wait a minute

Chapter 272 Homecoming
Time flies, and it is the eve of Mid-Autumn Festival.

On the straight official road in the north of Liangzhou, Ye Jingtang rode a big black horse and walked in front of the team, looking at the surrounding barren yellow land, returning to his hometown would inevitably give rise to a sense of intimacy, and of course there is no lack of regrets about things being right and wrong.

Pistachio Niaoniao did not have as many ideas as he did. After returning to the place where he grew up, he was very excited. He flew to the tree to look at the bird's nest, and then drilled into the ground to look for the mouse hole, and found the familiar earth dog. He will also spread his big wings and rush over to chase him, and the frightened local dog barks, and his demeanor of "village bully" can be said to be undoubtedly displayed.

In the carriage behind, Dongfang Li raised the window and looked at the birds having fun in the field, a little funny:
"It was so naughty at home before?"

Ye Jingtang was not very good at answering this topic.In the past in Honghe Town, because there was nothing interesting in the town, he was really busy. Apart from practicing martial arts, he spent the rest of his time fishing for fish, digging out eggs and chasing dirt dogs. Birds and birds followed him since he was a child. Learned from him.

Yejingtang definitely can't tell Benben about these past events that damage the image of sternness, but just said:
"It's not easy to come back after being away for a long time. I'm just a little excited. I used to be very good at home."

"yes……"

……

While chatting, Ye Jingtang led the convoy and gradually arrived at the entrance of the town.

Since encountering the Black Flag Gang at Desolate Beach, the journey since then has been uneventful, and I haven't encountered anything worth mentioning.

The Gobi Desert was already boring. Starting from Yunzhou, after more than half a month of driving and horses, even She Long and others, who are highly skilled in martial arts, were a little tired.

After the initial excitement, the empress dowager sat in the carriage for a long time and couldn't get out, and she gradually became wilted. What she wanted most now was to find a house and sleep on the bed down-to-earth.

Seeing that they had arrived at the frontier town, the speed of the convoy slowed down. The empress dowager raised the curtains of the car and looked around:
"Yejingtang, you lived here when you were a child? Shenshan Yujunniao, it's really not a joke..."

"Gee~"

"What are you talking about? I didn't say you..."

……

The streets of Honghe Town, not to mention the comparison with the capital city, are not even comparable to the countryside of Yunzhou. There are yellow mud walls on both sides, as well as sheep pens, cowsheds, etc. Although there are some merchants, there is little traffic. No business either.

The people in the town were busy outside during the daytime during the autumn harvest season. There were only a few idlers who squatted at the door and watched the convoy curiously. Although they saw Ye Jing Tang, the momentum of Ye Jing Tang changed too much when he went out, so he was not sure.

The acquaintances of Ye Jingtang have already brought their family and mouth to the capital to take root last time, but they have lived in the town for more than ten years, and they can't see each other without looking up. Fellow villagers, they will still say hello as they did in the past when they came back from a dart walk:

"Old Zhang, I haven't seen Futai in a few months..."

"Hey, Jingtang, aren't you going to the capital? Why are you back before the Chinese New Year?"

"I found an errand in the capital, and I came back with a dart..."

"It looks pretty good, this big bird has gained weight..."

"grumble!"

……

Ye Jingtang took over Dao Kui, and now he is famous all over the world, but Honghe Town is too remote, the news is almost closed, and the ordinary people in the town may not be able to see the Grandmaster once in their life, and they don't pay attention to these things at all. Know what's going on with him outside.

And Ye Jingtang didn't look like returning home to show off his might, chatting politely as before, and soon passed by the only private school in the town.

Ye Jingtang did not study in the private school, but he has a good relationship with Mr. Private School. In the past, those famous books and ancient books were obtained through this channel without telling his adoptive father. Although he also paid a lot of pocket money for pheasants and eggs, pheasants are valuable. , Knowledge is priceless, even today, he still often wishes a good person a safe life in his heart.

Returning to his hometown at this time, even though Ye Jingtang was busy, he still didn't forget to bring something from the capital. When he arrived in front of the private school, he took out a small bookcase from the carriage, which contained a whole set of compiled books. Although it is not expensive, you may not be able to find a second set of this kind of thing if you search Liangzhou.

Mr. Private School heard the sound of horseshoes and had already arrived at the gate of the courtyard. When he saw Ye Jingtang approaching, he smiled happily and said:
"Jingtang is back. Yo~ why did you bring me something..."

"A set of books that I bought at random in the capital is the hardcover original proofread by everyone, and I brought it back. The books you got before have missing chapters. I didn't know until I went to the capital. The original had illustrations..."

"In fact, I also brought those. When you were young, I was afraid of teaching you badly, so I tore up a few key pages before I gave you..."

"What?!"

Ye Jingtang had just reached the bookcase he had thrown away, and put it back, his original smile turned serious.

