Chapter 43 We're together, we can't be apart...
With no one to guide them, the two returned to the mud house for the time being.
The sour fruit soup had been simmering and was placed on the table, its steam just beginning to dissipate. As Lin Dong pushed open the door, he just put down the porcelain bowl.
One person looked utterly sorrowful, while the other was overjoyed.
Pingyu asked curiously, "Father, Mother, what are you talking about?"
They then noticed that the two children had returned and invited them to sit on the prayer mats.
Lin Dong breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the two girls were no longer holding hands.
Thank goodness, even though they're young, it still makes me feel down.
He quickly composed himself and asked, "Did that Miss Xue just take you to see the Emperor Taizu?"
“Yes, we even played with their kids for a while,” Pingyu replied, picking up his bowl while giving Nezha a look, asking if he could tell their parents. Nezha shrugged, indicating that the decision was entirely up to him.
She worried that her parents would be frightened, but also felt that keeping them completely ignorant might be even more dangerous. After much hesitation, Pingyu lay down on Xue Yue'e's lap on the couch. With her beautiful mother's knees as a pillow, she told her everything she had just learned: "Father, Mother, Gou'er is young and easy to get information out of you. He just let slip that the young man who brought you here has ulterior motives, but Nezha and I can't take you away for the time being..."
“What is there to fear?” Xue Yue’e stroked her daughter’s hair again and again, and Lin Dong laughed heartily: “It was your parents’ recklessness that caused you trouble. We’re all in business, how can we not encounter danger? Your parents made arrangements for our funerals before coming here.”
"What happened afterward..." Ping Yu suddenly sat up, looking at the two of them in shock: "Green Robe didn't tell me!"
Lin Dong said nonchalantly, "She doesn't know either. I had someone deliver the will to Brother Li."
After saying that, he looked at Nezha.
Nezha was taken aback. He pointed at himself and asked, "My dad?"
“Yes.” Lin Dong nodded: “If my wife and I perish here, we will entrust our family fortune and daughter to his care.”
In this day and age, the concept of female-dominated households no longer exists. Under absolute patriarchy, women must depend on men to survive. She knew her father was doing this to protect her. Pingyu felt a tightness in her chest and playfully hit her father: "It'll be alright, Nezha and I will protect you!"
Xue Yue'e gently stroked Ping Yu's nose.
The girl had just experienced the Cihangwu incident yesterday, and after being summoned to the underworld, she was filled with yin energy and her body was very weak. This morning, she got up early to return home and rushed here, her mind already barely holding on. After being embraced by her mother's scent, Pingyu closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep. Hearing the girl's steady breathing, they unconsciously lowered their voices when they talked.
Lin Dong whispered to the boy watching his daughter's sleeping face, "Nezha, I know you have great supernatural powers. If you encounter danger later, don't worry about your uncle and aunt, just take Pingyu with you, okay?"
He had been dragged down by his own family, and Lin Dong felt somewhat ashamed as he said this: "It's your uncle and aunt who have caused you trouble..."
"Don't say that, Uncle." Nezha shook his head, looking at the space between their brows, where a faint darkness still lingered.
The heavier the gloom, the more devastating the bloodshed.
The area above was still dark, and Nezha was confident he could protect the two of them. The Lin couple treated him well, and he calmly replied, "I will certainly protect you both."
"And what about Pingyu?" Xue Yue'e asked. "Is there a way to avert her fate?"
"We need to collect twenty-four ghosts and carry out the mandate of heaven to have a chance of survival." Nezha answered truthfully, "She and I have already collected three ghosts."
"this……"
There is still a year until the day Pingyu faces his demise. Is it possible to make it in time?
The two suppressed their worries and bowed deeply to Nezha: "Thank you for saving our daughter, little immortal."
Mortals would express their wishes to immortals.
.
When Pingyu woke up, it was already evening. She found herself not on the bed, but with her feet off the ground in someone's arms. The lamplight flickered before her, and she rubbed her eyes groggily, asking, "Where am I?"
Lin Dong's voice rang out: "On your way to the birthday banquet, you lazybones."
She then came to her senses and realized that she was in her father's arms.
"Dad, why didn't you wake me up!"
She's eleven years old and still needs to be carried around, how embarrassing!
Pingyu's face flushed red instantly, and he struggled to get down, his head steaming. Nezha, walking beside Lin Dong, chuckled, only to be glared at by the girl.
When she was put down, the man was still a little reluctant: "It's been so long since I've held my darling like this. Sigh... she's a bit heavier than before."
"Father!" Pingyu said, embarrassed and annoyed.
Xue Yue'e pinched his ear: "Teasing your daughter like this, aren't you afraid of hurting your back?"
"Madam, spare me! Spare me!!"
They were heading to the room where the founding emperor resided, which had already been meticulously prepared. The dim red lanterns of the day were now lit, illuminating the ground and walls. A breeze blew, and the light filtered through the paper lanterns, scattering red hues everywhere.
The birthday banquet was held outside the courtyard, and almost everyone in the village came. The village chief's family was quite well-off, as they had set up dozens of large tables in the courtyard. Smoke billowed from the chimney, and the sound of cleavers chopping bones was quite loud.
As they approached, they saw that Emperor Taizu was carrying a table by himself.
There were pigs and sheep in front, as well as that jar at the entrance of the village.
Lin Dong muttered, "Why are you making offerings to someone who's not even dead yet?"
