Adoption brings disaster

Speaking of Chen Jiu's marriage to Qing, someone had already informed the master. For such a happy event, the master and his mistress were waiting in front of the mansion early. When Chen Jiu returned, the three of them were affectionate again, but that's not mentioned anymore.

According to the Northern Shang Law, after the prince selects a minister, he will not live with the minister immediately, but will enter the cabinet and live with the minister on the Lantern Festival of the following year.

You are the head of a cabinet and are responsible for the education of the prince. Naturally, you have to enter the cabinet earlier than the prince. After calculations at Zhaixing Tower, the fifth day of the first lunar month is the best day.

The election of the ministers this time was relatively late, and the Chinese New Year was less than a month away.

During the period before he entered the cabinet, Chen Jiu could only stay in the Minister's residence and pretend to be a loving father and a filial son to the Minister.

But now Chen Jiu is a minister, and his status is extremely noble. He is not afraid that the minister will do anything unfavorable to him. Naturally, he can eat and sleep as he pleases every day. He is very comfortable.

The day after the selection of the ministers, Chen Jiu slept in for the first time in his life and did not get up until noon. This feeling of living a lazy life and waiting to die was really great.

Chen Jiu was so happy that he didn't want to get up even after waking up. He just lay on the bed with his legs clamped under the quilt, watching the sun slowly rising outside.

The servants and maids outside were busy doing their own things, making some subtle noises from time to time, which made Chen Jiu feel like a serf who had risen up and was singing.

Just as Chen Jiu was sighing at the beauty of being a superior person, an uninvited guest came into the room.

"A day's plan begins in the morning. Instead of getting up early to strengthen your body, you're still lying in bed. Do you expect to sleep until noon? You've brought this upon yourself."

The old man who played chess yesterday was sitting on a chair, drinking Chen Jiu's tea and teaching Chen Jiu a lesson leisurely.

"Why are you here?" Chen looked at the guards and maids outside who seemed to have not seen the old man, and asked with some confusion.

The old man didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed about barging into someone else's room. Instead, he said confidently, "I'm here to keep my appointment from yesterday. It's important to keep your word. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Who cares about the reason why you came? What Chen Jiu cares about is how you got in.

Seeing that the old man didn't answer the question, Chen Jiu continued, "How did you get in? This is the residence of an important official. If you enter without notifying the public, it is a serious crime. You are going to die."

The old man found this a little funny. "Don't even mention the residence of a mere third-rank minister. I'd go even if it was the Imperial Palace."

After saying that, he threw something behind the pillar and said calmly, "Go and inform them."

A guard suddenly appeared from behind the pillar that was originally empty, holding something that looked like a jade pendant in his hand and walked back respectfully.

The man looked very strange when he went out. In the short distance of less than ten meters, he almost tripped over himself four or five times. Several strange noises were also heard in the originally empty room.

Chen Jiu looked around the room in confusion, but didn't find anything strange. It seemed that he had heard it wrong.

Seeing that there were guests coming, Chen Jiu naturally felt it was not appropriate to stay in bed any longer, so he asked the maids to help him put on his clothes and then sat him down at the table.

When the old man saw Ruofeng coming, he took out two chess boxes, pushed one to Chen Jiu and said, "Come and play a game."

Chen Jiu looked at the table carefully, but didn't see the chessboard. He asked in confusion, "Without a chessboard, are you going to play blind chess, old man?"

But blind chess doesn't require chess pieces. When Chen Jiu saw this, he didn't know what the meaning was for a moment and could only look at the old man.

The old man didn't answer, but just waved his hand casually, and a lot of sawdust flew out of the table, and a chessboard appeared on the table.

Chen Jiu looked at the chessboard on the table. It was exactly the same as the one he used every day. He asked in surprise, "When was this chessboard made?"

"I did it while you were sleeping." The old man dropped a piece and said, "It's your turn."

Chen Jiu was chatting idly with the old man, and the chess pieces in his hands were falling quickly.

It is very comfortable to play chess with the old man. It makes you feel as excited as if you are fighting on the battlefield.

The two played like this, and soon the game was almost over. The pieces on the board were all ready for the final battle.

Chen Jiu looked at the chessboard and said confidently, "This game is about to end. In just ten moves, the winner will be decided."

The old man was also full of confidence and wanted to say something when a man stumbled in from outside.

Before the man even entered the house, he knelt down hurriedly, quickly crawled to the old man, and said in a panic: "I didn't know that the King of Zhenbei was coming. I was unable to greet him from afar. I hope you will forgive me."

