Again, he dreamed that he was sitting between the east and west steps, not Xia Feizhou, but in the place where Yin Ren was funeral......

"Yu Shiyin people are also ...... But it's a good week. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info" muttered such a sentence in a dream, and Confucius was woken up by Zilu's loud voice, and at the same time felt the cold weather outside.

"Master, look who's coming!"

After shouting loudly and lifting the curtain, Zilu came in, and he slowly helped Confucius up, not looking at his rough personality, but he treated Confucius very gently-even if he himself was over sixty years old.

Zi Lu was originally in Ye Gong's army, and with the truce of Zhao Chu, he was able to return to Ye Di. Coincidentally, after being stubborn for 20 years, Confucius finally met with Zhao Wuxian, and a deep conversation, the two seemed to have explained everything in the past 30 years, and he was finally willing to embark on the journey home and return to his hometown.

Stop and go along the way, counting, they have been walking for a month, although there is the most comfortable four-wheeled carriage provided by Zhao Wuxian, although the road in the Central Plains is not what it used to be, the noon road is vertical and horizontal, the traffic is convenient, there are pavilions and posts at intervals to provide hot water, food and resting places, under the special care of Zhao Wuxian, Confucius and Zilu and others, enjoy the treatment of the county officials.

Even so, the reverse journey is still difficult, not to mention the weather in this cold winter, the ground begins to become hard, and when the wind blows, the horses are trembling and unwilling to go again.

But they never stopped, because Confucius said something in the car.

"The fox will be the first to die......"

He could feel that his time was running out, and he only hoped that he could return to his hometown while he was alive.

On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, they met the people who came to greet them halfway through, and this was the scene at the beginning.

With the support of Zilu, Confucius sat up with a cane, and someone outside hurried over, bowed down and down the cold ground three times, and said in a crying tone: "Master, the unfilial disciple Ran Qiu has come to welcome the master!" ”

Confucius is already old and dizzy, and Ran Qiu is now also an important minister of Zhao State, his appearance and posture have changed so much that he is almost unrecognizable, but the voice has not changed.

He laughed, "Please, why are you here?" ”

"Master, where my duty lies, I can't leave the jurisdiction rashly, I can only wait at the pavilion on the border."

Ran Qiu wiped a handful of tears and said to Zilu: "It's all here, let's help the master down and take a look." ”

Zilu promised, helped Confucius to get out of the car, as soon as he came out, a gust of cold wind came to his face, fortunately, there were disciples to block him, after all, Confucius is no longer strong and tall, and can open a three-stone bow.

"Master, look, what kind of place is that?"

Zilu's tone was very excited, pressing the sword with his left hand and pointing forward with his right hand, Confucius squinted his eyes and looked over, but saw that it was a cold lake that was about to be frozen, surrounded by hills and hills, I am afraid that it was hundreds of miles wide......

"It's ...... Onozawa? In his memory, the turquoise lake that haunted his dreams has been rippling in his heart, Confucius recognized this place, and a little further north, it is the Zhongdu Yi that he once taught for the government!

After here, it is the border of the Lu country.

The old man breathed a sigh of relief and almost burst into tears. I left home 20 years ago, and now I have returned, my old wife is dead, my grandchildren are quite old, and as for the peers I know, there are not many people of the same age who are still alive, right? His former rival Thief has been killed in battle for many years, and it is said that his sons have traveled thousands of miles to the far west.

"I'm finally back in Lu ......"

Confucius said this, but Ran Qiu was a little embarrassed, and when Confucius calmed down a little, he smiled and said: "Master, now, there is no Lu State, the places around this Dayozawa, together with the former Cao State and part of the Wei State, are all under the jurisdiction of Shanyang County. ”

"Lu Guo is gone?" Maybe it was because of the fatigue of the journey, or maybe it was because he was a little confused with old age, Confucius thought about it for a while before he remembered it.

"No, in addition to Shanyang County, it is divided into three counties: Taishan, Lu County, and Linyi, and Luhou only retains Kanyi, where the ancestral tomb is located......"

"Along the way, Zheng Guo is gone, Wei Guo is gone, Cao Guo has become Taoqiu Autonomous City, and now, even Lu Guo is gone."

Confucius was stunned and said with a wry smile: "What he said is not wrong, in the past 20 years, the changes in the Central Plains are comparable to the destruction of Taishan and the destruction of beams and pillars!" ”

Last month, Zhao Wuxian confessed to Confucius in Ye County, saying that he would follow Tang Wu's example and replace Zhou Tianzi.

He didn't force Confucius to do anything, but he seemed to have some expectations, hoping that Confucius would accept this and witness it with him.

But Confucius's answer was: "I can't be Boyi Shuqi who doesn't eat Zhou Su, and I can't be Yanagi Hui and Shaolian who stoop down and are humiliated." Neither lowering my ambition and humiliating myself to seek progress, nor seclusion from the world, I have already heard it, and what the lord said is indispensable, but now, I just want to do what I want from my heart, and return to my hometown to die ......old."

Zhou Li's world, the dream of restoring the rule of three generations, he finally let go, but he still couldn't let go.

Now that his hometown is back, but Lu Di, who has been ruled by the Zhao family for a generation, can't find what it used to be, can Confucius not feel a sense of kin?

At this moment, the road ahead suddenly became noisy, but it was Ran Qiu's children and nephews who were late and wanted to squeeze over to meet Confucius.

"Why is it so late!"

