood up, wiped his tears, took the children out of the mountain and sent them outside.

After that, he never left the mountain again.

The outside world has changed, and people no longer accept his ideas and want to destroy them.

Then just ignore the outside world. Even if he is alone, Ye Ren Guan must be well maintained and no one can destroy it.

He grew his own food and vegetables, squeezed peanut oil from his own peanuts, and used animal blood to solve the problem of salt deficiency.

He spent so much time in the mountains that before he knew it, his body had become hunched and he no longer had as much strength as before.

When he realized that he might have to leave this world, he wrote this suicide note, explaining to his master, ancestors and fellow disciples why he was going down the mountain and what he was going to do.

They don't care whether people offer incense or not, but you can't bully people. You can't say that we have become old and you have to destroy our temple. That won't work.

He carved a tombstone for himself, made a wooden coffin, dug a hole, and was ready to lie down at any time.

But he did not die immediately after writing this will. So when he was still alive, he would add a few notes every once in a while to record that he was still alive.

Like a diary.

Normally, he would wrap the suicide note in three layers of oilcloth inside and three layers outside and put it in a wooden box.

The wooden box was sprinkled with powder and lime to prevent moisture, insects and rodents.

The wooden box was placed on the incense table in the Sanqing Hall.

He was always ready to face the death that would come with old age.

He has only two regrets:

First, after everyone came down the mountain, he was still lazy and didn't practice calligraphy properly, so his handwriting looked ugly.

Second, unfortunately, I don’t know what the Taoist name that Master has prepared for him is, and whether it sounds good or not.

With these two regrets, this suicide note ends here, and there will be no more content to be added.

Twenty-Seven couldn't understand why Ruan Qing was crying like this.

After reading the suicide note, he pondered for a moment and said, "This cannot be kept."

Ruan Qing didn't understand what he meant and looked at him blankly.

27 Explanation: "It can be seen from many places in this letter that he lives here alone. Then who am I and where do I come from?"

"Ruan Qing, if your plan is to succeed, you cannot keep this letter."

Does not being able to keep it mean that it should be destroyed

Ruan Qing was startled and grabbed Erqi's arm: "No! You can't destroy this thing. This must be seen by others! Must!"

Twenty-Seven looked at him incomprehensible.

Ruan Qing couldn't understand him either. How could he be so cold and indifferent? He was even so cruel that he wanted to destroy the letter.

What is recorded in this letter? It is the inheritance of Ye Ren Guan, the spirit of the Taoist priests! How could such a smart person not understand it

Ruan Qing looked at the confusion in Erqi's eyes, and suddenly he understood.

This is not 27's fault.

Because he doesn't belong to this time and space at all!

In prosperous times, he lived in seclusion in the mountains; in troubled times, he went down the mountains to suppress bandits.

What kind of chaotic world is this? What kind of bandits are we suppressing

What did those bandits do to this country, this nation, and the people of this land

Twenty-seven doesn’t know at all!

That is not the history of the 27th at all.

(End of this chapter)