Chapter 117 Please ask the gods to come down and smash you to death
She held her breath and watched him turn around and walk out from the inner room.
Chen Juansheng walked to the medicine cabinet, picked up the pestle with familiarity, sat beside the medicine cabinet, and began to grind a piece of dried Chuanxiong.
His movements were slow, even sluggish, with the weakness of someone recovering from a long illness. But the strength and rhythm of the pestle were even and steady as it rose and fell, clearly a testament to his skill.
Doctor Meng was sorting the herbs into the cupboard. Seeing him like this, he sighed again but said nothing.
Qing Guiyu's eyelids were twitching.
The head of Tianji Pavilion, Master Jinsheng, who was always calculating and decisive, was now here, like an ordinary pharmacy apprentice, quietly doing odd jobs?
"Young Master," he said, his handsome face and distinguished bearing completely out of place here, causing Doctor Meng to become uneasy. "Why are you doing this? If you say Qing is not dead, then why do you have to come to my old clinic every day to guard it?"
"She will come back." Chen Yansheng said without looking up, pounding the pestle. "She tends to worry about others, so she always comes back to visit."
He paused.
"Old man," the young man continued softly as he ground the medicine, "I've been here for ten days." He put down the pestle and looked at the old man. "I've been bothering you for a long time, and it's not unintentional. Do you believe me?"
Doctor Meng was stunned for a moment, "Believe...believe what?"
"When she left, she told me, 'Thank you for your care over the years,'" the young man replied calmly. "Miss Qing has lived here for several years. This Yuzhou City is her home. You, Rong Niang from the teahouse, and Zhang the blacksmith at the end of the street...were all her old friends."
"Yes, yes," Doctor Meng nodded, somewhat helplessly. "Young Master, you spend every day either reading or helping me with my chores, and you never say a word... If you're truly suffering, then speak out. Holding it in will only make you sick."
Shen Juansheng shook his head, hesitated for a moment, and spoke again.
"Old man," he raised his head and said very seriously, "something big is going to happen in Yuzhou City."
Doctor Meng was frightened by his serious tone, and the medicine scale in his hand shook.
"I have been lingering for all this time, I hope you can believe me."
The young man lowered his head and continued, his voice leaving no room for negotiation, becoming colder and colder, "It's time for you to leave. Leave Yuzhou and go south. I will arrange a safe place for you."
"This..." Old Doctor Meng was even more confused. He felt that this unbelievably handsome young man in front of him might be really crazy.
"Young Master, are you...are you truly sick and confused? Yuzhou City is perfectly fine, what big trouble could possibly happen?"
Shen Jiansheng said no more. He raised his hand, took out something from his sleeve, gently placed it on the medicine cabinet, and pushed it towards the old doctor with two fingers.
Qing Guiyu narrowed his eyes and looked from afar. It was a black iron token, only half the size of a palm, completely black. In the middle was embedded with red gold a ferocious beast, shaped like a giant turtle, carrying a mountain on its back. It was none other than Ba Xia, one of the Nine Dragon Sons of Tianji Pavilion.
The coldness of the iron plate, mixed with the brilliance of red gold, cast a somewhat eerie and solemn aura on this small clinic.
"Yuzhou's waterways will be in chaos, and its land routes will be cut off. Once the autumn flood arrives, we'll be surrounded by ambushes from all sides." Shen Jiansheng spoke slowly, his tone gentle, yet with a suffocating solemnity. "When the nest is destroyed, how can any eggs remain intact?"
Qing Guiyu was startled when he heard this outside the door.
He did know.
Young Master Jin Sheng sat in the clinic, heartbroken by love and indifferent to worldly affairs, but the spies of Tianji Pavilion had probably already turned the entire Yuzhou city upside down.
Doctor Meng had never seen such a scene before. He was so frightened by the murderous aura on the token that he stepped back repeatedly. "No, no! This... this is too valuable!"
"Old man, I'll keep an eye on the clinic for you." Young Master Jin Sheng pushed the token in that direction again, his voice still gentle. "As for this thing, it's not a rare item. It can't be used to mobilize troops, nor can it command the martial arts world."
He pondered for a moment.
"But it will ensure that all the passes and boats can travel south without obstruction. If necessary, it can also keep those... people with bad intentions away from you."
Although it was downplayed, it was quite frightening.
It's just "farther away".
"Take it and go find Rong Niang and her family of three, find Zhang the blacksmith and his wife, and gather all the people that Miss Qing cares about together." Young Master Jin Sheng took a look at the black iron token and slowly looked away.
"In three days, someone will come with a token to take you. I will just have to gather everyone and take your valuables. You can decide where to go and how much money to spend. If you need anything along the way, just take this token and find someone in the martial arts world. I will also make a note of it in the Tianji Pavilion."
Doctor Meng looked at the token, then looked at the young man in front of him with a sick look between his eyebrows and eyes, and was speechless for a moment.
