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Wufang Pavilion in Yanguan Town.

This place has always been the most lively place in the town. All year round, on winter afternoons and summer evenings, residents of the town, old and young, come to this pavilion to bask in the sun or enjoy the shade in their free time. A large group of people gather together to chat and brag, talking about all kinds of things, or they hear the booksmith tell stories...

Therefore, most of the stories about the Zhang family and the Li family in the small town, as well as countless novel stories or gossip, spread from here to all directions.

When the poor boy walked from the east entrance of the town to the intersection, he saw that the five-square pavilion in the center was filled with people, all of whom were playing chess and watching others playing chess.

Not only were there people sitting on the stone benches next to the stone table, but the chairs around the pavilion were also full of people.

Mr. Lu, who heard about the book, said that the official name of this kind of bench in the pavilion is "gooseneck chair", but there seems to be another name that is said to have allusions. These benches are also called "beauty chair" or "Wu" "Wang Lean", also called "Flying Chair", is very particular.

Naturally, the unpopular poor boy would not look away and do the reckless thing of hurriedly entering the pavilion. He just stood at the corner of the street in a deserted place and looked around, hoping to see from his appearance that the sloppy man had given him Who is that instruction referring to?

But before he could get the result, someone in the pavilion felt bored because he was itching to watch chess and couldn't get anything to say, so he turned around and shouted to the storyteller who often sat in the northeast corner of the intersection, "Mr. Lu, you are free too." If you have nothing to do, why don't you read a paragraph and listen?"

The storyteller, who was drinking tea and reading a book while holding the exquisite teapot, raised his head when he heard this and glanced over there. He didn't hesitate to refuse. He put down the book in his hand with a smile, laughed loudly, and responded in the same loud voice: "Okay. Ah! Come on, come on, all the judges, please come and gather around me. Let me tell you a story. Today’s story is quite interesting! It would be a pity if you don’t listen!”

The young man who was still observing the crowd stood at the corner of the street. After the exchange of answers, he thoughtfully turned his attention to the man who had already stood up and sat upright, waiting for the readers to gather around him before he was ready to open the book. Mr. Storyteller...

After a while, when the waiting was almost over, the bookmaker was already ready. He held a folding fan in his left hand and leaned it on the table. He lifted the wooden tree on the table with his right hand and knocked it hard. This was considered a serious lecture.

"Peach Blossoms spring rain drinks from peach trees, a pot of peach wine brings you to the fairyland. The book has twists and turns, and everything in the world is heart-breaking. The dragon gate formation in front of the Five Square Pavilion, and the tens of thousands of squares outside Yanguan Town. I advise you to open the door more carefully. The right path in the world is the vicissitudes of life. !”

The storyteller's gavel sounded again at the right time at the end of the last sentence, followed by applause and cheers from many people inside and outside the Wufangting to the book stall, making a crackling sound.

The storyteller, who was surrounded by the crowd and sat in a bamboo chair behind his desk, smiled and thanked the audience, and his eyes intentionally or unintentionally glanced at the faces of some of the onlookers who were mixed in the crowd with incomprehensible expressions. .

The poor young man standing far away from the crowd on the steps of an unopened street shop looked carefully. The moment Mr. Lu lowered his head after bowing his hands in thanks, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, and the sarcasm disappeared in a flash. , I don’t know who it is for?
The young man occasionally heard people say that every time before opening a book, the booksmith would read a passage from the text that sounded quite smooth like today. They called this an "entry poem" or a "setting poem."

It's just that most poor young people who haven't gone to school can't understand what they're talking about. Although they occasionally hear a passage from Mr. Lu's story, they just treat it as a pass. But I didn’t really understand the meaning, and I didn’t know if the onlookers could understand it?

I heard the storyteller finish reading the opening poem and then started the story to be told today: "It is said that in ancient times, the world was not as peaceful as it is today! In that era, the world was not ruled by one human family as it is now. Forget it, the gods subjugate demons, the demons eat demons, the demons eat people, people turn into ghosts after death, and ghosts in turn harm people, demons, and gods. The parties are entangled endlessly, wars continue, alliances are combined vertically and horizontally, and clever schemes are used. There are a lot of things to do, but it has been impossible to tell the winner for thousands of years! The battle situation back then was so exciting, and all the lives were in ruins!"

