Early in the morning, the morning gathering that spontaneously formed in this sword shop should have been very lively.
Today, the atmosphere is strangely deserted.
However, there were a lot of people arriving, and there were also many new faces in the sword shop.
Xie Lingjiang, Shen Xisheng, Yan Liulang and other uninvited guests.
Liu Zian, Liu Zilin and other people from the Liu family.
They were all standing in front of an ordinary breakfast shop.
The former looked curiously at the young and old sitting at the greasy dining tables in front of them.
The latter stood behind, Liu Zian's face was silent, and Liu Zilin's eyes were solemn.
In front of the dining table, the young magistrate and the old craftsman sat face to face. The young magistrate chuckled and said hello to the kitchen.
After a while, the smiling and cautious cook put a rag on her hands and brought a bowl of steaming noodle soup to the table.
"Sir, please use it slowly."
The young county magistrate stretched out his hand to take out his chopsticks, turned around and said with a smile:
"Excuse me, is this Sister Cheng? Ah Qing told me about you and said that she has been working in the breakfast shop for the past two years, thanks to your care. She had something at home a few days ago and left without saying goodbye. I am very sorry."
"It's okay, it's okay. As long as sister A Qing is okay, she hasn't been seen in the past few days. The sisters are a little worried about her. Just live a good life outside."
Sister Cheng's smile broadened, she wiped her hands on her apron, looked at the noodle soup that was served in a hurry, and asked, "Sir, would you like some chopped green onions?"
He is a warm-hearted person and doesn't care about others.
And someone who came to Liu's house early in the morning to bring warmth was more warm-hearted than her.
"Green onion? This must be arranged." Ouyang Rongyan smiled at Yan Yan.
Sister Cheng quickly ran to the kitchen, scooped up a spoonful of chopped green onions, returned, shook them and sprinkled them into the bowl.
Ouyang Rong skillfully mixed the chopped green onion noodle soup and smiled. He looked away from Sister Cheng's happily leaving figure and said directly to the silent old craftsman opposite:
"Sir, your surname is Wu? Does he have a famous name?"
The old swordsmith shook his head.
I didn't know whether to answer or ignore him, I lowered my head and continued to eat the noodles.
Ouyang Rong took a few glances at the old man's messy beard and his fingers that looked like scorched dead wood.
They were dressed similarly to the old craftsmen he had seen along the way into the sword shop.
Ouyang Rong smiled, raised his palms, and hooked them behind his shoulders. He lowered his head and drank soup and noodles.
Boom——!
Accompanied by a soft sound.
There is something else next to the pot of rice wine on the table.
It was Xie Lingjiang who stepped forward and placed a long sword with a simple sheath horizontally on the dining table.
The old swordsmith raised his bark-like eyelids.
Ouyang Rong asked without raising his head:
"Excuse me, is this made by Mr. Wu? I heard from my junior sister that this is a good sword, one that all Qi practitioners will covet."
The old swordsmith lowered his head to eat noodles and remained silent for a long time.
The two brothers Liu Zian and Liu Zilin, who were still wearing mourning clothes, saw the familiar long sword on the table that seemed to be called "Yue Niang", and their expressions changed slightly to varying degrees.
Xie Lingjiang looked at the two of them coldly.
At the table, the old swordsmith drank up the chopped green onion noodle soup. Before he put the bowl down and stood up, he suddenly spoke.
"Did you give her the paper-folded blue butterfly flower?"
The old man's voice was a little hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken for a long time and was a little unfamiliar.
Ouyang Rong seemed not to have expected that he would suddenly ask this question, and nodded and said, "It's a birthday gift for her."
The old swordsmith turned around and, as usual, dropped a few coins on the table, got up and left.
The wine jar is not on the table, nor is the long sword.
Yan Liulang and others held their knives and silently took a step forward.
The young county magistrate, who was still drinking soup slowly with his head down at the table, raised his hand and waved it slightly behind him.
Yan Liulang and other detectives stepped aside to get out of the way. The old swordsmith, with his hands behind his back, passed through the crowd as if there was no one around and left the morning market.
Xie Lingjiang and the others watched the old man's back go away, then looked back curiously at the back of Ouyang Rong who continued to eat noodles at the table.
Ouyang Rong raised his head to drink the noodle soup and made a soft "bang" sound. In the quiet breakfast shop, the sound seemed very loud.
He also put down the bowl and placed a few coins on the table.
He stood up silently again, picked up the wine bottle and held the long sword in his hand.
The young magistrate also passed by the crowd gathered in front of the breakfast shop and followed the direction in which the old swordsmith left.
The old man and the young man were silent the whole time.
The whole place was eerily quiet.
Immediately, Xie Lingjiang, Shen Xisheng, Yan Liulang and other companions who came together, as well as Liu Zian, Liu Zilin and other Liu family members, all subconsciously followed Ouyang Rong.
Liu Zian glanced at Ouyang Rong's back and somewhere in the distance on Xiaogushan.
He looked complicated and wanted to take a step forward to get closer to Ouyang Rong, but was stopped by Xie Lingjiang.
Xie Lingjiang's eyes were cold.
Liu Zi'an paused and laughed, and Liu Zilin was sweating on his forehead.
Ouyang Rong seemed not to pay attention to the movement behind him and continued to move forward, following the old swordsmith.
And the old swordsmith did not stop the visitors behind him at all.
Ever since, on the road from the morning market to the middle of Xiaogu Mountain, such a strange scene appeared.
The old swordsmith walked in the front.
Ouyang Rong followed.
And further behind are other people.
