Attending a banquet
The next day, Mengli carried her bamboo house to the woods outside the palace early in the morning. She carefully picked some large, red fruits, intending to exchange them with the fairies for food to feed the fat carp. Just as she reached the door of the side hall, she encountered the fairies who had just returned from the Heavenly Palace with supplies.
"What bad luck." The leading fairy glanced at her and walked into the side hall.
"Fairy sister, fairy sister, I picked the best fruit from the fruit tree on the cliff today. Please have some with the other sisters." Mengli quickly caught up with the fairy, took the bamboo basket off her back, and held it to her chest to show it to her.
"Hmm, not bad." The leading fairy winked at the fairies behind her, and one of them slowly walked over and snatched her bamboo basket: "Consider yourself lucky, I won't beat you up today, now get lost."
There has always been a robust fruit tree on the edge of this Xuan Palace Cliff. Because it is located close to the Heavenly Pool, the fruit is nourished by the essence of the Heavenly Pool's water vapor. Not only is it red and sweet, but eating even one fruit can help enhance spiritual power.
However, few fairies dare to pick the fruit from the trees on the cliff, because it is close to the Heavenly Pool. If one falls off the cliff into the Heavenly Pool and has all their spiritual power absorbed by the water, they will probably lose their life.
Mengli, however, was not afraid of death. Well, it's not that she was fearless, but compared to the dangers of picking fruit, feeding the fat carp until it was plump and chubby was the most important thing to her at the moment.
"Fairy sister, I've given you the fruit, but please give me some food in return. I just want some noodles and steamed buns, not those expensive things."
When Mengli saw the fairies take her fruit and enter the side hall, and were about to close the door, she took a step forward and blocked the door with her arm.
Seeing her so stubborn, the fairy was initially startled. Later, the fairies exchanged glances and pretended not to see her arm. They slammed the door shut again, but the other party didn't utter a sound. She just let the palace door slam down on her arm, and blood flowed down her fair arm into her sleeve.
"Fairy...Fairy sister, can I have a steamed bun now?" Mengli bit her lip, enduring the sharp pain in her arm.
"Give it to her quickly, make her get out of here. She's a disgrace to our Xuan Palace, acting like a beggar."
The fairy yelled and pushed her down through the crack in the door, threw a few steamed buns at her, and then, as if avoiding a plague, quickly closed the palace door tightly.
Mengli happily picked up the steamed bun, examined it closely, blew on it, held it in her arms, and skipped and hopped towards the Xuan Palace.
"Fat Carp, Fat Carp... I'm back, where are you?"
Mengli ran to the edge of the pond, looking left and right but couldn't find the fat carp. She ran around the pond several times, but still couldn't find it.
She burst into tears. She hadn't cried when she'd never met her parents and grown up alone. She hadn't cried when the fairies bullied her, calling her a bastard. She hadn't cried when she'd fallen from the fruit tree by the cliff several times. Only the flickering flame of hope that the fat carp had ignited in her was instantly extinguished, making her unable to hold back her sobs.
"Pat-pat," came a sound from under the lotus leaves in the pond. Mengli followed the sound and found the fat carp slapping the lotus leaves with its tail fin, as if to say to her, "Don't cry, I'm here."
"Fat Carp!!! I knew you wouldn't abandon me if you didn't leave me."
Mengli chuckled, picked up the steamed bun in her hand, tore off a small piece, and threw it into the water: "Fat Carp, come and eat."
At first, the big fat carp arrogantly flicked its tail, trying to get away from the steamed bun. But the dough crumbs quietly dissolved in the water, which directly aroused its appetite. Forgetting about its pride, it swam over to the dough and started eating it bite by bite.
She found him increasingly adorable, and with Fatty Carp around, life was no longer so cold and dull.
Mengli carefully put away the remaining steamed buns; with these buns, Fatty Carp wouldn't starve for the next two weeks.
Time passed day by day until the Heavenly Emperor's birthday, when he invited all the immortals of the Three Realms to celebrate. All immortals with immortal status could attend the banquet. Originally, Meng Li was not qualified as an abandoned child of unknown origin, but because the divine artifact Gui Shui Jiu Nan Zhan recognized her as its master, she could be considered to have immortal status and was written on the list of invitees.
"Sister, today is the Heavenly Emperor's birthday, but the Star Lord wants us to bring that unlucky girl from the Xuan Palace with us to the banquet."
"What bad luck! What makes her so special? Just some unknown young girl with yellow hair."
"Hey, she's out. Look at what she's wearing, hehe, she dressed up specially. I wonder which star lord she's trying to seduce."
Last night, Mengli received a celestial invitation from a black bird, inviting her to celebrate the Heavenly Emperor's birthday. She was overjoyed, as this was the first time she had been allowed to leave the Xuan Palace. Although she could only leave for half a day and had to return immediately, it was a short-term dream come true for her, who longed for the outside world.
Yesterday, along with the invitation, a light pink long dress and some matching hair accessories and earrings were also delivered, which originally looked quite ordinary.
