In the small fenced yard, a white hen spread its wings and ran out of the yard in fear. Li Jinhua came back with two eggs and kicked it.
"You eat so much, but you only lay two eggs. I'll pluck your feathers and stew you someday!"
He walked into the yard cursing and suddenly stopped. He saw the door of Lu Liangsheng's room open and a furtive figure was searching something.
He yelled anxiously: "Lu Erlai, what are you doing?!"
Inside the house, the white arm stretched out in the painting was retracted. Lu Erlai was also frightened by the sound and rushed out of the house waving his hands, "I... I didn't do anything. I just looked at the furnishings in Liangsheng's room. The things of scholars are different..."
Li Jinhua put the eggs on the ground, picked up the broom by the wall and hit Lai Zi with it.
"I don't believe you!"
He yelled at the neighbors, "Hurry up, Lu Erlai stole my things!"
“I didn’t steal… I didn’t steal, hey, stop hitting me! Ouch…” Lu Erlai retreated in embarrassment, protecting his face and begging for mercy. Lu Xiaoxian, who was sleeping soundly in the room, was awakened and started shouting along with her mother.
The neighbors in the mountain village lived close to each other. When they heard Li Jinhua's voice, those who stayed at home ran out and hit Lai Zi with sticks and brooms in their hands.
"Er Lai, you are so wicked."
"If you can't get the money, you'll just steal. You never change your bad habits!"
“… Beat him to death!”
Several sticks and brooms came down with a crackling sound. Lu Erlai begged for mercy, but seeing that it was no use, he held his head, knocked someone away, rushed out, fell to the ground again, and rolled to his feet, with blood stains on his face and head.
He grabbed a stone and threw it over, staring fiercely at the group of people standing outside the fence: "Just wait for me."
Seeing someone rushing over again, he turned around and ran away with his pants wet.
When everyone saw him running away, they went up to comfort Li Jinhua.
"This Lu Erlai is a person who doesn't remember good things from others." "... He even asked us to wait. He doesn't know anyone." "Why don't we just go to his house and block him? I don't believe he won't come back!"
A group of people left, carrying the weapons in their hands and heading towards Lu Erlai's shabby hut. Those who stayed behind asked why Lu Laoshi and Liangsheng were not at home.
Li Jinhua put down the broom, "Lao Shi went outside to graze the donkey, Liangsheng... he said he had something to go out for."
Everyone gathered together and talked for a while, and soon everyone went back to their homes. The group of people who went to Lu Erlai's house waited for a long time, but did not see Lai Zi come back, so they dispersed one after another.
Far away in the weeds, a pair of eyes watched the people leave, let out a breath, sat back on the ground, and looked down at the insects climbing on the tips of the grass leaves.
"Now that Lu Liangsheng has money, they are all like dogs...hiss..."
The wound was pulled and Lu Erlai was in so much pain that he twisted his mouth and grimaced. He struggled to stand up and looked at the house over there. He must have been afraid to go back.
"If Lu Laoshi and Lu Liangsheng come back, won't they come after me to settle the score? I might as well go out and hide. A few hundred taels..."
Speaking of this huge fortune, Lu Erlai suddenly thought of a place.
"I'll go get some help too."
Covering the wound on his head, he ran quickly out of the village.
It was shortly after noon and the sky was gradually becoming overcast.
Going down along the river outside Lujia Village, to Beicun next to the river, someone was walking with Lu Liangsheng in the fields and by the river. It was the man who was in the county government office that day, and the village head was following him.
In the distance, some women and girls from Beicun were washing clothes by the river with wooden basins. From time to time, they glanced at the young man in blue shirt, whispered something, and smiled secretly.
"He is Lu Lang from Lujia Village... He is quite handsome."
“… I heard that the chief clerk in the government admired him very much and even gave him a book, wanting him to become his disciple.”
"Will you become an official in the future?"
The brave girl stared at the handsome face and raised her lips: "I will go back and ask my parents to ask a matchmaker to propose marriage..."
Then, there was another round of whispering.
Lu Liangsheng, who was walking on the other side of the river, didn't look at them at all. He looked at a section of the Qingshui River, turned around and said to the man named Chen Tai who was there, "I'm just here to look at the river. You don't have to follow me. I'm not a big shot."
"It's okay..." Na Zheng laughed and continued to follow behind, "I'm staying at home anyway, so I can go around with Shushulang."
boom-
Thunder sounded in the sky, and in a moment, drizzle began to splash on people's faces. The two people who were originally following had to run back.
He turned around and persuaded Lu Liangsheng to go to their village to avoid the rain.
"No, I'll go back soon." Lu Liangsheng bowed to thank them for their kindness and continued walking on the river bank. After they left, he made a gesture with his fingers under his robe sleeves.
A small spell for sheltering from rain in the fifth chapter of "Qinghuai Bugeng".
Raindrops from the sky fell, deviated two inches above Liangsheng's head, and slid to the ground.
After walking around Beicun, they set up several small magic arrays at the bottom of the river. Originally, according to the method in "Qinghuai Bugeng", each magic array needed to be activated, but Toad Taoist suggested that it would be better to set up the small arrays first and set up an array eye in Lujia Village. They only needed to activate the array eye and there was no need to worry about attracting other people's attention.
