Let it fly?
Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival. Everyone in the family was clamoring for a festive atmosphere, so I handed out mooncakes to everyone. To be honest, the phrase "tasteless" was an understatement in this context.
Looking at the exquisite pastries sent by Meng Yan, they were of moderate size and harmonious shape, with the filling wrapped in the skin and patterns printed on it. In the decades that the sect had tasted mooncakes, which one could compare to these?
"There's no comparison," Li Lizhong said frankly.
Yue Lang gave a thumbs-up to his courage and boldness, then turned the thumbs-up to Meng Yan, thanking her for giving the two suffering fellow disciples the opportunity to improve their lives.
Each of them took a piece without much hesitation. They held the small piece and put it in their mouths. After taking a bite, they looked at each other with eyes full of emotion and praise.
“Miss Meng Yan has excellent taste. Savory pastries are rare, and mooncakes made from them have a unique flavor.”
"Miss Yan, you also like sweet mooncakes? This red bean paste one is the sweetest."
The arena suddenly fell silent. Li Li and Yue Lang turned to look at each other: "..."
Suppressing their tempers, they swallowed the mooncakes in their hands. The two people who were originally next to each other pulled their chairs away at the same time, looking at each other across the entire wooden table.
Meng Yan: "?"
“Salty talk is intolerable to the world,” Yue Lang said first.
Li Li snorted coldly, "Who exactly is this 'sweet-tasting' person?"
"Natural essence, soothing and nourishing, sweet food can improve your mood."
"It gets cloying after three bites; how can it compare to a savory and fragrant flavor?"
"This is alarmist."
"Soliciting nonsense."
As they exchanged words, Meng Yan dared not utter a sound.
Last night, she ate the sweet and savory mooncakes that her seniors had made. She thought they tasted good, and even had a unique flavor that combined the best of both worlds, surpassing the usual single-sweet or single-savory mooncakes.
Sure enough, when people do not actively distance themselves from the battlefield, the flames of war will spread to them and engulf them.
"Miss Yan, please give me your opinion." Yue Lang had already rolled up halfway up his sleeves, whether out of anger or in preparation for proving his Dao, it was unclear.
Meng Yan closed his eyes with difficulty, pondering how to quell this verbal dispute.
After a moment, she moved her fingers as if she had made up her mind and said, "I think a sweet and salty taste is also a virtue."
With a slight twitch in their eyes, she added, "Five-nut mooncakes are another matter; this is a bit out of place on a normal person's menu."
To everyone's surprise, the two people opposite him nodded in unison and agreed.
"The five-nut filling alone reduced the saltiness of the flavor."
"As a sweet dish, the five-nut filling is so delicious that it makes you not want to eat it."
After another moment of silence, Yue Lang stroked his chin and asked Li Li, "When you said sweet things are hard to eat, you weren't referring to mixed nuts, were you?"
"You have a salty palate, could it be that you do too?" Li Li asked, somewhat surprised.
With their eyes meeting, Meng Yan raised his hand to declare: "Five-nut filling does not belong to the sweet and salty flavor I mentioned."
The three, who had fallen apart, were suddenly put back together and returned to their original harmonious state. The topics of their discussion also underwent a qualitative change, with them launching a series of serious criticisms of the five-nut mooncake.
At the strong suggestion of Yue Lang and Li Li, the three of them finished off the mooncakes for lunch, even though it was already afternoon.
Feeling sleepy after a full meal, Meng Yan yawned, holding the little wooden bird in his hand. He thought that if he set off back to the valley now, he could land in time for dinner. After eating, he would go to bed and fall asleep. Tomorrow, he would tell his fellow disciples the good news about the talisman. A peaceful and fulfilling life.
Li Li nodded in agreement after reading it, but Yue Lang reached out to stop her, "Miss Yan, it's rare for you to come all this way, aren't you curious about how the talisman is drawn?"
Perhaps overcome by drowsiness, Meng Yan nodded for a moment in a daze and followed him out the door. The two went to the Scripture Pavilion side by side.
Li Li closed the door for Yue Lang behind them, leaned against the pillar and muttered to himself, "This kid usually draws talismans in the house, what's he doing today, visiting the ancestor?"
Watching the two figures disappear around the corner, he pondered carefully, changing his posture again and again, almost falling down, still feeling uneasy all over, as if something was off.
.
The Sutra Repository is located deep within the sect, in a shady spot. Inside, there are many ice stoves, and as soon as you enter, you feel a chill.
Although it is dark all year round, it is very clean. I have been walking around for a long time since I came in and I have not seen any dust or musty smell. Even the wax under the candlesticks has been carefully cleaned, leaving only a shallow ring of dripping marks.
Thousands of scriptures and tens of thousands of talismans were neatly arranged on the shelves for visitors to learn from at will.
Upon seeing this, Meng Yan's expression went blank for a moment, which Yue Lang caught, and asked her with great interest what she was thinking.
She frowned, as if thinking about how to answer him, her teeth unconsciously biting her lip, her eyes darting between Yue Lang and the bookshelf behind him.
Finally, she said sincerely, "I was wondering, if you usually draw talismans and cast spells here, would these scrolls and books still be alive?"
The image of the wildfire behind the house that day flashed through Yue Lang's mind. He touched the tip of his nose and hesitated, "Could...could it be? There are so many people in the sect. I can't be the only one who set fires. These are all old folks, older than you and me combined. They should have been burned before."
