Shrouding the Sky: The Empress Against the Immortals

Chapter 4 Ghostface Mask and Bronze Ring

After breakfast, Ling Song was led by Ling Su and sent back to the small sundry yard behind the blacksmith's shop, and bought half a pancake for her along the way.

"Brother is going to work, so you can play at home and don't run around. If you are hungry, eat pancakes first, and I will come back in the afternoon to cook for you." Ling Su instructed her.

"Nannie remembers." Ling Song nodded vigorously like a chick pecking at rice.

After Ling Su went out, she trotted two steps and lay down on the courtyard door, quietly watching Ling Su's figure disappear around the corner of the front wall through the crack of the door.The thin lips were tightly pressed together, not saying a word.

In the next few hours, Ling Song lived like a year.

She couldn't remember how many times she heard a little movement and ran to the courtyard gate to watch, but every time it was not her brother, she could only purse her mouth, go back to the woodshed dejectedly, and sit on the mat alone in a daze.

Ling Song waited and waited until he fell asleep and woke up, but Ling Su didn't come back.

Half a pancake was placed on the bedside, but she had surprisingly no appetite, and she didn't even feel hungry.

"Why hasn't my brother come back?"

Ling Song panicked.

She walked outside the woodshed, and the sun in the sky flew from the left to the right.

Just when she couldn't hold back her temper and was about to go to the courtyard gate again, a long-lost call finally came from outside the gate: "Ninny!"

"Brother!" Ling Song's eyes brightened instantly.

Without thinking about it, she ran towards the entrance of the small courtyard, only to see Ling Su holding something she didn't recognize, pushing the door in.

"Nuan is very good today, she stayed at home and didn't run around." Ling Song rushed in front of Ling Su, his face full of joy, asking for credit from Ling Su.

"I can tell by the way you look."

The boy pinched her nose and smiled.

As soon as he yelled, he ran out, obviously impatient to wait.

"Aren't you hungry at home alone? Let's go, brother will cook for you." Ling Su took her left hand and walked into the woodshed.

The two people with more than twice the height difference left two slanting shadows in the sunset, and the small figure in it was bouncing around, accompanied by silver bell-like laughter, the years are quiet and beautiful.

In the days since then, it has been like this almost every day.

During the day, Ling Song played by himself at home, watering the vegetable patch, sweeping the courtyard, picking up some stones for playing, or sitting on a small bamboo stool with his chin in a daze.

The little people are well-behaved and sensible, not noisy, and can talk to the birds on the courtyard wall for a long time when they are bored alone.

She will take a nap in the afternoon. In addition to growing her body and needing more sleep, the more important thing is that sleeping can make time pass faster and her brother can come back earlier.

When Ling Su finished helping in the blacksmith shop in the evening, and returned to this small yard, it became the warmest harbor for the brother and sister.

The days passed by, and before you knew it, it was the end of summer.

That evening, according to the usual time, Ling Song came to the gate of the courtyard to wait for Ling Su, and after a while, he saw Ling Su's figure appearing not far from the gate.

"elder brother!"

"NanNan..."

The siblings greeted each other through the courtyard gate.

"Brother brought you something fun!" Ling Su had a mysterious smile on his face.

"What?" Ling Song asked subconsciously.

Before she could react, she saw Ling Su with her hands behind her back suddenly took out a bronze-colored copper mask to cover her face, and at the same time suddenly leaned in front of her: "Wow!!"

"ah!!"

Ling Song was taken aback.

"Hey, how's it going? Is it fun?" Ling Su succeeded in sneak attack, took off the mask from his face and handed it to Ling Song, full of complacency.

"Fun!"

Ling Song looked over and over while holding the mask.

This is a grimace mask made of thin copper sheet. The face pattern on the mask is not scary, but rather strange.It looks like a smile is not a smile, and a cry is not a cry, it seems that there is sadness in the smile, and a faint smile in the sadness.

Very peculiar.

The overall outline of the mask is very rough, as if it was cut from some kind of object, and there are some rough edges. The holes for the eyes and mouth were dug out with a chisel, and only simple polishing was done.

But even so, Ling Song was full of curiosity and couldn't put it down.

In her limited memory, she had never seen such an interesting thing.

"Is this for Nannie?" Ling Song asked with a small face raised.

"Of course!"

Ling Su explained, "A customer came to the blacksmith's shop today and wanted to sell a copper jug ​​to the boss as a scrap. The boss thought it was too small and didn't want it, so the customer was useless holding it, so he just took it. Throw it away.

I saw this portrait of a human face on the copper pot, and it seemed to be pretty good, so I picked it up.

Remove the spout and handle, roll it flat, and then make this mask with a simple punch. Do you like it? "

Ling Su spoke very carefully.

Because he knows that Ling Song is very boring staying at home every day, even if it is an ordinary thing, the little girl can still enjoy it.

"like!"

Ling Song answered neatly.

She grabbed the mask with both hands and put it on her face, then looked at Ling Su: "Does it look good?"

"Pfft..."

Ling Su couldn't hold back her smile, "Silly girl, this is a grimace mask, how can it look so good, you should ask me if I'm afraid of you."

"Is that so?"

Hearing this, Ling Song couldn't help frowning his small eyebrows.

