"Drink! Drink! Cough!"
At noon, somewhere in Hangzhou, in a manor.
Men's shouts echoed repeatedly in the courtyard.
At the same time, there was a sudden sound of clothes fluttering in the air.
Obviously, this is someone practicing Qigong.
But I saw that the man practicing martial arts was in his twenties, about one foot tall, with broad shoulders, thick back, big arms and round waist, a neck as thick as a tree root, and a head as big as a Japanese melon; but his facial features , but he was born with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, a straight nose and a square mouth, ears like precious fans, and lips like red pills... he is very good.
Who is this person, you ask?
He was none other than the eldest son of the Murong family, Murong Ji.
At this moment, Murong Ji was wearing a tight and neat outfit, moving around and punching in an open space; despite his fat body, he was very agile in his movements, and his moves were all precise, and his punches were powerful enough to break through the air. The sound is also like tigers and tigers making wind.
Some people may find it strange when they see this: Since Murong Ji is a martial arts practitioner from a martial arts family, and he doesn't look like a farmer, how could he be "obese"?
Well, all I can say is that people and their physiques cannot be generalized...
Some people are born to gain weight easily and can gain weight like crazy just by eating normally - Murong Ji is a person with this kind of physique.
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You might say that Murong Ji doesn't practice hard. In fact, he works much harder than his brothers at home, but even if he practices hard and sweats every day, he still doesn't lose weight. Then there is nothing you can do about it. You can't say that it's just to lose weight or "look good". "Just practice on an empty stomach, right?" That will damage the body.
Moreover, it is not surprising that ancient martial arts practitioners had such a figure; you can see from those ancient portraits that many well-known generals had "general bellies" and not to mention fat heads and big ears. , basically all have round faces... To put it bluntly, this body shape was in line with the actual needs at the time, because starvation and freezing were common during long-term marches and wars, so stock up on "fat armor" to carry the hunger. Even cold and beaten. .
Murong Ji has this kind of figure. He looks like a fat man, but he is not the "puffy" kind of ordinary fat man. If he really fights, he can be very agile, and in terms of strength and ability to withstand beatings, he is lighter than those. The people are much stronger.
"drink--"
Now, after practicing a set of boxing techniques, when it came to the final blow, Murong Ji let out a long shout, released his strength, and punched hard, breaking a wooden stake used for practice with a snap.
When the broken pile fell to the ground, Murong Ji stopped and stood still, and his breathing gradually calmed down, a man approached him, cupped his fists at him and said, "Master, something happened."
"Oh?" Murong Ji glanced at the man and asked in a slightly surprised tone, "Why does Mr. Liu need to report it in person?"
The "Mr. Liu" he refers to is the right-hand man of the Murong family: his surname is Liu Mingming, he is in his early forties, and he is good at using a pair of large steel tongs made of hematite. He was nicknamed "Fire Tongs" by his old friend.
As for Liu Ming, although he has an average appearance and a medium build, he is really a talented person.
He was originally from a grassroots background, and his family had nothing to do with martial arts or official circles. Since his family was in a decent financial situation when he was young, his parents sent him to school for a few years. However, his father became addicted to gambling and the family was ruined. When he was thirteen years old, He was sold to the Murong family by a relative and became a domestic servant.
When seeing the word "sell", some people must think that this relative is not a thing, but in fact...
Judging from the situation at the time, both of Liu Ming's parents had died, the house deed had long been entrusted to others by his gambling father, and all the things in the house had been moved away by creditors; and that relative, himself The family is not rich either. At first, they lent a lot of money to Liu Ming's father, but in the end, the relatives' money was no longer available, and Liu Ming was left behind.
You asked him to take Liu Ming back to his home to raise him... His own family, including the young and old, can hardly lift the pot, and then another half-grown man wants his whole family to starve with you?
After such a total, the relative thought: How about finding a well-known and wealthy family to sell Liu Ming. On the one hand, his father's debt to me can be recovered a little, and on the other hand, it can also be considered as a gift to this person. The boy found a bite to eat... No matter what, being a servant is better than starving to death, right?
As for people, that's it. If you say that Liu Ming's relative is a good person, that's definitely not the case. It's not true that he is completely unconscionable. He is just an ordinary person, and the choices he makes are also that. Most ordinary people in this era would do the same.
In this way, Liu Ming was sold into the Murong family. He worked as a handyman for less than a year before he was transferred to the accounting office because of his literacy.
Another year later, the turning point in his life came - he was transferred to be the second young master of the Murong family, that is, the book boy of Murong Ji's second uncle.
Because Liu Ming was smart, diligent and conscientious, he was quickly appreciated by his master, who not only allowed him to study with him, but also allowed him to learn some of the Murong family's martial arts. In this way, day after day, Liu Ming learned from the last After more than twenty years of working his way up from the bottom, he has now become something like a "retainer" of the Murong family.
Liu Ming, who is both civilized and martial, is not only second-rate in martial arts, he can also play the role of "consultant", and can remind his master on many matters, help him make ideas, and so on.
Therefore, this time when Murong Ji "crossed the river", the family asked Liu Ming to come with him as Master Murong's bodyguard and adviser.
