On the busy street, everyone who passes by would take a second look at the couple.
The man wore a strange mask covering his mouth, had jingling iron knuckles on his hands, and was holding a Taoist sword for exorcising evil spirits. Judging from his appearance, he looked like a "strange man".
The woman had a pretty face, but her hair was very black and her face was very pale. She was wearing a white linen dress that looked like mourning clothes, which was frightening to look at.
The postures of these two people are also strange. The man carries the woman on his back like he is carrying firewood, and they are back to back with a few branches between them. This posture should be very strenuous, but looking at the relaxed look on the man's face, it seems as if the woman has no weight.
Ordinary people carrying loads and baskets avoided them. Women holding children saw the ignorant child reaching out to grab the woman in white, so they quickly grabbed his hand back and scolded him in a low voice, fearing that he would bump into something unclean.
In this era, it is very common to encounter "unclean" things, so people stay away from "weird" people.
Kusheng had long been accustomed to those gazes. He strode along the street, sensing the traces of evil spirits everywhere.
"Master Taoist who is passing by, please come to my home for a cup of tea?" When we reached an alley, a man with a nervous face standing in front of a door said.
Ku Sheng glanced into the door behind him, turned around and walked towards him.
The man hurriedly and attentively opened the door and welcomed him in, looking at Luo Yujing on his back with fear.
As mentioned earlier, people at this time often encountered strange things, so there were more people who were involved in exorcising ghosts and catching monsters. If many families encountered strange things and could not afford to hire the local "holy" people, when they met strange people passing by, they would invite the people to their homes to help take a look. This was also a customary practice.
When I entered the courtyard, I saw that the house was old and there were chickens and ducks in the yard, but it was swept very clean and there was no smell. There was a pear tree planted in the corner of the yard.
The male host poured a bowl of tea as per custom, brought it closer, and saw that the strange Taoist priest had an iron mask on his face and could not drink the tea. For a moment he did not know whether he should continue to pass it to him.
Kusheng asked, "What's the problem?"
The man quickly put down his tea and said, "This is my son. He has been sleeping for three days and I can't wake him up. I have visited the temple and prayed to him but it was no use. I don't know if he is possessed by a ghost or what." After saying that, he shouted into the house and asked them to bring the child out.
His wife and mother came out from the inner room. His wife's eyes were swollen from crying, and she was holding a child of a few years old tightly in her arms.
The two women talked at once, and were about to cry again. Kusheng pinched the child's face with one hand and turned it over, then poked his forehead with a cold finger, interrupting their crying.
"It's a 'walking frog'. Let the child's mother hold him and walk to where there is a bridge outside. When the child starts crying, she should stop and dig the soil. There will be a frog in the soil. Put the frog in a bowl and bring it back to feed the chickens at home." Kusheng waved his hand after saying this.
The child's mother immediately picked up the child and went out with a small hoe and a bowl.
Kusheng took down the firewood rack on his back, picked up the silent Luo Yujing with one hand, and put her down on the bluestone under the pear tree to sit.
The man who stayed at home accompanied him, while his mother looked at Luo Yujing carefully several times and asked Kusheng: "Master Taoist, is this the female ghost you subdued?"
Kusheng was about to say it wasn't a ghost, but then he thought that there was indeed a fierce ghost in his body, and it would be troublesome to explain, so he nodded directly. The old woman showed a look of "as expected", went into the house, and after a while took out three incense sticks, lit them and inserted them at Luo Yujing's feet, bowed, and said, "Don't blame me, don't blame me."
Luo Yujing looked at the incense at her feet: "..."
After the incense burned out, the woman came back with the child in her arms. There was indeed a frog in the closed bowl. She took the frog to the chicken coop and fed it to the chickens. Soon, the sound of a child crying was heard in the house, and the child was crying and shouting that he was hungry.
