Hearing Ni Tuo's words, Changsheng felt a chill in his heart, "Why are you so pessimistic, sir?"
Ni Zhuo smiled and shook his head, but did not answer.
"Your Excellency, you are worrying too much," Changsheng said. "As the saying goes, the changes of yin and yang will bring about peace and prosperity. Although the Tang Dynasty is currently besieged on all sides and is in turmoil, it is not without the possibility of recovery."
Ni Zhuo did not refute Changsheng, "I am just preparing for a rainy day, and I don't hope that my words will come true."
Although Chang Sheng had not had much contact with Ni Zhuo, he knew that this man was very thoughtful and would never make a mistake. He felt uneasy and asked, "Do you think that the Tang Dynasty has no way to save the world?"
After a brief pause, Ni Zhuo said, "In my opinion, although the Tang Dynasty is not prosperous, it will not collapse, but I know a strange person. According to this person, the Tang Dynasty is exhausted."
"Weird? As far as I know, although Buddhists and Buddhists have a lot of miscellaneous knowledge about numerology, they can only deduce some trivial matters. The destiny of the country cannot be calculated," Changsheng said. "Before this, I was living in the world. , wandering around, I also encountered some evil spirits and ghosts, but it is not credible to say that there must be evil spirits when the country is about to perish."
"This stranger is neither a Taoist priest nor a monk, nor is he a fortune teller who knows the art of Yin and Yang," Ni Zhuo shook his head and said, "but a beggar."
"The beggar's nonsense is even more unbelievable," Changsheng said. "The magic of Longhu Mountain is very mysterious, and it also includes the art of stargazing and divination. If the Tang Dynasty is really exhausted, my uncle and uncle will not know how to do it." Go against the will of heaven and go out to assist Bi."
Ni Zhuo nodded and said nothing more.
"Sir, is this beggar you are talking about a disciple of the Beggar Clan?" Changsheng asked.
Ni Zhuo shook his head, "No, this man was harmed by the beggar gang and was subjected to the art of harvesting, breaking and cutting. When I met this man, he had no hands or feet."
There are many things that Changsheng is puzzled about, and he asks doubtfully, "You have a sharp eye, and you can see clearly and see clearly. You will never fail to distinguish the true from the false, and you will be credulous. What is so different about this person that he can win your trust?"
Ni Zhuo didn't answer immediately. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Do you have any other plans for the evening?"
"No." Changsheng shook his head.
Ni Zhu stood up and said, "Well, since you are not in a hurry to go back, follow me to the study and I will look at a few things with you."
Changsheng and Ni Chenyi looked at each other, stood up and followed.
After walking a few steps, Ni Zhuo stopped, turned around, and said in a deep voice to Ni Chenyi, "Don't follow me."
"Dad, you can't even trust me." Ni Chenyi was unhappy.
Ni Zhuo didn't answer and turned around to go ahead.
Although Ni Zhuo was very doting on Ni Chenyi, he did not lose his majesty. Ni Zhuo refused to let her go. Even though Ni Chenyi was very angry, she could only stay where she was in frustration.
Seeing that Ni Chenyi was really angry, Chang Sheng came to her side and whispered, "I'll go read it and tell you when I get back."
Hearing what Changsheng said, Ni Chenyi turned from anger to joy and hurriedly raised his hand and pointed his finger to signal Changsheng to follow him quickly.
Ni Zhuo's study is located in the courtyard to the west of the main hall. This courtyard is also very large. There are more than ten main rooms and nine wing rooms on the left and right. There are candlelights in the left and right wing rooms, indicating that there are people living inside.
As soon as the two entered the courtyard, someone pushed the door out of the west wing. To Chang Sheng's great surprise, the person who came out of the wing was not a Chinese native, but a tall, blond and blue-eyed foreign man.
When he saw Ni Tuo, the foreign man covered his left chest with his hand, bowed and saluted Ni Tuo, and at the same time spoke a foreign language.
