Chapter 28 The Martial World is Truly Small
On the way back, the convoy encountered no accidents and successfully arrived in Yangzhou after a two-week journey.
As soon as the convoy arrived in Yangzhou, Yan Qing couldn't stay still. She got out of the car by herself and wandered around, saying that she missed the local customs and culture of Yangzhou and wanted to experience them for herself, so she didn't want to travel with them.
They would meet at Doctor Fang's clinic at that time. Shang Yuji did not try to stop her. After passing through the city gate, she bid farewell to Yan Qing.
Dr. Yan, carrying a rather large bag, moved nimbly and quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.
Yang Bai escorted the people to the mansion on Lotus Road. Old Chen and Wang Si, who were left behind, came out to greet them. It took some time to count and move the supplies and return the cart.
Shang Yuji told everyone to go back and rest for a while, and that she would take the lead in treating Yang Bai's team to dinner in a couple of days.
Back in the main room of the mansion, Shang Yuji asked Jiang Xi to wash up first, while she herself lay under the bed searching for the hidden wooden box. After some effort, she finally managed to pull the wooden box out.
She quickly brushed the dust off her clothes, walked to the window, and opened the wooden box in the bright sunlight.
The box wasn't big; it contained some odds and ends, including the paper in which she had written the plot of her novel.
A crumpled, yellowed piece of paper had simplified Chinese characters written on it in charcoal, crooked and uneven. She hadn't held a pen in a long time and had almost forgotten how to write.
Unfold the paper, which is arranged chronologically, and records that Jiang Xi stayed in the capital. He was taken by the eldest son of the Jiang family to attend a banquet hosted by the second prince. He was noticed at the banquet, and later, due to various plots, he met other "protagonists" and suffered physical and emotional torment in this group of people.
The second prince, by borrowing Jiangxi's "ability," became the crown prince, murdered the eldest princess, and ultimately ascended the throne.
The story ends here.
The document was filled with details of Jiang Xiqu's suffering. The capital city was a place of hardship, which is why Shang Yuji managed to pull Jiang Xiqu away before he stepped into the mire, allowing him to escape the capital and avoid the subsequent events.
Because she had left the capital, these stories would naturally not happen again, so she treated the piece of paper as a waste paper, pressed it at the bottom of the box, and never dug it out to look at it again.
But the events that are happening now seem to be pulling them into an unknown place.
The only saving grace is that they left the eye of the storm early on, allowing them to observe, analyze, and even intervene in subsequent events as bystanders.
Shang Yuji tacitly agreed, her fingers gently brushing over the words that the princess, unwilling to be humiliated, drank poison and died from it.
Shang Yuji, who was once helpless, was already exhausted by the fact that she was so weak.
Back then, she dared not entertain any wild fantasies, but now? Now that she is determined to assist the Princess, why not give it a try?
As for the fading of memories, Shang Yuji lowered her eyes, perhaps because too much time had passed and the memories had simply dissipated.
Being able to recall memories of a past life is actually a completely unexpected joy.
Otherwise, she would have been nothing more than a speck of dust, crushed by the wheels of history in this obscure era, unaware of her fate.
Shang Yuji was not affected by her momentary deep thought. She carefully looked at the messy handwriting and tried to find the clues hidden in a group of heart-wrenching plots.
Persistence pays off; finally, she found a sentence that read:
In the second month of winter, the Xianbei invaded the pass, and Yangcheng was utterly destroyed, with bones scattered across the fields and blood flowing like rivers.
Yangcheng...
The head chef hired by the manor, Aunt Zhao, lost her husband in the Battle of Yangcheng; Doctor Yan came from Yangcheng to deliver a message for a friend...
The storm brewing in Yangcheng had been brewing in the shadows for some time, and if she hadn't unearthed this plot sheet, she certainly wouldn't have discovered its hidden meaning.
A knock at the door pulled Shang Yuji out of her thoughts.
Jiang Xi called out from outside, "Aji, I'm done washing, it's your turn."
"Okay, I'm coming." She put away the papers, emptied the contents of the wooden box, and put it back.
I'll find some time later to transcribe the plot in clearer handwriting.
Shang Yuji opened the door and saw Jiang Xi still outside. Water droplets were hanging from the ends of his hair. She reached out and touched his wet hair: "Why didn't you dry yourself before coming out?"
“If I come out quickly, Aji can take a bath sooner,” he said with a smile.
"Next time, dry yourself off before coming out, or you'll easily catch a cold and get sick."
"Okay, I'll go get a towel to dry it." He paused, then grabbed her sleeve. "Aji, can I help you dry your hair?"
"Can you tell me why?" Shang Yuji asked, puzzled.
He smiled shyly and said softly, "I want to dry Aji's hair, I want to help Aji with her things."
"Anything is fine with me, Ah Ji, you can order me around as you please!"
Shang Yuji knew he was telling the truth; if she dared to say it, he would really dare to do it. Helpless, she agreed, "Okay, you can help me dry my hair later."
"Then Ah Ji, go take a bath quickly!"
If she hadn't told him beforehand that men and women should bathe separately, she would have no doubt that he would have taken over her bathing duties as well.
This child is terrifying!
.
Shang Yuji sent someone to Doctor Fang's clinic to inform him that the person had returned to Yangzhou and would come to visit again tomorrow.
Fang Mu sat in the lobby of the clinic, accustomed to Yi Sha scolding Huo Wei for being petty and calculating. When Yan Qing arrived, the noise level rose even higher.
