In the distance, the sound of copper bells came closer and closer. On the official road from Hegu County to Fushui County, which was more than a hundred miles long, the news of the rebels' surrender had not yet come, or they were still on the way, so there were few pedestrians and merchants passing by.
Ding ding dong…
The copper bell was shaking, and the old donkey was leisurely swinging its bald tail. From time to time, it raised its head and stuck out its tongue to lick the flying butterflies. It was hopping along the side of the road. Then, the flying butterflies were rolled up by the slender roots, dragged into the palm of its hand, and blew by the woman in the black dress. Only a pair of wings were left, and it fell down. No one knew where its body was blown away.
Son ah hum ah ~ ~
The old donkey breathed heavily, stared with his eyes wide open and neighed in dissatisfaction.
rear.
Lu Liangsheng, dressed in a blue shirt, changed out of the robe that symbolized his identity. He looked simple and plain, and had the feeling of the scholar again, except for the big toad lying on his shoulder.
The latter yawned listlessly with his eyelids drooping and his shoulders rising and falling.
"I don't want to sit in the sedan chair, I insist on walking."
"If Master wants to ride in a sedan chair, I will order one for you after we return to Chang'an."
Lu Liangsheng smiled and looked back at the eight uncles who were following him. He was reluctant to take off his armor. Each of them led a horse and raised his head majestically. No one looked at them all the way. Even if there were people, they avoided them from a distance and did not dare to look at them for fear that they were a rebellious army.
"Liangsheng, General Han said he would send someone to take us back. That would make us more famous in front of the villagers. Why don't you wait for him?"
"Yes, now you are the Imperial Master. Didn't you see that when you left on the river that day, all those people came over to ask questions one by one..."
"That's right. General Han also asked Liangsheng if he was married. His grandson happened to be of the right age. Um... how old was he?"
"I remember, I was ten years old!"
Listening to the eight uncles talking excitedly, Lu Liangsheng waved his hand and only replied: "Don't show off in front of the villagers."
The Taoist priest walking beside him stretched his body lazily.
"That's a good thing to say. It's the scholar Lu that I know, right, Old Pig?"
At the rear side, a fat figure close to the roadside groaned in a muffled voice, touched his stomach, and a rumbling sound of thunder was heard.
"I don't know whether it's right or not. I just want to get to Qixia Mountain as soon as possible. I'm a little hungry."
On the way, Lu Liangsheng told them everything that happened here. The Taoist and Zhu Ganglie didn't care much about Chen Jing and Chen Fu, they just felt a little regretful that they didn't catch up with them. As for Lu Pan and the other eight, it goes without saying that they didn't even know who Chen Fu and his master were.
"Gu~~"
Lu Liangsheng's stomach also rumbled on his shoulder. The Toad Taoist who was lying on his shoulder glanced at Sun Yingxian over there. He was wearing a black robe with gold edges. He held up his disciple's ear and sat up, with his two short legs hanging outside.
"Little Taoist priest, go and look for any frogs or some big fish. I'm hungry too."
"I have another one here, take it as a cushion."
The Taoist flipped through the yellow cloth bag at his waist and threw out a white, skinned frog, which the toad opened with its webbed feet. "You want to fool me with something that has been pickled for a long time? There is a field over there, go and look for it. Eels will also work."
"Okay, just wait."
After driving the Taoist away, the Toad snorted and turned his eyes away before asking about his disciple's plan.
"Liangsheng, didn't you say before that you would return to Chang'an after dealing with the rebels? So where is the red light from the outer space?"
Lu Liangsheng raised his head and saw that the red dot behind the clouds had indeed grown a bit bigger. He lowered his eyes and looked at the road ahead. His footsteps were several feet away.
"I'm not Dayu, so how can I pass by my home three times without entering? I'll reinforce the Qixia Mountain magic formation and rearrange it just in case."
Taoist Toad smacked his lips and wanted to say a few more words, but he had nothing to refute.
"That's up to you."
The sun shone brightly through the floating clouds, and the shadow of the huge clouds cast on the ground slowly moved. The group quickened their pace.
From Hegu County to Fushui County in the south, official documents announcing the war were already on the way. The yamen runners carrying the news rode at full speed on horseback. When the horses got tired, they would slow down. But now, as the war was over and the news that the rebels had surrendered had been announced, they dared not delay. They cracked their whips and galloped across the official road with loud shouts of "Gee!"
"Brother, why not let the horses rest for a while? The rebels have surrendered anyway, and there is no threat anymore. It won't hurt to go a little later."
"You're right. Anyway, we have faster horses and we have less walking time. I don't think we'll be too late."
"Brother, there is a donkey that is faster than our horse..."
"Except the donkey!"
