Chapter 4 Testing
After saying goodbye to Qu Yang, Liu Zhengfeng and Ou Zanghua slowly walked towards Liu's residence.

Old Liu looked at the apprentice beside him, and after a while he asked, "Don't you have anything to ask?"

"I want to hear what Master has to say first." Ou Zanghua said calmly.

"The one just now is my teacher's best friend, named Qu Yang, who is..." Liu Zhengfeng paused for a moment before continuing, "He is the elder of the Demon Sect."

As he spoke, he looked at Ou Zanghua nervously, fearing that his most proud disciple would get furious.

After all, good and evil cannot coexist in the martial arts world. As a famous figure of the Hengshan Sect, he has a close personal relationship with the high-ranking members of the Demon Sect. This is really destructive to one's worldview.

But Ou Zanghua does not care about the so-called good and evil in the martial arts world. The underwear of the evil cult is not clean, and the fig leaf of the righteous path is also full of dirt.

However, there were some things he still wanted to remind Lao Liu of, so he asked calmly, "Master, do you remember how your great master and great uncle died?"

Back then, the Sun Moon Divine Sect besieged Mount Huashan, and the other four great sword sects went to support it. As a result, Mount Huashan was saved, and the ten great elders of the Sun Moon Divine Sect all stayed on the top of Mount Huashan, while the masters of the four great sword sects were all killed or wounded.

Liu Zhengfeng's face turned pale, and he struggled to say, "Brother Qu has already planned to quit the Demon Cult."

"Oh"

Ou Zanghua nodded casually and said, "I shouldn't have said too much about Master's affairs."

He sighed and continued, "But I hope Master can pay a little attention to Uncle."

"What does this have to do with you, brother?"

Liu Zhengfeng frowned slightly. Mo Da's music was too desolate. In Lao Liu's opinion, such music was too narrow-minded and he didn't like it.

"Um"

Ou Zanghua pursed his lips and decided to make his point clearer: "In the past two years, Songshan Sect has been promoting a plan, which is to merge the Five Mountains. My Hengshan Sect has little influence, and it has always been Master who has faced the pressure alone. Even if Master does not get involved, he has no choice in the world. If the Songshan Sect finds out about making friends with the Demon Sect elders, it will be very troublesome."

Liu Zhengfeng was silent for a moment, then asked in confusion, "I know that the left leader of Songshan Sect has been acting arbitrarily in recent years, but I didn't expect that he hasn't given up on the merger of the Five Mountains. How did you know these things?"

Ou Zanghua looked at Lao Liu and said helplessly: "I am just studying, not ignoring everything."

"You actually have the energy to pay attention to what's going on in the martial arts world while you're studying?!"

"Is there a problem?"

Liu Zhengfeng was silent. He recalled a scholar he knew when he was young. He devoted himself to studying sage books every day and ignored what was happening outside the window. As a result, he took exams for 18 years and was still a scholar.

His disciple is only eighteen years old now, and has only been studying seriously for three or four years.

It seems that the difference in talent for studying is even more exaggerated than that for martial arts!

As long as you study hard and practice martial arts, you will see results.

Can you read?
"Master, as a famous figure in Hengshan and the head of the Liu family, every decision you make cannot be made just for yourself. You must also think about Master's wife, Qingqing, Xiaoqin, Da Nian, and Weiyi." Ou Zanghua said calmly.

In the original novel, these people were killed by the Songshan Sect because of Lao Liu's stubbornness.

Although the Songshan Sect is hateful, Lao Liu is not entirely without responsibility.

"Master naturally understands these principles, don't worry, Zanghua!"

Liu Zhengfeng thought about it and said stubbornly, "At worst, I can just retire from the martial arts world. Can the Songshan Sect force me to do that?"

Even though he is in his forties, is he still somewhat naive inside?

Ou Zanghua sighed secretly and was too lazy to say anything more, lest his master think that he was an extremely cruel person. Perhaps this is a common problem for people who engage in art!
But in this case, I need to work harder.

