Chapter 026｜House of Listening to the Wind

Zhang Ke pushed open the door and saw Venerable Master Pu Zhao standing in the doorway, with eight monks standing at attention behind him.

Mei Niang wiped away her tears and greeted her with a strong face. Li Jing then remembered that Emperor Liang had an edict ordering Puzhao to guard Xie Kangtu's safety. I think Puzhao has already discussed with Wen Zhongyuan and others, and rushed to Zhang Ke's house in the night.

Zhang Ke wanted to invite the monks inside. Venerable Master Puzhao said, "There is no need for you to take the trouble. The monk is not convenient to borrow the night, the poor monk has prepared the felt tents, in your house outside the wall set up, all the food and living are not bother the prince's maternal uncle." Originally, the master had travelled to the northern grasslands and the northwestern nomadic tribes, learned to use willow wood to weave a dome of hard circle, and then cover with a felt blanket, while securing it tightly with ropes, easy to stationed at any time at any time to evacuate, as the Turkic, DangXang or Qiang people people in general.

The Venerable Master Puzhao ordered the monks to fix the felt tent outside the courtyard, and entered the hall by himself. Zhang Ke rushed to let Mei Niang clean up the food and wine, after all, in front of the monks to eat meat and drink a lot of wine is extremely inappropriate. Venerable Master Puzhao said: "You do not have to compromise yourselves for the sake of the poor monk's perception. Poor monks have already eaten, you all make yourselves at home."

Meiniang still cleared the dish table and invited Puzhao to take a seat.

Zhang Ke said, "The Venerable Master has been ordered to protect my family's safety, Zhang Ke is most grateful. However, after all, that Xiao Mohe only has a few hundred people, although Liang is weak, there are five thousand guards in the Imperial City, are we afraid of him?"

Venerable Master Puzhao said, "What the prince's maternal uncle said is very true. However, in the contest between countries, there is light and there is dark. Xiao Mohe surface rough, inner extremely treacherous, Chen thousands of temples, half for his control, even if the city of Jiangling, it is difficult to say how many spies. Since the poor monk has been ordered, he will have to escort the princess, the prince's maternal uncle, Boat Owner Xie and so on, until the ship's spectrum is drawn, Boat Owner Xie leaves peacefully, the poor monk will then go back to Jiangling to resume his duties."

Xiao Meiniang said, "When the Venerable Master was at the door, he said that the royal family was all ice and charcoal, could it be that year ..."

Venerable Master Puzhao said, "Forget about the past. If the Great Liang Kingdom had not been in internal strife, father and son and brothers were jealous of each other, would there have been an opportunity for the chaotic minister Chen Baxian to seize the throne? Poor monk listening to the princess sighing, just inform the princess common sense."

Xiao Meiniang said, "Since the Venerable Master encountered the scourge of the Xiao Wall back then, why did he return to his homeland?"

Venerable Puzhao raised his eyebrows and said, "Although the poor monk is outside of the three realms, his flesh is from Xiao Liang. If the country is in trouble, how can the descendants of Xiao Liang do nothing? The current emperor is indecisive, but the foundation created by Emperor Wu will not allow others to trample on it? The people of Jiangling are eager for the revival of Liang. As long as the Liang State is diligent in its governance, builds warships and naval forces on a large scale, it can rejuvenate its spirit, the heroes of the family such as Duke Zhong Yuan will raise their arms, and all the people will respond to their call. Therefore, I also hope that the princess, the prince's maternal uncle of the state to the overall situation, not because of small details and put the country's safety and security at risk."

Zhang Ke nodded in agreement, while Mei Niang wanted to speak.

Not long after, a middle-aged monk outside the house came to report that the felt tent had been set up, and invited the abbot to rest in the tent. Venerable Master Puzhao comforted Mei Niang with a few words, and then went with the monk.

Xie Kangtu said, "Princess, the prince's maternal uncle, Xie Mou has eaten and drunk enough, please prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone, I will draw this."

Zhang Ke said, "In my opinion, even though Venerable Master Puzhao is leading the expert guards, I am afraid that someone will still come to hijack Shipowner Xie, so we might as well take a few days to look at the situation before saying anything."

Xie Kangtu laughed, ''It's still Mu Li, the capable younger brother. Once the matter is made public, it becomes harmless. I anticipate that no one will disturb me while I am drawing the ship's register.On the contrary, when the ship's register is completed, there might be some trouble. Whether it is a blessing or a curse for the ship's catalogue is beyond my control, so I can only follow orders. Only when this shackle is removed, can I return to my hometown."

Zhang Ke had to prepare the four treasures in the study, and Li Jing took care of them. Although Xie Kangtu's leg was still in pain, he was no longer in any serious condition.

