Seeing the clouds

Chapter 19: Eighteen Shadows and Cousin

Zheng Baiyu was hiding alone in an old locust tree in the west of Jincheng City. This was the fourth day that he had sneaked out from the prefect's mansion at night to investigate the haunting in the west of the city.

Speaking of Zheng Baiyu, everyone living in Jincheng is naturally familiar with it.After all, as the only heir of Zheng Yuanfu, the prefect of Jincheng, it was really difficult for Zheng Baiyu to become famous.

For the people of Jincheng, Zheng Yuanfu is indeed regarded as the great master of Qingtian.Zheng Yuanfu always took personal responsibility for every trouble that occurred in the Golden City. He was fair and considerate of human nature, and he loved the people like his own son, so the people naturally loved him very much.

As the eldest son of the prefect, Zheng Baiyu does not have the domineering temperament of other officials' sons and the young Wulings.Although he has a playful temperament and is a bit uneducated, it is best to hang out in Jincheng every day. Whether it is a poetry gathering where literati and poets gather, or a romantic place where romance, romance, beauty, beauty, and romance, there is no place in Jincheng that Zheng Baiyu has not been to.However, although Zheng Baiyu has a playful and out-of-the-box personality, he has never done anything out of the ordinary in so many years. He occasionally helps passers-by and people. The four words "love house" and "wu" cannot be used to describe how much people like him.

Qin Hongwan is both talented and beautiful, and Zheng Yuanfu is not bad either.With this perfect combination, Zheng Baiyu will naturally not be any worse. He has had good looks and temperament since he was a child.

Every parent hopes that their son will succeed, and Qin Hongwan naturally does the same. Seeing that his son looks scholarly and has a literary spirit, he hopes that he will study hard, and if he can get a little bit of fame when he goes to Beijing to take the exam, he can inherit his father's mantle.

But every family has its own difficulties in reciting sutras, and the Zheng family is no exception.

Don't look at Zheng Baiyu who is still active even if he plays for a day and a night outside, but at home he only needs to hold a book and fall asleep on the desk in just two breaths. How can he be a good reader.Even though Qin Hongwan had strictly disciplined him since childhood, Zheng Baiyu still had a playful temperament that was hard to change.

At best, this means that one’s nature is hard to change; at worst, it means that a dog cannot change its habit of eating shit.

Qin Hongwan was really worried about her son's future. She tried all kinds of methods, but to no avail. She just had to take out the "lazy donkey worry" passed down from her family.

But Zheng Baiyu is Qin Hongwan's own biological child after ten months of pregnancy. As long as his son makes no mistakes, even if he has no future, he really can't bear to beat him with a whip.

In the end, there was really no choice. If you don't want to learn literature, then learn martial arts. Even if you don't become a general and a captain, you can still protect yourself.It was Qin Hongwan who asked the best nurse practitioner in her family to teach Zheng Baiyu how to practice martial arts. Although this nurse practitioner was only a third-level martial artist who was the lowest in the world, his Xingyiquan was still well-known around Jincheng, and it would be better to follow the Zheng family. Over the years, he has won the respect of Zheng Yuanfu and Qin Hongwan.

Compared to studying literature, Zheng Baiyu naturally prefers to study martial arts.After all, young men of fifteen or sixteen who are full of blood have a heart of chivalry and righteousness. Who doesn't admire those green-shirted swordsmen on Qingyun Mountain who can wield three-foot green swords and cut down the injustices in the world? The same goes for Zheng Baiyu.

It's a pity that although I have the interest to learn martial arts, I still don't have the heart to bear the physical pain when practicing martial arts.He couldn't hold on even the next day, so that night he cried like a ghost and howled like a wolf, saying that he would beat himself to death and never learn martial arts again in his life.

At this time, the matter of learning martial arts also came to nothing. It happened that at this time, an old friend came to visit the prefect's mansion.

This old friend has a good background. He is actually Deng Yunfei, one of the Eight Thieves in Jianghu.

Although Tianji Tower will publish a martial arts evaluation list to the world every once in a while, although the rankings on the martial arts evaluation list are really inseparable.But there are so many masters and masters in the world, how can they have the opportunity to compete with each other and compete with each other?

