Among the people once dominated by Xu Qing, there was gnashing of teeth in resentment, and they wished that the constables from the Government Office would throw this descendant of the Xu Family into jail until after the New Year...
Perhaps it was the public resentment boiling over, stirring up the heavens and earth, for a group of government officials indeed pushed their way to the front of the opera stage, surrounding the grandson of the old Xu Family.
Leading the government officials was the grandson of Zhao Yuan, who by family generation should call Zhao Zhonghe "Second Uncle."
Upon seeing Xu Xuan, Linjiang's constable Zhao Ping was visibly delighted, stepping up and grasping Xu Qing by the arm, saying that their ancestors had fate.
Xu Qing asked, in what way are they fated?
Zhao Ping chuckled and said, "Your grandfather was an old acquaintance of my grandfather, and had a life-and-death bond with my second uncle. Your grandfather even once held me back then!"
Xu Qing looked at the tall man in front of him, indeed inheriting the genes of the old Zhao Family, but he distinctly remembered he had never held Zhao Ping, only Zhao Ping's father, Zhao Wenxing.
However, one does not strike a smiling face, and Xu Qing still cheerfully called Zhao Ping, Brother Zhao.
Truth be told, the people of the old Zhao Family were quite nostalgic and loyal, and Xu Qing pondered that perhaps one day he could bring the Xuantan True Monarch from the underworld into the mortal world to meet his great-grandnephew for a chat.
By then, Zhao Ping would address his own Great Uncle as "little brother"—what a warm scene!
Hearing Xu Qing call him brother, Zhao Ping was overjoyed. But before he could relish it for long, he heard his newly minted brother say: "Brother Zhao has extensive connections and knows many people. In the future, I hope you can introduce some customers. I just took over the shop and am in need of patrons..."
"Sure, sure."
Zhao Ping laughed it off, not daring to truly promise anything.
Beneath the stage, public resentment grew even stronger.
This was unmistakably collusion between government and business, blatant and bare-faced!
On the stage, Xu Qing unveiled the red banner with white letters that had been prepared in advance, which read 'Funeral Shop New Year's Special, Everything Half Off,' glaringly eye-catching.
If it were on a normal day, just this ominous banner would have driven off half the audience, but today was different.
The fame of Liu Qingyi was intensely hyped, so much so that the storytelling masters in the teahouses claimed the opera community's new mainstay was a century-rare lead in opera.
Just to hear the so-called century opera sound, even touching a bit of bad luck was worth it!
In the backstage dressing room, Xu Qing watched Liu Su'e, made up as the female lead, and laughed, "Boss Liu, surely you won't be singing that lament-for-the-lost-husband routine today, will you?"
Previously, when Xu Qing's funeral took place, the mourning disciples held a day-and-night ghost opera special for him, and Liu Su'e was in peak form, singing the lamentations of Yu Ji crying for the Hegemon King, and the Tears of the Desolate Mountain, masterfully!
That opera moved so many to tears, those uninformed might have thought the deceased Shopkeeper Xu was someone dear to the lead actress on stage.
But unfortunately, Liu Su'e was not Daoist Yizhen. Upon hearing Xu Qing's teasing, Boss Liu not only didn't feel embarrassed but instead leaned forward with glowing eyes, saying, "Since the gentleman calls himself the late husband, then who is the late wife?"
"..."
Seeing Xu Qing refuse to answer, Liu Su'e pulled herself back, giggled, and said, "Today I won't sing that lament-for-the-lost-husband routine, if I sing it will be the 'Red String Opera.'
The Red String Opera refers to the opera of Red String Red Chamber, Liu Su'e finished speaking and did not forget to cast her long silk sleeve at Xu Qing, as if treating the sleeve as the red thread connecting the two of them.
Xu Qing, quick-eyed, grabbed the long silk sleeve measuring several feet, pulling the person at the other end over.
Liu Su'e cried out in surprise, and before she realized it, she was before the Sect Leader.
Xu Qing looked at the tightly-wound Boss Liu and grimaced, saying: "Stop this cheekiness, or I'll send you to the Five Elders Temple to be a Taoist nun for life, observing the precepts eternally!"
Liu Su'e broke free, took several steps back, almost glaring round-eyed at Xu Qing.
"The Sect Leader certainly favors this!"
"..."
Favor what? Clarify what you mean!
Xu Qing frowned deeply, not yet prompting a question before seeing Boss Liu's eyes shift tenderly, and said: "But if the gentleman desires, becoming a Taoist nun isn't out of the question."
After speaking, Liu Su'e pursed her lips into a smile, simultaneously raising both hands with the silk sleeves, treading light fragmentary footsteps towards the stage.
