The dusty Volkswagen Touareg drove into the office complex without hurrying, walked 50 meters around the flower beds, and soon came to a stop in the shade of a tree between two residential buildings.

Chu Mei in the co-pilot seat was as restless as a panicked deer, tidied up the front of the short coat for the third time, raised her bare hands to comb the already neat bangs repeatedly, and finally couldn't help but turn her head and ask: "I haven't met before, and I came suddenly, will your parents have any bad opinions?" ”

Zhu Daolin, who was about to get out of the car, couldn't cry or laugh: "I have seen your grandmother and parents, and they have eaten and drunk together, I don't worry about what are you worried about?" Besides, the phone calls have been made, and there must be a lot of dishes prepared at home, do you plan to go back to the villa to cook by yourself? ”

"Okay, can you help me take down the two bags of gifts from the back of the carriage?" Chu Mei looked at Zhu Daolin timidly.

"If you don't say I'll take it too, silly girl, get out of the car."

Zhu Daolin got out of the car and closed the door and went directly to the back of the car, picked up the two bags of Longquan Ganoderma lucidum spore powder and wild mountain mushrooms that Chu Mei bought for his parents, and then opened the wooden box that was more than one meter long and fifty centimeters square, and took out the Longquan Taiji Sword specially selected for his parents and closed the door casually.

Chu Mei, who was flushed, had already run over, took the two Tai Chi swords in Zhu Daolin's hands, and stood sideways to the side, Zhu Daolin couldn't help but smile when she saw her with a weak heart, pressed the remote control to close the car door and walked with her feet, and went up to the second floor and pressed the doorbell on the east gate.

In less than five seconds, Zhu Daolin's mother opened the door and was about to scold her son who never returned home, when she saw Chu Mei hiding behind her son with only half of her pretty face, Zhu's mother was slightly stunned and then smiled:

"Xiao Chu, right? Come in and come in, don't be polite to Auntie, you will be familiar with it after a few more times...... Come on, sit here, tired from traveling so far, right? ”

Zhu Daolin, who stood alone at the door and no one greeted him, shook his head, and carried two large bags of souvenirs into the house and closed the door: "Mom, this is Chu Mei, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, and now serves as the vice president of the printing company that I cooperated with Liang Cheng, a very capable girl, your hometown is in Longquan, this is a gift she specially brought from her hometown to you and your father." ”

Mother Zhu was even more happy after listening to Zhu Daolin's introduction, took the two Tai Chi swords worth more than 4,000 yuan from Chu Mei's hands and put them between the sofa and the foot of the wall, strode forward, snatched the two bags of sustenances in Zhu Daolin's hand, and praised them like treasures.

Zhu Daolin really didn't know what to say, so he simply went to the kitchen to find his father.

The sumptuous dinner party soon began, Chu Mei, who was extremely slender after taking off her coat, was pulled by Zhu Mu to sit down beside her, and almost every dish Zhu Mu took a chopstick to Chu Mei's bowl, and kept asking Chu Mei to treat her aunt as her own home, and eat whatever she likes, don't be polite.

Father Zhu looked at Chu Mei who was flushed with a smile on his face, and then looked at his son who was helpless and simply ate the food, and finally said with a smile: "Son, eat slowly, it's the first time that Miss Chu has come to be a guest, don't scare people." ”

Zhu Daolin simply put down his chopsticks and looked at Chu Mei who raised his head and looked at him secretly: "I'm sorry for making you frightened!" ”

"What are you talking about? Believe it or not, I beat you up? Mother Zhu revealed her true face under displeasure.

At this time, not only Zhu's father laughed loudly, but the shy Chu Mei couldn't help but lower her head and cover her mouth, but Zhu's mother grabbed her son and asked to admit her mistake, and finally Zhu Daolin, who was deeply afraid, obeyed the order to admit his mistake and surrendered, and the dinner returned to a peaceful and warm atmosphere.

At the end of dinner, the diligent and well-behaved Chu Mei rushed to wash the dishes, but Zhu's mother did not agree, Zhu Daolin quietly pulled his father to the living room to drink tea, and while reporting the development of the joint venture company between himself and Liangcheng, he took out Go and set up the battlefield with his father.

It wasn't until nine o'clock in the evening that Zhu's mother, who liked Chu Mei more and more, reluctantly let Chu Mei leave, and Zhu Daolin, who was troubled by his mother, took the opportunity to follow out, and vaguely said that Chu Mei would not come back tonight after sending Chu Mei off.

Zhu's mother and Zhu's father didn't care, their faces were full of smiles, wishing that their son, who had no girlfriend so far, would sleep on Chu Mei's bed early, and then hug his grandson.

The two drove back to the villa, Chu Mei took the lead in running back to her room to cover the door, Zhu Daolin carried a large wooden box containing thirty-eight swords into his room, sat stupidly in the study next to the open bedroom for a long time, and finally smiled and entered the large bathroom inside and began to undress.

Zhu Daolin returned to the study after taking a shower, took out a simple long sword with a black scabbard from the long wooden box under the bookcase, put it on the wide desk and looked at it carefully, the more he looked at it, the more he liked it, and finally slowly pulled out a broadsword with a width of 4.8 centimeters and a thickness of 2 centimeters, and put his index and middle fingers together on the flickering spine of the sword, and slowly slid towards the tip of the sword along the fine patterns born of thousands of hammers.

