"Young Master—"
The woman standing on the mountain path smiled, put her hands to her mouth in a trumpet shape, shouted over there, and walked quickly towards him with lotus steps. Ignoring the Taoist beside her, she threw herself into Lu Liangsheng's arms, tightly wrapped her arms around the scholar's neck, as if she wanted to melt into him. Her pretty face was pressed against the man's ear, and her whole body was hanging on the scholar.
"Sir, you are finally back."
Looking at Hong Lian in front of him, Lu Liangsheng felt much better. He hugged her and said softly, "We were delayed for a while on the way. Otherwise, we would have come back faster."
Ahem~~
Sun Yingxian narrowed his eyes, stroked his mustache and coughed twice, which startled Hong Lian out of the scholar's arms. A smile suddenly appeared on his sharp-nosed and monkey-faced face, and he stretched out his arms: "Where is this Taoist?"
"There's no share for you!" Hong Lian snorted at him. She heard the creaking of Lao Lu's bookshelf, but the smile on her face did not diminish. She squatted down with her skirt hugged. When the small door opposite opened, the Toad Taoist saw the woman with her hands spread out. His toad face was stunned, and he moved his butt and turned to the side.
"You little ghost girl, you want to take advantage of me? I won't let you hold me!"
Hong Lian covered her mouth and chuckled. When she looked at the scholar over there, Lu Liangsheng reached out and pulled her up, holding her hand and walking towards Lujia Village. The old donkey looked down at the rope hanging on the ground and panted heavily. The Taoist priest who came over picked up the reins.
"Come, let me lead the way!"
In the open door of the bookshelf, Toad Taoist knocked on his pipe, leaned on the door sill calmly, and looked at the towering mountain wall, "Hold, don't be afraid..."
Just as the words came out, the toad's eyelids twitched, and at the moment he covered his mouth, the old donkey neighed, raised his hoof, and fell to the ground, his figure directly turned into a stream of light.
Then…
The reins were pulled and tightened, and the Taoist who was originally walking holding the reins was dragged away from his original position in an instant. The toad sitting on the small door of the bookshelf was also blown out by the wind in an instant, and floated outside tied by the rope around its waist.
“Ahh—”
The Taoist didn't dare to drop the rope that was floating in the air, screaming and shouting. Outside the clanging bookshelf, there was also the hysterical shouting of the Toad Taoist. The man and the toad were dragged by the old donkey away from the pair of people in front.
"Master Sun and Master Toad are having a great time..."
Hong Lian lowered her head slightly. She hadn't seen the young master for a long time. She felt a little shy when his hand was held. She listened to two different shouts in the distance and said something softly, trying to start a conversation.
Lu Liangsheng's mouth twitched as he looked at the light disappearing in front of him. With the Taoist's cultivation and his master... nothing should happen. He followed the woman's words and responded, "I should... be very happy. After all, I'm home."
As he spoke, he turned his head and looked at the woman who had been lowering her head, and his hands tightened.
"Hong Lian, did you miss me?"
"ah?"
Nie Honglian never thought that the scholar would say it so directly. She was a little thin-skinned after all. She bit her lower lip shyly and pecked his head, her voice as thin as a mosquito's between her red lips.
"think."
"I won't let you think about it."
Hearing this, Hong Lian looked up at the scholar, who had a teasing smile on his face. She angrily punched the scholar's chest with her little fist.
"My lord, you are bad!"
The little hand that was about to hit was pinched by Lu Liangsheng. The embarrassed girl resisted for a few times, and then obeyed him, with a secret smile on her lips. She followed the scholar's footsteps and walked briskly through the front turning. Acres of fields spread out in their sight. Large tracts of fields had been harvested. On the ridges of the fields, there were only a group of shirtless villagers bargaining with fish vendors. In the pulled up fishing nets, a large number of white fish were struggling hard, splashing in the water.
"gentlemen!!"
Lu Liangsheng was looking at the farmland where the autumn harvest was taking place. A clear child's cry sounded on the cliff on one side. When he turned his head, he heard the sound of rocks rolling down the cliff. A barefoot child holding a small gourd jumped down from the cliff, landed on a large rock by the roadside, and quickly jumped to the ground. He threw the gourd aside, knelt down in front of Lu Liangsheng, and kowtowed to him.
"Ming Yue greets you, sir."
"You're so clever. You've known it after just a while." Lu Liangsheng went up to help the little guy up and patted the dust off his pants. "When I saw you, I remembered that there was a little boy named Qingfeng in Wujiang Mountain in the northwest. He was also well-behaved and clever."
"Is he also a boy adopted by the master?" Mingyue raised her little face and blinked curiously, "Is he more obedient than Mingyue?"
"If it's not collected by the master, it's worse than Mingyue."
Lu Liangsheng laughed. He could see that the little guy was thinking of competing with others. He patted Mingyue's little head and walked to the village entrance with Honglian. The villagers who were working in the fields had already gathered on the roadside. When Lao Lu rushed over here, he knew who had returned.
