073 “Blessing from Heavenly Official” Chapter 72

☆、Chapter 72: Everything in the world meets flowers in the rain

Hearing this, Xie Lian paused slightly, but in the end he didn’t look back, waved his hand, and moved forward.

Returning to Xianle Imperial City, Xie Lian went to the palace first.

He didn’t know why he wanted to go, it wasn’t to see his parents.Not only is it because as a priest he is not allowed to reveal his spirit privately in front of mortals, but more importantly, the older he gets and the longer he is away from home, the less he knows how to talk to his parents. This is probably the same for all children in the world.Therefore, he disappeared and wandered around the palace that he was extremely familiar with. He did not see His Majesty the King anywhere else. Finally, he came to Qifeng Palace and saw his father and mother.

The two of them dismissed the palace people and were talking.The queen was sitting on the edge of the couch, playing with a golden mask in her hand. It was exactly the one that Xie Lian wore when Shangyuan offered sacrifices to Tianyou three years ago.The face and facial features of this golden mask are carefully carved according to the real face of Xie Lian. Therefore, Xie Lian wears it very close to the face and does not notice any difference. However, seeing it in other people’s hands, it is a bit scary.The king said from the side: “Stop playing with that, just let it go and press my head.”

Although the king and the queen followed all the rules in front of others, Xie Lian saw clearly from a young age that his parents were just an ordinary couple who could chatter back and forth.Sure enough, the queen put down her mask, sat over and rubbed the king’s temples twice, then suddenly brushed his hair and said, “Your hair has turned white again.”

Xie Lian took a closer look, and sure enough, his father’s temples were slightly gray, making him look a little older for no reason.He thought in his mind: “Didn’t my father go to Huangji Temple to pray for blessings just a while ago? His hair was still black at that time, why did it suddenly turn white?”

The queen brought a bronze mirror to show the king, but the king said: “I don’t want to look at it. If I dye it before going to Taicang Mountain next time, it will be dark.”

Xie Lian then realized: “His hair is not white just now! It has been white for a long time, but it was dyed black every time before he went to see me. And I listened to the believers’ prayers all day long and was tired of running around. I rarely came back to see them, so I didn’t notice it.”

After thinking about this, he felt extremely ashamed.At this time, he was very lucky that his parents could not see him present.While massaging the king’s head, the queen scolded: “I ask you to go to bed early every day, but you don’t listen to me. You also say that I miss you all day long. Look how ugly it has become. When the pope saw it, he wanted to ignore you even more.”

The king hummed: “Since your prince has grown up and his wings have hardened, he has ignored me.” After saying this, he couldn’t help but secretly glanced at the bronze mirror beside the bed and muttered: “It’s not that ugly, isn’t it the same face?”

Xie Lian couldn’t help but be startled.He really didn’t expect that his father would have such a side behind his back, that he would say “bad things” about him sourly, and he couldn’t help laughing at the moment.The queen was the same, holding back a smile and said: “Okay, okay, not ugly. Your body is as big as the sky, so you should rest early today.”

The king shook his head: “I can’t rest. Many people from Yong’an came to the imperial city this time. They came as soon as they came, and they shouted everywhere, which made people panic and troublesome.”

It turned out that his father’s hair turned white because of the severe drought in Yong’an, and Xie Lian felt unspeakably uncomfortable.The queen nodded and said, “I heard from Rong’er that he also met a man from Yong’an today. He was said to be trying to rob money in the temple. It’s so scary.”

The king concentrated and said: “Yes, it’s terrifying. It doesn’t matter if there are dozens or hundreds of them, but if hundreds of thousands of them come, all of them will wander around the imperial city, and the consequences will be disastrous.”

The queen hesitated for a moment and said: “That’s not necessarily the case. If you behave yourself, you can come here.”

The head of the country said: “How can the king of a country risk something like ‘maybe’? Besides, they must not come over. Raising more people is not just as simple as placing more pairs of chopsticks. It is very complicated. You don’t know, so I won’t go into details.”

