The old trees rustled softly in the courtyard, and no lights shone from the window frames opposite.
On the paint-fading bed, with the bedding fluttering, Li Jinhua tossed and turned, unable to sleep, her mind filled with images of the happy event in Erniu's family during the day.
Lu Laoshi was woken up by her in a daze and turned sideways: "If you don't want to sleep, what do you want to do?!"
"I can't sleep."
The woman simply sat up, put on a single piece of clothing, lit the oil lamp, leaned against the head of the bed, and reached out to push her husband: "You also get up, don't sleep anymore."
"You didn't let anyone sleep with you when you were fine. You woman, you're a bad girl if you don't get beaten for three days..."
Lu Laoshi got up muttering to himself, made eye contact with his wife, quickly changed his words, and leaned against the head of the bed with his bare chest.
"What's keeping you awake?"
"It's not Liangsheng's business."
The woman pulled the quilt to cover her chest and gestured with her hands: "… Erniu's wife is big and has a big butt. It's obvious that she's good at giving birth."
"Hey, what does it have to do with our Liangsheng?"
Lu Laoshi also pulled the quilt, and just as he shrank down a little, he was hit by his wife's hand. Li Jinhua turned her head and glared at him.
"Erniu is younger than our Liangsheng. After the wedding banquet, didn't you see that all the relatives surrounded him and asked when Liangsheng would get married and when he would have a baby?"
"We have a lot of children at home. Don't you tease them every day, Xiao Mingyue?"
The woman rolled her eyes, looked at the wall where their shadows were reflected, hesitated for a moment before she managed a sound.
"That's not kissing."
Hearing this, Lu Laoshi pursed his lips. His gentle nature could no longer hold up. He sighed, reached out to pull the quilt up for his wife a little, and patted the back of her hand.
"Liangsheng is grown up now. He has his own ideas. Don't let your imagination run wild."
"Then your Lu family can just wait for the roots to be cut off."
As she spoke, the woman got up from her bed, and Lu Laoshi raised his head on the couch: "Where are you going?"
"Go to the toilet!"
With a creak, she opened the door and walked under the eaves. Outside the courtyard, which she had not noticed, a graceful figure was drifting away in the darkness. Nie Honglian lowered her head and her figure floated to the Qixia Mountain in the west of the village. The words of the old couple in the house lingered in her mind.
After climbing up the cliff, he saw that the light was on in the thatched cottage, and the shadows of the young master and Master Toad were reflected on the window lattice. He forced a smile on his face, pushed open the door and walked in.
Inside the room, Toad Taoist sat on the desk with his legs stretched out, holding a bowl, shoveling food into his mouth in big mouthfuls. With rice in his mouth and puffy cheeks, he talked to his disciple on the other side of the bed.
"I almost starved to death. How can you look at me when you come in?"
Lu Liangsheng tidied up the bedding, turned around and said with a smile: "I didn't know that Master was leaning against the door. By the way, what was Master doing over there?"
"Repair the gourd!" The toad raised its webbed head and pointed at the purple-gold gourd with black stripes placed beside it, and patted it.
"This magic weapon is the result of my master's innate magical power and the innate treasure. It can eat... swallow everything in the world. If my master's demon pill had not been damaged, the Pudu Cihang that day..."
On the bookshelf, the Yuelong sword flickered and Toad Taoist glanced at it: "I'm not talking about you!"
With a "click" sound, the Yuelong Sword retracted again.
On the desk, the toad holding the chopsticks continued, "… Why would you hit it over there? Just use the gourd to collect it inside and turn it into thick water."
Ever since he witnessed his master transform into a giant monster and pin the centipede monster to the ground and beat it that night, Lu Liangsheng has chosen to believe what he once thought was bragging.
"Master's innate magical power is eating? Then what is the origin of this gourd?"
"It's Tun!!!"
The Toad Taoist held the bowl, raised his chopsticks to correct his apprentice, and said with a toad face: "Speaking of this gourd, it was when Master was being chased... When he was touring famous mountains and rivers, he found a spiritual vine on Kunlun Mountain. This gourd grew on it, and there was another branch next to it, but it's a pity that it's empty. It should have been picked by someone first, otherwise they could have made a pair. It's quite a pity. If only Master had gone there earlier."
As the ink was flying, the door creaked slightly. At the same time that the Toad Taoist's voice stopped, Hong Lian walked in. Seeing the Toad Taoist holding the bowl, a smile appeared on her face.
"Master Toad, there are still grains of rice in your mouth."
Her gaze then turned to Lu Liangsheng who was lying on the edge of the bed and she bowed slightly, "Young Master." With a smile, she turned around, took off her painted skin, and went into the painting.
This made the man and the toad look at each other in confusion, not knowing what had happened to her.
"Women are so troublesome, don't worry about it."
The Toad Taoist put down the bowl, stood up and jumped off the desk, and climbed up the edge of the bed with his short legs, "Master, I am an experienced person, come on, let's continue what we were talking about..."
"I was delighted to see the prey, so I picked it off and brought it back to the cave in Qishan..."
"It's not right to just leave it there. I thought about it for half a year, and suddenly one day when I was stuffing the pills in it, I came up with an idea..."
"Liangsheng, guess what... I finally combined it with my innate magical power and refined them together. When I meet a god, I kill him. When I meet a Buddha, I kill him..."
Amid the chattering voice, Lu Liangsheng listened with a smile to his master's stories of the past, his eyes occasionally glancing at the scroll on the wall. He could see Hong Lian's expression when she entered the room just now, and he didn't know what had happened to her.
The bean-sized lights flickered, illuminating the window frames. Amid the incessant chatter of Toad Taoist, beyond the distant mountains, the young emperor stood on the city wall, gazing at the night sky over the northern rivers, which was burning bright red.
Chen Jing clenched his fists and pressed them against the wall, gritting his teeth. There was also a battle report delivered by a fast horse beside him.
"How is it possible... that the Chen Dynasty's army is so weak?"
On the rivers that his eyes could not reach, the surging river surface was dyed red, and the long lines of ships on the river were burning. The huge flames illuminated both sides of the river. The Sui Dynasty soldiers who got off the Wuya ship ran quickly on the river beach. Under the leadership of the general, they rushed to the high ground and collided with the defending Southern Chen soldiers.
"kill-"
Hysterical roars, lines of defense and broken corpses were torn apart, and the charge was boiling. The burly Han Qinhu led his troops to advance forward. The Chen Dynasty soldiers who came to reinforce collapsed and scattered soon.
The defenses along the river bank were breached, and beacons were lit to signal the arrival of more Chen Dynasty troops as reinforcements. However, before they arrived, more and more Sui troops came ashore, and the densely packed army began to extend in the darkness, carving out a bloody path.
The Chen Dynasty army along the entire river defense line kept rushing forward, collapsing, retreating, reorganizing, and then rushing forward again. As the night deepened, the ground beneath their feet gradually seeped with blood, which quickly devoured the capital city of Tianzhi.
“Ahh—”
Xiao Moke put the weapon in his hand on the ground, gritting his teeth as he watched the Chen Dynasty soldiers falling on the battlefield.
"We have neglected military affairs for so long that we can no longer fight a war. This will only hurt the lives of the men of the Chen Dynasty!"
The sky gradually brightened, and flags were fluttering in the distance. Banners with the words "Sui" and "Yang" were surrounding them. Xiao Moke pursed his lips tightly, and after a while, he took off the iron helmet on his head, his voice hoarse.
"Surrender, the Chen Dynasty can no longer hold on."