Ink Burns

Chapter 120: What a Poor Mad Dog

When Shanyue returned to the Nan Mansion, it was almost dusk. The two large red lanterns hanging alone under the gate looked perfunctory and lonely. The gatehouse and the front and back yards were all empty. Even the usually bustling back room in the family compound had only two or three candles lit sporadically for lighting.

The entire mansion was quiet, empty, and sparsely populated, as if if one spoke a little louder, one would hear layer upon layer of echoes.

Shan Yue walked hurriedly, passing through the corridor and arriving at the waterside.

The lights in the pavilion in the middle of the lake were as bright as day. Without any hesitation, Shanyue lifted her skirt and stepped onto the narrow bridge in the middle of the lake.

As Shan Yue stepped onto the narrow bridge, the bushes behind him moved.

Two heads popped out from the bushes, one had a few strings of pine needles hanging on its shoulders, and the other had two slightly yellowed dead leaves on its hair.

Xiaoye Songzhen leaned on the tree trunk with one hand and asked blankly: "She, she just went in like this?"

Withered Leaf Butterfly plucked her hair and said, "So what? Go and stop her. Go and stop her. Even Brother Luofeng is rushing to give her ginseng slices. If you have the guts, go and stop her."

Small-leaf pine needles: He has no ability, so he won’t stop it.

Arriving at the pavilion in the center of the lake, there stands a two-story attic in the pavilion, with lights on both floors, brightly lit.

Just as Shanyue was about to knock on the door, it suddenly opened from the inner room and a stone half the size of a fist bounced on the ground.

"Please come in." Xue Xiao's deep voice came from the inner room.

Shanyue lowered her eyes slightly, lifted her skirt and stepped over the threshold.

The plaque on the attic reads "Beside the Waterside". The main room is very high, with wooden beams hanging high. On the beams is written "Jingjing Qi Shu". The strokes are restrained and the lines are correct. The beginning of the stroke is standard, but the end is very heroic.

Shan Yue looked at the signature, which read "Dan Zhu Weng" on the upper left side.

In the northeast, there is an entire elm bookshelf against the wall, filled with books. In front of the bookshelf is an old thick wooden desk that is longer than the arm span of an eight-foot tall man.

Xue Xiao was sitting behind the desk, with three or four yellowed tomes stacked beside him.

Shanyue glanced sideways and saw several extremely practical ancient books, including "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", "The Methods of Building", and "Records of the Craftsmen".

"Please take a seat."

Xue Xiao's brows were clear, he lifted his robe and stood up, picked up the purple clay teapot from the small red clay stove beside him, and turned two matching tea cups. First, Guan Gong patrolled the city, then Han Xin inspected the troops, and he poured out all the tea. He gently pushed the tea cup towards Shan Yue with the spout of the teapot: "Putuo white tea, try it."

The fingers are long, the joints are distinct, the posture is calm and the manners are excellent.

Her tea ceremony skills are so smooth and flowing that she is even more entertaining than Grandma Liu from the Sixth Division.

Shanyue took it with both hands and lowered his head to sip it.

Well, more tasting too.

If you have some free time, it would be a pleasant experience to lean against the lakeside and drink two pots of tea.

But there is no time now.

Shanyue put down the teacup and took out the jade bottle given by Zhu from her bosom and put it on the table: "Mrs. Zhu gave this to you. Take three drops a day with your food. Within three days, your lower limbs will become weak."

Before Shan Yue finished speaking, Xue Xiao spoke up and continued.

"In three days, you can't move your legs. In five days, you can't open your mouth. In ten days, you will become a cripple, hanging on by a thread, neither alive nor dead. Except for the seven orifices of the human body, the rest are useless."

Xue Xiao unplugged the jade bottle with one hand, put his nose close to it and sniffed it: "It is colorless and odorless, and can also avoid the silver needle poison test and the doctor's pulse diagnosis." Qiu Tao was born in the mountains and didn't know much about the rules. She praised it in an exaggerated way and exclaimed, "Wow!" "So amazing!"

