Chapter 1 Picking up a person is a good attitude. Yu Nie leaned against the door frame and hugged...
In the quiet of late spring, the countryside was bathed in the rosy glow of the sunset over the back mountain of Lingbao Temple.
With a loud bang, a plume of black smoke billowed up, startling the lark perched on the wooden roof, which then scattered and fled.
Yu Nie pushed open the fence gate in a disheveled state and fled to the center of the courtyard. He leaned on his knees and coughed violently. His once beautiful face, with its fair complexion and elegant features, was now covered in dust and dirt.
Finally catching her breath, she put her hands on her hips, looked up to the sky and roared, "Goddess, all I wanted to do was refine saltpeter to make gunpowder for security, do I have to fail several times before you'll have pity on me?!"
The questioning voice was floating above her head when a rustling sound came from the woods outside the fence, followed by a deafening shout from behind: "Heavens above!"
Following the sound, Yu Nie turned around and saw a female Taoist priestess dressed in crimson robes, waving a whisk, coming towards them while cursing, several dozen steps away.
"I knew it was you causing trouble, you fool! Are you fiddling with those damn junk things again?"
The newcomer looked menacing, and Yu Nie's heart skipped a beat. He rushed to the front of the house in a few steps and locked the door.
As she turned around, the female Taoist priest had already stepped into the courtyard. Startled, she quickly stuffed the key into her sleeve, put on a fake innocent smile, and went to greet her: "Uncle-Master is back."
Fearing that the mess inside the house would be seen, she subtly blocked the way of anyone who came in:
"Didn't Uncle-Master go to the city to make a sacred water altar for Butcher Zhang's family? Why did you finish so early today?"
"Butcher Zhang has guests at his house, so the ritual will have to be postponed for now." Cui Miaochang's question was stuck in her throat, her tone strained: "Fortunately, that's why I was able to get back in time."
Immediately, she sneered, her tone cold and sarcastic: "Otherwise, if you had been any later, I bet you would have blown this whole house up."
Cui Miaochang, who was used to speaking sternly, would not be easily fooled. She almost poked Yu Nie on the forehead with her finger: "Look at you." She pointed to the roof that was billowing black smoke, where a few wisps of smoke had not yet dissipated. "Last time you burned down half of the house, which made the temple spend ten taels of silver to repair it."
If Cui Miaochang had a beard, he would be so angry that his head would be pointing to the sky right now: "How much money from the temple are you planning to spend this time?"
Yu Nie chuckled awkwardly, shrank his neck, and drawled out his words in a coquettish tone: "Oh dear Uncle-Master, don't worry, this time it's really not as serious as last time."
Some people are masters of feigning weakness and lying through their teeth, their expressions so sincere: "It's just that there was a little bit of smoke, everything in the room is fine, at most... at most the tables and chairs are a little blackened and covered in dust."
To make her words believable, she quickly added, "Don't worry, I guarantee I'll polish the back until it's sparkling clean, leaving not a single speck of dust behind."
With smoke billowing out like this, how good can it be inside?
Cui Miaochang's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and he was plotting how to punish her. Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a shout.
"Master!" Hearing someone arrive, Yu Nie and she turned their heads together and looked towards the door.
A graceful figure in a snow-white Taoist robe jogged along the path, stepping on the cobblestones.
In the time it took to tidy his hair, he arrived in front of the two women.
"Langxi, what's the matter that's so urgent?" Cui Miaochang coughed twice, flicked the whisk in her hand, and draped it over her arm.
Before he could catch his breath, Langxi hurriedly bowed and said, "Master, Junior Brother Ahui carried back a man covered in blood while he was digging for herbs in the back mountain. He's on the bed in the pharmacy right now. Please go and take a look!"
Cui Miaochang muttered, "These days are really unsettling." Immediately, she took a step to leave, saying, "I'll go and take a look."
Hearing her voice, Yu Nie's eyes lit up instantly, filled with the joy of a serf about to be liberated and sing a song of triumph.
With her beloved uncle gone, she no longer had to endure being scolded, which was incredibly fortunate.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
Little did she know that Cui Miaochang seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. After walking three or four steps, she turned around and glared at her sideways: "Foolish child, don't think this matter is over. Since the rules have been set forbidding people from coming here to refine saltpeter, you still insist on breaking the rules."
