Plum Blossoms

The small building stands facing the street and looks different from the buildings next to it.

The door was wide open.Lu Xiaofeng stepped in leisurely and stepped on the wooden ladder to the second floor.Before seeing the scene upstairs, he called out loudly: "A friend is visiting, do you have a drink?"

It is really impolite to go into someone's house without being invited and yell.

But it's all because his friend is really different.

Huamanlou was sitting on the balcony trimming the branches and leaves of a pot of yellow flowers. Hearing the words, following the sound, there was a warm smile on his face: "So it was you."

Everyone in the world knows that Hua Manlou is a blind man who has been blind since he was a child, but few people know that his ears are many times sharper than ordinary people.

As soon as Lu Xiaofeng approached the small building, he had already noticed it. When he entered the building and stepped on the wooden ladder, Hua Manlou had already judged the person's height, shape, gender, age, and even whether he was malicious or not.

But even he did not expect this person to be Lu Xiaofeng.

"A few days ago, I heard that you went to Saibei, why did you suddenly appear in Jiangnan again?"

Lu Xiaofeng sat down at the table calmly, poured himself a cup of herbal tea, drank it down, and then said: "You are really well informed...there is really nothing interesting in that place, but the scenery of the lonely smoke in the desert is really good .”

Lu Xiaofeng is a born prodigal son.The dispositions of the prodigal sons are also different. Some of them enjoy loneliness, while others cannot tolerate it.

Lu Xiaofeng is the latter.

He likes to roam the rivers and lakes, and also likes to make friends.If a person has such hobbies, if he is more witty, more chic, more affectionate, and drinks more, then he will definitely have many good friends.

Therefore, no matter where he goes, Lu Xiaofeng can meet his friends.Some of these friends shared with him the best wine, some entertained him with tempting delicacies, and some could only treat him with the scenery of a place.

There are also those who are like now, tending to the flowers under their hands, even the tea is cold.

But no matter who you are, you have to admit that the gentle and elegant Huamanlou is with his favorite flowers. This scene looks extremely pleasing to the eye.

Thinking that he was the only one enjoying this scene, Lu Xiaofeng couldn't help clicking his tongue regretfully, and asked curiously, "Haven't you heard?"

"what?"

"It is said that something strange happened in Lijiawu in Hangzhou twenty days ago." Lu Xiaofeng said politely, "It is said that there was a hunter in the village who was found frozen to death in bed in broad daylight."

It is the end of August now, twenty days ago, it was also very hot.It is obviously not normal for a person to freeze to death in such a climate.

So it's weird.

Hua Manlou pondered and said, "If this is the case, I've heard of it a little bit, but because it's a bit unbelievable, I thought it was a gimmick fabricated by Dr. Tea to attract customers."

Lu Xiaofeng shook his head: "The person who told me has a reliable source of information, and there are nine out of ten that this is true."

Hua ManLou showed her unbearable expression.He has a benevolent heart, loves life, and has never liked killing, let alone such a method that sounds cruel.

"But maybe." Lu Xiaofeng said casually, "Otherwise, I really can't think of any way to make a person freeze to death in this season... Could it be the Ice Palm that has been lost for a long time in the Jianghu?"

Hua Manlou put down the silver scissors in his hand for pruning the flower branches, with a worried expression on his face.

It is said that the Frost Palm was created by Xie Yihe, the "Northern Madman" decades ago.Later, he became obsessed with practicing this skill, and even died in the hands of the old man Tianqin. After that, the Frost Palm never appeared again.There are rumors in the rivers and lakes that there are thirteen movements in this palm technique, and the palm strength is as strong as ice, which makes people suffer from cold poison, and the body is as cold as ice when they die.

It's just that I don't know, if the Frost Palm is really alive, why would it attack an ordinary hunter in a small village?

Lu Xiaofeng doesn't think he is a person who likes to meddle in other people's affairs, but there is only one thing, he still has self-knowledge - his curiosity just happens to be a little more than ordinary people.

Thinking of the strangeness in this matter, Lu Xiaofeng felt very interested, and wished to set off to Hangzhou immediately to find out what happened.

Hua Manlou supported the table and stood up, straightened his sleeves, and said, "I'll go with you."

"Oh?" Lu Xiaofeng raised an eyebrow.

Hua Manlou was full of thoughts: "Since I'm in Hangzhou, I'd better go check it out myself."

If there is anything special about Hangzhou, there are not many, and it can be summed up in one place.But just this special place is enough for Hua Manlou to take the initiative to get involved.

Lu Xiaofeng knew it in his heart, he said: "The Hua family has a huge family business, your father and the elder brothers are also very intelligent and have their own abilities, nothing will happen."

Hua Manlou nodded.

The Hua family is the richest man in the south of the Yangtze River. It is well-known in the world that riding a fast horse anywhere in the south of the Yangtze River from sunrise to sunset for a day is still within his family's property.Hua Manlou's father, Hua Ruling, is very good at management, and he has six outstanding elder brothers who have their own strengths, and the Hua family's business is flourishing day by day.

With such a family background, Hua Manlou could have stayed comfortably in Hua's family and lived the life he should have had. What's more, he is still blind. In the eyes of the world, he seems to be born to be loved take care of.

But he himself is unwilling.

