Zhuolu - Chapter 14

The Golden Guard was the emperor’s personal guard, who held the Golden guard of honor and guarded by the emperor’s side. The twelve people on this trip came neatly with swords, acting on behalf of the emperor’s order.

The leader at the head took out an imperial decree written on a golden silk coiled dragon, turned his hands over, and the yellow silk cloth spread out in mid-air.

According to the imperial decree, the emperor was very sorry for the sudden death of Duke Su of the Western Regions. The domain cannot be without a master for a day, so he let Zhong Suifeng act as the Duke of the country. The two sons were both young, and they should enter the palace with the Golden Guards and would henceforth be raised by the emperor himself.

“Entering the palace…” Zhong Youyu turned his head to look at his younger brother in panic. Although the Duke was the lord of a domain, he was still a subject of the emperor. They could be kings and hegemons in the Western Regions, and they could be free in the Northern Regions, but when they entered the capital, they would have to keep their tails between their legs.

Zhong Wumo still looked as immobile as a mountain, as if he had expected it long ago.

The Golden Guard put away the imperial decree and presented it to Shen Qirui, who had the highest status present. Shen Qirui inspected the emperor’s seal and handed it to Zhong Suifeng for safekeeping, “Everyone has been running around all the way, let’s go to the inner hall for tea.”

“What should I do? I don’t want to go to Beijing!” Zhong Youyu frowned and asked Shen Lou to give him advice.

“The imperial decree has been issued, what can we do?” Shen Lou turned around and found that Lin Xin had disappeared and told Huang Ge to look for him. Although the Zhong family did not show any intention of arresting Lin Xin, they still had to be on guard.

“Little Mo, you say something!” Zhong Youyu slapped his younger brother with a depressed expression, “What can we do, what can we do? If it wasn’t for your father’s request, he might have directly taken over the Western Regions. Dad is gone, and our second uncle can’t be counted on, can we still lead the army to resist the decree? If the sons, the princes enter the palace, it is no different from nursing an invalid, if the emperor deliberately wants to raise us, we will not be crowned just for the reason of succession, in fact he might even detain us for ten or eight years, we…”

“Speak carefully!” Shen Lou stopped the outspoken Zhong Youyu, and knocked down the parrot crouching by the window with a snap of his fingers.

“Nursing the invalid! Raising the invalid!” Nageguo fell from the window sill, and repeated Zhong Youyu’s words, very angrily.

With his head down, Zhong Youyu picked up the shameless bird lying on the ground, stuffed it into Shen Lou’s hands, and entrusted him to take care of it. This bird must never be taken to the capital, and it should not be allowed to open its mouth. He was a chatterbox, and he talked a few thousand words every day, maybe he had learned something from them. The capital city was no better than Mogui Mountain, the walls also had ears.

“Xiaoyu, Xiaomo, Second Uncle has something to tell you.” Zhong Suifeng walked in with a straight face, calling the brothers over.

Shen Lou took the bird and stood up to say goodbye, thinking that A Xin seemed to like the bird quite a bit, so he would take it back for him to play with. As soon as he walked out of the courtyard of the Zhong family brothers, he saw Huang Ge coming in a hurry, “My son, A Xin is gone.”

“What do you mean by missing?” Shen Lou ran to the courtyard.

The yard was empty, and the ground paved with fine sand had been left a circle of shallow ripples, which were the lines caused by the spiritual power of a spirit sword. Obviously, someone had left with a sword from this place.

“Lin Xin…” Shen Lou clenched his fists tightly, and the yellow sand quickly flowed out from between his fingers until his palm was empty, without having grabbed anything.

Lin Xin still left with Zhu Xingli, inevitably repeating the fate of his previous life. But why? He had said it well before, he had gone to Huan Xinghai to practice swords with him, and then called him senior brother, why did he suddenly change his mind?

“He saw the Golden Guards arriving before he left.” Huang Ge hugged the bird, trying to recall where Lin Xin had been.

Golden Guards…

Shen Lou woke up suddenly, “Huang Ge, you immediately chase after him with your sword, go to the southeast. Tell A Xin, the Golden Guards didn’t come to arrest him, I didn’t tell my father.” The appearance of the Golden Guards had deceived him. No matter how young he was, Lin Xin was still the cautious and suspicious Lin Bushou, and it was absolutely impossible for him to be a silly child who trusted him wholeheartedly after just a few days of knowing him.

“Yes!” Huang Ge didn’t ask any nonsense, directly raised his spirit sword, and walked away against the wind.

Nageguo fell in mid-air, spun around and shouted angrily: “Can’t you use fox fur?”

Tánhuáng Biāojì was advancing rapidly at this time, but by the time Huang Shiwei focused on chasing it in the southeast direction, Lin Xin and his master had already set up a hexagram stall in the small town.

“One liang of silver for one hexagram fortune, no credit is allowed.” On the long flag, these words were written in a fluttering pattern, and the last word “Qian” could not be written completely, so it was aggrieved and shrunk in the corner.

After taking off the crimson silk and the Luli forehead accessory on his head, Zhu Xingli was now dressed in an immortal-like white dress as he sat in front of the hexagram booth to watch. Lin Xin was holding a stick, standing aside expressionlessly, shaking it dutifully.

“One liang of silver is one hexagram, are you a god?” The spectators pointed at the cheeky master and apprentice, who dared to ask for a tael when other people’s fortunes were worth two cents.

“Sincerity leads to spirit.” Zhu Xingli smiled slightly, with a natural good-looking appearance, even if the corners of his eyes were downcast, he still had a sense of immortality.

