The Birds Keep Ringing Chapter 18
byChapter 18 Three-in-One Let’s talk about whether you have had a crush on me a long time ago…
Yunzhen felt that he was in great shape now and continued to show off, “Let’s talk! What’s wrong with the monsters? Are they eating your rice? On the contrary, it’s the Lu family, under the banner of the righteous way of martial arts, who secretly does things that would make even animals shake their heads! The animal world also has a bottom line, okay?”
Lu Feng sneered: “You are messing around here, what evidence do you have? Just with your mouth?”
“Evidence?” Yunzhen raised the crumpled book high, “Isn’t this evidence? It clearly states how to make elixirs, what materials to use, and how to control the heat! If you think I’m talking nonsense, you can circulate it to everyone and learn from your Lu family’s cooking skills!”
Just when Lu Feng was about to speak, Yun Zhen didn’t give him a chance at all. He knew that the essence of a quarrel was not to give the other party a chance to talk back.
“Also! Have you ever seen Lu Ting?” Yun Zhen raised his voice an octave, “Have you ever wondered why he can’t come out of seclusion all year round? I happened to see him today. Good guy, he has a demonic aura around him. The demonic aura is stronger than that of my senior brother, a vixen who has been cultivating for hundreds of years!”
Xiao Fenzhi added at the end: “Junior brother, there is no need to step on it.”
Lu Feng shouted: “That’s nonsense!”
“Am I talking nonsense?” Yunzhen pointed at the door, “Well, if you don’t believe it, you can go see Lu Ting and see if he is a human or a monster! I will leave my words here today. If Lu Ting dares to show up in front of the world’s heroes, I will immediately kneel down, kowtow to him three times, and call him grandpa!”
The master wiped his sweat from below, thinking that this kid was too brave. If Lu Ting really came out, wouldn’t the seniority of their Liuyun Sect be in chaos?
Someone began to whisper among themselves in the audience.
“The head of the Lu family has indeed not shown up for a long time…”
“Lu Feng also attended the martial arts conference on his behalf…”
“Is there really something hidden?”
“What?” Hearing these words, Yun Zhen was so proud that his tail was raised to the sky, “Don’t you dare let him come out? Or is it that his current appearance has reached the point where it is an eyesore?”
Seeing that the situation was reversed and the high ground of public opinion was about to be lost, Lu Feng knew that he could not delay it any longer. The martial arts people of this generation were lame after even a little deception.
“What a sharp tongue!” Lu Feng’s eyes were filled with murderous intent. “It’s empty talk, no matter how nice it is, it’s useless. You just want to delay time. Everyone! This matter is related to the righteousness of the martial arts world, and we must not be deceived by monsters! I suggest that the Liuyun Sect be searched immediately to see how many monsters they have hidden!”
As soon as these words came out, several Lu family stooges immediately began to respond: “Search the Liuyun Sect!”
“Find out the monster!”
Yun Zhen was anxious: “You guys are being unreasonable!”
“Wait.”
A deep voice sounded, and everyone turned their heads, only to see the head of the Xie family, Xie Canghai, appear outside, holding half of the uneaten sesame cakes in his hand, and Xie Xiaoming followed him with a dark face.
The Xie family did not attend the dinner and left early. It is said that the head of the Xie family felt that the Lu family’s food was not enough, so he had to go to the street to buy sesame cakes.Now I don’t know why it appeared here again, maybe because I heard that there are bigger melons to eat here.
Jianghu people like to watch the excitement most, especially the excitement in other people’s homes.
“That book,” Xie Canghai pointed to the booklet in Yunzhen’s hand, “show it to me.”
Seeing Xie Xiaoming walking towards him, Yun Zhen hesitated.This is a key piece of evidence. What if Xie Xiaoming, out of love and hatred, spreads his resentment towards his senior brother on this book and tears it up?
“Give it to him.” Xiao Fenzhi’s voice came from behind, with a somewhat lazy smile, “Although Mr. Xie has a bad temper, he can still distinguish between right and wrong, right? Mr. Xie?”
Xiao Fenzhi said the last two words extremely gently, with an indescribable ambiguity, like a whisper between lovers.
Xie Xiaoming’s back froze for a moment. At that moment, Yun Zhen felt that he might draw his sword and kill the fox first.But he held back, gritted his teeth and snatched the booklet from Yunzhen’s hand, walked back and handed it to Xie Canghai.
Xie Canghai flipped through a few pages, his brows furrowed and tightened, and his expression changed from curiosity to disgust, and finally to anger.
The illustrations in this book are really intuitive. Not only are there instructions on how to tie up spiritual beasts, but they even have anatomy diagrams. The drawings are rough but realistic, with red and white colors. It makes your stomach churn when you look at it, and the sesame cakes you just ate are rising.
Xie Canghai closed the book and almost vomited it out. He looked at Lu Feng and said, “Nephew, your recipes are quite spicy. I am a layman, but I also know that some things are inedible.”
