Chapter 97 – Miss Fan’s House in the Mountain and the Letter

Spring comes a little later in Northern Qi, but it is here after all. From the capital of Northern Qi, Shangjing City, not much farther out, around the desolate topaz-like western mountains, and then a few hours to the north, you will come to a green and quiet mountain realm. This mountain is not how tall, the mountain’s high trees and low bushes are densely packed, looks particularly primitive and quiet, layer by layer or light or deep green intermingled, very beautiful.

As the status of the sword hut in the heart of the world’s swordsman is similar, this green mountain in the eyes of the people of Northern Qi or line in the world’s asceticism, is also an inviolable, high above the holy land. Because this nameless green mountain is where the Taoist gate of the Northern Qi Heavenly Dao is located, and where the State Master Bitter Lotus sits and cultivates.

Walking from the rugged mountain road towards the tranquil valley, the place where ten thousand pines were gathered was faintly visible.

Ten thousand pines, pine needle shape, the tree of the round broad different, some pine needles gentle, like hair hanging floating, some pine needles such as fury, hard piercing the sky, some pine needles like a thin round tube, extraordinarily interesting. At this time is early in the morning, the morning dew all over the mountain plants, most of the dew slightly moistened pine needles, then slipped to the ground, only those with dense pine needles of the pine tree will be in their own branches and leaves stored in a puddle of crystalline dew, reflecting the morning light, such as the jewels as bright.

Sight eyes along these dew shimmering light to the mountains, you can see the Tian Di Dao Door complex, these buildings endowed with the Wei, Northern Qi lineage of traditional aesthetic style, to the green and black two colors, black, the main killing, green close to nature, standing in the world, the power hidden in the beauty of the Qing Dynasty.

Although the Taoist door of Tianyi Road is not like Dongyi City Sword Lodge that wide range of disciples, but the bitter lotus masters in this Qingcultivation, naturally provoked countless pilgrims to come to worship. Ten stays down a stop, even if the master of the country disciple less, but such as wolf peach and so on adult disciples always have to disciple, decades down, the number of people in the door of the road gradually more and more, to now there have been more than a hundred people year-round cultivation and learning in the middle of the green mountain.

In the hearts of these disciples, of course, they hope to be in the mountains for many years of cultivation, go out to help the world, just as the fairy in their hearts.

Back then, the Holy Maiden of Northern Qi, Haitang DuoDuo, practiced in this mountain, under these pines, for an unknown number of years. Before Haitang Duo Duo out of the mountain, is in those green and black buildings on the periphery of a field garden planting vegetables. Planted vegetables in addition to their own daily consumption, are sent to the school. Until today, there were still many disciples who took pride in having once eaten vegetables grown by Haitang’s own hands.

During this year, Haitang spent most of her time in the distant Jiangnan of the Qing Kingdom, staying with that little Lord Fan who was on par with her. This fact made the hearts of the Northern Qi people resentful, especially these students of Tian Dao in the midst of the green mountains, besides the negative emotions of jealousy and anger, what upset these students the most was that it was no longer difficult to see the girl in the field wearing the flowery clothes, and in the past years, as long as they saw the figure of that girl, the hearts of all the people would be set.

And not long after Haitang left, another girl family took up residence in that field garden, at the same time turning the greens in the field into some herbs that could be planted.

The identity of this girl family is very unusual, she is the newly accepted closed disciple of the Bitter Lotus Ancestor, replacing the position of Hai Tang s youngest sister, she lived in Hai Tang s garden and collected Hai Tang s vegetable seeds …… She She She She, she is Fan Xian s sister in law.

The disciples who were purifying in the mountains were beyond shocked, they didn’t understand why their ancestor master would go far away to South Qing to take on another female disciple, and even more so, they didn’t understand why they had to take Fan Xian’s sister as a disciple. Who was Fan Xian? That was the premier young powerhouse of Southern Qing.

However, things had already happened, and there was no way for the mountain disciples to change anything, so they had to learn to accept it, and it took a long time to get used to Miss Fan’s presence.

The Southern Qing and Northern Qi were arch-enemies, and although the past two years had been characterized by unprecedented friendly relations, the emotions rooted deep in people’s hearts were hard to eliminate, so Fan Ruoruo’s first days in the green mountains were not very pleasant, and wherever she went, she was greeted by hostile gazes and whispers behind her back.

