OETGD Ch8

 Chapter 8

Stalls are not allowed on the streets of Chang'an. The imperial court has specially designated two areas for commercial transaction. That is, the east and west side of the city.

The East Market can be regarded as a domestic market. There are more than 120 kinds of commodities, all of which are collected all corners. 

The West Market is an international market, also known as "Golden Market". It has nearly a thousand shops dealing in various commodity transactions. It was the largest international market with the most prosperous trade at this time. 

Yongle Lane, where the Li family lives, is close to the East Market and quite far from the West Market and needed to travel five squares to reach it. Fortunately, nothing happened while Li Zexuan led the group of people to the West Market and in the way, he could admire the authentic ancient architecture of the Tang Dynasty.

"Brother, Lan'er is tired from walking."

Before walking far, Lan'er grabbed Li Zexuan's hand and refused to move forward.

Li Zexuan, who was admiring the ancient buildings on both sides of the road, was speechless. how far he had he traveled? It was less than two miles. This little girl started to cry tired, but now it can’t be ignored, who made her his own little sister? Well, I should've hired a carriage when going out in the morning.

"Lan'er, stick with it; it will be here soon."

"No, Lan'er really can't walk anymore."

Lan'er said with a bitter small face.

"In that case, let's walk slowly, and while walking, Elder Brother will tell Lan'er a story, OK?"

Li Zexuan slowly tempted her, no way, there is no horse-driven carriage in this place. He can't carry Lan'er to the West Market.

When Lan'er heard that her brother was going to tell her a story, she immediately became energetic, her feet were not tired, and she straightened up quickly, came over and took her brother's hand, and said, "Okay, okay, brother, tell me."

Li Zexuan slightly smiled, pulling the little sister’s hand, and walked slowly, recalling as he walked:

"It is said that a long time ago, the world was divided into Dongsheng Shenzhou, Xiniu Hezhou, Nanbu Fangzhou, and Beiju Luzhou. In the Aoili Kingdom of Dongsheng Shenzhou, there is a Flower Fruit Mountain with a sacred stone on the top of the mountain. One day, the stone burst out and rolled out an egg and it turned into a stone monkey at the sight of wind. Then, golden light shot out from its eyes and bowed and worshipped in the four directions. [1]

The monkey could walk and run, drink some spring water in the mountain when he is thirsty, and eat some fruits when he is hungry. Having fun with animals in the mountains all day, he had a very happy life. One day, the weather was very hot, and to avoid the hot weather, the monkeys ran to the mountain stream to take a bath. When they saw the spring water rushing out, they walked along the stream to find its source.

What Li Zexuan was intending to tell the little girl is "Journey to the West". It just so happens that he had read it countless times when he was a child and he could still remember clearly the many plots in it. The story is also long so he could make it a long-time serial for the little sister, which will take a long time. For now, there is no need to worry about how to coax the little girl.

Of course, it is still impossible to tell Lan'er and others according to the previous book. After all, it is the Tang Dynasty and Tang Xuanzang still exists. Li Zexuan decided to change Tang Xuanzang's vest, let's call it Tang Yin, and the relevant places' names have also been changed.

 Hey, I don't know what Tang Bohu would think about the Great Ming Dynasty a few hundred years later when he saw "Journey to the West", Li Zexuan thought evilly.

When it comes to the Great Sage Equal to the Heavens wreaking havoc in Heaven and imprisoned in the Eight Trigrams furnace by Supreme Laozi, they had already reached the West Market.

"Okay, let's stop here today. Let's go, Elder Brother will take you to the candy man and to take you to the juggling."

Li Zexuan is going to see this ancient bazaar.

"Ah, is this here?"

The little girl obviously hadn't heard enough and looked sad. Behind him, Xiaohe, Xiaoxi, A'fu, and Sanbao were also obviously in the mood and were unsatisfied.

"This dear friend, wait a minute. I will dare to ask you which story you were telling. My sister is very fond of this story."

