Chapter 3: III. This is a High-End Game

III. This is a High-End Game

Magistrate Ouyang Rong lay on the bed with his eyes closed, thinking again of that postgraduate group with a particularly serious name.

Actually, when the group was first built, it was indeed for the postgraduate exam, but as everyone knows, postgraduate groups talk about everything except the postgraduate exam.

At first, someone mentioned games while studying—at that moment, no one realized the seriousness of the problem—and they naturally started chatting about teaming up... and then it became a gaming group, but this was just the beginning.

I don't know which day it was, but a new group member was added, whose avatar was a funny face wearing a feather fan and a silk scarf. Sure enough, he was also a guy who talked freely and dared to understand everything. Soon, the group started a keyboard-political mode;

Later on, as the "group versions" updated, the administrators stopped even posting postgraduate entrance exam materials, instead flooding the group with mysterious codes, audio, and images that left the members increasingly exhausted and severely malnourished... So, on some dark and windy night, they silently added a note to the group name, which finally became "So-and-So University Gentlemen's Postgraduate Exam Group (No Girls Allowed)."

"Now it's good, I've really become a gentleman." Magistrate Ouyang Rong sighed sadly.

The day before yesterday, after he climbed out of the underground palace and fainted outside the Compassion Institute, he was sent back to Sanhui Institute to recuperate. He was sometimes clear-headed, sometimes unconscious, and had been lying in bed intermittently for two days.

He had finally digested most of the memories "fighting" in his brain.

Regarding the original body, there was good news and bad news.

The good news is that the original body is a gentleman.

The bad news is that the original body is a gentleman!

It might sound a bit convoluted.

The original body also had the surname Magistrate Ouyang, named Rong, but he had a courtesy name, Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan.

Orphaned at four, physically weak and sickly, his mother Zhao kept her chastity and raised the orphan, raising him to be a dragon, and Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan was indeed promising, benevolent and filial, famous in the countryside, and diligent in his studies. He entered the White Deer Cave Academy to study with the first place in the county exam.

In the first year of Jiushi of the Wei Zhou Dynasty, he passed the imperial examination at the age of only eighteen, famous in the Jiang Nan Circuit; this was the youngest southern Metropolitan Graduate since the founding of the Wei Zhou and even the Li Gan dynasties.

Why mention "Li Gan" after mentioning "Wei Zhou"?

Because the world today was originally fought for by the Li family's Taizong eighty years ago, and the country name was Gan. However, after the third emperor of the Great Gan passed away, the Empress Dowager Wei presided over the court, successively deposed two sons, ascended the throne herself, abolished the Gan mandate, changed the country name to Zhou, moved the capital from Chang'an to Shenjing Luoyang, called it "Shendu," and established the Wei Zhou, which has been eight years to date.

And in the current Wei Zhou court, undercurrents are surging, and there are still many old officials of the Great Gan who are attached to the Great Gan. Moreover, the Empress is old, and the struggle for the imperial succession between the Li family and the Wei family has entered the final stage... Magistrate Ouyang Rong somewhat understood why the little novice monk Xiufa changed his words to the previous dynasty.

However, when he digested this memory, he found it very familiar no matter how he looked at it... But after carefully distinguishing it, he found that this dynasty was very different from the Great Tang and Wu Zhou he was familiar with. It wasn't just that some key figures didn't match, but the most significant thing was that this world seemed to have a small group called "Qi Practitioners," which had continued since the Pre-Qin era and participated in the historical process of these nearly a thousand years.

In the current Great Zhou court and army, it is said that there are Qi Practitioners, and it seems that each has a system related to the Yin-Yang School and the Military School... And the most deeply involved and largest Qi Practitioner force that people talk about made Magistrate Ouyang Rong a bit dumbfounded—it is the three sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, also known as the three manifest upper sects. It is said that there are some hidden sects overseas and in famous mountains and rivers, but they are not active in the world, and things like using chivalry to violate prohibitions are not often heard...

Back to the original body.

Because he was the youngest among those who passed the imperial examination in the first year of the Jiushi era, and possessed a handsome appearance, he was directly selected as the Third Place Winner at the Apricot Garden Banquet in the Divine Capital of Shenjing Luoyang that year, making him one of the most conspicuous figures among his peers, second only to the new top scholar; truly, he was riding high on the spring breeze, seeing all the flowers of the Divine Capital in a single day.

I don't know how many wealthy families wanted to catch a son-in-law under the list, but it's a pity that the original body was a gentleman. During the imperial examination in Shenjing Luoyang, he didn't even go to a brothel once, and was teased by the Shendu scholars as "not close to women."

If it were just this, Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan would at most be a newly promoted vase in the Shendu scholar circle. What really made him famous all over the world was... he really went up when there was something.

At the Apricot Garden Banquet in Shenjing Luoyang, our new Metropolitan Graduate "Third Place Winner" drank a few mouthfuls of wine and dared to write a memorial directly to the Empress of Wei Zhou, remonstrating against starting wars on the border and resting with the people.

