As the night deepened, the sound of insects chirped in the corner of the wall. Yang Guang looked at the eunuch who came in to report, tilted his head and asked the soldier a few questions. A look of joy appeared on his face, but he quickly restrained it and lightly punched his palm.
"The evil star that everyone has been talking about was indeed smashed by Mr. Lu... I feel so relieved!"
Then, he lifted up his robe, stepped over the threshold, and strode into the study.
Hearing the emperor's laughter from inside, he sent the eunuchs out and knelt down to greet him: "Your son greets the emperor."
Burning lights lined the pillars on both sides of the hall. In the warm atmosphere, Yang Jian, who was sitting behind the dragon table above, felt relaxed. He put down his brush and raised his hand towards his son below.
"Get up, why did you rush all the way from Luoyang? Traveling day and night, it must be hard, right?"
"I am fine, but the evil star was in the sky that day and fell on Chang'an. I was worried and came back without thinking."
Yang Guang, who was standing below, had always been filial, and he kowtowed heavily as he spoke.
"Seeing that father is safe and sound, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief."
On one side, Yang Su stroked his beard and nodded, revealing a look of approval. He smiled and looked at his cousin above him, "Brother, Your Highness traveled day and night from Luoyang to Chang'an, which shows how filial you are."
Without the presence of ministers, the two of them mostly addressed each other as brothers. Yang Jian did not think that was inappropriate and even felt that this was a way to be closer.
With praise from others and the elimination of the evil star, the old man was in a good mood. He looked at Yang Guang in front of him and found him more and more pleasing to the eye.
"My son should be filial, okay, okay, okay."
After saying "OK" three times in a row, he stood up and walked down the stone steps, helped Yang Guang up with his own hands, and patted the dust off his shoulders.
"Amo, you must have worked hard day and night. Go back and rest first. We can talk tomorrow."
"Yes, father!" Yang Guang cupped his hands.
The original father emperor, now becoming a father, really made Yang Jian smile even more. He patted his son on the shoulder and said, "Go, go back and have a rest. Go and pay your respects to your mother tomorrow morning."
Yang Guang bowed again and the Duke of Yue, Yang Su, stood up and said, "Brother, it's getting late. You should go to bed early."
Yang Jian nodded. It seemed that he had caught a cold that day in the palace. He felt dizzy and tired. If it were any other day, he would have had to ask Yang Su to stay with him until the middle of the night to finish dealing with the memorials.
"Well, I am tired today, you can go back with Amo."
He waved his hand and asked the two to leave. After returning to the dragon table, he picked up the pen and wrote two words. He felt a little palpitation, as if he could not breathe. He put down the pen and sighed.
"Looks really old."
He stretched out his hand to call the eunuch, who helped him back to the back garden to rest.
The night wind blew the eaves of the palace, and in the brightly lit area, an old man and a young man walked out of the Daxing Palace together. Yang Guang was tall and handsome, and Yang Su was over fifty years old, with a strong body and no sign of old age. The two of them just walked out of the sight of the palace guards on both sides, and the patrolling soldiers also slowed down their pace to let the current Prince of Jin and the Duke of Yue pass first.
"Guang has been away for two years and his beard has grown, but the Duke of Yue has not changed at all. Can practicing Taoism really make one live a hundred years longer?"
"Haha, Your Highness, you are joking. How can there be an immortal person in the world? That would be an immortal."
Along the way, they chatted about some interesting anecdotes, and occasionally mentioned the evil star, and naturally mentioned the name Lu Liangsheng.
"Duke Yue, I heard from the soldier who just reported that the Imperial Master came back from the northwest. The demon star also shattered in the northwest of Chang'an that day. But did the Imperial Master shatter it?"
"Rumors are just rumors, but if Your Highness wants to find out more, why not go to Wanshou Temple in person?"
Yang Su rolled up his wide sleeves and put them behind his back. He had always been optimistic about the second prince Yang Guang. He was smart and filial since childhood and had the appearance of a king. Compared with the Crown Prince Yang Yong, he was much better. Of course, it was not that the crown prince was stupid, but in character. The latter liked poetry, calligraphy and painting, and often kept company with literati, who outnumbered the king.
