"... Hey, Lao Lu, you didn't know that during the time you were away from home, I made many changes to the spirit gathering array I set up, especially your boy Mingyue. I trained him a lot, and now he's very powerful. He knows both Taoism and sorcery. He's really going to kill anyone who stands in my way, even the Buddha..."
Pah~
A chopstick was handed over to the Taoist priest and hit him on the head. "Shut up!"
In the crowded kitchen, Sun Yingxian, who was sitting at a corner of the round table, hugged her head and shrunk her neck, trying to avoid the "ferocious" Lu Xiaoxian, which made Lu Liangsheng, Lu Laoshi, Li Jinhua, Nie Honglian, and Zhu Ganglie laugh out loud.
It turned out that the Taoist priest ran to Xiaoquan Mountain for no reason and made a fool of himself. No wonder Mingyue was not seen in the courtyard. It turned out that he was on guard against him in Xiaoquan Mountain.
The light was dim, casting swaying shadows of several people in the kitchen on the wall. The Toad Taoist crawled under the oil lamp on the stove. When no one was paying attention, he quickly stretched out his long tongue to wrap around a piece of fat meat, pulled it into his mouth, and chewed it with his cheeks puffing and contracting. His toad eyes were also staring at the hen that was folding its wings on the firewood pile.
After chatting and laughing for a while, Lu Liangsheng put down his bowl and chopsticks and told his family about his previous journey with a smile. As for the loss of magic power, he did not mention it in order not to worry the two elders.
After dinner, Hong Lian asked Lu Liangsheng to go to rest first, and she stayed to help clean up the dishes. The latter closed the kitchen window, nodded, walked outside and sat down next to his father.
The moonlight casts a silver glow across the exquisite courtyard, and insects chirp in the vegetable garden.
One could also hear the mother and Hong Lian in the kitchen chatting about family matters intermittently. They were quite harmonious. Occasionally, when they talked about something important, they deliberately lowered their voices, and then the two of them could be heard laughing.
The fat Zhu Ganglie tucked in his belly, moved sideways and slowly walked out of the kitchen, and ran to the attic with the Taoist priest arm in arm. After a while, Lu Xiaoxian appeared in the middle of the stairs, staring at them with her arms folded.
The anxious Zhu Ganglie suddenly showed his big ears like a fan, his long mouth and fangs, trying to scare the little girl away. However, he was slapped on the head. Zhu Ganglie stood there in a daze, covering his head. He didn't come to his senses for a long time and just watched the Taoist being pulled by the ears and went into the room.
Lu Liangsheng watched everything that happened in the yard with a smile, which was more important than anything else.
She got up and went to the water tank to wash up. There was a rustling sound of pages above her head, and several yellowed books were thrown down. Amid the scolding, Sun Yingxian ran downstairs with her head in her hands, took out a yellow talisman, and set the books on fire. Looking up, she saw the "ferocious" Lu Xiaoxian standing behind the fence with her hands on her waist, looking a bit like her mother Li Jinhua.
Lu Laoshi, who was under the eaves, was holding the wheel and laughing at the Taoist's humiliation. Then, his wife came out from the kitchen, grabbed his ear, and dragged him away without saying a word.
Hum hum hum~~
The old donkey poked its head out of the donkey shed and neighed mockingly, but when he saw the woman staring at him, he quickly retracted his head.
The Toad Taoist, wearing a long robe that dragged on the ground and with his flippers on his back, came out of the kitchen, staggering while chewing food. When he saw this scene, he hummed and laughed twice, then suddenly, his vision darkened and he turned around abruptly. The white hen spread its wings and flew towards him.
It was another dark battle, from the kitchen door to the stove, with no light from the sun or the moon, and it was hard to tell who was the winner...
The courtyard was bustling with noise. Birds living in the cypress trees in the courtyard flew down to the water tank and, by the light of the fire on the ground, looked at the Taoist who was squatting on the ground sobbing, the woman in the house being scolded by Lu Laoshi, and the kitchen where noisy fighting was heard, full of curiosity.
As the night deepened, the courtyard gradually became quiet. Zhu Ganglie followed the Taoist back to the attic, and Lu Xiaoxian stayed in her own room next to her brother.
