Chapter 100 Chapter 100 Osmanthus Sugar Syrup Chestnuts My old friend has returned...
The Jinhua cat cried bitterly in Pu Tao's arms.
A broken tooth lay quietly on the ground.
The instigator was tied to the pillar of the main hall by Yuan Shenji. He groaned a little, "I don't know. This scary big fat cat rushed over like a sturdy ox cart and bit my leg."
His robe had two holes pierced by the teeth of the Jinhua cat, but his legs were not damaged at all. However, that was normal. After all, he, Axue, was a hard stone lion.
Aunt Duan looked around the kitchen and found no other damage except that a basket of Huanggui persimmon cakes had been eaten. The price of persimmons was particularly cheap this year, so she did not go around shouting to report to the police. She just yawned, left the matter to Duan Zhiwei, and went back to her room to sleep.
The Jinhua cat was still crying. Ah Xue was tied there, looking quite embarrassed: "I didn't steal on purpose. I was just hungry. Those guys from the Parthian Empire always fed me raw mutton without any seasoning. I couldn't eat a single bite..."
The lost lion of the Parthian Empire was found. Yuan Shenji was about to write a memorial to the emperor, but Ah Xue begged him, "Please don't. At least let me see my friend first. I am not a real lion. I am a stone lion in front of the temple. I had no choice but to transform into a lion in order to return to Chang'an."
Duan Zhiwei asked: "Is the friend you are talking about a stone lion named A-Mo?"
Its eyes lit up: "Do you know each other?"
When Duan Zhiwei told it what happened in the land temple, Ah Xue felt a little disappointed: "I didn't dare to see it when I arrived in Chang'an, for fear that it would be angry with me."
She comforted him, "No, it has been waiting for you. It has prepared a lot of cakes and is waiting for you to come back and eat them together."
More than a hundred years ago, Axue and Amo argued for a whole day about whether moss grew more on the left or right paw. Axue got so angry that he turned around and ran into the Zhongnan Mountains. After he calmed down, he picked a lot of persimmon fruits under the persimmon tree and prepared to go back and share them with Amo.
A group of Hu merchants from the Parthian Empire passed by with camels and said: "The Sui Dynasty is about to end, and the temple is in ruins. No one will pursue it. Why don't we tie the stone lion back and present it to the king?"
It was forced to guard in front of the Jing Temple in the Parthian Empire for a long time, and finally it transformed into a body covered with soft fur. It curled up in the iron cage used by the envoy to transport the lion. The weather in the Parthian Empire was rainy, and rain poured in through the cracks in the cage, making its back cold.
The Hu people whipped the lions with a whip and said: "Behave yourself, everyone. If you can please the Emperor of the East, that's great. If not, watch out for your hides!"
It suffered a lot of hardships along the way. Other lions also isolated it and roared at it. It could only shrink into a corner alone, close its eyes, and pierce its claws into its palms.
It was thinking about coming back, but it didn't want Amo to guard the empty gate alone for a hundred years.
The second day was a clear and crisp autumn day. The blue skyline stretched all the way to the top of Mount Zhongnan in the distance. The sunlight shone through the clouds, making the earth glow golden.
The Hu Bing was sizzling on the stove in the restaurant. Taking advantage of the good weather, diners went to sit in the oil shed at the door to eat a piece of Hu Bing and drink a bowl of soy milk.
Axue turned back into his original stone lion appearance in the backyard. His back was full of cracks due to the rainy weather in the Parthian Empire. It was a rare sunny day, so he lay down in the backyard of the restaurant this morning. He took a ramie towel and fetched some well water to clean his moss-covered body, and then lay there happily basking in the sun.
Pu Tao went to the stonemason's house to ask for some tea oil, sat on the stonemason and smeared it on the traces of weathering. The Jinhua cat covered its cheek on the eaves with an unhappy look on its face.
"If my magic power hadn't been sealed by that old man Dugu, my demonic power would be very strong. This broken stone lion would be no problem at all." It said depressedly when it saw Axue interacting with Putao.
Duan Zhiwei came in with a basket of shiny chestnuts and saw that it was still on the eaves, so he called out, "Jinhua, don't be angry, I've made you a crucian carp and tofu soup."
It meowed happily, its eyes narrowed into crescents, but it felt something was wrong: "Why is it tofu soup? Do you look down on me because I have a broken tooth?"