But I don't know if it was good luck, or if there was a noble person speaking for him, but the Empress heard his name and was not angry but happy, laughing and chanting "Zhou Bang is happy, Rong has Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan."

This is a poem from "Daya," and it is also the allusion for the courtesy name given to him by his teacher at White Deer Cave Academy, roughly meaning: The people of the Zhou state are all happy, and the country has pillars of support to be peaceful.

Unexpectedly, he turned danger into safety at the Apricot Garden Banquet. The Empress accepted it, praised him as the "Pearl of the Southeast," and granted him the title of Lintai Zhengzi; the last person to receive such honor was the current Prime Minister Di Di Fuzi, who was once highly praised by the Empress as "the only one south of the Dipper."

However, after being granted the official position at the Apricot Garden Banquet, Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan hadn't even taken office when a family letter arrived, saying his mother had passed away. So he went to resign and leave the capital, returning home to observe the mourning period. During this time, he mourned with extreme grief, and the scholars of the time called him the most rigorous official in the eighty years of the Gan Dynasty to observe mourning.

So Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan's reputation for extreme purity and filial piety soared. The story of his mother's kindness and son's filial piety also spread widely, similar to the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars of the world, and even the imperial court broke the rules to posthumously confer his mother the title of Lady, establishing a memorial arch to honor her...

This opportunity, logically speaking, should have been a smooth path to the clouds after returning to the capital. However, the "gentleman" title certified by the whole world was not so easy to produce.

After the original body finished observing the mourning for his mother, he returned to the capital and took office, only to risk his life to remonstrate again.

This time, he pointed his spear at Princess Princess Changle, who was extremely noble and favored in the court, exposing her for recklessly setting up businesses to compete with the people for profit, and holding banquets to widely build up factions.

Princess Princess Changle was the youngest daughter of the Empress. In the situation where the imperial princes of Li Gan had been slaughtered by their iron-blooded mother until there were few left, she was still able to jump around and live well, naturally being highly favored by the Empress of Wei.

The Empress was slightly angry, dismissed Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan from his official position on the spot, and gave him fifty strokes of the heavy staff. If it hadn't been for the old officials of the White Deer Cave Academy who persuaded him, he would have almost been sentenced to prison.

Shortly after, as if hindered by the momentum of the Shendu scholar circle, the original body was suddenly re-appointed and promoted; but it was a promotion in name but a demotion in reality, kicking him out of Shendu and sending him to the Jiangzhou region of the Jiang Nan Circuit, making him a remote County Magistrate of Longcheng.

This remote Grade 7 County Magistrate of Longcheng, where is there the purity and nobility of the Grade 9 Junior Lintai Zhengzi, "sending spring only with wine, spending the day only with chess"?

But after this incident, the four characters "Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan" were already linked to a gentleman, famous all over the world, and the scholars of the north and south all praised him, calling him "Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan the True Gentleman."

However, Magistrate Ouyang Rong, who had roughly digested these memory fragments, sighed.

He lay on the bed with his eyes closed, pointing at his own nose, cursing himself with a wry smile:

"Good kid, you are truly a model of having a muddled brain. This wave is a huge loss. Except for some empty fame, the substance is lost until only your underwear is left. No, there is also this officially certified Third Place Winner handsome face that can't be snatched away... But you were used as a knife by others and didn't even know it, and you were still a knife that was thrown away after being used, and the person behind it was afraid of the knife sticking to their hands.

"That Empress of the Wei family is a hen crowing at dawn, and the founding of the country is not righteous. This Great Zhou court looks like flowers and brocade, but it is actually cooking oil on fire. The hearts of the Li Gan imperial family have not been lost. Even if they are cowardly now and there are few clansmen left, the general trend of the people's hearts is still there.

"Inside and outside the court, there are probably many people who sympathize and miss them, and the Guanlong noble families who followed the dragon at the founding of the country are still deeply rooted, especially the traditional conservative forces of civil officials. Li Gan raised scholars for seventy years. Where can these be broken just by saying so? It is said that your teacher and the big shots from the White Deer Cave Academy are also the pro-Gan faction standing behind them, hoping that the Empress will return the government to the Li family, and then follow the dragon again... As a result, you are good.

"Eh, no matter how arrogant and proud Princess Princess Changle is, she still has the surname Li. It is said that the remaining few Li family seedlings have been relying on her to cover up and survive. In the general direction, they are standing with the pro-Gan faction. Why are you arguing with her? You were directly... used as a fast knife by the Wei family, and did they protect you afterward? You relied on empty fame and the background of the academy, but it is said that the lords who once paved the way for you in the court now look at you as if looking at a fool...

"The scholars below are just fun-loving people who seek fame and reputation. The empty fame they give is useless. And do you believe it? Sending you to Longcheng County to cure the water disaster might also be a trap, betting that you are a vase. Once the flood cannot be cured, the only remaining empty fame will be gone...

