Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 8 Misfortune (4)
What a strange question, thought An Xingmian who was hiding outside the window and eavesdropping.In the middle of the night, forcing an old man to recall the past more than 30 years ago, why?Many messy associations immediately popped up in his mind: Treasure hunting?revenge?Love change?These are the favorite themes of various folk novels and teahouse storytellers.But what the masked man said next shocked him, and he began to concentrate.

"Okay, let me remind you," the masked man said, "Did you meet the head monk in the mountains that year?"

"Nagato monks? We meet each other every year," Wang Jinfu said. "People in our area are very poor. The masters of Nagato like to help the poor. They often come to teach us some knowledge about sowing, weeding and increasing production. They are very popular. We welcome it. If you insist on saying Shengde’s 11th year...it’s really nothing new.”

Changmen monk?An Xingmian slapped her heart.Sure enough, as he expected, he finally got involved with the long-door monk. It's just that it's really annoying to think about it. The emperor's order to arrest the long-door monk within the country is enough to cause headaches. In the alley, there will be such an unknown masked man who secretly inquires about the head monk.

What surprised An Xingmian even more was yet to come.The masked man asked again: "Did those long-door monks mention what sect they belonged to? For example, the Tianzang sect?"

This is even more bizarre.The name Tianzangzong is quite familiar, and you can remember it after a little thought. This is exactly the sect that old vagabond Li Han belongs to.Is this a coincidence?An Xingmian suddenly realized that those strange words that the old homeless man said before he died might be related to Nagato's current experience.

"Hero, I don't understand these things," Wang Jinfu said pitifully, "Masters of Nagato are all the same in my eyes, aren't they all from Nagato?"

"Are you sure you haven't heard the name of Tianzangzong?" the masked man asked.

Wang Jinfu once again gave a negative answer.The masked man nodded in satisfaction, and suddenly cut off Wang Jinfu's trachea with a knife.The poor old man let out a hissing gasp, and his body soon became stiff.

The masked man attacked too quickly, and An Xingmian had no time to stop him.It wasn't until the old man was completely out of breath that he realized that he shrank quickly and slid down against the wall.Sure enough, the masked man climbed out of the window again, jumped onto the roof, and disappeared quickly.

This weird episode made An Xingmian temporarily forget her previous depression.He came to the door of Wang Jinfu's neighbor's house, knocked on the door, and yelled, "The person next door is dead." He had fulfilled his duty of notification, then returned to Huainanju, and began to think carefully about the scene that just happened.He faintly felt that there seemed to be some strange and inexplicable things wrapped around Nagato, which brought all kinds of troubles to Nagato.Whether it is the emperor or an unknown masked person, they will never attack Nagato for no reason.Behind the suppression and interrogation, there must be some deep reasons hidden.Only by finding these reasons can we truly solve Nagato's difficulties. Zhang Haoge's act of sacrificing himself seems great, but it is actually useless.

Just thinking of this, Zhang Haoge has already returned.An Xingmian wanted to ask him what he said to his sister, but after thinking about it, he didn't ask, but told him what happened just now, especially what happened to Wang Jinfu's family later.

"Of course, these may be just two isolated incidents. The emperor happened to want to arrest the long-door monk, and this masked man happened to be interested in the long-door monk, so he followed it up," An Xingmian said, "but from common sense Inferring that Nagato, who has never offended anyone, suddenly has two more opponents—at least two—is this a pure coincidence? I believe that there must be some kind of connection behind these two things. Therefore, the most important thing we should do The only thing to do is to find out the hidden motives behind all this, and that is the key to solving the problem."

"You make a lot of sense," Zhang Haoge nodded, "This is what I want you to do."

An Xingmian frowned slightly: "What? Let me do it? What about you?"

"I have something I need to do, and that is to ask the governor of Wanzhou." Zhang Haoge said.

"Why do you still refuse to listen to me? Are you a fool?" An Xingmian got angry very rarely, "You know that this is simply sending you to death."

"I've said it a long time ago, you do your best, and I do mine," Zhang Haoge said, "Your mind is far smarter than mine. If you want to do any research, it's enough for you to go, and I won't Martial arts will only drag you down."

"Even so, you can hide first! Why do you have to seek skin from a tiger!" An Xingmian tried hard to persuade.

"Tang He said, you still don't understand me after all," Zhang Haoge patted An Xingmian's back lightly, "I'm just doing what a master should do."

An Xingmian leaned back on the bed dejectedly, closed her eyes, as if she was too lazy to talk anymore, but Zhang Haoge still said: "I have one thing for you to do, this is what I, as a mentor, tell my disciples requirements."