An eleven or twelve-year-old boy suddenly walked out behind him, followed by a six or seven-year-old, arching his hands to Li Zexuan.

In fact, Li Zexuan had already noticed that there were two people behind who were following here for a long time. After all, the effort was given for nothing. As he felt that the two were not malicious, he didn't bother to pay attention. The roads went halfway up the sky, and he didn't have the right to restrict people where they went. Only when they were going to the West Market like himself, he didn't expect the other party to follow behind and eavesdrops on the story.

Li Zexuan swept his eyes lightly towards the boy, and found out that there were good hands pretending to be pedestrians faintly guarding the young man.

"It is estimated that he is a second-generation of officials and went out to experience life."

Li Zexuan murmured inwardly, but seeing the teenager dressed in luxurious clothes and was still polite, and the little girl was looking at him expectantly. Li Zexuan was also not big so he didn't want to offend other people so he returned the courtesy.

"I'm afraid I was disappointed to teach this noble son. This is not a novel on the market, but a story made up to coax my little sister."

"Oh."

The boy in silk clothing was disappointed. In fact, he, himself, liked the story quite a lot. He wanted to ask for the name and send someone to buy a copy and read it back himself. 

Then he said: 

"Talented brother, this story doesn't have unconstrained imagination, I'm afraid that it can't be made up. This young brother is Li Gaoming and this is my sister, Li Lizhi. I want to be friends with you but I don't know how you're called?"

On a trip, Li Zexuan did not expect to encounter two "Journey to the West" fans. Seeing that the boy wasn't arrogant, he could be friends with him and so, he smiled and said: 

"This little brother is overpraising, it's really just a random silly story to pass time, it's really hard to say that it's elegant. My name is Li Zexuan and my family lives in Changle Street; you have made a friend."

This young man is the current crown prince Li Chengqian and his character is brilliant, so claiming that his name is Li Gongming isn't a lie. However, Li Zexuan was an engineering dog in his previous life, so how could he have the time to study the Tang Dynasty's history so deeply? Naturally, he didn't who Li Chengqian is.

The little girl Princess Changle Li Lizhi and was seven years old this year. Her name speaks for itself; she had a morbidly white skin. Although she was only one year older than Lan'er, she was actually much taller than Lan'er. Li Lizhi had suffered from Qi sickness since childhood, which can be regarded as a genetic disease of their old Li family.

Li Chengqian also watched his little sister staying in the palace all day long and unhappy, so today, he brought his little sister to the West Market to relax. He didn't expect to meet a teenager who told such an interesting story. He listened with his sister with such relish but when his blood started boiling, it stopped and made Li Chengqian think about it.

After the two introduced themselves, they chatted with each other a few words, and Li Zexuan said:

"Brother Zexuan, there must be more behind the story just now."

This boy is still obsessed with "Journey to the West", Li Zexuan did not expect this story to be so charming in the Tang Dynasty.

"Of course, what I just said is just the beginning, and it's still growing behind."

Li Chengqian looked happy. After all, he was just a teenager and said excitedly:

"The little brother will come to the gate another day, Brother Zexuan will continue to tell me the rest of the story."

Li Lizhi looked regretful. Her crown prince elder brother could often go out of the palace, but as a princess, she could not ignore the royal etiquette.

Li Zexuan agreed, and then parted with Li Chengqian and took the little girl to go shopping.

Li Chengqian saw Li Lizhi look melancholy, and after thinking about it, he understood what was going on, so he said to Li Lizhi:

"Little sister, don't worry, I will come back immediately after listening to the story from Li Zexuan and tell you the story, OK?"

Li Lizhi's complexion turned from cloudy to sunny, and she smiled happily at Li Chengqian:

"Well, thank you, Brother Prince!"

......

[1]: It's basically the first part of Journey of the West but I don't remember these four names nor Google makes it easy to translate them. For now, I'll just stick with the pinyin provided.