Great Sui Guoshi

"Master Ha has returned with Duke Shuhua's pen and ink."

Toad stared at it, and turned in one direction while holding the red bean cake.

"Is that called taking? The old man calls that...borrowing, but the owner's family is not here."

There was a lot of chatter in the room, Lu Liangsheng helplessly watched the argument between Master and Hong Lian, and suddenly raised his brows and walked to the door.

"Someone is here."

Sure enough, two footsteps came from the Crescent Gate. Min Changwen, who had just left the morning court, came in with his teacher from the outside. The two were talking in a low voice. Seeing the scholar standing under the eaves, the old man smiled and said:

"Haha, Master is talking about you with Shangshu, so we just come over to sit together."

When the minister of the court was placed in Shengdou Xiaomin, he was quite a big official. Even Lu Liangsheng, who had a reputation, still needed to look up to him. Not too big a shelf.

The three of them sat under the parasol tree, usually their mentors Shu Huagong and Min Shangshu were talking, and Lu Liangsheng was listening, mostly about government affairs, and during the period they also mentioned the protector of the country, which made Lu Liangsheng deliberately pay attention for a moment.

"In the case of He Liangzhou, His Majesty listened to the slander of that monstrous monk, and took several months to send out a batch of food. There was almost a civil uprising!"

"Hmm... the demon monk bewitched you, saying that the drought will not last long, and it took a whole year for it to subside. There are so many victims waiting to be fed. In the end, it finally rained, and the credit is all on the demon monk."

"Damn the people who harm the country and the people!!"

"However, there are rumors over there that a monk in white robes forcibly cast a spell in that heavy rain to make it rain all over the world. For this reason, lightning struck."

"That's right... There are many practitioners who have been there, and I don't know who they are." Min Changwen reached out and patted the plane tree twice, then turned to look at the quiet scholar beside him.

"Liangsheng, you can be considered as a practitioner. He happened to go to Heliangzhou at that time. Do you know who that person is?"

The great drought in Heliangzhou was also used by the current minister to criticize the protector of the country and to warn the emperor to manage the government. Unfortunately, it was useless. Wang Shuhua, a friend and aide, was also running around to collect food and send it there. Later, I heard that the whole When it came to the situation, it was difficult for Min Changwen to express such complicated feelings in his heart when he learned that it was a high-spirited person who took the risk of catastrophe to force the rain.

It's a pity that the expert didn't know whether he was alive or dead after the thunder disaster, and the prefect of Liyang City who rescued him didn't disclose... We can only find out when the other party returns to Beijing to report on his duties in the future.

As for the scholar who was asked, the words of his mentor and Min Changwen reminded him of the matter of He Liangzhou. Hearing the words of the question, he calmed down.

...to say or not to say?

After all, wouldn't it be too frightening to survive the thunder disaster?

After thinking for a while, Lu Liangsheng respectfully replied:

"I don't know this one."

"There are so many cultivators, it's common sense that good students don't know each other." Duke Shu Hua looked at his face, and turned the conversation back to the government affairs of the court and people's livelihood in various places.

Occasionally, he would mention Chun Wei a few days later, and both the old man and Min Changwen encouraged him.

The sun was shining, and it gradually became warm.

The two were still busy with business. After seeing them off, Lu Liangsheng returned to the courtyard, set up his easel, looked at the old sycamore tree in front of him, and at the same time as the green ink fell, Taoist Toad took out the pen and ink from the window behind him. , spread the paper out.

Recalling the mountains, rivers and waters that I once overlooked, ink stains slowly fell to outline the vast land.

Soon, he straightened up, with one web supporting the pen holder and the other at his waist, looking at the dark piece of paper, closing his toad eyes, throwing the brush aside in abandonment, and sitting on the edge of the table.

"My mother... what kind of shit did the old man draw."

Outside the window, the phoenix tree that was painted by hand has already taken shape, and the last two strokes of green ink are placed, displaying a scroll of luxuriant branches and leaves, full of vitality.

In the breeze, the phoenix tree waved its branches and leaves, giving it a lot of vitality.

"Perhaps, I can tell His Majesty the tragedy of He Liangzhou in the Golden Luan Hall... I hope it will be useful."

Lu Liangsheng thought to himself.

******

Boom...

The spring thunder rolls faintly from the horizon, and when the overcast clouds come, the drizzle falls on the city.

On the second day of the second lunar month, the dragon looked up.

Chun Wei from the Ministry of Rites arrived, and Lu Liangsheng adjusted his clothes and robes. He only brought pens and inks and certificates. After a brief wash, he greeted Taoist Ha and Hong Lian, took an oil-paper umbrella and walked out of the side yard without letting him go. The servants of the Min Mansion sent him off, opened the paper umbrella and walked onto the street.

slap...