The family thanked him profusely, and finally carefully took out some money and handed it to Kusheng. It seemed that they were afraid that he would think it was too little, but Kusheng said nothing, took the money and carried Luo Yujing on his back. The host attentively sent them to the door.
After walking a few more streets, Kusheng stopped again. Next to him was a noodle stall propped up with bamboo poles and cloth, leaning against two gray walls of a house, with wine jars against the wall and a few tables. It was afternoon, not lunch time, so not many people came, and the stall owner sat there taking a nap.
After placing Luo Yujing on the table, Kusheng squatted on another bench and called out to the owner, "A bowl of noodles."
"Okay, wait a moment." The shop owner came to his senses, and seeing that they looked strange, he didn't dare to ask more questions. He lifted the lid of the boiling water and put the noodles in the soup.
He brought a bowl of noodles and hesitated before placing it in front of Kusheng, probably because he thought the woman did not look like she needed to eat - like a female ghost.
Kusheng pushed the bowl of noodles in front of Luo Yujing with one finger, then took out the thank-you money that the family had just given him and paid the two to the owner of the store.
When he was walking alone, he didn't need to eat or sleep, and he never had any money. Now he has to support someone, so he has to spend extra time taking care of other people's affairs.
On the rest of the way, he would occasionally stop to take care of the child in the east house who was crying all night, or to check on the old man and old lady in the west house who were sleepwalking in the middle of the night... to earn money for Luo Yujing's meal.
If he did something wrong and threatened Luo Yujing's life, the Sword of the Evil Slayer would teach him a lesson. He also thought about abandoning this trouble in anger, but the evil spirits were too difficult to find. If he missed one, he didn't know where the next one would be.
Kusheng thought he had been careful enough in treating Luo Yujing. He would at least stop to rest for a while every day, give her some food before she fainted from hunger, and would not carry her out in the rain when it rained - he had never been so careful even in taking care of himself. Yet, Luo Yujing still fell ill.
"The patient's high fever won't go away. I'm afraid it's a bit dangerous. His life might be in danger..." When the old doctor said this, he saw the strange man in front of him first look happy, then look bitter.
Kusheng: “…” Sword of the Evil Slayer! Stop poking my feet!
"I see that this patient is clearly depressed and has many bruises on her body, as if she was abused." The doctor asked suspiciously, "What is your relationship with this woman?"
The so-called bruises were all caused by being put into the bamboo basket and sitting on the simple firewood frame while walking on the mountain road. If the doctor had not discovered it, Kusheng would not have paid any attention to it, thinking that this woman was like tofu, which would break if shaken.
After finally getting the subject out of the conversation, he got the medicine after a fight with the old doctor. Before he could take the unconscious Luo Yujing out the door, the odd jobber in the pharmacy had already led the yamen runners over, pointed at him and said, "That's the guy. He looks like a trafficker of women!"
It turned out that the owner of the pharmacy thought it was strange that a Taoist priest like him was with a woman who was abused. He suspected that he had robbed a good girl. So he kept arguing with him and secretly asked his handyman to report to the police, and finally blocked him on the spot.
The gate was blocked, so Kusheng had no choice but to tie a bag of medicine around his waist, picked up Luo Yujing with one hand and let her lie on his shoulder, rushed to the backyard, jumped out from the high wall, and disappeared amid the exclamations and shouts of a group of people.
This wasn't the first time he was chased. Ku Sheng ran away and said to Zhu Xie Jian, "Every time I do good things, I get misunderstood. How many times has this happened?"
"It's really unfair to me. When did I torture her?"
"Ugh..." Luo Yujing, who was in a coma, suddenly uttered an uncomfortable mumbling sound. Kusheng guessed that she might be uncomfortable with the pressure on her stomach from his shoulder, so he changed her position while walking and held her in his arms - this is how most women hold their children, so it's always right.
The woman was having a fever, and he was naturally cold, so he felt uncomfortable all over because of the heat in his arms, and his fingers were stiff and wide open.
