Pawn Crossing the River

Pei Xiaolou's answer was unexpected, but also reasonable.

Qi Xuansu had long suspected that Qiniang was originally a high-level Taoist priest within the Taoist sect, but later betrayed the Taoist sect and became a second-class member of the Qingping Society. Otherwise, she would not have known so many secrets of the Taoist sect. And judging from Xie Qiuniang's identity, the second-class members of the Qingping Society are already very powerful and will not be unknown people.

Or maybe Qiniang didn't betray Taoism at all, but just resigned from her position and became an idle Taoist priest. Such people can be found everywhere in Taoism, which is not surprising.

Then it makes perfect sense that Pei Xiaolou and Qiniang are old friends.

However, Qi Xuansu was still a little unsure about what Pei Xiaolou's motives were. Qiniang was not his real name, but the abbreviation of the brand name "Qiniangzi". Pei Xiaolou said this name outright, which meant that he was also a member of the Qingping Society? Or is he deliberately deceiving himself? But a dignified person can kill himself with one slap, so why bother with such twists and turns? Unless he wants to use himself to deal with Qiniang.

Pei Xiaolou seemed to have understood what Qi Xuansu was thinking, and waved his hand: "Don't be nervous, you can ask Qiniang for verification later. In fact, I don't know Qiniang's true identity. When I met her, she called herself Qiniang. Mom, that was ten years ago, when I was still a third-grade Taoist priest."

Qi Xuansu relaxed a little and asked, "I wonder if the real person can tell me something about Qiniang?"

"Qiniang?" Pei Xiaolou said, "That's too much. She is greedy for money and stingy. She likes to do business. She can't afford to start early if there is no profit. You don't know where to hide and open a shop now, right? The two of us have done it together. After a period of business, Qiniang said it was unlucky for me to lose money, so we parted ways."

For some reason, Qi Xuansu suddenly wanted to laugh when he heard the word "compensate".

Eastern ink painting and Western oil painting are completely different. To put it simply, they are different painting styles. The same is true between people. Take Zhang Yuelu as an example. Her and Qiniang's painting styles are very different, but Qiniang's and Pei Xiaolou's painting styles are very consistent. They always give people the impression that they are not very serious. The feeling of spectrum.

Pei Xiaolou thought to himself: "Furthermore, Qiniang is not young yet, but she has never been married. In fact, I am pretty good, but it is a pity that I am already married."

Qi Xuansu curled his lips and disagreed.

He felt that the second half of the sentence was completely a boast of Pei Xiaolou, and Qiniang might not like him.

Pei Xiaolou added: "When people get older, they inevitably like children. Qiniang said that she has a godson, and she often praises her godson in front of several friends, so I couldn't help but want to meet him. one side."

Qi Xuansu had a strange expression: "This godson Qiniang is talking about, could it be me?"

"Is there anyone else?" Pei Xiaolou smiled.

Qi Xuansu was speechless. Although he did regard Qiniang as an elder rather than a friend in his heart, to be fair, Qiniang was still far from the image of mother in Qi Xuansu's mind. Qi Xuansu felt that his mother should be dignified, kind, kind and gentle. , but Qiniang really has nothing to do with it.

Pei Xiaolou patted Qi Xuansu on the shoulder: "Qiniang likes you very much and hopes you can succeed, but she can't help you for some reasons."

Qi Xuansu said softly: "Actually, you don't need to help me with anything, I'm not without my hands and feet."

Pei Xiaolou smiled and said nothing more.

Qi Xuansu asked: "What is the real person's evaluation of me?"

Pei Xiaolou asked, "Do you want to hear the truth or lies?"

Qi Xuansu hesitated: "Truth."

"The truth is, maybe my eyesight is not good, maybe Qiniang is exaggerating a little, but in short, she is not as good as I imagined. But Miss Zhang is eye-catching. She is indeed a junior worthy of vigorous cultivation. No wonder she is... The teacher made an exception and was promoted to deputy hall master."

Qi Xuansu didn't show it on his face, but he was inevitably disappointed in his heart. He felt quite shameless about going to see Jiangdong's elders.

After being around for so long, he has achieved nothing. When Xuansheng was at his age, he was considered very important, not to mention that everyone in the world didn't know him. Zhang Yuelu is one year younger than him, and is already a fourth-grade Taoist priest, and has become the deputy hall master.

At the same age, people are extremely popular, but he is still hanging around here. Along the way, it is either because Pei Xiaolou looks at him, or because Zhang Yuelu looks at him, or because Pei Xiaolou was like this because Qiniang looked up at him. Except for Zhang Yuelu and Qiniang, no one had ever looked up at him because of himself.

To say that Qi Xuansu's heart was still and unmoved would be to deceive himself and others. He was not a monk who had seen through the mortal world, nor was he an old man who had experienced ups and downs, so how could he not care.

The key is to live up to your own expectations, so as not to live up to the expectations of others. Neither Qiniang's expectations nor Zhang Yuelu's expectations were disappointed.

Wan Xiuwu and Yue Liuli returned to the guest room of Dazhen Mansion together. It was said to be a guest room, but in fact it was a single-family courtyard. It was extremely open, simple and elegant, and showed the heritage of a thousand-year-old family.

In fact, the Dazhen Mansion occupies an extremely vast area, far more than the Shangqing Palace. This can be seen from the fact that when Xuansheng interrupted the earth's veins and caused the mountain to collapse and the earth to crack, it only caused the collapse of a corner of the Dazhen Mansion.