Fortunately, this girl does not care about these, coupled with their own cold temperament, where will notice the attitude of others. So a few months past, the disciples of the Heavenly Dao only realized that the original this small teacher aunt is even more cold than the attitude of these people themselves, can not help but feel a little bored.

In fact, Fan Ruoruo is very satisfied with her study career in Northern Qi, the smile on her face is already too much than in Kyoto, just that the people of Northern Qi do not understand this, after all, they do not know that this Miss Fan family back then in Southern Qing Kyoto has long been nicknamed Iceberg Talent Girl.

Fan Ruo Ruo’s happiness came from the relaxed environment and intense life. The Bitter Lotus Master only taught her some introductory Heavenly Dao techniques, gifted her a few volumes of scriptures, and then didn’t care much about her, the rest of her time was spent following her second senior brother to learn the art of healing, which was precisely one of the purposes for which she had traveled to Northern Qi, and she used the medical skills she had acquired to treat the poor people at the bottom of the mountain, and her days were very fulfilling.

This second senior brother’s surname was Mu and his name was Peng. Bitter Lotus gave himself these disciples names are very interesting, Wolf Peach, Begonia, Wooden Peng, White Ginseng, are some plant names. As the name suggests, Wolf Peach is literally filled with killing spirit and angles, Begonia is gentle and strong in the wind and rain, and Wooden Pom is a Chinese medicine, so it can be imagined that Ruoruo, the second senior brother who is over forty years old, is good at what he does best.

Fan Ruoruo picked up the leaves and caught the dew from the pine leaves next to the courtyard, slightly inclined her head and poured the water into the dripping bottle, a little curious as to why dew was used in the prescription.

She carried the bottle out of the courtyard gate and traveled up the stone steps towards the mountain, preparing for her daily study. Along the way, some young Heavenly Dao disciples could be seen, and when these disciples saw the girl holding the bottle, they all stood sideways and saluted to greet her.

On the one hand, because she no matter how to say is these people’s little sister-in-law, secondly, a few months down, TianDao disciples know that this Miss Fan’s temperament although cold, but the heart is really kind, do not decorate the hypocrisy, than the south side of the gentle face inside the vicious Fan Xian is too much better. In particular, this Miss Fan’s family has been continuously going down the mountain for several months to provide medical treatment for the people, which has made these junior disciples deeply respect her virtue.

Fan Ruo Ruo nodded slightly in return, her face showing little expression.

When she climbed up the long stone steps and stood on the top of the mountain, she stopped and looked at the lush scenic forest below the mountain, and suddenly stretched out, ah exclaimed, with two groups of post-exercise redness floating on her face, somewhat excited.

She was born with insufficient nutrition since childhood, although she was conditioned by her elder brother for a period of time, but there is no fundamental improvement, in Kyoto’s season, her face is always pale white color is mainly, today to see her face floated out of the healthy redness, it can be imagined that after more than a year of living in Beiqi, her body is much better as well.

Physique is by the heart, it’s mainly the relationship of a relaxed mood.

“No need to participate in uninteresting poetry meetings, no need to go to the various princes and dukes’ houses to accompany those women to gossip, no need to hide behind a screen like those sisters to watch men, no need to do women’s red every day ……”

Fan Ruo Ruo stared blankly at the mountain below the stone steps, a happy smile appearing on her face, “This kind of life is what I want. Thank you, brother.”

In the mountain, in addition to the Heart Dharma practice of the Heavenly Dao, the scriptures and books of justice were also taught, basically using the tutorials that were personally revised by the great man Zhuang Mo Han back in the day. Fan Ruo Ruo ended his one-hour practice and came to the abode of his second senior brother, Mu Peng, bowed respectfully, and then chose to tell a few difficult questions in the medical arts, asking for guidance from his second senior brother.

Wood Pong said a few words, suddenly saw the anxiom in the girl’s eyes, smiled and said, “Little Lord Fan wrote again?”

Fan Ruoruo nodded with a smile and said, “Although it hasn’t come yet, but counting the days, it should arrive.”

Mu Peng scratched his somewhat disheveled hair and said with a smile, “Being so happy, I guess you siblings are extremely affectionate. Since this is the case, why don’t you just stay in Southern Qing? Junior sister, although Northern Qi is good, it is after all a foreign country.”

