Top Scholar

Chapter 506 Flying Dragon in the Sky (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

The lessons at the Dragon and Tiger Academy continued, but the Emperor hadn't shown his face for several days. The Emperor's students were filled with unease; had the Emperor already grown tired of them?

Fortunately, Zhang Yong, as the emperor's representative, still came to check on things every day.

"Uncle, what's wrong with the Emperor?" Su Lu asked him quietly when he had the chance.

"What else could he do? He was devastated." Zhang Yong said in a low voice, "That day, Grand Secretary Li explained the true state of affairs of the Ming Dynasty to the Emperor. That night, Liu Jin also revealed everything to the Emperor, including the collusion between officials and gentry, and that only half of the registered land remained. He didn't hide anything. No wonder the Emperor couldn't stand it. Now he doesn't know who to believe."

She paused, then rolled her eyes at him and said, "The Emperor is still angry with you. He thinks you and your master are working together to set a trap for him."

"Oh dear, you have to explain this to me!" Su Lu cried out, feeling utterly wronged. "I was completely fooled by that old bastard, and I wanted nothing more than to kick him into the lake!"

"Now you know how unpredictable people are and how treacherous the officialdom is, right?" Zhang Yong said with a hint of schadenfreude.

"Yes, yes, I only realize how good you are now, Uncle. You've never tricked me," Su Lu said with a wry smile. He wasn't exaggerating. Since leaving Luzhou, almost every important person he'd encountered had tricked him. If it weren't for a twist of fate that led him to meet Zhu Shou, he would have been swindled into the industrial park long ago…

"I'll definitely help you explain to the Emperor, but you'll have to figure out a way to deal with Zhu Shou yourself," Zhang Yong said in a low voice. "That young master hates being lied to the most. Liu Jin's clever words and flattery have successfully made him suspicious of you, so you'd better turn things around quickly!"

"I see." Su Lu thought for a moment and said softly to Zhang Yong, "Uncle, could you help me make an appointment with Zhu Shou? Tell him it will be dark tomorrow. I'll wait for him at Di'anmen. I guarantee there will be something fun."

Zhang Yong hesitated for a moment, but then agreed: "Okay, I'll give it a try."

"Thank you very much, Uncle." Su Lu quickly thanked him with a smile.

"What are you saying? If your uncle doesn't help you, who else will he help?" Zhang Yong said in a deep voice.

"You'd better keep the Emperor happy. Otherwise, we men will suffer a lot later."

"Don't worry, I know." Su Lu nodded and readily agreed.

Watching Zhang Yong's departing figure, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly, finally understanding why the emperor was surrounded by treacherous officials.

Because serving a ruler is like serving a tiger!

Even Emperor Zhengde, who was the least like an emperor, could not escape the common imperial ailments of being capricious, overly suspicious, and excessively self-conscious.

Therefore, those who could stay by the emperor's side for a long time, and who wanted to stay for a long time, all had to cater to him without exception...

In the end, wouldn't all that's left be treacherous officials?

Scholar Su clearly saw that on his only way out, twelve large characters stood prominently—

Understand sycophants, become a sycophant, and transcend sycophants!
But the title of top scholar doesn't seem to fit with that of a treacherous minister, does it?
Who cares? Who says a top scholar can't be a treacherous minister?
For the sake of my family and for the sake of the people, I'll become this treacherous minister. So what?

~~
The next day, after dark, Zhu Shou indeed arrived at Di'anmen.

His face was long and drawn out, filled with melancholy.

"Hey, what's wrong? Who upset you?" Su Lu was having a big steamed bun for dinner.

"I'm very unhappy right now," Zhu Shou said bluntly, pouting. "You have to make me happy first."

Su Lu smiled slightly, finished the bun in a few bites, took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth and said, "What's so difficult about this? Come with me."

The two then left Di'anmen and traveled all the way to Shichahai.

Today is the Buddha's Birthday, also known as the Bathing Buddha Festival, which commemorates the Buddha's birth. On this day, temples bathe the Buddha with fragrant water, offer vegetarian meals, and chant scriptures. Among the common people, the practices of releasing animals and releasing river lanterns are popular. The latter evolved from the Buddhist ritual of offering lamps, which symbolize wisdom and dispel darkness. Initially, monks lit lamps to pray for blessings, but later it became a popular folk custom.

On this day, every household in Beijing would go to the river to release lanterns and pray for blessings and to ward off disasters. Shichahai, as the largest private lake in Beijing, was naturally the first choice for people to release lanterns.

When the two arrived at the lakeside, they saw colorful river lanterns floating on Shichahai Lake, reflecting on the shimmering surface of the lake and creating a beautiful scene.

"It is indeed quite beautiful, but there's nothing new about it." Zhu Shou stood with his hands behind his back, his face tense, giving off an expression that said, 'I'm not easy to please.'

"Don't rush, I guarantee I'll make sure you get a good look at today's situation." Su Lu smiled and pointed to the center of the lake. "Look there!"

Looking in the direction he pointed, Zhu Shou saw a large ship moored in the middle of the lake, with a huge coiled dragon lying on it.

Many people were busy on the boat, lighting the dragon lantern starting from the dragon's head. The warm yellow light slowly spread along the dragon's horns, eyes, body, and tail. In just a moment, the entire dragon was illuminated!

At this moment, the people on the shore also noticed the enormous dragon lantern. Its head was raised high, and its eyes were inlaid with a pair of glass lamps that shone brightly in the night! The dragon's body was made up of countless small lamps strung together, and the flowing light and shadow made it seem as if the real dragon's body was dancing, which was a very spectacular sight!

