Who is Bao Ying? "Oh, Bao Ying, what a beautiful meaning."...
His small medicine bottle looked exquisite; it was probably prepared for him specially by the sect leader.
Yan Huanyue felt it was just a minor injury and didn't want to waste a patient's medicine.
She drank a cup of tea and said, "No need, Junior Brother Pei, keep it. I have medicine there. Come on, I'll take you back."
Pei Xuanzhi understood, but did not insist. He stood up, supporting himself on the table with one hand, put away the medicine bottle, and followed closely behind her.
Yan Huanyue noticed that after resting for a while, he seemed to be in better spirits and was talking a little more than before. Whenever he saw pavilions, terraces, misty mountains, lakes and hills along the way, he would ask her to introduce them to him in a soft voice.
Yan Huanyue, mindful of his new arrival in Tianyan and his weakened state, slowed her pace and walked with a gentle deliberation, patiently explaining the uses and origins of each place to him.
As the two approached the Changqing Palace in the afterglow of the setting sun, Ning Wuyang came running up from the front, calling out from afar:
"Xuanzhi, who did you run off to and where? I'm going crazy looking for you. I'm worried again when Master comes back and doesn't see you."
She ran a few more steps before stopping, staring at the two of them in disbelief. "What...what...did you do? Everyone saw us along the way?"
Yan Huanyue was somewhat puzzled. "I brought Junior Brother Pei back."
Pei Xuanzhi thought he was being reminded that he had returned too late, so he explained, "Senior Brother Ning, I accidentally fell asleep in Fenghe Pavilion and probably missed the time when that junior brother was looking for me. Later, Senior Sister Yan came to find me, and we stayed a little longer, so I came back a bit late. Please don't be offended, Senior Brother."
"Yes, that's right." Yan Huanyue nodded with exceptional honesty. "I went to find Junior Brother Pei after the trial was over, so I didn't delay the trial. Senior Brother, you don't need to worry about it."
Ning Wuyang pursed her lips and tossed over a cracked porcelain bottle. "Is this what I'm worried about? Hurry up and apply some medicine. Aren't you ashamed?"
Yan Huanyue took the porcelain bottle, knowing he was referring to her injury during the competition. She poured some medicine onto her lips and said with a wry smile, "What's there to be ashamed of? This is just a very common thing. Why be afraid of being laughed at?"
Pei Xuanzhi looked down at her hand applying the medicine, coughing as he calmly tucked the medicine bottle he had been holding into his sleeve.
His voice was a little hoarse, but he still politely agreed, "Senior Sister Yan is right."
Ning Wuyang looked them up and down in disbelief, her expression growing increasingly strange. Suddenly, she covered her ears and turned to walk into the Swift Steps Hall.
As he walked, he said, "What wicked words! Don't poison the minds of a pure and innocent person like me."
Yan Huanyue was unaware that he had become unable to listen to even such simple words. She wondered if he had developed some kind of trauma during his trials in the world, which was why he couldn't bear the thought of being injured.
Pei Xuanzhi looked up at Ning Wuyang's back, his brows furrowing slightly, somewhat puzzled.
Yan Huanyue escorted him back to Changqing Palace and then took her leave because she had to attend evening classes. Pei Xuanzhi, following custom, invited her to stay for dinner, but she politely declined, saying, "No need, I need to go back and change my clothes on the way."
Pei Xuanzhi did not insist on keeping her any longer and watched her go down the steps.
As dusk falls, swallows return to their nests, and the afterglow of the setting sun spreads across the western horizon.
Ning Wuyang lifted the gauze curtain and quietly slipped into the small warm pavilion on the east side of the main hall, standing on tiptoe outside the screen to peek inside.
The slender young man was sitting upright at his desk, writing something in an old book, with no one else around him.
Ning Wuyang immediately landed, put his hands behind his back, and strolled to the desk. He snorted coldly, "Xuanzhi, I didn't expect you to be so domineering in private, despite your seemingly weak appearance. Don't take advantage of others' leniency to bully them, you know? There should be limits to what you do. You're not old enough yet, so you should suppress your clan nature a bit."
Pei Xuanzhi stopped writing, looked up at him with a puzzled expression, and asked, "What are you talking about, Senior Brother?"
Seeing his feigned ignorance, Ning Wuyang was too ashamed to speak. After a long while, she decided to give him a warning.
