Bab 57: Extending Life

Inside the gallery.

Wang Gu stood at the table, his body shaking more and more severely.

Wang Xiu stood aside and said nothing.

Ye Bei was still standing in front of the wall, quietly watching the paintings above.

After a long time, Wang Gu suddenly opened his mouth to break the silence, his voice no longer contained the anger and unwillingness he had before, instead, everything was inconceivable, "Authentic! This "Orchid Pavilion Preface" has bold and vigorous strokes, it was written in a forceful hand, everything is full of greatness, but it also reveals the essence of peace and nature, the gesture embodies gentleness, beautiful and full of life-force. It is clearly the true work of his elderly Wang Xizhi! The most incredible thing is that there are no traces of alteration and smearing on this preface. It is a masterpiece that was made in one go, and it is even more perfect and authentic than the preface collected by the country!"

When this word came out of Wang Gu's mouth, his body was startled and then he himself was stunned.

Then he shook his head again and again, "Wrong! No… this ink is new! The paper cloth is also new, and there is no stamp, it's a fake…"

He kept shaking his head.

"The words' are Wang Xizhi's words! It's authentic!" He constantly muttered to himself.

At this moment, Wang Gu only felt that his worldview had been completely subverted. He thought of himself as Wang Xizhi's successor, and what he had learned would be difficult to distinguish between the true and the false.

"Little Gu, eighty years ago, I once met the ancestor, today, I meet the ancestor again… whether you believe it or not, there is always something unusual in this world. It lies not in the true and false, but lies in its value, do you understand my meaning?" Seeing that Wang Gu was almost calm, Wang Xiu spoke.

Wang Gu still held the calligraphy and painting, he did not want to believe Wang Xiu's story of eighty years.

But when certain facets are in front of you, you have to believe it even if you don't want to believe it.

"Sir, I want to hang this calligraphy and painting at the entrance of the shop, can I? If it is real, then I will volunteer myself to be your servant." He took a deep breath, and finally, Wang Gu where his courage came from, he unexpectedly looked at Ye Bei seriously and uttered such a request.

After Wang Xiu heard this, his eyes flashed with anger.

Being able to serve as a servant for Ye Bei was a blessing and luck that Wang Gu had cultivated over the past century. But he actually said such thing, Wang Xiu couldn't wait to go up and beat Wang Gu's old head with a wooden broom.

"You can." But fortunately, Ye Bei's voice came immediately.

In fact, Ye Bei did not care about this kind of thing, how old was he? How many people had he met? What kind of things had he not seen?

The answer was 'countless', so what could this little thing be counted as? Such a small thing could not make Ye Bei's mood fluctuate at all.

On the contrary, Ye Bei had a hunch that when the calligraphy and painting were hung at the door, it would be the key to meeting his old friend again.

"That's good, sir, I will hang them tomorrow… but…" Although Wang Gu said so, the tone of his voice had obviously eased a lot, but he paused in the middle of his sentence.

On the side, Wang Xiu's body trembled a bit and he realized some problems. He immediately said, "Ancestor, now that his shop is yours, there are some things that you must know. With the advancement of technology and the changing of times, the gallery is gradually out of business. There is an antique shop on the opposite side, the owner inside is not from the circle of Ancient Town, so he is arrogant, and has always wanted to annex our shop by using various methods. They even hired people several times to splash ink on the paintings we hung at the entrance…"

When talking about this, Wang Xiu was very angry.

In this shop, there were only him and Wang Gu, the other younger generations either went to live in other cities or went abroad. Even if they were bullied, these two old men would not have the power to fight back.

"En." After Ye Bei listened, he gave a light hum, meaning that he got it.

"Sir, are you not worried?" Wang Gu was puzzled.

"Let's go with the flow." Ye Bei's voice was still calm, "It's late, you're getting older, so go rest early."

"I want to bring this calligraphy and painting to my room and take a closer look." Wang Gu held both things in his hand again. This time he moved very lightly and carefully, for fear of accidentally damaging them.

"Okay." Ye Bei nodded lightly.

After that, Wang Gu put on his presbyopic glasses, held the magnifying glass in one hand and talked towards the inner courtyard.

Creak!

When he opened the door, he stopped, turned his head, and did not forget to say to Wang Xiu, "Old Master, you should rest early… if I don't study these two things thoroughly, I am afraid that I can't stay peaceful and rest today."

"I know." Wang Xiu nodded.

Wang Gu hurriedly left, tonight, he was really going to start the night battle.

In the gallery, Ye Bei stood quietly, Wang Xiu did not leave, but still stayed quietly behind him.

"Are you not going to sleep?" Ye Bei said after a long time.

Wang Xiu gritted his teeth, his eyes were cloudy while they also revealed a faint of expectation, he said with a shaking voice, "This junior knows that my time is going to end soon, so I always try to cherish every inch of minute… ancestor… forgive me if this junior is rude, ancestor has lived for endless years, so does ancestor know a way to extend life?"

How to extend life?

Ye Bei did not answer, he looked at a Qin's Period ancient painting on the wall. In his mind, a long picture of history running through a thousand years was slowly unfolding.

On that day, the autumn wind was bleak, on the shore, a young man in a white gown, holding a bamboo pole, was fishing near a pond.

A middle-aged man in luxurious clothes, with countless guards standing beside him.

He asked the guards to stop in the distance to wait.

He embarked on the muddy path and walked behind the white-gowned boy. He crouched and his voice was light. He did not dare to speak emit any offensive words the slightest, "Sir, I established an eternal foundation and I am the first emperor in the world, but even so, I can't resist the years. I know that there's no much time left, but I'm really unwilling to die. I came here this time to only ask for one thing…"

"Say." Ye Bei's voice was very soft.

"I want to live forever." The middle-aged man's voice was very decisive when he squeezed out this sentence.

"Not possible." Ye Bei shook his head and answered softly.

"Why?" The middle-aged man frowned, he wanted to get angry but did not dare, so he asked back softly.

Ye Bei flicked his wrist and a crucian carp hung on the hook. He gently unhooked the fish and out it in the basin beside him, "Everything in the world has its own laws, though defying the heaven is possible, but perhaps what you get is just an eternal curse."

"Sir, I understand." The middle-aged man was overjoyed, thinking he had the answer, thinking that immortality existed, and he needed to go with the flow, search for everything, and get it by chance.

But he was too ignorant, he did not know what Ye Bei meant. Immortality was a curse… and Ye Bei did not even know the answer…

That middle-aged man's surname was Ying, his name was Zheng.

After leaving that day, Xu Fu privately sent three thousand boys and girls to take a boat into the sea to seek an immortal mountain, but later did not know what to do until Ying Zheng became weak and did not appear again. (A/N: Xu Fu (3rd century BC), Qin Dynasty court necromancer/warlock.)

At that time, Ying Zheng was sick lying in bed. He was furious, blaming the warlock for uselessness, as Ye Bei, he was nowhere to be found.

So under Li Si's memorandum, he ordered the ban on the books, as the scrolls were burned, the history books were burned, and the cruelest of all, the sages and scholars were buried alive, and finally ended in regret… Later, the 'burning of books and burying Confucian scholars alive became one of the biggest events in history. (A/N: Li Si is a legalist philosopher, calligrapher and prime minister of the Qin Kingdom and Qin Dynasty.)

Everyone wants to live forever!

For longevity, the tragedies of history were even more numerous.

After a long time, Ye Bei slowly returned to his senses.

He turned around. With that indifferent gaze, he looked at Wang Xiu, this greeting of spring, this person with the age of over a hundred years old, was still a layman after all.