Hearing what he said solemnly, An Xingmian stood up again, Zhang Haoge took out the wooden sign left by the old vagabond Li Han, and handed it to An Xingmian: "I want you to return Li Han's wooden sign to Tianzang Zong, tell them Li Han's death and last words."

An Xingmian was slightly taken aback, but immediately understood Zhang Haoge's intentions - he also realized the uniqueness of Tianzangzong from the murder case that happened tonight, which may be the key to solving the puzzle.However, the different sects of Nagato do not usually communicate too frequently, and if it involves any secrets of the other sect, they may not be willing to reveal it.Returning the wooden sign and conveying the last words is actually a good way to get closer.

"I haven't been to Yunzhong for a long time, and I don't know if the Yunzhong Monastery still exists," Zhang Haoge said, "But I believe you will be able to find someone from Tianzangzong, and I believe in your wisdom. "

An Xingmian put the wooden sign in his arms and nodded solemnly.He understood that Zhang Haoge's determination was unshakable, and the two of them would part ways after dawn, and his mentor would follow the strong will in his heart and walk towards the path of fate that was almost doomed to death.Suddenly, An Xingmian couldn't help but burst into tears, and fell to his knees on the ground.

"Teacher, please take care!" He said with tears.Zhang Haoge helped him up tremblingly, his eye circles were already red.

An Xingmian hadn't slept all night. When it was dawn, he heard Zhang Haoge get up gently and open the door gently to go out. He could only pretend to be asleep.It wasn't until the sound of Zhang Haoge's footsteps disappeared downstairs that he sat up and stared blankly at the opposite bed.Even though he was about to face possible death, this long door master was still meticulous in all the details. Before going out, he made the bed and put An Xingmian's shoes that had been thrown crookedly on the ground.

He suddenly had an urge to rush downstairs to stop Zhang Haoge, at worst he would be knocked out with a fist and tied up - anyway, he doesn't know martial arts.But Tang He's words sounded in his heart again: "You have never really understood him. You have no idea what my brother is after."

He could only lie down again, thinking about it non-stop, and didn't go out for breakfast, and finally fell asleep from exhaustion before noon.Once Mr. An Xingmian fell asleep, it was just a long dream, and it was already midnight when he woke up.As soon as he opened his eyes, he suddenly found a figure on the opposite bed, jumped up subconsciously, and clenched his fists.But soon, he saw who the sitting person was, and let go of his fist: "Why are you here?"

"We're leaving Nanhuai early tomorrow morning, and I'm here to say goodbye to you," Tang He said, "It seems that what you said before was all false."

"Did I tell a lie?" An Xingmian was puzzled.

Tang He smiled: "At that time I made fun of you for sleeping, saying that sooner or later you would be cut off in your sleep, but you refuted me by saying that you also open one eye when you sleep, even if it is a fly I can't get close to you either. But now, I've been sitting here for a long time, and your snoring hasn't stopped for half a second."

"That's just because you and your brother are on my 'defense list', so I won't be alarmed when I hear your footsteps... Forget it, if you don't believe me, just pretend I'm lying " An Xingmian waved his hand.At this moment, he was in a bad mood, and he already felt in his heart that it was impossible for Tang He to like him, so he was much more comfortable when he spoke.

The two fell into a long silence, as if they both wanted to say something, but neither of them knew how to say it.The last thing that broke the silence was a strange sound - the gurgling sound from An Xingmian's stomach.From morning to night, he hadn't eaten for three meals.

"It seems that you can only be hungry until dawn. It's so late, where else can you get food?" Tang He gloated.

"You don't know much about Nanhuai City," An Xingmian replied, "In a place like Nanhuai, you can get food anytime, and it's the best."

The stall at night was crowded and noisy, and the tables and chairs looked not very clean, but the aroma from the cauldron on the fire was very attractive.It was already late at night, and the small tables were still full of people, all of whom looked like they were low-income civilians or talented people.But each of them held a large bowl in their hands, and they looked very happy as they ate.

"A rich person like you will come to eat this kind of roadside stall?" Tang He teased.

"The quality of food is not judged by the price," An Xingmian said. "This stewed pork noodle stall is very famous in Nanhuai City. The owner boasted that hundreds of years ago, his ancestors opened it in the city. Went to a Wannan noodle restaurant, Yun Zhan, a well-known ranger from the Yu clan at that time, liked to patronize it the most..."

"Nonsense, what is bragging? What I said is absolutely true, it was written in the family tree!" The owner of the noodle shop with sharp ears came over and patted An Xingmian on the head. It seemed that the two were old acquaintances.This is a balding man with a strong build, about 30 years old.

"Come on, it's hard to say whether the Ranger Yun Zhan really existed in history." An Xingmian punched the boss lightly in the chest, "Here's a big bowl!"

