The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

Liu Rao exclaimed, "I can't take it anymore, I need to wash my hands right away." With that, she quickly got up and left her seat.

"Did you really poison him?" Fu Rou stared at Lu Xiao San and questioned him.

Lu Xiaosan leaned back and slumped into the chair, a relieved smile on his face. "No... phew."

"no?"

"Who else could it be but me... Haha... Whew..."

He clutched his chest and said again, "Anyway...anyway I'm going to die, wouldn't it be better to...take...those who...harmed me...to keep me company?!"

"Kill him!" a girl shouted.

“He deserved to take the poison himself, why should we bother? Hmph,” another girl said.

Chang'an's face was ashen, and he murmured softly, "Highly poisonous arsenic... someone who had been in contact with arsenic... and could have gotten close to the kitchen... it could only be..."

Lu Xiaosan looked at Chang'an beside him, his gaze shifting from fierce to tender, and whispered, "You must... live well, find a way... to get... the Blue Pearl... to... to Qiantang... huff..."

Upon hearing this, Chang'an slowly turned his head to look at Lu Xiaosan, his gaze filled with doubt and fear, as if he were looking at a stranger.

Seeing this, Lu Xiaosan felt as if an ice blade had pierced his chest.

He gave a bitter laugh, and just as he opened his mouth, a sudden, sharp pain shot through his abdomen, as if thousands of ants were crawling over his scorched wound.

With a "thud," Lu Xiaosan collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain as he clutched his stomach.

"Brother!" Chang'an shouted as he ran towards him.

"Be careful, don't go over there!" Lianxue said.

Without hesitation, Chang'an rushed to Lu Xiaosan's side and patted Lu Xiaosan's back, "Quick, throw up!"

Lu Xiaosan pressed his face to the ground, his eyes rolled upwards, white foam dripping from the corners of his mouth onto the ground. It was as if a huge flame was burning inside his mouth, scorching all the way down to his esophagus, and finally bursting into flames in his stomach, fiercely burning every inch of his intestines.

His vision became increasingly blurry, and his head grew increasingly dizzy.

"Big brother, big brother..." Chang'an's voice grew fainter and fainter, as if someone was pulling him away from his side.

Lu Xiaosan used the last of his strength to roll his eyes, and all he saw was coldness, coldness, and icy coldness. All around him were icy gazes, filled with disgust, hatred, and smugness.

He felt like he was less than a load of garbage, surrounded and stared at like that.

Lu Xiaosan gritted his teeth until they clicked, finally using up all his strength.

He could no longer see anything; his vision was completely black, and he finally lost consciousness.

In a blur, I felt a stinging pain all over my body, as if I were being dragged and rubbed on the ground.

Another wave of feeling of being suspended in mid-air washed over him, as if someone had lifted him up and then carried him somewhere.

The stench of decay grew increasingly pungent, and Lu Xiaosan was so excited that she quickly opened her eyes: a human face suddenly appeared.

His face was pale, with bulging, wide-open eyes. His nose and face were covered in blood, and his mouth was wide open, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.

Lu Xiaosan frowned. "Who is this? Where am I? Am I dead?"

Lu Xiaosan calmed down a bit before he couldn't help but pat the man's pale face and gasp, "Brother... do I look that scary... huff."

"Oh my goodness!" A cry suddenly came from ahead, followed by a jolt.

Just as Lu Xiaosan was about to get up, he suddenly fell and landed face-first on the person in front of him. At the same time, it felt like something was pressing down on his back, getting heavier and heavier little by little.

He didn't know what was trying to bury him, but when he turned around, he saw another bloody face and then he understood.

"Damn it, after all these years, is it only on Qixi Festival that I've seen a ghost?" said the old man in white hemp pulling the cart, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Just as the old man was about to push the cart, he suddenly noticed that the pile of corpses seemed to move. He unconsciously swallowed and stared intently.

Suddenly, "A bald man emerged from the horde of zombies!"

The bald man pushed away the corpse that was pressing down on him, sat up, stuck out his tongue, rolled his eyes to reveal the whites of his eyes, and glared fiercely at the man pulling the cart.

"Wow! There's a ghost!" The old man was so frightened that he ran away, but he was still quite healthy.

"Hahahaha cough cough cough...whoosh whoosh whoosh...hahaha!" Lu Xiaoda laughed loudly.

Seeing the old man run into the light, Lu Xiaosan realized that he was riding in a hearse, a hearse hiding in the alley.