Therefore, he was more inclined towards Yang Guang in many matters, and would give some advice from time to time and take the opportunity to say good things in front of the emperor. If Lu Liangsheng could be won over, Yang Guang would have an initial team of left and right arms, and it would not be impossible for him to achieve imperial success in the future. When he made friends with that scholar in the beginning, he had already made such a plan to a large extent.
'I have served the emperor for two dynasties. Who else in the world can be as noble as me? My descendants will benefit for at least three generations.'
The old man looked at King Jin who was thinking about something, smiled, raised his gray head, looked at the sky full of stars and the Milky Way, and thought so.
The night sky is densely populated with stars, and the drifting clouds have obscured half of the bright moon. Below is a huge city with thousands of lights in the southeast, and the water of the Hibiscus Pond is gurgling in the night.
Opposite stood a stone tablet in the darkness. Passing through the mountain gate and going up the stone steps, there were three wooden buildings in pitch black. Everyone who had returned lay down in their respective rooms exhausted, with different snoring sounds coming one after another. Li Sui'an hung one foot over the edge of the bed, rubbed his nose, turned over and rolled to the ground, opened his eyes, and continued to sleep.
A scroll with the word "Moon" written on it was placed on the table. Zhu Ganglie was lying on the couch holding a wooden pillow. He stopped snoring for a while, and then rubbed his lips against the pillow. After a while, the snoring became louder again, and the slightly open window on the side opened and closed along with the snoring.
Yan Chixia covered his ears and sat up, picked up the wooden box, drew out a sword, jumped out of the window, and climbed to the roof. The sword light danced as his body moved, and the tiles he stepped on made a clanging sound.
"… Human, demon, ghost… I don't care what it is…"
Below, there was a light on in the window frame. Lu Liangsheng listened to the rough singing outside, shook his head, put the book down, and walked to the bed. The Toad Taoist was sleeping soundly with his white belly exposed. The thin blanket covering him had slipped to the side. He felt the breeze brought by the approaching, scratched his belly with his webbed feet, turned over and continued to snore.
"Master is really..."
Lu Liangsheng covered him with the small blanket and tucked in the four corners. Then he went back to his desk and picked up the untitled book he had just read and continued reading.
This book records Lu Yuan's life.
"For a person of this level of cultivation and intelligence, if we were only to tell his life story, we could have done it in other ways. Why would we need to write down all his experiences like a book?"
Lu Liangsheng certainly didn't believe that he was just writing a book. Besides, Lu Yuan had told him before that he must not let the Heaven know of his existence. Besides dying, he must be protecting something.
Those things are most likely the contents of this book.
The lights flickered, and Qiyou would sometimes come out to take a look. Seeing that the scholar was focused, he did not disturb him. He fiddled with the wick, added some lamp oil, and went back to the bookshelf.
Wow~
His fingertips flipped over a piece of paper made of unknown material, and vertical lines of handwriting appeared on the blank paper again. Lu Liangsheng spent more than half an hour reading it again, and then he checked it again word by word, guessed, and speculated.
'... From his youth to his studies, there weren't too many suspicious points, which was somewhat similar to me. If I hadn't met my master, I would probably have taken a similar path to him. Killing Qin Xu's family was also to vent, or to prevent me from meeting him again. Shenghuo Mingzun seemed insignificant in this, and was simply a small figure... '
Lu Liangsheng frowned, staring at another piece of rice paper where he had drawn more than a dozen circles and crosses of different sizes, connecting them with doubtful connections. Finally, he yawned sleepily.
The night was hazy, the bright moon disappeared behind the clouds, the scholar stood up, waved his hand lightly, the flickering lights went out in an instant, and a wisp of white smoke rose.
"Let's get some sleep first. Maybe I'm just overthinking..."
He took off his robe and threw it aside, then hung it on the rack at the end of the bed, climbed onto the bed and fell asleep comfortably.
The sound of wind whimpering outside the building passed under the eaves. The wind blew in through the open window, gently turning a page of the open book. On the paper that ordinary people could not see, a line of handwriting appeared and then disappeared.
“…Live as long as the heavens, and live as long as the world.”