Chapter 304 Hmm?

The Taoist priest remained silent for a moment.

"Of course I am! I'm human too, just an ordinary person, not a saint. How could I not have moments when I can't figure things out?"

As he said this, his face still showed dissatisfaction and anger, and he felt even more aggrieved.

Song Chunxue was very curious, but her tone was calm and ordinary.

"It seems that person bullied you, senior brother. Tonight, we brothers are drinking on an empty street with the bright moon as our companion. How rare is that? Why don't you speak up, senior brother? Maybe that pent-up anger will dissipate."

The senior brother tilted his head back and took a swig of wine, his eyes, tinged with the smell of alcohol, carrying a hint of unspeakable sorrow.

A moment later, a slight splash of water appeared.

Song Chunxue quickly averted her gaze, pretending to look down at the ants on the ground that were going home to sleep.

She couldn't be mistaken, could she? Her senior brother was actually crying in distress?

This is terrible, it's so heartbreaking.

She also felt a lump in her throat; it seemed her senior brother had really been bullied badly back then.

These hidden emotions are usually kept secret from others.

Luckily, her senior brother had been drinking; otherwise, if she had seen him in such a vulnerable state, he would have definitely kicked her a couple of times to ease the awkwardness.

The nights at the end of March were still quite cold; a cold wind blew, and the hairs on the back of my hands stood up.

But as the wine entered my throat, a hot, warm current slowly spread throughout my body, and I actually found drinking wine under the moon quite pleasant on such a night.

"That must have been nine years ago. I was dirt poor back then, and I was covered in all sorts of things to show off my status and abilities, like five-emperor coins, a peach wood sword, and black donkey hooves..."

After a long pause, the senior brother's slightly low and hoarse voice rang out, and he even choked up a little as he spoke.

Song Chunxue lowered her head and bit her lip, "Mmm."

She felt like crying and laughing at the same time; she really wasn't a good junior brother.

"The Five Emperors Coins are fake, but I don't know which despicable bastard stole my black donkey hoof. I didn't dare to walk at night like I do now. I spent a lot of money to buy it, and it was stolen before I even had a chance to enjoy it." The Taoist priest spoke calmly, without any inflection.

"Um."

This time, Song Chunxue couldn't laugh at all. She knew what it was like to be stumped by a mere penny, which was why she used to disregard her health and her eyes would light up whenever she saw Artemisia capillaris that could be sold for money.

Although dandelions are everywhere and worthless, they can be harvested several times a year, while wormwood is only available for one month.

“That day I only had five coins left in my purse, and a bowl of liangpi cost three coins.” At this point, the Taoist priest took a swig of wine, stared at the dark mud wall across the street and smiled. “I don’t know why I was so nice after eating that day and handed the porcelain bowl to the stall owner. As a result, the stall owner’s hand slipped and the crudely made porcelain bowl shattered on the ground.”

"..." Song Chunxue lowered her head, her eyes blurry.

“In the past, even my dog ​​wouldn’t have needed such a thick bowl, but the stall owner still asked me for two coins to compensate for the bowl.”

The Taoist priest gently wiped the moisture from the corner of his eyes, looking at the starry sky above with a tender smile.

"I was young back then and didn't have the magnanimity I have now. I also had a big appetite back then. A bowl of liangpi (cold skin noodles) wasn't enough to fill me up. I saved those two copper coins to buy coarse flour steamed buns."

"Two steamed buns for one penny could last me a day; I ate steamed buns for the entire previous month. But that broken bowl cost me everything."

Song Chunxue quietly took out a handkerchief with her left hand and wiped away her tears and snot.

"For the next six months, I regretted it. I shouldn't have been so greedy and had to eat a bowl of liangpi. But the soup that the stall owner made was really delicious and I loved it."

“In the Central Plains, they call that thing Liangpi’er, but here people call it Niangpizi. The vendors usually write the two characters ‘Niangpi’ in big letters on their wooden boards.”

