Chapter 95 Forty-Nine Heavens

In the late autumn evening, the setting sun shines obliquely.

The young men in the oxcart were laughing and joking, and writing on each other's dusty faces.

After laughing and joking, the prince sat on the ox cart and looked at Chen Ji: "Not many people have been able to plot against my father over the years. Half a year ago, when Yuzhou was hit by a flood, he went south to collect grain. The local gentry teamed up to conceal the size of their land to evade taxation. Each household donated ten stone of grain like a beggar. On the same day, they hosted a banquet on the Qinhuai River and poured a hundred jars of fine wine into the river, calling it 'inviting the world to drink together.'"

"And then?" Liu Quxing became excited. They usually didn't hear such interesting stories about the court and the public.

The prince laughed cheerfully and said, "My father didn't get angry with them. Instead, he asked craftsmen to transport a stone tablet more than ten feet high and set it up right in front of the gate of the Jinling government office. On it was clearly recorded the amount of grain donated by all the gentry. It was said to be to praise the merits of these gentry, but in fact it was to let the people see the real faces of these gentry. At that time, even the storytellers in the teahouse were making up stories to make fun of the gentry who usually talked about benevolence, righteousness and morality, but in fact they were rich and unkind and extremely hypocritical."

Chen Ji thought thoughtfully: "The storyteller's story was told by the prince, right?"

The prince glared and asked, "How do you know?"

"and after?"

"Within half a month, the gentry could not bear the loss of this man, so they donated grain obediently."

Liu Quxing exclaimed: "Your Majesty is really good at using ingenuity to move a thousand pounds."

The prince looked at Chen Ji and gave him a thumbs up: "You are a man who can plot against my father!"

However, Chen Ji couldn't be happy.

Seeing that he was frowning, the prince asked curiously, "Why are you unhappy? If I could trick him once, I could brag about it for ten years!"

Chen Ji sighed: "Your father is not the kind of person who would suffer for no reason. I feel like he is going to plot against me again soon."

The prince sighed and said, "That's true..."

Liu Quxing looked over and said, "Chen Ji, how did you know about the inverted flame kiln? I've never heard you mention this before."

"The immortal told me in a dream," Chen Ji sat cross-legged on the ox cart with his eyes closed to rest.

Liu Quxing curled his lips and said, "You are kidding me. If there really is an immortal who can dream for you, why would he only dream for you and not for me?"

However, the prince suddenly said: "There really are immortals in this world who can send messages in dreams. You ordinary people may not know that the disciple of Huangshan Daoist Master can summon gods from the forty-nine heavens."

"Ok?"

Chen Ji, who had closed his eyes to rest, suddenly opened them and stared at the prince like a torch, but asked nonchalantly, "Forty-nineth Heaven?"

at last.

Chen Ji finally heard someone mention the Forty-Nine Heavens.

He asked his master, but his master had never heard of it.

He asked Xuanyuan, but Xuanyuan had never heard of it either.

For a while, Chen Ji vaguely thought that everything that happened in Qingshan Mental Hospital was just a dream that he had imagined before his death.

Li Qingniao, the Forty-Nine Heavens, Pao Ge, Erdao, and even himself, do not exist.

And now, the dream has finally come true.

The prince sat up straight and pointed mysteriously at the colorful clouds in the sky: "You don't know the Forty-Ninth Heaven, right? It is said that it is where the gods live. My father said that the reason why the Huangshan Taoist sect is so powerful is because they can invite gods from the Forty-Ninth Heaven to possess their bodies. It is said that when the Taoist leader, Disciple Zi, was fighting with the masters of the Jing Dynasty, he invited the Five Star Gods from the Forty-Ninth Heaven to the mortal world."

Chen Ji leaned forward slightly and asked: "The forty-ninth heaven is where the gods live?"

The prince recalled and said, "My father mentioned occasionally that all the gods and Buddhas are in the forty-nine heavens. Wuji Mountain, Yujing Mountain, Lirentian, Xumi Mountain, Penglai, Fangzhang, Northern Juluzhou, and Southern Zhanzhou are the names of each heaven. But this is all I know. My father rarely mentioned it, as if he was trying to avoid something."

After that, he raised his butt halfway, leaned into the middle of the crowd, and said mysteriously: "My father said that every once in a while, the gods from the forty-ninth heaven will reincarnate and come down to earth, hiding in the market. Maybe we have all seen gods, but we don't know it."

Chen Ji moved back slightly and asked calmly, "What are the characteristics of a god? How do we know who is a god?"

The prince shrugged his shoulders: "That's not clear."

Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief.

But Liu Quxing asked curiously: "Prince, have you ever seen the gods of the forty-ninth heaven?"

The prince shook his head: "I don't know, maybe I have seen it, maybe I haven't."

Liu Quxing asked again: "Do the gods in the forty-ninth heaven need to poop?"

She Dengke laughed: "You have to poop after eating."

Liu Quxing stiffened his neck: "What if they don't need to eat?!"

She Dengke also stuck his neck out and said, "How can they live without eating? They must poop a lot!"

Chen Ji's expression became complicated.

He changed the subject and asked, "Prince, are there any known forty-nine-layer gods in the history of our Ning Dynasty?"

"Have."

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Liang Gou'er, who was lying at the end of the cart with his legs crossed. He lifted his straw hat and said, "My ancestors once met a man who claimed to be from the forty-ninth heaven and came to the human world to cultivate the Yang God of Taoism. He wanted to use this method to merge with Taoism. Even in the dark, the Yang God is as bright as the sun."