For example, if you randomly find ten martial arts heroes in the martial arts world and ask them who is the best in the world today, I believe all ten of them will say Zhou and Tong.But when you ask the same ten people who is the second in the world today, the answers will be different. No one will even mention the Sanshu Kon who is the second in the world on the martial arts evaluation list.

As the saying goes, there are a thousand martial arts evaluation lists for a thousand green forest heroes. There are different opinions on who is strong and who is weak.

As a result, a saying gradually spread in the world that basically summed up the top masters of the Central Plains: One Saint, Two Heroes, Three Ministers, Four Evils, Five Sects, Six Publics, Seven Stars, Eight Thieves and Nine Monsters.

The first saint is naturally Zhou Dong, the number one saint in the world, and the second hero is the two heroes of Qingyun Sword Sect, Han Yun and Qi Qingshan, etc. Of course, the ranking order does not represent the level of strength.

Deng Yunfei ranked third among the eight thieves in the proverb, and was nicknamed Skywarp.

The word thief for these eight thieves does not mean a thief or a big thief in the traditional sense.On the contrary, the eight green forest heroes known as the Eight Thieves are all famous righteous heroes in the world.The word "thief" refers to the fact that the eight people were all born in the wilderness or in the market, with no identity background, and they have achieved their current status through their own efforts.

Deng Yunfei and Zheng Yuanfu were friends from the same hometown. At that time, Deng Yunfei's family was poor, his father died of illness early, and his mother was bedridden due to illness.As a young man, Deng Yunfei had to be the breadwinner of the family, help earn money and take care of his mother. Life was very hard.

Zheng Yuanfu came from a good family and had a close personal relationship with Deng Yunfei, so he often took money from his family to support the Deng family. Deng Yunfei was naturally grateful.Later, Deng Yunfei's mother passed away unable to survive. After burying her mother, Deng Yunfei sold the old house at home and went out to make a living in the world.

Then there was the scene of Deng Yunfei, the Skywarp, visiting the prefect Zheng Yuanfu in Jincheng.

Zheng Yuanfu was overjoyed when he saw an old friend coming to visit him. After all, meeting an old friend in a foreign country is one of the three greatest joys in life.After entertaining Deng Yunfei for several days, and the two of them chatting happily, Zheng Yuanfu naturally hoped that Deng Yunfei would stay in the prefect's mansion for a few more days.

When Deng Yunfei saw that his old friend had a request, he naturally responded and stayed in the prefect's mansion for a few days.Zheng Baiyu was naturally very curious about this uncle whom he had never met before. After spending a few days together, he learned that Deng Yunfei had become famous in the world by relying on a set of Qing Kung Fu kicks called the Eight-Zong Ladder, earning him the nickname Skywarp. He immediately became interested and begged Deng Yunfei to teach him.

Deng Yunfei saw that his nephew was interesting, and after getting along with him for a few days, he also had a good temperament, so he naturally agreed.After explaining to Zheng Yuanfu and Qin Hongwan, he stayed in the Prefect's Mansion to focus on guiding Zheng Baiyu, and he could repay some of the kindness Zheng Yuanfu had towards him back then.

Although Zheng Baiyu has a playful temperament, he is quite talented in Qinggong Kung Fu. In just half a month, he understood the essence of the eight vertical ladders, which impressed Deng Yunfei.Then Deng Yunfei taught Zheng Baiyu some simple methods to defend against enemies, and then, with the consent of his parents and Deng Yunfei, he performed a apprenticeship ceremony with Deng Yunfei, which was regarded as officially accepting Deng Yunfei as his disciple.

After staying for a few more days, Deng Yunfei said goodbye and left. Zheng Yuanfu's family was naturally reluctant to leave.However, Deng Yunfei promised that since he had accepted Bai Yu as his disciple, the Jincheng Prefect's Mansion would become half of his Skywarp family, and he would come back often. He hoped that the three of them would not worry, and the family of three felt relieved.

From then on, Zheng Baiyu relied on the light skill of the Eight-Zong Ladder to ascend to heaven and earth. There was no place near Jincheng that he could not go to. He would even sneak out of the Prefect's Mansion at night without telling his parents, just like tonight.