After they returned to Liu's house, they went back to their rooms to rest.

The housekeeper got up early, invited a troupe of actors, found more than ten chefs, bought a large amount of food, and set up fifty tables on the street behind Liu's house to entertain the people of the whole city.

As long as people come and say a few auspicious words, they can sit down and have a good meal. Ou Zanghua got up late, and when he finished practicing sword and walked out of Wu Garden, he found Xiang Danian and Liu Qing waiting at the door.

"Why are they all here?" Ou Zanghua asked with a smile.

Xiang Danian smiled naively and said, "I am following the master's order to protect Senior Brother."

"Good morning, senior brother!" Liu Qing said with a smile, "The housekeeper has invited a troupe to perform outside, and I want to go and watch it with you, senior brother."

"Oh? Has it started singing?" Ou Zanghua walked outside after hearing it.

"It should start, right? When I came in, I saw that they had already set up the stage." Liu Qing followed Ou Zanghua and walked out of the Liu residence together.

I saw that one end of the street was blocked by a stage. People who were having the buffet were holding their bowls, stuffing food into their mouths while looking at the stage, and shouting from time to time. It was quite lively.

On the stage, two actors, a man and a woman, were singing in a vivid manner. They looked young, about fifteen or sixteen years old.

Ou Zanghua stood at one side and watched, and found that the troupe was performing Hengzhou Huagu Opera, also known as Chemadeng.

This is a type of folk opera that has gradually developed on the basis of folk songs and ballads in southern Hunan, and is closely integrated with Hengyang's local lantern festivals, tea picking, and Nuo dances.

The singing style of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera requires clear and bright voice with the voice positioned forward.

At the same time, the singing is required to achieve the artistic conception of speaking, and to sing according to the words. It is not to sing for the sake of singing, but to use singing to beautify the language, strengthen the tone of the lyrics, and express the emotions of the characters.

The lyrics are easy to understand, with mixed local dialects and vivid images.

To put it nicely, it is full of the breath of life.

That sounds harsh.
After listening for a while, he found that the songs sung by these actors were mainly praising Liu Zhengfeng and himself.

In the eyes of these actors, Liu Zhengfeng is kind and generous, and chivalrous.

Ou Zanghua is unrivaled in talent and is as beautiful as Princess Pan An, who is seeking marriage.

Although it was true, he still blushed when he sang it in front of so many people, and couldn't help asking: "Why did you sing this? Isn't there any other script?"

"what?"

Xiang Danian was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "The script of the car lantern is improvised. There is no fixed lyrics. You can sing whatever you want."

"I see! That's quite interesting."

Ou Zanghua looked at the artists in the troupe who played suona, erhu, bangzi and small drums, and suddenly had an idea, so he said, "Junior sister, bring me some writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone."

"Okay!" Liu Qing responded, ran into the house, and took it out in a moment.

Ou Zanghua spread out a piece of white paper on the nearest table, recalled for a while, and wrote:

It’s a nice spring day with warm breeze and pink peach blossoms, green willows and fragrant grass.

I don’t like the gods of Da Nuo. I want to learn from the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd.

After passing one mountain after another, the dense jungle blocked out the sunlight.

Lovebirds are intertwined on the branches, and butterflies are in pairs in the morning window.
Liu Qing took a look and asked curiously, "Big Brother, what is the name of this poem?"

"This is not a poem," Ou Zanghua said as he wrote, "This is Huagu Opera."

As soon as these words were spoken, the people who had originally dared not to approach gathered around. Jie Yuanlang was actually writing Huagu Opera, that must be very exciting, right?

Even the actors who were singing "Chema Deng" on the stage stopped at some point and gathered around the table.

The housekeeper was also stunned after hearing the servant's report. His eldest master was the Wenquxing star in the sky, so how could he write vulgar flower drum opera?
Thinking of this, he hurried to find Liu Zhengfeng and told him the news.

(End of this chapter)