Although Mu Peng’s status was definitely not as good as that old poisoner in the Supervisory Court, but whether it was a big person practicing medicine or using poison, it seemed that their hair was a bit messy, their daily lives were a bit mixed up, and it was natural that such things as dressing up could not be noticed.

Fan Ruoruo smiled and responded: ”It doesn’t matter where. Brother said, people live a life, always need to make some sacrifices for the goal they want.”

Mu Peng was surprised and asked, “Oh? Then what is your goal, senior sister?”

“To save people.” Fan Ruoruo calmly answered.

“It’s that simple?”

“Yes.”

“Well ……,” Mu Peng said after a moment of contemplation, “A healer is a parent. But in the beginning, before you came to Northern Qi, you only observed in the Southern Dynasty’s Imperial Hospital for a period of time, why would you have such a great wish?”

“Senior brother, it’s not the reason for the wish, but what one wants.” Fan Ruo Ruo said calmly without thinking, “My brother once said, how should one spend one’s life? The first and foremost thing is to make one’s mind happy …… Healing and saving people can make me happy, so I choose this way.”

How should a person’s life be spent? Wooden Peng slightly frowned, sighed, did not speak again, but in his heart he was thinking, that can let the Haitang senior sister square inch after all the Fan family kid, in the end what kind of person is it?

The sky was not close to twilight, Fan Ruoruo walked down the stone steps holding the empty dripping bottle and returned to her own small courtyard, carefully tending to the medicinal herbs in the garden. Then she walked back to the silent house and began to prepare paper and pen. The furnishings in the house had not changed in the slightest, for she was well aware that this was, after all, Miss Haitang’s old residence, and had a different meaning to the people of Northern Qi.

A letter rested quietly on the table, and a flash of joy flashed across Fan Ruoruo’s eyes as she hurriedly opened the letter paper and carefully watched the familiar fine handwriting on that paper. In the process of reading the letter, but her expression is constantly changing, sometimes nervous, sometimes joyful, sometimes …… faintly sad.

The letter was sent by Fan Xian, he used a lot of energy to send his sister to the Northern Qi Tiandao sect, brother and sister are far apart, the exchange of information is quite inconvenient, each in their respective places of longing, so after Ruo Ruo settled down, Fan Xian immediately restarted a monthly letter home.

In her childhood, Ruo Ruo returned to Kyoto from Tanyuzhou at a very young age. Since Ruo Ruo could read and write, Fan Xian began to correspond with her. With the well-developed postal routes of Qing, the letters between the two siblings traveled between Kyoto and Tanyuzhou without hindrance, one letter per month, without interruption, until the fourth year of the Qing calendar, when Fan Xian entered Kyoto as a real person.

I don’t know how many years of letters were written.

I don’t know how much affection the brother-sister duo contained in these letters.

In the letter said the red building, speak of it, mutual description of the scenery of the two places and people, parents short trivial, forests, and so on and so forth. And it is through these letters, Fan Xian became one of the sister in the spirit of the teacher, Fan Ruo Ruo since childhood by the content of these letters inculcated, the state of mind attitude and the vast majority of women in the world …… no, is with the vast majority of people in the world are not quite the same.

She is still filial to her parents, loves her brothers, and gets along extremely well with her sisters in the boudoir, but there are many things that are different in her heart, a relatively independent personality and a yearning for freedom, which is so out of place in the world, but she can not live out of this world.

It was because of this contradiction that she became a self-possessed, polite and cold iceberg girl when she was in Kyoto. Only later in front of Fan Xian did she dare to reveal her true feelings. So going to a foreign country and living a life of hardship, a life that was exceptionally horrible in the eyes of an aristocratic young lady, made her willing and very happy.

The beginning of all this was the letter, the letter between Fan Xian and her.

Fan Ruo Ruo looked at the letter paper in a daze, and after a long time faintly sighed, her eyes a little moist. Those court battles in Kyoto were still far away from her, and she also believed in the abilities of her father and elder brother, so she didn’t care about the dangers written in the letter. Only this time Fan Xian mentioned Hong Cheng in his letter.

