Chapter 4 Little Mouth
"You!" Menglan's mother clutched her chest, almost fainting, but was supported from behind by the short Jie Zhoujian.
In fact, Qingjue and the others had known all along that Menglan and this man were originally lovers who had been in love for two years without telling anyone. The man went up the mountain to chop wood and met the village beauty from another village. He cheated on her with her in just two days. After Menglan caught them in their affair, he killed her to prevent her from telling anyone and affecting her reputation and marriage.
He pretended to invite Menglan out to repent, then covered her head from behind and stoned her to death.
No one in or outside the village knew about their relationship, and no one suspected him. Since the girl was dead anyway, he could just pretend he never knew her again.
He always said that Menglan was a widow's daughter, but his own family had some wealth and planned to go down the mountain to do big business in the future. He said that their current status was too different and it was not appropriate to go public with it.
He always said to wait until it was time to get married, and then he would introduce her to everyone.
He always says...
He always says...
These memories, the voices afterward were no longer clear to Qingjue, his own spiritual power and the evil aura of the vengeful woman had been entangled for a while, and he felt a little dizzy when he pulled them out.
Jie looked up at him with concern: "Master... are you alright?"
“It’s alright,” Qingjue rubbed his forehead, steadied himself, and said, “Xiaoyanzi, let her go first.”
"Little Goose" was a little dissatisfied: "Huh? We've already caught them, why are we releasing them?"
"Of course, we'll clear this girl's name and make her pay for murder with her life—we'll pretend to be passing by and enter the village in a bit..."
After Qingjue finished explaining the general arrangements, "Xiaoyanzi" pouted and said, "You upright people are just troublesome. I say, we should just kill this kind of heartless man."
Qingjue smiled and waved his hand, not in a hurry to refute him, but instead asked Jie Zhoujian to go to the place where Menglan died to look for anything she had left behind.
...
The man shook his head repeatedly, muttering, "No, no, no, please, please, it's not all my fault! It's her, it's her..."
Upon hearing this, the first reaction of the others was also to plead for leniency.
"Immortal Lord, my son! My son may be a shameless scoundrel, but he doesn't deserve this!"
"Yes, yes, there aren't many men in our village to begin with... He's still young, please, Immortal Lord, have mercy and let him go."
“We must punish him, Immortal Lord, surely we don’t have to kill him?”
“It’s a pity,” Qingjue said, “This girl never killed anyone before because there was only one person she wanted to kill from beginning to end. She was blindfolded and beaten to death in her previous life, and became a blind ghost after death. If we can’t let her fulfill her wish, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Even if we eliminate her, who knows when she might come back,” Qingjue said regretfully. “Everything in the world has its grievances and will not give up easily. Do you really want to leave a future problem? This village is located in a remote area. It will be much harder to ask for help then than it is now.”
Everyone fell silent.
——
"Auntie, then we won't see you off. Please take care on your way down the mountain."
Qingjue handed the packed luggage to Menglan's mother and said, "There's an inn in the small town at the foot of the mountain that's hiring. I saw it on the way here. The owner is a nice guy. You can give it a try."
"Thank you, Immortal Lord, thank you, Immortal Lord, I really don't know how to thank you enough."
"It's nothing, just a small favor."
After watching the old woman leave, Qingjue lowered his head and said, "Then let's hurry back. I don't know if Qingfeng and Qinghuan have taken good care of the others while we've been out here."
“Master,” Jie Zhoujian looked up and asked him, “how did you know that everyone would agree to his death?”
Qingjue said, "It's easy to guess. Once I say that one life can be exchanged for an entire village, they will of course agree."
“…So,” Xiao Yanzi said, “the fear that the resentful woman will make a comeback is just a lie, isn’t it?”
Once the demons and ghosts entered that black bottle, not even a trace remained; how could they possibly make a comeback?
"Can you call it lying if you only say half of what you mean? I just made a hypothetical scenario, I didn't rule it out. The rest is up to their imagination."
"You're really so self-righteous. I don't understand how someone like you got a position..." He stopped abruptly when he saw the look in Jie Zhoujian's eyes. "...Tch."
I can't beat them, speechless.
“However, this is my way of dealing with the world. You don’t need to learn it. Since I’ve gotten involved in this matter, I can’t just leave that old woman alone. Rather than letting her stay in the village, I should take her down the mountain and find her another place.”
With her daughter and husband both dead, and no relatives left, it was no different for an old widow to remain in the village like this than to be dead.
Qingjue believes in not meddling in other people's business lightly, but if he does, he will see it through to the end.
“I think Master did a good job,” Jie Zhoujian said. “It is only right that murderers should pay with their lives. The victim is already dead, and no one can forgive her on her behalf.”
“I’m making it sound so easy,” Qingjue closed his eyes and said, “I just took advantage of the rule that strength is paramount in this world. In reality, it would be… well, you wouldn’t understand anyway. Let’s go.”
Qingjue has been in this world for several years.
I thought Jie Zhoujian would be unaccustomed to the sword since he had just received it, but he adapted very well and could control the sword smoothly without much instruction.
...Is this the protagonist's talent?