Lu Liangsheng dusted off his hands, stood up and prepared to go home. Several women in the village and the head of the village were worried about the young man being out in the rain alone, so they hurriedly took out paper umbrellas from home, looked at the young scholar walking not far away, and stood there in a daze.
"Village head, Lu Liangsheng's body seems to be dry..."
"… Maybe he went to hide from the rain first."
"You won't get wet if you hide from the rain."
Several women in the village and the head of the village looked at the figure walking away with curiosity. When they returned, they talked about it. Others were also amazed and even speculated whether Lu Liangsheng was a star from heaven who was reincarnated into the earth.
Lu Liangsheng naturally didn't know about the gossip behind his back. But after returning to Lujia Village, he heard that Lu Erlai had come to his house to steal things. No matter how good his temper was, he couldn't resist his anger.
After checking the house, he found that the hidden silver was still there, so he and his father Lu Laoshi went to Lu Erlai's shabby house and waited for a long time, but he didn't come back.
"Let him go for now. Tomorrow I'll come back and give this scoundrel a good beating."
Lu Liangsheng glanced at the shabby hut, snorted, and went back with his father. At this time, there was also a strange thing happening at home. Li Jinhua was standing at the door of the kitchen with a puzzled look on her face.
"That's strange..."
Seeing Lu Xiaoxian coming back from outside, he asked her, "Daughter, did you cook the meal?"
The little girl stood there, blinking and shaking her head.
"No, I just got back."
This time, Li Jinhua was a little scared. When she heard the father and son coming back, she asked, "Did I cook it and forget about it?"
He shook his head and turned and walked into the kitchen.
…
After dinner, it was already late at night. Lu Liangsheng repeatedly recited the formula taught by Toad Taoist, starting from the first sentence, slowly understanding it. Afterwards, he took the time to copy the book given to him by the chief clerk and wrote two articles.
"The inscriptions of the mountain god who dealt with the centipede monster that day were worshiped by people. If I go to other temples and write down some of the inscriptions, they should be useful."
He glanced at the Toad who was sleeping on the wooden pillow.
"Master said that everyone in this world can find their own path. I don't like fighting and killing, but can I also find my own path with pen and ink? Scholars can write about the great righteousness, and painters can also..."
painting…
Character…
Pen…
etc…
Lu Liangsheng suddenly stood up, took out a blank page of paper, dipped the tip of his wolf-howling pen in some ink, and remembered a kind of magic in "Qinghuai Bugeng".
I quickly flipped through it and looked at the contents.
With a smile on his face, the tip of his pen moved across the paper, guiding the infusion of his cultivation. Faintly, the brush in his hand glowed.
The water is outlined with green ink, and the lotus leaves are covered with dew and blooming petals. Under the sparkling water, a carp is drawn with the tip of the pen. In the distant pavilion, there is a talented man and a beautiful woman.
The tip of the pen moves, drawing out a breeze and a falling leaf.
"alright!"
Lu Liangsheng put down the brush, pressed the "Qinghuai Bugeng" spell, took a sip of cold water, and sprayed it on it.
Next second.
The fallen leaves began to move, falling on the water, creating ripples. The still water began to flow. The carp swam back and forth, wagging its tail. A drop of dew slid down the lotus leaf from the blooming lotus.
In the pavilion in the distance, the talented man and the beautiful woman seemed to be whispering to each other, or rubbing their ears.
The whole painting comes alive on the small piece of paper.
"This is an illusion. There's nothing to be surprised about. It's just better than a trick."
The Toad Taoist at the bedside woke up. This kind of magic was meaningless to a great demon like him, but he added: "When your cultivation level improves and you devote yourself to this way, even if it is fake, it will become true."
"So this is the 'Tao' that Master talked about before?"
Lu Liangsheng has a simple mind and is much more knowledgeable than before. With just a little hint, he can draw inferences about other situations.
After a while, the magic power on the drawing paper was exhausted, and the living painting returned to its original appearance. Lu Liangsheng tried it several more times without getting tired of it. During one of them, he even drew a big black dog, which instantly jumped out of the drawing paper and barked at him, attracting Li Jinhua and Lu Laoshi, who were already asleep, to open the door and look around, thinking that the neighbor's dog had run into the house.
“If you were to draw a beautiful…”
Lu Liangsheng looked at the woman in the painting, smiled and shook his head, "… Forget it, it's better not to do things that are beyond your control."
After studying magic for a while, he took out "Meng Shuo" and read it while there was still some time. It didn't matter whether he would take the exam or not. It was good to be able to read some knowledge. Besides, reading would open his mind and it would also help his cultivation. At least in terms of comprehension, it would be more efficient.
After all, you need to fully understand the meaning of various spells.
After reading for a long time, Lu Liangsheng fell asleep on the table with the book in his hands without realizing it.
The night is hazy. After the bright moon disappears behind the clouds, the warm yellow light casts a shadow of a person reading on the window lattice. The green trees in the courtyard rustle their branches and leaves in the wind.
In the warm yellow room, a pair of embroidered shoes walked across the floor, came over silently, put a single piece of clothing on the boy, and flicked the wick with their fingernails.
The flames leaped up again, lighting up the room.
Nie Honglian floated to the desk, sat down, gently kicked off her embroidered shoes, and quietly looked at the sleeping face.