Chapter 606: Visiting the Old Friend

North Susu Province

Daxing City

As the northernmost province south of the Yangtze River, the current geographical location of Daxing City is particularly eye-catching. After Pang Ba, the former general of the Great Sui Army, raised the banner on the side of the Qing monarch in the south of the Yangtze River, he took Daxing City as the foundation for a long time, and when Pang Ba's army crossed the river to the north, it also took Daxing City as the starting point.

Daxing City has a history of at least 500 years, and as the first important town in the south of the Yangtze River after Emperor Taizong of the Great Sui Dynasty ordered the southern expedition, there has never been a lack of attention here. The reason why Li Xiao chose this place as the place to attack Nanchen was because the strategic location here was extremely important.

It is an important hub in the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yangtze River.

And the most famous in Daxing City is Meiyuan.

When the emperors of the Great Sui Dynasty went down to the south of the Yangtze River, one of the stops they had to take was here.

As one of the seven famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, it has received five Great Sui Emperors to stay, and the owner of this Mei Garden is the Daxing Jin family, and its status can be imagined. Speaking of which, the people have forgotten how many years the Jin family has been the master in Daxing City, no matter which dynasty and which family rules the Central Plains, the Jin family has always had the final say in Daxing City. Even if this is the seat of the county seat of Xinnan County, there is a county guard, even if this is still the seat of the province of North Su, there is a governor. But no matter which adult, as long as he is still in Daxing City, he always has to visit Meiyuan first if there is any major event.

Zhou Huaien, the governor of North Jiangsu Province, was a frequent visitor to Meiyuan, and the people in Daxing City often saw the governor's carriage parked outside Meiyuan.

As one of the twenty-four governors of the Great Sui Dynasty and a veritable feudal official, Zhou Huaien's actions in Daxing City are inseparable from the support of the Jin family, if his decision conflicts with the Jin family, he will never insist on going his own way but will do it according to the will of the Jin family.

It is precisely because of this that the governor of Zhou Huaien is particularly stable. Every year, the Great Sui Ministry of Officials will send people to inspect the administration of officials, and the inspection officials of the Ministry of Officials will secretly visit various places to listen to the people's feelings. Then, based on the performance documents written by the local magistrates themselves, they comprehensively evaluate whether the magistrates are qualified.

Zhou Huaien is among the twenty-four governors, and the evaluation of the officials is ranked among the top few every year.

Speaking of which, he does not have any particularly outstanding political achievements, but he is better than stability. During his tenure, North Jiangsu Province has been stable and has not done anything that worries the imperial court. Because it is close to the Yangtze River, there are naturally many floods, but he has never reached out to the household department to ask for a tael of silver to repair the embankment, but he has not left anything behind.

So even if he finally chose to side with the rebels, the local people didn't scold him much. After all, over the years, Zhou Huaien has really done a lot for North Jiangsu.

Since Meiyuan can be called one of the seven famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, it naturally has its praise. This garden can be called a model of Jiangnan garden, full of beauty but not a small family.

Every time Zhou Huaien comes to Meiyuan, he will find a different beauty from it.

Sitting in the pavilion by the lotus pond, tasting a pot worth enough for a middle-class family to live for a year, he looked at the koi in the lotus pond and lost his mind. Jin Shixun, the eldest son of the Jin family and currently in charge of the affairs of the Jin family, glanced at him and smiled: "What is on the governor's mind today?" ”

Kim Se-hoon

If Fang Xie heard this name, he would immediately think of Jin Shixiong, the great general who was now struggling to support in the northwest of the Great Sui. In fact, Jin Shixiong is indeed from the Jin family in Daxingcheng and is the third brother of Jin Shixiong.

Kim Se-woong is in his fifties, and Kim Se-hoon is the eldest son, who is already sixty-two years old.

It's a pity that he doesn't have the final say in this family. He has been waiting for this day for many years, but he has a healthy and long-lived old lady, and she is also an old lady who has an absolute desire for power. But even so, no one dared to underestimate this Jin family uncle.

"Is there any news from the third master?"

Zhou Huaien asked.

