the enlightener says

Chapter 3 Bathwater

Not all the passers-by knew the rhythm, and none of them could say "tall as high as a mountain" like Cai Yan, but Gao Yishui's melody was melodious and they could always taste the good and the bad.

In the mountains and fields, hearing such music is enough to make people remember deeply. After all, this world is a chaotic world. How can there be so many singing and dancing?With these years of fighting, there are fewer and fewer traveling musicians, and many even have to leave their instruments behind, pick up weapons, and fight in front of the battle.

Cao Meng, the lord of the Canghai Kingdom, has a brilliant literary talent. He was once an ordinary scholar in Jishang Academy.

But in this chaotic world, he put down the scroll in his hand, and stepped up to his current position step by step with a sword and horse. If he was born in a stable country like Li Qiuhuang, with the foundation laid by these generations of ancestors, he might be There may not be only one "poetry fairy" in this world.

When night fell, a few people rested in the "inn" in the village. The inn was not much different from the one opened by Uncle Ji's house in Daoxiang Village. It was also small, dilapidated and shabby.

The shopkeeper could only give them one room, and it would be a bit crowded for four people to enter.

In the past few days, the four of them slept in the wild more than once or twice. Except for the first few times, they felt a little uncomfortable with Cai Yan beside them, but they gradually got used to it.

Looking at the furnishings in the room, Qin Ke thought that he and Abu were both in good health, and there was nothing too particular about it, so he simply gave up the bed to Cai Yan, and the two of them spread a quilt on the cold floor and slept. Lay the floor overnight.

Cai Yan sat on the bed, but she was not in a hurry to sleep, her legs were dangling.

And just when they made the floor and were about to fall asleep, Gao Yishui slipped into the bed and squeezed together with the two of them.

"Come over, Abu, you're too fat." Gao Yishui chuckled, and was kicked by Qin Ke, "Why, the ranger in the next room who calls you brother and brother doesn't sleep with you?"

Gao Yishui was kicked out of the quilt, and quickly got back, humming in his mouth: "Hey, don't talk about it, look at his body, it looks glamorous, but he doesn't even have a donkey, and he walks on two legs every day. You smell even worse than before you took a shower."

But what he said made Qin Ke furious, and said: "It seems like you don't stink, and we took a bath, how about you? You just took a cloth and dipped it in hot water and wiped it. If you have the ability, don't talk to us. sleep."

How could Gao Yishui back down at such a time, and leaned forward with a shameless face: "Don't... Ake, you are so sweet, take me one, take me one." It won't be cold, but it's cheaper for me, someone warms the bed."

But he smashed his mouth again, showing a look of pity and said: "It would be even better if there are two beauties who are as beautiful as flowers."

Qin Ke rolled his eyes and said, "It's still a beautiful woman. You can ask the fat woman in the shop to see if he would like to accompany you." In fact, when he was playing the piano in Gao Yishui, he had already noticed the burning eyes of the proprietress on Gao Yishui.

After all, Gao Yishui still looked dignified when he was not so gag, and when he was playing the piano, his aura was even more ethereal.

However, Gao Yishui was a little apprehensive: "Come on, then I might as well go to sleep with that cow in the cowshed, they probably weigh about the same..."

Cai Yan couldn't help covering her mouth and laughing.

At this moment, the proprietress gently knocked on the door: "My lady, the hot water is ready."

Cai Yan's eyes brightened slightly, and he replied, "I'll come."

"Hot water?" Qin Ke, Gao Yishui, A Bu and others looked at each other, "Why do you need hot water?"

"It's bath water." Cai Yan grinned, "I just asked the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper said that the inn doesn't have a bathtub, but there is one at home. The fat lady you mentioned warmly prepared hot water for me. She even took half of the money I handed her."

She smiled softly and said, "Don't talk, the water is getting cold, I'll be back in a while."

After all, she is a woman, and she was born in a family of officials. Compared with the three big men, she always prefers to be clean.It's just that her body can't bear the coldness of the river, so it's great to have a bathtub and hot water now.

But when Gao Yishui saw Cai Yan going out alone, he hurriedly said softly to Qin Ke: "Ah Ke, follow her out."

