The northwest is connected to the Western Regions, and trade routes have been accessible since ancient times. Along the long trade routes, Hu merchants pull camel caravans that look like the frames of prison vehicles. Hu girls with veils on their faces lean lazily against wooden pillars, looking at the mountain ridges in the distance.
Occasionally, I heard the tinkling of copper bells at the end of the road ahead. I looked curiously in the direction of Chang'an. In the rising dust, I saw an old donkey nibbling on the wild grass by the roadside and walking slowly towards this side. On the donkey's back, a scholar sat leisurely, flipping through a blueprint in his hand. From time to time, he looked up at the winding mountains around him and sketched on the paper with a brush in his hand.
The donkey wanted to speed up, but the scholar reached out and hit it on the head. The donkey just grunted twice and breathed a heavy breath. When it passed by a camel caravan, it saw the tall camels and raised its head and neighed, scaring the camels so much that they shook their heads and trembled in panic. In the vehicle, it looked at the group of Hu girls outside, who screamed and cried "Woo... " and fell into a ball.
"You're not being honest again!"
Lu Liangsheng rolled up the blueprint and knocked it on the donkey's head, then raised his hand to apologize to the Hu merchant who was pulling the camel, and urged the old donkey to leave quickly. In the shaking bookshelf, the small door creaked open a little, and a pair of bean-sized toad eyes peeked out.
"Liangsheng, hit it a few more times, this old donkey deserves to be punished."
This is because I still remember the last time I rolled down the cliff.
The old donkey turned around and neighed loudly, then shook his back. The small door opened, and the toad just shook its feet, supported the door frame with its webbed feet, patted its belly twice, nodded, looked at the staring donkey, and laughed.
"How could this old man not be prepared!"
The white belly was tied with two ropes that had been tied tightly and shortened a lot. Even if he fell, he would be caught by the door at most.
"Humph, do you really think I'm a toad without wisdom?"
As the camel caravan rose and fell, it had gone far away. Taoist Toad stretched his limbs, sat down at the edge of the small door, and looked calmly at the desolate northwest area.
"I'm back again, and the mountains in the northwest are still the most magnificent..."
"Then why don't we just build a house here for Master?"
Lu Liangsheng, who was sitting on the donkey, heard what his master said, put down the blueprint and said with a smile: "Then Master will be able to see the mountains in the northwest every day."
"I am just talking."
A warm mountain breeze blew over, and Toad raised his face in satisfaction, "… There is nothing to eat here, otherwise why would I leave in the past."
hehe.
Lu Liangsheng chuckled, and the master and disciple talked to each other. The distant camel caravan stretched out in the skylight and soon disappeared on the road behind.
The distance to Wujiang Mountain is still unknown, so the others dispersed to look for the regional landmarks mentioned by Zhu Erniang. It might take a day or two, but once found, they could reach the place in half an hour.
On the ups and downs of the donkey's back, he looked at the drifting clouds. In the blue sky, there was a red dot dragging a long shadow, as if it was hanging outside the sky. But Lu Liangsheng knew that the thing had been flying towards this side non-stop, and perhaps it would not be long before more and more people would see it.
Thinking of the Master Wu Yuan, Lu Liangsheng also had mixed feelings. On the one hand, Yuwen Tuo said that the other party was resisting the catastrophe of heaven and earth. On the other hand, the Fire Cult had created the Disha Yinhuo and kidnapped women and children for human sacrifice, which directly and indirectly caused countless people to die...
As he was thinking, in the bright sunshine ahead, beside the road, a tea stall appeared. Dirty flags fluttered in the wind, and it was surrounded by loess walls dotted with holes made by bumblebees. The shop owner was an old man with a hunchback. He brought two bowls of tea that seemed to be left unfinished by previous customers and poured them into a wooden barrel outside the stall. When he saw Lu Liangsheng passing by on the road, he greeted him with a smile.
"Sir, the weather is hot, why don't you come in and have a cup of herbal tea to quench your thirst and cool down."
Lu Liangsheng pulled the reins and tilted his head: "Master, why don't we just eat here?"
The old donkey under him also stopped suddenly at the same time, and the bookshelf behind him shook. The Toad Taoist came to his senses, fell sideways, rolled against the door frame, flipped out of the door, was tied by a rope, and his whole round body was hanging outside the bookshelf.
"That mother..." The Toad Taoist narrowed his eyes, with an expression of 'as expected', his puffy webbed feet shook in front of his chest, and his head hit the door edge from time to time.
After a while, my stomach growled and I smacked my lips.
"Yes, but the most urgent thing is... put the master down first."
Over there, the apprentice reached out his hand and untied the rope. Lu Liangsheng held his master in his palm and put him on his shoulder, then he pulled the reins, and the old donkey walked towards the teahouse.
The furnishings inside were simple, and one could not expect too much from a roadside resting place like this. There was only an old man guarding the store. When he saw the scholar come in, he promptly invited him to sit down at the square table at the door.
"Looking at your clothes, you must be from a wealthy family. There is not much to eat in our shop, only Hu biscuits and herbal tea. Please make do with them."
The old man was very clear about opening a shop for business. He would first explain clearly what was in the shop, to avoid any awkward situation where the customer might complain that the food was not good enough.
"I don't mind. The mountains are high and the road is long. It's good to have something to eat."
Lu Liangsheng guessed what the shopkeeper meant, and casually took a pair of chopsticks and put them on the table: "Don't worry, old man, I'm also very thirsty on the way, just bring it to me, don't be disgusted, I'll put this big toad on the table to eat with the tea and Hu cake."
"Young Master likes it, what can I say?"
After saying that, the shopkeeper took a look at the angry toad that was placed on the table, walked to the earthen stove with a smile, took out the teapot soaking in the basin, took out a winnowing basket covered with a piece of gauze, and counted out a few cakes.
"My dear, where are you going, alone with an old donkey?"
He put the Hu pancake on the table and sat on a nearby bench: "Listen to my advice, the northwest is desolate, the people are tough, and there are many bandits and road bullies. You should be careful when you are alone outside."
Lu Liangsheng broke off a piece of pancake, placed it in front of the Toad Taoist, and poured him some tea. Hearing the shopkeeper's advice, he smiled and nodded.
"Thank you for reminding me, old man. I know, but you are setting up a stall here alone, aren't you afraid of bad guys?"
"Afraid?"
The shopkeeper stroked his gray beard and started laughing.
"I am half buried in the ground, so what am I afraid of? At worst, I can just kick off my feet. But I have opened a tea stall here to make a little money, and it can also provide a place for passers-by to rest and quench their thirst, so I think it is a blessing."
At this point, I looked at the toad that was chewing a Hu pancake at the corner of the table. The toad stared at me with bulging eyes, as if it didn't like being watched while eating.
The old man couldn't see the toad's eyes, so he just thought it was a big toad, and then he sighed.
"I only have this ability. I can't do big business. It's definitely not good to take things by force. As the saying goes, if you make a lot of money without virtue, you will definitely suffer misfortune. If you suffer hardships with kindness and good deeds, you will definitely be blessed in the future. Perhaps, I can still accumulate virtue for the younger generation, or in my next life."
Opposite, the scholar who was chewing a Hu pancake stopped and stared at her. Outside the tea shed, the wind grew stronger and birds on the bare old trees spread their wings and flew away.
A gust of dust blew over the old flags. Lu Liangsheng looked quietly at the old man opposite him and slowly put down the pancake.
"My dear, who told you this?"
The Toad Taoist priest at the corner of the table raised his face, tilted his head to look at his apprentice, then looked at the old man over there. For a moment, he didn't understand what was going on.