Cong Xin stood by the pool, pointed to a stone tablet that was covered by grass, looked up at Nandao, and said, "This is a pool."
Nan Dao followed Cong Xin's little hand and saw the stone tablet. Only the word '一' could be seen on the tablet, and the lower half was no longer visible. He looked up at the other end of the pond, under the peach tree. The man asked, "Who is he?"
Nan Dao had already guessed a little bit, but to be cautious, he still asked.
Cong Xin carefully held the peach blossom in her hand and walked towards another winding path outside the pond. At the end of the path was a rather huge tree with a small peach wood house on the trunk, which should be where she lived. place.
"He is the sect leader." The little girl's voice came from the spring rain.
The leader of the Human Sword Sect, Cong Ren, is one of the tallest people in the world today.
Although the first day in Jianzong was filled with all kinds of card games, as if Jianzong was a big card hall in the world, when Nan Dao came here, he still put away his previous joking thoughts and hung the wine bottle on his waist. Taking a deep breath, he carefully stepped onto the ordinary bluestone path.
The path was clean, and there were quite a few peach blossoms falling on the grass and pond next to it.
Nan Dao walked all the way along the path, and then stopped at the edge of the pool. He did not go to the bridge, and then stopped there, quietly waiting for the most famous swordsman in the world to wake up.
Nan Dao stood under the umbrella and carefully looked at the man by the bridge not far away.
The leader of the Sword Sect who is sitting in Nanyi City is dressed in white with many peach blossoms on his body. He seems to have been sleeping for a long time. He has one hand resting on the guardrail, as if he is grabbing something, and half of his face is lying on his arm. The mouth is slightly open, um, drooling. Nan Dao thought for a while and automatically blocked the drooling part in his mind. Then he continued to look down, his legs were slightly crossed, and he was half sitting on the bridge. The soles of his shoes were clean and there was no mud at all.
Among the piled peach blossoms under the tree, there was a vague appearance of a sword, but Nan Dao couldn't look carefully and could only see half of the sword's hilt outside, and there seemed to be a "square" character engraved on the sword.
Nan Dao stood there until dusk, and the man still showed no sign of waking up.
The rain in Nanyi City seemed to have stopped. Nan Dao looked up at the sky. There were clouds of rays of light gathering on the horizon after the rain, illuminating the world softly.
Nan Dao looked at it for a while and seemed a little tired. The umbrella in his hand tilted a little, and then he heard a lazy voice coming from the bridge.
"Hold your umbrella, boy."
Nan Dao was startled. He held the umbrella tightly and lowered his head, only to find that the Sword Sect leader who was sleeping on his stomach at the bridge had woken up. He was still lazily lying on the guardrail. He didn't look here, just looked down. Water flowing under the bridge.
Nan Dao saluted, but hesitated for a long time when he spoke because he didn't know how to address the man in front of him.
metropolitan? senior?
Cong Ren didn't seem to know what Nan Dao was thinking. He just looked at the flowing water and said slowly: "Actually, I didn't want you to come in at the beginning, Nan Dao."
Nan Dao stood by the pool holding an umbrella, remembering the man's reaction when he first knocked on the door.
It turns out that no matter whether you know how to play cards or not, you can't come in.
But Nan Dao thought of Zhang Xiaoyu again, so he asked: "Then why did senior let me in again?"
Cong Ren lay on the guardrail and said lazily: "Because Zhang Xiaoyu ran out to play cards last night and didn't know about these things, so he let you in."
"..."
"Also, don't call me senior." Cong Ren said, stood up, walked to the tree, rummaged through the peach blossoms, pulled out the sword, threw it aside, and then leaned against the peach tree. He sat down and then waved to Nan Dao, motioning for him to come over.
Nan Dao held an umbrella and looked at the peach blossoms on the grass in front of him with some hesitation, and then heard Cong Ren's voice.
"It doesn't matter. They are born with spirits and will naturally avoid you."
Only then did Nan Dao lift his feet.
A sudden wind blew, and the peach blossoms in front of me were blown open, leading to the bottom of the peach tree.
Nan Dao walked over, stood opposite Cong Ren, sat down again, looked at the man in front of him with a lazy sword intent, and asked: "Why not call me senior?"
Cong Ren said calmly: "Because I not only practice Taoism, I also practice cause and effect. If you call me senior, I will have to have a relationship with you. This is a very troublesome thing."
Nan Dao didn't understand, and Cong Ren raised his hand and pointed at the black umbrella in Nan Dao's hand.
"You are the one favored by it but also detested."
"it?"
Nan Dao looked at the umbrella in his hand and seemed to understand what Cong Ren said.
The rain and snow cannot be seen, and the sky cannot be seen. This means that he needs to hide under the umbrella and cannot be seen by things in the sky.
Nan Dao looked down at the wine bottle in his hand and said: "I can probably guess a little, after all, it has been so many years, but I came to see you today... the sect master, I just want to..."
Nan Dao stopped as he spoke, because he saw Cong Ren shook his head.
Cong Ren raised his hand to catch a piece of peach blossom and said calmly: "Let me ask you a question."
"Please tell me."
"Is there a second peach tree in the world that has bloomed for a thousand years?"
"I haven't heard of it happening anywhere."
Cong Ren let go of his hand and let the peach blossoms fall. He looked at Nan Dao and said, "Do you understand now?"
Nan Dao fell silent.
Yes, there is no second peach tree in the world that has bloomed for a thousand years.
So that peach blossom itself came from the Human Sword Sect.
