That day, there was a light snowfall.
The North Sea is vast, with whale dragons lurking. Ancient icebergs float on the silver-blue waves. The cold wind howls, blowing up broken jade dragon scales all over the sky. Three boats sail against the wind, like arrows piercing the waves, passing through the icebergs, and heading straight north.
The boat was no more than ten feet long, and its hull was entirely green, carved out of a thousand-year-old pine tree trunk.
Two handsome little Taoist boys were steering the wooden boat, and a young Taoist was sitting cross-legged on the bow, holding a jade flute and playing a soft and elegant tune, looking ethereal and otherworldly like an immortal.
A boat is a hundred feet long, with a bronze hull and three towers in front and back. It is engraved with countless ghost and god patterns, looking majestic, ferocious and domineering.
On the deck of the ship stood hundreds of burly men in heavy armor, each of them looking mighty and domineering, and filled with murderous aura.
A sturdy man who was nearly two feet taller than an ordinary man was wearing a White Tiger Stepping on Clouds battle robe and holding a two-foot-four-foot White Tiger Halberd. He looked around with a sneer on his face. His eyes were gleaming with coldness and his gaze was as real as substance, extremely imposing.
The boat is 16 feet long and its hull is light gold in color, but it is made up of crystal clear skeletons that look like golden glass.
There was no one on the boat, only a handsome monk in a snow-white robe sitting cross-legged.
The monk, with a shaved scalp and nine light golden scars on his head, was smiling and holding a scroll of scriptures made of green leaves in both hands, reading slowly, word by word.
The young Taoist priest began to play the flute. As the melody twisted and turned, clouds seemed to sway faintly under the boat, and the speed of the boat continued to increase little by little.
When the handsome monk was reciting scriptures, the bone boat would flicker slightly with every word and phrase he uttered. Every time it flickered, the bone boat would suddenly rush forward hundreds of feet.
The huge bronze boat that the sturdy man was riding did not show any magical performance. The boats that the Taoists and monks were riding had to wind their way around one giant iceberg after another, but the huge boat he was on was extremely brutal and directly crashed through them.
No matter how small the iceberg is, or how big it is, this giant ship can pass through it without slowing down.
Looking down from the sky, the three boats each have their own magical powers, and they are basically moving forward in parallel, with no one lagging behind the other.
The ship sailed for who knows how many thousands of miles, and passed an ice cliff that hovered over the ocean like the Great Wall, and the sky ahead suddenly became bright.
The wind stopped and the snow stopped.
White mist rose above the vast ocean, and biting cold air emerged out of nowhere, condensing into palm-sized white ice crystal lotuses on the ocean surface.
The three boats slowed down and slowly moved across the ocean.
The hull hit the white lotus of ice crystals condensed on the ocean surface, making a slight "ding ding" sound.
In this sea area, the sky and water were all silver-blue, there were no clouds in the sky, and a big sun was hanging lazily in the far, far horizon. The sunlight was refracted countless times by countless tiny ice crystals in the air, and rounds of colorful rainbows flashed and circled around everyone like a mirage.
After walking thousands of miles forward, a giant hand suddenly emerged from under the sea.
The water here is extremely clear. There are no fish, no shrimp, no whales, no dragons, no turtles, and not even a trace of seaweed.
Through the sea water, you can see a huge stone statue of a Taoist priest sitting quietly in the unfathomable sea water.
I don’t know how big this stone Taoist is.
The area of ​​his palm alone, which was sticking , was several miles in radius.
In the Taoist's palm, there was a mountain with five colors all over it.
On the top of the mountain stood a giant who was a hundred feet tall with four faces, eight arms and a ferocious face.
The giant's body was broken, with countless transparent holes of various sizes all over it. Through the narrow and sharp transparent wounds, one could see his colorful and crystal internal organs that looked like colored glass beads.
No one knew how much time had passed, but black smoke and black flames still continued to emerge from the giant's body. They spread out through his wounds like a steamer for steaming buns, spreading in all directions.
On the face of the giant facing north, a lotus stem grew out of his mouth, growing all the way upwards until it reached the top of his head, and blossomed into a red lotus that was more than ten feet in radius.
