Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 12 "The Guest"

Not long after Cao Yin arrived in Hangzhou, the fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother set off for Beijing.Although Cao Yong intends to have a good relationship with the future Emperor Yongzheng and save the Cao family from copying their homes, he is bedridden and has no chance to see them. Naturally, he has no way to show his hospitality.Knowing that the two returned to Beijing, Cao Yong sighed for a long time. Cao Yin thought that his son was grateful for the rescue of the two elder brothers, but he didn't take it to heart.

On the tenth day of the eighth lunar month, Mrs. Li, who got the news, went to Hangzhou with a few maidservants.Although Cao Yin didn't want his wife to worry, he couldn't stay in Hangzhou for a long time because the Mid-Autumn Festival was about to come, and there were many affairs in the yamen and clan.Cao Yong had to rest in Hangzhou for a while, so he had to send someone back to Jiangning to deliver a letter, and then his wife Li came to take care of his son.

Although Cao Yong's skin wounds were mostly healed, Li's heart ached for her son and shed tears again.Cao Yin comforted him carefully, and told Cao Fang to take good care of the nursing home before getting up and returning to Jiangning.

In a blink of an eye, it was August [-]th.

In Cao's other courtyard, although only Mrs. Li, Cao Yong, and Liu Ping brought some servants, all kinds of fruit mooncakes were fully prepared.Mrs. Li has learned about Liu Ping's life experience from Cao Yong, and is grateful for her rescue of her son and her love for her from the bottom of her heart.Liu Ping is well-behaved and smart, completely different from Cao Yan, who is like a little adult, and Li Shi is very happy.Having only been together for a few days, the two are not like mother and daughter, but better than mother and daughter.

Cao Yong read books for half a month in the room. At this time, he was carried to the yard by the servants to enjoy the moon with Li Shi and Liu Ping.

The night sky was as blue as the sea, the clouds moved slightly, and the full moon cast a cold silver light.Cao Yong bit the moon cake in his mouth, but felt a little sad in his heart. "I miss my relatives every festive season", I don't know how my parents, brothers and sisters-in-law are in that world. I have been cared for by them for many years, and I lost my life in a muddleheaded way without repaying them.

Seeing that her son was not in a high mood, Mrs. Li looked a little worried.Even Liu Ping, who is the best at chattering on weekdays, noticed something was wrong, looking at Cao Yong and Li Shi, there was a bit of obedience in the quietness.

Cao Yong didn't want to worry the two of them, suppressed the sadness in his heart, put a smile on his face, put a piece of lotus paste mooncake on Li's plate, and picked out another one with double egg yolks and handed it to Liu Ping.The little girl loves mooncakes of this flavor the most, and has eaten a lot in the past two days.

The atmosphere relaxed. Although Cao Yong was not able to speak well due to his throat injury, Liu Ping, who loves to talk, was there, so he was not indifferent.Mrs. Li has a generous personality, thinking that the servants in other courtyards have also been busy all day, so she sent the maids around her to deliver mooncakes everywhere.Although it has been divided according to the proportion of each person, those mooncakes specially customized from a century-old shop in front of us are simply incomparable.

When the moon was in the middle of the sky, Li Shi was a little tired, and Liu Ping also yawned.Cao Yong greedily looked at the moonlight, but didn't feel sleepy, so he asked Li Shi and Liu Ping to settle down first.Mrs. Li wanted to stay with her son, but was declined by Cao Yong. She was really worried and left her close maid, Xiu Yuan, to take care of Cao Yong.

At midnight, the yard was completely silent, even Xiuyuan leaned on the porch, sleeping soundly.In the days to come, the fate of the Cao family made Cao Yong feel a little heavy, and unconsciously, he pondered for a long time.He stretched, no matter how much he thought about it, he had to wait until his leg healed before he could say anything else.

Suddenly, a few dogs barked in the front yard, which seemed very unusual in the silent night.Next, there was a faint noise.

After a while, Grandma Sun, who was on duty at night at the second gate, came to report that a thief had entered the front yard and was arrested by Cao Fang.The ancient hooligans have seen it, but the ancient "thieves" have never seen it. Cao Yong felt a little curious and said to the woman: "Mother, put me in, let me go and see!" Because of this, he could only utter one word or two when speaking.

Although Mrs. Sun felt that it was inappropriate, since the young master had spoken, she had no reason to disobey, so she asked two strong servants to carry Cao Yong's chair to the front yard.

The front yard, brightly lit.

A dozen guards held torches and swords in their hands, and they did not dare to slack off at all. When they saw Cao Yong coming out, they all bowed their heads in salute.Seeing that it wasn't his wife who came out, Cao Fang was a little embarrassed.There was a bald old man lying on the ground, his cloth was covered with dark red blood stains, his face was pale, his lips were black, and he looked like he was going to die soon.Cao Fang found this old man outside the stable when he led people to patrol the night. He looked injured and poisoned. He was afraid that it would be bad luck for him to die in the mansion. He originally wanted to report to his wife and send him to the yamen. , Unexpectedly, it was the little master who came out.

