The inn is on the same street as the former Zhengxi Hou Mansion, clean and neat, the decoration and furnishings are all superior, and the original home is also decent, but the courtyard is cold, the inner hall table is empty, except for Du Ruhui and Mu Qing, there are no other guests.

Seeing someone coming in, the shopkeeper hurriedly greeted him and let him enter the inner hall. "I wonder how many days the two Ah Lang will stay? The store will close in three days......"

"I'll only bother for one night, and I'll leave early tomorrow morning." Du Ruhui responded.

The shopkeeper personally took the two of them to the upstairs room, and instructed the men to tighten their hands and feet and boil water for dinner. After a while, the two came out of the room and went downstairs to have dinner together. The store held two large bowls in front of and back, and there were white and fat wontons floating in them, and said with a bitter face: "Please Ah Lang will just do it, and there are few customers to eat." ”

Mu Qing was very happy when he saw the wonton, "It's not in the way, this is great." "I ate two of them immediately, although the eastern capital is rich and rich, and the products are all available, but I can't do this, most of them are dumpling bait, which is called "soup prison pills".

The shopkeeper was sitting bored, and saw that Mu Qing was wearing a robe, listening to his voice with a Jiangnan accent, and his face was handsome, his facial features were delicate, and he looked like a Jiangnan person, so he asked eventfully: "Dare to ask this little Langjun, where is he from?" It's like I'm a Jiangnan talent. ”

Mu Qing smiled and nodded, "People in Xia Yuhang." It was an old friend who came here to seek Xihou Mansion, but it was empty. ”

As soon as the expedition to Xihou Mansion was mentioned, the shopkeeper immediately cheered up and was full of interest. "Speaking of this Hou Mansion, Ah Lang doesn't know, it was scattered three or four years ago, and each room was divided into homes, and they lived their own lives."

"Where are the rooms from the concubine now?"

Speaking of Shude, the shopkeeper talked a little more excitedly. "I don't know the whereabouts of the other rooms, only one room is named Gu Li, and it was originally out of the courtyard." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed back at will: "Just in the alley behind the street, the neighbors all recognize him, because he has been promoted with Du Yujian, and he is about to mix up his face when he sees it...... That year, when the hungry people asked for food, they lost their lives in the chaos. ”

The shopkeeper recounted the previous incident, Mu Qing listened quietly, did not interrupt him, and when he was still unfinished with emotion, he ended with emotion, and then asked, "What about his family now?" ”

The shopkeeper felt a little strange, and couldn't help but look up at the two Ah Lang in front of him, but he couldn't taste the difference, so he continued with what he said just now: "I still live in the old place, because of the things Gu Li did, it really chilled the hearts of the neighbors, where are there still people willing to help them, and Su Ri has no contact, who cares how he is doing." ”

Mu Qing pursed his lips and nodded yes, and after a few more idle words, the shopkeeper went by himself. When he walked out of the inner hall, she put down the chopsticks, sighed deeply, and pushed away the sea bowl in front of her, and half of the wontons in the bowl were still untouched. She picked up the chopsticks again, picked them up one by one, and moved them to the bowl in front of Du Ruhui.

He ate a few more, and looked up at the sky outside, half light and half dark, "While there is still daylight, do you want to take a look?" ”

Mu Qing hesitated for a long time and whispered, "Okay." ”

The small courtyard in the back alley is still the same as it was a few years ago, the courtyard door is closed, and it is obviously extremely lonely. Mu Qing stood under a thick camphor tree thirty or twenty steps away from the courtyard gate and looked at it for a while. "Would you like to go in and have a look?" Du Ruhui asked her in a low voice.

"I don't hear from me for more than two years, and according to the law, they should have decided that I was no longer alive and removed my name from the register, but they really didn't want people to know that I was still alive." She shook her head and sighed.

He took a closer look at the small courtyard, stared at a thick brick wall, and said jokingly, "Why don't I go up to the wall and take a look for you?" I haven't done this for years, and I'll see if I can make the leap. ”

As he spoke, the door of the courtyard suddenly opened half a door, and out of it came a man, moving out a few miscellaneous items, and after a while, a woman slowly came out of the door, pointing to the miscellaneous objects and saying something to the man, looking at the young age, not yet fifty, and his back was already rickety. Mu Qing looked at it carefully, turned his head and whispered to Du Ruhui: "That's, that's my mother and brother Liulang." When she finished speaking, she herself felt that the title came out of her mouth strangely and abruptly, so she closed her mouth and said no more.

After looking at it for a while, she turned around and left, and said indifferently: "Let's go." ”

Liulang, who was at the gate of the courtyard, leaned over and glanced up at the departing back, straightened up and looked in that direction suspiciously, and was stunned for a long time, and Chen, who was standing against the door, pushed him, "What do you want, don't move it quickly." ”

Rokuro raised his finger and said suspiciously, "The person who just passed by looks very familiar with his figure. It seems to be, it seems to be Qi Niang......"

As if struck by lightning, Chen hurriedly stepped out of the courtyard door, eagerly looked at the direction pointed by Rokuro, and almost fell forward without paying attention to a grin under his feet. After looking at it once, there was no figure, and he turned around and said to Liulang abruptly: "You must be confused, if Qi Niang is still alive, why haven't you returned all these years?" ”

After a few more glances into the distance, Chen Shi held on to the courtyard gate, walked slowly towards the courtyard with his waist bent, and muttered softly from wall to wall, "If Qi Niang is still here, she should be eighteen years old, and she will already be a mother......