The storyteller seems to want to make the story more exciting, so he deliberately exaggerates his tone and cadences, trying to attract the attention of the surrounding spectators as much as possible.

"It is said that when this chaotic war started nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years ago, a young man appeared in the world. With a long knife in his hand, he cut off all the evil spirits and heretics. The situation changed color and the world bowed its head. !”

The storyteller seemed to want to whet the appetite of the audience who had gathered in a circle. He suddenly stopped talking in the middle of the sentence and picked up the exquisite purple clay teapot on the desk. He took a sip of tea at the spout and was stunned. He asked with a mysterious smile: "Do you, judges, know where this young man is from?"

Someone in the crowd who was listening to the story with bated breath smiled and said, "Mr. Lu, are you saying that this person is from Liangzhou?"

As soon as the quarrel came out of his mouth, the people around him burst into laughter.

The storyteller put down the small teapot with a smile, pointed at the Yanguan town citizen who was talking, and laughed: "Converse words, confuse words, talk and laugh in a lively manner, readers, please don't be surprised, this neighbor is a plowman." To be fair, the great human race man who was so majestic back then was our Liangzhou native!"

After the storyteller finished speaking, he raised his hand, and a scream sounded behind him!

Seeing the disbelief on the faces of many people in the crowd, the storyteller was not in a hurry. As if to make his story more credible, he threw out another highlight.

"Dear readers, do you know why the imperial army of our Chengyun Empire is named 'Shence'? This is exactly the inheritance left by that powerful man! If you don't believe me, please ask Mr. Cui from our rural school. , let’s see if the Shence Army’s home originates from our Longyou River west?”

As soon as these words came out, there was a series of gasps and gasps all around!

This means that the bookmaker has the courage to mention the name of Mr. Cui, who is recognized as the most knowledgeable person in the town, even the Chen family, who is known as a scholarly family, shows that he is not afraid of confrontation when telling such bizarre stories!
Is it possible that that powerful person is really from Liangzhou?

I've never heard anyone say that before!

The storyteller succeeded in attracting the attention of the audience, and the storyteller naturally spoke with more enthusiasm. For a time, saliva was splashing everywhere, the iron horse was fighting, the sword was flashing, the story was exciting and fascinating!

"The long sword in the young man's hand is also one of his most convenient magical weapons. It is recorded in the history books that it is 'famous in the capital of the gods and powerful in Jiuzhou'! Listen to this, this statement is powerful and domineering. Got it!"

Among the mesmerized crowd, there were several outsiders who seemed not to pay attention to the content of the story told by the storyteller. Instead, their eyes wandered back and forth among the crowd, mostly focusing on the young girls in the small town. Wander around.

……

The storyteller's book started from the setting of the sun to the setting of the sun, and just before the sun was about to set, he happened to stop at the sentence "If you want to know what happened next, listen to the explanation next time"!

All the spectators cheered loudly, but they were still unsatisfied.

What happened next? That high-spirited young man defeated a generation of demon kings who were enemies of the three realms. Then what?What happened to the remaining demon clan remnants?

The ghost king is dominated by the demon king. The demon king is dead, but what about the ghost king?What about the demon clan that fought with them and both sides suffered losses?Since the divine world looks down on the human world, what will happen next?

The storyteller is following his usual path again today, telling half of the story and whetting your appetite!

Want to see the next step?You have to buy the book!
For the first time today, the young man did not leave early before the storytelling ended. He squatted in front of the shop that did not open the door, lowered his head and ignored the strange glances and whispers of all the people passing by. He waited until the crowd had dispersed before standing up. , hesitantly walked to the bookstore where the storyteller was packing up his stall, and stared at Mr. Lu, hesitant to speak.

