The autumn wind blew yellow leaves off the streets. A peddler with a windmill shouted to two Taoists, one big and one small, who were walking into the city. The Taoist boy looked at the prosperity with wide eyes. The pedestrians on the street were noisy and hawking, with occasional cheers. Among the crowd, a big man holding a hammer smashed it fiercely, and the broken stone slab split open from the chest of his lying companion. The latter pushed away the debris and bowed to the people around him to ask for rewards.
The sound of Hu music was in the air. Standing at the door of the tavern, Ji Hu twisted her sexy waist. The Taoist stared at her trembling belly button with wide eyes, and suddenly stretched out his hand to block the little man's gaze.
"Don't look at it!"
Just as she finished speaking, there was a sudden "ouch" sound. Sun Yingxian covered her covered hand and blew hard, leaving a row of red teeth marks on it.
"You are born in the year of the dog!"
Mingyue glanced at him, put her hands behind her back and walked forward: "I belong to the fox family!"
Soon, the big and the small, arguing with each other, walked through several streets in the south city and came to the Hibiscus Pond. The lake breeze brought the smell of mud. The little guy ran to the guardrail and shouted "Wow", then turned around to look at the Taoist priest who was walking lazily towards them.
"This also belongs to my husband?"
"You wish! That belongs to the emperor."
The Taoist priest put down his hand that was resting behind his head and pointed to the golden hills and the towering mountain gate not far ahead. "That's over there. Don't be startled, or you'll embarrass Old Lu."
Mingyue ran over with a gust of wind, touched the stone tablet beside the mountain gate, and read the words on it word by word: "Wan-Shou-Guan!"
Hearing the words of the Taoist priest coming from behind, the little man straightened his face and said, "I know!"
When the two were halfway up the straight mountain steps, they heard a rustling sound in the bushes in the woods beside them. Suddenly, a donkey's head popped out, saw the little man on the stone steps, grunted, and rushed out.
"Uncle Donkey!"
Mingyue shouted happily, kicked off, leaped over, put her arms around the old donkey's neck, spun around in the air, and fell back to the ground. With a clear laugh, she rubbed her little face against the donkey's chewing mouth again and again. When she was young, she spent most of her time running up and down the mountains with the old donkey.
The old donkey also affectionately stretched out his tongue and licked his face, then waggled his mane and tilted his mouth upwards, signaling the little man to hurry up.
"Well, after meeting the gentleman, come and play with Uncle Donkey!"
Letting go of the old donkey, Mingyue waved her hand as the Taoist pulled her away. When they got to the top, they stood in the shade of a pine tree and saw hundreds of children sitting in a row in the square. Eight big men from Lujia Village held up clothes, called their names, and distributed them one by one.
"Is this... Mr. Lu really here?"
Lu Liangsheng had mentioned before that he would recruit orphaned children from Kyushu, teach them magic, and then send them to live among the people. I thought he was just talking casually on impulse, but I didn't expect him to actually do it.
Sun Yingxian let go of Mingyue and looked around. She didn't see the scholar, so she called out, "Follow me." She rushed to the attic with the yellow cloth bag in her hand. She saw Honglian cleaning a porcelain vase and asked, "Where is the great scholar Lu?"
"Master's wife!" The little person on the side spoke excitedly. Hong Lian, who was originally answering the Taoist priest, showed joy on her face. She floated over and rubbed his little face: "Mingyue is really well-behaved and polite. She is not like some people who come in and ask questions without even saying hello."
He glanced at the Taoist next to him with a hint of meaning, and the latter spread his hands and said, "Doesn't this show that we are familiar with each other?"
Hong Lian ignored him, stood up and turned around to continue wiping the screen, but still said to Ming Yue: "In the room below where your master stores the elixirs."
The Taoist bowed and said "Thank you!" and ignored the little man beside him. He was quite familiar with the place and ran over quickly. Before he went down the stone steps leading to the underground, he passed by the innermost kitchen and seemed to see a familiar figure. He stopped in a hurry, leaned back and looked inside.
Zhu Ganglie was wearing an apron and rolling out dumpling wrappers with a rolling pin. When he saw the Taoist looking around at the door, he threw a piece of dough and slapped it on his face.
