"gentlemen… "
"gentlemen… "
The faint and ethereal female voice blew past Lu Liangsheng's ears like a cold wind. Her lips trembled, but the boy did not wake up. However, the toad lying beside him opened one eye first.
"How dare you, you female ghost, to chase me here!"
The pretty figure who had been bowing from afar raised her head when she heard the voice and said, "Please forgive me, sir. I just..." Then she stopped, blinked her eyes under her beautiful eyebrows, and looked at the short figure who stood up.
"Can toads talk?"
Realizing that she had said the wrong thing, the female ghost who called herself Nie Honglian pointed at the sleeping boy over there and said, "I am thanking him..."
Toad Taoist: “…”
… This makes me embarrassed, bah… She is just a female ghost, how could she be at a disadvantage
Thinking of this, he put his flippers behind his back, coughed twice, and said in a serious tone: "The young man is just my disciple, so your search for him has nothing to do with me."
"I have come to express my gratitude for my great revenge." The female ghost had beautiful eyebrows and a gentle and pleasant voice as she spoke. She bowed to the young man again.
Over there, Lu Liangsheng, who had been sleepy for a long time, heard vaguely some voices, turned over, and heard a snapping sound, and the low murmur of "Evil disciple..." came to an abrupt end.
The boy waved his hand impatiently.
"Don't make any noise...Call me at dawn."
Hong Lian glanced at the boy who had not yet woken up, and the toad that was pressed down under him and had its tongue sticking out, she chuckled softly with her hands covering her mouth, then slowly stood up and prepared to leave, but after taking a few steps, she sighed softly.
I have lost my relatives in this world... Where should I go...
When the female ghost floated past the easel, she suddenly stopped and saw the portrait with long sleeves waving on it and the two words "Hong Lian" on the lower left. She looked at the sleeping Lu Liangsheng for a long time with a faint smile on her lips.
The long sleeves flipped up and spread out, and she turned around and appeared in the painting.
The originally hazy portrait, with its faint ink strokes, became more solid and vivid. The wind blew over and the flickering flames were extinguished.
Wisps of green smoke rose and the sky brightened. Lu Liangsheng stood up from the ground and stretched lazily.
"Strange, I felt like someone was calling me last night..."
He twisted his neck, grabbed the Toad Taoist who was still sleeping on the ground, and stuffed him into the package. The eight people who were sleeping around the extinguished campfire woke up one after another, and the quiet open space became noisy.
One of them saw the scroll over there and called the others over: "This was painted by Liangsheng. The person above seems to have seen it somewhere."
"Don't mention it, the painting is beautiful, just like the real person."
Lu Pan and Lu Qing walked over and their faces turned pale suddenly. Thinking of what happened last night, they hesitated whether to tell their eldest nephew, but when they saw the portrait there, they were as if they had seen a ghost.
Gu Pan's beautiful eyes seemed to be staring at the two of them, and she was so scared that she swallowed her words back into her stomach and changed her words: "Well... it's daybreak, let's hurry on."
Lu Liangsheng poured water from the water bag to wash his face, then came over to put away the scroll, tied it up, and put it on his back.
"I was just about to say that everyone should hurry up and get going."
As for whether to eat breakfast or not, it doesn’t matter. During the period of practice, the physical condition is stronger than that of ordinary people, so one can naturally resist hunger. As for Lu Pan, eight big men, he can just eat some dry food and drink some cold water on the road to get by.
The return journey was a long day, enough for the group to get back to Lujia Village. On the way, they passed the forest where they had camped on the way here. From afar, they could still see the collapsed thatched cottage on the hillside. Even now, when they think of the giant centipede, they still feel a lingering fear.
They drove the piglets and lambs without stopping and hurriedly left the forest in a donkey cart.
In the fields outside Lujia Village, farmers and village women who were busy with the autumn harvest piled up the fruits of their hard work for half a year. Looking at the plump millet, there was worry on their faces.
"I don't know if Lu Pan and the others have resolved the issue."
"… Alas, if they are not resolved, they will be distributed to the people of Beicun. Just thinking about it makes me feel anxious."
