Chapter 253: Two Hundred and Sixty-Two: The Childhood Sweetheart is One Step Faster Than the Heaven-Sent!

Two Hundred and Sixty-Two: The Childhood Sweetheart is One Step Faster Than the Heaven-Sent!

"The Iron Law That a Woman Saving a Man Must Offer Herself." The sunset was fiery red. The moon hid behind the western sky. Donglin Temple, Sanhui Courtyard.

Zhao Qingxiu gently pushed open the courtyard door and walked into the quiet courtyard.

Sun Laoguai walked out of the sickroom, yawning, his white hair quite messy.

"Girl, why are you only here now? Where's the food? I'm starving to death. Is there meat? Bring wine, bring wine! It must be enough to fill me up, so it won't be in vain that I've been busy all day helping this kid digest the Tortoise-Shell Capricorn."

"Mm-ah." Zhao Qingxiu obediently handed over a food box.

In the courtyard, Sun Laoguai accepted the box with joy, pried open a crack, sniffed the aroma of wine and rice, and walked away satisfied, leaving the room behind him.

Zhao Qingxiu reached out and opened her mouth, wanting to say something but stopping.

Inside the room, there was the sound of her father and mother fawning and her Aunt Zhao frowning and forcing a conversation.

"You want to see him wake up with your own eyes? Do you not trust this poor Daoist's medical skills or what?"

He smacked his lips, walked away alone, and disappeared at the courtyard gate. Later, without any surprise, Ouyang became the child bride of Tan Quanfen.

Perhaps in the eyes of the conservative and closed-minded villagers, it was also an inauspicious omen. Welcoming her like that might even mean a pig cage. "Water... water, water..."

Her collarbones were thin and beautiful. After untying her waistband, she just needed to shrink her shoulders slightly, and a Wu-style skirt could slide off.

"Creak," the sound of the door pushing open echoed in the room in the twilight sunset. Ouyang turned around slowly.

She didn't blame her father and mother for 'selling' her. On the contrary, at that time, she was very happy for them. She was finally no longer a money-losing burden who ate white rice for nothing.

She looked back at the room.

The scenery before her eyes went up and down. She smiled.

On her father's shriveled face, full of dry wrinkles, a smile finally bloomed, and he rubbed her crooked-bun head.

The mute girl hugging her knees stood up silently.

Ouyang's gaze fell blankly on the last word "Qing" on the paper in her hand.

At that time, her family was one of the poorest in the village. The only wealthy relative in the elders' mouths was her aunt who had married into Ouyang Rong.

Sun Laoguai went out.

But on second thought, such a bizarre thing, perhaps even if explained, Tanlang and the aunts and uncles would find it hard to believe.

"Hey, you Yue women seem to have a rule that you can't marry or lose your virginity. Forget it, if I don't vent the fire, I'll have to go call that Miss Xie. She seems very concerned about this kid, and she's also a virgin. I guess she can help."

"Dumb girl, maybe the medicinal properties of the Tortoise-Shell Capricorn are too strong, or maybe in the prescription prepared, the blood-red flower and salvia conflict, stirring up the vigorous qi and blood at the Guanyuan acupoint under the abdomen..."

Under the sunset, the crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist held the food box in one hand and lifted the wine pot with the other, tilting his head back to catch the fine stream of wine.

Ouyang, who had been full of anxiety, opened her mouth slightly after hearing this.

Ouyang remembered clearly that until that white ape appeared by the window, Tanlang had taught her a total of 301 characters.

"Hey, righteousness is often found among dog butchers, and the heartless are often scholars." There was a white moonlight, a spring color, and a fiery sunset.

That day, she bid farewell to Tanlang forever and moved far away from her hometown of more than ten years. Her master turned and asked her name.

As for what happened later, the story of the active white ape appearing and causing misunderstandings by her mother-in-law Zhao and aunt Zhen, leading to her being driven out of the house, had been told in detail by Tan Quanfen and Ye Weilai.

Sun Laoguai sighed, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and walked into the room.