The three boats stopped near the stone Taoist's hand that was sticking out of the sea.
The Taoist, the strong man, and the monk all knelt three times and kowtowed nine times to the stone Taoist's palm, the giant man on the palm, and the lotus in the giant man's mouth. Then they flew into the air and landed lightly on the blooming red lotus.
There are thousands of red lotus petals, and the lotus platform in the middle is only three meters in diameter. A woman with extremely beautiful appearance, dignified and sacred appearance, is sitting quietly in the middle of the lotus platform.
She had her hair tied up high, and wore a white fur skirt. Her body was adorned with countless pearls and jewels. In her left hand she held a bowl of clean water, and with her right hand she made the immovable seal and pointed lightly forward.
The woman 's eyes were closed, and her exposed skin, white and smooth like ivory, was covered with dense cracks.
Just like a white porcelain vase that was accidentally broken, but because of some strange power, it is still tightly glued together.
Her right hand did not move in front of the seal, and a faint purple light was looming.
The light gas is no more than three inches long and is thousands of times thinner than a hair.
A terrifying and sharp edge continued to seep out from the light, eroding the woman's body bit by bit.
The Taoist, the strong man, and the monk flew onto the lotus platform. They gathered their energy, held their breath, and looked tremblingly at the purple light at the woman's fingertips.
There was a crisp sound of 'pop'.
The purple light quietly collapsed.
The pearl necklaces that the woman was wearing all over her body broke into pieces at the same time, and the fragments of various colors were scattered all over the ground with a crackling sound.
With a sound of "crack", the body of the giant with four faces and eight arms that supported the red lotus below suddenly split into seven or eight huge cracks from head to toe, almost tearing the entire body apart.
Along with the sharp sound of shattering, cracks of varying sizes continued to appear all over the stone man on the path below.
The Taoist smiled and waved the jade flute in his hand vigorously: "Blocked!"
The sturdy man laughed wildly. He jumped up on the spot and somersaulted three times in the air: "Ha, blocked it!"
The monk put his hands together in front of his chest and bowed down to the woman whose body was covered with countless cracks: "Good, I have blocked it."
The Taoist smiled, shook his head, bowed to the woman sitting cross-legged on the lotus platform, then stepped on the breeze and floated back to the bow of the boat: "Qingfeng, Mingyue, return quickly. Our journey to the Tao is complete!"
The big man descended from the sky with a gust of wind and hit the bow of the giant bronze boat heavily.
He danced with joy and shouted, "Go home quickly, go home quickly. Hey, you ox-nosed man, you bald ass, you still have to fight for this path."
Hundreds of sturdy men laughed wildly in unison. Amid the laughter, the huge bronze boat turned around quickly, causing a violent storm and quickly sailing away.
The monk stood on the lotus platform, overlooking the two boats going away, and shook his head gently: "You wait and see, there is no rush. I will take the remains of the sage and welcome them back to the mountain respectfully."
The monk smiled, shook his head, then bowed to the woman again and muttered a sutra for salvation.
The two boats had sailed away and were no longer visible in sight.
The monk took out a piece of golden brocade from his sleeve, bowed to the woman again and again, walked up to her respectfully, and was about to hold her body up when a light laugh suddenly came from behind him.
She laughed, the sound was sweet and gentle, truly enchanting.
The monk's pupils suddenly shrank, and he heard a delicate voice behind him calling, "Husband, shall we play together?"
The colorful rainbows in the sky are slowly rotating.
On the ocean surface, white icy lotuses gently collided with each other.
The monk let out a shrill howl that echoed through the sky, and then there was no sound at all.
The huge corpse Taoist, the burly man with four faces and eight arms, and the woman on the lotus platform all collapsed and disintegrated and fell into the abyss amid the monk's screams.
A breeze blew, the cold air emerged, and white lotuses gathered on the ocean.
A pair of bright red embroidered shoes were reflected on the silver-blue ocean.
Heavy snow covered the whole country, and the capital was shrouded in snow.
The time-honored city of Haojing is the ancient capital of eighteen dynasties. There is no city in the world more noble than it, and none more elegant and graceful than it.