When Cao Yong saw the old man, he couldn't bear to think of his embarrassment when he was in trouble.Although I haven't seen any examples, I have seen similar symptoms in books, frowned, looked at Cao Fang and asked, "Poisoned?" Seeing Cao Fang nodded, pointing to the old man: "Come on, guest room!"

Cao Fang originally wanted to persuade the little master to do more things than to do less things, but seeing Cao Yong's serious and solemn expression, he didn't dare to say more, and he was ordered to take the two of them to carry the old man to the bed in the east room.

Cao Yong ordered someone to put the chair beside the bed, and first sent someone to the street to ask for a doctor.The doctor who usually takes care of Cao Yong goes out of the city for the festival, and he will not be able to come back until the day after tomorrow.Then, he ordered: "Scream, milk, water!"

Fortunately, Mrs. Sun and Xiuyuan were worried about Cao Yong, so they took a few servants to wait on him, so they were able to quickly send people to the backyard to fetch soap and milk.

Cao Yong signaled Mrs. Sun to put the pancreas in a bowl to dissolve a bowl of pancreas water, and then asked someone to let the old man get used to it.In less than a moment, the unconscious old man made a gurgling sound from his throat.Cao Yong asked someone to prepare a basin, and the old man vomited wildly in a daze, spit out half of the basin.

There was a sour smell in the room, and Cao Yong, as if he hadn't heard it, asked someone to melt two bowls of soap water to let the old man get used to it.Soap is handmade soap.Soapy water has the effect of inducing vomiting. Judging from the old man's reaction just now, the soapy water has the same effect.

In this way, the old man vomited several times, until finally he couldn't vomit anything, and he vomited half a mouthful of green bile.Seeing that it was almost done, Cao Yong ordered someone to feed the old man a big bowl of milk.

After tossing and tossing for half an hour, when the doctor arrived, although the old man's face was still pale, there was some blood on his lips.Cao Yong's tense heart was relieved. It seems that the soapy water should have a detoxifying effect, but I don't know how the old man's injury is.

The doctor was called up in the middle of the night, and he was somewhat resentful, but seeing that his servants are all good, and the decorations in the guest rooms are several times better than those of ordinary rich families, so naturally he dare not be presumptuous.With his left hand stroking his beard, and his right index finger and middle finger resting on the patient's veins, his face became more and more serious.After diagnosing the pulse, he carefully inspected the old man's wound.

Seeing that the doctor had finished checking, Cao Fang handed over the pen, ink and paper.The doctor refused to answer, sighed, and shook his head.

Cao Yong was worried, and said, "The poison is gone, what's the matter?"

The doctor saw that the young man in front of him was dressed in extraordinary clothes, he was different from other people, and knew that he was the master, but he was puzzled, why did he let such a young child come out to be the master.Hearing the young master's voice was hoarse, he realized that his voice was inconvenient. He heard his question and replied: "Although most of the old man's poison has been cured, the wound on his left rib is too deep, which hurts his liver and gallbladder. Method. Hang it with ginseng soup, and explain the funeral!"

Although the patient was covered in poison and injured, the doctor didn't care about it.As a doctor, I have seen many patients, and I have already known which ones can be asked and which ones cannot.

Just now when he sent for a doctor, Cao Fang said that he was afraid that the wound was too deep and that medicine and stones would not save him.Cao Yong still had a trace of hope in his heart, but he didn't expect this to be the result.

When he came to this world and faced death for the first time, he was a bald old man whom he had never met before.For some reason, Cao Yong only felt that there was God's will in the dark.

After the doctor left, Mrs. Sun brought half a bowl of ginseng soup.Because there is a patient Cao Yong in the mansion, and Li's body is also weak, ginseng soup is always in the kitchen, and it can be used as soon as it is warmed up, which is convenient.

The bald old man was fed half a bowl of ginseng soup, closed his eyes, and muttered in his mouth: "Earthquake..." The voice was so low that even Cao Yong, who was sitting by the bed, couldn't hear clearly, so he had to lower his head slightly. .

"Earthquake Gaogang", Cao Yong's head buzzed, could it be that "Earthquake Gaogang"?Cao Yong turned his head and saw that everyone looked as usual, and confirmed that only when he heard it could he feel relieved.This is not a joke, waved everyone to go out.

Whether it was Grandma Sun, Xiu Yuan, or Cao Fang, they didn't move for a long time.Even though the person on the bed seemed to be exhaling more air than inhaling, everyone didn't dare to leave the little master alone in the room. If the old man did something rash before he died, everyone would be responsible.

Cao Yong snorted coldly: "Go out!"

The three of them had no choice, so they slowly moved towards the door.

