The spring rain lasted for several days, and white water vapor spread through the dense forest.
The old donkey happily swung its bald tail and stretched out its tongue to roll up the tender grass on the ground. The toad Taoist grabbed its two ears and hit it with its flippers to control its balance.
"I told you not to imitate me, but you still did!"
In the bookshelf, Nie Honglian was humming a cheerful tune. Occasionally, she would stretch out her arm and pick wild flowers from the roadside. A gentle breeze blew, and the petals fell off, floating behind her and landing on the dirty scholar's robe.
Lu Liangsheng held the flower petals between his fingertips, smiled, and followed behind with unsteady steps. He took the gourd from his waist, unscrewed the cork, tilted his head back and took a sip.
Only a little bit of coolness melts on the tongue.
"Uh, no more wine... It seems one gourd isn't enough."
Muttering to himself, Lu Liangsheng shook the wine stain into his mouth twice, and there was really no drop left.
To outsiders, Lu Liangsheng is just a drunkard scholar, and even a little mentally ill. But the toad and the female ghost on the old donkey know that the scholar is more sober than anyone else, he just wants to numb himself by drinking non-stop.
The song stopped, Hong Lian floated into the rain, and looked at Lu Liangsheng who was stumbling along.
"Sir, hurry up."
"Yes, I'll come."
Hearing the response, Nie Honglian looked at the toad on the donkey's head with some concern.
"Master Toad, will the young master be so depressed in the future?"
Compared to Hong Lian's worries, Toad Taoist doesn't care about his disciple's current condition.
"No problem, you don't understand men. Depression is only temporary, and this state is a great tempering for those who practice cultivation. Once you see through it and realize it, it will be different. I went through this in the past, quack."
At a certain moment, he thought of the woman buried in a certain mountain.
… After I’ve recovered my skills, I should go check it out. After so many years, I don’t know if it’s still there.
After thinking for a moment, the toad tied a wild vegetable to a rope, used a branch to support it, led the old donkey forward, turned back with bulging eyes and urged it loudly.
He came back to his senses and shook his head.
Alas, I am really worried about you.
The ghost and the toad didn't know that Lu Liangsheng had been drunk all the way, but he had never stopped practicing. Perhaps after the calamity of heavenly thunder, his practice of the righteous way of Qiankun had undergone some changes and had reached a bottleneck.
While flipping through the "Illustrated Records of Mountains and Seas" on the way, he gained some insights from paintings and texts as his cultivation gradually improved. He couldn't express this feeling in words, but he couldn't find it when flipping through other books.
"Could it be that... only the Shanhai Tuzhi book will work?"
Shaking off his chaotic thoughts, Lu Liangsheng's staggering steps were extremely steady. Even on a rugged road, he could walk on it as if it were flat ground. He heard Hong Lian's voice, "Hurry up."
“Here it comes!”
The scholar replied, waving his sleeves, and running forward with muddy steps. The moment he jumped up, he sat horizontally on the donkey's back.
The donkey's limbs could not bear the pressure and trembled. The toad above its head was quick-witted and grabbed the donkey's ears, then turned around and glared at it.
"Evil disciple, quack."
Uh-huh
The old donkey seemed to understand, sticking out his tongue, neighing and nodding.
Then the frog flippers covered it.
"Imitating me again!"
Hong Lian hid in the painting and chuckled, her laughter like a silver bell echoing in this mountain place whose name could not be called. The place was filled with mist, and human voices, donkey brays, female ghosts' chuckles, and toads' angry roars all passed by busily.
When we walked out of the mountains, it was already afternoon. The rain had not stopped yet, and the sound of flowing river could be heard in the distance.
Along this road, pedestrians and merchants can be vaguely seen coming and going on the official road. There should be a dock for crossing the river. It is too scary. Lu Liangsheng withdrew the spell to shelter from the rain. Unfortunately, there was no oil-paper umbrella in the bookshelf. The previous one was from Zhou's house.
"I've been so used to avoiding water that I almost forgot about paper umbrellas."
We led the old donkey across the river in the rain. The surface of the river was covered with vapor and looked white. This rainy day was not suitable for ferrying, so several passenger ships lowered ropes and tied them to the wooden stakes of the ferry bridge.
When Lu Liangsheng went over, there were seven people surrounding a boatman, talking about something in a buzzing voice.
"I really have an urgent matter, boatman, please help me." "... I also have an urgent matter. I haven't been home for three years. My wife gave birth to a big fat boy for me."