"Forget it, don't talk about it. These people are not good things."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong opened his eyes and muttered to the bed curtain: "It's just that I, a keyboard politician who lurks, understand the truth, but you are a Metropolitan Graduate, and you don't even have this sense of smell? You only know how to read and take exams, right?

"... What, you say you actually guessed it, but you still submitted the memorial the next morning? The lords in the court didn't say a word, and you felt you couldn't not say it when you saw it, and you let the old servant prepare the coffin before you went to the palace?"

There was silence on the bed for a while.

"Fine, no wonder you have more promise than me, just a little bit wasteful of your life."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong sighed and got up, walking to the washbasin beside the bed.

He looked at the distant mountains outside the small window: "This is a high-end game."

Then he looked down at the thin face in the washbasin. To be honest, it really looks a bit like Hu Ge, the one from Chinese Paladin 1. It's just that I don't know if this wound on my forehead will leave a scar later...

Forget it, giving others a way to live appropriately, isn't this also a kind of merit?

A small trick to accumulate merit every day, Magistrate Ouyang Rong smiled, and his mood didn't seem so bad anymore. Maybe one day when the merit is enough, the Buddha will send him home, right? Isn't it?

"The original body and I are almost exactly the same. Am I the me of a parallel universe, past and present? Looking at it this way, I actually have a lot of potential to dig in terms of reading, as long as I don't memorize those damn words..."

Suddenly, Magistrate Ouyang Rong's hand washing the water was pulled out immediately. He didn't have time to wipe it, and moved back into the quilt like a rabbit, lying down again, closing his eyes and breathing rhythmically.

A burst of messy footsteps came from far to near outside.

In the past two days, people from all walks of life had actually come to see him, including the County Assistant, County Lieutenant, and Registrar of Longcheng, as well as the local gentry and celebrities. However, he didn't see them because he was "unconscious."

Some things, Magistrate Ouyang Rong hadn't fully thought through yet, and he didn't want to see these fake-concerned foxes for the time being.

Before the people outside arrived, Magistrate Ouyang Rong heard two arguments in the corridor, one of which was quite familiar, and the other was strange.

"Don't stop me, what did you do to the Magistrate, why won't you let me see him? Are you doing that kind of business of hanging the patient by a thread to 'let the water flow long' again?!"

"Little Yan Constable, you can't make jokes like that. You are also a person of Longcheng County, how could our Donglin Temple do such a thing as a wild doctor on the side of the road!" Xiufa seemed to be startled.

"Hmph, it's best if you didn't. I'm telling you, the Magistrate is a Metropolitan Graduate appointed by the Emperor of the Great Zhou. If something happens to him in your temple... you guys wait to build pagodas for the rest of your lives."

"Eh, Constable is joking. The Magistrate looks like a person with righteous energy leaking from his side. In the future, he will likely be enshrined in the Confucian Temple to accompany the Holy Teacher. He is blessed, how could anything happen." Xiufa sighed, "... building pagodas, our temple really can't build pagodas anymore, several have collapsed for no reason."

"I knew your temple was immoral." The person called Little Yan Constable was a bit anxious, "Then why won't you let me see the Magistrate?"

"Our Abbot said, the Magistrate is exhausted and needs to rest quietly."

"Still resting quietly, it's been almost three days and he hasn't woken up! You guys lied to me before saying he would be fine in two days at most. I believe your evil!"

"This... I don't know either. Strange, why hasn't the Magistrate woken up in broad daylight? He gets up to eat every meal time."

"Get out of the way!"

"Ouch, it hurts, Constable, Constable, you can't kick, our Longcheng old saying is first, don't hit monks, second, don't hit the yellow and thin. I occupy both, ouch, don't hit, don't hit the person outside the square, it's going to deduct merit..."

"I square your head!"

"..." Xiufa.

Creak—

Magistrate Ouyang Rong heard the sound of the door being pushed open and slammed open from the outside.

"Magistrate!"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong, who had his eyes closed, felt a gust of wind blowing past him, and the person had arrived.

This person should be called Yan Yan Wuxu, the son of the County Lieutenant of Longcheng. Like Magistrate Ouyang Rong, he had just replaced his father as the capture lieutenant in the government office, that is, the head of the constables.

However, although he looked a bit boisterous, he was quite conscientious. The day Magistrate Ouyang Rong slipped and fell into the water, it was he and several cooks who jumped into the water to save him. Also, "Magistrate" seemed to be a respectful title for the County Magistrate...

Magistrate Ouyang Rong's brain flashed some impressions, and at the same time, he felt his arm being pushed a few times. He continued to close his eyes and pretend to sleep, relaxing his breathing.

The person in front of the bed seemed to stare at him for a long time, and then... suddenly with a "Clang" sound, he violently pulled out his saber and rose up.

Damn it! It's over... Magistrate Ouyang Rong's breathing stopped. At this moment, only one thought occupied his brain:

Is it Princess Princess Changle? Or was it someone sent by the Wei family to finish him off? Is it necessary to be so ruthless... ===== CHAPTER 4 =====