"Dumb girl, while the sky isn't dark yet, take a good look at him."

Among the various words and sentences on those papers, there were the 301 characters she knew by heart.

She wanted him to see the words she had learned. Because very soon, her sky would also turn dark.

The three characters "Ouyang" were the name she took after returning to Yunmeng Sword Marsh with her master.

The mute girl lowered her head, her small hands tucked into her Wu-style skirt, habitually pinching her cuffs.

After being "coincidentally" picked up by her master and brought back to Yunmeng Sword Marsh, Ouyang had also looked back and fantasized countless times in the dead of night.

Her heart was only for her husband Tanlang, not for learning any peerless sword techniques.

She remembered the look in her father and mother's eyes every time they looked at her—always worried and hiding secrets.

No matter how hard she tried to bury her head in embroidery and needlework to subsidize the family, when she looked up with hope, she still couldn't see her father and mother's faces brighten.

"Mm... iya..." There was a deep red tooth-mark wound on her slender neck.

Before the sickbed, the slanting sunset gradually withdrew and disappeared. Unknowingly, the view inside the room grew dim.

She walked to the well, drew a bucket of cold water, lowered her head, and scrubbed her hands stained with vegetable oil hard.

"That's not right, isn't that kid a gentleman? Hypocritical. Now let's see how you sit in the lap without being chaotic? Don't even think about staying out of it."

"Go, go, go. By the time he wakes up, the food will be cold. The medicine is too strong, he still needs to digest it for a while. Just throw two steamed buns by the bed for him to gnaw on in the middle of the night."

Her Tanlang was a scholar whom she admired and envied beyond measure.

She saw him sleeping on the sickbed.

"In short, he is currently dry and hot, with too much yang qi in his body. He needs a virgin's yin qi to harmonize it."

Is this... fate?

"Oh, so you're saying, you'll do it... Fine, don't let your senior sister know, right? Then this poor Daoist will guard outside and stay far away. You think about how to save him."

Sun Laoguai walked out of the courtyard and immediately moved away from the Sanhui Courtyard. In that instant, Ouyang finally possessed all of him. Empty.

Aunt Zhao actually didn't have a very good life in Ouyang Rong's place either. She was a young widow caring for her only son, and Tanlang was physically weak and often ill.

Before this, they had always called her "Xiuniang."

"Yes, my last look."

Before the bed, two people, one lying and one sitting.

Tan Quanfen would never forget those quiet and beautiful days before the sickbed. Her movements were gentle, as if afraid of waking him from his deep dream.

Sitting blankly on the mud, she used her index finger to blankly write a "Qing" character on the mud beside her.

"This stupid girl, I have to do it myself. Since you like him so much, how can you not want anything?"

Looking at Tanlang, who was pulling at his clothes in the cold, her face gradually flushed red.

The poisonous-tongued Sun Laotou left, and the Sanhui Courtyard returned to silence. Ouyang's story was simple and uncomplicated.

Later, when Tanlang woke up from time to time and discovered she was a mute, he didn't mind at all.

The mute girl changed out of her rags, put on new clothes, and was sent to a high-walled courtyard. "Ah, ah, iya!"

Sun Laoguai looked away as if nothing had happened and sighed:

"No, no, I have to eat all these dishes, I can't leave them for him."

"Hey, that's not right." Sun Laoguai, whose attention was entirely on the food box, reacted and muttered back:

She wouldn't let go even in death.

She cleared away all traces she had left in the room.

Ouyang's face was so red she wished she could find a hole to hide in, at a loss for what to do.

Ouyang Rong was a large family in the village, with many clansmen, and every generation had scholars who passed the imperial examinations.

He turned and sighed: "This poor Daoist is also powerless now. I am a Daoist doctor, not a pimp. In the middle of the night, where am I supposed to find a virgin..."

He walked leisurely, first glancing at the strange Tan Quanfen on the sickbed, then immediately switched to a serious expression with a frown, gasping:

Aunt Zhao's family's life was still much better than hers, and they were decent.

On a certain sickbed.

