The First National Preceptor of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 84

He couldn't help but think of himself in this young man; he was not young anymore, and was approaching the age of fifty.

I've lived in the south for over ten years, and in recent years I've felt my health deteriorating. The worst-case scenario is that I might die here someday; that's quite possible.

But my children are still very young, only a few years old. If something were to happen to me, who would take care of them, and who would carry my coffin back to my hometown in the north for burial?

The more he thought about it, the more bitter and sorrowful he felt. He blinked and said to the servant following behind him, "Take him to the post station and settle him in first. Bring him to the prefectural government to see me later."

Liu Zongyuan didn't have to wait long after returning to his residence before the young man from before was brought in.

The young man's clothes and attire were much neater than before, indicating that he had tidied himself up a bit. He was a little reserved when he first came in.

"Sit down," Liu Zongyuan said, pointing to a stool not far away.

The young man sat down obediently.

"Where are you from, and what is your name?" he asked gently.

"Reporting to Lord Liu, I am Zhao Laizhang from Longxing County, Ruzhou." Zhao Laizhang had read Liu Zongyuan's poems and essays before and was naturally aware of his great reputation in the literary world. Today, he was quite excited to see him in person and observed his appearance as he spoke.

However, I was somewhat disappointed after seeing him. He looked like an ordinary middle-aged or elderly person, except for his exceptionally bright eyes.

“Longxing of Ruzhou,” Liu Zongyuan pondered for a moment, recognizing the man’s accent as that of a Daoist from Henan, “Since you are from an official family, what connection do you have with the Zhao clan of Longxing, whose ancestral home is Tianshui?”

“I am indeed from the Zhao family, and this is my household registration.” Zhao Laizhang replied respectfully, taking out the household registration he always carried with him from his pocket.

Liu Zongyuan took the household registration and looked at it for a while. It was indeed from a family of officials. His father, Zhao Jin, had served as county magistrate, clerk and county assistant, his grandfather had served as Sima, and his great-grandfather had served as Grand Master of the Palace and Chancellor of the Imperial Academy.

"I heard you came here for your father's remains. How long have you been in Liuzhou?"

Zhao Laizhang roughly calculated in his mind, "It has been about ten days."

"Do you have any information about your father's tomb?"

"We only know it's outside the city, but we don't know the exact location." Zhao Laizhang's eyes reddened again as he said this.

“During the Zhenyuan era, I heard of your father’s name, but I never met him in person,” Liu Zongyuan said, looking out the window.

He then fell into reminiscence.

During the Zhenyuan era, he was a young man, full of vigor and ambition.

Born into the Liu family of Hedong, one of the three major clans in Hedong, and a family of officials, he passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty-one, becoming one of the youngest among the Jinshi graduates of the same year, and his reputation soared.

At twenty-eight, he was appointed magistrate of Lantian County, a sixth-rank official, practically under the emperor's nose. At thirty-one, he entered the court as a censor, and at thirty-three, he was promoted to assistant minister of rites, with a promising future ahead. At this rate, he could very well become a prime minister in a few years.

How could he have imagined that at the age of forty-six, he would be trapped in a remote, unknown county in the south, thousands of miles away?

Alas, fate is fickle, and life is unpredictable; this is just one example of the power of destiny.