Volume 1 Chapter 12: Clever Explanation
Lü Mengsheng saw that Lin Longqing wanted to grab the bamboo pen, but he did not dodge, and the one in his right hand was still pointing at Lin Longqing's left arm. Lin Longqing raised his left arm to avoid it, but his right hand had already grabbed a judge's pen, and thought to himself: "Why is this man's martial arts so poor?" Looking at Lü Mengsheng again, he did not use force to pull the pen back, but instead loosened his left hand, turned over and stood a few steps away from Lin Longqing, and smiled at Lin Longqing.
Lin Longqing cried out in his heart: "Oh no, why am I so reckless?" He quickly let go of the bamboo pen, and it fell to the ground with a plop and rolled a few times. When he looked at his palm again, it was completely black. He could not help but said angrily: "You despicable villain, how dare you use poison to plot against me!"
Lu Mengsheng was very proud, and laughed loudly, "Senior, it seems that you have not been involved in the affairs of the martial arts world for a long time. Now, the Hundred Poison Sect and Xunfeng Valley have both become famous and upright sects. The leaders of the two sects have long been on an equal footing with the leaders of other major sects. I guess the posts have been changed. How can I be despicable for using such a small amount of poison? Besides, I am not asking you to touch this broken bamboo pen of mine. You yourself found my bamboo pen interesting and wanted to take a look. I have no choice but to offend you, and I have no intention of making things difficult for you. You just robbed so much silver, but you said you don't even have thirty taels on you. I really don't believe it. As long as you take out thirty thousand taels, I will immediately give you the antidote with both hands."
Lin Longqing concentrated his mind and moved his Qi around his body. He did not feel any discomfort, thinking that the poison had not yet taken effect. He said in a deep voice: "All the silver was distributed by me to the people who were bullied by Xinjiazhuang. Now I don't even have thirty taels on me. If you want the silver, you can go back and snatch it back from those poor people. Humph, but most of them have bought the land. Friend Lu is very capable, maybe he can carry the land back from Xuzhou."
Lu Mengsheng was surprised and asked, "Could it be that the senior didn't leave anything for me?"
Finally, Lin Longqing couldn't bear it anymore, and thought to himself: "This Lu Mengsheng is most likely a scum who relies on his martial arts to bully the people. It won't be too much to kill him, and then I can slowly search for the antidote on him later." He said angrily: "I've said it clearly. How can we, the people of the martial arts world, rely on our martial arts to accumulate wealth from the people?" After saying that, he rushed forward, and each move was intended to take his life.
Lu Mengsheng could only defend himself and had no power to fight back. He begged for mercy, "Senior, please stop. I have something to say!"
Lin Longqing was surprised that Lu Mengsheng's martial arts were so poor, so he stopped and waited to see what he had to say. However, Lu Mengsheng's expression became serious, and he said solemnly: "Senior, you are so noble! I am really offended!" After that, he knelt down and said: "Senior, please don't blame me for all the offenses!" Seeing his action, Lin Longqing was stunned and said: "Friend Lu, what are you doing...?"
Lu Mengsheng stood up and laughed, "I want to share your money , not just for food. The people of Taihu Lake are living in poverty, and I have long wanted to help them. I heard that someone robbed Xinjiazhuang in Xuzhou, and I also heard that the Ding brothers were chasing after them and seeking revenge, so I followed them all the way to find you, and I wanted to share a piece of the pie."
Lin Longqing wondered in his heart: "Since you want to help, there are many wealthy people in Jiangnan, why don't you do it yourself?"
Lu Mengsheng saw that Lin Longqing was unconvinced and said, "It's a pity that people in the martial arts world have no choice but to bear the false reputation of 'Green Forest Judge'. They have to think twice before doing anything, which is worse than before. I hope you won't blame me. It's getting late. I have other things to do and need to hurry on. I'll take my leave now." Lin Longqing said hurriedly, "This poison..."
Lu Mengsheng approached and picked up the bamboo pen that had fallen to the ground, and said with a smile: "This is my bread and butter, I can't throw it away!" He still put the judge's pen into his waist, spread out his palms and said: "This is a fake thing, senior, look at my hands!" Lin Longqing looked at him and saw that his palms were also black. He couldn't help but laugh at himself for not looking carefully in his panic. He thought that the judge's pen had been covered with dust to disturb the opponent's mind during the duel. Lin Longqing thought that Lu Mengsheng had never revealed his true martial arts and behaved strangely. The judge's pen was also very strange, but he didn't know whether it was an enemy or a friend. He clasped his fists and smiled and said: "I haven't been to Central Plains for a long time. I didn't expect that there would be such a person as Lu friend in Central Plains!"
