When I woke up, I wanted to go home.

Chapter 297 Dream 101

After arranging Xiaolingdang's funeral, Zhu Chongjiu stood inside the tallest building in the entire city.

This is his residence.

Because when Little Bell was little, she told him that she wanted to be closer to the sky.

This way, you can be closer to your deceased parents.

Zhu Chongjiu spent a huge sum of money to build this hundred-meter-high pavilion.

He still remembered that after the building was completed, when he brought the middle-aged Xiaolingdang here, Xiaolingdang's eyes were red as she said to Zhu Chongjiu:

"How could Ninth Brother take a childhood joke so seriously!"

Now, Little Bell is gone.

Zhu Chongjiu stared at the falling snowflakes outside the window, remaining silent for a long time.

He refused all external matters, including important discussions with his confidants and the king's personal visit to mourn Xiaolingdang.

I stood there for a day and a night, in the sky, until the last snowflake fell, and I looked up at the distant sky where the sun had already shone brightly.

"Little Bell, Ninth Brother has sent you away, and Ninth Brother is gone too."

I truly wish I could spend my whole life with you in real life!

I opened my eyes groggily once again.

Zhu Chongjiu looked around for a moment.

I discovered that in this dream I was a schoolteacher.

One after another, students entered the school, marking the beginning of his dream.

Wiping the moisture from the corner of his eyes, Zhu Chongjiu sat up straight.

After three to five minutes, all the students entered the classroom. With a greeting of "Good morning, teacher," Zhu Chongjiu began to speak:

"Today, the teacher will not teach you the Four Books and Five Classics."

Your main task today is to write an essay about friendship.

Don't rush, write honestly and carefully.

"Just hand it to me after school!"

And so, in this dream and in this lifetime, Zhu Chongjiu became a renowned Confucian scholar throughout the land.

Wandering the world, traversing heaven and earth.

Listening to the wind and observing the rain while simultaneously giving lectures!

Until he got old, could no longer walk, and could no longer teach.

On the day he announced that he would no longer teach, his disciples from all over the world who had been taught to him came to visit him.

However, Zhu Chongjiu did not meet with any of them.

He left behind only one sentence.

"Do you remember the first lesson I taught you?"

I'm asking you to write an article about friendship.

Now, you should write an article about friendship; consider it a tribute to your teacher.

From then on, a great Confucian scholar disappeared!

A dream within a dream, a dream within a dream!

In my dreams, I am just an ordinary farmer.

Watching his children grow up healthy, get married and start their own families, and his wife pass away peacefully, he lived out this dream in a simple and ordinary way.

In one dream, he was a ruthless and decisive emperor.

He governed the country well, and the next crown prince was chosen to be both virtuous and capable.

In my dreams, I am an ordinary office worker in modern society.

Earning just enough to support their families, they work overtime every day.

Wait, wait...!

Upon waking up, Zhu Chongjiu sighed, "This must be my 1001st dream!"

Looking at the Taoist robe he was wearing, which had been washed until it was almost white, and had several patches on some of the more worn parts.

"In this dream, I was undoubtedly a young Taoist priest."

After a moment of thought, Zhu Chongjiu walked out of the cave he had hastily found to avoid the rain.

The rain has lessened; although it hasn't stopped, it's just a light drizzle, and my straw hat can still provide some shelter.

It rained in the morning and then the sun shone all day. It rained all night and then again. This rain started near dusk and will probably last all night.

Looking at the faint light at the foot of the mountain, Zhu Chongjiu thought to himself, "Now that the rain has lessened a bit, I need to hurry down the mountain and find a family to stay with for the night."

Otherwise, even if I stayed in this damp and humid cave for a night, my internal yang energy would be greatly reduced, even if I didn't catch a cold.

After saying that, Zhu Chongjiu used a broken, thick tree branch as a crutch and walked unsteadily towards the village at the foot of the mountain.

As the saying goes, going up a mountain is easy, but coming down is hard.

Zhu Chongjiu had been walking for almost an hour on the small mountain range, which was less than a thousand meters high, and was only just about to reach the foot of the mountain.

Of course, walking slowly was also partly due to the slippery roads in the rain.

By then, it was completely dark.

The rain was getting heavier.

But the closer Zhu Chongjiu got to the village, the more he felt something was wrong.

Normally, in a small, not-so-wealthy village, oil lamps wouldn't be lit for lighting after nightfall unless something particularly important happened.

It should be noted that in that era, oil for lamps was extremely precious to some ordinary people.

