Volume 2: A sudden change in the prison, a red-clothed man goes out to find a thief Chapter 195: The Man Drifting from the Sea
Since Li Si left Jinshan Temple, the strange old man returned to the Nine Yin Sect to retreat, and has never appeared in the martial arts world since then. Until recently, he came out of the mountain and visited Jinshan Temple.
On the way, he heard about the secret treasure of the thief saint. Puzzled, he rushed to Mingzhou City to take a look.
This is why when he saw "Li Sisi", the puppet in his hand was shocked, because he knew that Li Si had no sister at all, and he thought that Li Si had developed some strange habits during his absence. Fortunately, Li Si's behavior later showed that he had no major problems.
After the farce was over, he returned to Jinshan Temple.
After sitting silently with the old monk in the Buddhist temple for a whole day, he made a decision.
Anyway, he was no longer old enough to venture out into the world, and most people of his generation no longer traveled out of the mountains. Perhaps he should find a place to settle down, he thought.
So, one month after the farce ended, he returned to Mingzhou City, taking with him all his possessions: two large boxes of dolls.
This caused him to be interrogated by the city guards for half an hour when he entered the city. Of course, another main reason was his strange dress. But he finally entered the city. Since he couldn't speak, was thin, and didn't carry any weapons, the city guards thought he was a puppet show master and said with a smile that they would go to see his performance next time if they had the chance. There weren't many ways to entertain in this small town, and having a puppet show master was a good thing.
The strange old man is very old, and everyone who knows him knows it . But because of the internal strength he has cultivated, he still looks very young. It is not an exaggeration to say that he looks like a young man in his twenties.
The difference is that he doesn't have the vigor that a young man in his twenties should have. He always exudes a cold and gloomy aura. With his weird outfit, he would easily be mistaken for something unclean if he went out at night. Unfortunately, he just likes to hang out at night. Maybe this is just a strange habit of his. Just like his name, he is usually a strange person.
Without much selection, the strange old man bought a shop next to Qianjialou. It was not big, but it was enough to store his dolls.
This shop originally sold sugar figures, so the layout basically met his requirements and did not need to be changed. He just needed to tidy it up and put the puppets in the place where the sugar figures were originally placed.
On this day, the strange old man was still tidying up his store.
From a distance, I saw Li Si walking out of Qianjialou and stopping in front of his shop.
To be honest, after seeing that the owner of this shop was really a strange old man, Li Si found that he was not surprised at all.
As if all this was reasonable, he leaned weakly on the counter in front of the shop, looked at the strange old man in the shop, sighed and asked.
"Why are you here?"
The strange old man was stunned for a moment, then put down the extra puppet in his hand, used the puppet in his hand to put on a smile, and waved.
He was very good at manipulating puppets. At most, Li Si had seen him controlling twenty puppets at the same time with the help of his inner strength. The old monk seemed quite surprised by that method.
Looking at the strange old man's appearance, Li Si knew that he wanted to get away with it, so he tapped the counter with his fingers and spoke mercilessly.
"Don't play dumb, just speak your mind."
The strange old man seemed to have some helplessness in his eyes. He must have thought for a while, and used the puppet in his hand to make an old man's gesture, coughed twice, and then fell to the ground. After a while, he pointed at his eyes with the puppet's palm, and then pointed at Li Si.
Such an action would probably make many people confused, but Li Si just remained silent for a while and then asked.
"You mean you're old, so you want to settle down here and take care of me?"
In the shop, the strange old man nodded silently. Although he had no expression on his face, the puppet in his hand kept smiling.
It can be said that he watched Li Si grow up. Although Li Si seemed to be particularly sensible since he was a child, this did not prevent him from treating Li Si as a child.
He had been in seclusion for a long time, so as far as he was concerned, his memory of Li Si still remained in that temple, and in the child who liked to stare at the distant mountains in a daze.
He enjoyed sitting under the eaves with him and drinking tea, and also enjoyed manipulating the puppets to make them lie or sit on the eaves, in the wooden corridors, beside the old trees, or in front of the Buddhist hall, making the temple seem more lively and not so deserted.
His puppets would bring water to people, play with each other, hide in the corner and slack off, sit in the corridor and look at flowers, yawn on Li Si's shoulder, and secretly pull the old monk's beard.
They are like real people, with all kinds of personalities and doing all kinds of things.
Sometimes even Li Si felt that these puppets really had their own lives.
But then he changed his mind and thought that perhaps this was just the strange old man's imagination of the personalities of his own children. He was just acting out the life he longed for, and that was all.
The strange old man is really a very strange person, but sometimes, he is not that strange, it’s just that no one can understand him.
At the counter, Li Si touched his nose and spoke with some helplessness.
"I'm not a kid anymore."
Although compared to the strange old man, he is indeed not that old.
The puppet in the strange old man's hand smiled again and pointed to his waist with his palm, as if to say that in his eyes, Li Si was always a child of this age.
At this time, the strange old man looked at the other puppet beside the counter.
Li Si also looked in the direction he was looking, and saw that the puppet suddenly stood up by itself, staggered to Li Si's front, reached its little hand into its wide robe, took out a piece of sugar cube, and handed it to Li Si with both hands.
The strange old man still remembered that Li Si liked to eat sweet things.
Looking at the puppet in front of him, Li Si was stunned for a moment, then he raised his eyebrows, chuckled, reached out to take the sugar cube in the puppet's hand, threw it into his mouth and said.
"Thanks."
"Click, click, click." The puppet made some exaggerated funny gestures, as if it was excited to meet Li Si again, and then walked back to its seat and sat down with its hands and feet together.
Only when he saw the puppet was silent did Li Si take a deep breath and turn his gaze back to the strange old man.
He first pursed his lips, then finally smiled as if relieved, shook his head and said.
"But we haven't seen each . The shopkeeper asked me to ask you if you want to come to our place for dinner tonight, just as if you were getting to know your new neighbors."
Without much hesitation, the strange old man nodded and began to pack his things.
Li Si shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile, walked into the shop and helped the strange old man carry his luggage.
How to say it, he felt that this street was going to become more and more lively.
…
At the same time, to the east of Mingzhou City, on a large sea in the East China Sea, a long ship was sailing among the waves, dragging its wake.
On the deck at the bow, a man with disheveled hair and a scimitar on his waist stood there, holding a wooden stick in his mouth and squinting at the sea level in the distance.
Suddenly, he seemed to see something, opened his eyes wide, pointed at the distant sky, and shouted in a strange language to the crowd behind him.
“I see it, I see it!”
Suddenly, people on the deck gathered together, and when they saw a piece of land in the distance, they burst into cheers, and everyone was very excited.
The man standing at the bow opened his arms, welcoming the sea breeze and laughed.
Yes, he was sure that he had found the legendary land of gold, and that this was where he would begin his legendary life.
