Tap tap tap…
The sound of horses' hooves galloped along the official road, from the capital to the southeast, to Hegu County and Fushui County. Official documents were constantly coming and going, and were hastily delivered to the local county government.
Soon, notices were posted one after another.
They are all arrest notices for Lu Liangsheng, and next to them is Sun Yingxian with a pointed chin and a mustache, and... there is also a picture of a bald old donkey chewing grass with its teeth bared.
The literate person interpreted the content and the people behind him listened, while the crowd watching also talked in low voices.
"This is Lu Liangsheng, he's so handsome..." "Hey man, you're focusing on the wrong thing, he's a wanted criminal."
"It's none of my business. I can't catch him anyway."
"… This person passed the exam in our River Valley County based on his own abilities. How did he become a criminal? I really don't understand."
"Humph, you ruin the reputation of scholars like me!" "Alas, I heard that people from outside came back and said that the current emperor humiliated me first, but it's not what the notice says."
“…The Taoist priest above is really ugly.”
In this era, if there were no government notices, a lot of news would have been passed on to the people by traveling merchants. When the overwhelming manhunt spread to every city and county, and even to remote towns, it caused a sensation. The topic of conversation for several days was basically about Lu Liangsheng. However, for those who knew that "In times of emergency, Lu Lang will help", most of them scoffed at the content of the notice.
The heat continued, and there was a circle of people in front of the notice watching the reading. The two people and the donkey standing outside the circle looked at it for a few seconds. The Taoist touched his face and looked at the portrait on the notice again.
"I am ugly? What do you mean by eyes? They just look a little old. The way they are drawn looks like he is over 30 years old. It's strange that you can catch them."
Some people nearby looked over, curled their lips, and continued listening to the lecture.
Hum ah ah~~
The old donkey stared at the notice board, dissatisfied and trying to squeeze in. He opened his lips to tear it, but Lu Liangsheng grabbed the reins and dragged him out of the town. He found a remote forest, pulled off a leaf to reveal the coffin on the ground, put it on his shoulders again, snapped his fingers at the Taoist, and signaled him to continue walking south.
"I haven't figured it out."
Inside the shaking bookshelf, the small door was pushed open. The Toad Taoist hung his two short legs, shook the palm-leaf fan angrily, and knocked it hard on the edge of the compartment.
“… You don’t have to say anything. Even this old donkey can be on the notice, why can’t I be on it? Do you think I am not good enough?”
Hong Lian chuckled, and a voice came from the scroll across the wall: "Master Toad, that's not a good thing."
"Humph, how could I not know that?" Toad turned his face away.
The Taoist glanced at the toad, then continued to hold the bronze mirror, looking at the face reflected in it as he walked, moving his mouth and baring his teeth to look at it again.
"I'm not ugly at all. These people really don't know how to recognize a beautiful woman!"
puff!
The old donkey turned around from the front, spit at him, and continued to raise its hooves and trot behind Lu Liangsheng.
With a hum, Lu Liangsheng walked out of the woods and looked around at the strange yet familiar mountains and acres of fields. The golden crops swayed in his sight.
The harvest season is approaching.
"By now, Lujia Village should be like this place."
On the way south, there were soldiers and officers pursuing him, but Lu Liangsheng didn't want to kill these irrelevant people, so he used sleight of hand and invisibility to avoid them. He just walked and within a few days he arrived south of Hegu County, only a dozen miles away from Fushui County.
He was not worried that the officers and soldiers from Fushui County would arrest his relatives. After all, when the Taoist left, he set up a magic circle. As long as the government officials broke in, they would come out from the other side for no reason and would not be able to enter the house at all.
The sky was slanting, and I could see the outline of Fushui County in the distance. I went to the less populated suburbs, slipped through walls, walked through the familiar streets, and went directly to the small courtyard where my mentor once lived.
A little boy tilted his head and looked over through the half-open gate.
"Who are you looking for?"
The ancient tree in the courtyard is like a canopy, and its branches and leaves rustle in the wind. The elegant stone benches and stone tables under the tree are long gone, probably thrown away by the new family who moved in.
Lu Liangsheng smiled at the child, said nothing, and turned away.
In the room, someone who sounded like the child's mother came out carrying a basin of laundry. She seemed to hear the child talking to someone and looked at the door.
"Little Stone, who were you talking to just now?"
"Then!"
The child got up from the ground and pointed his dirty finger at the backs of the two people leaving the door.
"A Taoist priest, a strange big brother, and an old donkey. The big brother was carrying a coffin, just like the one my grandfather lay in when he died..."
The wooden basin fell to the ground with a clang. The woman turned pale with fright and covered the child's mouth. She didn't see any figure at all.
…
After leaving Fushui County, the two men and the donkey didn't talk much. Even Toad Taoist and Nie Honglian, who always loved to talk, were unusually silent. They followed the road straight south and arrived at Lujia Village and Beicun.
The sky was hanging low on the peak of Qixia Mountain, casting a dim light. The sound of bells echoed along the road. The figures in the golden fields were probably accustomed to the sound of bells on the necks of the horses traveling back and forth. Occasionally, only one or two people would straighten their backs to relax.
