Before dawn on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Xu Fanming rubbed his eyes that had not been closed all night, got out of bed and went to Wangji Temple on the mountain south of the city.
The mountain road in winter was not easy to walk, but Xu Fanming still arrived at Wangji Temple before dawn.
There is no Du Yu at the temple gate.
Xu Fanming grabbed the sweeping monk beside him and asked, "Master, is there anyone else here this morning?"
The sweeping monk looked him up and down: "Enter the temple gate and go to the side room."
Xu Fanming quickly thanked him and ran straight into Wangji Temple.
The temple bells rang in the early morning, and Xu Fanming knocked on the door anxiously.
"Come in." A familiar voice sounded from the door. Xu Fanming suppressed the impulse in his heart, slowly opened the door and walked in.
The light in the room was not good, it was dim, and only two candles illuminated the entire room.
Du Yu turned his back to the door and knelt on the mat.
Xu Fanming raised his eyes and could clearly see the tablet on Zhuangzi through the candlelight.
He took a closer look and saw that all the people ranked above were old people from the Qinghong Club.
Xu Fanming didn't say anything. He walked to the incense table, lit three sticks of incense and took it in his hand. He silently walked to the back, knelt down next to Du Yu and leaned back.
Du Yu still didn't speak. He bowed three times, put the incense into the incense burner, and knelt down straight where he had just knelt.
Xu Fanming did the same as him. When his knees just touched the soft cushion, he heard Du Yu say: "Coming?"
Du Yu's voice was low and hoarse. In this dim room, combined with the tablet facing the shore, it was even more terrifying. However, when his voice fell on Xu Fanming's ears, it was unprecedentedly warm.
"Master..." Xu Fanming looked at Du Yu's back and shouted tentatively.
Du Yu smiled in a low voice: "I'm sorry you are still willing to call me master."
"I dare not forget." Xu Fanming pursed his lips.
"You came to Yongzhou with Chen Dong's family, right?"
"Yes, I accidentally saw the Xuanfeng Order."
Du Yu turned around and looked at him with an unexpected look: "I didn't expect you to have such eyesight."
Xu Fanming lowered his head: "Master taught me well."
"What happened to Hu Yuan must have been your fault. That kid from the Lei family can't do the eighty-one punishment."
Du Yu still remembered Cai Ying's description of Hu Yuan's death, which was exactly the same as the eighty-one punishment that he was familiar with.
Xu Fanming still lowered his head: "Master taught me well."
Du Yu gritted his teeth: "What else have you learned in the past ten years? You can't know anything except what I taught you, right?"
Xu Fanming opened his mouth but said nothing.
Du Yu sighed: "Dong Chen told me that you are very murderous."
"There are too many things that I can't stand," Xu Fanming looked at Du Yu's back, "What about you? How did you get here all these years?"
"These years..." Du Yu smiled and shook his head, "It's all gone. There's nothing left to say."
"Then why are you so close to that man named Zhang?"
"Are you interrogating me?" Du Yu turned his back to the incense table and faced Xu Fanming. Xu Fanming turned away and did not look at Du Yu.
"In the end, I was too impatient to rebuild the Qinghong Society and fell into the trap of that old fox."
Xu Fanming turned his head back in disbelief and looked at Du Yu.
"It's my fault, I mistrusted others." Du Yu looked at Xu Fanming and felt that Xu Fanming looked very much like himself back then, but he also had the stubbornness and cruelty that he didn't have back then.
Xu Fanming pursed his lips and said nothing.
Du Yu sighed: "I know you are still resentful towards me, but you don't know that I said that to protect you."
"You also know that the head of the Xu family at that time was interested in your brother."
Xu Fanming clenched his fists.
Du Yu noticed his little move, but continued: "Originally, I wanted you to be a torture officer like me, but I didn't expect that what you were planning was a seat in the torture hall."
As Du Yu spoke one sentence after another, veins popped up on Xu Fanming's forehead.
"Don't be impatient." Du Yu looked at Xu Fanming calmly, asking him to calm down.
Xu Fanming took a deep breath: "It's all over."
"It's over? This is not something you would say." Du Yu smiled.
"The Green and Red Associations are gone, why bother with that?" Xu Fanming said this, but his tightly clenched fists revealed his true thoughts.
Du Yu looked at his clenched fists and whispered: "Qinghonghui, will it really disappear like this?"
"You also know that the Xuanfeng Order can integrate the Qinghong Society." Du Yu said slowly.
"Can we still see that day?" He blinked slightly, as if he was asking Xu Fanming, but also as if he was asking himself.
Xu Fanming gritted his teeth: "Yes."
He said it very firmly, and Du Yu was also very surprised.
"Do you really believe in Chen Dongjia?" Du Yu had a smile in his eyes.
Xu Fanming said seriously: "This has nothing to do with whether you believe it or not. What I need is the Xuanfeng Order in her hand."
Du Yu stared at Xu Fanming's eyes. The candlelight behind him reflected the little bits of light in Xu Fanming's eyes, which looked particularly sincere.
Du Yu was a little stunned. Judging from his experience, his young apprentice's thoughts towards Chen Jinjun were probably unusual.
But he didn't intend to care so much, he just smiled and said, "Is there anything else you want to ask me?"
Xu Fanming looked at Du Yu in front of him, then looked past Du Yu to see the spiritual tablet on the incense table: "Qinghonghui, who else is in Yongzhou now?"
Du Yu lowered his head and thought for a while: "Except for Master Ma, Hall Master Lei, and Zhang Gui, I have taken the rest of the brothers into the temple."
Xu Fanming's eyes widened. No wonder the sweeping monk at the door just glanced at him and knew that he was here to see Du Yu. It turned out that it was not because there were not many people coming at this time, but because they followed Du Yu's instructions.
"With such precautions, it seems that Master has already made preparations for the Qinghong Club to make a comeback."
Xu Fanming meant something else beyond what he said.
"Oh? Tell me, how can the Qinghonghui make a comeback?" Du Yu's eyes were so indifferent that the hair on Xu Fanming's back stood up.
This look was exactly the same as Du Yu's look every time before he was sentenced to death for a heinous person.
Xu Fanming swallowed his saliva and said, "I think that if you want all the hall masters and stewards in the Qinghong Association to get together again, you must have a highly respected person send a greeting message before they can get together."
"This is just a gathering. The Qinghong Club has been disbanded for ten years. You and I can't guarantee that everyone still has the Qinghong Club in their hearts."
Du Yu shook his head. After so long, he couldn't guarantee that he would still be 100% loyal to the Qinghong Society, let alone others?
"Xuanfeng Ling, the Xuanfeng Ling on Chen Dong's family." Xu Fanming's eyes were burning, especially bright.
Du Yu looked at Xu Fanming and nodded, indicating for him to continue.
"Put the pattern of the Xuanfeng Order on all the invitations, and those who still have the Qinghong Society in their hearts will naturally come. As for the others..." Xu Fanming pondered for a moment, "They are all traitors."