Zi Bu Yu

Qin Yanan hoped she had not come here to go on a blind date with Liu Chang'an.

Zhu Juntang hoped to see Liu Chang'an again on the roof of Baolong Center, to speak eloquently about immortality, and then invite him to perform another jump from the building.

Zhong Qing did not go to find Liu Chang'an immediately. Zhu Juntang was not trying to frame Liu Chang'an; she simply had no way to influence him, so she wanted to find the methods and people that could.

Liu Chang'an returned home and, before nightfall, swept the fallen sycamore leaves into a pile. The bare branches of the sycamore trees became increasingly conspicuous, looking like a young person with thick hair who had suddenly lost a patch, revealing the scalp; it made one feel that it was even more unhealthy than the baldness of a middle-aged or elderly person, carrying an ominous aura of disease.

After finishing the sweeping, Liu Chang'an gathered the dried cilantro (a mustard product) he had been sunning outside. He bit off a piece; it was perfectly salted with a hint of sweetness, and it would be ready after a few more days of intense sun.

Looking at the quiet carriage, Liu Chang'an had a feeling that it shouldn't be kept here. He recalled the black-ground painted lacquer coffin he had seen in the warehouse today. That painted coffin was also covered in strange beasts weaving through flowing clouds. With a black lacquer base, it used red, white, black, yellow, and green to depict flowing, unrestrained clouds. Interspersed among the clouds were over a hundred animals and mythical beasts, forming fifty-seven local scenes—a typical example of Han Dynasty cloud-pattern lacquer painting. It was filled with an auspicious and upright aura, which was completely different from the aura emanating from the bronze coffin in the carriage.

Since ancient times, the dragon has represented the Son of Heaven, the dragon being supreme, while the phoenix, representing the empress, held a status inferior to the dragon. Yet, the pattern of the phoenix biting the dragon's body exuded an aura of parricidal violence, desolate and chilling like the cold of autumn and winter, biting to the bone.

Did this object make Qin Peng sense something? Is that why it was delivered into his hands... When a person is near death, they are actually like someone standing at the boundary between night and dawn. Their body already harbors the aura of death, often able to attract or sense some auras that transcend the cycle of life and death. These auras made Qin Peng uneasy.

At one hundred and ten years old, he could be called a human treasure; it was not strange that he could sense some special magnetic fields beyond ghosts and gods.

Liu Chang'an pondered for a moment before going to cook. When he went to play mahjong, a few familiar faces were missing again today, and the game broke up at ten o'clock. Liu Chang'an lost ten yuan. Old Man Qian, who had persisted until the end while wiping his nose, went home happily; he was the biggest winner of the night.

That night, Liu Chang'an had a rare dream, but upon waking, he could not recall it at all, only feeling a bit cold, so he added a blanket.

The next morning, Liu Chang'an held the soy milk from outside and drank it while watching the sycamore trees, which had shed even more leaves. In just two days, nearly half the leaves had fallen clean.

He had originally planned to spend his one-day holiday doing nothing, but it turned out to be exceptionally fulfilling. Labor makes one happy, labor creates wealth, labor brings health, the laboring people are the greatest... Liu Chang'an felt very pleasant after moving bricks for an afternoon.

Arriving at school, he met his homeroom teacher Huang Shan at the gate. He was watching some video on his phone, but it was early in the morning, so it probably wasn't the female streamers he usually followed.

Passing by the basketball court, Liu Chang'an saw Chen Changxiu. Chen Changxiu also stared at Liu Chang'an, his fierce features looking even uglier due to the sneer at the corner of his mouth. Liu Chang'an returned a toothy grin.

"You just wait!" Chen Changxiu pointed his finger at Liu Chang'an. He felt Liu Chang'an was too arrogant, and he felt that making Liu Chang'an unable to smile would be a very satisfying thing.

Bai Hui was eating the breakfast Qian Ning had brought outside the classroom. It was from KFC, carefully curated with coffee, an egg sandwich, and a bowl of porridge. For a boy of this age, doing this much was already quite good; expecting them to make a homemade breakfast of love was asking a bit too much.

Bai Hui did not show a gentle smile as she usually did when seeing Liu Chang'an, a smile that typically contained a faint pity because Liu Chang'an's feelings went unrequited.

Today, Bai Hui looked right through Liu Chang'an, her gaze quickly passing over him, becoming cold and indifferent.

There were not many people in the classroom yet. Liu Chang'an greeted her: "Good morning."

Bai Hui turned her head away, facing sideways to Liu Chang'an.

"I heard the school couldn't withstand the pressure after students reported it to the Education Bureau, so we will still have the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. Should we go singing again?" Liu Chang'an suggested enthusiastically, because Bai Hui had said that next time they went singing, they should bring him along.

