It’s too difficult to cultivate immortality, so I used a strange beast to clone myself into a Taoist

Chapter 6 Fish in the Well

A dilapidated courtyard is no different from other buildings in a shanty town.

The outside is simply surrounded by a fence, and there is a bungalow inside. Several rooms are separated by door panels. There are traces of repairs and repairs everywhere.

Due to water leakage, there are earthen jars with broken mouths placed in the corners and under the eaves.

Although the home is dilapidated, it is still clean and the sundries are arranged neatly.

It can be seen that the hostess takes care of it.

Li Qinglin opened the fence, and before he could enter the house, he heard the sound of the door being pushed open from the neighboring house.

"Are you... Qinglin?"

A plump woman with a thick waist and a large apron was holding a dustpan and looked at Li Qinglin with some confusion.

In fact, there is a huge gap between Li Qinglin today and that time when he visited relatives three months ago.

Although the body shape is still slightly thin, the appearance is not much different.

But at this time, he was extremely energetic and energetic. He stood upright and his eyes were dark and lively. Even when he looked at himself, there was no flicker at all.

"Gou...sister-in-law?"

Li Qinglin searched his memory and could barely remember the woman in front of him.

Sister-in-law Gou's eyes suddenly widened, she grabbed Li Qinglin's hand and looked around.

"Okay, okay, I look like I have more energy and blood, and my bones are stronger."

Sister-in-law Gou moved her hands up and down, and Li Qinglin's face turned red for a rare moment.

"Huh? Sister-in-law, you can't..."

Li Qinglin took a few steps back suddenly, feeling a little overwhelmed.

But just now, Sister-in-law Gou actually pinched her butt!
  "Haha, I've grown up and given birth!"

Sister-in-law Gou put her hands on her hips and laughed.

The unique frankness and roughness of the shantytown residents are completely different from the cautiousness and caution of those living in the royal residence.

Li Qinglin was in a daze for a moment.

"Here, these are the newly dried radishes this year. I'll give you two kilograms of them, as well as some mustard. Don't shirk it, just take it!"

Sister-in-law Gou was busy picking up dried radishes from the dustpan.

"Cough cough cough..."

There was a weak coughing sound in the house, like an old windmill, accompanied by the tearing of water in the lungs.

"This is..." Li Qinglin was a little confused.

Sister-in-law Gou was stunned for a moment, then she reluctantly said: "A few days ago, some gangsters from the Luqi Gang came to the stall to collect the first payment. My Dahu had a dispute with them and his right leg was discounted..."

"But brother Lin is back home?" Dahu seemed to recognize Li Qinglin's voice, and his coughing gradually became quieter.

"Oh, Brother Huzi, it's me."

Li Qinglin replied and was about to go into the house to visit.

"Brother Lin, please don't come in. The room smells like medicine. I can't see anyone like this."

Dahu refused, with a bit of stubbornness in his voice.

Li Qinglin stopped and said nothing.

After a while.

Li Qinglin had a few more heavy bags in his hands, and he opened the door of his house unsteadily.

The heavier the bag became, the more panicked Li Qinglin felt.

"The Luqi Gang..." Li Qinglin whispered in his heart.

……

Walking into the side room, although Li Qinglin only went home once every three months, his bedroom was well preserved.

The windows were propped open, and the lame table was propped up on wooden wedges.

The air is filled with the smell of sunshine.

Li Qinglin touched the quilt. Although it had some patches and was not brand new, it was still thick and seemed to have just been dried.

Li Qinglin put down his luggage and began to clean the room inside and out.

There are still dishes in the sink that haven't had time to be washed, firewood piled up for the winter, and spider webs in the corners of the beams...

Time passed and the sky gradually became dark.

There were sounds of fighting and fighting on the path, and the sound of the squeaking fence revolving.

"and many more!"

A boy with tiger teeth and his hair tied up in a high bun stopped the girl behind him.