"Could you please say less?" Xue Yue'e rolled her eyes at him.
Just then, a young man came in from the doorway. He was holding a bundle of incense sticks and handed them out to the group: "Aunt Xue, Uncle, we need to offer incense to the Great Ancestor first. After we've finished offering incense, I'll take you to your seats."
He is the village chief.
"The food in the mountains is not as good as that down below, so you may have to make do with a little."
Lin Dong replied politely, "Who doesn't eat grains? Brother, we're family, no need for formalities."
Pingyu also had three sticks of incense, as Nezha, being an outsider, hadn't been assigned any. During the incense offering, those without incense were not allowed to approach, so the village chief was to take him away first. Pingyu grabbed Nezha's wrist and said, "We're together, we can't be separated!"
"We'll meet after you've offered incense, there's no way we can separate." The young man smiled and led the person away without allowing any argument.
Nezha looked at the jar in front of the ancestor and asked bluntly, "What's in there?"
“This is a boat,” he said. “When we send Emperor Taizu up the mountain at the auspicious time tomorrow, it will transform into a boat and carry Emperor Taizu to Peach Blossom Spring.”
"Shall we open it and take a look?" The village chief stopped after asking this question. Under the red lantern, the two seemed immersed in blood. He stared intently at Nezha, whose face genuinely showed curiosity. He feigned nonchalance, as if testing the waters: "Anyway, you said it's empty inside, right?"
“No.” After a moment, the village chief narrowed his eyes again. He looked like a fox: “You can pick him up and shake him, but you can’t open him up.”
"Why?"
“Because it contains the aura of the gods.” The village chief led him to the table and laid him on the prayer mat. The young man lowered his voice and earnestly warned, “If you open it, the Great Ancestor will never be able to reach Peach Blossom Spring…”
"They can only drown."
"Oh." Nezha sat with his arms crossed, it was unclear whether he had heard or not.
There was a dog and several children at the table; the younger ones were all sitting together. They looked at the handsome new boy and all crowded around, asking, "How come you're so good-looking? Are you a fairy?"
Nezha ignored everyone and looked at the dog, letting him handle it.
The dog was startled and quickly changed the subject: "Oh dear, didn't someone say they saw their grandfather before?"
"He's an idiot!" One of the girls with pigtails blushed as she looked at Nezha and said shyly, "The other day I was catching small fish in the stream, and that idiot was squatting there shouting that Grandpa was back!"
A child grinned and held three chopsticks in his hand, pointing towards the direction of the founding emperor, saying, "Just like the founding emperor today, after the birthday celebration, we'll go to Peach Blossom Spring!"
He placed three chopsticks down, and Pingyu stuck three incense sticks in the ground. The pig trough inside the house was moved outside, and the swirling smoke gave everyone a headache. The Empress Dowager's eyes were still open, seemingly without blinking. The firelight couldn't even penetrate the old woman's pupils; if she hadn't raised her hand to let Nezha pat her head, Pingyu would have thought she was already dead.
Is this really not a good item? Let Nezha take a look later; who knows, it might have other uses. Otherwise, the craftsman who carved the necklace will have waited in vain!
The two of them kept their thoughts to themselves; they couldn't very well tell the old woman in front of her about sawing off her head.
Just as Pingyu was about to leave with the two, the tips of his ears twitched slightly.
Zheng.
It was another metallic clang.
This time it was very light and shallow, blending into the human voice so well that it was almost inaudible unless you listened very carefully.
She followed the sound and saw a scurrying figure crouching in the corner.
The man was rather tall, but all he had was skin and bones. The flickering light of the incense and candles brushed against his skin, and Pingyu could see that it had a slightly pinkish hue.
When the skin breaks and the flesh is exposed, this color will appear on the body.
So familiar...
Following her heart, Pingyu took her parents' hands and walked towards the person.
The light was dim, and the person, pressed against the wall, looked like mud plastered in a corner. The closer one got, the louder and clearer the metallic clang became. He held a red cloth drumstick in his hand, tapping it idly on the gong.
Xue Yue'e asked, "Why are you staying here instead of going to the banquet?"
The gong-beater remained silent, then struck the gong again.
Doggy mentioned that his things were stolen by a fool, and the fool he was referring to was the one at the head of the group who was banging the gong. It's strange, though; why would he just give up after being robbed? Someone like Doggy should have gone and taken everything back.
Lin Dong thought he hadn't heard him, so he asked again, "Kid, are you listening?"
He shrank back timidly, then started banging the gong again.
clank.
The sound of voices was loud, but the sound of the gong was faint.
His lips were moving this time, as if he were exhaling or spitting.
Xue Yue'e pulled Lin Dong up and said, "He looks a bit dim-witted. Could he be the village guard?"
Upon hearing that he was a village guard, Lin Dong also showed pity: "Let's bring him some food later, he's a pitiful person too."
This time, the gong-beater's lips moved more vigorously, for a longer duration. Pingyu leaned closer, listening intently to the sounds coming from his lips and throat.
Just as I leaned in, I heard a chaotic shouting coming from inside the house: "Help! Something's happened!!!"
She looked up, wanting to leave.
He could barely move an inch before he was unable to move at all.
Her arms were restrained; it was the gong-beater who was restricting her movements. The girl turned her head and saw the other person's clear, bright eyes in the dim light.
The sound, amidst the chaos, clearly reached Ping Yu's ears:
"Grandpa ate it, I can't eat it."
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