Chapter 12: The Blue Bird Misses the Date

Fenghuai County was buried in the Xincang Mountain Range, almost isolated from the world. The channels for information circulation were very scarce, and the most effective means of understanding world events was to rely on the circulating Imperial Gazette.

Generally speaking, there would be two copies. One was issued by the local prefecture, called the "Prefecture Gazette," published every half month, which could be used to understand local news. The other was issued by the Imperial Academy, called the "National Gazette," supplied monthly, compiling major events in the world.

Generally speaking, the Di Bao was originally a publication that circulated only among government offices at all levels, until the previous emperor changed the regulations and ordered it to be published in large quantities among the people, which also brought huge changes to the content of the Di Bao.

From then on, messages that were slightly confidential were no longer printed, replaced by political news known to everyone, easy-to-understand interpretations of government decrees, and magnificent articles by high-ranking officials in the court, etc., as well as the guarantee of the circulation of this Di Bao—world news, Jianghu winds and clouds, and the legendary stories serialized on the last two pages.

Logically speaking, the Di Bao was not a scarce thing. However, Fenghuai was too poor and remote. The two newspapers were transported here, but Fenghuai had no workshop that could copy them. And in fact, the number of literate people in the whole county might not even be over a hundred, so there was no space for the circulation of the Di Bao.

So these Di Baos piled up in the county government, and Master Huang recorded the stories from them and told them vividly to the children.

So many times, it wasn't that he deliberately hung the children's appetite and didn't tell them, but that the writer titled "Blue Luan in the Mirror" had only written up to here, and the next issue really couldn't be delivered in time.

Seeing Pei Ye, taking advantage of Lin Lin's convenience, entered and exited the public office many times, only then did he know that there were such "treasures."

This disclosure made the teenagers excited and eager to try. Seeing Pei Ye whispered: "The Di Bao of the eighth month should have just been delivered. You must have never heard it before. Wait for me to go get it."

A small cheer erupted in the room.

Seeing Pei Ye took a candle and came to the public office. Pushing the door open, a heavy smell of ink rushed into his nose.

The newly arrived Di Bao would generally be circulated among the civil officials and clerks first. Sure enough, Seeing Pei Ye only scanned the table a few times and saw the thin booklet.

Seeing Pei Ye walked over, looking at the four characters 【Great Tang National Gazette】 with upright and atmospheric brushwork on the cover, and couldn't help but be dazed for a moment.

This familiar cover stirred up that long-buried expectation and excitement, as if it were still connected to those simple and happy days, and Seeing Pei Ye had long been missing both of these.

Flipping it open gently, it was again the autonomous memory of his muscles. Before Seeing Pei Ye could react, his hand had already skipped the boring political news in the front and came directly to the last few pages.

Seeing Pei Ye smiled knowingly and lowered his head to look.

This page was world news and Jianghu winds and clouds. The most prominent news on it was that the envoys of the southern countries arrived in the Divine Capital last month, paid homage to the Saint, and the young talents they brought also had friendly exchanges with the young people of the Great Tang in both literature and martial arts.

A glance at it, and a few familiar names made him dazed again. This was not the time to look carefully, so he flipped back again.

The next page was the ink of "Blue Luan in the Mirror." What was being serialized now was a story called "Chivalrous Bone Remnant." It had long had nothing to do with what Seeing Pei Ye read two years ago. Scanning the return title, it was the twentieth chapter, named "Eighteen Years of Being a Withered Ghost, What Day to Ascend to the First Floor of Immortality." Generally speaking, stories written by people like this ended in the twentieth chapter, and this one should be no exception.

Seeing Pei Ye closed the booklet and tucked it under his arm. There was actually a July National Gazette on the table. Seeing Pei Ye picked it up and flipped through it, only to see that the last few pages had been cut off. He didn't know who took them to coax the children to be happy, leaving only the serious things in the front that no one liked to read. He threw it back on the table and picked up the much thinner Prefecture Gazette from the side.

