Chapter 22 2 Endings
Chapter 22 Two Endings (Please vote and read)
"There's no one here."
The water on his body had just dried up, and driven by a sense of shame, Zhang Yu quickly put on his robe and boots.
"Am I not human?"
"You are a child, only half a person."
"I will be twelve next year. I am not a child anymore."
She had two buns on her hair, pretty eyebrows, big round eyes, red lips and white teeth.
She was wearing a small green jacket and a silver silk peacock feather shoulder strap. This outfit alone was worth hundreds of taels of silver, which showed that she was extremely loved by her elders at home.
She jumped onto the stone.
"Did Bubble escape from the pursuit of the snake?"
"Can Grandma Carp be resurrected?"
"You haven't told me yet. I didn't sleep well yesterday."
Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Is the ending of the story so important?"
The little girl licked a piece of candied haws and nodded, "Of course it's important. A good ending can make people happy."
Zhang Yu looked at her and said, "The ending of a story can be happy, but the ending of life is not certain."
The little girl bit off a candied haws, and squinted her eyes because of the sweetness. "Life is supposed to be colorful. I drank the herbal soup when I came down from the Blackwood Cliff, and then I ate the candied haws, which was especially sweet. If you only want sweetness, it would be boring."
Zhang Yu thought for a moment and said, "You're right. Let me tell you two endings of the story."
The little girl said excitedly, "Two endings? That's really interesting."
"In the first ending, the little carp escapes the pursuit, finds five dragon scales, jumps over the dragon gate, becomes a king at a young age, kills the scabby snake, resurrects his grandmother, and lives happily in Carp Lake with his friends forever. Or..."
The little girl opened her eyes with clear black and white: "Or what? Tell me quickly."
"She failed to revive grandma, and she didn't even escape from Carp Lake before she was killed by the venomous snake. Everything that happened afterwards, including A-Ku, Xiaomei, and the two-faced turtle, were just fantasies in the moment before she died, like a bubble."
The little girl suddenly felt that the candied haws in her hand were no longer sweet, and said in a muffled voice: "The second ending is too sad, I don't like it."
"If you don't like it, then change it!"
The little girl thought: "The ending of a story can be changed, can life be changed?"
Zhang Yu stood up, looked at the 100-foot-high Blackwood Cliff, and said, "Of course life can change!"
The mist in the girl's eyes disappeared, and a smile appeared on her face. "Your story is still interesting, and the ending can be changed. The storytellers in the teahouse in Pingding City always tell the same story over and over again, about the Three Kingdoms and the Tang Dynasty, with fighting and killing. It's all the same, not suitable for children to listen to at all."
Zhang Yu laughed and said, "You sneaked out and listened to stories everywhere. Qu Youshi will spank you."
"I didn't sneak down here. Grandpa sent Sister Xiaochai and Uncle Xiaowang to follow me."
Zhang Yu glanced at the reeds and had a vague feeling that someone was watching him. If he dared to do anything to harm Qu Feiyan, someone would kill him immediately.
"Your grandfather is so kind to you that he even sent someone to escort you down the mountain to listen to stories."
Qu Feiyan smiled and said, "I'm collecting inspiration. Grandpa said that whether it's martial arts or music, only by learning from a hundred schools of thought can one gain a comprehensive understanding. I want to collect stories from all schools of thought so that I can write my own story."
“You want to be a novelist.”
"correct."
“It’s not easy to take this road.”
"I will keep doing it."
"The story of the little carp is too long. When I have time, I will write it down and give it to you to read slowly."
"Can't you do that now?"
"I'm going back to Pingding City today."
Qu Feiyan invited: "We are on the way, why don't you take my carriage?" On the official road.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, the wheat fields on both sides have been harvested.
A dark-faced man rode a yellow horse and guarded the carriage closely. He carried a broadsword on his back, and the blade was as wide as half a door panel.
"Drive! Drive!"
The little carriage struggled forward.
The woman in tight clothes sat on the shaft of the cart with a long spear behind her. She was waving a whip with an unhappy look on her face.
Ever since Miss Feiyan met that weirdo, their daily destination, in addition to the Sihai Teahouse in Pingding City, has become a new destination, Xingxing Beach, which has added a lot of workload to them.
She swung the whip, and the beautiful red mare felt the pain and trotted away, thinking to herself, "You are such a good storyteller, why don't you go to Sihai Teahouse and tell stories?"
Zhang Yu sat in the carriage and could not feel the resentment of the workers. He had to lower his head slightly, otherwise he would hit the ceiling.
The carriage entered Pingding City, and Zhang Yu got off at the crossroads. He found Qi Queqiao at Taiping Inn, borrowed fifty taels of silver, and then went out of the south gate of Pingding City alone.
Night fell, and on the fifteenth day, the full moon was in the sky, and the road was covered with moonlight.
Zhang Yu used the "Flowing Clouds and Water" movement and walked thirty miles in one hour. His footwork gradually became proficient from unfamiliar. Even without the green jade ring, he could still use the "Flowing Clouds and Water" footwork easily. This was considered as the entry into the art.
Meixi Village is thirty miles south of Pingding City.
There is a mountain in front of the village. Every December, the mountain is covered with snow and plum blossoms bloom together, which always attracts many literati and poets to come and enjoy the plum blossoms in the snow.
For the villagers, when the plum blossoms on the mountain are in full bloom, it is also the most difficult time for them.
Winter is a murderous season. Severe cold, hunger, and frostbite can easily take a person’s life.
Among the fifty or sixty households in Meixi Village, the Wang family lives a pretty good life.
Wang's great-grandfather moved here from Hejian Prefecture, built three houses, and purchased sixty acres of good paddy fields.
By the time it was passed on to Wang Liyu, the size of his fields and houses had shrunk by two thirds.
Later, Wang Liyu sold his only ancestral property in exchange for two inferior horses and two swords, and went out traveling with a carefree young man named Zhang from the same village.
During those two years, Wang Liyu's name was synonymous with a prodigal son.
Later, Wang Liyu became the leader of the Sun and Moon Sect. He returned home in glory, redeemed part of his ancestral property, and married.
In the eyes of the villagers, Wang Liyu has become a synonym for having a promising future.
When villagers pass by the Wang family’s house, they always sigh that the Wang family has good feng shui and their descendants will have a bright future.
Zhang Yu entered the village at night.
He was very familiar with the road and avoided the wealthy families who could afford to keep dogs.
I haven't been back for three years, and nothing seems to have changed.
The original owner was also from Meixi Village. When he was eight years old, heavy snow collapsed the roof of his house, and his parents were crushed under the tiles and beams. Their injuries were not serious, just scratches from rusty nails, but neither of them survived that long winter.
When the original owner was about to starve to death, Wang Liyu gave him a bowl of bean rice and told him: "If you have no food to eat in the future, you can come to the Wang family to get a bowl of bean rice."
"Is this the Wang residence?"
He held the hilt of his sword.
The three grand blue-tiled houses disappeared without a trace, not even a broken wall was left, just like a castle on the beach, which was washed away by the water and all traces disappeared without a trace.
"What happened to Wang's family? An earthquake? But the surrounding houses are safe and sound."
Zhang Yu picked up a broken tile from the ground, put it in his arms, turned and walked towards the west end of the village.
(End of this chapter)