“Xie Shibo, this is just a forgery…” Lu Feng was still trying to argue.
“Forgery?” Xie Canghai sneered, “You mean someone deliberately forged an alchemy secret book just to frame you?”
“That’s right!” Wen Wan stood up at the right time.
She pointed at the animals with missing arms and legs: “The Lu family captures spiritual beasts to make elixirs. Only those with strong spiritual energy and intact bodies will be thrown into the furnace, while those with injuries will be thrown away. I used to think that it was the work of the hunters, until today…”
The senior sister knelt down and touched the blind wolf. The wolf let out a low, aggrieved cry, which sounded like it was crying or cursing.
“If our Liuyun Sect is really a nest of monsters, why don’t these animals attack us, but hide behind us?” Wen Wan asked, “These uncultivated spiritual creatures don’t understand the sinister nature of people’s hearts, nor do they understand the righteous ways of martial arts. They only know who is helping them and who is going to harm them.”
With Xie Canghai taking the lead and Yun Zhen’s interference just now, the martial arts people watching finally came to their senses.Although they are easily incited and often run away from home, they are not really stupid.
“Lu Feng! What else do you have to say!”
“It turns out that the Lu family is the evil heretic! Fortunately, I thought Lu Feng was handsome before, but I didn’t expect him to be a pervert!”
“I just said why the Lu family’s food smells weird.”
“Give me back the money I just cheated on!”
The man who was so angry just now that he wanted to burn the monster to death now wanted to peel off Lu Feng’s skin and convulse him.This is called a wall that is knocked down by everyone, and a drum that is broken by thousands of people.
When the master saw this, he immediately put on a righteous and awe-inspiring expression. He was so fast that it was shocking. He pointed at Lu Feng and scolded him: “Little Lu Feng! I have long seen that your Yintang is dark and you have evil intentions! Today the divine beast appears to reveal your true face! How can you have the face to face the heroes of the world!”
Yunzhen’s mouth twitched.
Lu Feng looked at the angry faces around him. Those who once respected him were now eager to bite him.He stopped arguing, and the fake smile disappeared from his face, replaced by a cold calm.
“Since you all know, then you can all stay.” Lu Feng said, “Just in time, there are still a lot of materials needed to refine the panacea, including a fox demon, a cat demon, and…”
He stared at Yunzhen: “A good cauldron.”
Yunzhen’s heart skipped a beat, it turned out to be like this.
The Lu family has been dealing with spiritual beings all year round, so of course it can be seen that he is not a spiritual being.He knew what Ding Lu meant. Ding Lu in Hua Ben usually refers to people with special physiques who can help practitioners improve their skills.
He’s not an ingredient, he’s a cooking utensil?
Is this another form of making the best use of everything?Anyway, he is destined to shine in the kitchen in his life.
His memory is not very good and he always needs to hear something in order to recall something.
That was three years ago.
That winter, the snow fell so heavily that half of the stone lions in front of his house were buried. He was sleeping in his study, and the charcoal fire was burning brightly.
“Those people are here again.” The housekeeper said tremblingly.
“I don’t care what they say!” His father slapped the table, causing the teacup to jump. “Although the Yun family is just a family of merchants, it is not at the mercy of others. I will fight to the death of anyone who dares to touch my son!”
After a long time, the housekeeper said: “But those people are martial arts people, we can’t afford to offend them… Master, otherwise…”
“We have to offend him if we can’t afford it,” his father said. “The worst we can do is move, leave Jiangnan, and go to a place where no one knows us.”
Later, they did not move because he entered Liuyun Sect.
Yunzhen always thought that his father wanted him to learn some real skills so that he could honor his family.Thinking about it now, his father probably wanted to hide him somewhere where no one could find him.
The broken hilltop of Liuyun Sect is so poor that it doesn’t even want to grow more grass. Who would have thought that there would be some kind of natural cauldron hidden there?
Master, that old liar, turned out to have known this from the beginning.The money his father gave his master was not living expenses, but protection money. No wonder he was so generous.That’s why Jiang Zhi followed him when he decided to become a master, and the master even turned him into a bird.
Lu Feng looked at everyone’s reactions with satisfaction: “It’s hard to find a cauldron, especially one with his own spiritual energy. Everyone, your cultivation has been stuck at a bottleneck for a long time, right?”
Sure enough, some people in the crowd had their eyes twinkling.In the face of the temptations of immortality and martial arts advancement, the moral bottom line is often very low.
At this moment, there was a sudden strong wind outside the door, flying sand and rocks, making it difficult to open one’s eyes.
After the dust cleared, a man wearing dark red robes walked over, with a faint smell of blood blowing against his face.
Lu Ting finally showed up.
Yunzhen took a breath, jumped down from the table, and quickly hid behind Jiang Zhi, only sticking out half of his head.
