Sun Ji’s braised noodles and offal are still as delicious as they were before, or it can be said that it is more like the taste of hometown. After coming to this world, Ning’an County is undoubtedly Ji Yuan’s hometown.
Over the years, Sun Ji's location has not changed, the taste has not changed, the portion has not changed, and the price has not changed. Except for the stall owner looking a little older, everything remains the same.
After Ji Yuan finished his meal, he paid for the noodles, exchanged a few words with Old Man Sun, and then left for the temple.
The shop assistants in Miaowailou have changed two, but the shop owner, a businessman like him, still recognized Ji Yuan after a few careful glances, and even remembered the dim sum and Huadiao wine that Ji Yuan liked to buy the most back then.
Even Ji Yuan was a little surprised by this. After all, unlike Old Man Sun who were mostly regular customers, Miaowailou had a lot of customers every day. When he walked out of Miaowailou carrying two packed boxes of snacks and two pots of Huadiao wine, although he had figured it out, he still felt comfortable about it. It's always good to be remembered by others.
Business people like this will pay extra attention to some special customers. In a small place like Ning'an County, Ji Yuan is also a person who needs special care in the eyes of the shopkeeper. Without mentioning Ji Yuan's own affairs, to put it another way, he is also a good friend of the top scholar.
When Ji Yuan walked out of the temple building and headed towards the City God Temple, a young new waiter in the building asked the shopkeeper a question in confusion.
"Boss, who is that Mr. Ji just now? Why are you so enthusiastic?"
The shopkeeper turned around to look at the waiters in the store, but before he could say anything, a diner next to him spoke first. This person had just exchanged a few words with Ji Yuan.
"He is the Master Ji Yuan who used to live in Ju'an Pavilion. You have also heard the story about the jujube tree that bore fruit overnight to send the master home."
"Ah? There really is such a person!"
“Hehehe…”
The shopkeeper behind the counter smiled and shook his head, and the diner was amused.
"Oh, so you didn't believe that? So you thought I was lying when I said I tasted the April dates?"
"How can that be possible? Haha..."
The shop assistant evaded the question with a vague reply and hurriedly went to clean the table elsewhere with a towel.
Instead, it was the shopkeeper who sighed.
"Today, a pilgrim who came to burn morning incense told me that the whole Tianniufang was filled with fragrance, and the aroma of jujube flowers had spread to the surrounding alleys and shops along the street. It turned out that Mr. Ji had returned!"
The diner who had just teased the waiter was shocked when he heard this.
"Is this true?"
"Well, I suppose it is so!"
... ...
Not to mention the brief discussion about Ji Yuan in the building outside the temple, he is now carrying snacks and wine to the City God Temple to visit Song Chenghuang.
When returning to Ning'an County, the etiquette still had to be followed. A box of snacks and a pot of wine were offered. When leaving the City God Temple, we walked and chatted with the old City God in the county for a while, and then we bowed to each other and said goodbye.
After finishing these necessary things, Ji Yuan returned to Ju'an Pavilion.
. . .
In the evening, after the class at the county middle school was over, Yin Qing led the group to pay their respects to the teacher, and then the students dispersed. Yin Qing and the little fox also hurried home in brisk steps.
Now Yin Qing is eighteen years old according to the world's common age calculation method. He has grown from a child to a teenager and from a teenager to a young man. With Yin Qing's knowledge and intelligence, he can go to a large academy for further study at any time.
In front of others, Yin Qing acted like a scholar, steady and attentive. As long as he reached an alley with few people, he would run very fast and ran all the way back to Tianniufang without even taking a breath.
As soon as I arrived at Tianniufang, I smelled the fragrance of flowers again.
"Ah, the fragrance is still there, it's not fake, little fox, let's go check out the jujube tree."
"Call me Hu Yun!"
"Okay, okay, Hu Yun!"
The fox grinned hoarsely.
