The emperor had only intended to skim the preface, but before he knew it, he had finished it and turned straight to the main text.
The main text began with a birthday banquet held somewhere in Tea Province more than a decade earlier. With the groundwork laid by the preface, the emperor was immediately drawn into the story.
It opened with a lively birthday banquet, where guests from far and wide gathered to celebrate an old man's ninetieth birthday. On such a joyous occasion, even a nonagenarian could not resist drinking a little too much, and so the curtain rose on a drunken dream.
His family grew anxious when the old man fell asleep and would not wake, little knowing that he had already witnessed another world in his dreams.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty!"
"Hmm?"
Lu Haixian's voice finally drew the emperor's attention away from the book. He had just read more than a dozen pages without stopping, reaching the part where the old man awoke among the clouds and discovered that an immortal had carried him off on a distant journey to the North Sea.
Even as he looked at Lu Haixian, he was still thinking about the story. Lu Haixian was delighted inwardly, but his expression remained earnest as he spoke.
"Your Majesty, you have yet to approve this old subject's request to resign and return home. I beg Your Majesty to grant your permission!"
Only then did the emperor remember that Lu Haixian had come not merely to present a book, but also to resign. Yet he was in no hurry to answer and asked about the book instead.
"Minister Lu, is this a novel of supernatural tales?"
Lu Haixian shook his head.
"Your Majesty, the book does touch upon strange tales and wondrous mysteries, but these