Chapter 364: 96. Faintly Lotus Steps Come in a Dream

96. Faintly Lotus Steps Come in a Dream

No moon tonight.

Huaiye Lane mansion, Yinbing Study bedroom.

The night is late outside the window.

Ouyang Rong withdraws his gaze, bends down to pick up Ye Weilai who is dozing on the table, and walks back to the bed.

The silver-haired girl's supple long hair is tied with a red rope. Her eyes are closed, her small face has red creases from dozing on the table, her long, curled eyelashes are trembling, and the pupils under her eyelids are moving, not knowing what she is dreaming about.

Her soft little body exudes a faint fragrance after bathing, the scent is like bubbles in the daytime, difficult to grasp.

Ouyang Rong silently covers Ye Weilai with the quilt.

"Hmm... hmm..."

The little girl seems to have woken up a bit, doesn't open her eyes, turns over on the bed, subconsciously reaches into the pillow, touches the leather scabbard of the short sword, mumbles something unclear, buries her head, covers her face with long hair, and continues to doze.

The night is deep and quiet, the empty room is lonely.

Ouyang Rong suddenly thinks of Xiuniang.

Thinking of the mute girl sitting with her knees hugged on the wrapped long sword in the underground palace, when they first met, she had a pair of clear, stream-like eyes that were reluctant to part.

Her delicate cheeks appear before his eyes again, along with the four slender fingers handing over the sheepskin water bag.

When Ouyang Rong climbed out of the underground palace twice, she was looking up and waiting for him.

Silently looking around the bed and the sleeping little girl,

Ouyang Rong purses his lips. When he was sleeping peacefully in that kind of soothing incense, was she also sitting by his bed, quietly watching his sleeping face, just like he is sitting by the little girl's bed now?

Replaying this matter in his mind is a very strange feeling.

Except for some fragmented images vaguely remaining in his memory, Ouyang Rong is not familiar with her.

Being approached quietly in his sleep, and perhaps even having physical contact, for someone like Ouyang Rong who has a somewhat masculine and strong personality and a strong sense of territory, it should have been something he subconsciously resented.

Even if the other party is under the banner of caring for him, Ouyang Rong is not a child, but an adult. Regarding this kind of one-sided dedication from others, he has long since stopped being brainlessly moved and tolerant, but is very clear that he has the right to refuse the other party's imposition.

Unless it is a relative or family member, he would be slightly tolerant and change his principles a little, for example, his aunt.

However, regarding the actions of the mute girl Xiuniang this time, Ouyang Rong cannot produce much disgust or resentment.

Instead, besides being strange, he feels a bit curious in his heart.

Curious about her experiences over the years, curious why Xiuniang does not hate him, but instead, her figure appeared beside him both times he fell into a coma.

Curious about what she is thinking.

As his thoughts fly uncontrollably, Ouyang Rong also thinks of a detail, a detail he only realized the taste of today.

Speaking of which, when Ouyang Rong woke up and went down the mountain, pretending to be Wei Shaoxuan, he once heard Li Laoban mention casually that during the days he was in a coma, some Yue women, including the Great Lady of the Female Monarch Hall, Xue Zhongzhu, had appeared on Mount Dagu, searching everywhere for the "craftsman" of the Xin Dingjian.

At first, Ouyang Rong only thought he was lucky, and with the help of his Little Xiao Shimei and teacher, he was not caught by Xue Zhongzhu.

But looking back now.

If Xiuniang is a Yue woman of the Yunmeng Sword Swamp, and when he was unconscious in the Sanhui Courtyard of Donglin Temple that day, she had also disguised herself as a young girl surnamed Zhao and cared for him meticulously.

It is said that as a hidden sect, the Yunmeng Sword Swamp has few people and takes a small and refined route, and the Yue women are as close as sisters.

Then, as fellow disciples, Xue Zhongzhu and other Yue women must be 100% familiar with Xiuniang. Being on Mount Dagu, they must know what Xiuniang is doing, so do they know of his existence?

Do they know that he, the former child-husband of Xiuniang, intercepted and became the master of the Xin Dingjian? Is he a rare and unique sword wielder?

Or is it that they knew, but deliberately let him go...

But thinking of the specific inside story of the Lotus Tower Alliance recorded on the murals of the underground palace,

This tripod sword is cast from the former sect-protecting tripod of the Yunmeng Sword Swamp, and it should be very important to the Yue women of the Sword Swamp.

Ouyang Rong has always had self-knowledge,

He feels that Xiuniang's senior sisters, especially that cold-backed Great Lady, would not give up the Xin Dingjian and hand it over to him, letting him take it away, just for the sake of her junior sister's past friendship.

So there is only one answer: they didn't discover him, or they discovered him, but didn't discover his identity as a sword wielder.

Thinking that when he was unconscious in the Sanhui Courtyard that day, so many twists and turns he didn't expect had happened.

Ouyang Rong sits by the bed, elbows supporting his knees, burying his face, hands clasped, rubbing hard, and exhaling a long breath.