"What are you looking at? Have you never seen an old pig cook? Go away, I'll call you when I'm done!"
"hey-hey."
Sun Ying first took off the mask and tossed it, then threw it back to Zhu Ganglie, and walked down the stone steps briskly. On one side of the spiral stone steps, there was an oil lamp on the wall. In the flickering light, there was a creaking sound. The space below was not big, and when the Taoist came down, his eyes widened suddenly, and he was so frightened that he almost took out his demon-subduing mirror.
In the field of vision, the fences built with wooden sticks were covered with spider silk, and the densely packed sticks were turning. In the upper middle, a huge red and white spider's abdomen kept spitting silk, and above it was half of a woman's upper body. Her arms turned into spider legs, quickly shuttling back and forth in the silk threads extending in all directions, weaving a crystal white robe. In less than a few breaths, the luster faded and became dull, as if it had been dyed.
"What is Lao Lu going to do..."
"Of course, to make some clothes for those kids out there."
As the Taoist was muttering, Lu Liangsheng's voice was also heard. The scholar came out from the other side of the stone steps and patted Sun Yingxian on the shoulder.
"How's things at home?"
"They all eat well and sleep well, and they live more comfortably than you and me." Old Sun put the bronze mirror back into the yellow bag, and looked at the eight long legs on it, and felt his scalp tingling. "Let's talk about it upstairs. If we stay here, I'm afraid I won't be able to resist giving her a blow."
Lu Liangsheng smiled, turned around and gave a few instructions to Zhu Erniang. When the latter nodded in agreement, the scholar invited the Taoist to go back upstairs. When they passed by the kitchen, Mingyue was already holding the first pot of dumplings. She was sitting obediently on the stool, swallowing them in big mouthfuls. When she saw the figure coming, she hurriedly put down the bowl, wiped her mouth, and stood on the ground.
"gentlemen!"
"Let's eat first." Lu Liangsheng rubbed the little guy's head and sat down at the round table. Hong Lian brought out two bowls of dumplings from the kitchen and placed them in front of him, then asked about Old Sun next to him.
"What happened to that old dragon you met when you came here?"
"It's all because of the Five-Power God..." Sun Yingxian held the bowl, quickly used chopsticks to dig the dumplings into her mouth, and took a sip of the soup before continuing, "... Your boy castrated the four monsters with one knife. Good guy, before we could catch our breath, the old dragon chased us over. He must be supporting the five monsters from behind..."
Listening to the Taoist's indignant description of how he came to the town and how he met the Five-Directions God, Lu Liangsheng sat there with his eyes closed, listening quietly. After a while, he picked up the chopsticks.
"Come with me over there later!"
The Taoist priest, still wrapping a dumpling in his mouth, turned his head and asked: "Which way?"
"Of course it's where I met that old dragon."
"Hey, hey, hey..." Sun Yingxian swallowed the food in his mouth with great effort, "I just came from there, do you have to rush me like this?"
"Just kidding."
Lu Liangsheng suddenly laughed, which made the Taoist stunned for a moment. Then he was so angry that he wanted to hit him with his hand, but when he realized he couldn't win, he withdrew his hand angrily, buried his head and scraped the bottom of the bowl, turning his head away and ignoring him.
After finishing his meal, the scholar did not continue talking, but walked to the door. The Taoist turned his head suspiciously, and saw two soldiers in armor standing outside the door with their hands clasped. One of them was as tall as a mountain, with shiny armor, and he looked majestic even when he was half-kneeling with his cloak dragging.
"Take my seal and send it to the government offices of Su and Liuzhou. Instruct the government to demolish the Dragon King Temple and Wutong Temple along the lake on the same day after receiving the seal. The national master will arrive on a certain day!"
Lu Liangsheng used the Chinese teacher's seal to stamp a decree.
"If the officials disobey, the Imperial City Division will march south to arrest them!"
"yes!"
Yuwen Chengdu, the leader, took the seal and led his subordinates, bowed and shouted, then turned around and went down the mountain, mounted his horse, and took advantage of the sunset glow to gallop out of the city to the south.