Afterwards, they arrived at Hongmei Villa, where Meng Xiuyuan and Song Qingshu checked into the guest room under the warm hospitality of the housekeeper.
The Hongmei Villa occupies a vast area, the houses are exquisite, and the guest rooms are splendidly furnished. The couches and chairs are all covered with brocade cushions, giving the impression of luxury as far as the eye can see.
Anyone who looks at it can't help but admire it, what a wealthy family it is.
Song Qingshu grew up on Wudang Mountain since he was a child. He had just walked down the mountain twice, so his knowledge was not extensive, so he was a little surprised when he saw it.
Seeing that there was no one else around him, he didn't feel embarrassed, and frankly expressed his inner sigh to Meng Xiuyuan:
"Uncle Junior, have you seen it? The housekeeper who entertained us just now is wearing silk and satin, and the maid is wearing gold bracelets on her hands.
This is more expensive than other people's lords and ladies.
The Zhu family of Hongmei Villa is really rich..."
Meng Xiuyuan saw that he looked like a country bumpkin, but he didn't blame him. After all, it was not Song Qingshu's fault.
Although the Wudang Sect is now the largest sect in the world, because it was only established a few decades ago and was influenced by the character of Master Zhang Sanfeng, the entire sect is indeed not as financially wealthy as Shaolin.
There are many examples of this in the original work, so to avoid verbosity, I won’t list them all here.
Let’s just talk about Zhang Wuji. In the original work, after he arrived at Hongmei Villa, his performance was not as good as Song Qingshu at this time. He actually recognized the eldest maid in the family as a young lady, and made a lot of jokes, so that he finally said "
I never dreamed that there would be such a wealthy family in the world."
Meng Xiuyuan originally wanted to explain to Song Qingshu the purpose of coming to Hongmei Villa and ask him to help secretly investigate what the Zhu family was doing.
But at this moment, the maid's voice came from outside the door again, saying that her master Zhu Changling had something to do and wanted to invite two distinguished guests, Meng Xiuyuan, to come.
She led Meng Xiuyuan and the two of them through several halls and corridors, and came to the outside of a hall. They saw the words "Spirit Mastiff Camp" written flat on the forehead of the hall.
The air was filled with the smell of blood. When I peeked inside, I saw the corpses of more than twenty mighty and strong ferocious dogs lying on the ground.
When they saw that Zhu Changling had been waiting for the two of them in the hall for a long time, Zhu Jiuzhen knelt beside him, his head lowered and his expression unclear.
Seeing this situation, Meng Xiuyuan understood in his heart that Zhu Changling wanted to play a cruel trick.
Sure enough, as he expected, Zhu Changling first said something like, "It is unfortunate that such an unworthy daughter came into our family," and "It's all my fault for neglecting to discipline my children. It's too late for me to regret it." He looked very sad.
Then he began to plead, asking Meng Xiuyuan and Song Qingshu, two "chivalrous young heroes", to help discipline his daughter. If it was not too troublesome, the young people could get closer to each other so that the tainted influence on her could be corrected.
That bad habit of arrogance.
In response, Meng Xiuyuan did not refuse, but readily agreed.
After all, he didn't come alone. With Song Qingshu, a good nephew, by his side, he could delegate all the troublesome things to him, which would also give him some training.
So, from that day on, Zhu Jiuzhen came to see Meng Xiuyuan and Meng Xiuyuan from time to time. The reasons were different. Sometimes she wanted to invite them to enjoy flowers, and sometimes she wanted to ask them to teach her how to practice martial arts.
Every time, Meng Xiuyuan excused herself and asked Song Qingshu to accompany her.
Song Qingshu was a little shy at first, but once he did it more often, he soon lost his reserve and looked like he was enjoying it.
The two of them would often go out to play together early in the morning. It was not until after dinner in the evening that Song Qingshu came back with a look of unfinished expression on his face, sitting there and giggling in the air from time to time.
Seeing this situation, Meng Xiuyuan also knew that this silly boy had fallen into the hands of a girl, so he gave up asking him to help investigate the affairs of Hongmei Villa and only let him have a good relationship with Zhu Jiu.
I thought to myself that this trip to Hongmei Villa could be regarded as special training for Song Qingshu.
In the original work, the reason why Song Qingshu didn't care about his bright future and insisted on being a licking dog for Master Zhou, Meng Xiuyuan felt that the main reason was because this boy grew up in Wudang Mountain and had never seen any beautiful girls.
Nowadays, both of them are only eighteen or nineteen years old. They are in their prime of life and are in love with their youth. It would be a good thing for him to have a "bad woman" like Zhu Jiuzhen to temper Song Qingshu in the future.
As for Meng Xiuyuan himself, he is naturally not interested in this. All he is thinking about now is how to find the "Nine Yang Magic".
