In Yong'an City, the sky cleared up after the snow. It was the winter market, and the lanterns, spring couplets, fireworks and firecrackers were all filled with the joy of the approaching New Year.
"Tanghulu~delicious Tanghulu~"
"Shopkeeper, give me a bowl of wontons."
"Take a look, take a look, and you will feel a huge stone in your heart. The rich can show their support with money, and the poor can show their support with their presence."
"Dad, go back and weigh out some maltose for the kids later."
In Yong'an City, there are vehicles and pedestrians, vendors are calling out their wares, and steaming buns are being steamed in the roadside steamer baskets.
People in coarse cloth drove donkey carts to the market, and young men and women in elegant clothes peeked out of the horse-drawn carriages.
Jiang Yuebai was dressed like a chivalrous knight, wearing a coarse blue robe, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and had an ordinary appearance.
He was short of money and happened to see someone in the crowded bun stall in front of him twirling a sharp knife and taking people's wallets.
Jiang Yuebai walked over and bumped into the thief lightly, and got the purse. The thief's belt broke, and in public... Hmm!
"Give me a sugar painting. I want the one with a dragon."
"Okay~ Happy New Year to Kowloon, I wish you great success and good health in the new year."
Jiang Yuebai took the sugar painting, and based on this blessing, she directly gave it a dime, since the money was not hers anyway.
Following the route he remembered, Jiang Yuebai walked through the bustling streets and headed towards the remote Huaihua Lane in the west of the city.
Pedestrians on the road kept a distance from the crowd and held their children close.
"It's already past noon. We have to hurry back from the city. Be careful not to run into monsters that want to catch children."
"Now it's not just children that are being arrested. I heard from the head of the police station in the city that most of the people who have disappeared recently are girls and women between the ages of fifteen or sixteen and twenty-five or twenty-six. It's like they were abducted by monsters out of thin air. There's no trace of them at all."
Jiang Yuebai bit the candy painting and frowned. Is there really a problem? Let's wait and see at night. Most of the demons that appear in the mortal world come out at night when the yin energy is strong.
When they arrived at Huaihua Lane, Jiang Yuebai stopped a woman who was returning home from buying groceries and asked about Shen Jinghao's residence.
At that time, people in the Lin Mansion only knew that this female teacher was an orphan and had a scholar in her ancestor. She went to various wealthy families in Yong'an City to teach the female members of their families to read and write.
Apart from that, she also remembered that the female teacher said that her lifelong ambition was to go to the capital of Yun State, pass the imperial examination, and become a court lady.
So Jiang Yuebai hoped that she no longer lived here.
"Who are you to Shen Jinghao? Why are you asking about that filthy woman who is not faithful to her husband?"
The middle-aged woman in front of him had a mean look on her face, and Jiang Yuebai's face suddenly fell.
"What happened to her?"
The middle-aged woman was carrying a basket of vegetables. When she heard Jiang Yuebai's question, she became interested. She was not in a hurry to open the door and go home, but started talking to her.
"That filthy woman had been married to Lin's family for only half a year when her husband died of illness. She didn't stay with him and hooked up with a poor scholar passing by and wanted to elope with him. When Lin's people found out, they were doing her a favor by not throwing her into a pig cage."
"I'll lock her up in this old house now. She's unfaithful to her husband and deserves this fate. If I were her mother, I'd beat her to death on the spot."
"What the hell are you talking about, you old bitch!"
There was a sudden shout from the other side, and a brightly dressed woman kicked the door open.
"Why can't you remarry after your husband dies? Why do you have to stay with him? We don't have such rules in Yun Country. You are just bullying Madam Jinghao because she can read and observe etiquette."
"You are the same kind of person as her. You mess around after your man dies. How unlucky."
"I'll tear your mouth apart!!"
The two suddenly started fighting, scratching each other's faces and pulling each other's hair. The scene was like that of shrews fighting, and Jiang Yuebai was so frightened that he stepped back repeatedly.
"Murder! The widow of the Wang family has killed someone! Ouch!"
