Mason Xuan and the Mirror of Mystique Chapter 1

In the summer of the 23rd year of Tianxi's reign, a dragon fell down in Huameng County, Guangdong. It was as tall as a man and tens of feet long. It was trapped in a net, its skin and flesh were raw, and its backbone was missing. The officials and the people went to see it, and there was a heavy rain, the waves surged, and the dragon rolled into the sea without a trace. ------"Huameng County Chronicles"[1]

In the winter month of the same year, Ningyang County, Huizhou Prefecture.

The clappers have just been struck at the fifth watch, the sky is still dark, and there are already faint voices on Xingtang Street. The waiter at Jiuweiju carried several large drawers of freshly steamed buns and set up a breakfast stall in front of the building.

The watchman trotted over with his neck scrunched up and rubbed his hands, and bought three buns. He swallowed one in two mouthfuls, and while swallowing with difficulty, he winked at the waiter at Jiuweiju and said, "Eh? Have you prepared anything?"

"It's ready. It's here." The waiter patted the food box next to the cage with a sad look on his face.

The watchman asked in surprise: "Are you serious about preparing it? What if he... that thing doesn't come today?"

The waiter shuddered silently and said dryly: "My mother-in-law, please don't come."

Jiuweiju is a well-known restaurant in Ningyang County. The chef is nicknamed "Liu Sanyang". It is said that he can become famous all over the world with his three specialties, namely roasted pork with peach fat, roasted chicken in clay pot, and Crisp pear oxtail civet. The meat is pork belly without the skin, the chicken is a mountain pheasant that is just right fat and thin, and the raccoon dog must be a raccoon dog in the snow.

Jiuweiju relies on these three dishes to keep customers busy every day, so business is not a worry. But Liu Sanyang is a show-off. He only serves ten portions a day and doesn't cook an extra pot, so he has to rush early if he wants to eat.

However, if you order hard food as early as the fifth watch, it is probably because you are mentally ill.

This sick man has been here for two days in a row.

On the first day, he announced the names of three dishes in front of the waiter and never said a word again. Really out of breath. In the cold winter, whenever he exhaled and opened his mouth, a cloud of white mist appeared, but the front of his face was clear and clear, with no trace of mist at all. On the second day, he had even more requests - he was not allowed to use clay pots for roasted chicken, no star anise or fennel was allowed, and no crispy pears were allowed on the oxtail civet...

This request doesn't look like a serious person coming to eat, but rather like someone who wants to smash the sign.

However, instead of taking away the suspected troublemaker, the waiter waited on him for two days shivering, and even prepared the food boxes in advance today.

He glanced at the sky, trembled his legs again, stretched his neck like a thin-legged chicken, and asked the watchman: "It's almost time, why aren't you shaking?"

"Why am I shaking all day and night?" The watchman lowered his voice and said, "Besides, this year is not peaceful, so it's not unusual to see any kind of monster. I heard about someone seeing a real dragon in Guangdong in June. Did you say that while I was lying on the beach, I heard that someone had cramped my muscles! What did you think this meant? There were rumors that the Imperial Master almost died two months ago.

Before the watchman finished speaking, he saw the waiter trying to slide down the stall as angry as a thread: "He's coming, he's coming again..."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a scholar-looking person in front of the stall.

He had an ordinary appearance, with a deep tired look, and an abnormal blood color on both sides of his cheeks, as if he had been burned by the fire for a long time. This man was wearing a gray-green robe. He was thin and the robe was thin, as if a piece of cloth had been strung on a branch, and it would rise to the sky when the wind blew.

The watchman stared at the scholar's face for a long time against the light of the white leather lantern. The last bite of the bun in his mouth was frozen, so he didn't bother to swallow it.

The scholar muttered "Here we are" as if he was talking to himself, and then he slowly raised his head and looked at the waiter with his dark eyes, looking very worried.

The waiter immediately crossed his legs, feeling like he needed to pee.

"Excuse me, roast pork with peach fat ------" The scholar's serious voice sounded nice. It was different from the soliloquy just now. It was like green bamboo and flowing water, but it was very disrespectful to the face and did not follow the shape of the mouth. Look at it. Then... I became even more frightened and panicked.

The waiter avoided his gaze and gingerly picked up the food box and handed it to him: "Everything is ready. The porcelain jar is used, but the pear, star anise and cumin are not placed. It has just come out of the pot and is still hot."

The scholar seemed to be choked. He stared at the food box for a moment, and then he responded. He nodded slowly and said, "Thank you."

This voice was a little hoarse, and slightly different from the sentence just now.

The food box seemed a bit heavy to the scholar, as if it were hung with a heavy pendant on a branch. He left much slower than when he came, and it took him a long time to get farther.

The watchman shuddered and came to his senses.

The waiter's face turned pale and he whispered: "Did you see it this time? That face...eh? What are you doing in such a hurry?"

Watchman: "Urgent urination."

Waiter: ...

However, not long after the watchman walked out, he came back again carrying gongs and bangzi.

Before the waiter could speak, the watchman patted him on the shoulder and winked again not far away: "Look over there!"

I saw a white shadow coming quietly from the night across the street.

The waiter, who had just been frightened, suddenly felt weak at his feet and almost thought he had seen something dirty again. Fortunately, he took another closer look and realized that it was a monk. He was wearing a thin plain white monk's robe with wide sleeves. There is not a single speck of color from head to toe, and it looks like he is wearing linen and mourning. It is really unlucky to see it so early in the morning.

The waiter didn't understand: "I saw him, isn't he a monk?"

