Kaifeng Monster

Chapter 45
The three stood like this for a long time, each with their own concerns.

It was Duanmucui who was the first to break the silence, and said: "This day is very tiring, Mr. Gongsun, let's go back."

Gongsun Ce immediately thought of Duanmucui's hard work all day, and he hadn't even had a sip of water, and regretted that he didn't notice: "The shopkeeper Li should have prepared dinner, let's go back soon."

In the Juke Building, a table of wine and food has indeed been prepared.

Shopkeeper Li didn't understand why Gongsun Ce and his party were going to dig such a big pit today, but seeing that a few people hadn't returned for a day, he somehow expected that the matter was not simple, and he couldn't help with other things. It is not difficult to reward a few people with some wine and food.

The meal was boring, and Gongsun Ce hesitated to speak several times, but couldn't find anything to break the deadlock.Zhan Zhao seldom moved his chopsticks, as for Duanmucui, his mind was in a trance, his chopsticks were stuck in his hand, but he never moved.

Zhan Zhao finally couldn't help it: "Duanmu, is the food not to your liking?"

Duanmucui seemed to realize that he was at the dining table, and he responded casually, stretching out his chopsticks to pick up something and delivering it to his mouth.

Zhan Zhao sighed softly, "That's chili."

Gongsun Ce was a little bit impatient: "Miss Duanmu, just now I vaguely heard you mentioned something about the Underworld. Where is that...?"

Duanmucui was shocked, she looked up at Gongsun Ce, and quickly lowered her head again.

"The Way of the Underworld, that is..."

While talking, he suddenly caught a glimpse of loess residue on his hair hanging on his shoulders, couldn't help pulling the hair from the back to the front, combed it with his hands, shook his head and said: "It's so dirty, I'm going to take a bath. "

Shopkeeper Li just packed up his things and came in. Upon hearing this, he hurriedly said: "The bathtubs are all ready-made in the guest room. I'll go to boil the water first, Miss Duanmu, when you finish eating, the water will be ready, so there is no delay."

Duanmucui shook her head: "You don't need to burn it, just fill the bucket with cold water. I've been burning it for so long during the day, so I don't care about burning this bucket."

Shopkeeper Li heard that Monk Zhang Er was puzzled, so he couldn't help but speak out to dissuade him: "Miss Duanmu, how can you stand up to washing in cold water in such a cold day?"

Duanmucui ignored him, got up and went to the guest room.Shopkeeper Li was stunned for a while, before he said to Zhan Zhao: "Young master Zhan, people from the Jianghu... are they all so strange?"

Zhan Zhao was silent for a moment, then said, "The shopkeeper is up to her."

Duanmucui washed for a long time.

In fact, it wasn't long before she really took a bath. Most of the time, she was immersed in the water in a daze.

It wasn't until the whole bucket of water was completely cold that she shivered from the cold, and then she realized that she heated it up with the real fire of Samadhi, and then she was in a daze after it was hot.

Thinking of when I was disheartened, I leaned my head against the inner wall of the wooden bathtub, and felt that all the strength in my body was gone; there were also a few times when I suddenly buried my head in the water for some unknown reason, and the eye sockets were sore and hot. As soon as the tears flowed out, they were swallowed and annihilated by the surrounding water.It wasn't until he couldn't continue breathing that he raised his head out of the water with a splash, and greedily breathed in the air outside.

From the beginning to the end, her mind was full of chaos, sometimes empty and sometimes chaotic, but no matter whether it was empty or chaotic, a thought trying to avoid grabbed her nerves step by step with more and more stubborn and domineering gestures: What about Wen Gu Weiyu? Will enter the underworld?
Yesterday she was so sure to tell Zhan Zhao that it was impossible for Wen Gu and Weiyu to hide there, but today she lost her composure because of what she said about black and white impermanence.

Just now, what did they say?

——"Yan Luodian is not the only place for the dead souls to go. Has the Shangxian forgotten the way of the underworld that was sealed by the Nuwa Empress in ancient times?"

Of course, I have never forgotten that the underworld in the human world is familiar and unfamiliar to every god in the upper realm.

Say familiar, because you can see and hear; say unfamiliar, because it is far out of reach.

Just like the sun that you can see every day when you look up, are you familiar with it, naturally; do you understand it, not necessarily.

The Underworld on Earth is exactly such a place.

Many times, she talked about the Underworld with great interest with the female fairies she was familiar with, and what she talked about more was the great era that co-existed with the Underworld.

