Chapter 543
Chapter 543
Chapter 543
Yayoi, dressed in a thin monk's robe, looked cold and aloof in the dead of winter.
"Okay, okay, don't worry, I'll go, I can go, yes, yes, I'll definitely take him with me!"
After hanging up the phone, Li Sanjiang's smile vanished. He reached out and tugged at Yayoi's monk's robe, cursing:
"Are you out of your mind? Wearing so little, you'll freeze to death."
Yayoi: "It's not cold."
From the moment he became a demon, he was no longer a normal person, not to mention that later he received a massive amount of Buddhist nature from Senior Li at the Zhenjun Temple, and then returned to Qinglong Temple to absorb all the masters from the lower three levels.
Now, Yayoi is only remotely recognizable as human.
Li Sanjiang raised his hand and gave Yayoi's bald head several slaps on the forehead.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
It's crisp and crunchy, like hitting a watermelon.
Yayoi smiled, then covered her head and pretended to be in pain.
How are the funeral arrangements going?
“Well done. Everything the senior colleague asked me to take back came in handy.”
"That's good. If it's not enough, I have some more here... ptooey!"
"Thank you very much, senior."
"Come on, come with me to my house."
Li Sanjiang speaks Mandarin, but he is used to mixing in some Nantong dialect.
Yayoi pondered the verb "go home" and responded with a sound of agreement:
"Okay, I'm going home."
Tan Wenbin stood on the dam, watching Grandpa Li lead Yayoi home.
Yayoi bowed to Tan Wenbin with her hands clasped together, and Tan Wenbin responded with a smile.
"Zhuangzhuang, go to the kitchen and see if there's anything left to eat. Make him something warm."
"Senior, this humble monk is not hungry."
Li Sanjiang glared at him, gestured for him to go into the living room to avoid the wind, and then went upstairs to his room to get his own cotton-padded coat.
"Put them on quickly!"
"Yes, senior."
As Yayoi was getting dressed, Li Sanjiang lit a cigarette and asked, "What's wrong? You've spent all the money you earned last time?"
Yayoi: "Yeah, it's all gone."
In the past, Yayoi traveled the world begging for alms. A simple "Amitabha" would bring food and drink, and she would hitch a ride in the same way.
After making money from Li Sanjiang last time, he didn't beg for alms again, but instead gave Yuan.
When he encounters people in need, he doesn't chant Buddhist mantras, but instead gives them money.
Before returning to the temple, I set aside the remaining money in my pocket for the trip back to Nantong and for food, and used the rest to buy gifts for Miwu.
When Yayoi returned to Siyuan Village, she had just exhausted all her Yuan Points.
Li Sanjiang: "What can I say to you? Do you think money is so easy to earn? When you get older and your appearance fades, your price will drop, don't you understand?"
Yayoi: "Young monk understands."
Li Sanjiang: "Come with me to pick up jobs tomorrow."
Yayoi: "Thank you for your guidance, senior."
Li Sanjiang: "Where's that white monk's robe you wore before?"
Yayoi: "Oh no."
Li Sanjiang: "Can't we repair it?"
Yayoi: "It's too bad to be fixed."
The last time I visited, Yayoi was wearing a white monk's robe that Qinglong Temple had prepared for orthodox lamp-lighters. It was destroyed at Zhenjun Temple, and it would be very difficult to get another one.
Tan Wenbin brought over a bowl of mustard green wontons.
Li Sanjiang: "Zhuangzhuang, go downstairs later and pick out some clothes for Tang Sanzang."
In the basement, there are all sorts of secondhand opera troupe materials, including Taoist robes and monk robes.
Tan Wenbin: "Okay, Uncle Li."
Li Sanjiang went out to find Liu Jinxia to discuss tomorrow's matters.
Yayoi looked at Tan Wenbin: "This humble monk should go and pay his respects to Senior Li."
Tan Wenbin: "It's not a big deal to spend the time on a bowl of wontons."
Yayoi picked up her spoon and began to eat the wontons with focused attention.
After finishing a bowl of wontons, Li Zhuiyuan put down his bowl and spoon and walked down the stairs.
"This humble monk pays his respects to the senior."
Li Zhuiyuan walked up to Yayoi and asked, "What happened at Qinglong Temple?"
Yayoi: "When I finished absorbing the masters of the lower three levels in the Demon Suppression Tower and came out of the tower, I found that the temple was sealed off. However, I was not among those sealed off and was allowed to go out."
Apart from that, I have no idea what exactly happened in the temple. Some of the elders in the temple also seem to be unaware that this was an order personally given by the abbot.
This humble monk is incompetent and has disappointed you, senior.
Li Zhuiyuan: "I'm not disappointed. Your coming to Nantong is a great help."
Yayoi: "The young monk is stupid."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Let's wait a little longer. We should understand soon enough."
