The current situation of the town is like a sand table built by the commander of the great li, the war has come to an end, and it was decided to abandon it, so it was covered with a black cloth at will.

Chen Ping'an lit an oil lamp in his house and began to count his belongings, three bags of gold and copper coins, one bag of support money, one bag of Spring Festival money, and one bag of victory money, one bag was given by the prince of the Great Sui, saying that he was grateful for letting him bump into the golden carp, and the two bags left by Gu Cang were considered to be the money to buy loaches.

As for the two bags of money that Chen originally thanked him, Chen Ping'an pleaded with Chen on the way out of the mountain to hand it over to Liu Xianyang, although Chen was puzzled, but he did not refuse, he was perhaps surprised by the choice of the young man in the alley, or it may be that he was in a good mood after the success of the ancestor worship, Chen smiled at the groundbreak, and said some heartfelt words in a soft voice, so that Chen Ping'an could rest assured, and frankly said that her promise to be a descendant of the Yingyin Chen family is definitely more valuable than two bags of gold and copper coins. Chen Ping'an was actually suspicious of this and didn't dare to believe it all, but after Ning Yao heard that "Yingyin Chen's descendants are descendants", he privately asked Chen Ping'an to relax.

Mr. Qi has presented two seals, a total of four parties. The earliest two seals, "Tranquility and Pride" and "Chen Shiyi", are Mr. Qi's own private collection of snake gallstones, and then the two seals are Mr. Qi according to the snake gall stone presented by Chen Ping'an, carved with the shape, a small seal and a book, coincidentally the two seals can be closed, make up a picture of green mountains and green water, a thick and a delicate, Mr. Qi carved the words "mountain" and "water" respectively, according to Ning Yao, it can probably be called a pair of "landscape seals".

Chen Ping'an put Lu Daochang's two prescriptions and three pieces of paper on the table.

Ning Yao once disliked Lu Daochang's words as bland and tasteless, his popularity was talented, he was angry, he was immortal and Buddha, and he had nothing, just like a secular dynasty who was a talented person, and he catered to the pavilion body pursued for the sake of fame in the imperial examination.

Chen Ping'an naturally couldn't see the depth of the charm and attainments of the young Taoist's handwriting, and he would not despise these three pieces of paper because Ning Yao's evaluation was not high. Moreover, Lu Daochang personally said before leaving that it is not easy to buy books and read in a small town, and Chen Ping'an wants to learn words, so he can start from his prescription.

At this time, Chen Ping'an carefully picked up the last piece of paper, and had seen the four characters of "Lu Shen's Edict" in the vermilion seal at the end before, and he didn't think about it, but now that he has as many as four seals, he feels that those few small characters are particularly cute and amiable. Chen Ping'an thought that he would have spare money in his pocket in the future, and one day he bought a book, put it in his private collection at home, and then on the title page or the last page, he lightly stamped the Zhu character with "Chen Shiyi", Chen Ping'an couldn't help grinning when he thought of this.

It's just that Chen Ping'an was a little embarrassed soon, and with a seal, he needed ink. The New Year's shop in Qilong Lane that specializes in selling pastries, there is a shop next door to it that sells all kinds of sundries, hanging a signboard with the word "grass head", Song Jixin and the maidservant Zhigui often visit this shop, the so-called four treasures of the study, and the bookcase are all bought there.

Chen Ping'an hesitated for a moment, feeling that when he became literate in the future, he would meet a book that was love at first sight one day, and then buy a box of ink ink.

In addition, there is also the sack of carefully selected snake gallstones, seven or eight, with different colors, but even if the water is out for such a long time, the color still does not fade. The mouth of the sack on the table is opened, and the stones of various colors as big as the palm of a young hand, like a child's fist, and as small as a pigeon's egg, are leaning on each other, and the appearance is pleasing.

