Dawn, Zhao Guo Handan Mountain Banshan Handan Courtyard.

When a glimmer of morning light flashed in the eastern sky, Long Xuanchen's mind seemed to have a flash of inspiration, making him suddenly wake up from his deep sleep.

He didn't open his eyes, just lay down and breathed, catching a faint sound in the silence of the courtyard.

That's right, the sound of footsteps with a very light and fast hand, if it weren't for the occasional gentle rubbing of the edge of the fallen leaves on the leg of the man's trousers, ordinary people would not have heard such footsteps.

Long Xuanchen rolled over, gently swept out of the door, and quickly chased in the direction of the footsteps.

He slept with his sword in his clothes all night, and he was even more energetic at the moment.

The morning mist obscured everything on all sides, leaving only a thick, moist white.

The coolness of the early morning swept past Long Xuanchen's cheeks, and he followed the path by the outer wall of the Hanshan Courtyard to the ancient well on the slope of the back mountain.

In the faint confusion, Long Xuanchen suddenly saw the figure running in front.

The figure really headed in the direction of the ancient well.

Long Xuanchen lifted his qi and exercised lightly, and quickened his pace. When he was about to catch up, Long Xuanchen saw that the figure suddenly flew up, and he actually flew and jumped under the ancient well, so shocked that Long Xuanchen also jumped and reached the side of the well.

But he saw a flying rope barbed outside the edge of the well, and Long Xuanchen was about to lean over to take a closer look, when he heard a calm and clear voice from the well: "I'm coming up." ”

Before the words fell, Fang Cai's figure soared out of the wellhead with a gust of cool breeze, and then landed steadily on Long Xuanchen's side.

"Lin Yu," Long Xuanchen pressed his hand to the hilt of his sword, frowned slightly, and asked, "Do you want to be the first to get there?" ”

The person standing in front of him had seen Long Xuanchen last night.

He had a fair-skinned complexion, slender and thin, with long, piercing eyes and thin, angular lips. The man bowed slightly, "Brother Long Xuanchen, please take a step to speak in my room." ”

Then he dusted off his light gray robe stained with a little moss and raised his right hand: "Please." ”

Long Xuanchen hung the sword back on his waist and clenched his fists with both hands, "Please." With that, he turned around and followed the man into the back corner gate of the Handan Courtyard and walked towards the depths of the courtyard.

Long Xuanchen only went up the mountain with his master the night before.

Long Xuanchen's master, Geteng Martial Arts, known as the first warrior of the grassland, and Cheng Yizi, the great lecturer of the Handan Academy, once studied martial arts in the same school, and they are brothers who have a good relationship.

It has been more than ten years since Martial Master Ge Teng and Cheng Yizi parted from Yunmeng Mountain in a blink of an eye, until last month, when they suddenly received an urgent letter from their senior brother.

There were only seven words in the letter: "Hanshan Courtyard is in trouble, come quickly", which made Geteng Martial Master very anxious, so he hurried over with his most powerful apprentice, Long Xuanchen.

Hanshan Academy is a century-old school palace, built high in the mountains and mountains, although it is not famous on weekdays, but only the recommendation of famous bachelors can come to study here.

For thousands of years, many precious ancient books have also been treasured in the library building here to avoid the troubled times.

The mountain road to Hanshan Temple is tortuous and difficult to find, and there are high-ranking people in the courtyard to guard it, so it has been like a pure land outside the world for many years.

On the night that Long Xuanchen went up the mountain with his master, he was just in time for the torrential rain.

Although the master and apprentice achieved a light achievement, they also trekked on the muddy mountain road for several hours, and did not arrive until the ugly hour.

The students of Hanshan Academy, who had been waiting at the mountain gate, led the three of them straight to the residence of the big lecturer who was still brightly lit.