"Ah? I'll follow her?" Qin Ke was stunned, and inexplicably remembered that when he was a teenager, he blushed inexplicably because he was curious and peeped at the aunt next door when he was taking a bath. "She is going to take a bath, why should I follow?"

Gao Yishui shook his head, and said solemnly: "If you are told to go, go, no matter what. Don't you realize that there is something wrong with this store? It's always good to be on guard."

"What's the problem? Why can't I see it." Qin Ke's face became serious.

"Nonsense, you can see it, what do you want me to do?" Gao Yishui said: "She is a girl, she looks like a flower and jade and has no self-defense skills, what if the shopkeeper has evil thoughts?"

"That's right..." Qin Ke nodded, but he didn't know how to explain his purpose to Cai Yan. Could it be that he came here to take a bath with you because he was afraid that you would be in danger?Doesn't this sound too brazen?

But he wanted to think about it, so he had to stand up, open the door, and walk out.

Abu also asked anxiously from the side: "Where did you see that something is wrong?"

"What's wrong?"

"What you said just now." Abu said, "If you didn't find any clues, why would you let Ake go out with you so solemnly. Could this be a black shop?"

"Then I don't know, at least in my opinion, this inn is very normal." Gao Yishui yawned, not caring about Abu's serious expression at all, and turned over lazily, "To be honest, this inn is very normal." I have been to the village a few years ago, this store owner is an honest man, he dare not even ask him to take another look at the beautiful woman..."

"but……"

"But this is very interesting!" Gao Yishui smiled mysteriously, "If it was me, I would definitely agree and go. Protection? For a man, such a high-sounding reason is just right to cover up... Cough cough, otherwise Let's guess, when Ah Ke came back, was his face red or blue?"

A Bu understood what Gao Yishui meant, and thought that A Ke would be such a person, he asked dumbfoundedly: "What is the red one? What is the green one?"

"Of course the red ones are too shy to look at them." Gao Yishui's voice came out muffled from under the quilt, "The green ones...of course it's the first time I'm not skilled at peeking, so I was discovered...Of course, I hope it's the latter."

"..."

Qin Ke stayed outside the door, listening to the sound of splashing water inside, looking at the bright moon in the sky, his mind was full of confusion for a while, and he was a little restless.

Where did Gao Yishui find out that there was a problem with this store?At any rate, he has been with Gao Yishui for so many days, and he has learned a lot of useful things from him. He can even make some vague judgments about black shops or not.

But tonight, he really couldn't figure out what kind of face was hidden under the shopkeeper's honest smile.

Why does it seem that there are no abnormalities?

Shouldn't it be: a group of thieves were waiting in the house, and the moment Cai Yan entered, they immediately stretched out a pair of big hands from the darkness to hug her, and several other big men hurriedly began to cover her mouth with cloth Nose, until Cai Yan was unconscious...

But there seemed to be no disturbance at all, the sound of rushing water came from the room, and there was a little tune that Cai Yan was humming comfortably.

"I'm not being raped, am I?" He leaned against the door, inexplicably thinking about it.

Chapter 3 Nine Chat

Sitting in the tub, Cai Yan gradually felt her smooth skin surrounded by warm water, and let out a long sigh of satisfaction.

Along the way, women are always more inconvenient than men, and she has no cultivation, and it is difficult for her to withstand the cold river water in autumn like Abu and Qin Ke. Now that she has hot water and a bathtub, this makes her The tired body and mind after a few days finally ushered in a comfortable release.

The hot water washed away the tiredness on her body. She lowered her head and looked at her feet silently in the water. The moonlight coming in through the window illuminated the water surface and also illuminated it, slender, delicate and delicate.

She raised her head and said to Qin Ke outside the door: "Mr. Gao Shan only asked you to come and guard?"

Qin Ke was startled, he didn't expect that Cai Yan would be able to talk to himself leisurely at this time, he hesitated a little: "Uh... yeah..."

Cai Yan nodded. These days, she can be said to have placed complete trust in Qin Ke.

She is not the kind of person who has to worry too much about the defense between men and women when she is away from home, otherwise she would not be able to stay in the same room with Qin Ke and others overnight and put them in Ding'an City. If Cai Yong finds out about this kind of thing, I'm afraid he will You have to be angry and make trouble.

