I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 160 The Child Searches for Nuo Mask

As for the distance of one or two hundred miles, is that what the painter Chen Hong was thinking?

Jiang She didn't say.

At this moment, he was focused on roasting mutton, trying to use up the cured meat sent by the Pei family as soon as possible, so that the sheep would not have died in vain.

Li Bai learned swordsmanship in his youth, so he is quite adept at cutting mutton now.

As he cut the meat, he asked:

"Why is there a Nuo mask on the table in the main room? Is the gentleman interested in this?"

The aroma of mutton filled the air.

The cat sniffed it.

He got burned again, took a few steps back, and hissed as he gasped for breath.

Jiang She stroked the kitten's head and checked it over; thankfully, it wasn't too hot.

He then replied to Li Bai:
"It was blown in by the wind; I wonder which kid in the alley lost something."

"We'll see which family looks for it on the street after a while, and then we'll send it back."

Yuan Danqiu chuckled.

“A mask is worth more than ten coins, this child is probably going to get a beating.”

Fish was already cooking in the pot, and the warm aroma mingled with the cold wind, dispelling the chill from the kitchen.

……

……

In the alley, there was a house with a woodshed, and the cold wind was biting.

A chubby little boy sobbed and twisted his chubby body as he cried.

"I just...I just said the mask was lost, but my dad wouldn't go look for it!" He sobbed, "I bought it for over ten coins, and I begged...begged for two months before my mom finally bought it for me..."

The chubby child became increasingly upset as he spoke, and his heart sank.

She cried even louder.

Two other children stood in front of him, both around six or seven years old, one tall and one short. The boy's clothes were exceptionally neat.

The girl stammered:

"What should we do? Don't, don't cry... you're crying so hard you're about to die."

The boy nodded.

Seeing the chubby child crying incessantly, he said with reverence, "Our family can still give us some money for the New Year. My mother said she'd give me five coins. How about we pool our money and buy you another one next year?"

The chubby child cried very sadly.

"Then it's not the one I bought before!"

“I already like it, and it likes me too…” He sobbed, his face flushed, snot and tears streaming down his face.

The chubby child burst into tears.

Outside, his father, shivering with cold, heard the sound as soon as he returned and asked in surprise.

Which family is slaughtering a pig?

His wife glared at him.

“Your son has been crying for half an hour and won’t listen to anything you say. Why don’t you go and do something about it?”

Another burst of loud crying reached the couple's ears through the door and the yard. The man frowned: "Still thinking about his Nuo mask?"

"No."

The wife said, "Just say it was lost on the night of the first day of the twelfth lunar month. How am I supposed to find it for him?"

The man listened with a frown for a while, his head buzzing. He rubbed his forehead. The child was only six or seven years old, so small, but he didn't know why the child was crying so loudly, which was driving him crazy.

The man counted the money in his pocket.

He turned around and was about to push the door open and leave.

“They’re still selling them on the street, I’ll buy him another one.”

His wife stopped him and opened a cabinet next to him. Inside was a Nuo mask, bright red in color, depicting the Martial Judge.

The man was surprised: "You bought it?"

His wife handed it to him to see.

The man couldn't understand: "You already have one, so why are you crying like this? Didn't you give it to him?"

Speaking of this, the wife was full of resentment.

"He insists on having that thing, what can I do?"

……

In the woodshed.

The two children's ears ached from listening. The boy looked at the chubby boy's clothes with awe, his face covered in snot and tears, looking even dirtier than the lid of a pickle jar.

He involuntarily took a step back.

If he kept crying like that, the girl suspected that Little Fatty was going to faint and die. She started thinking of ideas.

"What should we do...go and look for it again?"

Little Fatty's face was covered in tears, and snot was running down his nose. He blew hard on his clothes.

He sobbed.

He spoke sadly and loudly.

"I've looked everywhere, not on the road, not in the whole alley, and I even went all the way to the restaurant, but I still couldn't find it."

"It's really gone!"

The girl glanced at the person next to her, and the two looked at each other, their ears almost unable to take it anymore.

They were sad for Little Fatty, but after crying for half an hour, their sadness was diluted by Little Fatty's loud voice, tears, and snot.

The boy spoke up:
"Let's go out and look again, take a look around, just in case."

The chubby boy, hearing the crying, with tears still on his round face, hesitated, asking:
"Really?"

The girl got up and dusted herself off.

"Let's try it."

If he keeps crying like this, Little Fatty will die.

The three children, believing their plan to be foolproof, pushed open the door. Three short figures tiptoed out of the woodshed. The boy kept a considerable distance from the chubby boy.

The wife asked a question.

"What to do?"

The three children shrank back, looking like three little quails.

The girl raised her voice and said naturally and generously, "Aunt Ji, let's go outside to play."

The wife glanced at the three of them; they were all dressed warmly, except for her chubby son, whose clothes were wrinkled at the front, but still provided some protection from the wind.

"Don't go too far, understand?"

The three children nodded quickly, faster than they were pounding garlic.

"Come back soon!"

Once they were outside, the three of them finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where did you lose your things?" the girl asked.

It was too late that night, so she didn't go out with them.

That night, they played all night with Nuo masks on their heads, running around in the alleys, imitating the adults' Nuo rituals, shouting "My son is great—" "Nuo!" "Nuo!"

As for when it was lost...

If Little Fatty knew, he wouldn't have cried for so long.

He pouted, and tears welled up in his eyes again for his precious child.

The girl quickly pulled him away.

The boy moved a few steps away from the two men and searched along the alley, saying confidently, "It's been two days, it must be long gone from the streets. Let's look around the corners, maybe it's hidden somewhere."

The chubby child nodded, wiping away his tears.

He wiped his snot and tears on his sleeve.

The boy took a few steps back, keeping a certain distance from the chubby boy.

The chubby boy looked at him suspiciously, his eyelids swollen high, and his voice hoarse from crying.

"Brother Zhou, why are you so far away from me?"

"I'll go a little further away to help you find it."

The chubby boy nodded, without suspecting anything.

The three children, dressed in winter clothes, walked back and forth in the alley several times in the dead of winter, from their home to the alley entrance, and then from the alley entrance where the adults were chatting, to their front door. They carefully searched the area and asked many people.

They searched for most of the day.

They stood at someone else's door, looking somewhat dejected.

The chubby boy's face was red from the cold, and tears welled up in his eyes again.

"It's really gone..."

The boy's clothes were a bit dirty when he looked for them; they were covered in dust, and he was bending down to wipe them.

The chubby child stood in the cold wind, crying loudly.

The girl started to have a headache. She glanced at the unfamiliar house and saw a sword sheath hanging in front of the door. She quickly came up with a plan.

"We haven't asked about this place!"

The chubby boy sniffled, glanced at it, quickly recognized it, and continued crying.

This house is haunted!

(End of this chapter)