Chapter 133

Ouyang Rong was in a good mood.

One of the four great joys in life: meeting an old friend in a foreign land.

Although he only knew this slender mute girl and the old Daoist priest in the crane-cape for one night, and only had a shallow acquaintance of handing water and chatting.

However, this was the first person Ouyang Rong saw and knew after his main consciousness came to this world.

Or rather.

He once thought that the mute girl, the old Daoist, and Master Buzhi were "fellow villagers" who had fallen into the well with him.

From crawling out of the Pure Land Underground Palace to now, time had passed in the blink of an eye.

Ouyang Rong's eyes felt a bit like a lifetime ago.

In front of the stone table where the slender mute girl was, there was only one intact stone stool, and the other two were tilted on the lawn.

After the young Magistrate entered the inner courtyard, he didn't let the managing monks like Xiudu follow him, and walked here alone.

He rolled up his sleeves, bent over to straighten the two stone stools, wiped the broken weeds on the stool surface with his sleeves, and sat his butt on one of the stone stools.

Ouyang Rong's face showed a caring expression, and he asked softly toward the introverted and bowed delicate mute girl opposite:

"Girl, just nod or shake your head.

"How is the food and warmth in this courtyard?

"Has anyone bullied you?

"Is the manager in the courtyard competent?"

The slender mute girl, whose face could not be seen because she was bowing, made an "ah" sound, didn't nod, and didn't shake her head.

She didn't know if she was listening to what someone was saying.

Ouyang Rong waited for a while, but saw no reaction.

The scene at the table was cold, and the enthusiasm went unanswered.

His expression was not too awkward, and he was calm and composed.

It was just that it was rare to meet, and he originally wanted to chat a few more words to ask about the old Daoist priest in the crane-cape.

But seeing the slender mute girl's cold and rejecting appearance, Ouyang Rong closed the mouth he was about to open.

He smiled and couldn't help but look at the slender mute girl twice more.

Judging from her performance in the Pure Land Underground Palace back then, she shouldn't be deaf.

Deafness and muteness are generally symbiotic.

Because she was deaf in childhood, she lost the ability to learn language, and her vocal cords were fine.

And this slender mute girl in front of him, since she could understand words, she was naturally not that kind.

It looked like she was a mute acquired later, perhaps due to vocal cord damage or something.

Ouyang Rong sat by her side, sunned himself for a while, then looked at the sky and got up to say goodbye.

Before leaving, he turned his head and nagged a few words:

"The girl looks pretty good, so I probably don't need to help with anything unnecessary.

"But if you have any difficulties in the future, you can directly seek Manager Xiudu or Monk Xiufa. I will talk to them about you before I leave later..."

The slender mute girl bowed her head and listened, remembering every word he said, even the slight concern in his words.

She couldn't speak, but she had always had a very, very good memory since she was a child.

At this moment, behind the slender mute girl, beside another stone table, Ajie's figure had disappeared.

It turned out that taking advantage of the gap when Ouyang Rong was talking to the mute girl, Ajie, who was sweating profusely, stood up silently and retreated away from the stone table position very close to the slender mute girl.

Although the Qi was still being locked by her without a moment's rest.

But Ajie felt that leaving the absolute domain of close-range sword drawing would not be wrong.

And the further away, the better, at least it could buy that half a breath of reaction time.

Especially the first sword.

Sometimes, asking for a sword between sword cultivators with similar spiritual cultivation levels, the biggest advantage or disadvantage lies in this first sword.

Asking for a sword is like a business with an extremely low fault tolerance rate.

In addition to the abundance of capital funds, how to allocate and use it exquisitely is also extremely important. The latter two determine the outcome in this first sword of meeting.

Ajie knew this way clearly.

He was also becoming more and more calculating about this, and even haggling over every ounce.

But...

Ahead, the slender mute girl turned a deaf ear to this.

She sat on the stone stool without moving, and had no intention of turning back to stop him at all.

Ajie's face became even uglier.

At this moment, the stone stool position where the slender mute girl was sitting was under a small patch of tree shade.

Hearing the footsteps of that person getting up and walking away.

The mute girl raised her head and made a seemingly meaningless syllable toward his back in the bright sun:

"Ah."

Just like the reaction when she looked up and stared blankly at him from below before Ouyang Rong climbed out of the well in the Pure Land Underground Palace back then.

Perhaps hearing the response from behind.

Ouyang Rong raised one hand over his shoulder without looking back, his sleeves slipped, and he waved his slender wrist.

He left this inner courtyard.

The slender mute girl silently watched Ouyang Rong's relaxed back disappear.

She looked forward without squinting, and in the distance behind her, the swordsman named Ajie was holding his sword and retreating silently, slowly stopping at a corner of the inner courtyard.

Having pulled away a distance of ten feet, and going further back, he would hit the wall.

Ten feet, almost enough to get rid of the greatest danger.

However, Ajie couldn't be happy at all.

Because it was only until this moment that he discovered one thing.

The slender mute girl who was not carrying a sword seemed to be locking his Qi, not to draw her sword and attack, but seemed to be... warning and blocking.

