The ultimate master in the city

The three followed him out the door and found that the villagers were surrounding a man who was panting heavily as he ran towards them.

The man, holding a bunch of packets of medicinal herbs and several sachets, exclaimed with delight, "Grandpa, we got them! Master Wu took our money, performed a spell, and gave us these things. Ah Zhu and the others are saved!"

The crowd cheered, and Grandpa was trembling with excitement. "How many?"

The man's face fell. "Five!"

"Well!"

The crowd fell silent again.

Grandpa waved his hand, "Then... let's decide by drawing lots!"

As he spoke, the crowd that had surrounded the man dispersed.

Zhou Fengchen and the other two were completely confused and surrounded their grandfather, asking, "Grandpa, what happened? What kind of magic?"

Grandpa glanced at them, his expression softening slightly, and shook his head, saying, "Don't ask anymore, it won't do you any good. How about the four of us have a good drink at noon today?"

Zhou Fengchen and the other two exchanged glances. "No problem!"

Upon hearing this, Grandpa's wife immediately went to prepare. Grandpa then pulled Zhou Fengchen and the other two into the house, where they sat down to drink tea and chat.

Grandpa did all the talking, rambling on and on, and Zhou Fengchen and the other two couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Before long, the food was ready. The dishes were all ready-made preserved vegetables, spicy and salty. The wine was "Bamboo Green," brewed in the mountains. It tasted quite sweet, but had a very strong aftereffect.

Once the wine started flowing, the conversation couldn't stop. Monk Yuanzhi, slightly tipsy, patted his grandfather's shoulder and said, "Buddy! I'm not bragging, but if we don't talk about magic, it's fine. But if we do, the Wu Dao Master you all talk about is probably an amateur. See these two brothers of mine? Huh? They're super awesome Taoists. They can solve anything for you."

Zhang Shisan, blushing, replied, "Of course! I'm the top disciple of Longhu Mountain, what can't I handle?"

Zhou Fengchen was insensitive to alcohol and remained silent while looking at his grandfather.

Grandpa had an unusually high alcohol tolerance; he was completely unaffected, laughing as he said, "In that case, why don't you show me what you've got?"

"Alright!" Zhang Shisan slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and reached into his pocket. "Huh? Where's my talisman?"

"Talisman my ass." Zhou Fengchen reached out and pulled him down to sit, then said to the old man, "If it's something supernatural or strange, I can help you solve it, as a way of repaying you for the past two days."

Grandpa smiled and said, "Can you, Cave God, solve this?"

Zhou Fengchen frowned: "What is a Cave God?"

Grandpa sighed and said, "The immortals in the cave don't eat the food of mortals."

Zhou Fengchen shook his head. "I can't make any guarantees unless you explain it clearly."

Grandpa chuckled and said, "Alright! It's getting dark, and I have things to do. We'll continue tomorrow. You all should get some rest."

Zhou Fengchen turned his head and realized that it was already dark outside without him noticing; they had been drinking for quite a while.

After that, Grandpa went out, his wife put away the food and wine, and Zhou Fengchen and the other two ran upstairs to take a nap.

Not long after, a burst of firecrackers suddenly came from outside, followed by a flurry of footsteps downstairs.

Grandpa ran upstairs with a "thump, thump, thump," pushed open the door, and said, "Hey guys, good news!"

Zhou Fengchen and his two companions were chatting and smoking when they heard this and were all taken aback. "What good news?"

"You'll see when you get there. It'll definitely be a good thing, and you won't suffer any losses." Without waiting for a reply, Grandpa stepped forward and pulled them downstairs.

Zhou Fengchen and the other two followed curiously downstairs.

As soon as they got downstairs, a group of people surrounded them. Some tried to pull Zhou Fengchen away, others tried to pull Zhang Shisan away, and finally, Monk Yuanzhi was reluctantly pulled away by the last family and dragged out.

"Hey! No..." Zhou Fengchen slapped away the hands of the three women who were holding him, turned around and asked, "Grandpa, what are you trying to fool us with? What do you mean by this?"

Zhang Shisan and Monk Yuanzhi also stopped, completely bewildered.

Grandpa shook his head and laughed, "You'll see when you get there. Didn't I tell you, there's absolutely no harm in it?"

"Yeah! Yeah!" A group of people shouted with burning eyes.

"Alright!" Zhou Fengchen said to Zhang Shisan and the other man, "Go your own way, go take a look, and come back to meet up in ten minutes."

"Alright!" The two nodded in agreement.

……

Zhou Fengchen followed three strange-looking women to a bamboo house on the west side of the village. There were quite a few people inside, and the walls were covered with bright red paper flowers, making it look festive.

Upon seeing Zhou Fengchen enter, everyone looked over. "You're here?"

Zhou Fengchen nodded. "They're here!"

Looking around, she smiled and said, "Your family is celebrating a happy occasion? Haha, congratulations! Congratulations!"

Everyone in the room laughed silently. Then, several women pushed Zhou Fengchen upstairs, saying in broken Mandarin, "Go up! Do whatever you want, don't be afraid, we all support you!"

Zhou Fengchen felt extremely strange, wondering what was going on.

Still not satisfied? Fine, I'll go upstairs then.

As soon as I got upstairs, the bamboo door leading downstairs was sealed shut from the outside. Then a woman slipped a bottle of osmanthus oil through the crack in the door, smiling and saying, "If this doesn't work, use this."

Zhou Fengchen subconsciously took it, smelled it, and thought it smelled quite good. He asked, "Why are you closing the door? Is this for dipping flatbread in?"

A burst of laughter came from outside the door, and then the crowd dispersed, leaving only two women sitting there without saying a word.

Zhou Fengchen had a bad feeling. He stuffed the osmanthus oil into his pocket and looked around. Only the room across the hall had its lights on.

I crept over and peeked inside. What I saw made my heart skip a beat and my scalp tingle.

A kerosene lamp was lit in the room, and large red paper was pasted on the walls. Inside, a girl was sitting on a bed covered with a large red quilt.

The girl was tall and slender with fair skin and long, jet-black hair that fell to one side. She looked like one of the girls who had returned from the mountains during the day.

But what's with wearing only a red bellyband all over her body? Isn't that too tempting?

He suddenly realized what was going on—good heavens! This was a setup to get him married!

Is this how you play games?

He turned to get angry, but then he thought, "No, that's not right! There's no such thing as a free lunch, and no one does this for no reason. Considering what happened during the day with 'Master Wu,' 'magic,' and 'the cave spirit,' there might really be something strange going on."

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth, went into the room, walked to the bedside, and said, "Hello!"

The girl's long eyelashes fluttered twice. She didn't say anything, but gently patted the side next to her, indicating that she should come and sit down.

Zhou Fengchen frowned and walked over to sit down. Suddenly, he smelled a fragrance emanating from the girl. It smelled like some kind of flower, but it was particularly unnatural and had a faint smell of blood. It didn't smell like perfume; it seemed to be coming from her bones.

Then the girl rested her head on his shoulder and said in a voice barely above a whisper, "My name is Azhu, what's yours?"

Zhou Fengchen let her lean against him, made a handprint to feel it, and said, "My name is Zhou Fengchen."

Then there was a moment of silence.

After a while, the girl said again, "Take me, take me away, and make me your wife."

I like the novel "The Strongest Master in the City".