Within the city of Haojing, there are forty-nine artificial canals running vertically and horizontally , dividing the square city into more than two thousand square markets of varying sizes.
The palace of Haojing, the residence of the current emperor, is surrounded by four canals in the north of the city.
The four major districts closest to the palace are Fengtiao, Yushun, Guotai and Min'an. These four districts are full of large courtyards and red gates, and those living in them are either royal relatives or founding heroes.
Min'anfang, the northwestern corner, the area closest to the palace, has a large mansion surrounded by green pines and cypresses. Even in the cold winter when the ground is covered with snow, the entire mansion covering thousands of acres is still lush and green. The red doors, green tiles, white walls, and green trees exude an ancient and noble atmosphere.
This is the Mansion of Duke Lai, the home of a military hero who founded the Dayinwu Dynasty.
In recent years, the descendants of the Duke of Lai's family have been mostly useless, and things have been a bit downhill. However, the family foundation that the ancestors risked their lives to build is still there, and even if it has declined a little, the style of the top wealthy family has not fallen at all.
In the northeast corner of the Laiguo Mansion, next to the ancestral temple, the boss has marked out a square piece of land.
There are several large and stable tiled houses built here. All of them have floors paved with water-ground blue bricks, walls covered with snow-white fine paper, and ceilings made of woven scented thin wooden strips. The natural stripes of the wooden strips are used to create a huge image of a carp jumping over the dragon gate.
There are large clear crystal windows on all four walls of the big tiled house. The daylight shines in through the large pieces of crystal, and the house does not seem dark at all.
There was a fire dragon burning under the huge room. Even in the middle of winter, the room was still steaming and warm.
This is the clan school of Duke Lai’s Mansion.
The Laiguo Mansion spends a lot of money on the clan school every year and hires some famous teachers. All the children of the Laiguo Mansion's direct descendants, as well as relatives and friends, can come to the clan school to study when they are five years old or older.
In a large tiled house, desks were neatly arranged, on which were piled various books and the four treasures of the study.
Behind the desk, on the stools, sat a group of young members of the lineage of Duke Lai, aged from fourteen to eighteen. The classroom was spacious, with a lot of space. There were nearly two hundred young members of the lineage of Duke Lai who were of the right age, all sitting in the classroom.
Lu Yi had her long hair tied into a ponytail and was wearing a blue cloth double-breasted cotton jacket. With her hands tucked into her loose sleeves, she sat in the corner of the last row of the room, looking through the crystal window at a few sparrows jumping around on the eaves of the classroom opposite.
It is already the twelfth lunar month and the New Year's Eve is approaching. The one-year curriculum of the clan school has come to an end. After today, it will be a month-long winter vacation.
Two days ago, the clan school organized the year-end assessment, and today is the day to announce the results.
In the front rows of the classroom, those young men who came from the side branches of the Duke of Lai's mansion and who were somewhat ambitious were looking nervously at the head of the clan school behind the podium in front of them.
In the middle of the classroom, a dozen or so young men dressed in silk and satin, with little children serving them, were slumped in their seats like a pile of pork, racking their brains to think about where to go, who to find, and what interesting pastime to do later.
In the last few rows of the classroom, which were the rows next to Lu Yi, there were some boys who were also from the side branches but whose families had considerable wealth and power, as well as a group of children of relatives and friends who came to the clan school to study for free. They were all grinning and making faces, communicating in secret codes that only they knew.
Occasionally, you can hear their whispered laughter.
For example, 'little peach pink breasts', 'little willow green pink buttocks', 'a certain nanny has a strong waist ', 'which big teapot has a big turtle', etc.
The head of the clan school sitting on the podium is Lu Jun, a close relative of the Duke of Lai’s mansion, who is nearly forty years old.
Ten years ago, Lu Jun was recommended as a filial and honest official by the Duke of Lai's mansion and became an official, living a very impressive life for a while. However, the good times did not last long. He had a huge deficit of money and grain while in office, but he did not know where the money and grain in the public treasury had gone, and he did not have the power to fill the gap. When the incident was exposed, he almost lost his head.