Yu Nie sighed inwardly; what was destined to happen could not be avoided.
Cui Miaochang continued, "Starting tonight, during the two fasting periods, you will be responsible for sweeping the miscellaneous items in the temple and removing the cobwebs from the scripture pavilion. As for evening prayers..." She caught a glimpse of someone's pitiful eyes and showed no mercy, "these prayers will be extended until after midnight before you can go to bed."
Staying up late and waking up early is truly worse than death for someone who is sleep-deprived.
“Uncle-Master,” Yu Nie said with a mournful face, stepping forward to tug at Cui Miaochang’s sleeve, “Although our temple is short-sighted, it still has two courtyards, front and back, with a few feet of connecting corridors. Is it too much to leave it all to me alone?
"Besides, the spiders in the scripture pavilion are as big as the mountain fruits I picked; they might bite me," the young layperson protested, his tone somewhat weak. "And isn't evening prayers going until midnight... a bit too late?"
"This disciple is still...still growing, and lack of sleep is affecting her development." The more she spoke, the softer her voice became.
"Hmm?" Cui Miaochang didn't understand some of her words, but she didn't care. She quickly glanced at her and asked, "Do you want to add any other punishments?"
Adhering to the principle that those who know when to yield are the wise, Yu Nie immediately fell silent, pretending to wipe the corner of his eye with the sleeve of his moon-white Taoist robe, looking heartbroken.
Before descending the mountain, Cui Miaochang glanced at the sleeve where she had hidden the key, but didn't point it out. She reminded her not to forget to clean the house behind her, as she was keeping an eye on it.
As expected, there are no free lunches in this world. Yu Nie dared not refuse and nodded repeatedly, obediently saying, "Disciple will follow Uncle-Master's teachings."
The back mountain was only a hundred meters away from Lingbao Temple. Worried that she was causing trouble in the wooden house again, Cui Miaochang urged her to return to the Taoist temple together.
After entering through the side gate of the backyard, Cui Miaochang and Langxi hurriedly went to the pharmacy in the front yard.
Yu Nie was so hungry that his stomach was practically sticking to his back, so he slipped away to the kitchen by himself.
It was past midnight, and everyone else had eaten dinner. Only Yu Nie and Cui Miaochang, whose religious ceremony was temporarily suspended, had not yet eaten.
The cook, Aunt Liu, specially simmered the food on the stove, and steam was still rising when Yu Nie lifted the lid.
She raised her hand to fan away the steam that was clogging her eyes, and lifted the rough porcelain bowl that was upside down on the plate.
Four vegetarian dishes, all beautifully presented and deliciously presented, served with fluffy white rice, the aroma of which wafted straight into one's nose.
First, she took out a bowl of rice, then walked to the cupboard, took out an empty bowl, picked out a pair of unused bamboo chopsticks, and put some of each dish into the bowl.
After distributing the food, she carefully covered the rough porcelain bowls back up and put the pot lid on.
The food in the pot was left for Cui Miaochang, while she herself sat down at the square table with rice and a bowl of vegetables to eat.
After a satisfying meal, she washed the dishes, humming a little tune, and leisurely went to the main hall with her hands behind her back.
Upon reaching the window of the main hall, Yu Nie leaned out and peered inside.
It was during evening chanting, but there wasn't a soul in sight.
Without a second thought, Langxi said that Ahui hadn't forgotten about picking someone up by the roadside.
She figured everyone was probably treating that person, so she went to the East Hall Pharmacy as well.
The pharmacy was tiny, but four grown men were crammed inside, arm in arm. Yu Nie had nowhere to stand, so he had to lean against the door frame, with half of his body hanging outside.
The low table by the bed and the candle holder on the wall were both lit, and the room was brightly lit.
She watched as her martial aunt, Cui Miaochang, bent over to administer acupuncture to the person on the bed, whose head was covered in needles like a hedgehog. Langxi and Ahui were busy with each other, some holding medicine pots, others wringing out hot towels.
A gust of wind blew through the room, and the candlelight suddenly shot up.