Jin Shixun shook his head: "The situation of the third child in the northwest is very difficult, Gao Kaitai and Wang Yiqu control the waterway, and Luo Yao's people are in the middle, even if I want to help him, I can't help him." Now it's up to him to see if he can bring the team up on his own, if he can...... We don't care so much about Yang Zhi, who has been imprisoned in the Northeast for more than ten years, and we won't pick up a Pang Ba. ”

"If it really doesn't work, let the third master come back. The tens of thousands of remnants of the northwest are not worth his energy, and with his ability to lead the troops, he will not worry about not being able to achieve great things in the future. ”

"Look at it again, you also know the stubborn nature of the third child, and the nine cows can't pull it back."

"That's right"

Zhou Huaien asked: "Why haven't you seen the old lady for a while?" ”

"She?"

Jin Shixun shook his head: "I don't know anything about cultivation, my mother has entrusted me with most things over the years, and I have spent almost all my time in retreat, and I was very happy when I came out a few days ago, saying that I have improved to another realm, and I don't know much about this, so I didn't ask much." However, the higher my mother's cultivation, the more stable the Jin family's position in Tonggu Academy, and the reason why Dong Qingfu has always respected my Jin family is not because my mother's cultivation is strong enough. ”

Zhou Huaien nodded: "The old lady went out for a walk a few years ago, and it is said that he taught a few juniors in Tonggu Academy who didn't know the height of the sky. According to my speculation, even if the old lady's cultivation is not as good as the legendary Wan Xingchen, I am afraid that it will not be much worse. ”

"Ten Thousand Stars......

Kim Se-hoon pursed his lips: "His time has long passed. ”

As soon as he finished saying this, he was suddenly stunned for a moment.

"Who's that?"

Zhou Huaien followed his eyes and found that there was a hunchbacked old man walking slowly not far away, carrying a package and carrying a long sword.

"It's not from Meiyuan!"

Jin Shixun was slightly angry: "Those subordinates are becoming more and more reckless and slack, and everyone is put in the garden!" ”

He was just about to get up and order someone to drive the old man away, when he suddenly fell into a trance, and the old man somehow came to him. Shi Shiran picked up the teapot on the table and took a sip, and then there was some approval in his eyes. The old man, who looked like an old plum tree, squinted his eyes and glanced at him and said lightly: "Wan Xingchen has never had any era, but if he wants to have it, it is not difficult." ”

Jin Shixun was stunned for a moment, and then he was furious, he pointed to the old man and was about to order his subordinates to take it down, but suddenly found that there was an extra thing in his hand, which was slimy.

He looked down, and then he screamed and fainted.

A human head fell from his hand to the ground and rolled into the lotus pond with a thud.

"Old ...... Old lady ......"

Zhou Huaien was so frightened that he fell down, and when he looked at it again, there was still the figure of the old man, as if he had never appeared.

At this moment, a three-story wooden building behind Meiyuan suddenly collapsed in half, and the fracture was so straight that it was like someone had cut the three-story building in half. The old woman's body was headless in the halfway of the building that had not fallen.

……

……

Liuzhou

On the westernmost side of the city is a small courtyard that looks as unremarkable as the houses next to it. It's just that the owner of this yard has always been very mysterious, and the neighbors have never seen him come out. Every day, only the subordinates of the family go out to buy groceries, and they rarely talk to the neighbors.

The little girl of the neighbor's house was born, and the man who had just become a father was overjoyed, and wanted to invite the neighbor to drink, and went to knock on the door of the small courtyard, but a subordinate came out to ask what was the matter, and after he explained his intentions, the subordinate turned around and went in, and soon took a letter of silver and handed it to him, saying that the master of the house was unwell, and that the silver should be used as a congratulatory gift.

Fifteen years later, on the day the little girl got married, the man with a lot of wrinkles on his face thought for a long time, and finally decided to invite a neighbor, fifteen years ago, he received a congratulatory gift of so much silver, but he didn't even make up for a glass of wedding wine, not that he didn't want to, but that the owner of the house has always refused. So he knocked on the door again, and found that he didn't know when the next person changed, and after he explained his intention, the next person went back, and soon came back with a letter of silver and said, "There is a happy event in your family, and my master is also very happy, this is a congratulatory gift."