A few days ago, when Murong Ji led his people to make a big fuss at the "West Lake Elegant Seat", it was Liu Ming who defeated Tang Weizhi who was in charge of watching the show. If it had been Murong Ji himself, he would have faced Tang Weizhi, the "nineteenth generation of the former Kongtong Sect" "Big Disciple", I'm afraid he may not be able to win.
As for raiding the Sun family's various trading outlets and fish markets, Liu Ming's participation was indispensable.
Speaking of which, one thing is quite ironic - Liu Ming's family was ruined because of his father's gambling. Although his father himself was the main cause, the step-by-step inducement to open the casino also "contributed"; but now, with As the Murong family gradually developed into a gambling giant in Dashu, Liu Ming also stood in the position of the people who persecuted his family at the beginning, and he did his best without any entanglement... It can only be said that people's adaptability is still powerful.
"Master, there is indeed something important." At this time, Liu Ming heard Murong Ji's question and replied in a deep voice, "It is said that the young master of the Sun family, Sun Yixie... has returned to Hangzhou."
"Huh?" Murong Ji's expression changed slightly, "Isn't he dead?"
"This... I think the news is wrong." Liu Ming explained, "He had been missing before. Just because it had been so long and he was at sea, some people speculated that he was dead. Who knew that he suddenly appeared yesterday? He was in Hangzhou... In less than a day, the news of his return had already stirred up the whole city."
Murong Ji heard this, thought for a moment, and then snorted coldly: "Huh... OK~ It's better to be alive." He paused, "These days, aren't all the wallflowers in the city spreading rumors? What...'Is it because Sun Yixie is dead that I, Murong Ji, can be tyrannical in Hangzhou?" At this point, his expression and tone became ferocious, "Bah! I will let them understand right away, even if That person named Sun is no match for me, Murong Ji, even if he is still alive."
As soon as his words came here, I heard: "Report——"
After a shout, a servant rushed over and presented something: "Young Master, just now the servant of the Sun Mansion sent an invitation, please see it."
"Huh?" Hearing this, Murong Ji and Liu Ming looked at each other and exchanged glances.
Two seconds later, Liu Ming took a step forward, took the invitation, waved his hand and sent the servant away.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Ming opened the invitation and looked at it, but Murong Ji just stood next to Liu Ming with his hands behind his back, looking into the distance and saying, "What did you say?"
Ladies and gentlemen, Murong Ji’s behavior is not because he is illiterate. It is just his habit as a young master from a wealthy family... In ancient times, not very personal letters such as invitations were opened by retainers. It is a common process to read it in front of the owner and then hand it over to the owner for reading.
One advantage of doing this is that if there is a hidden weapon or poison hidden in the envelope, the person who opened the envelope will be the first to be hit.
"Uh..." Normally, Liu Ming would pick up this kind of invitation and read it immediately, but this time, after he took a look at it, his expression became very confused, "Hey... this..."
"What's wrong?" When Murong Ji saw Mr. Liu's strange reaction, he stopped putting on airs and moved closer to him, tilting his head to look at the letter.
It doesn't matter if you don't look at it, he will be stupid when you look at it.
The invitation sent by Sun Yixie read like this:
————
Qingai’s Murong Ji:
Hello, how are you doing lately?
Although we have never met, I have mentioned your name many times.
There may be mistakes between us, so don't panic.
In the evening of Chujiu, I hosted a fish head banquet at the West Lake Dining Hall, and we ate and chatted.
Come and eat fish if you are a brother!
Say no more.
Sincerely
respect
Sun Yixie
Zhao, the twenty-fifth year of Yongtai, at the beginning of the fifth month.
————
Murong Ji and Liu Ming stared at the letter for a long time. They roughly understood the meaning, but they were puzzled as to why the letter was written like this.
First of all, they have never seen this format before... Just saying "Qing Ai's" when opening the mouth, is it considered a "straight shot" from a certain perspective? And the final salute was also baffling.
I won’t mention typos or anything like that…
The choice of words and sentences is also very strange.
The most important thing is, doesn’t your Sun family have a husband who can write? For things like invitations, you can find someone to write them for you. You don’t need your husband to do it yourself!
But Brother Sun had a different idea. He felt that writing by hand was more "sincere", so he specially found Mr. In those days, there was no correction fluid or anything. Sometimes his hands were faster than Mr. Xue’s mouth, and in the end this invitation ended up like this.
When Sun Yixie just finished writing the invitation this morning, Xue Tui's blood pressure was high. He held his head and said that his head injury was not healed, so he quickly went back to his room and lay down.
Brother Sun didn't care, so he really dared to pack this thing up and send it out.
As a result, Murong Ji and Liu Ming saw the above contents...
"Well..." After a while, Murong Ji put aside the issue of the writing style of the letter, and after tasting the purpose of the invitation, he said to Liu Ming, "This is clearly the Hongmen Banquet... the person who came here is not evil."
Liu Ming nodded slightly, looked up at Murong Ji, and reminded carefully: "Master, we... are the 'coming ones'."