Xue Xiao curled his lips and smiled, full of sarcasm: "To deal with me, you must use the most powerful weapon"

Xue Xiao glanced at Shan Yue's face and said, ".He Ren."

Shanyue didn't hear clearly for a moment.

Xue Xiao turned his eyes away, but seemed to have said nothing. He lowered his eyes and continued, "To be precise, this is not poison, but medicine. There are two disadvantages: one is that the medicine must be taken on time every day. Once it is interrupted, it must be started all over again, and each round takes twice as long; the other is that if the soup is too hot, the medicine will be ineffective."

Shan Yue was surprised: "How do you know so clearly?"

As soon as the stopper of the jade bottle was opened, the jade parrot on the wooden shelf immediately flapped its wings and paced back and forth on Xue Xiao's shoulder as if strolling in the garden.

Xue Xiao narrowed his eyes slightly, not disguising the hatred in his eyes: "Because my grandfather was like this a few years before he died!"

Shan Yue was shocked.

The parrot on Xue Xiao's shoulder squinted its eyelids comfortably and touched Xue Xiao's chin with its furry head.

Xue Xiao turned his head and gently rubbed the top of the Snow Parrot's head with his chin. His eyes became very gentle, but when he looked up again, his eyes instantly became cold. He raised his hand and pointed at the frame under the window: "After being bedridden for five years, my grandfather used that wooden bar to hang himself from the beam and died."

That frame is less than three feet (1 meter) from the ground!

What kind of strong determination must one have to commit suicide like this!
Shan Yue pursed her lips gently.

Xue Xiao gently raised his chin and let out a breath. "When I was one year old, my grandfather was bedridden. The doctors thought it was a stroke, so they treated him for it. But he didn't get better. Except for his seven orifices, neck, and head, he couldn't move any part of his body. When I was six years old, I had entered the Qingyue Monastery for meditation. My grandfather took advantage of the dark and windy night when the servants were asleep. I don't know where he got the strength from, but relying on his movable neck and head, he crawled from the bed inch by inch to here, tied a knot with his mouth, and stuck his neck in. In the morning, the servants found that my grandfather, who had been paralyzed for a long time, had already passed away."

"When I was still young, I heard the news of my grandfather's death. I rushed home from Qingyue Temple, but my uncle's family would not allow me to go in and smash the basin and hold the spirit. They said it was because I was unlucky, but my grandfather preferred to take care of me, and I was possessed by the evil spirit and suffered like this! - The young man from the second house who smashed the basin was determined to be Xue Chen."

Xue Xiao raised his head, his eyes fixed on the "Jing Jing Qi Shu" on the beam: "I knelt outside the mansion. I didn't have a white cloth, so I picked up a white flag that had been stepped on by thousands of people on the road, tied it on my head, and secretly followed the team at the end."

"When burying grandpa, we need to open his mouth and put in a bead to stabilize his soul."

“They can’t open it.”

"In the years before my grandfather's death, he was like a trapped beast at the mercy of others, but after his death, he made them suffer a setback!"

"I pushed through the crowd and knocked my head against the coffin. I wanted to tell my grandfather, I'm here."

"Grandfather's mouth opened."

"There was a piece of cloth wrapped in oilcloth paper inside, with blood writing on it: When I get married, I will separate from Xue Changfeng. The South Mansion will be given to me, and the North Mansion will be left to the then-current head of the Xue family."

"My uncle was so angry that he ordered someone to hold me down and try to tear the cloth into pieces. I bit the cloth tightly. My uncle tried to take it out of my mouth, so I bit down on his palm and refused to let go no matter what."

Xue Xiao chuckled: "I don't know where such a small child got the strength. I almost tore off uncle's flesh and blood. My mouth is full of blood."

“I just felt sweet.”

"My father panicked and slapped me on the left side of my face."

Xue Xiao turned his head and casually tapped his left ear with his index finger: "I can't hear anything here anymore."

(End of this chapter)