The last ray of sunlight fell over the mountain top, and darkness surged in like a tide.
The lights in the mountain village gradually went out. It was the spring ploughing season and the villagers were tired after a day's work and went to bed earlier than usual. Occasionally, the barking of dogs could be heard in the middle of the night.
Woof woof woof—
The night wind blew across the small courtyard with a fence. Under the swaying cypress tree, Lu Liangsheng brought out the food from the kitchen, walked under the eaves and returned to the room. Soon, the dim light illuminated the window lattice.
"Master, it's time to eat."
In the warm yellow room, Lu Liangsheng put a bowl of rice and braised pork on the table. Next to the pillow on the couch, the Toad Taoist priest covered with a quilt sat up with a black scarf on his face. He climbed onto the table and looked at the rice and fat in front of him. He smacked his lips, then sat down with a sigh dejected look.
When he saw his disciple coming, he quickly covered his face with the black scarf and waved his other hand.
"Turn aside and don't look."
The scholar smiled and sat on the edge of the bed behind Toad Taoist.
"Master, let them grow, just think of them as two beards. Look, I have two tufts of hair hanging from my mouth, don't I?"
It seemed like someone outside heard the Taoist's voice.
"Old Lu, please don't make fun of me. I'm listening."
Inside the room, Toad Taoist looked at the food and wanted to eat but couldn't. He stretched out his two short legs straight, hugged his chest with his webbed feet, and his cheeks were puffed up.
"It's not on your mouth..."
Then, he let go of the webbed finger and pointed it at his face with anger: "My master is a toad! How can a toad have whiskers? If other monsters see me, won't they laugh at me?"
Lu Liangsheng tried hard to collect the words of comfort in his mind, thought for a while, organized his words, and said: "Aren't Lao Zhu and Qi You demons? How could they make fun of you? Don't take it too seriously. Let's eat. This is my mother's specialty, braised pork. It will get cold if you leave it out for a while."
"Both of them?" When talking about the afternoon retreat and the return to the village, Toad became even more angry: "The pig demon laughed the most happily, and the tree demon always touched my whiskers... I don't know what went wrong, but it actually grew a pair of whiskers."
As he spoke, he glanced at the fragrant braised pork, swallowed his saliva, and reached out to grab the chopsticks.
Lu Liangsheng, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, had actually thought about this question as well. When it was mentioned again, he couldn't help but frown, staring at the black scarf covering the Toad Taoist's face, and suddenly slapped his legs hard.
“Master, it might be related to the fish demon pill. Those whiskers are probably fish whiskers!”
The scholar suddenly spoke, scaring the toad, which was originally stretching its webbed feet, so that it lost its balance and fell directly onto the table. Lu Liangsheng moved closer and reached out to help him up: "Master, in fact, having two fish whiskers is quite nice and looks majestic!"
Hearing the word "majestic", the toad leaned against the bowl, rubbed his chin suspiciously, narrowed his eyes, touched the two whiskers at the corners of his mouth, and glanced at the apprentice next to him.
"Liangsheng, are you serious?"
Lu Liangsheng smiled and nodded: "It's absolutely true."
Over there, the Toad Taoist took off his black scarf, looked at the bronze mirror, and looked for a long time. He grinned and made a few expressions, as if he thought it was pretty good. He nodded in satisfaction at the bronze mirror, sat back by the bowl with his webbed hands, picked up the chopsticks, and started to eat in a happy mood.
Dada scooped up a few mouthfuls of rice and swallowed them. He rolled his long tongue over the braised pork on top of the noodles and put it into his mouth, chewing slowly and savoring the greasy taste. He saw his apprentice still sitting there out of the corner of his eye and asked vaguely, "Liangsheng... is there anything else?"
The Toad Taoist had his mouth full of food and spoke incoherently, which made Lu Liangsheng next to him smile. He felt relieved to see that his master was fine.
"It's okay... just take a look."
Watching the master eat was actually quite interesting. However, the scholar then told him everything that had happened in the past two months. The Toad Taoist knew that the marriage had not taken place, but as for the strange beasts from the mountains and seas on his body, he was busy with the marriage and dealing with the Painted Skin Demon, so he did not go into details.
"Master knew that thing was strange, and from now on it will be the magic weapon to capture the monster."
After dinner, Toad lay down on the quilt and scratched his belly. Remembering that it was the beginning of spring, he sat up again and said, "By the way, should we leave Qixia Mountain? Remember the agreement you made with that emperor last time?"
"Um."
Lu Liangsheng put away the dishes and took them to the water tank outside to wash them. He had already promised Emperor Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty, so of course he had to go. It was rare for an emperor to treat him with such courtesy.
However, before going to Chang'an, there is still one thing to do. That is, I promised the major sects last year that I would go to Luohe Town and not only erect a monument, but also carve stones one by one to show that I am atoning for my master's sins. Of course, these are definitely not enough. The only thing I can do is to return the magic weapons that my master had looted.
"Anyway, let's make up for it one by one."
After returning to the house, he talked with the master for a while. Hong Lian also came over from the temple. The two of them leaned against each other under the eaves, quietly watching a branch extending into the eaves swaying in the wind.
"I may be away for a long time this time, so you will have to worry more about the things at home."
Hong Lian, who was wearing a plain white dress, held the man's hand on her leg tightly, leaned on his shoulder, looked at the branches stretching down, just hummed, and then spoke.
"When you leave, take Qiyou with you. Although she is in a daze, her spiritual power is still there. If anything happens, she might be able to help us."
