Chapter 160 Qin Dynasty Stone Carvings "I feel dizzy."
The journey was tiring and exhausting, and Zhou Yaren had only slept for less than two hours, so her limbs were sore and she was not fully awake.
He kept his eyes closed and didn't get up, his voice hoarse: "It's so hot in the tent, have you been up for a long time?"
Zhou Yaren was covered in a thin layer of sweat and felt somewhat uncomfortable. If Bai Yuan had been lying peacefully in bed, he certainly wouldn't have been woken up by the heat.
After he finished speaking, a cool breeze swept into the bed curtains. Zhou Yaren smiled contentedly, closed his eyes, and reached out to embrace Bai Yuan, who was leaning into the curtains.
Zhou Yaren tilted her chin slightly, inhaling the cool breath exhaled by Bai Yuan, and opened her mouth to receive a light kiss, tasting a trace of coolness from between her lips and teeth.
With Bai Yuan around, this sweltering summer won't be too unbearable.
Bai Yuan asked, "Shall we get up?"
"Wait a minute," Zhou Yaren whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth, "It's a little hard."
"What..." Bai Yuan didn't react for a moment until Zhou Yaren pressed her forehead against her chin and chuckled softly, her body trembling slightly from the chuckle.
Bai Yuan suddenly understood, and the lingering sense of loss in his heart vanished instantly.
Who would have thought he'd pull this stunt so early in the morning?
Zhou Yaren grinned, revealing a set of neat white teeth: "Let me catch my breath."
"Okay, I'll give you a break."
Bai Yuan casually slipped his hand inside Zhou Yaren's snow-white collar, the coldness making Zhou Yaren hiss and cry out. He laughed and shrank back into the bed, repeatedly saying, "Spare me."
Bai Yuan watched as he rolled around on the bed, making a mess of his thin shirt and leaving his clothes open in an unladylike manner, yet he looked happy and carefree.
Bai Yuan played along with him for a while before asking, "Have you calmed down yet?"
What's that saying again?
Thermal expansion and contraction.
Zhou Yaren lay on the inner couch, reached out and grabbed Bai Yuan's wrist to calm him down for a moment, then closed her eyes and said, "I've recovered."
Bai Yuan noticed his fatigue: "Why don't you sleep a little longer? We can still set off before 9 AM."
"The hired carriage should be arriving soon. I'll just take a nap in the carriage for a bit." With that, he got up, lifted the gauze curtain, and got out of bed.
The carriage ride was bumpy, and sitting for a long time caused back pain and made it difficult to sleep well. However, there was a section of the official road that was relatively flat.
Zhou Yaren stepped into her boots and stood up, straightening her disheveled white shirt, tucking in her collar and smoothing it out. Just as she was about to reach for her outer robe in front of the bed, Bai Yuan handed it to her first.
He took it and put it on, his eyes full of smiles. As he tied the belt, he said, "Bai Yuan, help me tie my hair up."
"OK."
Zhou Yaren picked up a stool and sat down, loosening his hair ribbon. His long, dark hair cascaded down his shoulders like a waterfall, reaching his waist. Because of his blindness, he never bothered to embellish his clothes, and his hair was always casually tied with a ribbon; he wasn't even sure if it was tied properly.
Bai Yuan held a poplar wood comb in his hand, gently lifting a clump of dark hair. As the comb teeth slowly slid down from top to bottom, he heard Zhou Yaren say, "Could you give me a hairpin?"
Bai Yuan lowered her eyes, her fingertips unintentionally brushing against his earlobe. Come to think of it, she really hadn't given him anything. Leaving him an object would be a way to keep a memento, so she asked with a faint smile, "What kind do you want?"
Zhou Yaren agreed, saying, "It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just bamboo or wood will do."
“The simplicity of bamboo and wood,” Bai Yuan said, the black hair in his hand as smooth as silk, carrying the fresh scent of soapberry from last night. He combed the hair with a wooden comb, the pressure just right. “Let me shave one for you.”
