stand back, let me come

Chapter 1268: One Battle to Decide the Southwest (V) [Seeking a Monthly Ticket]

Cui Zhi also wanted to know who this scholar was.

He cared more about his mother-in-law in the coffin than Cui Hui, and he knew Cui Hui but their relationship was strained. There were not many male candidates who met these two conditions, and Cui Zhi's previous absurd guess was obviously wrong. But now was obviously not the time to explore this.

The grief is too severe and the out-of-control energy shows signs of impacting the heart vessels.

If you don't control yourself and calm your thoughts, the least you can do is be seriously injured, and the worst case scenario is that you have to put another coffin in the mourning hall.

Cui Zhi was careful, and he saw Cui Hui trying to help him but was restrained from struggling. He closed his eyes and ruthlessly took advantage of the situation. He subdued the scholar with his words while he was distracted, sealed his Danfu, and cut off the bridge between his Danfu and the Wenqi in his meridians. As long as the Wenqi could not be mobilized, he would not be able to kill him no matter how angry he was.

This is not safe enough.

Cui Zhi was about to use a calming word on the scholar and force him to take a sedative, but before he could move, the other party grabbed his wrist and strangled him. When Cui Zhi thought that he was going to turn hostile and make a scene in the funeral hall, the scholar endured the severe pain in his heart veins, vomited blood, and said in a hoarse voice, "No need."

The scholar wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, supported the altar with his other hand, and slowly and with difficulty tightened his back. He looked much calmer, and his aura was completely different from when he went up the mountain, as if even most of his vitality had been taken away. Cui Zhi stared at his profile in a daze, and from this angle he made a new discovery - this person's profile was very similar to that of his brother-in-law before he became fat.

If you look closely, his facial features are somewhat similar to Ke Wu.

When we got down the mountain, the other party introduced himself as Cui?

If I remember correctly, before Cui Zhi and Cui Hui got married, his wife briefly mentioned that her father was a son-in-law who married into the family, and all the children born to his mother-in-law took the mother's surname. Looking back on the scholar's strange reaction when he went up the mountain, it is hard to say that it was not a mysterious induction between blood.

and so--

Is this also my brother-in-law?

The scholar didn't hold on for long. When he saw the coffin so close, tears rolled down his cheeks. He brushed away Cui Zhi's hand that tried to support him, and stood up shakily with both hands on the altar. His straight back was bent a little bit, as if someone had taken out his spine section by section. Cui Zhi was horrified to see drops of blood flowing out from the scholar's tightly closed lips and teeth, hitting the altar and mixing with his tears.

"Sister—"

There were heavy footsteps outside the mourning hall.

A gruff male voice broke the suffocating atmosphere of the mourning hall, allowing the air to circulate again: "The new medicine has been boiled. This prescription is better than the last time. The two patients with high fever yesterday are out of danger. The group of people down the mountain have been sent away..."

A shadow like a flesh wall covered half of the door.

With the appearance of the middle-aged man, the already dimly lit mourning hall became even more gloomy and dark, and even the air seemed chilly. The middle-aged man was stunned by this scene. He did not expect that there was a third person in the mourning hall. Because of his position, Cui Hui blocked the middle-aged man's sight, so he could not see the third person's appearance clearly, and simply thought that the other party was also a guest who came to pay tribute to his mother after hearing the news. He stopped talking, and Cui Hui said, "Go get the mourning clothes."

The middle-aged man was at a loss.

The three people on the mountain who needed to be in mourning had already put on the mourning clothes. Cui Zhi, who was nominally the ex-son-in-law, did not need to wear mourning clothes. Even though they had not divorced, he only needed to wear mourning clothes. However, the brother-in-law disagreed: [People say that a son-in-law is half a son, and it is natural for a son to mourn for his mother. Since we are a family, we should not care about these things.]

Who should I give the other one to?

  You can't give it to the guests who come to pay their respects, right?

"Take the hemp for the funeral?"

"Take Qisui."

The middle-aged man felt his scalp tingling after hearing this.

He guessed the identity of the middle-aged man, took two steps forward and passed Cui Hui, and then he saw the person clearly, a person he hadn't seen for more than 20 years. Although he hadn't seen him for so long, he still recognized him at first sight, but when he opened his mouth, the name stuck in his throat and swirled on the tip of his tongue, and he couldn't spit it out. The middle-aged man swallowed his saliva, thinking that his mother's funeral hall was right under his feet.

Finally, I gritted my teeth and said, "Father."

Cui Zhi: "..."

He suddenly cast an incredulous look at his brother-in-law.

My brother-in-law’s father?

  Mother-in-law's husband?

Isn't that your own...

  Old father-in-law?

Cui Zhi felt like his brain was about to shut down.

If he remembered correctly, wasn't his father-in-law already dead? It was said that he passed away at the same time as the senior brother Ke Wu.

  How did he get entangled with the believers of immortality?

Cui Zhi was full of doubts.