Chen Ping'an originally hoped to give it to Liu Xianyang, although Song Jixin is a mean-spoken reading seed, but there is a saying that makes a lot of sense, which probably means that the same small thing, put in the hands of the vendors outside Mud Bottle Alley, sell it for a few pennies, and it takes a lot of effort, but if it is placed in the cabinet of the grass shop, it will cost three or four taels of silver to start, and customers love to buy it or not, and they have no money to get out.

The speaker has no intention of listening, Chen Ping'an thinks that Song Jixin's words are quite reasonable, so the snake gallstone is placed on his side, staying in the town, it is estimated that he will not be able to sell it at a high price, but if it is given to Liu Xianyang, he will go to the big place where the Yingyin Chen family is located, even if he cheats and bargains, it will definitely get more money than Chen Ping'an.

As for whether to hold a thatched house in his own hands or let a friend win a mountain of gold and silver, which is better or worse, for Chen Ping'an, there is no need to consider it at all.

Otherwise, why would you want to be friends with Liu Xianyang?

So even if Liu Baqiao in the Wind Thunder Garden, Chen Ping'an thinks that this person is not bad, but no matter how Liu Baqiao calls himself a brother, Chen Ping'an will not take it seriously from beginning to end, and he will never echo it.

Chen Ping'an finally picked up the hosta, and Mr. Qi said that it was a gift from his husband in the early years, and it was an ordinary thing, not a rare treasure.

The jasper hairpin is engraved with eight small characters.

Ning Yao explained the phrase "A gentleman of words and thoughts, warm as jade".

Gentleman.

Although Chen Ping'an has never read a book, he still feels that this word must be a very weighty title.

Ning Yao's voice came from the door, "Why don't you pin this hairpin?" Since people are willing to give it to you, they naturally want you to make the best use of it. ”

Chen Ping'an, who was stunned, looked up and asked with a smile, "Why are you here?"

Ning Yao sat across Chen Ping'an's table and glanced at the hairpin in Chen Ping'an's hand, "I have checked it carefully, it is indeed an ordinary hairpin, there is no hidden mystery, at first I thought it was a small cave." ”

Chen Ping'an was confused, "What?"

Ning Yao looked at the table of Chen Ping'an's "family heirlooms at the bottom of the box" and explained: "Don't have a cave, have you heard of this statement? The common people only regarded it as a rhetorical statement of a scholar, and did not take it seriously. In fact, there are two kinds of cave talents under the world, one is the Lizhu cave we are in, which belongs to one of the ten major caves and thirty-six small caves, which is the cave of the 'cave heaven blessed land', some of the territory is vast, I don't know tens of thousands of miles, the legend says that the Taoist ancestor has a lotus cave sky, although it is one of the thirty-six small caves, but the leaf surface of one of the lotus leaves is larger than the capital of your Dali Dynasty. ”

Chen Ping'an was startled and doubted: "Impossible, right?"

Ning Yao smiled and stretched out his thumb, cocked it to himself, and said confidently: "I don't believe it either, so in the future, after I go and see it with my own eyes, I will come back and tell you the truth!"

Chen Ping'an said softly: "Such a strange place, not everyone can enter it, right?"

Ning Yao laughed and said, "Who do you think I am?"

Chen Ping'an hurriedly diverted the topic, "Miss Ning, you continue to talk about Dongtian." ”

Ning Yao casually picked up a small and delicate snake gall stone, peach blossom-colored, held it in the palm of his hand and rubbed it, and said: "Any big cave sky, which can penetrate the heaven and earth, and is full of spiritual energy, is a veritable immortal mansion, and the qi practitioner is practicing in it, and he will get twice the result with half the effort, the lord of the cave sky, unless he is a person with great luck, cannot occupy it, and it has long been carved up by the best of the three sects and hundreds of families, and it is not allowed to be touched by others." Thirty-six small caves, a bit like the secret realm of Tibet, such as the woman still holding the pipa and half covering her face, among them, the Taoyuan Cave is the most pleasant, the Gangfeng Cave is the most secluded and precipitous, and the Lizhu Cave is ......"

Chen Ping'an asked curiously, "What's wrong with us here?"