As soon as Geteng Martial Master entered the door and took off his hat, he saw that Cheng Yizi had a sick face, reluctantly leaned on the wooden couch, and stood up: "Senior brother, I'm tired!" ”

Martial Master Geten hurriedly took a few steps, rushed to the bed, and held the withered left hand of the senior brother hanging tightly with a pair of big hands, and said in a suppressed and anxious manner: "Senior brother, I'm not late, am I?" What the hell is going on? ”

Cheng Yizi looked sickly and very weak, he raised his head slightly, and his other hand was also on top of the hands of the Warrior Geteng, and whispered, "It's good to come!" ”

He glanced at Long Xuanchen with a blink of an eye, and then turned his eyes back to stare at Martial Master Geteng, "I'm afraid this time it's a catastrophe in Hanshan Academy!" ”

It turned out that more than a month ago, the student lecturers of Hanshan Academy fell ill one after another.

At first, it was only the change of seasons and the change of water and soil.

But as time went on, the number of people who fell ill continued unabated, and the condition became more severe.

In addition to the original vomiting and diarrhea, many patients also had high fever and convulsions, and the disease was sinister.

The Hanshan Institute visited nearby Langzhong, and the county government also sent special personnel to investigate, but they were still helpless about the disease.

In the past few days, the decoction has been used all over the place, but it only has the effect of delaying the course of the disease, but it has not alleviated the condition.

It wasn't until Lian Cheng couldn't afford to get sick that he asked someone to bring news to the senior brother Master Lu Ming and the second junior brother Martial Master Geteng, and urgently summoned them to come to the Handan Courtyard of Zhao State to solve this urgent need.

After a series of recounts, Cheng Yizi paused for a moment to breathe, and then continued: "Almost all the people in the Hanshan courtyard fell ill. As you know, our college has a very large collection of classics. Now only you and Senior Brother can stay safe here for the time being! ”

After he finished speaking, he closed his eyes as if in peace of mind, and lay down again, holding the hand of the Getten Martial Master but did not let go.

Martial Master Ge Teng was about to speak, when he suddenly heard a report from the students of Handshan Academy, Master Lu Ming and his apprentices asked to see him.

Cheng Yizi hurriedly propped himself up and said in a trembling voice, "Please!" ”

Before the words fell, I saw two figures in green clothes and linen robes flash into the room.

The leader is an elegant old man, with a long face that is slightly yellow, light eyebrows and fine eyes, and a few long hairs under his chin are also a little gray.

The old man was wearing a mottled old sword, and the leather scabbard had been worn to the point that the color was indistinguishable.

Behind him was a young man, no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, tall, with a fair face, a pleasing star, a straight nose and cheeks, and he was really handsome and proud.

Master Lu Ming rushed to the front of the couch, pursed his thin lips, his expression was grim, and he bowed slightly to Martial Master Ge Teng and his party, and then turned to Cheng Yizi and said:

"How is Senior Brother like this?"

Cheng Yizi grabbed Master Lu Ming's outstretched right hand, and said slowly: "It's finally here, it's been almost ten years since I said goodbye last time." Today, the three of us finally meet again! ”

After speaking, he let go of his hand and muttered: "Don't come to the New Year, don't come to the New Year!" ”

Seeing that Cheng Yizi was excited, the junior and younger brothers also sighed.

After a while, Cheng Yizi calmed down a little, and someone called his senior brother, Zhu Cheng Huizi of Hanshan Academy, and asked him to relay what happened in Hanshan Courtyard to everyone.

Cheng Huizi Yuan Zhu is a fat man, busy before and after, the big fat face is steaming.

He ordered the students of Hanshan Academy to bring a few chairs and invited the two junior disciples to sit in front of Cheng Yizi's bed, with Long Xuanchen and the tall young man standing behind the masters.

"The disease came with ferocity, but it did not come without a trace, and it was not like a plague when it dragged on for a long time. It's really weird! Master Lu Ming muttered.

As he spoke, a student from Hanshan Academy carried a tray and brought a few cups of steaming tea to the house.

