The school working committee office building is located on a small island in the water.
Across the vast water surface, the dark silent forest quietly surrounds the small island, blocking those prying eyes and forming a solid barrier.
The breeze carries the water vapor outside Nagisa, swirling around in this small world. The moist feeling flows soothingly in the air, making people feel relaxed and happy.
In the grass, the weaver girl began to sing a ditty intermittently, "Weaving, weaving, weaving, weaving."
In the late summer and early autumn, the water was calm, the sand was clear and white, and a big yellow duck climbed ashore with a group of babies and swaggered past the eyes of the young wizards.
Because it had just returned from swimming in the water, the big yellow duck left a series of wet watermarks behind it. The little ducks flapped their wings, stepped on the marks left by the mother duck, and marched in a neat line.
They walked awkwardly through the weeping willow forest on the shore.
The slender branches of the weeping willows swayed together in the breeze, and the green willow leaves collided together, making a pleasant rustling sound.
The willow tree has not been pruned, and its thick branches bend hard towards the water, like worshipers showing their piety to the silent forest.
An old man leaned against one of the weeping willows and took a nap in the evening shadow.
This weeping willow stands next to a small pier protruding toward the water. A piece of bark in the middle of the trunk has been scraped off, revealing the white wood, with the four characters "Lishe" and "Wenjin" engraved in large black characters on it.
"It's a good sign." Zhang Jixin pointed to the word 'asking' and looked at his friends with a smile: "Maybe this is the right way."
He rushed to the old man first, but did not ask.
A large blue checkered cotton cloth was spread under the tree. The old man was holding a thick bamboo tube and leaning lazily on the bottom of the tree, squinting his eyes and sitting cross-legged.
As if he noticed someone in front of him, he raised his eyelids slightly.
Zhang Jixin took a step forward, sang Fat Nai, and asked in a rough voice:
"Excuse me, do you know how to get up to the school working committee building?"
While talking, other freshmen also came under the weeping willow.
The old man raised his eyelids and glanced at Zhang Jixin. He muttered for a long time and finally spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm.
Xiao Xiao patted his Dharma book and cleared away the phlegm stain left by the old man on the ground.
The old man grinned, chuckled a few times, and said in a hoarse voice: "No rush, no rush, just wait for now."
After hearing this, several people just stayed in place and waited quietly.
The old man stretched out his skinny and brown fingers, reached into the pocket on his waist, carefully pinched out a bunch of golden filaments, and slowly kneaded them into a small bamboo tube protruding from the side of the bamboo tube.
There was a gray-white handkerchief spread beside him, and a lot of things were placed on it.
After kneading the tobacco in, the old man's skinny fingertips slid over the bits and pieces, and finally picked up a black stone and a blade-like object.
He grabbed the stone with one hand and the black blade with the other, and rubbed them together heavily.
"Pah! Pah! Pah!"
The crisp knocking sound broke the tranquility by the waterside.
The weaver's cry suddenly stopped, and a group of ducklings not far away, led by the mother duck, quickly squatted in the grass and pretended to be dead.
A cluster of orange sparks burst out from the blade and onto the tobacco.
The tobacco pipe began to emit frequent green smoke.
The old man put his mouth to the bamboo tube and took a long breath. The sound of bubbling water in the bamboo tube continued for a long time.
"Are you smoking hookah?" Zheng Qing heard Lin Guo's quiet and curious question behind him.
"Maybe." Zhang Jixin rubbed his scalp and said boredly: "Why don't you use magic? With this slow method, it will take you an entire afternoon to smoke a cigarette."
"Puff."
A series of white smoke rings sprayed out from the old man's nostrils, large circles and small circles, interlocking, very funny, Zheng Qing couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The old man also laughed.
He knocked the small bamboo tube and brushed away the remaining cigarette ashes. After a pause, he took out the tobacco from the pocket on his waist.
What to do?"
"We still have something to do! It's very urgent!" Zhang Jixin turned around anxiously.
"Why are you in a hurry? Things don't come in a hurry. If you do it slowly, you can do everything well." The old man carefully rolled a new bunch of tobacco into the small bamboo tube, not missing a single tobacco. He was meticulous and slow.
The look made everyone a little crazy.
"Let me help you light your cigarette." Zheng Qing saw the skinny hand reaching for the gray-white handkerchief, and quickly pulled out a talisman from the gray cloth bag, and couldn't help but ask: "Why don't you use magic?
?”
"Spells?" The old man raised his eyebrows in surprise, shook his arms, and the flint and blade collided together again: "Isn't what I used a spell? Who said that spells must be cast by chanting incantations and patting Dharma books?"
As he spoke, the flint and blade smashed together, causing a string of golden sparks to burst out.
"But it's just ordinary flint and iron pieces!" Zheng Qing was confused.
"Alas, today's young people are so rigid-minded." The old man muttered, taking another long puff of hookah.
"Fire is originally the most powerful spell in this world!"
"What you take for granted is actually beyond the dreams of our ancestors."
"Today you see a book that can ignite fire, discharge electricity, make alchemy, make medicine, and create all kinds of magical effects, and then you say it is magic. Don't you know that a long time ago, our ancestors saw sparks coming out of wood?
, it will be regarded as a miracle! Throw away time, in fact, there is no magic in the world."
In the grass, a few little ducks could no longer bear the loneliness. They sneaked out from under the wings of the mother duck and chased a few jumping crickets.
In the gap, the weaver girl seemed to have adapted to the occasional knocking sound, and she started to 'weave, weave' again in her throat.
The old man smoked a few water pipes, shook his head, and finally lazily pointed to the building not far away and said: "It's almost done. Go in. Your destination is behind you."
"Behind?" Zhang Jigu turned his head and took a look. Sure enough, the building not far away revealed an entrance that looked like a grinning mouth. He cheered and ran away.
After thanking him, Xiao Xiao and others also left immediately.
Only Zheng Qing was left, looking behind him blankly, and it took him a while to react. He blushed, thanked the old man, and trotted to catch up with the figures in front of him.
Behind him, there was a burst of hearty laughter.
"This guy has a good chance." Lao Yao grabbed his pipe and it came out of nowhere. He puffed out the smoke with a smile and said to the old man.
"Hahahaha." The old man nodded with satisfaction, paused the chimney in his hand, pulled out a small handful of shredded tobacco, and laughed: "Well done, well done! Do you want some?"
"But I don't know if he really realized that the door is behind him!" Old Yao happily took the tobacco, stuffed it into his still smoking pipe, and said.
"It's good if you can see! What you can't understand is chance, but what you clearly understand is fate."
The sky was getting hazy, covering the two long figures and the faint smoke.