In the brief moment between light and darkness, Yu Nie clearly saw the person on the bed.
He was a young man with his eyes closed and his lips pale. Although the blood on his face had not been wiped clean, it could not hide his handsome appearance with bright eyes and sparse eyebrows.
Gazing intently at Cui Miaochang's profile as she performed acupuncture, the memory of the heavy snowfall sixteen years ago suddenly flooded Yu Nie's heart.
When she was first taken in, she was so weak that her martial uncle Cui Miaochang treated her in the same way.
At that time, she had been born less than three months after being conceived in a car accident. Her clan abandoned her by the roadside for their own selfish reasons, leaving her to fend for herself.
It was the elderly abbot who took her in and raised her with a spoonful of rice porridge and a spoonful of cow or sheep milk.
Later, when the abbot passed away, he entrusted the young girl to the new abbot of Lingbao Temple, Cui Miaochang.
As the saying goes, life is unpredictable. Who could have predicted that she, a college student, would travel back a thousand years, and into the world of "The Fall of Beiye," a book her grandmother had studied before her death?
Soon, war will break out at any moment, the world will be torn apart, various lords and kings will have their own agendas, and the flames of war will spread across Muye.
The thought that peaceful days wouldn't last long gave Yu Nie a huge headache.
How to survive in chaotic times is a difficult question.
If she had known this would happen, she should have read the book "The Fall of Beiye" properly instead of spending all her time in the laboratory, which resulted in her only knowing a little about the history of this country after transmigrating.
For example, there's Princess Yuanhua, who married into the grasslands three times for the sake of the country and was known for her courage and decisiveness in killing traitors. And the retired emperor who soaked his feet in the blood of young boys and girls every year on the day of the first frost.
And the brilliant and talented scholar who, despite his exceptional abilities, was skinned alive and hung on the city wall for his remonstrance.
Or perhaps it was Huan Xun, the tyrannical and cruel minister who terrorized both inside and outside the court, and whose reputation was tarnished by wolves and jackals. Yet, even amidst this condemnation, historical records still praise him for his golden appearance and jade-like qualities, his divinely crafted appearance, his upright posture like a pine tree reflecting the moon, and his graceful movements like jade trees in a forest, making him a treacherous minister whom everyone wanted to kill.
Having only opened a small part of his "heavenly eye" and knowing only this much, Yu Nie felt, to some extent, that he was also historically illiterate.
I regret it so much, but it's too late now.
Fortunately, she could still comfort herself:
Be content; at least you've been given a second chance at life.
From a sophomore in college, I've transformed back into the vibrant age of sixteen.
This is something that not everyone gets to do.
You should be secretly happy, Rong Yunie.
Speaking of a good mindset, Yu Nie leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, thinking smugly, who could be better than her?
Her thoughts paused for a moment. Lang Xi, his forehead beaded with sweat, was about to come out carrying a basin of bloody water: "Junior Sister is here."
Ah Hui, who came out right behind, was carrying a pile of dirty clothes and smiled at Yu Nie.
Ah Hui was born mute. More than ten years ago, there was a famine in the southwest. He followed a group of beggars and wandered to Guanwai, where he was so hungry that he was just skin and bones.
Cui Miaochang gave him food and, seeing his cleverness, made an exception and accepted him as her personal disciple.
Of the three, Langxi came from a better background, mainly because her parents were still alive, and she had come here to cultivate voluntarily.
After exchanging greetings, Yu Nie peered inside and asked curiously, "Senior Sister, who is on the couch?"
Langxi shook his head from side to side: "I don't know. That person was young, but his body was covered with knife marks, old wounds upon new wounds, as if caused by years of fighting."
“But he has no military tattoos on his wrist, so he is not a soldier. He may be a martial arts instructor who escorts goods, or he may be a member of a noble family’s personal guard.”
Hearing Langxi say this, Yu Nie didn't ask any further questions. He nodded thoughtfully on the surface, but his eyes were fixed on the clothes in A Hui's arms.
Everyone was gathered here, and she really didn't want to do evening prayers or recite scriptures.
Lost in her thoughts, she peeked furtively toward the bedside and saw Cui Miaochang prying open the young man's eyelids to look inside.
