"Dad, what's wrong with you?"
Zhao Bin has never seen such an uneasy expression on his father's face in his whole life. he asked cautiously.
"Oh, it turns out it's for something like that. I should have thought of it a long time ago..."
Mr. Zhao sighed. He was helped out of bed by his son. After getting dressed, he glanced at his son who was now able to stand alone, and then said:
"Come with me, and let's go to say hello to your grandmother."
Zhao Bin's grandmother is Mr. Zhao's mother.
The two of them arrived at a Buddhist hall in the back hall one after another. After the maid made the report, they asked them to sit down first and wait for the old lady.
The old lady was reciting sutras in the back hall. After the accident happened to the little sister of the Zhao family, the old lady made a wish in front of the Buddhist hall. If little sister Zhao could survive this disaster safely, she would be willing to live a vegetarian diet and recite sutras for one hundred days.
Today's Buddhist scriptures have not been finished yet, so Mr. Zhao and his son can only wait patiently.
After a cup of tea, I heard footsteps coming from the back hall.
"Son, is my little sister really okay?"
The old lady only wore plain-colored monk shoes, and only used a simple wooden hairpin on her hair. She had a kind-hearted look and walked out with her rosary beads in her hands.
"mother."
"grandmother."
The two quickly stood up and saluted.
"Everyone, please sit down. It's not common courtesy. Bin'er, is your sister really okay?"
The old lady sat down on the main seat, and the maid quickly brought a cup of hot tea.
"It's okay. Xia Lingguan has eliminated all the evil spirits in the backyard, but the little sister still needs to rest for a few days. After a while, I will ask her to come and pay your respects."
Naturally, Zhao Bin did not dare to tell what his little sister had done. He could only tell his family that Xia Zhichan helped them get rid of the monsters in the backyard.
"Oh, no need. I'm relieved that the girl is fine. There's no need to say hello. To drive away the evil spirits, she will suffer a serious illness even if she doesn't lose her life. You have to take good care of her and don't let anything happen to her again."
"Yes, grandson obeys."
The old lady was open-minded. She waved her hand, then glanced at her gloomy-looking son, and asked with some confusion:
"Son, what's wrong with you? The girl is fine, but why are you still unhappy?"
"I...it's okay, mother, I..."
Mr. Zhao was hesitant, he didn't know how to speak.
"Grandma, it's actually like this... You see, Xia Lingguan helped our family solve such a big thing. Shouldn't we thank her properly..."
Seeing that his father was not able to speak, Zhao Bin took the initiative to take over the conversation, starting with Xia Zhichan.
"Well, I should thank you properly..."
The old lady picked up the teacup, took a sip of hot tea, and then continued:
"Son, how about we marry our girl to Xia Lingguan?"
"no!"
The one who shouted out was Zhao Bin.
"Um?"
The old lady looked at her excited grandson, then looked at her son with some confusion, and found that her son also had a puzzled look on his face.
"Uh, grandma, what I mean is... Xia Lingguan is a half-immortal. He... soars in the clouds, rides on a crane, and so on. How can he fall in love with a girl from our ordinary family?"
Zhao Bin was so frightened that he was almost gibbering. If the old lady messed up the rules, she would be in big trouble.
"Well, what Bin'er said makes sense. She is an immortal and looks down on us ordinary women... So what can we give her? She is an immortal and doesn't need money..."
The old lady listened to the advice. After thinking about it, she felt that what her grandson said was somewhat reasonable.
"Well, Xia Lingguan did say that he wanted a piece of jade..."
Zhao Bin followed the words and told the story.
"Jade?"
The old lady seemed to have thought of something bad, and her face became unhappy. She stopped spinning the beads and glanced at her son.
The latter was speechless and nodded slightly.
"You all go down."
This sentence was addressed to the maids and servants waiting around. After hearing this, those people exited the Buddhist hall one after another.
There were only three people left in the house, the grandfather and grandson.
"Grandma, what are you..."
Zhao Bin was confused and wanted to ask, but was interrupted by his father.
"Wait, I'll get it."
