At the foot of Gushan Mountain in the early morning, there are few pedestrians and the scenery is pleasant. Zhu Qian painted and walked slowly around Gushan Mountain. This is one of her daily hobbies. It can not only enjoy the scenery, but also relax the mind. Especially the Pipa Lake at the foot of the mountain, with both mountains and rivers.

The two phases are in harmony, the scenery is quiet and picturesque, and the long bridge has an ancient charm, making it his favorite place.

At the beginning, the old woman who drove the carriage was still with him. The old woman never treated Wu Gen very well. She only knew that her surname was Zhao and she was called Grandma Zhao on weekdays. After waiting for a long time, Zhu Qianhua was probably really embarrassed.

Aunt Zhao was annoyed and often traveled alone.

Seeing an opportunity to take advantage of, Wu Gen imitated the play, where a bird sings in a willow tree, and people meet by the green lake.

But after only a few trips with me, a pipe pot was placed in front of me, "Young disciple, stay away from my lady from now on. If I see you clinging to me like a dog again, I will interrupt you."

I don’t care if you are Mr. Zhu’s student or not.”

The old woman who always accompanied Zhu Qianhua stood on tiptoes and waved her pipe and pot in front of Wu Gen. Wu Gen's face was sprayed with saliva. In desperation, Wu Gen had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​traveling with his beautiful lady.

However, the inexplicable emotions between boys and girls are like the water of a river, the more they are blocked, the more turbulent they become.

Every day before dawn, Wu Gen would go to the lakeside and pretend to copy copybooks, which had become an unshakable habit.

The drunkard's intention is not the wine, but the mountains and rivers. Of course, it would be better if there are people in the mountains and rivers.

On this day, Wu Gen hurriedly walked by the lake, holding a bun in his mouth and looking around.

coming.

In the drizzle, a graceful figure walked out, it was Zhu Qianhua, holding a plain white oil paper umbrella, walking slowly by the embankment.

The green willows contain smoke, the ancient embankments are covered with moss, the mist flows in clusters, and the mist is vast. The girl walks among them, and the scenery contrasts with the beauty of the people, and the people contrast with the scenery and the gods, which is extremely freehand.

Wu Gen's eyes followed his movements from afar. At this time every day, the two of them would go on trips together. However, they never traveled together.

When he was about to reach the stone bridge, Zhu Qianhua stopped for a moment and looked back. Just as he was about to get on the bridge, there was a rapid sound of horse hooves in the distance.

A frightened horse for unknown reasons ran wildly along the lake embankment. When it was visible, it was not far from Zhu Qian's painting.

The girl was a little confused and stood there, watching in amazement as the tall horse galloped towards her. She turned around and wanted to run away, but she was surrounded by the lake and there were tall trees on the shore. She could only lift up her skirt and walk towards the bridge.

Run.

The sound of horse hooves behind him was getting closer and closer, and Zhu Qian's face showed panic.

Just as he was panicking, a person jumped out of the forest nearby and shouted: "Girl, don't panic, Qin is here..." Before the words could be spoken, a figure in the distance was seen rushing to Zhu Qianhua's side, with a cold light.

Suddenly, the frightened horse fell to the ground without saying a word.

Zhu Qianhua turned around and saw that the man who came was Wu Gen. The knife in his hand was broken and had already been sheathed. The frightened horse beside him had its head cut off and fell to the ground, dead.

"Are you okay?" Wu Gen asked worriedly.

Zhu Qianhua was in shock, stroking his chest to calm his breathing, and then said: "I'm fine, but why was the horse killed?"

Wu Gen understood what she was thinking and explained: "My sword is very fast, and I can't hold it back as soon as I draw it."

At this moment, three or four people hurried over, led by a handsome young man, gorgeously dressed, and the smell of incense wafted over from a distance.

After looking at the horse that fell to the ground, the young man glanced at Wu Gen angrily, walked to Zhu Qian's painting, bowed and saluted, "The girl is frightened. Qin is late, please forgive me."

Zhu Qianhua recognized the person in front of him who was shouting just now. He lowered his head and gave a gentle salute, "Thank you, sir, for helping me." Then he walked up to Wu Gen and said, "It's getting late, let's go back to school."