In the hot air, I saw that the tea was green, and it was actually the best Qinxi tea.

Several people in the room were in no mood to drink tea, only the young man behind Master Lu Ming silently picked up a cup, but he didn't drink it, just stared at the teacup for a while, and then said, "Master, why don't we go around first and find out what is suspicious." ”

Master Lu Ming glanced back at him, then turned to Cheng Yizi and Martial Master Ge Teng and said, "I forgot to introduce, this is my apprentice Lin Yu." ”

"Senior brother", Martial Master Geten also added, "This is Long Xuanchen, my apprentice. The two teenagers saluted Cheng Yizi again, and hugged each other's fists, which can be regarded as acquaintance.

"Don't be in a hurry at this time," Cheng Yizi said slowly, "It's late at night, and it's past ugly, so I'll arrange for you to stay first." We'll make plans tomorrow morning. It's just that I also ask my junior and junior disciples to take turns keeping vigil in case of accidents. ”

The building of Hanshan Temple sits in the north and faces south, built on a high platform, surrounded by Cangshan Mountain. There is a wide valley in front of the courtyard, flat and fertile.

Behind it are tall mountains, with mountains and mountains.

The whole temple enters the courtyard from south to north, stacks up according to the mountain, the largest courtyard in the middle is the Tibetan Academy, the outer wall of the academy is built by a large mountain stone, thick and solid.

Long Xuanchen turned around three times and followed Lin Yu to his room.

After entering the house, Lin Yu closed the door lightly, and then turned back to Long Xuanchen and said, "I really thought it was good, you didn't guess wrong!" ”

It turned out that at midnight last night, Lin Yu and Long Xuanchen settled down their master, and then they got together and talked for a while.

Long Xuanchen looked at Lin Yu and said, "Just now I took his pulse before I left Cheng Yizi's uncle. I have never seen this pulse in all these years with my grandmother. I won't lie for a while, can Brother Lin know what other symptoms the sick person has besides abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea and high fever? ”

"Listening to the masters' discussions, most of the people in the academy still have the problem of shivering and being afraid of the cold." Lin Yu groaned. "I've asked a few people who are seriously ill, and their worst abdominal pain is just before midnight." Lin Yu thought about it and slowly added.

"Before midnight, it's time to go. The main liver is the time when the liver qi is most active. At this time, the pain intensified, indicating that the liver qi or the qi of the internal organs had been eroded, which was now the special floating of the liver qi in the pulse, which was the qi of the great cold that I had never seen before. Long Xuanchen said slowly.

"Where does the Great Cold Qi come from? The day has just entered winter, and it has not yet counted nine, and there are occasional colds, but it is impossible for everyone to fall ill. Lin Yu was puzzled.

"Ever since I entered Hanshan Temple, I have been thinking that this scourge must be accessible to everyone. And there are monks in the Hanshan courtyard who are sick, so they are heavily guarded. If you want to invade people invisibly and everywhere, it must be something that is always around. Just now I took the time to go around the front and back of the Hanshan Courtyard, and now there is only one thing I suspect......"

"Slow," Long Xuanchen was about to continue, but Lin Yu suddenly interrupted him, "I already have a suspicion, why don't we write it in the palm of our hands and see if what we think is one." ”

Long Xuanchen nodded slightly. The two teenagers each took pen and ink, and quickly wrote the doubts in their hearts in the palm of their hands.

Long Xuanchen wrote 'Gujing'. Lin Yu wrote about 'well water'. The two of them smiled heartily, but at the same time they spoke, but they paused.

"I'll start with that." Lin Yu said: "I also suspected that it was a problem with water at first, but when I asked Uncle Chengyizi, he said that the government had tested the water samples several times and found no poisons or problems. But just now I saw the tea served by the master. ”

"What about Qinxi tea?" Long Xuanchen asked.

