The morning sun spread golden light over the streets of the city. Peddlers walked the streets carrying their loads and hawking their wares loudly. The window frames, wet with spring dew, were pushed open, and the woman on the second floor took out the bedding that she had washed last night and hung them outside.
On the street below, the steamer was opened, and the steam rose to reveal the stacked white flour steamed buns with sugar fillings. Amid the vendor's shouts, Lu Liangsheng bought three and casually asked where the government office was.
"Go past here and turn left onto another street. Sir, I think you should take a detour. Go straight across this street and turn left. There are many gangsters in the city. The atmosphere is scary."
"Thank you for the reminder, little brother."
After paying six cents, Lu Liangsheng handed it to his eldest disciple who was nodding and listening to the voices around him. He walked to the bookshelf and opened the small door. The Toad Taoist was taking a nap under the quilt. He rubbed his exposed webbed feet and yawned. He sat up wrapped in the quilt and was stunned when he saw the pancakes put in.
"Is it time for dinner again?"
Immediately, he waved his flippers and said, "Hurry up and do your work. After you're done, go to Qingcheng Mountain and then hurry back to Lujia Village!"
"Um."
After closing the small door for his master, Lu Liangsheng took a bite of the pancake, led the old donkey and turned left along the long street that the vendor pointed to. The street was still prosperous, with houses of different heights on both sides, flags of taverns and teahouses fluttering, and noisy voices inside. From time to time, people were swearing at each other, as if they had a dispute and started fighting. Someone threw something outside. He rolled over a few times to pick up the weapon left on the ground, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and roared fiercely at the passers-by who were looking at him. When he saw the patrolling policeman with knives on his shoulders, he left the tavern, spitting at the tavern and cursing.
The scholar leading the old donkey walked through the noisy long street and looked around. He didn't see Zuo Zhengyang. He was probably drinking somewhere in the city. The noise gradually faded away behind him. Following the instructions of the hawker, he saw the courtyard wall with white walls and black tiles. Several camphor trees stretched out their branches to the street. Under the green shade, two vermilion lanterns were hung on the gate of the mansion. Two stone lions were squatting on both sides of the stone steps. People carrying official documents or runners from the yamen were busy coming in and out.
"Cheng'en, lead the old donkey over later." Lu Liangsheng said softly, handed the reins to the old man behind him, and disappeared into the sky.
…
There is a plaque with the words "Yancheng Government Office" hanging below the door.
Two officers standing with knives and sticks heard the sound of a copper bell. They looked sideways and saw a gray old man leading an old donkey with a flag in his hand. He raised his eyes slightly and looked at the sky walking slowly towards them. They thought it was just an old fortune teller. They talked for a while and then looked again. They saw a fortune telling stall on the street not far away.
"Where did this old man get the booth chairs?"
"Go and take a look?" "Yes, drive them away. How can you set up a stall here? When the Lord of the Mansion comes back, won't he blame you?"
"I think we should forget it. Most people know that stalls cannot be set up here. This old man looks a bit weird. Let's wait for the Lord to come back."
"... So, this old man seems a little weird. Let's wait for the Lord to come back before making a decision."
As the officers were speaking, the sounds of horse hooves and carriage shafts came. The two officers exchanged glances and quickly stood up straight. After a moment, a carriage slowly stopped in front of the mansion gate. The curtain was opened, and a figure in a green official uniform, wearing black and white shoes with pointed toes and an official hat on his head got off the carriage. He had a broad face, a tuft of beard on his round chin, and was kind yet dignified.
"Fu Zun!"
A yamen runner at the door spoke to the prefect who had just stepped into the mansion gate, and when the prefect turned his head, he asked, "What's the matter?"
The officer quickly pointed to the street not far away and reported, "Just now a strange old man came and set up a stall over there to tell fortunes. We saw that he was old and it was not appropriate to use force on him, so..."
Following the direction pointed by the officer, there was a flagpole standing over there. The prefect frowned. The government office was an important place and there would be no one setting up stalls around it. Why would someone knowingly break the law
Moreover, he had something on his mind and was quite suspicious, so he called over two of his confidants and an aide and walked over. Looking at the fluttering banner, which had the words 'Humanity is fair, and destiny brings blessings' written on it, his eyelids twitched for some reason.
Behind the stall, there was an old man with gray hair and who must have been blind. He raised his face slightly with a smile as if he heard someone coming.
"You are full of official airs, you should be the prefect in person."
Although he couldn't see, he revealed the identity of the visitor in one sentence, and the two confidants following the prefect couldn't help but speak out.
"This old man is quite impressive. How could he be able to see this?"
"I think I heard the two brothers shouting at the door just now."