Changsheng naturally couldn't understand what this man said, but Ni Zhuo understood. Not only could he understand, but he could also speak. He briefly said a few words to the foreign man in the same language. The latter nodded in agreement and walked over to the man. The courtyard door was closed.
Before Chang Sheng could ask questions, another person walked out of the right side room. This person was a foreign woman with a dark face. Chang Sheng had seen Kunlun slaves on the streets of Chang'an before, so he was not very surprised to see this person.
The foreign woman knelt down on one knee, saluted Ni Tuo, and then said something urgently. Ni Zhuo nodded and waved his hands, and replied in an accent similar to hers.
Although Changsheng couldn't understand what the two said, he knew that the female Kunlun slave and the blond foreign man from before spoke the same language. Ni Zuo was actually able to talk to the two in two different languages.
Ni Zhuo did not explain the identity and purpose of these foreigners to Changsheng, but went straight to the main room in the north. The door of the main room was not locked. The female Kunlun slave who had spoken before quickly stepped forward, opened the door and stepped in. He took out the fire and lit the two braziers in the room. The two braziers were in the shape of kneeling bronze figures. The two bronze figures knelt on their knees with their hands raised, holding a round brazier one foot square.
After lighting the brazier, Kunlun Nu turned around and retreated, closing the door behind him.
After Ni Zhuo entered the house, he walked straight to the northwest corner. Changsheng took the opportunity to look at the layout of the study. Different from the study rooms of ordinary officials, there were no books in this study room. In the middle of the study room was a huge wooden table and a wooden chair with a backrest. Large wooden cabinets are placed on the four walls. All wooden cabinets are in the shape of drawers. Most of the drawers are one foot long and half a foot high. Those large drawers are also twice or several times this size, and those small drawers are composed of several small drawers, one foot long and half a foot high.
Therefore, although these drawers are of different sizes, they are arranged in an orderly manner and do not appear messy. The whole room does not feel like a study, but more like a large drug store filled with medicine cabinets for treating diseases and medicines.
While Changsheng was looking around, Ni Zhuo pulled out a drawer in the northwest corner and brought the drawer and its contents to the table in the middle of the room.
Changsheng stood at the door and waited until Ni Zhao waved to him before he walked to the table.
Ni Zhuo took out something from the drawer and spread it on the table, "You take a look at this thing first."
He didn't know what kind of grease was placed in the two braziers. The room was as bright as day. Chang Sheng leaned over and took a closer look. He saw that the thing spread on the table was a piece of clothing. To be precise, it was a piece of clothing that was full of dirt. The strange black dress. The reason why I say it is strange is that this black dress is very short. It is not a common robe, nor is it slanted. It opens and closes from the front of the chest. It is symmetrical from left to right. There are no cloth buttons to connect the opening and closing. .
After Chang Sheng looked at her doubtfully, Ni Zhuo stretched out his hands, pinched two small objects at the lower end of the black clothes and connected them slightly, then he pinched a small object on the left side and slowly moved upwards. As Ni Zhuo's left hand slowly moved up, the two small objects in the black clothes were The jagged things on the sides gradually closed together, and after a while, the black clothes were connected to the left and right, and merged into one.
Seemingly guessing what Chang Sheng would say, Ni Zhu took the initiative and said, "Our business is very big. I have asked many foreign merchants, whether they are from Turks, Persia, or Tianzhu, they all said that they have never seen anything like this before." Regarding clothing, I also asked the Silla and Japanese people in the east, and they have never seen such strange clothing."
"Is this piece of clothing brought by the stranger you mentioned?" Changsheng asked.
"It's what he originally wore," Ni Zhuo nodded, "I also tried to identify the origin from the material, but this thing is neither hemp nor silk, nor is it cotton produced in Tianzhu. If you remove the threads and burn them close to the fire, there will be Pungent smell."
"Where's the dye used?" Changsheng asked.