The raindrops splashed on the printed oil paper umbrella. Lu Liangsheng, who was dressed in a green robe and long sleeves, walked through the wet street with his shoes and socks dripping water. Originally, he could not use an umbrella. In that case, it would be too much. Eye-catching.

At this time, the long street was a little more lively than in the past, and the people who went to Beijing for the exam could be seen being sent to the Gongyuan by their family members and servants. When Lu Liangsheng came, there were already many people who were hard to see outside.

"I don't know which Juren master will be the No. [-], No. [-] and No. [-] this time."

"His Majesty personally wrote the examination questions for the Gong Yuan. Our Majesty is proficient in literature, so I'm afraid it will be a bit difficult."

"...Who can tell, there will always be one or two masters who will make it to the rank."

"It's true, it's true."

Buzz buzz... Amid the whispering voices, Lu Liangsheng squeezed through the crowd holding a paper umbrella, smiling, and politely said to the onlookers, "Please let me pass."

Seeing the appearance of the scholar, the people around could probably see that he was the candidate for the exam, and consciously yelled at the people behind him, "Why is it crowded, there is a master Juren in front, do you want to take a closer look?"

"Everyone, please give way..."

"Ouch, stepped on my foot."

"Yo... this student is so young, I'm afraid he hasn't celebrated Double Ten, so he didn't come here to watch the fun."

.....

Passing through the water curtain hanging from the eaves, Lu Liangsheng put away the oiled paper umbrella, shook the water stains on his shoulders, took out the examination certificate and identity quotation and handed them to the guard, who checked them before letting him in.

Similar to the rural exam, the exam room is mostly a small cubicle. When entering, Lu Liangsheng took the candle handed over, and then was locked in by the invigilator, firstly to prevent being disturbed, and secondly to prevent someone from secretly passing the answer .

Lu Liangsheng waved the sleeves of his robe, and brushed off the dust on the couch. He swung the toilet not far away to the corner, and soon, the examination paper was handed in.

The first exam "Lord Saint, Minister Kexian"

Seeing this question, Lu Liangsheng closed his eyes and rubbed the ink lightly.

"If the lord is holy, He Liangzhou may not have such a tragedy."

After a long time, he had some ideas. He set up a candle on the corner of the table, touched it with his fingertips, and drew out a bean-sized flame, illuminating this compartment.

The tip of the pen was stained with ink, the edge of the inkstone was scratched, and then dropped to the test paper.

"The poor and poor villages in the mountains and fields also know that the lord and minister of the Ming Dynasty are a sign of a prosperous age, but the country is a green tree..."

When Lu Liangsheng wrote the next word 'Min', the tip of his pen stopped, and his eyes looked at the word, a little lost in thought, as if the brownish-yellow land and the tomb-like hills appeared in his sight again.

The desolate victims were in ragged clothes, slowly moving, the helpless old man sat on the lone stone by the roadside waiting to die; the child who lost his parents stood in the crowd crying helplessly; the man with his wife and children anxiously urged, The woman sobbed softly...

"civil….."

Lu Liangsheng muttered lightly, hovering the tip of the pen, and continued to write.

"...The people are the roots. Although the roots are weak, they have a firm grip on the ground. Only when the roots are strong can the trees grow. Just like a man who is virtuous, the country can be safe."

Unknowingly, the sky has darkened, and the candlelight is flickering in the compartment, illuminating the paper, sprinkling hundreds of words.

"...The lord sage lives in a wide area and treats the people with benevolence, virtue and the rule of law, and all officials refrain from extravagance and frugality, and serve the subordinates wholeheartedly. Only then can the lord sage and ministers be virtuous..."

The Chunwei Examination consisted of three sessions, each session lasted three days. Lu Liangsheng exhausted the accumulation of the past four years and wrote it with his own opinion. He also intended to persuade the emperor. After all, he knew that there were people like Pudu Cihang in the imperial palace. Big demon.

It would be extremely difficult for an individual to deal with it in private, but if the emperor was enlightened and righteous, he would naturally be able to drive away the other party.

After the test, Lu Liangsheng walked out of the tribute courtyard. Compared with the other candidates, he was still in good spirits. The only thing that made him lack was the food.

"The taste of the food in Gongyuan... Tsk tsk, go back and have a good meal."

Throwing the pen and ink into the bag, walked to a corner with few people, cast a blindfold, and walked quickly.

