Chapter 110 Friends But at this moment, she wanted to let go of everything, all...
As the night deepened, the candle crackled and the light grew dim.
Sheng'er, who was immersed in a book, suddenly woke up, looked up at the sky, pinched his nose, yawned silently, put down the book, and planned to wash his face and go to rest.
Just then, two knocks on the door reached her ears.
"Benefactor, have you not gone to bed yet?" It was the young monk in the temple who asked in a crisp voice.
As soon as Sheng'er opened the door, she saw a child who was only as tall as her chest, staggering in with a quilt that was taller than her. "It's been cold lately, and the abbot asked us to deliver quilts to prevent the donors from catching a cold and delaying the imperial examination."
"Abbot, this is very thoughtful." Sheng'er thanked him quickly. Just as she was about to lend a hand, the young monk had already skillfully made the bed for her.
"There is one more thing. Occasionally there are some crazy ghosts in the temple, yelling things like how can a temple receive female guests... It's strange. Temples are places for spiritual practice just like nunneries. Our abbots are women, so how can we not receive female guests? If you encounter one, just pretend you don't know and tell me quietly. I will ask the abbot to pray for their salvation."
Sheng Er nodded and said, "I heard that even the Right Prime Minister was once stopped by a madman in the street, who said that she had stolen his fame and official position. In the original history, she had no chance to take the imperial examination, let alone be made a marquis and become a prime minister."
The young monk said, "According to the abbot, these are all poor scholars who have never passed the exam and have developed hysteria... Donor, I'm not talking about you, you will definitely pass the exam."
"I'll give you some good wishes." Sheng'er rubbed her bald head. The little monk hurried away, chanted a Buddhist name with a mature look on his face, and closed the door.
When the door closed, Sheng'er saw the moon hanging high in the night sky. The lonely and cold glow made her feel a little melancholy.
I don’t know if it was because I was moved by the moonlight, but after I lay down I began to have some bizarre dreams. When I woke up the next day, my head was groggy, as if I was walking on clouds.
Fearing that he might have caught a cold, Sheng'er quickly went to the kitchen and asked for a bowl of ginger soup.
This was originally a small temple, with only the abbot and two or three monks in it. Sheng'er walked across the entire temple from the meditation room to the kitchen, but he didn't even meet the young monk who had just finished cooking.
She felt curious and asked the monk who was sweeping the floor casually, but the monk seemed not to hear her and continued to sweep the fallen leaves.
There were so many strange things happening today that Sheng'er was full of doubts. When he returned to the Zen room, he forgot to investigate further and just picked up a book and started studying hard.
In the next half month, she got up early and went to bed late, studying behind closed doors without sleep or food, and before she knew it, the day of the imperial examination had arrived.
She was stunned when she got the test paper. She didn't expect that her luck was so good that she got every question right.
After the ecstasy, Sheng'er calmed down, answered the questions in an orderly manner at his usual level, and returned to the temple.
After taking three exams in a row, Sheng'er was so tired that she fell asleep. When she woke up, the team announcing the good news was already waiting at the temple gate with gongs and drums. The abbot said to her with a smile: "Congratulations to you for winning the first place. Our temple has also produced a top scholar."
Sheng'er was dragged up in a daze, put on a bright red top scholar robe, and rode a horse through the streets, looking very proud.
Afterwards, when she thought of this day, it still seemed like a dream. However, after passing the imperial examination and entering the officialdom, there were too many things to worry about for her to think too much.
She was involved in the struggle between the emperor and the aristocratic families, and had to please both sides. Amid the ups and downs of promotion, demotion, and promotion, her official position became higher and higher, but her heart became more and more desolate.
She had tasted the power and found such a life boring.
Finally, at the age of 63, she retired and returned to her hometown despite the new emperor's repeated attempts to retain her.
She refused the carriage and ceremonial procession bestowed by the new emperor, and came alone to the overgrown old house in a simple carriage. She repaired the house by herself, intending to spend her old age here.