After taking two steps, he turned around and said to the young man named Qin: "That horse died in vain. Please handle it properly and don't let it be exposed here." After saying that, he left with Wu Gen.

"Girl, aunt..." Looking at Zhu Qianhua who was drifting away, the young man stretched out a hand with a look of disappointment. He stamped his feet, turned to the other person and said: "It's all your bad idea.

, I can’t even talk to Miss Zhu even if I don’t say anything about losing my horse.”

The person who was scolded hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Master, please calm down. Today's events were planned very well. I even asked Lin Ruoshi to rehearse the route and time many times. However, that stupid young man appeared on the way and messed things up."

Don’t worry, young master, Miss Zhu is still in Dingyuan City, and there will definitely be a chance to meet her again."

The surname of the young master mentioned by this person is Qin, and he is Qin Guan, the third son of the county governor Qin Zhili. This son is the youngest in the family and has been spoiled since childhood. He always behaves absurdly. Although he has a good skin, he is drunk and lustful.

He is quite capable of teasing women and playing dogfights with cockfighters.

The governor's family also lived in the south of the city. Ever since he met Zhu Qian's paintings by chance, Qin Guan was astonished and wanted to get close to him.

Normally, he would just bully the common people and get into their families, but Zhu Buzhan was also from a noble family, so if he used force, he would not cause unnecessary trouble.

Moreover, I heard from family members that although this man was a noble man, he had many connections in the capital, so everyone kept silent about the fact that Zhu Buzhan taught the common people in the south of the city and the children of middle-class people.

In this case, Mr. Qin could only stop thinking about him. A group of buddies who were hanging out around him saw his thoughts, and came up with the idea of ​​a hero to save the beauty, and asked Lin Ruoshi, who was close to the county governor's house, to survey the route many times.

This horse was originally Qin Guan's mount, and he was deliberately frightened. At that time, Qin Guan came out to control the horse and rescued Zhu Qianhua, hoping to gain favor and get closer.

But he didn't expect Wu Gen to be so agile. Before Qin Guan could react, he beheaded the horse with three strokes, five divided by two, and the plan failed.

Qin Guan frowned and said, "Go and find out the details of that boy. He dares to ruin my good deeds."

Next to him, a young man wearing silk clothes and holding a whisk in his hand approached Qin Guan, "Don't worry, sir. I am a martial artist. Why don't you let me use some means to get rid of him."

Qin Guan's eyes lit up, then dimmed quickly, "Dad has reprimanded me several times, not to kill anyone again. If it happens again, I will be grounded. Forget it, let's think of other ways. That Lin Ruoshi, it's not his intention

Is he quite flexible? Let him think of a solution."

The few people discussed it and left angrily, but they didn't even look at the horse corpse on the ground.

But what Qin Guan and others didn't know was that after he left, Aunt Zhao's figure appeared from the forest, and she glanced at Wu Gen with an expressionless look in the direction in which Zhu Qianhua left.

Wu Gen accompanied Zhu Qianhua towards the school. The two of them were silent along the way. When they arrived at the door, Zhu Qianhua stopped and said slightly, "You have hidden a lot of skills. But,

"The girl's brows and eyes were filled with smiles, "She looks like a man."

Wu Gen rubbed his hands, speechless and a little at a loss.

Zhu Qianhua opened the door and walked into the courtyard. Before closing the door, he looked back at Wu Gen and smiled, his eyes bent like crescent moons, "You look like a silly quail."

Looking at the closed door, Wu Gen slapped himself, um, it wasn't a dream.

On the long street, Wu Gen looked solemn and hurried to the north of the city to discuss something with Qingmu. A few days ago, when he thought about the incident of the horse that frightened the horse, he felt that there was something wrong with it. How could there be such a coincidence? The horse was frightened, and people

Here we come, and there are three or four of us as soon as we arrive.

Afterwards, I found out more about it, and it turned out to be the young master of the county guard. However, if you dare to touch my daughter... If you dare to touch my senior sister, the master of Wu Village, I will deal with you even if the King of Heaven comes.

