Chapter 89 Li Jing! ?
The officer wanted to laugh but dared not, and quickly looked in the direction of his superior's fingertips.
When people encounter a fork in the road, they always choose the direction they are familiar with. Since they are going to avoid disaster, the Lin family should have chosen the temple they built themselves. If it weren't for his interference, Pingyu would indeed be reunited with Nezha at the imperial palace by now. Li Jing prepared his plan and led his men to investigate; the two groups of carriages departed in opposite directions.
A crisis was resolved quietly and without fanfare.
As the wooden cart's tracks grew longer, Pingyu gradually began to see signs of human habitation.
Pilgrims began to walk sparsely along the path, their occasional conversations punctuating the silence. The crowd grew denser as she advanced, their laughter and chatter becoming increasingly loud. Pingyu felt a little more at ease and peeked out from under the trees. Looking ahead, she saw a temple perched atop a distant hill. Pilgrims thronged the temple like ants, and the incense smoke billowed thickly. Puffs of gray smoke rose into the sky, like coughed-up phlegm. A gentle autumn breeze carried the scents of the air into Pingyu's nostrils.
She twitched her nose, a puzzled thought popping into her mind: Why does it smell burnt?
Having cleverly shaken off Li Jing, the Taoist priest stopped eating and drinking. He leaned back and asked, "Do you still find me suspicious?"
Suddenly, someone revealed the truth, and Pingyu hesitated for a moment before nodding.
The girl answered truthfully, "I think so."
The Taoist priest was taken aback by her bluntness. After a brief moment of stunned silence, he couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Why? Didn't we see Nezha's palace? There are people and incense offerings here."
Indeed, both the palace and the pilgrims matched her imagined scene, so the doubts should have been resolved. But for some reason, a tension lingered in her heart. Just as people often feel fear when things go too smoothly, Pingyu felt that this current perfection was like the calm before the storm. The Taoist priest laughing so unrestrainedly before her must be an important NPC, and something terrible must be happening to him. But Pingyu couldn't find any evidence to identify him; it was all just her own imagination. She paused for a long time before giving a difficult answer: "Perhaps it's intuition?"
The five-word question was insufficient to express Pingyu's feelings. Under the gaze of others, the girl lowered her head and added her thoughts: "I feel that you came for me."
"Do you have incense?" the Taoist priest asked.
Not understanding why the other person was asking this, Pingyu still answered, "Yes."
The Taoist priest asked again, "And what about the tea?"
"Yes, there is," Pingyu replied affirmatively, then couldn't help but ask, "Senior, why do you ask this?"
The Taoist priest beckoned to her, and Pingyu was drawn closer. The instant their eyes met, the Taoist priest opened his mouth.
Immediately afterwards, a loud "hiccup" exploded in Ping Yu's ears.
An indescribable smell of rotten fruit filled the air, and Ping Yu let out a wail, covering his face and leaning back.
The Taoist priest, after letting out a satisfied burp at the little girl, grinned and said, "Because I came here for these two things."
For the sake of tea and incense? Pingyu couldn't connect the two things for the time being.
Human vision is subject to error; what the eyes see is not necessarily reality. Even if the hill appears to be not far away, it is already near dusk when we actually arrive at the palace.
The car slowly came to a stop as the two people were talking.
The grand gate of Nezha's palace appeared in front of the carriage.
Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, it appeared as if all its bricks and tiles were made of gold. Inside, incense burned brightly, showing no signs of its previous destruction.
The candlelight flickered, the flames consuming the sandalwood incense until it turned ashen. The temple was brighter than the morning glow outside, yet Pingyu still felt something was off.
It's said that temples attract spirits, so it's normal for her to feel fear. But could the reason her hair stood on end be because Nezha wasn't there?
It was because this wasn't her own palace that she felt so unfamiliar and uncomfortable. The coachman unloaded the luggage from the carriage and carried it to the guest rooms, while Pingyu followed the Taoist priest around the place. Everything one could want was here; apart from Nezha's absence, it was perfect as a place to stay. However, Pingyu wasn't prepared to face Nezha directly, after all, she hadn't seen him for half a year.
This is the longest they've been apart since they met!
Feeling guilty and uneasy, Pingyu asked the man, "Senior, when will Nezha return?"
"Wait a few days," the Taoist priest glanced at her and replied, "What, you can't sleep without him?"
Ping Yu was momentarily speechless, and instinctively retorted, "No."
They won't let Nezha sleep with them, so what does his presence have to do with sleeping!
Ping Yu was both surprised and puzzled by these words, and was also taken aback: "Did Nezha tell you this?"
As soon as he asked the question, Ping Yu himself rejected the possibility.
Nezha regards the tribulation of fate as their contract, so how could he easily tell others about it?
The Taoist priest didn't say "yes" or "no," and he continued walking. Pingyu followed closely behind. They crossed one white wall after another, and passed through corridor after corridor. The lotus paintings on the back of the walls would wither and bloom again. The Taoist priest asked her, "No, but also yes. You and he are both people with destiny. However, Heaven has no morality; those who serve it must be efficient and decisive, so being alone is inevitable. After your tribulation, what do you want to do?"
"ah?"
If it's after a life-threatening ordeal...
Pingyu was someone who accepted her fate and hadn't thought about the future. However, she was clear about the content of her destiny, answering, "To act on behalf of Heaven and collect the twenty-four ghosts?"
Using empty, grandiose words to appease unfamiliar adults is always the wisest approach.
The Taoist priest persisted, asking, "What I'm asking is, what's the first thing to do after the calamity?"
"Go home," Pingyu thought, many things flashing through her mind, but in the end only these two words remained. She brought her eyes back from their reverie and answered firmly, "My parents will miss me. If I'm safe, of course I'll go back to let them know!"
The Taoist priest nervously mumbled her answer twice: "Go home..."
Is it wrong to go home?
With a ready-made reason, Ping Yu breathed a sigh of relief and took the initiative to speak: "Senior, shall we go?"
The Taoist priest reacted, saying meaningfully, "It's good to go home."
He emphasized each word, then spoke softly. The Taoist priest, who had seemed to have more to say, fell silent after finishing his previous statement. He pushed open the door, revealing an incense altar right outside. Candles of uniform height burned densely, casting a wave of heat.
"Let's go eat," the Taoist priest reverted to his roguish demeanor. He took a step forward, glancing at the ground before realizing the shadow behind him hadn't followed. He turned around and stared intently at him.
What happened to my home?
The girl's eyes were like mirrors, and she asked with piercing gaze.
Not far from them, the coachman was simmering a pot of soup in the kitchen. It was filled with mushrooms and chicken bones, the chicken fat and marrow rendered out. He hummed a little tune, constantly stirring the copper pot with a long ladle. The kitchen beams were red, and the clear broth reflected them perfectly, making it seem as if the coachman was cooking a pot of blood. The ladle stirred, creating whirlpools on the surface. Seeing the soup bubbling, he began to chop scallions.
The blade embedded itself in the wooden cutting board, its cold light flashing, illuminating a terrified face...
Lin Dong's face.
Add chopped scallions to the soup, and sprinkle finger joints into the bloody water.
A crow flew over the kitchen, and the coachman cursed angrily, grabbing a broom to chase it away. The bird's cry was shrill and like a wail, drowning out the wails coming from the Lin residence.
Lin Dong shielded Xue Yue'e before the banquet. Startled, he looked up, and when he recognized the person, he hoarsely called out the name: "Li Jing!?"
The man's face was cleaved in two by a knife, each half filled with anger and disbelief.
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