As a modern person, Qingjue had to overcome her fear of heights for a long time when she first arrived.
The sword belonging to "Little Goose" was entirely black, with a faint hint of deep red in the center, so red it was almost black, like blood, and not something a four or five-year-old child could use.
It was there when I met him.
When Qingjue returned to the Qing family's territory on his sword, he thought that the children who stayed at home would come to him one by one as usual. However, to his surprise, when they saw him, they all hid in a corner as if they had seen a ferocious beast.
Qingjue: "?"
If a child is quiet, he must be up to no good.
Qingjue pulled the children out one by one like a game of hide-and-seek. Several children stood in front of him, and apart from the two who had come out together, none of them dared to look up at him.
"Not going to talk?" Qingjue raised an eyebrow. "Confess and you'll be treated leniently; resist and you'll be punished severely. Whoever is an honest good boy will be rewarded with a little red flower."
"..."
In the past, they would rush to admit it at times like this, but now they remain silent.
This proves that this matter is very serious.
After thinking it over, Qingjue called the person at the door and asked, "Qinghuan, what exactly happened?"
Qinghuan looked troubled, then stared at the group of starry-eyed people and admitted, "Immortal Lord, let's go and see for ourselves."
A quarter of an hour later, the beautiful immortal lord, his eyes burning, clenched his fists and spoke almost desperately:
"Who...who is it..."
"Who fed the koi in the pond to death...!"
The perspective shifted, and he saw five small children standing in front of him, each about four or five years old.
“That was your eldest brother! I even named it! Who killed it?” Qingjue mourned for a moment over the dead fish, then angrily rebuked, “Quickly confess to me.”
The only girl among the five raised her hand and said, "Master, Linglai really doesn't know."
"Alright, alright," Qingjue sighed, looked at the child closest to him, and asked, "Tianyu, you're the best. Tell me, how did this koi fish die?"
“Reporting to Master,” the child said politely, his voice calm, “it was originally Junior Brother Yan’s turn to be on duty today…”
"?" Yan Shiqun, finally called by his full name, gritted his teeth: "I wasn't even here!"
"What I mean is, since Junior Brother Yan wasn't there, we all assumed it was us, so..."
"I don't know where you learned to breathe so heavily when you talk..." Yan Shiqun replied, "I'll say it again, I'm not your junior brother. I'll wipe you all out sooner or later."
Another boy, enjoying the spectacle, said, "Stop arguing, why don't you just fight!"
So the five children started arguing back and forth, and Qingjue clapped his hands.
"Little mouth".
"...I won't speak."
"Small eyes."
"Look at Master."
After that conditioned reflex, Yan Shiqun realized what was happening and became even angrier: "This is completely contrary to the natural order!"
Qingjue glared at him sternly: "Disobedient children will have a red flower deducted from their name. Stand properly now."
No one objected; they all stood obediently at attention: "..."
Qingjue sighed deeply. In reality, he couldn't afford to offend any of the children in this group.
We can only take advantage of their young age to gain some power.
If they grow up, anyone could easily disrupt the cultivation world with a flick of their finger.
Qingjue: "So, Aju, Linglai, and Tianyu, you three were all fed?"
The boy who encouraged the fight had already received a light tap from Qingjue, but the cultivator's skin was thick and tough, so he didn't cry or make a fuss after being tapped on the head.
He touched his forehead and replied, "Mmm."
"Don't talk nonsense next time. How could you persuade your two senior brothers to fight?"
"I'm sorry, Master, I was wrong, I was wrong."
This child is very good at talking; she's sweet-talking and knows how to be charming.
So Qingjue pushed him away with her forehead pressed against hers, then turned to look at the little girl clutching her skirt.
"Linglai, you..."
"I just...I just..." The little girl's face turned red, and she clutched her clothes, looking like she was about to cry. "I just fed the little fish, but I don't know how they died. My master said not to feed them too many, and I didn't feed them many..."
"Hmph," Yan Shiqun snorted coldly, speaking in a childish voice, "Spoiled brat."
"I'm not a delicate person!"
"Crybaby."
The little girl burst into tears: "I'm not a crybaby, it's Junior Brother Yan who is! Waaaaah, if you don't feed the little fish, they'll starve to death, waaaaah!"
"Alright, alright," Qingjue reached out and pulled the little girl over to coax her a couple of times, "Little Yanzi, how can you talk to your senior sister like that? Apologize quickly."
The word "senior sister" was emphasized.
Ruan Linglai, this girl has a powerful background, she's quite hardworking, but she does cry a lot.
But at this age, and being a pampered young lady, it's normal for her to be a little fragile.
The children's seniority was determined by the order in which they joined the group, and Ruan Linglai happened to be the second one, so she became the eldest sister.
Qingjue swore that he really didn't intend to take on a second disciple at the time; at least, he didn't have that idea in mind from the beginning.
That day.
"Immortal Lord!" Qinghuan ran back from outside the courtyard in a short while, slightly out of breath, and said, "Outside the gate...outside the gate...Patriarch Ruan is here again."
"..."
Qingjue sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation.
A note from the author:
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