Chapter 7 He's a child, not a fool.
Let's go.
Having said that, Nezha leaped down.
Pingyu sensed something was wrong when she saw him return to the ground. She asked, "Where are you going?"
"Let's go to the street." The boy held up two fingers to her, counting as he spoke, "Or the mountains and forests, it's up to you."
Hey, isn't it either going up the mountain or going to the countryside?
“I never agreed to it, Third Young Master!” she reasoned with Nezha.
Pingyu stealthily shifted her position, moving further away from Nezha. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the nearby square window was wide open. It seemed that those who cultivated immortality didn't like to use the main entrance; Taiyi Zhenren had just flown away through this window, transforming into a long rainbow and disappearing into the horizon.
This did leave Pingyu with a way to survive.
"I wasn't asking you." Unfortunately, Nezha was unreasonable; he had seen all of the girl's little actions. The red satin sank down, silently climbing up the bed like a serpent, unknowingly wrapping around Pingyu's ankle.
Ping Yu met his gaze, silently counting down the seconds in his mind.
three…
two…
Now!
She flipped over, intending to leap out of the window. But Nezha, unhurried, instantly tightened the red silk that had been waiting for her.
In the blink of an eye, the world spun around.
The prey fell into the snare and was hoisted high into the air.
She swayed in mid-air, looking at Nezha's smiling face, her heart filled with despair.
"It's over," she thought.
Take a gamble, and your bicycle might become a tire.
One wrong step leads to another, and then one wrong step after another.
To create some privacy for her conversation with Taiyi Zhenren, Lady Yin had dismissed the servants near the side room long ago. In truth, this room had long since become a secret chamber; even if she managed to climb out, Nezha would drag her back. It was better to submit from the start and avoid physical harm.
I should have known better than to run away!
Nezha asked again, "Street or mountains?"
"Go to the street."
The girl assessed the situation and stopped resisting.
The boy nodded in satisfaction, and Pingyu felt that the way he looked at him was like a cat looking at a mouse.
Pingyu was released.
She quickly put on her shoes, and casually stuffed the book on fortune and prosperity from the bedside table, along with her purse, into her bosom.
"Here I am!"
The girl followed behind Nezha like a timid little chick.
.
I had my own selfish reasons for choosing Pingyu Street.
The Shang Dynasty placed great importance on sacrifices, with people believing in the gods more than their own lives, and were extremely superstitious about ghosts and spirits. Because of her physical condition, her parents lied to the outside world, claiming that Pingyu was in poor health, which resulted in her living in the family temple for a full ten of the eleven years she has lived to this day.
If it weren't for the fact that Pingyu has been losing his soul more and more frequently lately, he probably would have had to continue living here.
Having finally gotten a chance to go out, she took the opportunity to bring enough silver to spend lavishly. After all, with Nezha around, she wouldn't have to worry about anything.
This is the price he has to pay for forcibly dragging me out! That's what Pingyu thought.
Of course, if Nezha wants something, she's not unwilling to help him pay for it.
Consider it a loss to avoid further trouble.
In contrast to Pingyu's excitement, Nezha's reaction was rather lukewarm.
He looked at the girl with a strange expression, noticing that she seemed to have entered her water like a fish out of water ever since they went outside, and couldn't help but ask, "Are you that happy?"
He was just inside the house, but when he heard that he was going to go out, he acted like he would rather die than comply.
Pingyu gripped his purse and nodded emphatically: "Yes! Don't you like going shopping?"
"There's nothing to buy."
Nezha gave a soft snort and followed the girl.
Pingyu initially dismissed it as Nezha showing off and didn't pay much attention. However, after strolling around for a while, she realized that what the other person said was true.
There's really nothing interesting to see on the street.
