Chapter 51 Repairing the Stars is not Xu Xinger
Lao Qingtou is a famous gold and silver craftsman in Guicheng. All the gold and silver jewelry of the city's dignitaries are made by him, and many of his jewelry are even sold to Kyoto. His shop is full of customers every day, and naturally he has earned a considerable fortune.
But now, he has not opened his shop for five or six days, has not seen any guests, and has even hidden in a house outside the city.
This is because the gold and silver craftsmen in the surrounding towns have mysteriously disappeared in recent days, and their whereabouts are unknown.
There was even a family with dozens of people who disappeared overnight.
Some people said it was an enemy seeking revenge, some guessed it was a demon or ghost running rampant, and some even said it was a wronged soul seeking revenge.
Although Lao Qingtou was not a good man, he felt that he had never done anything wrong. At first, he felt at ease until he heard the news of the death of someone he knew.
This man was his apprentice, having grown up without a father or mother and having suffered immense hardship. After becoming his disciple, he worked diligently and steadily. After completing his training, he left him and went to Luocheng, near Guicheng, to work as a goldsmith.
The two of them corresponded every month and visited each other frequently. Half a year ago, Lao Qingtou even attended the full-moon party of this person's child.
Seeing his apprentice getting better and better, he was naturally very pleased, but a few days ago he received the news that their entire family was burned to death.
His body turned to ashes, along with his baby who was less than seven months old.
But this time was different from before. Previously, only the people disappeared inexplicably, but this time, the houses were also burned down.
The government had long ago realized that this was not something an ordinary person could do, so they reported it to Kunlun. Although Kunlun had sent people to investigate the matter, there was no progress, which led to his current situation of hiding from place to place.
Before it got dark, he had his servants lock all the doors, big and small, and even added several layers of protection. He also ordered that no women, old or young in the family should step out of their rooms at night.
Old Qingtou sat in the inner room, while in the outer room was the wandering cultivator whom he had specially hired at a high price to protect his life.
He hadn't slept well for many days. He held a life-saving talisman in his hand, and even wore the same clothes he wore during the day to make it easier for him to escape. He tried his best to stay awake, but he couldn't hold on any longer.
Just take a nap.
His eyelids gradually drooped and he soon fell into a deep sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly woke up. It was still dark, but the lights in the house were still on. He breathed a sigh of relief and clenched the talisman in his hand.
"If you fall asleep again, you might lose your life."
A sound like the collision of jade suddenly rang out in the room, and it seemed ethereal in the dead silence of the night.
The voice was very pleasant, but it immediately soaked Lao Qingtou's clothes.
He only felt his neck stiff, cold sweats breaking out, and his whole body weak, and he couldn't get up at all.
"I'll count to three." The young man's voice sounded again, but just as he finished speaking, he said,
"three."
Subconsciously, Lao Qingtou quickly rolled off the bed and fell face down on the ground. When death was really in front of him, he felt a little braver.
He didn't dare to look up. He quickly got up and knelt down to kowtow to the voice. His forehead hit the ground with a loud thud. Snot and tears streamed down his face. He begged for mercy with a trembling voice: "Immortal, please spare me, Immortal, please spare me..."
After a while, the ground was covered with a layer of blood.
"I want you to fix this bell." The young man put something on the table and said.
Old Qing was startled, and his brain reacted quickly. He raised his head tremblingly and finally saw the man's face.
Her androgynous face was even more captivating than any beautiful lady he had ever seen.
The young man was dressed in black, with his long hair untied. A red silk silk sat against his skin, making his neck look even more slender and fair. A thin short gold chain was tied in the middle, with a gold bell hanging from the bottom, adding a layer of brightness and flamboyance to this plain and dull outfit.
At this moment, he was sitting on a low couch in the inner room, looking lazy and with a cold gaze. He was as cold as an immortal who had come down to earth, and as ghostly as a mountain monster.
Old Qingtou didn't dare to look any further. He quickly knelt down and walked to the table to take a closer look at the bell on the table.
It was about the size of an ordinary bell, but the shape was slightly different. It was also engraved with a dog and something like "What is this?" But the more Old Qing looked at it, the more astonished he became. The forging technique and carving skills were clearly the work of his apprentice!
But he was no longer able to explore, so he suppressed the fear in his heart and asked, "How does the immortal want to cultivate?"
The young man said nothing, raised his finger and pointed at the air, and a bell appeared in Old Qingtou's mind.
It is only slightly different from the bell on the table now, but it is very similar. It would be very difficult to make it like this without decades of effort.