"That's right, boatman. You see, everyone is in a hurry."
Among the seven people, four were dressed as scholars, carrying bookshelves on their backs, looking at each other.
"I told you not to hurry on your journey, what are you doing now?" "Are you still blaming me? It was you who caused us to encounter the vixen last time, and as a result, the three of us failed the exam."
"That's right, but I think what the boatman said makes sense. The river is so steamy that it's too dangerous to sail."
“… It’s not like you’re in danger, why are you afraid?!”
…
Amid the chatter, Lu Liangsheng looked at the backs of the four people. He felt that they looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen them before. So he walked straight over to the old boatman and bowed.
"Boatman, I want to ferry you too."
The three people who spoke first shouted, "Old Captain, look, there's another business coming to your door."
The gray-haired old man looked at the eight people in front of him, especially the last scholar who came with a donkey. He was wet all over, as if he had walked a long way.
"This... everyone, it's really not suitable for sailing when it's raining and the humidity is heavy."
The old man looked at everyone hesitantly. As he spoke, a young man who looked like his son shouted from the deck of the sailboat behind him:
"Dad, when the steam clears, the customers will all go to other boats. We won't have any business left. I'm still waiting to get married."
well.
The boatman turned around, sighed, waved his hand to let his son lower the wooden ladder, and looked at the eight people.
"Everyone, let's get on board."
After discussing the boat fare, the seven people walked up the wooden ladder one after another.
"Hey, you let your son talk before you start the boat." "Father-in-law, don't be too cautious. It's great to make money."
Lu Liangsheng followed behind and took out the agreed price from his sleeve. The eight of them shared the money, which was only forty or fifty cents. However, he paid two shares, and the old donkey behind him also took one share.
After getting on the boat, there was basically no conversation. The four scholars gathered together and talked in low voices. If you listened carefully, they were just talking about academic things. The other three did not know each other. After getting on the boat, they found different places to stay.
After a while, the rain gradually subsided and the old boatman came out of the cabin carrying a large bowl. When he passed by everyone, he smelled the aroma of wine.
Lu Liangsheng naturally smelled it as well. He leaned against the side of the cabin door and slightly opened his eyes. He saw the boatman standing at the bow, kneading the food in the bowl with his hands. Grains of glutinous rice could be seen between the wine and the water.
One of the seven people asked curiously, "Boatman, what are you going to do?"
"Sacrificial water."
The boatman turned around and asked the young man on the boat to untie the rope. He kneaded the glutinous rice and mixed it with rice wine, and said with a smile:
"My dear guests, you may not know that there is a lot of knowledge in this river. If you venture out on a boat, you must offer some sacrifices to the gods and monsters that govern the river."
A scholar sat on the bookshelf, crossed his legs and laughed:
"So what if it's ghosts and gods? We are scholars."
The companion next to him came over and whispered, "Last time, the vixen..."
"roll!"
At the bow, the boatman threw the whole bowl into the water. He heard the sound of water "dong" coming from the mist in the distance and turned around with a smile.
"You scholars, of course, don't believe it, but I have been running on this river all my life, and I have seen everything I should see, and I have also seen everything I shouldn't see."
The few people who were waiting for the boat to depart with nothing to do became interested and someone urged them to go.
"What's there to not see in this river?"
"… hehe."
The boatman laughed and replied, "There are many, but there is one thing that I will never forget in my life... When I was 20 years old, I went fishing with my father...
… Suddenly, a strong wind blew up on the river, and the fog was thick. Then I heard a loud noise in the water. Guess what? A big fish, bigger than the boat we were on, suddenly rushed out of the water. The waves directly pushed my father and me into the water. We thought we were going to be eaten by a monster, but the big fish didn’t pay any attention to us and just kept fighting with someone in the fog.”
Lu Liangsheng closed his eyes, but was actually listening. This kind of strange anecdotes sometimes turned into stories, which were quite interesting to hear.
The toad lying on the donkey's head opened its eyes and snorted coldly.
"A defeated general."
Over there, the old captain continued speaking.
"… So, it turned out that a master was doing something magical. After injuring the fish monster, he also rescued me and my father…"
The toad closed its eyes and turned away.
"Two defeated generals."
At this time, the boatman stood at the bow and shouted: "Let's go!"
With the pole in hand, he pushed it into the water. The sailboat cut through the water, pushing away the ripples and heading into the diffuse mist.