Tap tap tap…
As the two were talking, I heard a familiar sound of hoofbeats. As soon as one of the yamen runners said "that donkey", I turned around subconsciously, and my brother on the other side also turned around to look.
A cloud of dust rolled along the official road.
"It seems... it seems..."
The two men spoke almost at the same time. In their field of vision, a scholar was riding on the back of a bald old donkey. The bookshelves on both sides of its back made a clanging sound. A toad was holding onto the small door of a bookshelf compartment and floating outside. It passed by him at lightning speed, its beard fluttering in the wind.
Without waiting for the two officials to speak, a Taoist priest with a pointed chin and monkey-like features waved his hand and shouted, "Get out of the way!" Behind him were eight strong men in armor, who were running at full speed. At a bend in front, they made a sharp turn past the two men, overtook them, and chased after the donkey in front. The dust raised by their feet made them look like they were riding on clouds.
The two officers stared numbly at the smoke and dust rising from the distant road in front of them.
"… "
"Brother, how about we try a different donkey?"
At the end of the distant road, the old donkey that had been moving forward knew the road and knew the direction without any guidance. It carried Lu Liangsheng directly across Fushui County and finished the winding mountain road that went straight south to Qixia Mountain in less than half an hour.
The prosperity of the city receded in the misty foothills. The sky was setting in the west, and the bright red glow seemed to have covered the green mountains with a coat of red.
On the mountain road, Lu Liangsheng, the Taoist, Lu Pan and others, who had taken away their magic spells of shrinking the earth into an inch and the magic talisman, saw from afar a village at the foot of the mountain with smoke rising from chimneys.
In the fields, villagers who were working heard the bells, put down their hoes, stood up, rubbed their eyes, and shouted excitedly:
"Everyone stop, Liang Sheng and Lu Pan are back!"
Then, he dropped his hoe and ran onto the muddy road in the village. His roaring voice was heard by those around him, and the busy villagers from Lujia Village and Bei Village gathered around him.
"Liangsheng, aren't you a high-ranking official in the capital? Why are you back?"
"Hey, that big toad is still here. Will it die if it's left hanging like this?"
Someone also asked Lu Pan and his group, and the eight of them clapped their hands excitedly, put on their armor, puffed out their chests proudly, and walked around to let the villagers see and touch them.
Lu Liangsheng exchanged a few words with the villagers who had gathered around him, then he led the old donkey, the Taoist priest, and Zhu Ganglie into the village. Someone had already run to the small courtyard with the fence to inform Li Jinhua and Lu Laoshi. The woman held her husband and their daughter Xiaoxian and stood at the gate of the courtyard. The girl stood on tiptoe to look at the entrance of the alley and saw her brother who was surrounded by the crowd and came back.
Shouting: "I'm back, brother is back!"
"Mom! Dad!"
Lu Liangsheng, who came from the alley outside the courtyard, raised his hand and bowed respectfully, which made the old couple opposite still stand there in a daze. Grandpa Lu, who was supported by everyone, tapped them with his cane before they reacted.
"What are you still standing there for? Your son Liang has made great progress!!"
The villagers had seen high-ranking officials and princes in the past, but they had only come to pay their respects and had seen them from afar. Now, a high-ranking official had appeared in the village, and he was also the imperial preceptor of the Sui Dynasty. The villagers had no idea how high his rank was. According to Lu Pan and the other eight people, the emperor had even designated a lake in Chang'an City for Liangsheng.
Inside and outside the courtyard, a group of villagers surrounded the place, some even rode on the courtyard wall and lay on the window frame, watching as the imperial teacher's robe was taken out of the house and spread on the bed, and the jade seal was placed on the table for everyone to see clearly.
A wisp of green smoke floated from the distant temple. When it turned into a woman outside the village and came in, Li Jinhua's fingertips gently stroked the woman's exquisitely crafted robe in the small fenced courtyard. She clicked her tongue a few times, returned to her husband, and pinched him with her hand.
"Hiss..."
As Lu Laoshi gasped, the woman looked at the jade seal, then at her robe, as if she was in a dream.
"I am not dreaming, am I? This time, your Lu family's ancestral tomb is really smoking. But it's also a blessing that I didn't let you name it when Liangsheng was still young."
At the side, the scholar who was tidying up the bookshelf and putting away the pens, ink, paper and inkstone stopped and looked at his mother with some curiosity.
"Mom, wasn't my name given by Dad?"
"How could your father, who can barely utter a word, give you such a nice name? Or was it because when I was carrying you to the market, I met an old Taoist priest who gave you this name. He said that you would be very smart and literate in the future, and have a bright future. Otherwise, why would I support you in learning to read? Wouldn't it be better to use the money to buy more rice and grain?!"
Talking about the original reason, the woman saw her son become a high-ranking official, and she really admired her own cleverness at that time.
However, Lu Liangsheng frowned.