Makeup Chapter 5
Luo Shun stood in front of Ke Yuanshan's portrait, his words and smile were unrestrained, frivolous and mean, without any need to be reserved.
The wind outside the hall gradually grew stronger, and the hibiscus petals that were no longer hanging on were blown away randomly. Occasionally, a few of them blew into the room, brushed against Meng Shizhuang's exposed neck and back of her hands, and then fell to the ground.
Meng Shizhuang suppressed the feeling of being licked by a poisonous snake, and spoke subconsciously: "My sword is with Lao Hu."
Hearing these words, Luo Shun glanced at Meng Shizhuang lightly.
"I'll get it for you."
Meng Shizhuang didn't react to this meaningful look. After getting the answer, he turned around and left without hesitation.
Outside Sushan Hall, Ke Congzhou looked at Meng Shizhuang's back.
He was sent here on an errand by the other hall masters to inquire when Luo Shun would convene a meeting at Sushan Hall. He had always had good eyesight and a good memory; he recognized the figure as Meng Shizhuang from the moment it passed by his sight.
On Sujian Mountain, he is the person his master cares about the most.
Ke Congzhou's gaze lingered on Meng Shizhuang's skinny waist. She had tied her clothes awkwardly, a strip of cloth clearly shorter than a typical belt, tightly cinching her waist, the excess fabric tangled in a messy heap.
He moved his fingers, slowly separating his thumb and index finger to measure the length - one day, he saw a candle burning in Lao Hu's room, and out of curiosity, he pushed open a corner of the small window to peek, and saw Lao Hu frantically sewing clothes. While sewing, he suddenly picked up the clothes, measured it at the waist, and then sighed.
The length of the gesture was not as long as Lao Hu's palm.
Ke Congzhou stood in place, with the plaque of "Sushan Hall" in his sight.
The familiar feeling of loss kept welling up in his heart. When he was seven or eight years old, he saw Lao Hu giving something to Meng Shizhuang, so he also wanted to give something to the people in Kejuli as a token of support and to please Lao Hu.
He observed outside Keju for over half a month, watching Meng Shizhuang clumsily dragging her plain sword along the mountain. Ke Congzhou, already training with Lao Hu, knew that the heavy sword wasn't suitable for children their age.
All the weapons on the mountain had to be registered in the Purple Gold Hall. He couldn't think of a way to get them, so he spent more than a month sharpening a wooden sword as long as his own dagger and gave it to Meng Shizhuang in the name of Lao Hu.
Ke Congzhou knew that Lao Hu would find out. He waited for Lao Hu to find out.
He thought, of course, his master wouldn't be overjoyed to praise him. Perhaps he would sullenly ask why he'd given him the dagger, or perhaps he would simply reprimand him. His master would suppress his expression, but there would be hesitation and conflict in his eyes. If he were to lecture him, he'd probably only finish halfway through.
That means I am satisfied with what he has done, but I am unable to express it due to some people and things.
Ke Congzhou waited in anticipation, holding his dagger and lingering outside Lao Hu's house, waiting for Lao Hu to call him. The next day, Lao Hu did call him over.
Ke Congzhou would never forget Lao Hu's expression.
It wasn't the subtle relief and admiration he'd expected, nor the fury he'd felt if he'd had a chance. Instead, it was fear. That fear was tinged with numb fatigue and a subtle disappointment.
This fleeting disappointment magnified in Ke Congzhou's eyes, like ripples spreading across the water, before transforming into a sharp sword that pierced his heart. He heard Lao Hu calmly "advise" him, "They have an awkward position in the mountains. Don't provoke them."
Then he casually placed the wooden sword he had carefully made for a long time on the table and walked into the inner room, leaving him standing there in a daze.
How could Ke Congzhou not know what "provoke" meant? If he hadn't seen the word "disappointment" in Lao Hu's eyes, he could have interpreted it as asking him not to do something bad with good intentions. But he saw it, so that's another interpretation.
——Don't beat around the bush to tease others.
He looked at the wooden sword, and it was exactly as it was when he had given it to him, with no trace of any "accidental mishap." Perhaps before anything had happened, the wooden sword had been hastily retrieved by Lao Hu.
It turns out that Lao Hu kept saying "I am embarrassed by my identity" and scolded Meng Shizhuang with a red face when he saw her. In fact, he was very patient and careful with Meng Shizhuang, and he treated a wooden sword as a formidable enemy.
Ke Congzhou felt lost.
He withdrew his gaze from the Sushan Hall, puzzled as to why Meng Shizhuang had emerged from it. Recalling the words of the elders on the mountain about the Su Jian, he suddenly felt the urge to go and see the sword. He immediately put aside his current tasks and headed for the Zhongyi Hall.
