Early in the morning, before the hour of Mao.

In the Dongli cottage of Nanxuan Academy, the atmosphere briefly fell into a quagmire of silence.

The north room was pitch black, and the south room, which was also dark, was suddenly lit up. The dim light shone through the gauze paper and vaguely illuminated the three Ruxingtang students who were standing silently in front of the courtyard door.

One girl and two boys.

The frail body of the female student blocked the way of two tall male students.

At this time, Zhao Rong still smiled, but he stopped walking. At the same time, he kept his head still and tilted his eyes slightly to the right to look at Yu Huaijin in front of him on the right.

It seemed that this old-fashioned woman was behaving very strangely at this moment.

She walked out from the shadow in front of the door, holding a small white porcelain bowl in her left hand, placed horizontally in front of her abdomen, and a three-layer lacquer box in her right hand.

The small white porcelain bowl seemed to be filled with clear liquid, and there was a dim moon at the bottom of the bowl.

The lacquer box is dark and its specific color cannot be seen clearly.

Zhao Rong did not look at Yu Huaijin's pair of dazzling white jade-like hands for the time being, but instead noticed the moon at the bottom of the white porcelain bowl, which was not even a ripple.

With a vigilant look, he discovered that it was indeed just the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, which was slowly setting in the night sky, reflected in the bowl, and not some other strange thing...

But what are you doing running to the boys' dormitory in this outfit in the middle of the night?

The senior students in the school make midnight snacks for the students to bring warmth?

Zhao Rong squinted his eyes and couldn't help but look at Yu Huaijin's expression.

The faint light coming through the paper window of the south room just illuminated her expressionless face. She still had a stern expression as she did during the day. This time, she was not looking at him, but staring straight ahead.

She did the same just now, speaking to him without turning her head when he wanted to slip away.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Rong straightened his eyes, continued to lift his feet, and walked forward with an unchanged smile.

One step, two steps, three steps.

The woman behind him didn't move at all.

He breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly felt enlightened and strode forward, as if he had not heard what Yu Huaijin had just said.

Crunch——

Zhao Rong came to the door and pushed it open.

Yu Huaijin still did not move.

Zhao Rong left.

In the courtyard of Dongli Cottage.

Fan Yushu's original expression of gloating had long been restrained under Yu Huaijin's direct gaze. At this moment, he looked like a wilted eggplant, with slumped shoulders and drooped eyelids.

He raised his eyes slightly, saw Zhao Rong closed the gate, and curled his lips slightly.

At this moment, Yu Huaijin finally moved.

She did not turn around to chase someone, but walked forward slowly with a bowl in one hand and a box in the other.

Yu Huaijin came to the door of the north house where Zhao Rong lived, and gently placed the bowl of clear water in her hand, which she had scooped up from the ink pond on the way here, on the steps in front of the most prestigious house in the north of the courtyard.

He immediately turned around, opened the three-layer lacquer box, took out the white porcelain bowl containing other **, and continued to stroll leisurely in the yard.

Yu Huaijin placed a bowl of sweet Li wine and a bowl of white turbid Da wine near the gate in the yard.

The clearer, light red Daishu was placed in the center of the courtyard where the ceremony would take place.

Finally, she placed the clearest wine steadily on the east side of the yard, in front of the fence that Zhao Rong had just put up not long ago.

A crude Confucian sacrificial ritual is ready.

Yu Huaijin walked to the center of the yard and stood in front of the white porcelain bowl filled with light red Daishu. She looked expressionlessly at Fan Yushu, who had a listless expression. After receiving her gaze, the latter nodded quickly like a chicken pecking at rice.

The old-fashioned woman turned her head and reached out from her wide sleeves to take out a small, ordinary-style guqin.

With a gentle toss, the guqin returned to its normal size and floated in the air in front of her.

Yu Huaijin faced north and muttered something softly.

"In the early days of Sui, people roasted millet and split pork, drank from dirty jars, beat drums with sticks, and paid homage to the gods and ghosts..."

At a certain moment, she bowed in a serious manner, following the ancient custom.

Fan Yushu, who had been prepared nearby, also hurriedly followed Yu Huaijin in paying his respects.

The door to the south room not far behind the two of them had been opened at some point, and Jia Tengying, who was standing outside the threshold, also bowed in greeting.

Because, the one being worshipped towards the north is the Great Sage Teacher in the Zhongzhou Confucian Temple.

After the ceremony, the courtyard was still quiet, with no change.

Yu Huaijin stood up, stretched out his index finger, and hooked a string of the guqin.

With a flick.

Clang——!

In the center of the calm water in the white porcelain bowl in front of her, there was a sudden ripple as if something had fallen into the water.

A light red water ripple, circular in shape, spreads out from the center in all directions.

Inside the bowl, all circular ripples reach the circular bowl wall at the same time, and the next moment, they ignore the wall and pass through the bowl.

The circular ripple continued to spread, getting bigger and bigger.

The corners of students’ uniforms, vegetables, fences, stone steps, courtyard walls…

Everything it touches during its diffusion process seems unreal and is ignored by the circular ripples, or perhaps it is an illusion.

The circular waves did not stop at all and left the hospital at an extremely fast speed.

Yu Huaijin lowered her eyes and looked at the water surface in the bowl, which was rippling with waves, as if she was looking at something. She had not retracted her index finger, which had just been hooked on the zither, and her fingertips were still lightly touching the strings.

The crystal fingertips and the dragon-tendon strings were both motionless.

The prim woman waited quietly.