He just said that he wanted to kowtow and call grandpa, is it too late to take it back now?If he really called him grandpa, wouldn’t Jiang Zhi become his father?Now that the generations are in chaos, how can we talk about it in the future… ahem, how can we get along with each other?
Lu Ting’s eyes swept across the crowd. The martial arts people who were originally filled with righteous indignation were so frightened by him that their faces turned pale. They involuntarily stepped back and dispersed like birds and beasts.Some people who are not afraid of death still stay, or hide in the distance to watch the excitement. After all, if you miss this level of excitement, you will regret it for the rest of your life.
“Second uncle! You came just in time!” Lu Feng shouted, as if he had seen a savior, and rushed to greet him, “These monsters want to…”
“Crack!”
Before he could finish speaking, Lu Ting knocked Lu Feng to the ground with one palm.The force was so great that Lu Feng flew out, rolled on the ground several times, and finally lay motionless on the ground.
“Idiot.” Lu Ting said coldly, “It’s not your turn to make the decision in the Lu family.”
Lu Feng spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at Lu Ting in horror, not daring to say a word.
“Do you think I will really stay in that crappy place and stare at those three clay Bodhisattvas?” Lu Ting sneered, “I just want to see how stupid you can be.”
He turned around, his turbid yellow eyes fixed on Yunzhen who was hiding behind Jiang Zhi.
At that moment, Lu Ting made a strange sound in his throat, similar to the swallowing sound of a wild animal when it sees raw meat.
He took a deep breath, his nose quivered, and his eyebrows knitted together, as if he smelled something extremely delicious yet extremely hateful to him.
“Get away!” Lu Ting’s voice was hoarse and harsh, “You bastard… don’t stand in my way.”
He approached Jiang Zhi and the others step by step.
“Your mother tastes good, so you should be good too.” Lu Ting grinned, “After all, it’s my seed.”
Jiang Zhi’s blood boiled instantly. He looked at the man in front of him, this physical father, and the memories that had been suppressed in his mind surged out like a flood that burst a dam.
Flames, blood, screams, and the face grinning in the firelight overlapped with these golden eyes.
“Kill him!” A voice in the bottom of my heart shouted crazily, “Tear him to pieces! Drink his blood!”
Jiang Zhi’s pupils began to shrink and his muscles tightened, like a fully drawn bow.
Yunzhen noticed something was wrong and grabbed his arm, “Don’t listen to him! He wants to anger you! He just wants to turn you into a crazy cat so that he can stew you in a pot!”
But Jiang Zhi seemed to have lost hearing, and the world in his eyes was turning blood red.
Lu Ting ignored Yun Zhen’s shouting. He raised a palm and rushed over with overwhelming momentum.
A ray of green sword light shot out diagonally. Xie Xiaoming didn’t know which tendon was wrong. Perhaps in order to show his heroic spirit in front of Xiao Fenzhi, he drew his sword and rushed forward, stabbing Lu Ting in the eyes.
Lu Ting did not dodge, and his eyelids closed.
“Ding——”
The sharp sword tip pierced his eyelids, making the sound of gold and iron touching.
Xie Xiaoming was horrified, is this still a human being?Is this the Iron King who has become a master?
Lu Ting casually grabbed the sword and swung it violently. Xie Xiaoming and the sword were thrown away by the brute force.
“Xiao Ming!” Xie Canghai shouted, feeling so distressed that his beard stood on end.
He was about to take action, but was stopped by a dark shadow.
“Back off.”
There was no emotion in Jiang Zhi’s voice.The next moment, it turned into a black lightning and faced Lu Ting.
The sword light was like a dragon, coming through the air.
Jiang Zhi’s sword was so fast that he couldn’t even see the shadow. It struck Lu Ting’s vital part with deadly moves. Lu Ting didn’t dodge at all and caught Jiang Zhi’s sword with both palms.
The two men didn’t look like they were fighting at all, more like two beasts fighting for territory.
Yun Zhen was grabbed out by his master a long time ago. As he walked, he shouted: “Master! What should we do! Second senior brother is going crazy!”
The master was very calm, and was still observing Lu Ting’s moves: “Tsk, tsk, I can’t practice this move well. It seems that I didn’t gain much brains after taking the demon pill.”
“It’s been so long and you’re still commenting!” Yun Zhen was almost dying of anxiety, “Quickly think of a way!”
“You don’t believe your second senior brother?” Master asked.
“I believe it! But Lu Ting is not a human! He is a pervert!” Yun Zhen cried.
The master smiled enigmatically, “Zhen’er, just now Lu Feng said you were a cauldron, but he really has little knowledge. Lu Ting’s magic power has been stuck in the bottleneck for twenty years, and has been counterattacked by the demon pill day and night. Only you can help him get rid of the shackles and reborn. You are not a cauldron, but a pure natural spirit. Do you want to help your second senior brother?”
