Chapter 1
Early spring in Asakusa, warm and cold.
The warm sun is rising, the banks of the Liuhua River, the willows are caressing the banks with the wind, and the market along the river is full of people and bustling.
In the most prosperous part of the market, there is a big family with the word Baiyuan engraved on the door plaque.
On both sides are Baijia Mizhuang and Baijiabuzhuang, and there is a private ferry on the river opposite Buzhuang.
There is a green bamboo pavilion at the ferry, which is convenient for boats to dock.
A young boy is lying on the top of the bamboo pavilion with his legs crossed and his head resting on a raised bamboo arch. He holds an ancient book in one hand and reads it, and takes a bite out of a paper bag from the other hand from time to time. .
Maybe it's because the content of the ancient book is too wonderful, maybe it's because the buns are too delicious, maybe it's too comfortable to be exposed to the warm sun in early spring, the young man's expression is extremely comfortable.
Occasionally, I would look up at the bustling market, jiggling my legs and raising my eyebrows from time to time, thinking in my heart, my father is not at home these days, life is very comfortable.
The boy’s surname was Bai and his name was Yunlou. On the day of his birth, white clouds piled up outside the window like a tall building. The father of Tongsheng, who was the most talented in the family at the time, gave his eldest son a name he thought was the best. Mention it now and then.
Baiyun Tower has just turned sixteen, and already has a reputation as a scholar. Although the family is a merchant, but because there is a scholar in the family, the neighbors can't help but think highly of it.
The Bai family had strict family education. Before elementary school, Xiaoyunlou was clever and mischievous. He often beat the ruler and board, but he also learned etiquette.
When I was in elementary school, my family invited Mr. Li, the most experienced person in the county, to teach at home. Although most of them were not proficient in poetry, calligraphy, chess, calligraphy and painting, they dabbled in all of them.
For the six arts of ancient literature taught by the old gentleman, Xiaoyunlou did not resist.
But after school, whenever I have free time, I go to the study in the backyard to read books. The books are usually exchanged from booksellers or wandering merchants. Most of them are ghost stories and gossip biographies.
What really interests Baiyun Tower is the legends of the immortals and gods in it. Those immortals and gods have great supernatural powers.
When he was fourteen years old, Baiyunlou followed his aunt to Liuyun Temple dozens of miles away to offer incense, and the incense and money were enough, so he stayed overnight in the other courtyard of the Taoist temple in the middle of the mountain.
Such a stay overnight, the young Yunlou saw for the first time the extraordinary outside the world of mortals.
The boy got up early, the mist under the early sun, the old man practicing boxing on the edge of the cliff, his sleeves fluttering, overflowing with boxing strength, and the clouds and mists rising from the cliff turned and rolled, the boy's heart was swaying.
When the old Taoist finished his work, Baiyunlou hurried forward, wanting to worship the old Taoist as his teacher.
Seeing the young man in high spirits and full of energy, the old Taoist couldn't help but take a few more glances, and started chatting with Baiyun Tower, asking where he came from, and chatting about his likes and dislikes.
During the chat, he saw that the young man's speech and behavior were quite informal, and his temperament was also very agreeable, so the old man became interested.
The old Taoist touched the young man for a while, and finally shook his head slightly, saying that there is no one in the world who has the qualifications for cultivation, and the qualifications are not the same.
Although the young man has minimal aptitude, but it is almost non-existent, and he has passed the age of curly hair, his meridians are obscure, and his sense of energy is hard to find. Forcibly practicing, it is like a mirror, a dream.
From the words, the young man was already disappointed, but he was relieved in an instant, he was still talking and laughing freely, and he liked him even more. He dragged the young man to the study in another courtyard.
When he came to the room, the old Taoist took out two books and gave them to the young man, one was the Taoist Classic of Flowing Clouds, and the other was the Cloud Dispelling Palm Technique. Secret, it was given to the boy.
