After the Fairy Disappeared

  The guard went to the backyard to find a guy and asked, "Have you brought water to the guests upstairs?"

  The guy took his money, and he knew everything: "Give it up, the guest wants to take a shower."

   "Then, what's unusual in his room?"

   "No, he took a bath, we brought out the dirty water, that's all."

   "No one else coming in or out?"

   "No, just him and that tiger demon lord have hardly ever left the room."

  The guard felt relieved, could it be that he was really suspicious?

  ￥￥￥￥￥

  The next morning.

  Although there was no sunshine, the rain that had lasted for many days finally stopped, which made Bai Shazheng heave a sigh of relief.

   If there is a heavy rain, how can the Lotus Fragrance Festival be popular?

   Rely on water to eat water. Every year after this festival, the local specialties of Baishayu will be sent to all parts of the country by merchants, so it is very important to win a good fortune.

  He Lingchuan got up early to adjust his breath, and practiced the knife for half an hour, and Jiao Yu came to him:

   "It's time for us to go."

  He Lingchuan retracted the knife upon hearing the sound, and the Fusheng blade turned, reflecting the face of its master, Shen Yi.

   Today is the key to breaking the game.

  After today, this case is destined to become a thunderstorm, even shaking the distant city of Lingxu.

   If he wanted to get out again, it would become more and more difficult.

  Then, let the stormy sea come a little more violently.

   "Go." He patted the tiger's head, "Don't keep them waiting."

  Jiao Yu flicked his tail, always feeling that his saber technique was full of murderous aura and extraordinarily ferocious.

  Energy comes from the heart, what happened to the special envoy today?

  The sky is getting brighter.

  He Lingchuan, Jiao Yu and Lu Dutong were all invited to watch the ceremony on the Chaohu Pagoda. After the repair, the pagoda is even more magnificent.

  Different from other festivals, lotus picking activities are held before the opening of the Lotus Fragrance Festival. Therefore, the festival guests will first go to the Chaohu Tower to watch the progress.

  No matter how tight the Chaohu Tower is, its bearing capacity is limited. Only the rich and powerful, as well as special guests like He Lingchuan and Zhong Sunmou, can go up to watch the ceremony on this day.

  He Lingchuan also saw Xiang Yan, the old man smiled at him from a distance, and He Lingchuan bowed his head in salute.

  He Lingchuan went up to the Chaohu Tower again, and saw that there was a large green area in the southwest corner of the Great Lake, which took up a full third of the lake.

   Chaohu Lake is a large lake that cannot be seen from a distance, and one-third of the lake is quite wide.

   "Is that lotus leaf and...duckweed?" The water surface was completely covered with green, and He Lingchuan didn't know how to start this activity.

  The water area was still empty when I climbed the tower last time. I haven't been here for a few days, why are there so many plants growing all of a sudden?

  Someone answered: "These plants are stimulated by the lotus demon. After the race starts, the duckweed will disappear and let out of the waterway."

  He Lingchuan looked back, isn't this Cen Boqing? Wu Kai stood behind him.

   "Lord Cen, does your government also send boats to compete?"

   "Of course, my family participates in it every year, and at least two years of lotus chip pulling." Cen Boqing looked relaxed, as if chatting with him, "Why don't the special envoy try it? Every year, outsiders participate."

  He Lingchuan looked at the dense lotus leaves. The leaves were as wide as an umbrella, and the stems were thicker than the lotus leaves he had seen in other places. They were at least four or five feet above the water. If the boat can sail in, it is no different from entering a maze, and the vision is completely blocked.

   "No, it's good to stand here and watch others work hard, why bother to end in person?" He Lingchuan said with a smile, "What do you think, Mr. Cen?"

  Cen Boqing replied: "That's right, not everyone can understand the truth of being alone."

   The two looked at each other and smiled.

  He Lingchuan thought to himself, is this guy very calm, and even ran to him to show off his power, is he sure that he won't be able to catch his sore feet?

  Lu Dutong took four or five of his men and stood around He Lingchuan. Hearing this, he interrupted: "My men have gone too. Here, it's right there! Number ninety-seven!"

  Looking in the direction of his finger, there are more than a hundred small boats parked by the lake, each boat has two people, and they are all ready to fight.

  Seeing that the time has come, the Chaohu Pagoda is full of nobles, and the bottom of the pagoda is full of civilians.

   Just as everyone was looking forward to it, the county magistrate Baishayu stepped forward and rang the big copper bell under the eaves of the tower himself.

  Ding Lingling, ding Lingling, the lake breeze will send the soothing and pleasant bells to the pebble beach.

  In the country of Yuan, this kind of festival activity with the participation of the whole people is usually signaled by the explosion of a whole string of firecrackers, which is called lively.

  But in the country of Beja, you can only ring bells or clappers, and burning fireworks and firecrackers is prohibited.

  The official statement is that this thing is easy to catch fire, destroying houses and burning houses and causing accidents.

   But, in fact, everyone understands that the ban on burning fireworks is mainly because monsters don't like it.

  Humans like to be lively, but most monsters, especially little monsters, will only be disgusted and scared when they hear the sudden explosion.

   After all, Bega is called the kingdom of monsters, so we still have to follow the general feeling of monsters.

  If a few people are firmly opposed to something, and more people don't care, then this thing will probably be banned in the end.

  Therefore, no fireworks will be set off during domestic festivities in Bega, including Chinese New Year.