Human desire to buy things is nothing more than the two aspects of "clothing" and "food." On the food stalls on both sides, some only offered boiled animal meat. The slightly more expensive options were simply boiled meat with some fermented soybean paste added. Pingyu ate this kind of food every day; it was bland and tasteless, and because of the lack of spices, it had a rather strong fishy smell when he tasted it.
Pingyu looked dejected. She asked Nezha, "I can understand if there are ghosts and monsters in the mountains and forests, but why go to the street?"
The boy's only purpose in bringing her to the street was to lead her there, but they had no destination in mind. They wandered aimlessly along the long street, like children who had simply sneaked out to play. Nezha glanced at her and replied, "Don't you know what time it is?"
"What?" Ping Yu really didn't understand. Since arriving here, she hadn't really grasped the concept of time.
It's morning when it's light, noon when the sun is hottest, and night when the moon comes out.
The expression on her face didn't seem fake, which puzzled Nezha. Pingyu's father, who could address Li Jing as a brother, was certainly no ordinary person. Her family owned hundreds of acres of fertile land, making them arguably the largest merchant family in the entire Qiantang Pass. Yet, Pingyu sometimes acted worse than a slave, as if living in a dream, and seemed unconcerned with many common-sense matters.
"The hour of Chou (1-3 AM)".
Thinking that, Nezha didn't forget to answer her. He even explained to the girl, "This is the time when Yin and Yang alternate, when ghostly energy begins to flow, and demons and ghosts will appear more frequently on the streets."
He had barely finished speaking when he realized Pingyu was gone. Turning around, he found she had hidden behind him. The girl shrank back, hiding like a quail.
"Oh, I see."
No wonder the sunrise was so red; it turns out the sky was covered in human blood.
She knew that the only difference between the two choices Nezha gave her was whether she died sooner or later. Asking her to go out on the street at this critical juncture was no different from delivering takeout to a monster!
The next second, she was pushed out.
Nezha's strength was so great that Pingyu staggered forward a distance before barely regaining her balance. She had to raise her hand to hold onto something beside her to keep her balance, which showed that the other party had not held back at all.
She was furious and about to turn around and question Nezha when she heard someone speak to her in front of her:
"Miss, are you and... the Third Young Master searching for a demon?"
The girl subconsciously looked up and found that the person speaking to her was a square-faced man.
Aside from his face, his features were all small. His features were straight and angular, and Pingyu felt that if he were at a mahjong table, he would definitely be thrown out like a mahjong tile.
She then realized that what she had just been holding onto was a shelf.
The man in front of her was a peddler.
Ping Yu became wary and asked, "How do you know... no, do you know him?"
The girl's eyebrows twitched when she heard "Third Young Master." Just then, Nezha saw her being called and came up as well. Pingyu stepped back, letting Nezha stand in front.
When the peddler saw Nezha looking at him expressionlessly, he immediately lowered his head.
He had been watching Ping Yu for a long time; the man was adorned with jewels and ornaments, so he must be a young lady who had run away from home. Since the peddler wanted to earn money from Ping Yu, he mustered his courage and flattered, "Who in our Qiantang Pass doesn't know the Third Young Master of the Li family, who hates evil and kills demons without hesitation?"
"Spit it out."
Nezha's tone was unpleasant; he was most annoyed by these people who were both afraid and obsequious.
The peddler wiped away his cold sweat: "I overheard you two talking, young master and young lady, and it seemed you were looking for demons and ghosts. I remembered the rumors circulating in the pass recently, and I wonder if I can be of any help to you two."
Ping Yu looked surprised.
She never expected that she and Nezha would be so lucky, encountering their first demon so soon after they came out.
The boy seemed to sense something and said to her, "Don't worry, with you here, these things won't be missing."
Is this some kind of wonderful thing? There will be plenty of monsters around, what's there to be worried about!
Pingyu remained silent, not wanting to acknowledge the other person.
The peddler, unaware of their coded language, continued, "Have you two ever heard of the 'Yellow Mouth Wine Cup'?"
That's true, I've never heard of that before.