Ke Congzhou's feet were full of air, and when he met his fellow apprentices who greeted him, he only gave a perfunctory smile. His thoughts were in a tangle, and the uneasiness that had been buried in his heart for a long time finally surfaced.
They all say Meng Shizhuang's status is awkward, and isn't he in the same predicament on this mountain? With the title of the former sect leader's son, the ignorant disciples flatter him like the stars surrounding the moon. Those of higher status, like the elders, act as if speaking to him for even a few more words will shorten their lives.
His master raised him and was always too close to him and too polite to him.
Among all the brothers and sisters in Zhongyi Hall, who had not been scolded by Lao Hu? But Ke Congzhou had not. It was not because he was born a saint and could do nothing wrong, but every time such a thing happened, Lao Hu would stare at his face in silence, and tell him in a tone that was reluctant but also afraid to say "no next time".
As Ke Congzhou thought about it, his eyes turned red.
There is also his nominal uncle Luo Shun.
Luo Shun treated him even more coldly. He didn't understand it before, but when he saw Luo Shun always staring at his father's portrait and occasionally heard about their past from others, he knew that their fathers were very close and loyal, so he unconsciously wanted to get close to Luo Shun.
He had been training in martial arts with Luo Shun for a while, and every two or three days he would break an arm or a leg. One night, he had a high fever due to an injury, and with no one by his bed, he dragged his broken leg to the outer room to get a glass of water when he heard Lao Hu and Luo Shun calling for help.
Lao Hu said, "He's your senior brother's child, and he's so young, yet you're using such means to torture him? You hung Yuanshan's portrait in front of the hall, aren't you afraid he'll be watching it all the time?"
Ke Congzhou was standing by the door. It was late at night and everyone was asleep, so he could hear every word clearly.
Luo Shun's voice drifted into his ears nonchalantly: "If Senior Brother hadn't been plotted against, where would he be? A bastard who was forced to stay here, what right does he have to compare with me in Senior Brother's heart?"
He hummed a laugh and spoke like a song.
"That's perfect. Master, don't you want to see him too? I'll torture him to death and be done with it. Senior Brother appeared in my dream last night and said he didn't blame me. Master, just stay out of it."
Lao Hu's angry rebuke was heard: "Stop talking nonsense! When he gets better, come back to Zhongyi Hall with me. Stay away from him from now on!"
When Ke Congzhou recalls that night now, he finds it hard to imagine how he endured the tears and pain and quietly returned to the couch, and pretended to be asleep when Lao Hu came in to check on him.
He was like an extra. Some tolerated him because of his father, some treated him with courtesy because of his father, and some hated him because of his father.
No one's feelings are just for him.
Ke Congzhou had already walked back to Zhongyi Hall.
Lao Hu's most capable disciple had just returned from working at the foot of the mountain and was packing up the goods he had brought back in front of the courtyard. This disciple, named Hai Ke, saw Ke Congzhou coming in with a dazed look on his face, his lips parted slightly, hesitating for a moment, then turning his head away and continuing with his work.
After Ke Congzhou entered the east wing, Hai Ke asked his fellow apprentice: "Has anything happened on the mountain recently?"
He asked in a subtle way, and the junior brother answered bluntly: "Nothing."
The junior fellow nodded towards the east wing and said, "Who knows he's so scheming? Master would teach us a trick or pick a sword, and it would excite him so much that he couldn't sleep all night. It was as if he owed him something. He was the only one I was allowed to be nice to in the whole mountain."
Hai Ke frowned, disliking his words: "Stop talking. You're not him, and his life wasn't easy either."
The junior fellow student was unconcerned: "It couldn't be easier for someone to be forced into being a 'girlie'. Who hasn't lost their parents, become a guard dog, and climbed the mountain like a bag of bones? He's the only one who wants too much. He's well fed and well clothed, and he's starting to feel miserable."
Hai Ke's heart sank at his words and he glared at him, "Besides, you should go clean the toilet for your fellow apprentices today. You're being harsh with him, and he's upset, but he didn't blame you. Save your breath!"
The junior brother curled his lips, stopped talking, and concentrated on packing the goods.
Haike thought for a moment, took out a bag of sugar wrapped in oil paper from the bamboo basket, and pushed open the door of the east wing.
The houses on the mountain were all built when the sect was first established. Over the following decades, they were slightly renovated, but most of the time, they were repaired because they were no longer suitable for living or had simply collapsed. Currently, the chaos below the mountain is so severe that even food cannot be fully supplied on the mountain. Most of the disciples sent down the mountain only bring back food, and they have no time to bother finding people to repair the houses.
