The bells are jingling...
My body felt light and floating, with a feeling of ups and downs.
Hearing human voices, Lu Liangsheng woke up in a daze. Soft sunlight came into his field of vision, and the blurry figures walking around him gradually became clearer, and voices were also heard.
"Liangsheng has woken up."
"Fortunately, I'm fine."
"... Liangsheng, what happened last night? We saw that..."
Amidst the fragmented words, the old donkey neighed "Hum ah", and the young man on its back covered his forehead with his hands, shaking. His body still ached slightly, and he didn't know how to answer them for a moment.
It took a long time for my thoughts to come together, and I tried hard to recall what happened last night... After the big centipede left, I fainted
Over there, Lu Pan, who was carrying a hunting knife, waved his hand to ask everyone to stop asking questions. He turned to look at the young man on the old donkey, not knowing how to start.
Finally, he asked, "Liangsheng, are you feeling unwell now? Last night..."
His thoughts were interrupted, and Lu Liangsheng came to his senses. He looked around the road and saw many pedestrians, so he lowered his voice.
"Uncle Pan, let's not talk about what happened last night."
What he meant was that if you encounter a centipede monster, you shouldn't talk about it in a place where there are many people around. But when Lu Pan heard it, it took on another meaning.
He nodded quickly, moved closer, and whispered, "Uncle knows. I thought it was strange that you could suddenly read. Now that I have explained it, I will tell everyone else to stop talking nonsense."
Then he added one more sentence.
"Liangsheng... did you take a master from some great master?"
A master is a teacher...
Sudden reminder, Lu Liangsheng hurriedly touched the package on his back, and found it empty. "Uncle Pan, where is my package?"
"Oh, at your uncle Qing's place, I'll help you take care of him."
Seeing that Lu Liangsheng did not answer the previous question, Lu Pan did not want to continue asking. When they were getting closer to Fushui County, they saw a tea stall on the side of the road, and they invited everyone to go there to rest.
"Since Liangsheng is awake, let's go to the teahouse in front to rest, and then go into the city to find the government office."
"Huh... I can finally sit down."
After half a night and a whole morning of traveling, everyone's feet were covered with blisters. They threw the bags and weapons on their backs and shoulders to the ground and sat on the roadside not far from the tea stall. Lu Pan took out two or three cents and asked a tall and thin man named Lu Qing to buy a few bowls of herbal tea to share with everyone.
There was a cool breeze blowing from the tea shed to the lonely tree. Under the flickering light, Lu Liangsheng sat down against the tree and while everyone was sharing tea, he quickly opened the package he had retrieved.
"Master?"
Inside, the Toad Taoist curled up into a ball, half-opened one eye, stretched out his webbed feet, grabbed the bag opening and pulled it.
"The teacher is sleeping, please don't disturb him."
The bag mouth is tightened and closed.
"I'm glad that Master is alright."
Lu Liangsheng breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that after he fell unconscious, no one would take care of his master, and others would abandon him as an ordinary toad. Now that he was still alive, he felt at ease.
When I turned around, a ceramic bowl was handed to me and Lu Pan squatted down opposite me.
"Liangsheng, come and have some herbal tea to quench your thirst. It's still a few miles to the county town, but we're almost there. The rest is up to you."
"Uncle Pan, I'm not ready to speak yet..."
It would not be easy for a young man who had not seen much of the world to stand in the court. Lu Pan also nodded. He originally wanted to reach out and pat the young man on the shoulder, but he retracted his hand halfway.
"That... that's okay. When we get to the county government office, we'll discuss it. Okay, I won't disturb your rest."
After saying that, they returned to the other side where the seven people were, all of them rough and generous men. As soon as they sat down, they started talking loudly, which made the other passengers who stopped to rest nearby frown. However, they did not dare to come forward because of the hunting knives and hatchets placed at their feet.
The autumn breeze was blowing gently, and pedestrians and vendors were coming and going on this official road. From time to time, groups of travelers would walk into the tea stalls to rest and quench their thirst, and gather around the table to talk about the interesting things they had seen and heard recently in various places.
"You just came back. Do you know what happened in Fushui County recently?"
"What's up?"