"Well, it's that Qinxi tea." Lin Yu continued: "I have known this tea since I was a child, and the origin of this tea is in Qinxi Lion Mountain, which is not far from my home.

My family also has wild tea in the countryside, and my father often told me about the detoxifying effect of this tea.

However, this Qinxi tea needle is fine, and the tea soup is light in color, so it cannot be brewed with boiling water. It is warm water, and the tea buds are also tumbling up and down in the water.

The silver quills on the buds were like clouds and mist, surging in the water.

But just now, I found that although the tea is very hot, Qinxi tea has been floating for a long time, which is really rare.

I think it must have been due to the subtle changes in the water. ”

"Yes," Long Xuanchen said with certainty, "the only thing that everyone does not notice but does not leave day after day is water." The illness prolonged and recurred, presumably because the problem in the water went undetected. ”

The two discussed, and originally agreed to go to the ancient well together to investigate after dawn, but they didn't expect Lin Yu to call Long Xuanchen to explore the ancient well first.

"Look, what did I find?" Entering the room, Lin Yu raised his hand and spread his palms in front of Long Xuanchen.

I saw in his hand an irregular yellow and white thing like a stone, which was actually a fresh and moist plant.

Long Xuanchen took it in his hand and looked at it carefully for a long time before he said in an unbelievable tone: "This shouldn't be the legendary cold ginger!" ”

"Ginger?" Lin Yu set his eyes on the small thing, and saw that it was indeed a little like ginger, but the color was brighter than that of ginger, and the whole body was glowing like jade.

"This is the most rare and coldest medicinal material in the world, and it is only recorded in ancient folk recipes. It has never been included in the orthodox Chinese herbal medicine books, because very few people have seen it, and it is difficult to find it all over the world. There's a description in my family's ancestral medicine book, so I'm guessing it's probably it. ”

"Without further ado, let's quickly explain this matter to Uncle Chengyizi."

Lin Yu and Long Xuan went to the masters' room, but found that the two masters had already gotten up, and it was estimated that they had gone to the residence of the great lecturer Chengyizi.

The two hurriedly went to the abbot's bedroom in the front yard.

"You mean that ancient well," Cheng Yizi leaned on the side of the bed as the morning bell rang, and said thoughtfully, "Legend has it that it is the eye of the water in the entire Handan City." The first Hanshan Courtyard was built here, and it was originally for this water eye. ”

"Yes," Master Lu Ming said, "I'm afraid there is something wrong with that ancient well. This morning, Lin Yu and the others had already gone to explore the ancient well. Look, brother, he's found this. ”

"Long Xuanchen recognizes it as Han Jiang," said Warrior Geteng, "I don't recognize it." Senior brother, take a look. ”

Cheng Yizi took the things handed over by Lu Ming, caressed it carefully, suddenly opened his eyes and looked at it again, and took it under his nose to smell it, and finally nodded and said: "Long Xuanchen is right, this is really cold ginger!" It seems that our illness is actually caused by cold ginger! ”

"Master," Long Xuanchen stepped forward and said softly, "I have thought of a recipe to cure the disease of the Great Cold." Before I left home, one of the old recipes my grandmother gave me was called 'Umbilical Cord Therapy Formula', which was to mash fresh garlic and add two herbs, one agarwood and the other ginger. Every night, the patient is attached to the navel at the time of onset. One sticker a day. It should help. In addition, "

Long Xuanchen thought for a while and said, "You can also use wormwood to moxibustion the big vertebral points to remove the cold poison in the body." ”

Cheng Yizi nodded approvingly, and immediately called the students who were still able to move in the Hanshan Courtyard, and ordered them to make medicine and prepare moxibustion to help the cold and sick people.

At the same time, Master Lu Ming instructed everyone to wash the fine sand and collect it with a coarse cloth, add another layer of charcoal on it, and add fine sand to the charcoal to make a thick isolation drawer that is used to filter the well water.

