noffsinger Chapter 223 Opening Ceremony
Chapter 223 Opening Ceremony
Chapter 223 Opening Ceremony
In order to successfully offer the two chickens as a sacrifice to the stomach, Lin Ziping used all his skills and tried his best to use his silver tongue.
“If we go back now, we probably won’t have eaten yet. And Tang Jiawei is right, with so many people down the mountain, what can these two chickens do? Why don’t we have something to eat first? Wu Xudong, what do you think?”
Wu Xudong said, "You're right, but we don't have fire or a knife, what are we going to do?"
This is perfect. Lin Ziping has both. It's an old habit of his; he feels uneasy if he goes out without a tinderbox and a dagger.
He pulled a tinderbox from his sleeve and said, "I have a tinderbox here."
Tang Jiawei pulled a piece of sheet metal from his person: "I don't have a knife, but will this work?"
Lin Ziping looked at Wu Xudong, silently asking for his opinion.
“Okay,” Wu Xudong said.
"Tang Jiawei, lead the way. We'll go to the stream you discovered," Lin Ziping said. "If you're not going, Fan Ji, then we'll have to trouble you to wait here for a while."
Fan Ji coughed twice: "They didn't say we could eat wild animals. What if we get caught?"
"Brother Ji, there are so many pheasants and rabbits on this mountain. Eating just a couple won't make much difference. Let's hurry up, or we'll be late getting back," Tang Jiawei urged.
“Tang Jiawei is right. Fan Ji, let’s go, Santong. We’ll be back quickly,” Lin Ziping said.
Wu Xudong also looked at Fan Ji and the other person.
"Alright." Fan Ji nodded helplessly.
Pu Santong: "I just saw some bees, I'm going to go find some honey."
After saying that, he turned and left to the north.
The four followed Tang Jiawei to the stream.
After slitting their throats to bleed them, gutting them, giving them a full-body spa treatment with honey, and then roasting them 360 degrees from the inside out, Lin Ziping felt that the souls of the two chickens had been elevated.
In the end, the five people physically saw the two chickens off on their final journey.
Although the seasonings were insufficient, the raw materials and baking techniques were enough to make up for this deficiency, and Lin Ziping was quite satisfied with the meal overall.
Tang Jiawei, probably still hungry, darted around and spotted the bundle carried by the Wuling Hongguang van. He asked, "Lin Ziping, did you finish sprinkling the animal-repelling powder?"
Lin Ziping looked up and said, "Those are the mushrooms I picked."
Tang Jiawei's eyes widened as he said, "Aren't you afraid it's poisonous?"
"I'm not going to eat it, so what if it's poisonous?" Lin Ziping casually tossed the bone in his hand into the water. "It looked nice, so I picked it to play with."
Tang Jiawei shook his head in disapproval.
Fan Ji and Pu Santong extinguished the fire and covered the ashes with the soil nearby.
Wu Xudong dug a hole and buried the food that the two chickens hadn't eaten.
As the sun set, the five of them leisurely returned home.
In the days that followed, the five of them went to work while also tacitly hunting wild game for extra meals.
Tang Jiawei looks delicate, but he throws stones with perfect accuracy, and pheasants and rabbits cannot escape his grasp.
Pu Santong is also a hidden master; he can cut pheasants and rabbits without leaving a single bone.
Wu Xudong's abilities are beyond question.
Fan Ji was even more ingenious; he somehow found a pot that significantly improved the living standards of the four of them.
Lin Ziping seemed utterly useless among them; aside from attracting the curiosity of the other four when he took out the slingshot, he was even less useful than a Wuling Hongguang minivan.
The Wuling Hongguang can carry things, but Lin Ziping is definitely a useless piece of trash.
The other four didn't say anything, and Lin Ziping didn't care either. He turned into a mushroom-picking fanatic, picking all kinds of mushrooms. By the time His Majesty the Emperor arrived with his concubines and court officials, a huge pile had already been gathered.