Thanks to his relationship with the Duke of Lai's Mansion, Lu Jun was not convicted, but he lost his official position.
The Laiguo Mansion pardoned Lu Jun's crime, but would not fill the hole for him.
However, the current emperor is a strange person who values ​​money extremely and is very good at making money.
Lu Jun had a huge debt of money and grain on his shoulders. Unless he made up for the loss, there would be no hope for him to recover.
Fortunately, Lu Jun had some friendship with several masters of the main house in the Mansion of Duke Lai, and he also had some literary talent, so he reluctantly entered the clan school and took on the important task of educating the descendants and cultivating talents for the Mansion of Duke Lai.
Lu Jun, who was quite handsome and had slightly gray hair on his temples, didn't bother to care about those noisy boys below.
He didn't dare to control the direct descendants of the Duke's Mansion.
He was too lazy to care about those useless collateral descendants and outsiders.
There were some ambitious young men sitting in the front rows who did not need his attention.
Exhaling lazily, picking up the small purple clay teapot and taking a sip of old white tea, Lu Jun slowly pulled out a buffalo leather book bag from under the podium and took out a thick stack of test papers.
"The results of this year's annual examination are generally similar to previous years."
"You all must remember that your ancestors' wealth and honor were not easy to come by. You must study hard and not bring disgrace upon the great reputation of the Jingyang Lu family's Laiguogong Mansion."
"Hey, Luson, come up."
"Hey, Lu Qian, top middle."
"Hey, Lu Shen, up and down."
Lu Jun slowly read out the annual test results of all the boys in the clan school. No matter they were direct relatives, collateral relatives, or outsiders, those boys came forward one by one and took the test papers from Lu Jun's hand. Some of them were smiling, some were grinning, some were frowning, and some returned to their seats indifferently.
Lu Jun read out the names one by one. At the end, he shook the last paper in his hand and changed his expression: "Lu Yu, you are terrible. Compared with the previous two years, you have not made any progress at all. Look at your last and most important article on Taoism. You answered irrelevant questions and spoke nonsense."
Lu Jun knocked hard on the podium, pointed at the expressionless Lu Yi and said sternly, "You were like this the year before last, the year before last, and the year before last. If you continue like this, will you be worthy of the monthly subsidies of silver and rice from the clan?"
Lu Jun stared at Lu Yi who was slowly standing up, and said sternly: "In this world, students of literature and education are the most honorable. Studying and learning are the real bright future. Academic activities are just the foundation, and only the theory of Taoism is the way to success."
"No matter how pretty and good-looking you are, you can't make good theories. Scary!"
Lu Jun threw the paper in his hand lightly forward and let it fall to the ground.
He pointed at Lu Yu and scolded him loudly with an increasingly fierce tone: "Year after year, year after year, you have not made any progress. It is obvious that you are a useless seed, a filthy waste who only brings shame to the Jingyang Lu family."
Lu Jun's cursing became more and more intense, and his saliva sprayed far away .
Lu Yi coughed lightly and walked forward slowly.
There was a sudden silence in the classroom.
No matter they were the sons of the mansion or those close or distant relatives, everyone raised their heads and looked at Lu Yi, who was nearly nine feet tall, more muscular than an ordinary man, and much more energetic.
Lu Yi picked up the paper on the ground, rolled it into a cylinder, and tapped his thigh lightly with it as if he was holding a stick.
He smiled and nodded to Lu Jun continuously: "It is what you blame, sir."
Lu Jun was not moved by Lu Yi's smile. His scolding became more and more sharp, harsh, and even a little vicious.
"In my opinion, you don't need to study."
"If you are reluctant to give up the money and food that the clan school distributes every month, why don't you just report it to the master and go out to do some work to make a living? Isn't that better than wasting ?"
"If you stay in the clan school, not only will you be embarrassed, but even the Lu clan school will be implicated by you and be ridiculed!"
"In such a huge city like Gaojing, with so many big families, which family school has a fool like you who has been rated as the lowest for four consecutive years?"
"Because of you, I feel embarrassed when I go out to drink with my peers."
