Qizhou

Not long after Zhufuxue stayed, the pigeons at home flew over.

The pigeon actually belonged to He Qizhou, but it had been wandering around the village chief's house for a long time, and was used to eating delicious food, but now it forgot who the owner was, and flew to the village every few days, and kissed the bamboo and snow every time it saw it.He Qizhou glanced at it helplessly, and let it go.

The pigeon circled around for a while, and the little note on its leg fell off, and happened to land on Zhufuxue's shoulder.Zhan Xin saw that it was the village head who was too busy alone, so he sent pigeons and called his daughter to go back to help.Zhu Fuxue smiled, put away the note, and thanked He Qizhou: "Thank you Taoist priest for raising good pigeons, it is really much more convenient to send messages."

He Qizhou smiled and said: "You're welcome, it's also raised by a friend, just lend it to me."

Zhu Fuxue looked at the snow-white bird that had landed on the handle of the bamboo basket, and found that the bird was also looking at her, with mung bean-sized round eyes rolling around several times, looking alert.The three said goodbye, and Zhu Fuxue left with the bamboo basket.The study room has not been tidied up for a long time, and it would take a lot of effort to toss about it.They originally wanted to help, but they were rejected by Zhu Fuxue after a few words, and they were no longer persistent.

After all, the study room belongs to Zhuxi Village, so no matter what they say, they are still outsiders.

Zhu Fuxue walked away, Ci Nian suddenly turned around, stared into He Qizhou's eyes, and didn't speak for a long time.The latter seemed to have read his mind, and said leisurely: "Don't you want to go to Chang'an with me?"

Ci Nian was overwhelmed, choked up for a moment, and lost the initiative.He stammered, "You didn't ask me..."

He Qizhou said: "Changan is more suitable for you."

Ci Nian said: "I have never been to Chang'an, so I don't know what Chang'an is, what is there, and whether it is suitable for me... You told her like this, then I will go if I don't go, or if I don't go, I will go ..."

He Qizhou remained silent, and after a while, he asked softly, "Don't you want to come with me?"

There is a wind in the mountains.

The sound of bamboo is dense, covering the heartbeat of Ci Nian just right.He didn't know why this heart was beating, he just felt that the question seemed to be asking for opinions, but the soft tone, almost compromising, was more like begging for his approval.Of course he knew where Chang'an was. To the northwest of Bashu, if you climbed over the mountains, you could see the resplendent and resplendent ancient capital with red walls and green tiles.

Suddenly, what he said when he first met He Qizhou flashed through his mind.

He said he was from Chang'an, thousands of miles away.

"Then... just count me as being abrupt." Ci Nian's thoughts were interrupted by He Qizhou's words, which lacked the magnanimity just now, and added a bit of sadness.

The young man raised his head, facing He Qizhou's smiling face, but there was something wrong with that smile, like drinking too much tea brewed at noon, it was so bitter that it made the tip of the tongue feel astringent.He Qizhou looked at him, and said softly: "That's right, it's really difficult to let you go with me all of a sudden. If you think Sichuan is better, you don't want to..."

"I didn't say I didn't want to!" Ci Nian hurriedly interrupted, and before he finished speaking, he watched the smile of the person in front of him change, a drop of bitter tea slowly fell, and suddenly plunged into a jar of syrup.

Tired, too tired.

Ci Nian has a bad heart, this person probably didn't deliberately provoke himself with words, but the words have already been spoken, so it is not so easy to take them back, he scratched the top of his head twice, and said: "I didn't say I would either!"

He Qizhou coughed, and suppressed the already inflated smile back under his skin: "Is it willing or not?"

Ci Nian faltered twice, then suddenly picked up the cup, and drank the tea in one gulp, but this imposing move did not make him pry his mouth open, his heart was burning, the little fox stomped his feet, and cursed: "I Let's kill that bastard in Houshan first! I'll kill him right away!"

He Qizhou took it easy: "I'm killed, come with me?"

Ci Nian was choked again, unable to speak for a while.He Qizhou nodded slowly with a look of understanding: "Then it's settled." After saying this, there was no time for him to recall the past, he put away the tea tray on the table, and muttered leisurely, " It's windy," and stepped into the house.

The bamboo leaf fell lightly, and it was sticking to Ci Nian's drooping pointed ears. He grabbed the leaf and finally came to his senses, cursing and chasing after him: "Come out! Don't tease me! Come out!"

Midsummer is coming to an end, the heat subsides, and there are gusts of wind in the courtyard.There were bursts of noisy human voices in the house, which spread farther and farther in the quiet bamboo forest, and were finally caught by the summer wind and carried to the mountain stream, breaking into running streams.