Lu Mengsheng also clasped his fists and said: "Although the world is big, the world is small. I will definitely meet you again in the future. Take care!" After that, he spread out his body and ran into the forest beside the road, never to be seen again.
It was evening, and the weary birds were returning to the forest. The sound of birdsong was endless. Lin Longqing walked forward slowly, thinking to himself: With the current pace, it would take several days to reach the headquarters of the Kuangyi Gang. He knew all the hidden routes in the hall, but he didn't know if there were any changes in the past few years. If I could find Lin Jianlan, if Fang Zheng and the leaders of the headquarters didn't stop me, it would be a waste of effort, but I was afraid of Hongfeng... My sister has experienced great changes in these years, and her mind is different from that of ordinary people. She insisted that I was the murderer of Cao Shujian because of the blood letter. Alas, although Cao Shujian is hateful, my sister is pitiful after all. She is widowed at a young age. Suddenly, her face felt cold, and Lin Longqing came to his senses. Raindrops had been falling beside him, and his palms were sweating. He thought to himself: "Lin Longqing, Lin Longqing, why are you so confused before we even reach the headquarters? How can you save Lan'er? Hongfeng must have set a trap long ago, waiting for you to go there. Don't act impulsively, you must plan carefully." After making up his mind, he did not hurry to avoid the rain, but slowly walked back to where he lived.
Lin Longqing's guess was right. Along the way, Lin Hongfeng thought that Lin Longqing would come to the main hall to look for Lin Jianlan, so she was thinking about how to set a trap to make her brother surrender. She thought to herself, "None of those hall masters and guardians can be trusted. They were made hesitant by Lin Longqing's few words. To avenge her husband, I can only rely on myself and Yin Yin and her daughter." But she couldn't help thinking secretly. She had wanted to find Brother Qing all the time for three years to avenge Shujian. However, no one knew that the sword stabbed, and it was like stabbing herself. The brother who had cared for her since childhood did not avoid it, but just smiled as before, but it was so desolate. She kept asking herself, "Even if Brother Qing returned to the Kuangyi Gang for Lin Jianlan, what can I do?"
Lin Jianlan grew up in a farming family in the Northeast. This time, he was involved in the feud between Lin Longqing and his sister and was taken to Jiangnan. Along the way, he thought that his "Uncle Qing" had been killed by this beautiful and cruel aunt, and he couldn't help missing his grandmother. He was really confused, crying and refusing to eat. Lin Hongfeng hated in his heart: "Don't blame me for separating you from your family. If you want to blame someone, blame your Uncle Qing for getting you into trouble." Although he knew that Lin Jianlan was innocent, he still hardened his heart and ordered his men: "If he wants to eat, give him food. If he doesn't want to eat, you can let him go, but don't let him run away." Lin Jianlan was depressed and didn't eat much along the way. He had been ill for many days. Lin Hongfeng's men were also instructed, so they ignored him. Others ignored Lin Jianlan's illness because of Lin Hongfeng's face.
After several days of driving on the official road, Lin Jianlan felt sore all over in the carriage. Suddenly, he felt the road was getting bumpy. Suddenly, the carriage shook violently, and Lin Jianlan was thrown from one side of the carriage to the other. His arm hit the board heavily. He screamed in pain, but knew that no one would come to ask about it. So he moved his body and curled up in a corner. Thinking of Lin Longqing and Wang Po, he sobbed again. With the sound of the horse's hooves and the bumps of the carriage, he slowly fell asleep. He seemed to see Uncle Qing leading him to play, and his grandmother was watching with a smile on the side. He looked coldly and saw Lin Hongfeng holding a sword and sneering at him. In panic, he had to hug his grandmother and kept shouting "Grandma, Grandma". Suddenly, he felt a chill on his face. He tried to open his eyes, but saw the bearded man in the yard that day staring at him with concern, and another old man was taking a towel and gently wiping his forehead and said, "Young Master, are you awake?"
When Lin Jianlan saw the two, he remembered that they were also in Lin Hongfeng's group and did not help Uncle Qing that day. He hurriedly stood up and pushed them away and said, "What are you going to do?" Seeing this, the bearded man put his big hands on Lin Jianlan's shoulders, pushed him back to the bed, and said, "Young Master, you have a fever, so Doctor Cheng came to treat you and come to see you. Oh, you may have forgotten our names, I am..." Lin Jianlan struggled for a few times, but the hand pressing on his shoulder was too strong, so he had to close his eyes and turn his head to the side and said bitterly, "I remember you, your last name is Qin, Qin Tianxiong, you killed Uncle Qing, separated me and my grandmother, and you are here to pretend to treat me?"
