Strange Tale

Having dinner at Shiquan Pavilion at noon, Long Jiu stopped fighting with Si Ren to pay.So four people, two big and two small, two dishes and one soup, four bowls of rice and one pot of tea.It's not very rich, but it's lively and clean.For the first time, Long Jiu felt that the food was "delicious".

In the afternoon, they first wandered around casually.Si Ren bought a pair of Beijing flowers for Huan'er and a pair of shoes for Qilin.Then Qilin and Huan'er watched people draw sugar paintings, and Si Ren and Long Jiu wandered to the side of a Western Region vendor's stall.

Si Ren knelt down and picked up a jade Buddha statue first, but before he took a second look, his attention was attracted by a black stone on the ground.

Putting down the Buddha statue, Si Ren picked up the stone and looked around.Long Jiu also squatted down and approached him and asked him what he was looking at.

Si Ren put the stone in front of Long Jiu for comparison, "This stone is easy to call you."

Long Jiu took the stone, with an embarrassed expression on his face, "It's black and rough, where is it called me?"

Si Ren took the stone back and weighed it in his hand, "You won't see, this is not an ordinary stone. There is another mystery in it."

Long Jiu was disdainful, "What mystery?"

Si Ren picked up the stone and pointed it at the sun, "Look, isn't it beautiful?"

Long Jiu looked at the still black and inconspicuous stone, "Do you want to use it to remind yourself of some painful past?"

"Nonsense." Si Ren put the stone in his hand, "I'm going to buy it and give it to you."

Long Jiu's expression froze, "Are you joking?"

Si Ren turned to look at the stall owner, "Brother, how do you sell this?"

The stall owner was an uncle from the Western Regions with a deep outline, curly beard and hair, and who didn't speak Chinese very well.After he figured out what Si Ren meant, he pointed at the jade Buddha statue that Si Ren had just taken, "Buy this one, that one, and give it to you."

Long Jiu's expression became even uglier.

Si Ren waved his hand, "No that. Just this."

The curly-haired uncle pointed at the black stone again, "That one is not for sale."

Si Ren spread his hands, "Why?"

Long Jiu became more and more annoyed seeing Si Renbi gesticulating.

The curly-haired uncle patted the felt on the ground, "Here, Dafeng, huh—huh—"

The uncle made a gesture of blowing the air while talking, and then he raised the felt, "This is very troublesome. The stone is small, heavy, and very useful!"

Si Ren and Long Jiu understood: what the stall owner meant was that when the wind blows, the felt will be thrown up and things will be messed up, so you have to use that stone to press the corners, and the stone is small and heavy, so it is very useful.

Long Jiu already had the urge to set Si Ren on fire.

But Si Ren still refused to give up, he put down the stone and reached into his backpack to search for it.

After tossing and turning for a long time, Si Ren took out a copper bowl from his bag.

Long Jiu looked at him angrily, "Is this the tool you use to beg for food? Put it away quickly, don't be ashamed."

Si Ren handed the copper bowl to Uncle Curly, "I'll change it with you. It's very heavy and can hold things."

The copper bowl was made of bronze, with finely carved patterns on it. Although it was not as heavy as the stone, it was almost enough to hold things.

Long Jiu felt that something was wrong, and Si Ren seemed to be at a disadvantage. He hurriedly pulled Si Ren's sleeve with his hand, "Stop making trouble, okay? I don't want that broken stone."

Uncle Curly has already taken the bowl.

"Hey! We won't change!" Long Jiu yelled to grab the bowl.

Si Ren held him down, "Don't make trouble."

After carefully looking at the copper bowl, the uncle put the bowl in his arms, and then pushed the jade Buddha statue and stones in front of Si Ren, "It's all yours."

"Thank you." Si Ren pushed the Buddha statue back and only took the stone, then he stood up and saluted before leaving.

"Are you stupid?!" Long Jiu wanted to reach out to grab the Buddha statue again.

Si Ren picked him up from the stall in time, but he didn't touch anything.

"Let's go." Si Ren firmly grabbed Long Jiu's arm and dragged him away.

At a place far away from the booth, Long Jiuyi threw Si Ren away vigorously, "Are you crazy or stupid?! Why would you trade such a precious thing for a broken stone?! Why don't you want a jade carving? What do you think? ah?!"

Si Ren couldn't help laughing, "Look at your appearance as a common man, weren't you very generous in the foreign clothing store just now?"