The corners of Ning Yao's mouth curled, stretched out two fingers, twisted them gently, and said, "The smallest, it's so big, it's not worth mentioning." ”

Chen Ping'an simply sat cross-legged, lazily, lying on the table, then raised a fist, raised his fingers in turn, and laughed softly: "But I am here, I met Mr. Qi, Old Man Yang, Liu Xianyang, Gu Cang, and of course, you, Miss Ning." ”

Ning Yao also smiled, "There is also a small cave, that is, a place to store items, Buddhism has a Sumeru mustard seed, Taoism is a sleeve, and the rest of the hundred schools also have their own sayings, its purpose is to 'square inch of land to accommodate heaven and earth', in short, that is, a little bit of a large object, can put down a lot of things, but compared to the real cave heaven blessed land, this kind of treasure with the title of 'cave sky', can not put living things, one of the most valuable dowries of my mother's mother before, is a jade bracelet," The size of the cave inside is about the size of this house. ”

The straw sandals boy who didn't know the height of the sky outside was a little disappointed, "It's so small, you see a lotus leaf of the Taoist ancestor of the people, it is as big as a city." ”

Ning Yao was annoyed and angry, leaned forward, and reached out to slap Chen Ping'an's head, Chen Ping'an hurriedly leaned back and dodged left and right.

Ning Yao failed to make several attempts, and as soon as the spirit rhino moved, the hand holding the peach-colored snake gallstone was about to throw out the stone.

Chen Ping'an hurriedly panicked: "Don't throw it, don't throw it, if the corners are broken, you will definitely make a lot less copper money!"

Ning Yao pursed his lips and put down the snake gallstone, only to suddenly raise his hand quickly.

Frightened, Chen Ping'an quickly closed his eyes, unable to bear to look at it.

With a snap, the stone was slammed on the table, and Ning Yao laughed.

After Chen Ping'an opened his eyes, he said helplessly: "Miss Ning, can you not be so naïve." ”

Ning Yao raised his narrow eyebrows, swept his elbow, and the stone was swept off the table.

Chen Ping'an scratched his head with both hands and made a bitter face.

Reasoning with Miss Ning doesn't make sense.

Ning Yao laughed and stretched out another hand from under the tabletop, the stone that should have fallen to the ground, lying impressively in her white palm.

Chen Ping'an still held his head in his hands, pitiful.

Ning Yao no longer teased Chen Ping'an, and Zhengse asked, "What are you going to do in the future?"

Chen Ping'an thought for a while and replied honestly: "After helping Master Ruan do all those hard work, I think that in the future, I will go into the mountains to burn charcoal, and I can also collect medicine by the way and sell it to the Yang family's shop." ”

Ning Yao hesitated for a moment and asked, "Then in addition to the mountain-moving ape in Zhengyang Mountain, there are also the women of the Xu family in Qingfeng City, Liu Zhimao, the true monarch of the Intercepting River, and the Yunxia Mountain and Old Dragon City behind Cai Jinjian and Fu Nanhua, what should you do?

Ning Yao didn't wait for Chen Ping'an to speak, and said in a deep voice: "So at the beginning, Daoist Lu asked you to stay in the blacksmith shop with a cheeky face no matter what, which is the right way." ”

Chen Ping'an said worriedly: "Then what if it causes a lot of trouble to Master Ruan?"

Ning Yao sneered: "A saint who presides over the operation of the small cave sky, will he still be afraid of these troubles?"

Chen Ping'an nodded, "Then I'll go back and ask Master Ruan, tell him all the truth first, and see if he is willing to accept me as a long-term apprentice." ”

Ning Yao supported his cheeks with one hand, rummaged through those snake gallstones with the other, and said, "Here in the town, there is nothing that cannot be solved by one bag of gold and copper coins, if there is, then two bags." ”

Chen Ping'an said with a sad face: "I'm distressed." ”

Ning Yao squinted his eyes and said, "Why don't you feel distressed when you plan to give Liu Xianyang a brain?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head and said: "The two things can't be compared." ”

Ning Yao rolled his eyes and said: "In the future, which woman is unfortunate enough to be your daughter-in-law, I estimate that she will want to slap you to death every day." ”

Chen Ping'an said seriously: "If you really want to have a daughter-in-law, it's another thing." I'm not stupid, I'll let my daughter-in-law be wronged. ”

Ning Yao looked incredulous, full of sarcasm.