And Dabenben, who was following not far away, also widened his eyes a little when he heard this, showing a little bit of uncontrollable laughter.

Mr. Private School was very self-conscious. He stepped forward to carry the bookcase and walked into the house. At the same time, he changed the topic and said:
"By the way, a girl came to the town to look for you a few days ago. If you weren't here, she stayed directly at your old house. I knew you would come back at that time, and I waited here every morning..."

"girl?"

When Ye Jingtang heard this, he put away his distracting thoughts, stopped talking to this inappropriate old man, turned around and said:
"It is estimated that Ning'er and the others are here, let's go there quickly."

Dongfang Liren saw this call to the team to follow, so he headed towards the Escort Bureau.

The bodyguard bureau in the town was built by Pei Yuanfeng. It was originally just a small courtyard. After the bodyguard bureau became famous, it was expanded and renovated, because the land at the border gate was not valuable, and the land occupied was quite large. The courtyard outside could park more than 20 carriages. , plus dozens of horses, and the rear is a residential area. Apart from the father and son, some family members of the bodyguards used to live there.

After Pei Yuanfeng passed away in March, Ye Jingtang obeyed his will and sold all his properties; just a large courtyard in a border town could not buy a thousand taels of silver at all, and the most valuable part of it was the connections Pei Yuanfeng had made over the years. , such as large merchants with long-term cooperation.

The person who took over the Escort was a rich man from a nearby town. He made a lot of money by buying and selling between the two countries. He wanted to change his career to start a stable business. He took over the Escort. Merchants from all over the world.

Based on the reputation of Ye Jingtang and Pei Yuanfeng in previous years, as long as the Escort Bureau operates normally, it will be a stable business.

But it is a pity that the Escort is a martial arts after all, just like Jianghu gangs, morality is put first, and money is put behind, so that it can really last forever.

But the businessman puts profit first, so he can't understand this set at all. First, he was stingy, which made the bodyguard's heart cold, and then he lost the bodyguard and was reluctant to make money with the money owner, so he just ruined the bodyguard business in less than three months.

Hearing this on Yejingtang Road, he couldn't help but shake his head secretly, but he couldn't say anything about the things that were sold for money and goods.

Ye Jingtang originally thought that the business had collapsed, and the previous bodyguard agency should be in disarray and dilapidated, but when he walked near the Honghe bodyguard office, he saw that the outside of the compound was clean, and the old porch was painted with a layer of paint, which was not yet dry. , obviously just brushed not long ago.

The gate of the Escort was open, and there was a plaque on the door, with the four characters of "Ginghe Escort" written in dragons and phoenixes...

"Chichi?"

Niao Niao landed at the door of the house, tilting her head to look at the signboard, her head full of question marks.

The Nightmare is equally inexplicable.

As for the Empress Dowager at the back, she understood the meaning at a glance—except for Shui Shui, who has never been very serious, normal people can't do such inexplicable things.

The Empress Dowager tried her best to control her diet these days, and she did not use the method of bathing in the fire map, so she barely suppressed her resilience and let the poison of prison dragon miasma stay in her body; perhaps she was afraid that Shui Shui would notice something strange, so she dragged her back to the capital. Pretending to be weak again, he lowered the curtain of the carriage.

Ye Jingtang, with some doubts, came to the gate of the bodyguard bureau and looked inside. When he raised his eyes, he saw a ladder outside the gate of the main house.

A woman in a white dress stood on top of the ladder, her belt outlined her perfect waist, her right skirt and her enchanting buttocks were undoubtedly displayed in the autumn light, her slightly raised side face was even more glamorous to the extreme.

The woman held a small hammer in her hand and was beating ding ding dong dong. She was hanging a big birdcage on the beam, humming a little tune:

"Hmm..."

"grumble?!"

Seeing this scene, Niao Niao was immediately shocked, and flew onto the shoulder of Master Xuanji with a swish, and swept his face with his wings, looking like he wanted to slap this unscrupulous person to death.

Master Xuanji has always been on the roof as a watchman's stone. Seeing Ye Jingtang and the others approaching, she purposely nailed a bird cage here to scare the birds. She was patted twice, and she caught the birds and put them in. In the cage, he also expressed concern:

"Come and try to see if the birdcage I bought for you fits well."

"grumble!"

……

Ye Jingtang quickly entered the compound, came to the front of the main room, and asked:
"Fairy Lu, when did you come? Your Majesty is fine."

Master Xuanji hung up the birdcage, clapped his hands and jumped down the ladder:

"Your Majesty is fine for the time being. I've been here for a few days. I don't know where you are, so I'm just waiting here. Ning'er is still waiting for Sanniang to recruit people. She probably won't come here until a few days later."

Ye Jingtang nodded, and looked left and right at the neatly packed bodyguard bureau:

"What's the matter with this escort agency? Fairy Lu redeemed it for me?"