When they reached the second half of Tianniufang, the red fox also jumped off Yin Qing's back, and the man and the fox walked towards Ju'an Pavilion. When they turned the corner of the alley, they suddenly found that the gate of Ju'an Pavilion seemed to be open.
"Hey! The door is open?"
Yin Qing exclaimed in surprise, and the fox jumped onto Yin Qing's shoulder, looked around and spoke in confusion.
"Could there be a thief?"
"Stupid, the thief can just climb over the wall, is there any need to open the gate? Besides, there is a jujube tree over there."
The man and the fox quickened their pace as they talked, and an inexplicable sense of anticipation arose in their hearts.
When they arrived at the gate of Ju'an Pavilion, they looked inside and saw Ji Yuan sitting in front of a stone table reading a book. There were some cakes from Miaowailou on the table.
"Mr. Ji!" "Woo..."
Yin Qing and Hu Yun both cried out in surprise, and the latter even let out a fox howl out of confusion.
Ji Yuan put down the book, smiled at Yin Qing, pointed at the snacks on the table, and smiled and nodded to the somewhat nervous Red Fox.
"Come in, both of you. I can't finish all the snacks at Miaowailou by myself."
Yin Qing cheered and went into the yard with Chihu. Once they sat down at the stone table, they couldn't stop eating. They chatted with Ji Yuan while eating.
The red fox was a little reserved at first and didn't dare to speak human language until Ji Yuan took the initiative to talk to him. Then he started to speak human language and chatted with Yin Qing about some interesting things about learning human language.
That night, after Yin Qing fell asleep, the red fox came to the outside of Ju'an Pavilion alone, jumped lightly from the wall and jumped into the yard.
Ji Yuan hadn't rested yet. He sat on the stone table in the yard, holding a jade stick and drawing something with his hand, as if he was modifying the description of Lao Long's magic of Qiankun Nawu.
"Mr. Ji!"
"Um."
Ji Yuan didn't turn around to look at Hu Yun, and continued to gesture with the jade sign.
"Mr. Ji, I am going back to Niu Kui Mountain to tell the mountain master that you are back."
"oh."
The red fox raised his head and carefully looked at Ji Yuan's face which had not changed much.
"You agree, then?"
Ji Yuan turned around, looked at him and smiled.
"go Go."
The red fox student clasped his paws and bowed to Ji Yuan, then immediately jumped out of the courtyard wall and rushed towards Tianniufang.
Under the starry sky at night, a red fox with a big fluffy tail was running fast on the road outside Ning'an County, all the way to Niukui Mountain. It reached the foot of the mountain in more than a quarter of an hour and nimbly darted into the forest.
About two hours later, a fierce tiger roar was heard from a cave on the mountain wall deep in the old forest of Niu Kui Mountain.
"Ahh..."
The fallen leaves and dead branches outside the cave were swept away by the wind blowing from inside.
The red fox trembled against the wall of the cave and dared not move. The fur on its body was pulled straight straight by the tiger's roar just now, as if it was facing a strong wind.
In the darkness, a pair of green tiger eyes emitted a captivating light.
"You said, Mr. Ji is back!?"
“Hmmmm!”
The red fox nodded quickly in response.
"Bang... bang... bang... bang..."
Lu Shanjun's huge tiger body moved back and forth in the cave, and the soft hay under his feet made bursts of noises, showing his excitement and a slight impatience.
"Mr. Ji is back, Mr. Ji is back! Will he come to see me? Should I go to see him?"
"Bang... bang... bang... bang..."
The tiger's heavy body stepping on the cave floor was like stepping on Hu Yun's heart. Unless Lu Shanjun asked him any questions, he just dared to lie quietly at the edge of the cave.
In fact, Hu Yun now felt a strange and interesting feeling in his heart. He had never seen the most terrifying Lu Shanjun in Niukui Mountain look like this before.
The tiger twisted its head and wagged its tail, muttering constantly.
"No, no, I'm a tiger spirit, and I'm so big. If I go down the mountain like this, people will be scared to death, and the city gods and the land gods won't let me go..."