"That would be perfect."
Bai Yuan quickly combed through the hair, his five fingers threading through the roots of his hair, his wrist rising and falling, gathering all the black hair in his palm. He then took the blue hair ribbon from Zhou Yaren's hand, wrapped it around the back of his head, tied it tightly, and made it look very neat and tidy, making him appear much more energetic.
"alright."
After everything was settled and we had breakfast in the lobby, the arranged carriage arrived right outside the inn without delaying us at all.
As the two drove away in their carriage, the innkeeper was already standing impatiently at the entrance, shouting at the top of his lungs, "We sell chilled herbal tea and chilled fruits..."
Thanks to the exoneration, Zhou Yaren not only didn't spend any extra money on this stay, but even made an extra profit.
This business doesn't need to be sold on the street; just ask at a teahouse, inn, or restaurant you pass by, and no innkeeper can refuse your kindness on a sweltering day.
If Bai Yuan agrees, they could make a fortune through this method. However, money is just an external thing, and Zhou Yaren doesn't have the ambition to get rich. He just needs to save enough money to go to Langya to stop the Gu Master from finding the Boundless Secret Realm.
The wheels rolled over the flat and wide official road, then turned the horses around and drove onto the rugged and narrow road, bumping along the way, and got stuck in front of a remote and sloping winding path.
Upon reaching this point, it becomes difficult for carriages and horses to pass.
Chen Ying lifted the carriage curtain and looked around at the terrain. After seeing A Cong finish his hand gesture, she retreated into the carriage, took out a box wrapped and sealed in black cloth from the compartment under the seat, carefully handed it to A Cong, and then said to Lu Bing, "There is no way for carriages to pass ahead, we can only walk."
Lu Bing asked, "Where to?"
“There’s a small fishing village about seven or eight miles from here on the coast,” Chen Ying reached out to help Lu Bing. “Get out of the car first, and let Acong carry you.”
With Chen Ying's help, Lu Bing struggled to his feet, braced himself against the side of the carriage, and stepped over the knee-high threshold.
"Slow down," Chen Ying instructed, then called out, "Acong, help him steady."
With their help, Lu Bing finally managed to climb onto Acong's back, his ear brushing against the iron mask. He turned his head away and said, "I want to walk around."
It would take Lu Bing a long time to move more than a few feet, which would be a waste of time. Chen Ying said, "This path is uneven and overgrown with weeds. You'll trip over it if you take just a few steps. Let's go to the fishing village first."
Lu Bing didn't insist any further and let Acong carry him forward.
Chen Ying led the way, picking a broad leaf and holding it above her head to shield herself from the scorching midday sun. She glanced back every now and then; Lu Bing's increasingly thin face appeared sickly pale under the blazing sun, seemingly only showing a hint of rosiness when he was diligently practicing walking.
Chen Ying noticed his chapped and peeling lips, unscrewed the kettle, and handed it to him.
Lu Bing's hands had regained some strength, and he was no longer a useless person who couldn't even catch a mulberry. However, he trembled a little when he lifted the pot to drink water, and a little water spilled from the corner of his mouth.
Seeing this, Chen Ying reached out and wiped the water dripping from his chin, then took the kettle back and plugged it.
After Qin San, whom she had specifically captured to take care of Lu Bing, died, Chen Ying took care of him most of the time by herself. She was originally a lowly commoner struggling in hardship, so she was quite adept at taking care of people.
Lu Bing initially rejected her intensely, reacting as if he had been bitten by a poisonous snake if she touched him, his gaze one of pure disgust.
Chen Ying was furious and scolded him, but after her anger subsided and she calmed down, she realized that in Lu Bing's eyes, she was nothing more than a disgusting filth.
Anyway, she's been disliked and hated by everyone since she was a child, which is why she's become so inhumane.
She despises and loathes everyone, which makes her even more inhuman.
People treat her with hatred, and she will surely treat people with hatred in return.
