Lu Liangsheng looked at the outline of the small courtyard taking shape in the painting, glanced at the flickering candlelight beside him, frowned slightly, stopped writing with his brush, raised his head and looked outside. Under the lush tree cage, he vaguely saw the outline of a half-figure hanging there and shaking. He tilted his head and called out, "Old Sun."
On the bed, Toad Taoist leaned against the radio and listened to the old tune being sung in it, and nodded his head towards the door leading to the kitchen.
"Going over there."
This old Sun.
Lu Liangsheng shook his head, laughed, and continued to paint the scroll. Since he had already gone there, there was no need to go out to see other places. As he buried his head and continued to paint, a half-body hanging under an old tree in the courtyard outside the house floated towards the window frame. The branches and leaves rustled apart, revealing a dark human figure with a rope above its head, as if it was carrying the figure and floating towards him.
"Hmm... uh..."
A sound that did not sound like a human was carried back into the courtyard in the night wind. A slowly floating figure raised its face. Its white eyes looked at the figure who was concentrating on painting in the window frame, and then floated into the eaves.
The Toad Taoist on the couch inside took a glance, yawned, turned around and picked up the radio to put it to his ear. Lu Liangsheng felt the cold air coming from outside the window, raised his head, and saw a rope tied in a circle hanging from the window.
The scholar frowned, opened his lips slightly, and squeezed out two words.
"presumptuous!"
The words seemed to become solid, the air shook slightly, creating a circle of ripples, and hit the hanging rope. There was a slight hissing sound, and a sharp scream of "Ah--" was heard in the air outside the window. The outline of an obvious person was ejected fiercely, hitting the wooden pillar under the eaves. The evil energy filled the air instantly, and a disheveled woman was rolling on the ground madly with a long tongue dragging her body. Black smoke rose from her body, and she flew up to the locust tree against the courtyard wall. The door of the kitchen next door banged open, and she suddenly stretched out an arm and rushed out of the dark room, passed under the eaves, and kept stretching, stretching seven or eight meters to stick out of the eaves. She clenched her five fingers, grabbed the ghost's neck, pressed it to the ground, and pulled it back to the dark kitchen.
"Ah... uh..."
The evil ghost waved his hands and grabbed the ground tightly, leaving ten long black marks. He was pulled in with a scream of fear. After a moment, a sharp scream of "Ah!!" was heard, and there was no movement anymore.
…
"Ah~~ I haven't used magic for a long time. I'm so tired."
Lu Liangsheng tilted his head to look over to the kitchen. Old Sun was stretching lazily, coming in with a yellow cloth bag, throwing it casually, lying on the couch and nudging towards the Toad Taoist. As if he knew what the scholar wanted to ask, he put his hands behind his head, looked at the roof and talked about the spell.
“… When I was leaving Mount Qixia, I met an ugly scholar, who was just like you, taking an imperial examination. Later, the emperor disliked his ugliness, and in anger, he smashed his head against the throne and died. Later, he became the King of Ghosts. I learned this magic from him. You scholars are always faster than others in everything… Hmm, let me think about it, his name seems to be Zhong Kui… He used to come to see me every now and then, but I haven’t seen him since I went into seclusion. After so many years, I don’t know if he is still in the underworld.”
"You used his magic, maybe he has sensed it by now."
Lu Liangsheng didn't know what the underworld was like in this era, so he responded casually. Suddenly, he remembered something. The two of them were so excited when they met each other before that they forgot about it for a while.
He paused and looked at the Taoist lying on the ground: "By the way, has Yanzhi contacted you since she left Qixia Mountain? It would be hard to explain if I release Mingyue from the painting without knowing where his mother is."
"I came back once three hundred years ago."
Sun Yingxian sat up from the couch, stroking her chin and trying to recall her memories, "… and then she left again. She said that she felt she had reached the realm of Heavenly Fox, but she might encounter a heavenly calamity, so she came to ask me for help. But at that time, I was maintaining the magic circle and guarding our land, so I couldn't leave. I don't know what's going on now. Anyway, she is on that Japanese island, acting as Tamamonomae. A lot of little monsters from the Japanese island have gathered around her, saying something like eight million gods… It made me laugh to death."
The Taoist propped up his chin and laughed a few times, but when he saw the scholar standing still, his smile froze: "Hey, Mr. Lu, you are not going to that Japanese island, are you?"
"We'll see then."
Lu Liangsheng came back to his senses, smiled at him, turned around and continued to paint, staring at the courtyard scenery sketched on it, with a smile on his lips and a soft voice.