It was written by Ouyang when she was guarding Tanlang's bedside alone in the middle of the night. Before the "sky turned dark," she had to firmly remember his appearance. Sun Laoguai curled his lips:

"Why did you bring him food? Aren't you afraid he'll taste it and guess it's you? What will you do when you leave then?"

Ouyang took a deep breath and suddenly recovered some calmness. Sun Laoguai nodded and said to himself:

Sun Laoguai didn't blush or skip a beat, saying seriously:

Standing in the twilight sunset in the courtyard, she flicked the black hair hanging by her ear with her fingertips. He drank wine as he walked and shook his head:

From the first character, which was also her surname, the "Zhao" character.

"Hiss, dumb girl, your craftsmanship is really fragrant, just a bit too spicy. This poor Daoist has experience now. Your hometown food can't even be ordered as slightly spicy. These two words are even better at lying than Jianghu Daoists."

The good news was that the young man on the sickbed finally started to speak, but the bad news was that his face was flushed red, his eyes were closed tightly, and he was gritting his teeth and tearing at his collar, seemingly unable to bear the heat.

Sun Laoguai waved his hand, driving them away impatiently:

It was the same now. Both times she found Tanlang in Dragon City, he was seriously injured and unconscious.

"You ask what to do? Uh, it's hard to say if it's hard, and it's hard to say if it's easy."

If Tanlang hadn't been seriously ill and unconscious at that time, and she had tried her best to explain the truth about the white ape stabbing people to Tanlang with her limited vocabulary of 300 words, perhaps she wouldn't have been driven out of the house by her mother-in-law and aunt.

Ouyang tilted her head, covered her neck with her small hand, and her vision focused entirely on the white wall in front of her.

Ouyang remembered to this day the silent and oppressive atmosphere in that tiny, luxurious thatched cottage, the family of three eating in silence, the "squeaking" sounds at the dining table.

Tan Quanfen was very content and cherished her little husband before her eyes very much, even though he often coughed on the sickbed, waking and fainting from time to time.

A moment later, a scene more beautiful than moonlight appeared in the room.

"Hey, that's not right. Why does it feel like the man isn't losing out in this matter, and it's the dumb girl who is losing out..."

Walking closer to the bedside again and seeing Tan Quanfen's painful expression, Ouyang's small face was stunned for a moment, then panicked.

From then on, there was one less child bride named Xiuniang in the world, and one more Yue woman, Ouyang.

She immediately flashed to the front of the table and fed Zhao Qingxiu cold tea.

The cloth she wove that day wasn't taken to trade for rice, but was cut by her mother into a new set of clothes.

But Ouyang Rong, as a scholar from a humble background, had a family tradition of farming and reading. The clan had designated fertile land, the output of which was exclusively for the study of disciples like Tanlang, and there was also relief for widows in the clan.

To the last word, the "Qing" character in "There is a beautiful person, gentle and clear."

Simple to the point that there was only one Tanlang in her heart.

Tan Quanfen blushed with shame as she went to shut the room door tightly, setting up a formation to block the movement inside. Only two people were left in the room.

"No, even pretending to be a cook won't work. He saw what we looked like in the underground palace. He must be suspicious."

Ouyang suddenly remembered.

People in the Jianghu all praised that the Yue woman inherited mythical spirituality, knew things from birth, fought against the agile white ape, and awakened peerless sword techniques, all natural and crowning the world.

Her relationship with Tanlang was also simple and uncomplicated.

He imitated in a strange voice: "A little mute girl that no one wants in the Beitian Jiyang Yuan, how can she cook such a home-cooked meal? Strange, really strange. Could it be my mute wife?"

Sun Laoguai turned and left, but after taking only one step, his sleeve was tightly gripped by a small hand with only five fingers.

The twilight sunset shone on her side face, as if covered in a layer of golden radiance, clean, serene, and beautiful.

When he was awake, he would take the "Book of Songs" and start propping himself up to teach her how to write. "Uh, what is the dumb girl doing? Let go."

Ouyang sometimes believed in fate, and sometimes was unwilling to believe in fate.