After answering, he realized the implication in Meng Yan's words: she was implying that he had lied to her.
Suddenly realizing something, Yue Lang's eyes widened. He pretended to look at Meng Yan casually, trying to glean some insight into her mood from her expression so he could offer a tailored apology. He knew this all too well.
Unexpectedly, he stared at her without moving for a long time, and apart from receiving a smile from her and being unable to resist replying, he couldn't see any flaws in her expression.
"We have everything here, and we can show you more things. What if it sparks a new idea?" Yue Lang, who had lost his composure, began to try to salvage the situation.
"Then I'll trouble you to show me around a bit more." Meng Yan still looked like she was trying to guess what she was thinking, but Yue Lang had a feeling that she wasn't in a bad mood.
The library itself is quite large, and it contains a number of books, so it should be impossible to see everything in a short time. But for some reason, every time I entered a path, I would walk a few steps and then bump into the wall at the end. It was as if everything suddenly shrank, while I remained the same.
"Slow down, are you in a hurry?"
Meng Yan couldn't stand it anymore, so he grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to stop.
"No rush, there's no need to rush while walking with Miss Yan."
Watching the man leading the way with his brisk, powerful strides, she silently shook her head and followed him.
At the next corner, the man stopped without warning, and Meng Yan, unable to avoid him, bumped into his back.
"Miss Yan, are you alright?" Yue Lang snapped out of his reverie, pulled Meng Yan over to help her stand up, and checked her head and face one by one to make sure she was alright. He then turned his gaze to read her expression.
Meng Yan shook her arms twice, breaking free from his grasp. She cupped her face in her hands and brought them close to his, turning her face up, down, left, and right before stepping back. With a hint of emotion, she raised her hand and said, "Do you think your back can punch a hole in my face?"
"That's not what I meant, Miss Yan." Yue Lang's already confused mind was even more chaotic. After stammering for a long time, he finally managed to utter a few words, "Let me be frank, Miss Yan. Actually, I don't have much to show you around. I've read all the books here. I can draw any talisman you want. Inviting you here was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. I felt that you had come all this way, in the sunshine, and were leaving in the sun, and that it was a bit too fast to just finish explaining the cooperation."
"That's why..."
"So you brought me to your sect's important territory and made me wander around in circles?" Meng Yan finished his sentence.
"Well, the sun is about to set now. Are you leaving? I'll see you off."
Meng Yan was taken aback by his sincerity and sudden change of heart. The emotions that had just begun to surface were buried back down. He looked up at the reddening sky outside the window and nodded blankly.
.
The sunset on the horizon ignites a breathtaking fire, its light reflecting on the ground and creeping up one's body along with the shadows, yet those within it remain oblivious.
"Does your sect allow flying?" Meng Yan asked, walking beside Yue Lang and deliberately turning to face him.
Yue Lang turned his head to follow the shadow and saw the burning mountains behind her, and in front of the mountains, a pair of intense and dazzling eyes.
"They should let us, since the rules don't say we can't fly."
After all, when the rules were set, no one expected someone to fly.
"Let's leave it here. It's too heavy, and it's too far from the mountain gate."
Meng Yan threw out the mechanical kite, and Yue Lang tossed the iron umbrella in his arms into the air. He leaned over the railing and watched her tiptoe into the driver's seat. After straightening her skirt, she glanced at him with an unfriendly expression.
Haven't you ever seen someone who's not used to wearing certain clothes?
"I wouldn't dare." Yue Lang stepped back a few paces, not hindering her from activating the mechanical kite. "It's just that I suddenly feel that this trip has been too much trouble for Miss Yan."
Meng Yan waved her hand, faced forward, pasted the talisman on the inside of the mechanism, and patted the flying mechanism, ready to press it.
A little wooden sparrow flapped its wings, carrying a sky full of fiery red, and flew unsteadily toward the two of them.
“My mechanical sparrow.” Meng Yan’s gaze followed it to Yue Lang’s hand.
It was a wooden sparrow with exquisite details, every feather had been handled by its owner, and Meng Yan's bird logo was engraved on its tail, giving it a liveliness and vitality that did not belong to wood.
“You look a lot like me.” Yue Lang poked the bird’s head, which was completely unresponsive, and blurted out this sentence for no reason.
After a moment of silence, Meng Yan couldn't understand his words, so she simply stopped thinking about it, patted the railing to say goodbye, and then soared into the sky.
"See you next time, Miss Yan!" Yue Lang withdrew his gaze from the little sparrow and turned to the departing mechanical kite.
"Where is Miss Meng Yan?" Li Li appeared out of nowhere.
Yue Lang grinned and winked at him, then released the little wooden sparrow from his hand and pointed upwards with one finger.
Li Li squinted at the boundless fiery clouds, and it took him a long time to notice a small creature in the fire—a dark shadow that was gradually flying away.
"Yes, that's right, it's Miss Yan." Before he could ask, Yue Lang said smugly.
"Can it really go to heaven?" Li Li watched the dot disappear into the clouds, closed his eyes and rubbed them, realizing the tone of the person next to him. "Wait a minute, even if it's Miss Meng Yan, what are you so excited about?"
Yue Lang shook his head smugly in front of him, holding Meng Yan's little mechanical sparrow in his hands, and casually said, "I don't know, I just feel that Miss Yan is very amazing, and I feel happy whenever I think of her."
Overjoyed, Yue left behind his puzzled senior brother Li and went back to his room alone, humming a tune while holding the bird.
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