Denghuaxiao

Chapter 186 How to catch ghosts

The words of thanks were light and airy, but the speaker's expression was sincere, not as cold and distant as usual, calm and calm.

 Lu Zong's eyes moved.

A few days ago, she asked Pei Yunying to do a favor for her because she had saved her life at the Sunan execution ground.

 She asked Pei Yunying to draw a painting of eyebrows and arrange it in Fengle Tower.

Fengle Building in Rouge Hutong is the favorite place for wealthy businessmen in Shengjing to hang out, listen to operas, eat wine, rest, and buy entertainment...

 Sister, it was because of Ke Chengxing that she entered this place by mistake and died here.

Pei Yunying readily agreed to this matter and even did more. His men were well-versed and lived up to expectations, and they quickly figured out the layout of Fengle Building. The top row of lofts is Fengle Building, which is specially prepared for distinguished guests. They are those "fat sheep" who have a certain status and are different from ordinary wealthy businessmen.

Qi Yutai has always lived in "Jingzhe".

 He was generous with his money, and the shopkeeper was willing to reserve the upper room for him. When something happened to Lu Rou, the servants of the Qi family who came over after hearing the news smoothed everything over for Qi Yutai. The shopkeeper got a glimpse of this person's extraordinary status.

 In fact, from beginning to end, there was never a guest who was "fighting for a room", and the owner of Fengle Building never lent Jingzhe to another person for money.

"It's really seamless." There was a voice of approval in his ears, and Pei Yunying tilted his head, "But this method is new, how did you learn about it?"

Qi Yutai had just taken the powder and smelled the fragrance. The blood and Qi merged together, and the Qi merged with the Yang. Suddenly he saw this picture of eyebrows, which brought back memories of the past. When he saw the person in the painting bleeding from the seven orifices, he must have a weak heart and stopped water, and the Qi flowed. , in a trance.

“I also prepared a pair of Jin Xianrong’s nourishing medicine for Mr. Pei.”

Although Fengle Tower is not as well-guarded as Yuxian Tower, it still requires a lot of help from Pei Yunying to arrange it in such a situation. The people under him were more powerful than Lu Chen had imagined, and Lu Chen even had the illusion that what this man said at the time, that he could help her kill Qi Yutai, might not be a joke.

The atmosphere in the room became cold for a moment. As if he sensed her inner murmur, Pei Yunying coughed lightly, glanced at her, and said, "But how did you come up with the idea of ​​mixing cinnabar with those concoctions?"

She has read Qi Yutai's medical records. Although the true situation has been covered up, she can still understand that Qi Yutai was bedridden for a long time after the case of Yang Weng in Mangming Township. And then the Taishi Mansion drove away all the birds.

However, just a few days before Qi Yutai's accident, the owner of Fengle Restaurant had something to do in his hometown and temporarily returned to his hometown, leaving the restaurant to his cousin to take care of. There are many gaps in this.

Pei Yunying smiled instead of getting angry.

Pei Yunying said expressionlessly: "Take it away."

"Your Excellency, you might as well accept it." Lu Zhu said seriously, "I changed the prescription. After the Huangmaogang Hunting Ground, the palace commander sent some prey, and I took the deer blood. Deer blood is hot in nature, warms the kidneys and nourishes yang. It nourishes blood and replenishes essence, and is quite nourishing for kidney yang deficiency. It is best used as medicine.”

She said it seriously, as if this was really an expensive thank you gift, and he would be a fool without vision if he didn't accept it.

 “My father told me.”

She lowered her head and took a sip of the white lotus dew in front of her. The dew was cold, and the sweetness seemed slightly bland, even a little bitter.

The oil lamp that "Singer" accidentally knocked over ignited a fire and burned the scroll in the room, only to reveal the painting underneath. It was a painting specially prepared by Lu Zhen for Qi Yutai, and it was also the last cure for his "panic and madness".

As the fire grew stronger and burned the thundering picture, Si Lifu's "Dream of Spring Grass in the Pond" had been invading Qi Yutai for a long time, and his epilepsy was on the verge of breaking out, and he only needed the last dose of medicine.

 This man does not know what is good and what is evil.

Pei Yunying was surprised: "What is this?"

Pei Yunying: “…”

Pei Yunying was slightly startled.

After that, the fire in Fengle Building continued to burn. The fire started from the top pavilion. The thrush picture was burned out by the fire, leaving no trace. Even if someone suspected it later and went up to the attic and found the ruins after the fire, no clues could be found.

He said in a cold voice: "If you push this thing to me again, I will have people spread rumors in the imperial city tomorrow that I am your fiancé."

“Imperial Pharmacy can’t make a second bottle either.”

 And shameless.

Lu Zong was in a trance for a moment.