"Hey... You just came back from outside, you don't know, there was trouble in the family of Mr. Chen, a famous man in our Fushui County. Several maids and servants died a few days ago."
"In rich families, there are always some people who die every year. What's so rare about that?"
"That's the problem. If they keep dying for days in a row, I want to ask you, if you were in Mr. Chen's mansion, would you be afraid?"
"People keep dying. I'm afraid there must be something unclean in Mr. Chen's house."
"Isn't it... I also heard that this horrific incident only occurred after Mr. Chen's birthday party."
"Haha, maybe Mr. Chen offended the Tai Sui God by celebrating his birthday..."
Lu Liangsheng, who was sitting under a tree not far away, felt like he was listening to an old man telling a story at the village entrance. However, the character in the story was Chen Yuanwai, whom he had heard about when he came to Fushui County some time ago. This felt new to him.
After resting for a while, it was almost noon and everyone set out again. They ate some dry food and cold water on the road and hurried into the city.
The crowd was bustling. A farmer pushing a wheelbarrow stopped and looked at a vendor selling candied haws walking by. He fumbled around his body for a while, took out a penny and bought a string of candied haws, as if he was taking it back for his grandson. He wrapped it carefully and hid it in his arms to avoid it being contaminated by the dust from above. In the attic, through the open window, a woman was beating the bedding that was hanging out to dry with a wooden stick, and turned back to curse at the people in the room. Soon, the door below was opened, and a naughty child ran out, looking at the clay figurines placed on the street stall with a smile.
To Lu Liangsheng who was entering the city, all these scenes seemed extremely lively and novel. A group of nine people walked past the vendors shouting on the street. The young man stopped at a stall and looked at the shelves filled with paintings and calligraphy of beauties, horses, landscapes, etc.
Lu Pan came over and whispered in his ear: "Liangsheng, we don't have enough money."
"Just taking a look." Lu Liangsheng smiled, "My paintings are much better looking than the ones for sale here."
Over there, the person selling calligraphy and paintings was a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar. Hearing this, he waved his hand.
"Go away, you can't afford it, and you're still talking nonsense."
"If you don't want to buy it, why don't you talk about it?" Lu Pan was not happy with this and turned back to argue with the man. He clenched his fists, as if he was going to fight the other person.
But Lu Liangsheng stopped him and said, "Uncle Pan, we came here to do business. Besides, it was me who spoke without restraint and disrupted other people's business."
Lu Pan glared back at the vendor fiercely.
"So what? We open the door to do business and no one can say anything about it?"
Finally, he followed Liangsheng back to the crowd and told them what had just happened using gestures, which made these men ready to fight and start shouting and cursing.
Soon, the nine people asked along the way and found the county government office in the city. The guards at the gate held crossed water and fire sticks and refused to let them in.
"One thing at a time. If you want to file a complaint, you need to write a petition and submit it. After the chief registrar has checked it, you can go to court..."
Lu Pan originally thought that when he arrived at the county government office, he would be able to see the county magistrate and settle the injustice in the village. However, he didn't expect there would be so many twists and turns. He scratched his hair anxiously and looked at Lu Liangsheng.
"Liangsheng, what should we do now? Do you know how to write a petition?"
The young man was a little hesitant. After thinking for a while, he walked to the officer at the gate of the county government and bowed politely.
"Excuse me, big brother. We are all from the village and have never written a petition. I would like to ask if there is anyone in the government who can write it for us, or give us some discarded ones so that we can go back and copy them?"
"I can provide ghostwriting services. It's ten cents per copy. Of course, there's also tea money and writing fees, a total of twenty cents. If you want to write it yourself, that's fine too. Five cents."
Lu Pan's eyelids twitched when he heard this. How much money did they earn when they went out? If they asked for ghostwriting, they would have no money left for food.
After discussing for a while, they finally decided to let Lu Liangsheng write one, but they felt painful to spend five cents to buy a discarded model essay.
"Ghostwriting makes money like this..."
Lu Liangsheng looked at the piece of paper in his hand that he bought for five cents, and then looked at the words "Fu Shui County Yamen".
"Why not just set up a stall and do ghostwriting for others, and earn a few coppers."
But the thought only flashed through his mind, and soon it became dark.
The group of nine people had not yet found a place to stay.