The four of them were not surprised by this, and even helped Lin Ziping grind the mushroom powder. Fan Ji also found a few jars for Lin Ziping.
Lin Ziping didn't have anything good to give the four of them, so he distributed the ground mushroom powder to them and put it in the satchel containing the animal repellent powder.
Upon receiving the notification on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, His Majesty the Emperor led his concubines and court officials to the foot of the mountain where they were hunting.
On the sixth day of the eighth lunar month, apart from Lin Ziping and his advance team, the people who set up tents and transported supplies left one after another, and the palace maids and eunuchs inside the palace began to take over their work.
On the seventh day of the eighth lunar month, the Imperial Household Department distributed swords to the guards and cleared the horses and donkeys from the field.
Lin Ziping couldn't leave, so he had to leave the Wuling Hongguang outside the hunting area.
On the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, before dawn, Lin Ziping followed the main group to a place two kilometers away to wait and prepare to welcome His Majesty the Emperor.
The autumn air was crisp and clear, the sun was shining brightly, and apart from feeling a little sleepy from the sun, everything else suggested it was a wonderful day.
"Waaah—"
A long horn blast startled Lin Ziping awake.
Thinking of the undeserved calamity that Chunhe Garden had suffered, Lin Ziping quickly looked around and, seeing that they were in high spirits, straightened his back as well.
After the horn sounded, several sounds slowly emerged from the end of the road.
Lin Ziping looked up and saw someone riding a horse over.
As the distance closed, Lin Ziping finally saw clearly that sixteen people dressed in armor and wearing brocade hats were riding black steeds.
The sixteen horses were also very tall, and their heads were covered with armor, making them look majestic.
As the sixteen people approached, Lin Ziping saw eighteen colorful flags fluttering in the wind behind them.
Like the sixteen people before, the eighteen people were dressed in armor, holding colorful flags, and riding white horses, walking slowly forward.
A moment later, the figure of a horse reappeared at the end of the road.
Lin Ziping narrowed his eyes. There were nine chestnut-red horses, each saddled. Soon after, a yellow carriage appeared behind them.
"The Emperor has arrived!"
"kneel--"
With two shouts, the people around them all knelt down.
Lin Ziping reacted quickly and knelt down as well, shouting "Long live the Emperor!" along with the people around him.
A blur of black and white appeared before my eyes.
A moment later, the red horse's legs also stepped over.
Then I could clearly hear the sound of wheels rubbing against stones on the ground.
Lin Ziping bowed even lower, his expression becoming even more respectful.
A yellow carriage swept past, followed closely by various horse-drawn carriages and fine horses.
"rise--"
The sound was like heavenly music.
Lin Ziping didn't know how long he had been kneeling, but now he felt his legs were numb and his back was sore.
The people around them quickly stood up.
Seeing this, Lin Ziping gritted his teeth and followed their pace, quickly getting up and lining up to leave with the group in front.
Lin Ziping looked ahead, but the yellow carriage was nowhere to be seen; only a long procession moving slowly forward.
After walking for about half an hour, we returned to the foot of the mountain.
The area where the tents were set up was guarded and we couldn't get in.
They quickly assembled, and the Imperial Household Department began assigning tasks for the day.
Today is the opening ceremony of the team building activity. We don't need to go up the mountain. The five-person group from the Prefectural Guard Camp will be arranged to go to the stable to house the carriages and horses of the accompanying personnel.
Upon receiving the assignment, Lin Ziping and the others rushed to the stables without stopping.
The stables were bustling with noise, the neighing of horses, and shouts of reprimand.
Lin Ziping recalled the handsome appearance of the sixteen black horses he had seen at the beginning of the day and began to look around in the crowd.
"Lin Ziping, come help." They hadn't found the horse when Fan Ji's voice came.
Lin Ziping looked at Fan Ji and saw Fan Ji struggling to control a brown horse while holding the reins. On the ground, a man who looked like a coachman was lying, clutching his arms and wailing.
Suddenly, the horse raised its front legs and stood up, dragging Fan Ji along. He was about to fall to the ground.