The prefect in front of the stall looked at the old man carefully, raised his hand to ask the two people behind him to be quiet, pursed his lips and looked at him for a moment, then spoke slowly.
"Since you are so good at predicting, can you please tell me what I am doing here today?"
"hehe."
Wang Banxia just chuckled. He had learned the art of observing qi from his master, and he had mastered it particularly well in observing people. Although he couldn't see with his eyes, he could feel the ominous aura lingering around the other person.
But he still picked up on the other person's words and replied, "It's because I secretly set up a stall to tell fortunes in an important place in the government office."
"Humph, if you know that, then why do you do it knowingly?"
Come, come, I've been waiting for you to say this.
Wang Banxia was best at getting people to ask for divination. When he heard the other party ask this, he raised his face with a smile and stroked his long white beard with his hand.
"I did it knowingly, just to save the prefect's life."
This caused the two officers at the back to grab their sword handles and start shouting. Even the silent aide at the side frowned.
"What are you talking about, old man?!" "My prefect loves the people like his own children. He went to the countryside early this morning to understand the people's sentiments!"
"Say one more word, and I'll put you in jail!"
Wang Banxia did not argue with them, but just smiled. When the three men stopped talking, his half-closed lifeless eyes turned towards the direction of the prefect.
"It is because you love your people like your own children that I do not want to see a good official die."
As he spoke, he suddenly stretched out his hand, grabbed the prefect's wrist, and leaned forward to get closer: "Your Excellency has been stained with blood recently."
As soon as these words came out, I could clearly feel the wrist that was being pinched tremble slightly.
Over there, the prefect narrowed his eyes and stared at the fortune-teller in front of him for a long time, with veins bulging on his forehead. After a long while, he broke free from the old man's hand, flicked his robe sleeves, and waved to the two officers behind him.
"This old man is occupying the streets of the government office and making irresponsible remarks. Bring him back to the government office and I will interrogate him personally!"
"yes!"
The two officers looked at each other, understood what he meant, and set up the old man behind the fortune-telling stall and followed the Lord of the Mansion into the government office, even leading the old donkey outside in as well.
Outside the courtyard wall, the mottled shadows of the trees swayed gently on the ground with the sun. Following the white courtyard wall, behind the government office was the prison. In the gloomy prison room lit by dim oil lamps, screams could be heard from time to time in the darkness in the distance.
At this time, more than a dozen jailers were leaning against the wooden pillars of the prison or lying on the table, drowsy. In the dim light, an oil lamp hanging on the wall shook suddenly. Someone leaned against the wall and looked at the scholar in a white robe with cloud patterns and a scarf on his head. He was looking at a prison fence with a handsome profile.
"Li Yishu's soul was able to return home. Is that the blood escape technique you taught me?"
"Yes... I saw that he was an upright person who cared about the patients. He begged me to ask someone to take the medical prescription to Wanhe County for several days in prison, and then I told him the method of blood escape."
"So where did you come from?"
"I once killed a demon who knew some minor Taoist magic. He taught it to me before he died."
Lu Liangsheng slowed down his tone, released his magic power, and let the jailer fall to the ground. In fact, he was worried that there would be another twist in the matter of Li Yishu, so he asked Wang Banxia to test the prefect, while he came to the jail to find out the origin of the secret method.
Afterwards, he asked Li Yishu why he was convicted, and the jailer answered truthfully. After all, he was just a leader in the prison, not even an official, and he did not dare to lie in front of this scholar who could perform magic.
The story behind this has nothing to do with what Li Yishu said that day. When the prefect had not yet taken office, he already had a wife. He had been promoted to the prefect by a smooth career path. He was only 32 years old and had the ability to govern the local area. He was highly appreciated by the governor. When he learned that the governor had an unmarried daughter in his family, he thought about divorcing his wife, but it would damage his reputation. One day, he saw his wife suffering from an old illness from previous years, so he came up with a plan. He asked someone to summon a doctor from a distant county, and under the pretext that the doctor had killed his wife, he was so furious that he threw the doctor into prison and beheaded him at Caishikou.
It was a matter of reason and emotion, and the people in the city who didn't know the truth applauded. For a time, the whole city of Yan felt sorry for the prefect who had lost his wife in middle age. Naturally, his reputation soared, and soon it reached the ears of the governor...
"That's a good idea."
Lu Liangsheng walked out of the prison and stood on the street with his hands behind his back. The soil under the tree across the street broke open, and cicadas slowly climbed up the tree trunk and bathed in the sunlight. Birds flew over the eaves, landed, picked up the cicadas, and flew away into the blue sky and white clouds.
Two lives were lost.