The crescent moon in the night was gradually covered by clouds.
The cool night breeze blew through the long street, and a thin layer of mist rolled over the ground. At two quarters past ten in the evening, there were fewer pedestrians on the street, and people were hurrying home in groups of three or four. The faint sound of clappers and the tinkling of copper bells could be heard from the end of the street in the distance.
In the rolling mist, a scholar in a blue and white shirt led an old donkey through the dense mist and came over here. Beside him was a woman in a red dress. According to the familiar address, they walked past a long section of the courtyard wall. The mottled moss exuded a sense of simplicity. The branches and leaves of a peach tree in the courtyard stretched out from the inside to the street. In front of the courtyard gate with lights on, people walked in and out, and replaced the original red lanterns with a pair of white paper lanterns with the word "甸" written on them.
"Sir... could it be Sister Min..."
"You and Master wait for me outside."
Lu Liangsheng patted the back of her hand, spoke to the bookshelf on the old donkey's back, and walked across the deserted street. The servant who was busy hanging up white banners and lanterns suddenly felt a gust of night wind blowing past. He touched the back of his neck and shivered.
"Do you feel cold?"
"Oh, it's just a gust of wind. Why make such a fuss?"
"Don't talk, get busy! Do as the half-immortal tells you, don't break the rules."
“Yes, yes!”
The man who looked like a manager said this and turned back to the inner room of the house. To the side, Lu Liangsheng walked into the house with three entrances and three exits, with his hands behind his back. There were many plum and peach trees around, and pavilions and lofts built by the pond, which were particularly elegant. After passing the central courtyard, there were more and more maids and servants. Most of them were silent, with sadness between their brows, wiping away tears from the corners of their eyes from time to time.
Wang Banxia's voice could be heard from afar in the backyard, yelling at the people in the mansion to make the arrangements as he said. Outside the main hall in the backyard, many of the Min family's relatives had gathered, waiting to be ordered. Most of the timid women gathered together, holding the linen and white silk in their hands, whispering something to each other, and from time to time they glanced at the window of a side room where a light was still on.
"Madam, this illness has been going on for many years, right?"
"That's right... Ever since my grandfather passed away, Yue Rou has been suffering from this disease. Fortunately, my uncle has taken good care of her."
"What do you think? Will the son-in-law be the head of the huge Min family in the future?"
"How can he be in charge of the household as a son-in-law? If he has to be in charge, it should be Yuerou's child. He is a teenager now and it is time for him to take charge of household affairs."
In the direction where the words and the gaze were directed, a middle-aged man was sitting at a round table in a half-open door, with his eyes closed and silent. Occasionally, he heard two moans from his old wife, and then he moved his eyelids. After a while, as if he felt something, the man opened his eyes and looked at the courtyard outside the door. A figure in a green shirt and white clothes walked out of the darkness and slowly stepped into the area illuminated by the lights.
Outside, the gathered relatives of the Min family also saw it, looked at the strange scholar, frowned, and some hurriedly tried to stop him.
"Who are you? What are you doing at the Min family?"
"Get out now! The Min family is going to hold a funeral, and they're using connections and going through doors and gates, but they don't even bother to pick a time!"
Amid the chattering and shouting, the old man who was setting up the mourning hall came out impatiently and shouted at the noisy crowd with full force: "What are you shouting for, you..."
His eyes swept through the crowd and fell on a figure walking not far away. His words suddenly stopped. The Min family members who were talking over there were saying something like "Banxian, someone broke in!" "Yes, an ungrateful book..." "Hey, Banxian, what's wrong with you?!"
In the sight of everyone, before they could understand what was going on, Wang Banxian at the main hall door suddenly knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face, and kowtowed to the ground.
"Disciple, Wang Chengen greets the Master!"
A crowd of old and young, men and women in the courtyard opened their mouths slightly, unable to close them. Chang'an Wang Banxian was in his nineties, and there were very few people who lived to this age. He was highly respected, but even the emperor and civil and military officials in the court would visit him from time to time, and he had a close relationship with the Min family.
Rumor has it that he was the eldest disciple of the national master back then... Could it be that everyone slowly turned their eyes to look over there, and someone shouted, "Make way!"
A group of people were pulling each other and making a wide path to the left and right. They watched the handsome scholar walk through the middle. In the master's bedroom over there, the son-in-law of the family was standing at the door, his expression gradually becoming dull.
"Hey, have you noticed that our son-in-law... looks a lot like this scholar..."
"What scholar? Haven't you heard that even a half-immortal calls me master? I'm afraid he must be the national teacher."
"National Master? I remember he was not a fifty-year-old man, but now he looks so young... Oh, he must have regained his youth and become an immortal!"
As soon as the word "become an immortal" came out, the first person in the crowd felt his legs go weak and he shrunk down. The people behind him thought someone had knelt down, so they quickly followed suit and knelt on the ground.
…
The lights were dim, and the strong smell of herbs floated in the bedroom. A porcelain bowl with mottled medicine residue was still placed on the bedside cabinet. Behind the drawn curtains, a woman covered with a quilt was lying on the couch. She was already in her forties, with dishevelled hair and many white spots. Her once beautiful face was now thin and haggard, her eyes were sunken, and the corners of her eyes were covered with wrinkles. She seemed to understand the noise outside, opened her eyes weakly, coughed twice, and pursed her dry and chapped lips, and called out:
"Husband...what's going on outside?"
The wind blew in through the window frame, and the shadow of the lamp swayed on the wall. The room was empty and there was no answer. The woman reached out from under the quilt and groped feebly, trying to find her husband's hand. She turned her head with difficulty and saw her husband standing at the door in a daze in the dim light.
"Husband... Sir..."
When he called out weakly again, the figure at the door turned around and smiled. His figure became blurred and turned into dots of light. A figure walked into the room, and the light fell on him and disappeared.
The woman couldn't see clearly, but when she saw the outline of the figure, a feeling of warmth suddenly rose from the bottom of her heart and spread throughout her body.
"you… "
Squeak~~
There was the sound of another wooden door opening. Lu Liangsheng gently fiddled with the candle on the table, and the room became brighter. He slowly walked to the bed, sat on the edge of the bed, and looked at the woman in her forties lying on the bed. He was stunned and didn't say anything. Twenty years passed in a flash for him, but for mortals in the world, it left many traces of time.
The once heroic and pretty woman's skin had become loose and her face was covered with wrinkles. The eyes that had once been bright and clear when looking at him now appeared cloudy and surprised in the candlelight.
"You are... his son, right?" Min Yuerou's voice was a little hoarse. On the back of her hand outside the quilt, a warm big hand covered her and held her.
Lu Liangsheng shook his head, tenderness in his eyes, "It's me, Lu Liangsheng. I heard about your situation and came to see you."
The woman on the couch had tears in her eyes. She turned her face away and used her other hand to pull up the quilt to cover her cheek.
"You are someone from outside who came to deceive me... Sir, please go away and ask my husband to come in... I don't want to see anyone else."
Lu Liangsheng was silent.
He stroked the back of the woman's hand, which was only covered with a layer of skin, and looked at the hair that was exposed outside the quilt. His voice became gentle as he spoke to the woman underneath.
"Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a mountain called Qixia. There was a village at the foot of the mountain. There was a young man named Lu Yuan..."