The lights were lit, illuminating the window frames, and Lu Liangsheng's ears were finally quiet. He took the book and sat down at the desk to read. Behind him, a woman walked into the room softly, kicking up her skirt, and placed the oil lamp on the bedside table next to the scholar.
Hong Lian sat quietly aside, watching Lu Liangsheng interpret the content word by word. The door opened, and Toad Taoist came in with his sleeves rolled up, a few chicken feathers on his body, and opened the small door between the bookshelf, took out a small quilt, climbed onto the bed, spread it out next to the pillow, glanced at the man and woman in front of the table, snorted, wrapped in the quilt, turned to one direction and fell asleep.
Lu Liangsheng and Hong Lian looked at each other, smiling. Soon, the woman who had no intention of leaving walked to the front of the painting, turned around, and went into the painting on the wall.
The scholar closed the book, stretched tiredly, took off his robe, blew out the light, and lay comfortably on the bed, listening to the chirping of insects outside and the soft voice of Hong Lian.
"Sir, sleep well."
A slight snoring sound was heard from the bed. In the painting, Hong Lian floated out and sat on the edge of the bed. With the moonlight shining in through the window, she quietly looked at the man's face full of fatigue. She stretched out her jade fingers to press the corner of the quilt for him, then hung inside the bed, and gently leaned against Lu Liangsheng to sleep on one side.
She supported her chin, gently stroked his forehead, nose, and lips with her fingertips, and hummed a soft tune gently.
“When I first saw the young man sitting by the window, reading a book… he was full of elegance…
… Two cups of wine and green lamps, who knows your worries…”
The moonlight covers the rolling hills, creating a tranquil scene.
…
As time passed, the golden light of dawn came from the east along the mountains, pushing aside the black edge and enveloping the fields and villages at the foot of the mountain.
A rooster with a bright red comb jumped onto the horizontal bar on the ground, raised its head and crowed loudly, the resounding sound echoing throughout the mountain village.
Oh oh… Oh oh oh—
The mountain village, which had been silent all night, gradually heard voices. Lu Liangsheng woke up and found a faint fragrance lingering on the bedding on one side. He walked to the painting on the wall, but Hong Lian was no longer there. She must have returned to the temple before dawn.
Pushing open the door, the Toad Taoist was standing by the water tank, raising his head, slightly opening his mouth and gargling his throat. In the attic, the Taoist yawned, with dark circles under his eyes, and came down with Zhu Ganglie. The door on the side opened, and Lu Xiaoxian also came out. She looked at the Taoist, and they both snorted, turned their heads away, and went straight to Lu Liangsheng, scooped up a bowl of water, took the twig, wrapped it around their lips and brushed it back and forth.
Zhu Ganglie squatted under the eaves with a bowl of meat porridge cooked in the kitchen. He watched the three people gurgle for a while, and then spit out together in tacit understanding.
"Oh... Te!"
The splashing water scared the spotted hen that was looking into the house, so much that it limped away with its wings spread. After washing up, Lu Liangsheng went to the kitchen to have breakfast and brought it to the master who had returned to the room.
He greeted the Taoist and Xiao Xian and asked them to take Zhu Ganglie for a walk first. He wanted to go out alone. His cultivation was gone, so he wanted to go and see the magic array in the mountains, the fox demon practicing in Xiaoquan Mountain, and the thousand-year-old demon who ran to Qixia Mountain for no one knew what he was doing.
As he walked through the village, neighbors who had gotten up early greeted him one after another, and children rushing to school stood far away and bowed respectfully, shouting, "Good morning, sir!"
Although they didn't know that Lu Liangsheng had lost his cultivation, they all respected this young man from the bottom of their hearts. In fact, it had nothing to do with the mysterious magic.
On the other side of the drying dam, Lu Pan and his eight companions who were playing with stone locks saw the scholar walking towards the village entrance, dropping these heavy objects, and shouting to follow him.
"Liangsheng, let's go together." "Our practice is boring, so let's just follow along."
"Yes, we are following you, it's safe! No thief can get close to you."
Lu Liangsheng thought about it and realized that he was now powerless and if he fell off the cliff, there would be no way to save him.
"Well, uncles, follow me."
The first place to go is naturally Koizumi Mountain. Tongzi Mingyue is also there, so it's a good opportunity to meet him together.