Chapter 372 The Picturesque World (5K)
Perhaps because she knew Jiang Lin would not stay here forever, Ma Ningyan began to restrain her temper.
She did not marry, but began to learn horse riding, archery, and various martial arts.
Because she remembered that although her grandfather Malu was a scholar, he was known as unfilial because of this.
Come to think of it, Grandpa Hong probably doesn't like scholars either.
In addition, Ma Ningyan also used the way her father was an official to join forces with Yu'er's adopted sons and daughters, and worked hard to expand her influence while doing business.
Year after year, the two families became more and more famous.
One family is rising rapidly in the officialdom, and the other is going further and further on the business road.
The only thing that hasn't changed is that they come to the blacksmith shop at least three times every year to meet Jiang Lin.
In this way, in the ninety-second year when Jiang Lin came here, even Malu's eldest son and second son had died of old age.
Today, the youngest son Ma Chengzhun has the highest official position in the Ma family, ranking third.
But the person with the most say in the family is Ma Ningyan.
After years of planning and maneuvering, it was Ma Ningyan who was constantly working behind the scenes, which gave Ma Chengzhun hope to compete for a second-grade official.
Yu'er's several adopted sons and daughters also contributed a lot.
Of course, their efforts were not in vain.
The relationship between the two families is very good, and the Ma family has benefited from the promotion of officials and nobles.
On this day, Ma Ningyan accompanied Jiang Lin to pay homage to Ma Tiejiang and his wife, and then went to the cemetery to pay homage to Yu'er.
There is a dedicated person responsible for cleaning, making everything smooth, and it is repaired and cleaned every year.
Decades later, not only has it not been damaged at all, but it has become increasingly refined.
Regardless of the tall tombstone, just think of it as a garden.
Jiang Lin stood in front of the tomb and watched Ma Ningyan carefully wipe the tombstone. Further inside, Yu'er's adopted son and daughter were adding soil and pulling weeds.
【Tomb of Xie Hongyu】
Below is the year he was born and the day he died.
After Ma Ningyan finished wiping the tombstone, she came back and asked, "Grandpa Hong, do you think this is okay?"
Ma Ningyan, now forty-three years old, looks much more mature.
Because she has never been married, she still wears her hair loose and does not pull up her hair in a woman's bun.
Compared to many years ago, Ma Ningyan now exudes a heroic aura.
She is very talented in martial arts and can learn everything very quickly. Even three or five ordinary strong men cannot get close to her.
Even Yu'er's adopted sons and daughters learned a few tricks from her.
"Very good." Jiang Lin nodded slightly and stared at the tomb in front of him. He looked a little lost and didn't know what he was thinking.
After a long time, Yu'er's adopted son and daughter cleaned up the surroundings and came over to follow him to burn paper and worship.
After showing his filial piety, Jiang Lin said: "Come with me for a walk on the street."
"Yes." Ma Ningyan came over and took his arm skillfully as always, not caring about other people's eyes.
In her eyes, Jiang Lin is her relative, the same relative as her grandfather.
All the way to the street, Jiang Lin stopped and walked.
Over the past few decades, the place has changed a lot. Many houses have been renovated and the people have also changed.
The old man selling candied haws on a stick has been dead for many years and will never be seen again.
The group of children who gathered around the old man asking for candied haws on a stick are now middle-aged.
Jiang Lin walked all the way and finally stopped in front of the bun shop.
The bun shop was closed today, and a young man was hanging a white cloth on the door.
Jiang Lin walked over and asked, "Where is your father?"
The young man turned around and saw Jiang Lin and jumped down from the stool. He looked gloomy and said in a sad tone: "Master Hong, my father left yesterday."
Jiang Lin was not surprised. The bun shop owner had been ill for a long time, and when he came, he could no longer see his breath.
Jiang Lin, who expected this result, nodded slightly and said: "My condolences."
"Thank you, Master Hong, for supporting our business over the years. I wonder if you will have time to see my father off when he is about to be buried?" the young man asked.
Jiang Lin was noncommittal and said, "We'll see when the time comes."