If Yayoi is the bait for the next wave, then this bait is essentially in my hands ahead of time, allowing me to take the initiative from the start.
Yayoi: "This humble monk awaits your instructions, senior."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Stretch out your hand."
Yayoi rolled up her cotton-padded coat, exposing her wrists, thus disarming herself.
Li Zhuiyuan took the pulse and conducted an examination.
It's as if there's a pond inside Yayoi's body, divided into two halves, one black and the other gold. They touch but are incompatible, maintaining a fragile balance that is destined to be short-lived.
Li Zhuiyuan scratched Yasheng's wrist with his fingernail, breaking the skin. First, dark gold blood oozed out, then quickly scabbed over and disappeared. In the blink of an eye, it was completely healed without leaving a trace.
Rather than saying that Yayoi absorbs these two powers within her body, it would be more accurate to say that Yayoi is currently formed by these two powers.
He had transcended the realm of "human," yet he could still remain on the river as a lamplighter, further confirming Li Zhuiyuan's speculation about the next wave.
Yayoi is useful to the river.
Li Zhuiyuan: "Going out to work with Grandpa tomorrow?"
Yayoi: "Yes, senior, you must help this humble monk make money."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Just stay here for now."
Yayoi: "Thank you, senior."
Li Zhuiyuan returned upstairs.
Yayoi walked to the dam, picked up a broom, and began to sweep.
Liu Yumei walked out of the east room.
Yayoi held up the broom and bowed to Liu Yumei, saying, "Greetings, Madam."
From Liu Yumei's perspective, Yayoi at this moment, like a halo of black and gold intertwined, is a spirit rather than a human body; it could even be described as a standard form of evil spirit existence.
Chen Xiyuan came out of the house. She had just tried on the new clothes that Liu Yumei had made for her. When she saw Miyo, Chen Xiyuan's eyes showed eagerness.
She was at a disadvantage in the last fight at the Nantong boundary marker. In the last wave, a waterfall appeared in her domain, showing significant improvement. In addition, she had recently suffered a qi deviation...
Becoming possessed by a demonic possession is not a good thing, but in the martial arts stories Chen Xiyuan had heard since childhood, it was generally believed that one's strength would increase after becoming possessed by a demonic possession, and she felt that she might have improved as well.
Yayoi: "Donor Chen."
Chen Xiyuan: "Monk, shall we find a place to spar again?"
Yayoi: "I'll have to follow Senior Li's instructions."
Chen Xiyuan: "I'll go talk to the little brother right now."
Liu Yumei watched Chen Xiyuan's retreating figure. In fact, in the past, whenever a remarkable person from the Chen family arrived, a "great evil spirit" like Yayoi would usually appear on the river.
Liu Yumei learned about the incident at Qinglong Temple immediately, and following Xiao Yuan's instructions, she chose to remain silent on the matter.
Not only did they not send Uncle Qin or Aunt Liu to investigate the situation on-site, they also proactively expressed their disinterest in the matter on their intelligence network.
Tan Wenbin stopped Chen Xiyuan.
Chen Xiyuan: "According to our tradition, shouldn't we test the quality first?"
Tan Wenbin: "We don't need to this time. When the next wave starts, there will be plenty of people to try."
Chen Xiyuan said with some disappointment, "Oh, okay."
Tan Wenbin: "The new clothes are really nice."
Chen Xiyuan immediately laughed: "Really? I think so too, hehe."
At lunchtime, Yayoi sat next to Li Sanjiang as usual.
Li Sanjiang liked to serve meat to the monks, and Yayoi would eat as much as he served.
After dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Xue deliberately avoided mealtimes and brought Xiaochou's daughter over for a visit.
Upon hearing the news, Benben rode over on his little black bike.
Benben moved a small stool over, sat there holding the array manual personally written by Master Sun, and looked at each page of the manual before glancing at the clown girl in the basket.
The array formation was simple, and he could understand it; the clown girl's formation was profound, and Benben could never figure it out.
Xue's father came over, mistook the battle formation in Benben's hand for a chess game, and said with a smile that he wanted to play chess with Benben.
During his retirement life in his hometown, he often played chess with others in the pavilion at the entrance of the town; he was addicted to it.
He brought the chessboard with him this time. He had just played three games with Li Sanjiang, but Li Sanjiang was a terrible player, which didn't satisfy Xue's father.
Benben doesn't know how to play chess. In the first game, he didn't even know how to move the pieces.
Somewhat strangely, Xue's father patiently taught Benben, but the first game ended rather dullly. Just as Xue's father was about to put the chessboard away and focus on chatting and smoking with Li Sanjiang, Benben took the initiative to rearrange the pieces, setting up the central cannon.
Mr. Xue smiled and continued to spend time with his child.
Then, he lost.