Perhaps in the eyes of others, the dynasty she lived in is already a legend, with King Wu conquering Zhou, Fengming Qishan, demons dancing wildly, and immortals coming to the world. Moonlight!
It is mentioned in "Huainanzi"——

"Gonggong and Zhuanxu vie for the title of emperor, they are angry and touch the mountain, the pillars of the sky are broken, the dimension of the earth is cut off, the four poles are destroyed, the nine states are torn apart, the sky will not be destroyed, the earth will not be contained, the fire will never be extinguished, and the water will be vast." Never stop. Wild beasts devour Zhuan's people, birds of prey grab the old and the weak."

The world is miserable and life is as cheap as dust, so Nuwa Empress came out at the right time, "smelting five-color stones to mend the sky" and "breaking ao enough to set up four poles" to turn the tide and save the people from the fire and water.

The books in the world are written like this, but the records in the ancient books of Yingzhou are still mysterious.

"Gonggong's anger touches Buzhou Mountain, the sky tilts to the northwest, the earth sinks to the southeast, the palace of hell collapses and cracks, and the souls of the dead do not go to the underworld. The evil and treacherous gather in the world; the demons and ghosts all return to the underworld. Mothers and daughters Wrath, cut your heart into a candle, pour out your gallbladder into light, a candle up to hundreds of feet, radiant and dazzling, under the eyes of God, there is no hiding place in the dark way. Seal it, so as to rectify the ethics of all generations."

In black and white, it is clear and plain: seal it and seal it, so as to rectify the ethics of all generations.

In Duanmucui's consciousness, the underworld is almost an unreal legend, although it is often heard, it will never appear.

But suddenly one day, it really appeared.

Not only does it appear, there is an unavoidable relationship between it and itself.

If Wen Guweiyu is really in the underworld, then there is no doubt that she must investigate.

This is a calamity provoked by the gods in Yingzhou. Since the other gods are still sleeping, let me who is also from Yingzhou end this catastrophe on earth.

Thinking of this, two words that are rarely used at ordinary times suddenly jumped out of my mind.

The first is family misfortune.

The second is to... clear the portal.

"Clean up the house..." Duanmu Cui murmured, lowering her eyes slightly, and a calm smile slowly appeared on the corners of her lips, "Clean up the house for Yingzhou... duty-bound."

The previous confusion, fear, anger, and resentment receded slowly like the tide, leaving behind a wet and calm tidal flat with increasingly murderous intent.

In a trance, it seems that I am not in this narrow and simple guest room. The field of vision gradually widens, the flags are flying, and the strong smell of blood permeating the surrounding fields covers the smell of green grass sprouting in spring. In the distance stands the important town of Shangtang. In the city, the blood of Xiqi soldiers was smeared on the walls made of hard black boulders. Layer after layer, the souls of the dead soldiers who died in peace were solidified.

Duanmucui stood outside the military tent, his eyes blurred with tears, but the image of Chongcheng was exceptionally clear.

She knew that Shen Gongbao had instigated the mutiny in Chongcheng, and she also knew that the haste of the mutiny cost Xiqi generals countless losses.

She just didn't know that it was him who died.

The Xiqi generals who were nearby rushed to help from all directions. The anger of the soldiers was like a blazing flame, but Shangfu's army tent did not issue a military order for a long time.

I don't know who raised his arms and shouted: "Please fight!"

Ten people responded to one call, followed by hundreds of thousands of people. Immediately afterwards, the mountains and plains were covered, and the sound was like thunder.Chongcheng is as solid as gold, and it is bound to tremble in this rainbow-like blood feud, and then collapse.

At the height of the sun, the battle cards were finally displayed outside the military tent.

She was not the first to move, Yang Jian moved earlier than her, and was the first to get the bronze battle card, but he was knocked away heavily by someone, his hand was empty, and the battle card was lost.

The sleeves of the silver-white battle robe fluttered in front of his eyes, he didn't need to look up, he already knew who won the medal.

Duanmucui turned her head, an extremely cold smile appeared on the corner of her lips, and then slowly raised her hand.

The slender, pale and blue-colored fingers tightly grasped the blue-black battle card, almost shattering the battle card in his palm.

Every word, every sentence shed blood.

"Killing the rebel generals and clearing the door for Xiqi, Duanmucui is duty-bound."

There was a moment of silence, and there was thunderous cheers in the outer corner. The soldiers under Duanmucui's command beat their drums nine times, pointed their halberds and axes at the sky, and the commander asked De Chongcheng to shout and cheer for the first battle.