The surprisingly quiet group arrived in front of an old sword furnace halfway up Xiaogu Mountain.
The old swordsmith entered the sword furnace.
Ouyang Rong and others looked up curiously at the seemingly abandoned sword furnace, and immediately followed it inside.
Inside the sword furnace.
Yan Liulang looked around, and it seemed to be no different from other sword furnaces he had led people to search for before.
It just looks messier and older.
The black smoke from the past blackened the bricks and tiles on the ceiling of the sword furnace.
besides.
Just one person and one furnace.
The old swordsmith was lying on a rocking chair, with a sword-making furnace that seemed to be unlit behind him.
The old swordsmith took out a piece of blue origami paper from the cabinet at hand and handed it back to Ouyang Rong, who was looking around the room.
"What is this?"
Ouyang Rong took the blue origami paper, looked down, and couldn't help but ask.
Of course he recognized the blue butterfly flower that he had folded before, and he was not surprised that the old swordsmith brought him here to get the blue butterfly flower back without hesitation.
The only surprise is that the shapes on the blue origami paper have changed.
It is no longer the pansies he made out of blue Pythagorean paper pieces before. These blue Pythagorean paper pieces seem to have been taken down and reassembled into a new pattern.
arc.
Or arc.
On blue origami paper.
It's a strange arc.
An indescribable arc.
Just as Ouyang Rong frowned and took a closer look, the old swordsmith stared at him for a while and suddenly asked:
"Is this paper art called iris folding?"
Ouyang Rong was startled, glanced at him, and nodded:
"Aqing told you? That's right, it's a folded iris. This one... was old sir, did you re-fold it? Well, you're quite good at drawing inferences..."
The old swordsmith didn't reply and looked at the blue arc he had reassembled over the past few days.
Ouyang Rong's eyes continued to be attracted by new origami patterns.
Iris folding is actually not an advanced paper art.
It's more like a simple mathematical geometry problem.
It's nothing more than using basic geometric figures, such as small pieces of paper called Pythagorean shapes in this world, which are actually triangles, to realize arcs or arc surfaces.
Previously, Ouyang Rong used this paper art to splice the curvature of the petals of blue pansies.
But now, the old man in front of him has dismantled his original blue butterfly flower.
Simply imitating the iris fold he learned, all the small pieces of Pythagorean paper were spliced into a curved surface.
If it were said that what he used to piece together with small pieces of paper was a whole butterfly flower.
Now, the old man used small pieces of paper to piece together the single "petal" on the butterfly flower.
The curved surface of this "pansy flower petal" is very pure.
It is different from any natural arc between heaven and earth.
It is different from the bright moon in the sky, the leaves on the ground, the light fish swimming in the water, or the curved surface of the woman's jade body lying on the bed, etc.
It is implemented entirely with basic triangles.
Ouyang Rong thought it was somewhat beautiful, a kind of pure mathematical geometry beauty.
It's just that in this world, he, a "foreigner", is the only one who knows how to appreciate its beauty, etc. That's not correct. It seems that this was made by the old craftsman in front of me.
Ouyang Rong couldn't help but glance at the old swordsmith's calm face, nodded and said:
"it's beautiful."
Hearing this, the old swordsmith who had always been calm and calm showed a trace of curvature at the corner of his mouth, which should be a smile.
Like an iron tree blooming.
At the back of the crowd, Liu Zian and Liu Zilin, who were vaguely surrounded by the positions of Yan Liulang and others, looked at each other.
The two brothers seemed to have never seen the old swordsmith's smile since they met him. Could it be that they saw a ghost today?
Ouyang Rong continued to look down for a while, touched his fingertips, put down the blue origami paper in his hand, and asked:
"The old man wants to ask me to return it to Ah Qing."
The old swordsmith calmed his expression and nodded slightly.
Ouyang Rong shook his head:
"No, I folded a new one for Ah Qing last time. Ah Qing said this was given to the old gentleman, so there is no need to return it to him."
With that said, he handed the blue origami back to the old swordsmith, who took it back without refusing.
Ouyang Rong suddenly stood up.
finally.
He had been sizing up the sword furnace silently for a while, and pointed at the sword furnace with a closed iron door behind the old swordsmith.
Ouyang Rong asked:
"Old sir, what's in this?"
The whole place suddenly fell silent.
The eyes of Shen Xisheng, Xie Lingjiang, Yan Liulang and others all fell on the silent sword-making furnace.
Liu Zian couldn't help but persuade:
"Lord Magistrate, this sword furnace has no fire and has been out of service for a long time. Mr. Wu is an old man from the sword shop. When he was young, this furnace has not stopped working. He has deep feelings, so he is just guarding the furnace here. …”
"Open it."
Ouyang Rong ignored him and spoke softly without squinting his eyes.
Liu Zian's breathing suddenly became thicker, he suppressed his expression and forced a smile:
"Isn't the county magistrate here to look for the missing female worker? There is no way she got lost in the furnace..."
"What if someone kills someone and burns their bodies?"
Yan Liulang added coldly, choking Liu Zi when he settled down. However, the next second, the scene in front of him made the second head of the Liu family's pupils shrink sharply.
I saw him under the gaze of Ouyang Rong's calm eyes.
The old swordsmith turned around calmly, walked to the sword-forging furnace, reached out and opened the circular iron door of the sword-making furnace...
In the sword-forging furnace,
Empty.
Everyone was stunned.
I'm sorry for the toothache, this chapter is a bit short, so I'll set a flag and I'll add an update around six o'clock in the evening!
(End of chapter)
