Chapter 3 third quarter

"Anyway, Seimei, things are roughly like this..." Boya said. This is the residence of Abe Seimei located in Tsuchimikado Koji. The vegetation in the courtyard has been moistened by the rain in the rainy season and is lush and prosperous.At first glance, the courtyard appears to be completely untended. There is an orange tree beside the eaves. The pine trees there are twined with wisteria; this area is centered on the sweet-scented osmanthus trees. There are not only commelinas with small blue flowers, but also saprophyllum before flowering. There are clusters in the east and west.

In the dark night, wild flowers and plants emit a fermented smell in the night air.At night, after the heat of the day had subsided, the flowers and plants became more and more breathless. Boya and Seimei sat opposite each other in the corridor facing the courtyard. There is a basin between the two of them. On the basin is the wine bottle bought by Boya in Sanlun, and two wine glasses filled with wine.Next to the basin are the melons and fruits given to Boya by the mysterious old man during the day. There is another candle tray on the corridor, and a candle is lit on the tray. The summer insects are attracted by the flames and fly beside the bright light.Near the candlesticks were a few motionless moths resting in the hallway.

"call……" Qingming stretched out her white and slender fingers, raised the wine glass, held it to her mouth, and exhaled softly.Then, as if wanting to inhale the wind that just blew on the overflowing wine glass, he took the wine in his mouth. Abe Seimei - is an Onmyoji. "Qingming, what are you talking about? Do you know that old man?" Boya asked. "He claims to be Master Horikawa, right?" Seimei said in a low voice, putting the wine glass back on the plate. "do you know it?" "know……" "Who is that old man?" "Bo Ya, don't rush. I have to recall all kinds of past events first, and I can't sort them out right away."

"Is that so." Boya reached out and lifted his glass to his mouth. "The old man..." Qingming asked Boya, "Did he perform the melon breeding technique?" "Growing melons?" "It's a spell to plant melon seeds and make melons grow." "So that spell has a name?" "That's a spell commonly used by Daoist priests in the Tang Dynasty." "However, that spell is really wonderful." Boya said. "Hehe." Qingming smiled slightly with his red lips. "What are you laughing at? Qingming, do you know how to do that spell?"

"Say it will, but it will." "Really? How to do it?" Boya's expression was full of strong curiosity, and he looked at Qingming intently. Qingming stood up with a wry smile, walked to the yard, removed a short citrus branch extending from the yard to the porch, and returned to its original position. "You want oranges to grow from this branch?" "No." Qingming sat down, shook his head from side to side, and handed the branch to Boya. "look." "Look at the branches?" "Look at the leaves." "On the leaves?"

Boya took a closer look and found caterpillars the size of a thumb on the leaves, nibbling on the citrus leaves. "What happened to this caterpillar?" "Wait a while and it will cocoon into a chrysalis." "pupa?" "Look, it's about to spin." At some point, the caterpillar had already crawled to the branch under the leaves, spit out silk, and wrapped its body around the branch carefully, without moving. "Then it will become a chrysalis." After a while, the caterpillar slowly changes, and finally becomes a chrysalis. "Wait a while and the color will change too."

Before Seimei finished speaking, the caterpillars had begun to fade, gradually turning into brown pupae. "Look, the back will split." As soon as Seimei finished speaking, the back of the chrysalis made a slight sound, and it split open, revealing a black thing from the crack.The thing raised its head slowly. "Next will be a butterfly." A slit appeared in the head first, followed by the tail, and then the twisted and folded wings. The butterfly hangs upside down under the empty shell.The wrinkles on the wings straightened, and a pair of petal-like delicate, watery black large wings spread out.

"Going to fly." After Qingming finished speaking, the butterfly shook its body and wings, and flew lightly into the air. It was night now, but the black swallowtail butterfly was flying in the air, played under the eaves for a while, and finally flew into the night. Boya opened his mouth in a daze, staring at the night sky where the butterflies disappeared.After regaining consciousness, she turned her head and excitedly said to Qingming: "It's amazing! Qingming, you are really amazing!" "Are you satisfied with this?" "Qingming, what I just saw is a dream or reality?"

"It's a dream, but it's also reality." "How did you do it?" "That's what you see. Didn't you see and hear everything I did?" Seimei happily teased Boya, raised the wine glass to his mouth. Boya asked Qingming excitedly: "Even if you see it, you still don't understand things you don't understand." "Because you don't understand, you will be moved." "Instead of being moved, I'd rather know how you did it?" "Those things happen inside of you." "heart?" "Ok."

"You mean, nothing actually happened?" "Bo Ya, no matter how I explain it, the key to whether something happens or not lies in your heart." "Well, um." "Since you feel that it happened in your heart, isn't that all right?" "no." "Can't you?" "No..." Boya said again, "Oh, I see." "what do you know?" "That must have been done by you." "I?" "Yes, actually, the caterpillar didn't turn into a butterfly and fly away, but you made me think so." "Hehe." Qingming just smiled.

"Anyway, you must have cast some curse." "Ok." "The point is, the old man I met..." "Ok." "The old man said that he would come here tonight." "Tonight? That probably means that he will come before tomorrow morning. If so, there is still time before morning, so it should be fine." "What's the problem? Qingming, what is that old man going to do? Is he planning to do something shameful?" "Probably no problem. If we go out tonight, we should still have time." "In time? In time for what?" "The old man said he wanted to take a bamboo cage with him? There's no time to put it in." "Wait a minute, Qingming, I don't understand what you are talking about at all." "Don't worry, I'll tell you slowly on the way." "Say what?" "It's about the ins and outs of the old man." "Then what is the ins and outs of the old man?" "A lot, it's hard to describe in words. I was a little concerned about the weird commotion in the capital recently, and it happened that someone from a certain aspect asked me to come forward to solve it." "Oh?" "I roughly guessed the reason for the weird commotion, but after hearing the old man Horikawa's message, I was sure it was the case. Boya, are you going?" Seimei said. "Where are you going?" "Gojo Horikawa." "Horikawa?" "In Horikawa, there is the old residence of Miyoshi Kiyoyuki, and it is still there." "What happened to the old mansion?" "Didn't you hear that the old mansion is going to be demolished?" "You mean, the haunted house next to Horikawa?" "Ok." "I knew that. The haunted house fell into the hands of the emperor, and the emperor seems to be planning to let a noble daughter move in." "The daughter's father passed away, so the emperor has been busy copying scriptures since a few days ago. In order to win the hearts of women, that man is really diligent." "That man? Qingming, you don't mean the emperor, do you?" "It's him." "Hey, Qingming, I've said it before, you'd better not call the emperor 'that man' in front of others!" As if she didn't hear Boya's words, Seimei stretched her white hunting clothes and stood up. "Let's go, Boya." "Go to Gojo Horikawa." "That's right." "too suddenly……" "Aren't you going?" "Go, go!" Boya also stood up. "Walk." "Walk." And so it was decided.