The old man didn't even look at the master lying on the ground. He just said calmly: "I came here to play chess today. I just announced something because my friend asked me to. I didn't come to see you. Please leave first."

After hearing this, the master wanted to retreat as if relieved. Chen Jiu suddenly felt a pang of evil interest in his heart. He also wanted to avenge the previous torment on him, so he said quietly: "Father is very good at chess. Why not let him play a few games with Grandpa?"

The old man snorted and said disdainfully, "He is not worthy to play chess with me."

The master naturally didn't dare to refute, so he could only stand by and agree with the old man. He wanted to run away quickly but didn't dare to. It was really ridiculous to watch.

Chen Jiu wanted to laugh when he saw the old man kowtowing on the ground, looking very pitiful, so he wanted to help him up.

The master was reluctant at first, but in the end the old man agreed, and then he stood up tremblingly.

The master stood up, not daring to sit down. He just stood by and looked at the chessboard, saying "good move, good move".

Chen Jiu ignored the old man and just looked at him with a smile. "The King of Zhenbei, the best warrior in Beishang Country, the godly general who protects the country, once saved the country from collapse and saved the people from danger. He is indeed handsome and admirable. I think the Seventh Prince will definitely have your demeanor and will be a future hero."

"Chongguang is a good boy, you will slowly realize it in the future." When talking about his grandson, the old man's eyes were full of tenderness and his words were full of uncontrollable pride.

"Yesterday I didn't know that you were the protector of the country, the King of Zhenbei. Today, let's get to know each other again. The son of the Minister of Rites and the minister of the Seventh Prince, Zhang Yuan, greets the King of Zhenbei." After saying this, he stretched out his hand to shake hands with the King of Zhenbei.

King Zhenbei looked at my hand in confusion for a moment, then he suddenly realized and held my hand. A warm current immediately filled my body, just like yesterday, my body was suddenly filled with strength. This feeling was so comfortable.

In Beishang Country, shaking hands is not a friendly gesture, but a gesture of preparation when dueling, and letting go means the beginning.

Chen Jiu was confused for a moment, and only realized what was going on when he saw the old man's strange expression did he feel extremely embarrassed.

Fortunately, Prince Zhenbei did not think that Chen Jiu wanted to duel with him, otherwise, with the prince's martial arts attainments, Chen Jiu would have died hundreds of times.

To ease the awkwardness, Chen Jiu asked the question he had always wanted to ask, "Why do I feel so comfortable every time I shake your hand? I feel like a warm current flows through my body, and my whole body is warm and strong."

After hearing this, King Zhenbei looked at Chen Jiu in surprise. His eyes were clear, and he didn't seem to be pretending to be stupid, but really didn't know.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "This is true qi. Martial artists have true qi in their bodies. Injecting true qi into someone else's body can help open up their meridians, making them feel warm and strong. Of course, it can also be used to kill someone. Allowing someone else's true qi to enter your body is like having someone hold a knife to your neck."

After listening to the explanation of King Zhenbei, Chen Jiu did not expect that this world is still a world of high martial arts. Fortunately, he did not do anything weird or suicidal, otherwise the grass on his grave would have sprouted.

Chen Jiu pondered secretly, thinking about what happened yesterday, and then asked: "You disappeared all of a sudden yesterday, what happened?"

The old man didn't take it seriously and just smiled, "It's just Qinggong, not some advanced martial arts. It's not like I disappeared all of a sudden. You were just too weak to notice and see it."

Chen Jiu thought of the story in the novel about opening up the Ren and Du meridians. After opening up, one becomes a top-notch expert. It was amazing. He asked happily, "I saw something about the Ren and Du meridians in the storybook. If someone helps to open them up, one can immediately become a peerless expert."

The old man scoffed at this and said, "You have to eat one bite at a time, and practice martial arts step by step. This kind of external force is a crooked way, and it will only dig your own grave in the long run. You are Guang'er's lover, so you absolutely cannot do such things."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jiu agreed and said, "I think so too. If such a good thing really happened, wouldn't it mean that if only one person became a martial arts master, then everyone would be a martial arts master, and then what would be the point of this martial arts world?"

After hearing this, the old man continued, "That's not entirely true. For those who don't have great talent and don't have a good master, it's good to have someone help them open their Ren and Du meridians. After all, they'll never reach that level on their own."

After saying that, he glanced at Chen Jiu and said seriously, "For example, you."