The queen said: “Okay, let’s not talk anymore. I don’t understand what you are talking about. It would be great if the emperor is still here. At least I can share your worries.”

The king hummed again: “He? What can he do? It’s good if he doesn’t cause me any worries.”

Mentioning Xie Lian, he seemed to be energetic and said: “I won’t talk about you, the prince. You are a teenager and you are raised like a princess. It is useless for him to know, it will only increase troubles. He should just fly in the sky. It is best not to know anything and just do his own thing. Now he is not the prince. The world is none of his business. Let him fly as much as he wants.”

Xie Lian silently listened to his father’s scolding, and the queen smiled and pushed the king: “You know now that he is a princess. Isn’t the princess the one you raised since childhood? You still want to beat me up?” She sighed again.Angrily, he said, “This kid is good at everything, but he doesn’t miss his family. He used to be like this when he was studying at Huangji Temple, and wouldn’t come back for months at a time. Now he has ascended and become even more powerful. He hasn’t been able to see him for three years. I don’t know when we will see him again.”

She complained, but the king excused Xie Lian: “What do you know about women? The master said that the rules of heaven are like this, how can you treat him as a mortal again? You asked your prince to come back, didn’t you want to hold him back?”

The queen hurriedly said: “I’m just talking casually. I won’t make such a request in front of him.” She said to herself, “It’s good to see the statues. It’s almost the same. There are statues of his gods everywhere.”

After watching this for a long time, Xie Lian felt soreness in his chest, and something seemed to be stuck in his throat. It was so uncomfortable that he felt that he couldn’t stay any longer.But he couldn’t show up.It’s not that he’s afraid of breaking the rules of heaven, but he doesn’t know what to say if he appears.Regarding Yong’an’s matter, he couldn’t give any good solutions for the time being. His sudden appearance would only make his parents confused.

He quickly evacuated the palace, came outside, took a few deep breaths, and then calmed down.After calming down and cheering up, I thought that sighing would be better than taking action. I made a hand gesture, took the shape of a plain-clothed path, and ran around the imperial city, measuring and recording everywhere.After running around and working all day, he finally got a definite answer.

The water levels of all rivers and lakes in Xianle Imperial City are really lower than before.When he was at Huangji Temple, he slipped down the mountain several times and went boating on the Lehe River, the largest river that ran through Xianle Kingdom. At that time, the water surface was only slightly lower than the embankment, but now it is several feet lower.Moreover, the residents in the city said that this has been the case for a long time, and it is not the latest situation.Xie Lian didn’t pay attention before, but when he paid attention now, he realized that all the signs were shocking.He originally expected that Mu Qing’s information was wrong, so he came to confirm it in person, but now he had to admit that Mu Qing still did not disappoint him.

After confirming this fact, Xie Lian stood on the bank of the river, thoughtful.From time to time, pedestrians would pass by him, smiling and nodding, or looking curiously, and most of them would happily do their own thing.I don’t know how long I stood there, but clouds gathered in the sky, and it started to rain lightly all around.

Pedestrians on the road covered their heads and looked at the sky, saying, “What a pity! It’s raining, go back quickly!”

“Yeah, annoying!”

The raindrops hit Xie Lian’s face and body, and he finally reacted and said to himself: “Is it raining?”

People in the Imperial City couldn’t avoid it when it rained. God knows how many people on the other side of Xianle Kingdom were eager for such a heavy rain.Several people ran past with umbrellas. When they saw Xie Lian was caught in the rain, they pulled him up and urged: “This little Taoist master, why don’t you run away? The rain is getting heavier and heavier!”

Xie Lian started running along in a daze, and together they ran to the foot of a long house.Those people closed their umbrellas, laughed at each other, and said, “Fortunately, I brought an umbrella with me when I went out to watch the clouds today, otherwise I would have been drowned.”

“It hasn’t rained for a long time. I’m afraid this one has been held in for a long time. It’s really big.”

“Oh look, it’s really raining hard again! It’s going to rain heavily!”