Yunzhen nodded desperately: “As long as you don’t have to get into the frying pan, you can do anything!”
On the other side, Jiang Zhi and Lu Ting had already passed more than ten moves.
Lu Ting seized a flaw and punched out.
Jiang Zhi blocked with his horizontal sword.
“Boom!”
The whole person retreated several feet, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
“Is this what you are capable of?” Lu Ting mocked, “You are too weak. Release your demonic power! Let me see if you are my seed!”
Jiang Zhi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes as cold as frost.He did feel that the demon blood in his body was boiling and screaming.
As long as he wants, he can become stronger, powerful enough to tear the man in front of him to pieces.
But he thought of that chubby little bird, that fool who was trembling in his hand but still trying to stop the bleeding with feathers, that fool who was chirping and saying that he wanted to protect him.
That warm touch was the hottest temperature he had ever felt in his life.
No.
He didn’t want to be like Lu Ting, who couldn’t lose everything for power.
Suddenly there was one more person in the field, and Jiang Zhi’s pupils shrank suddenly. He saw his master swaggering up to Lu Ting with his hands behind his back.
Everyone around was shocked. Is this old man going to die?
The master stood in front of Lu Ting and said with a smile: “Master, if you have something to say, why bother to fight?”
Lu Ting was furious and slapped him with a palm.
However, the palm stopped three inches away from the master, as if it had hit an invisible wall.
Lu Ting was shocked.
“Although I don’t have any skills, I still have some skills to save my life.” The master looked like he wanted to be beaten, “Are you angry that you can’t hit me?”
At the same time, a warm body suddenly bumped into Jiang Zhi’s arms.
“Second Senior Brother!” Yunzhen hugged him and hung on him like a koala. “You can kill if you want. I don’t care. But if you become like him, I will jump into the alchemy furnace myself to save you from regretting that you can’t eat hot food in the future.”
Jiang Zhi lowered his head and saw that Yun Zhen’s face was pale, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.
Yunzhen grinned, showing two tiger fangs, “Second senior brother, what kind of spiritual body does the master say I am? Does it mean that I am a big tonic? Anyway, I have nothing much use in my life except eating and sleeping, so I will use it today!”
Before Jiang Zhi could refuse, Yunzhen started, “Let me lend you some luck! This is auspicious energy, much higher than that demonic power! It has been certified by Heaven!”
Yunzhen closed his eyes and mobilized the spiritual energy throughout his body that he had never understood according to his master’s instructions.He didn’t know how to transmit it, but he knew how to give it, just like when he was a child and stuffed delicious and fun things to others, he desperately poured that warm breath into Jiang Zhi’s body.
The auspicious energy rolled in like the Yangtze River and instantly dispersed the demon blood that was plundering from Jiang Zhi’s body.It was a kind of clarity that had never been seen before, as if the ice and snow were melting and the spring breeze was blowing.
Jiang Zhi lowered his head and saw that Yunzhen’s forehead was covered with cold sweat, and his lips were pale, but he was still smiling.
It was not as stunning as the first time he saw it, but across the chaotic world, across hatred and killing, that smile was like a net, making him unable to move in this mortal world.
It turns out that the so-called nemesis is not that the cat eats the bird, or that God wants him to be lonely.
He practiced swordsmanship not to kill anyone, but to protect the idiot in his arms.
This is His way.
He whispered: “That’s enough.”
“Not enough!” Yunzhen gritted his teeth.
Seeing that Yun Zhen had no intention of leaving, Jiang Zhi could only push him away cruelly.The master looked back, stopped entangled with Lu Ting, and slipped away like a loach.
His sword returned to its pure sharpness, the light of the sword was like running water, penetrating into every hole, and the energy of the sword was like a mountain, unstoppable.
Lu Ting’s originally contemptuous look changed, and he found that he couldn’t keep up with Jiang Zhi’s speed.
The sword energy seemed to be everywhere, blocking all his escape routes.
Jiang Zhi flashed and appeared behind Lu Ting, stabbing out with his sword.There were no fancy moves, just an ordinary sword, but it was extremely fast and accurate. It was a sword he had practiced thousands of times.
“Pfft.”
The sound of a sharp knife piercing flesh.
Lu Ting’s movements were frozen.
He lowered his head and looked at his chest in disbelief. The tip of the sword penetrated from behind, dripping with blood.
It wasn’t some sorcery, it was just an ordinary sword, but it penetrated the copper skin and iron bones that he was proud of, and pierced his heart that no longer beat.
“You…” Lu Ting’s eyes widened, and his golden pupils began to dilate and turned black again, “What kind of magic is this?”
“People don’t need magic to kill people.”
Jiang Zhi drew out his long sword and flicked his wrist to shake off the blood beads on the blade.
Lu Ting fell to the ground with a crash, sending up dust all over the sky.
“Second senior brother!”
