Although Qinghe Town is only a small town, there are many nearby villages. Every time there are temple fairs, villagers from the villages will flood into the town, blocking the town to overcrowding.
It was already night when we came down the mountain to the town, and the town where there were few pedestrians in the past was decorated with lights and colorful, and there was a lot of people. Naturally, it can't compare to the bustling and colorful night market in Yiyang City, but the agricultural products brought by the nearby villagers and the goods of the grocery sellers make the temple fair unique.
Temple fairs are usually held for several days, gradually attracting some wandering entertainers. Therefore, in addition to the hustle and bustle of the crowd, the night sky is also mixed with melodious singing music and the yelling of buskers... It is very lively.
Zhou Ziruo pulled Lu Lixiao to squeeze in from this crowd and squeeze out from that crowd, he was new to everything. There was a peddler who set up a ring stall, and he asked for fifty bamboo rings in one breath, but he couldn't get anything from the nearest small wood carving to the farthest big doll. black face.
Lu Lixiao waited behind with arms folded, completely watching from the sidelines, the peddler came to ask Zhou Ziruo if he wanted any more bamboo rings, but Zhou Ziruo refused.
It doesn't matter if you don't get the prizes, he doesn't care about those prizes, but face is important! How can anyone not get even a single hair in fifty circles! Lu Lixiao just stood there and watched him make a fool of himself, even though he winked a few times, he didn't help, and if he didn't leave, would he make it a joke for others
Squeezing out from the crowd, he heard the faint music floating in the air. Zhou Ziruo looked around and saw a few sparse circles of people in a corner not far away.
It stands to reason that there are so few onlookers, so it shouldn't be something interesting, but Zhou Ziruo walked over by accident. He squeezed through the crowd and came to the front row, just as a piece of soft silk gauze brushed past his eyes, and the water-red long dress With the graceful rotation of the dancers, it looks like a lotus flower blooming, reflecting the red lights and undulating like clouds in the night wind!
It turned out that it was a song and dance artist performing songs and dances. Compared with lively activities such as juggling games, this kind of dance music with a soft rhythm is indeed too|quiet, no wonder there are not many people watching. But Zhou Ziruo watched it with gusto. The school beauty he had a crush on when he was in college was a dancer. Every time the school held an evening party, the school beauty's solo dance was one of the must-have programs. Back then, Zhou Ziruo and so many male classmates were caught on the stage. The dancing posture that is as light as a surprise and graceful as a dragon is mesmerizing!
The dance of the woman in the red dress with long sleeves in front of her had such an ethnic taste, as for which ethnicity Zhou Ziruo was naturally unable to tell. Not only the dance, but the music and singing of the accompanying dancers are not like the Central Plains style.
The dancer's face finally turned towards Zhou Ziruo's direction, and he looked over expectantly. His originally leisurely mood was immediately covered by dark clouds, and there was a loud "hum" in his mind! He couldn't possibly fail to recognize this face in his entire life—this dancing girl was so similar to Du Hanfeng's silk puppet, Ting'er! !
Ting'er—that is, Su Wan—had been laid to rest on the second day after Du Hanfeng was captured. Head Qiu and Ouyang Yi personally arranged the tombstone. The tombstone stood next to Duan Peng's tombstone. It is absolutely impossible for the dancer in front of me to be Ting'er... But why is it so similar to Ting'er's appearance
Zhou Ziruo had already calmed down after a short period of panic, he turned his eyes to the musician in puzzlement, and was surprised again.
The luthier who accompanies the music sits cross-legged in the shadow of the corner. Compared with the dancers, the sense of presence is almost zero. If you don't look for it on purpose, no one will notice it, and even if you do, you won't take a second look. But Zhou Ziruo not only watched too much, he couldn't even take his eyes away. The man was dressed in a dark gray robe that fell from his head to his feet, and only his eyes were exposed from the whole body. At this moment, his black eyelashes were drooping, making it difficult to see the expression in his eyes. He was concentrating on playing the mahogany yueqin in his arms. Flowing quietly in the air.
That person was actually the woman in Yiyang City who gave Zhou Ziruotang a painting of a spirit fox.
The woman recognized Zhou Zi at first sight as a fox demon, and he must be a sorcerer. If so, then the dancer at the moment...
"Silk puppet." At this moment, Lu Lixiao's low voice rang out behind his ears.
Zhou Ziruo turned his head and whispered, "Dancing girl...?"
Lu Lixiao nodded lightly: "The puppet-making technique is very clever, countless times better than Master Du's."