"Bah! Be careful with me from now on. If you dare to gossip about me again, I will beat you and your husband and son together! What are you looking at? Get out of here!"
With this aura, even the Foundation Establishment Immortal would be afraid!
Not far away, Jiang Yuebai saw a dilapidated house surrounded by weeds, sitting alone in the depths of the alley. There were two servants at the door, holding long sticks and chatting with their hands in their pockets.
"If you ask me, this Jinghao lady is pitiful. Who in Yong'an City can match her talent? The teachers in the private school can't argue with her. The last time the right prime minister passed by our Yong'an City, he praised her."
"The bad thing is this compliment. It will make her famous in Qingzhou. Our old lady has asked someone to ask the higher authorities to erect a chastity arch for her. My son, who is studying with the third young master, told me that the higher authorities have always wanted to abolish the system of women serving as officials in the court. At this critical juncture, it will be easy for the decree to erect a chastity arch to come down."
"I heard that she was forced to marry into the Lin family... Hmm? Did you see a figure flash by just now?"
Jiang Yuebai climbed up to the roof quietly and saw that the yard was different from the outside. It was clean and tidy everywhere, without a speck of dust.
Green smoke curled up from the incense burner. A young woman in white clothes and with her hair loose sat quietly by the window, holding a book in her hands, with gentle eyes and brows, reading quietly.
"Master, do you still remember me?"
Shen Jinghao looked up when he heard the voice, and was surprised to see the young girl suddenly appear in front of him.
Jiang Yuebai had wiped off all traces of disguise on her face, revealing her original appearance. Shen Jinghao stared at her for a long while and shook his head slightly.
Jiang Yuebai also looked at Shen Jinghao for a moment. When they first met in the Lin Mansion, Shen Jinghao was no more than sixteen years old. Now he is twenty-five, and has lost his youthfulness and become more mature.
If it weren't for the open-minded policy of Yun State towards women at that time, she, an unmarried girl, would not have been able to enter the Lin Mansion to teach with the introduction of an acquaintance.
Jiang Yuebai smiled, "The sky is clear and the moon is white, the heart is calm and the seagulls know it, you should still remember this poem, right?"
Shen Jinghao's eyes suddenly opened wide, he opened his mouth and made a hoarse sound, and stood up with his body trembling slightly.
Jiang Yuebai was also shocked, "What's wrong with your throat? Could it be that... they poisoned you and made you mute?"
Shen Jinghao rushed to Jiang Yuebai from behind the desk, grabbed Jiang Yuebai's hands and looked at her carefully. For some reason, her eyes were filled with tears and guilt.
She hurriedly walked to the desk, squeezed her shaking hands, and picked up the pen to write.
The hairpin-flowered small calligraphy is as beautiful as ever.
[I thought you were gone, how did you escape that day...]
Jiang Yuebai interrupted Shen Jinghao before she finished writing and pressed two fingers on her throat to feel it carefully.
Then he took out a lowest-level detoxification pill, pinched off a piece smaller than a sesame seed, and put it into a teacup to dissolve it.
"Drink it and you should be able to talk."
Shen Jing was so stunned. Facing Jiang Yuebai's firm gaze, she took the teacup, covered her face with her sleeves and drank it slowly.
As soon as the water was swallowed, the effect of the medicine spread and Shen Jinghao's eyes opened wider and wider.
"I… "
Just one word, a slight sound, was enough to make Shen Jing cover her mouth in disbelief, tears streaming down her face.
"I... can speak... I can really speak..."
At the same time, there was a hint of awe in Shen Jing's eyes when she looked at Jiang Yuebai. She had been poisoned for more than a year, and Madam Wang had been secretly looking for doctors and medicine for her, but none of them could cure her.
But Jiang Yuebai's tiny amount of medicine, which was smaller than a sesame seed, made her speak, and her body felt relaxed and comfortable, her hands and feet became warm, and she felt as if the disease that had plagued her for many years had disappeared.
It is impossible for an ordinary person to have such extraordinary abilities.
"Are you... an immortal?"
There is one more chapter today with 400 monthly tickets.
Weekends or daily updates~
(End of this chapter)