"The Jianghuai Demon King went south, and Pengze and the Eastern Sea moved too. I don't get it—how did Pengze get dragged in? That old tortoise clearly never meddles in worldly affairs... Eh, they're fighting, they're fighting! Five against one! There's hope now! I think they can fight, they can win!"
"You must have forgotten. Back when Xu Rongguang, the retired Minister of Imperial Sacrifices from the Xu Family of Huang Province, celebrated his birthday, didn't Xingyi Marquis give him a scale from that old tortoise's childhood at the banquet? Such an auspicious gift. You think he picked that thing up somewhere? They had been in cahoots long ago."
"The flood dragon is splitting into clones."
"Damn it, the monkey ran! Five against one and they still couldn't win? Do they even know how to fight? What about my grocery money for today?"
"Hahaha, hurry, hurry! Pay up, pay up! A bet's a bet! Two taels of silver each, official silver! Don't try to fob me off with some random mixed scraps of silver."
Clink-clank. Broken silver fell into the bag.
Spitting out the sunflower seed shell in his mouth, Lan Jicai tied up the pouch, weighed the Yellow Leather Bag in his hand, grabbed a handful of roasted peanuts, and happily sat back down on his stool.
The Imperial Astronomical Bureau officials grumbled for a while, then turned their eyes back to the All Fields Celestial Instrument.
The floor was pure bronze, the roof thrown wide open.
Concentric bronze rings slowly interlocked and revolved, drawing down the stars from the heavens and weaving a phantom, three-dimensional, dazzling starry sky from the heart of the sphere.
More than a dozen clerks held ledgers in their hands, diligently recording everything.
Above the starry sky, the pale green points of light that