"Add a small bowl," Tang He corrected at the side, "I'm hungry too."

The boss looked at Tang He in a little surprise, and then smiled secretly at An Xingmian. An Xingmian could only return a wry smile, but Tang He pretended not to see anything.After a while, two steaming bowls of braised pork noodles, one large and one small, were placed on the table. The white and smooth noodles, large chunks of braised pork, and thick sauce made people's index fingers move.An Xingmian, who hadn't eaten all day, ate two large bowls, but Tang He only ate a small half of the small bowl, and the meat was basically untouched.

"It's really not easy for you to be jugglers. If you control your diet like this, it's even worse than the head monk..." An Xingmian suddenly stopped talking when he said this, with a gloomy expression on his face.

"I don't know how my brother is doing now..." Tang He said in a low voice.An Xingmian wanted to comfort her, but felt that it was useless to say anything now.In his imagination, Zhang Haoge may have been thrown into prison by the governor of Wanzhou, and locked up with other long-door monks.If he was still so stubborn and said some rebellious remarks that insulted the emperor, he might even be directly...he didn't dare to think about it.

On the contrary, Tang He seemed to be more persistent than him.She lowered her head and calmed down for a while, and when she raised her head, her expression was normal: "What about you? What are you going to do next? I don't think you are really like a long monk. You might as well just go back and be an ordinary person and enjoy life. "

"Well, it's not impossible to think about it, but that's for the future. Now that I'm still a monk, I must complete my mission." An Xingmian told Tang He what happened last night and Zhang Haoge's final entrustment.

"That is to say, are you going to Yunzhong City to find that Yunzhong Monastery?" Tang He asked.

"I have to go," An Xingmian said, "I even feel a little bit that the reason why the teacher sent me to that dead end is probably because of me."

"For you?" Tang He was puzzled.

"Yes, for me. I'm probably smarter than the average person, and I have some money in my pocket, so I'm the most suitable person to investigate this matter," An Xingmian didn't show off, "I Guess, as soon as the incident happened, the teacher noticed that the conspiracy contained in it was not trivial, and wanted me to find out the truth. But he also understands me... Maybe only in this way can I make up my mind and unwaveringly Go do it."

Tang He thought for a while silently, and then said: "You are right. Although I don't like you, I know that you are indeed a person with a brain, and perhaps only you can relieve the distress that weighs on Nagato. You should do it."

An Xingmian nodded, put a gold baht on the table, stood up, and walked towards the inn.He really wanted to turn around and take another look at Tang He, because he knew that he might never have the chance to meet this woman again.But in the end he still didn't look back, so he couldn't see Tang He quietly wiped his eyes behind his back.

four

From Nanhuai to Yunzhong, it will be a long and hard road if you go by land all the time, but it will be much more comfortable if you go by water.Our Mr. An has a lot of money, so naturally he rented a comfortable cruise ship from the cloud, and headed east along Jianshui, which was comfortable and comfortable.Based on his behavior, even if he really told others that he was a long sect monk, no one would believe him, not to mention that he was just an ordinary practitioner, not a famous master, and he had not even left his mentor to travel independently. No one has ever heard of his name except for the few officers who were beaten in Qingshi City.So we didn't encounter any situation along the way and it was quite safe.

It's just that other long-door monks are not so lucky.As mentioned earlier, Nagato is just a general term for people with the same belief, not a well-organized sect group, and it is very inconvenient to communicate with each other.When the emperor launched this arrest operation against the long door monks, most of the long door monks did not know about it.They are still quietly doing their own penance, showing up to help the poor when they need it, and never trying to hide their identities. Shabby clothes and hemp belts are the best memories.And because the arrests were not made public to ordinary people, they could not get warnings from those they helped.So when the news that "the emperor ordered the arrest of Nagato monk" spread inside Nagato, a considerable number of monks had already been arrested.

The rest of the people can only temporarily change their clothes and hide.But Nagato is a profession of asceticism. Except for the outliers like An Xingmian, almost all Nagato monks do not have any savings around them.If they cannot exchange for the most basic supplies by teaching the people to produce knowledge as usual, they will completely lose their source of livelihood, and thus fall into trouble.Moreover, after being suppressed and purged for the first time in history, even the most peaceful and generous monk will naturally have doubts about the strangers around him, and the journey of finding Tianzangzong is bound to be full of hardships.

An Xingmian naturally considered all kinds of difficult situations long ago, but once he said something, he would never go back on his word.He has never been to Cloud City before, but he has heard about the appearance of this city.Yunzhong is the third largest city in Wanzhou, second only to Nanhuai and Huai'an. Thanks to the development of inland river shipping, the business is quite prosperous.The most famous thing about this city is that there are many rivers living in the city.

(End of this chapter)