A few days later, Zhufuxue sent pigeons to send a note.The pigeon made another round, and it seemed that life in Zhucun Chang's house was indeed prosperous.The study room has been taken care of, and Zhu Fuxue carefully organized and bound all the village chronicles. As soon as the work was completed there, the pigeons were released here impatiently, and they were invited to have a look together.

In Zhuxi Village, apart from the village head, Zhufuxue is most concerned about the fate of this small village.

The pigeons flew all the way, and they followed.

The study room in Zhuxi Village is not far away, just a few steps away from the longhouse in Zhucun Village.Entering the house, one can see rows and rows of old cabinets that are mottled but free of dust. They have obviously been cleaned by the Zhu family's father and daughter.

As soon as they entered the house, they bumped into Zhu Fuxue who was holding books. Although the girl was thin, she was not weak at all. She was holding several brick-thick books in her hands, and she was able to trot towards the door.He Qizhou almost bumped into her, and hurriedly took the heavy book in his hand for her. The room is not spacious, and because there is no lamp in the daytime, it is still a bit dark.

"Go to my house, it's right next door, the house is spacious." Zhu Fuxue suggested, "Today my father went shopping at the foot of the mountain, and he won't be back until a while."

The boxy table was moved to the door, and the light outside was bright.The yellowed books were piled up in a pile, making Chi Nian's eyes straighten.The history of Zhuxi Village is far longer than he imagined.He looked at He Qizhou, then at Zhu Fuxue, the expressions on their faces were the same, neither seemed to be intimidated by the heavy book.

Ci Nian swallowed, and whispered: "Can I say that I can't read..."

He Qizhou sneered slightly, and said: "If you can't stand watching, you can rest beside me, and I'll take a look."

When Ci Nian heard this, his original intention of retreating was immediately suppressed.He grabbed the thickest book in front of him, flipped a page neatly, but stared at He Qizhou with round eyes, his face was full of unwillingness to admit defeat.He Qizhou didn't say much, just looked at him with a smile.

The two looked at each other for a long time before the Taoist finally reminded him gently: "The book is upside down."

Ci Nian hurriedly looked away, only to realize that the densely packed characters he was holding in his hand had all been adjusted.His face blushed for a while, he quickly turned the book around, buried himself in the pages, and the crisp yellow village chronicles rattled in his hands.

After turning a few pages, the man reminded again: "Be careful, they are all ancient books, they are broken, be careful that Village Chief Zhu will punish you for copying."

"He dares..." As soon as the quarrel started in Ci Nian, he was interrupted by Zhu Fuxue's laugh. He suddenly thought that the village head was Miss Zhu's father, and the girl invited him to eat pepper chicken yesterday. Thinking of this, the arrogance of the year of resignation weakened, and the tone of the word "dare" dragged on for a long time, and finally turned into a sentence "dare—to punish me, I can only copy it honestly..."

Zhu Fuxue chuckled lightly, and only took the bickering between the two of them as a daily pastime.

The afternoon sun was scorching, but the yard was sheltered by trees, and the summer breeze brought coolness, and the cicadas sang.The records of this village chronicle are detailed and organized. It seems that there was no shortage of scholars in the village in the past.He Qizhou pinched his stiff neck, he had just finished reading a book in his hand, and found no clues related to Houshan.

As soon as he raised his head, he found that there were two books in front of Zhu Fuxue, and one was flipped in his hand. The slender hand flipped over, like a cool wind blowing over the mountains, turning the yellowed paper out of the flowers.The focused eyes didn't stop, the black and brown pupils turned around, one page was quickly skipped, and the next page was turned.

He Qizhou was taken aback, then looked at Ci Nian again, this guy fell asleep on the table at some point.This sleep is extremely quiet, even breathing is shallow.He Qizhou stared at it for a while, his eyes wandering over the tightly closed eyes.A fox is a beautiful animal. When it becomes a spirit and takes human form, it is even more so handsome that people cannot take their eyes off it.

Those eyes that used to be happy and angry, even though they were hidden in a sound sleep at this moment, he couldn't help but let him look at them twice more.He Qizhou only felt that the wind behind him was a bit strong, as if there were hands pushing his back slowly, trying to move him a little closer to the sleeping person so that he could see more clearly.

"I found it." Zhu Fuxue raised her head suddenly, awakening the sleeping person, and also cut off the glued sight.

Ci Nian hurriedly got up from the table, his face still had the natural marks of the bamboo table, and it was reddish in streaks.He half-cast his eyes for a while, then suddenly said nonchalantly: "Looking for... found it? Found the toad?"

Zhu Fuxue responded, and tapped the page in her hand with her fingertips, showing: "Well, here it is."

