Yin Qing naturally didn't care what the three Du family members in front of the stone table were thinking. Anyway, this was a great opportunity to pick fire dates.
The jujube tree has lush branches and leaves, and the bright red dates are hidden among the green, mostly at high places.
This date is bigger than ordinary dates. In fact, if you really compare it, it is three times the size of a normal green date, but there is no comparison now.
After climbing to a higher place in a few steps, Yin Qing stretched out his hand towards the nearest one with excitement. Holding the dates in one hand seemed full. At this time, the three people from the Du family discovered that the young man's movements suddenly became gentle.
Then I heard the young man start to speak, and I couldn't tell whether he was talking to himself or, even more ridiculously, speaking to the jujube tree.
"The jujube tree, that hero Du down there is an old acquaintance of Mr. Ji. He has known Mr. Ji for a long time. He has only come here once in three years. Is it okay to eat some jujubes?"
Yin Qing looked at the three members of the Du family who were below and were full of curiosity, and after saying this he pulled it carefully.
With a "pop", the big red dates were pulled off.
"Hahahaha… That's great! I let you pick them. I really let you pick them!"
If Yin Qing hadn't been on the tree, he would have danced with joy, but now he could only clap his hands and twist his body a few times to express his excitement.
This scene scared Du Heng. What would happen if the boy got hurt
"Let's go watch under the tree and catch him if he falls!"
"okay!"
Following Du Heng's order, the three of them stopped sitting at the stone table and quickly stood up and walked closer, fearing that Yin Qing would fall from the jujube tree if he moved too much.
Yin Qing didn't care. He sniffed the fragrance of the dates, swallowed his saliva, and then threw it to Du Heng.
"Master Du, hold on! Don't let it fall to the ground!"
Du Heng saw a flash of fire thrown at him, stretched out his left hand and gently took it, subconsciously looking at the dates, which were round, plump and deep red, and very appetizing at first glance.
After picking one, Yin Qing became bolder and reached out to grab another one.
"You can't just give Hero Du a date, right?"
As he spoke, he pulled again and picked another date with a "snap".
"Hehe! I can't taste the flavors of them all at once. There are three of them, and it's hard for me to pick the dates..."
Yin Qing kept chattering and reached out to grab the red dates, one, two, three, four, and pulled off seven in total. When he just grabbed the eighth one, he felt the branch twist slightly.
Oops, the jujube tree won’t let me grow anymore!
"Just one more, just one more, just one more!"
Yin Qing kept begging, and he just kept pulling without losing any strength in his hands.
"Rustle...rustle..."
The jujube branches twisted like a breeze, and no matter how hard Yin Qing tried, the red dates in his hand remained unchanged. Then a branch swept across Yin Qing's neck.
“Ahhhhhh…!”
Yin Qing felt an itch on his neck and his body lost its center, falling from the tree. One of the Du family members below hurriedly reached out to catch him and held the boy in his arms.
However, Yin Qing was not annoyed at all when he fell down. He just sighed and muttered as he looked at the date on the tree that he could not pick.
"Hey, only seven. How stingy! How stingy!"
Du Heng and others looked at each other in bewilderment. This young man was too reckless in climbing the tree to pick fruit. He was muttering to himself and didn't hold on firmly. If they hadn't been there, he would have definitely fallen and hurt himself.
"Brother Yin, it's too unsteady for you to climb a tree like this. Today we are the only ones here. Don't be so reckless next time!"
One of the Du family members tried to persuade him, but Yin Qing obviously didn't care at all.
"It's okay. You will fall down only because of me. Otherwise, you will definitely not fall down."
This sounded strange to the Du family. Could it be that we are to blame
"Alright, alright, I won't say any more. Hehe, look at these red dates. You couldn't even see them before, let alone eat them!"
Yin Qing opened his pocket, revealing six large dates inside. Together with the one in Du Heng's hand, there were seven bright red dates in total, each as big as a child's fist.
Several people sat back on the stone table, and the seven dates were arranged in a row. Yin Qing immediately grabbed one.
"This is my reward!"
After explaining, he looked at the other two members of the Du family, and then spoke to Du Heng.
"There are six left. You take four. They are lucky, so they each get one!"
When Yin Qing said this, he acted like an adult.