The old lady walked to the Buddha statue enshrined in the back hall, reached out and took out a six-inch square rosewood box from a hidden box behind the Buddha statue.
There was dust visible to the naked eye. The old lady wiped it with the corner of her sleeve, her eyes flashed with reminiscence, and after a while she came out with the wooden box.
"This...should be what Xia Lingguan wants."
The old lady handed it to Zhao Bin, who quickly stretched out his hands to take the rosewood box, and then looked up and down.
"This is……"
The old lady sighed and sat on the chair for a while without speaking.
Mr. Zhao looked at the wooden box, then at his son who couldn't understand. He pondered for a while before saying:
"This...should be thirty years ago."
Thirty years ago, Mr. Zhao’s father, Mrs. Zhao, was doing business abroad and bought a piece of jade with a strange shape from somewhere. He originally planned to polish this piece of jade into several pendants and Buddhist beads, but he hired many jade craftsmen, and no one could cut this strange piece of jade.
What's even more frightening is that most of the jade craftsmen died suddenly and miserably when they returned home. Later, even Mrs. Zhao fell ill and died suddenly within a few days.
From that day on, people in the Zhao family have been dying without stopping.
Later, an unknown old man passed by, and he sealed the strange jade into a rosewood box, and the strange things in the Zhao family stopped.
Because of this, Mr. Zhao, who was just a teenager at the time, had to take over his family's business and traveled extensively at a young age.
"So that's what happened, then..."
Zhao Bin nodded and put the rosewood box in his hand on the tea table beside him with some uneasiness.
"Since it is said to be jade, I think Xia Lingguan is referring to this jade."
Mr. Zhao said while twirling his beard.
"Well, if your father hadn't bought this piece of jade back then, which led to all the things that happened later, you wouldn't have had to travel all over the world to do business when you were just eleven or twelve years old."
The old lady wiped the tears from her eyes and sighed.
"It's okay, mother. Haven't we survived all these years? It's okay..."
Mr. Zhao has been doing business since he was a child. He doesn't know how much hardship he has suffered and how many sins he has suffered. However, he has always reported good things but not bad things in front of his mother.
Zhao Bin reached out and touched the top of the rosewood box, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
It turns out that there is still such a past event in my family.
…
"Xia Lingguan, see if it's this?"
Zhao Bin put the rosewood box on the table in front of Xia Zhichan and gestured with his hand:
"My father said this is a strange piece of jade. I've never seen it before. I can't open this box either..."
What he said was true. After getting the wooden box, he tried it, but there wasn't even a crack in the wooden box. He really didn't know how to open it.
"You'll know after you try it."
Xia Zhichan shook her sleeves, and the black cat came out from the left sleeves. She yawned lightly first, and then stared at the rosewood box without blinking an eye.
Meow~
The black cat jumped and landed on the wooden box. She leaned down and used her claws and teeth to leave scratches of varying depths on the wooden box.
"It seems to be true."
Xia Zhichan could tell from the impatient look on the black cat that the thing hidden in this rosewood box was what she was looking for.
He stretched out his right hand and patted the rosewood box, and the wooden box disappeared in full view of everyone.
"Okay, the things here are done, it's time for Xia to say goodbye..."
"No, Xia Lingguan, you should stay here longer, let us repay you..."
Zhao Bin wanted to persuade him to stay, but judging from Xia Zhichan's attitude, he had no intention of staying at all, and he only gave up after saying a few polite words.
After Xia Zhichan had lunch with Nan Er, she said goodbye to the Zhao family and left.
Except for the little sister who was staying in the attic and couldn't come out, everyone from the Zhao family came out to see her off.
Zhao Bin followed him out of Zhendian in person, and watched Xia Zhichan disappear from sight before riding home.
He also picked up a man on the way, and the two rode together.
"Bin'er, sent Xia Lingguan away?"
Zhao Bin and the people beside him got off their horses and saluted Mr. Zhao who was standing at the door.
"Yes."
"Then this is..."
Zhao Bin patted the shoulder of the person next to him, and the latter bowed respectfully to Master Zhao again.