In the past, some disciples did their own work, but now that the shifts are so frequent, they don't have the time to do it anymore. As a result, the living quarters are becoming increasingly crowded, and fearing that the dilapidated buildings will collapse at any time, they have left them vacant.
Five or six disciples lived in the east wing. There was a small corridor leading to the main hall, which was now used to store the weapons distributed to the Loyalty Hall.
Lao Hu just threw the sword here casually.
Ke Congzhou saw the white sword placed in the corner of the wall at a glance.
Among the dozen or so "broken swords," Su Jian stood out, like a knight sifting through the sands, simple and silent. Ke Congzhou knew that even if the remaining weapons were intact, they would not be as good as Su Jian.
The elders of Zijin Hall said that the founding leader, armed with a white sword, fought his way out of Jinghua, waded through the Dead Man Mountain in Ming Hunzhou, and traveled west to Daohai City. Later, the white sword became a sect's heirloom, held only by the leader.
Ke Congzhou walked over. His palm couldn't cover the sword, so he lifted the hilt to examine it. From the rusty scabbard, he couldn't tell what it was made of. But this must be a good sword, otherwise how could it still be held intact in someone's hands after all these years?
He placed his sword against the wall and tried to draw it.
The resistance in his hand didn't come from the weight of the sword. Ke Congzhou could feel that he could pull the sword out about the width of a finger, and then no matter how hard he tried, it would be ineffective.
Ke Congzhou crouched by the wall, holding the sword, pondering it in the light filtering through a small window. The sword lay flat in his palm, revealing its full extent as he turned his hand. Soon, Ke Congzhou noticed a groove where the hilt met the scabbard, likely a concealed buckle.
He held the sword hesitantly, worried that he would break the hidden buckle.
Just as Ke Congzhou was about to try to take action, the curtain at the end of the corridor was lifted.
Without thinking, Ke Congzhou immediately dropped his sword, stood up, and looked at the person in front of him nervously.
Hai Ke, holding a candy in his hand, was stopped in his tracks by Ke Congzhou's panic. He lowered his eyes and saw the white sword at Ke Congzhou's feet.
Ke Congzhou: "Brother Hai, I, I will pick a sword."
He took a deep breath, swallowed the emotions in his chest, and finished the second half of the sentence calmly.
Haike did not expose Ke Congzhou's lie.
Ke Congzhou had two short swords, which were made by the master of Zijin Hall using materials that Lao Hu had found at the foot of the mountain. Why would he bother to pick and choose among these scrap metals like his ordinary fellow disciples?
Hai Ke hummed, and without saying anything more, he stretched out his hand to him and said, "I bought this when I returned to the mountain. Take it and try it."
Ke Congzhou glanced at Su Jian, slowly took a few steps forward, and took the oil bag handed to him by Hai Ke, "Thank you, Senior Brother."
He opened the oil bag and saw that the sugar cubes, which did not look good to begin with, had clumped together. He broke off a piece and put it in his mouth. His mouth was immediately filled with a greasy sweet taste, almost to the point of being bitter.
Ke Congzhou swallowed it with difficulty and still felt that the candy was a bit scratchy in his throat.
But sugar is a rare thing for them, so they have no right to be picky.
Ke Congzhou thanked him again and asked him, "Shall I share some with my fellow disciples?"
Hai Ke relaxed his anger and said, "Whatever you say."
Ke Congzhou looked back at Su Jian and followed Haike out.
The junior fellow who had been packing the goods with Hai Ke was still there. Ke Congzhou dug some for him first. He took a bite and held the rest in his palm. Hai Ke frowned at the sight and said, "Are you going to save it for next year? It'll melt in your hand in a moment."
The junior brother looked uncomfortable and said, "I just want to eat for a few more days."
Then he turned to Ke Congzhou and said sarcastically, "It's all thanks to Junior Brother Ke, otherwise Senior Brother Hai wouldn't have been willing to buy this thing."
Hai Ke couldn't stand him: "You're not done yet, are you?"
Ke Congzhou didn't think he was being mocked. As he turned slightly, the light from a whetstone dazzled his eyes. He blinked, then saw the concerned gazes of his two senior brothers. He squeezed the candy in his hand, still feeling sticky on his fingers, and suddenly felt the depression in his heart dissipate.
He smiled as usual, "Are you sending it to Zijin Hall? I'll send it there."
These tools used for forging tools and sharpening swords have always been used by Zijintang.
Hai Ke nodded and pointed to another large bundle, "And this."
Ke Congzhou wrapped the candy and put it in his arms, picked up one in each hand and went to Zijin Hall.
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