Xue's father scratched his head and set out the third dish.
This time, he lost again.
Xue's father excitedly shouted to Li Sanjiang, "Uncle Sanjiang, this child is smart, really smart!"
Li Sanjiang responded with an air of worldly wisdom: "That's right, our kids are all smart."
As he spoke, Li Sanjiang looked at Ayou and Tan Wenbin and said, "Zhuangzhuang, Youhou, our family has good feng shui, so your children will definitely be smart in the future. You both plan to get married after graduation, so you can have children around the same time and compare whose child has better academic performance."
White Crane Boy: "Of course, the spirit medium I personally trained is better!"
Before dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Xue insisted on leaving, and Li Sanjiang didn't insist that they stay for dinner. If you want to visit often, you have to take advantage of others less. If you stay for a meal every time someone comes, you have to bring a gift, which is too tiring.
Benben, holding Xiaohei's hand, escorted Xiaochou Mei to the village entrance. Watching them get into the car and leave, Benben stood there dejectedly, and the array sheet fell to the ground.
I've watched it so many times, but I still don't understand it. Yet, the more I don't understand it, the more I want to watch it.
From Big Beard's house came Xiao Yingying's voice: "Silly boy, come home for dinner!"
Benben was so caught up in the emotions of parting that he didn't react.
Little Black opened its mouth, picked up the array chart, reversed the car, and with a thud of its rear end, Benben sat backwards on its back, and it was driven home.
Late at night, Yayoi sat against the wall on the dam and fell asleep.
Li Zhuiyuan came out of the dojo, escorted A-Li back to the east room, and stopped in front of Yayoi:
"Let's go inside and rest."
Yayoi: "This humble monk is accustomed to sleeping outside the pagoda."
Li Zhuiyuan: "So, in your eyes, this house is the Demon-Suppressing Tower?"
Yayoi: "The people inside the pagoda are all my teachers and elders."
Li Zhuiyuan: "There's something you came about this time that I didn't ask about, and you didn't tell me either."
Yayoi clasped her hands together and remained silent.
Li Zhuiyuan: "Until the next wave ends, can I trust you?"
Yayoi remained silent.
Li Zhuiyuan: "How much of what you said to me during the day was true, and how much was false?"
Yayoi remained silent.
Li Zhuiyuan: "Are you really unaware of what happened at Qinglong Temple?"
Yayoi: "Senior once promised me that no matter whether we become enemies or friends in the future, I can come to Nantong to pay my respects to you. I wonder if that promise still stands?"
Li Zhuiyuan: "It counts."
Yayoi closed her eyes and fell peacefully asleep.
The next morning, Li Sanjiang gave the mules a good test.
The new customer was an overseas Chinese businessman whose children did not live there, so Li Zhuiyuan was exempted from being summoned.
The rest of the people were all taken by Li Sanjiang to perform the vegetarian rituals, and they set off in a grand procession.
No matter how much progress a mule makes or what reputation it gains outside, when it comes home, it still has to dutifully pull the millstone.
Li Zhuiyuan and A Li stood on the second-floor terrace, watching everyone leave.
The boy's attention was initially focused on Uncle Qin and Aunt Liu. After the group had gone some distance, the boy lowered his head and looked at Grandma Liu sitting on the dam.
Liu Yumei: "Xiao Yuan, Grandma will come to cook lunch."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Grandma, I've already agreed with Aunt Liu that I'll do it."
Liu Yumei looked embarrassed, wanting to give herself another chance, but also afraid that Xiao Yuan would actually give her one.
Finally, I'll just make a self-deprecating joke:
"Actually, the reason I didn't light the lamp back then was not only because I didn't want to compete with the old dog for the Dragon King's throne, but also because I felt I couldn't adapt to living and eating in the wild."
At noon, Li Zhuiyuan went into the kitchen to prepare a meal. He first sat behind the stove and lit the fire.
Aunt Liu prepared all the dishes before she left; all she had to do was stir-fry them and make a soup.
Ah Li went to the stove and started cooking.
Li Zhuiyuan got up and walked to the stove, where A Li was cooking with great skill.
Fearing that she might feed her future son, the Dragon King, to diabetes, Grandma Liu specially asked Aunt Liu to teach Ah Li how to cook.
The brown sugar poached eggs that Ah Li served to Lin Shuyou and Tan Wenbin last time were specially increased in dosage because Ah You had lost too much blood.
Li Zhuiyuan wanted to take over, but A Li handed the shovel to the boy and bowed slightly.
"I will continue to be in charge of tending the fire."
The girl smiled.
Four dishes and a soup were served, and rice wine was poured. Li Zhuiyuan then invited Grandma Liu to the kitchen for dinner.
When there are fewer people, there's no need to set up tables outside; the small kitchen table is sufficient.