"She's always trying to save this and that, and she's gotten herself hurt. Now..."
Shen Juansheng seemed unable to continue. After a long while, he continued in a low voice, as if talking to himself.
"...I'll do it for her first."
Qing Guiyu felt a little uneasy in her heart. She touched the wounds on her waist and abdomen that had not yet healed, and wondered anxiously, was he planning to pack her up and send her directly to her family's ancestral tomb?
Chen Juansheng pushed the untouched bowl of medicine back to the counter and bowed deeply to Doctor Meng.
His figure was originally elegant and upright, but now, as he bent forward, he looked as dejected as a broken branch. He said nothing and slowly walked out of the inner room.
He didn't even pause as he passed the side door where Qing Guiyu was hiding. His eyes, once so clear they could see through people's hearts and reflect her image, were now empty. He passed right past her and looked out at the rain outside.
He didn't recognize her.
In other words, he didn't even "look" at her.
Never cared, never paid attention.
She walked into the rain like this, and her long hair was soon wet by the raindrops. She looked even thinner, almost blending into this gray world.
*
Qing Guiyu breathed a sigh of relief.
She was afraid that her "Thousand Faces" skills were not good enough, and it turned out that he had no intention of looking at this place at all.
That's fine. She secretly rejoiced, but she also felt that there was something strange about this rejoicing.
He left, just walked past her without stopping, as if he was passing through a ball of ordinary air.
I couldn't figure out what to think for a moment.
What was a relief was that her face of "Yu Gui" was indeed flawless, and even the most calculating mind in the world could not see any flaws.
But what sank in my heart was… had he really just left like that? Without even a second glance? Had those eyes, which had once seen the world through the smallest clues, truly been blinded now?
Young Master Jin Sheng looked so distracted that he looked like a wandering soul that had just crawled out of a grave. He could fall headfirst into a roadside ditch at any time and never be able to climb out again.
"Alas..." Doctor Meng behind the counter sighed deeply again, wrapped the black iron token with three layers of cloth and kept it close to his body. Then he raised his head and looked at the young doctor at the door who had been silent from beginning to end.
This person had arrived at some point, seemingly in a hurry to avoid the rain. He had been standing quietly in the corner, his aura calm and steady, like a piece of dead wood, yet he seemed to have ignored everything that had just happened.
Doctor Meng has lived for most of his life, so he still has some ability to judge people.
"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you." The old doctor bowed politely. "This... is truly a sudden disaster."
Qing Guiyu suppressed his hesitation and said in a hoarse male voice, "Old Master, you are very serious. Looking at that young man, his qi is weak and his spirit is scattered. His internal energy is disordered. This is caused by a heart disease, which cannot be cured by medicine."
Her words were partly a test and partly a doctor's advice.
Doctor Meng looked surprised, his wariness of her slightly lowered. After all, doctors have their own way. "Sir, you're an expert," he nodded, a look of worry on his face. "It's more than just a mental illness, it's simply... a complete madness."
He was not a credulous person, but the token just now had brought him too much of a shock, and he felt like a huge rock was pressing on his heart. He also saw that the other party saw through the root of his problem at a glance, and there seemed to be no malice in his words, so he couldn't help but talk more.
Qing Guiyu followed suit and said, "My surname is Yu, and I have come here on a journey. Heart disease needs to be treated with heart medicine, but I don't know what is bothering this young man. If I ignore it, I'm afraid it will hurt my essence."
She spoke sincerely, with the compassionate attitude of a doctor.
"Heart knot..." Old Doctor Meng laughed bitterly, rubbing the countertop with shaking hands. "How could I possibly know? He's... a very strange person."
"I've lived for most of my life, and I've never seen such a stubborn person."
"Stubborn?" Qing Guiyu asked at the right time.
Really stubborn. That cunning and ever-changing master of Tianji was probably praised like this for the first time in his life. Qing Guiyu felt uneasy in his heart, but pretended to be curious on the surface.
Old Doctor Meng seemed to be lost in memories. It was more like he was talking to himself than telling Qing Guiyu, trying to make sense of the strange things that had happened in the past ten days.
"Ten days ago, on a rainy day like this, he stood at the door like a ghost, for the entire day. He didn't speak, didn't see any patients, and just shook his head no matter what I asked."
Qing Guiyu acted curious but didn't dare to ask any more questions, and just listened quietly.
"I wanted to kick him out, but he looked like he'd lost his soul. Then he came into this pharmacy and sat there for ten days. He didn't eat or drink much, and he didn't talk much. He spent his days either reading or helping me with chores."
Doctor Meng sighed and looked at Qing Guiyu. "Sir, tell me, how could such a person exist in this world?"
"He's a little bit upset." Qing Guiyu nodded, lowering his voice even more. "Did he ever... mention anything unfinished?"