  He Lingchuan knew this a long time ago, because Shi Erdao had complained to him on the way home, that such a big demon country has no one to do fireworks business with it.

  After the eaves bell rang out, He Lingchuan saw the large piece of duckweed on the lake, sinking into the water one after another.

   "Huh?" How did this work?

"Duckweed grows all over the water before the competition, and no one can see how the Lotus Palace is going." Lu Dutong introduced: "Before the competition starts, the fish demon in the Chaohu Lake will command the fish to bite off the duckweed and pull it into the bottom of the water. In this way It can quickly clear the waterway for the participating ships. The tradition of collecting lotus chips has been persisted for nearly a hundred years, and the fish demons have rich experience and know how to cooperate."

  He Lingchuan was amazed. In the whole world, probably only the country of Bega knows how to "make the best use of the demon".

He stared into the distance, and sure enough, he saw that the surface of the water was boiling, and he didn’t know how many fish were swarming underneath. Occasionally, a big fish jumped out of the water. If you can still see the figure from such a distance, it must be at least five feet (1.6 meters+) in length of bulk.

   After a while, the duckweed in the entire water area was basically cleaned up, and the efficiency was much faster than that of human hands.

  Standing upright on the surface of the water, there are only endless lotus leaves left.

  From the perspective of everyone on the tower, you can see countless twists and turns in the lotus field, which actually formed a maze shape.

  He Lingchuan asked: "What counts as winning?"

"Whoever can find the 'Overlord Lotus' hidden in the lotus field will be the winner." Lu Dutong said with a smile, "This is the prize that the lotus monster placed in the maze, and it will only grow before the start of the competition. Where is it? , only Lian Yao knows about it. Only when someone finds it can the show on the shore continue."

   "Is it sure to be found?"

   "There are more than a hundred ships, someone will find them." Lu Dutong coughed, "But one year was unlucky, everyone searched for the evening from the early morning, and it was almost dark before someone found it."

  Jiao Yu said: "Could it be that the lotus demon releases water?"

   "Then who knows?"

  Listening to the conversation between the two of them, He Lingchuan suddenly found that his chest was hot.

  Well, no way?

   It’s been a long time since Shengu has a sense of existence. Is there a treasure it cares about in this lake?

   "You said just now that the Overlord Lotus has just grown?" The only change is this. Is it what the **** bone wants?

   "Yes, it grows before the race starts, so as not to be picked by mistake." Lu Dutong said again, "The boat race is about to start, we can bet."

   "Can this bet too?"

   "Why not?" Lu Dutong took out five taels of silver from his pocket, and called a buyer over: "Buy Zhousheng No. 97."

   "Okay, number ninety-seven!" The buyer was very ignorant, and actually added, "The odds are very high."

  Unified Ludu will be disgraced.

   At this time, people on and off the tower also bet one after another.

   Hearing the sound waves coming up from below, He Lingchuan finally understood that all activities with a little bit of gambling are extremely lively.

   Let's have fun.

  Cen Boqing also bought his own racing boat with a smile, and bet one hundred taels.

  In fact, betting can also bet on number segments, for example, if you buy boats numbered 15 to 30, if the winning boat is among them, you can get money.

   But this way of playing does not make a lot of money. In order to support their own boats, each wealthy family must also show their wealth. They usually buy directly by ordering, just like Cen Boqing.

  He was asking He Lingchuan: "Master Special Envoy, don't you just play around with this?"

  He Lingchuan thought to himself that there are a hundred small boats here, and I don’t know any of them. Isn’t throwing money in there just for naught? But facing Cen Boqing's provocative gaze, he didn't want to give up.

   At this moment, more than ten people approached, surrounded by Zhong Sunmou and Fan Sheng.

  He Lingchuan realized belatedly that Zhong Sunmou likes to hug each other very much, and every time he plays, he is not small.

   Hehe, it’s pretty good.

  He greeted Zhong Sunmou with a smile: "Master Zhong Sun, have you placed your bet?"

  Zhong Sunmou's way of smiling but not smiling is not as good as Cen Boqing. When he saw He Lingchuan, who was annoying, his face instantly sank.

"No."

   "Let's bet against each other, how about it?" He Lingchuan turned to ask the buyer, "Can one-on-one here?"

   "This..." The buyer was also clever, "As long as the nobles like it, there is nothing wrong with it."

   "Okay, okay, I just like your sentence, there's nothing wrong with it." He Lingchuan laughed, "Brother Zhongsun, do you dare to bet?"

  Zhong Sunmou sneered: "Okay, how do you want to lose?"

  Fan Sheng stood aside without saying a word, just staring at He Lingchuan coldly.

  He Lingchuan thought for a while: "I'm also participating, so I'll just board Lu Dutong's boat—" Turning around, he asked Lu Dutong, "Is that okay?"

   "Of course no problem!" Lu Dutong was stunned, overjoyed, "I'll take someone down, you go."

   "Then I'll bet on myself to win."

  He Lingchuan turned to leave, but Zhong Sunmou called to him: "Wait! Where's your bet?"

   "Oh, yes!" He Lingchuan slapped his head, turned back to Zhong Sunmou, took out a turtle bead from his arms, and put it in his palm: "The three-hundred-year-old spirit turtle bead, how about you?"

   "That's it?" Fan Sheng said suddenly, "It's too shabby for the dignified special envoy to only take one turtle bead as a bet."

  He Lingchuan stroked his chin: "Master Fan is so loud, is it possible that he wants to place a bet for Brother Zhongsun? What a good brother."