Although Yue Pin killed Qiu Shenji that day, exhausting all his spirit and energy, leading to the drying up of spiritual energy in his meridians, it was not easy to detect the strangeness of the Dao pulse.

But after he recovered from his illness, logically he should have been able to reveal his spiritual cultivation...

Not to mention that just after he woke up, he went to open the Mo family sword box and boldly watched the sword.

Did not a single bit of energy leak out?

The Yunmeng Sword Swamp is the world's sword sect, Xue Zhongzhu is also a leader in sword Dao, not to mention there is the leader of sword art, Yue Chuzi.

These Yunmeng Yue women can locate the position of the Xin Dingjian on Mount Dagu and go to search, which proves that they have special means, and quite a few.

Doubting for a moment, Ouyang Rong slowly relaxes his eyebrows.

Besides the Mo family sword box having the ability to hide and suppress, he feels that it might be related to his ability to hide wind and gather energy like a transparent person after waking up.

But how was this ability obtained? It seems he didn't have it before. Could it also be related to Xiuniang?

Speaking of which, Xiuniang also seems to be like a transparent person, her temperament is quiet, as quiet as a virgin.

What is the origin of this?

Could it be contagious?

Or is it that the thing about biting the beauty's slender neck in a dream is indeed true, so...

Ouyang Rong ponders for a moment and shakes his head.

A thousand thoughts, but the deduction enters a dead end.

"Are you in the Yunmeng Swamp? What are you doing now? Will you sneak in like last time?

"Or is there no chance to see you again? It seems Yue women cannot marry.

"If you come, speaking of which, what attitude should I take to deal with it? Should I invite her to a meal? Meet Little Xiao Shimei and Aunt.

"After all, the misunderstanding between Aunt and Mother about her hasn't been explained clearly yet. Aunt must be dissatisfied with the misunderstanding of her. I heard from Weilai that she is indeed quite afraid of Aunt. She hid from Aunt when she was a cook, and Weilai covered for her..."

Rubbing his face by the bed, muttering to himself for a while, Ouyang Rong leaves the bedroom and comes to the study. When passing Ye Weilai's desk, he glances at it.

On the table lies a specially made hard-headed pen holder.

At first, Ye Weilai was not used to writing with a brush, so Ouyang Rong had a flash of inspiration, used his past life memories, and specially made a pen tip harder than an ordinary soft brush with bamboo. After dipping in ink, this hard pen tip is also more suitable for writing the fountain pen calligraphy of his past life.

Writing like this made it much more convenient for Ye Weilai, and she didn't write crookedly like a soft-headed brush. The little girl quickly fell in love with this "earth method" in Ouyang Rong's mouth and learned it conveniently.

Ouyang Rong actually doesn't like writing with a brush either, but he has been in this world for so long and inherited this life's memories, so he is used to it.

In order to follow the crowd, he usually writes with a brush in the government office and rarely uses fountain pen calligraphy from his past life, only recently teaching Ye Weilai, so he picked it up again...

Ouyang Rong stops, his heart suddenly enlightened, he picks up this special pen holder, and writes quickly on the blank white paper, burying his head to write.

A short while later, a poem takes shape on the paper:

Yue women picking lotus by the autumn water... narrow sleeves and light silk, secretly revealing a pair of gold bracelets...

The pen tip stops and pauses from time to time. After writing, Ouyang Rong finally puts down the pen, looks at this Butterfly Loves Flower paper raft, his eyes distracted for a moment, murmuring:

"... Mist is heavy and smoke is light, I don't see the companion when I came... Faint singing returns to the distant oar... Sorrow of parting leads to the Jiang Nan bank... Sorrow of parting leads to the Jiang Nan bank..."

He repeats it twice to himself.

"Eldest Senior Brother."

Just at this moment, Little Xiao Shimei's crisp voice comes from outside.

A girl in red enters the room happily.

The pen falls to the ground, Ouyang Rong bends down to pick it up immediately, stands up, blocks the desk, and the palm behind him silently folds the Butterfly Loves Flower poem paper raft written on a whim and stuffs it into his sleeve.

"Why is Xiao Shimei here?" He asks curiously.

Xie Lingjiang doesn't notice anything strange, doesn't look at the desk, glances at Ye Weilai sleeping on the bed, and smiles softly.

"Uncle Li has something to discuss, looking for you to go over, let's go, just in time for Weilai to sleep."

Ouyang Rong nods, tidies up, and before going out, Xie Lingjiang helps him pick up the piano box and goes out.

Arriving at the Xunyang Prince's Mansion, he finds it is not a very critical matter. It is a letter from the Xiang Prince's Mansion. Wang Lixian reads it to everyone as discussed last time, for reference together...

Inside the study, in the gap of Ouyang Rong drinking tea, while Little Xiao Shimei is chatting with Wei Mei,

He first puts down the teacup, the sword box at his hand opens a corner slightly, Ouyang Rong looks straight ahead, in the gap of the sword box, "Craftsman" wants to probe its little head, but is pressed back by his index finger while looking straight ahead, and at the same time quietly shakes the folded paper in his sleeve into the sword box.

The sword box closes.

Ouyang Rong relaxes slightly and continues to drink tea.