After noon, everyone knew that the next one to fight in Chongcheng was Duanmucui, Shangfu's righteous daughter, female general of Xiqi.

In the year 2000, the light of the sky roamed by, and the thundering drums were buried in the dust of the past years, replaced by the long-lasting and graceful orchestral strings and bamboos in and out of Yingzhou.

The melodious sound is the most penetrating to the skin and destroys the heart. Take off the cold iron armor and put on the silk silk with a ribbon, the ten fingers are slender, walking on the string, the bamboo tube is small, the paper is beautiful, no longer Then hold the through-heart lotus flower that takes the life of the enemy.

When I first heard the news that Wen Guwei was still in the underworld, I would be at a loss, frightened, startled, and even cry. It really has been too long a leisurely life. and buried?
The heroic Xiqi warrior of the past was replaced by the cowardly female fairy today. Shangfu Quanxia knows, how embarrassing and disappointing it must be?
For nothing else, even if it's just for Shangfu, he must never take half a step back.

Thinking of this, his mood slowly calmed down, he let out a long breath, and then got up.

After putting on the middle clothes, he first picked up his white outer shirt and unfolded it. Seeing that it was really dirty, he reluctantly dropped the clothes and went to the side to unwrap the new clothes.

After a little searching, there were three sets of skirts and a fox fur cloak, all of which were of the best material. Duanmucui picked up a silver-white skirt with dark flowers and put it on. Tie the palm-width embroidered jade ring ribbon around your waist, go to the bronze mirror, and take a closer look.

She first wrote in Yingzhou, all of which were heavenly clothes made by the Weaver Girl from the Upper Realm. It is recorded in "Linggualu·Guo Han": "Tianyi is not made of needlework", and later generations called it "Seamless Clothes". After wearing this kind of fine-stitched dress for the first time, I just feel so novel.What's more, the clothes in the Song Dynasty are quite different from those in the late Shang Dynasty, they are more slender and elegant, and the skirts are decorated with streamers, which adds a bit of softness.

Duanmucui was overjoyed, because she thought: I said Zhan Zhao didn't know how to pick clothes, but I wronged him.

Then I thought about it again: the clothes that look good need to be beautiful, and the clothes are also beautiful. The clothes look good because of the craftsmanship of the tailor, and the good-looking is mostly due to my mother's credit and the other half is my own efforts. Anyway, it has nothing to do with Zhan Zhao.

When I got out of the door, there was silence all around. I think it was late, and everyone else had already fallen asleep.

When passing by Zhan Zhao's room, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a faint yellow ray of light from under the crack of the door, and couldn't help being curious: Is Zhan Zhao still asleep?
Thinking like this, he wanted to go forward to knock on the door, but he retracted his hand just as he touched the door leaf, his thoughts changed, a smirk appeared in his eyes, he stretched out his hand and squeezed a trick to go through the wall, intending to go in and scare Zhan Zhao.

Unexpectedly, he walked through the door to stand still, but he didn't wait for the expected sound of surprise. He looked up and saw that Zhan Zhao was in the room, but he was lying on the table with his arms crossed, and had already fallen asleep, with his other hand resting on the table, He held a book in his hand.

Duanmucui sighed inwardly, the originally designed scene was not staged, so it was inevitable that she would be a little sluggish, because she thought: how can there be such a person, if he wants to sleep, he will go to bed, pretending to be gentle and reading at night while burying his head in sleep, it hurts me Work hard, go through the wall in vain.

Unhappy, he turned around and was about to leave, but suddenly thought of something, reached out to wipe Zhan Zhao's clothes, and frowned: I don't know how beautiful it is to wear such thin clothes in such a cold day.

In fact, Zhan Zhao's clothes may not be thin, it's just that it's cold in winter and nights, so the clothes during the day are quite insufficient at night.

Duanmucui looked around for a while, seeing the squarely folded quilt on the bed, she couldn't help but smile, stretched out her hand to pick out the quilt, pointed at it again, and then folded her arms slightly, making a gesture A hug gesture.

It's strange to say, after such gestures, the quilt really slowly unfolded in all directions, then wobbled, and moved towards Zhan Zhao, with the four corners slightly closed, covering Zhan Zhao's body.

Duanmucui still thinks it's not enough - the daily cloak is carelessly covered, there are many places not covered, and it's not necessarily warm - so she continues to draw with her fingers, pointing the quilt to move left, right, up and down to fit He was not satisfied until Zhan Zhao was wrapped up like a baby in swaddling clothes.