Li Jing carried him to the desk, and according to his instructions, he picked out brushes of different thicknesses and finenesses, and finely ground the black ink produced in Fufeng, Yongzhou. Zhang Ke is a person of leisure, usually in addition to fishing and farming flowers, is to practice calligraphy and painting, the hall, the study hung in the calligraphy and painting from his hand, although it can not be said to be the style of everyone, but also gradually reach the top. To ensure the atlas would not fade and could be preserved for a long time, Zhang Ke specially took out a stack of durable, water-resistant mulberry bark paper. This paper was fine, thick, and slightly yellow in color, resembling cloth fabric.

Xie Kangtu sat in front of the case and began to draw.

He first classified the ships and listed their names, then drew the ship types according to the names and supplemented them with textual descriptions. These ship types included the tower ship, Yu Huang, dragon boat, Meng Chong, warship, Zou Ge, yacht, and Hai Hu, among over a dozen others. Upon seeing them, Li Jing felt as if he had encountered a heavenly scrip.Until almost 9 o'clock in the evening, Xie Kangtu was carried to the bathroom by Li Jing. After using the bathroom, they went to the guest room to rest.

During the night, the wind was indeed whistling. The window panes were slapped by the river wind, making people's hearts skip a beat. It's unknown by what method Zhang Ke used to prevent the thatched roof from being blown away by the strong wind.. This "Windy Grass Hall" seemed to live up to its name. Li Jing tossed and turned until late at night before falling asleep.

The next morning, Xie Kangtu washed and dined, and continued to paint. Last night was just a sketch, but today is to draw in detail, there are more than ten kinds of brushes used, there are thick and thin, long and short, and even asked Zhang Ke to use a bamboo blade to make a blade-like dip pen, point, hook, stroke, paint, everything has to be accurate, the line can not be thick a millimetre, nor can it be thin a centimetre. If the hand trembles or fails to control the strength properly, and a single stroke in the middle is made incorrectly, the entire drawing would be considered ruined.

 Li Jing felt that the drawing of the atlas is extremely complicated, only the building of a ship, probably need more than ten pages to understand, not only the length and width, beams and pillars, the height of the floor, plates, crossbow windows, spears, throwing cars, the shapes of stacked stones, fang banners, flags, and golden drums all need to be drawn out,and their dimensions and materials used should be detailed, and even the oars, zhaos, poles, sculls, mats, ropes, and other accessories have a graphic. Xie Kangtu told Li Jing that the ship could be ten feet high, fifteen feet wide, twenty feet long, with five floors, and could accommodate a thousand people, with all the tools of war, guards, and amenities, just like a small drifting city.

Li Jing had practised calligraphy since he was a child, and painting had almost no foundation, so when he copied the first one, Xie Kangtu advised him not to attempt it. Even Qing Ni laughed her back off when she saw that provisional copy of the painting. Zhang Ke tried a few pages, but they were all out of shape as well. Mei Niang, who had embroidered since she was a child and also liked painting, she picked up a pen and began to copy. Xie Kangtu took a look and praised, "Princess painting skills, gifted by God, more beautiful than my original."Li Jing took a closer look, and it was really hard to tell if it was real or fake. However, Mei Niang's calligraphy was average. Zhang Ke then followed Xie Kangtu's notes on the small characters, and wrote on Mei Niang's copy, which was even better than Xie Kangtu's. Zhang Xiao's nieces collaborated on this project. So Zhang Xiao's uncle and nephew worked together, but Xie Kangtu could not keep up.

However, although Li Jing's transcription was not up to standard, his memory was amazing. Every day, he helped to tidy up and organise, and unknowingly kept the already drafted ship's atlas in his mind.

So for several days in a row, more and more drawings accumulated on the case, Li Jing gradually accustomed to sleeping peacefully in the gale. Xie Kangtu was a rigorous and meticulous painter, and if something was not as good as it should be, he would overturn it and start over. Meiniang was also extremely attentive, and joined forces with Zhang Ke to transcribe. Because of her quick hands, she was able to catch up with the progress even though she made two copies. Li Jing was unable to help, so he had to play with A Yue in the grassy hall and teach her to read and write.

A Yue is exceptionally intelligent, Li Jing with a wooden board made of four-sided sand bucket, filled with sand in the bucket, pushed flat and then write with a twig, write and teach A Yue pronunciation, and then pushed flat and write again, A Yue actually a few times that can be accurately pronounced.

Li Jing explained the pictographic imagery of Chinese characters by extending their roots based on the five elements: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth, and combining them with the natural world. He took her hand, went outside, and observed things like boats, vehicles, trees, water, mountains, rocks, soil, and fields, drawing out their imagery.Explaining the pictographic nature of Chinese characters based on the principles of Cangjie's character creation and relating them to visible objects, Ayue quickly recognized characters, and sometimes even drew inferences from one example. Once, when Li Jing was discussing the character "清" (qing), Ayue understood that the water component represented flowing water, but she did not understand the "青" (qing) part.

