Volume 1 In the Countryside Chapter 52: It's a Rare Thing to Be Confused
Lu Sanlang's fat face twitched slightly, his small eyes trembled, and his serious expression concealed the truth that he was about to burst out laughing. He actually saw it, saw Zhang Shou trying hard to save Zhu Ying, but found out that he was the target!
Compared to him, Zhang Chen, who had just experienced a death threat, came out a step later and did not see the scene of Zhang Shou "saving the beauty". He looked a little dazed.
Therefore, in Zhang Shou's opinion, Zhang Chen was much more pleasing to the eye than Lu Sanlang who deliberately made fun of him.
Lu Sanlang, you kid are actually laughing at me? You think mathematics is interesting and worth spending your whole life on, right? Tomorrow I will sort out all the trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions. If you can handle it, then I will teach you complex numbers! After that, I will bring out calculus, linear algebra, complex functions and integral transformations, mathematical analysis... I will make you cry out in pain!
Zhang Shou was secretly complaining in his heart while trying his best to control his facial expression. However, when he saw Zhu Ying talking to Hua Qi while glancing at him with a smile between her eyebrows, he had to retract his gaze and then use his gaze as a knife to stab the assassin on the ground, who was tied up like Ding Hai, like four horses standing together.
If it weren't for you, a blind assassin, I wouldn't have made such a fool of myself!
However, after killing someone with his eyes as if to vent his anger, Zhang Shou also knew that the assassin was definitely not simply blind, and might really be coming for him. Just as he was lamenting that his peaceful life might be coming to an end, he suddenly heard Zhu Ying calling him crisply.
"A Shou!"
Zhang Shou raised his head listlessly, and saw that besides Zhu Ying who was looking at him with a smile, Hua Qi, who had disheveled hair, a handsome appearance but whose age was difficult to determine at the moment, was also staring at him intently.
Immediately afterwards, people burst into hearty laughter.
"Master Shou, I have been secretly observing you for a few days. This is the first time we have met. You are really good! You know, if you had not rescued Yingying in the first place, you would have been the one in trouble! From this point of view, although your rescue seems a little ridiculous in hindsight, in the end, although you did not save Yingying, you saved yourself."
Zhang Shou was slightly stunned, and then he realized belatedly that if he hadn't gone to save Zhu Ying, he might have really been shot by that arrow. But just as this realization came to his mind, he heard Ah Liu snort coldly from behind.
"I have already deflected the arrow with my short spear!"
“Hey, why are you trying to sabotage us as soon as we meet? If I hadn’t found the assassin’s trail when he pretended to shoot an arrow to help you kill the enemy, and hadn’t waited until he attacked again to take him down, you wouldn’t be facing just one arrow! Don’t think you’re great just because you have a little skill. You should respect the elderly!”
"Oh, crazy old man."
"You are trying to anger me on purpose, aren't you? Don't forget who taught you martial arts. Is this how you talk to your master?"
"I'm not a little crazy."
When Zhang Shou first heard Ah Liu explain that he had already wielded his spear to intercept the arrow, he immediately realized that he had fallen into Hua Qi's trap. However, as Ah Liu and Hua Qi started to argue with each other, he heard something else and immediately stopped worrying about the embarrassment and listened with interest to the two people bickering back and forth at a distance.
So these two are master and disciple?
And when he and Zhu Ying inadvertently looked at each other, he saw her blinking at him, as if to say, I'm watching the fun too, and he was even more happy to just stand by and watch.
He had seen the taciturn Ah Liu and Old Liu quarreling before. Often Old Liu would say three or four sentences, while Ah Liu would only reply with a few words. But these few words often made Old Liu so angry that he was fuming.
At this moment, he found that the same logic could be applied to the low-level quarrel between Hua Qi and A Liu at this moment.
Sure enough, after hearing the last sentence "I'm not a lunatic", Hua Qi raised his eyebrows and said, "Then who did you learn this martial arts from?"
"It's from my mother's womb." Ah Liu said expressionlessly, and then added, "Just like the young master's talent for mathematics."
Zhang Shou was simply stunned. When he turned around and saw the boy with a straight face curled his lips, he couldn't help but want to burst out laughing. When he turned back, he tried his best not to look at Hua Qi's angry expression. He bowed to Zhu Ying and apologized sincerely: "I was so self-righteous before that I almost made things worse. I didn't hurt you, did I?"
How smart is Zhu Ying? She immediately realized that Zhang Shou was changing the subject. She just thought that the young master seemed to have no way to deal with the servant Ah Liu. Then she thought about how she often indulged the two maids, and she felt that she could understand him very well.