The Prefecture Gazette had the same layout, but the political part was much shorter, and the quality of the stories in the back was much worse, because there was no special author in the prefecture to write them, but they were directly rubbed from the storytellers' scripts to perfunctory. The Jianghu news column said that a man in white recently came to the prefecture to ask for a sword, possibly a chivalrous person on the Crane and Duck Book. Seeing Pei Ye curled his lips. This style was consistent in catching the wind and grasping the shadows. Seeing Pei Ye tucked it under his arm as well and raised the candle to walk into the depths of the public office.

Besides taking the Di Bao, Seeing Pei Ye's main purpose was to see if he could find the book that made him familiar with the character "Zhun" in his memory.

At the deepest part of the public office stood two rows of bookshelves. Although they were not piled high with books, they were orderly. Seeing Pei Ye often sat on the floor and leaned against the bookshelves to read books for an afternoon in the past few years.

At this moment, holding an oil lamp, he browsed the bookshelves one by one. He skipped all kinds of history books and classics directly, as he had never touched these; he didn't need to look too carefully at the top layer, as he was short back then and couldn't reach it. His focus was mainly on some interesting notes and wild histories on the lower layer. He did find a few books he had read with great interest back then, but flipping through the content, none of them were the right path.

Flipping through them one by one carefully, as long as there was a slight impression, Seeing Pei Ye pulled them out and flipped through them page by page. However, after flipping through the entire bookshelf, he didn't find that familiar feeling.

But if it wasn't here, where else could it be?

After arriving here, that sense of familiarity became clearer. He had almost been able to recall the scene: he was leaning against the window, holding the book against the sunset, reading it by the last bit of twilight. That character suddenly caught his eye. He didn't recognize it, looked at it a few more times, remembered it, and went out to ask a clerk.

But where did that book go now?

Seeing Pei Ye locked his eyebrows, went through the entire bookshelf again, and searched the entire room on and under the table.

The night curtain became thicker bit by bit, and the rain drizzled again. It had been nearly an hour since Chang Zhiyuan returned. If tonight's "Divine Favor" was to come, it was afraid it wouldn't wait much longer.

Pei Ye straightened up and had to accept the reality that he hadn't been able to activate the so-called 【Standardized Harvest】.

Perhaps that book had been lost or taken by someone, and at this moment, there was absolutely no other way.

Since it was not in "Fate," there was nothing to say.

Seeing Pei Ye tucked the two Di Baos under his arm and walked out of the public office. When passing through the courtyard, he looked toward the hall. That thick, armored back was still sitting there motionless.

Seeming to notice the gaze he cast over, Chang Zhiyuan waved his hand and called him in.

As soon as he walked into the front hall, he felt the suffocating oppression in the atmosphere here, which was like two worlds compared to the activity in the children's room.

Seeing Pei Ye, as a person in the know, could fully understand the oppression and torment in the hearts of the three adults.

They were actually powerless, only able to sit and wait, but they had to appear reliable, just like the dam at the entrance of an ant nest. Facing the coming rainstorm, the only role was to let the ants in the cave think they were still under protection.

The result they were waiting for only had two extremes—either Commander Jing arrived to sweep away everything, or this small county government was swept away by the criminals first.

Seeing Pei Ye walked in and asked in a low voice: "Is there any news?"

Chang Zhiyuan shook his head heavily and asked: "What are you holding?"

"Two Di Baos, the children like to read stories."

"..." Chang Zhiyuan's face became complicated, like the reluctance of telling parents the news of their children's death. He closed his eyes and opened them, restoring his reliable and steady self. "Hmm... actually, I was just about to find you. All thirty-seven bailiffs with swords in the county have been distributed to various street corners to help you block and pursue. There are seven horses in the backyard. You distribute them. Let those who can ride take those who can't, and disperse in different directions..."

Seeing Pei Ye was stunned for a moment before realizing he was talking about the teenagers in the room. He pursed his dry lips and said hoarsely: "Is... is there any change?"

Shen Yanping walked over and said in a low voice: "The soul bird hasn't returned." ===== CHAPTER 13 =====

Shen Yanping walked over and whispered, "The soul bird still hasn't returned."