The storyteller didn't even look up, and just asked calmly while cleaning up: "Why do you think the person you are looking for is me?"

This question is very interesting.

The young man smiled when he heard this and said, "What Mr. Lu said today is different from the previous one?"

The young man's words were in the tone of a question. The bookmaker raised his eyebrows and looked at the young man with a smile and said, "Why is it different?"

"In the past, you only talked about talented people and beautiful women, or anecdotes, or you talked about how a poor young man made money step by step to become the richest man in the world, or how he read and became the number one scholar in the dynasty. You never said Such weird things happened today." The young man recalled this part with half a memory.

"You've heard a lot, but that's all?" the storyteller asked again with a half-smile.

"And you mentioned a knife." When the young man said this, his tone was very firm.

After hearing this, the storyteller stopped cleaning the stall and sat back on the bamboo chair. He reached out to pick up the small teapot and took a sip of tea. Then he looked at the young man and said with a smile: "I guess you're just a mess." , but since it was the reckless man from the town who pointed you to me, you should think of a question, why should he ask me for help when he is unwilling to intervene? "

The young man nodded, then thought for a while and then tentatively said: "Lao Hou told me that it is best to make a deal with the knife I have at home. If you are willing to help, Mr. Lu, then I am willing to do this deal with you."

When the storyteller heard this, the smile on his face faded a little, and he waved his hand and said: "That sword of yours is indeed very valuable. Although it is just a longer sword in the eyes of ordinary people, in the eyes of practitioners, it is a real sword." The treasure is enough to make many people jealous!"

As he spoke, he put down the teapot, picked up the folded fan that was lying flat on the table, and continued to fiddle with it: "But this is about the foreigners who have recently arrived, not including me or the town's entrance. That reckless man, we came to this place even earlier than you. If we really wanted to, this deal wouldn't have waited until now."

The young man felt a little embarrassed when he heard what the middle-aged man sitting across from him said.

It was a fact that the family was so poor that they couldn't afford it. He couldn't even afford three full meals on time and ordered, and how could he have any money or other so-called valuables? The old man at the school and the wealthy young man named Ke realized that the knife that the old drunkard valued so much could be used as capital, but Mr. Lu said he was not interested, which left him at a loss.

The family's financial resources are too thin, it is doomed.

The storyteller in a gray gown smiled at the young man's somewhat unspeakable expression, and had no intention of further embarrassing him. He tapped the edge of the table with a folding fan in his hand to attract the young man's attention, who had his head lowered. Power, and then said lightly: "This place under our feet is destined that everything here will consciously or unconsciously derive many things that will be described later in the future. You can say it is destiny, or it is destiny. Regardless of the cycle of cause and effect, the result is the same.”

"If you are lucky enough, then if I help you today, you may be able to save your life. You may be able to survive from the hands of Shuixiu Lake. If you are better, you may be able to block it temporarily. There is a group of mysterious people who have been planning to take your life for more than ten years, but this does not mean that this disaster will pass so easily."

"The calamity you owe today is very likely to become a bigger and more difficult calamity in the future. Even the people who help you today and those who will help you in the future will have to follow you to deal with the calamity. There is no way to avoid it!" The storyteller's expression was a little serious at this time, and he no longer had the indifferent smile before, "You have to know one thing. In the eyes of ordinary people like you, expressions like 'karma' may seem like casual remarks. You may also think that the words 'good people don't live long, but harm will last for thousands of years' are more true..."

"But for people like me, cause and effect is cause and effect, and retribution can never be avoided forever! The debt owed now will have to be repaid sooner or later in the future. The longer it is delayed, the more it will be repaid! Of course! , there are also some people who don’t care about this, ‘If you have wine today, you will be drunk today, and you will be worried tomorrow,’ but they never thought that one day they would not be able to pay back the debt they owed!”

When the storyteller said the last sentence, his voice was already a little cold and his face was a little gloomy. He narrowed his eyes slightly and stared directly at the young man's eyes. His expression was very much like that of the Dharma Protector King in the temple staring at the kneeling Buddha. The evil spirits in the hall.