In addition, what made Ajie's face even more solemn was that before the slender mute girl was exposed, Ajie hadn't noticed that he had been locked at all.

And it wasn't until later that he was ready to take Ouyang Rong's life that this sharp Qi came late but revealed itself incomparably clearly.

She had no intention of drawing her sword to sneak attack or take the lead from beginning to end.

Or rather, as long as a certain young Magistrate was present, the slender mute girl's attention was not on Ajie at all.

This is... what kind of contempt and humiliation.

The inner courtyard was silent.

Of course, this kind of silence is relative, and it is exclusive to a certain type of person.

In the courtyard, there were a dozen or so disabled old and sick patients from the Beitian Jiyang Yuan sunning themselves and waiting for mealtime, plus a bunch of childhood sweetheart children who were making trouble from time to time.

The atmosphere could not be considered quiet at all, it was extremely lively.

However, the atmosphere between the mute girl and Ajie, who were sitting and standing at both ends of the inner courtyard, was dead silent.

Even their movements didn't move at all, like two statues.

Ajie felt that the noon wind blowing on his face was very, very cold.

From his temples, scalp, and neck soaked in sweat, came a chill.

After watching the young Magistrate leave, the slender mute girl turned her head back calmly.

Finally, she glanced at the one-armed swordsman.

The two looked at each other silently for a while.

Ajie shook his head at her lightly.

"Yueniang" was taken down from his arms and changed to be worn at his waist.

His remaining left palm rested on the hilt of the sword.

Then the one-armed young man turned around quietly, bypassing the stone table position where the mute girl was sitting like a detour, and followed Ouyang Rong who had just left.

But, the slender mute girl blocked Ajie's path.

The atmosphere solidified again in an instant.

The slender mute girl lowered her eyes and glanced at the sword at the one-armed young man's waist.

She turned her head lightly, raised her hand, and beckoned to a pair of childhood sweetheart orphan playmates passing by her side.

It was the little boy with a missing arm and the deaf-mute girl with a runny nose who were playing the bamboo pole riding game and running all over the courtyard.

The slender mute girl took out a few pieces of mung bean cake from her arms, wrapped in a handkerchief, and she opened her mouth slightly and "ah"ed.

If Ouyang Rong was still here at this moment and hadn't left, he would be able to recognize the familiar shape of this mung bean cake at a glance, and even looking at it from a distance, he could still taste the lingering sweetness in his mouth...

The deaf-mute little girl wiped her clear runny nose with the back of her hand, looked up at this strange but approachable big sister.

It seemed that because they were both mute girls, they understood her meaning with a tacit understanding.

After a while, the deaf-mute little girl with a runny nose and the little boy with a missing arm grabbed the mung bean cakes and ran away joyfully with both hands raised.

The slender mute girl still remained in place, but there was an extra bamboo pole in her hand.

She vaguely remembered that rural children seemed to like to call it a "bamboo horse."

Having experienced the accident and danger just now, no matter what she was thinking in her heart at the moment, Ajie calmed down at this time, and his face returned to a normal expression.

He glanced at the ordinary thin bamboo pole that the slender mute girl was holding casually in her left hand, which was not missing a finger.

She was also a left-hander.

Ajie shook his head at her.

His left hand rested silently on the hilt of "Yueniang" at his waist.

Then the one-armed young man turned his head to look at the direction Ouyang Rong had just left, as if he was signaling something to the slender mute girl ten steps away.

He was a swordsman, and he had to draw his sword on this trip.

The slender mute girl's eyes were waveless, and she didn't move.

Her left hand pinched one end of the bamboo pole lightly, as if leading it, while the other end of the bamboo pole dragged lightly on the ground, without making any sound throughout the process.

This scene fell into the eyes of others, as if an innocent girl was playing with a peach branch, relaxed and natural.

But a certain one-armed young man didn't dare to treat it as a child's play at all. His five fingers slowly closed on the hilt of the sword, and he let out a long breath quietly.

In the lively inner courtyard, there were childhood sweethearts leading bamboo horses, standing at the courtyard gate, looking sideways at the swordsman.

At a certain moment.

In the courtyard, moonlight bloomed in broad daylight.

After Ouyang Rong left the inner courtyard, he found an excuse to rest and sent away the managers like Xiudu who had followed him.

He went to the dry well where the Pure Land Underground Palace was hidden again.

Revisiting the old place, he met Master Buzhi, sent some food, and went to confirm the "Go Back" stone carving.

Ouyang Rong let out a sigh of relief.

Actually, it wasn't entirely a sigh of relief, but a pure firmness after clarifying the direction again, discarding distractions, and being naturally relaxed.

After a while, he climbed out of the underground palace again, left the dry well, found Xiudu, and asked for a monk's room alone.

Ouyang Rong changed into the official uniform he was carrying. After inspecting the Beitian Jiyang Yuan, he now had to go down the mountain to pick up his superiors.

Striding out of the room, he asked Xiudu:

"Has Miss Xie not come yet?"

The latter shook his head: "No one came to find the Magistrate."