Then, seeing two people and a donkey coming towards this fork in the road, he rubbed his eyes vigorously, dropped the sickle in his hand, ran up the ridge of the field, and shouted to the villagers who were busy harvesting crops around him:
"Everyone stop being busy!!"
As the busy villagers around him straightened up, the farmer took off his straw hat and waved it at the two people walking up the muddy path into the village.
"Liang Sheng!!"
When the villagers who were busy in the fields heard the name, they dropped their farm tools and rushed to the road.
"Liangsheng!" "Come here, Liangsheng is back!"
"I'll go inform Uncle Lu and Aunt Li!"
The younger man, wearing baggy pants and running barefoot along the ridge of the field towards the village.
On the dirt road leading into the village, a crowd surged up and surrounded Lu Liangsheng in three layers. Fortunately, they couldn't see the coffin on his shoulder, but they were still asking questions at the same time.
"Liangsheng, where have you been recently?" "By the way, people say you smashed the emperor's palace, right?"
"…Everyone, keep your voices down. Let Liangsheng go home first. Don't tell anyone else that he's back."
"That's right, it's better if people from Beicun don't tell anyone..."
"Um... I'm from Kitamura."
Lu Liangsheng listened to the caring words of his relatives in the village. He stood there and smiled. From a distance, he heard a voice saying "Liangsheng!"
At the entrance of the village, Li Jinhua and Lu Laoshi came jogging, followed closely by eight tall and strong men. Their muscular bodies had a metallic texture in the setting sun.
"mother."
The crowd parted to make way for her. Lu Liangsheng looked at the woman who was walking towards him. Her hair had turned quite grey. He walked forward and gently hugged her in his arms.
"I'm sorry to have made you worried."
Li Jinhua hit her son on the shoulder with her hand, wiped the water stains from the corners of her eyes, pulled her husband who was standing nearby to her son, looked at the smiling villagers around her, put her hands on her hips and shouted at them.
"Go, just do what you need to do, there's nothing to see."
Everyone burst into laughter and dispersed. Someone saw the Taoist standing nearby and reached out to hug him, but the Taoist was startled and pushed him away.
"ha!"
The eight men suddenly surrounded the Taoist priest. Amidst the roars, the muscles in his arms bulged, his fists clenched with a crackling sound, and through his open shirt, his chest muscles were knotted and trembling towards Sun Yingxian.
Lu Pan raised his chin.
"Little Taoist priest, you want to use violence again?"
The Taoist's mouth twitched, and he turned his face away with a blush. He hurried out and ran towards the village leading the old donkey.
At the entrance of the village, Lu Liangsheng chatted with his parents for a while and asked them to go home first as he wanted to go to Qixia Mountain first. Li Jinhua and Lu Laoshi knew that their son was grown up and had his own ideas, so they did not ask too many questions.
"Then come back early. Your father and I will go back and cook the food for you."
"Um."
Lu Liangsheng nodded, and after his parents left, he quietly used his magic power to pull the coffin and walked to the path west of the village. He walked up the mountainside along the mountain path where he met Master Toad. The red rope that was once tied to the tree had long since faded.
As the sun sets, the western clouds burn red, like a rosy cloud draped over the foothills.
Lu Liangsheng placed the coffin under the old pine tree and sat on a rock, looking at the rolling sea of clouds between the mountains. The branches and leaves of the old pine trees nearby made a rustling sound when they were gently stroked.
"Teacher, how is the scenery here?"
Soon, he stood up and used the earth-covering technique from the Five Elements Taoism in reverse order to raise a crack in the earth and rock under the pine trees and place the coffin down.
He took a neat stone tablet from a large rock, pulled out the pendant from his waist, and engraved a line of words on it - Tomb of My Enlightened Uncle Hua Gong - and placed it in front of the grave.
The moon was stuck in the ground and swayed slightly. Lu Liangsheng leaned against the old pine tree, sat next to the tombstone, and looked at the rising sea of clouds on Mount Qixia with his mentor, and softly recited the book and text that the old man had taught him.
The rosy glow passed over the mountain village like a veil, leaving behind the last ray of light.
A few birds landed on the treetops and preened their feathers.
The deserted courtyard became lively. Hong Lian's portrait floated back to its original place and was hung up again. Lu Xiaoxian ran over happily, and the two girls held hands and turned around in a circle.
In the small yard, the white old hen was clucking and walking around, looking around as if looking for something.
The Toad Taoist tiptoed out of the small compartment, stuck to the wall to avoid the glances, spread out his webbed feet and ran into the small boat room. After a moment, he put up his webbed feet with satisfaction, looked at the small clothes one by one, couldn't help trying on a few of them, excitedly picked out one or two sets, and ran out of the door with his tongue wagging, just in time to meet the old hen who was looking over.
"That woman's..."
Throw away your clothes, the dark and fierce battle is about to begin again.
Smoke rose from the kitchen. A Taoist priest holding two pieces of talisman paper was driven out by a woman holding a spatula. In the donkey shed not far away, Lu Laoshi stroked his beard, looking at the strong donkey he had just bought, which was crawling in the corner like a punching bag. He glanced at the bald old donkey chewing grass with confusion.
When it was dark, Lu Liangsheng came back from the mountain and looked at the lively scene in the courtyard.
… The life I once knew is back.