Chapter 352: Maple Blood (Minor Update)

"Meiqing was a very gentle and serious person." The woman led him to push open the door of the fifth floor of the vermilion building. It was a rather large suite, but it had long been uninhabited. Various displays were neat and quiet. In the long-term placement, to have such a clean tranquility, it was clear that someone often wiped and cleaned it.

"When he was alive before, he was the Great Instructor in the sect. The title was very majestic, but in fact, the inheritances of each pulse were different. The disciples only gathered together to learn a few general sword techniques when they were young, so this position was actually just teaching a group of children."

Seeing Pei Ye walked in slowly. An entire wall was a bookshelf, and all kinds of paper books were organized clearly.

"However, he quite liked it and did it very seriously." The woman's voice became much softer after she walked in, pointing to the row above, which was crowded with hand-copied booklets. "Those are all notes he made for the few sword techniques he had to teach."

Seeing Pei Ye pulled out a volume and looked at it, truly understanding the "gentle and serious" in the woman's mouth. For sword techniques that were clearly extremely simple, the man had carefully considered how to explain each one better. On the edge of the pages were many different names, the strengths and weaknesses of the students, who might encounter what problems where, all recorded.

The level was also very high.

Seeing Pei Ye put the booklet back and scanned the bookshelf again. Besides sword booklets, history books, philosophers, and literary collections occupied the most part, and the rest were some books on techniques, such as zither, chess, flowers, trees, and sword appraisal... Seeing Pei Ye's gaze suddenly paused.

He turned his head and said: "Peak Master Xu, does your late husband like to study the Dao of implements?"

"Yes." Xu Shang's gaze moved up. "He felt it was interesting and liked to make them for fun."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded.

"In his spare time on weekdays, he would fiddle with zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting." Xu Shang stood quietly for a while, turned around and came to the front. Various remaining displays were placed here. Scrolls of calligraphy and painting were stacked into a small mountain, an ancient zither lay in the center, and there was no dust on the strings. Further ahead was the high platform facing the wind, and the table with the chessboard was placed there. "Sometimes we would play chess there."

Seeing Pei Ye picked up a scroll and slowly unfolded it. In the painting was a spring scene, a begonia tree was pink, white, and cute, and the woman under the tree was in a light green spring shirt, pointing at the painting while laughing gently and innocently. Everything was as fresh as new grass sprouts.

'This is—'

Seeing Pei Ye's words reached his throat before he realized that this was Xu Shang back then. He was stunned for a moment and closed it again.

". That was eight years ago." The woman beside him smiled.

"The two of you must have been very affectionate."

"At that time, I was blaming him for going out for two months and only sending me one letter, but it turned out that he had actually sent me four. Three were because I went out to play myself and didn't receive them... But I was still finding reasons to blame him." Xu Shang's pale lips curled. "Later, he made me a small magic tool that would chirp whenever I received his letter."

The woman lowered her head, untied a green jade pendant from her waist, and held it in front of Seeing Pei Ye. It was the size of a thumb, carved into the shape of a green bird standing on a branch, with silk tied in the hollow, very exquisite.

"It's this one; it chirps quite nicely." Xu Shang stroked it. "But later, I couldn't hear it anymore."

"."

Seeing Pei Ye pursed his lips. "How did Senior Zhang pass away later?"

". I don't know." Xu Shang smiled miserably. "I still don't know... After he left suddenly like that, he never came back."

"It was my uselessness back then... He never told me about his troubles." The woman said in a daze.

On a spring night eight years ago, the warm wind blew open the flowers planted in the pot last year, and Xu Shang squatted beside it, holding her cheeks and being happy for a long time. Nine-year-old Zhang Jingbi was at his most mischievous, running around the building and ignoring his mother's advice about practicing sword.

Zhang Meiqing, however, returned with a body full of silence, walking into the study with his head lowered, and did not come out for two hours.

Until the quiet night, when Xu Shang knocked on the door with a heart full of worry, the man raised a pair of sorrowfully red eyes.

That child had committed suicide after all.

Xu Shang knew that her husband had always had a student he liked very much, named Ji Feng.

When he first entered the class to learn sword a few years ago, the man had told her about this child, who was the son of a maid who lost her mother when he was young, and he had entered the most ruthless Xianqiaofeng. Sensitive, careful, kind, thoughtful, and hardworking to the point of being pitiful.

Compared to her own Zhang Jingbi, who had a treasure house but didn't know how to work hard, he was simply another extreme. The man always paid attention to taking care of him, and gradually he also began to carefully ask the man some questions about sword path. Slowly, the big and small became more and more like teacher and friend.

This relationship between elder and younger lasted from eleven to seventeen. Even after he returned to the peak to learn sword, the two still maintained a close friendship.

During this time, this disciple almost became the man's favorite, especially when criticizing his own son, he couldn't help but bring him up, making Xu Shang often feel dissatisfied.

He even asked Xianqiaofeng many times to take this youth over, but this was also the only talented disciple of Xianqiaofeng, so naturally, it could not be done.

"I am not taking what others love." Facing his wife's complaints, the man sighed gently. "Little Feng is sensitive and fragile, his mother died early, and his father is a wastrel. He treats the substitute junior brother who brought him up the mountain as a reliance like a teacher and father, trying hard to do even the most ruthless requirements... But you and I both know that the substitute junior brother has always been utilitarian and ruthless, only treating his disciples as machines for learning sword. I am afraid Little Feng will be hurt sooner or later."

This day finally came.

Dai Xiu flew into a rage in front of everyone, publicly cursing him as being no better than a pig or a dog.

Dai Xiu was furious in front of everyone, publicly cursing him as not as good as a pig or dog.

Zhang Meiqing was not on the stage that day. After hearing about this, he rushed to Xianqiaofeng. In the small courtyard he often visited, the youth was kneeling with disheveled hair and lowered head, his eyes empty and gray, and there was still an unvanished palm print on his face.

Zhang Meiqing squatted down with a heart full of heartache and comforted him with warm words, but halfway through, Dai Shangyu walked in.

Zhang Meiqing pushed him out the door. The two Peak Masters almost fought on the peak. Finally, under the obstruction of the crowd and Ji Feng's kneeling and weeping, Zhang Meiqing pursed his lips and retreated. Before leaving, he made an appointment with the youth to come see him the next day, saying there were many things he wanted to say to him.

After returning that night, the man told Xu Shang about this. Xu Shang also comforted him that misfortune is where fortune lies. Since Dai Shangyu already disliked him, Colorful Mist Peak could find a way to take him over.

Who would have thought that after the man went out today, he would bring back such bad news.

Ji Feng hugged his sword and jumped off the cliff to his death, leaving nothing behind except a sword.

After this incident, the man fell into an irredeemable depression. That night, he buried his head in his wife's arms and sobbed lightly: "I could have pulled him back... but he didn't even give me the chance to finish my words..."

The woman quietly patted his head gently. Many tragedies happen in the world every day, but when things have become a result, everyone can only accept it.

Zhang Meiqing had been depressed for those days, so Xu Shang did not notice when he turned from sorrowful silence to heavy coldness.