At the same time, he instructed that the boiling water in the courtyard of Handan should be repeated three times, and ginger must be added to remove the cold in the water.

When everyone hurriedly retreated, Cheng Yizi turned the cold ginger in his palm over and over several times, and looked out the window thoughtfully.

His face was pale and yellow from the cold and sickness of the past few days, and now he looked even more bloodless. As soon as the word "cold ginger" came out, Cheng Yizi's heart chuckled and sank suddenly.

"Could it be that what Master said is true? Is there really such an inescapable catastrophe in the world?! Master Cheng Yi pulled down the cotton jacket and felt the cold he had never felt before.

The early winter mornings are exceptionally cold. The mountain fog is long, making the rising sun blurry and distant.

There is a stone staircase that winds up the mountain behind Hanshanyuan until you reach the nearest summit.

On the left side of the stone steps, there is the back mountain garden of Hanshan Temple, and in spring and summer, it is also lush with flowers and plants, and trees are Fusu. Now it's winter, and it's already grass and flowers, and it's bleak and solemn.

Cheng Yizi and Zhu Cheng Huizi led the two junior brothers and two teenagers up the stairs, and went straight to a Changxuan in the middle of the mountain facing east and west. The treatment in the past few days has restored a lot of energy to Cheng Yizi, and today he led everyone to hike up the mountain, which is really an important matter to discuss.

"Do you remember the two junior disciples, this is the place where the master often comes to practice?" Cheng Yizi looked up at the dilapidated but still legible stone inscription plaque in the middle of Changxuan: "'Listen to Songxuan' is still the name inscribed by the master." ”

"It's like yesterday," Master Lu Ming touched the pillar with his hand and looked at the pine forest in the distance:

"I still remember that Master wrote this plaque in one go, and after writing it, he wrote a long poem. The white clouds can be suppressed, and the ten thousand gullies have breathing. Stop and listen, pine and birdsong. You and my brother applauded loudly at that time, and the usually serious master glared at him fiercely. ”

"But no," Warrior Geten also remembered the past, "at that time, I was studying ink for my master, and my heart tightened, my hand was crooked, and I stained the ink on one hand and one sleeve. The three of them smiled happily as they remembered the past.

Long Xuanchen saw Cheng Yizi walking towards the stone table and stone bench, and hurriedly stepped forward to help him sit down on the stone bench.

"Long Xuanchen," Cheng Yizi thought for a while, and asked Long Xuanchen: "You can recognize Han Jiang, you must know the allusion behind Han Jiang." ”

"Xuan Chen has only seen this name and a few simple descriptions in the medicine book, and he doesn't know anything else, so he asked the master to give advice." Long Xuanchen replied, his eyes fixed on one, waiting for his next answer.

Cheng Yizi paused, and finally sighed: "Haven't you all heard of it?" 'As soon as the cold ginger comes out, the white bones are all over the field'! This is what my master said. ”

As the military jeep drove down the Fifth Ring Road, you could see the overlapping western mountains in the distance, revealing their soft silhouettes.

Lin Yu's dream was not finished, and when he just wanted to turn around and say "to be continued", he found that Feng Luotang and Shao Yi sitting in the back seat had very wonderful expressions.

"And what happened in the back mountain?" Feng Luotang asked.

"The story told by Uncle Cheng Yizi is too long, and I will tell you in detail later. However, Long Xuanchen and I worshiped the righteous brothers, and later ......" Lin Yu found that the expressions of those two people were even more exciting.

"No, I said, why don't we turn around?" Shao Yi asked tentatively: "Do we want to go to the middle school attached to the University of Nationalities to pick up people?" ”

Lin Yu's face was full of confusion, and only one word was written: "Who?" ”

"My black brother is the one you who 'don't want to be born on the same day and month of the same year, but want to die on the same day and month of the same year'!" Feng Luotang added with a wink of wide eyes.

The surprise in his eyes finally shattered Lin Yu's thousand-year-old composure.