It is within his ability.
He bowed his head and said, "I'll go fix it right away."
"how long?"
The bell on the table was only slightly different from what the young man had requested, but even this small difference could not be solved by simply modifying it. He needed to melt it all down and reforge it. However, this matter concerned his life, so Old Qingtou deliberated and offered a time that was already not sufficient: "Three days, only three days. Don't worry, Immortal, I will definitely-"
"Tomorrow at noon."
Old Qingtou froze all over, and the young man's voice sounded like a death spell: "Do you need me to say it again?"
Old Qingtou's sweat slowly flowed down his cheeks, passed over his forehead, turned blood-red, and flowed into his eyes. His vision was blurred, but he didn't dare raise his hand to wipe it away.
The wandering cultivator outside was now motionless, and must have been killed. The talisman in his hand had been soaked with sweat and turned into pulp, but it was still dark.
This young man's abilities are unfathomable...
Did his apprentice die in such suffocating fear?
He let out an unconscious sob, then buried his head in the ground and sobbed, "Immortal, time is too short. I am old and cannot do it so quickly. Half a day, even another half a day would be fine."
Xiao Hei looked at him coldly for a moment, then smiled, but a dark red flashed in his eyes: "Old Qingtou, that's the name, right? Your apprentice recommended you to me, and I thought you were some kind of genius, but you turned out to be so useless."
His fingers tapped lightly on the table, each tap like a nail hammering into someone's brain. "Go in from the corridor outside, through two more courtyard doors, is that your wife sleeping in that room?"
Lao Qingtou's body froze and he looked over with horror.
Xiao Hei propped up his chin and smiled like a child. "Look at your expression, that's it. Ha, when your apprentice died, his wife cried and screamed, wanting to kill me for revenge. I wonder if your wife would be that sad when you died? Or, when your wife died, would you shrink back or fight to the death?"
When he first started looking for someone to repair the golden bell, his heart was dead silent and he didn't want to say a word to these mortals.
Anyone who claims that something is difficult will be killed; anyone who looks embarrassed will be killed; anyone who speaks in a bad tone will also be killed.
Until I met someone.
He didn't know this man's name, or rather, he didn't care even if he knew it. But even though this man suddenly visited him in the middle of the night, he didn't show any impatience. He was just a little frightened and received him attentively as if he were an ordinary guest.
Then a woman came out from the inner room and poured tea for him. The woman looked timid, but she stayed by the man's side the whole time.
The posture is uneasy but firm.
It seems like he is protecting something.
When Xiao Hei realized this, a surge of jealousy immediately surged in his heart, making him feel suffocated.
The man made the bell at the agreed time, but it was different from what he remembered.
The man said apologetically that if the master were here, he would definitely be able to make it well, but the current appearance of the bell was the result of his utmost efforts.
He was very dissatisfied and asked the man who his master was.
The man suddenly realized that he had said something wrong and kept silent.
Xiao Hei felt restless again. He raised his hand and took a life. After absorbing his memory, he wanted to leave.
But the woman's eyes were red as she asked him to pay with his life, hurling insults at him. She looked broken and desperate. He became dazed again, his mind involuntarily thinking of the woman who had abandoned him, and his heart suddenly ached uncontrollably.
Saying that he would protect him forever.
Treat him as family.
They're all lies.
Why?
Why?
Why can this useless mortal easily get what he longs for?
But he was going to be abandoned and wander in the world like a wandering soul?
Xiao Hei was in extreme pain but he laughed. He raised an eyebrow and asked the woman, "Since you are so reluctant to leave, why don't you go and accompany him?"
He was used to seeing despair and fear, but he had never seen such an expression. The woman's eyes were full of hatred, without a trace of fear. She cursed him like this and disappeared in the flames.
There was a sound of a child crying in the house.
Without even looking at it, he raised his hand and burned down the house.
It’s better if they all die.
Only death can bring peace.
Xiao Hei looked at the person kneeling on the ground. Seeing that Lao Qingtou looked even more desperate, he felt strangely happy.
Old Qingtou knelt on the ground, his body shaking like a sieve. Finally, he lowered his head and acknowledged the time Xiao Hei said.
At noon, he presented the bell to Xiao Hei. Xiao Hei was very satisfied at first, but when he saw the crack, his eyes suddenly darkened:
“Why is there no marking here?”