Seeing his silence, Lu Yun rarely took the initiative to explain: "Thanks to Mr. Pei for helping us with this fire. I thought about it, after all, it happened many years ago in Sunan."

The pigments used to trace the lines were prepared by Lu Yan himself. Stone snake slough, mica, tobacco gum, blue water, insect white wax... various medicinal materials were refined through special methods, mixed with cinnabar, and painted into the picture. It took half an hour. The color will disappear afterward. However, in the event of a fire, the cinnabar regained its color.

I would only think that it was the nonsense of the Grand Master who had taken too much Hanshi Powder and was in a trance.

Lu Zong asked Pei Yunying to use this material to paint the seven orifices of the characters in the painting.

 “This is my thank you gift to Mr. Pei.”

This method of changing pigments is not taught in medical science and pharmacology.

That thunder picture is an ordinary silk painting, but the "Thrush Picture" under the thunder picture uses materials that are anything but ordinary.

As if for the sake of beauty, the sweet syrup vendor put two broken lotus petals in the bamboo cup. The pink and white broken flowers floated in the clear syrupy water, rising and falling, like a boat illuminated by the moonlight in a lotus pond on a summer night.

The "thrush painting" in the "Jingzhe" room in Fengle Tower was created by Lu Zhuo for Pei Yunying.

Lu Zhu was stunned for a moment.

　However, the matter is over and there is no reason to regret.

The first time the panic caused by foreign objects can be suppressed, but the second time will definitely be much more serious.

 She put away the medicine jar silently.

Lu Zong thought for a while, reached out and opened the bag hanging on his waist, took out a small, pink porcelain jar and handed it to Pei Yunying.

Pretend to be a guest and fight with Qi Yutai, causing Qi Yutai's blood to surge up after taking the powder. The sachet worn by the "guest" contains medicinal materials, which intensifies wind evil and enters the blood.

 The silk scrolls were soaked in medicinal juice prepared by Lu Zhuo in advance. Along with the fire, the fragrance in the painting was so fragrant that it made people psychedelic.

 Lu Tong: “…”

It seemed like someone was calling her from behind: "Girl, 戈戈, slow down!"

She was bouncing in front of her. When she turned around, she saw her mother pulling Lu Rou and calling her from behind. Lu Qian and his father were walking behind, each holding several tubes of sweet syrup.

 “Hurry up!” she complained, “I won’t be able to catch up with the water play later—”

Every year around the summer solstice in Changwu County, people will set up a stage by the small river in the county to sing water plays.

At this time, people from all the families in the city take boats to go to the river to watch the show.

 Children don’t like to listen to some of Banshe’s most famous plays. Talking about love, hatred, promotion and wealth, loyalty, filial piety, etiquette and justice are all big words, but they sound distant and boring.

The most popular ones are ghost plays. For example, a child in Zhangjiazhai died unjustly today and will turn into a ghost to seek revenge tomorrow. The statue of the God of Wealth in the Li family temple will turn into an old woman at night and eat the hearts of wealthy people. The ghost in the new tomb on the mountain next door Every night, the bride would pick a passing man to come over to get married... The children screamed in fright and listened with great interest.

Lu Zhen also likes to listen to the song "Headless ghosts will suffer revenge and death".

 One year Banshe came to court with great effort and changed the play of "Headless Ghost".

The lanterns on the stage were dim, only the actors' costumes painted with oil were bright. The red lantern shone slightly in front of the paper door, and a big white face with bleeding from all its orifices suddenly appeared on the wall.

 A sound of “Wow—”.

Lu's loud cry startled a cloud of egrets flying into the lotus pond.

That year, many children watching the theater in Changwu County were frightened and cried. Lu Zhen developed a fever when he returned home. The neighbor's aunt Fei said that she was entangled in dirty things and wanted to go to the mountain to ask an aunt to call out the ghost.

Lu Rou and Lu Qian were sitting in front of her bed, looking at her worriedly.

She was wrapped in a blanket and huddled at the foot of the bed. She felt that such a big white face would appear at any time in the curtain, in front of the cupboard door, or under the table, and she did not dare to close her eyes for a moment.

In just two days, my originally round face became two points thinner.

 Her father came in from the door and taught her to put on her clothes and get out of bed.

 She refused.

 “Get up.” The father said, “I will teach you how to catch ghosts.”

 Hunting ghosts?

After all, her curiosity about catching ghosts was greater than that of lying in bed. She shuffled out of bed and walked to her father. His father sat her down at the table covered with paper and handed her a paint-stained pencil. Pen.

 The pigment is like cinnabar, but it is different from ordinary cinnabar. The texture is too sticky.

 Father asked her to write a word.

Lu Yan drew a "ghost" with flying dragons and dancing phoenixes.

The vermilion handwriting was scrawled like a painting, and it was hard to tell whether it was a character or a talisman. My father held his forehead and sighed.