When she walked into the dim hall, she saw a hollow mask enshrined on the central table.
The mask was covered in dust and had long since lost its luster. Its eyebrows were raised, its eyes were slightly closed, there were horns on its forehead, and it had no teeth or jaw.
Sheng'er frowned, picked up the mask and brushed off the dust, and some long-lost memories came to his mind.
She remembered that there had been a flood in her hometown forty years ago, and a group of nuns in red had saved her. The god of joy that the nuns worshipped was symbolized by this hollow mask.
When did they put the mask in her old house?
Sheng'er looked at the mask in confusion, his eyes met its empty eyes, and suddenly he couldn't look away.
A cold voice rang directly in her mind: "Do you think that a life of fighting for power and profit is meaningless? Do you want to regain the feeling of being alive? Do you want to know the truth of this world?"
After many years in officialdom, Sheng'er had already developed the composure to remain calm even when faced with a huge crisis. She turned around silently and walked directly towards the Demon Hunting Department.
Without knowing the intention of the unknown, no response can be made to it.
Even if this is the mask of the God of Joy, how do we know that it is not possessed by evil spirits?
Sheng'er's reaction was no slower than when he was young, but he was still too late. The moment he turned his head, the surrounding scenery had changed.
She saw the tall figure standing on the eaves, with a big sword on his back and a precious bow in his hand. Together with the foreign woman beside him, he shot arrow after arrow at the setting sun.
Those arrows shot the sun to death, but also drove away the maggots that were entrenched on the sun. That was the divine power of the Heavenly Venerable that she had come into contact with before. The mastermind behind the flood in Chizhou had actually already laid hands on the power of the sun many years ago.
The sun god Xihe was thus vindicated, and sun temples all over the world welcomed back his believers one after another. The dead god Xihe truly came back to life.
In the 60th year of Pingkang, the emperor died and Emperor Xianheng succeeded to the throne.
In the first year of the Xianheng reign, the eldest daughter of the Emperor, Gao Congxu, submitted a memorial to the emperor, requesting the History Museum to reprint the classics related to the Goddess Xihe.
Emperor Xianheng agreed.
Sheng'er didn't notice that she had turned back into her young appearance without knowing when. She just kept her eyes wide open, looking in amazement at the books that seemed familiar but had changed beyond recognition.
As the youngest number one scholar in this dynasty, she was naturally well-versed in classics and history, but she had never seen these things before.
"...Xihe is the wife of Tianzun, and she was born on the tenth day..."
"…The imperial carriage was set out, but was trapped in Yuyuan, so that the sun could not set, the moon could not rise, time was unstable, and the world was about to be in chaos. Fortunately, the Heavenly Lord saved it, and order was restored…"
"…When the cock crows, the sun rises in the east. When the hen crows at dawn, it is a sign of troubled times…"
These false statements were clearly fabricated by Tianzun in order to elevate his own status after he stole the authority of the sun.
The eldest princess personally brought the historians with her, quoted from classics, and corrected the errors and omissions word by word.
Sheng'er saw that one after another, upright scholars were killed in front of the gate of the History Museum, and they kept tampering with the words of the sages, which was intolerable.
The floor tiles at the entrance of the History Museum were stained red with the blood of the scholars. The curses and impeachments against the eldest princess never stopped. Emperor Xianheng wanted to stop it several times, but was stopped by the eldest princess.
The father and daughter met alone in the Purple Palace. Emperor Xianheng said with tears in his eyes: "My daughter, you are my most outstanding child. Why do you want to destroy your future? Do you know that in the eyes of scholars, you are already a heretic and tyrannical person? Perhaps no civil servant will be willing to support you in the future."
The eldest daughter said, "If my reputation alone can correct this mistake, why should I hesitate? If I back down now, how can I be worthy of my ancestors who went through so much trouble to drive away the thief and seize back power?"
Emperor Xianheng covered her mouth and glanced nervously outside the palace: "But that thief..." He said with awe, "...He was a real god. Xihe God was killed by him. You, you are just a mortal, how dare you go against him? If you continue like this, I'm afraid you will be doomed. Who will know your efforts?"