After hearing this, Chen Jiu felt angry for a moment, but he couldn't do anything to the old man, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "Stop worrying about my affairs and focus on your chess. It will be gone soon."

The old man didn't really care about Chen Jiu's behavior, but his ferocious expression and rude words scared him so much that he wanted to kneel down again. But when he saw that the old man was not angry, he felt relieved.

Seeing him feeling so uncomfortable, Chen Jiu felt sorry for him and said, "Father has a lot of official duties, so I will accompany the prince. Father, why don't you go and do your work first?"

The master was delighted when he heard this, but he didn't dare to leave. The King of Zhenbei waved his hand as if he was driving away a stray dog. The master didn't mind, but was very happy. He immediately bowed respectfully and took his leave.

Although Chen Jiu was not very happy, I didn't dare to provoke a peerless master who could come and go as he pleased and had magical true energy. I could only dig more traps for the old man when playing chess to make it more difficult for him to play.

It was the same familiar formula and routine, just like yesterday. After a fierce battle on the chessboard, I won with another advantage.

The old man looked at the chessboard and said in frustration, "If I had played here, I would have won."

Chen Jiu thought to himself, it doesn't matter where you move. If I wasn't afraid that you would kill me, I could defeat you on the chessboard.

The old man wanted to play another game. I looked at the sun and saw that it was already lunch time. Chen Jiu ordered the servants to bring lunch over. After they had eaten and drunk their fill, they could fight on the chessboard.

After a while, the table was filled with a large table of delicious food. Looking at how exquisite it was, it seemed that the master personally supervised the preparation. It was much more exquisite than what Chen Jiu usually ate.

The maidservant beside him served Chen Jiu a bowl of soup. The soup was so delicious that he almost swallowed his tongue. Chen Jiu immediately said, "Try this soup quickly. It's so delicious."

After saying that, he drank another bowl.

The old man raised the jade gourd in his hand and said, "I never drink soup with my meals, I always drink wine."

Although Chen Jiu didn't like drinking, he also wanted to try what the wine in this world tasted like, so he held up the glass and said with a smile: "What's the point of drinking alone? Give me some too."

The old man was stunned at first, then poured me half a cup and said, "My wine is very strong, it's not something a little kid like you can drink."

Chen Jiu drank the wine in the glass in one gulp, and the spicy feeling went from his mouth to his stomach, and he almost vomited it out. Seeing this, the maid quickly took water to rinse his mouth, and he felt better.

Chen Jiu felt a little better in his stomach, so he handed the cup over and said, "You drank too quickly just now and didn't taste it. Give me some more."

The old man saw that I didn't seem to be fooling around, so he poured me another half cup.

With the lesson learned last time, Chen Jiu drank very slowly this time, sipping the wine in the glass bit by bit. However, Chen Jiu didn't know how to drink at all, let alone taste wine, so he could only pretend to say: "Good wine, if it were purer, it would be the best."

"Pure?" The old man asked, puzzled for a moment.

"We use water when making wine. After the wine is brewed, the water will remain in the wine. Removing this water from the wine is called purification. The more water you remove, the purer the wine will be."

The old man didn't believe it and thought Chen Jiu was just bragging. He teased him, "Your chess skills are OK, but when it comes to brewing wine, you're only as good as an opera singer riding a horse."

"What about opera singers riding horses?"

"Can not be done."

Chen Jiu listened to the old man's teasing and pretended to be very angry and said, "Give me five hundred taels of silver, and I will give you pure wine within two months."

When the old man heard this, he also laughed and said, "You want money before you do anything? You are too naive. When you make it, five hundred taels will be yours."

"If you get it out, you won't be able to drink the five hundred taels."

The old man was certain that Chen Jiu couldn't do it, and he said with a solemn oath: "If you can't drink it with 500 taels, then I will give you 5,000 taels, which will definitely be enough."

The two of them argued for a while, and finally made a bet and didn't mention it anymore.

After lunch, he played a few more games of chess with the old man. Thanks to Chen's efforts, he won and lost, and the wins and losses were always just a few points.

The old man was also happy with the rain, and it rained like this for most of the afternoon. He left a message saying he would come again tomorrow, and disappeared just like yesterday.

The days that followed were simple. Every morning, Chen Jiu would get up and read various books to increase his understanding of the world. In the afternoon, he would play chess with the old man. His life was quite comfortable, and before he knew it, it was the day for him to enter the palace on the fifth day of the New Year.

Predict what will happen in the future, and listen to the next decomposition.