Chapter 1590 - A Dream is Like Life

The early morning sunlight gently scattered over the earth. The sky was clear and the feather-like clouds were spread across the sky. As the sunlight hit the clouds at the dawn of the day, there was a faint, orange light. From afar, it looked like a dream like world.

Smoke and the sound of dogs barking came from the inn on the corner. These things didn’t feel out of place; it was as if this was how everything should be.

The few dogs raised by the shop were playing with each other and running around, shaking their tails.

Shortly after, the sound of horseshoes hitting the ground came from the distance. In the distance, dust was being kicked up as several horse galloped by. Sitting on top of the horses were several burly man wearing robes. They all had serious expressions as they galloped by.

As they approached, the dogs whimpered and avoided the road. The horses quickly passed by with the wind.

Perhaps the sound of the horses was so loud that it caused the ground outside the inn to tremble, and even the inn itself seemed to tremble.

This inn was very humble and seemed to have existed for a long time. As it trembled, it emitted sounds as if it couldn’t withstand this trembling. Cries of shock came from the second floor of the inn.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. This old man’s shop has been here for over 100 years, and this happens every time horses rush by. It won’t collapse.” An ancient voice echoed across the inn. In the corner of the hall sat a small old man wearing coarse clothes. He held a pipe in his hand and leisurely smoked it.

Opposite him, the waiter from last night put a towel over his shoulder and brought a kettle of hot water to the guests in the rooms on the second floor.

At this moment, in the rightmost room on the second floor, there was a young man still wearing his clothes lying on the bed. The entire room was filled with the smell of alcohol.

As the horses passed by and the room trembled, the young man slowly opened his eyes. He placed his hand on his forehead and looked around in a daze.

“Alas, greed is wrong, greed is wrong… How did I drink so much wine…”

 The young man looked 18 or 19 years old. He was slender and plain-looking, and he gave off the aura of a scholar.

He put on a bitter smile and his head hurt as he stood up holding the side of his bed. He staggered to the table and poured himself a cup of cold tea. Only after drinking it did he feel slightly better.

“It looks like I have to be careful in the future about getting drunk. I lost consciousness last night. If I only lost my silver, that would be small, but if I lost my life…”

 The young man sighed and drank a few more cups of cold tea.

Just at this moment, a knocking sound came from the door and the voice of the waiter echoed.

“Hot water, does Guest want any?”

The young man quickly got up. He seemed to have stood up too fast and became dizzy again. He barely managed to speak.

“Come in.”

The door opened with a creak and the waiter walked in with the kettle. After filling the basin with hot water, he looked back at the young man and smiled.

“I have been a waiter here for three days. I have never seen anyone get drunk from the rice wine here after only two cups. Last night, no matter how much I pushed you, you wouldn’t wake up, and I had to bring you up here to rest. Little Brother is not good with alcohol, so you need to practice. I heard that all the officials at the capital can drink one thousand cups without falling.”

The young man’s face turned slightly right and his eyes became filled with gratitude. He got up and clasped his hands. “Thank, Brother, for your care. I don’t know what went wrong either. The first cup felt fine, but once the second cup entered my stomach, I fell on the ground, drunk.”

The waiter grinned, and as he was leaving with the kettle, he had a playful smile. He looked at the young man and said, “You’re coming here to test for an official position, right? When you were drunk last night, you said you had a dream where you became an immortal. Haha, what you said was very interesting. If you have time, come talk to me again, it was very fun.”

As they spoke, the waiter walked out with a gentle smile. The young man’s face turned flushed and he shook his head bitterly. After the waiter left, the young man washed his face with hot water and washed away a lot of the drunkenness from last night.

He opened the window and the cool wind came in along with the bright sunshine. This wind felt very good when it blew on his face; it made the young man let out a deep breath.