……

It was night, the palace was brightly lit, and above the long row of lampposts, there were stacks of examination papers for dragon cases.

After the dragon case, Chen Shubao had already reviewed part of it and threw it into the basket next to it.

Ok?

Taking out a set of envelopes, the emperor frowned when he saw the name on it.

"Lu Liangsheng..."

Glancing at the corner of the dragon case, where the Pisces with pearls were immersed in the light, Chen Shubao picked up the imperial brush and drew a circle on the cover without looking at the answer inside.

Then, throw away the basket on the other side.

"I want to see what kind of person the concubine and the crown prince praise."

Whispering, there was a wave of jealousy.

Chapter 1 Thirteen

The spring rain dripped down the eaves, and in the early morning, the spring rain that had lasted for several days had stopped.

As the morning light shone through the window, Nie Honglian lay on the edge of the bed, leaning on her chin and blowing in the scholar's ear, calling softly, "Master, it's time to get up."

The sun delayed coming, and she got up and floated into the painting, and after a while, she poked her head out again.

"Son!!"

With a sudden scream, Lu Liangsheng suddenly sat up from the bed in shock, and then the female ghost on the opposite wall stuck out the tip of her tongue with a smile, and returned to the painting contentedly, sitting on the swing, swinging slowly and leisurely.

"what……"

Lu Liangsheng yawned, and exchanged glances with Hong Lian on the painting. Just now he put on his robe and got up to wash up. He just put on his shoes and took two steps, and there was a 'chirp' under his feet.

The scholar looked down, and saw Taoist Toad lying on the ground with a big mouth, his toad's eyes protruded, and his tongue was squeezed out and landed on the ground.

Uh……

Hastily lifted his feet, picked up Master, and whispered, "Master?"

The toad lying on the palm moved its eyeballs, retracted its tongue with a swish, stretched its limbs tremblingly for a few times, sat up, and knocked off its back with its flippers.

"evil……"

Before the toad yelled and cursed, Lu Liangsheng let out a light snort, and found that there were crumpled papers all over the ground. He picked up a ball of waste paper and unfolded it. It was covered with black ink, and a little bit of terrain could be seen vaguely. contour.

"Master, what are you doing?"

Hong Lian stirred her feet, swayed on the swing, and said with a smile on the painting:

"Master Toad has been painting all night and fell asleep on the ground."

cough--

Toad coughed twice, and Toad glanced away, his eyeballs rolled around, and his expression became serious.

"As a teacher, I have lived with you for a long time. I have been exposed to a lot of human fireworks and worldly emotions. I somewhat miss my homeland. Unfortunately, as a teacher, my magic power is gone, and my cultivation base is depleted. to relieve the pain of homesickness.”

Inside the house, Lu Liangsheng picked up balls of waste paper, piled them on the desk, unfolded them for a long time, and roughly saw some outlines, and turned to look at Master.

"Since Master is not good at drawing, then dictate and I will draw."

After finishing speaking, considering the size of the master so that it is convenient to look at it at any time, Lu Liangsheng took a small scroll from the bookshelf, spread it out on the table, listened to the voice of Taoist Toad, and slowly wrote down the lines to outline the lines of the mountains .

"From Chen to the north, twenty miles west of North Zhou, there is a cemetery, and then seven miles east..."

The dictation of Taoist Ha, the names of mountains and rivers, and even several main roads were all drawn. Lu Liangsheng put down his pen, held up the small scroll in the sun and blew the ink stains on it.

"Master, judging from this painting, it looks like the sky overlooking the scenery, and..."

Lu Liangsheng turned his head to look at Taoist Toad who was sitting on the table.

"...Is this a map?"

"At that time, I was a teacher with a high level of cultivation, and I often flew through the clouds and fog, so what I saw was naturally like this!"

Toad Taoist looked at the map, said something, stretched his short legs and jumped back and forth a few times, the webs of his hands were half an inch away from the scroll, but he couldn't catch it anyway, so he had to give up and sat back again, with the frog webs propped on his chin.

"Well, here is the map. On it is the place where the teacher hid many pills and spells. If it hadn't been for such a long time to recover, the teacher would not want to travel so far... The centipede is bullying me! I can't swallow this breath!!"

"Tibetan pills, spells?" Lu Liangsheng frowned.

Toad raised his eyelids and sighed.

"But I guess it's gone. Teacher, I feel that the place has been moved, as if someone broke into it..."

Taoist Ha didn't say anything about the speculation about the Earth Fiend Yin Fire Formation. After all, if one secret is brought out, more secrets will be exposed. I still understand.

But right now, his apprentice is no longer the silly boy from the mountain village four years ago.