He coughed twice to catch his breath, but his words came out stiffly, "If you really like it... you should know how to cherish it. Why bite people? Even if you did bite, why are you still wandering around everywhere, as if you're afraid others won't know?"
Pei Xuanzhi's eyes were filled with crystal-clear doubt.
Suddenly, he seemed to realize something, gripped the pen tightly, his ears instantly turned red, and a cold mist gathered in his eyes.
"Senior brother misunderstands. Senior Sister Yan's injury... was not caused by me. She was injured during her trial today. We have never done anything out of line, and I will never... have any clan instincts."
Ning Wuyang's face stiffened, and he said expressionlessly, "Heh, as expected... people with heart conditions see everything as dirty... I'm just saying this to myself."
He had originally come to remind Pei Xuanzhi, but looking at the boy's clear and innocent face, he felt his own thoughts become even more filthy.
He cautioned, "Don't tell Baoying, it's rather strange..."
Pei Xuanzhi lifted his eyelids, "Who is Bao Ying?"
Ning Wuyang tried his best to calm his awkward mood and said, "It's your sister Huanyue, whose nickname is Baoying. When she was little, her master took her back to Changqing Palace and took care of her for three years. That's what everyone called her back then. Maybe it was a nickname given to her by her master."
The little girl was only three years old when she first entered Zhijing Hall. She didn't know her real name yet. When I asked her her name, she gestured and gave me her nickname, and that's what I've been calling her ever since.
“Oh, Baoying, that’s a wonderful meaning.”
The boy's clear and bright eyes shattered into cracks. He smiled silently, then his face fell for a long time.
Ning Wuyang, who had originally come to teach others, felt deeply offended and was so embarrassed that he couldn't stay any longer. He casually said goodbye, turned around, and quickly walked around the screen to escape from the warm pavilion.
Ning Wuyang's footsteps faded into the distance, and Pei Xuanzhi pursed his thin lips, his expression growing even colder.
That inexplicable misunderstanding passed by like the wind, ultimately failing to cause any further trouble for him.
Even as those cold and sharp things, like blades, slowly tore at his internal organs, he remained calm, lowering his head to draw talismans on his own.
The sky had darkened considerably, but he didn't mind; he simply waited until it got even darker before lighting the candles.
Unexpectedly, someone outside the screen said, "It's too dark, it'll hurt your eyes. Why don't you light some candles?"
He paused, straightened up, and looked at the person who had come.
The reflections on the blue lotus-patterned floor tiles flowed like water. A solemn-looking man walked from behind the screen to the desk, and naturally picked up two new candles from the table and lit them for him.
The flickering firelight brightened the small, warm pavilion considerably.
As Pei Hanzhou pressed the candle down onto the old wax on the candlestick, he asked in as gentle a voice as possible, "I heard that it was Senior Sister Yan who brought you back today? Why didn't you invite her to stay for a meal?"
Pei Xuanzhi placed the pen on the white porcelain pen rest, lowered his head, picked up a silver-handled knife, and began to cut the paper again. The gold ribbon that tied her hair up hung down beside her ears, making her look rather listless.
The silver knife in his hand was illuminated by the soft, yellowish candlelight, which was not at all glaring.
"Senior Sister Yan said she had to attend evening classes, and she was afraid that we were not very familiar with each other and that we would both feel uncomfortable, so she declined."
Pei Hanzhou walked to his side and helped him smooth the gold hair tie that was hanging down to his temples behind his head, then gently stroked his head and said:
"Your senior sister Yan has a very good personality. You'll get to know her better after you meet her a few more times. Just try not to bother her unless it's a day off."
Pei Xuanzhi lowered his eyes and said while cutting paper, "Yes, I understand."
Pei Hanzhou's gaze fell on the stack of talismans on the table. He picked up the stack of talismans with his long fingers, examined them one by one with his spiritual power, and picked out five that were connected together and placed them on the table. "These five are useless."
Pei Xuanzhi said without looking up, "Even useless things have their uses."
Pei Hanzhou's eyes flickered slightly, a mixture of relief and guilt spreading through his heart.
No matter how ruthless and decisive he was in the past, he could never help but be cautious when it came to this child he had lost and found again.
Xuanlang is almost seventeen years old. I don't know how he was raised in the past. Although he looks gentle, he is actually cold at heart.
It is simply impossible to cultivate in a child the affection and love that arises from playing with his father's lap from a young age.