The bearded man was stunned at first, then laughed and said, "You have lived with your adoptive father for three years, how come you don't know that his martial arts are unfathomable? If he didn't want to die, the sword wound would be healed by his own martial arts training for a period of time, don't worry." Lin Jianlan closed his eyes and said, "You lied to me, Uncle Qing lost a lot of blood..." Qin Tianxiong saw that he stopped struggling, loosened his hand, and said to Doctor Cheng, "If you don't believe me, ask Doctor Cheng, he watched your adoptive father grow up." Doctor Cheng didn't say anything, just took the towel away from Lin Jianlan's forehead, walked to the basin to wash it again, wrung it, and brought it back to Lin Jianlan, gently placing it on his forehead. Lin Jianlan only felt a trace of coolness slowly seeping into his brain, feeling much more comfortable, and opened his eyes to look at Doctor Cheng. Doctor Cheng said slowly, "Your foster father is now a top martial arts master. There are probably not many people who can beat him. Look, he was seriously injured and fainted in the snow, but he didn't die. What about a mere sword wound?"
After hearing this, Lin Jianlan was silent for a while, but tears slowly flowed from his eyes. Both of them were surprised. Qin Tianxiong said, "Why are you crying?" Lin Jianlan clenched his fists and shouted to the two of them, "You naturally think that Uncle Qing will not die, but Uncle Qing's sister stabbed him with a sword, and he could have avoided it but didn't. I know that you all wronged him and didn't want to treat him. If a person doesn't want to live, what's the use of martial arts?" After saying this, he sobbed. Both of them were stunned. Qin Tianxiong said hesitantly, "The leader... you are in your prime now, how can you not want to live..." But he thought of what happened that day and felt that what Lin Jianlan said was true. He was speechless. Doctor Cheng waved to Qin Tianxiong, turned back to Lin Jianlan and said, "I'm afraid your godfather really didn't want to live, but the good news is that you were kidnapped by Madam Cao, so the leader can be saved."
Lin Jianlan stopped crying and looked up at Doctor Cheng, his eyes full of confusion. Doctor Cheng twirled his beard and said, "The gang leader has been away from the disputes in the past few years. I'm afraid he had intended to leave a long time ago. If you hadn't been kidnapped, I'm afraid he really wanted to end the brother-sister feud with his own death. But the gang leader is a man who values gratitude the most. Like the big change three years ago, he only hinted that the money used by Cao Zongguan to show his favor was not from a legitimate source, but he didn't blame the hall leaders for hunting him down out of gratitude. You have this disaster, but he has a life, and he will definitely heal his sword wound and come to rescue you in the future." After a pause, he said, "So you should also take care of yourself."
Qin Tianxiong was greatly impressed by Doctor Cheng's analysis and nodded continuously. Lin Jianlan felt embarrassed at this time and said, "I was so rude to you just now. Thank you Grandpa Cheng for treating me, and thank you Qin... Uncle Qin for coming to see me." Qin Tianxiong waved his hands with a guilty look on his face and said, "How dare I, how dare I, you are the adopted son of the gang leader, your son, your son. Just call us Protector Qin and Doctor Cheng!" Seeing him so respectful, Lin Jianlan lowered his head and said sadly, "Although I recognize Uncle Qing as my father, I don't want to be a son. I want to go home and stay with my grandmother and Uncle Qing." After that, he said to Doctor Cheng, "Can't you let me go back?"
Doctor Cheng looked embarrassed and said, "All the hall masters have owed Cao a great favor, and what happened that day is still a mystery. It is not easy for Qin Hufa to come to visit you. Besides, you have offended Madam Cao. Even if you are released now, I am afraid that with her temper, she will still send people to search for you everywhere. By then, I am afraid that neither you nor your grandmother will be safe."
Qin Tianxiong was unhappy and said angrily, "Young Master, I don't like what you said. The gang leader adopted you as his adopted son in front of all the hall masters, but it's not just for the sake of it. There is a meaning behind it. Think about it, the gang leader has you as his adopted son, so naturally he doesn't need outsiders." But he saw Doctor Cheng repeatedly making faces at him, and he became even more displeased, saying, "Doctor Cheng, please don't stop me from talking. I think no matter how competitive Madam Cao is, she is still a woman. If one day the gang leader takes over again..." But he heard someone behind him say, "What's wrong with a woman? What's wrong with outsiders?"
Doctor Cheng already looked embarrassed. Lin Jianlan and Qin Tianxiong looked outside, but saw Yin Yin standing by the door, still with a gloomy face, staring coldly at the three people in the room. Finally, his eyes stopped at Qin Tianxiong and said, "My father has done you a favor, and this is how you repay him."