At that time the candlelight was soft and moist, looking at it, Zhan Zhao's sword eyebrows were lightly stretched out, his nose was like a jade pillar, his lips were painted vermilion, his face was firm and handsome, Duanmucui's heart moved because he thought: I never thought that Zhan Zhao was so beautiful.

Thinking about it this way, he didn't want to leave just now, so he sat down on the stool next to Zhan Zhao, rested his chin, and stared at Zhan Zhao intently, with a pair of beautiful eyes flickering, and the long and thin eyelashes were like a small fan Up and down.

Everyone, don't think that Duanmucui can't walk because of Zhan Zhao's external beauty gushing out in the middle of the night, it's wrong, it's a big mistake, she has more things to worry about now.

Because she suddenly thought: Zhan Zhao's red thread has been untied, what kind of girl should he lead him?
I didn't think it was difficult before, it was a girl from a good family anyway, but now the problem is complicated, Zhan Zhao is so good-looking, you have to get a top-notch girl, right?

Thinking about it further, it's not enough to have a top-notch appearance, you have to have a more gentle temperament, those who are bitter and caring, even if you are born with Xi Shi and Yang Yuhuan, you can't have them.

Besides the family background, if the family background is too good, it needs to be carefully considered. I'm afraid that the girl will bully Zhan Zhao by taking advantage of her natal family's power, which will be very bad.Also, can this girl know martial arts?It's better to know a little bit, otherwise Zhan Zhao will always take care of her, which is not an easy task.

Besides, the cooking skills also need to be passable. Zhan Zhao always handles cases outside, and he has worked so hard in the wind and rain. Wouldn't it be sad to eat cornbread with pickles when he comes home?Oh, by the way, the mending skills can't be bad either. Zhan Zhao spends too much time with people on weekdays, and the clothes will inevitably be cut and scratched. It's much better if the people around him can mend. Three years... It would be better if you can master piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and add some interest to life...

The more I thought about it, the more picky and demanding I became. I thought that even the carpentry work, sweeping, wall plastering and tiling work, I hoped that the future Mrs. Zhan would take care of it. The reason was that Zhan Zhao worked hard in handling cases, and it was a lot of trouble to hire craftsmen. If Mrs. Zhan can bear it alone, then everyone will be happy.

In the end, when the dream came into reality, I suddenly felt very disillusioned: Where can I find such a girl who is at the top of the 360 ​​lines? It’s not enough to find a fairy for you...

Thinking of this verse, I lost interest, and after thinking about it again, I decided to throw this difficult problem to Mrs. Zhan.

"As a mother, you should always think about your son. You are sure to pick the right one."

Thinking of it this way, my heart suddenly became lighter, and for a moment I had nothing to do, and my eyes stopped on the scroll in Zhan Zhao's hand.

"I don't even think about reading any sage's articles. In the middle of the night, sneaking around, wasting lamps and candles, I don't know what kind of messy book I'm reading..." While muttering to himself, he stretched out his hand to grab the scroll. Still can't move.

Duanmucui suddenly became suspicious, looked at the scroll, then at Zhan Zhao.

"Zhan Zhao, have you woke up already?"

Zhan Zhao didn't move, but the corners of his mouth curved slightly imperceptibly.

Duanmu Cui gritted her teeth with hatred: "Still pretending? Believe it or not, I won't wake you up for the rest of your life?"

In the face of threats, Mr. Zhan has never been fearless, so he still slept peacefully and soundly.

Gritting her teeth, Duanmucui kicked the round stool under Zhan Zhao ruthlessly.

Sometimes, he had to play hard, and this kick finally made Zhan Zhao make a sound.

As the round stool fell over with a bang, Zhan Zhao turned over with a beautiful kite, his sleeves vibrated slightly, and landed firmly, he caught the quilt that had slipped off his body, and when he looked at Duanmucui, his eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "nice."

Duanmu Cui's eyes rolled: "A person is better-looking or is the clothes better?"

Zhan Zhao's reaction was not slow: "People are good-looking."

At the end, I added a meaningful sentence: "Miss Duanmu is good-looking, and she looks good in any clothes."

Duanmu Cuibai gave Zhan Zhao a look: "I knew you would say that, Zhan Zhao, you are such a stingy cat, I said you look good in anything, but if you don't tell me, you will feel uncomfortable."

Zhan Zhao said innocently: "Is there any way to do this? It was all taught by my mother. When I was young, my mother often told me that for some people, no matter how ugly they are, they must be beautiful..."

(End of this chapter)