Lu Bing looked up and stared at Chen Ying's back, recalling the fantastical stories she had told him, which he still found hard to process.
But what does all this have to do with him? Why is this ruthless, vicious woman dragging him into this?!
Those who died unjustly in Bei Qu, including the innocent victims she murdered along the way, were all the foundation stones paving the way for Wang Xiang's return home.
She would stop at nothing to send Wangxiang back to that damned secret realm of the sea.
Chen Ying, such a vicious woman, harbors a heart of stone. If she didn't covet the lifespan of the Undying People, would she have gone to such lengths for Wang Xiang at all costs?
Lu Bing was determined not to believe it.
Chen Ying's face was flushed from the sun, and sweat dripped into her collar. She fanned herself with a leaf as she walked, regretting that she hadn't brought an umbrella or a round fan.
With the outline of the fishing village visible in the distance, Chen Ying and A Cong quickened their pace and entered the small fishing village almost as if they knew the way well.
Judging from their familiar appearance, Lu Bing guessed they had been here before.
When Ah Cong longed to go back, Chen Ying accompanied him to this small fishing village. Many, many years had passed since then. At that time, Chen Ying had been adrift on the vast sea for more than a month in a fishing boat, but ultimately failed to find the secret realm leading to the sea.
If he weren't an Undead, his chances of finding the Boundless Secret Realm would be extremely slim. After A-Cong died and became a Void Spirit, he was no longer an Undead. The Secret Realm shielded him from all outsiders, and A-Cong drifted the seas, no longer able to sense his homeland.
It thought it could never go back, but it unexpectedly discovered another way to find the secret realm, which was the way Xu Fu and his group arrived at the secret realm.
It just takes time, and that's how it got delayed until today.
Ah Cong put Lu Bing down from his back and helped him stand up before letting go. He then turned to Chen Ying and began gesturing. Lu Bing couldn't understand his sign language, so he turned away and slowly moved forward, holding onto a nearby courtyard wall.
Chen Ying glanced at him sideways, knowing that Lu Bing moved slowly, almost like a toddler just learning to walk, and walked unsteadily, so she let him be.
Lu Bing slowly let go of the wall, walking without holding onto it. He was drenched in sweat after just a few steps, and it took him a great deal of effort to reach the corner of the wall. When he looked up, panting, he suddenly froze.
In the distance, two people were squatting at the base of a low wall, staring at a stone and whispering to each other. One of them, a poor-looking Taoist priest in a gray robe and carrying a sword, was particularly familiar.
The gray-robed Taoist priest reached out and, with his worn and faded sleeves rolled up, carefully wiped the bluestone, intently trying to identify something.
Another dark-skinned man whispered something to him, but Lu Bing couldn't hear it because they were too far apart.
When the gray-robed Taoist priest tilted his head slightly, turning most of his face towards him, Lu Bing's breath caught in his throat, and he almost blurted out, "Master Fang."
It turned out to be Master Fang, who was cultivating at the Ancestral Mountain.
They managed to escape from the Taiyin/Taoist body, but Master Fang disappeared. Lu Bing sent people to search for him everywhere, but to no avail. In his heart, he thought that he was probably dead.
Surprisingly, Master Fang was perfectly fine.
However, this place is thousands of miles away from Beiqu, so how did Master Fang suddenly appear in Mizhou? And who is the person with him?
Perhaps because he saw an acquaintance from a thousand miles away, Lu Bing was so excited that he felt dizzy and almost lost his balance. Just as he was about to fall, he suddenly grabbed the hospital wall for support.
Lu Bing bit his tongue hard to keep from calling out the name "Master Fang".
Chen Ying's eyes were fixed on Lu Bing out of the corner of her eye. Seeing him sway, she immediately strode over: "What are you doing...?"
Before she could finish speaking, Lu Bing suddenly turned around and fell towards her as if he had twisted his ankle.
Chen Ying suddenly reached out to support him, and staggered slightly, as Lu Bing was tall and almost blocked her entire view.