It's not easy for young people to ask questions. Jiang Lin is a legend here, he has lived the longest, and he has never changed.
Many people said that he had immortality.
Jiang Lin left the bun shop and continued walking forward.
Ma Ningyan was a little surprised. In the past, Jiang Lin only stayed at the bun shop, but today it seemed a little unusual.
She felt a little uneasy and couldn't help but recall Jiang Lin's words many years ago about the possibility of leaving.
Could it be... is it now?
Thinking of this possibility, Ma Ningyan took Jiang Lin's arm and couldn't help but push harder, as if this could keep him.
Jiang Lin could feel the change in her strength, but didn't pay attention.
They walked forward, and after a long time, they reached the end of the street.
This is an area that Jiang Lin has not set foot in for decades. The restaurant in front of him is brand new and bright.
The waiter's voice, the guests' shouts, and the shopkeeper's greetings all come and go.
Cups and cups were mingling, people were buzzing, and it was extremely lively.
Jiang Lin looked at the shopkeeper behind the counter and asked, "Have you seen him?"
"No." Ma Ningyan shook her head first.
The three people behind him also shook their heads.
"Why haven't you seen it?" Jiang Lin asked again.
Several people were stunned by the question and didn't know how to answer.
If you haven't seen it, you haven't seen it. There's no reason why.
"I have seen him." Jiang Lin's eyes gradually brightened: "Decades ago, he was standing there, holding a pen in one hand and greeting regular customers with the other."
Jiang Lin pointed at the waiter running around the store and said, "He just fell down, his food was scattered on the floor, and he was scolded a few times."
Ma Ningyan and the others looked into the store and saw that the waiter was all wet and looked like he had been spilled by drinks.
Jiang Lin pointed to a couple by the window and said: "They just finished their quarrel and haven't reconciled yet, so they are speechless."
"The wild cat at the door lingered for a long time and was chased away by children several times."
"The first row of roof tiles, the thirteenth tile from east to west, is a little loose."
“The sound of poetry chanting in the private room on the second floor is still loud.”
Ma Ningyan and the three men and women, who were already in their seventies and eighties, looked at each other, and they were all a little confused.
Ma Ningyan couldn't help but ask: "Grandpa Hong, what are you talking about?"
Jiang Lin turned to look at her, and Ma Ningyan saw those bright eyes, no longer as confused as before.
The look in his eyes made Ma Ningyan feel a little strange, and she couldn't help but let go of Jiang Lin's hand.
"Everything I saw decades ago has not changed, because I have never been here since, and they have no breath to connect with me."
"The old man who made Tanghu Lu passed away, and the vendor at Baozi Shop also passed away. Many people are gone, and things and people have changed, because I have been by their side these years."
Jiang Lin's voice was clear and his eyes were getting brighter: "Everything I have seen has changed. What I haven't seen has not changed."
"I've always wondered why."
"Why does my existence affect all of this."
Ma Ningyan seemed a little scared and said: "Grandpa Hong, what on earth are you talking about."
Jiang Lin smiled at her, raised his hand, and grabbed it into the distance.
I saw that the scenery he captured became distorted and extremely unnatural at this moment.
Jiang Lin felt great resistance, and his whole body seemed to be pressed down by a mountain weighing tens of millions of kilograms, but his expression did not change at all and his voice remained calm.
"This is not the world of mortals, nor the human world."
"I'm not who I am."
Jiang Lin looked at Ma Ningyan: "You are not you either."
He looked at Yu'er's adopted son and daughter again: "They are not them either."
"This is a painting in my heart, painting everything in the world."
"I am a painter, and I am also the pen. The place I am in will change. The places I have not been to are not stained by the pen and ink, so they will not change."
Ma Ningyan's face was full of astonishment and she said: "Grandpa Hong, what's wrong with you? Why are you not you? We are not us? How can we be paintings?"
Jiang Lin shook his head slightly: "The painting I am talking about is not the painting you know, but the vicissitudes of life that are outlined with time as the pen and the world of mortals as the ink. Only now do I understand who I am and what I am here to do." What.”
Ma Ningyan subconsciously took a step back and asked with a blank look on her face: "Aren't you Grandpa Hong..."
