I come to see Bai Yujing today

Chapter 44 Drawing the Sword Yellow Bird Wind

Chu Muye, who had not yet taken office, had no intention of going to the turbulent Xuantianjing so early.

He sent away the livid-faced General Xuan Zi, then solemnly took out a page of Luoshen paper that he had hidden for a long time, and a Chonggu brush. However, he had no better ink stick, so he used the Huqiu ink that was produced in abundance in the Su Wu Mansion.

He ground the ink carefully and spread out the Luoshen paper carefully before he picked up the pen to write the letter.

This assistant minister of the Ministry of War, who was first demoted and then appointed by Prime Minister Song, spent a long time pondering over his words.

It has been raining continuously in the past few days. The fine spring rain, as fine as dust, has stained the ginkgo tree outside the yard. The ginkgo leaves are wet, which reminds Chu Muye of eighteen years ago.

He thought of the imperial examination that he was most proud of in his life, and of the ginkgo tree planted in front of Shenglong Courtyard in the south of the city east of Xuantianjing.

He and Chen Shuijun met again under the ginkgo tree after the spring examination. The younger him asked Chen Shuijun to give him a good word so that he could get some good luck.

So Chen Shuijun sent him a message: "The top scholar will ride on horseback, and tomorrow will be as beautiful as a painting."

And he gave Chen Shuijun a sentence: "The swan flies across the blue clouds in one stroke, like a west wind."

But the result was that Chen Shuijun won the top prize, and Chu Muye won the third place. So Chen Shuijun changed the line to "Tanhua Zou Ma" and teased him for several days.

Later, Chen Shuijun resigned in anger, saying that he wanted to go to the market to catch cicadas. At that time, Chu Muye wrote a letter to Song Xiang, who had also resigned and returned home, hoping that he could write a letter to persuade Chen Shuijun.

Time flies, and eighteen years have passed. Chu Muye once again writes a letter to Prime Minister Song, not for Chen Shuijun, but for Chen Zhian.

Chu Muye wrote very seriously, with neat handwriting, clean paper, and exquisite word choice, all in order to let Prime Minister Song know that he valued Chen Zhian very much.

Until the spring rain stopped.

Chu Muye let the spring breeze dry the ink before sealing the letter.

"Chen Zhian has a good talent, but sometimes he has a bit of an edge and stubbornness... This is quite rare for a young man from a commoner family. Nowadays, edges and stubbornness seem to belong to the children of aristocratic families and wealthy families."

"Muye privately thinks... since he has the Li family's deep illness, if he enters Xuan Tianjing and improves his cultivation over time, he may be able to compete with many children from aristocratic families for the chance to hold the seal. What do you think, Prime Minister Song?"

He wrote this in the letter.

At this moment, the sound of cicadas suddenly came from outside the door. Chu Muye didn't take it seriously at first, but as another spring breeze blew by, he looked up towards the yard.

“Where do the cicadas chirp in the spring?”

Although there is a saying about spring cicadas, in fact, even spring cicadas will not wait until the arrival of summer before they can't wait to come out from the ground.

Now that spring has not yet gone, he can hear the sound of cicadas.

"Isn't this a sign? If Chen Shuijun knew that I sent his son to Xuan Tianjing, I'm afraid..."

When Chu Muye thought about this, he pursed his lips for a rare moment, then shook his head to drive away the thoughts in his mind.

"But I wonder if Chen Shui-jun has caught any cicadas after more than ten years of catching them?"

"Is he in Xuantianjing now, or has he set out for Daci Temple?"

-

On this spring day, Chu Muye was not the only one thinking about Chen Shuijun.

In a rather elegant house in the southern part of Xuantianjing, several people were fishing by the pond.

It is said that living in Kyoto is very difficult, and living in the South City is like ascending to heaven!

The southern city of Xuantianjing has always been a place where every inch of land is valuable, but this house has five courtyards and even a pond in the yard.

This pond is not as big as those in the mansions of ordinary noble families. The pond in this house is probably two or three acres in size. The water is clear and elegant, and there are many colorful fish swimming in it.

In the small pavilion beside the pond, several people were fishing.

The man holding the fishing rod was wearing a blue silk robe with a bullfight pattern. His face was calm and his aura was as deep as the ocean.

The fisherman was none other than Li Zhuqiu, the current Minister of Revenue. He had kind and upright eyes and moved slowly, as if he was afraid of scaring away the fish.

A man in his twenties next to him poured him some tea.

The man had a red mark on his forehead, a fair face, bright eyes, and looked quite noble.

He added tea to the Minister of Revenue, then bowed his head and poured tea for another middle-aged man behind him.

The middle-aged man lay in the rocking chair with his eyes closed, breathing quietly, and seemed to have fallen asleep.

But he just lay there, his right eyelid with a scar moving slightly, as if rippling with the waves of deep mountain mist. "Master, this tea is Guzhu Purple Bamboo picked from Guzhu Mountain. Tea Saint Yuan Lu said it is the best tea, but Hujian Prefecture has suffered a disaster in recent years, and Guzhu Purple Bamboo has not been produced for several years. Only this year, I collected three taels of it, and I brought it to Doumuzhai."

The young man smiled and spoke slowly.

The Imperial Master lying on the recliner seemed to have fallen asleep, and he did not move even though the recliner was swaying.

The young man smiled casually. At that moment, the Minister of Revenue Li Zhuqiu caught a good fish. The fish had smooth and translucent scales, long and white whiskers, but its eyes were turquoise blue, which was quite strange.

The young man hurriedly took the fish into his pocket and said with a smile, "Your Excellency Shangshu is really lucky. It's a white dragon fish. Even in this Doumuzhai, there are only two or three of them. Normally, no one has ever caught one."