It seemed that her martial uncle was too busy to care about her tonight, so she started to come up with other ideas.
Just in case she was caught slacking off and punished, she decided to find something to do as the safest course of action.
Someone's eyes darted around, a fleeting glint of cunning flashing in them, and an idea instantly formed in their mind.
"Junior Brother, come here." Upon hearing this, Ah Hui moved and mysteriously pulled him under the eaves. Lang Xi followed her out.
Seeing her inscrutable expression, Ah Hui looked puzzled and gestured a couple of times: "Junior Sister, is there something you need?"
"Something came up, but it's not important." Yu Nie chuckled, then took the clothes from A Hui's hands, her tone very enthusiastic: "I see that Junior Brother still has to help Martial Uncle with acupuncture, so why don't I, Junior Sister, do these rough tasks for him?"
"No." Ah Hui stepped aside, protecting the stack of clothes in front of her chest with one hand, while her other hand moved rapidly, her fingers making several gestures in front of her chest: "You haven't done your evening prayers yet, which has delayed what your master was going to say."
As the old saying goes: "Never give up until you achieve your goal."
Not one to give up so easily in order to shirk his duty, he took another half step forward: "Oh, senior brother, don't be so polite with me. It's just a special situation today. I'll make up for the evening class later."
Ah Hui stood firm and did not agree.
As the two were struggling, a crisp clang rang out, and a black iron waist tag slipped out of their clothes and crashed heavily to the ground.
All three were taken aback. Yu Nie bent down, picked up the heavy object, and turned it over in his palm.
The plaque bears the six large seal characters "Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Frontier Army" engraved on it.
She lowered her eyes to examine the cards closely, and her fingertips, which were lightly stroking the cards, suddenly paused.
The small characters engraved next to the seal script, like thirsty steeds and angry lions, with silver hooks and scorpion tails, leaped into her eyes:
Xuan Ce Army
Huan Xun.
A note from the author:
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I'm giving myself a shout-out to this pre-order, please add it to your favorites, please take it with you! ( )()
Pre-order 1: "Married to My White Moonlight's Brother After Losing My Amnesia"
A resilient, limp beauty meets a ruthless, cunning crown prince.
Chu Yun, the daughter of Xuanfeng Dafu, was as beautiful as jade.
At the age of eighteen, she was carried into the Eastern Palace in a grand sedan chair carried by eight men, dressed in a phoenix coronet and embroidered robes, amidst a ten-mile procession of red bridal procession.
After their marriage, everyone envied her; she and the Crown Prince were deeply in love and lived in perfect harmony.
Some people say that it's enviable that a concubine's daughter, whose mother came from a humble background and whose family had little influence, could become the Crown Princess.
Some people say that she is very lucky to have married into the imperial family and still be able to live such a happy life, with her husband loving her so much.
Chu Yun also thought she was lucky.
Her husband was the best person in the world to her, besides her mother.
Until that day, the two were boating on the lake, surrounded by beautifully blooming lotus flowers. He mentioned that she had slept sprawled on top of him the night before, just like her pet raccoon that loved to sunbathe outside all day.
As he spoke, his eyes shone with a warm smile, as always.
Looking at Chu Yun's smile, he felt increasingly strange.
"No, that's not right..." she murmured unconsciously, "Qian... that's not how you laugh..."
Upon hearing the name "Ah Qian," the man's eyes suddenly turned cold.
But in an instant, the chill was replaced by a familiar warmth.
He had a smile on his lips, but his tone was chilling.
He touched her temple and asked, "Really? Then... how did he laugh?"
[Reading Instructions]
Fictional setting, Song-style text, both leads are virgins, 1v1, male lead is truly insane.
Pre-order 2: "My Ex Was My Contract Partner's Boss"
Twenty-five-year-old Liang Weixing was once asked how she would describe her relationship with Ling Yu.
At that time, she thought they should be:
They are siblings
lovers
A stranger
So what about now?
She thought that, legally speaking, she and he should be landlord and tenant.
But Ling Yu didn't think so.
——
A seemingly aloof and awkward girl X a crazy guy who doesn't even realize it
Both are virgins, 1v1, never on the same household registration, pseudo-incestuous relationship.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