Before Yun Zhen, who had just ran over, had time to hold him up, his own legs went weak.
With quick eyes and quick hands, Jiang Zhi caught Yunzhen who was falling.
Yun Zhen leaned weakly in Jiang Zhi’s arms, with stars in his eyes, and he still muttered: “Second Senior Brother… Am I very powerful… Do I look like a hero…”
“Yeah.” Jiang Zhi hugged him tightly, his voice a little hoarse, “Like.”
“Remember…” Yun Zhen grabbed his collar and used his last strength to say his last words, “Erect a monument for me… write… Bird Hero… and… the offerings must include braised pork… not millet…”
After saying that, he fainted, with a satisfied smile on his lips, as if he had smelled the aroma of braised pork.
Jiang Zhi held him tightly in his arms, his hands trembling slightly.Everyone looked at the man covered in blood and did not dare to express their anger.
Lu Feng sat slumped on the ground, his face turned earth-colored.
“Monster…” He still refused to give up and pointed at Jiang Zhi tremblingly, “He killed someone…he…”
Jiang Zhi didn’t even raise his eyelids, and rubbed Yunzhen’s head with his chin. His movements were very gentle, and he was completely different from the killing god just now.He didn’t look at anyone else, and he didn’t pay attention to the so-called right ways of martial arts.
He lowered his head and looked at the unconscious person in his arms.The eyelashes are very long, and she looks very good when sleeping. She is not as noisy as usual, and seems to be more beautiful, but the eyelashes are still stained with his blood, which is not very clean.
Jiang Zhi reached out and gently wiped away the blood on Yunzhen’s cheek, then picked him up, stepped over Lu Ting’s body, walked over the mess on the ground, and walked out step by step.
The master shouted from behind: “Hey! Brother! Don’t leave! Who will clean up this mess?”
The master looked at everyone, smiled awkwardly, and rubbed his hands: “Go ahead, young people, how about we raise money to repair this alchemy room?”
Jiang Zhi didn’t look back, as if he didn’t hear.
Compared with all that, he just wanted to find a quiet place and feed this idiot who almost turned into a roasted breast bird something to eat.
Yunzhen hasn’t eaten for a long time, but he still hasn’t complained about being hungry. This is abnormal.
I need to feed him some braised pork quickly to make him fatter.The human Yun is really too thin, all bones, and it feels good to hold it in the hand, but it still feels good when it is a bird, it is chubby, and it is warm in the arms.
Moreover, although birds can sing, they cannot speak and are relatively quiet.
But if it’s Yunzhen, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little noisy.
…
When Yunzhen woke up, he smelled a burnt aroma, which was far different from the braised pork in his dream.
He did not open his eyes immediately, but quickly reviewed his life in his mind.According to the flow of the script, the hero faints after a earth-shattering battle, and there are usually only two situations when he wakes up.
One is lying on the big carved bed, sitting next to a beautiful woman who is crying like she thought he was dead. The other is being in the underworld, with the Lord of Hell sitting next to him.
But the burnt smell was really off-putting. It was neither charming nor hellish. It looked like a cook with extremely poor skills was taking revenge on society.
Yunzhen opened his eyes suddenly.
What comes into view is neither the bed tent nor the Naihe Bridge, but a crackling bonfire and the sparkling lake in the moonlight beyond.
Yunzhen turned his head with difficulty and saw Jiang Zhi sitting by the fire.
The man who had just killed the leader of the martial arts alliance was sitting on the ground without any image at the moment, holding the frightening sword in his hand.
However, the capsized boat was not used to kill people at this moment. Instead, two fish were strung together and put on the fire to be tortured.
The fish is half black.
“Second Senior Brother,” Yunzhen said weakly, “What are you using to grill fish?”
Jiang Zhi turned his head and raised the sword in his hand expressionlessly: “Sword.”
“I know it’s a sword,” Yun Zhen said heartbrokenly, feeling his heart bleed, “This is a magical weapon, cutting iron like clay, and you actually use it as a stick? The sword spirit will cry, really cry.”
Jiang Zhi calmly turned it over, letting the other side of the fish turn black evenly: “It won’t cry.”
“Why?”
“Heat resistant.”
“…”
Yunzhen struggled to sit up and found that he was covered with Jiang Zhi’s outer robe. There was still some blood stains on the clothes, but it had dried.
“Are you hungry?” Jiang Zhi asked.
“Hungry.” Yun Zhen answered honestly.His last wish before he fell into coma was braised pork. Although there was only burnt fish now, it was still meat after all.
As the saying goes, if you’re hungry, you won’t choose what to eat.
Jiang Zhi handed over the sword, with the slightly less black fish poking at the tip: “Eat it.”
Yunzhen looked at the fish. Although it looked miserable, for a man who was so hungry that his chest was touching his back, it was already a supreme delicacy.He didn’t show any pretense and reached out to get it.
