Aliases
The fog on the river gradually dissipated after passing the initial section of the waterway.
The reflection of the green water a thousand years ago is the same as it is a thousand years later.
The blue waves rippled, reflecting the shadows of tall buildings and ships. The waves pushed away by the ships rushed and hit the ship's wall, and the splashing waves dropped water droplets, carrying moisture and hitting the faces of the visitors who were looking down.
After staying on the ship for a few days, Jiang Nian visited all other places that would not be dangerous, except for the cabin where he stayed at the beginning to prevent accidents.
The roar of the surging waves was like thunder, shaking people's hearts. The vast blue waves were bottomless. After looking at them for a long time from the boat, I felt a desire from the bottom of my heart to embrace the cold river water with my whole body and soul and sleep endlessly.
People stand on the land and look at the distant blue sky, the endless flat plateau, and the lush trees with towering peaks lined up along the way.
Or you can stand in a pavilion at the highest point of a mountain, looking down at the few remaining stone-tiled houses and the vast, deep sea in the distance.
Everyone will be attracted involuntarily, empty their minds, and throw themselves into the magnificent landscape of nature like moths to a flame.
Among those who accidentally fall from the top of a mountain or a high altitude, how many will be fascinated by the scenery of this splendid world and devote themselves to it?
Jiang Nian suddenly came back to her senses. She had no answer to this question. She had already leaned over the railing with her arms almost halfway out. Suddenly, she felt as if she had lost her sanity and attention for a moment due to the treacherous sea surface, and she moved forward involuntarily.
If the railings of this ship had not been regularly maintained, she might have been the first person to fall into the water on this ship.
Suddenly escaping from a thrilling danger, Jiang Nian stood a few steps away.
In her previous life, she was seasick, so she had not been on a boat many times.
Although the original owner of this life was spoiled, he had developed a good body after making anthelmintics, farming in the fields and observing data in the past few months.
Even though he was caught in the contest between the two countries and became a key player, running around everywhere, nothing major went wrong, and he didn't even get a fever or get sick.
Therefore, there are no adverse reactions after living on this bumpy sea for a long time.
A cold wind was blowing on the deck. Because there were steep mountains on both sides of the river, the water content in the air here was higher than in other places. The woods on the riverside were deep and lush, and except for the passing egrets, it was almost impossible to see or smell the smell of fireworks.
It seemed as if, apart from the mountains that looked alike yet not nearly the same, all we saw along the way was the seemingly endless sea.
Jiang Nian stayed quietly on the deck for a while, and the sound of light footsteps paused behind her. Ai lowered his head, blocked the wind, sorted out the flying papers, and handed one of them to her.
"It's a nice day today."
It is written in simplified Chinese.
After opening the book that Tao Yu gave her with Xiao Yingzhu that day, Qin Lan somehow sensed the changes in their relationship and detected it in the book like a radar - it might also be a gift from his wife, so he just kept it in his heart.
In short, I found a reason to borrow the two books she had.
Although the water route is fast, it is impossible to reach Cang County within a few days. After staying on the sea for a long time, you will have the illusion that you will never see other living beings in this life.
Even if the ship's soldiers were excluded, there were still four people who knew each other. After a long time, they would gradually run out of things to talk about, not to mention that except for Qin Lan, the other three were not talkative people.
These days, apart from Jiang Nian and Xiao Yingzhu who finished learning calligraphy in one afternoon, Qin Lan took care of Ai like a baby. Half-confused and half-unknowing, he relied on memorizing the characters he saw in Huandu, and actually got a few of them right.
After Jiang Nian became familiar with all the structures and functions of the building ship, he taught them some words in his spare time.
She had learned most of the words in "The Book of Answers: Life Edition", and for some reason, the book of answers about love was taken back, and she didn't show it to Qin Lan and Ai.
They didn't care about it. Although they were a little interested in another book in the set, they didn't have to read it. They could just use the book they got first to identify it word by word.
People are very good at finding entertainment for themselves when they have free time. After mastering the usage of the entire book and reading through it, Qin Lan suddenly had the idea of practicing simple calligraphy. He dug out the old writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone from this empty ship that seemed to have nothing in it except weapons and kitchen utensils.
Jiang Nian was shocked by this.
After all, when it was first opened, the full bottle of ink seemed to have solidified and dried up. A rotten smell penetrated the tip of the nose, and an unbearable itching went into the throat. Even when I raised my hand to cover my nose, I couldn't help but choke and cough.
Does it work? Yes, it does.
Amidst everyone's half-believing and half-doubting gazes, Jiang Nian did not go to see what Qin Lan was doing for two days. Instead, Ai took on the role of assistant as he did in Pingzhou, running around for Qin Lan. On the second night after finding the ink, he integrated the bottle of ink that seemed to have expired for a long time into ink that could be used temporarily.
Apart from a slight sour taste when writing, there is nothing else to complain about.
Old Korean paper, even more yellowed than rice paper, lay spread out on the table. Ink swayed precariously in the small dish stolen from the kitchen, and a slightly frayed brush lay flat beside it.
Ai stood in front of the table, looking around. Just as he was about to dip a finger in the ink and look at it carefully in front of him, Qin Lan slightly moved his arm to the side.
"Has Xiao Ai never written with a pen before?"
Jiang Nian averted her eyes from the somewhat shabby-looking table. Qin Lan, who was sitting on a chair beside her, was tapping his legs and swaying unsteadily, holding a bun that he had stolen from the kitchen on a small plate. Seeing his nonchalant look, her gaze was slightly still for a moment.
Sensing the slight silence in Jiang Nian's eyes, Qin Lan put away his second-generation noble demeanor and sat there pondering for a moment: "It seems that there really isn't one?"
