Chapter 170.1
They hadn’t slept for long when Feng Lin woke Lin Chengye up, "Stop sleeping, it"s time to burn incense!"
Lin Chengye asked in a daze, "Burn what incense?"
Feng Lin hurriedly jumped out of bed, put on his clothes, and said, "Did you forget? Today is the first day of the New Year, and we"re supposed to go to Puji Temple to burn the first incense!"
Puji Buddhist Temple was a very famous temple in the capital. Most other temples were famous for seeking marriage or children, but Puji Temple in the capital was different. It was famous among scholars who pray for their success in becoming a Jinshi.
There had been rumors in the capital that the scholars who managed to burn the first incense in Puji Temple pa.s.sed the palace exam and successfully became a Jinshi.
Feng Lin didn’t have the extravagant hope of becoming a Jinshi. He just wanted to ask for blessings to make him pa.s.s the metropolitan exam and become a gongshi, Amitabha Buddha!
[T/N: Gongshi - metropolitan exam pa.s.ser | Jinshi - palace exam pa.s.ser]
Clearly, it had completely slipped out of Lin Chengye’s mind. He pulled the quilt over his head and went on sleeping.
Feng Lin pulled his quilt down and said, "Stop sleeping already! Get up quickly! We still have to get Liulang!"
As soon as he mentioned about getting Xiao Liulang, most of Lin Chengye’s drowsiness faded, "En, okay."
Feng Lin went to knock on the door of the east room.
Xiao Liulang woke up with a start. He looked at Gu Jiao, who was still sleeping soundly beside him. He frowned impatiently and didn"t want to get out of bed, but he was afraid that if he didn"t go out, Feng Lin would keep knocking on the door.
He got out of bed and opened the door for Feng Lin. A cold wind poured in. He stepped out hurriedly and closed the door behind him, "What"s wrong?"
Feng Lin rubbed his hands and gasped, "We’re going to burn incense! Hurry up! If we don’t go yet, it’d be too late! We must burn the first incense! Even if we fail to get the first, within a hundred is also fine!"
"But, Liulang, your leg, it’s going, to be fine, isn’t it?" Lin Chengye came over and asked.
Feng Lin said, "It"s fine! We won’t have to walk much! The carriage can go all the way to the river, then we just have to cross a bridge to reach the temple!"
What was more, Xiao Liulang"s surgery was very successful. Lady Jiao said that his foot didn’t hurt anymore, and he just had to exercise more!
Burning incense in the temple was something that Xiao Liulang had agreed on with Feng Ling during the New Year"s Eve last year. Feng Lin said at that time that if he had the opportunity to go to the capital for the imperial exam in the future, he must go to Puji Temple to pray.
How could Xiao Liulang have expected that he would really come to the capital?
How did he, who vowed to never to set foot in the capital again, gradually come to this day?
"All right, don"t make any noise. I"ll change my clothes first." Xiao Liulang said and went into the room.
He looked at Gu Jiao, who was sleeping quite soundly, and tucked her in the quilt. Then he went to dress himself neatly before going to the backyard to wash his face and rinse his mouth and finally left with others.
Steward Zhou knew that they were going to burn incense in the temple and waited outside the gate early. Breakfast had also been prepared in the carriage.
Three people got into the carriage and hurried towards Puji Temple.
Soon after several people left, Gu Jiao had a dream.
This time, she dreamed of Xiao Liulang.
The last time she dreamed of him was six months or so ago when he went to take the provincial exam. Half a year had pa.s.sed without bad things happening to him again. She thought he would no longer come across any accident.
On the first day of the New Year, Xiao Liulang’s group of three went to a temple called Puji in the hopes of burning the first incense. This practice of burning the first incense didn’t only exist in ancient times, but it was also prevalent in her previous life.
Originally, this was nothing. It was just a piece of incense stick. It was a good sign if you get it, otherwise, worshiping Bodhisattva alone was also good.
Not to mention that Xiao Liulang himself never pinned his hopes on the Buddha and he merely accompanied Feng Lin over.