After practicing martial arts all over, he specially moved out of Hua's house and lived alone in Suzhou city.He took good care of himself and the flowers and plants on the first floor.At first, Hua Ruling was worried about him, and sent several of his older brothers to persuade him to go home in turn. She didn't give up until she came to visit him in person.

——In the pure darkness, Huamanlou is still like a plant that emerges from the cracks in the rocks. Lotte is working hard to grow calmly. As a father, what else can I say?

But that didn't stop him from expressing his joy when his most worried child came home.

Lu Xiaofeng followed Huamanlou into the gate of Hua's house, and received an extremely warm welcome.This warm atmosphere started from the concierge's high voice, "The Seventh Young Master is back!" Then, the entire Hua family, which was originally peaceful and peaceful, surged like boiling water.

It took a lot of effort for Manlou to calm his agitated mother, but before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a burst of noisy footsteps, and then Hua Ruling called tremblingly: "Lou'er..."

After watching the whole process, Lu Xiaofeng joked that this was the consequence of Huamanlou not coming home for a long time.

These are things for later.The current situation is that because the two old people love their children dearly, Hua Manlou and Lu Xiaofeng had to stay at Hua's house for two days before they could relax.In the past two days, they have enjoyed delicious food and wine. When it comes to the strange things in Lijiawu, the Hua family in Hangzhou has some clues.

The fifth elder brother of Huamanlou said that there is indeed such a strange thing. The Orion lives alone in the east of the village, and there is only a [-]-year-old mother in the family.After he died suddenly at home, the village is reporting the matter.Because it was too bizarre, Shangfeng sent a coroner to conduct an autopsy, but there was no trace other than frostbite, and the old mother in his family couldn't tell anything, so he died suddenly of a sudden illness and was buried hastily.But I don't know how to leak the news, and it was publicized. At that time, everyone inside and outside the city of Yangzhou was scrambling to talk about it. All of a sudden, ghost stories, Jianghu grievances and so on were all the rage. The lives of the creatures in the mountains caused this catastrophe.These words were so decent that the city was full of turmoil. As a result, the business of chicken, duck and fish vendors in Hangzhou City was quite bleak during those days, and the few temples outside the city were full of incense.

"That day, the magistrate invited you to give a narration, and what he said was unremarkable, and there was nothing worthy of deliberation. Now that many days have passed, even the body has been buried, and it will be even more difficult for you to investigate something." Hua Hua Fifth Brother pinched his wine glass, tut-tsk and shook his head.

When Lu Xiaofeng heard it, he immediately felt dull.But he ran all the way to Yangzhou and returned empty-handed like this, he just felt unwilling.

Fortunately, it has been a long time since the incident happened, and there have been no more rumors of such incidents. It seems that it is not some terrible art that has reappeared in the world.

Thinking of this, Lu Xiaofeng felt very relieved.

He and Hua Manlou stepped out of Yangzhou City, and said: "Brother Hua, please come and go with me. Since there is nothing to investigate, I plan to go to Datong Mansion to meet old friends. Brother Hua, why don't we just say goodbye?"

Hua Manlou shook his fan and said with a smile: "Bon voyage." After saying that, he cupped his hands in a salute.

Lu Xiaofeng returned the salute, quickly got on the horse, gave a soft scold, and the steed twitched on all fours, carrying him away at a gallop.

Hua Manlou stared ahead, as if he could really see the back of his friend going away.After a while, the servant behind him persuaded: "Young master, Daxia Lu has gone far, let's go back too."

Hua Manlou didn't speak, but nodded slightly.

By the time he bid farewell to everyone in Huafu, two days had passed.He left Yangzhou City and did not go back to Suzhou directly, but rode his horse westward.

Even though his brother said that there were no traces left, Hua Manlou still planned to go and investigate.

Lijiawu is a small village, about ten miles away from the main city of Yangzhou. The [-] or so households are basically men farming and women weaving. There are also a few sporadic merchants, only the Yang family at the east end of the village It's Orion.The name is Lijiawu, and most of the village is naturally surnamed Li, while the rest of the families are named Yangqian and Sunsu.People in the village say that the Yang family is poor. Since the old man of the Yang family passed away more than ten years ago, only mother and son are left to depend on each other.Yang Liehu's real name is Yang Zhong, he has a rude temperament, and he didn't marry a wife in his old age.After he left, Mrs. Yang was left alone, and she looked pitiful.

Probably because Huamanlou was a handsome young man, the women who sat around doing needlework in the village revealed something to him.But when asked about the cause of Yang Orion's death in detail, everyone looked at each other in blank dismay and kept silent.

Although Hua Manlou couldn't see their expressions, she could easily read the meaning from their faltering tones.

He smiled and asked Yang Orion's home location instead.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and showed him the way.There was even an enthusiastic aunt who led the way and brought him to the front of Yang's courtyard.

"A few days ago, there were people like you who came to the village to inquire about it." The aunt said, "But Mrs. Yang has been in a bad mood since her son left, and she doesn't want to pay attention to anyone. I'm afraid you won't be able to ask anything. "

She sighed, patted the door and shouted: "Sister-in-law of the Yang family, open the door quickly, someone is coming to see you."

She took a few more shots, and after a long time, she heard footsteps behind the door, and the wooden door was pulled open a little.The gray-haired old man looked at them through the gap, and said dryly, "What do you see me doing?"

Her voice was weak, and she coughed a few times after she finished speaking. It is not difficult to imagine the appearance of an old man when she heard it.