When Little Xiao Shimei held his hand on the way, he didn't dare to shake his sleeve too much...

Soon, the matters of the Xunyang Prince's Mansion are finished, and in the middle of the night, Ouyang Rong returns to Yinbing Study.

After returning, he casually puts down the piano box-shaped sword box and ignores the paper raft.

He sits down at the table.

Rubbing his eyebrows with his fingers, he closes his eyes and enters the Merit Tower.

Inside the simple little tower floating in the clouds of the sea of consciousness, it is still the same.

The Merit Bell does not move, and recently there has been no opportunity to trigger it.

It is like a spendthrift woman at home, suddenly one day she doesn't spend money lavishly, but turns to quietly serving her husband and teaching her children.

Ouyang Rong is a little uncomfortable.

But it is also possible that seeing that his merit value in the past few days is too low, it is tight-fisted, considerate, and consumption is downgraded.

This woman can be dealt with.

At present, after the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Twin Peaks Peak canal, Ouyang Rong has accumulated a lot of merit.

He is slightly wealthy.

Ouyang Rong looks at the cyan-gold font floating and flickering above the little wooden fish.

Merit: 5,187

"Before it was more than 1,600 merit points, this ribbon-cutting ceremony rose by more than 3,500, which is quite a lot.

"However, the merit value around me is becoming more and more difficult to obtain. Little Xiao Shimei is almost broken by me, cough cough, talking about brushing merit with earthy love words.

"This time the Twin Peaks Peak excavation was busy for more than half a year, and then ushered in a wave of merit value harvest. If there is no accident, the next time there is such a big harvest, it is estimated that it will be the completion of the Donglin Great Buddha and the Xunyang Grottoes, and I don't know how much it will rise.

"Wait, if that Empress continues to be one heart for ten million hearts, and the reputation becomes bad, it is said that helping her repair the Donglin Great Buddha will have to deduct merit, and be scolded by the people of the world, wouldn't it be a huge loss... Alas."

Thinking of a possibility that is not impossible, Ouyang Rong is speechless, a bit worried, and then corrects his expression and mutters:

"And Li Zhengyan's Restoration Army rebellion, this time a three-surname slave Zhu Lingxu appeared, letting the Wei clan pick the peaches and obtain the greatest power of the expeditionary army.

"This Prince of Wei presides over the suppression of the rebellion, and I don't know how many benefits he will take advantage of.

"Everyone has selfishness, taking advantage of the situation to fish for benefits is fine, what is feared is intensifying the civil war, expanding the situation, in the name of suppressing the rebellion, with the momentum of victory, taking the opportunity to clean up political enemies in the imperial court, and fighting for the initiative in the struggle between Li and Wei... what is feared is that the eating is ugly, occupying everything that can be occupied, not allowing outsiders to intervene at all.

"What is the overall situation? Who cares about you.

"Only standing in line, not distinguishing right from wrong, forming cliques to exclude others, is life and death.

"As for whether the war can end early, it is just incidental, whether the purpose of splitting the cake can be achieved is the most important.

"So public affairs are handled privately, and private affairs are handled publicly.

"With the temperament of those two Wei clan princes, this is not impossible... " Pausing, he changed his words: "No, it is originally so, it must be so."

Under the lamp, Ouyang Rong's figure sitting alone in the chair is stretched to the wall, he smiles, as if talking to the flame in front.

"Finally the goal is achieved, and the rebellion is finally quelled, it is a great victory, but behind it, it leaves the devastation of Jiang Nan and Lingnan.

"The princes and generals who led the troops and a small number of low-level officers gained fame and honor,

"The Great Zhou imperial court that paid money and effort gained the peace of the country,

"As for the common people, mothers lose their sons, children lose their fathers, wives lose their husbands, but there are some gains, the ashes and robes sent back, and the pension money.

"Then someone will say, if you want to blame, blame the rebels like Li Zhengyan, they are clearly mantis trying to stop the chariot, not the opponent of the imperial court, it would be fine if they surrendered early, and it would not affect so many people.

"But should they just stretch their necks and be slaughtered? This world, besides the lambs that accept their fate, there are always some people who feel they should do something, feel that some things are higher than life.

"Even if you don't agree, you can't completely deny it.

"This is how it is obtained, both sides have sins, it is not black and white, all things in this world are bad because of this.

"But after nagging so much, Ouyang Lianghan, what do you want, what can you do, what do you dare to do?"

Ouyang Rong stands up, takes a bronze mask and a black iron token, places them on the piano box sword box, and his palms gently stroke the three.

He also has a sword, and it is also difficult to distinguish between straight and crooked.

"What do I want, what can I do, what do I dare to do... there will always be people dying, the difference is dying more or dying less, but the problem is, who dies, who... deserves to die."

The lamp goes out.

The house falls into darkness.

The next day.

The Jiangzhou vanguard is formed.

Zhu Yuheng, as the first general of the vanguard, leads 1,500 troops and sets out first.

Ouyang Rong, Xunyang Prince Wang Lixian, Inspector Wang Lengran, and others go to see them off together...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 365 =====