Unfortunately, there was a n.o.ble personage among the people who went to burn incense on New Year"s day. In order to facilitate the pa.s.sage of that n.o.ble personage, their bodyguards occupied the stone arch bridge in advance.
As a result, the rest of the pilgrims had to take another hanging bridge if they wanted to cross the river, which led to the back entrance of the temple.
The hanging bridge was in disrepair, but since there were not many people walking on it on normal days, it was still safe to use it. However, today was the first day of the New Year and so many pilgrims squeezed together on the hanging bridge.
The enormous weight completely broke the already damaged rope at the end of the hanging bridge, and the pilgrims on the bridge fell into the icy river below.
In this harsh winter, everyone wore many layers of clothing. In the end, only a few people were able to avoid drowning.
Most of these pilgrims that perished in this incident were all examinees for the coming metropolitan exam. Losing so many Juren at once, the court had no doubt suffered a heavy loss.
This year"s metropolitan exam had also become the one with the fewest examinees since the founding of the state.
Xiao Liulang was also one of the many people who had drowned. As soon as the person in front of him got off the bridge, the hanging bridge was broken. He was only one step away, one step away!
This situation was truly the most infuriating.
Even though a lot of people had also fallen together with him, it simply made people think that he was the unluckiest one.
Gu Jiao woke up and looked at the sky. It was already dawn. Xiao Liulang should have arrived at the foot of the mountain and found that the stone arch bridge was impa.s.sable.
Then they would take the hanging bridge.
Considering the large number of people, the road to the hanging bridge must be so crowded that they could only go very slowly.
She might still be able to catch up.
No, she had to catch up no matter what.
The market was closed during New Year’s day, so she couldn’t rent a carriage, but the old man next door had a carriage.
Gu Jiao knocked at the door and told Old Chief she wanted to burn incense in the temple.
Old Chief nodded, hurriedly asked Liu Quan to drive the carriage and send Gu Jiao to the temple.
The preceding road was still fine but the one near the temple was simply impa.s.sable.
It was not s.p.a.cious in the first place, then half of it was sealed off as a special pa.s.sageway for that n.o.ble personage.
Gu Jiao lifted the curtain and said, "Uncle Liu, you go back first, I"ll walk by myself from here."
"Will it work?" Looking at the boundless huge crowd, Liu Quan felt a bit worried.
"It"s not far away." Gu Jiao jumped out of the carriage.
She squeezed into the crowd and came to the river bank.
From here, she could clearly see the temple on the other side of the river. However, there was only one bridge in front of her and that bridge was being guarded by several guards. The pilgrims were meanwhile walking towards the east side of the river bank.
To circle around to the back of the temple, she feared that it would take at least five or six li of walking.
That would be too late then.
By the time she got there, Xiao Liulang would already be on the bridge.
The only way now was to cross the stone arch bridge before her, go through the temple and head to the back entrance, and try to stop Xiao Liulang, who was on the other side, from getting on the bridge.
Gu Jiao walked towards the stone arch bridge.
Not surprisingly, she was stopped by a guard at the front.
Dressed in armor and armed with spears, these several guards indeed looked awe-inspiring.
"I can"t let you pa.s.s through here." The guard said coldly.
Gu Jiao looked up at him and said, "I have an emergency. You must let me through."
The guard replied, still with a cold voice, "Who’s not in a hurry to get the chance to burn the first incense? There"s another bridge over there, you can pa.s.s through there!"
The dim expression within Gu Jiao"s eyes somehow made the guard feel a sense of pressure. He added, "This is an order from above, and there"s nothing we can do as well."
Gu Jiao said, "There are too many people over there, and the hanging bridge will collapse."
The guard smiled coldly, "I just crossed that bridge a few days ago. It looks just fine. How could it collapse?"
From the start, Gu Jiao didn’t think that she would be able to cross this bridge, that was why she thought she would just send someone to stop people from getting on the bridge over there.
But apparently right now, that also wouldn’t work.