The boy clearly had a childish face, but at this moment he frowned, as if he was a little adult.

Hearing the movement inside the house, the cat leaned over and looked inside the house carefully.

The boy's name is Li Qingjing, he is Li Qinglin's younger brother and the second eldest child in his family.

The girl at the back had a pair of braids, dark and shiny eyes, some small spots on her face, but she seemed to be stunted and her hair was a little yellow.

The girl's name is Li Qingqing, the third oldest in her family, and she is only eight years old this year.

They all study in private schools a few streets away.

It was said to be a private school, but in fact it was a poor scholar who had failed the examination. In order to make a living, he rented a dilapidated ancestral hall at a relatively low price and taught children from several nearby neighborhoods.

Li Qinglin also attended this private school when he was young.

Li Qingjing had a straight face and looked up and down at Li Qinglin who was moving tables and chairs in the room.

His eyes suddenly brightened.

"elder brother!"

Li Qingqing didn't recognize Li Qinglin, but seeing her second brother calling him brother, she quickly called out.

"Big brother!"

The two little guys threw down their book bags, ran into Li Qinglin's arms with a swishing sound, and then hung up and down on Li Qinglin's body.

Li Qinglin was stunned for a moment.

He has been a man for two lives, and was an only child in his last life.

He had some gaps in his heart about this world.

But at this moment, when he looked at the two little guys hanging on his chest, his heart suddenly became soft.

"Come down, I brought you gifts."

Amid exclamations, Li Qingjing and Li Qingqing excitedly picked up the carefully packaged cakes and toys.

After Li Qingjing got excited, he asked with some worry: "Brother, are these things expensive?"

"Take it away if you give it to me! Brother can make money!" Li Qinglin smiled and rubbed Li Qingjing's head.

Just as he was talking, Li Qinglin heard movement outside the door.

Looking up,

Then I saw a somewhat rickety figure standing blankly in the courtyard.

His hair was as gray as straw, the corners of his eyes were covered with wrinkles, and his eyes were also gray, as if he had some eye disease. His fingers were severely fractured, and his hands were covered with wind and frost.

She looks very ugly.

Li Xianshi, Li Qinglin’s mother.

Li Xianshi was still holding a few bolts of unsold coarse cloth in her hand. She recognized Li Qinglin in the dim light of the sky.

Then he screamed in surprise and even dropped the coarse cloth in his hand.

"Brother Lin? My brother Lin is home?"

Li Qinglin's heart felt like being hit by a gentle bullet, and his lips wriggled,

"Well, mother, I'm back."

……

At night, the waning moon is pale yellow.

The cold wind outside the house was biting and howling sadly.

But inside the house, the stove was rarely lit, and it was as warm as spring.

The aroma of the food came, seasonal vegetables, dried radish soup sent by Sister-in-law Gou, and even a stack of half-fat and half-thin bacon, which looked tempting.

What was in the bowl was not brown rice, but fragrant sorghum noodles.

Li Qingjing and Li Qingqing looked at the food, feeling like they were celebrating the New Year. They subconsciously swallowed their saliva, but looked at Li Qinglin obediently.

Li Qinglin smiled softly and picked out a large piece of bacon with chopsticks for each of Li Xianshi, his brother and sister.

"Have a meal!"

During the meal, Li Xianshi kept talking.

Talking about trivial things about the neighbors and people, which household has added new members, and the warriors who passed by a few days ago acted bravely and punished the rogues of the Luqi Gang...

But he never mentioned any hardships, and he never mentioned the fact that he was driven to a remote stall because of his ugly appearance.

Li Qinglin kept eating, only occasionally saying a few words.

He has never felt that the food in his mouth has been so sweet.

Putting down his chopsticks, Li Qinglin looked at Li Xianshi and opened his mouth.

He went home to visit relatives with a purpose.

He wanted to practice martial arts at the Wangzhai outer courtyard, and he needed some silver.