The raindrops fell to the ground, breaking and splashing everywhere.The accents of these people are extremely friendly, which makes Xie Lian realize more deeply that this is the place where he was born and grew up, and these are the people he is familiar with.

As they chatted, the rain gradually became lighter, and several people said: “Let’s leave quickly while it’s a bit lighter now!” After saying that, they all held umbrellas and went out of the eaves, but Xie Lian still stood there.Several people looked back at him, discussed for a while, and then one person came over, handed him an old umbrella, and said politely: “Is this little Taoist priest unable to go back? I think the rain is still a bit heavy, why don’t you take this umbrella and use it.”

Xie Lian came back to his senses and said, “Thank you very much. What about you?”

A few people in the rain in front said coaxingly: “We still have umbrellas, you can squeeze in, let’s go, let’s go!”

At the urging of his companion, the man stuffed the umbrella into Xie Lian’s hand and ran away.A few people stepped on the water and walked away, while Xie Lian held the umbrella and stood for a while.Suddenly, he saw an inconspicuous small temple half way ahead, so he held up an umbrella and walked forward in the rain.When I got closer, I saw the couplets on the left and right in front of the small temple that read “I am in the world” and “My heart is in Taoyuan” respectively. I finally confirmed that this was a prince’s palace.

Of the 8,000 palaces that have been built in the past three years, it is naturally impossible for every one of them to be as gorgeous and extravagant as the one on Taicang Mountain. Many of them were built by grassroots people to join in the fun.There is no merit box, no temple blessings, just a clay statue, a few plates, and some snacks and fruits.If someone is willing to clean it occasionally, it can be used as a temple alone.

Hidden in this inconspicuous corner is such an inconspicuous Prince’s Palace.Before entering, Xie Lian saw the almost naive statue of the prince: with fancy clothes, a big pink face, and a silly big smile, he looked like a big doll.If he hadn’t been so worried, he would have laughed out loud.

In the past three years, Xie Lian has seen three thousand, not to mention five thousand, portraits of the prince. He has never seen any portrait of the prince that is exactly the same as him. The most similar one is only about seven points, and the rest are either too ugly or too beautiful.Most of the other priests’ statues were too ugly, but his was just the opposite. Some of them were so beautiful that they were so beautiful that he himself was embarrassed.He didn’t look at the clay statue carefully at first, he just glanced at it. Who knows, but he caught a sudden flash of white in his eyes, so he glanced back.

This rough clay sculpture of a prince holds a bouquet of snow-white flowers in his left hand.

The petals are white, stained with a little crystal dew, and extremely delicate. A faint fragrance floats in the air, which is very cute.The standard posture of the statue of Prince Xianle is “holding a sword in one hand and a flower in the other.” However, the flowers held in the left hand are of course gold flowers, gem flowers, and jade flowers with exquisite craftsmanship. This is the first time Xie Lian has seen his statue holding real flowers in his hands, and he can’t help but get closer.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the left hand of the clay prince statue should indeed be holding a clay flower.But I don’t know whether it was because of the poor craftsmanship of the statue maker, the flower branch fell off, or it was picked off by someone as a prank. Now, there is only a small hole left in the left fist.The bunch of small white flowers happened to be inserted into this small hole.If the person picked it specially to fill the vacancy on the left hand of this clay statue, that would be really intentional.

Just when he thought of this, Xie Lian heard a rush of footsteps.He didn’t look back, he first disappeared and carried the umbrella lightly to the altar, then turned around and looked down.I saw a young man walking in in the heavy gray rain outside the temple.

This young man was only twelve or thirteen years old. He was soaked to the skin, wearing dirty old clothes, and his face was covered with dirty bandages.The right hand is tightly folded on the left fist, as if protecting something.After running into the temple, he slowly opened his hands.

A bouquet of small snow-white flowers bloomed quietly in his hand.

The author has something to say: The last step in every day’s carding: card title!In the end, I still think “meet you” is more romantic than “meet someone”.

“Meeting you”, just these three words, feels like one of the most romantic things in the world.