The black charcoal-like young man clasped his hands on his chest, sat cross-legged, rarely looked arrogant, and snorted: "If my daughter-in-law is wronged, don't say that it is the old ape of Zhengyang Mountain, it is the Dao Ancestor you said, I will also hack him to death, don't say it if you cut it to death or not, anyway, let's cut it first!"

Ning Yao was surprised and dumbfounded.

She has always felt that Chen Ping'an is not a hard-tempered person, except for killing Cai Jinjian and Dou Yishan Ape, usually getting along, Chen Ping'an never seems to be angry, his temperament is not paranoid, and he has a tepid good temper.

If this kind of thing was said by Fu Nanhua and Song Jixin, Ning Yao would feel that it should not be surprising, but it could come out of Chen Ping'an's mouth, Ning Yao couldn't believe it, so she couldn't help asking, "Why?"

Chen Ping'an grinned and said: "My father has only fought with someone once in his life, just for my mother, because someone in Dragon Lane scolded my mother, my father was angry, so he went to fight hard." When I came back, I was complained by my mother for a long time, but my father told me privately that it is one thing to beat or not, and it is another thing to fight or not, what do men do if they don't protect their daughters-in-law, what do they do when they marry into the door?!"

Ning Yao was a little strange, "Huh?"

Chen Ping'an scratched his head and said with a smile: "My father is very good at burning porcelain, and he is very bad at fighting, and when he goes home, his nose is blue and his face is swollen, and he is beaten miserably." ”

Ning Yao stretched out his hand to support his forehead, not wanting to speak.

She was silent for a moment, then got up and said, "Let's go, go back to the shop." ”

Chen Ping'an asked, "I'll send you to the mouth of Mud Bottle Alley?"

Ning Yao said angrily: "No." ”

Chen Ping'an didn't force it, but just sent Ning Yao to the gate of the hospital.

Ning Yao didn't turn his head, and he knew that the young man had been standing at the door.

Good people who are not pedantic, their hearts will be extraordinarily warm and splendid, like sun-facing flowers and trees.

That's a beautiful thing in itself.

The helpless boy in Mud Bottle Lane was cheaply killed by those outsiders with mud legs, and the ants who dug up the soil and ate it in the alleys of the market.

But the boy has his own life to live after all, he also wants to live a good life, not greedy for enjoyment, in fact, the boy has been a very hard-working child since he was a child, he just thought that if his father and mother knew underground, they would definitely rest assured, although the Chen family is only Chen Ping'an, but a person, can still live a good life, which means that the family passed down from his father and mother is not bad, even if there is only one person left in this family.

Even if he has the money to buy the Spring Festival couplets and needs the teenager to post them by himself, no one will tell Chen Ping'an whether it is crooked or correct, and the blessing word pasted on the door needs to be set up by himself, and no one will help him.

People live for a lifetime, life and death are conceited, and they don't want to ask God for anything.

So this kind of person seems to be good-tempered, but in fact, his bones are extraordinarily hard. Life will also be especially hard.

The girl who walked out of Mud Bottle Alley, she suddenly felt a little lost and a little guilty.

Say goodbye for your own sake.

After Chen Ping'an returned to the house, he stared at the oil lamp in a daze.

In a daze, Chen Ping'an seemed to be asleep, like a dream.

He seemed to have reached the southern end of the covered bridge for some reason, and only vaguely remembered that it was pitch black along the way, and even he couldn't see the scene a few feet away.

But when he stepped on the steps, the heavens and the earth suddenly shone brightly.

