The chivalrous spirit is fickle

"Strange, I've asked a lot of people about this in the past few days."

"In the mouths of those people, Shi Gu seems to have always been a person who is not easy to mess with. He has made quite a name for himself in Qingcheng."

"Why did it become so miserable in your mouth?"

The middle-aged man sneered upon hearing this, and shook his head repeatedly, his eyes full of mockery.

"What dare they say? Maybe they were among those who bullied Shi Gu back then."

"Now that they know that Shigu has become famous, they naturally only talk about Shigu's glory, but don't think about how much he has suffered."

Jiang Baizhi sighed and did not continue to ask about this topic, but asked softly.

"Then what kind of person is Shi Gu in your eyes?"

When the middle-aged man heard this, a hint of nostalgia flashed in his eyes. He gently stroked the beard on his chin with his fingers. After thinking for a moment, he smiled softly.

"He is a fool."

"Stubborn and stupid."

The middle-aged man's expression became softer. He exhaled lightly and spoke slowly.

"I was addicted to gambling when I was young, and I lost all my money. The docks were unwilling to take me back."

"With nowhere else to turn, I went to find Shi Gu, thinking of living with him as a pimp in Lichunyuan."

"But I didn't expect that after he heard my idea, he got very angry and beat me up, saying that being a guild master would be looked down upon. I was in the wrong so I didn't fight back."

"I thought that after he hurt me, he would feel sorry for me and let me be his pimp, but he didn't do that."

"He gave me all the little money he had to pay off my debts and let me start over."

At this point, the middle-aged man sat up straight and gave a bitter smile of shame.

"He was my brother and I always thought I was taking care of him."

"But at that time, I thought carefully about it and it seemed that he had always taken care of me since I was a child."

Jiang Baizhi's eyes moved slightly, and then she smiled silently. She lightly picked up the pen and wrote down everything the middle-aged man said in the notebook.

But in her heart, her evaluation of Shi Gu gradually changed.

"Then what happened next? How did Shigu get out of Lichunyuan and become a messenger?"

The middle-aged man was quite hesitant when he heard this. After looking at Jiang Baizhi for a few times, he sighed.

"I didn't want to tell you, but you're going to live with Shigu eventually, so I'll tell you anyway."

Seeing this, Jiang Baizhi immediately became interested, put down the pen in his hand and asked.

"Oh, that sounds like an interesting thing. Tell me more about it."

After hearing this, the middle-aged man hesitated for a moment and then spoke softly.

"Lichunyuan is a brothel, not a good place. Shigu's personality is not suitable for that kind of place, but there is no other way to survive."

"But one day, he insisted on redeeming a little girl in a brothel."

"The little girl was only thirteen years old at the time. Her name was Aning. She was clean and pretty. She had been a maid doing odd jobs with Shigu. The two had a very close relationship."

"But when she turned thirteen, the boss of the Lichunyuan wanted the girl to receive customers. The girl refused no matter what, and the boss threatened to beat her to death if she didn't."

"Shi Gu couldn't bear to see this, so he planned to redeem the girl. After all, the girl told him that she was sold at a very cheap price."

"But what kind of place is a brothel? Those indentures have been tampered with. It's not easy to redeem yourself."

Jiang Baizhi frowned slightly, but was fascinated by the story and couldn't help asking.

"So what happened in the end? The little girl should have been saved by Shi Gu."

The middle-aged man smiled when he heard this, and suddenly felt a little proud, and said with a smile.

"Shi Gu didn't have much money, so there was no way he could redeem it. But I saved some money from my business at the time."

"I gave all my belongings to Shigu, and finally redeemed the little girl."

Jiang Baizhi was stunned when he heard this and said in astonishment.

"You gave all your wealth to Shigu?"

The middle-aged man became more proud when he heard this. He chuckled and said.

"Ever since that guy gave me his money, I've been waiting for that day."