But this doesn't mean that she is really willing to do it. Living together is just forced by the situation and she has to do it as a last resort, just like now, although it feels weird to have a man just across the wall, but there is Qin Ke like this It is better to have a door god guarding the door than to be alone.

She gathered her long hair, stretched her neck, lay back, and narrowed her eyes lazily: "Then you are miserable."

"What do you mean?"

"It's very slow to take a shower at the girl's house." Speaking of this, her eyes showed a bit of slyness, "Is the wind blowing cold outside? Do you want to come in?"

"Ah?" Qin Ke felt the cold night wind, which was fine for him, but Cai Yan's "Do you want to come in" made him confused for a while, and waved his hands while speaking incoherently: "I'm fine. No, no, I'm really not cold, I don't want to go in at all."

It's just that he waved his hands for a while and laughed at himself. There was a door behind him, who was showing him such a helpless look?

"Haha, you think too much, there is a screen inside, and you can't see it." Cai Yan giggled, of course she knew that Qin Ke didn't have the guts, but after laughing, her cheeks blushed inexplicably, I thought to myself what are I doing?Just tease him, why put yourself in it?

"Oh..." Qin Ke drooped his head. These days, he has gotten used to being fooled by Cai Yan. Sometimes even if Cai Yan doesn't do this, his heart will feel a little empty, which makes him extremely headache. , I thought to myself, is this a tendency to be abused?

But he still said solemnly: "I, I still won't go in, I'm in good health, I'm not too afraid of the cold... but... I'm afraid of the heat."

Of course, it's purely just the feeling of sweating.

Cai Yan sat in the bathtub, bored and began to look for topics, "Tell me, Funiu Mountain...is there really another half of the Five Elements Division?"

Qin Ke simply sat down on the steps. Hearing Cai Yan's question, he lowered his head and thought for a while: "I don't know, I hope so."

"But even if you find the compass, there are still so many artifacts in this world that have not been heard from. Are you going to find them one by one?"

Qin Ke looked at the moon, and after a while, he smiled bitterly and said, "It seems that I have no other way? At least with the Five Elements Division, looking for artifacts will not be like a headless chicken, it will always be faster, and... Now I also kind of want to figure out... what exactly is Divine Revelation."

"Sinan of the Five Elements can guide the direction of the artifact... This matter is just an ancient book, at least for so many years, no one has really verified it. And since Sinan's pointer comes from the palace of the Tang Dynasty... maybe there will be artifacts in Canghai and Mohism, Then how do you get it?" Cai Yan said.

Qin Ke was silent, and it took a long time before he opened his mouth: "I don't know..."

There was no reply from Cai Yan.

Qin Ke waited for a while, not knowing what was going on, raised his voice, and shouted: "Hello!"

"I'm not calling hello." Cai Yan's voice sounded again.

This time it was Qin Ke's turn to be dumb. All along, he always didn't know what to call Cai Yan. He always felt that it was weird to call Cai Yan by his first name. It didn't look like a friend, but like a pair of businessmen doing business trade.

When I was in Jiuxianju back then, I felt more at ease and called her Brother Cai or Brother Yan.But now, it is obvious that these two titles are not suitable to be used anymore. As for Miss Cai, I am afraid that she is a bit out of touch.

So, Xiao Cai?No, side dish?Sour radish or salty cabbage?

Maybe Cai Yan is not much younger than herself.

Ah Yan?strange……

Yaner?Cough cough, that is a taboo title, although he knows that Cai Yan's family members call her like that, and sometimes adds a word "small" in front of it to express closeness, but he is not her family member.

In this way, there is only one word "Hello", which is the most suitable.

It's just that Cai Yan didn't keep entangled in addressing the problem, but made a distressed voice: "My hair is knotted."

Qin Ke was not surprised: "You run around all day and dig around in the rice fields. It's strange that your hair is not knotted."

Cai Yan stared at the screen, as if this glance could penetrate the screen and the wooden door, and hit Qin Ke's back directly: "I am willing, what's the matter?"

Scholars in the world are always afraid of encountering soldiers, and Qin Ke, who is not even considered a scholar, naturally shut his mouth very tactfully in front of Cai Yan's little girlish temper.