"Did he finally achieve enlightenment?" Liang Gou'er sneered, "No, he was in the Ning Dynasty's border army, and was ambushed and killed by the Jing Dynasty's Martial Temple. It should have happened two hundred years ago, and I don't know the details."

Chen Ji fell into deep thought.

Li Qingniao once said to him, "The forty-nine heavens cannot hold you back, go where you should go." He was sure that he came from the forty-nine heavens, but the place where he lived had nothing to do with the residence of immortals, and he was not an immortal at all.

But no matter what, Chen Ji finally grasped some clues of the Forty-Nine Heavens, like a drifting ship that finally dropped an anchor of its own to the bottom of the sea.

……

……

In the orange-red afterglow of the setting sun, a slow oxcart entered the city from the south. Liu Quxing suddenly said, "Look, there are so many people in front of the Imperial Examination Hall."

Everyone turned to look.

Under the sunset glow, hundreds of people were gathering at the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall, including young people full of vigor and vitality, middle-aged people who were depressed and frustrated, and old people with numb expressions.

"He is a candidate for the Autumn Examination," the prince whispered, "I have seen that old man. I heard that he has been taking exams for his entire life. He has sold all his family's fertile land and his wife and children have left him, but he has never given up."

But in front of the Imperial Examination Hall, each of the candidates for the autumn examination carried a bamboo box on his back, which contained his bedding and three days' worth of food.

Before queuing up to enter the Imperial Examination Hall, the outer curtain officer would open each box and check them one by one, and then search the candidates carefully to prevent them from bringing in cheat sheets.

When the oxcart passed the entrance to the Imperial Examination Hall, the dishevelled prince lowered his head and said, "Quick, quick, look down, I see a lot of familiar faces!"

However, it was too late.

Someone accidentally glanced at the ox cart and asked uncertainly, "Hey, Prince?"

All the candidates for the Autumn Examination turned their heads to look at the ox cart. At the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall, Chen Wenzong, Chen Wenxiao and Lin Chaojing, who were being inspected by the outer curtain officials, also turned around.

"Prince?"

"Is the dishevelled man on the ox cart the prince?"

On the ox cart, the prince buried his head in his chest, raised his whip and whipped the ox's butt, muttering: "Go, Brother Niu, go faster, it's so embarrassing!"

But the old ox walked slowly and ignored him. Instead, it wagged its tail and pooped out a pile of grass-smelling feces.

Someone followed closely beside the ox cart, tilting his head to confirm the identity of the prince.

Suddenly, someone asked in astonishment, "You really are the prince? Prince, how did you get yourself into this state?"

The prince looked up, stopped the ox cart, and said with an awkward smile, "Go to work."

Chen Ji turned around and suddenly saw his two brothers, Chen Wenzong and Chen Wenxiao, standing on the steps of the Imperial Examination Hall looking back. Chen Wenzong's eyes were full of disappointment and regret.

The three brothers looked at each other from afar. The setting sun shone over the eaves of the wall behind Chen Ji and onto the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall. Chen Wenzong and Chen Wenxiao seemed to be shining with light.

At this time, the crowd slowly dispersed, and Lin Chaojing stepped out of the crowd and said sincerely: "I remember when the prince was in Donglin Academy, he said that he would participate in the autumn examination with us to see if he could pass the exam based on his own ability. But today, the prince has not appeared at all."

The prince calmed down, smiled and said, "You are all talented people. I am ashamed of myself, so I will not come to embarrass myself. I wish all my classmates success in the imperial examinations and have their names on the honor roll."

Lin Chaojing bowed and smiled, saying, "Thank you for your words, Your Highness. I just want to advise you on something. I wonder if I should say it or not?"

The prince said calmly: "Please speak."

Lin Chaoqing said: "Your Highness is the descendant of Prince Jing. Prince Jing is diligent in his work and is well-loved by the people. I hope that Your Highness will stop playing around and cultivate himself, so as not to disappoint the reputation of Prince Jing's Mansion."

The prince also stood up and bowed in return: "Thank you for reminding us. We will not disturb you all now. Goodbye."

After saying this, he sat down again, shook the reins calmly, and the ox cart slowly moved away.

Behind him, someone whispered, "The prince is so naughty, it's a pity that Prince Jing is diligent in his work and loves the people..."

On the ox cart, Liu Quxing heard the discussion and said with his head down, "Only because Prince Jing is friendly do they dare to do this. If it were Prince Fu, Prince Qi, or Prince An, would they dare to ridicule? Kill all the chickens and dogs in their homes!"

Chen Ji turned his head silently, but saw that the prince had a calm expression and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.

But when the sunset completely fell behind the world, the light in the prince's eyes gradually faded.

The prince whispered, "Why doesn't my father have another son?"

Chen Ji smiled and asked, "Give birth to another child to compete with you for the position of Prince Jing?"

The prince looked aside and said, "Just rob him, I don't want anything, I'll give it all to him."

The next moment, Chen Ji tightened the reins of the ox cart, pulled the ox's head hard, and turned the ox cart back.

The prince turned around and asked in surprise: "Eh? What are you doing?"

Chen Ji laughed out loud: "Life is a breath! Let's not go back yet. We will live in the kiln factory until cement is produced. If we can't make it, we will never go back!"

The prince was amused: "Why do we have to make cement?"

"Leave your name in history!"

(End of this chapter)