Jiang Zhi took the sword hilt and stepped back, but did not hand it to him.
Yunzhen looked at him doubtfully, wondering if this man was going to do some trick of “calling him good brother before giving him food”?
“Hot.”
“Oh.” Yun Zhen took the heavy sword, feeling that he was very arrogant at this moment. He was probably the only one in the world who could enjoy this kind of treatment, using the sword that had cut down the leader of the martial arts alliance as a tableware.
He took a hard bite at the fattest belly of the fish.
At that moment, Yunzhen’s expression froze, and time froze at this moment.
No salt.
Not only was there no salt, the scales were not even scraped off.The crispy fish skin is mixed with the half-cooked fish meat. The mouth is like eating a mouthful of mud, and the earthy smell explodes in the mouth.
Jiang Zhi looked at him, his dark eyes reflecting the dancing firelight, as if he was waiting for an evaluation, or just observing whether Yun Zhen was still alive.
Yunzhen took a mouthful of fish and swallowed it with difficulty. His eyes were red, and he said sadly and angrily: “Are you trying to poison me so that you can inherit my family property?”
“…”
Jiang Zhi was silent for a moment, and then said, “It’s edible.”
“Being edible and being delicious are two different things!” Yun Zhen was about to cry. “Stones can also be eaten. The question is who is willing to eat them!”
For Jiang Zhi, food probably only has two attributes, those that can sustain life and those that cannot sustain life. Taste belongs to the third attribute.
Yunzhen sighed, resigned to his fate and continued to nibble on this fish that was so attractive and delicious that he gave up on it.
“Are you going to eat it?” Yunzhen asked while spitting out the fish bones.
Jiang Zhi shook his head.
Yunzhen stared at him for a while, feeling that this man might not be really not hungry, but that he knew that the food he cooked was unpalatable.
The previous emotions of life and death, wanting to be integrated, quickly cooled in the fireworks, just like the poor fish, turning from scalding hot to charred.
Yunzhen suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
He remembered that he had hanged on Jiang Zhi before, shouting words such as “I’ll lend you luck” and “I’m a spirit”, and he was so ashamed that he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl in.
It was a brain-twitching behavior caused by a hot head under certain circumstances.Now that we have calmed down, the two of us are sitting by the lake, eating grilled fish without salt. It would be too pretentious to talk about me protecting you and you protecting me.
Some things should be forgotten once they have happened. There is no need to chew them over and over again.Just like this fish, eating it once is enough and you will never want to eat it a second time.
The moon hung on the treetops, and the night wind blew through, carrying moisture, which was quickly burned by the bonfire.
“Second Senior Brother.” Yunzhen shouted, breaking the silence.
“Yeah.”
“Are you really a cat demon?” After holding back this question for a long time, Yun Zhen felt that he had to ask clearly.
“Half-demon.” Jiang Zhi corrected him sternly.
“Then you usually…” Yun Zhen swallowed and asked cautiously, “Do you eat mice?”
Jiang Zhi glanced at him. That look was very familiar. It was a sign that he wanted to draw his sword. Although there was still a fish on the sword, it didn’t stop him from killing it with his eyes.
“Don’t eat.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Yunzhen breathed a sigh of relief, “Then do you usually want to pounce when you see a ball of thread?”
“No.”
“Then when you jump from the roof, do you have to land on your feet?”
“That’s Qinggong.”
“Are you going to turn into a cat? Like, swish, into a big black cat?”
“No.”
“Can you meow?”
“No.”
Yun Zhen didn’t believe it.How is this possible?This is racial talent!Just like birds can fly and fish can swim.
Yun Zhen leaned over, tilted his head and looked at Jiang Zhi, and said calmly: “Why don’t you know this? It’s very simple, I will teach you, meow-meow-meow-”
He learned it perfectly, with a slight upward pitch at the end, carrying an inexplicable coquettishness.
“Meow me for a moment! Just once, I won’t tell anyone else.”
“…”
“Forget it, it’s really boring.” Yunzhen curled his lips and swallowed the last bite of fish, “Where are we now?”
“Where do you want to go?” Jiang Zhi asked.
Yun Zhen was stunned.
Where do you want to go?
He originally wanted to go to Jianghu.He thought that the world was about angry horses in bright clothes, happy grudges, big mouthfuls of meat and big bowls of wine, and roaring when seeing injustice on the road.But now it seems that this is not the case.
He has seen the real world.The real arena is a group of people fighting back and forth for inexplicable reasons. They are the perverts of the Lu family who use living animals to make elixirs, and those people in the arena who are just like grasshoppers. They call you a hero one day and call you a monster tomorrow.
He suddenly felt that Jianghu was a bit boring, even boring.Master is right, the world is about worldliness, and worldliness usually makes people very tired.
“I want to go home.” Yunzhen said.
He really missed home, missed his parents, missed the big soft bed, and missed the braised lion’s head made by the cook.