"Fortunately, your grandfather died early, and your father may have died as well. Otherwise, seeing you like this, wouldn't he have been pissed off to death by you?"
Lu Yi's eyes were as clear as ice. With a smile on his face, he bowed quietly to Lu Jun, then turned around and walked back to his seat.
Seeing Lu Yi like this, Lu Jun's scolding was like a torrent of water, and he almost broke out into a curse.
In the clan school, those young masters of the direct line of the Lu family, as well as those naughty side branches and relatives, all pointed at Lu Yi and laughed, and cooperated with Lu Jun in making fun of him.
That night, all the students of the clan school of Duke Lai's mansion pooled together some money and held a year-end thank-you banquet for their teachers in the largest winery, "Hefengxiyulou", in Anlefang, east of Min'anfang, across a canal in the city. They invited all the teachers of the clan school, as well as the principal Lu Jun and several clan school supervisors to have a big meal.
The banquet was not over yet, just like the previous two years, Lu Yi declined the offer, saying he was too drunk and left quietly.
After the banquet, Lu Jun and a group of gentlemen called their friends and went to Mingyue Pavilion near Anle Tower to have some fun.
Late at night, the drunk Lu Jun left the table, refused the support of the concubine beside him, and staggered outside to change his clothes.
Suddenly, a howl rose to the sky, and Lu Jun's cries echoed throughout Mingyue Pavilion.
"My legs, my legs, legs, legs... Why is the ground so slippery?"
Faintly, someone exclaimed: "This, this is the third time! Brother Lu, how unlucky you are!"
Anlefang is just to the east of Min'anfang, and the two markets are separated by an artificial canal.
Unlike Min'anfang, where residents were all royal relatives and founding heroes, Anlefang was mostly populated by the new nobility of the later dynasty.
Marquis Tian'en was born into such a nouveau riche family.
Because of the emperor's great favor, the size of Tian'en Marquis' Mansion is even larger than that of an ordinary duke's mansion.
It also occupies the north of Anlefang. The mansion building covers an area of ​​more than a thousand acres and is extremely magnificent.
However, compared with the Laiguogong Mansion in Min'anfang, the trunks of the green pines and cypresses in the courtyard of Tian'enhou Mansion were much thinner. The plum trees of various colors planted in the courtyard of Laiguogong Mansion were as thick as water tanks, while the plum trees planted in Tian'enhou Mansion were so thin that they were only the size of an arm.
In addition to the trees, the patterns carved on the exquisite stone foundations of the courtyard wall of Tian'en Marquis Mansion are also very clear, revealing a sense of cutting-edge fireworks.
The stone carvings on the walls of the Duke of Lai's mansion were already covered with moss, with traces of wind and rain, naturally carrying an air of a wealthy family with a history of accumulation.
Early in the morning, just as the sky was getting light, the mistress of Tian'en Marquis's Mansion, Mrs. Hu, dressed neatly and, panting, with the help of two maids, climbed up to the highest pavilion in the back garden of the mansion with some difficulty, stretching her neck to look towards the west.
The location of Duke Lai's Mansion in Min'anfang is opposite to that of Marquis Tian'en's Mansion in Anlefang. Between the two is an artificial canal and most of Min'anfang.
Even when the weather is the best, you cannot see what is happening in the Duke of Lai's Mansion from this attic.
Not to mention, with the sky full of snow and dark clouds, Mrs. Hu could only see teams of sleds transporting supplies and groups of naughty boys digging holes in the ice to fish in the middle of the frozen canal.
Even what was happening on the street across the canal, which was densely packed with wine shops and restaurants, was not clearly visible to Mrs. Hu.
However, Mrs. Hu has developed this bad habit over the years.
Every morning, if she didn't go upstairs to see what was going on at the Duke of Lai's Mansion, she wouldn't even be able to enjoy her meals for the whole day.
She adjusted the heavy golden hairpin on her head with her hand, and then tightened the fox fur cloak wrapped around her body. She sighed with a sad face, "How rich! How can other families be so rich?"
The two little maids dared not say a word.
My wife has been coveting the property of the Duke of Lai's Mansion for more than a year or two.