But I also know that now is not the time to get to the bottom of it.

"I'll get it. You three can have a good chat." Judging from the way Ke Wu and his brother-in-law treated his father-in-law, their father-daughter/father-son relationship was not very friendly. Thinking of his mother-in-law who had shaved her head and served as a nun for many years, there were probably more twists and turns than he imagined. Cui Zhi looked at the three of them, took over the task of getting the mourning clothes, hesitated for a while, and couldn't help but cast a tight spell on the three of them: "After all, you are in front of your mother's spirit, and the first seven days have not passed. No matter how many conflicts you have, you should put them aside for now."

Don't argue or fight at this time.

The brother-in-law shrank his shoulders, Ke Wu gave him a warning look to mind his own business, and the old father-in-law coughed for a long time before he straightened up, breathing weakly, and glanced at him: "Who are you?"

An unfriendly smell hit me in the face.

Having just experienced extreme grief, Cui Xiao's hands and feet were limp and he had no strength at all. His brain was also groggy and everything he saw seemed like flowers through the fog. He lost the ability to think for a time and couldn't remember who he was, why he was here, and what these people in front of him were doing. He only knew that his chest was in unbearable pain, there were so many shadows in front of him, and the irrepressible feeling of dizziness and vomiting was affecting his nerves.

Cui Zhi said: "My son-in-law Cui Zhi."

Cui Xiao said "Oh" lightly.

He panted softly, as if he could not hold on any longer, and slid down one leg of the altar and sat on the ground, his eyes blank, tears streaming down his face. Cui Zhi sighed, turned around and went to the back hall to get the mourning clothes.

The nunnery accepted women of different ages, from babies who were abandoned when they were still in their infancy to elderly people with gray hair who had no one to take care of them. In order to allow the elderly to pass away in a dignified manner, the nunnery had two or three spare coffins and a complete set of mourning clothes in the vacant courtyard.

When he came back, the father and his two daughters were talking.

"Today is the seventh day after my mother's death. You are too late." Cui Hui couldn't tell what she was feeling now. If Cui Xiao hadn't shown up, it would have been fine. When everything was calm, she would have brought him the news of her mother's death, and maybe he would have said a few words of comfort. But Cui Xiao showed up on the seventh day and gathered people around the mountain to ask for medicinal materials. What did this mean? It meant that he had been active in the southwest during this period. Maybe he was not far from Qingshui Temple when his mother was in trouble.

This speculation completely confused her mind.

I couldn't help but feel resentment in my mind.

Even though reason told her that this emotion was untenable.

"Why didn't you come earlier?" The old father-in-law didn't respond at all. Cui Hui's body and spirit had reached the critical point. She was extremely exhausted and kept asking him why he didn't come earlier. She thought her tear glands had dried up and burst into tears again. She blurted out resentment and even called the other party's name in a treasonous way, "Cui Shanxiao, why didn't you come earlier! If you came earlier, my mother would not have died tragically! Even if you can't save her, at least let her see you!"

Every Buddhist scripture copied, every Buddhist name recited.

Besides atonement, it was also for Cui Xiao! When Cui Hui was growing up, she gathered half of her parents' life experiences from her grandparents, uncles, aunts and uncles in the village, including their childhood, adolescence, youth and even middle age. The fierce bandit Aong, who had been on the edge of a knife for most of his life, gave all his kindness to his only daughter, and even raised her husband from a young age. It is safer to raise a son-in-law at home since he was young.

My uncles, aunts and uncles all laugh when they think of it.

[Your father was crybaby and clingy when he was little. ]

[That is, he starts to cry when he can’t see anyone, and follows his wife around like a tail all day long.]

【She keeps yelling "sister, sister" all day long.】

[Didn't you call her a fairy at the beginning? 】

[I have never seen a fairy who can chop people's heads with an axe and cut them like melons. Only Xiao Cui grew up with her, and he thinks he is looking at a fairy. Alas, but a child son-in-law is indeed less troublesome. I will talk to Xiao Cui later and find one for our Ah Hui. ]

[Doesn’t Xiao Cui have so many apprentices? ]

As a private school teacher, Xiao Cui has many students in the county.

Cui Xiao remained silent, covering his face with his hands, wishing he could curl up into a ball. Cui Zhi, who was outside the door, also felt numb. If he heard correctly, Ke Wu just called his father-in-law "Cui Shanxiao"? Coincidentally, he was very familiar with this name.

Over the past few years, the southwestern countries have been constantly making small moves, both overt and covert, to set traps for people to fall into, including but not limited to paying bribes to county officials bordering the southwest, allowing corruption and inaction to start from the grassroots level, and buying off and winning over local gentry to work against the government.

It worked a little at first.

But the news will soon reach the Censorate.

The efficiency was so high that people once suspected that the Censorate was nurturing the enemy for its own benefit. Cui Zhi, as the head of the Southwest Branch, participated in the effort to trip up Kangguo, and he also participated as the head of the Cui family.