Suddenly the tiger turned around and stared at the red fox, which made Hu Yun, who was secretly laughing, stand up all of a sudden, thinking that his laughter had been discovered.
"Mr. Ji just came back today, right? Did he mention me? Did he say he would come to see me?"
"Uh... that..."
Hu Yun's heart was beating wildly with anxiety. Mr. Ji didn't seem to mention Shanjun, let alone come to see him. But if what he said now disappointed Lu Shanjun, he would be eaten, right
"Well... Mr. Ji should have come back last night. The jujube tree bloomed last night... Then I went to the small courtyard tonight. Mr. Ji seemed to have known that I was going there, and he agreed to let me tell Shanjun that he was back..."
"Then what?"
A huge tiger's face was within two feet of the red fox, causing the latter to shiver and swallow.
"That's all..."
"Oh, oh, oh, it's all my fault. It's my fault that I didn't speak flexibly after refining the horizontal bone. When I saw Mr. Ji was so nervous that he couldn't speak, and when he told me to go back to the mountain and tell the mountain king, I jumped out of the courtyard impatiently. Now I think he should have something else to say. It's all my fault that I was too nervous..."
"You... roar..."
The tiger roared once more out of impatience, but there was not much anger behind the roar, instead its agitated body calmed down a little.
"Ah... I'm afraid the gentleman didn't mention me..."
As soon as this slightly dejected voice fell, Ji Yuan, who had been leaning outside the cave, couldn't help laughing. The tiger spirit Lu Shanjun who had frightened him in the past, also had this side of him.
"It's been many years since we last met. How are you, Mr. Lu Shan?"
Ji Yuan's voice entered the cave, startling Hu Yun and Lu Shanjun inside. Then they were filled with intense surprise, the former being more shocked while the latter being more happy.
Brush~
A huge black shadow jumped out of the cave, and in the moonlight, a tiger with hanging eyes that was twice as big as an ordinary tiger appeared.
As soon as the tiger jumped out of the cave, it saw Ji Yuan leaning against the mountain wall. It immediately put its hind legs together to support its front body off the ground. It used its left palm to press its right palm and hid its claws in its pads. Without long sleeves, it covered its paws with tiger hair and raised its paws to its forehead in worship.
"Student Lu Shanjun, greetings, sir!"
Although ordinary people also bow as a courtesy in their daily lives, it is actually a simplified form. Although Lu Shanjun is obviously a big tiger, from the angle of his bow to the posture of his bow, it is the most standard long bow, which is usually only used so solemnly when students in an academy meet their teachers or when disciples meet their mentors.
When Ji Yuan first came to this world, he didn't have a clear understanding of daily etiquette. Before they parted that year, he received a similar salute from Lu Shanjun outside the mountain temple, so he had no choice but to accept it now.
"Please stand up quickly, Mr. Shan. I have never taught you anything, and I feel ashamed to accept it!"
"Master, your guidance was like a rebirth to me. How can you say that you didn't teach me anything? Now that I have made progress in my practice, my mind has become clearer and brighter. Even if you look down on me, a tiger demon, I cannot save myself this gift."
After the tiger finished bowing, it did not forget to put its paws down to its eyebrows, and the whole etiquette was performed meticulously.
Ji Yuan tried to persuade the tiger spirit verbally, but his body did not move. He stood there and accepted the greeting, which also made Lu Shanjun secretly happy.
"Okay, in that case, I am in a good mood today, so I will tell you the essence of demon cultivation. Come out, little fox in the cave!"
Anyway, I have talked to Lao Long several times in the past two years, and there is still enough food in my belly.
Lu Shanjun's tiger eyes shone brightly, and the secret joy in his heart turned into ecstasy at this moment. He understood the meaning of this sentence, which was of great significance.
As for the red fox that jumped out of the cave, he was still struggling with how he had taught "Hu Yun", but he didn't have the courage to correct Ji Yuan.