Early the next morning, the sky was overcast, so dull that people couldn't breathe, Mu Qing suddenly realized that it was the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River. The two hurriedly gave the house money, and rushed to the Qionglong Mountain, not daring to delay for a moment on the way, for fear of being rained halfway. Fortunately, Qionglong Mountain is not far from Guangfu Town. As soon as I stepped into the Meiwu Nunnery, the heavy rain poured in, and it was endless.

There is no Wan clan in Meiwu Nunnery now, only a female layman with the name of the dust. Unlike the Chen family, Mu Qing saw that there was no change in her left and right, a crow-colored monk's hat wrapped her hair, leaving only two black hairs on her temples, and no white hair, and the person who turned into an outsider was really carefree. The days are hard, the clothes on the body may have been washed too much, and they have changed color, and the elbows and collars have been worn with a layer of patches.

I thought that she must be eager to ask Yinghua about the current situation, but she only slowly took three incense sticks, lit them on the oil lamp in front of the statue of Guanzi Bodhisattva, carefully handed it to Du Ruhui, and then passed three more, repeating the action, burning it for Mu Qing, like a vat of calm and calm water, it was really a situation of dust.

After the Buddha bowed three times, Mu Qing followed her to the back hall to speak. Because it was a nunnery, it was inconvenient for male guests to enter and exit, so Du Ruhui was left to eat tea and wait in the small room at the door.

"My mother has always been fine." Mu Qing curtsied.

Wan's farewell and didn't want to be courteous, "There is no mundane kinship, and the lady is not so polite." ”

Mu Qing was stunned for a while, and was speechless, so he had to silently watch her brew the tea steadily, pour most of the small teacup and hand it to her. "The small nunnery is simple, there is no good hospitality, only an astringent tea to quench your thirst."

After sitting quietly and eating three teas, Mu Qing finally couldn't hold it back, and said bluntly: "Yinghua is all good." I have been trained in the army a few times, I have grown taller, and my skills are even better, and now I have gone to Daxing City to vote for the three daughters of Tang Guogong, and I will definitely make great achievements in the future. If it is a man, it will be indispensable to worship the marquis. ”

Wan's eyes obviously lit up, only for a short moment, and then returned to silence, "I have been away from the world for a long time, without a father, without a husband or daughter, without any obstacles, and what the lady said has nothing to do with me." "The tone is faint, and even the tone has not changed.

Mu Qing bowed his head and said nothing, then changed a cup of tea and sipped it little by little. The rain outside gradually subsided, revealing a large blue and white hue of heavy rain in the sky. Mu Qing finally sighed, stood up, folded his hands and bowed to the Wan family, "Master Chen, the incense offering money added in the old years is still enough?" ”

"The lady has a heart, enough to practice for the rest of her life, this heart cannot be repaid, only to bless the lady in front of the Buddha every day." Wan returned the salute with his palms together and bowed deeply. Mu Qing thought to himself, there is nothing to repay, I am afraid it is not the money that is provided, it is just to take care of Yinghua, and there is no other way to him.

So she returned the salute again and resigned from Wan's. Straightened up, looked up at Wan's eyes, and said, "Yinghua, I will take care of it for the rest of my life." After speaking, he turned around and walked out of the back hall, went to find Du Ruhui, and left Wan alone in the back hall.

Out of Meiwu Nunnery, Mu Qing was unhappy all the way, Du Ruhui gently persuaded her, "Being able to fully understand is also her fate with the Buddha, a blessing that ordinary people have no existence, I should be congratulated on her, why do you need to be like this, anti-religious cultivators are not quiet." ”

"You can't teach Yinghua to know about this, she is young and vigorous, and she doesn't know this, if she knows her mother...... It's hard to be sad. Hurry down to the foot of the mountain, Mu Qingcai sighed quietly.

Or because it has just rained, the mountain stream rushes fast, and it goes down the mountain along the stream, and the ears are full of noise. Du Ruhui suddenly stopped, stood in place and looked around. "Listen, can you hear someone stroking the harp?"

Mu Qing listened to it for a while, and if there was really a sound of Zheng Zheng Qin flowing with the water, it was high and low, slow and urgent, fluttering and detached, and proud, Mu Qing had also learned the piano, and he couldn't help but be stupid at this time.

"What's the repertoire?" Even Du Ruhui, who doesn't know how to play the piano, can listen to the excitement in his heart.

"Guangling San, the person who plays it must be a strange man, I have never heard anyone who can play this piece with such a meaning, why not visit it?"

The two followed the sound of the piano all the way, only to feel closer and closer, looking around the four fields still could not find the person who played the piano, halfway through, the sound of the piano stopped abruptly, and there was nowhere to find it. They looked at each other head-on, but they could hear someone laughing in a low voice above their heads.

Looking up, there was a person sitting cross-legged on the first flat boulder with a piano, about fifty years old, lean and energetic. Du Ruhui raised his head and glanced up, feeling very familiar, and after thinking about it carefully, he suddenly woke up, stepped forward quickly, and bowed his hand, "Mr. Yuan." ”

Mu Qing didn't know which Mr. Yuan it was, so he followed the salute in a daze. That Mr. Yuan smiled and waved his hand, giving them a salute, but his eyes looked straight at Mu Qing, and he saw that Mu Qing was not left or right. Because he saw Du Ruyan bowing obediently, he must be highly respected, so he didn't dare to make a mistake, so he had to stand beside him with his head down.

After a while, Mr. Yuan suddenly spoke, "The little Qi Niang of the Gu family has already grown up. ”