Thinking of the various phenomena that had occurred in the past, he was a little speechless. It seemed that everything he recalled seemed a little outrageous, but at the same time, it felt quite reasonable. He explained:
"Except for a few times when she hurriedly wrote with her bloodied finger, or a few times when she wrote secret codes with a pen during missions, she mostly delivered messages for others or stole intelligence."
"As for serious writing, it seems that there is really no such thing."
Qin Lan felt that what he said was a little unbelievable. He always felt that he had not shown enough care and love to the child he had adopted. Finally, he turned around and asked Ai: "Is that so?"
Ai Zheng was holding a pen and trying to write simplified Chinese characters. When he heard the words, he looked up and said, "Hmm."
"Is this true?"
Qin Lan sighed deeply, raised his head and stroked his face, somewhat doubtful: "When you went to the sect during the New Year, didn't your senior sister or Tao Yu ask you to write couplets?"
Ai vetoed: "No."
"Why?"
Ai remained calm and collected when his adoptive father, Qin Lan, suddenly appeared on the street and questioned him. "Because I broke a few pens and wasted a few sheets of paper."
"My senior sister said that the price of paper bought down the mountain will increase during the New Year. It's always very expensive, and I don't want to stock up in advance or travel far to buy it, so she won't let me write."
“……?”
Qin Lan slammed the table in a righteous tone, "How can this be? If you don't let the child practice calligraphy more, how can he write well?"
The aged brush, ink, paper, and inkstone trembled. Ai Jingjing watched the loosened Korean paper fly up and down, finally floating back to the table. She flattened the paper indifferently, "Yeah, my sister said so too."
The sentence was stuck halfway and Ai didn't say the second half.
Qin Lan waited for a moment: "So?"
Ai's expression became even more wooden, and his tone became even flatter: "So, you just sit around at home all day, don't pay for anything, and don't take any responsibility, and she does everything..."
“…”
Jiang Nian listened attentively, his expression calm, and he sat quietly aside with the answer book of love version in his hand. He seemed to have seen a funny sentence and raised the corner of his mouth silently.
"Stop, stop."
"When have I not done it?"
"Buying groceries, washing clothes, cooking, cleaning the house, managing finances, being frugal..." Qin Lan listed a lot of things, and at the end he listed out the extra expenses he had to report on time, the expenses he had to pay for changing clothes for missions, the expenses for using swords, and the expenses of the Intelligence Bureau, and he also listed out the fact that he had no private money.
After a long, breathless pause, he spoke again in disbelief, his tone slightly broken, "Did she really say that about me? She really said that about me? I didn't make it in time last New Year's Eve because something really, really, really happened at home!"
"Um."
Ai Danmo nodded and added another sentence.
"You haven't said one thing yet."
Qin Lan raised his head and asked, "Which sentence?"
"Um……"
Ai hesitated this time, glanced at Jiang Nian, then glanced at Qin Lan, and began to copy simplified Chinese characters onto the Korean paper with a calm expression.
"Um... Pavilion Master, do you really want to say this here?"
Qin Lan hated half-truths the most, which made people feel uneasy and uneasy. "Just say it directly, I can accept it."
"Oh." Ai nodded and began to speak slowly, "Your salary is not as high as your uncle's."
"Huh? What?"
Qin Lan couldn't believe it. This time, his defense was really broken: "He took the court's money - damn it! I am -"
Feeling that Qin Lan was going to be sent to the ICU for emergency treatment, Jiang Nian suppressed his laughter and interrupted the conversation, interjecting at the right time.
"Ai, do you have anything else to say?"
"Um."
Her indifferent face showed a little more smile.
"So my sister said that except for the Pavilion Master not teaching me how to write, everything else is good."
"?"
"you?"
Qin Lan was so shocked and couldn't believe the intention expressed by Ai's words. After a moment, he lost his expression and words. He pointed his fingertips in the air a few times and blinked blankly.
"What and what?"
“…”
Qin Lan's dull and stagnant brain came back to its senses after a while. He could no longer bear it and felt extremely helpless.
"What does she mean? Is she kidding me? If she wants to praise me, she should just say it directly. Why is she beating around the bush..."
Tao Yu first belittled him in front of her senior sister, and then changed her tone to: But he will be mad to death if you say these words, haha, next time let Xiao Ai say it in front of him, remember to tell me how he looks after hearing it, but if you can add one more thing to help Xiao Ai practice calligraphy, everything will be fine.
I didn't expect that Ai, who is usually taciturn and cold, would deliberately use Tao Yu's words to get something for nothing, and indirectly imitate Qin Lan to teach him -
The characters on the Goryeo paper in front of him were neatly shaped. Ai had developed his own style of calligraphy under Qin Lan's instruction.
A person with a rebellious temperament can be taught to write such standard characters.
Jiang Nian sighed inwardly that one cannot judge a book by its cover, and carefully twisted the Korean paper to the sides and put it back in Ai's hand.
"Well, that's a lot of progress. Much better than at the beginning."
The cold wind blew coldly, and Jiang Nian pulled her outer clothes into her body, knowing that the man who came to see her while she was looking at the scenery must have something important to discuss.
After being away from the political affairs for a few days, it seems that the only conversations I have with Xiao Yingzhu and the others are about simple meals. It really feels a bit out of touch with the world.
Seeing them writing simple characters these days, even Xiao Yingzhu occasionally wrote a few strokes. The surroundings were nothing but mountains and rivers except for the buildings and ships. It really made Jiang Nian's desire to return home calm down a lot, and he had a vague premonition that he could accept this place calmly.
I used to think that things would be better if there were modern things around me, but now people around me are exposed to modern words.
Did they do it intentionally or unintentionally?
Jiang Nian was lost in thought, and silently thanked Tao Yu for the book, then went downstairs with Ai.
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