Horse-head Wall Reflects the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 43: People say that even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. I wrote a poem about being struck by lightning and being unfilial.

If you don't see the green mountains, you will always feel sentimental. If you see the green mountains, you will feel ashamed. Looking at the mountains for a long time, people will feel more insignificant. Guan Yin's eyes were not long after he withdrew, and he fell on the paper again, falling into his own decadence.

There are countless possible endings, but none of them seems to belong to this romantic and touching story.

"Boom."

There was thunder in a clear sky, and it was likely that there would be a sudden downpour soon. Guan Yin had no intention of paying attention to it - Liu Jiaoan knew that he had gone home, and Guan Yin blindly urged Sanheng to look for her, which would only cause more trouble.

"Why are you here again?"

It is best to sleep on rainy days. Guan Yin fell asleep leaning against the table in a short while. However, he still blamed Cheng Heng for appearing in his dream.

"Is it thundering? It's raining over there."

After this extremely simple conversation, neither of them said anything. Cheng Heng had nothing to do, so he paced back and forth in the small room...

After a while, Cheng Heng got tired of wandering around and his eyes naturally fell on the table.

There were two words written on the rice paper, "Reunion". Looking closely, one could see that the two words were connected by a vertical line with flying white dots, like a candied haws. Cheng Heng subconsciously made a "tsk" sound.

"Why are we reunited all of a sudden?"

"Reunited, and crossed out again?"

Guan Yin had just written these words not long ago, so he knew what Cheng Heng was talking about without having to guess: "The story of three generations suddenly had to be explained, and I couldn't think of how to reunite them."

"To seek justice for the living is to be a judge, and to seek justice for the dead is to be a judge... There is nothing to worry about."

Back to reality, there are layers of courts and various supervisory agencies, but they are obviously not comparable here. Guan Yin doesn't understand the reunion that Cheng Heng said ended so easily: "How great a judge can judge so many corrupt officials from the capital to the local areas?"

Even if the emperor personally ordered an investigation, there would inevitably be another round of officials protecting each other. When the culprit was found, it would be a question of whether he was still alive. Guan Yin felt that such an ending was too idealistic.

"Have you ever heard of the Thunder Newspaper?"

"No."

What Cheng Heng saw as common was obviously different from what Guan Yin saw as familiar. Even now, the former still didn’t want to tell the story directly: “Uh…then let me put it another way, ‘Qingfeng Pavilion’?”

"nor."

Helpless, Cheng Heng told Guan Yin the whole story. Guan Yin was so angry that he could not understand what kind of "reunion" ending Cheng Heng wanted to express.

Seeing the confused face of the person in front of him, Cheng Heng even wondered whether he should just write the story for Guan Yin. However, "it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish". Guan Yin still had to make a living by writing scripts, so Cheng Heng planned to seize every opportunity to leave some useful knowledge for Guan Yin.

"If you want to write a happy ending for this story, it's very simple. The female general asks for a thorough investigation, the emperor allows it, and then orders all the relevant people to be brought in. Then the thunder comes, and one person is killed by the thunder. Those who have grudges get their revenge, and those who have been wronged get their justice."

"And you have three fairies, don't you? Before you kill them, why don't you write a part about filing a complaint in the underworld? Wouldn't that solve the problem perfectly?"

In Cheng Heng's own opinion, the story has clear logic and perfect conception. In the end, good is rewarded with good and evil is punished with evil. It fits the format of a standard opera script very well.

Coming out of the joy of "another story being finished", Cheng Heng realized that he had been talking for a long time, but Guan Yin didn't seem to say a word in response - he probably didn't understand. "Will an ending that relies on supernatural powers be a bad ending?"

"Of course not..." Guan Yin was competing with him. Cheng Heng suddenly wondered if he was just as annoying when he was being too stubborn. "According to your logic, it's hard for this kind of thing to have a perfect ending."

"So I wrote about reunion and drew a reunion. This kind of thing is likely to end up as a tragedy." Guan Yin was reasonable at this time, "Look at the original body itself, isn't it also a product of tragedy?"

Cheng Heng wanted to open his mouth to refute, but found himself unconsciously caught up in Guan Yin's logic, so much so that he didn't know what he should say for a long time.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

There were two consecutive thunders, which were no longer as muffled as the ones just now, and seemed to indicate that the rain was getting closer and closer.

"It is precisely because it is difficult to get the desired ending that viewers long for a happy ending." Finally, Cheng Heng could only come up with this reason, "It's just like when you read a novel, you still hope that after all the ups and downs, the protagonist can achieve success."

"It's as if I can't live without her."

"This is of high quality and low price, who would buy her old styles?"

The muffled thunder in the distance had not yet reached Liu Jiaoan's ears, but the words of these old customers, like a bolt from the blue, hit Liu Jiaoan's heart heavily.

There were suddenly two or three more embroidery shops in the market, selling many new styles that Liu Jiaoan could not make - the quality of the embroidery threads was also much better than that made by Liu Jiaoan.

The deliberate targeting allowed Liu Jiaoan to guess the identity of the visitor almost exactly, and his drooping brows were filled with bitterness.

"Your embroidery skills are not something that ordinary people can do... I wonder if you can write? I would like to ask for a few calligraphy and paintings to take back."

The voice sounded somewhat familiar. Liu Jiaoan looked up and saw the teacher who had wanted to order more embroidery from her but never came back.

"We met once, and then I thought about it and realized that I have no use for this embroidery. If the girl has calligraphy and paintings, I would be quite interested."

When he first saw him, Liu Jiaoan felt that the teacher in front of him had a familiar look. Now the more he looked at him, the more he felt that way. However, he couldn't remember where he had seen him at the moment - after all, it was not in his dream.

"That's not the case. Sir, you should ask other families."

Seeing that things had already been cleaned up over there and the ink was about to drip in the distance, Liu Jiaoan felt that it was time for him to go back. There was no need to get entangled with someone whom he did not have a very deep impression of, so as to avoid any trouble.

"Okay, I am sorry for being rude."

My ears are finally quiet, but I still have to worry about things.

Just like the thunder has stopped, the dark and thick clouds will eventually bring rain. Things have piled up to the point where they have to be faced. Both Guan Yin and Liu Jiaoan have things they have to worry about.

Sad faces faced sad faces. Fortunately, the clouds in the sky fell on the ground and formed shadows, which just happened to fall on everyone's face. It was like putting a mask on each of them, so they didn't have to express their sadness to each other in person.

The dark clouds silently covered up the original appearance of everything.

(End of this chapter)