There were few pedestrians on the street in the early morning, and the mist shrouded the city, making everything appear shadowy. Approaching the north of the city, Wu Gen turned into an alley and held on to his slightly crooked scabbard.

Suddenly, there was a sound of rattles in the mist, distant and sometimes near, a bit ethereal. It was really unsettling to be in such a dark alley.

Wu Gen put his hand on the handle of the knife, his mind slowly began to circulate, and he walked forward step by step.

In the mist ahead, a figure appeared. It seemed to be carrying something. It looked very awkward. When the figure came closer, Wu Gen smiled a little. It turned out to be a master sharpening knife. It seemed that he had been a little bit crazy in the past two days.

The grass and trees are all deserted.

This man has withered white hair, an extremely long face, full of wrinkles, pockmarks on it, and a protruding lower jaw. He has the legendary shoehorn face. The old man is carrying a long bench with a bag on it.

, shaking the rattle in his hand as he walked.

When the two of them passed each other, the old man glanced at Wu Gen with yellow eyes. After walking more than ten steps, Wu Gen breathed a sigh of relief. After all, meeting such a strange old man in such a dark place was really depressing.

"Young men need to sharpen their knives." came a hoarse voice.

Wu Gen was startled suddenly, and his body stiffened for a moment. After a while, he turned around and asked with a smile: "Are you asking me, father-in-law?"

"Exactly." The old man was carrying a pole, his eyes seemed to be staring at Wu Gen, but also seemed to be looking away, which made people feel very uncomfortable.

"Haha." Wu Gen smiled dryly and said, "My knife is very dull, I'm afraid I can't sharpen it."

"Oh, there are knives in the world that a knife sharpener can't sharpen. In this case, I want to see what kind of knife is so dull and hard." The old man became interested, put down the bench on his shoulder, and faced

Wu Gen waved.

A gust of cold wind blew through the alley, and Wu Gen broke out in cold sweat on his back. His body was tense, and he started to run wildly without thinking. It was so evil. This was the first time Wu Gen encountered such a situation, even in the ghost world.

Even if life or death is at stake, I can handle it calmly. I don’t know what’s going on today.

After gathering his composure and forcing himself to suppress all the energy in his body, Wu Gen smiled uglier than crying, "Old man, I have something to do this morning, why don't we change the day."

"It's better to choose a day than to hit it. Young man, I think today is the best." The old man simply sat on the bench, reached out and took out a strip-shaped whetstone from the bag, lowered his head and started playing with it. The stone was dark red, different from what he usually saw.

The black or teal whetstones are very different.

After swallowing hard, Wu Gen looked around and suddenly found that the surroundings were completely silent. Even the constant noise of birds chirping and cicadas had disappeared, and the space seemed to be isolated.

His instinct told him that he couldn't leave.

He walked towards the old man with heavy steps, like a death row prisoner walking towards the execution ground. Every step he took seemed to have a huge force pressing on him. Wu Gen knew that he met a master today.

Getting closer and closer to the old man, and finally there was only one step between them. The broken knife suddenly let out a low trembling sound, as if even it felt threatened.

Wu Gen hesitated in his heart, whether to use his sword or not. At such a close distance, with his own strength, he should be able to split the opponent in two.

The old man raised his head, Wu Gen's pupils shrank, and a spring breeze swept over his face, and he suddenly smiled: "Old man, you can get paid to sharpen your knife."

"Then it depends on whether the knife is worth the money." The old man grinned, showing his yellow teeth, and stretched out his hand, "Bring it to you."

Wu Gen took off the broken knife from its scabbard, put the handle forward and the tip backward, and carefully handed it over.

With a cry, the broken knife was unsheathed, and the trembling sound suddenly stopped, "It's a good knife, it's worth the money." The old man tapped the blade of the knife with his finger and nodded with satisfaction.

Wu Gen smiled stiffly, "I don't know how much the price is and how to collect it."

When the old man raised his eyes just now, Wu Gen quickly changed his mind and relented decisively. This unattractive-looking knife sharpener suddenly had two pupils in his eyes, one black and one red. It seemed as if everything about him was seen through. This feeling was really a bit strange.

Weird.
To be continued...