Everyone is not surprised by the occasional hauntings in Jincheng, including the Prefect's Mansion.But at such a young age, Zheng Baiyu was naturally very curious about these ghostly things, but not even a single supernatural incident had happened in the Prefecture for so many years.Although he also asked Zheng Yuanfu what the cause of the haunting incident was, Zheng Yuanfu was a Confucian official and had read Confucian classics since he was a child. Naturally, he did not believe in the theory of gods and ghosts, so he told Zheng Baiyu that the so-called haunting incident was just some thieves Xiao Xiao using the guise of haunting. Just evil.

Of course, although Zheng Yuanfu's words did make some sense, Zheng Baiyu naturally didn't believe it and always wanted to find out the truth about the haunting incident.

During this period of time, the number of haunting incidents in Jincheng was increasing, but since there were no cases of seeking money or murder, the Prefecture could only conduct a brief investigation and then mainly appease them.

Seeing that there was something fishy about this matter, Zheng Baiyu would not give up such a good opportunity, so he slipped out of the prefect's mansion using the eight-axis ladder at night and rushed to the west of the city in several days.

But there was nothing gained for several days. Yesterday, I almost fell asleep while waiting in the dark. Today, I was hiding in the old locust tree in a daze, praying in my heart that the ghost I had been missing so much would appear soon.

But he is indeed a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers and is very courageous... An ordinary boy would not dare to go out to look for ghosts at night. He would have been hiding in bed shivering with the doors and windows closed.

Just when he yawned and thought about when he would go back to sleep after having failed again tonight, there was a commotion and noise from the nearby inn. Zheng Baiyu was so excited that he hurried towards the source of the sound.When he arrived at the inn, he squatted in the darkness on the roof of the house next to him. Just as he was about to go down and ask what happened, he saw a dark figure flash out of the inn and run towards the outskirts of the city.

Zheng Baiyu felt happy. It seemed that the nights he had spent the past few days were not in vain, so he followed him.

The black shadow's foot strength was not bad, but Zheng Baiyu's Qinggong and kick skills were better. However, considering that his strength was mediocre, he did not dare to rush up to block the black shadow, so he had to slow down slightly to keep a distance from the black shadow. If the black shadow is actually a very skilled knight, then he will really be screwed.

Two figures, one chasing and the other chasing, until the first figure got into a bamboo forest on the outskirts of the city, Zheng Baiyu followed in without hesitation.

Zheng Baiyu took two steps. It was too dark at night in the bamboo forest, so he lost the trace of the first black shadow. He looked around and found no suspicious clues. He couldn't help but said to himself: "It's weird. It's weird." , it should be here, why did it disappear suddenly, it couldn’t be a real ghost.”

Just as he finished speaking, there was some sound on the right side behind him.He quickly turned his head and looked there, only to see a black shadow quickly attacking him with a fierce fist wind.

Although Zheng Baiyu was not good at martial arts, his master Skywarp was still a top-notch master in the world, and he still had simple fighting skills. He immediately used his light body to avoid the black shadow's punch.

The black shadow was not surprised when he saw that his attack was dodged, but instead punched Zheng Baiyu more ferociously with his fists.

Facing this dizzying wind and rain, Zheng Baiyu really had no room to fight back, so he had to rely on his body and light skills to dodge the attacks one by one as before.

But the difference in strength between the two was too big. Zheng Baiyu could dodge this fist in the first grade, but not in the [-]th grade. In the end, his movement was interrupted by the fist wind, and he was punched in the chest by the black shadow. .

The fist was not very strong, but was extremely heavy. Zheng Baiyu was punched, and his chest seemed to be pressed by a stone, and he fell backwards.

Seeing Zheng Baiyu lying on the ground, the black shadow quickly came to his side, grabbed Zheng Baiyu's collar with his left hand and lifted him slightly, and made a fist with his right hand.

When Zheng Baiyu saw that the small fist was about to fall on him in the next moment, he closed his eyes unconsciously and turned his face slightly to one side.But after a few breaths, I didn't hear any sound, and I didn't feel like I was hit by a fist.

