Chapter 15: The people of that time

What did Sun Qiang say? Sun Qiang spoke with a distinct Hunan accent, and during our days in the deserted village, Qin Huai and I would ask Sun Qiang to teach us to speak Hunanese.

Sun Qiang not only told us the Xiangxi dialect, but also told us that the Miao people had their own special language and a more common Miao language. He said that the Miao people spoke Xiangxi dialect, which was different from the common Xiangxi dialect.

Sun Qiang is undoubtedly a Miao person. The things he told me were also inadvertently recorded by me. At this time, this person’s accent not only had a flavor of Xiangxi, but also a unique flavor of the Miao people speaking Xiangxi. I could tell!

It is said that the people of Xiangxi are fierce. After all, the mountains and rivers are quite treacherous, there are many poisonous insects, and the Miao village is also very mysterious. I even met people with guns on the street. This is just the case with ordinary Xiangxi people. Some people in the Miao village are even more fierce.

This also confirms why that person’s eyes were like hungry wolves, making me feel so dangerous.

But even so, I didn’t think much of it. In my opinion, the most dangerous thing in Miaojiang is undoubtedly the Miao people. When I was very young, Ling Ruyue used a small trick to make me surrounded by ants and suffered a great loss.

Faced with the guxiao, I really couldn’t think of any way to deal with them. However, the guxiao have always been mysterious, and they don’t even have much contact with people outside the village. Moreover, given the guxiao’s status in the village, they don’t need to be con artists outside, so I subconsciously thought that this kid was just fierce, and couldn’t possibly be a guxiao.

There are definitely not many people in the Miao village who can play the gu.

The knocking continued. People had already trusted me implicitly, and I was leading the way. I said, “Let’s open the door first.” Yes, whether it’s a person or a ghost, we’ll have to see when we open the door, right?

At that moment, I had a strange feeling that the swindlers seemed to be relieved, and the fierce man stopped staring at me.

The people still surrounded the swindlers in the middle, and a few people on the outside opened the door. As soon as the door opened, a dozen people came in one after another. Before I could see clearly, someone closed the door.

The dozen people looked very ordinary in their clothes and didn’t have the bearing of ordinary people. They walked into the middle of the crowd, and before they could say anything, the master, who had already looked like a defeated rooster, suddenly perked up.

He regained his calm and composed demeanor, shouted the slogan “Boundless Supreme Being” at the crowd, and then said, “I’m sorry to make you laugh, but someone set me up today.”

Because I was far away and there were people blocking my view, I couldn’t see the person clearly from my vantage point. The reason I saw that vicious kid glaring at me was because his gaze was so aggressive that it hurt my skin.

These people don’t have the kind of fierce temperament that that person has, so they’re not so eye-catching.

Even if I couldn’t see clearly, it didn’t affect my hearing the shameless words of the master. I stood on the altar and said, “Everyone, disperse. I’ll see which immortal has arrived.”

The people were already very convinced of me at this point, and they dispersed as I said. I said to Su Rou, “Look, although I am more like a small gangster, I can’t beat my handsome brother.”

Su Rou said two words: “Mirror.”

Then I gave him a “melancholy” look and stopped talking nonsense with him.

After the crowd dispersed, it was obvious that the dozen or so people in the middle were standing in a group. I was originally eating a banana with Su Rou, but when I saw these people, I couldn’t help but freeze.

Shit, what day is it today? As a Taoist priest, why didn’t I check the almanac? Why are all these acquaintances here? Out of these dozen people, I recognized at least three familiar faces!

Yun Xiaobao, Cao Er, Ma Dudu… What is going on? My thoughts suddenly jumped back many years ago, when my master wanted to help my parents and was short of money, so he took me to sell jade.

Time does not spare anyone. Cao Er, who was a young man with a sharp tongue back then, is now a calm middle-aged man.

And Yun Xiaobao and Ma Dudu, who were in their prime at the time, have become old men with some vicissitudes of life.

If it weren’t for my amazing memory, I wouldn’t have recognized them at all!