"Your father and I were old acquaintances, so I gave him this peach branch back then to help extend your life for ten years."
Father?
Nan Dao thought about his father. He had never thought that the middle-aged man who opened a blacksmith shop but did not forge iron, and lay sleeping in the yard all day long, would have anything to do with Cong Ren, one of the three swordsmen in the world.
Cong Ren didn't pay attention to Nan Dao's silence. He looked at the peach blossoms all over the ground and continued: "But cause and effect are orderly. If you can pray for ten years, it is already the limit of the world, so even if you really put this peach blossom Even if the tree is given to you, you can’t really survive.”
Cong Ren sighed, looked at the three-inch peach branch on Nan Dao's shoulder, and said, "What's more, you still have to pay back the ten-year karma of that peach branch."
Nan Dao sat there in a daze and said, "So what do you mean?"
Cong Ren brushed off the peach blossoms on his body, stood up, looked up at the orange sky, and said softly: "When you finish paying off the cause and effect, you will die, Nan Dao."
"Is there no other way?"
Nan Dao murmured softly.
"People will die when they are alive, and they will die when they are alive. This is what Taoist Saint Li Queyi once said. There is nothing I can do about it."
Cong Ren had already sat back on the bridge, watching the fallen flowers flowing away under the bridge, and spoke very calmly.
Nan Dao stood up, saluted Cong Ren, and said, "Thank you very much."
Cong Ren waved his hand, lay down on the bridge and closed his eyes. In a moment, he fell asleep.
Nan Dao held an umbrella and silently started to walk back along the trail.
When I walked to the bluestone path, I heard Cong Ren muttered as if he was talking in his sleep, "Cong Xin, when will the spring semester of Xuanxu Academy start?"
Nan Dao was a little confused, and then turned to look at the mahogany house on the big tree in the distance outside the pool.
The little girl Cong Xin sat at the window, looking at the peach blossoms in her hands in the dusk, and replied without looking back: "It's tomorrow, have you forgotten?"
Cong Ren seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep and said nothing more. The peach blossoms continued to fall under the tree.
Nan Dao withdrew his gaze, looked down at the bluestone slab under his feet, smiled, and whispered, "I remember."
...
Zhang Xiaoyu, with a rag draped over his shoulders, was sitting by the window on the second floor of the inn. He smiled slightly and looked at the people coming and going in the streets below, seeming very happy.
"I heard that you lost all the money you made in the past few days today. Why do you look quite happy?"
Someone came up from the back stairs, put his arm on Zhang Xiaoyu's shoulder and said.
Zhang Xiaoyu knew who the visitor was without turning around. Su Guang, the young innkeeper and his long-term poker friend, was even worse at poker than him. It is said that his father once opened more than a hundred inns in Huai'an. After being defeated by him in the card game, only Nanyi City's family was left. True to his name, he lost everything.
Zhang Xiaoyu happily jumped down from the window, pushed Su Guang's hand away, and said, "Because I met someone today."
Su Guang stood at the window, watching Zhang Xiaoyu wipe the stairs with a rag, and asked curiously: "Who can make you so happy after losing all your money? Is it the girl from Kaibufang in the south of the city?"
Zhang Xiaoyu wiped the handrail of the stairs and said, "She must be happy."
Su Guang followed, leaning on the escalator and asked, "Who is that?"
"What you don't know is not from Nanyi City."
"I think I can get to know each other."
Zhang Xiaoyu stopped, thought for a moment and said, "You might get to know me tonight."
"Why?"
"Because he not only won all my money, but also won the money of three of my senior brothers. He will definitely spend so much money. Since your inn is so close, he will most likely come to stay at your house."
"That's also making money for my family. Why are you happy?"
Zhang Xiaoyu finished wiping the handrails, put the rag on his shoulders, jumped down the stairs, walked to the lobby, cleared the dishes on the table in the corner, and said while busy: "Because I have been looking for him. "
Su Guang lay on the second floor and asked, "Why are you looking for him?"
Zhang Xiaoyu walked into the kitchen holding the bowls and chopsticks without answering.
After a long time, the chef's voice stopped, and Su Guang heard Zhang Xiaoyu's calm voice.
"Because I'm going to kill him."
"fine."
Su Guang naturally didn't believe it. He walked down, wandered around the lobby twice, walked to the door, looked back, and said to the kitchen: "I went to play cards, do you want to go?"
"I don't have any money, so I won't go."
"Don't pull him down."
Su Guang shook his head and walked out humming.
After a long time, Zhang Xiaoyu walked out of the kitchen and walked to a pillar in the corner of the lobby. He looked at the scabbard hanging on it and smiled.
"My sword is gone, of course it is true."
Zhang Xiaoyu took off the scabbard, but it was empty. The sword had disappeared.
The Human Sword Sect is watching the human world.
And the world is looking at the swords of those Sword Sect disciples who play cards all day long - it doesn't matter where they are, what matters is where the swords go.
Zhang Xiaoyu carried the scabbard behind his back, threw the rag on the table, and walked to the counter. The shopkeeper was not there, but the security of Nanyi City was very good, not to mention that this was an inn in the north of the city, and there had never been any thefts. He counted ten pennies at the counter and came out - this was his wages for this afternoon.
Zhang Xiaoyu put the money into his purse and walked out with a smile.
The wind coming from the long street is the spring breeze.
The spring breeze blew up a corner of the white clothes, which was a Taoist robe.
There seems to be a line of small writing on the Taoist robe.
Mountains and rivers sit together with me.
It is a view of mountains and rivers.
