103. Dark Tide
Qing Ling's wounds were oozing fluid for the first three days, and he had intermittent fever. Shang Changheng was the one who carefully changed his clothes and applied medicine for him. It was not until the fourth day that the wounds on his body scabbed over.
The blood scab was much more hideous than the wound. Qing Ling didn't care much about his appearance before, but now he had Shang Changheng. When he saw the scab on his cheek in the mirror, he was stunned. He had a complicated expression and didn't say anything for a long time.
"It will be healed in less than half a month." Shang Changheng stood behind Qingling, drying his freshly washed hair and comforting him softly, "In the past, some people were accidentally burned during marches and battles. In your case, at most there will be a mark left, and nothing will be visible in a year or two."
Qing Ling sighed and muttered, "Is this true?"
"Really." Shang Changheng waved his hand and put the towel back on the wooden rack, took out a green hairband to loosely tie up the silky black hair, and gently rubbed the uninjured half of Qingling's face with his cold fingers.
It was still daylight, and the season was entering autumn. The rain was getting colder and colder. Qingling suddenly heard what seemed to be an argument outside the window, so he wanted to get up and take a look.
As soon as he made a move, Shang Changheng pressed his shoulder and pushed him back. He whispered, "I wish Lezhi and Miaoyuan to go back and deal with it. It's someone in the Yin business here. Someone has sensed my Yin energy."
Qingling then understood why Shang Changheng didn't let him out.
The human mind is unpredictable. People, demons, and ghosts all flock to his great medicine. In their eyes, no matter whether Qing Ling is breathing or not, even if only a corpse is left, he is still a rare treasure from heaven and earth, and they can discover it as soon as they see him.
Now that Shang Changheng was seriously injured by the heavenly punishment, he took the initiative to avoid those who might have bad intentions.
The argument outside the window was not loud, and it seemed as if everyone was speaking in low voices.
An old man with a weak breath said angrily: "I noticed you the day you entered our town. It's been so many days, and you still haven't left. What on earth do you want to do?!"
"Just passing by." Zhu Lezhi said confidently, "You are a coffin maker, you do deadly work, what's there to be angry about? What's wrong with a living person carrying a little Yin energy? What's wrong? That's a serious inheritance. As the old saying goes, don't interfere with each other. You can go back, we will leave naturally after a while."
"You...you..." The man seemed to be very angry and scolded, "No! You guys get out of town right now, hum... who knows if you guys are in cahoots with those bad guys from the north?! I tell you youngsters, no matter how chaotic the world is outside, I can't control it, but if anyone dares to cause trouble in our town, I can't turn a blind eye!"
Qingling in the room still leaned against the window and frowned slightly.
A person from the north who breaks the rules.
Zhu Lezhi on the steps also frowned and asked, "What north side? What broken rules?"
The old man hesitated for a moment, still a little vigilant and said: "Even those small countries to the west have come to our side to make trouble. These beasts are insidious and kill people regardless of whether they are from this road or not. Humph... They are also related to the court. They broke the rules and anyone can kill them! I don't want to get involved. I just want to guard the town. No matter whether you have any relationship with them or not, get out of here!"
Zhu Lezhi laughed angrily, "Master, let's be reasonable. The shop on this road is for people to stay in. How is it wrong for us to pay for the accommodation? Did you see us burning, killing, looting or doing anything else?"
The two were still arguing, and Qingling reached out and rubbed the hollow carved window frame thoughtfully.
It west.
When he was in Yuzhou, he met a monk from there. He was indeed weird and even more evil than those who raised ghosts. In order to divert the trouble away, he also lured some local shady people from Yuzhou to the inn.
It turned out that not only that monk, but also all the shady people from a small country in the northwest had come to the territory of Daxia inexplicably.
He was even involved with the imperial court. This was the most taboo thing for people in the underworld. Even if one was good at both the black and white worlds, one had to move between them in a smooth and tactful manner. Like monk Luojia, who killed people at every turn, he had violated the taboos of both worlds - but he did not see any connection between this monk and the imperial court.
--wrong.
wrong!
Qingling remembered that many officials seemed to have died in Yuzhou. Did these people really die in the inn at the foot of the mountain?
Or... did this only happen in Yuzhou?
To ordinary people, the magic of Xuanmen is really an extremely sharp knife. If the power struggle in the court is mixed with the magic of Xuanmen - then where will the Li Gua of the Zhu family be reflected?
Zhu Lezhi was still bickering with the coffin maker. Not long after, another young man's voice was heard outside. It seemed that he was the coffin maker's apprentice. He persuaded his master, who was about to faint from anger, to take him back home.
"Everyone has left." Shang Changheng held the ointment in one hand, held Qingling's hand and whispered, "Come and apply the ointment."
Qingling was led away obediently.
He lay on the bed, took off his shirt, revealing his fair, delicate but thin body, his slender white neck, his clear and beautiful butterfly bones, and the scabs from the burns that seemed to add bloody cracks to the white jade. Shang Changheng looked at them silently - those were the injuries Qingling suffered while saving him.