"I thought, one day I will do what he did back then, throw a bag of money in his face, and tell him that his friendship with me was not in vain."

"I did it."

It seemed to be some kind of strange desire to win that made the middle-aged man not care at all that he had lost all his fortune and ended up with nothing.

This is not a smart move, but it is not annoying.

A hint of admiration flashed in Jiang Baizhi's eyes, both for the middle-aged man in front of her and for the "release of bones" he mentioned.

"And then, what happened to that little girl you mentioned?"

Hearing this, the middle-aged man scratched his head and said awkwardly.

"Well... Aning is obviously interested in Shigu, but that idiot Shigu keeps pretending to be stupid and even wants Aning to become his sworn brother."

As if he didn't want to continue this awkward topic, the middle-aged man took the initiative to continue talking without waiting for Jiang Baizhi to continue asking questions.

"Later, Shigu became a messenger and never came back."

"A Ning and I were both worried about him. Who would have thought that one day, a messenger came here and told us that Shi Gu had made a name for himself in the martial arts world."

"Not only that, but he also sent me a large sum of money, which enabled me to occupy a piece of land at this dock."

Jiang Baizhi blinked, wrote down these things, and asked the middle-aged man casually.

"Is that Aning pretty?"

The middle-aged man was speechless when he heard this. After thinking for a long time, he spoke carefully.

"I'm shameless enough to call you my sister-in-law, don't be angry."

"Sister-in-law, listen to me. Although Aning is considered pretty in Qingcheng, she is still far inferior to you."

"Besides, Shigu is a very well-behaved boy. He has never really touched Aning and treats her as a sister. Aning is just unrequited love for him. Don't think too much about it."

Jiang Baizhi, the fake sister-in-law, naturally didn't think too much about it. She put away the blank book, smiled at the middle-aged man, and said.

"That's natural. I'm not such a stingy person."

Next, all we have to do is visit Aning, and this mission will be successfully completed.

Thinking of this, Jiang Baizhi felt a lot more relaxed. As if in order to play the role of Shi Gu's good friend, Jiang Baizhi asked casually.

"By the way, does Shigu have any favorite dishes? I can cook them for him later."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief, smiled freely, and said.

"He, he doesn't have much luck in his mouth, he eats everything."

"Just don't give him meat."

Hearing this, Jiang Baizhi suddenly looked up, a hint of surprise flashed across her eyes, but she asked.

"He doesn't eat meat?"

The middle-aged man did not notice anything unusual about Jiang Baizhi and spoke as usual.

"When Shigu was little, he really liked eating meat, but later his stomach got damaged and he would vomit whenever he ate meat."

"Later, his stomach injury healed, but he still felt sick when he saw meat and refused to eat it no matter what, so he remained skinny."

The middle-aged man continued to speak, but Jiang Baizhi's expression gradually became strange, and a ripple was stirred in her heart.

When Jiang Baizhi met Shigu in Tongtian Tower that day, she clearly remembered that the food placed in front of Shigu was all meat, and Shigu was eating it with relish.

Jiang Baizhi's mind raced, and she came up with a bold guess.

"Wait a moment."

While stopping the middle-aged man from speaking, Jiang Baizhi took out the portrait she had made for Shi Gu that day, unfolded it in front of the middle-aged man, and asked.

"Do you know the person in the painting?"

Hearing this, the middle-aged man looked at the painting with some surprise. After looking at it for a long time, he frowned and spoke slowly.

"Tsk, I don't know this person, but I feel like I've seen him again."

"who is he?"

Who is he? This is also the question Jiang Baizhi wants to know.

Jiang Baizhi took a deep breath and stood there blankly, but her heart was already in turmoil. She slowly put away the painting in her hand, thanked the middle-aged man in a low voice, and turned to leave.

The dock was bustling with noise. Jiang Baizhi walked through the crowd, holding the painting and walking quickly forward, but her heart was in turmoil.

Qingcheng Shigu, as a relatively famous figure in the world, Tongtian Pavilion has collected many of his portraits.