During the following period, Meng Xiuyuan would leave Hongmei Villa every morning for the reason of "understanding nature and honing his martial arts" and only returned in the evening.
During this period, I was naturally focused on looking for the "Snow Valley" mentioned in the original work.
To this end, he first followed the descriptions in the books in his memory, and after several searches, he found the "shelter" where they temporarily lived after Zhu Changling burned down the Hongmei Villa in order to deceive Zhang Wuji.
This shelter is about twenty or thirty miles away from Hongmei Villa. You have to go around two peaks and enter a valley before you can see the four or five huts.
Then with these huts as the center, Meng Xiuyuan began to search the surrounding peaks and canyons.
Although Zhang Wuji is said to be suffering from cold poison in the book and cannot run very far in one night, this place is in the Kunlun Mountains, surrounded by towering peaks, and there is no difference between them.
Therefore, it is really a time-consuming task to find the caves and snow valleys recorded in books.
Meng Xiuyuan knew that it was useless to rush the matter, so he calmed down and started searching carefully every day.
…
More than a week passed like this. One morning, Meng Xiuyuan had just finished breakfast and was about to leave Hongmei Villa. Unexpectedly, Zhu Changling was waiting in front of his door in person and blocked him at the door of the guest room.
"Zhu Zhuangzhu, what are you..." Meng Xiuyuan was a little confused by the situation.
Zhu Changling didn't explain much, just looked sad, and begged Meng Xiuyuan to be delayed for a while and go with him.
Although Meng Xiuyuan didn't know what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd, he had no reason to refuse and simply agreed.
So Zhu Changling took Meng Xiuyuan around several long corridors and arrived in front of an independent house. When he opened the door, he saw a spiritual altar placed inside.
Su Zhu had a high fever, and the memorial tablet read "The spiritual position of my sworn brother Zhang Gongtao Shao'an".
At this point, Zhu Changling spoke slowly:
"Meng Shaoxia, I'm really sorry for delaying your practice.
It's just that today happens to be the death anniversary of my sworn brother Zhang Shaoan. You killed the vampire demon with your own hands and avenged him, so I want to invite you to meet him.
Only then will he be able to understand who his great benefactor is..."
When Zhu Changling spoke, his voice was already choked with sobs.
Meng Xiuyuan had already said this. Although he knew he was acting, he couldn't help but admire his dedication and could only nod in agreement.
Zhu Changling then brought his wife and daughter to pay homage to his so-called sworn brother. Everyone knelt on the ground, weeping deeply, and looked sincere.
Zhu Changling muttered a lot in front of the spiritual throne, including how he received He Taichong's invitation a few days ago, learned about Wei Yixiao's whereabouts, how he wanted to kill Wei Yixiao but could not defeat him, and finally how Meng Xiuyuan suddenly fell from the sky.
, kill the Green Winged Bat King.
The key point is that Zhang Shaoan must be aware of the situation and be grateful for Meng Xiuyuan's kindness.
After a long time, the worship was completed, and Zhu Changling's wife and daughter left, leaving only Meng Xiuyuan and Zhu Changling in the room.
Zhu Changling's eyes were red at this time and his voice was hoarse. He first bowed deeply to Meng Xiuyuan, and then said slowly:
"Although my sworn brother is not related to me by blood, he is closer than flesh and blood to me.
Not long after Zhen'er was born, in order to avoid strong enemies, I headed west with my scroll, but my opponent still caught up with me on the way.
If it hadn't been for my sworn brother who risked his life to save me and killed the evil thief for me at the cost of destroying an eye, I'm afraid that all my family would have died long ago.
From then on, I only regarded him as my biological brother and wanted to honor him throughout my life.
But who would have thought that not long after that, when he was out on business, he encountered the vampire demon Wei Yixiao and died tragically under his fangs..."
Speaking of this, Zhu Changling couldn't help but hide her face and cry again, completely losing her usual temperament and demeanor.
When Meng Xiu saw this, he could only comfort him and persuade him to express his condolences.
Unexpectedly, after Zhu Changling cried for a while, he suddenly took out a book from his arms and handed it to Meng Xiuyuan respectfully with both hands.
Meng Xiuyuan took the book, was a little dazed for a moment, and asked subconsciously:
"Zhu Zhuangzhu, why are you doing this?"
Zhu Changling wiped away the tears on his face and said to Meng Xiuyuan sincerely:
"Meng Shaoxia, I really don't know how to repay your great kindness to me and my sworn brother.
Although my Zhu family can be considered a descendant of a famous family, in my generation, the descendants are incompetent and have declined somewhat.
These days, I have been thinking about it, and I feel that this is the only thing in my village that is worthy of a hero like you.
I hope you won’t refuse..."
Meng Xiuyuan felt even more strange when he heard this. He opened the book and took a look, only to find that it was actually a martial arts secret book.