I often hear people here say that several smart antique tycoons in Chengdu trust this master very much.

Su Rou didn’t know these people, and sat next to me with a banana in his mouth, mumbling to me, “What are you daydreaming about? Do you know them?”

I only realized at this point, and after eating the banana in my mouth in a few seconds, I said, “You’ll know later.” Then I signaled Su Rou not to speak.

After all, I have a personal relationship with the jade seller, and I want to see how this swindler successfully lured these people into his scam. I also remembered what my master had said: the easiest people to believe are not ordinary people who know nothing and have never experienced anything. Instead, it is those who have experience but do not understand Taoist matters.

These acquaintances of mine undoubtedly fit this description.

They didn’t recognize me because so much time had passed, and I had changed a lot from a child to a young man. It was normal that they didn’t recognize me.

I and the crispy meat were silent, while the people were watching curiously. The master, however, was calm and told the story with a sad face. I guess he didn’t dare to make up a story in front of so many people, and what he said was fair, but it made Yun Xiaobao frown.

To be honest, as long as you’re not a fool, who can’t tell that this master is really a liar in the face of these things?

But when it comes to this, the master changed the subject and said, “Master Yun, you and I have known each other for five years and have experienced some things. I think you know whether I am a liar or not. The reason why I am in a dilemma today and cannot refute is only because the people present are ordinary people who do not have the ability to see spirits.

After saying this, he looked up at everyone and said loudly, “I believe everyone knows that there was once a girl who died unjustly here, and over the years, which place hasn’t seen a few deaths? It’s easy to gather a group of dead ghosts when there are ghosts of injustice. I did communicate with the girl who died unjustly just now, and I can only explain that someone set up a trap too coincidentally, trapping me in injustice. Unfortunately, things involving ghosts and spirits can never be proven to ordinary people. So I specially invited Master Yun, Mr. Yun. His current reputation can prove my innocence.

When I heard this, Su Rou whispered to me, “Are these rich people all fools? Don’t they know that the liar is so good at cheating that he doesn’t even bother to come here to testify?”

I don’t think so. Is Yun Xiaobao a fool? He was like a human genius back then, so how could he be a fool? And Cao Er was already in the complicated jade market at a young age, so he couldn’t possibly be a fool. Well, if you want to say he’s a bit foolish, then Ma Dudu is more foolish and not even a human genius.

But no matter what, it is not easy to deceive them. It is definitely not possible to do so with these simple scams. There must be something else going on. I suppressed my urge to listen to what Yun Xiaobao wanted to say.

Sure enough, after hearing the words of the master, Yun Xiaobao politely bowed to everyone and said, “I am Yun Xiaobao, and I dare not say that I am famous in Chengdu. After all, there are many hidden talents here. I only have a small fortune, and in the local antique and jade circles, I am only a shallow name that is not worth mentioning. What I want to say is that this Master Chen is my friend. I am here today not to ask you to give me face, but to use my experience to prove that Master Chen is not a liar.”

When Su Rou heard this, he was delighted and said to me, “Sanwa, why do you want to make trouble with others? The other person also has the surname Chen. Maybe you’re hitting your own family!”

I glanced at Su Rou and grabbed another pear to eat. I don’t know how many fruits I’ve eaten tonight! Then I said, “Who cares what his last name is? If I don’t like it, I’ll say it and I’ll hit him.”

Su Rou ‘tut tut’ twice, teasing me, “A cultivator, why are you so unrefined? You’re like an ordinary person, unable to suppress your emotions.”

“Get out of here. A cultivator is not a fairy, they are just ordinary people! They can’t help having emotions. I don’t have that level of cultivation anyway, even my master said that cultivating the mind is my biggest challenge, so I’ll just cultivate it casually.” I said nonchalantly, then looked at Yun Xiaobao very carefully and seriously. I wanted to hear about his experiences! Is there any possibility of faking it?

To be honest, I am really curious about what kind of talent this master has that can make a person like Yun Xiaobao, who is so smart, reveal his family secrets and testify for him?