Jiang Zhi stood up and wiped the oil stains on his sword with a rag he pulled from somewhere.
“Okay.” He said, “Go to the city tomorrow to pick up your clothes and then take you home.”
Yun Zhen had almost forgotten this. He was still wearing his senior brother’s clothes, and his robe was still stained with all kinds of messy things. His parents would probably think he had returned from an escape.
The two put out the fire and walked slowly along the path by the lake.Occasionally, a bird flies by and makes a cry or two, which sounds particularly sad.
We just walked for a while, probably only a few hundred steps.
“Second senior brother.”
Yunzhen sat down on a big rock and refused to leave. “I can’t do it anymore. My legs told me that it has separated from my body and is now planning to run away from home. I can’t stop it.”
Jiang Zhi stopped and looked back at him: “Just two more miles.”
“Two miles?” Yunzhen wailed, “For a hero who has just escaped from death and is still hungry, two miles is the distance to the West to learn scriptures! If I don’t leave, you carry me.”
In fact, Yunzhen didn’t really expect Jiang Zhi to carry him on his back. This was just his usual trick, and he just wanted Jiang Zhi to stop and take a rest.After all, he had just been injured and fought for so long.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Zhi walked up to him, turned around, and squatted down.
“Come up.”
Yunzhen was stunned for a moment, looking at Jiang Zhi’s back, a strange feeling surged in his heart.He rushed forward without any politeness at all, and hugged Jiang Zhi’s neck tightly with both hands, fearing that he would be thrown off: “Second senior brother, you are so kind! You are like the reincarnation of a Bodhisattva, a living Buddha descending to earth.”
Jiang Zhi carried him on his back, walking smoothly as if there wasn’t much weight on his back.
Yunzhen put his chin on Jiang Zhi’s shoulder, and followed Jiang Zhi’s steps, blowing hot breath into Jiang Zhi’s ears.This posture reminded him of when his parents took him to see a lantern festival when he was a child. At that time, he lay on his father’s back like this and felt that the whole world was beautiful.
“Second Senior Brother, let’s talk.” Yun Zhen couldn’t sit still. His whole body felt uncomfortable when he opened his mouth and didn’t speak. Just like a fish will die if it leaves the water, he would suffocate to death if he didn’t speak.
“What to talk about?”
“Let’s talk about life, let’s talk…” Yun Zhen rolled his eyes, and Tu Qiong saw, “Let’s talk about whether you have had bad thoughts about me for a long time.”
Jiang Zhi paused, then returned to normal: “No.”
“Liar.” Yun Zhen swung her legs on his back, like a successful scoundrel, “If you are not interested in me, why are you so nice to the bird I turned into? You feed me, bathe me, and make a nest for me. I didn’t treat you like this when I was a human. You are just a lover and a bird.”
“That’s a bird.”
“Then how do you explain that in the alchemy room, you almost turned into a crazy cat because of me?” Yun Zhen refused to give up and insisted on asking for the reason. “Your eyes, tsk tsk, are so fierce that you want to eat people. If eyes could kill, Lu Feng would have been stabbed three thousand times by you.”
Jiang Zhi was silent for a moment and gave an official explanation: “We are from the same sect.”
“Don’t use this as a shield.” Yun Zhen said dissatisfied, “Why didn’t I see you protecting my senior brother? Were you watching the show when he was being chased all over the mountain?”
Jiang Zhi: “…”
“Moreover,” Yun Zhen leaned closer, his lips almost touching Jiang Zhi’s ear, “When I was a child, I dreamed one night that you kissed me. Second Senior Brother, tell me honestly, did you take advantage of me and take advantage of me?”
“You are sick and don’t open your mouth.”
“You feed water with your mouth?” Yun Zhen fussed, “This excuse is too old-fashioned! It’s not written like this in scripts nowadays, it’s all vulgar stuff from decades ago!”
“I haven’t seen it.”
Yun Zhen smiled even brighter, “I’m going to give you a multiple-choice question now, so listen carefully.”
Jiang Zhi: “No choice.”
“No, you have to choose.” Yunzhen cleared his throat and said seriously, “Suppose, if I and a fragrant braised pig’s trotters fell into the river at the same time, who would you save first?”
Jiang Zhi said without hesitation: “Pig’s trotters.”
“…” Yun Zhen was furious, “Why! Am I worse than a pig’s trotter in your heart?”
“You can swim.” Jiang Zhi said calmly, “Pig’s trotters can’t.”
“…” That makes sense.
“Second Senior Brother,” Yun Zhen’s voice lowered, “Actually, I almost thought I was going to die just now.”
Jiang Zhi’s hand holding his leg suddenly tightened.
“At that time, I was thinking, if I die, you will really become a loner. The master is unreliable, the senior brother is not serious, and the senior sister only has girls in her heart. No one will talk to you, and no one will make you angry.”