Duan Zhiwei had no time to pay attention to it, as the Double Ninth Festival was coming soon. The little fox on Mount Zhongnan asked someone to send a cart of plump and round chestnuts so that Duan Zhiwei could make chestnut cake during the Double Ninth Festival.
She set up a large iron pot at the door, cut cross-shaped cracks on the chestnuts, and boiled a pot of chestnuts in osmanthus syrup, which tasted sweet and was served as a snack to the diners.
Other chestnuts were peeled and prepared to make chestnut stewed chicken. The local chickens are fat this autumn, so the fat from the chicken is fried and then stewed with chestnuts and dried mushrooms. The chestnut stewed chicken is finally simmered over low heat. The chicken is tender and fragrant, and the chestnuts are soft, glutinous and sweet. The thick soup is poured over rice, and an average diners can eat three bowls of rice at a time.
Su Qi had been hungry all morning, so he sat there eating like crazy and said, "Madam Duan, this year is a good year, and my uncle sent some hairy crabs. The crab roe is so rich that it's sticky in your mouth. Unfortunately, my cook doesn't know how to pickle crabs. I wonder if I can come to your place to process them."
"Sure, you can come anytime." She agreed readily.
Duan Zhiwei specially learned how to cook wine lees crab. The shell of the pickled crab is still green, and the crab meat is translucent. It can be stored longer than ordinary crabs. The crab meat has the aroma of wine lees and tastes sticky and delicate, yet still fresh.
This reminded Duan Zhiwei that restaurants could take on some work of processing fresh food for diners, especially in the golden autumn season when crabs are on the market. Many people love to eat crabs, but they only know how to stew crabs, which has a poor taste and wastes the deliciousness of the crabs. It would be better to send them to restaurants for processing.
She was just about to write a sign and put it up at the entrance of the restaurant when Axue came over to say goodbye to them.
This morning, it scrubbed all the moss off its body in the backyard, and then applied a layer of protective oil on it with rambutan oil. The whole lion was shining, and it was ready to go to the land temple to meet its old friend who had been lost for a hundred years in a decent manner.
Pu Tao begged, "Madam, I want to go too."
It's so interesting to see two moving stone lions hugging each other.
Duan Zhiwei put his hands on his hips and thought for a while.
Yuan Shenji had gone on duty, so the ladies went to the foot of Mount Zhongnan. There shouldn't be any danger. She also wanted to look for some mushrooms.
To be on the safe side, she also took away the Jinhua cat that was drinking crucian carp soup.
"Meow?"
"Stop meowing. I'll cook you an extra portion of fish tomorrow."
"Deal~"
The air at the foot of Mount Zhongnan is cooler than in the city. A few golden fallen leaves are swirling in the wind, the mountain forests are dyed with different colors, and a refreshing fruity scent is in the air.
When they reached the land temple, Ah Xue pulled her clothes nervously: "I...I don't dare to go."
"Don't worry, Amo has been waiting for you for a long time, and it will be very happy to see you." Duan Zhiwei shook the whip in his hand, and the donkey cart "da da da" soon arrived at the gate of the land temple.
The stone lion A-Mo had disappeared, leaving only the anxious temple keeper standing at the door with a cane.
Duan Zhiwei asked, "What happened? Where are the stone lions at the door?"
The temple keeper poked the ground with his cane a few times, his white hair fluttering in the autumn wind: "Oh, my stone lion disappeared this morning. I'm afraid it was stolen by bandits. It's made of black jade!"
The Jinhua cat jumped down from Pu Tao's arms and sniffed the empty base: "Such a strong evil spirit."
It raised its head and ran into the mountain: "This way."
Axue was very disappointed: "It seems that Amo doesn't want to see me."
"Impossible." Duan Zhiwei thought of A-Mo who was waiting lonely with the cakes in his hands, and felt that things shouldn't be so simple.
Suddenly, there was a terrifying roar of a wild beast in the mountains, startling a flock of birds.
They ran towards the source of the sound. In the center of the maple forest, the black jade lion was tightly entangled by the dancing maple branches. The branches were like countless poisonous snakes binding it tightly, as if to completely drown it.
Under its claws was a migratory bird, which struggled feebly with its wings.
Duan Zhiwei protected Pu Tao and retreated: "What is this?"