Ouyang Rong frowned slightly, and then some worry appeared on his brows. On the way out, he couldn't help but mutter:

"Was my reaction just now... a bit too much... Is it useless to play dumb after being confessed to in this era? Will it hurt the self-esteem of a traditional and conservative woman?"

Ouyang Rong, who was recalling calmly now, felt a bit guilty. He sighed: "Is Xiao Shimei still angry and sad... How about after going back, have an open and honest chat with her... The subconscious running away just now really didn't seem right..."

In his thoughts, Ouyang Rong didn't linger anymore, said goodbye to the enthusiastic Xiudu, quickened his pace, and left the Beitian Jiyang Yuan.

Ouyang Rong walked out of the courtyard gate, identified the direction, and prepared to leave straight away.

He only walked a few steps, his pace paused, and he turned his head in realization:

"Almost forgot Xiao Shimei's skirt-knife."

Before entering the Beitian Jiyang Yuan,

He left the skirt-knife with Xiufa. Since Xiao Shimei didn't come to find him, Xiufa should still have the skirt-knife, waiting for someone in the guest pavilion in the bamboo forest nearby.

Ouyang Rong nodded and walked another ten steps or so forward.

He turned his steps past a bamboo forest and walked toward the guest pavilion directly in front.

However, before Ouyang Rong could get close, he saw a strange scene in the pavilion.

I saw that in the guest pavilion, there was a sturdy man and a thin monkey-like man bending over to move something on the ground, moving it to the depths of the bamboo forest behind the pavilion.

In the guest pavilion, there was no sign of the little novice monk Xiufa.

"Eh, did he run away to be lazy again? Did he see a female Bodhisattva and go to interpret dreams and read palms like his master?"

Ouyang Rong was speechless, his footsteps didn't stop, he walked up, organized his language, and opened his mouth politely:

"Excuse me, have you seen..."

In the guest pavilion, before Ouyang Rong got close, the sturdy man and the thin monkey man who were busy moving heard the movement and turned their heads vigilantly.

After seeing Ouyang Rong walking over alive, their expressions were stunned.

Ouyang Rong's words were halfway through. When he walked to the front of the pavilion, his peripheral vision suddenly caught that the things the two were moving seemed to be... people!

Ouyang Rong's words stalled, and he looked closer.

This shiny little bald head, yellow monk robes... it was Xiufa, he couldn't run away.

Just didn't know if the little novice monk was dead or alive.

Outside the pavilion, Ouyang Rong's heart skipped a beat, and he stepped on the emergency brake.

"Nothing, you guys continue." He nodded without changing his expression, turned his steps, and was about to turn around and slip away, having a life-and-death speed.

A gentleman's revenge is not too late in ten years. Wait for me to call people, go call Xiao Shimei and Sixth Brother and the others!

However, what Ouyang Rong never expected was.

These two men, who didn't look like good people, didn't rush down to kill him to silence him at the first time. They suddenly dropped Xiufa, whom they were moving, stood in place, and bowed respectfully:

"Female Immortal, why are you back..."

"Ouch!"

Xiufa, who had just been thrown to the ground, couldn't help but feel pain, interrupting the words of the sturdy man Liu Qi and the thin monkey man Yan Liu Liu, and also interrupting the stunned expression on Ouyang Rong's face who had paused his running.

The eyes of Ouyang Rong, Yan Liu Liu, and Liu Qi all fell on the little bald head who was "unconscious" and motionless on the floor of the pavilion again.

"..." Xiufa.

The atmosphere inside and outside the pavilion was slightly awkward.

However, in the next second, Liu Qi stepped forward with a cold face to end everyone's awkwardness.

Accompanied by two wails of "Ah~" and "Ah!", Xiufa was hit with two hand knives and completely fainted.

Ouyang Rong's mouth twitched fiercely.

Inside and outside the pavilion, Liu Qi and Yan Liu Liu, who had finished the small matter, stood respectfully and bowed, holding their fists and asking:

"Female Immortal, what about that female secretary surnamed Xie? Did you send her away?"

The two Liu family servants couldn't help but look at the slender back of the "Ouyang Rong" dressed in "Ouyang Lianghan's" official uniform, and Yan Liu Liu asked cautiously:

"Is the Female Immortal afraid that she will be suspicious later, so you came back to take the knife first?"

"???"

Ouyang Rong's two feet seemed to be rooted in the ground. He turned his head slowly and looked at the strange sturdy men in the pavilion who were surprisingly respectful to him without saying a word.

"The knife is here, it's here."

Liu Qi took the lead to scratch his head and flatter, pointing to a table next to him:

"Female Immortal, it's on the tray. When we came just now, this little bald donkey still didn't know his own strength and wanted to protect it with his life."

Yan Liu Liu added:

"We are planning to beat the little bald donkey unconscious and hide him first. After we move Ouyang Lianghan's corpse out of the courtyard later, we will deal with him together. See if we should kill him too, but if he didn't witness anything, I think it's better not to disturb Donglin Temple."

"..."

Ouyang Rong, who had been called by his full name, examined them silently.

His right eyelid jumped violently.

Something is wrong.

Actually, the gentleman also has some small elements of soft rice flow (fog)