"Hello, uncle, I'm...Li Yan."
…
Xia Zhichan and the other two galloped on the road, raising a puff of smoke.
"Where are we going? If you dare to say anything about it, I will blow your head off."
There was a fork in the road ahead. Nan Eryi reined in the reins. He turned around and asked Xia Zhichan.
"Well……"
Xia Zhichan also stopped his horse. He looked at the two identical roads ahead, scratched his head for a rare moment, and then pointed at one casually:
"This way."
"Oh, then go the other way."
Nan Er didn't even have time for Xia Zhichan to react. He urged his horse and ran towards the opposite road to what Xia Zhichan pointed out.
There was the sound of horse hooves, and a cloud of dust was raised.
"Well, if you don't listen to me, then why are you asking me?"
Xia Zhichan thought for a while that she could find the fragments sealed in the rosewood box all because of Nan Er's messing around. Maybe there would be unexpected gains from listening to him.
drive!
The horse was urged to sit down and chased towards where Nan Er ran.
After several days, the two of them actually never encountered any Zhendian.
"Xu-what is this place?"
They had been traveling for several days. If Zhao Bin hadn't prepared enough dry food and water for them, they would have been hungry.
Nan Er reined in his horse first and looked up at the sky.
A dark cloud drifted over from the sky, and it looked like there might be a heavy rain.
"It's your choice. You can't blame me this time."
Xia Zhichan also reined in the horse. He was not in a hurry, but he had been traveling for several days and his butt hurt from riding a horse. He simply turned over and led the horse away.
Nan Er could only come down and lead the horse away, but he continued:
"I'm afraid it's going to rain heavily in a while. You and I won't even have a place to take shelter from the rain. We'll end up drowned in the rain. Don't laugh at anyone!"
"Don't be afraid... I will avoid the water attack, and in the end, you will be the drowned rat alone."
"Xia Zhichan, you!"
While the latter was talking, a strong wind suddenly blew up.
call--
There is a poem that says: The mountain rain is about to come and the wind fills the building.
This wind can be said to be the vanguard of rain. When the strong wind blows, it will be followed by lightning, thunder and showers.
The wind was so strong that it became difficult to keep one's eyes open.
"what happened?"
Nan Er pulled on the horse's reins and shouted to Xia Zhichan who was not far away.
The latter was close at hand, but did not reply to his words.
"Hey! Xia Zhichan! Can you hear me?"
Nan Er suddenly felt uneasy. He took the lead and held down the handle of his long black sheath sword. He held the horse's rein in his left hand and was ready to draw the sword at any time with his right hand.
The wind blew harder and harder, and both of them felt like their feet were being pushed forward by a pair of invisible hands.
Until the wind dies.
The two of them finally stood still, and a huge abandoned mansion appeared in front of them.
The dark door, the damaged wall with long grass.
Looking up, I can no longer distinguish the handwriting on the plaque on the door, and the door knocker on the door has long since decayed and disappeared.
The two animal heads on the door have no knockers, as if they have their mouths wide open, trying to devour everyone who comes to the door.
Click!
A flash of lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the sky for an instant.
Immediately afterwards, heavy raindrops fell.
"Go in and take shelter from the rain, quickly!"
Xia Zhichan opened the door first and led the horse in.
Nan Er followed closely behind.
Pushing open the dusty wooden door of the lobby, the two of them walked in one after the other.
In the center of the lobby stood a huge sculpture that was 10 feet high. The sculpture was covered by a piece of cloth as red as blood, and only the outline of a human figure could be vaguely seen.
"Okay, let's rest here tonight and wait until the weather clears before we start our journey again."
Xia Zhichan took off his baggage and found a relatively clean place to sit down. He lowered his head and looked for something inside the baggage.
Suddenly there was a click outside the house, and a bright electric light flashed, illuminating the entire room.
warehouse--
That was the sound of a knife being unsheathed.
Nan Er moved forward with his sword and swung it out under the cover of the electric light, slashing Xia Zhichan straight in the face.
He gritted his teeth and said at the same time:
"Who are you!"