Xu Qing shook his head, this Boss Liu surely was an actor, but her words were even more outrageous than that fox from Qingqiu.
Leaving the opera troupe's backstage, Xu Qing returned along the streets, seeing a figure standing before the incense candle workshop ahead.
The incense candle workshop was on the necessary route through Underground Street. Xu Qing looked at the elderly figure and just as he was about to approach, he saw the other face, panic stricken, turn and leave.
Because of age and frailty, the other could only walk unsteadily back into the workshop.
"Hurry up and help me back!"
The maid accompanying the elderly lady didn't understand but complied with the mistress's orders to retreat.
From a distance, Xu Qing watched the figure before the incense candle workshop, deep in thought.
Upon returning to Underground Street, Xu Qing casually mentioned the sight in front of the incense candle workshop to Xuan Yu.
Xuan Yu looked Xu Qing up and down, saying, "The Xu Immortal Family is foolish! Xu Xuan is the young Xu Qing, but the Wang Family's Little Sister is not the young Wang Little Sister."
"The Xu Immortal Family doesn't understand mortal sentiments."
Seeing Xu Qing's silence, Xuan Yu turned to say, "Earlier a Zhang-named Daoist from Three Stage Peak came to visit, the Xu Immortal Family wasn't here, so he left word that he was staying temporarily at the Wanbao Inn..."
"Three Stage Peak? Likely the master of Zhang Shufang, Zhang Pingsheng, that Daoist Zhengyi."
Xuan Yu knew the new Celestial Master at the Celestial Master's Mansion, several months ago when Xu Qing had his funeral, that Celestial Master along with the monks held an Exorcism Ceremony for the Xu Immortal Family.
"Is the Xu Immortal Family going to Wanbao Inn?"
Seeing Xu Qing rise and head out of the shop, Xuan Yu casually asked.
"Why search for him? He, a Primordial Spirit True Man with longevity surpassing a turtle, I'm in no rush to find him."
Xu Qing casually replied:
"I'm going to the incense candle workshop, to see an old friend."
Xuan Yu watched Xu Qing, their tail flicking, wondering what was going through their mind.
When the Xu Immortal Family's figure vanished at the shop doorway, the cat on the counter suddenly shifted into a human form and muttered:
"Still not too dull..."
...
At the incense candle workshop, a beauty in her twilight years gazed up at a lonely mountain painting she had drawn decades before, lost in thought.
At the doorway, a young figure appeared unnoticed.
That young man gazed at the painting hanging on the wall, asking: "What is this painting? What captivates you so?"
A familiar voice, a familiar smile.
Wang Yue'e trembled all over, her eyes filled with fear and helplessness.
No daughter doesn't love beauty, especially when facing someone dear.
But now, the Wang Family's Little Sister had become a grey-haired relic of the past, while the person before her remained the picture of youth—how could she cope?
"Since the gentleman has already departed with the cranes, why come seeking me..."
Xu Qing didn't respond to Wang Yue'e's words, he walked to the painting, where the water flowed and the mountains rose, yet the scene was singularly lonely.
On one side of the painting, delicate characters etched a short poem:
Your heart like flowing water, my intention as the lonely mountain.
The lonely mountain may yet fall, but when will the water return?
"..."
Xu Qing had no words to offer.
"The gentleman shouldn't overthink, I merely penned this poem in youthful ignorance, it held no deeper meaning."
Xu Qing gazed at the painting and suddenly sighed:
"A beauty like a poem, the river a fool, beauty cannot endure empty longing, distant life cannot resist profound grief."
The poem originally had a continuation, saying: The hardest to bear is a beauty's grace, an autumn's gaze retains one the most. Though the lotus may break, the thread still binds, lightly sighing for worldly matters' many changes...
Xu Qing produced a drop of Three Lives Stone dew, saying: "Swallow this dew, it will have you remember the memories of three lives and three worlds in your next life. If you fear not the hardship of cultivation, nor the difficulty of seeking fate, then consume this dew."
"But..."
Xu Qing earnestly said: "Cultivation is like lonely mountains and flowing waters, if you truly embark on cultivation, all ties with the Zhao Mansion will sever."
Yet, as Xu Qing finished his words, he saw the 'young lady of the Zhao Mansion' swallow the dew in one gulp.
"Since it is a lonely mountain, then I have no other thoughts."
Lastly, Xu Qing heard the old lady say:
"But Yue'e must tell the gentleman in advance—
Today's water may return, then tomorrow's mountain naturally falls."
"..."
This straightforwardness...
Xu Qing felt his funeral shop might catch fire some day.