My Wife Is A Sword Immortal
Chapter 434 - 304 Spring Returns to Zhongnan, Xu Qing Prohibited from the State_2

Chapter 434: Chapter 304 Spring Returns to Zhongnan, Xu Qing Prohibited from the State_2

But suddenly, he paused and turned his head toward the entrance of the Osmanthus Forest.

Soon, the immature sounds of conversation reached his ears.

"Xu Qing, why are you walking so slowly? Hurry up. This bluestone isn’t even that high; what are you afraid of? Just jump down like me. And to think you are a boy, pah, just a bookworm."

"Yu Nuang, wait for me, wait for me. I’d better be steady, or I’ll tear my clothes again."

Before long, two children were hopping and entering the Osmanthus Forest.

From a distance among the trees, beneath the osmanthus tied with red strings, Lin Wenruo silently watched.

He saw that the two children were a boy and a girl.

They both seemed to be about eight or nine years old.

The boy was dressed in a fitting little scholar’s attire, the garb of the offspring of a well-off scholarly family from Luojing City,

while the girl was dressed in a faded white, simple but clean Daoist robe, a little Daoist nun.

It didn’t take much thought to know that she must be a nun from the new Daoist Temple on Taibai Mountain.

At this moment, the little Daoist nun who seemed to be called Yu Nuang glanced sidelong at the little scholar named Xu Qing beside her.

"Why did it take you so long to come to find me?"

Xu Qing grimaced, "My family has been busy lately, and my parents have not been going up the mountain to burn incense. How could I find you then?"

Yu Nuang looked back at the Daoist Temple being rebuilt on the mountain peak and pouted,

"Can’t you come on your own? We promised to watch the fireworks together during the new year. I even secretly saved a firework for you behind the steward Daoist’s back, humph, you never came, and now it’s gone, all gone."

Xu Qing scratched his head, "The teacher at the academy said that men and women should not touch and must observe propriety. How could I come to find you alone?"

From a distance, a tall Confucian scholar saw this scene and paused his foot that he was about to lift, quietly observing without a word.

Yu Nuang broke off a twig and idly swept at the ground, not looking at Xu Qing, who was dull-witted and overly timid.

"Oh, so no touching between men and women, huh? Then why did you willingly follow me here?"

Xu Qing blushed, "I, I..."

He avoided the narrow gaze of the little Daoist nun he had met for the first time at the temple.

Glancing around, he tried to change the subject,

"By the way, Yu Nuang, where is this? Maybe we should go back to the temple. If my parents find out I’m missing..."

Yu Nuang interrupted,

"Your parents are praying for blessings for you; it’ll take a long while. I know the temple procedures. Let’s just play for a bit. When it’s time, I’ll take you back on time, don’t worry."

She dropped the twig and clapped her hands, her domineering countenance as if everything was under control.

"Oh."

Xu Qing finally felt reassured and looked around the secluded Osmanthus Forest.

Seeing this, Yu Nuang explained further:

"This part of the Osmanthus Forest in the back mountain, I come here rarely, usually there’s no outsiders. Hmm, let’s have an adventure today, don’t worry, there’s no one else..."

But in the next second,

Her words faltered.

Because as she spoke, her curious gaze happened to catch a man standing silently among the trees not far away.

Soon, Xu Qing, the little boy, also noticed the figure.

The two young children looked at each other and then simultaneously stopped their steps.

Seeing this, Lin Wenruo slightly raised his eyelids and snapped back to reality.

He pursed his lips and immediately stepped forward, walking straight ahead.

Soon, Lin Wenruo arrived not far in front of the pair of playmates who appeared to have met while burning incense.

Without stopping,

just as they were about to pass by each other,

Yu Nuang stepped forward, blocking Xu Qing’s front, and mustering her courage, she said to Lin Wenruo:

"You, who are you? How dare you trespass into the back mountain of our Daoist Temple?"

Facing this tall stranger, her expression was fierce, but her eyes kept darting away, evasive.

The little Daoist nun’s pretense of strength masked her inner weakness, indicating that she was not as fearless and bold as she seemed.

Lin Wenruo’s gaze lingered on the little Daoist nun’s face.

He looked somewhat stunned.

But almost immediately after hearing her words,

Lin Wenruo lowered his gaze and continued on without a word, walking straight past them toward the exit.

Xu Qing and Yu Nian saw the unfamiliar man leave without uttering a single word.

