"In the northern frontier of the empire, in a desolate place near the wilderness mountains, there is an ancient settlement called the Bodhisattva Valley, and they believe in a real white snake god......"

In the bamboo house, the woman brought a group stool and sat opposite Zhuang Zuo on the couch.

"Legend has it that in the early days of the Bodhisattva Valley, the mountains were full of docile and harmless white snakes, and the inhabitants of the desolate land had no food, so they caught these white snakes for food. Slowly, the number of white snakes became smaller and smaller, and the size was far less than before. But the residents of the Bodhisattva Valley did not care, and still caught the white snake on a large scale, and in addition to the full stomach, there were many people who killed but did not eat. Finally, one day, they searched the valley and could not find a single white snake. ”

She shook her head, as if she was pitying the white snake who had been wiped out, and as if she was disappointed in the ancestors of the Bodhisattva Valley.

"In the midst of hunger and cold, the population of the Bodhisattva Valley has plummeted by more than half. At this time, a white snake that was no more than three feet long but could speak appeared in the patriarch's house. She agreed with the ancestors of the Bodhisattva Valley that only for the needs of her stomach, the people of the clan could take one foot of her tail and body every day, and not harm her life......

“...... The ancestors took one foot a day, and the white snake grew one foot and one inch a day, and after thousands of years, the white snake grew enough to coil around the valley for more than dozens of circles, and the tribes of the Bodhisattva Valley relied on this to survive in the desolate land in the extreme north. ”

When the story was finally finished, the woman folded her hands on her knees and waited quietly for the words to stir up waves in Zhuang Zuo's mind and finally turn into living water.

But if metaphors make it harder to understand, it is better not to use metaphors. Zhuang Zuo was silent for a long time, and asked in his withered voice, "So, you are the white snake who can speak human words?"

The woman smiled expectedly, "It's not enough to be able to speak," she shook her head, raising her hand to hide her smile, "If you don't grow a foot a day, it won't be a matter of three days before you are eaten up." ”

“...... I won't teach you how to talk about people," she stood up, stretched out her hands to lift Zhuang Zuo, and helped him get up from the couch, "But you have to learn the ability to grow a foot a day." ”

Different from the appearance, the woman's two arms are very strong, or maybe Zhuang Zuo's old bones are too light now, and when his feet touch the ground, not much weight falls on his knees.

The woman's hand slowly withdrew from Zhuang Zuo's armpit, if what she said was true, then the current Zhuang Zuo was already in his eighties, and it was not easy to stand up like this.

He asked urgently, "How long will it take to learn this skill?"

"Get up early and go to bed early, eat less meat, live a long life, and don't learn. ”

The woman replied jokingly.

Outside the window there was a crow of crows, followed by the sound of flapping wings. There was an awkward silence in the window.

"If the seniors are interested in finding a late ...... Looking for my happiness, he smiled, "Knowing his current appearance, Zhuang Zuo really can't say the word "junior", "But even if he drags this half-cut body into the ground, Zhuang has a place to go and a trust that has to be completed." ”

“...... Thanks to the seniors for pulling Zhuang back from Hades. With trembling steps, he walked past the woman, then turned back and clenched his fists.

"After all, what did you do like that?"

Behind him, the woman's questioning came, not mockery, but bitter persuasion.

"Former ......"

Zhuang Zuo turned around and was speechless by the sight in front of him.

In the somewhat shabby-looking white robe, there was no longer a young woman with a deep smile, but a young man seven feet long, with ankles peeking out from under the hem of his skirt - a pair of smiling peach blossom eyes, how could Zhuang Zuo admit that it was his own face.

Whew-

In the blink of an eye, the young Zhuang Zuo in front of him turned back into a mysterious woman. She let out a sigh of relief, apparently suffocating from her clothes as she grew larger.

"Hah, the clothes are a little tighter. ”

She was like an entertainer after performing a trick, and she summed herself up with a smile.

"...... the hell are you" Zhuang Zuo felt the resentment of being fooled, and the image of the unpredictable woman in front of him in his heart changed from a respectable and reliable predecessor to a playful old witch. He even wondered if his life was really in Yan Qi's hands, or if this demon woman just helped him heal his injuries, so he took the opportunity to take sixty years of essence and the like......

"If you only live eighty, what's the difference between taking you sixty years and letting you die?"

"Come here, the old body will teach you how to live to one hundred and fourteen. ”

She blinked her eyes and stood in place with a smile, waiting for Zhuang Zuo to change her mind.

"Wake up early, go to bed early, eat less meat?" you've already said. Zhuang Zuo replied vigilantly, like a hostile, hunched old cat.

The woman shook her head lightly and said, "Although it is not a lie, it is true that there are other, not so simple ways. And then!"

She took out a small cyan bamboo tube from her arms and threw it at Zhuang Zuo. But the old man's reaction speed also degraded, Zhuang Zuo obviously saw the bamboo tube flying in front of him, and when he stretched out his hand, the bamboo tube had fallen to the ground.

"As the saying goes, it's better to teach a man to fish than to teach him how to make it, and I wanted to teach you how to make it, but ......," the woman turned her back and walked to the couch, "You are so anxious that you must not be able to calm down and follow me." ”

A fresh breeze blew through the window, and the smell of herbs in the house dissipated a little, and the fragrance of bamboo poured into the nostrils instead.

Zhuang Zuo tried to bend down and pick up the small bamboo tube on the ground. Strangely, the body seems to be less stiff.

"The thank you just now doesn't count, it's too insincere. ”

A bronze mirror lay horizontally and was kicked in front of him.

There are no longer deep furrows and shallow ravines on that face, and the beard and hair are all still green. Zhuang Zuo touched his face incredulously, one after the other, and couldn't tell which side was true and which side was a dream.

When he had seen enough and touched enough, he picked up the small bamboo tube containing the medicine and stood up, and the young woman had already stood in front of him at some point, with a mysterious smile on her face, waiting quietly.

Zhuang Zuo scratched his head and immediately put his hand down, his eyes not knowing where to look.

"Thank you...... Thank you seniors. He folded his hands together and shook them solemnly.

Yes, after eating a thunder spear from Yan Qi, she can still stand here intact, except for the unfathomable senior in front of her, whose credit can it be? Maybe her attitude of playing with others in the palm of her hand is indeed unpleasant, but Zhuang Zuo is still ashamed of his previous faux pas, he is just swayed by emotions like an ordinary person, but he should have demanded himself with a calmness beyond ordinary people.

The woman smiled with satisfaction.

At this time, Zhuang Zuo's brain, who didn't know whether it was still calm, thought of an idea.

"Senior...... Do you also have the ability to disguise others?" he asked tentatively.

If Zhuang Zuo guessed correctly, the appearance of the old dragon bell is his true appearance now, but this senior used her disguise technique to transform herself into the appearance of her youth.

Sure enough, the woman nodded, raising her eyebrows, as if looking forward to what he would say.

"Then, there is one more thing for the juniors...... Cheeky. ”

......

In front of the door of the bamboo room, a man and a woman stand opposite each other. The woman is a young woman who is holding back her badness, and the man is a white-faced student with a cramped expression, and the former is seeing off the latter.

"Before leaving, I don't know ...... What do you call your senior?" he hesitated, but still asked.

The woman leaned closer and proposed, "Since you have changed your appearance of Rongshi, you might as well call me as the boy does." ”

"And he...... National teacher, what do you call you?"

"The old shrew, the old witch, the old immortal - in short, you can't get rid of an old word. How uneducated. ”

The look on her face was not one of anger or reproach, but of the kind of smile that often flashed casually when she reminisced about the old days.