You cultivate immortality, I cultivate merit

Xia Yu looked at Shi Zelan for a while: "Do you really hope for this?"

Shi Zelan shook her head: "I am no longer a naive child. I will not expect anything from unreliable people or things."

After hearing her words, Xia Yu smiled with relief: "When I was little, I envied other people's parents for being so kind to their children, but my parents were very strict with me."

Shi Zelan looked at him and said, "Parents always think more deeply about their children."

Shi Xiaoliu opened his eyes, looked at the expressions on their faces, and said with a smile: "Close your eyes for a while. I want to stand at the entrance of the teahouse to enjoy the night view."

Shi Zelan stood up: "I'll go with you."

Xia Yu shook her hand and said, "You guys go see the night view first. There are too many people here. I'll keep my place."

Shi Xiaoliu and Shi Zelan walked outside the teahouse and looked up at the night view for a while.

At this time of night, the spring breeze still carries a deep chill.

"Another year has passed, and I still have nothing."

Shi Zelan looked at him disapprovingly: "I think we have had a great year, and we have not wasted all the people and things in the past."

Shi Xiaoliu turned to look at Shi Zelan. In the night, his eyes were as bright as stars.

"Yeah, we got a good year."

Shi Zelan glared at him unhappily: "Did you say that just now on purpose to tease me?"

"No, I was touched at the moment. This night is so fascinating."

Shi Xiaoliu looked at Shi Zelan: "We don't have to stay strong all the time. You can still cry loudly when you want to."

Shi Zelan reached out and shook Shi Xiaoliu's arm: "You too, when you want to cry, don't hold it back."

"It's already the fifteenth day of the lunar year, and I can cry if I want to."

"puff."

Shi Zelan smiled: "Xiao Liu, we are actually children too, just a little older."

Shi Xiaoliu looked at her and smiled: "Are you in a good mood now?"

"I've always been in a good mood."

"Then let's go in and change Xia Yu out to get some fresh air."

The two of them returned to the table. Xia Yu looked at the expressions on their faces and said with a smile, "The night is beautiful?"

"It's beautiful. Do you want to admire it for a while?"

Xia Yu looked at Shi Xiaoliu and Shi Zelan with suspicion, and saw smiles in their eyes.

He stood up and walked towards the entrance of the teahouse. The air outside was indeed fresher than the air inside the teahouse, but he could hear the sound of footsteps in the distance.

Xia Yu didn't want to get involved in irrelevant matters, so he quickly turned around and went into the teahouse.

Shi Xiaoliu and Shi Zelan looked at him in surprise: "You're back so soon?"

Xia Yu whispered, "Something is not going well outside."

Shi Xiaoliu and Shi Zelan wanted to listen to the noise outside, but the sound of people talking in the teahouse only allowed them to hear the sound of busy footsteps in the distance.

Shi Xiaoliu whispered, "Maybe it's someone who came home late."

Shi Zelan shook her head: "Not really. Normal people who come home late at night would walk hurriedly, but they wouldn't appear to be so flustered."

"That's when something went wrong."

The three of them looked up at the entrance of the teahouse at the same time. The half-asleep owner, who was sitting behind the counter, sat up straight as if he heard some noise.

After a while, three men in black clothes and half-covered faces rushed into the teahouse and asked, "Are there any children inside?"

The host quickly stood up and said, "No, they are all adults." The three men didn't believe it so much, so they rushed into the teahouse to check who was inside.

Even those who had been asleep for a while were woken up by the noise.

The three men rushed to the storytelling stage again. They originally wanted to overturn the stage directly, but the stage was fixed to the ground.

They could only jump up, look around carefully, and then rush to the backyard of the teahouse.

The boss stood aside without saying anything, and the waiter placed the kettle in his hand on the customer's table.

There was a sound of rummaging in the backyard. After a while, the three men rushed out from the backyard and asked the owner, "Have you seen anyone with a child passing by the front of the teahouse?"

The host shook his head: "There are too many people here tonight, so there is no time to look outside."

After the three men left, the teahouse was quiet for a while. Someone went outside to see what was going on, then turned around and went back into the teahouse.

"They went to nearby houses with lights on to check for messages."

The boss sat back behind the counter, and the waiter came over and whispered to him, "Boss, should I go out and get some information?"

"Where can you go to get information in this dark day?
You just stay in the teahouse and wait until dawn. When the guests leave, go back to sleep and don't say anything."

The waiter believed the boss's words: "Boss, I listen to you."

However, the sky did not brighten so quickly, and the people who woke up in the teahouse began to call the waiter to come over and ask for hot water.

Shi Xiaoliu and the other two called the waiter over to refill their tea. After drinking the tea, they followed the crowd to the backyard.

There were a lot of people in the backyard, and some of them acted a bit disorderly.

Shi Xiaoliu frowned deeply and stood in front of Shi Zelan.

When most of the people in the backyard had left, Shi Xiaoliu said to Xia Yu, "These people are too rude."

Xia Yu whispered to Shi Xiaoliu, "Someone is watching the backyard. The boss knows what's going on."

The three of them walked towards the front yard, and the teahouse became lively again.

Someone went up to the storytelling stage, patted the table with his hand, and said to everyone, "It's a pity that I can't tell stories."

His companions below hushed him several times before he jumped down.

After this person started the story, several people followed and stood by the storytelling table. Then they all shook their heads and said, "I can't afford this."

"When men become childish, there is nothing wrong with being a child."

Shi Zelan looked at the men standing at the desks, and their performance was like that of old naughty boys. She was quite impressed.

Shi Xiaoliu looked at her and said, "Do you want to go up and take a look?"

After hesitating for a moment, Shi Zelan said to Shi Xiaoliu, "I'm not that old either. I'm at least 20 to 30 years younger than those people just now."

Xia Yu glanced at Shi Zelan, then he went up to the storytelling platform and waved at Shi Zelan: "Come on, try it, you look like a novelist."

"puff.

I can't be a novelist, I lack his cleverness and energy."

After Shi Zelan got on the storytelling platform, he looked at the storytelling desk, stood in front of it, and said with a smile, "Today I will tell you a story."

Everyone in the teahouse sat up straight: "Okay, go ahead."

Shi Zelan glanced at everyone and said, "Once upon a time, there was a mountain. On the mountain there was a temple. In the temple there was an old monk, and he had an apprentice."

"Ah, what's next?"

Shi Zelan said with a somewhat proud look on his face: "He has an apprentice who carries water up the mountain from the bottom of the mountain every day.

Two years later, he accepted another apprentice, and the two brothers carried water from the foot of the mountain to drink. " (End of this chapter)