novelraw Chapter 46: Autumn Leaves Fall, Time to Part
Chapter 46: Autumn Leaves Fall, Time to Part
Li Qiuchen joyfully followed the white-clothed maiden to the Mountain God's cave dwelling, thinking Senior Jiang was going to mentor his juniors again.
Unexpectedly, upon entering, he saw a strange middle-aged man sitting beside Jiang Tingyue.
He looked scruffy with stubble, his clothing also quite casual, not looking like any decent person.
Li Qiuchen saw the person didn't look decent, and the person didn't regard Li Qiuchen either. His gaze just swept over him and landed on the white crane behind Li Qiuchen.
Before Jiang Tingyue could introduce them, the man got straight to the point and said loudly, "You're the youngest of the Bai family? Your elder brother searched everywhere for you to no avail. Before leaving, he entrusted me to search for your whereabouts in this area. Good that you're still alive. Come home with me!"
The white crane stared at the man vigilantly, not moving half a step.
Who are you?
Only then did Jiang Tingyue speak up, "Brother Chu, with such empty words and no evidence, how can you gain trust?"
"Oh, right!"
The man slapped his forehead, only then remembering something. He pulled out a palm-sized bronze token from his bosom and waved it at the white crane, "See? Your elder brother gave this to me. I'm called Chu Dahe, not a bad person. I've dealt with several of your brothers before, and I also know your father. Your father is bald but usually wears a wig outside..."Whether he was good or bad remained unclear for now, but Li Qiuchen could see this person's brain was probably missing a string.
The white crane was so embarrassed its toes curled into the ground.
How could he say this kind of thing in front of so many people?
"Ga!"
"What?"
Chu Dahe asked in confusion, "Not going home? What do you want to do?"
He frowned and looked at Li Qiuchen beside him. He originally wanted to say something, but looking at his age, the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back, changing his words, "Whose family's child are you? Where are your family's adults?"
My family's adults? My family's adults were all burned to ashes ten years ago.
The remaining relatives and friends are all hanging on the old peach tree.
Li Qiuchen could also hear that Chu Dahe's original meaning was to say, did you kid abduct my brother's family's bird?
So he turned to the white crane and said in a low voice, "You should still go home with this Senior Chu."
The white crane puffed out its chest and vigorously let out a gaga.
If we go, we go together!
Jiang Tingyue had said before that if he asked a friend to send it home, the white crane hadn't agreed at the time.
On one hand, it was having fun playing outside. On the other hand, it was worried about Li Qiuchen.
It hadn't yet repaid the life-saving debt.
Not only had it not repaid it, it had been saved twice.
"Your Bai family's karma, settle it yourselves. I don't care about those things."
Chu Dahe understood the white crane's meaning and impatiently waved his hand, saying, "One word—going or not? After I send you back, I still have other things to do."
"Go!"
"Ga!"
Li Qiuchen and the white crane spoke in unison, then stared at each other blankly.
"What are you staying here for if you don't go home?"
Li Qiuchen earnestly persuaded, "Are you staying to drill into caves with me? Don't you know how much you eat in one meal? How much effort will I save if you leave? If you really feel you owe me something, come back next year and bring me some gold, silver, jewels, miraculous elixirs, and compensate me, okay?"
"Gaga gaga!"
The white crane was angry. It kicked him and turned its head away huffily, ignoring him.
Chu Dahe laughed, "Alright, you kid are quite righteous. Rest assured, the Bai family people distinguish gratitude and grudges clearly. You saved a Bai family child, so naturally they'll compensate you with benefits in the future. If the Bai family people can't come back..."
Sensing Jiang Tingyue casting a subtle gaze from the side, Chu Dahe laughed heartily and changed his words, "Then I'll take on this karma on behalf of the Bai family. Three years from now, go to Hongyan Tower in Xuanbing City to find me. At that time, I'll give you a fortune!"
So what did the Bai family people go do?
Why does the meaning of these words sound wrong?
...
The white crane left.
A bird from a wealthy family ultimately still had to return to the wealthy family.
Li Qiuchen had always found the myth of Dong Yong quite funny. You steal a fairy's piece of clothing and she marries you? Are you from the same world as her?
No matter how stupid the stupid bird was, as long as it was still alive, its family would search for it by every possible means.
Li Qiuchen didn't have this kind of worry.
One person full, the whole family not hungry.
The originally stored provisions, when the stupid bird was here, indeed weren't quite enough but with the stupid bird gone, looking at the food piled full in the cellar, Li Qiuchen was troubled again.
How long would this take to eat?
Even the newly built two-room-one-hall no longer looked so pleasing to his eyes.
Li Qiuchen had originally thought he'd long gotten used to a lonely life alone. After all, during those years in Songlin Village in the past, he'd also grown up alone guarding an empty house but after the stupid bird left, he discovered this place was excessively quiet.
The stupid bird didn't take its share away. It left the Spirit Gathering Pills and dark pearls behind, but still warned Li Qiuchen not to misappropriate them.
Even blood brothers must settle accounts clearly. It would return next spring.
At that time, it would come riding on seven-colored auspicious clouds to repay the debt.
Li Qiuchen only hoped it would control its mouth and not eat randomly, just spray seven-colored auspicious clouds in the sky.
After the stupid bird left, he suddenly felt that enduring the long winter alone on the mountain was a particularly foolish thing.
So Li Qiuchen decided to go down the mountain for a look around.
The village's corn cobs had already been harvested. Golden corn kernels were spread on the threshing ground to dry, with another portion directly strung up and hung at home.
What was drying were the taxes to be handed over. What hung at home was their own food.
A donkey pulled a stone mill, grinding corn kernels into rough cornmeal. This thing was also called corn flour.
Besides cornmeal, there was freshly hulled yellow millet, placed by the dou beside them, waiting in line.
Although there had been some mishaps in between that delayed some farm work, overall, this year's harvest looked fairly good.
Disheveled with a beggar's attire, Li Qiuchen sneaked into the village under cover of darkness... Although with his current cultivation, this seemed unnecessary. But his personality was relatively cautious.
Being steady and careful prevented major mistakes.
The old village chief had just lain down not long ago when he heard someone gently knocking on the door outside. He immediately shivered, climbed up from bed, and walked to the door while putting on clothes.
Seeing Li Qiuchen standing outside the door, he was overjoyed and without another word was about to kneel and kowtow.
Li Qiuchen quickly helped him up.
After chatting with the old man for quite a while, he extracted quite a bit of useful information from his mouth.
The villagers completely didn't remember anything about an old Daoist coming here. They just found it strange that those large trees suddenly appeared in the village, thinking they were spirits causing mischief. However, later, mounted soldiers entered the village, cut down all the large trees, and conducted house-to-house inspections, not knowing what they were checking.
The soldiers went into the mountains and dug back a strange large tree from the lake area. They placed it at the village entrance and burned it to charcoal ash in one fire.
Two half-grown lads knelt there crying and wailing for half the night, collected the charcoal ash, and left together with the soldiers.
Li Qiuchen inquired about the soldiers' leader's name. The old man shook his head repeatedly, only saying he heard the soldiers address him as Young Master, surname Tu.
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