"I've tried it too," Ni Zhuo said. "Currently, the dyes used to dye black are nothing more than acorn squash, gallnuts, lotus seed shells, and cypress leaves. These dyes will fade to varying degrees when exposed to wine and vinegar, but since black clothes The dismantled cloth was put into wine and vinegar but it did not fade."
After Ni Zhuo finished speaking, he took out a pair of black trousers from the drawer. These trousers should not have been black originally. The reason why they looked black was because they were stained with too much dirt.
The style of these trousers is also different from common trousers. The biggest difference is that it is narrow. Both the waistband and the trouser legs are very narrow, and the width is less than half of the common trousers today.
"Is this a blood stain?" Changsheng pointed to the large stains on his trouser legs.
Ni Zhuo nodded, "Yes, as I said just now, this person eventually fell into the hands of the beggar gang, and his hands and feet were amputated by the beggar gang using the technique of harvesting and cutting."
"You call him a strange person. What's so different about this person?" Changsheng puzzled. "If they are gods and ghosts, they shouldn't be made of flesh and blood. Ordinary Yang people can't see them, nor can they hurt them."
"The strange thing about this person is his origin. This person is not a ghost or a god, nor is he a foreigner from outside the world." Ni Tuo paused for a moment and then said seriously, "According to what he said, He comes from a thousand years in the future."
"After a thousand years?" Changsheng Haosheng was confused.
Although Changsheng was confused, he was not shocked. Such a reaction made Ni Ni very satisfied. Changsheng's reaction showed that he just felt that this matter was strange, and did not arbitrarily conclude that this kind of thing would never happen.
"According to what this person said, he originally lived a thousand years later," Ni Zhuo said. "The reason why he came to the Tang Dynasty a thousand years ago was not voluntary, but an accident happened. This person was a friend of Donkey a thousand years later. , when he was traveling alone, he encountered a fog, and when the fog cleared, he came to a thousand years ago."
"Donkey's friend?" Changsheng became more and more confused.
"His original ministry," Ni Tuo explained, "was a sinecure, doing nothing all day long and traveling around."
"Is this person an official who raises donkeys?" Chang Sheng guessed.
"I guess so." Ni Zhuo nodded.
"Where is this person now?" Changsheng asked.
"He died of illness five years ago," Ni Zhuo said. "When I met him, he was already terminally ill. Although I invited famous doctors to treat him, I only allowed him to live for a month."
"What happened?" Changsheng asked.
Ni Zhuo did not answer Chang Sheng's question immediately, but turned his head and looked around.
Changsheng knew that Ni Zhuo was looking for a seat. He saw a square stool not far away that was used to raise the height, so he walked over and moved it over, sitting on the right side of the table.
Ni Zhuo sat on a wooden chair and began to talk about what happened.
He met the strange man in Chang'an. At that time, he was seriously ill and was not allowed to beg. He had been abandoned by the beggar gang and was living on the streets, lingering.
The reason why Ni Zhuo saved this man was because he couldn't understand what the man said. This aroused Ni Ni's curiosity because Ni Ni was proficient in six foreign languages including Tianzhu, Japanese, Persian and Kunlun slaves. He couldn't understand what this person said, so he wanted to find out where he came from.
While helping this person heal his injuries, Ni Zhuo kept trying to communicate with him. Ni Zhuo was very smart. It took him only half a month to roughly learn this person's language, and then they started talking.
The conversation was mainly divided into two parts. The first one was about what happened to this person after he came to the Tang Dynasty. He didn’t want to talk too much about his own experience, but it didn’t bother Ni Ni. The Ni family had business in various places. According to the other party The local people were commissioned to conduct visits and inspections on some of the mentioned situations, and it was finally confirmed that this person had not lied about his origins. On a summer morning, this person suddenly appeared on the street of a city on Guannai Road. It was very strange. On the day of the incident, someone had seen him appear in the morning fog.