Li Zhuqiu looked down at the white dragon fish in the fishing net and finally said, "Xie You, I have come here to fish several times, but I have never seen any white dragon fish.

You hosted a banquet for me and the Imperial Master today, so I guess you put this white dragon fish in there temporarily?"

Xie You smiled and shook his head, saying, "This white dragon fish usually stays at the bottom of the pond, and I dare not look up. But today, for some reason, it took the bait."

Li Zhuqiu still sat cross-legged and continued fishing.

The young man named Xie You suddenly said, "These fish are well taken care of by the servants every day. They are fat and fresh. It would be a good thing to catch them one day. We can always make the best use of them and cook some delicious dishes."

“For example, Chen Shuijun, he went to Jiangnan for more than ten years, and I heard that he returned to Xuan Tianjing these days.

Lord Shangshu, Chen Shuijun is a good writer and is said to have some talent for cultivation. Over the past ten years, I think he has improved a lot. If Lord Li is interested, why not lure him over as well..."

Li Zhuqiu interrupted Xie You and said, "Chen Shuijun was born in an ordinary family and even grew up eating at other people's houses, but he was able to become the top scholar in the imperial examination. He must have some talent."

Xie You listened carefully. He naturally knew about the past between Li Zhuqiu's daughter Li Yinxi and Chen Shuijun. He also knew that this was a past that the Li family did not want to mention, but he didn't know why he had to bring it up.

Li Zhuqiu looked calm and continued, "Even though he has some talent, he won the first place in the imperial examination when Song Xiqu was lurking and trying to reform the country and destroy the lifeblood of our family. And he chose to come and provoke our Li family...

He is a farmer's son, and although my Li family is not a thousand-year-old family, we have to guard the gate for the aristocratic families at this critical moment, and we must not allow any trouble to occur."

Li Zhuqiu seemed to be a little confused when he said this. The fishing line entered the pond, creating waves of tiny ripples.

Xie You sighed, "It's just that Chen Shuijun is unlucky. If he was born in a big city... he doesn't need to be from one of the six surnames in Dayu, or even a well-known family in Dayu. If he was just a local aristocratic family for generations, I think his fate would have changed a lot."

"Humph!" Li Zhuqiu suddenly snorted coldly: "Chen Shuijun is too stubborn. Even if he has some talent and learning, it is not worthy of praise. For example, I once went to Yankong Academy and saw the poems he wrote on paper."

"He wrote that the water was turbid and could not be drunk, and that the water in the pot was half-turned into mud! He was in Xuantianjing, among scholars, but he said that the river water was too turbid, as muddy as mud! What was he referring to?"

"For example, he has extraordinary luck and has done some things for my Li family. So I let him join my Li family's old pavilion and choose a martial arts method. Xie You, guess what he chose?"

"The Four Seasons Cicada Sword." Xie You said, "As the Minister said, this Chen Shui-Jun is indeed a bit stubborn. Although the Four Seasons Cicada is an extremely extraordinary sword art, it is said that it can cultivate sword spirits, but there is no one in the world who has cultivated the Four Seasons Cicada. If he chooses the Four Seasons Cicada, won't he be wasting his time?"

Li Zhuqiu closed his eyes, and his originally calm face finally revealed some sarcasm: "He did what others don't want to do, and he is too angry, so he will inevitably suffer losses... But his cultivation talent cannot be called extraordinary. Even if he chooses other profound skills, he can only be an innate cultivation at best. He can't enter the Jade Palace and see the divine appearance, so let him waste his time."

Xie You thought about it, and suddenly said: "Chen Shuijun practiced Four Seasons Zen and has not returned to Xuan Tianjing for eighteen years, but now he is back... Maybe he caught the cicada, so he came to Xuan Tianjing to fulfill the oath he made before and draw his sword."

Li Zhuqiu remained silent, but he was talking to himself in his heart: "How can you catch the cicadas of the four seasons just like that? It's just that he heard about the Si family's marriage proposal and lost his composure, so he ran to Xuan Tianjing."

Xie You seemed to see Li Zhuqiu's displeasure, he rolled his eyes, nodded and smiled: "But speaking of it, that sword was taken from him by my eldest brother of the Xie family, and then inserted into the rockery of the Li Mansion!

The sword has the sword skills of my elder brother from the Xie family. I don’t think Chen Shuijun can pull out this sword.”

Li Zhuqiu nodded: "Xie Wujiu carved the Riding Whale Stele. Even if Chen Shuijun is given another eighteen years, he will not be able to pull out the sword."

"What is the name of that sword?" The middle-aged man who had been lying in the rocking chair and was called the National Master by Xie You suddenly spoke.

Li Zhuqiu thought carefully for a moment and said, "It seems to be called... Yellow Bird Wind?"

The Imperial Master suddenly opened his eyes and even sat up straight in his rocking chair. He raised his head and looked towards the southeast of Kyoto.

But I saw a strong wind blowing, cicadas chirping, and sword energy like a rainbow!
Li Zhuqiu frowned suddenly, and even the fishing rod in his hand fell into the water.

Young Xie You stood up and looked into the distance.

But then I saw a storm coming from the southeast, and a man in white came out with a sword drawn, cutting through the clouds and mist and bringing spring rain.

"What is Yellow Bird Wind?" Xie You murmured to himself.

The Imperial Master sneered, "The Yellow Bird Wind is the strong southeast wind in midsummer."

"The wind blows in May and arrives in June. At that time, the sea fish turn into yellow sparrows, which is the yellow sparrow wind."

Xie You pondered: "It's only March now, but it's already in full swing. Chen Shuijun can't wait to transform from a sea fish into a yellow bird."

ps: It’s in the top 30 of the new book list, brothers, you’re awesome, thanks to your follow-up reading and monthly votes!
(End of this chapter)