"If possible, I can go over there. After all, we are old friends. I can help her out a bit and help her get through the catastrophe smoothly... After all, there are not many old friends left in this world."
Hearing these sentimental words, Sun Yingxian followed the example of the Toad Taoist priest beside him, covered her ears, and turned towards the wall with an expression as if she didn't want to listen.
Lu Liangsheng sighed, then focused on sketching a few more strokes, writing the four words "Elegant Small Residence" on one side of the lower edge of the painting. He lightly moved the tip of his pen and pointed to the small courtyard outside the window.
In the scroll, the bamboo forest outlined in green ink sways, the soil on both sides of the locust tree in the courtyard breaks open, revealing green bamboo shoots that rise higher and higher, becoming jade-like and slender. Lush bamboo branches sprout leaves that rustle in the wind. Between the green bamboos on both sides and under the locust tree, there are stone tables and chairs covered with chessboard patterns, with two baskets of chess pieces in clear black and white on them.
On the moving scroll, golden light flowed, the cement floor of the courtyard outside slowly sank to the ground, handfuls of soil surged out, and goose-warm stones seemed to grow from the ground, densely dotted with a stone path connecting the bamboo forest, the courtyard gate, the eaves, and a small pavilion with green tiles and red pillars that appeared out of thin air not far away.
A gust of wind blew.
The houses on both sides seemed to have faded in color. The tattered roofs were covered with layers of intact green tiles. The broken dusty doors and windows below were brand new. The windows were covered with new window paper. The beds, desks, coffee tables, and screens in the house rose up one by one. Outside the courtyard wall, the moss and vines quickly shrank back into the ground.
On the dilapidated gate, the four characters "Elegant Residence" are slowly engraved in seal script. Under the night sky, the old trees and bamboo forest in the courtyard appear quiet and warm.
“Now it feels a bit like a place to live.”
Lu Liangsheng put down his pen, stretched his muscles, hung Hong Lian's portrait on the wall, yawned, waved his hand to let the Taoist go to sleep inside, put on his clothes, flicked the candle on the desk, and the flame went out.
…
Oh~~Oh oh oh oh~~
The loud crowing of the roosters in the neighboring yard broke the silence of the early morning. The alleys near the city gradually became noisy. Young people rushing to work, elderly people doing morning exercises and walking their birds, and children with schoolbags on their backs walked noisily through the only alley.
No one noticed the figures in the past. The courtyard gate with the words "Qingya Xiaoju" on it gradually became lively. The door opened, and Lu Liangsheng, Sun Yingxian, and Toad Taoist walked under the eaves with their collars straightened. They stood in a row of different heights, stretched their bodies together, and twisted their waists in the sunlight.
Afterwards, they walked to the well next to the pavilion, drew some water, and each of them held a bowl they had used before, took a toothbrush and squeezed toothpaste on it. They then brushed their lips up and down and left and right for dozens of times, and drank the water together, their cheeks rising and falling as they gurgled in their mouths.
"Huh!"
The two men and the toad spit it out on the ground, scooped it up in a bowl, and put it next to the well.
"Mr. Lu!!"
Just as he was taking out a towel to wash his face, Gao Tianqiu's voice was heard outside the courtyard gate. Lu Liangsheng put down the handkerchief, walked around the Taoist priest to open the door, and several people, including Gao Tianqiu, came in with a lot of bags in their hands. When they saw the changes in the courtyard, they dropped the things in their hands to the ground.
"What happened this evening..."
However, Gao Tianqiu reacted quickly, and quickly picked up the things from the ground, and took out his ID card from his pocket, "Mr. Lu, Taoist Sun, these are your identities, and you will be able to go anywhere without any obstacles in the future."
Lu Liangsheng took a look at the small card in his hand. His appearance, date of birth and address were all clearly written on it. At the side, the Toad Taoist jumped onto his disciple's shoulder, leaned over to take a look, and then fell on the figure opposite him.
"Where's the old man?"
“This…” Gao Tianqiu spread his hands. This was not only difficult for the clerk, but Mr. Lu and Taoist Sun were still human beings after all. How could they handle this toad
"Master Chan, it's not that we don't want to do it for you, it's just that there is really no precedent..."
As he was speaking, a voice suddenly came from the communicator, interrupting him. After two wheezing sounds, Tang Liren's words came into his earphone.
"Come back first. Something happened in the institute. The purified redstone is missing, and the information of Lu Liangsheng has also been leaked."
Gao Tianqiu's pupils shrank and he subconsciously looked at the scholar opposite him. Sensing the change in atmosphere, Lu Liangsheng put away the ID card and also looked over.
"What happened? Is it related to me?"