"Are you assured?" Lu Liangsheng emphasized, "Qi You is extremely beautiful and trusts me."
Hong Lian hesitated for a moment, leaned her face against his shoulder, and smiled.
"Mr. Hong Lianxin."
Through the window frame behind me, Taoist Toad, who was flipping through a cookbook in the room, half of his face popped out from the edge of the booklet. I thought he was talking about something serious, but he ended up saying just this
Might as well look at two more dishes... Hmm, this one is good, southern sauce, seeping into the tender lamb, steamed for two hours, the flavor penetrates into the bones...
The lights flickered slightly, and the man and woman under the eaves talked a lot. The barking of dogs in the village also became quiet. After seeing Hong Lian off, Lu Liangsheng returned to the house. On the bed, Toad Taoist was sleeping soundly under the quilt. He picked up the small book that was not closed yet and put it on the table. Then he blew out the lights, undressed and lay down. Thinking about the future, he slowly fell asleep.
Soon, the news that Lu Liangsheng would travel far north to Chang'an to serve as an official spread. Everyone in the village, young and old, knew about it. The sky brightened in the east and rose above the clouds. In the morning, the villagers who had been fetching water, washing their faces, and washing rice gathered together as usual to chat about family matters.
"I heard that Liangsheng is leaving. Did you know?"
"When we leave, we'll know. Just make him a few more pancakes for the journey."
“… This time I am going to be an official. I heard from people outside that Chang’an is very big. If you enter from the east gate, you will have to walk for a whole day before you can exit from the west gate.”
“Oh, so much bigger than Fushui County?”
"Oh, if there is a chance, I really want to go out and see what the world is like."
"That's right, Wang Banxia has passed by..."
"That Banxia is Liangsheng's disciple. He has a place to stay over there. Whose place should we stay? I heard that people are not allowed to sleep on the street."
When the family was talking about this, a woman who was rubbing clothes cried out "ouch", wiped the water stains on the back of her hands and stood up.
"Isn't that Liang Sheng? Why did he leave without telling me?"
The women and men who were busy around raised their eyes and saw Lu Liangsheng, dressed in a blue shirt and white robe, walking out slowly on the road leading to the small courtyard with fences, leading an old donkey carrying two bookshelves, followed by Lu Laoshi and his wife.
When he saw people from the village looking at him, he smiled and nodded at them. He was actually reluctant to show off when he went out this time, so only his family knew when he left.
"Dad, Mom, don't send me off. This isn't the first time I'm going on a long journey."
After passing the village entrance, Lu Liangsheng turned around and waved goodbye to his parents and Xiaoxian. The latter three had experienced this several times before, so they were not too sad. They just told them to be careful outside and to come back if they missed home after finishing their work.
As his mother chattered, the scholar led the donkey farther and farther away. He quietly turned his back to the father and daughter and wiped his eyes.
The sun shines down on the mountains and forests, and the clear sounds of birds are heard in the woods.
On the mountain road past, the Taoist priest was yawning and sitting on a roadside stone with sleepy eyes, basking in the morning sun. He was going to go too this time. Next to him, the fat Zhu Ganglie was squatting on the ground, eating a cake, with a wooden body and an iron head of the rake on his shoulder.
On the back of the neighing old donkey, among the shaking bookshelves, the Toad Taoist changed into a nice piece of clothing, pushed open the small door, subconsciously patted the rope tied around his waist, and waved his flippers.
"Liangsheng, we can go now!"
The scholar in front of the donkey's head held the reins and slightly tilted his head. He smiled and nodded, and called the Taoist and the pig demon on the side of the road to stand up.
Son, ah hum ang~~
The old donkey raised its neck, shook its mane, followed the footsteps of its master, neighed excitedly, shook the copper bell under its neck, and wandered on the mountain path with a jingling sound.
The sound of bells and bangs echoed back to the distant Honglian Temple, where a woman in a white dress was standing under an old pine tree.
Everything that needed to be said had already been said in the past two days. Lu Liangsheng walked to the side of the road, looked at Hong Lian waving goodbye, raised his sleeves and bowed.
"Let's go!"
He said this softly and turned to leave. However, not long after passing the Honglian Temple, eight big men in short clothes with bare chests lined up in the middle of the mountain road ahead, each of them carrying a bag on their broad shoulders, like a wall blocking the way.
"Uncle Pan? What are you doing..."
"Your mother is worried that you will go to Chang'an and become an official without any trusted people to rely on, so she wants the eight of us to go with you."
Lu Pan shook his chest muscles twice, waved his hands and clapped them, "Don't worry, we eight uncles will support you. Even if the emperor bullies you, you can overturn his throne!"
Then the sound became quieter.
"… Liangsheng, in fact, we are eight uncles and have never seen much of the world. We want to go and see it. You see, we have brought all the things here. You can't ask us to go back, right? That would be so embarrassing, don't you think?"
this…
Lu Liangsheng was indeed in a dilemma. He had originally planned to set off on the journey easily, but now with eight more people on board, his pace would definitely slow down a lot.
Seeing his eight uncles looking at him expectantly, he felt awkward to refuse to let them go back. Moreover, if they really wanted to be officials in Chang'an, they would need a group of trustworthy people under their command.
"Okay then, Uncle Pan, but you must listen to me on the way."
"Not to mention on the way, even if we get to Chang'an, the emperor's words won't work!"
Hearing these words, everyone burst into laughter, and the sound echoed through the mountains and fields, attracting passers-by and vendors to turn their heads and look over.
The sun was shining brightly, shining on a group of more than ten people who were talking and laughing loudly, heading north in a lively manner.