"Why do we only have one?"
One of the Du family members argued blankly.
"You're lucky to have one. Didn't you see that I only have one? If you hadn't come here with Master Du, I wouldn't have any!"
Yin Qing retorted with two sentences.
"You only have one? You can just pick any one you want to eat!"
The Du family boy was only three or four years older than Yin Qing. He knew it was pointless to argue with a teenager but he still said something.
Yin Qing looked at the jujube tree angrily.
"Just pick one for me and see. If you can pick it, you're awesome!"
"Pick it if you want!"
The two of them were arguing, and Du Heng couldn't stand it anymore.
"Hey, Du Yue, this is someone else's place, why do you have to be so nosy?"
After teaching them a lesson, Du Heng also thanked Yin Qing. It looked like these dates were not ordinary, and it was very polite to use them to treat them.
"Hey, Master Du is sensible. Stop standing there and eat them quickly. Even the emperor would be greedy for these dates!"
Yin Qing made a joke and hurriedly started to nibble on his own. The crisp sound and the fragrant smell made the three Du family members who smelled it salivate.
Without hesitation, they picked up the dates and started eating them.
"Crunch" when they took a bite, the three Du family members' eyes widened. The fresh fragrance exploded on the tip of their tongue, making people unable to help but chew and gnaw it non-stop.
After swallowing the jujube juice and jujube meat, it felt like drinking strong liquor. My stomach felt warm, and there was even a warm current flowing through my body.
"This date, could it be some kind of natural treasure?"
Du Heng was startled, and by the time he realized what was happening, he had already eaten up the dates in his hand.
The other two members of the Du family swallowed their saliva and looked at the remaining three dates on the table.
Even though Du Heng was extremely reluctant, he still pushed out two more dates to share with his cousin. Before he could say anything, Yin Qing reached out and took the two dates back.
"No, you are the only one who can eat these dates! Hero Yang Guo has the rare snake gallbladder, and Hero Du has the fire dates. They can't move anymore!"
The other Du family member wanted to say something, but Yin Qing seemed to see through him and pointed at the branches of the jujube tree above his head.
"Want to eat? Pick it yourself. I allow you to pick it. Go ahead!"
"Pick it if you want!"
After eating the dates, the Du family member could no longer bear it. He leaped onto the date tree and grabbed the nearest big red date.
I pulled gently, but the dates seemed to be stuck to the branch and wouldn't come off. I exerted more force, and the whole branch bent, but the fruits remained motionless.
"Come down! Drink..."
The Du family disciple used his strength and qi, and as a result, the jujube branch became more and more bent, and the rebounding force became stronger and stronger, and then suddenly the force involved in his hand increased sharply, and the whole person was like being ejected by a slingshot.
“Ah~~~~”
The Du family disciple was unexpectedly catapulted into the air by a jujube branch. With nowhere to gain leverage, he waved his arms around in the air, and then lost weight and fell down.
Fortunately, he was a warrior, and when he fell, he grabbed a branch to gain leverage. However, the branch was even more slippery than a loach, and it slipped out of his hand after he paused for a moment...
Then with a "bang", the Du family member fell to the ground.
"Ouch...hiss...I had already eased my fall...but the branch shifted my center of gravity again..."
The Du family disciple stood up with a grin on his face. He should have been able to stand upright after landing when he fell down and grabbed the branch.
“Rustle… rustle… rustle…”
The branches and leaves of the entire jujube tree moved without wind, making a rustling sound as they shook left and right, causing the three Du family members to subconsciously look up.
The shaking of the branches became more and more violent, and there was even a feeling that the shadows were connected into one and blocked the sunlight. It seemed very strange, and the three people felt a little numb on their scalps, as if the jujube tree was laughing at them.
This scene lasted for several breaths, and there was clearly no wind around.
"Hehe, how's it going? Did you take it off?"
Yin Qing snorted, breaking the faint sense of fear in the hearts of the three people. Looking at the tree again, it had gradually calmed down, but no one thought that what had just happened was an illusion.
Du Heng suddenly remembered the tiger spirit on Niukui Mountain, and the word "demon" appeared in his mind, but he thought again and felt that something was wrong. Looking at the dates on the table, he felt like he was facing a fairy fruit.
