The clear moon appears among the wandering clouds.
The silver light illuminated the county town southeast of Qishui. The night wind blew through the thin mist on the long street. The bang bang of the night watchman could still be heard from the neighboring street. The night watchman was swaying with a lantern stuck on the back of his neck. He looked ahead and slowly walked through the mist.
Boom!
“… A warning to little thieves: if you steal chickens or dogs, don’t steal people; if you steal blankets or mats, don’t steal beds!”
Bang bang…
The light from the paper lantern flickered, and in the peripheral vision, it seemed as if a black shadow with a light blue glow flew over the eaves in front. He shivered, and quickly straightened his body, looking straight ahead, walking straight forward with a focused expression, and the clappers in his hands became much faster.
"Mom... I'm a bit unlucky today, so I'll go back early to find my wife Yuedai to ward off evil spirits."
Amid the trembling murmurs, behind the distant night watchman's voice was the direction of the county government office. In the main house in the backyard, there was a sound of grinding teeth. The county magistrate, who was sleeping with his wife in his arms, kicked the quilt and felt a little uncomfortable. He opened his eyes hazily, and in the dim vision, there was a light blue light hanging outside the window frame.
"Wha… what?!"
He woke up with a start and sat up. He reached out to push his wife beside him, but there was no response. He quickly got out of bed to put on his shoes and socks. The window creaked open and a paper crane flew in.
A neutral and peaceful voice came from the paper crane.
"I am Lu Liangsheng, the Imperial Master of the Great Sui Dynasty. I passed by Lijia Village in the northwest of Qi County and found that a charlatan had deceived the villagers into sinking people as sacrifices in the river. Come and arrest the remaining criminals!"
The sound of the law disappeared, and the county magistrate's eyes flashed, and a pale blue light became brighter, as if it was going to swallow him up. He immediately cried out "Wow!" and sat up from his bed, sweating all over. Only then did he realize that he had just had a dream.
"Master, what's wrong with you?"
The wife beside him was awakened and patted her husband on the back. The county magistrate shook his head and said, "It's okay. I just had a scary dream."
Almost subconsciously, I looked in the direction of the dream, and then my eyes narrowed. The window over there had been opened at some point, and a paper crane was standing quietly on the window frame.
The county magistrate hurriedly got off the bed, approached cautiously, tried to take the paper crane in his hands and read it, remembering the words in his dream.
'It's not a dream...'
The next moment, he hurriedly asked his wife to help him change his clothes into official robes, took the sword from the bedside, pushed the door open and went out, calling the night duty officer.
"Wake up everyone who is still in the county government office and follow me out of the city! Quickly!"
"yes!"
Upon hearing the county magistrate's order, several people on duty quickly ran to the residence of the yamen runners, and sent people to the city to find the captain of the police who was at home. Half an hour later, the yamen runners and constables gathered outside the county government office with weapons, waited for the county magistrate to come out, and hurried out of the city, rushing along the official road to the northwest.
"My Lord, what happened?"
"Don't ask too much. You'll know everything when you get there."
“… uh… yes.”
Fortunately, Lijia Village is not too far from the county seat. It is just beside the Qi River, more than 20 miles away. At this moment, a large group of villagers looked at the rippling river water, their faces pale, and they gathered together, shaking uncontrollably.
Some people came to their senses based on the Taoist's words before his death, and quickly knelt on the ground and slapped him hard in the face.
"We were so foolish that we almost believed it and killed the girl. This expert... those three people used sweet words and deceptive tricks to make us think that the Water God Qi really wanted to marry."
Most of the villagers have lived on a small piece of land for their entire lives, so it is difficult for them to have much experience. They are being used and deceived without realizing it. At this moment, there are still some villagers who timidly raise their heads and ask carefully and tentatively:
"Sir, now that the Qishui God has married the immortal, will he bless us with plenty of food and clothing?"
Lu Liangsheng closed his eyes, exhaled, turned his palm towards the water surface, made a finger gesture, and a wave rose up, pulling the scholar out of the water, passing over the rock, and directly rushing towards the person who was speaking, soaking him all over, and also splashing water all over the other villagers around him.
"Which god would be so vicious as to sacrifice a living person?! If you dare to do it, they won't dare to accept it!"
Hearing the sounds of horse hooves and footsteps in the distance, Lu Liangsheng waved his hand to disperse the black turtle in the river, and strode towards the villagers on the opposite side. The group of people were frightened and thought that the master in front of them was going to do something else, so they hurriedly made way for him. However, in a moment, even the figure of the man could not be seen.