Long Jiu was really annoyed, and the tips of his hair started to turn red, "You're just a commoner! Can it be the same? Handmade dresses are already expensive. But what are you? Stones for pressing cloth! Besides, if you use that bowl If you exchange skirts, you can get a hundred of them!"

Si Ren still smiled, "Hey, you're quite knowledgeable, and you can see that the bowl is very valuable."

Seeing Si Ren's expression that he didn't want to be beaten, Long Jiu suddenly understood: He is not that stupid, there should be a reason for doing this.

After thinking about it carefully and calming down for a while, Long Jiu softened his tone, "What's the origin of that bowl?"

"It's just a drinking bowl for me and Qilin Road. It has no origin. It's just that it has gone through a long time."

"What dynasty?"

"Hmm... Bichen was born earlier."

Long Jiu was stunned for a moment and immediately became anxious, turned around and was about to go to the stall again, "I'll go get the bowl back."

Si Ren quickly grabbed him, "Hey! Are you a robber?"

"Give him back the broken stone!"

"Who would go back and snatch something after changing it?!"

"Then what?!"

"Don't worry, you just asked me what the bowl is, and you haven't asked about the stone yet!"

Long Jiu turned back impatiently, "Then tell me, what stone? What if the stall owner runs away later?"

"Ai──" Si Ren sighed, and took out a strangely shaped knife from his bag, "You don't understand anything. Take care."

Si Ren held the knife against the surface of the stone, muttered a few words and then suddenly called "Open".

The stone cracked with a bang, but it was not completely broken, but just like an apple whose skin had been sliced ​​off, only a small layer was cracked near the outer layer, and a part of the inside of the stone was exposed—the black surface Below, turned out to be a brilliant colorful.

"Ah!" Long Jiu exclaimed, snatching the stone away.

"You look at it toward the sun."

Long Jiu raised the stone towards the sun, gradually he was attracted by the color inside, and stuck it on his eyes unconsciously.

Under the sun, there seem to be five-color ribbons floating slowly inside the stone, which is extremely beautiful.Long Jiu unconsciously opened his mouth, "Oh my God! It's so beautiful! It's moving... move again!"

Si Ren complacently said, "Do you know beauty this time?"

Long Jiu put down the stone and looked at Si Ren excitedly, "What kind of stone is this?"

Si Ren shook his head, "I don't know either."

"Then how do you see that it's different?"

"You see, this stone is so small and so heavy. It looks rough on the surface, but it actually feels more delicate than you imagined. It feels very different when you hold it in your hand. In addition, when I showed you before, you didn't I didn’t look carefully, otherwise I wouldn’t be stopped.”

"why?"

"If you look carefully, it's not difficult to find that even though it's separated from the surface, you can still see that there are shadows flowing inside if you look at the sun for a while."

Long Jiu picked up the stone and looked at it for a while, and finally smiled, "I didn't expect you to know this. Why didn't I notice it? No matter in terms of time or scope, I should know more than you."

"This is the difference between monsters and mages. No matter how much you see, it's useless if you don't pay attention."

"what?"

"Monsters themselves have spiritual power, and they like to do everything by themselves. This is especially true for powerful ones like you. They don't pay attention to everything at all. How can they have the mind to pay attention to other things with weak spiritual energy? Mage It’s different, we rely on magic tools and incantations, and magic tools are mostly jade, those things are easily damaged, and we can’t rely on the master to provide everything. So as time goes by, how to choose stones and peach trees depends on what kind of material There will naturally be some research on what kind of magic weapon is suitable for it."

"Oh──" Long Jiu slowly nodded with a look of sudden realization, "It seems to be the case. But..."

"what?"

"No matter how rare this stone is, in the eyes of the stall owner, it's just a stone with no value at all. Why do you reject that Buddha statue?"

Si Ren laughed again, "You are not happy to say that you are a common man. Is it possible to take advantage of that kind of petty advantage? Didn't you take a closer look at the Buddha statue? It is not a common god and Buddha in Middle-earth, take it back casually Failure to do so will lead to disaster."

"Well, you're quite cautious." Long Jiu looked at Si Ren with a smile.

"That's right, you have to understand rules and principles when walking in the rivers and lakes." Si Ren stretched out his hand, "Give me the stone."

"Didn't you buy it for me?"

"How can I give it away like this, wait until I carve something for you."

Long Jiu handed the stone to Si Ren, "Can you still carve stones?"

"Didn't I just say that a mage needs to know how to make artifacts. Magic artifacts require high carving skills."

"Then why don't you make money by carving things for people in the future, I think it will be more profitable than pretending to be an old man and helping people tell fortunes."