"What a trouble! If I had known this earlier, if I had known this earlier..."
Leaving the town, an autumn wind blew in the face, making Luo Yujing shiver. She felt hot and cold all over, and in her coma she felt pain. Under the pressure, she could only subconsciously call for her sister in a low voice with tears.
After traveling together for a few days, Kusheng hadn't heard her say a word. It was this indifferent attitude that made him almost treat her as a clay figure. Now, the call of "sister" seemed to be squeezed out of the mud, making her more like a human being. After all, a ghost would not be like this.
Kusheng stiffened his neck, his face livid. The person he was hugging seemed to think of him as her "sister", holding onto his neck tightly as if grasping a life-saving straw, getting so close that her tears rolled down his collar and dripped onto his chest.
He kept tilting his head back, and was so mad that he wanted to beat up the Zhuxie Sword. At this time, the Zhuxie Sword just hung on him obediently, without any reaction at all.
"Evil-killing Sword! Draw your sword and stop pretending to be dead! If you don't kill her, then kill me!"
The sword to kill evil does not move.
Luo Yujing woke up, and in a daze, she saw a statue of a god above her head, with only half of its compassionate face left, and a wild weed growing out of the hole in its chest. There were several layers of spider webs on the roof, as if trying to repair the leaky roof.
She turned over, and the thick pile of dry grass beneath her rustled. A man's outer robe was spread on the grass, with a large stain of water. Luo Yujing touched her still wet eyes and found that they were probably wet from crying in her dream.
"Drink the medicine." Kusheng heard the voice and said with his back to her. Because his mouth was covered by an iron mask, his voice was always a little vague and dull when he spoke, and people could tell it at a glance.
Luo Yujing then discovered that there was a bitter smell of medicine in the air. The strange Taoist priest who seemed crazy to her was now squatting in front of the fire cooking medicine. He had taken off his outer robe and was only wearing a thin old clothes. His hair was tied up in a mess, and a pile of medicine paper was thrown at his feet.
I don't know where he got the ladle from, but he boiled a large ladle of bitter and black medicine and handed it to her, and warned her in a stinky tone: "If you feel uncomfortable next time, tell me in advance."
Luo Yujing held the medicine without moving: "... I feel uncomfortable every moment, will you pay attention to me if I tell you?"
Kusheng said, "I went to buy medicine with you, and I was almost caught by the police. They even accused me of kidnapping a decent girl!"
Luo Yujing glanced at him and said, "Aren't you?"
Ku Sheng was choked by her question, and after thinking carefully, he found that he could not refute it.
Luo Yujing continued, "You said I was a fierce ghost and wanted to kill me, and threatened me not to run away. Even so, you still want me to cooperate with you?"
"But you are not afraid of death, and you don't want to escape." Kusheng frowned and said, "Although I want to kill the evil spirit, I can only wait until your life span is over... Can't you treat yourself as a human being, take good care of yourself, and save me some trouble?"
Luo Yujing said softly: "You want me to treat myself as a human being, do you treat me as a human being?"
Kusheng was choked by her again. He was so angry that he could not hold back and smashed the ground with his fist, making a hole as big as a fist in the ground.
Picking up the ladle, Luo Yujing silently drank a mouthful of medicine. Even though she was in a bad mood and found everything hard to swallow, the thing in her mouth still made her want to curse for a moment.
Kusheng urged: "Drink it quickly!"
"If you want to kill me, just use the sword." Luo Yujing said, "Anyone who drinks this will die."
Kusheng argued with her for a few words but couldn't convince her. In anger, he ran out to find a pheasant and came back: "Don't think I want to harm you. Let this beast test the medicine and leave you speechless!"
The pheasant that was fed with medicine died with its eyes wide open. There is nothing to say about the bitter life.
When he met Luo Yujing's eyes, he became restless for a while, and when he looked again, even the Sword of Evil-Slaying began to tremble.
Kusheng: "Ah, damn it!"