The two entered the living room, and Wan Xiuwu sat on a chair near the door without saying a word.

Yue Liuli poured a glass of water and handed it to him: "It is said that there are only three families in the world: the descendants of the saints, Shangqing Zhang, and Longcheng Qin. From my point of view, our Taoist sect only has two families, Shangqing. Zhang and Donghai Li are just one, Shangqing Zhang is Zhengyi, Donghai Li is Taiping Dao, and Quanzhen Dao is the most loose. There are no such big families, only many first-class families. But for us, these families cannot be small. Look, the Qi family, the Pei family, the Tang family, and the Ji family are all old families within Quanzhen Taoism. They don't have a great master or a deputy master like the Zhang family and the Li family. There are many people who know the truth and have a strong foundation.”

Wan Xiuwu took Baishui: "Xuansheng has been working hard all his life to eliminate the differences between factions and sects. In the end, it is still this family or that family. Those of us who are from the Wanxiang Dao Palace want to get ahead, or we have to keep our heads down and be like dogs. Either..."

Yue Liuli interrupted softly: "Without Xuansheng, the Li family is still the Li family, and it is still the same high mountain. There will not be much change. This is the family's confidence. If it is a small family, without the ancestors The shelter will disappear in an instant, and there is nothing we can do.”

Wan Xiuwu sighed, his breath creating ripples on the white water in the cup: "That Qi Xuansu..."

Yue Liuli said in a deep voice: "Be careful."

"Does he still dare to take revenge on us?" Wan Xiuwu frowned.

Yue Liuli wrote lightly: "It's hard to say this kind of thing. I dare to pull down the emperor with all my life. This is of course a joke. We are not the emperor, and Qi Xuansu is not a barefoot person. But this sentence also explains exactly what he said. There is no question of whether or not you dare to do something, only whether you want to do it or not.”

Wan Xiuwu disagreed. Although he felt that Qi Xuansu was indeed different from the past, he still despised him in his heart. Only when the two faced each other head-on and Qi Xuansu defeated him openly could his stereotype be reversed.

Yue Liuli naturally saw Wan Xiuwu's attitude, and said with a slightly stronger tone: "He will never forget what happened to the Longhu Club back then. It was I who treated him as an abandoned son, and it was you who almost killed him with a knife. If it’s you, can you just laugh it off?”

Wan Xiuwu didn't say anything, he just drank all the water in the cup.

Yue Liuli also fell into silence.

What happened at the Longhu Club back then was not without reason.

Qi Xuansu felt that he was wronged. He and Yue Liuli had no grievances and had nothing to do with each other, but they were sent to die for no reason.

But in Yue Liuli's opinion, Qi Xuansu had his own way of killing himself.

The Hundred Flowers Festival is a grand gathering of the Wanxiang Taoist Palace, and the location is chosen at the Star Observation Deck. According to legend, a warlock once observed the stars here to predict the general trend of the world, hence the name.

Not far from the observatory is the forbidden Hoshino Lake. Between the mountains and lakes is a large open space, planted with various flowers. In addition to peonies, there are also peach blossoms, daffodils, jasmine, primula, daphne, camellia, and magnolia. , purple magnolia, clivia, viburnum, crabapple, peony, azalea, cyclamen, hundreds of flowers are in full bloom at this time, red like fire, pink like clouds, white like snow, it is a spectacular sight.

The Taoist boys gathered their friends and boarded the observatory one after another to enjoy the blooming flowers together.

At the Hundred Flowers Festival that year, she left the star observatory and came to the flowers below. Behind her was the Xingye Lake, which looked like a fairy. He didn't even look at him.

Maybe Qi Xuansu himself had forgotten what he was doing at that time. He was probably worrying about unfinished schoolwork, or lamenting about life, or even not sleeping well. In short, he did not notice such a beautiful scenery, and Yue Liuli remembered it in his heart. .

Yue Liuli did not become curious about Qi Xuansu because of Qi Xuansu's unique behavior like the woman in the storybook did, nor did she want to explore Qi Xuansu's inner world. She just developed a great hatred for Qi Xuansu.

She enjoys the feeling of stars holding the moon, she is the moon hanging high in the night sky, but if any star does not open its eyes and join in the fun, it will be a thorn in her side and a thorn in her flesh.

If Qi Xuansu is her subordinate and pursues her like a lap dog every day, she has plenty of means to play with Qi Xuansu and make him a complete joke. It's a pity that Qi Xuansu at that time may have been too late to be sensible and not interested in women at all, leaving Yue Liuli unable to make a move. It wasn't until the Dragon Tiger Club that Yue Liuli seized the opportunity and sent him out to die.

Although Qi Xuansu didn't know the inside story of this, that someone would have such vicious thoughts because of such a trivial matter, he also knew that Yue Liuli was not as "clean" as he appeared on the surface, so he didn't like this kind of thing very much. The woman was even disgusted, and it was precisely because of this that the bright-hearted Zhang Yuelu made his heart move.

In fact, these dark thoughts were not only unknown to Qi Xuansu, but also to Wan Xiuwu. He only thought that Qi Xuansu was an unlucky man. On the battlefield, the sword had no eyes and his skills were inferior to others. It didn't matter, so he didn't take it seriously.

But how could Yue Liuli not feel guilty.

Nowadays, she has no regrets at all. She only regrets that she failed to kill Qi Xuansu by one move, otherwise she would not have the troubles she has today.

Thinking of this, Yue Liuli's eyes darkened.

Now that the hatred has been forged, if there is a second chance, she will not show any mercy.