Jinhua Cat said: "Oh no, it's been entangled by the tree demon's vines and is about to lose its mind."
The honest stone lion, holding cakes and waiting for its good friend to return, now had red light emitting from its pupils, like sharp arrows, ready to pierce its prey.
Then it saw Duan Zhiwei and his group, and let out a low roar like thunder rolling in the dark clouds, and then ran towards them.
Duan Zhiwei was so frightened when he saw its huge mouth and sharp white fangs that his legs went limp. He hugged Pu Tao, grabbed the Jinhua cat's tail and ran back.
After all, she was a human being. How could two legs outrun four legs? She could only hear the heavy footsteps getting closer and closer...
"Amo!" Axue rushed over and stretched out her hands to try to pull out the vines that were wrapped around it. Those vines seemed to have life and continued to spread.
A large area of the maple forest had been blown down. Jinhua Cat said, "Not good. If we let it continue like this, the entire forest will be destroyed."
A tall maple tree fell down and almost hit them, so the two people and the cat had to run around with their backs bent.
In early autumn, many migratory birds were whipped to the ground by the vines tied to Amo before they could leave. The Jinhua cats ran around to rescue the nests of the baby birds, and some were still knocked to the ground.
Axue's throat was pressed tightly by the opponent's front paws. He looked at the destroyed forest and said, "We are the beasts that protect the land. Have you forgotten that?"
Ah Mo did not answer, but roared with red eyes. His clear eyes carved from black jade were now glowing with a demonic scarlet color, looking extremely terrifying.
Its claws pounced on Axue, and the sharp stone claws pierced Axue's shoulder.
Axue returned to her original form again, and thanks to the careful scrubbing at the restaurant this morning, this beautiful snowflake rock lion was spotless.
"Wake up... I beg you..." Its voice was choked and hoarse. Amo's powerful front paws and tail left deep cracks on its body, and fragments of snowflake rock fell down.
Jinhua shouted, "Let go quickly. It's made of hard black jade and you're made of fragile alabaster. You'll be broken into pieces."
Axue looked at the destroyed and miserable forest, and then at the migratory bird that was shot down. It said firmly: "I am a fragile snowflake stone, but even if I am lost for a hundred years, I am still the guardian beast of the land temple. I will guard this forest and protect my friends."
It roared and pounced forward with determination. The moment the snowflake rock collided with the black jade, countless fragments splashed in front of Amo's eyes.
A hundred years ago, two lions lay side by side in front of the temple, loyally guarding this land; in the autumn afternoon, they sneaked out of the temple gate and rolled on the slope in the forest; in the rainy season, they found the largest leaves in the forest and used their tails to wrap around the tree stems to shelter each other from the rain...
After Axue left, Amo was left alone lying in front of the temple. When he looked up at the starry sky, he would think of those happy afternoons, the huge leaves that could block the rain, and Axue's paws gently resting on his back.
This morning, when A-Mo once again walked into the woods where they once rolled around together, the evil maple tree spirit quietly wrapped its branches around it.
But what entangled it was not the tree spirit, but the inner demon that grew from a hundred years of loneliness.
The snowflakes in the sky fell like stars. The red light in the eyes of the black jade lion disappeared, and the vines wrapped around its body quickly faded away. It stared blankly at the broken stones on the ground in the woods.
It whimpered slightly like a baby animal in its throat, its tail drooped limply to the ground, and then it lowered its head and licked the debris on the ground.
Just a little bit, just a little bit to meet again...
From now on, there will be no more futile waiting, tears flowed from its eyes.
Until suddenly a shining blue star rose among the rubble on the ground.
Jinhua stretched out his claws and shouted, "Soul Light, it's Axue's Soul Light, there is still hope!"
It jumped up and down trying to find an instrument to capture the soul light, but there was no such instrument in this wilderness.
Just when the star was about to disappear, a delicate wooden box like a dressing box floated over quickly and contained Axue's soul light.
Everyone turned around.
A lady in a black skirt with gold detail was sitting on a tree branch.
When Jinhua Cat saw it, he was stunned for a moment, and then ran over happily: "Sister Jiuyuan! Why did you come to Chang'an!"
The lady in black took off her veil, revealing two pointed cat ears. She was very cute, with big eyes and a short face, but her expression was very arrogant:
"You really bring shame to the Jinhua family, Shigou."
"Ten dogs??"
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