After a while, Chu Mei, who was full of fresh breath after bathing and changing, slowly came to Zhu Daolin's study, held a cup of hot tea and put it on the table in front of Zhu Daolin, and looked at the long sword in Zhu Daolin's hand with watery eyes:

"I never thought that you would pay 180,000 yuan to buy this sword without blinking, I was really shocked at the time, but Master Zhang Yesheng was full of reluctance, it was very incomprehensible, until now I still feel like something is blocked in my heart."

"Sit down."

Zhu Daolin put the unsheathed broadsword on the table: "After I drank with Master Zhang last night, he and two apprentices accompanied me to his backyard to try the sword, do you remember it now?" ”

Chu Mei, who was sitting opposite Zhu Daolin, nodded: "Remember, the lights in the backyard are very bright, Master Zhang's apprentice has taken out three swords for you to try, and in the end you are not satisfied, the apprentice surnamed Xu also sarcastically mocked you a few words, as a result, you went to the weapon rack and took out a waist knife, walked to the stake used to test the sword, and waved it hard, splitting the large wooden stake more than one meter high in half from top to bottom, and suppressed Master Zhang and his two apprentices. ”

"Later, Master Zhang dragged you into the house alone and talked for a long time before taking out this sword for you to try, but you didn't try again, just took it out and looked at it carefully, and asked Master Zhang to make a bid."

Zhu Daolin sighed: "Yesterday afternoon, as soon as we arrived in Longquan, we went to find Master Zhang, but he didn't want to see us, and only sent a few apprentices who worked part-time to sell goods to receive me, and saw that I took out nearly 100,000 yuan to buy forty swords in a blink of an eye, and their attitude immediately changed. ”

"It was really angry at the time, his apprentices were all snobs, if you didn't insist, I would have wanted to take you to other factories, there are dozens of sword factories in Longquan, and there are many who have won awards on TV, not necessarily worse than his family." Chu Mei remembers it very clearly.

Zhu Daolin nodded: "At that time, I also wanted to turn around and leave, but later I still wanted to talk again, and it was not too late to talk about it, and it turned out to be worth it." ”

"Maybe you think that this sword is nothing special compared to other swords except that it is a little longer and a little wider, and those swords that cost more than five or six thousand to twenty thousand are much more beautiful than this inconspicuous broadsword in terms of appearance and decoration, but I have a feeling that those so-called swords are not the swords I need, and I would rather not have me than buy one casually."

"Master Zhang probably saw my thoughts, so he hurriedly ended the banquet and took out the three swords that were waiting to be sold after winning the national award."

Chu Mei nodded and didn't speak, she believed what Zhu Daolin said, although this feeling was very illusory and indescribable, but Chu Mei had a similar mysterious experience, and the most recent one was when she first met Zhu Daolin.

Zhu Daolin picked up the broadsword on the table again: "This is a real sword, imitating the sword of the Son of Heaven in the Han Dynasty, with a total length of one meter two, a width of four .8 centimeters, and a weight of five .2 kilograms, which is almost twice the weight of an ordinary Longquan sword, and ordinary people can't dance at all." ”

"The hilt and shaft of this sword are made of silver-copper alloy poured at one time, and after careful polishing, the hilt is wrapped with a fine ox tendon leather rope, and the sharkskin scabbard is not decorated without any extravagant decoration, let alone the hilt, wedge and scabbard of the sword, which are exquisitely carved and decorated, as in the three award-winning swords held in front of them."

"Not long after this sword came into my hand, I believed that what Master Zhang said was true, and he whispered to me that this sword was made of a meteorite bought at a high price from the Guizhou-Guizhou border area five years ago, and it was the most memorable pride in his life, so he treasured it until now."

"As far as I know, six years ago, Master Zhang's reputation was not obvious, and there were at least ten swordsmiths in the entire Longquan area who were more famous than him, but six years ago, it was the time when Master Zhang, who was not famous, was the time when his skills were completed, and it was also the time when his energy was the most vigorous, so it can be said that this sword is likely to be the highest level he can achieve in his life, so in the end, he was still very distressed when he shouted the price of 180,000."

"Later, I thought that the reason why I was able to impress him was that in addition to buying forty swords of all kinds in one go, and ordering two hundred Tang knives worth 600,000 yuan from him at one time, the knife I split the stake played a great role, and he and his two apprentices knew in their hearts what it meant, and if I really let me down, they would probably have to worry about their reputation."

Chu Mei didn't know about cultivation and martial arts, and she didn't understand why Zhu Daolin spent such a big price to buy back this sword, in order to solve her doubts, she finally couldn't help but ask: "Is there any special significance for you to spend so much money to buy back this sword?" ”

Zhu Daolin deliberately tilted his head sideways and looked at Chu Mei playfully: "Can't you buy it back and collect it?" You know that I am not short of money, and I like antique calligraphy and painting or something, you have also seen, I brought back a lot of good things this time, very valuable, haha! While I am young and rich now, I need to buy some antique swords or something to keep, and I can sell them when I have no money in the future, and I can pass them on to my son when I am old. ”

Chu Mei's little face turned red again: "It's not serious, I won't tell you, I'm going to sleep, you continue to pound your antique sword." ”

"I'm sorry to frighten you again, haha!"

Zhu Daolin watched her trot out with a smile on his face, slowly put away the sword on the table, stopped when he reached the top of the box, and sat down on the spot to meditate with his eyes closed after a little consideration.

In less than half a minute, Zhu Daolin opened his eyes and saw that the sword on his knee had disappeared, and immediately covered the diamond ring on his left wrist and smiled with satisfaction.