Li Jing explained, "When the character '青' was created, the bottom part was not '月' (moon), but '丹' (dan), which refers to a vermilion well. The top part is '生' (life/growth), representing the lush green vegetation growing above the ancient vermilion well. Therefore, the character '青' extends to mean 'beautiful' or 'good'. For instance, the character '晴' (qing) means 'beautiful sunlight', '情' (qing) refers to a 'beautiful heart or spirit', '睛' (jing) is 'beautiful eyes', '倩' (qian) represents a 'beautiful person', '婧' (jing) is a 'beautiful woman', and '清' (qing) means 'beautiful water'."

Ayue's eyes widened as she listened, and after a while, she said, "Brother Mulì, does the character '靖' then mean 'beautifully standing'?"

Li Jing was surprised, not expecting her to know this character. He couldn't recall if he had written it for her, or if she might have inadvertently seen or read it in the sand. He immediately said, "That interpretation works, but a more accurate explanation would be 'beautifully composed in standing', which conveys tranquility, and later extended to mean stability."

A Yue seems to understand but not quite, however, she quickly became familiar with this method of learning characters."

Li Jing teaches Ah Yue how to read, while Qing Ni feeds the horses, carries water, cooks, and everyone is busy and happy. The monks outside the courtyard never came in to disturb them, so the days were quite peaceful.

The weather cleared up on this day. After breakfast, Meiniang said to Zhang Ke, "Uncle, it's a sunny day, I want to go to Shuangxi to catch some fish. Brother Mu Li, you go with me." Zhang Ke urged her to be careful. Qingni wanted to follow her. Mei Niang said, " Qing Ni has to look after A yue, and also prepare the meal. The monks outside the courtyard also brought them vegetarian cakes and hot water to eat."

Qing Ni answered, with some strange laughter in her gaze. Mei Niang did not care about her, and led Li Jing out the door. The felt tents tied outside the courtyard glowed yellowish in the sunlight, the monks opened the tent door and meditated on their knees in the tent. Puzhao greeted them and asked, "Where is the princess going?"

Mei Niang flung her fishing rod and laughed, "Venerable Master need not worry, I will go with Brother Mu Li to catch some fish by the stream. Boat Owner Xie needs to replenish his body as he draws regardless of the day."

Puzhao said, "Even though there is a little Mr guarding her, the princess is distinguished status., so she still needs to be careful."

Mei Niang smiled with a pout, ''How could a distinguished status be troubled by livelihood? Don't worry, Uncle Ancestor, no one will make trouble for me. Instead, it's Mr. Xie, the boat owner in the house, and little Ah Yue, I ask the venerable monks to protect them." Having said this, he didn't look back and walked towards the river with Li Jing.

It was only then that Li Jing realised that Zhang Ke's residence was only a shot away from the river, so it was no wonder that the night wind was so strong. Walking along the river, but see the turbid river waves, volatile, the villages on the other side of the bank can only be vaguely seen, the clouds in the distance, the mountains submerged shape. Li Jing couldn't help but feel a great deal of fluency in his heart.

Xiao Meiniang knew the area like the back of her hand. After leading Li Jing past the hills, he saw a small river rushing down. About three or four miles up the river, two clear streams flowed down from the mountains. Mei Niang turned around and smiled sweetly at Li Jing, "Do you want to eat the best fish? It's just up in the mountains."

Li Jing said, "Princess, aren't there fish in the river?"

Mei Niang laughed chirpily, "At a glance, you are the young master , how would you know that while river fish is certainly easy to obtain, the taste is much worse. If it is not a silver fish raised in the clear water of the mountains, how can it make one's mouth unforgettable?"

Li Jing saw that she was full of spring, smiling like a flower, and couldn't help but look infatuated. Xiao Meniang saw her staring at herself and couldn't help but blush, "What's there to see?"

"The princess is really good looking ..." Li Jing's heart was slightly rippling, and he couldn't help but blush.

All women are happy when they are admired by men. Mei Niang stretched out her slender hand, stroked his face, and laughed, "You ah, you are still a little small ... Now that we have sworn to be siblings, you should not call me princess anymore. It's better to call me sister."

"Sister ...," Li Jing mumbled up, "I'm twelve years old and I'll grow up soon."

Mei Niang turned around and continued walking towards the mountains. It was early winter, the grass and trees were sallow, the mountains were jagged, and there was mist rising up from the edge of the stream, making everything seem less real. Li Jing followed behind her, the mountain breeze sending gusts of fragrance, before his eyes was Mei Niang's graceful figure, like a butterfly travelling through the grass and trees. His heart and soul were swirling, his footsteps were like stepping on top of clouds, although the mountain path was rugged, he did not find it difficult to walk.