"I am and I am not."
Jiang Lin's eyes gradually revealed a faint light, which was gold and red.
His aura began to rise continuously, like bamboo shoots springing up after the rain. It pushed away the boulders that were pressing on him, facing the spring wind and rain, and began to rush higher and higher crazily.
"I am Jiang Lin, here to witness the various changes in this world."
"I am also Hong Chen, and I have personally traveled in this world of mortals for hundreds of years."
Threads of breath come from Ma Ningyan, from Yu'er's adopted son and daughter, from the people in the restaurant, from the Ma family's house, from the bun shop, and from the countless people who are related to Jiang Lin in this world. Or things are going crazy. When enough of these auras accumulated, Jiang Lin felt an unusual change.
That is a power that is purer, more mysterious, and more incredible than Xuan Qi.
His eyes swept over Ma Ningyan and the others, and his body seemed light and airy at this moment.
In the dark, he sensed a hint of mystery.
"It turns out that what I was looking for was the Tao."
Jiang Lin's body was floating in the air. Both Ma Ningyan and Yu'er's adopted son and daughter had faces full of shock and panic.
Ma Ningyan seemed to realize something. She raised her hand to grab Jiang Lin's body.
The panicked shouts were clear to my ears.
"Grandpa Hong, I am not a painting, I am Ning Yan! Don't leave, don't leave!"
Jiang Lin lowered his head. He had remembered everything and knew his origins.
Although I already understood in my heart that this world is not real, but a world of mortals that I unexpectedly stepped into after realizing something in my heart.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
But looking at Ma Ningyan with tears in her eyes, he couldn't help but think of Ma Blacksmith and his wife, Ma Lu, and Yu'er.
It took decades for the life of the bun shop owner and candied haws seller to prove that the world is like a picture.
But at this moment, Jiang Lin was in a daze.
Is it really just painting?
Ma Ningyan cried with a strong voice. She tried her best to stretch out her hands towards Jiang Lin's rising figure.
On the day when Malu left, she cried for a long time, knowing that her grandfather would never come back.
But then she was happy for a long time because she knew that Grandpa Hong Chen seemed to never die.
But now, she knows she was wrong.
Grandpa Hong may not die, but he will leave here and never come back.
Over the years, Ma Ningyan has been working hard on various things, hoping to use these things to divert her attention.
She didn't want to think about what would happen if Grandpa Hong left one day.
"Grandpa Hong, I am real...I am real..."
The sound of crying was like that of an abandoned child, so sad and full of fear.
Jiang Lin lowered his head and looked at the woman who fell on the ground, vaguely as if he had returned to decades ago.
"Are you Grandpa Hong Chen?"
The little girl standing in front of the blacksmith shop, looking at him timidly, was crying so hard that she could no longer stand up.
"This is not true..."
Jiang Lin closed his eyes and clenched his fists slightly.
All this is just a false picture that he realized!
But the crying in my ears continued one after another.
When Blacksmith Ma left, he didn't say a word and was extremely silent.
When the master's wife Lu Yinghong left, she talked a lot about how she missed the past.
When Malu left, he also said a lot. He regretted that studying had brought him the reputation of being unfilial.
When Yu'er left...
Even now, Jiang Lin still remembers that sentence.
"Brother Chen, can you teach me how to live forever?"
Yu'er had no fear, no regrets, and no pain.
But the regret she left behind is the most unforgettable.
What Ma Ningyan left for Jiang Lin was different from these.
She was like a child, looking at the figure that abandoned her and getting further and further away, standing on the street and crying helplessly.
"Grandpa..."
"Grandpa..."
The calls one after another made Jiang Lin's eyelids tremble.
Until a shrill cry sounded: "Grandpa! I want grandpa!"
That's what happened to Ma Ningyan the day Ma Lu left.
Jiang Lin opened his eyes suddenly and looked down at the woman who was vomiting blood and lying on her back. The veins on her forehead suddenly bulged.
Damn it!
It's obviously a painting in the human world, why can't I let it go!
Knowing that all this is false, why are you still so concerned?