After putting away the stones, Si Ren pulled Long Jiu up, "Stop talking nonsense, you see Xiao Lin and Huan'er's hala is about to drip out over there. Hurry up and buy them two sugar figurines."

After buying sugar man Si Ren, they went to buy a bed and bedding for Liu Chengfeng.On the way back to Buji House, Qilin and Huan'er had a great time riding the rickshaw for the bed delivery guy, while Si Ren and Long Jiu followed behind leisurely.

Long Jiu looked at Qilin and Huan'er, who rarely got along with each other in a harmonious atmosphere, and then looked at Si Ren beside him, remembering what he said to himself before lunch, he couldn't help but sigh: This is the first time he walked back with him like this up?Why is this feeling so comfortable?How come you never had the feeling of "going home" before you met Si Ren?Be it the General's Mansion in Yancheng, or all the various palaces, gardens, and mansions that I have stayed in before, I have never felt like this...

"What are you thinking about?" Si Ren suddenly put an arm on Long Jiu's shoulder.There is no ambiguous meaning, just like friends.

Long Jiu froze: How long has no one dared to do this?A long time, really long time.

Originally, Si Ren wanted to stay with Long Jiu for dinner, but Long Jiu said it took too long and insisted on going back.Si Ren thought that the future would be long, so he didn't try to persuade him to stay.

After Long Jiu left, Si Ren asked someone to fix the bed and spread the bedding, so the room, which was not very spacious, became even more crowded in an instant.After several rounds of debugging, Si Ren was sure that the pendulum method did its best to save enough space for walking back and forth in the room.

Liu Chengfeng didn't expect that Si Ren would buy him a bed, and was so moved that he didn't know what to say.After much deliberation, I could only plunge into the kitchen and cook again.

Probably because they were too tired during the day, Qilin and Huan'er didn't fight much during dinner.Si Ren sat opposite Liu Chengfeng.In the middle of the meal, Si Ren suddenly remembered: Master had been busy last night, and Long Jiu came again this morning, and he still didn't have time to ask Liu Chengfeng about the detailed journey back to Shuo Mountain for him.So he asked a few questions while eating, and Liu Chengfeng answered very simply, to the effect that everything went well on the road, but when Tianfeng appeared, he thought it was a counterfeit, and almost started fighting.

Si Ren laughed when he heard what he said, and Liu Chengfeng also laughed.

The two of them laughed enough, and Si Ren asked what he had been holding back for a long time.

"Well...then do you know that my home is actually in Dushuo City at the foot of the mountain?"

Liu Chengfeng nodded, "I know. Master told me."

"Then when you went up the mountain and passed Dushuo City, did you hear anything about the Si family?"

"No." Liu Chengfeng shook his head.

"Well... that's right. It can't be such a coincidence." Si Ren was a little hesitant: Do you want to continue asking.

"That……"

"what?"

"Did you pass a very big house when you went up the mountain?"

"No." Liu Chengfeng shook his head again.

"Ah?" Si Ren was a little surprised, "How is it possible? From Dushuo City to Dushuo Mountain, the road next to my house is the only way to go. It is impossible for you to not see the long courtyard wall of my house?!"

Liu Chengfeng still shook his head, and at the same time showed a puzzled expression, "But... I really didn't see any big mansions. There are very lively markets on both sides of the road that must be passed up the mountain, and there are no courtyard walls at all!"

Si Ren was dumbfounded: Could it be... Dad moved away with the whole family? !But the last time I received a letter from my mother was half a year ago!Even if they move away within half a year, such a big garden can't be turned into a market in half a year!

From then until before going to bed, Si Ren was always worried and frowned, and hardly said a word.

Liu Chengfeng didn't dare to say anything more, but just tidied up silently.Qilin didn't make a sound either.Huan'er didn't understand what was going on, but she could see that everyone was unhappy and felt bored, so she was sleepy early and was coaxed into bed by Si Ren.

At night, Liu Chengfeng and Huan'er were both sound asleep.Si Ren kept tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.After tossing and turning several times, he simply sat up.

"Can't sleep?" Qilin said suddenly.

Si Ren looked back at his profile, "Did I wake you up?"

Qilin blinked, and the moonlight reflected in the eyes also flickered, "No, I haven't slept either."

"Oh. Then I'll go out for a while, I won't be able to sleep and lie down uncomfortable." Si Ren got up and was about to get off the ground.

"Small blade."

"Ok?"

"After so many years, it's time to go home and have a look."

The author has something to say: Jinghuaer: wear silk flowers on her head.