Hongcheng ……

Fan Ruo Ruo wiped the teardrops from the corners of her eyes, and that gentle Shizi’s appearance appeared in her mind. He’s going to the west to fight the hu people, will he get hurt? Will he come back?

King Jing’s House and Fan’s House were family friends, and Fan Ruoruo had also grown up with Li Hongcheng since childhood. She knows that although the other side of the heart has great aspirations, but from the nature is a very rare good people, leaving aside those brothels on the affair not to say, to their own is also obsessed with a piece. This time Hong Cheng invited himself out of the capital, on the one hand, is to get out of the Kyoto Prince of the competition, but she knows clearly, this is not his own hurt him, he is a kind of self-exile.

But Fan Ruoruo just can’t accept Hongcheng. Yes, her luscious heart that had been colored by Fan Xian was now more …… unable to accept the attitudes of the world regarding men and women than Fan Xian himself.

Wasn’t this a ridiculous and interesting thing?

Of course, even without those flirtatious accounts on the flower boat, even if Hong Cheng was a perfect man, Fan Ruo Ruo still couldn’t accept that she had lived her whole life with that man.

Just as Fan Xian had told a certain story in a letter back then.

Those are all very good and nice, but …… I just don’t like them.

“What story did he write to make you cry again?” A lazy, clear voice came from the doorway of the house, “That brother of yours is truly abominable in some ways.”

Fan Ruoruo was startled and looked up to see Miss Haitang standing in the doorway wearing a thin floral dress, she hurriedly stood up and said, “So it’s Senior Sister delivering the letter, I thought it was someone sent by Lord Wang.”

Haitang tucked her hands in her clothes and shuffled in, saying, “Wang Qinian isn’t coming back, didn’t Fan Xian say so? It’s Deng Ziyue in the Upper Capital now, you should have seen him.”

Fan Ruoruo nodded.

Haitang smiled and said, “I’m really curious about the content of this letter, it actually made the always calm you cry.”

Fan Ruoruo’s fingers pinched the letter paper and said with a lowered head, “Senior sister don’t make fun of me. Brother …… is still as long-winded as before.”

Haitang sighed and said, “This is something I know all too well.”

Fan Ruoruo slightly inclined her head and asked in confusion, “Senior sister isn’t in the Upper Capital, why did she return to the mountain?”

Haitang returned to the mountain, but of course it couldn’t be specifically to deliver a letter to her sister for Fan Xian. She looked at Fan Ruoruo and said with a smile, “Master received a letter from second senior brother, thinking that you are ready to leave the mountain, and asked me to come and accompany you to the Upper Capital.”

“Going to the Upper Capital City?” Fan Ruoruo said in embarrassment, “But there are still so many things I haven’t learned.”

“It’s just that someone wants to see you, so they asked me to take you there.” Haitang said, “You like life in the mountains, just come back then.”

“Doesn’t Senior Sister also like life in the mountains?” Fan Ruoruo smiled and said, “I didn’t dare to touch this house, I kept it, so we’ll live together when the time comes.”

Hearing this, Haitang fell into silence, the girl sighed after a long time and said helplessly, “Even if you want to return, where is the matter of one or two years.”

Fan Ruoruo is clear, Haitang elder sister has been secretly doing something with her brother, originally there is Fan Xian in the middle of the bridge, her relationship with Haitang has been good, and speak more casually, but every time she thinks of her sister-in-law Lin Wan’er …… who is far away in Qing Guo, Fan Ruoruo is always deliberately keeping a distance from Haitang, and this may be the daughter’s small mind.

She suddenly thought of that earlier remark and asked curiously, “Who in the Upper Capital …… wants to see me?”

“His Majesty.” The corners of Haitang’s lips floated up into a smile, thinking to herself that His Majesty’s mind was just as hard to guess as Fan Xian’s.

Not far away from the green mountain where the Heavenly Dao Door was located, in the Upper Capital City, in the black and green, uniquely beautiful Qingmei Palace, the master of the northern part of the world, His Majesty, the Emperor of the State of Beiqi, was sitting paralyzed on top of a short couch, his big feet covered with cloth socks, permeated with heat, but his body was askew in the embrace of a palace-attired beauty.

This not very old emperor sighs and asks the lili behind him, “Lili, I have never been able to understand …… what you say we actually did last summer?”