The villagers tried to talk to him, but found that they couldn't understand the language. They were worried that he was a foreigner, so they informed the government. The government arrested the man for interrogation. Because of the language barrier, they could not determine the person's identity, and in the end they could only give him a slap in the face. Drive him out of the yamen.
Later, this man stayed in the city for many days. Some people saw that he was pitiful, so they kindly let him work. However, although this man was only in his early twenties, he was very lazy, could not eat hard, could not bear any fatigue, and could not afford two meals of porridge a day. He was also picky about his food, and finally stole the owner's money and ran away overnight.
Afterwards, this person appeared in another city, pretending to be mute and apprenticed to a teacher. When the other party saw that he was mute, he kindly took him in again. He fetched water and chopped firewood every morning, and practiced martial arts in the afternoon. Who would have thought that this person was just a hot-blooded person who could not work for three days? When he arrived, he couldn't hold on any longer, so he stole the mistress's jewelry and sneaked away again.
This man walked north along the official road. Since he had no skills and was unable to speak the language, he mostly engaged in rooster and dog stealing. When he got money, he drank wine and ate meat. When he was destitute, he begged and stole. After half a month, he was finally arrested. The beggar gang found out that no one could understand what he said, so they chopped off his hands and feet and brought him to Chang'an to beg.
Still because of his language barrier, this man was tortured by the beggar gang and could not get justice. Every day, the beggar gang took him to the streets and shouted loudly. No one could understand what he was shouting. Seeing his misery, they gave him money.
Half a month passed like this. Because it was summer and the wound was not properly treated, it eventually festered and rotted. He was dying and was abandoned on the street by the beggar gang. Then he met Ni Tuo.
Through back-and-forth visits and multiple investigations, Ni Zhuo finally determined that this person was telling the truth, because someone saw this person suddenly appearing in the morning fog that day.
This person also told Ni Zuo about the scene a thousand years later, but Ni Ni couldn't understand it at all. It wasn't that he couldn't understand what he said, but he didn't understand what he was talking about.
Compared with the situation a thousand years later, Ni Zhuo is more concerned about the change of dynasties, so the conversation with this person is mainly focused on the change of dynasties. This person comes from a thousand years later, and he should know more about what has happened.
Facts have proved that this person does know something, but what he knows is very general and not detailed, so communication is very difficult.
This person knew that there were Concubine Yang Guifei and Li Shimin in the Tang Dynasty, as well as Wu Zetian and Di Renjie, but he had many misunderstandings about the specific circumstances of these people. He said that Di Renjie was investigating cases for Wu Zetian, but he did not know that Di Renjie was appointed as the Prime Minister of Dali Temple during the Fengyi period. The thing is, the emperor at that time was still Gaozong Li Zhi.
This person also knew about the Anshi Rebellion, but he only knew that there was such a thing, and he could not explain the specific circumstances.
Regarding the change of dynasties, this person is very sure about the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. He only said that after the Tang Dynasty, there was the Song Dynasty, and the emperor of the Song Dynasty was Zhao Kuangyin.
Little is known about Zhao Kuangyin. We only know that Zhao Kuangyin became emperor through the Chenqiao Mutiny.
After getting the news, Ni Zhuo immediately sent people to secretly investigate, but the result of the investigation was that there was indeed a place called Chenqiao, but there was no such person as Zhao Kuangyin.
By this time, Ni Zhuo already knew that although this person came from a thousand years later, he was ignorant of knowledge and historical facts. However, after finally encountering such a strange thing, he still hoped to gain something, so he sent the emperor and the The powerful people told them one by one, but the person had no impression of the person he was talking about. Just before the person died, Ni Zhuo finally gained something. This person actually knew Huang Chao, and knew that the Tang Dynasty did not take long after Huang Chao's uprising. perished.
This is an extremely important clue, because Huang Chao died six years ago. Combined with the current chaotic court situation and the self-respect of the Jiedushi army, Ni Zhuo finally concluded that the Tang Dynasty would be replaced by the Song Dynasty soon.