Just when Zheng Baiyu was surprised, he heard the black shadow say with some uncertainty: "Cousin?"

When Zheng Baiyu heard this, he quickly opened his eyes and looked at the black shadow.After taking a closer look, he found that the face of the dark shadow under the moonlight was somewhat similar to his cousin Zhang Chue. He couldn't help but said in surprise: "Cousin?!"

As soon as Zhang Yue saw that it was his cousin whom he had not seen for many years, he quickly released his left hand from Zheng Baiyu's collar and pulled Zheng Baiyu up.

As for Zheng Baiyu, after getting up from the ground, he looked at his cousin, whom he had not seen for many years, and was extremely happy.He immediately forgot about Zhang Yue's punch back and threw himself on Zhang Yue's body, giving him a hug.

Zhang Chu saw that after so many years, the relationship between his cousin and him was still the same as before, and they were not alienated due to changes in the family. Naturally, he was moved and happy, so he let him hold her in his arms without resisting.

Zheng Baiyu hugged her for a while and then stood back. Looking at Zhang Yue with a smile on his face, his eyes suddenly became sore and he said: "Cousin, we haven't seen you for so many years since my aunt left. The three of us in the family miss you very much."

Zhang Chuyu paused, looked at Zhang Baiyu, whose figure was almost the same as his own, reached out and patted his arm, and sighed: "Yes, my mother has been gone for many years, Xiaoyu, you have grown up too. "

Zheng Baiyu wiped the corners of his eyes with his hand and said with a smile: "Yes, I am as tall as my cousin now."

Then he asked Zhang Chuo with some curiosity: "I heard that something happened at my cousin's house, but my parents were unable to help. I don't know why my cousin came to Jincheng and pretended to be a ghost at night?"

Zhang Chuchu smiled helplessly: "Why did I come to Jincheng? It's a long story. I'll tell my cousin in detail when I get back. But my cousin said that I pretended to be a ghost? Could it be that the ghost in the inn before Aren’t you pretending to be my cousin?”

Zheng Baiyu was stunned and immediately waved his hand: "It's not me. I was hiding on the house. When I saw your cousin's back running out of the inn, I thought it was a ghost and wanted to find out. So I followed my cousin all the way. Your pace.”

After Zhang Yue heard this, he was stunned for a moment. After thinking for a moment, he said to Zheng Baiyu: "It seems that the ghost figure is someone else, but I can't feel his breath anymore. He must be hiding in this bamboo forest." , it’s so dark at night, I’m afraid it’s hard to find.”

At this time, Zheng Baiyu raised his eyebrows: "Cousin, do you think the ghost is hiding in this bamboo forest?"

Zhang Chuchu nodded: "It should be right. After the ghost entered the bamboo forest, it lost its breath. If he ran away, I would be able to detect it and naturally hide it, unless we really saw a ghost."

Zheng Baiyu took out a crystal clear vial from his body and smiled mysteriously: "If he is just hiding in this bamboo forest, it will be easy to find him."

Zhang Yue stretched out his head and looked carefully, but couldn't figure out what was going on. He asked curiously: "What is this?"

Zheng Baiyu explained in an extremely weak voice: "This is called 'Gui'erchou', which I got from my master. Its smell is extremely stinky. As long as I open the cap of the bottle, it will be centered on me." , everyone within fifteen feet will suffer. Cousin, remember to hold your breath later, otherwise you won’t be able to bear it if you smell it, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Zhang Yue looked suspicious, wondering if it was such an exaggeration.

At this moment, Zheng Baiyu had opened the cap of the vial. Although Zhang Yue was mentally prepared, he still accidentally smelled a smell.

But with just that trace of smell, Zhang Yue felt that he was going to suffocate and die.

My dear mother, Zhang Yue almost vomited out the bowl of noodles she ate in the evening and her entire stomach. No wonder this thing is called "Gui'erchou". How can people smell it?Ghosts will feel sad when they hear it.

Zhang Yue suppressed his nausea and waited for a while before hearing the sound of vomiting in the southeast.

Zhang Chuchu and Zheng Baiyu looked at each other with joy. Zheng Baiyu quickly put away the bottle of "Guierchou", and the two of them chased southeast.

(End of this chapter)