Bickering back to bickering, Cai Yan did not forget to continue to take care of her knotted long hair. Although these days she doesn't care about getting along with the three men day and night, women in this world, no matter what their temperament or family background, they always have It is beautiful.

The mud stained on the long hair was gradually cut apart in the warm water. Cai Yan gently smoothed the long hair with her fingers, feeling that her long black hair became as smooth and supple as satin again. There was also a sweet smile on the corner of his mouth.

She continued what she said just now: "Perhaps, your master refused to take you there because he didn't want you to be involved in his affairs, didn't he?"

Qin Ke certainly thought about this.

When Gao Yishui thinks about things, he always thinks of the "protagonist" of the "person" who leads the event on a more negative side. He naturally believes that Zhuge Wolong adopted him out of some personal "conspiracy" or "need". But Qin Ke didn't want to believe it.

Since his parents died on the wasteland, he has no relatives. The bowl of meat of "unknown origin" and his father's strong last words made him continue to walk, and after that, it was the master who brought him back Once pulled back from the brink of death, he became his savior, his life mentor, and even his... second father.

Who would believe that their father was a thief?Who would believe that his father was kind to him for the sake of conspiracy?

Such speculation by Cai Yan made Qin Ke feel warm in his heart. He smiled slightly and said, "I have always believed that Master is for my own good. Even when he was on the sick bed, he never forgot to tell me to live well. Long, my father used to say the same thing... and now I can not only take care of myself, but even... maybe I can help him a little."

"Even if this matter is dangerous?" Cai Yan asked.

"Of course..." Qin Ke turned his head, looked at the wooden door, scratched the back of his head, thought for a while, but still didn't lie, and said honestly: "It's a lie to say that I'm not afraid. dying."

For example, when the old man put his fingers into his chest at the Imperial Palace Taishi Bureau...

Cai Yan burst out laughing.

It took about a quarter of an hour until Qin Ke started yawning, and Cai Yan finally finished washing. At this time, the hot water in the bathtub had turned cold, and she added water several times in the middle.

She put her hands together like a bowl, held up a ball of water, and watched the moonlight shining on it, like a sparkling lake.

Then she stood up gently from the tub, wiped off the water marks on her body, and put on the obscene clothes.

The clothes clung to her exquisite body, the wind came through the window, and the chill of the autumn night made her shiver slightly. She quickened her movements and quickly wrapped a coat outside, finally feeling warmer .

When the door was opened, Qin Ke was sitting on the steps, leaning against the pillar, with his eyes closed, swaying, his even breath drifting quietly in the wind.

He fell asleep.

Cai Yan pursed her lips and smiled, and squatted down gently beside him, looking at his peaceful sleeping face like a child, and there was also a playful snicker on his face, from her long seaweed-like Fiddled with a strand of hair, and carefully touched the tip of Qin Ke's nose.

Chapter 3 The Uninvited Guest

Qin Ke felt itchy, twitched his nose, and frowned, but Cai Yan's relentless touch made his nose itchy more and more, and finally, he sneezed suddenly in his sleep.

He opened his eyes, Cai Yan blinked his star-like eyes, and was watching him with a smile.

Qin Ke hurriedly stood up, and suddenly hit his head on the pillar again, making a muffled sound.

"How are you?" Qin Ke touched his head and knew that he was not very competent as a "guard", but fell asleep in just a quarter of an hour.

He coughed a few times in embarrassment, "Then, then go back."

"Yeah." Cai Yan wrapped her half-dried long hair in a towel, and followed behind Qin Ke cheerfully.

The village is very small, and the houses are not far apart. Walking through a rough path, they heard a few dogs barking, and the two of them saw the candlelight in the inn window.

The stable was right next to the inn, and the donkey pulling the cart inside was still chewing hay, his eyes glazed over.

But Qin Ke suddenly became alert.

Just before, there had only been a scrawny horse and a donkey they had brought with them in the stable, but at the moment they left, the stable was getting crowded.

There were four horses, although the colors were not uniform, but from the appearance, these four horses were all rare and good horses. Compared with the skinny horse brought by the poor ranger, they were a full head taller. All of them are fat and strong.