"Changheng, why do you think those people came to Daxia?" Qingling asked casually.
"I don't know." Shang Changheng dipped his fingertips in the ointment and applied it to him, as if he didn't care about these things at all. "There are rules for worldly affairs. People who break the rules usually don't have a good end, but there are always innocent people who are implicated because of their breaking of the rules. However, there is no real fairness in the world. Even the way of heaven can be deceived, or - the way of heaven doesn't care at all. All things are like straw dogs. Who lives longer and who dies earlier, what is injustice or innocence, it doesn't matter. When the punishment from heaven came, didn't it care whether she died unjustly or not, and whether you and I should die."
Qingling felt that the way of heaven really didn't care much about human affairs.
Otherwise, with Shang Changheng's rebellious words, he would be struck by another round of heavenly thunder.
But Qingling seemed to hear some subtle resentment and unwillingness in Shang Changheng's tone. It was normal for evil ghosts to have grievances. Those who didn't have any resentment couldn't even be evil ghosts. If they didn't go to the underworld, they would become wandering souls and disappear into thin air.
But this was different from the resentment of the past. It seemed to carry a hint of sarcasm... and pity.
If you tell others that an evil spirit is pitying another fierce ghost that was turned to ashes by thunder, no one will believe it.
But there must be something wrong with Lan Ying'er's death. Even if it took a thousand years to raise a fierce ghost, the ghost must have enough resentment when it died. Otherwise, people are dying all the time in the world, and if everyone becomes a fierce ghost, it will be terrible. There must be some resentment and anger beyond ordinary people. Although Lan Ying'er did not look dead, her resentment was the strongest among all the fierce ghosts Qing Ling had seen.
Even Princess Cen from Huangshanling is far inferior to her.
The princess was noble when she was alive, but the human-sacrifice girl became even more noble after her death because of her excessive resentment. The fairness of this world is sometimes useless and ridiculous. But Qing Ling thought again, they were both poor girls who were not treated as human beings when they were alive. Why should he compare them after their death? They are both equally pitiful.
The pain of breaking a finger is no different from the pain of breaking an arm. They are both painful, so why is there a difference in severity?
"When are we leaving?" Qingling suddenly asked, "To Yinzhou."
Junziling, the border between Yinzhou and Luzhou, is the last tomb of Shang Changheng... However, when he was at Rongzhangling, his remains were already gathered together.
"Don't worry." Shang Changheng said calmly, and gently placed a cold kiss on the back of Qingling's neck. "Wait until you feel better. If we go on the road like this, the carriage will be bumpy and the wound will hurt."
Qingling buried his face in his arms.
In a remote town with drizzling autumn rain, on a small and cramped bamboo house bed, there were only him and Shang Changheng. If only this was the end of the road, he could lean on the corridor with his sweetheart, shoulder to shoulder, head to head, without a thousand-year-old hatred, without mountain floods, they could just enjoy the rain and chat, and even kiss with a tilt of their heads.
——When the sky clears up, they can hold hands and walk in this bright and shining world.
.
The coffin maker in the town never married in his life and only took a young orphan child as his apprentice. This was the only serious shady business in the town.
In fact, there are many professions in the Yin business, most of which overlap with other professions in the underworld. Not only those who know the mysterious magic are Yin people. Those who make paper-made funeral ceremonies or coffins, and even fortune tellers who know physiognomy on the street, can all be considered Yin people. It's just that their professions are different.
The master and his disciple came to this small inn every day, fearing that something mysterious might happen here. But one day passed, two days passed, many days passed... and nothing happened in the town.
However, the fierce girl who traveled around the world would stand at the door and confront the master and disciple every day when they came, and from time to time she would also pull the monk along. These two people were full of merits, and the coffin maker couldn't figure out where the heart-pounding and terrifying evil spirit he felt that day came from.
Half a month later.
The autumn rain finally stopped, but floods broke out everywhere, many areas were affected, and victims were fleeing everywhere. Even in this remote town, people fled here in a hurry.
On the day of departure, the scabs on Qingling's body had all fallen off, leaving only new pale pink skin. Zhu Lezhi waited until the master and disciple left before letting Qingling come out and get on the carriage, and the group headed north.
However, the coffin maker who sneaked back and hid in the shop opposite saw the handsome young man with real eyes - the evil aura was emanating from him.
No one could mistake this rare and precious medicine at a glance, and the coffin maker finally understood why the man had been hiding in the inn for so many days, not leaving the main door, not stepping out of the second door, and not even opening the window.
"Master, they're gone." The young apprentice whispered, "Why do I feel like that person..."
"You haven't seen him." The coffin maker said solemnly, "Remember, you have never seen them."
The apprentice felt a little strange, but still nodded confusedly.
The coffin maker stroked his gray beard and looked away.
It is a crime to possess a jade bi, and sometimes even knowing the news about the jade bi is a crime.
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