Yunzhen pretended to sigh, and his tone was very vicissitudes of life: “As I think about it, I feel very sad. You don’t speak much to begin with, and no one will talk to you anymore. Sooner or later, you will become mute. When people ask you to talk, you can only say um, oh, oh, how pitiful.”
Jiang Zhi still didn’t speak, but his pace slowed down a bit.
“So,” Yunzhen buried her face in his neck, her voice muffled, “In order to prevent you from becoming mute, I decided to humiliate myself and reluctantly stay by your side, talking to you every day.”
“Second Senior Brother, tell me, am I very loyal?” Yunzhen raised his head with a proud look on his face, “Should you thank me?”
After a long time, when Yun Zhen thought Jiang Zhi would not answer, a very soft voice came: “Okay.”
“What about you?” Yunzhen took the opportunity to ask, “Do you like me?”
“Yeah.”
“What does um mean, no um, do you like it or don’t you?”
“I like it.”
“Who do you like?”
“You.”
“Who am I?”
Jiang Zhi stopped.
Ahead, the outline of a temple loomed in the night.
Jiang Zhi turned his head slightly and looked at the person on his back.The moonlight shone on the side of his face, making the usually cold facial lines much softer.
“Yun Zhen.”
“Yes!” Yunzhen responded loudly, his voice was particularly clear.
“I like you.”
His heart seemed to have been slightly hit by something, and then began to beat uncontrollably. Yunzhen suddenly asked: “In the multiple-choice question just now, if it is not the pig’s trotters, but someone else and I fall into the river, who do you choose?”
Jiang Zhi looked at him, his eyes particularly bright in the darkness, like some kind of dedicated hunter locking its prey, or like a miser staring at his gold ingot.
“No one else.”
Jiang Zhi said.
“Only you.”
Yun Zhen opened his mouth, trying to say something to cover up his shyness, such as “Second Senior Brother, you have such a discerning eye” or “That’s natural”, but in the end he didn’t say anything. He just smiled stupidly, his eyes turning into crescents.
After walking for a while, Jiang Zhi carried him into the ruined temple.
There was only half a headless Buddha statue in the ruined temple and a piece of hay.The Buddha statue had its legs crossed, and although it had no head, it was still sitting upright, which looked particularly strange.
Yunzhen stared at the Buddha statue for a while, and suddenly said: “Second senior brother, how do you think this Buddha statue lost its head? Was it chopped off by someone, or did it fall off on its own?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think he must have seen through the world of mortals and took the head off on his own initiative.” Yun Zhen analyzed seriously, “Think about it, being a Buddha is so tiring. People burn incense and kowtow every day, and you have to bless this and that. It’s annoying to death. Once the head is taken off, you can’t see out of sight and out of mind. How nice.”
Jiang Zhi placed Yunzhen on the haystack and sat aside.
“Well…” Yun Zhen scratched his head, feeling a little strange, so strange that he didn’t know where to put his hands and feet. “Although the atmosphere is very good now, I still want to say something.”
“What?”
“I’m hungry. That fish is not enough.”
“…”
Jiang Zhi closed his eyes and said, “Sleep.”
“Oh.” Yun Zhen agreed obediently, but he was not honest. He arched towards Jiang Zhi like an insect, and did not stop until he reached Jiang Zhi’s arms.
Late at night, the wind blew through the windows of the ruined temple, making a whining sound, which sounded like a ghost crying.Yunzhen shuddered and put another sticker on Jiang Zhi.
Yunzhen didn’t fall asleep, and he felt that Jiang Zhi didn’t sleep either.The two of them just leaned together, listening to the wind, each other’s breathing, and their own pounding heartbeats.
He turned his head and met Jiang Zhi’s gaze.
I don’t know who moved first, but as the distance got closer and closer, Yun Zhen felt Jiang Zhi’s breath hitting his face, which was a little hot.
Jiang Zhi’s face enlarged in front of his eyes, and the oppressive feeling came again, but this time it didn’t make people scared, but made people’s hearts beat faster.
Just when the lips were about to touch each other, Yunzhen had even closed his eyes and was ready for his first kiss.
“Cats and birds cannot be kept together! This is common sense, do you understand?”
A loud shout came from the door, followed by rapid footsteps.
They separated quickly, moving in unison.
I saw the senior sister rushing in menacingly, as if she was here to catch someone raping someone.She saw the disheveled Yunzhen at a glance, rushed over without saying a word, pulled him up from Jiang Zhi, and protected him behind her.
“Don’t be afraid! Senior sister is here!”
The master slowly walked out of the door and coughed awkwardly: “Well… I have just arrived, so I can’t stop you.”
Yunzhen looked at the people in this room and felt like crying.
At this moment, he just wanted to say one thing to the headless Buddha statue: Master, I also want to become a monk.
———————–
The author has something to say: early human training human-machine images leaked