But today, Mengli looked stunning in it. It wasn't the dress itself that was beautiful, but rather Mengli's exquisite face that made the dress even more remarkable.
"Hmph, look at her sly look, it's infuriating."
"Who says otherwise? Why don't we go teach her a lesson?"
The two fairies, their eyes burning with jealousy, surrounded Mengli from the front and the back.
"Fairy sister, are you going to the banquet with me?" Mengli asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Heh, attend a banquet? We haven't attained immortality, how can we attend a banquet? Are you deliberately mocking us?"
"No, no, fairy sister, Mengli doesn't know..."
Before Mengli could finish speaking, a slap landed on her face, making a crisp sound.
"You bitch! You still dare to pretend with me!" The fairy said, raising her hand again and using even more force than before, about to strike Mengli's face.
Mengli was so frightened that she covered her head, closed her eyes, and crouched down, trembling. Suddenly, a golden light came from behind Mengli and went straight for the two fairies, throwing them far away.
By the time Mengli realized something was wrong, the two fairies had already vanished, and the surroundings were once again quiet.
"Strange, where are the fairies?" Mengli muttered.
"Never mind, I need to hurry to the banquet."
As she walked away, a figure materialized in the pool and also disappeared into the distance.
When Mengli stepped out of the Xuan Palace for the first time, everything was new and interesting. Other immortals came on auspicious clouds, in phoenix carriages, or surrounded by a crowd of immortals.
The only thing that came to pick her up was an old crane, which stumbled and had a poor sense of direction. It lost its balance several times along the way and almost threw her into the sky.
Nevertheless, she treated it as a joke, laughing heartily.
Jizo, who had been hiding behind her and watching her, looked puzzled.
"Greetings, fairy sister. I am Mengli from the Xuan Palace. I received the celestial invitation and have come to offer my birthday wishes to the Heavenly Emperor."
"Oh, you're from the Xuan Palace. Since you don't have a celestial status, you can't sit in the seats reserved for immortals. Here, there's a chair in the back; you can sit there."
The fairy pointed behind her, to a passageway outside the side hall, far from the main hall, a corner that no immortal would easily notice.
"Okay, no problem. I'll just sit there. Can I get some food?" Mengli asked cautiously.
"Hmm." The fairy rolled her eyes at her with disgust, then took out a fruit plate from under the cabinet: "Don't move, I'll get it for you."
The fairy picked and chose some of the least appealing-looking fruits and cookies, put them on a plate, and handed it to her: "Go on, sit there and eat well, don't cause me any trouble, and go back as soon as you're done eating."
"Okay, fairy sister."
Mengli carried a plate in one hand and a small stool in the other as she walked to her seat.
"Oops!" As I was walking, I lost my grip. A fruit slipped from the plate and rolled forward until a pair of feet wearing black boots stopped it.
Mengli looked up and saw a man in a dark-colored immortal robe holding a fruit and looking at her. The man had long, indifferent eyebrows and deep, calm eyes. Although he had a sense of aloofness that kept people at a distance, his extremely handsome features still made people unable to resist getting closer.
This was the first time Mengli had ever seen such a handsome immortal. She slowly stepped forward and took the fruit that the other person had just picked up: "Immortal...Immortal. Are you sitting here too?"
"Um."
The other person was sparing with words, only giving a soft "hmm" before sitting down next to Mengli.
"Fruit, can immortals eat fruit? Although it's not a top-grade fruit, it's still a fruit prepared for the Heavenly Emperor's birthday, so it still has some festive spirit on it."
Mengli smiled and held the plate up to the man. The man stood there for a long time, his face expressionless, until he saw that Mengli was about to drop the plate, then casually picked up a piece of fruit.
"Hehe." Mengli chuckled and picked up another fruit to eat, while she quietly put the fruit that had just fallen to the ground and been picked up by the immortal into her pocket.
"Have you seen enough?" The immortal frowned, revealing a displeased expression.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I just... I've never seen such a beautiful immortal before."
"How can you, a fairy, speak so frivolously?" The fairy was somewhat displeased.
"But I'm telling the truth."
"Which celestial being are you from?"
"Oh, I'm not a fairy, um... I don't even know what I am. All I know is that I've lived in the Xuan Palace since I was born."
"Xuan Gong? You are the master of that ancient artifact? How come you are so thin and weak? You don't look like someone who can wield an ancient weapon."
"Hmm... I don't know either. Everyone says I'm the owner of some kind of divine artifact, but I've never seen it, and it doesn't seem to have come out to protect me. Hmm, maybe you're mistaken."
Mengli took a bite of the fruit and said with some disdain.
"My lord, why are you hiding here? The Heavenly Emperor is still looking for you!" A fairy in the distance seemed to have caught sight of the man out of the corner of her eye and ran over in fright, saying.
"What? It's enough that all the immortals are celebrating Father God's birthday. What use is a discarded son like me?"
"Lord Guan Nan, please don't say that. The Heavenly Emperor would be saddened if he heard it."
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