. . .
The Chinese New Year is coming soon and the festive atmosphere has already begun in Ning'an County. Yin Qing not only has to help "dust" the house, but also has to take care of Ju'an Xiaoge.
After the three members of the Du family helped Yin Qing clean up the small pavilion, they said goodbye and left. They did not want to trouble Yin's mother to cook for them, and they had no plans to stay in Ning'an County for long.
Yin Qing was still very young after all, and Ji Yuan's description was not complete at the time. The story of the Condor Hero that he wrote down was not many words, at most an overview, with the beginning and the middle only briefly mentioned, and the ending was the one that was described in great detail.
Without Yin Qing's own imagination, the Du family was just amazed that this man had gone through so many hardships but still achieved so much, but they did not have much sense of substitution.
But after experiencing the jujube tree incident, at least Du Heng had fewer doubts about the historical existence of the Condor Hero himself.
Compared with his two cousins, he had a stronger sense of empathy, especially when he felt the pain of a broken arm. Half a year after returning home, his arm eventually became necrotic and had to be amputated. The despair and sorrow woke Du Heng up many times in the night.
But the conversation with Wei Wuwei at the Wei family's full moon banquet and what he saw and heard in Ju'an Pavilion made Du Heng's lonely heart ignite a flame.
The three men were riding horses wearing cloaks, and they felt warm in the same cold wind because of the fire dates. Du Heng, who ate three of them directly, felt heat flowing through his body, as if he had endless strength, and with every breath he exhaled, his true qi circulated to the major acupoints throughout his body.
'The first one was so powerful, you are the second one!'
Yin Qing's clear voice was still echoing in Du Heng's mind, and combined with the power of the fire dates, his heart was burning. In that short and complete story, Yang Guo didn't even have anyone to help him, but he, Du Heng, at least still had the Du family!
"So what if I don't have the left-handed sword technique? My Du family's mad swordsmanship with the right hand didn't just fall from the sky!"
Du Heng suddenly whispered this, an unexpressed feeling brewing in his chest, the next moment he suddenly slapped his left hand behind his back on horseback and drew his sword, leaped up and spun in the air, then swung his arm and the sword fiercely forward.
Brush~~
The blade cut through the cold wind, creating a half-moon around Du Heng.
Then Du Heng landed on the horse's back again, jumped into the air, and slashed from the other direction with his sword.
His body rose and fell, and he used the twelve styles of mad sword that he had practiced countless times with his left hand sword. His force became stronger and stronger, and his momentum became more and more fierce. Every time he exerted his strength, a heat current rose up and filled his meridians.
When the last move of Flipping Clouds and Stepping on Waves was performed, Du Heng opened his mouth and roared wildly.
"This calamity is broken from now on~~~!"
Swish~~ The sharp edge of the blade swept forward and tore through the north wind, causing a brief period of windlessness ahead.
He took a deep breath and floated down from the air, then put away his sword and sat back on the horse. Du Heng was very excited as he breathed heavily. This was the first time in more than three years that he had used all twelve moves. It was much smoother than when his right arm was intact, and he did it on horseback.
This martial arts performance gave Du Heng a huge boost of confidence, and even his internal strength, which had been declining, was boosted.
"Hiss... huh...hiss... huh..."
The cold wind entered his stomach with his deep breaths and turned into a hot current inside his abdomen. Just now in his imagination, Du Heng had already chopped his decadent self into pieces piece by piece.
The two cousins stood behind with their mouths slightly open, their mood was a bit indescribable. From the hesitation in the beginning to the arrogance in putting the knife away at the end, the cousin seemed like a different person.
"Don't dawdle, hurry back to Desheng Mansion, give the remaining date to Patriarch Wei and then go home. We won't be able to make it to New Year's Eve, but we still have to go home to celebrate this year!"
As his mood changed, Du Heng's voice also changed, becoming more concise and sharper.
. . .
In a chess hall somewhere in Gyeonggi Prefecture, Ji Yuan, who was watching two old men playing chess, was suddenly stunned. He lowered his head to look at the chess piece that appeared in his hand, and vaguely saw Du Heng swinging his sword with one arm to cut through the wind and snow.
It's just... the appearance of this chess piece is a bit strange.