Ran Qiu was furious, if it weren't for Confucius, he would almost have stripped the clothes of this group of bastards and punished him on the spot.

Those nephews didn't dare to speak, but looked at the tall white-haired old man in front of them curiously, and bowed down to the head according to Ran Qiu's request, calling him the ancestor......

"Thou shalt be young and wise, arise, all of you." Confucius's mood calmed down a lot, this group of young people who still rode horses and carried bows in the winter, and the high fighting spirit they exuded was extremely rare in the previous Lu country.

Perhaps, this is the new atmosphere under the rule of Zhao?

While thinking about it, those sons and nephews who asked for help asked Confucius to identify a "monster" they caught on the way.

"When I met this beast on the road, I was busy chasing it, so I came late. After catching it, he couldn't tell what kind of species it was, and he had heard that the master was erudite, so he looked at it. ”

Not to mention others, Zilu immediately became interested, rolled up his cuffs, and carried the squeaky monster over with the Ran family's nephews and placed it in front of Confucius.

But I saw that the monster was dressed in brown fur, the size of a cow, with the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, the hooves of a horse, and a single slender horn on its head, and its limbs were bound, and on the cold ground, it was screaming and wailing towards Confucius, and there seemed to be tears in its eyes......

Confucius was shocked: "Lin, this is Lin!" ”

……

Confucius's reaction was very violent, he first wiped his face and wept. It seemed that he saw his own shadow from this rare auspicious beast, and squatted down to hug the beast, and actually cried loudly:

"Lin, you are a benevolent beast, and you should have appeared in a peaceful and prosperous era, why were you born in this troubled world of decay? Which is coming, which is coming? Tang Yu is a phoenix tour, what is the time to ask for? I'm worried......"

Zilu, Ran Qiu and the others didn't know what to say, but they didn't dare to disturb the master, and let him vent his grief and anger.

After half a ring, the head Lin was no longer frightened in Kong Qiu's arms, and after he regained his composure, he showed a trace of panic on his face, and muttered to himself: "There will be a king in five hundred years, from Yao Shun to Tang for five hundred years, from Tang to King Wen for five hundred years, from King Wen to now for five hundred years, and there will be kings in five hundred years......

"Today's Lin beast is here, is it possible that the next thing is the phoenix bird, and the river map is out? The Zhao family is the son of heaven on behalf of Zhou, the one who steals the hook is punished, and the one who steals the country is the prince, is it really the destiny of heaven? Could it be that in the past few decades, all I have done is to block the destiny of heaven with the mantis arm as a car, Zhongni, Zhongni, how ridiculous are you, how ridiculous are you? ”

He burst out laughing.

"Master!"

Seeing that Confucius had fallen into a confused state like an old fool again, Zilu was not stunned, and shouted: "Zi Bu is strange, powerful, chaotic, and god!" What's more, have you forgotten what Zhao Hou said to you that day? ”

This sentence woke up Confucius, and only Zilu dared to speak to Confucius like this, and the relationship between the two was both teacher and brother from beginning to end.

"From, the one who can go from me to the end is still you after all." Confucius, who came out of the circle of Zhou Yi's destiny, came to his senses.

"When I was in Yedi, I felt that no one in the world could understand me anymore. But I don't complain about heaven and people, I go to school and go to heaven, and I can understand me, probably only God, so after the age of seventy, I began to study Zhou Yi, hoping to find some sustenance from it. ”

"But that day, Zhao Zitai said in front of me that he would replace the Zhou family and abandon the three generations. But he declared to me that there is no such thing as a destiny in this world......"

Because he is old and easy to get confused, many things in Confucius's mind come and go, but at this time, he finally remembered what Zhao Wuxian said to him that day in Yexian Luzhong.

"In the view of Wu Xian, heaven is constant, not for Yao, not for ruin. If it should be cured, it will be good, and if it should be chaotic, it will be vicious! ”

Zhao Wuxian said that it is not because of the appearance of auspicious signs such as phoenixes and river maps that the world is peaceful, but because of people's efforts to make the world better, so that there is a rule of the world, and some ordinary things are regarded as auspicious signs.

He bluntly said that when Confucius was in his prime, he believed in personnel very much, but in his later years, he pinned his hopes on the destiny of heaven, which was a misguide.

"The old man has actually seen it clearly, and it is impossible to revive the Zhou rites, return to the rule of the three generations, and find the beauty of the past when everyone was kind and orderly...... People's hearts, not ancient, situation, not allowed. The ambitious princes, after all, will think that the old method is slow and unrealistic, he hopes to use his own methods to open up a new era, claiming that the destiny of heaven is in his own, but in fact only believes in the power of man. ”

After a long time, Confucius sighed, this stubborn old man, finally admitted defeat in some way: "Although I can't agree with some of his practices, I am not as good as Zhao Zitai for this kind of adherence to humanism and cautious attitude to the end." ”

Thinking about it like this, if you look down again, the false brilliance on the Lin Beast will dissipate completely, and it will only be a stinking beast that is half dead in fright.

Confucius let go of Lin and said to Ran:

"That's right, there is always something in heaven, not for Yao, not for death. There has never been any salvation king, and there has never been a forewarning, just the wishful thinking of old decay. Just let it go, it's not a good omen, it's not a bad omen, it's just a poor brute......"

PS: The Lin here is not the mythical unicorn, but an animal that resembles a deer, the author has seen fossils in the Gansu Provincial Museum, perhaps the Lin that Confucius saw is a remnant of this animal.