They exchanged a glance and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Soon, they noticed Lin Wenruo seemed to have walked far away.

The two childhood friends then resumed their exploration of the Osmanthus Forest.

Lin Wenruo kept walking straight ahead without looking back.

As he walked, the voices of the little Confucian scholar and the young Daoist nun faintly reached him from behind.

"Yu Nian, look at that person’s appearance; it’s so strange."

"Yeah, he... he looks like a lonely ghost."

"Yu Nian, you shouldn’t talk about people like that."

"Oh oh, like you’re one to talk, all skin and bones, no strength at all, yet you like to lecture people."

"It’s the most basic principle of being a person and dealing with things."

In the midst of their conversation, the ghostly-looking tall Confucian scholar continued to walk without pause.

"Fine, fine, I’ll listen to you, who else but you will marry me in the future?"

"I, I was forced into agreeing by you, it was so long ago, how can you still remember that?"

"Hmph, my memory is excellent. I can remember anything for a lifetime at a moment’s notice. What, do you think you can back out now? Be careful, or I’ll tell your teacher at the academy that Xu Qing doesn’t keep his word."

"No, no, no, I’ll marry you, alright? But, we’ll have to wait until I’ve finished studying and returned after completing my learning, won’t we?"

"No, you are not allowed to study anymore after that. Read too much, and out of ten men, eight turn bad, one becomes foolish from reading, and the last becomes both bad and foolish from reading."

"???"

"I heard from the pilgrims that Lin Wenruo of Lanxi is just like that, he read too much, and after coming back... "

"Yu Nian, you must not talk about Lin Wenruo of Lanxi like that. Although many people criticize him, I think..."

"Hmph, I don’t care what you think, it’s what I think that matters."

"Yu Nian, Zhongnan Mountain already has so many impressive predecessors and with the new policies now being so successful, the nation is at peace and doesn’t need me."

"Ho-ho, you’re short, but you sure don’t lack ambition. However, you’re right. Our Daoist Temple is still doing pretty well, living comfortably, and that Lin Wenruo does have some conscience. So, there aren’t any natural or man-made disasters for you to save us from now, and if there were, it wouldn’t be your concern... So, why do you still study?"

"I want to be like that Sir Zhao with his exceptional character. Last year, I went to the outskirts of the city to cut willow branches to send him off."

"Yu Nian, I have heard that he is one of the scholars from Linlu Academy. The elegance of Sir Zhao is like admiring a tall mountain from afar, aspiring to his moral integrity, though not able to reach it, the heart yearns to follow his example."

"When I grow up, I also want to study at the Linlu Academy in the far north of Yizhou. I wonder if he will still be there at that time. Besides, I’ve heard that the world outside is so vast, to ’read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles’..."

"Stop, stop, stop. Can you take me with you?"

"No... ouch, why are you hitting me?"

"I’m just rubbing your shoulders. Now, Xu Qing, think carefully before you answer this question."

"......"

"Uh, you little brat, can we go together, give me a definitive answer?"

"Alright, okay..."

"That’s more like it. Hey, why is that osmanthus tree tied with a red string? I’ve heard about this custom of tying red strings to osmanthus trees before, it’s truly beautiful, but who tied this red string?"

"I don’t know..."

The voices of the two youngsters slowly faded away, carried off by the mountain wind, becoming a part of the unknown tales of Taibai Mountain, witnessed only by the wind and the osmanthus trees.

Outside the Osmanthus Forest, the figure of a certain tall Confucian scholar gradually disappeared.

————

PS: Today I wrote a side story about the protagonist’s little friend...

After finishing it, suddenly I felt an urge.

No, not that kind of urge, but the impulse to write a side story about Lin Wenruo and Lan Yuqing.

Because I have had some brothers mention before, there are those who like these two characters and also those who feel indifferent or even dislike them.

Ahem, after some thought, I decided to write a bit as a compromise and to give some closure, while also attempting to change the perspective and not to focus solely on the protagonist, trying out the use of flashbacks...

Additionally, the side story about the little one has been submitted and should participate in the event of the Qidian main site, brothers should be able to see it in a few days.

(That being said, it’s my first time writing a side story, and I’m not sure how well it turned out, but anyway, Xiao Rong wrote it as part of the main story, as a complement to the text...)

Wow, writing the side story took a whole day, and it ended up longer than my daily updates.)