I want to get close to him but I'm afraid he'll be disgusted. If I remain indifferent, firstly, I can't do it, and secondly, I'm afraid I'll hurt his feelings again.
Even if they are biological father and son, it is really difficult to expect the son to have any attachment or trust in him if the son lost the seventeen years of his childhood.
Therefore, he didn't ask for much, only hoping that the child could recover and live a peaceful life, without experiencing any more setbacks.
He folded the five talismans and placed them aside. "Did you learn this when you were studying at the Lu family's school?"
Pei Xuanzhi's eyes remained calm. "Yes."
Pei Hanzhou reached for the small knife in his hand, "Father will cut more talismans for you."
Pei Xuanzhi flinched, holding the knife, and said calmly, "I'll cut it."
Pei Hanzhou didn't want to take it away directly, so he moved another chair and sat opposite Pei Xuanzhi to help him clean up the cinnabar.
He is busy with many things during the day and rarely has time to spend with his son, so these past few nights he has made sure to take some time to talk to him.
After the raw ore was ground, sieved, water-milled, boiled in water, and dried, the cinnabar fragments and the separated cinnabar fragments were placed on two pieces of yellow paper on the desk, next to a box of realgar and a box of angelica.
He folded up the paper containing the cinnabar, poured the small pile of cinnabar fragments into a small porcelain box, and gently covered the box with his palm.
When he raised his hand again, the porcelain box was half full of fine, powdery sand.
Pei Hanzhou picked up a palm-length, sharp, straight knife from the table to prepare to pick out the angelica from the box.
Pei Xuanzhi said without looking up, "That's my tea knife. I just cleaned it, and I'll use it to break up tea bricks."
Pei Hanzhou paused, looking at the worn-out hilt of the knife in his hand, his heart clenching. "You're not in good health, why are you still drinking brick tea?"
Pei Xuanzhi was busy with his own affairs and casually replied, "New tea is more expensive, and it will hurt my stomach soon after drinking it. I'm not used to it."
"I mean, you're not in good health and you have to take medicine regularly, so why are you drinking tea?"
Pei Xuanzhi raised his head and said, "I often feel unwell, and drinking tea helps. Tea bricks are a good deal, and I'm frugal, so I don't use much. If it's inconvenient for you, you can use the money I saved up before to buy tea."
The question was answered immediately, and the words were respectful and peaceful, yet they easily made Pei Hanzhou feel as if he were vomiting blood.
The tea knife in my hand was so bright and dazzling that I didn't know what my emotions were. Even after I let out a long sigh, my hand was still trembling and I couldn't hold the tea knife steady.
He put down the tea knife and patiently explained, "You still need to take your medicine. Drinking tea can weaken its effects. I'll prepare some pills for you to nourish your spirit later."
To avoid appearing flustered, she added realgar and angelica to the cinnabar, casually changing the subject, "Your eldest sister from the Lu family wrote to me, asking about your recent situation. When you and your senior sister Yan are engaged and get married, would you like to invite the Lu family to the wedding?"
With a few "whoosh" sounds, the paper was neatly cut by his knife.
Pei Xuanzhi put down the knife, folded the cut paper together, and carefully twisted the rough edges of the paper. He said casually, "Miss Lu didn't write to me to ask about my recent situation, but to ask if she can be my mother."
Few can tolerate their son teasing their father about his "peach blossom luck" (a Chinese idiom for attracting good fortune in love). Pei Hanzhou's face immediately darkened, and he finally said in a deep voice, "Stop talking nonsense!"
Pei Xuanzhi took out another large sheet of yellow paper and began to fold it, saying casually, "I'm just reminding you that this letter came so quickly, it must have been sent right after we left Chang'an. I don't need to invite them to my wedding, I'll go to Chang'an during the New Year."
Pei Hanzhou paused, composed himself, and looked up to discuss, "If you want to spend the New Year in Chang'an this year, I'll have someone clean up the old house in Xianyang first, and we can go back on the way."
While cutting paper, Pei Xuanzhi said calmly, "If you go, not only will you feel uncomfortable, but they will also not know how to entertain you, the leader of the immortal sect. Neither side will be at peace. It would be better for me to go back myself."
Pei Hanzhou closed the vermilion porcelain lid and gently pushed the porcelain box back into place. He neither agreed nor disagreed, only saying, "It's still early. Let's talk about it before the New Year."
A note from the author:
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