"Liangsheng!"
"Hey, Liangsheng is back, go and inform Sister Jinhua!"
With such a figure appearing in the village, who wouldn't want to get close to him? They swarmed over, greeted the scholar, asked about his life, and mostly cared about whether he had been wronged outside. Anyway, saying a few more good words was always good and would not be a loss.
Entering the village, Grandpa Lu was helped out of the house. Now that he is old, he has difficulty walking and his eyesight is not very good, so he needs someone to support him all the time. As soon as Lu Liangsheng entered the village, he went to pay his respects to him.
"Father-in-law, Liangsheng is back." A woman in her fifties who was supporting him was probably the old man's daughter-in-law.
The old man was sometimes confused and sometimes clear-headed. After being reminded, he looked at the scholar carefully. Fortunately, he recognized him. After seeing him clearly, he opened his toothless mouth and smiled so hard that he couldn't close it.
"It's good to be back... You have a promising future... Lujia Village is blessed to have you... such a capable person... "
"Help Taigong back, he's talking nonsense again."
Someone shouted with laughter, and was then slapped by a man nearby, which made more people laugh. After the excitement passed and it was almost evening, everyone dispersed one by one.
Lu Liangsheng looked back and asked, "Where's Old Sun?"
However, just as he finished speaking, a few loud shouts of "hum!" and "ha!" suddenly rang out from the drying dam, and the Taoist priest shouted, "I just came back and haven't seen Xiao Xian yet... Ah ah..."
The Taoist was instantly submerged in the eight big men.
"Let's go home first. I'm afraid Old Sun won't be able to leave for a while."
Lu Liangsheng looked over there and forced a smile. The eight uncles looked even more sturdy than when they left. It seemed that the body-building method he found in "Qing Huai Bugeng" had a big problem. He would have to ask his master when he got home.
When he returned to the small courtyard with fences, Li Jinhua, Lu Laoshi, and his sister Lu Xiaoxian were already waiting there at the gate. When the woman saw him coming back, she picked up a willow branch to brush his robe for him, looked at him carefully for a moment, and reached out to straighten Lu Liangsheng's collar.
"You're still so thin. You don't know how to eat more when you're out."
Lu Laoshi watched his son being scolded by his wife. He stood by and said nothing but laughed. Xiaoxian next to him was quite talkative and looked outside the alley from time to time.
"Brother... Where's Sun Yingxian? Why didn't he come back?"
"I was left behind by Uncle Pan and the others."
This has become a common occurrence. It was the Taoist's fault for looking for trouble with others in the first place. As a result, the eight people successfully perfected the body-building method, so naturally they started to blame the Taoist.
"You came back first!"
Lu Liangsheng saw that the old donkey had rolled on the hay in the donkey shed and was lying on its side, chewing the hay comfortably, pushing his father's donkey into a corner, not daring to raise its head.
"Don't bully it!"
After giving instructions, Lu Liangsheng lifted up the bookshelf on the ground and brought it into the house. He took out the Qilin cloak and books one by one and placed them around the room. The Toad Taoist ran back and forth between the bookshelf and the bed, happily taking out the recliner, small wardrobe, and gourd one by one and putting them in places he was familiar with.
Not long after, the Taoist came back from outside with his robe loose. Xiao Xian grabbed his ear and dragged him into the room, where he was scolded again.
The sun sets and darkness covers the mountain village.
In the bright kitchen, Lu Liangsheng was making a fire and Hong Lian was busy cooking. The Taoist put the bag on the table and took out the gifts he had bought one by one. He also bought rouge and powder for Li Jinhua, including a bright red dress. Lu Laoshi took it and shook it open. It was so threadbare that it was obvious that it was not something a good family should wear. He was so angry that he grabbed the hoe behind the door and chased the Taoist around the village.
In the candlelight, the deserted courtyard became lively.
The night deepened and the courtyard became quiet. The Taoist squatted on the ground with his ears pulled, while Lu Xiaoxian, who was opposite him, took the sewn sole and hit him on the head from time to time.
The lights flickered gently, and through the window lattice downstairs, the Toad Taoist was lying on the bed, his white belly slightly rising and falling, his open mouth spitting out bubbles, and he was sleeping comfortably with his snoring that sometimes got louder and sometimes got softer.
The flickering candlelight cast two shadows of people writing on the window frame.
Ink flowed on the stroked paper. Lu Liangsheng hugged Hong Lian, held her hand and wrote the words with the brush stroke by stroke. Hong Lian looked at the scholar sticking to the side of her face, then looked up and muttered softly.
"The lonely lamp, the shadow of the tree, the moon sways the branches, the red sleeves and black silk are clasped with lovesickness...
… Don’t forget the golden marriage, I just hope the mandarin ducks don’t become immortals.”
The candlelight is warm yellow, illuminating the interdependent figures in the small courtyard under the moon.