The two ends of the Reed Marsh were two completely different worlds. Over there, a great battle was raging, and various powers were locked in a fierce battle. This side, on the other hand, was calm and tranquil. The old man was sipping some home-brewed rice wine that he had bought from a farmer. Not far away, a group of young children were whispering to each other. From time to time, they would cast curious glances at the old man. To the children who grew up in the Reed Marsh, the old man looked very much like the old Confucian scholars who usually came out to enjoy the scenery in Xiangfan. However, the old scholars who came here with their families to play didn't think much of the wine. They all brought their own delicacies and wine.
The old man smiled kindly and waved at a young girl from the cottage owner's family. The little girl walked forward timidly. The old man weighed his old gray money pouch and seemed to be embarrassed. He only poured out a dozen coins and handed them all to the girl, telling her to ask her parents to cook a fresh fish that was caught by the old water crow. Watching the little girl skipping away, the old man smiled and murmured with his yellow hair hanging down his back. He was very happy with himself.
Since ancient times, Qingzhou was called Yunmeng Marsh. The villagers in Reed Marsh all raised water crows and ate yellow croaker every day. The old man liked the simple taste of steamed yellow croaker very much. The group of Xiangfan scholars went to the faraway place and coveted seafood, sparing hundreds of gold coins to buy it. Even if they stored it with ice cubes along the way, it had already lost its "taste". In the old man's eyes, they were the lowest class of diners, not to mention gluttons. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the little girl in a daze beside the black water tank outside the house. In the end, he picked the biggest yellow croaker in the tank and gave it to her mother to steam. The old man smiled and said, "Only a child has the heart of Bodhi. Humans are always thieves." Then he looked at the bamboo table. On the table, there were dozens of pebbles picked up from the shore. The pebbles were of different sizes and different distances. When the farmer was cooking fish, the old man had already thrown away some smaller pebbles from the table, while several larger pebbles moved closer to the area where the pebbles were densest.
The girl came with a wooden plate with a steamed yellow croaker. The amount of chopped green onions and old ginger was enough. She also added some wine and some ham. The old man took the chopsticks and didn't care if the farmer followed the steaming method to cook the fish. A small yellow croaker was enough to satisfy people. This was the real taste. The old man put the plate on the corner of the table where there were not many pebbles and ate quickly. The little girl saw the old man eating with relish and was very happy. She was no longer afraid of strangers and asked softly, "Grandpa, are you from Xiangfan City?"
The old man slowly put down his chopsticks, shook his head and smiled without a word. The little girl who was tanned because she had to work with her parents said, "Oh." She felt a little regretful. Her peers in the village always talked about how magnificent the city was and how rich the people in the city were. She had never been to Xiangfan and naturally envied it. She also heard that the sisters there were like fairies. She thought it would be great if she could be half as beautiful as them when she grew up. After the old man finished eating the steamed yellow croaker, he handed the wooden plate and chopsticks back to the little girl and said softly, "When I leave, tell your parents to leave the reed marsh today and go to the Carp Guanyin Temple ten miles away to burn incense. After burning incense, you can ask for some silver from the Guanyin Temple. You only need to break the stone carp in her hand and there will be silver inside. Little girl, remember not to go home in a hurry after getting the silver. The earliest you can do is wait until the sky is dark. Don't forget to talk about this after I leave. Leave early and come back late. "
The little girl was stunned and thought she was listening to a heavenly book. The old man did not think much of it and smiled, "Just think of me as the Earth God of this land."
She said excitedly, "Grandpa, are you really a deity?"
The old man did not comment and touched the little girl's head. He put his finger to his mouth and shushed her, indicating that she should not say anything. The little girl nodded vigorously. The old man lowered his head and looked at the scattered pebbles on the table again. He seemed to be thinking about a long game of chess. The little girl left quietly. Since the old man was not from Xiangfan, how could he be the Earth God who protected the land? Moreover, the old man was not a deity. He was just a child with a sincere heart. How could he think of these things? However, although he was not a deity, in the eyes of the people, he was no different from a deity. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Nine Kingdoms were in chaos and there were many "abnormal phenomena" everywhere. The Azure Dragon came out of the water, the Divine Monument broke through the earth, and the female chicken turned into a male. Which one of these did not come from him?
Not to mention these imperial courts that ruled the world, just take the three-foot game of Go as an example. Back then, the scholars of the West Chu Dynasty were talkative and the game was popular. The Nine Stages of Go were created by him. Now, in the world of Go, there were three famous schools of Go. The imperial court had set up a game of Go, waiting for the imperial decree. Wang Jixin and Song Shutong, who were the top chess players of the six great countries, were responsible for evaluating the game of Go. There were more than four hundred people who qualified for the game of Go. This old man claimed that these four hundred players had gathered together to play against him and that he could easily win. He was the only one in the world who could say such arrogant words. Unfortunately, Wang Jixin and the others did not dare to accept the challenge. No matter if they were working together or alone, they all pretended to be deaf and dumb. This old man's Go skills were extraordinary. But later on, for some unknown reason, this old fanatic said that he would never talk to anyone again.
The old man stared at the table and laughed, "Five hundred years ago, he was invincible. How could it be a lie? Wei Xiong of the Xu family wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with This Old Man, but it's still too early. "
When the old man first entered the Shangyin Academy, he claimed to be one of the top three. His sword was like a dragon and snake, and he wrote the Record of the Pillar of Strength in one go in the mud after the heavy rain by the lakeside. At the beginning, he said that he wanted to establish his heart for Heaven and Earth, establish his life for the people, inherit the lost knowledge for the past saints, and establish peace for all ages.
These years, he had traveled all over the world and had nothing to do, so he taught Lu Xu how to place his pieces and take root, and how to be grounded. He taught Li Bai the Lion's Voice and Body Double, taught the fake Princess how to charm people and bring disaster to the country, wrote the Precepts for Women on behalf of a woman, made Guangling Wang Chao kill his second son, and misled the group of ignorant juniors from the Imperial Astronomer. As long as he was willing, who would not be a chess piece in his hands? Next, he was going to teach a little fellow named Xiao Mu Jian how to use a sword. After the fall of West Chu's Grand Preceptor, in addition to holding a grudge against the butcher Xu Xiao, he also beat his chest and stomped his feet, cursing Old Huang for killing three million people with his three-inch tongue. However, these ups and downs of the country had all become the patterns on the chessboard, and were left to the later generations.
The old man, whose specific age could not be determined, picked up a round cobblestone in the middle of the table, "This one surnamed Zhao, placed his piece in Tianyuan. He doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, but his actions are cute."
The old man sitting on a small stool changed his gaze, and it fell on a large stone that was the densest among the stones, "The eleventh, Wang Mingyin, will be the first to charge. Will he be able to survive if he is placed in a death trap? "
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