The young man stood by the window and looked outside as he muttered to himself, “After getting drunk last night, I really had a dream. That dream was very strange, and I haven’t forgotten any of it…

“That dream was very realistic, almost impossible to separate from reality… It actually started three years ago when Fourth Uncle arrived. I joined the Heng Yue Sect… Hehe, it was interesting, but the dream didn’t seem to finish and I only remember joining the Heng Yue Sect. Heng Yue Sect… How could such a sect exist, how can there be immortals? Scholars like me don’t believe in the power of ghosts, it is mostly rumors to fool people.” The young man shook his head and looked at the cup on the table. His childish heart showed as he formed the seal from his memory and pointed at the caup.

“Attraction Spell!” The young man smiled and pointed at the cup.

That cup didn’t move at all, it just calmly stayed there. The young man laughed and muttered, “These spells are very interesting.”

After playing around for a bit, the young man cleared his mind and tidied up his things. His clothes, money, dried food, pen, ink, and books were all there. Then he carefully cleaned the room and waited for the smell of wine to dissipate before he changed into clean clothes. Then he put the bamboo backpack on his back and walked out of the room.

He had been very smart ever since he was young, but his personality was very simple. He grew up in a mountain village, and this was his first time leaving home. The kind gaze of his parents followed him as he left the mountain village. He was like a baby bird that was going to spread his wings.

This room had become dirty and smelled of alcohol due to him. He’d rather clean it up himself than let the waiter who had carried him up here do it.

He simply ate some food on the first floor and paid his bills. Then he smiled at the waiter before he left, facing the sun.

The gentle light fell on his body and filled the young man with sunshine as well. He gave off a very comfortable feeling, and people couldn’t help but feel affection toward him.

His clean clothes and neat attire were filled with vitality. Walking along the official road, he looked ahead, and he could faintly see the far-away capital of the country of Zhao.

“Wang Lin, you can definitely do it! When I get a title, I’ll bring my parents out from the mountain village, serve them until they grow old, and let them enjoy happiness.” 

The young man took a deep breath and walked forward.

The spring breeze blew by and brought the fragrance of flowers toward him. Wang Lin’s clothes fluttered in the wind as he gradually walked further and further from the inn.

The sound of the dogs barking was scattered by the wind and sent into some unknown place. The scattered sound slowly became fainter.

A young man at 18 or 19 would often not know what tiredness was. As Wang Lin walked down the official road, his eyes were nimble. From time to time, he would stop and look at the surrounding mountain and forest as if it was very comfortable.

The daylight passed by quickly. As Wang Lin leisurely walked down the road, the trees were no longer dense and soon a river revealed itself.

The sound of the river rushing came with the wind. In Zhao, there were several official roads that traveled with the waterways.

Just like how on the left side of Wang Lin were mountains, and not far on his right was a river. There were several boats flowing down the river.

The horizon gradually grew dark and dark clouds began to gather. Thunder rumbled in the distance and lightning moved within the dark clouds. They looked like silver snakes.

The sky was clear during the day, but before night even arrived, clouds filled the sky and became unpredictable. The green mountains in the distance became dark due to the dark clouds. Although the clouds were dark, they couldn’t completely cover the mountains.

From afar, the mountain and the clouds seemed to be battling. The mountain wanted to pierce the clouds, but the clouds wanted to devour the mountain. It was like a battle of a dragon and a tiger.

At this moment, the sound of thunder echoed and rain started to fall. Wang Lin quickly ran to a tree and took out a large umbrella from his bamboo backpack. This umbrella was skillfully made by his father and could be folded. Once opened, it could not only cover his bamboo backpack, but also his body under the umbrella.

Holding the umbrella in his right hand, Wang Lin looked at the mountain in the distance that the dark clouds couldn’t cover. He looked at the rain as it fell to the earth, fell on the leaves, fell on the surface of the river, creating ripples, and fell on the surface of the boats.

“The old saying goes: the black clouds are like black ink that can cover the mountains, the white rain jumps like beads into the boat… It turn out to be true.”

Wang Lin looked at all of this and laughed.

“Did a scholar like you become dumb? You see rain fall on my boat and you can still laugh. It really is infuriating!” A crisp voice came from the boat close to the shore of the river. At the bow of the boat stood a pretty girl holding an umbrella. The young girl had a gloomy face as she stared at Wang Lin and her jade-like hand pointed toward him.

Wang Lin was startled and his laughter stopped. He scratched his head.