"When a woman's face appears among the rich and powerful, and one of my sisters sits on the throne, but no one says that they are hens crowing at dawn, then what I have done has already been remembered, right?"
The eldest daughter of the emperor pulled away Emperor Xianheng's hand and took two steps back: "Although we are mortals, we should not underestimate ourselves. The life, memory, and thoughts of every mortal constitute the anchor of the gods in the human world. Although the authority of the sun has been taken back now, if the human world is still full of bad habits when the Heavenly Venerable was in charge, the God of Xihe will not be able to obtain the anchor He needs, and He will not be able to be resurrected. Sooner or later, the Heavenly Venerable will steal this authority again."
Emperor Xianheng burst into tears: "Even if you must do it, do you have to be the one to bear the infamy?"
The eldest princess smiled and said, "The ups and downs of a hundred years have passed by like a dream. Why hesitate any longer?"
boom!
As these words fell, Sheng'er felt that everything in front of her eyes suddenly shattered. A gaze from the sky seemed to sweep over her, but was blocked by the mask of the God of Joy.
Sheng'er suddenly woke up with the clear sound of a mask breaking. When he opened his eyes, he found himself still in the temple's meditation room, holding a book in his hands. He didn't know when he had fallen asleep at the desk.
Her heart was pounding and sweat was pouring down her forehead. She looked around but found nothing.
She vaguely remembered that she had a long dream, but she no longer remembered what happened in the dream. Only a strong thought remained: she wanted to pass the imperial examination and reach a high position, but it was not only because of the desire for power and money, but also because she wanted to know the truth hidden in history.
"clang!"
The bowls of liquor collided and some of the liquor spilled out. Gao Congxu and the swordsman Li Zhou, who had returned to the private room, formally became sworn brothers. The two looked at each other and drank the liquor in the bowl in one gulp.
Gao Congxu felt that the royal aura that had surrounded her since birth was infected by the invisible power emanating from the swordsman as they became sworn brothers.
The royal aura turned into filthy aura, and a flash of realization flashed through her mind. The closer a person is to Him, the more they will be affected by His power.
Such a person has lost the qualifications to be a ruler.
If she still wants to lay her hands on the throne, not only will she not be able to bring any benefits to the world, but she will also bring distortion, madness and chaos to the world just like those gods.
She remembered that before the swordsman came back, Taoist Zhongli, who was wearing a green robe, had returned first with the misfortune he had passed through.
"I will delete this memory for you." She did not explain why Gongsun Ying disappeared. Gao Congxu was silent for a moment and did not ask.
Gao Congxu said: "Please clear Xiao Lu and the others' memories, so I don't need them anymore."
“Do you know the consequences of remembering Him?”
"I think so."
"You could have been a drunken emperor."
"sounds good."
"Still insisting?"
"Even if she doesn't join this salvation plan, at least someone should remember her." Gao Congxu sighed, "After all, I'm her new deskmate."
No matter what the original intention was, no matter whether He cares or not, Li Zhou, who regained the authority of the sun, should be remembered.
She might be too arrogant to say this, but at this moment, she wanted to put everything aside and be Li Zhou's friend wholeheartedly.
"Another bowl!" Swordsman Li Zhou was addicted to drinking and said generously to his new drinking partner.
Gao Congxu came back to his senses, met her eager gaze, and smiled: "Okay!"
In the 20th year of Xianheng, Gao Congxu, who led her army to repel the demon army, was on her way to triumph. She heard the whistling of arrows and the roars of the generals around her, and saw the poisonous arrow rushing towards her.
She dodged subconsciously, but found that no matter how she dodged, she couldn't avoid this poisonous arrow that was obviously unable to move forward.
When the arrow pierced her chest, she suddenly realized that this was the price she had to pay for walking with gods as a mortal.
Misfortune came a little late, but it did not spare her in the end.
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