If Zhou Zi looked at the dancing silk puppet, the woman's every move was extremely graceful, probably no one in the audience would have thought that she was not alive, but after watching for a long time, it is not difficult to find that the expression on the woman's pretty face is indifferent. Seems to have a heart.
"Brother Xiao, she looks so similar to Ting'er... Could it be..." Zhou Ziruo denied it as soon as he had an idea. The only one who can control the puppet is the maker. Well, when Du Hanfeng was twelve years old, Zuo Le was not even born yet!
"Coincidence..." Zhou Ziruo murmured.
Lu Lixiao didn't respond, his deep eyes turned to the woman with fluttering skirts on the field, and finally stopped at the musician in the corner.
Although the singing and dancing were exquisite, the participation was not high after all. After a long time, the audience left a few pennies and dispersed. In the end, only Lu Lixiao and Zhou Ziruo were left.
The gray-robed woman played the last note without haste and stood up holding the mahogany Yueqin. She raised her head and looked at the two of them. The light in her black eyes faintly turned into a smile. At that moment, Zhou Ziruo had a feeling, She recognized him as the little fox in Yiyang City!
Lu Lixiao stepped forward, clasped his fists at the woman, and said, "Senior."
Zhou Ziruo, who was catching up, opened his mouth in surprise, and kept looking at the woman up and down. Even if he couldn't see his face, his light movements, his white hands, and his clear voice didn't look like the age when Lu Lixiao called him senior! Lu Lixiao's behavior is as bad as a 21st century high school student calling a 25-year-old woman Auntie! !
However, the gray-robed woman was not at all displeased with the word "senior", and asked kindly, "Are you disciples of Qingyang Mountain?"
"Exactly."
The gray-robed woman said: "The disciples of Qingyang Mountain are indeed outstanding."
"Senior, do you know people from Qingyang Mountain?" Lu Lixiao asked.
The gray-robed woman slowly shook her head, "Nothing. It's just that I have been performing in Qinghe Town for a few days for more than 40 years, and met some Qingyang Mountain disciples who came down from the mountain. At that time, it was not as lively as today's temple fair. There were only a few people on the street, and it was snowing heavily, and the whole town was covered in silver, and it was very deserted... "
More than forty years ago... almost when Du Hanfeng was a teenager, Zhou Ziruo counted, so Tinger was really made by Du Hanfeng after the woman in red? How old was the gray-robed woman at that time? She really doesn't look like a goofy old lady at all!
Just when Zhou Ziruo questioned his observation ability, he heard Lu Lixiao say to the woman in gray robe: "Senior will never age, right?"
The gray-robed woman's eyes were somewhat surprised, and after half a moment, she sighed softly: "That year, I would not grow up again when I completed the ceremony in the clan... Before I knew it, a hundred years had passed..."
century?
It's no wonder that she can only be a wandering entertainer, and she has to cover her face, otherwise if she stays in one place for a long time, she won't grow old if she stays in one place for a long time, and she might be regarded as a monster!
Zhou Ziruo was not too surprised that this gray-robed woman would not age. After all, even goblins, ghosts, and puppets with higher martial strength than living people appeared in the world view of this cheating game. There is nothing to be surprised about an immortal person. .
The woman in red walked obediently behind the woman in gray robe, and the woman in gray robe brushed away a fallen leaf stuck in her hair with her hand, her movements were very gentle, her eyes were gentle, it was not like treating a lifeless puppet at all.
Lu Lixiao glanced at the woman in red, and asked, "Is this silk puppet made by living people?"
The hands of the gray-robed woman paused for a moment, and then continued to carefully trim the hair of the red-clothed woman. After tidying up, the woman in red consciously walked to the white horse tethered under the tree, opened the four-wheeled box dragged behind the white horse, voluntarily got in, and closed the lid.
Zhou Ziruo suddenly realized that the puppet in Yiyang City was in that box that night.
The woman in the gray robe has been watching the figure of the puppet disappear completely with soft eyes, and said softly to herself: "She is my sister, she has been gone a long time ago. We have been inseparable since we were young, and she always said that she would never leave I...so I used this method...to keep us inseparable forever."
This woman has a long lifespan, and her relatives and friends will eventually become passers-by in her life, leaving her alone to wander the world. Even if Zhou Ziruo couldn't empathize with that kind of loneliness, she knew that it must be maddeningly sad. She wanted to leave her important person behind, which is not so incomprehensible... and the woman in red looked young, presumably She died at a very young age, and she couldn't accept it, so she wanted to keep her younger sister, which was not surprising.
