Chapter 50 Where Did the Shadow Go?
Chen Pingping found Mei Chengan's speechless expression inexplicably amusing and reminded him with a smile.
"Now you can answer it."
Mei Chengan nodded helplessly.
"Fish food, special fish food. It's because of this that I can't catch fish, and it's also because of this that I can catch fish."
Chen Pingping suddenly realized.
Ah, that’s it.
Shadow was shocked that this was the case, but he was also confused.
"Then why did you fish for two months? Is there any deep meaning?"
Chen Pingping thought, yes, why not just use fish bait to fish, why does it take two months?
So he also looked at Mei Chengan.
Mei Chengan: “…”
Mei Cheng'an glared at the shadow.
"Why are you so curious?"
After saying that, he looked at Chen Pingping again.
"It's my turn now. One last question. Does what Shadow said he was going to help me with have anything to do with you?"
Chen Pingping shook his head upon hearing this.
"This is his private matter with you. It has nothing to do with me."
Mei Cheng'an nodded and spoke directly without giving Chen Pingping a chance to continue asking.
"Okay, the truth-telling session is officially over. I'm so hungry after talking for so long. Come eat quickly or the food will get cold."
He turned around and shouted outside the door.
"Lao Wang! Lao Wang! Where are you? We are waiting for you to have dinner."
.........
After Wang Qinian came in with a large basin of fish, the dinner officially began.
After dinner, Mei Cheng'an wanted to go see Xiao Wu Belly, but Xiao Wu Belly had finished his meal early and took a nap, so he didn't get to see him. Mei Cheng'an said goodbye to Wang Qinian and his wife with regret.
The group of five returned home. Mei Cheng'an did not stay at home for long. He changed into his official uniform and rushed back to the Honglu Temple.
When Xin Qiwu saw him come back so early, he thought he was worried about the inspector, so he hurriedly told him that the inspector had not come. Mei Chengan was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
I worked obediently for half a day and then went home after get off work.
After returning to the courtyard and changing into casual clothes, Mei Chengan began to take stock of the means he had to deal with the enemy.
Although Shadow had not yet informed him of the specific time and place, he felt that it would not be too long, so he had to prepare early.
Currently, I have mastered the fast sword, light skills, the relatively useless Qi pistol, and the unverified Huayang acupuncture method.
Huayang acupuncture has three functions in total. One is to seal the meridians and save lives, one is to disperse the power, and the other is to be used as a hidden weapon.
The only things that can be used against the enemy are scattered power and hidden weapons.
He had no chance to practice the San Gong technique, and the secret manual only mentioned a few acupoints without any mention of the specific effects.
In The Bad Kids and Joy of Life, one practices internal strength and the other practices true Qi. Mei Chengan is not sure whether the two are essentially the same but with different names, or whether they are two completely different systems.
What is cultivated in this world is the true Qi, which can be replenished at any time through practice. If the human body is compared to a container, the true Qi is like the water in the container.
What Mei Cheng'an didn't know was whether the dispersing of power here meant temporarily pouring out the water in the container, so that he could fill it up later through practicing power, or whether it meant directly breaking the container and turning him into a useless person.
In simple terms, one is temporary and the other is permanent.
These two effects are completely different.
If it is temporary, he can use it at any time. If it is permanent, he can only use it when facing a mortal enemy.
When fighting against a shadow, he certainly wouldn't dare to try anything blindly, so this trick was basically useless.
Then it can only be used as a hidden weapon.
Mei Cheng'an made a general plan for himself, starting with learning the techniques of hidden weapons from the maids.
The martial arts they had were from the Supervisory Council, and contained hidden weapon techniques. He had seen them at the time, but he just glanced at them and ignored them, thinking that he would not be able to use them.
Of course, there are some differences between the techniques of different hidden weapons, and they may not be applicable to his silver needles. He is just drawing on some experience.
Then he practiced sparring with the four maids, mainly practicing the coordination between sword techniques, hidden weapons and light skills.
The last thing is to make more silver needles for backup, modify the wrist guard and belt, and prepare more places to store the silver needles. It is not impossible to insert them in the hair like Fan Xian, but you can only insert a few.
This is how Mei Chengan's daily life became in the following days.
On the first day, I went to work, learned the techniques of hidden weapons, and practiced them.
The next day, I went to work, learned the techniques of hidden weapons, and practiced them.
On the third day, I went to work and practiced concealed weapons.
On the fourth day, I went to work, practiced hidden weapons, and sparred with the maid.
On the fifth day, I rested and practiced with the maid. On the sixth day, I went to work, practiced with the maid, and treated her injuries.
……
The day lilies that Mei Chengan and Yingzi had been waiting for were already cold.
He thought that after the birthday party, Shadow would come back to him soon, so he practiced martial arts like crazy, but he couldn't even see Shadow's shadow, as if he had forgotten about it.
Mei Cheng'an's enthusiasm lasted for half a month, but then it gradually dissipated and he returned to his sloppy life.
Mainly because of sparring with the maids, he felt that he had not made any improvement.
As time enters July, summer has passed quietly without us noticing, leaving behind the little secret of where its shadow has gone. Autumn has followed, and the most obvious change is that the temperature has dropped a lot. The iced sour plum soup has gradually withdrawn from the stage, giving its place to rock sugar and snow pears.