Cao Yong breathed a sigh of relief when only the old man and himself were left in the room, and said in a low voice, "Earthquake Gaogang, a stream of beautiful water through the ages!"

"The door faces the sea, and the Sanhe River flows for thousands of years!" The old man answered slowly, opened his eyes, and saw that there was only a young boy in the room, his eyes flashed with surprise.

"Which one is beside the Red Flower Pavilion?" Cao Yong saw that the old man looked at him and stopped talking, so he had to bite the bullet and speak.

Hearing Cao Yong's voice, the old man was convinced that the word "earthquake" was not his own auditory hallucination, but he felt confused about the word "safflower" and asked: "What do you call my little brother's parents? You heard it from them." Heard of these?"

Cao Yong was stunned for a moment, then slowly said: "I heard from my master!"

"Your master?" The old man looked solemn, stretched out his hand to hold Cao Yong's arm, very puzzled, the child in front of him had no internal energy at all, he looked white and tender, and he didn't look like he was practicing a foreign school.

"Little brother, what is your master's surname, where is he?" the old man asked.

"He didn't say my name. He just accepted me as a disciple and told me to understand the truth of Heavenly Father and Earth Mother. He also said that although I don't know 'Four Nine', I'm still half of the Hong family." Cao Yong said nonsense. He was just curious, so he used the Tiandihui that he had seen in "The Deer and Ding Tale" to say a few words. Later, seeing the old man's expression full of hope, he really couldn't bear to tell the truth and disappoint him, so he had to make up things.

"I didn't teach you martial arts, but I should tell you these things, shouldn't I?" The old man was puzzled: "What does that person look like, and he is in Hangzhou now?"

"He's a Taoist priest, a bit sloppy, and a heavy drinker. He's in his 50s, 60s, or 80s or [-]s! He went to Fujian last month, and I don't know when he'll be back." Cao Yong rubbed his head. , a little embarrassed, more and more lies.Seeing that the old man is about to die, why bother to lie to him, or just tell the truth, just say that he is a stranger, and ask him what he has to say about his funeral.I say old-fashioned, because in my previous life, I was a little bit familiar with the Heaven and Earth Society, and I knew that its origin was in Fujian and Taiwan, and a large part of the disciples were Taoists, monks, and nuns.

Although Cao Yong was confused, the old man nodded: "It turns out to be the disciple of Brother Su!" Seeing Cao Yong's face full of doubts, he explained: "Your master's surname is Su and his name is Hong Guang, and his nickname is 'Zui Taoist'. The 'Wei Zong' of the five sects of the sect is a master of internal martial arts."

Cao Yong didn't expect that he would talk nonsense. There really is such a character, so I don't know what to say.

The old man's face gradually turned rosy, and his eyes became much brighter.Cao Yong knew that this was a flashback, and he couldn't bear it very much. He said gently: "Who hurt you, let the master help you avenge!" But he thought in his heart, if the old man was hurt by a wicked person, then he will avenge him in the future.

After hearing Cao Yong's words, the old man understood his intentions, he was very relieved, and his face showed a bit of sadness: "Brother Su returned to Fujian, I'm afraid he is like this old man!" hand, and put an iron wrench in his hand.

The finger is very heavy, with the pattern of plum blossoms carved on it, Cao Yong feels his head is big, this can't be a keepsake, right?What are you afraid of, why are you here? I just heard the old man say: "This old man is your uncle, the first generation chief rudder of Hongmen, 'Dazong' Wan Yunlong. It has been 13 years since he opened the mountain in Fuzhou in the 27th year of Kangxi. , There are hundreds of thousands of Hongmen brothers. The original idea is that under the rule of the Manchu and Qing Tartars, the poor brothers of the Han family helped each other. Unexpectedly, in recent years, some people have become more and more hungry, and they want to sacrifice the lives of thousands of brothers to dream of yellow beams " Speaking of this, he pointed to the wrench in Cao Yong's hand: "This is the token of Hongmen's stewardship. Although the inner eight halls are rebellious, the outer eight halls are not within the sphere of influence of the rebels. Although the old man can't do it, but that The traitor who poisoned and murdered the old man broke his heart, and the remaining few dogs eat dogs will not be able to achieve anything in three to five years."

The expression on Wan Yunlong's face changed, he didn't know whether it was melancholy or relief.Cao Yong only felt that the wrench finger was heavy and hot, and asked quickly: "Who do you want to pass this finger wrench to? Tell me quickly, and I will send it for you!"

Seeing Cao Yong's clear eyes, Wan Yunlong didn't hesitate any longer, and said with a smile: "Let the finger help the old man and hand it over to Wu Tiancheng, the owner of Dahong Mountain. He naturally understands the deep meaning. Don't worry about it. It will be fine when you get older." The speaking voice became lower and lower, and finally became inaudible.When Cao Yong asked where "Dahong Mountain" was, he found that he had already gone.

(End of this chapter)