Twenty years later, the man died, and his wife asked his son-in-law to help inform the neighbors. The son-in-law knocked on the door of the neighbor's house, and a subordinate with a fresh face asked what was the matter, and he explained his intentions, and the subordinate went back and came back, handed him a letter of silver and said, The head of the house is also very sad about the misfortune of your family, and the old neighbor of decades said that he would leave, and this bit of silver is the heart of the head of the house.

Another ten years later, the gray-haired woman led the family to say goodbye from house to house. After her parents died, she moved in with her husband, and now her sons have married and worked as a copywriter in the county yamen, planning to take their family to live in the county, she also misses her son, so she decided to move out. When she knocked on the next door, a little scholar asked what was the matter, she explained her intentions, and the little scholar went in and came back, handing over a heavy money bag.

Only then did she remember that she had not seen the head of the house in the mouths of the people next door since she could remember. I don't know what kind of person it is. Now she was old, but the head of the house had never been in her sight.

She suddenly understood something, and three words faintly appeared in her mind.

Ascetic

Yes, if you are not a practitioner, how can you have such strange habits? How can you live so long? So she bowed deeply at the door, muttered that there was a fairy living beside her, and then left in awe.

After that, her family was mysteriously killed on the way to the county. If she hadn't muttered to herself, she might have been able to enjoy her old age in the county. Or maybe her father shouldn't have knocked on the door of the house in the first place. She didn't know that in fact, the old neighbors in the neighborhood had moved away for various reasons, and then they all died in the middle of the road. Therefore, the new people who moved in did not know who lived in the small courtyard.

The two little scholars talked in a low voice as they walked, and their voices were very soft and their steps were softer. Today is the first day that the two of them have come to this courtyard to serve the master of the house, and the previous subordinates are too old, so they replaced the two of them. The two of them were selected from the more than 300 servants of the Chen family in Haining, and they were shrewd and clever enough. And the old man who lives in this courtyard seems to like the service of the little scholar with clear eyebrows.

The two of them didn't know the identity of the burly and tall old man, but they only knew that the head of the Chen family personally brought the two of them here last night, and explained a lot of things along the way.

A young scholar pushes the door open and lifts the curtain for his companion. Another little scholar walked in with a tray of rice porridge and a few plates of delicate side dishes. When the two of them entered, they first bent down to salute, and then straightened up and were startled.

In the house, I don't know when there was a hunchbacked old man, sitting opposite the master.

"You have cultivated this house like a cave, and it has been shrinking for seventy or eighty years...... But your heart is still in the cave, so you can't take that step in the end. ”

The hunchbacked old man reached out and brought the rice porridge on the tray, and then drank the rice porridge with a side dish.

The tall old man looked at him, and then asked very seriously, "Why did you come out?" ”

The hunchbacked old man wiped the rice grains sticking to his beard: "I'm going to die, drag a few old friends down to drink tea." ”

The tall old man was silent for a while and said, "You are really unreasonable, we haven't done anything for so many years, we just don't want you to come out, but you still came out in the end." This rule was originally set by you, and people above the upper realm of the Tongming Realm are not allowed to participate, but now you yourself are breaking this rule. ”

The hunchbacked old man pursed his lips: "I beat you in the first place, and you only kept the rules I said." This rule was originally set by an unreasonable person, who has a hard fist is the truth, don't you understand this truth? Other than that...... One of the three killed by Zhang Yiyang was from the upper realm of the Ming Realm, you really shouldn't have tested me like this. ”

After saying this, the hunchbacked old man got up, picked up the package, picked up the ancient sword and walked out of the house, and the two little scholars looked at each other, not knowing what was happening. After the tall old man muttered for a few seconds, a pair of transparent cicada wings suddenly appeared from behind him and flew into the sky. A few seconds later, he fell from the clouds high in the clouds, smashing two deep pits into the ground.

Finally, he settled in the cave. Pity...... It's separation.

The hunchbacked old man continued to walk forward tremblingly with the ancient sword, but disappeared in an instant.

"I'm so tired......"

He sighed a little helplessly: "I don't know how many more doors I can visit and see a few old people." ”