Fortunately, it was almost closing time and there were no patients, so no one saw these two people, whose combined age was in the low 10s, bickering like children.
When the time came, one of the apprentices packed up the medicinal herbs, while another closed the clinic and cleaned it. Fang Mu then led the two of them to the courtyard for a gathering.
Yan Qing smiled and said, "Didn't you want to take on a disciple? I recently diagnosed a promising martial arts student. Once he's cured, I'll ask around for you."
Yi Sha waved his hand: "I'll see what you're talking about first. I did take on a good apprentice at the Fulai Inn. He's back in Yangzhou now, I'll bring him over for you to see sometime."
Yan Qing laughed and said, "You've already taken on disciples? Then I'll have to take a good look and see who can meet your standards."
Fang Mu asked in confusion, "Didn't you say during the day that he hadn't returned? You haven't left the house since then, so how do you know he's back?"
Yi Sha coughed lightly twice: "I didn't expect you to know him too."
Fang Mu asked with interest, "Someone I know? Who is it?"
Yi Sha: "The person who came to your door today to inform you that he is returning to Yangzhou and asked you to meet him tomorrow."
Fang Mu thought for a moment, and realized that the person who came to visit today was Miss Shang from the west of the city.
He then asked, "If that's the case, then my senior brother knows this person too."
Yi Sha and Yan Qing exchanged a glance, their confusion genuine. Yi Sha couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean? How do you all know my little apprentice? I was planning to give you a surprise."
"Tell me quickly, who is it?" It has to be said that their words aroused Yan Qing's interest.
Fang Mu didn't hide anything: "Shang Yunxiao and Jiang Haitian, I don't know which of these two is Lao Yi's apprentice."
"It's Jiang Haitian. Never mind, since you all know each other, I'll save myself the trouble of introducing you."
Yan Qing immediately understood. Shang Yuji had told him about their aliases when they were out in public. He just felt that fate sometimes works out in such coincidences: "It's quite a coincidence. The apprentice I was going to recommend to you is Jiang Haitian."
Fang Mu sighed, "The martial arts world isn't that big, but it's not that small either."
“It’s fate that we have with these two children!” Yi Sha affirmed. “Since you know them, tell me what my apprentice’s daughter-in-law likes, so I can prepare some gifts for her visit.”
Fang Mu was surprised: "Disciple's wife? But Miss Shang and Young Master Jiang are not married yet."
Even Yi Sha was surprised: "What? The way they interacted was like they had been married for a long time."
They shared a room in the inn, and the disciple never said a word against what the young lady Shang said. The two were inseparable, yet they were still not married.
Yan Qing was more open-minded: "Why think so much? Anyway, given their relationship, marriage is just a matter of time."
“Indeed… no, you just said you’d tell me after you cured my illness. What illness does my disciple have?” Yi Sha paused halfway through nodding, realizing what was happening, and asked.
Then it was Fang Mu's turn to explain: "It's not an illness, it's a curse, a curse that I've had since childhood."
Yan Qing perked up, sat up straight, and asked, "Speaking of which, Lao Yi, you've been in the martial world for so many years, let me ask you, do you know about the Moon Pearl?"
Yi Sha was stunned, wondering why he had brought up this topic, but he still thought about it seriously and said after a moment: "That was twenty years ago. That woman seemed to suddenly appear in the martial arts world and then used her superb thieving skills to steal many sects' secret treasures."
Yan Qing and Fang Mu were more concerned with medical matters, and their knowledge of these things was limited to a few words.
Out of curiosity, Fang Mu asked, "Then you didn't arrest her?"
"It's strange, she wrote IOUs for every sect she stole from... When the Seven Star Sect had its thousand-year lotus seeds stolen by her, the abbot saw her IOU and didn't order her arrest, saying he trusted her and gave her a chance."
"And then?" Yan Qing asked, also curious.
The memory was somewhat distant. Yi Sha slowly said, "A year later, she returned. When she came back, she caught a traitor from the Seven Stars Sect who had fled. She knocked the traitor unconscious, threw him outside, asked the abbot for the IOU back, and then left."
Yan Qing pondered: "What traitor could be worth a thousand-year-old lotus seed? Could it be that person...?"
"Just as you suspected, it was indeed the one who killed the previous abbot... Mo Wuhen."
Even Fang Mu had some recollection of this: "Wasn't Mo Wuhen an invincible powerhouse back then? Otherwise, why would the Seven Star Sect have let him roam freely, issuing a warrant for his arrest yet being helpless? How could he..."
Yi Sha paused for a moment before whispering, "When Mo Wuhen was thrown into the Seven Star Sect, his mind was like that of a three-year-old child. I heard the abbot say that it seemed as if parts of his body had been eaten away..."
“Gu worms.” Yan Qing’s eyes were clear as he grasped the key point in her words. “Moon Pearl, if I’m not mistaken, she is a Gu wielder, or even a master of Gu.”
"Why would Senior Brother mention her?" Fang Mu asked, knowing that Yan Qing wouldn't casually mention others.
As dusk settled and the light in the courtyard faded, the young apprentice brought over bright candlelight, insect-repelling sachets, and warm food. After arranging everything, he got up and left.
"Because she is the mother of your apprentice, Lao Yi."
After listening, Yi Sha paused for a moment, then sighed:
"The martial arts world is so small."
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