"Liu Chang'an! Are you looking for a beating!" Qian Ning said, unable to hold back any longer, because Liu Chang'an had wounded Bai Hui's self-esteem. Bai Hui had been angry the whole time, even ignoring Qian Ning and Lu Yuan.

Liu Chang'an felt very regretful and walked into the classroom.

An Nuan arrived a little later than Liu Chang'an because her mother had to go out early this morning and asked her to take care of the flowers and plants at home; watering them took An Nuan quite a bit of time.

From afar, An Nuan saw Bai Hui. Today, Bai Hui was wearing her full school uniform, looking a bit short—though this was relative to An Nuan. This loose, baggy uniform could hide Bai Hui's advantages, but as a volleyball player and school athlete, An Nuan could wear athletic shorts instead of the school uniform.

An Nuan's mood was somewhat restless and volatile, but seeing Bai Hui, she couldn't help but feel a great deal of triumph and pride. However, An Nuan didn't want to show it too obviously, reminding herself not to get carried away; she had to be reserved, a young girl must be reserved.

"I really envy you, having someone prepare breakfast and lunch for you every day." An Nuan walked up to Bai Hui before she had prepared her words, and the compliment just slipped out.

Qian Ning stammered and blushed. Even though he liked Bai Hui, An Nuan was indeed bright and moving, making hormone-filled boys unable to look directly at her.

"If you want, you can have Liu Chang'an bring you breakfast too!" Bai Hui didn't know if this remark was clever, but the sourness in her words made her regret it. This was too obvious; wouldn't it just make An Nuan even more smug?

Watching An Nuan's reserved smile as she walked away, Bai Hui angrily threw the breakfast in her hand into the trash can. Qian Ning opened his mouth, feeling annoyed, but not at Bai Hui—at Liu Chang'an.

"She... she must know about what happened at the KTV. Who told her?" Bai Hui's gaze swept over Qian Ning, feeling somewhat frantic. An Nuan's sudden, low-posture compliment was definitely not an admission of defeat, but the superiority of a victor! It was expressing that she no longer cared to bicker with Bai Hui; only a victor had the qualification to lower their posture like that!

An Nuan walked into the classroom and sat in her seat, staring straight ahead. She took a deep breath, hung up her schoolbag, and then placed her hands on her lap, her fingers tapping lightly. Her peripheral vision caught Liu Chang'an huddled together with Gao Dewei, completely unaware that she had arrived.

"Gao Dewei, you are truly amazing. If you were placed two hundred years ago, you would definitely be the top of the imperial examination, riding high with the spring breeze, seeing all the flowers of Chang'an in a single day." Liu Chang'an held Gao Dewei's notes. Gao Dewei had not only recorded the key points summarized by his relatives and teachers but had also organized some of the key difficulties and test points himself. The entire notebook could be called the condensed essence of Gao Dewei's three years of study.

Gao Dewei smiled sheepishly, "Just you and An Nuan look at it, don't pass it around."

"Of course." Liu Chang'an expressed his understanding, "I made some dried cilantro yesterday; I'll bring you some when it's done."

Gao Dewei nodded and went back to reading.

"What 'seeing all the flowers of Chang'an in a single day'? Was the imperial examination two hundred years ago in Chang'an? Let me see first." An Nuan couldn't help herself, reaching out to take the notebook from Liu Chang'an's hand. Who was Gao Dewei? The top among top students, and the key was that he didn't have the habit of hoarding knowledge or putting on airs. Liu Chang'an actually tried to dismiss him with a bit of dried cilantro?

Liu Chang'an didn't fight An Nuan for it. He wasn't doing reading comprehension today; he continued reading Yuan Mei's Zi Bu Yu.

An Nuan was distracted. After glancing at the notes twice, her eyes slanted over to see what Liu Chang'an was doing, and she immediately saw the content he was reading.

"In Gao A County, Jiangxi, there was a boy named Yang Gui, nineteen years old, slightly handsome, with a gentle nature. Those who molested him met with no refusal."

What kind of book is this! An Nuan felt embarrassed, even though "corrupt" literature was a common topic in private conversations among girls, the one Liu Chang'an was reading was even more vulgar!

"Don't look at it." An Nuan closed Liu Chang'an's book.

"In ancient times, this was a very common thing. The animal known as a duck is actually quite interesting." Liu Chang'an explained to An Nuan with great interest.

"Shut up!" Noticing Bai Hui walking into the classroom, An Nuan immediately suppressed the urge to explode, wearing a slightly shy smile on her face, and pinched Liu Chang'an's hand while lowering her voice.

Bai Hui watched from afar, feeling that An Nuan and Liu Chang'an were flirting, and returned to her seat with a cold snort.

Liu Chang'an felt bored and had nothing to do; he wasn't allowed to read the book, and he didn't have the notes either.