Lu Lixiao, however, changed his usual moodiness, and said in a deep voice: "To make the dead into a spiritual puppet requires part of the soul of the dead, and if the soul is incomplete, reincarnation cannot be reincarnated! A person's death is buried in the earth for peace, and the soul enters the six realms of rebirth. , Is it really meaningful to leave it in the world against the way of heaven? Seniors know how many innocent people have been implicated by the demonic barriers bred by this determined act... "
The gray-robed woman looked at him suspiciously, as if she didn't quite understand what he said. Lu Lixiao suddenly stopped talking, and his expression returned to his usual silent and indifferent expression, while the hand hanging by his side tightly clenched his fist. Worried, Zhou Ziruo gently wrapped his hands around Lu Lixiao's fist, carefully rubbed his thumb against the back of his hand, and helped him loosen the fist slowly.
Du Hanfeng's obsession with the puppet who caught a glimpse of it and became crazy was the starting point of all tragedies back then.
Duan Peng and Suwan died innocently, Siqin Jiangyue was expelled from the sect, Jiangyue Palace was established, there was a bloodbath at the Immortal Alliance Conference, the tragedy in Lujiacun, the Leng family was wiped out overnight... If there is no original source, maybe none of this would have happened, maybe People who survived these tragedies would have very different happy lives today.
But these are not the gray robe woman's fault, these things have nothing to do with her at all, Lu Lixiao is just venting his anger, even though he is such a rational and calm person, there are always things that will make him helpless and confused like a trapped animal. He knew he was just venting his anger, and he knew it was meaningless to say it now.
"The younger generation offended, seniors don't blame."
Lu Lixiao bent down and put down a silver ingot, turned and left, Zhou Ziruo hurriedly bowed and apologized to the gray-robed woman, and hurriedly chased after her.
The gray-robed woman watched their backs disappear into the dark night, picked up the silver ingot on the ground, her eyes gradually darkened.
Tonight was the last night of the temple fair, and she had no plan to stay overnight in Qinghe Town, so she put away the Yueqin and other items, and led the white horse out of the town.
It was late at night, and several robbers who were standing guard in the weeds on the side of the road outside the town jumped out with big knives in their hands, and before they could finish their threatening shout, the big knives in their hands smashed to the ground, The whole body seemed to be bound by a thick and hard rope, unable to move, and could only watch the woman lead the white horse slowly away thoughtfully.
By the dawn of the next day, the white horse had reached the top of the green mountain.
The gray-robed woman got off her horse and stood on the edge of the cliff. The sun was slowly rising from behind the cliff as far as the eye could see.
The gray-robed woman sighed in astonishment, and after admiring the beauty of the sunrise for a long time, she turned her head slightly and said, "Your Excellency has followed me all night, what's your business?"
A group of people appeared on the top of the mountain silently, led by two men. If Lu Lixiao and Zhou Ziruo were here, they would have recognized it immediately. Among the two men, the tall, strong, square-headed and big-eared man was pretending to be Killing Fox Fort Han. The martial arts champion of the government coach!
Different from the appearance of Wu Zhuangyuan Fangfei, the white-clothed man beside him is tall and handsome, gentle and jade-like, and he is not flustered when he is found to be following him. According to the order of the palace lord, Miss Cang Shuiyao is invited as a guest."
"I heard about the Crimson Moon Palace decades ago. I'm just a marginal person in this world, and I don't want to get involved in the struggle between good and evil." The gray-robed woman said.
Gu Jue said: "Palace Master has something very important to ask Miss Cang, and will not force you to be an enemy of all the immortal families."
The woman in the gray robe smiled and turned her head. The howling wind on the top of the mountain blew off the veil, and the misty morning light reflected on the beautiful face. Under the pale sky.
Gu Jue didn't take his eyes off suddenly, and looked at those quiet eyes for a long time before he suddenly regained his composure, opened his eyes sideways and said, "My...that's abrupt!"
"Crimson Moon Palace... Do I have to go?" the gray-robed woman asked.
Gu Jue's original ease of use was gone, and he replied: "Miss, you can rest assured, the palace master keeps his word, and I will do my best to protect your safety!"
The gray-robed woman once again looked into the distance, the morning light was rushing, the sea of clouds was surging, and she sighed softly with regret.
The author has something to say: Gu Jue is the reader of the last article My Style got his name, thank you~!
I will talk about the third brother in the follow-up episode, his sponsorship in the main text has been used up~
The second volume [Drawing the Silk Play] is over with this chapter, because I am the kind of person who can’t make an outline too detailed, so this case is actually thinking while writing, and sometimes I get caught up in it and don’t know what to do. How did you decrypt it/(ㄒoㄒ)/~~
In fact, my original inspiration for this case was Cang Shuiyao and her sister, but in fact, these two soul figures basically did not appear in the case, um. . .