Melodious music played from the boat, its soothing melody gently wafting across the lake's surface. "Hmm, interesting. But I've seen even more magnificent lanterns like the Aoshan Lantern." Amidst the exclamations of admiration, Zhu Shou, however, voiced a dissenting opinion. He had come here today with a grudge.

"Have you ever seen a flying lantern?" Su Lu smiled slightly.

"How could such a large light possibly fly?" Zhu Shou said incredulously.

"What if it could fly?" Su Lu asked.

"Then I'll consider you to have passed." Zhu Shou snorted.

"Okay, that's what you said." Su Lu smiled and gave a loud whistle towards the water.

In a short while, the music on the ship gradually rose higher and higher, vigorous and upward, as if the coiled dragon was about to soar into the sky!
Amidst rousing music, the people on the boat gradually loosened the securing ropes, and the coiled dragon slowly broke free of its restraints, gently rising into the air from the large ship. This drew gasps of amazement from the onlookers on the shore!
Zhu Shou stared intently at the breathtaking scene of the dragon soaring into the sky, and couldn't help but open his mouth wide.

"Holy crap, it really, really flew?"

"When have I ever lied to you?" Su Lu said with a smile.

The long dragon formed by hundreds of sky lanterns first circled low above the lake, its body stretching and swaying, the lights reflecting on the water, creating a winding shadow, just like a real dragon playing in the blue waves.

Then the dragon rose higher and higher, its posture becoming more and more graceful, carrying specks of light as it gradually flew towards the clouds, eventually transforming into a string of shimmering light in the night sky...

The people on the shore all looked up, gazing silently at the direction where the dragon was flying high.

Zhu Shou stared in disbelief, speechless for a long time. After a while, he finally closed his mouth, looked down at Su Lu, and said, "I'm convinced. You really didn't lie to me. The dragon lantern you made can really fly!"

Su Lu nodded with a smile, her tone gentle: "Of course, I would never lie to my friends."

“Yes, that’s how it should be. That’s what good friends should be like.” Zhu Shou nodded and pulled him out of the blacklist again.

"Don't doubt your friends so easily in the future. Friendship can't withstand such turmoil." Su Lu quickly took the opportunity to "educate" him.

"Alright." Zhu Shou nodded, then pointed to the divine dragon in the sky and asked, "This lamp must have cost a lot of money, right?"

"Oh, so you've learned to manage your finances now," Su Lu couldn't help but laugh. Then this lesson wasn't a waste of time.

"Sigh, I'd rather not have known," Zhu Shou sighed. "Isn't it all your fault?"

“I never expected that the real situation in the Ming Dynasty would be so troublesome.” Su Lu said, then explained the origin of the Panlong Lantern: “But don’t worry, this lantern didn’t cost the national treasury a penny. It was made from old lanterns from the Lantern Festival. Those lanterns were no longer useful, so I asked Eunuch Zhang for them and used them as a group assignment for the Dragon and Tiger Lecture Hall.”

"Oh, it was made by the Emperor's disciples?" Zhu Shou became interested upon hearing this.

“That’s right.” Su Lu nodded and solemnly introduced, “This dragon lantern is made by our 349 disciples of the emperor, who made 349 Kongming lanterns by hand and strung them together. Each lantern has the oath of ‘being loyal to the emperor and serving the country, and saving the people’ written on it.”

"Really? You're so thoughtful, teaching assistant!" Zhu Shou was even happier to hear this. "I didn't expect you scholars to be so good at handicrafts. The dragon head and tail look so lifelike."

“That’s not the work of us scholars,” Su Lu said with a shake of his head and a smile. “The dragon head and tail are my second brother’s handiwork.”

"I remember he was a martial arts scholar, right? And he's so skillful with his hands." Zhu Shou was quite surprised. In his memory, Su Tai was a huge, taciturn guy who had never spoken a word to him.

"Of course, my second brother is all-around talented!" Su Lu said with genuine pride, and then suggested, "When the martial arts examination comes around, I'm going to go and cheer him on. Do you want to come along? It'll be a good opportunity to help the Emperor find some useful talents."

“Great! I love watching martial arts competitions!” Zhu Shou nodded excitedly, then coughed and deliberately restrained himself, saying, “Besides, the country is in dire need of talent right now, so we should go and take a look.”

"Yes, you'd better keep your eyes open for the Emperor," Su Lu said with a smile.

"That was..." The divine dragon in the sky had completely disappeared, and Zhu Shou's excitement gradually faded. His voice was low as he said:
"You told me before that the biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty is that it can't collect blood tax and fiscal revenue. So the emperor is weak and helpless when faced with problems. I thought you were exaggerating to make me take it to heart."

He paused for a moment and said sadly, "Only now do I understand that everything you said was true."

"Yes, I was just telling you what I saw and thought, and I didn't mean to exaggerate." Su Lu nodded and said in a deep voice, "To be honest, I didn't expect things to get this bad, so although I made the Emperor very unhappy that day and it made me very uneasy, I don't regret it. If I could do it all over again, I would still insist on letting the Emperor know the truth!"

Then he said, slowly and deliberately, "I think the greatest difficulty for the Emperor is how not to be deceived! If those around the Emperor keep whitewashing the truth, and the world is in chaos, yet the Emperor still believes that everything is peaceful, that is the beginning of the Emperor losing everything!"

P.S. I'll continue writing the extra chapter and try to finish half a chapter, then write another half tomorrow...

Sigh, daily updates plus extra chapters are really too much for a monk like me. Does anyone remember that my normal update was 6,000 words a day? Such a person…

(End of this chapter)