Old Qing wanted to take it and look at it, but felt something was wrong. He thought carefully about the shape of the bell in his mind and felt that he was not wrong. However, he did not dare to say it. He just said: "Don't worry, immortal, what is the mark? My eyes are blurry and I probably can't see it clearly. Why don't you tell me and I will carve it for you..."
Xiao Hei's tone was extremely cold, but his words were like those of an unreasonable child: "Why can't you see clearly? It's right there in the gap, why can't you see it clearly?"
The five senses of a cultivator are much stronger than those of an ordinary person, so it is extremely normal that Old Qingtou cannot see.
But Xiao Hei was getting more and more anxious, like a madman: "Why can't you see it clearly? The words are engraved right there, how can you not see them clearly?"
Old Qingtou knelt down hurriedly: "Immortal, please don't be angry——"
"Don't you have exceptional eyesight and divine hands? How can you not make such a simple bell? How can you be worthy of this honorific title?"
Xiao Hei's eyes were empty as he stared at the golden bell in his hand. At this point, he curled the corner of his lip and said, "You can't see such conspicuous words. What do you mean by having extraordinary eyesight? You don't even need these eyes."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lao Qingtou's vision suddenly turned black, and severe pain followed. He screamed and crawled on the ground, shaking all over.
His two eyeballs rolled onto the grass beside him like stones thrown by someone.
Xiao Hei turned a deaf ear to the screams in his ears and only muttered, "Then I'll carve it myself... Yes... Xingxing said she carved it herself, so I should carve it myself..."
So, amidst the miserable cries of Old Qingtou, he slowly carved, stroke by stroke, the unfamiliar symbols that he had copied thousands of times in his mind.
xing hei
Xingxing said that was her name and his name.
He didn't understand what the middle symbol meant. He asked, but Xu Xingxing didn't answer. But at that time her eyes were so bright that it seemed as if all the starlight in the night sky was contained in them, making him completely lose his mind and willing to sink into it.
And now, he might never know what that meant.
He didn't know how long it took, until Lao Qingtou's cries gradually faded and the moon rose high in the sky, then he finished carving.
He laughed, very satisfied, and took out a black hairband, tied half of his long hair behind his head, and then tied the bell on it like the stars.
After doing all this, his long-gloomy heart seemed to have finally found a breakthrough, and he felt happy for the first time in a long time.
When he stood up to leave, he caught a glimpse of Old Qingtou who was still breathing.
Without even a glimmer of his gaze away, he waved his hand lightly, and all the people in the house outside Guicheng were burned to death silently.
*
There is no curfew in Guicheng. I don’t know what festival it is today, but the city is very bustling.
Xiao Hei was walking on the street and saw a restaurant in the distance with a plaque that read "Ke Lai An".
He remembered that Xingxing had told him that this restaurant was very famous, and even many monks who practiced fasting knew about it.
There are dozens of them across the country, and he had never expected there to be one here. This made sense, as Guicheng was a major city in the southwest, and along with several nearby towns, it was famous for its handmade jewelry. Otherwise, he wouldn't have found this place.
He slowly stopped and stopped not far from the store door.
It had been several months since he and Xingxing had last had dinner at Kelian. Thinking about it now, it seemed like a very distant time.
This restaurant has a variety of dishes. Xingxing once took him to the restaurant he opened in Xuancheng and ate there for more than a month and still couldn't get enough.
It was only after he mocked and despised her many times that Xingxing reluctantly moved to another place.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but hate himself at that time.
Why would he mock something as simple as that?
Thinking of this, my mood, which had just improved a little, sank again.
"Sir, are you hungry? We have added new dishes. Would you like to try them?" The waiter greeted him at the door.
He looked over, and perhaps because of his unfriendly expression, the waiter shrank his head, a little scared.
What would she do if Xingxing was around?
Pulling his sleeve, he said excitedly: "Xiao Hei, let's go and try it."
What will happen to him?
They would tease: "Didn't you just eat? Why are you eating again?"
Xingxing must be smiling, her eyes as bright as ever: "Haha, cultivating immortality is good, no matter how much you eat, you won't gain weight."
He should have realized it earlier.
Xingxing is stars, not Xu Xinger.
He bent his fingers and then stretched them out, as if the woman was really there.
He smiled again, his eyes hazy: "Okay, let's go and try it."
The waiter was startled and looked around in panic for a while. Seeing that the handsome and noble customer, who seemed to have some mental problems, had walked past him and entered the house, he hurriedly shouted into the store, "Customer..."
Thinking of the guest's nervous look just now, he swallowed the word "one" and simply said to the waiter inside: "Guests are coming! Hurry and serve them!"
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