"So, even if I am willing to help you, what do you think you can do to repay this debt you owe me?"

For a moment, the young man took a step back under the pressure of the terrifying aura coming out of the storyteller, and his face became a little pale, but his eyes looking at the sharp-looking storyteller became much more determined.

Almost the next moment, he faced the storyteller's oppressive gaze and replied: "Mr. Lu, I don't have the skills like you, so I don't know what the retribution you are talking about will be like. ?But you said it was like paying off a debt, and I understand that."

Having said this, the young man clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to support himself and take another step forward to regain his position before he stepped back.

The pressure around him was unparalleled. In the past ten years, he had never felt so tight that he couldn't even open his mouth. However, he could hear the words he spoke in a calm tone, without any sound. of ups and downs.

"Mr. Lu, I have never been lucky enough to lend money to others, nor do I have the face to borrow money from others, so I don't know what it feels like to owe someone a debt, but I still know what it feels like to owe someone a favor. , It’s not easy to feel, and it’s even more uncomfortable to owe someone a favor and not pay it back!”

When the young man said this, there were some long-lasting memories in his eyes, but after a pause in his tone, he quickly withdrew his thoughts, and his eyes quickly returned to clarity.

When he looked at the storyteller again, he felt a little helpless, and sighed: "I don't have anything I can use now, and the little capital you have is not worth it, so I really can't afford to do the kind of payment in person." It’s a deal to clear both sides, but now that things have come to a head, I have no choice, and I have to do this deal..."

"I don't know much about some things, so Mr. Lu can set the terms. I can guarantee that I will never bargain, let alone default! As for whether you believe it or not, it's up to you!"

The storyteller, who was sitting on a bamboo chair and squinting at the young man, stared at the young man's determined eyes and said nothing for a long time.

The young man looked at the storyteller with the same firm eyes, neither hiding nor ducking, but he did not speak.

After a while, the storyteller sneered slightly and said: "He is a good hand at cutting meat!"

After he finished speaking, he looked at the young man for a moment, then suddenly shook his head and said: "Don't do this kind of business with others in the future that leaves no way for you. Either you will make people think you are a fool, or you will be betrayed." Oh, you didn’t even have a chance to give people money!”

The young man was also a little embarrassed and touched his nose without replying.

The storyteller looked at the young man, then pointed at the desk in front of him and the pile of unsold books with the folding fan in his hand, and ordered: "Move all these things into the shop and find one that you think is suitable." Come out after the place is ready."

The young man was stunned for a moment, then smiled and replied: "Okay!"

-

Yuzhi Street, in a side courtyard of the Zhu family's back house.

The wealthy mother and son who came across the mountains and seas from Shuixiu Lake in Jinchaizhou sat on both sides of the stone table under a peach blossom tree in the courtyard. The elderly woman who always lowered her eyebrows and lowered her eyes whenever she was with them, As usual, he stood respectfully behind the plump and beautiful woman in silence.

The beautiful woman looked helpless and curious at the bored expression of her precious son across the way, so she smiled softly and said, "I heard from Aunt Xin that you have already gone to the east entrance of the town to find someone to do business with? Are you still there? Not going well?"

The young man nodded when he heard this, raised his eyelids and glanced at the old woman intentionally or unintentionally.

The old woman stood quietly behind the mistress, without any expression, her eyelids were drooped as if she was drowsy, and she was indifferent to everything around her.

The wealthy young man smiled, and a certain figure who knew nothing about heaven and earth flashed through his mind, and he said indifferently: "Well, he is a ungrateful untouchable, but it's not a big problem. Once he has tasted the pain, he will know what it means to be an immortal." It’s irreversible.”

The beautiful woman frowned slightly when she heard her son's words. She didn't quite agree with his wording. After thinking about it for a moment, she said softly: "Yuzhi, don't use such rude words. You have read books and learned etiquette. How can you do this?" Say those rude words in your mouth? You will become the leader of a sect in the future, so you must not let others laugh at you."

The wealthy young man opposite was a little impatient, but since the person speaking was his mother, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and finally laughed it off without saying anything.