A villager from another field came over, leaning on his hoe and kicking a stone away: "So what if I don't divide it? Can the government still put a knife to my neck?"
These days, most of the talk in the village was about the lawsuit with Beicun. They would gather together to chat when they had nothing to do. Amidst their indignation, the three people on the ridge of the field vaguely heard the creaking sound of a wheel turning.
Looking back, at the end of the dirt road, three carts piled with things were coming towards us. A tall man named Lu Qing was running very fast in front, waving and shouting to the people in the fields on both sides.
"Stop it, go back to the village to get your stuff—"
A shout made the quiet mountain village lively. People from more than 30 households flocked to the village entrance. Even the elderly people with limited mobility came to join in the fun with their crutches.
The most prestigious Grandpa Lu stood on the stone mill in the village, carefully waving the pearwood stick given to him by Lu Liangsheng, and asked each household to send someone out to collect cloth and rice in turn.
He also told everyone the decision made by the county government. At first, everyone was reluctant and made a fuss. It was not until Liangsheng came up and explained the whole story that everyone calmed down.
"I've spent some of the five hundred taels on shopping. I'll use the rest to buy clothes, food and meat in the county town before the New Year. Next year, I'll get a few pigs and sheep for each household to raise. Isn't that better? Why bother about the gains and losses of a little food..."
It was probably because of words like these that everyone reluctantly divided out some of their autumn harvest, put it together, and handed it over to the people from the North Village when they arrived.
Of course, the fact that Lujia Village purchased many good things was kept secret. Everyone knew that wealth should not be revealed to the public. As for where the money came from, it was actually not important at all. The mountain people believed that as long as they could get the money, it was great.
During the days when the things were distributed, Lujia Village was just like the New Year. The wives sat at their doorsteps, cutting cloth to make clothes for their families. Occasionally, the aroma of rice and cooked meat wafted out of some houses, making the villagers passing by drool.
Of course, some families are reluctant to eat it, so they make it into wind-dried meat and hang it on the wooden beam above the stove. If you are really hungry, you can just cut some off.
Even Lu Erlai, who was always disliked by the villagers, was given some meat and one or two taels of silver. Li Jinhua was reluctant at first, but could not resist Lu Liangsheng's persuasion.
"He's not popular, but we're from the same village after all, and we're not enemies. If we don't give him something, and then he goes out and talks about it, and makes people jealous, and then they start to think ill of him, that's not good."
Li Jinhua put her hands on her hips and spat outside the yard.
"It's Lu Er's good fortune."
When he returned to the yard, he saw Lu Liangsheng taking out the four treasures of the study one by one, and his eyes widened.
"How much does this cost? You're just buying these things that won't fill your stomach. You're just like your father, a spendthrift!"
Lu Laoshi, who was weaving a basket under the eaves, raised his head, looked at his old wife, and laughed: "Why are you mentioning me? I'm not a spendthrift."
"Still undefeated?! When Liangsheng came back, those three donkeys were given away for nothing!"
"That was something Liangsheng asked me to deliver."
The woman's eyes narrowed and she stared at the door over there. Lu Liangsheng turned around and laughed along with his father.
"Mom, don't we have an old donkey at home?"
"Ah hum, ah hum!" Under the awning, the old curly-haired donkey opened its lips and neighed with a rough breath, as if to remind Li Jinhua.
"I'm going to be pissed off to death by you two sooner or later!" The woman paused with the broom in her hand, and swept the ground hard. A group of toads lying on the ground were swept up, and Lu Xiaoxian over there was scared and screamed. The hen turned her neck, spread her wings and rushed over, cackling.
"This old man... I didn't provoke anyone..."
The toad and the chicken fought again, continuing the unfinished battle from before.
…
In Lu Liangsheng's room, the four treasures of the study were neatly placed on the desk, and the scroll in his hand was slowly lowered against the wall, revealing a portrait of a woman.
Books are piled up, brushes are pressed on inkstones, and scrolls of beauties are hung on the wall. Finally, there is a sense of bookishness.