Lu Zhen was baffled.

She sat blankly for a moment, and was about to ask where the ghost hunter was going to catch it, when she saw the red writing on the white paper gradually fading away, as if an invisible person was standing next to him, quietly erasing the writing with a cloth.

Lu Zhen jumped up in shock: "There is a ghost!"

 Her father pressed her shoulders and asked her to sit down again.

He picked up the oil lamp on the table and burned it gently on the white paper that had faded into nothingness, and the writing that had just disappeared reappeared.

 “This is...” Lu Yan was stunned.

"My father asked the class leader, using stone snake slough, mica, tobacco gum, blue water, insect white wax... various medicinal materials were refined through special methods, mixed with cinnabar, and painted into the picture. After half an hour, the color It disappears immediately. However, when exposed to fire, the color of the cinnabar reappears.”

“The silk cloth on the stage had already been painted with people’s faces in advance. In the middle of the play, the young man lit it with a torch, and the cloth showed its own color.”

Her father stood in front of the table, looked at her and sighed: "Girl, there are no ghosts in the world."

As a young girl, she knew everything and felt a little relieved, but when she recalled the pale white face on the cloth, she still felt frightened and hesitated to question: "Everything is different, we just haven't seen it, so what if there is one?" Woolen cloth?"

 The father was speechless for a moment. After a long while, he said: "There's no need to be afraid."

 Lu Zhen blinked.

"There is a cloud in the book. The teacher said: Don't be afraid of ghosts, but fight them. If you win in a fight, you will be good. If you lose in a fight, I am just like him."

He stroked his beard and said, "This is the way to catch ghosts that your father taught you."

 Don’t be afraid of ghosts, but fight them.

 This "way to catch ghosts" was often recalled by her later in Luomei Peak. Every time she looked for a dead body in a graveyard, she would tell herself, "People are ghosts who are not dead, and ghosts are dead people." There is no need to worry.

 In this world, there are many people who are far more vicious and cruel than ghosts.

But I would like to accept the word "fight".

The lights were dim, a strong wind blew by, and the branches in front of the door were beaten so hard that they crackled in front of the wooden window.

Lu Zhen came to his senses, took a sip of white lotus dew, lowered his head and said, "My father heard the recipe from the class club, and I later used it to cheat on my homework in the school exam at home."

Pei Yunying looked strange: "Cheating?"

"good."

She doesn't have to go to school in a neighboring county like Lu Qian, but her homework is still intact, and her father has to take exams at home every six months.

That was her nightmare.

She cleverly thought of using her father's "ghost-catching method" to write the silent poems on white paper with cinnabar mixed with medicinal materials, but she was discovered before she could light the fire fold - after all, lighting a lamp in the daytime was a bit too much. .

Father scolded her bloody.

“What does it look like to cheat and slip all day long! Where is the ruler? Who hid my ruler!”

Lu Qian had already run half a mile away with the ruler in his arms. Lu Rou came over to persuade her, but her father pushed her out the door with a livid face.

　　"I have been a human being since I was a child, so I have to be a bit bad. It's hard to recover from the flood. It's too late to regret it! Just let her go."

He scolded her again: "I taught you how to paint, not for you to use it in such a crooked way!"

Thinking about it, Lu Chen burst into laughter.

Her father has always put moral education first. When she was young, she secretly wrote down her homework just to cope with her homework, so she was regarded as a "deviant". But now, she uses this "ghost-catching method" to plan fires, frame-ups, and more. Before, she had killed people and buried corpses, and she would do whatever it took to achieve her goals...

The smile on his face gradually faded. Lu Tong was quiet for a while and said, "He must be very disappointed in me."

 She grew into what her father least wanted her to look like.

It was dark all around, except for the whistling sound of the wind outside the window.

 “I think he would be proud of you.”

In the silence, someone suddenly spoke.

 Lu Zhuo raised his eyes.

"A man single-handedly killed Shengjing to avenge his whole family. He killed three enemies and still escaped unscathed. The last one seemed to be dying soon. If I have a daughter like this in the future, I will be very proud."

 He said it casually, as if he didn't mean it.

There was a faint cold and fragrant scent in the air, and the flames illuminated the handsome and sharp eyebrows of the person in front of me. It was clear that heavy rain was coming, but because of this soft and warm color, there was something beautiful about the beautiful scene.

He looked at Lu Yan, smiled and said, "If my father knew what you were doing now, he would only feel sad."

 Lu Zhen's heart trembled.

She has been away from home for so long that she no longer dares to expect tolerance and pampering as before, let alone love and care.

Lu Zhen put away his thoughts, "'If I have a daughter like this in the future...'" She imitated Pei Yunying's words and frowned, "Is the palace commander taking advantage of me?"

 He was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "I'm trying to comfort you."

