Then, I told Master about the deaths in Zhūlù Valley and handed over the Buddhist name tag to Master. After reading it, Master shook his head and said: You can go straight to Chang'an, these things will be handled by me.
I and Xile parted ways with Shifu and Fangzhang, didn't see Shi Kong, went down the mountain directly. I thought, it's really a big circle, many roads, but back to the starting point. Xile said, not back to the original place, just arrived at the original place.
What's dull and uninteresting is that we're going to Chang'an again. I feel like Ji Le and I have been setting out for half a day but still haven't left. And pretending to be mysterious, looking for some mysterious person. There are too many mysterious people in this world, it's really hard to know what they're thinking as mysterious people themselves.
I thought, forget it, let's set off then, but as soon as I think of our means of transportation, all my enthusiasm disappears. This is simply a pet and cannot be used for transportation at all. Unfortunately, Joy has developed feelings for it. Women are really strange, once they develop feelings for something, no matter how impractical or flawed that thing may be in today's situation or real life, they completely disregard these considerations.
Farewell, Master. I and Xi Le went down the mountain to lead our horses. I really wanted to go to Zhū Lù Gǔ (Deer Valley) to see what had happened, but unfortunately it's not in the same direction as Chang'an, and my horse can't quickly come and go back, which is disappointing. I thought, I'd better take solid steps to Chang'an, do some unknown things solidly, build a place to settle down solidly, and then do some more unknown things solidly.
On the right route, to go to Chang'an must pass through Zhuo City. This time we were rushing all the way, and didn't let Xiao Bian rest at all. Xi Le was very heartbroken, thinking that her horse would be exhausted to death, I said, we sleep as much as the horses do, it's not reasonable for them to die of exhaustion before us. Besides, Master said, arrive in Chang'an as soon as possible.
Xile asked me: When we arrive at Zhuo City, will we rest or not?
I said: No way, I'll rush through the night.
Xile said: In any case, we have to eat something delicious. I know there's a place, but I don't know if it's been demolished or not.
I said: It's okay to take a short rest. But still can't sleep, I always feel that I shouldn't fall asleep in the city.
They arrived at Zhuo City and came to the unnamed wine house that Xi Le had mentioned. This wine house was very large, with reasonable prices, and was originally called a very auspicious name. Later, many years ago, the emperor had gone there in disguise, come to this legendary Zhuo City's number one wine house, eaten to his heart's content, and returned to the palace with a lingering aftertaste. The emperor, inspired by his own desires, wrote a plaque for that Zhuo City's number one wine house and changed its name. Unfortunately, the emperor's handwriting was completely illegible, nobody dared ask what it meant, so they just left it hanging there.
That sign was in a very eye-catching place, with gold and silk decorations, inscribed: XX Wine House. I sat down with Xi Le, the waiter poured tea, and arranged to bring the menu for the two esteemed guests to look at. This wine house is known as the one with the best service attitude in the Central Plains, and it's indeed not a false reputation. But everything has its reasons, and the reason may not be what you imagine, just because the emperor had visited incognito once and left an inscription, the boss here regretted that he didn't recognize the emperor at first sight, and firmly believed that the emperor would come again to eat, so he taught his waiters how to identify the emperor, such as dressing like ordinary people, not showing off, always having at least one person following him, looking unskilled in martial arts but actually being highly skilled, eating things that are not rare delicacies... which made the waiters think anyone could be the emperor and no one dared to slack off.