The yard was quiet and silent. The sound of night insects that had been chirping not long ago had disappeared without a trace since some time ago.

When Fan Yushu saw this scene, he didn't show any surprise or confusion. Instead, he sighed, looked up at the sky, and stared at the night sky with dull eyes where the stars and the moon had dimmed, looking as if he had lost all desire to live.

He sighed again, regretting why he had come to see Brother Ziyu so early with such a fluke mentality. Now he had to start studying before dawn, and in this vegetable garden with dirt falling off.

Jia Tengying, who was standing in front of the south door, looked at Yu Huaijin's thin figure standing quietly playing the piano. He thought for a moment, then walked to the vegetable garden, squatted down, and lowered his head to tidy up the vegetable patch.

At this moment.

Zheng——

The strings rang a second time.

Yu Huaijin, who was sitting in the middle of the yard, withdrew his gaze from the white porcelain bowl and, at the same time, retracted the white index finger that had been extended.

She put her hands into her sleeves, turned to look at Fan Yushu who was acting in a showy manner, and spoke softly.

"Today, make up for the homework you had before going to Taiqing Mansion. If you finish it early, you can go back and rest earlier."

Fan Yushu quickly put away his sorrowful expression as he looked up at the sky, and stared at Yu Huaijin. He ignored the previous sentence "if it is finished early", and looked at her hopefully, "What if you can't finish it? What should I do?"

Yu Huaijin thought about it, nodded and said seriously: "Then this time tomorrow."

Fan Yushu: “…”

…

Zhao Rong closed the gate and walked away.

He raised his head and glanced at the sky. In the distance, there was a row of dark mountain beasts. Where the darkness met the sky, a grain of light was about to break out.

Zhao Rong raised the corners of his mouth slightly, thinking about the two women in his heart, and then thinking about the contact information he had with Lu Wan, the coachman of Chen's Coach Company. He walked out of Nanxuan Academy with a mixed thought.

Just as Zhao Jun reached Jiquan Pavilion and was about to pass by, a cool breeze suddenly blew from behind.

Slightly cold.

Zhao Rong tightened his robe, and then suddenly felt something brushing his ankle.

Above his head, the night before dawn seemed even darker.

Zhao Rong frowned slightly and looked down. His trouser legs were slightly wet with morning dew. He looked around, then shook his head and continued on his way...

About a quarter of an hour later, Zhao Rong came to Jiquan Pavilion for the fourth time.

His face looked heavy, and he turned his head to look intently at the pavilion next to him.

At this time, the sky was already bright, the early sun was gradually rising, and the dew on the leaves was about to fall.

However, there was not even the slightest sound of insects or birds chirping around.

The morning before Zhao Rong's eyes was as dead silent as a quiet room.

At first he thought it was the silence of all things before dawn, but gradually he no longer thought so.

During this quarter of an hour, Zhao Rong kept walking straight forward, but he kept walking back to Jiquan Pavilion as if he was trapped in a ghost wall.

"You have entered the formation." Gui's voice sounded in the heart lake.

Zhao Rong frowned, "What kind of formation is this? Who set it up?"

Gui said lazily:

"What are you worried about? What's there to be afraid of in Linlu Academy... What kind of formation? I can't tell in my current state, but it's here, so it must be a formation set up by your Confucian ritual and music. As for who set it up, think about whether you have offended anyone recently?"

Zhao Rong put his hands behind his back, frowned and thought for a while, then his brows relaxed and he put away the red maple leaf that he was twisting in his hands into his sleeves.

Zhao Rong turned around and returned to Nanxuan Academy.

Not long after, Zhao Rong pushed open the gate of Dongli Cottage with an expressionless face.

He glanced around, ignoring the three people in the yard, and looked around the yard. He immediately found the small white porcelain bowls placed in the southeast, northwest, northeast, and southwest directions, as well as the guqin in the center.

"It's a minor sacrifice among the five auspicious rites of Confucianism. The arrangement is simple but ingenious. It can trap you who has no spiritual energy." Gui said, glancing through his brow chakra.

Then, as if it had seen through Zhao Rong's thoughts, it continued, "On the surface, the center of the formation is the white porcelain bowl in the middle of the yard, but this is just a trick, and it might even be a dead end... The hidden center is the ancient zither floating in the air. Confucian sacrifices emphasize the combination of ritual and music, and the same is true for arranging formations with Confucian rituals."

Zhao Rong turned his head and looked while listening to Gui's words.

Jia Tengying was holding a vegetable basket and bending down in front of the well in the northeast corner, drawing water to wash vegetables.

Fan Yushu sat at an open-air stone table in the courtyard, buried in a pile of books. As he read, his shoulders would slump from time to time. He would bite the pen and lie on the stone table like a salted fish. But in the next second, he would straighten his upper body as if resurrected from the dead and continue to write furiously, because there was a ruler gently shaking at his side.

Yu Huaijin stood in front of the stone table, holding a ruler, and supervised Fan Yushu with his head down.

At this moment, she raised her head slightly and looked over here.

In the air, their eyes met.

The ruler in Yu Huaijin's hand stopped and her eyes were calm.

Zhao Rong raised his eyebrows and tilted the corner of his mouth.

At the same time, in the lake of his heart.

"A very serious question, Gui, can I beat her?"

The sword spirit thought about it and said sincerely, "I suggest you try it here."

Zhao Rong nodded secretly.

He immediately turned and ran.

only.

After one stick of incense, in front of the stone table in the courtyard.

There was one more person under the ruler.