Chapter 28 Section VII

"So, five days ago, you traveled across the Tenjin River?" Qingming asked. Fujiwara nodded in acknowledgment. Everyone was in a dark room with only one lamp lit.For the sake of help, the followers avoided, so there were only Abe Seimei, Yuan Hiroya, and Fujiwara as assistants in the room. The shutters were closed, and the moonlight shining on the courtyard could not be reflected into the room. There was only the light of a small lamp in the room. "I heard that there is a cherry tree in full bloom in the direction of Saga on the other side of the Tenjin River, so I went to enjoy the flowers."

Three bullock carts and several attendants.Everyone prepared good wine and delicious food to fill their stomachs, and set off from the mansion before noon. People spread straw mats and felts under the cherry blossom trees, let the musicians play the piano or flute, and enjoy the flowers to pass the time. Then, the weather turned cold. On this day, the sky is very cloudy, and the sun is often covered by clouds and darkened.In the afternoon, the wind blows again, and the temperature on the surface of the skin decreases, making people feel cold. Although they brought enough firewood to boil water, they did not have enough firewood to keep warm.

Coincidentally, a hawker selling firewood came.He tied up the cuffs of his narrow-sleeved casual clothes diagonally, pulled up his skirts, and wore a straw hat on his head. According to the peddler, he picked up firewood in Mount Saga and was planning to bring it to the city to sell. "Then just buy them all." Wei Fu bought all the firewood brought by the hawker. Afterwards, everyone lit a fire under the cherry blossoms and drank to keep warm. Soon, a wonderful old man came.The clothes on the old man looked like white public official clothes, but they were in tatters and there were cracks everywhere.

"Can I have a glass of wine?" the old man asked. Everyone looked up at the old man, only to see that the old man's cheeks were twitching convulsively, and his throat was wriggling up and down as if he was gulping down a drink. Although everyone brought wine, but not a lot. "Please, a cup..." Even the voice trembled like a cramp.Not only was the old man's clothes dirty, his face was covered with dirt wherever he could see, and there was even a foul smell coming from his body. "No." Wei Fu refused. "Don't talk like that, please, just a glass..."

The old man kept pestering him, and refused to leave even though he was rejected. A follower who was poking the fire took out a piece of red charcoal from the campfire and threw it at the old man.The charcoal fire flew into the old man's arms. "hot!" The old man yelled and rolled on the ground, finally rolled out the charcoal fire and left. The crowd continued to drink.After a while, I saw a snake slithering on the felt. I don't know whether it was the temperature of the campfire that revived it, or it crawled out of a certain cave. The snake crawled to the wine glass resting on the felt, sticking out its tongue, trying to suck the wine in the wine glass.

Weifu was taken aback, so he stabbed the snake's head with the red-hot chopsticks in his hand.The fire chopsticks pierced the snake's left eye. "Wow!" With a loud cry, Weifu threw the fire chopsticks and snake in his hand, but both fell into the nearby grass. The cherry blossoms are indeed extremely spectacular, but the incidents of the old man and the snake happened one after another, so he lost his interest, so he went back early. "Recalling carefully, it was that night that the old man began to appear beside his pillow." Wei Fu said. "The old man who asked for the wine and the old man who appeared beside the pillow are the same person?"

"You are right, Seimei-sama. But why haven't I noticed this until now?" "Probably the other party cast a curse on you, so you won't notice it." "Then, why can I detect it now?" "Because the other party temporarily changed the target of the attack to someone else." "other people?" "It is Yuan Boya here." "What?" Wei Fu looked at Boya. "I'm also baffled, but it seems that things have become like this." Boya said. "Are you okay?" Wei Fu asked. "For this matter, I would like to ask Mr. Fu for a favor." Seimei said.

"What's up?" "Can we have two bottles of wine?" "Wine? Why?" "I want to drink with Boya." Qingming replied.