(4)
The public trial ended and the crowd dispersed. Bai Feng and his party of four returned to Li's house to ask for money. To avoid suspicion, Bai Feng waited outside alone.
Everyone in the Li family knew that the rumors coming from all directions were unfavorable to the Li family. They didn't want to cause more trouble, so they hurriedly settled the money for making the sword and the prize money for winning the competition, and then sent them away.
Everyone came back with a full load and beamed with joy. When Bai Feng saw this, he frowned and said, "This Li family has such a ruthless young master. He must treat his servants the same way on weekdays. The money gained from this extortionate expropriation , can you enjoy it with peace of mind?"
"Then according to what Bai Shaoxia sees, if we don't take this money, where can we get the travel expenses?" Ayu held the money bag in his arms and was very hostile to Bai Feng, saying: "This is the share you won from the martial arts competition. You take the money yourself, I don’t want it.”
Fu Wentao said: "Ayu, it doesn't have to be like this..."
"Why don't you need it? Why can't I use my hard-earned money with peace of mind!" Bai Feng then took his share from Ayu's hand, and divided part of it to pay Ayu to cast flying knives for himself. cost of.
"Thank you Miss Ayu for making this pair of flying knives for me." After the young swordsman finished speaking, he turned and walked away. Yu Ke followed closely and asked: "Brother, where are you going? "
Bai Feng replied: "I just found out where the man who died in the competition lived. I want to take a look."
"Oh." Yu Ke thought of Bai Feng's personality and immediately knew what he was going to do. At the same time, he also understood why Ayu suddenly felt dissatisfied with his sworn brother.
After a while, the two of them came behind the wall of a house, but they could already hear the sound of mourning coming from inside the house. They came around to the door and were about to visit.
"Who are you?" The eldest son of the master's family came to greet him: "Are you my father's friends?"
Bai Feng said: "We met by chance."
"The child's father!" The wailing continued: "Why do you want to do such a thing..."
The eldest son of the host family explained: "The incident happened so suddenly that my mother couldn't react for a while, so it became like this."
"Can I go in?" Bai Feng asked.
"please."
When the three of them crossed the threshold, they could see everything in the house. Many open areas looked particularly clean. Apparently there had been many household items and furnishings there before, but for some reason they had all been taken away in a short period of time.
"Madam, I'm here to give you money." Bai Feng took out the prize money he won in the competition and said, "Your husband-in-law won the competition at Li's house. Unfortunately, he died of serious injuries and died before he could receive the reward. ”
The host's wife turned around and faced Bai Feng, with disheveled hair and tired eyes, and asked: "Wasn't he beaten to death? How could he win the competition?"
"Madam, he did win, and he won justly. I saw it clearly at the competition site." Before Bai Feng finished speaking, Yu Ke next to him echoed with a slight surprise: "Sworn brother? Isn't that right? Too..."
The lady didn't care about this, but grabbed Bai Feng's shoulders and asked: "Really? I thought he knew he was invincible, but still tried his best to raise money... Because of me, the whole family was brought down. ”
"Mother!" The son went over to help his mother to rest on the bed, then returned to Bai Feng and declined politely: "Master, I appreciate your kindness."
"What kind intention?" Bai Feng glanced angrily and said, "You don't think I'm lying, do you? Forget it, I can't accept the money myself anyway, so I just left it at the door and said goodbye."
"well?!"
Yu Ke almost failed to keep up with Bai Feng and fell behind. By the time he caught up with him, the two of them were already far away.
"Brother, you are walking too fast!" Yu Ke was so tired that he put his hands on his hips and panted. Seeing Bai Feng standing there motionless, just looking away, he discovered that Fu Wentao and Ayu had been following them.
"Brother Bai, is the matter done?"
"Bai Shaoxia, you are so noble and arrogant, don't take any money from me when the time comes, huh?"
Bai Feng laughed and said, "I will pay you back."
The four of them looked at each other for a moment, and their grudges disappeared with a smile.
"Hahaha, as expected of you, Bai Feng." A majestic man's voice came from behind Bai Feng. When several people took a closer look, they saw that it was the Cangzhou Prefect who was traveling in ordinary clothes.
"Master Taishou?" Bai Feng raised his hands and said in respect, "I wonder what your master wants to do when you are here?"
Cangzhou Prefect said: "I just expected that you would come here, so I planned to come here to have a few words with you."
"Hello!" The eunuch said, and a very delicate voice came from behind him. It turned out that there was a young woman hiding behind the eunuch: "Are you Bai Feng?"
The young swordsman was confused and replied: "I don't know, who is the girl?"
"I have admired you for a long time. I wonder if you, young hero, can leave a calligraphy treasure for me?" The girl clapped her hands and called a code, and a boy came out immediately carrying the table and the Four Treasures of the Study.
The girl handed the pen and ink into Bai Feng's hands, and looked forward to seeing how he painted dragons and snakes, and Luans and Phoenixes. However, in the end, what she was waiting for was Bai Feng's disappointing words.
"Girl, I don't know how to calligraphy and painting, and I don't have the ability to leave any calligraphy treasures. You can take these things back."
"Ah? How could this be possible..."
The prefect gently stroked his beard and said softly: "Okay, my dear daughter, no matter what happens, let's talk about it after we talk about old times."
"Reminiscing about old times?" Bai Feng asked: "Master Taishou, I don't remember having any interactions with you."
Cangzhou Prefect said: "However, I know your style and have seen the sword on your body. More than ten years ago, I was just a small official at that time. I didn't know the ups and downs of the officialdom and the sinister people. Fortunately, I met him. Gao Zhen, he is an incredible person... Whether he is still alive or not, I hope that Bai Shaoxia can give Gao Zhen a message for me."
"Thank you for not choosing to sit idly by."
This sentence is obviously talking about the past, but in fact it is also talking about the present.
The prefect of Cangzhou bowed his hands in respect and left, but his daughter was still entangled with Bai Feng, served by many servants.
"Bai Shaoxia, in the past, I could only imagine you in stories, but now, I finally see you!" The girl was so excited that she didn't look like a lady, but she always kept the most appropriate distance from Bai Feng: "Young Master Bai, can you leave me a token, anything... When we meet in the future, I don't want you to forget me."
"Token?" Bai Feng said: "The most valuable thing I have left is this sword, but as a swordsman, the sword is like life, I can't hand it over."
"Is your hair okay?" The girl said, "The hair and skin of your body are affected by your parents, and your hair is also very important."
Bai Feng couldn't bear the kindness, so she could only cut off a bunch of hair and send it as a token, and said: "Girl, take care."
"Bai Shaoxia, these are some of my thoughts. You will definitely need them on your journey." After that, a boy presented some money: "Consider it a gift in return. We will reciprocate. We will see you again!"
The young swordsman thanked him for his kindness, but he probably didn't expect that the reputation of "White Phoenix" would actually spread from Beizhen, which was further away than "Jianghu", to more places and more people's hearts.
Farewell to the eunuch's daughter, the four rested for another night in Cangzhou before leaving the next day.