Chen Ping'an walked in the corridor of the covered bridge in a daze, and suddenly in the center of the corridor, there was an incomparably dazzling snow-white light, as if it was more dazzling than the previous light of heaven and earth, and the Taoist meaning contained was more sublime.

There was a tall figure with a blurred face, standing in the middle of a covered bridge.

Some are similar to Chen Ping'an's first sight of Mr. Qi in the alley, with fluttering sleeves and snow-white, like a fairy.

But in the chaotic subconscious like a wild horse, Chen Ping'an was extremely sure that the person in front of him was more ethereal than Mr. Qi, just like he or she was farther away from the world.

Chen Ping'an walked forward slowly, as if there was a fox woman whispering in his ears, demagoguery, "Kneel down, and you can be lucky." ”

After that, some people shouted majestically, shocking people's hearts: "Ordinary people, don't kneel down quickly!"

Another Zhongzheng calm voice said indifferently: "Like a secular person, you need to kneel down to the prince of heaven and earth, so what's the matter if you kneel, in exchange for a great avenue to reach the top." ”

There was also a hoarse voice of vicissitudes of life, "This kneeling is equivalent to walking across the Changsheng Bridge, boarding the Qingyun Ladder, and crossing the moat of heaven and earth.

A familiar voice sounded with all its might, "Chen Ping'an, stop quickly! Don't move forward, don't turn around, and don't kneel." Just stick to a stick of incense in the same place, how many catties of divine energy can you carry in a mortal body? Don't act against the sky......

It's a bit like Old Man Yang's reprimand and admonition.

It's just that the old man's voice gets lower and lower the further he goes.

At the same time, someone smiled warmly: "Chen Ping'an, why don't you stand up straight and take a few steps forward?"

This is like Mr. Qi.

Chen Ping'an instinctively straightened his waist, stopped, and looked around blankly.

He only knew that he had a lot of questions and wanted to ask Mr. Qi.

Many noisy voices came and went, "This is Ma Kuxuan's deserved opportunity! Get out of here!"

"Even if Ma Kuxuan can't get it, it should fall into the hands of Ning Yao, the fairy embryo of that day, what are you!"

"Your Chen clan is a puddle of mud that can't be supported, the incense should have been cut off a long time ago, and you dare to covet the fetish, brazen little bastard!"

"Chen Ping'an, don't you care about Ning Yao and Liu Xianyang very much, turn around and go back to the town, wouldn't it be better to leave the opportunity to your friends? Qi Jingchun has already exchanged his death for the stability of you mortals, wouldn't it be great to be a rich man in the future, marry a wife and have children, and have an afterlife?"

"If you dare to take one step further, you will be crushed to ashes!"

Chen Ping'an stepped out.

The bridge shook violently.

The heavens and the earth were silent, and the noise disappeared.

There are sighs, there are fears, there are panics, there are awe, there are sighs, a mess.

After Chen Ping'an walked out in one step, he naturally took a second step forward, and at this time he found that Mr. Qi and himself were walking side by side.

The entire covered bridge and beyond the covered bridge suddenly became invisible again.

When the young man stopped walking before, he was no longer stinged by the light and wept, and at this moment, he choked up for no reason, and asked, "Mr. Qi, are you leaving?"

"Well, I'm leaving. There are too many people out there who want me to die, and I can't make my own choice. ”

"Mr. Qi, who are we going to meet?"

"It's not 'us', it's you. You're going to meet a ...... Old man?"

There was a loud bang.

Mr. Qi seemed to have been knocked away by someone, but Mr. Qi laughed heartily, and finally did not forget to say in a deep voice: "Chen Ping'an, the avenue is at your feet, go!"

Chen Ping'an took a deep breath, raised his foot and prepared to take the third step.

There was a voice that sounded extremely far away and extremely high, instantly penetrating the layers of heaven and earth, and smiled: "It's only three things, and it will stop at the point." ”

Someone on the middle side of the covered bridge snorted coldly.

Chen Ping'an woke up suddenly, and found himself lying on the table, the oil lamp was still burning, and the young man subconsciously turned his head to look out the window.

It's dawn.