"Actually, the face on the mask looked pretty good when it was on the copper pot, but after I made it into a mask, it looked weird. If you don't like it, brother will make you a prettier one next time." " Ling Su scratched his head and said.

"Hee hee, my daughter likes it very much." Ling Song grinned, revealing a few crystal clear teeth.

She just frowned, just hesitated to wear a grimace mask to scare her brother, it seemed that it was not good.

"Then I don't worry, you have called me my brother for so long, and you have never given you anything fun. When you came back, you were always worried that you would not like it." Ling Su said with a smile.

"Hmm..." Ling Song suddenly felt a little embarrassed, she held the mask and murmured, "But, my daughter never gave my brother anything."

"Haha, why don't you buy something for me when you grow up?"

"But now my daughter has a funny face mask, but my brother doesn't." Ling Song pouted slightly, wanting to be angry with himself, why can't he grow up quickly?

"Who said I didn't?"

Ling Su reached into her bosom with her right hand to feel it, and quickly took out a little ring.

"Look, this is the little finger wrench my brother made for me."

Ling Su put the little ring made of bronze sheet on her thumb, showed it to her triumphantly, raised her eyebrows and said, "I made it with the spout of that copper pot, it's not too big or too small, it's just right. How about it?" ,Not bad right?"

"nice!"

Ling Song's eyes were shining brightly.

The little finger ring is simple and rough, and looks ordinary, but it is made by my brother, so it is worthy of recognition.

"Hey, let's go, go wash the vegetables, brother will cook cauliflower porridge for you, we'll play when we're full." Ling Su smiled, rubbed Ling Song's head lightly, and dragged her into the room.

Because of the grimace mask in the ordinary days, it became easier for Ling Song to spend the time alone at home in the future.

In a blink of an eye, autumn is here.

A few months passed, and Ling Song's stature also increased a little bit. It turned out that the clothes that didn't fit him couldn't fit at all.Ling Su took out almost all her savings and went to the tailor's shop to change her into a new set of rough clothes.

But on the day when the new clothes had just been put on, the owner of the blacksmith shop, who had only existed in the mouth of his brother Ling Su, appeared in the small sundry yard.

"Give you a day to move away from here, or don't blame me for being rude."

The big and round blacksmith shop owner only said this sentence to the siblings, and then turned and left.

Ling Song watched the boss come and go, blinking his eyes, only felt that the boss was so tall, like a hill.

At a young age, she still didn't understand what the boss's words would bring to her and her brother.

"Brother, why did that uncle ask us to move away from here?" She asked in a childish voice.

"The boss's son is going to Taiweifu to learn the way of cultivation from an immortal teacher. He needs to raise money. He wants to sell the entire blacksmith shop, so we can only move from here."

Ling Song noticed that his brother's tone was very low, and he didn't explain things in detail as usual, but only gave a general reason.

As if thinking of something, Ling Song also became nervous.

She held Ling Su's hand cautiously, and asked timidly, "Then brother won't leave nannie?"

"What are you thinking about?" Ling Su forced a smile and rubbed her little head, "No matter how difficult it is, my brother will never leave you. At worst, my brother will take you back to the small village where my brother grew up. go.

If we farm our own land, we can always survive. "

"Well, it's okay, my daughter is not afraid of hardship, she can help her brother to farm together." Ling Song patted his small chest, looking full of energy.

This optimistic attitude infected Ling Su to some extent, making the smile on his face a lot easier.

The boss only gave them one day, and the siblings didn't dare to delay, so they quickly started packing up.

In fact, there is nothing to clean up.

Except for a few coarse clothes, there are only pots and pans left.

As for entanglement...

Just a dozen copper plates.

This little money, leaving this small courtyard, is not even enough to stay in an inn outside for one night.

Night falls.

After washing, the two brothers and sisters lay side by side on the mat. Thinking that this was the last night of their stay here, even though Ling Song couldn't feel much emotion, he was still thinking about it.

"Brother, you said that the son of the uncle's family is going to learn the way of cultivation from an immortal teacher. What is the way of cultivation?" Ling Song asked, lying sideways on the bed with his hands under his face, looking at Ling Su.

"I don't know either." Ling Su shook her head lightly.

"What about the fairy master?"

"Immortal master, they are immortals. They can fly in the sky and live for a long time."

"It's amazing!" Ling Song opened his eyes wide, unaware of the Ming calendar.

"Brother, can we become immortal masters in the future?" she asked.

"What are you thinking? Even the owner of the blacksmith shop has to sell the shop to raise money so that his son can get a place to practice with the immortal master. How can we have a chance?"

"That must be a lot of money." Ling Song sighed dejectedly, so much money, she and her brother would definitely not be able to get it out.

"Actually, there are some that don't cost money. I heard that if the roots are good enough, those immortal masters will rush to accept apprentices. But I don't know the details, and I just listen to what others have said." Ling Su put his hands on his hands while talking. Lie flat on the bed with the back of your head, and raise one leg to rest on your knee.

In the dark, Ling Song saw that when his elder brother mentioned the immortal master, there seemed to be some yearning in his eyes.

"Okay, go to bed quickly, we will set off back to the village early tomorrow morning, from now on, you will follow me to live a hard life." Ling Su sighed, with a particularly sad tone.

(End of this chapter)