“Hey, kid, is your master a liar?” Someone teased Lin Xin.

“If you believe it, you can try it. If you don’t believe it, you don’t try it. If you can’t afford a tael of silver, then don’t disturb my master’s purity!” Lin Xin raised his chin and said coldly.

“Hey!” Everyone was taken aback by the boy’s words.

Zhu Xingli glanced at his apprentice with great interest, good boy, self-taught without a teacher, could he really be the illegitimate child he forgot somewhere?

“Let me get my fortune told!” A man in fine clothes sat down, took out a piece of broken silver, and put it on the table.

Zhu Xingli didn’t ask anything, just pointed at the man’s palm, touched the palm slowly, pondered for a moment and said: “Penglai has a way, once wronged and hated, what a pity, what a pity.”

Hearing this, his countenance changed.

Penglai has a way, which meant that he could have ascended to the immortal road; once he hated this, it meant that he had blamed the people who wronged him for their crimes all these years.

“How do you know, sir, that I hate the person who wronged me?” He was born in a family of mortals. When he was young, an immortal came to touch his bones, but said that there was nothing. When he became an adult, he became in charge of the family, met the nobles of the Xianmen, and learned that he had excellent qualifications. Recalling that the stepmother had a talk with the bone-touching immortal back then, he thought that she must have deliberately ruined his immortal journey, and he felt resentful, so he kept treating his stepmother harshly.

Lin Xin lowered his eyes and said nothing, silently listening to Zhu Xingli’s nonsense. Just now, when he looked at the physiognomy, he was actually feeling for the bones. This bastard must have seen that the other party seemed to have a spiritual vein with immortal roots.

In his previous life, he often went out with Zhu Xingli to set up stalls, sometimes to tell fortunes, sometimes to sell rouge, and occasionally to beg for food. According to Zhu Xingli’s words, going out of the world and entering the world was all about practicing. It sounded nice, but it was just for fun.

In the past, he felt ashamed and couldn’t bear to accompany Zhu Xingli to go crazy. After Master’s death, looking back on the past, those days when begging with broken bowls were the happiest of his life.

“Returning to the soul,” Zhu Xingli flicked his finger, casually rolled up the white cloth used as a sign, and threw it aside, “Are you hungry?”

The lottery container was thrown away.

Zhu Xingli folded his arms and stared at this strange apprentice, “Do you think we have met each other in our previous life?”

Huh? Lin Xin was very sensitive to the words “previous life”, and immediately looked up at Zhu Xingli, “Why do you say that?”

“Otherwise, why do you look like you have been with me for many years,” Zhu Xingli copied him with one hand. Then he got up and carried it on his shoulders, “Go, son, Dad has made money, so I’ll buy you delicious food.”

“Who is your son!” Lin Xin struggled to slip away from Zhu Xingli’s arms, “Master, when will you teach me the immortal art?”

“Didn’t I teach you all the time? Looking at the bones is also an immortal art.” Zhu Xingli grinned, raised his hand and pulled a stick from the straw for selling candied haws, and stuffed it into the apprentice’s hand. Then he threw two copper coins to the vendor without looking back.

“In this world, is there a kind of immortal art that can cut off a person’s spiritual veins?” Lin Xin took a bite and realized what he was eating and couldn’t help but blush.

Zhu Xingli came over, stole a hawthorn, and said, “Of course there are.”

“Then what if this thing is contagious?” Lin Xin stared closely at Zhu Xingli’s eyes.

“That’s plague.” Zhu Xingli said without thinking, and wanted to steal again, but Lin Xin hid from him.

The master was not reborn, so he thought about it. These kind of mysterious things couldn’t be just two, it was not that easy.

“Then what’s wrong with Shen Lou’s body?” Sitting in the best restaurant in the city, Lin Xin continued to ask while eating his meal.

Zhu Xingli ordered a jug of good wine, and drank it slowly, “He…” He deliberately elongated his voice, causing the child with many problems to stretch his neck, “Brown brows and thin lips, such a face with a bad heart, must have owed a love debt in the previous life.”

“…” Hearing that, Lin Xin rolled his eyes and didn’t want to talk to him. Shen Lou had a pair of thin lips, but absolutely no reverse eyebrows, he had sword brows and star eyes, and a whole body full of righteousness.

Zhu Xingli was a casual person, and he spoke freely when talking to children. When he mentioned this incident, he couldn’t stop talking about his looks that were not related to each other, and what love debt, that made even the people at the next table look sideways at them.

The two of them did not go south to Zhu’s house as Shen Lou expected, but went east all the way, left the western region and went north again.

“What kind of place is this?” Standing under Zhaoyao Peak, Lin Xin asked knowingly.

“Zhaoyao Peak.” Zhu Xingli picked him up, then he jumped up the mountain, landed in a place with excellent Fengshui in the forest, took his hand and walked forward, where the flowers and plants piled up, and here they saw two graves. In front of the tomb stood a tombstone carved from rocks, with the words “the tomb of my best friend Xunlu Lin Zhenghan” and “the tomb of my best friend’s wife Lan Su” written in flying letters.

Then he opened a jar of good wine, lit a stick of fragrance and said, “Come and kowtow to your parents.”

The author has something to say: Small theater:

Master: Do you know why your daughter-in-law ran away? Your method is wrong…

Lou Lou: What method?

Master: You still don’t understand, what he wants is not a sword

Loulou: I know, what he wants is for me to treat him sincerely

Master: No, what he wants is candied haws

Loulou:…