 “I’m not depressed, so why should I be comforted?”

Pei Yunying looked at her.

Lu Zong was sitting under the dim light, his expression was as usual and his tone was calm, as if the loss that flashed through his eyes just now was an illusion.

 He lowered his head and smiled, did not continue the conversation, and turned to talk about another thing.

“Although Qi Yutai has lost his ambition and gone crazy for the time being, Cui Min is treating him and he may regain consciousness in the future.”

“Once he regained consciousness, Qi Yutai revealed that he had competed with guests for the room on the night of the fire in Fengle Building. His lie would be exposed immediately.”

"That old fox Qi Qing may not be able to notice something fishy."

“Doctor Lu,” he said, “Aren’t you afraid that he will tell Qi Qing the clues?”

With the Qi family's caution, even if they can't find the "thrush", it doesn't mean they won't be suspicious. Once suspicion arises and all enemies are eliminated, the incident involving the Lu family in Changwu County may be brought back to the attention of the Qi family.

 The lights were dim and silent.

 After a long time, Lu Zhuo smiled slightly.

 “Not afraid.”

 Her eyes were extremely bright under the light, and she spoke calmly.

 “Who would believe what a madman says?”

She sarcastically said: "I'm afraid even his father won't believe his son."

 …

Big raindrops fell from the sky. As soon as Lu Zhu returned to the courtyard, it started to rain.

The rain was still carrying the summer heat. Lu Yan put the oil lamp on the table. Lin Danqing was leaning forward to close the wooden window next to the table tightly. Finally, he pushed hard with his palm a few times.

　　Lu Zhen asked: “Why is it so tightly closed?”

The dormitory is separated for men and women. It is sweltering in summer, so there is always some space left for ventilation at night.

Lin Danqing crawled back to the couch, took out the storybook under the pillow and read it to her aloud: "Look what it says: Men who have affairs and women who raise men can all fly. They don't need to follow the door." In and out.”

“There are also young and energetic new medical officers. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if one night they got **** and touched the wrong room? It’s better to be careful.”

 Lu Huan: “…”

 “The writing seems quite reasonable,” she turned her head and asked Lu Huan, “Isn’t that right, Sister Lu?”

Lu Zhen avoided her gaze and said calmly: "...Yes."

 …

The rain was falling continuously, washing the ground in the courtyard clean.

Pei Yunying returned to the mansion, collected the umbrella and placed it at the door.

The large mansion was empty, but there was a bouquet of roses in the vase in the hall, which Pei Yunshu came to put for him during the day.

He spends most of his time in the Palace Commander's Mansion. When he is not in the Palace Commander's Mansion, he stays in the palace. This mansion is often empty, but since Pei Yunshu's mother and daughter moved next door, they have come back more often.

 The servants in the house would come to sweep the house during the day, but at night they would go home. He doesn't like being served by others, and there are only a few confidants in the house to protect him. It won't show up when nothing happens.

Pei Yunying lit the lamp and walked into the study.

The study room is still as it was when I left it. The wooden blocks on the low table are in a mess. A few drawing papers are scattered in front of the desk. There are wolf hairs hanging on the mountain of pens. Several of them are in brand new condition. They were bought newly and have not been used a few times.

He sat down at the table and put away the papers that were blown by the wind. He put them away and his movements gradually slowed down.

Upstairs in Fengle, the thrush picture painted with special pigments was made by him himself.

Lu Zong asked him to paint this picture because he knew that he was good at painting. When he handed it over to other painters in Shengjing, he was always afraid of others leaking the secret.

 In fact, since his mother passed away, he never mentioned the paintbrush again. He should have refused, but in the end, for some unknown reason, he accepted her proposal.

Pei Yunying shook his head and smiled helplessly.

Lu Zhen said that if her father were still alive, he would be very disappointed to learn that she is now using the same method of revenge.

What about him?

If his mother had known, she would have taught him how to read "There are eight patterns in every painting: ancient and moist, clean and clear water, mountains should be Cui Wei, springs should be free and easy, clouds and smoke appear and disappear, wild paths are circuitous, pine trees and dragons and snakes are hidden, and bamboos hide stormy nights." , the calligraphy and painting I learned was finally painted on the wall of Hualou Hongfang to show gods and ghosts. I don’t know what I think.

You shouldn’t be disappointed, right?

 He leaned back and stared at the wolf hair on Bishan Mountain in the dim light. He didn't know what he thought of, but a trace of self-mockery flashed in his eyes.

after all…

 This can be considered as eliminating harm for the people.

 “Don’t be afraid of ghosts when you see them, but fight them…”“Humans are ghosts who are not dead…” - "Zi Buyu"

 “There are eight frames in every painting…” - "The Complete Works of Shan Shui Chun"

 "A man who has always had an affair..." - "Silent Play"