After listening to Ni Zhuo's talk, Chang Sheng did not answer immediately. He didn't quite understand why people from a thousand years later appeared a thousand years ago, but he believed in Ni Zhuo's ability to distinguish between true and false. Moreover, Ni Zhuo did find out through private investigation. He had no witnesses who witnessed this person's sudden appearance, so he didn't have much doubt that the person came from a thousand years in the future.
But he didn't quite believe this person's account of the change of dynasties, because this person was obviously uneducated, and his character was also very lowly. He just listened to what this person said, and his credibility was not high.
However, in order to reassure Ni Zhuo, Chang Sheng solemnly stated, "Don't worry, sir, I am a Taoist priest and will not act against heaven."
Hearing what Changsheng said, Ni Zhu felt slightly reassured, and then said, "Don't tell Yi'er about this matter. It will do more harm than good, and will only cause more trouble."
Changsheng nodded. What Ni Zhuo said makes sense. Some truths can only be held in the hands of a very small number of mentally strong people. If ordinary people knew about it, they would be surprised and at a loss.
Ni Zhuo put away his things and left the courtyard where the study was with Changsheng.
Back in the back hall, Ni Chenyi was waiting anxiously. When he saw the two returning, he hurriedly greeted them. Without talking to Ni Zhuo, he pulled Chang Sheng out and walked out, "It's getting late, I'll take you back."
Ni Zhuo knew that Ni Chenyi was angry with him, so he didn't mind. He smiled and waved to Chang Sheng, indicating that he could leave.
When there was no one around, Ni Chenyi asked eagerly, "What did my father show you?"
"I saw a strange set of clothes," Changsheng said casually, "What a stranger, he is clearly a monster in disguise. The clothes are also made of the monster's fur. The monster's words cannot be trusted."
Ni Chenyi was not easy to deceive. Lest she didn't believe it, Changsheng casually said, "It's really a strange outfit. I won't lie to you."
"My dad likes to collect these weird things." Ni Chenyi said.
"Yes," Changsheng said, "He is not very optimistic about the situation in the court, and there is some uncertainty. However, he is also worried that I will go all the way to the dark side, and get myself involved in the end."
"My father is afraid that I will become a widow." Ni Chenyi said with a smile.
Changsheng glanced at Ni Chenyi and shook off her hand.
As soon as Chang Sheng got rid of him, Ni Chenyi immediately caught him again. Chang Sheng had no choice but to let her hold him.
After leaving the Ni Mansion, the servants brought Mr. Hei over. Mr. Hei was not untouchable by anyone. He was very smart and could read people's words and knew that this family was the owner's friend.
Farewell to Ni Chenyi, Changsheng rode back to Yushitai.
Changsheng was a little tired after working from morning to night all day, so he returned to his residence and fell asleep.
Early the next morning, there was a knock on the door.
Changsheng thought it was an official from the headquarters who came to urge him to go to court, so he said casually, "I have urgent official duties, so I won't go to court."
"Sir, it's me." Big Head's voice said.
"Didn't you buy a horse from them?" Changsheng turned over and sat up, stretching.
"Yes," Datou said, "but the imperial list for the main examination was posted today. I made a copy and sent it back to you."
Hearing Da Tou's words, Chang Sheng suddenly woke up and started to get up and get dressed, "What are the rules for a martial arts contest?"
"It's quite complicated, you'd better see it yourself." Datou said.
"What are the restrictions?" Changsheng asked.
"There are no restrictions whatsoever," Datou said, "and it doesn't say that concealed weapons or poisons are not allowed."
"What about age? Is there any age limit?" Changsheng went down to put on his shoes.
"No," Da Tou vaguely guessed what Chang Sheng was thinking, "Sir, you don't want to go up and fight again, do you? There are no restrictions on this competition, and all the participants are masters, so many people will definitely die."
"I try not to go..."