As for candles, those were only given by wealthy families on special occasions.

But at this time, in the mountain village, almost every house had the faint glow of an oil lamp spilling out through the window.

Moreover, the moment he stepped into the village, he felt a chill that was even more intense than the cave he had been in before.

I knocked on the door of the first house at the entrance of the village.

Zhu Chongjiu only heard the man inside the room ask in a tense tone the instant he heard the knock on the door:

"Who?"

My name is Dao Ling'er, and my Taoist name is Dao Ling!

It comes from the Taoist temples of "Xizhou" and "Bizhen".

"Having encountered this continuous rain on the road, I wonder if there is any place in the village where I can stay for the night?"

"Taoist priest?"

After the man inside asked himself this question, Zhu Chongjiu heard rustling footsteps approaching the door.

Upon opening the door, a man with a rugged appearance, around forty years old, holding a hoe used for farming, looked at him with surprise.

Although Zhu Chongjiu understood the slight disappointment on the other person's face upon seeing how young he was, he still hurriedly welcomed him into the house.

After Zhu Chongjiu entered the not-so-spacious room, he immediately saw the other two people huddled in the corner of the kang (a heated brick bed).

“This is my wife, and that is our son.”

Seeing Zhu Chongjiu looking at the two people on the kang (a heated brick bed), the man pointed at them and explained to Zhu Chongjiu.

"My wife and I had our child late in life, so he's still young, only six years old!"

In a world where most people get married and have children at fifteen or sixteen, this couple in their forties having a six-year-old son can indeed be considered to have a child late in life.

Old woman, quickly boil a bowl of hot water for the Taoist priest.

On this rainy day, and especially after getting caught in the rain, drinking some hot water to warm up will help prevent catching a cold.

Upon hearing the man's words, the woman, who was holding her child and hiding in the corner, timidly got off the kang (a heated brick bed).

However, just as the woman took a few steps away, she turned back, picked up the child again, and got off the kang (a heated brick bed) together.

Holding the child in one arm, she used the other to light a fire and boil water for Zhu Chongjiu at the stove located in the corner of the house.

Seeing this, Zhu Chongjiu quickly waved his hand and said, "My lord, there's no need to trouble yourself."

Just give me a bowl of ordinary well water.

Xiao Dao is still in very good health!

Zhu Chongjiu was right about that.

Although his master did not teach him any Taoist magic before his death, he did teach him some basic stances and boxing forms.

In addition, he had been traveling for more than a year, and had experienced many hardships, such as climbing mountains, wading through rivers, and sleeping outdoors.

Their physical fitness is truly unmatched by ordinary people.

After a short while, despite Zhu Chongjiu's repeated refusals, he finally only drank a bowl of sweet well water.

The man invited Zhu Chongjiu to sit down at the only old wooden table in the room.

He placed the leather bag containing the whisk and the sword he was carrying on his back on the table, then opened the bag and took out a rattle drum that he had made out of boredom.

The drum body was hollowed out from the branches of a peach tree, while the two sides of the drum were made of tiger skin.

The drumsticks on both sides that make the drumbeats are also made of tiger bone and then connected with ordinary hemp rope.

The tiger was, of course, killed by Zhu Chongjiu.

During his year-long journey, he traversed countless forests, encountering everything from small creatures like snakes and insects to large monsters and wild beasts.

The sword he carried wasn't made of copper coins or peach wood like in movies and TV shows.

That was a real weapon. The master never said what it was made of, he only told him that the sword had a very vulgar name: "Great Treasure Sword"!

With two shakes, the rattle drum made a thumping sound.

The little boy on the kang (a heated brick bed) stared wide-eyed.

Zhu Chongjiu smiled and casually tossed the rattle drum to the little boy.

Seeing Zhu Chongjiu giving things to his child, the man quickly scolded the child, saying, "Didn't your father tell you that you can only accept things from strangers after you have your parents' permission!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Chongjiu echoed the man's words:

"You flatter me, it's just a little trinket I made in my spare time."

Moreover, I sense something strange about your village, and this little fellow should have the ability to exorcise evil spirits.

Let's keep it for the kids to use as self-defense!

Upon hearing Zhu Chongjiu say that it could ward off evil spirits, before the man could even speak, he saw the woman holding the child on the kang (a heated brick bed) quickly stuff the rattle drum into the child's arms.

She covered it tightly, as if afraid the Taoist priest in front of her would want it back.

Seeing this, Zhu Chongjiu could no longer hold back and directly asked his question.