Just pretend to be a doctor asking a question and tracing the root cause.
Doctor Meng was drawn into her thoughts, frowning as he pondered. He then slapped his forehead and said, "What is it... I haven't said it clearly. It's just that a few days ago, when I was cleaning the medicine cabinet, I heard him mumbling something incoherently. At the time, I just thought it was just nonsense and didn't pay much attention to it."
The old doctor nodded and repeated uncertainly:
"The words are,"
"'When the storm has subsided, I will go to the medicine house and wait for her return.'"
Qing Guiyu was so shocked that he froze and ran away.
Medicine house.
Oh my God, this immortal has returned to the medicine house, how can we invite him back?
She didn't care about anything else. Facing the surprised look of Doctor Meng, she turned around and rushed into the rain.
Without further ado, I had to go out and chase him.
The rain is dense,
Qing Guiyu followed him from a distance, not daring to get too close for fear of being noticed, nor too far away for fear of losing him. She calculated the distance several times in her mind, and found it was exactly thirty steps, not more, not less.
You can attack when you advance or defend when you retreat. If you are discovered, you can pretend to pass by.
As she walked, she tried to make excuses for herself in her heart, thinking that her behavior was really like that of a lecher stalking a beautiful woman from a decent family, and her face couldn't help but feel a little hot.
He seemed to be completely unaware of the engraving sound. He just walked through the familiar streets and alleys, bypassing the noisy teahouses.
She didn't seem to be in a hurry to return to the heavily guarded Tingzhu Waterside Pavilion. Instead, she was like an unconscious wandering soul, wandering aimlessly in this city where she once lived.
After two cups of tea, the rain intensified, and heavy puddles formed on the road, reflecting the gray eaves on both sides. Chen Jiansheng walked slowly, even stumbling a little, as if he would be blown down by a gust of wind at any moment.
His black clothes had long been soaked by the rain, clinging tightly to his body, outlining his figure. His long, wet black hair draped over his shoulders, with water droplets trickling down the ends of his hair, dripping into the muddy water.
Qing Guiyu followed behind, more than ten steps away, his heart hanging in the air along with his shaky figure.
Finally, it stopped at the riverside of Yuzhou Ferry.
The raindrops were blown obliquely by the wind.
Qing Guiyu quickly hid behind a huge willow tree, sticking out half of his head.
What is he going to do? Jump into the river?
When this thought came to her mind, she was startled at first, then quickly shook her head.
But looking at the desolate back that seemed to be blown away by the wind, the certainty in my heart began to crumble again.
Her heart tightened, and she grasped the purple bamboo flute at her waist. Then she felt ridiculous. As the master of Tianji, even if she was heartbroken, she would not seek death to this extent.
She couldn't shout, nor could she ask. She folded her arms, looking at the young man lying motionless in the rain. The familiar anger in her heart, mixed with worry and inexplicable frustration, suddenly flared up.
Looking down, he saw the purple bamboo flute at his waist. The flute was wet with rain, and it looked as glossy as a jade carving.
——Your stuff!
Suddenly, an idea came to Qing Guiyu. He took off his bamboo flute, took out the paper bag containing the poisoned corn from his arms, folded it a few times in a panic, and stuffed it into the hollow of the flute.
The evil fire in my heart finally found an outlet.
She picked up the stuffed bamboo flute, held her breath, and chose the right moment. She aimed it at the spot on his back, an inch to the right, where it wouldn't break any bones but would still give him a good pain.
Make you a widow.
Let you get wet in the rain.
Let you not eat.
——I’ll smash you to death, you bastard!
When I thought of the last sentence, my heart inexplicably felt weak, and the strength in my hands decreased by a third.
Her tendons were injured and her internal strength was insufficient, so she hastily withdrew her strength and her aim was slightly off.
Given Young Master Jin Sheng's martial arts prowess and the Tianji Pavilion's expertise in concealed weapons, even with his distracted mind and weakened body, such a sneak attack wouldn't have been able to hit him. He should have been able to easily sidestep, deflect, or catch it with his backhand.
With a "tsk".
Hit the target.
The young man in black clothes swayed and was actually hit on the back of the head by her flute.
He staggered a step and managed to avoid falling.
Qing Guiyu couldn't believe his eyes.
Young Master Jinsheng stood there for a long time before slowly turning around, looking a little confused. He lowered his head and saw the purple bamboo flute, which had fallen to his feet and was covered in rain and mud.
He just stared blankly, as if he had seen something incredible.
The rain slid down the young man's pale cheeks.
Seeing this, Qing Guiyu turned around and ran away without thinking. After a few jumps, he turned the corner and blended into the crowd, never daring to look back.
I feel really uneasy.
Fortunately, this difficult task of inviting the gods to descend to earth was handled incredibly smoothly. That evening, the Lintang of the Cao Gang received an invitation from Master Jin Sheng.
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