Lu Chen had finished his wine and casually tossed the empty flask out the window into the stream, where it drifted away with the current. If nothing unexpected happened, some newly appointed River God downstream with an eye for treasure would fish it out and tuck it into his pocket.
You, Gao Niang, and the young Yin Guan were drinking companions; Chen Ping'an and I were Fellow Daoists. That made the two of us friends who had never met. A meeting gift capable of refining water fortune—please accept this token of my regard.
Turning around, he smiled at Ning Ji. "Mr. Chen is about to begin teaching. Come outside the school with me first and look at a few interesting things."
A string of bells hung beneath the eaves outside, with a long cord dangling down, its end roughly level with Chen Ping'an's outstretched hand. Sect Master Lu truly had itchy hands and was about to pull the cord to ring the bells, only for Ning Ji to stop him. Lu Chen smiled and said that aside from the two of them, nobody else could hear it. Seeing the young man stand firm, Lu Chen could only give up and take him to see another object, asking if he knew what it was. Ning Ji could not say, so Lu Chen began explaining. Chen Ping'an had personally made a crude sundial outside the school, engraved with the Twelve Earthly Branches. It used the sun's shadow to tell the time. A day had twelve double-hours, and each double-hour had eight quarters.
But on cloudy or rainy days, it could not be used to determine the time, so Chen Ping'an had Zhao Shu Xia call out to him and give him reminders at certain important junctures.
Lu Chen extended a finger, pressed