The people's livelihood in Kangguo was developing too fast, and they wanted to get involved in all kinds of businesses. For example, pearl farming was a big deal for Cui. Kangguo was also working tirelessly to build land routes and open river routes, and the scope of future influence was almost predictable. Cui certainly couldn't just sit there and wait for death, and Cui Zhi had made sufficient understanding in this regard.

Following the clues, the investigation led to the censor Cui Xiao.

Cui Xiao was a little-known person. He had worked for Wu Xian and had a good relationship with Qin Li and Zhao Feng, but he had not made any achievements for many years and was not used by Wu Xian. He left Wu Xian and joined Shen Tang. He was not an important senior official, but it was much better than being idle under Wu Xian. As a censor, he traveled all year round and had little reputation outside. If you didn't deliberately investigate, you wouldn't know this person.

These are all information that can be easily found externally.

Cui Zhi also made other discoveries in the channel of the Council of Gods.

Now it seems that the channel of the Gods Association is not omnipotent, otherwise Cui Zhi would not have known until now that he was not only the censor of Kangguo, but also his nominal father-in-law. Looking at Ke Wu's reaction, the last time the father and daughter met was definitely not more than 20 years ago! Cui Hui knew that his biological father was working for Kangguo.

Realizing this, the purpose of contacting Cui Hui and returning home after years of separation may be deeper than he imagined. However, he did not want to delve into the truth at this moment, at least not in front of his mother-in-law. Cui Zhi sorted out his thoughts and handed the Qisui to his old father-in-law who was in better spirits: "The person has passed away, father-in-law, please accept my condolences."

After saying this, he was stunned.

  The two of them were on a mountain path, and everything he said to him was returned to him exactly as it was said. What a heart-breaking scene!

Cui Xiao looked at his wet palms without saying a word.

Cui Zhi could only put the mourning clothes aside.

"Tell me in detail what happened to your mother."

I didn’t explain it clearly on the mountain road just now and left out many details, but now we’re a family and there’s nothing to be shy about.

Cui Hui finished his story with a sigh, and Cui Zhi saw that his father-in-law, who came from heaven, was making a sound that seemed to be neither crying nor laughing. Tears were flowing more fiercely in his eyes, but the corners of his lips were raised in a strange and awkward arc. He covered his eyes with one hand, and his movements changed from slumped against the altar to kneeling forward and bowing his head, with his forehead against the rough bricks.

dong dong dong-

Each bump is more severe than the last.

Even his two children noticed that there was something wrong with his reaction.

A quarter of an hour later, Cui Xiaocai was persuaded by his son, and his face turned gray. Cui Zhi carefully noticed that the man's hair had turned white. Cui Xiaocai pushed his son away and staggered a few steps towards the coffin. He raised his hand and slowly pushed open the coffin lid, revealing a pale and old face. The abbot in the coffin was in his early sixties, and his skin was no longer as white and tight as when he was young. His face was full of marks left by the years. Only from his eyebrows and eyes could he vaguely see the familiar look Cui Xiao had once seen: "So, this is what you look like when you are old."

“It’s different than I thought.”

Cui Xiao also thought that a fierce woman would still be a fierce woman even when she got old.

The wife in his memory was the "son" raised by his father-in-law. He rode a horse across the mountains and fields as if it were flat land. Until his death, his father-in-law regretted that she was a girl. If she was a boy, she would have suffered less.

Who would have thought she would be so kind and benevolent?

Cui Xiao stroked her eyebrows with his fingers.

What emerged before my eyes were every scene of our past love.

"I should have come to you, even if my sister refused to see me."

Time is like running water, it will never come back once it is gone, life is just a few decades long, and I have actually wasted so many precious days.

He was too weak to hold the coffin and was barely breathing.

Suddenly, an inappropriate sneer broke out.

"Hehe, I was wondering... what the completion ceremony was... but it turned out to be you, it turned out to be you, why is it you?"

Cui Zhi was frightened by these few vague words.

Cui Xiao rested his forehead on the coffin lid, his voice sounding tired and sleepy.

"I remember that the Lord once comforted several orphaned children, telling them that death is never the end of life, but the living forgetting is... Even you want to forget me, so all these years, you have been concerned about me the most, is that right?"

He should have thought of turning a blind eye earlier.

  The way of scribes, isn’t it really a curse that torments people’s hearts?

"The person who cared about me the most is gone." How ridiculous it was that the breakthrough that he could not find a clue to was obtained on this day? Cui Xiao rested his head on his folded arms, like every time he looked at me in his youth, he sighed in a deep voice, "You are an unknown person in the palace of Hades, how do you know that I will not become an unknown ghost in the mortal world one day..."

It’s just right and they match well.

  (灬)

The more you cling to something, the easier it is to lose it.

Cui Xiao thought that what he was obsessed with was the high position and generous salary, the title and support for his wife, and the glory for the family that his father-in-law expected, so he hid it from his family and got involved in things that he shouldn't have gotten involved in.