Seeing this, the beautiful woman could only sigh slightly helplessly, and continued to ask without delving further: "Then how do you plan to solve it?"

Ke Yuzhi leaned back slightly, holding his pearls of wisdom, and said with a cold smile: "This place has too many restrictions on outsiders like us. It is easy to be targeted if we rashly do it ourselves, but fortunately, their rules do not say that townspeople are not allowed. There is a conflict between them.”

The wealthy young man's eyes turned sinister and terrifying in an instant. He looked around the Zhu family's side courtyard with a sneer and said: "It's really easy to plot against a person, and it's even easier to plot against a penniless piece of trash. , I really want to know, when he faces people he once could not reach but only envied, and finds out that those people he once envied looked at him with cold and ugly faces, how would he feel?"

He clicked his tongue twice, and said with a cold and cruel sneer: "If you dump your body in the wilderness in broad daylight, I wonder if some of the future generations will feel guilty?"

The beautiful woman understood what he meant almost instantly, and her expression seemed to be a little unbearable, and she said softly: "The dead are the most important, especially those like us who are practitioners, so we should not be disrespectful."

The old woman who had been standing behind her moved her eyelids slightly. She slowly opened her eyes and whispered: "Madam, can I say something?"

The beautiful woman smiled softly and said, "It doesn't matter, Nanny Xin."

"That knife is of great importance. I had a plan before I came here, so I boldly ask the woman to not show mercy when she has to make up her mind. Otherwise, it will be a shame to make a big mistake due to a small mistake." The old woman said. The tone was calm, as if he just said an ordinary thing.

The beautiful woman did not refute when she heard this, and smiled softly, "Mama Xin is right in your criticism. I am a bit stingy."

The old woman bowed slightly and said softly: "Old slave, I don't dare."

The beautiful woman smiled, turned to her son and said with a smile: "Aren't you afraid that the boy will fight for you by doing this?"

The rich boy seemed to have heard some funny joke and sneered: "Isn't that just right? The rules here do not allow us to attack the natives, but they do not prohibit us from fighting back when those unscrupulous people actively attack us! If he dares to come Look for me, I just have a reason to kill him!"

The beautiful woman frowned again after hearing his words. She had said some words many times, but he had never taken them seriously.

The wealthy young man sitting opposite just ignored him, turned to glance at the old woman who was standing aside and fell into silence again, and ordered: "Then I'll trouble you to go to the main courtyard and ask that Zhu Jiantang to come over. Just say that I have something to discuss with him."

"Yes, Young Master." The elderly woman bowed her head slightly in response, then turned around and slowly left the side courtyard.

The wealthy young man watched the old woman disappear at the entrance of the courtyard. After thinking about it, he turned back to the beautiful woman and said, "Mother, to prevent accidents, this matter may require your attention."

The beautiful middle-aged woman, who originally thought that the plan was settled and was not going to interfere anymore, was surprised for a moment when she heard this. She looked at the young man opposite and asked, "What?"

Ke Yuzhi recalled his previous guesses and briefly explained it to his mother.

The beautiful woman was a little surprised after hearing this, and then said with a serious face: "Are you sure? That young man has the support of a great monk?"

Ke Yuzhi shook his head, "Is there someone behind him, or is there someone, and what level this person will be... These are still unclear, but I think he shouldn't be too powerful, otherwise he wouldn't be able to survive until now. So careless! On the other hand, there is a possibility that he will use that knife in exchange for a helping hand. Asking mother to sit in is just to prevent trouble before it happens, to avoid the possibility of missteps, and you may not be required to take action. "

The beautiful woman nodded when she heard this and said nothing more.

The wealthy young man also nodded, then raised his head and looked at the light green growing on the branches of the peach tree next to the stone table, and smiled coldly.

What do you think you can do to a ignorant idiot with a few harsh words?

The frog at the bottom of the well sits down and looks at the sky, not knowing how big the world is, let alone what an immortal is!

An illiterate plan?
is that useful?
……