The plum rain that started after the Dragon Boat Festival showed no signs of stopping. Fu Zhong had two days off before the exams, and the college entrance examinations would begin on the 7th.
June 5th, the month of Bingwu, the day of Gui Hai, plum rain.
Due to the continuous rain, the room was a little damp. Inevitably, the quilt felt wet and uncomfortable, so Liu Changan lit a charcoal fire in the room to drive away the humidity. The temperature inside and outside of the room were very low, so lighting a fire would not make one feel hot.
Liu Changan was still in a calm state of mind. He got up early to stir-fry dried mustard vegetables and shredded meat, and made a bowl of fried noodles to eat. After that, he began to write a piece of calligraphy, Zhuge Liang's Model of Becoming an Apprentice.
After he finished writing, he didn't wait for the ink to dry before he threw the paper into the fire. Since ancient times, many famous masters' works had been handled in this way. For many people, it was difficult to obtain a single word of calligraphy, but it was just a casual gesture. Not every piece of calligraphy would be satisfactory, and they would think that it represented the pinnacle of their work.
The loaches in the puddle outside the door were fed with bean dregs by Zhou Dongdong every day, and they were still very lively. Some of them had already begun to happily and contentedly regain their ability to drill through the mud. In comparison, loaches were more adorable than eels. Although eels were delicious, they looked a little too disgusting.
Liu Changan brushed another layer of tung oil on his oil-paper umbrella and roasted it beside the stove for a while. He watched the shiny, oily surface of the umbrella glisten. Then, he raised the umbrella and went to Boss Lan's bookstore to look for books.
Boss Lan was not in the bookstore. The lady boss said that he had gone to Baisha Park to play chess.
Baisha Park was built on a hill in the city, and there was a pavilion on the top of the hill. Naturally, there were many stories and legends attached to it. Many places in the country would find an allusion in history books or poems, and then develop it into a so-called cultural attraction. It just so happened that with thousands of years of history and countless literati, emperors, generals and ministers, legends and myths, it was enough for any place to excavate a cultural attraction, build a temple, set up a shrine, and collude with tour guides to start making money.
Relatively speaking, Baisha Park was more worthy of its name. There was a White Sand Ancient Well under the park, which had not dried up for thousands of years. It was first named White Sand Ancient Well in the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, many poor families fetched water here and sold it throughout the city to make a living. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, water sellers mostly lived by the well, thus forming Baisha Street. In the past, Liu Changan would also come here to fetch water to make tofu, wine, and the like. In recent years, people had had enough of all kinds of drinking water, and the number of people coming to the White Sand Ancient Well to fetch water had increased. Often, there would be retired old men who would get up early every day to fetch water. Occasionally, an old man would fall, and the water would spill all over the ground. He would be sent to the hospital, and then he would be blamed by his son and daughter-in-law.
Liu Changan held the umbrella and slowly walked to the top of the park. There was a long corridor of 100 meters at the top of the hill, and there were several pavilions. There were middle-aged and elderly photography enthusiasts carrying all kinds of equipment to photograph a middle-aged woman. In the dream of a middle-aged woman, a cheongsam and colorful scarf were, of course, indispensable.
Liu Changan watched for a while as the lovely girl waved the scarf around to show off her graceful figure. The cheongsam could not cover her full belly and plump waist. It was also very cute.
Boss Lan was playing chess in the innermost pavilion, and his expression showed that the situation was not looking good.
"It's just that my chess skills have become rusty over the years. Back when I was here, which one of you was a match for me?"
"Old Lan, just admit defeat. This is no longer a place where you can dominate."
"Again, again! I don't believe that I can't win!"
"No, you've already lost three games in a row. If you keep losing, I'm afraid that your blood pressure will go through the roof!"
Liu Changan tugged at Boss Lan and waved his hand. "Boss Lan, let me face him. I'll use thirty percent of what you've taught me."
Boss Lan was stunned. He vaguely felt that this scene was similar to when he met Professor Liu. He could not help but step aside.
"Young man, if you only have thirty percent of Old Lan's skills, I'll give you a handicap!" His opponent did not dare to be arrogant, but since he was on Boss Lan's side, how strong could he be?
After a while, Boss Lan was already laughing loudly. "Who asked you to be so arrogant? Who asked you to be so arrogant? I even gave you a handicap and broke your leg!"
There was no struggle in the chess game. His opponent restarted amidst the clamor of the crowd.
Of course, those who had lost a handicap were not convinced. They played again, and the result was the same. Liu Changan went on a killing spree in the pavilion, one after another. Boss Lan's face was flushed with pride. After all, Liu Changan was playing with his "thirty percent of his skills" title.
After disbanding, Boss Lan sighed and faced reality. "Back then, your father and I were the overlords of Baisha Park's chess corner. The two of us took turns to be the overlords. Now, these losers are all showing off their strength …"
Boss Lan rubbed his eyes, thinking of his own past. Of course, there was also the Professor Liu who had destroyed his opponent with a smile.
Liu Changan did not expose whether he was the overlord or the overlord. He just smiled and said, "I want to ask you something. Where did the female student who had a scandal with Professor Liu go?"
"Why do you ask?" Boss Lan looked at Liu Changan strangely. "What happened to the previous generation is all in the past."
"I'm just asking."
"I'm not very sure. I'll ask around. It happened many years ago … Two years ago, my wife said that she met her." Boss Lan nodded and knocked on the chessboard. "It's my treat. How about two more games?"
"No problem. I'll let you see the Liu family's ancestral secret skill."
"Is there really an ancestral secret skill? I thought your father was bragging. "
"Is he a braggart?"
"There aren't many people who are better at bragging than him. He even said that he had the ancient score of 'Dreaming of a Divine Armament'. When I asked him where it was, he told me that he buried it and forgot where it was buried … Maybe one day, archaeologists will dig it up … Haha, I think you're much more honest than him."
"What he said is true."
"…"
Liu Changan and Boss Lan played chess for the whole day. When they went to Taiwan a while ago, Liu Changan knew that Su Xiaocui did not tell him everything clearly. He never liked to force people, and he did not care what they were hiding. However, it reminded him of some experiments that he had done as Professor Liu. Although he felt that it was meaningless at that time, it was not necessarily useless for what he wanted to do now.
Qin Peng handed Qin Yanan over to him. Since he had promised to take care of her, he could not use the method that worked on Su Xiaocui, right?
Back home, Liu Changan took out the rattan bookcase from under the bed. He opened the diary and flipped through it. He also found the experiment logs. Unfortunately, these logs only contained some extremely boring and trivial topics. The data that recorded the real key information was not brought out of the laboratory.
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