The young man was overjoyed, and after going out to say hello to A Niang, he went back and chatted with the old Taoist for half a day, which solved a lot of doubts in his heart.
After enjoying the chat, Yiyi bid farewell to the old way. Although the young man did not change his name to his master, he did his best to respect his master.
Seeing the young man leave with A Niang, the old Taoist stood outside the other courtyard and sighed endlessly.
Cultivating the Tao and cultivating the truth, after so many years of practicing the Tao, today I finally saw the truth in the young man, the bottleneck of Taoism that has been stuck for more than ten years has finally melted,
The juvenile is definitely not something in the pool, what is sent to the young man is the fate, maybe it is also his own fate.
What the young man sees is the old Taoist who is under the early sun, and what the old Taoist sees is not the young man who is full of vitality under the morning sun.
Afterwards, the days of Baiyunlou became even more angry. I missed the age of opening the meridians, so I had to take a look at the art of opening the meridian and circumscribing the sky in the Taoist scriptures, but the moves of the cloud-dispelling palm method were thoroughly practiced.
Although there is still no real energy, Baiyunlou still practiced cloud-dispelling palm dozens of times a day. After more than a year of continuous practice, he is now light and healthy, with sharp eyes and ears. Gained the fame of a scholar.
With fame and fame in his body, he is a little bit more clean. Except for the occasional nagging, don’t read idle books. Yunlou’s schoolwork has not been asked for a long time, so there should be some reasons why he can’t understand it.
The so-called hard work is hard to come back, the old man is no longer imposing, but the majesty is still there. He is at home on weekdays, and Baiyun Tower is like a well-behaved boy. These two days, the old man has gone out to buy goods. Nuanyang, reading idle books and listening to the chants of the market, feels somewhat at ease like a fairy.
The boy was reading a book on the bamboo pavilion, and suddenly his right hand was empty. It turned out that the steamed stuffed bun bag was already empty.
Just thinking about whether to buy another omelette to satisfy my greed, I suddenly caught a glimpse of a merchant ship coming from the lower reaches of the Liuhua River in the distance. It looked familiar, but it was not my own cargo ship.
The young man's face tightened, he turned over and jumped off the bamboo pavilion, stuffed the book into his arms, straightened his clothes, and waited on the railing.
The cargo ship is not big, and it can hold two or three cars. Standing on the bow is a middle-aged man who is nearly forty years old. He is of medium height, slightly fat, and has a slightly weathered face. He is the father of Baiyun Tower.
When the boat arrived at the pier, Papa Bai saw his son waiting at the pier, nodded his head slightly, and shouted back, Take the board to unload the cargo!
There were actually two helpers on the cargo ship, and the store clerk also rushed over to help, moving the goods into the store skillfully.
Father Bai pointed to a black wooden box at the stern, and said to a shop assistant, Take this box to Yunlou's study.
When Bai Yunlou heard that he still had private goods, he quickly jumped onto the bow of the boat, helped his father to get off the boat, and asked with a straight face if he had breakfast and how he was resting on the boat.
I sent my father to the bedroom to rest, then turned around and went back to the study.
The study room was cleaned by Yunlou himself when he was just in primary school, and the bookshelves against the walls on both sides are full.
There is a bamboo reclining chair by the window, and there is a long low table beside the chair. On the ground beside the low table is a thick straw futon. The black wooden box is already placed beside the bookshelf.
Looking at the wooden box on the ground, curiosity is inevitable in my heart. When I opened the wooden box, there were several stacks of books inside, and two small wooden boxes beside it.
Books are new and old, flipping through them at random, except for a few collections of poetry, the rest are all kinds of miscellaneous books, and there is even a collection of supernatural and strange things.
Baiyunlou was stunned when he saw it. Why did my father change his temper this time when he went out for a walk? He bought a lot of books that he was usually not allowed to read this time. It seems that he won the title of a scholar last autumn Dad raised a lot of face.