But the sight of all the homeless people on the four walls stung his eyes a little.

But Li Xianshi opposite seemed to have something to say, with hesitation on his face.

"Brother Lin?"

Li Xianshi put down her chopsticks, and the flickering candlelight passed through her back, making her expression unclear.

"You...want to learn martial arts?"

"Huh?" Li Qinglin suddenly raised his head, very surprised.

Li Xianshi seemed to be afraid that Li Qinglin would think too much and said one after another,
  "You will be sixteen in half a year. You are registered as an official and cannot be faked.

When you reach the age of sixteen, you have to serve in pioneer service. Your father served in pioneer service in autumn five years ago and left. "

Every other month in Feng County, troops will be recruited in the county. Anyone over the age of sixteen is obliged to serve in pioneer service and leave the county and official roads to pioneer.

However, as far as Li Qinglin knew, the pioneering work seemed to be extremely dangerous. After every conscription, the county was filled with grain.

Only warriors have a higher chance of surviving!
  Li Qinglin's father died during the pioneering campaign five years ago.

In exchange for only six taels of silver as a pension.

Li Qinglin did not expect that Li Xianshi would actually take the initiative to bring up the matter.

Li Xianshi seemed to have been thinking about this matter for a long time and kept talking.

"Brother Lin, you have been sensible since you were a child. Now that you have grown up, you usually come into contact with noble people."

Li Xianshi's voice was a little hoarse.

"Mom, I heard that those high-ranking warriors and martial arts instructors seemed to have a way to survive the pioneering campaign.

Several children across the street, even Zhang Xiaochui, the boy from Butcher Zhang's family who had been strong since childhood, spent a lot of money to practice martial arts, just to reach the age of sixteen.

Although several of them failed and had to serve, the better ones just suffered from the root of the disease, and the worse ones never came back. "

Li Xianshi raised his head, looked at Li Qinglin's face carefully, and said bitterly,
  "Don't blame my mother for selling you into the royal house in the first place. Committing yourself as a slave and signing a life contract are things that bring shame to the family. After my mother dies, I will forgive your sins to the ancestors of the Li family.

But there was nothing I could do about it. Shu Xiu, who was an apprentice in those monasteries, often had tens of taels of silver, and she couldn't even save enough money to weave cloth in her lifetime.

Only by selling you to a wealthy family in the inner city, and maybe having a chance to get into martial arts, can you... survive. "

Li Xianshi's words broke Li Qinglin's inherent impression of this rural woman who had worked hard all her life and had never seen the big world.

Low knowledge does not prove ignorance, but is full of ambition to survive.

Li Qinglin was silent for a moment, and then told the king's nursing home that the tenants could be taught martial arts.

"Eight taels, eight taels."

Li Xianshi repeated these two words in his mouth.

He was a little happy and a little lost, as if he was thinking about something.

"Mom, let me worry about the money. You don't have to worry about it."

……

The night was dark.

Li Qinglin was lying on the bed alone, smelling the faint scent of soapberry coming from the bedding.

Haven't been able to sleep.

The rickety figure of Li Xianshi always lingers in my mind.

He turned over, faced the wall, and exhaled to drive away the distracting thoughts in his mind.

Then his consciousness was withdrawn, his vision alternated, and he appeared in the Bombe Toad's body.

Wang's house.

Even if the well is extremely dark, it does not affect the Bombe Toad's perception at all.

Smell and touch carry a lot of information all the time.

The bombe crawled out of the gap, twisting its strong hind limbs and turning its body upside down.

The bombe toad stared at the calm water.

I do not know how long it has been.

Suddenly, circles of lines spread out on the water.

A series of bubbles floated up.

A faint fishy smell came out.

Then I saw a fish with fine scales as big as a little finger, swimming quickly across the water, turning its belly, fins swinging, and swimming down the well again.

Li Qinglin was a little surprised.

"There are actually fish at the bottom of this well?!"

(End of this chapter)