The two separated. Hong Lian had no time to notice that there was a pig demon next to her. She looked at Lu Liangsheng nervously.
The voice was a little anxious: "Sir, what about your magic power... and your cultivation? Did you encounter a powerful monster? Are you injured?"
Lu Liangsheng did not answer, but just looked at Hong Lian's anxious look. He felt happy for some reason in his heart. Suddenly, he reached out and embraced her, pulling her into his arms, and pressed the words that Hong Lian wanted to say against his chest.
Glancing at the bookshelf behind the old donkey, the scholar gently rubbed the woman's hair and whispered in her ear:
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"Um!"
The woman buried in Lu Liangsheng's arms was suddenly pulled into his arms. Her face was a little thin after all. She blinked her eyelashes, pecked her head shyly, and hummed softly. It took her a long time to raise her face from the warm chest, lowered her head, stared at the tip of the shoe under her skirt, and lightly touched the scholar's palm with her fingers.
Lu Liangsheng also laughed, took her hand, pulled her to his side, and strode towards the stone steps below the temple.
"go home."
Hong Lian looked at the hand that was being held, pursed her lips and secretly curled up a smile, then followed behind with brisk steps. After passing the stone steps and withdrawing the magic power, the noisy voices of people returned. Passing pilgrims saw a large black-haired man squatting on the ground, grinning foolishly, and a donkey breathing heavily at him.
Suddenly coming to his senses, Zhu Ganglie stood up and hurriedly chased after the man and woman on the stone steps below. After taking two steps, he heard the toad in the compartment shouting, "There are still us!"
He turned back, took the reins, and ran down in a hurry.
"Wait for us."
The whole mountain was filled with autumn colors swaying in the wind, and the ground was covered with fallen leaves. Lu Liangsheng led Hong Lian across a high place, and in the distance they could see patches of golden fields. Every household in the village was busy harvesting crops. There were also shirtless villagers and merchants standing by the reservoir, watching the people brought by the merchants, dragging up the fishing nets, and a sea of large white fish struggling in the nets, flapping their tails.
Someone saw the man and woman coming down from the temple, and hurriedly pushed aside the merchant who was counting out the copper coins to him, stepped barefoot on the muddy ridge of the field, smiled, waved his rough hands, and shouted over there: "Liangsheng!!"
Hearing the big man's voice, the figures who were busy harvesting crops stood up with their farm tools in hand and greeted the scholar who was walking towards the road.
"Liang Sheng is back!"
"... Liangsheng, is everything okay out there?" "Yes, your mother misses you so much, go back soon."
"We're all going to help harvest your family's fields first. Don't come out later. Just stay at home and have a good rest!"
Someone came up from the field, wiped the sweat off his face, poured the water he had prepared into a bowl and handed it over.
"Liangsheng, you must have had a hard time on the road. Come, have a drink of water first. This is our village's own water."
Seeing some mud spots on the edge of the bowl, the village man quickly took it back to wipe it, but it had already been taken by Lu Liangsheng, who tilted his head back and drank it all in big gulps.
"Liangsheng, you..."
"Nothing tastes better than the water from my hometown. Uncle, you go ahead and do your work. I'll go back first."
Lu Liangsheng wiped the water stains from his mouth, put the bowl back into the hands of the village man, and took Hong Lian beside him to respond to the villagers around him. The children in the village who had grown up for a few years ran out of the school one by one and shouted respectfully: "Sir!"
"You've made progress in your studies, little monkey!" Lu Liangsheng looked at the children he had taught and touched the head of a rather naughty boy, causing the other children to laugh.
"Okay, everyone, go back to class and don't keep the teacher waiting for too long."
When Lu Liangsheng saw the middle-aged gentleman standing at the school gate, he smiled and waved his hand to let the group of children go back. He nodded to the man, and went into the village with Hong Lian.
"Why don't you see Lao Sun?"
"Old Sun?" Zhu Ganglie panted and chased after him. When he heard the word 'Sun', he immediately looked around nervously: "That monkey is here too?!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Liangsheng in front of him suddenly laughed. In the drying dam, eight burly men were gesticulating with a thin Taoist priest in Taoist robes.
Hearing the voice from this side, the Taoist flew up from the hand of a big man, turned around, and landed steadily on the ground. He turned around and saw the scholar standing in the distance. He grinned with a mustache on his lips.
"Hahaha, Old Lu!!"
There was a sudden pain on his back, and he screamed "Wow!" and flew forward, falling heavily to the ground. He slid a distance on the ground and lay flat in front of the scholar.
Lu Liangsheng looked at the Taoist prostrating himself on the ground with a stunned expression.
"Old Sun, your gift... is a bit too much."
Zhu Ganglie was also stunned in the spot, and he turned his head to ask the Toad Taoist in the bookshelf compartment in a low voice: "Is it customary to perform such a grand ceremony in Qixia Mountain?"
Hong Lian on the side pursed her lips to hold back her smile and turned her head away.
On the ground, the Taoist hurriedly got up, brushed off the dust on his robe, and yelled, "Bullshit!" He turned around and shouted to the eight big men over there, "What's the point of sneak attack? If you have the ability, fight me head-on!"
Eight big men rushed over from the drying dam. They were all strong and muscular, with a hint of spiritual energy. They rushed over like chariots.
Zhu Ganglie was so frightened that he rolled up his sleeves, but was held down by Lu Liangsheng. The scholar raised his hands and said, "Greetings to all the uncles."