"What does it mean to help you redeem it?"

Master Xuanji fumbled from his sleeve, took out a house deed, and indicated the black and white letters and fingerprints on it:

"I bought this escort agency from the owner, and it will be my property from now on. You can redeem it if you want, but the price is up to me..."

"What am I redeeming for?"

Ye Jingtang was a little funny, took the house deed and looked at it a few times:

"I won't live here in the future, I'll sell it all, so what's the use of redeeming it. Fairy Lu just bought it, and there aren't many decent inns in the town. I just happened to live here these days."

Seeing that Ye Jingtang refused to let her handle it, Master Xuanji was a little displeased, and withdrew the deed:
"Anyway, this house will be mine in the future. If you want to redeem the ancestral house in the future, you have to find me; the longer the delay, the higher the interest. You can figure it out."

"Then Fairy Lu is going to hit her hand..."

Master Xuanji said a few words, then walked to the door to visit her best friend.

Fan Qinghe had already arrived at the door. Along the way, because he was not familiar with the Empress Dowager and Prince Jing, and it was not easy to strike up a conversation with Ye Jingtang, there was basically nothing to talk about. Fan Qinghe, the unforgiving witch, felt a little cordial, and asked in front of the door:
"What are you doing here? I'm enough to find the poison master alone. Is it necessary to mobilize so many teachers?"

"It's true that you don't need so many people to find a poison master. I'm here to prevent you, a clever little ghost, from making a mistake and turning Yejingtang to the Ministry of Winter and Darkness. I'll greet you in advance. Pay attention, I will tie you back to Yun'an when I go back, and squat in the dungeon for three to five years..."

Fan Qinghe came all the way here with the intention of abducting Ye Jingtang back to Dongming Department to verify his integrity. Hearing this, he was dissatisfied, but she hasn't come to her territory yet, and she doesn't want to have sex with this demon girl. A dispute of words, just crossing arms and entering the yard...
-
After a long time, by the river outside the town.

The name of the river is the Red River. Before the river changed its course, it used to be a big river across the plain. Although now it is dry and only a small knee-deep stream remains, the ancient river course is still there, and you can see the two feet high on both sides of the river. The soil slope, and the riverbed is obviously lower than the terrain of Honghe Town.

At the inner bend of the ancient river, a loess tomb stands alone on the soil slope. Some weeds have grown on the tomb. The tombstone faces the direction of Yun'an. There are a few lines of small characters engraved on it, simply writing the name and the year of birth and death. .

Evening and sunset, the autumn wind is bleak.

Ye Jingtang carried the incense, came to the slope alone, carefully cleaned the weeds on the grave, lit three sticks of incense, put the Chilong knife across his lap, sat in front of the tombstone, and looked at the beginning of the year. A few words carved with my own hands.

Niao Niao escaped from the cage and was rarely mischievous. He specially caught a small fish from the river, put it in front of the tombstone, and then squatted obediently, looking a little sad.

Ye Jingtang picked up Niao Niao early on, and has been living in the bodyguard agency all these years, and Pei Yuanfeng has no children, after getting to know Niao Niao well, he actually treats Niao Niao better than Ye Jing Tang.

After all, Pei Yuanfeng wants to teach Ye Jingtang to be a talent, and he will never soften his heart when he should be strict, but Niao Niao doesn't need to pay attention to these things, basically how to pamper him.

Now that Niao Niao is living a good life, everyone rushes to feed her every day, but she has not forgotten the days when she chased after Pei Yuanfeng to beg for food, and kept whispering.

Ye Jingtang's heart is much more complicated than that of Niao Niao. On the way back, he thought a lot of things in his heart, and told his adoptive father that he has lived up to his expectations to be the sword leader, or told about the process of defeating Xuanyuan Dynasty, or encountered If you fall in love with a woman you like, you will not be alone from now on.

But sitting in front of the tombstone, seeing a cold line of words, and discovering that these thousands of words are nothing more than self-comfort for oneself, how can the people in the tomb hear it.

Fortunately, what kind of person the adoptive father hoped for him to be before he was alive, he became what kind of person. Before his death, the adoptive father knew that he would be like this, so he should not regret it. What he said now is meaningless. What he has to do in the future, It's nothing more than living well and continuing to walk along your own path.

Ye Jingtang sat in front of the tomb for a long time, until the three sticks of incense were about to burn out, then he stood up, turned and walked towards the small town where he grew up:

"Let's go."

"grumble……"

After staring at the tombstone for a moment, Niao Niao turned around, bounced and landed on Ye Jingtang's shoulder, walked a few steps, and even turned back and waved its wings. One person and one bird gradually drifted away.

Soon, the sky darkened, and there was only one solitary tomb standing on the mound.

In the old house in the distance, human lights and cooking smoke appeared.

The scene is one light and one dark, one yin and one yang, a new generation replaces the old one, it's like this...

(End of this chapter)