The two moved closer, their heads very close to each other.The things recorded on the page are not detailed, but the general content is still clear.In the years before the year of resignation, some people really witnessed the monsters in the back mountain.

There was a drought in central Sichuan that year, and the whole village relied on a stream that had not dried up. This stream not only preserved Zhuxi Village, but also provided a life-saving water source for the town down the mountain.

According to the records of the village records, during the Mid-Autumn Festival of that year, some people in the village carried water back to the village in the evening, stopping and walking along the way, and there were occasional slaps on the walls of wooden barrels.The villagers didn't think about it, they just felt that there were fish in the bucket. Who would want to enter the village and look at it with the light, only to find that the bucket was full of tadpoles!These tadpoles are pitch-black in color and as big as the mouth of a bowl. When they are illuminated by candlelight, they grow back legs in a short time and jump out.

The villagers who discovered this were frightened to death, and threw the bucket on the ground. Seven or eight tadpoles in the bucket rolled to the ground.People in the village screamed again and again, and no one dared to go forward.The head of the village at that time was the son-in-law of a married man, a native of Xiaoxiang, who grew up by the Dongting Lake. He could see the clue at a glance. The hatchet in his hand fell rapidly, and the young toad, which had not yet formed, was broken in two and immediately melted into the soil. It stinks all over the place.

That night, the village head went up the mountain alone, and did not come back until dawn.That night, apart from the occasional chirping of birds, there was no movement in the village.The villagers waited anxiously for a whole night, and finally waited for the village chief. "When the village chief came back, his clothes and trousers were all wet, he carried a toad on his shoulder, his back was like a round platform, a hole pierced through his skull between his eyes, his whole body was broken, and his whole body was broken." After reading this, Zhu Fuxue explained: " Some parts are missing, but a word 'bird' can be vaguely seen."

"Finch?" He Qizhou repeated, "There is indeed a folk saying that toads are afraid of birds. Could it be that the village chief really invited some sparrow fairy to help him get rid of this disaster?"

Ci Nian nodded with a vague understanding: "Then we also have to invite a bird fairy?"

As soon as the words came out, the two looked at him at the same time. He was taken aback, and suddenly waved his hands: "No, no, I can't, I don't know any bird fairy..." Seeing that the two didn't seem to believe it, he even louder argued: "I, I steal chickens! Chickens are birds too! Birds won't like me!"

There is some truth to this statement.He Qizhou chuckled and sighed, "There's still a little more."

He said: "Even if the bird can help, it can't penetrate the water surface and pull out the monster hidden under the water. If we want to deal with him, we must let him out first. If he is hiding in the water, someone must go down and drive him out." Just come up. It is written in the "Zhuxi Dizhi" that there is a pool in the back mountain of Zhuxi, named Zhuqingtan, which is more than two feet deep, and there are many rock caves at the bottom of the pool. According to the year of the resignation, this monster is hiding in Zhuxi Tanli. It may not be easy to force him out."

Zhufuxue said: "I know water, I can try."

When the two heard the words, they were surprised and said in unison: "You?!"

When Zhu Fuxue was asked by them, she was also at a loss: "I can't do it? I also grew up in the bamboo stream since I was a child."

He Qizhou shook his head: "That's a monster, not a human being. If you let you go on like this, what will happen? The head of Zhucun is so worried..." Before the conversation was finished, the little fox over there said, "Then I bring it on."

Being blocked by him like this, He Qizhou choked back the words he hadn't finished speaking. He choked for a while, and finally said in a low voice: "You weren't...you can't."

These words were not contempt or ridicule, but real concerns and persuasion. Of course, Ci Nian knew that he was afraid of water, but he still bit his lower lip and nodded with determination: "I can practice."

He Qizhou frowned, and before he could utter any words of persuasion, he said again: "Didn't you say that you have to walk the journey of immortality on your own, and the virtue is to be kind to others and fulfill the wishes of others?"

"..." He Qizhou was rarely at a loss for words, but the words were indeed spoken by him, so he could only nod his head, "That's right..."

"Then I can practice, practice avoiding water, or find other ways." Knowing what He Qizhou's foreshadowing was intended to do, his tone became more decisive, "Miss Bamboo is a sentient being, aren't you also a sentient being? You call me Xiao Immortal, then I am. Since I have a little bit more advantages than sentient beings, there is no reason to listen to wishes and let people realize them by themselves."

Having said that, he grinned again: "If this happens, will I be one step closer to becoming a fairy?"

He Qizhou finally swallowed the words rolling in his throat, he nodded slowly, and said helplessly, "Yes, it can't be any closer."