After going up the hill and turning the depression, but a waterfall was seen cascading down from a distant cliff, haped like a white cloth, falling into the pool. The small pool was a deep turquoise colour, rising layers of mist, in the sunlight there are a number of rainbow shadow. Pool side of no grass, all the different forms of white stone, immaculate, surrounded by a circle, the pool water can only be slightly lower from the stone gap in the outflow, the formation of two streams, along the mountain trend and flow down.

Climbing up the white rock pile, Mei Niang called out, "Brother come quickly, let's go down to the pool to fish." Saying so, she first threw her fishing rod to the edge of the pool, then tightened her body to the rock and went down. Li Jing saw her light body, agile and skilful movements, and his heart was even more in awe. So he followed her example, but in the middle of the journey, he accidentally slipped down. Mei Niang let out a cry of surprise and reached out to embrace him. The two of them simultaneously rolled down onto the soft sand at the edge of the pool.

Li Jing, being held by her, felt a soft, warm, and fragrant sensation, as if in a dream. Mei Niang's soft and long breath, gentle embrace, made his heart that was about to pop out of his chest, he clearly felt that she was a mature woman. He didn't want to let go of Mei Niang, and Mei Niang didn't seem to want to push him away either. The sound of roaring water in the distance seemed to be fuelling them. Li Jing tightly closed his eyes, not wanting to awaken from this beautiful dream.

However, Mei Niang still picked him up and gently pushed him out of her arms, patting the sandy soil that was stained on her body, and laughed, "You're so small, but you're so bad! Did you fall down on purpose so that your elder sister could hug you?" Saying that, her cheeks blushed.

Li Jing stood up and answered honestly, "Yes."

Mei Niang picked up the fishing rod and took his hand, "Come on, let's go fishing."

Li Jing said, "There are fish in this pool?"

Mei Niang said: "This pool is called seven star pool, legend has it that there are seven stars in the sky fell into the pool. The fish in this pool ah, perhaps dipped in the light of the seven stars, tender and tasty, to ensure that after you eat, no longer want to eat river fish ah."

Li Jing said, "Seven stars? Could it be Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tiangui, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Shaking Light?"

Mei Niang laughed, ''Brother is talking about the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The seven stars in this pool are different again, they are Wen Xing, General Xing, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn. It is said that on the 7th day of the 7th month every year, there is a gathering of the seven stars in the pool and the light shines. Those fish then float up from the bottom of the water and eat the stars into their bellies. That's why the fish here are all spiritual."

Li Jing was stunned, "As long as the night sky is clear and the moon in early July is as curved as a moth-eyebrow, it's not uncommon for stars to be reflected in the water, but they say that the fish eat the stars in the water, I don't believe it."

Mei Niang pouted her little mouth, ''You fool, why can't fish eat stars? I insist on letting them eat, what can you do about it?"

Seeing her stubborn and mischievous appearance, Li Jing's heart was like honey, and he laughed, "Sister,it's not just about letting fish eat stars, even letting stars eat fish is natural and reasonable."

Mei Niang spread her smile and said, "That's more like it. But if I let the fish eat me, will you promise?"

Li Jing didn't think twice: "No."

Mei Niang tilted her pink chin up, "Why?"

Li Jing looked at her fixedly, "Because sister is so beautiful, there is only one in the whole world."

Mei Niang giggled, her face red in the sunlight. She suddenly sighed and sat down on a white stone by the pool, patting her side: "Come sit by my side and watch me fish."

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Li Jing obediently sat beside her. Mei Niang first put the bait on the hook, and with a fling of the fishing rod, the bait turned into an arc and fell into the pool, causing a small ripple. Li Jing's heart rippled away with that ripple mark.

Mei Niang held the fishing rod and said softly, ''You complimented sister on her beauty, sister is so happy. In this world, there are only two people who have truly complimented me on my beauty from the bottom of their hearts. One is you ..."

Li Jing interrupted her, "The other one, I know who it is."

"You know?" Mei Niang looked back at him, "How do you know?"

Li Jing looked fixedly at the pool that had calmed down and said, "I know, it's that Prince Yi Huang."

Mei Niang asked with some alarm, "What else do you know?"

Li Jing didn't make a sound. He didn't know whether to say anything or not. A sour flavour spread in his heart, making him feel a pain he had never felt before. What was the difference between saying or not saying? He was a prince, he was a man of cloth; he could mobilise thousands of troops and horses, he could only walk alone; he was like the stars in the sky, he was like a small fish in the water.

As long as he is there, even the brightest sky seems dull.