The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#306 - Dogwood

Chapter 304: Wearing Cornel Everywhere

After leaving Li Village, Lu Jing didn't go too far.

The reason he asked Ma Liang to draw pancakes was not only to see if he possessed the legendary magic brush, but also to deliberately stir up trouble.

If Ma Liang was really related to the four cases on the files, then after encountering what happened today, he should be vigilant and realize that he was being watched. Therefore, Lu Jing wanted to wait and see if he would take any further action after nightfall.

However, after meeting Ma Liang, a trace of doubt did arise in Lu Jing's mind.

Mainly about the two thousand taels of silver.

Xin the Skinflint was previously swindled out of a huge sum of two thousand taels of silver using a Nine Dragon Treasure Basin. If Ma Liang did this, even if he found someone to partner with and split half of the silver to the seller of the basin, he would still have a thousand taels left in his hands. Logically, he shouldn't be short of money now.

In fact, if he really had a magic brush, how could he be short of money? With a casual stroke, mountains of gold and silver would be within easy reach. Why would he still value the two hundred taels of silver from drawing pancakes so much?

Of course, if one insisted on finding an explanation, it wouldn't be impossible to find an excuse.

Because the biggest difference between Ma Liang in the story and the emperor and the county magistrate is that after obtaining the magic brush, he has always been helping others, while the emperor and the county magistrate wanted the magic brush to satisfy their own selfish desires.

So perhaps one of the conditions for that strange object to function is that it cannot be used for the painter's own profit.

So, taking advantage of the time waiting for sunset, he took out the files again and looked through them.

Finally, he focused his attention on the part about Li Er's cow. At first glance, Lu Jing thought that Ma Liang couldn't bear to see Li Er lose his ox, so he drew his cow again.

But now, looking at it again, Lu Jing discovered a problem.

Those people or things that shouldn't have appeared in the other three cases, whether it was Han Erlang's wife who had been dead for many years, or the treasure basin that caused Xin the Skinflint to lose all his money, or the nine-tailed fox that scared Miao the Landlord unconscious, all eventually disappeared.

The one that existed for the longest time was Han Erlang's deceased wife, who delivered breakfast to Han Erlang for ten days. The Nine Dragon Treasure Basin stayed in Xin the Skinflint's hands for less than three days. As for the nine-tailed fox, the time from appearance to disappearance was even shorter, less than a day.

So Lu Jing now had reason to suspect that the time these people or things that shouldn't have appeared could exist in this world was also limited.

Otherwise, the power of that strange object would be too strong, it could simply defy the heavens and change fate. There was no reason for the Supervisory Office to leave such a thing to the students of the academy as an examination question.

And if this conjecture could be established, Lu Jing realized that he also had to rethink the relationship between the owner of that strange object and Li Er.

Especially the time when the cow appeared, which was exactly after Li Er went to report to the authorities, not only causing Li Er to be beaten, but now it seemed that he still failed to keep his cow.

Looking at it this way, that person was not only not a friend to Li Er, but probably had some grudges.

Lu Jing felt that he had vaguely grasped something, and just at this moment, a small pebble flew towards him!

Lu Jing didn't dodge or evade, letting the pebble fly to his face before reaching out to grab it.

This was the code between him and Yan Yun. The two were currently in a state of cooperation, keeping an eye on Ma Liang together. Yan Yun was responsible for keeping watch from sunset to the first half of the night, while Lu Jing was responsible for keeping watch for the second half of the night.

But now the sun hadn't completely set yet, and he didn't expect Yan Yun to send a message so soon.

Did Ma Liang reveal his true colors so quickly?

Lu Jing didn't have time to think too much, and used his qinggong. In just a few breaths, he had already landed in front of Ma Liang's residence again.

At this time, Yan Yun also jumped down from the tree.

"What happened? Did he run away?"

"No, but something is not quite right. The house is too quiet. No sound has been heard for a long time. It's still daytime, and he shouldn't be asleep so early," Yan Yun frowned.

Lu Jing's mind moved, and then he and Yan Yun walked to the outside of the thatched hut where Ma Liang lived, first knocking on the door twice, but no one answered. Then, Lu Jing used a little force and pushed open the closed door.

He discovered that the house was already empty.

Afterwards, the two searched again, but failed to find any secret passages or hidden doors in the house.

Ma Liang seemed to have suddenly evaporated from the world.

Lu Jing's gaze finally fell on the desk beside the bookshelf, and found that there was a half-finished autumn outing painting on the desk with ink that was not yet dry.

Then, he also found a writing brush on the ground. The tip of the brush was quite soft, obviously it had just been dipped in ink not long ago.

Lu Jing sighed, "Ma Liang may be in danger."

At this time, Yan Yun also thought of something, raised her eyebrows, "You suspect that he is a person in the painting, do you have any evidence?"

Lu Jing pointed to the autumn outing painting, "Many people in this picture are wearing cornel, which should be a scene of the Double Ninth Festival, and the Double Ninth Festival happened to be ten days ago. Counting it, it is the same time as Han Erlang's wife riding a goose away. So now I have reason to suspect that people or things born from that strange object can stay in this world for no more than ten days."

After a pause, Lu Jing said again, "Next, I plan to go find the owner of that thing. Do you want to split up with me, or…"

"We'll go together." Yan Yun said without much hesitation, "Saving people is the most important thing. You won this time's small competition. I set off a cup of tea earlier than you, but in the end you found Ma Liang first. When I find that strange object, I will explain it to Supervisor Huang myself."

"Haha, I don't really care about winning or losing. The main thing is that there is something I really want this time," Lu Jing scratched his head and said.

If someone else said such a thing, Yan Yun might not believe it, but perhaps because of the last martial arts competition, Lu Jing clearly could have won but still readily admitted defeat, and afterwards, this matter really didn't cause any waves in the academy, which made Yan Yun not doubt the truth of Lu Jing's words at this time.

The chief of Yunshui Jingci Pavilion also sighed secretly in her heart.

She originally thought that she didn't really care about these honors and empty names, but now it seems that this is perhaps more because no one in the younger generation has ever been able to truly threaten her, so she can also face everything indifferently.

In comparison, perhaps Lu Jing is the one who really doesn't care. He clearly has the opportunity to defeat her, but he can still be indifferent.

Yan Yun was a little envious of the unrestrainedness of the person in front of her. From Lu Jing, she couldn't see any pressure from the sect or others.