Saying it's perfect in color, aroma, and taste is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's really well-cooked, especially since Ah Li made it herself, which makes it even more special.
Liu Yumei, unusually, added a bowl of rice to her plate.
After the meal, the old lady looked at Ali wiping the table and Xiao Yuan washing the dishes, and the smile on her lips was impossible to suppress.
But there's always an unexpected event that will suddenly appear and shatter the beautiful tranquility of the moment.
On the desk in the second-floor room, the Wangjianglou token emitted a fluctuation.
Liu Yumei: "What was bound to happen has finally happened."
Li Zhuiyuan: "It's about time we came."
Liu Yumei: "Xiao Yuan, should you go or should I go?"
Li Zhuiyuan: "I'll go."
Liu Yumei: "Yes, Master, go."
The boy didn't rush upstairs. Instead, he washed and arranged all the dishes, washed the cloth clean, and hung it on the rod before leaving the kitchen.
As soon as he entered the room, his mobile phone rang, and Li Zhuiyuan answered it.
On the other end of the phone, there was a great commotion of gongs and drums; Tan Wenbin had to run quite a distance before he could find some peace and quiet.
"Brother Xiaoyuan, I just received news from the other teams that Qinglong Temple has issued an exorcism order against Yayoi for the crime of treason by killing a fellow disciple."
This trajectory is practically a carbon copy of the last wave that swept through the Yu family.
Using Yu Miaomiao's death as leverage, the Yu family issued the Dragon King's Decree to Zhao Yi.
Furthermore, the Qinglong Temple's decision to close its doors is exactly the same as that of the Yu family.
Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, your prediction was correct, it really was replicated."
Li Zhuiyuan: "But the replica is too perfect."
Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, do you mean that Qinglong Temple is also intentionally cooperating?"
Li Zhuiyuan: "Mm."
It is called the "Demon Exorcism Order," but it does not punish Yayoi for being possessed by a demon. Instead, it punishes Yayoi for lighting the lamp without permission and killing the current lamp-lighter of the temple, a matter that the higher-ups of Qinglong Temple already knew about.
They've been holding their noses and enduring this until now, but when their own foundation is severely damaged, they suddenly can't bear it anymore and start to scrape the bone to remove the poison?
Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Binbin, things are going the same way I predicted, but the reasons are different from what I predicted."
In Li Zhuiyuan's plan, the trigger point should be Yayoi's "possession by demons," which is the work of the Heavenly Dao.
It has exploded now, but it's not the fuse I thought it was.
This wasn't a script I received in advance; it was a script written specifically for me.
Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, shall we come back right now?"
Li Zhuiyuan: "No rush, the master's work is more important."
Tan Wenbin: "Understood."
After hanging up the phone, Li Zhuiyuan picked up the Wangjiang Tower token.
Ah Li entered the room and helped the boy unfold the prefabricated altar table, placing it on the desk.
Li Zhuiyuan sat down at the desk, and A Li prepared to step back to protect the young man.
"Grandma is at home."
Li Zhuiyuan held A Li's hand.
Ah Li walked back to the boy's side and stood next to him.
As the smoke curled upwards, the boy and girl closed their eyes together.
When I opened my eyes again, the scene of Wangjiang Tower appeared.
The square was crowded with young people who had accompanied their elders to the meeting. However, it was a bit more desolate than when Li Zhuiyuan first accompanied Grandma Liu to the meeting.
Each elder in the family tacitly agreed to bring their own current generation of lamplighters. However, as the competition on the river progressed, those who had conceded defeat were losing interest and few were willing to appear here. As for those who had already died on the river, they were even less likely to come.
Those who are still standing here, having experienced the trials of the river, are no longer the same as they were back then.
Admittedly, Li Zhuiyuan was a little late, but even on a pre-arranged meeting date, many people would arrive late, let alone this one which was initiated at the last minute.
This only shows that before the conference, various factions had already held many private meetings to coordinate and communicate with each other.
It seems everyone is paying close attention to the changes at Qinglong Temple, but is Qinglong Temple the only one truly concerned?
Li Zhuiyuan's appearance caused all the young people in the square to turn towards him and bow in unison:
"Greetings, senior."
"Greetings, senior."
Amidst the overwhelming sounds of respect, Li Zhuiyuan sensed an impending chill, so intense it almost permeated his senses.
The reason for the advance notice is that this killing intent does not yet exist in the hearts of the young people in the square; it has not yet been implanted.
Li Zhuiyuan held A Li's hand and stood in the center, surrounded by layers of people.
To outsiders, the young man should be enjoying the glory of being the center of attention, whether it's his position as the head of the Dragon King's family or his leading position among his peers on the river, he deserves it all.
But at this moment,
Li Zhuiyuan thought of Uncle Qin, who had been besieged back then.
(End of this chapter)