The watchman whispered: "I passed by him just now, and when I took a quick look, I saw that he had Five Emperor's Money hanging on his waist!"

The Five Emperors' Money can drive away evil spirits and turn evil spirits around the house. Legend has it that the imperial master of the dynasty liked to use it and always had a string hanging in his waist. From then on, the Five Emperors' Money became the most commonly used utensils for people who were trying to make ends meet by eating ghosts and gods. Although there are many charlatans and charlatans among them, most of them still have some skills.

The waiter looked the monk up and down from a distance and felt that he had an indescribable air. In short, he did not look like a charlatan. Besides, he couldn't control that much anymore. Three days was the limit. If the scholar came again tomorrow morning, I'm afraid he would really be unable to hold back and pee on the spot.

The monk walked slowly and leisurely, but soon he was close. When he was about to pass by the stall, the waiter quickly stopped him: "Master, stay!"

The monk paused, and the hem of his white linen monk's robe swayed slightly, but not a speck of dust was stained on it. He glanced at the waiter, his eyes without waves or warmth, almost colder than the cold wind blowing on his face. It wasn't until he was so close that the waiter realized that the monk was very tall, so that his gaze was directed from top to bottom. The waiter inexplicably shrank back half a step, and bumped into the monk who also shrank back half a step. Watchman.

This collision knocked the waiter's courage back to his stomach. He spoke again as if he was risking his life: "I see that the Master has the Five Emperors' Money hanging on his waist, but does he know some techniques to exorcise evil spirits?"

The monk glanced at the copper coins exposed on his waist without expression, and did not say yes or no.

The waiter glanced at the watchman in embarrassment, feeling that the monk was colder than the evil wind in the winter months. He was so frozen that he didn't know what to do, and couldn't speak.

However, the watchman was able to withstand the cold and opened the mouth for him. He described the scholar-looking visitor in a few words, and then said to the monk: "We are not familiar with that face, but we will never mistake it. That is the son of the old Jiang family of the medical hall. But... ..But the Jiang Family Medical Hall caught fire three years ago. Except for the daughter who was married to Anqing, all of them were burned to death! As the saying goes, at midnight, ghosts appear one after another. Three days, it happens to be the fifth day of the night, how can it not be scary? "

The monk glanced at the sky, and finally opened his mouth with care, saying only two words coldly: "Where is the person?"

Upon hearing this, the waiter immediately thawed and came to life. He pointed to a bend in the wall in the distance and said hurriedly: "I just left! Maybe I haven't entered the door yet! I recognize the abandoned house of Jiang Family Medical Hall. Master, I, I will take you there?"

However, soon, the waiter regretted it so much that he wanted to slap himself: I told you to talk faster!

He couldn't imagine why he was walking with a human-shaped ice pillar in this cold winter. The waiter felt that he would have walked through just a few alleys for half his life. He glanced at the young monk from time to time. After several times, he didn't dare to ask a single question. He only remembered the small mole on the monk's neck.

Before the waiter froze to death, they finally reached the corner of the back alley of the Jiang Family Medical Hall.

Just as the waiter expected, the scholar who couldn't carry it on his shoulders or lift it had not yet entered the door, and was walking in the alley carrying the food box step by step.

Strangely, he whispered to himself as he walked, and his voice was different. Sometimes it was clear and pleasant, and sometimes it was low and dull.

"Did you personally go to Mount Li to catch a chicken for me? With this journey, can you come back before the first month?" This is the clearer one.

"It's still faster than someone who can't walk." This is the dumb one.

"I think you probably don't want to live anymore."

"No, I just died three years ago."

...

The scholar played two roles, and performed a passionate interpretation of "What does it mean to be seriously ill?" Then, he slid into the house like a piece of paper along the dilapidated and mottled walls of the Jiang family. .

The waiter behind the corner accidentally watched the entire scene and was so frightened that he wanted to run away. I raised my feet, and then I remembered that there was a frozen monk standing next to me. He anxiously took out a money bag, stuffed it into the master's arms without saying a word, and said, "Let's express our feelings." He was already running two miles away.

The monk frowned and glanced at the money bag in his hand.

I don’t know how long this thing has not been washed, and its original color cannot be discerned long ago, and it exudes the smell of old oil.

He almost raised his hand to throw away the unclean thing, but as soon as the rope left his hand, he hooked it back with one finger. With a look of mild disgust on his face, he walked quietly to the door of the Jiang Family Hospital, carrying a rag purse.

The waiter who fled back to Jiuweiju held his hand against the wall and gasped for a long time. Then he described what he had just seen to the watchman who was looking after the stall for him. After he finished speaking, he smacked his lips for a while, "Hiss--- ---" He said in a voice: "I suddenly felt that the master looked familiar."

"You've been guarding this stall all day, and there are so many people coming and going, so it's easy to recognize everyone." The watchman said angrily.

... The waiter took a deep breath and straightened up. His peripheral vision inadvertently swept across the green wall he was holding on to, and his eyes suddenly froze.

There was a sea fishing notice posted on the green wall half a month ago. It was just a bit of a coincidence that there was a heavy snowfall just after it was posted. The notice became mottled with frost and rain the next day, so that the picture could not be seen clearly. Even the waiter, who left the stall early, only caught a glimpse of it and left a vague impression.

Nowadays, most of the notice has peeled off, leaving only the neck of the portrait. A small mole can be vaguely seen on the side of the neck, which is exactly the same as the one on the side of the master's neck just now.

The waiter suddenly became excited: This is a key criminal with a heavy reward on his head!