Pingyu and Nezha exchanged a glance and shook their heads in unison.
"In the pass, there was a winemaker who was suddenly summoned by a deity in a dream. He was told that if he wanted to brew a wine that would be famous throughout the world, he had to sacrifice a young boy and a young girl before brewing each day. The souls of the children were sealed into the wine, and the life-giving souls could nourish the body. As a sacrificial offering, it was also of the highest quality."
As he said this, he glanced at the expressions on the two children's faces.
The once-respectable girl was now deathly pale, covering her mouth as if she was about to vomit. Nezha felt a sudden tug on his clothes from behind; he let Pingyu pull them, and looked up at the peddler, saying, "You've been talking about wine all along, where's the wine cup?"
“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you.”
The peddler rubbed his hands together and continued:
“The flesh and blood of a child who has been sacrificed are removed, and the spine is used to make a vessel called the ‘Yellow Mouth Vessel.’ Wine is served in this bone vessel so that the spirit of the infant will believe that it has been reborn and will remain so before being drunk. Legend has it that the wine poured from the ‘Yellow Mouth Vessel’ is as clear as water. Although it tastes salty and spicy, it has an incomparably sweet aftertaste. Moreover, the wine in the vessel is inexhaustible. If it is poured out the day before, all you need to do is have someone hold it and sleep overnight, and it will be refilled by itself the next day.”
He took a deep breath as he finished speaking. The peddler licked his chapped lips and took a sample item out of his box.
Pingyu looked at the object in his palm; it was also a wine cup.
The vessel is pure white, with a lustrous, jade-like sheen.
When the peddler presented the goods to him, Ping Yu was suddenly enlightened and understood.
Sure enough, the peddler said, "And I happen to have this yellow-mouthed wine cup."
"If either of you is interested in buying, I am willing to pay the difference."
All that buildup was just for selling products, huh?
In this dynasty, human sacrifice was commonplace. Therefore, Pingyu believed the peddler's words without question, and was genuinely startled.
The girl loosened her grip on Nezha's hand and said angrily, "You're trying to fool a child!"
The peddler knew his credibility was low, so he smiled wryly and said, "Oh dear, miss, I'm not lying. This really is a yellow wine cup. I heard there was an inexhaustible supply of fine wine, so I specially asked someone to get it for me! But when I got it, I found out it was a defective product."
The man turned the bird-patterned wine cup around, and the two men immediately noticed a crack on its belly that extended all the way to the rim. If wine were to be poured into it, it would definitely leak out.
His statement made him appear even more unethical.
Pingyu said, "Uncle, we're children, not fools. Why would we spend money to buy a broken cup just because of your word?"
“But what I said is true!” The peddler became anxious. He moved his stall closer to the two men: “Ever since it came into my hands, I haven’t had a single peaceful night’s sleep.”
"Why?"
"Because this vessel cries in the middle of the night." The peddler curled up as if he had thought of something extremely terrifying, his square face filled with fear: "It cries like a kitten and wants to be held. One day I mustered up the courage to throw it away, but it came back to my bed that night. I had no other choice but to bring it out."
"I was thinking that maybe I could meet a person with extraordinary abilities who could teach me how to get rid of this evil thing."
He glanced at Nezha, secretly relieved that his luck was good. He'd only brought this demon goblet out for a day, and already encountered this "mischievous devil." Every resident of Qiantang Pass knew of the General's Third Young Master's addiction to exorcising demons.
The peddler wanted to get out of his predicament with Nezha's help, but he also had his eye on the cowrie shells in Pingyu's purse.
Ping Yu could easily see through the other person's intentions. She had money, but she wasn't about to throw it away like pebbles. Putting aside how much truth the peddler's words held, his attempt to take everything he wanted was truly displeasing to her.
Just as the girl was about to leave, Nezha, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly spoke up:
"Give it to me."
He pointed to the wine glass and said confidently.
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