Ma Ningyan, whose mouth was constantly dripping with blood, had a face as golden as paper. The aura on her body was rapidly fading and was about to disappear.
Jiang Lin could clearly feel that her heartbeat had been severed.
At this moment, he really couldn't explain or understand how he could be so sad if he really was the person in the painting.
"This girl is really..."
After all, Jiang Lin is still the Jiang Lin who values friendship and cannot sit back and watch someone who has been with him for decades die like this.
He sighed heavily and that was all.
Even if it is a painting, it should have a happy ending.
After a pause in the sky, Jiang Lin turned around and was about to fall to the ground. If he wanted to leave, he should at least revive her, otherwise he would be in trouble all day long if he thought about this.
At this moment, Jiang Lin suddenly felt a huge sense of oppression coming from behind him.
He turned around suddenly, and what he saw made his pupils shrink violently.
I saw a figure bigger than a mountain on the very far sky, falling straight towards this side.
The figure seemed to have come from ancient times, with a destructive aura that covered half of the sky.
It's huge and unbelievable, and its body even creates an irresistible gravitational pull that makes it impossible for people to avoid even if they want to.
Seeing the huge figure approaching in an instant, Jiang Lin waved his hand toward the ground without thinking.
This palm brought his understanding of the way of the world, turning it into a strange power that had never been seen in this world, and poured it into Ma Ningyan's body.
Yu'er's three adopted sons and daughters, who supported Ma Ningyan, were also affected.
Their bodies froze and they felt this strange power rushing through their bodies.
Before they had time to react, the remaining power sent them flying away.
Jiang Lin caught a glimpse of several people leaving from the corner of his eye, and then turned back, when the figure had bumped into him.
Jiang Lin, who had no time to escape, had a bright light flash in his eyes.
He was not afraid, nor did he retreat. Instead, he gathered all the power he felt into his fist and punched the huge body that covered the sky and the sun.
The unparalleled power made the whole world tremble, as if it could not bear such power.
The moment the fist collided with the huge figure, a deafening roar erupted. The space seemed to be torn apart, and the surrounding air surged wildly, forming whirlpools visible to the naked eye.
The rays of light were so dazzling that people could not look directly at them. Even the distant heaven and earth were blurred by the impact of this force.
But this punch had no effect on the body.
Just like an egg hitting a hard iron block, Jiang Lin groaned in just a moment.
This earth-shaking punch instantly caused him internal injuries.
But the next moment, he felt a sudden lightness in front of him.
No, it's not easy, it's just that he has passed through the figure, and the remaining power is hitting the void in front of him.
In an instant, the whole world shattered like a mirror.
Jiang Lin only had time to glance out of the corner of his eye and saw that the unimaginably huge body had hit the ground hard, kicking up countless dust.
Just the force of landing was countless times more terrifying than his punch.
Ma Ningyan and the others...
Just as Jiang Lin's mind came to his mind, the scene in front of him suddenly changed. He saw the shopkeeper of the watchtower standing in front of him with a look of shock on his face, and several people from the world who fell to the ground.
The eyes they looked at Jiang Lin were full of fear, as if they had seen something terrible.
"Sir, sir..." The shopkeeper trembled.
Jiang Lin had no intention of paying attention to them and immediately turned his head to look behind him.
I saw that the almost illusory human world was rapidly dimming, but what was different from before was that the figure that stirred up boundless dust still existed in it.
Jiang Lin suddenly stretched out his hand to grab it, but the world faded very quickly, and was easily penetrated like a burst bubble.
In the blink of an eye, everything disappeared, only Jiang Lin's chaotic aura remained.
"Condensing smoke!"
Jiang Lin's eyes widened and he clenched his fists, although he always firmly believed that it was a picture of the human world and everything was not real.
But can decades of experience really end with the words of a painting?
Others may be able to, but Jiang Lin cannot.
Especially the last scene he saw made Jiang Lin feel what is truly unstoppable!
His chest rose and fell violently, showing the extreme turmoil in his heart, and he couldn't help mumbling to himself.
"Falling..."
"What exactly?"
(End of chapter)