However, although Tian En Hou was from the Laiguogong Mansion, he has now established a separate residence. Although he is a descendant of the Jingyang Lu family, he has long been separated from the Laiguogong Mansion.
Unless all the male descendants of the eldest branch of the Duke of Lai's Mansion are dead, it would be impossible for the Tian'en Marquisate to covet such a huge fortune.
That fortune that is like .
Tsk tsk.
The two maids thought about their mistress's past behavior, held their breath carefully, and lowered their heads deeply.
"Oh, such wealth." Madam Hu gnashed her teeth and raged in the direction of the Duke of Lai's Mansion, stamping her feet vigorously: "Call the housekeeper, steward, and accountant to come here. It's almost the New Year's Eve. The year-end account must be reported to me clearly."
When it comes to the word "general ledger", Mrs. Hu's eyes suddenly brighten.
She asked the two maids beside her in a quiet voice: "You said, our family's account book at the end of each year is only a few inches thick."
"I heard that the account book they compiled at the end of each year is five or six feet thick."
"How can they afford such a huge fortune?"
The two little maids dared not speak even more.
Half an hour later, Mrs. Hu's angry scolding was heard in the hall of Tian'en Marquis Mansion.
"This silk shop's profit this year is 820 strings of cash less than last year. Where did the money go? Drag it down and fight it carefully. Find out where the money went and get it back without missing a cent."
"Compared to last year, the performance of these three grain stores is not much different. This year's profits are also similar to last year's."
"It can be seen that the three shopkeepers of you have not worked hard this year . How come there is no increase in profits?"
"Okay, I won't beat you, but don't think about any rewards. Go back and work hard and attentively in the new year. If you are still like this next year, watch out for your orphans."
"Well, the other things are not bad. This jewelry store has made a lot of money. Hey, it actually made 18,000 more than last year! Hey, hey, don't say that I, your wife, treat the servants unfairly. You are all your own children. Your wife is the most generous, fair, and clear in rewards and punishments. I have never had any complaints about you."
"You, the big shopkeeper, you, tsk, it's hard to make money these days. Madam, I'll make the decision for you. I'll give you twenty, no, ten strings of cash. Go back and have a good year."
"This restaurant..."
“This vinegar shop…”
"This cloth shop..."
"This firewood shop..."
"This dental business..."
"This inn..."
"This Zhuangzi..."
After being busy for most of the day, until the evening, Mrs. Hu finally clapped her hands in satisfaction and said, "Okay, it's settled, it's settled. Come on, take the money that each shop has paid and put it in the warehouse."
"You better be careful. If you miss a penny, be careful of your money."
"This year is a good year. During the New Year, Madam, I will make a new dress for each of you. You will be so beautiful!"
"In the cloth shop's inventory, there are more than ten pieces of fine cloth soaked in rain. Although the color has faded a little, it is still fine and good stuff. Ordinary rich people would not be willing to use it. I can use it to make new clothes for you . In the whole of Gaojing, except for me, the lady, where else can you find such a generous owner? You guys, just be happy!"
A quarter of an hour later, in the backyard of Tian'en Marquis 's Mansion , Madam Hu's cries as if her father and mother had died rose to the sky.
"Damn it, damn it, why are you here again?"
"My money, my money, my money..."
“It came the year before last, and it came again the year before last!”
“I came the year before last, and I came again last year!”
"You came last year, why are you here again this year?"
"Can't you just steal from another family?"
"There is a code of conduct for thieves. You are so immoral and against the law of nature. You are trying to kill us by fleecing us!"
"My money, my money, my money, ah, ah, ah, ah!"
"You are a bunch of useless trash!"
"A money-loser who was raised on pig bran!"
"You deserve to be hacked to pieces, you brainless bastard!"
"The Marquis asked you to look after the house, is this how you look after the house?"
"My money, my money, my money!"
"Woo, woo, go and report to the police, report to the police, report to the police in the name of the master!"
"Send more people!"
"Send more people!"
“Beat the drum of grievance!”
"Knock on the Xiezhi bell!"
" If we don't catch that thief, no one will have a good year!"