Outside the alley, the lights were bright, and people passing by were carrying lanterns to celebrate Qixi Festival.

Although these people were not far from him, reaching them was as difficult as climbing to the sky.

Lu Xiaosan plunged back into the pile of corpses. "Looks like those bitches thought I was dead. They just threw me into the hearse."

He pondered again, "But why am I still alive? Shouldn't I have been poisoned to death?" Speaking of poison, Lu Xiaosan fell into deep thought again.

After a long while, the old man returned. He knelt down in front of the hearse and pleaded bitterly, "Ghost, ghost, look at my old bones. My only son died on the battlefield."

"If this hearse is lost, my whole family will starve. Please, ghost, spare me!"

Upon hearing the harsh reality, Lu Xiaosan lost all interest.

He tried to stand up from the hearse, but he was just one breath short, the kind of breath that would make him jump out on the spot.

After repeated attempts failed, he lay among the pile of corpses, panting heavily, and replied, "Old man, I...I'm not a ghost, I...huff...I'm not dead."

"Ah! Did I pull the wrong person? Well... let me help you out..."

"No need... just take it away, anyway... anyway, if we don't take it now... we'll have to come back to take it later..."

The old man said nervously, "Oh, oh, but..."

"No buts... Hehe, just consider me a corpse... let's drag me out of the city together..."

The old man listened to him and hurriedly pulled the cart out of the city.

Lu Xiaosan sighed deeply, "Logically speaking... you... are... an old... person, it should be me... a... young... helping... you... but... now... cough cough cough..."

"Hehehe, it's alright, the old man is in good health." The old man's smile was tinged with bitterness, and even more so with emotion.

He hadn't been treated with such respect in a long time.

"Then...please...take...me...out of the city..."

Lu Xiaosan leaned against the pile of corpses and saw that on the night of Qixi Festival in Luocheng, the city was brightly lit, and children were playing with paper toys, with their parents following behind them with smiles.

Then I saw pairs of young ladies and gentlemen, chatting and laughing as they strolled through the streets of Los Angeles.

Couples of men and women launched Kongming lanterns into the sky, and thousands of lanterns illuminated the night with a fiery red glow.

Along the Luo River, people are releasing river lanterns, all praying for a good husband, for lasting love, and for their families to be happy and healthy forever.

Colorful lanterns floated on the Luo River, creating ripples that opened up a path. Meanwhile, flower boats, painted in red and green, passed by, and the people stopped to admire them with smiles.

Lu Xiaosan dragged his battered body around, looking at the peaceful and prosperous world before him, a world where the country was at peace and the people were content.

A smile involuntarily crept onto his lips, but beside him were only corpses.

He asked, "Who...who were the people whose bodies were in this car before they died...sigh..."

The old man, holding the cart with both hands, replied, "These are... some dead prisoners, and some slaves and servants..."

Lu Xiaosan patted the corpses on the shoulders and laughed breathlessly, "Brother prisoner, brother... quick... quick look at this unprecedented golden age."

"Cough cough cough..." Lu Xiaosan sneered again, "It's a pity... this prosperous age... can't even afford to give us a coffin... This... this peaceful... prosperous age of national strength and people's wealth has... absolutely... nothing... to us... lowly ants... Haha..."

The car bumped along, and the corpses could only sway and stagger in response to Lu Xiaosan's words; it was unclear whether they were nodding or shaking their heads.

The old man pulling the cart sighed, "Who can argue with that? Who wouldn't want to spend the holidays with their family, but instead, we're here..."

Lu Xiaosan murmured, "Family..."

"By the way, young man, where do you want me to take you after we leave the city? You don't want to be buried like them, do you?"

"Hahaha~, the world is so vast, how could there be no place for me? Even if I die on the road and feed the wolves, it will be worth it..."

"Once you're out of the city... then... leave me behind... and then... hurry back to be with your family..."

"Alright, I'll do whatever you say, little brother."

After a while, the old man laughed and said, "You know what, young man? I would believe anyone in this truckload of corpses who is still alive, but I don't believe you are alive."

Lu Xiaosan asked with a smile, "Why?"

"Because you stink more than a corpse, little brother. I've smelled all sorts of stench over the years, but you're the only one I dared to carry onto the car while holding my nose."

"Hahahaha!" The two of them chatted and laughed as if nothing was wrong, even though they were being looked down upon by passersby.

After laughing for a while, Lu Xiaosan felt a dull ache in his stomach.

He felt that the next time his illness flared up, it would be his last moment.

It could be tomorrow, or an hour from now, or even the next second…