The eight big men came quickly and stopped just as quickly. They stopped and immediately surrounded the scholar and the old pig like a wall. They casually replied to the Taoist, "You didn't stop just now. We'll fight you next time." They asked Lu Liangsheng about his outing, and frowned when they saw that his clothes were dirty and old.
"But were you bullied outside?"
"Liangsheng, who did you say it was? The eight of us will fight you back!" "That's right, the eight of us are now invulnerable to swords and guns, water and fire!"
"Liangsheng, don't disbelieve me. Your uncle Pan was burned by fire a few days ago, but he was fine."
Invulnerable to water and fire
Lu Liangsheng looked at the eight people and found that their bodies had not changed much from before. Unfortunately, he had no cultivation experience and could not tell the difference. However, since he said so, it should be true. He did not expect that the bodybuilding method he taught them at the beginning, with the help of spiritual energy, could be practiced to this level...
Looking at the Taoist priest, Sun Yingxian nodded affirmatively.
Lu Pan and his eight companions laughed complacently, and when they saw the fat and burly black man next to them, they looked down on him with contempt, and couldn't help but puff out their chests. Their two pectoral muscles, which were almost as big as a human head, bounced from side to side from time to time.
"Alright, alright, stop surrounding Liangsheng."
Seeing that it was almost time, Lu Pan waved his hand and asked the other seven people to make way. After all, he had returned from a long journey and had to go back to see his parents first. As for whether he had been bullied outside, he could ask about it later.
"Then I'll go back first."
After eight people walked by, Lu Liangsheng greeted the left-behind neighbors who heard the noise, and went back home with the Taoist. The flowers in the small courtyard had faded, but the fragrance of flowers remained. Before he got close, he heard his mother scolding his father from afar.
Li Jinhua put down the broom while cursing, kicked the white hen away, glanced at her husband who was sitting under the eaves pondering a wooden wheel, walked to the water tank, and when she scooped up a bucket of water, she saw her son standing at the gate of the yard, Hong Lian beside her, and the old donkey who poked his head out.
"Liangsheng!"
The woman shouted in surprise, and threw the water scoop into the vat without a second thought. Even Lu Laoshi, who was absorbed in thinking, came out of the eaves and ran over to look Lu Liangsheng up and down. Seeing his clothes and tired face, he spoke in a slow and hesitant voice, "What's going on?"
"Don't ask, just come back."
Li Jinhua glared at her husband, rushed into the house, took out the willow branches that were stored away, and brushed her son with them.
In the attic of the courtyard, a figure leaned against the fence and flipped down, landing in the yard. He clapped his hands lightly and threw the needlework into the Taoist's arms. The increasingly pretty Xiaoxian threw herself directly into Lu Liangsheng's arms.
"elder brother!"
The Taoist priest at the side raised his chin and touched the tip of his beard: "I taught her! How about it, isn't it amazing?"
Speaking of this, Li Jinhua became angry. A good girl was taught to act like a monkey, jumping up and down all day long. At this moment, she became furious again. She picked up the broom leaning against the wall and chased the Taoist around the yard.
The family was busy in the yard for a while. After Lu Liangsheng persuaded his mother to calm down, the woman stopped, picked some vegetables from the vegetable garden and went to the kitchen to cook.
After the people left, the Taoist came back holding his head, and then he remembered how Lu Liangsheng's magic power was gone.
Hong Lian actually wanted to know too.
The bookshelf creaked open. When the Toad Taoist saw that the woman was gone, he untied the rope, slid down, put on his flippers, and sighed.
"Actually, this matter has to fall on me..."
"Master, let's talk about it tomorrow." Lu Liangsheng had just come back and didn't want to spoil everyone's mood, so he chatted and laughed in the yard for a while. Suddenly, he noticed that a figure was missing.
"By the way, where's Mu Qiyou?"
The Taoist shrugged and pointed toward the mountain.
"He ran over there. He heard there was a big pine tree that could talk. He went to chat with it and hasn't come back for two days."
"Then leave her alone."
Lu Liangsheng pushed open the door, moved the bookshelf back into the room, put out paper, ink, brush and inkstone, smelled the fragrance of books and ink, stretched comfortably, and fell onto the bed.
The kitchen was busy, Hong Lian helped to light the fire. The woman lifted the lid of the pot, and the aroma that wafted out attracted the Toad Taoist in the yard. He spread his webbed feet and ran over, stepped over the eaves, poked the hen's head out of the half-open kitchen door, braked suddenly, turned around and ran to the apprentice's room, slamming the door shut.
Outside, the Taoist hooked his finger mysteriously, and Zhu Ganglie followed him carefully into a room. Two figures, one fat and one thin, squatted at the foot of the bed. They nervously took out the yellow cloth wrapped in it, revealing a few yellowed books. The man and the demon looked at each other and laughed.
Xiao Xian helped to fetch water and boil it. Lu Liangsheng took the water and poured it into the wooden bucket. He washed away the dirt and dust in the room, feeling the vitality of the people in the yard. He felt at ease.
Dead leaves were falling from the old trees in the yard. Lu Laoshi rolled a wooden wheel and looked at the open window with a smile. The bronze mirror reflected his fresh face. His hair was neat and tidy, and he looked like a handsome scholar again.
Soon, the sun went down. In the small kitchen, the large round table was filled with dishes and food. Li Jinhua came out, put her hands on her hips, and shouted, "It's time to eat!"
There was a commotion in the yard; closed doors opened one by one and people rushed in.
The oil lamps flickered quietly.
The firelight at dusk illuminated the family sitting together, packed tightly together.