Before Chen Ying could say anything, Lu Bing spoke first: "I feel dizzy."
"Could it be that he/she has heatstroke?"
“I don’t know,” Lu Bing said. “Help me to sit over there for a while.”
"You're really frail and sickly," Chen Ying complained, but still helped him walk towards the shade of a tree.
Ah Cong was walking this way when Lu Bing said, "Ah Cong, I'm hungry. Do you have anything to eat?"
Ah Cong felt his bag and pulled out two steamed buns.
Although Lu Bing didn't know how Master Fang ended up here, whatever the reason, he didn't want Chen Ying and A Cong to discover Master Fang.
Lu Bingqiang resisted the urge to turn around, worried that even the slightest movement he made would attract Chen Ying's attention.
At this moment, the Taoist priest Fang, standing at the foot of the wall, was completely unaware, staring intently at the blurred characters on the bluestone and saying, "Qin Shi Huang standardized the writing system and the axle width of carts. This stone inscription is clearly the Qin Xiaozuan script promoted by Qin Shi Huang after unifying the writing systems of the six kingdoms. Therefore, I am certain that this stone inscription is definitely from the Qin Dynasty, and it may even have been left by Qin Shi Huang during his tour of Langya."
As he spoke, he lifted the bluestone. It was so heavy that he almost fell on his foot, but luckily the mirror polisher helped him in time.
"Quick, quick, let's carry it over and ask."
As Master Fang spoke, he picked up a large bluestone slab and instructed the mirror polisher to knock on the door.
A short while later, an elderly man who looked after the house opened the door: "Who is it?"
Master Fang said, "Old man, I was passing by and rested here when I saw this stone slab by your courtyard wall. So I came to ask if this stone belongs to your family?"
The white-haired old man craned his neck to look at the blue stone he was holding, then glanced at the spot that Master Fang was pointing to, and nodded, saying, "It's my family's. Why are you holding my family's stepping stone?"
"I'd like to ask where you got this stone?"
"What's wrong? My little one picked this up from outside."
"Where did your child find these pieces? How many did they find?"
The old man was puzzled. It was just a stone: "Why are you asking this? What's wrong with this stone?"
Master Fang smiled kindly: "It is like this. I saw that there are a few words carved on this stone slab. Because it is incomplete and the characters are not complete, I am curious about the contents of the stone carving, so I came to ask you about it."
"I see," the old man said. "My eldest grandson carried these back from outside. I don't know where he got them from. He brought back two or three. These stones are flat. The other two are under my water tank."
Master Fang asked, "Is your eldest grandson at home?"
"He went to town to deliver dried fish, and he probably won't be back until later."
"Are there any inscriptions on the other two stone slabs?"
The old man shook his head: "I didn't notice that."
"Sir, could you please let us in to take a look?"
The old man hesitated for a moment, then opened the door and let them into the yard.
Master Fang quickly bowed and said, "Thank you for your understanding, sir. I will be troubling you then."
The old man waved his hand and led them to his large water vat.
The vat was full of water and could not be lifted. The two men worked hard to scoop out the water and fill all the pots, pans and other containers before they were finally able to move the two stone slabs out.
Sure enough, there were words on it.
The reason why Master Fang was so curious and persistent about this incomplete Qin stone inscription was because the stepping stone outside had the two characters "Fuxi" on it. Although the character "Xi" was cut off in the middle, there was no doubt that it was definitely Fuxi that was carved.
Master Fang carefully wiped the soiled stone and began to decipher each character: "Heaven and earth, sun and moon, sea, injury, what is this 'zhi'? And what is this 'yin'?"
The Qin stone inscription is broken into pieces that cannot be pieced together. At most, there are only two characters next to each other, making it difficult to read coherently.
After reading these words, Master Fang was completely bewildered. He felt it was necessary to wait for the old man's eldest grandson to return after delivering the fish, and then lead them to the place where they had found the Qin Dynasty stone carving.
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