Although her waist still ached slightly, which must have been caused by bumping into something when she fell, she had no intention of bringing it up. She shook her head without even thinking, "I'm not that delicate. Oh, yeah, I don't know what's going on in the village. Why don't we go check it out? If someone escaped and is roaming around, it would be a disaster."
"Right, right!" Lu Sanlang, who had just been watching the joke and had no chance to speak, immediately echoed, "We must eradicate all evil. Besides, the credit for capturing a dozen rebels is different from capturing all the rebels!"
Seeing Zhu Ying glaring at him angrily, Lu Sanlang thought of his arrow that missed and laughed dryly, "The old masters in the capital think highly of themselves and only think that their nephews and students are outstanding, so they sent people to embarrass the young master. If they knew that the young master was behind this, we would have surrounded the rebel army and let's see how they would face us!"
Lu Sanlang's words really worked. Not only did Zhu Ying stop being angry but also Hua Qi, who was glaring at Ah Liu, withdrew his gaze and looked at the fat boy from Lu Shangshu's family with great interest. It was said that the second young master was going to be the matchmaker for the eldest young lady.
Zhang Chen hesitated for a moment and said, "Lu San is right. What we have gained tonight is enough to make many people in the court speechless. However, we still need to confirm the situation of the people in other bamboo houses. The fight just now was quite noisy. If someone wakes up after the drug effect wears off and is scared and wants to go back to the capital, it will be a big trouble."
Zhang Shou watched coldly, and when he saw Hua Qi act like nothing happened after hearing the words "the effect of the drug has expired", he knew that this guy had indeed arrived a long time ago. He was probably aware of everything, including Zhu Ying's drugging of the man, but he was just hiding in the dark and refused to show up.
If he guessed correctly, if he had not always behaved relatively gentlemanly, people would not be laughing and joking at this moment, but would have killed him quietly and silently, right?
Thinking this in his heart, he continued Zhang Chen's words and said casually: "Then split into two groups. Zhang Chen and Lu Sanlang take your guards to confirm the situation in the bamboo houses, and Yingying and I will go to the village to take a look. If it's nothing serious, you can pack up and let the followers move the people back to the room and have a good sleep. By the way, tell the guards that Master Hua Qi is here."
Zhang Shou's last sentence was purely a test. Sure enough, as soon as he said this, Zhang Chen and Lu Sanlang looked at Hua Qi almost at the same time, and then nodded their heads in unison like chicks pecking at rice.
The always slick Lu Sanlang smiled and said, "Now that Master Hua Qi has arrived, what else is there to worry about? Everyone knows that the bravest warrior of the Northern Tartars died in your hands."
"What Mr. Hua Qi? I am often called a crazy Hua. You don't need to flatter me. I kicked you in the past, you can kick me back if you have the guts! As for Zhang Chen, your grandfather was a wise man and your father was a man of great talent, but you didn't learn a thing. But at least you know how to stand up for justice, and you have some of the blood and vigor of a Zhang family man, which is good. In short, there is no need to worry about the rebellion!"
Even though they had indeed fought a beautiful encirclement and annihilation battle just now, and there was not even any damage - if two guards had their clothes torn by swords in the chaos, leaving shallow wounds, that could be considered damage, and the bruises on Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying might be even more serious - but no matter what, it was impossible to say that Lu Sanlang and Zhang Chen had no fear.
So, with Hua Qi's promise, the two of them felt truly relieved. They quickly agreed, immediately stood up, bowed to Zhang Shou, and then quickly slipped away.
Seeing the two of them running away so quickly, Zhang Shou, who was left behind, saw Hua Qi looking at him with a half-smile, so he simply stood up calmly and said to Zhu Ying directly: "Yingying, are we leaving now?"
"Let's go, of course!" Zhu Ying jumped up without thinking, "With Uncle Hua and Ah Liu following us, we can fight our way through the battlefield, let alone the village! Oh, by the way, after midnight, it will be our birthdays... Hey, it would be great if another group of blind soldiers came, so that our birthdays would be perfect!"
Zhang Shou was simply shocked by the young lady's crazy thinking. In order to have a memorable birthday, she hoped that the poor rebels would come again? He didn't have such a strong nerve, and really didn't want to encounter such a weird thing again...
But just at this moment, he heard Ah Liu behind him suddenly ask: "Master, don't assassins have to be tried?"
Seeing Hua Qi's sharp eyes looking at him with a smile, Zhang Shou thought for a moment, then said without turning his head: "A Liu, there is a very philosophical saying in this world, which is... it is rare to be confused."
Instead of asking a bunch of lies, he might as well pretend to be confused!