Mei Cheng'an gradually forgot about Yingzi after waiting for a long time. It was not until he met Wang Qinian on the street and chatted about this matter that Mei Cheng'an learned that Yingzi had gone on a business trip with Chen Pingping two days after the birthday party. It was unclear where he went or when he would return.
What else is there to say? Just wait and see.
At the same time, Danzhou.
Fan Xian was completely stunned when he read the letter his sister Fan Ruoruo wrote to him.
As mentioned before, he once suspected that his mother Ye Qingmei was a time traveler because Wu Zhu accidentally relayed a sentence from Ye Qingmei, which mentioned Wuliangye.
But my mother is dead and he has no way to verify it.
What he never expected was that there were other time travelers in this world.
The man's name was Mei Cheng'an, and he was the brother of his sister's best friend.
Back to more than half a month ago, after Mei Chengan fabricated the incident of subduing the fish spirit, Mei Yuxi learned the truth from her brother and after some hesitation decided to tell the fake version to her best friend Fan Ruoruo.
Fan Ruoruo, as a talented woman, naturally did not believe in such an outrageous thing as a fish spirit, so she wrote a letter to tell Fan Xian about it as a joke. When Fan Xian learned about this story and his sister's thoughts, he just found it funny and did not take it seriously.
Since Fan Ruoruo mentioned the words "good sister's brother" several times when telling this story, Fan Xian asked casually when he wrote back to Fan Ruoruo.
Then Fan Ruoruo gave Fan Xian a general description of Mei Cheng'an, the brother of her best friend, who she thought was slightly less talented than her brother Fan Xian. The letter inevitably mentioned the two poems, child prodigy, and being given an official title at the age of ten.
When Fan Xian saw the letter and read the two poems, his pupils dilated. One was the famous first poem to encourage learning in his previous life, and although the other one was pieced together, two of its lines looked very familiar to him.
Fan Xian's first reaction was disbelief, and his second was ecstasy.
What is loneliness? Loneliness means that even though there are people around you, you still feel isolated from the world.
Although they can clearly communicate with each other and speak the same language, you can clearly feel that you are not of the same kind as them. You have different experiences and cognitions, so naturally you have no common language.
You have tried hard to fit in and have succeeded, but you just feel that you don't fit in with this world.
To this world, I am an alien.
With the passage of time, that feeling of loneliness will gradually decrease and hide, only to suddenly surge out at a certain moment, then disappear, continue to hide, and wait for the next moment to come.
Fan Xian has a deep understanding of this.
So when he suddenly learned that there was another person like him in the world, the shock and excitement he felt was extremely intense.
His first reaction was to tell his closest uncle Wu Zhu the good news.
However, when he ran all the way to the grocery store with the letter, broke down the door and saw Uncle Wuzhu, he opened and closed his mouth, and for a long time he couldn't utter a complete sentence.
He didn't know what to say.
In the end, I could only utter a few words hastily.
"It's okay, I just suddenly missed you."
Then he ran back home.
Fan Xian did not become unhappy because of this little episode. Over the years, he has been able to suppress those bad emotions very well.
He was gearing up to write back to his sister Fan Ruoruo, intending to find out more information about that fellow knight. They would meet after the Red-Armored Knight arrived, and he was looking forward to it very much.
……
Mei Cheng'an in Kyoto had no idea that Fan Xian had already learned that he was of the same kind. If he knew, he would be shocked.
What? I sold beer to your doorstep three years ago, and you only found out now?
Mei Cheng'an is busy transplanting chrysanthemums in his own courtyard at this moment. Since Emperor Qing organizes a chrysanthemum appreciation conference every three years, it can be seen that he admires chrysanthemums very much. As the saying goes, "leaders lead by example", the people of Qing also have a special liking for chrysanthemums.
Every autumn, every household will transplant chrysanthemums at home, waiting for them to bloom in September so that they can enjoy the chrysanthemums.
I dug a hole and filled it with soil, counted one, two, three, four, five, they planted the plants and I transplanted them, smiling as I watched my dad getting angry.
Mei Cheng'an was muttering to himself while busying himself in the open space in the yard with a small shovel.
The maids were busy moving flowers here.
Where did the chrysanthemums come from? Of course, they were planted by Mei Zhili, who loved chrysanthemums, so he worked hard to find them and then devoted himself to researching and cultivating a new variety through grafting.
Because when the yellow chrysanthemums are in full bloom, several strands of rich purple extend from the stamens, Mei Zhili named it Purple Clothes and he treasures it very much.
Mei Cheng'an was just bored and had a sudden inspiration. Looking at his bare yard, he suddenly felt it was not beautiful, so he thought about following the trend and transplanting some chrysanthemums. Naturally, he set his eyes on his father's purple clothes.
Mei Zhili refused. He said, "Why don't you wait until the chrysanthemums bloom, and then we can enjoy them together. If you really want to plant something, go buy some. There are all kinds of plants. Why are you always staring at my purple chrysanthemum? Do you know how to plant it?"
Mei Chengan’s idea is that if you offer it to me, I don’t necessarily have to take it from you. If you don’t want it, then I will take it anyway.
So he coaxed and coaxed and snatched dozens of purple chrysanthemums from his father, which made Mei Zhili so angry that he blew his beard and glared, calling him a rebellious son.
(End of this chapter)