The Taoist priest chuckled self-deprecatingly, “For the next year or two, I felt uncomfortable whenever I saw the words ‘liangpi’ (cold skin noodles). My master said that’s called an obsession.”

Song Chunxue silently wiped away her tears and snot again, and stuffed the wet handkerchief into her bosom.

She didn't want the Taoist priest to hear her crying.

Just as she was racking her brains trying to figure out how to comfort her senior brother, he suddenly laughed, grabbed Song Chunxue's shoulder, and looked at her red eyes with a smug smile.

"Junior brother is crying?"

"I've never seen anyone as easily fooled as you. I made up a story and you cried your eyes out, thinking I didn't notice?"

"..." Song Chunxue glared at him, feeling incredibly angry.

"Hahaha, junior brother, you're not good. Being too compassionate is not a good thing. You've become attached to appearances and lost your spirit. Tsk tsk tsk, this is a major taboo in Taoism."

The Taoist priest, holding a wine pot, got up and ran ten meters away, where he began to mock Song Chunxue.

If Song Chunxue hadn't known that the story was mostly true, she would have loved to beat him up.

She was angry and annoyed, and also felt some sympathy for him. With nowhere to vent her anger, she kicked the dry mud wall several times.

"Why are you kicking the wall? He's been wronged. You can't take your anger out on this honest earthen wall just because you can't kick your senior brother. Come on, you can kick your senior brother a couple of times."

Song Chunxue ran over with the wine jug, and just as she was about to reach him, she suddenly leaped up and grabbed his shoulder, lifting him into the air for a moment.

She walked past the Taoist priest, her back to him, and said, "Quickly tell me where that stall owner lives. I'm going to kick his door twice tonight, or I won't be able to sleep!"

"I made it up..."

"Senior brother, you've made my Dao heart unstable. Be careful, I'll definitely find that liangpi stall owner tomorrow. Anyway, my daughter has suffered enough, so a day or two won't make a difference. She probably owes her mother-in-law something in her past life."

"..." The Taoist priest didn't expect her to be so clueless. "Your daughter is the most important thing."

"Senior brother, have you thought this through? If you don't tell me where the stall owner is tonight, I'll burn your beard!"

"You dare!" The Taoist priest angrily straightened the cloth bag on his shoulder. "I'll take you there right now."

*

I had a good night's sleep.

The next day, the weather was fine and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky.

Upon waking up, Song Chunxue smelled the fragrance of apricot blossoms and couldn't help but lick her lips.

Before setting off today, I must buy a pot of apricot blossom wine.

She got up and opened the window, and there stood a tall old apricot tree outside, a branch in full bloom that seemed to have fallen into her arms.

Song Chunxue couldn't help but smile. She lowered her head and smelled the pink and white apricot blossoms, the sweetness of the apricot blossoms filling her heart.

After washing up, she knocked on her senior's door.

"Let's go, Sister Song will take you to get something to eat."

"Hmm?" The Taoist priest, his ethereal aura restored, raised an eyebrow. "What do you call yourself?"

"Let's go eat liangpi (cold skin noodles), it's on me."

"How dare you..." Before he could finish speaking, the Taoist priest was dragged out of the room.

After a short while, Song Chunxue forcibly dragged the Taoist priest to the liangpi (cold skin noodles) stall.

It was only when she saw the hunched-over woman that she realized the stall owner was a woman.

"I don't know who the hell messed up my stall last night, making it look like a place ransacked by wild dogs. They even smeared the wooden sign black. What a jerk..."

"Two bowls of liangpi, and extra garlic." Song Chunxue shouted at her loudly, "This believer, you can't say unlucky things so early in the morning. If you want wealth to roll in, you have to be careful about what you eat first thing in the morning. Talk about being rich, pray to the God of Wealth, and be kind with your words. It will be good for your children and grandchildren and for yourself. It will also cure your choking problem."