Before setting off, Jiang Baizhi had carefully compared the portraits and found no major differences.

In other words, when the name Qingcheng Shigu first became known in the martial arts world, that Qingcheng Shigu should have been the person in the portrait, the Qingcheng Shigu that he had seen in Tongtian Pavilion.

Could it be that there were two Shi Gu in Qingcheng? Was the Shi Gu that I had been investigating these days the same Shi Gu that I had met in Tongtian Pavilion?

No, no, no, the middle-aged man said that a messenger had delivered a letter before, so there should be only one Shigu in Qingcheng.

Then… who is Qingcheng Shigu? Who is Qingcheng Shigu?

After walking out of the dock, Jiang Baizhi looked up at the mountain city in front of her with a complicated and solemn expression.

"Qingcheng Shigu... who are you?"

Chapter 50: Lies (Part 3)

Three days later, in the east of Qingcheng City.

Jiang Baizhi walked alone on the long white stone path, stepping on the morning mist, heading towards the top of the mountain.

Green mountains are accompanied by green waters, and large tracts of lush bamboo forests grow from the foot of the mountain all the way to the top. A long path paved with white stones winds around the mountain like a giant python all the way to the top.

Looking at the top of the mountain, Jiang Baizhi slowly exhaled, grasped the long sword at his waist with his backhand, and climbed up the stairs.

Ever since the Tiger Gang incident, Jiang Baizhi had been investigating again without stopping, reorganizing all the rumors and stories.

But when she sorted out all the information, she had to come to a horrifying conclusion.

During these three days, she took the portrait of Shi Gu from the martial arts world and asked around in every street and alley in Qingcheng, but no one could recognize Shi Gu in the portrait.

and so……

The Qingcheng Shigu in the martial arts world is not the Shigu she heard about in Qingcheng. The two are not the same person.

It seemed as if from a certain time, Shi Gu, who was born and raised in Qingcheng, suddenly lost all news. At the same time, another person took over his name, started traveling around the world, and made a name for himself.

Why did he do this? Where was the real Shi Gu who grew up in Qingcheng? Was he killed by the imposter?

Jiang Baizhi couldn't figure it out, but perhaps there would be an answer today.

After making inquiries from many sources, Jiang Baizhi learned that a bamboo building was built ten years ago on the bamboo mountain in the east of the city. This was exactly the time when the messenger brought the news of the Qingcheng bone release to the Tiger Gang.

There is no coincidence between the two.

In addition, according to everyone in the city, the bamboo building was very strange. Every time someone wanted to go and take a look at the bamboo building, they would unknowingly walk down the mountain when they were about to reach the top of the mountain.

As time went by, no one dared to come to this bamboo mountain anymore.

Jiang Baizhi walked forward cautiously, neither hurried nor slow. According to the residents in the city, there must be some kind of formation set up on the mountain, which is why there was such a strange phenomenon as rumored.

Under such circumstances, Jiang Baizhi did not dare to be careless, especially when she recalled the bones she saw in Tongtian Tower that day, she felt a chill down her spine.

To him, the bone release that day was like a phantom covered in human skin, with no idea of ​​his depth or what was good or evil.

However, Jiang Baizhi walked all the way to the top of the mountain without anything unusual happening, and the bamboo building gradually appeared in her sight.

Jiang Baizhi frowned slightly and stopped at the door of the bamboo building, not daring to move.

The bamboo building in front of me has two floors. It is ordinary and there is nothing special about it. The door is ajar, as if it could be blown open by a gust of wind.

Jiang Baizhi stood in front of the bamboo building and hesitated for a long time. In the end, she did not enter the bamboo building, but walked around it.

The breeze blew gently, and the bamboo leaves swayed. Jiang Baizhi went around the bamboo building, but saw that there was rolling white mist behind the bamboo building just a few steps away, as if a cloud had been torn from the sky and pressed down here.