Tan Quanfen had liked Tanlang since the first time she saw him.

"What on earth is so urgent? Sigh, dealing with a mute is really difficult."

She should have remembered her father and mother's faces clearly, but they had long since blurred and been forgotten. However, that look before the sickbed that day had been remembered for many, many years.

She also remembered their occasional quarrels, the pottery jars and wooden shelves smashed on the ground, and so on.

Seeing his abnormally dry and hot state remained undiminished, the mute girl hurried out of the door to find the crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist.

"Alright, you go in."

In the words of her master later: This is all fate. I don't know why.

Only she and Tanlang were left again.

A voice of the old Daoist drifted into the courtyard, full of deep meaning:...

Sun Laoguai immediately stopped talking and waved his hand at the sickroom behind him: "Not good!"

There was relief, anger, and shyness in the bottom of her eyes.

But immediately, as the coughing sound of someone on the sickbed increased, she, who was biting her lip nervously in the shadows, suddenly felt something was wrong.

Left in the outer room, she, just like today, walked alone into the inner room filled with the scent of medicine.

Until that day, the day Ouyang would never forget in her life. The old Daoist shook his head and immediately said seriously:

He who was still unconscious...

Ouyang bent down and leaned close, carefully examining his sleeping face, her five fingers gently stroking it.

At the same time, in front of Aunt Zhao and Zhen, the mute girl Ouyang couldn't help but lower her head, feeling inferior and guilty, feeling she wasn't worthy of Tanlang.

301 characters.

A quiet twilight, an empty room, a sickbed full of medicinal smells, she guarded the sickbed quietly, embroidering with a faint smile, accompanying him silently.

Seeing the mute girl in the center of the courtyard suddenly squat down and hug her knees, her small body shaking. "Cough, cough, cough--!"

Ouyang stepped on a smear of drunken sunset and stopped at the sickbed of a short-haired, handsome young man.

The wall was empty, she was full, the wall was white, but she was pink.

Since Ouyang could remember, she knew she was the money-losing burden in her father and mother's mouths. Later, she had a high fever, and after opening her eyes, she could only stupidly "ah, ah, ah" when she opened her mouth, becoming a mute girl mocked and teased by the children in the neighborhood.

The timid and cowardly Ouyang could bravely pick up an embroidery needle and stab that white ape.

Tan Quanfen's delicate body stiffened, and she hurriedly hid in the shadows. The crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist held the delicacies and wine, righteous and awe-inspiring. "Anyway, the situation is not good right now."

Just then, Ouyang noticed that the unscrupulous doctor beside her was staring straight at her.

Wiped very clean.

Zhao Qingxiu lay flat, the flush on his face fading. The mute girl sat in a standard posture, her little face blank, as if her spirit was wandering outside the heavens.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Ouyang was so anxious she spun in circles.

When she first saw Tanlang, they met like this:

The mute girl softly "ah-ed" in her mouth, her fingertips slowly stroking Zhao Qingxiu's thin and firm face.

A moment later, the infatuated mute girl slowly lowered her eyes, withdrew her gaze, turned, and walked to the table, putting all the handwriting and drafts she had exchanged with her senior sister, Xie Lingjiang, and others during these days into her sleeves.

Forget it.

The mute girl stared straight at Tanlang.

"Hey, this kid lacked spirit before, but the qi and blood in his body have always been vigorous and undiminished. Now that he's been struck by heaven's thunder and earth's fire, it's really a sin."

I remember the back of Father sitting woodenly on the threshold, head bowed as he smoked his dry tobacco pipe. Or rather, even if you saw with your own eyes that the white ape had learned, you sat upright in the deep room, quiet as a maiden, yet you provoked a mischievous Qin Quanyuan, stabbing the Great Physician.

"I have to get something from him."

But only Ouyang herself knew clearly that when the white ape sneaked into the room, seemingly to get the attention of the quiet mute girl, and grabbed the embroidery needle to mischievously stab Tanlang.

At that time, a voice of the old Daoist drifted into the courtyard, full of deep meaning:...