Chapter 585
Chapter 585
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 585
>Chapter Title: Imperial Capital
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
On the bustling streets of the Imperial Capital, Lv Zhuangyuan was cradling his young grandson Lv Tongsheng inside the sedan chair, peering cautiously at the shops lining the roadside.
The lavish interior decorations made it clear that every inch of this place was worth its weight in gold. In the past, a lowlife like him could never have set foot here.
He planted a hearty kiss on his grandson's cheek, his white beard prickling the boy into a fit of wailing.
"Tongsheng, my little treasure! Look at this, just look! The Lv family is truly smoking from our ancestral graves this time!"
"I've chased dreams my whole life, Lv Zhuangyuan, and I never imagined I'd live to ride in a sedan chair. Heh heh heh, so this is what it's like." Lv Zhuangyuan shifted his butt slightly on the seat, his heart brimming with delight.
"Urp~" Hearing the retching from outside the sedan, Lv Zhuangyuan frowned and lifted the curtain to glance back, only to see his eldest son Lv Juren sticking his head out and vomiting up his breakfast in great heaves.
Seeing the chunks of meat and white porridge splattered on the ground, Lv Zhuangyuan's eyes filled with distress. "What are you doing, Juren! Look at that mess on the ground! Such fine stuff, wasted! How much silver would that fetch?"
Lv Juren, pale as a ghost, forced down his nausea and said to his father, "Dad, this sedan is making me sick. Can I get out and walk for a bit?"
"You don't even know how to enjoy your blessings! Plug that mouth of yours! If you puke again, you'll eat every bit of it!"
With a bitter nod, Lv Juren covered his mouth and pulled his head back inside.
The ordeal didn't last much longer. After about the time it takes to burn half a joss stick, the sedan carrying the Lv family troupe came to a gentle stop.
As Lv Zhuangyuan emerged from the sedan with his grandson in his arms, a three-story building of blue-green tiles stood before him. A large red plaque above bore three bold characters: Guangde Garden.
Lv Zhuangyuan's eyes widened, unblinking, as he slowly walked inside.
The roof ridges, the wall pillars, the beams, the doors and windows.
Exquisite relief carvings, openwork sculptures, colorful paintings dazzled his eyes—not to mention the gilding and silver inlays in places.
Lv Zhuangyuan was utterly awestruck. He'd never seen such a magnificent place.
When he noticed Lv Zhuangyuan's gaze fixed on the stage in the garden, the accompanying eunuch sidled up with a deferential smile. "Elder Lv, this is the theater the Emperor has gifted you."
"Th-this... this..." Lv Zhuangyuan stammered like Gao Zhijian possessed. "This... this is mine now?"
"Indeed. Does it meet with your approval? If not, you can pick any theater in the entire Imperial Capital until you find one you like."
Lv Zhuangyuan could hear nothing else but that one word: "mine."
His eyes turning red, he babbled incoherent, trembling whimpers as he charged toward the stage. Then, like a madman, he circled the pillars and platform endlessly, stroking the bricks over and over with his hands, on the verge of licking them.
"Dad, Dad! Don't do this." Lv Juren and Lv Xiucai forcibly dragged him down.
Once they got him off the stage, seeing him still dazed, Lv Xiucai spat into his palm, wound up, and slapped him across the face several times with resounding smacks.
Snapped back by the sharp pain, Lv Zhuangyuan stared at Lv Xiucai in shock. "You hit me?"
"Pah! Disgraceful. Don't go out claiming to be my father." Lv Xiucai's face was full of contempt.
"You dare hit me!?" Lv Zhuangyuan rolled up his sleeves and raised his pipe.
But in the end, he didn't come to blows with his youngest son, for a crowd was gathering from all sides of the theater.
"The Feng Family Troupe pays respects to the Master." With a rustle, over a hundred men, women, and children knelt before Lv Zhuangyuan.
"Oh my, no, no, this won't do—this shortens lives!" Startled, Lv Zhuangyuan shoved his two sons forward to block their kowtows as he dodged.
"Elder Lv, just accept them. A theater without a troupe is useless. With them, Guangde Garden will rake in gold by the barrel every day."
After repeated refusals, seeing they meant it, Lv Zhuangyuan stood before them, trembling with trepidation.
"The Feng Family Troupe pays respects to the Master." Again, the hundred-strong group chorused as they knelt.
This time, Lv Zhuangyuan didn't flee. Standing amid them, a tingling numbness coursed through his body, leaving him light as air. "Um... could my fellow performers trouble themselves for one more?"
Though puzzled, they saw the eunuch subtly wave from behind his whisk and repeated it. "The Feng Family Troupe pays respects to the Master."
"Heh heh heh heh~" Lv Zhuangyuan grinned like an idiot, barely containing a bounce. "No, no... don't stop!"
"The Feng Family Troupe pays respects to the Master." "Heh heh heh heh~"
"The Feng Family Troupe pays respects to the Master." "Heh heh heh heh~"
Lv Juren watched from the side. Compared to his father's reaction, he was holding up better—after all, this theater was the Emperor's gift to his dad, and it had nothing to do with him until his father passed.
Even so, he was thrilled. Gao Zhijian, that big fool—how did he become Emperor and lavish such a gift on their family? It all felt like a dream.
He turned to his younger brother Lv Xiucai, only to find him picking his nose with an impatient look.
Sensing his brother's gaze, Lv Xiucai extended his finger, rubbed it between two fingers, and flicked it at Lv Zhuangyuan. "Nothing else? I'm off then. You stay here and keep the old man company in his madness."
With that, Lv Xiucai, copper coin sword on his back, turned and headed out of the theater.
"Hey! Xiucai, where are you going?"
"The others are preparing to enter the palace to see my master. Of course I'm going to tag along and see. I hear my master's gotten incredibly powerful now. Maybe he'll teach me some of that divine prowess." With that, Lv Xiucai dashed toward the palace gates.
Rushing along the way, he finally caught up to the others' sedans at the palace entrance. Sedans didn't require walking, but they weren't much faster.
"Hey! Lv Xiucai! What brings you here? You look beat like a dog." Gouwa, draped in silk, leaned half out of his sedan to tease him.
"Get lost! Say, just you few heading into the palace?"
"What's it to you? Can't handle it? Let me tell you, entering the palace is a big deal. The Fool didn't send for you, so don't cling like a shameless leech."
"Hmph, who said I'm here for him? I'm here for my master." With that, Xiucai hopped into Gouwa's sedan.
"Hey! You! Get out—this sedan's for one person only!"
"Don't be stingy! If I hadn't saved you that night, that Daoist would've killed you. You still owe me one!"
"Go die in a ditch—that night, I saved you!"
Amid the sedan's sway, they passed slowly through the grandly opened palace gates.