Chapter 101 (2/2)
In the room at the top of the building, Mistress Jian stood quietly behind the bead curtain, staring at the portrait nearby her bed, with her smooth forehead crinkling into gills. Seeing the young scholar in the portrait, his familiar eyebrows stirred up and his cheerful or even arrogant laughter, she slowly shed tears. She then mumbled to complain, ”Ke Haoran you d*mn boy, back then I cooked chicken soup for you every day, yet you didn't come. Then, you see, no soup at all even if you wanted to taste it now. Who knows, how is... everything going with you in the other world.”
Suddenly the end of her brow tilted, and she was awakened from her complaint to rash a few steps to the rail and take a look at the courtyard downstairs. She was well aware of the status of that tall and thin Taoist in the courtyard of Dewdrop, yet showing not a hint of fear. She then scolded softly with a bit anger, ”What's wrong with you guy! Why come to my brothel to arouse my memory of that scoundrel!”
In the courtyard under the bamboo shadows, Dewdrop sailed back to her room after was.h.i.+ng her face and applying light make-ups, yet stood slightly stiffened when she saw the Taoist swinging around. She then stepped ahead to take a look and doubted with eyebrows frowned, ”Master, I always felt I had caught the smell of chicken soup, why?”
”Not the smell of chicken soup, but of home.”
The Divine Talisman Master Yan Se pointed at the twenty-nine messy words on the accounting paper, saying with a wave of his head, ”When this man wrote the memo, he was eager to drink the chicken soup back home. But it does not mean the soup is tasty, instead, I am just wondering, what Sangsang is like. Is she a ferocious wife or a strict mother? How can she drive him in such a way.”
”This memo... is that the one written by Ning Que?” The delicate and exquisite face of Dewdrop was filled with confusion, ”He didn't show any intention to go back home back then, and Sangsang is not his wife, but... only a young handmaiden of his.”
”Young handmaiden? Even less logical.”
The Divine Talisman Master Yan Se shook his head and got rid of the affair. He remained unmarried up to now because he has witnessed numerous ferocious wives in Tang Empire, especially in Chang'an. So he preferred to linger through brothels to taste different girls. That's why he couldn't figure out what attraction that a young handmaiden and a bowl of chicken soup had.
The next morning, that tall and thin Taoist left in a horse carriage, without inquiring what Ning Que, the one that has written the twenty-nine messy words, was like. After a short while, Dewdrop approached, yawning and rubbing her sleepy eyes. Those feelings last night had all escaped from her mind, who then took the warm tea handed over by the maidservant to sip and subconsciously glimpsed over the table, only to find that ragged memo paper has somehow disappeared. As for the twenty-nine messy words that Taoist copied last night on the rosewood table with wine, they dried and vanished even sooner.
She waved her head with a smile and put down her teacup, during which the green jade bracelet slightly knocked the rosewood table, yet unexpectedly, with the gentle sound aroused, a part of tiny paint powder was shaken off the table.
Dewdrop was somewhat shocked and gazed curiously in the direction. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled out her handkerchief to softly wipe down the powder, unexpectedly to see a line of completely messy words under those red paint powders. The traces of those words seemed to be shallow but were actually carved deep into the wood which could not be wiped off at all. How penetrating they were!
”Sangsang, I, your young master, am drunk today and won't come back to sleep, so you must remember to drink the stewed chicken soup left in the pot.”
Dewdrop goggled at those words fiercely, vaguely realizing something. She had no idea that the tall and thin Taoist was a Divine Talisman Master in legends, nor could she predict what big achievement Ning Que might acquire in the future. But she was clear this Taoist was not an ordinary one and wished sincerely that Ning Que had a good prospect. Most important of all, she was instinctively sensitive to opportunities after experiencing varieties of people in brothels for a long time, so she immediately ordered the maidservant to carefully put the table away and take good care of it. May it be used someday.
On the other hand, after Yan Se left the brothel, he stepped into a worn-out horse carriage and not a long time later, met a young Taoist with a yellow paper umbrella under his arm. The young Taoist greeted him with great respect, ”Uncle, I've found the information you wanted. That man was named Ning Que and he has escorted the princess all the way... Lyu Qingchen has confirmed, he had no potential at all. The other days the Academy also tested him, but he failed even in course of magic skills.”
The Divine Talisman Master sighed a pity. Although the lad had an intimate relations.h.i.+p with the princess, the fact that all his acupoints were blocked was in itself an extreme state. Shall I request the West-Hill Divine Palace to collect the power of Great Divine Priests to forcibly break his acupoints by imposing Grand Spiritism on him? It was hard to find a successor of fine Martial Arts of Talisman, and so scarcely I met one last night, who, however, was inborn deficient. What a pity!
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