Only a faint sound was still echoing around.
"The kidnapper should confess his crime to the authorities!"
The villagers swallowed their saliva in total silence, their heads buzzing and completely unable to think. After a long while, they reacted and someone muttered, "It's the middle of the night, the government won't come, and the devil will confess his crime after tomorrow."
Tap tap tap—
The sound of horse hooves rang out from the southeast dirt road, awakening the still confused villagers. In the light of the torches, several figures on horseback were illuminated, with a large "Bu" character written on their clothes. The head constable and the detectives who had arrived earlier were also shocked when they saw the scene here.
'Could something really have happened?'
Immediately, he rode his horse to the front and drew the blade at his waist: "What are you doing here?!"
On the bridge, the soaked girl became much more sober. She coughed out the remaining river water in her throat, and when she saw the officials riding horses over there, she remembered the previous scene and burst into tears.
Soon, the county magistrate and a group of bailiffs arrived here, comforted the girl, and asked her where she was from and how she was caught.
"I... am from another county... I came here with my elders to visit my family, but they caught me halfway and said I should marry the Water God Qi... and I should be drowned... Woo woo..."
"Do you know the person who arrested you?"
"It's them!"
The girl naturally recognized those people. In addition to the Taoist priest who had already drowned in the river, there were also two Taoist boys. Among the villagers over there, five men were pushed out by the villagers.
"Catch them and take them back to the county government for interrogation—"
The county magistrate was also furious. Not only did he not sleep most of the night, but such a thing happened in the area under his jurisdiction, which was a black mark on his political achievements.
"Those three guys are lucky, otherwise they would have to go to jail!"
Thinking about this, the county magistrate called a villager and asked, "Where is the expert now?"
"Reply...Reply to the county lord, stay overnight at Old Man Li's house..."
"Take this county with you!"
…
In the old house in the village, Lu Liangsheng pulled out the bolt on the gate of Old Man Li's house, patted the head of the old donkey that came over, and walked into the main room. The Toad Taoist was sitting under the oil lamp, hugging his webbed feet, dozing off with his head nodding.
Hearing footsteps, he half opened his eyes and yawned.
"It's over? Then go to sleep. I can't hold on any longer."
"Master may have to sleep in the cubicle."
Lu Liangsheng picked up the bookshelf, called the old donkey and put it on its back, and told Toad about the Qi Water God. The latter shook his head and said, "Just hand it over to the government, why bother..."
Hearing the words "drowned the man in the river" from the disciple behind him, the toad snorted and its eyes flashed with cold light.
"Good sinking!"
He jumped onto the table below, climbed over the threshold, kicked his legs, jumped into the air, grabbed the hanging rope, put it on the donkey's back along with the bookshelf, climbed into the compartment, and while making the small bed, he said in a cold voice:
"If I were here, I would have given them a beating and then killed them by drowning them in the river!"
Immediately, the frog slapped his mouth, yawned, opened the quilt and crawled in, "Master, please sleep for a while! Call me in the morning."
With a bang, the small door of the compartment was closed.
After Lu Liangsheng had packed up everything and secured the bookshelf, he said, "Then go to sleep first, Master!" Holding the reins, he led the old donkey out of the shabby courtyard. Seeing clusters of torchlight spreading ahead, he cast an invisibility spell and passed by the county magistrate and the runners who were approaching.
"National Master!"
The county magistrate ran up the gentle slope panting and walked straight into the open courtyard gate. There was no one there, which was a bit regrettable.
"You are a step late."
Ding-a-ling…
Hearing the sound of copper bells lingering in the darkness outside, the county magistrate rushed to the gate of the courtyard, looked at the night for a while, pursed his lips, and cupped his hands towards that side.
"Thank you, Imperial Master, for getting rid of this disaster for Qi County."
In the distant night, in the direction where the sound of copper bells faded away, Lu Liangsheng seemed to hear the voice of the county magistrate. He turned around and smiled, then continued to move forward leading the old donkey. In the deep forest at the foot of the mountain, in the gloomy moonlight, a long shadow twisted with dense green scales, winding around the big tree, and had been waiting there for a long time.
hiss~~
Seeing the man and the donkey approaching from a distance, the green snake excitedly spit out its tongue, swam down from the tree, stood up its body, and lowered its head as if bowing.