Lin Luoran and Luodong have a lot of fun in Mount Hua for the next few days.
They not only travel in Mount Hua, but also have a tour inside the Qinling Mountains. Staying at somewhere no one else lives in is actually more comfortable for Lin Luoran.
At night, they stay in a tent put up in the mountain. What they eat mainly comes from the mountains as well. In summer, there will always be a lot of mushrooms in mountains and Luodong has enjoyed all kinds of mushroom soup thanks to that. They have also tasted bird eggs. When Lin Luoran takes eggs from the nests, she just takes half of them, leaving some for the birds to multiply.
In the day, they have fun in the mountains. Lin Luoran teaches Luodong to recognize all kinds of animals and plants. If some rare ones are strange to Lin Luoran, they take photos of them. They also take photos of the beautiful spring, the strange rocks, or even a cute monkey.
Seeing from this perspective, modern technology invented by human beings is actually advisable.
Apart from all the fun they have, Lin Luoran also finds wild mountain ginseng and ganoderma. The former is good in quality as they are about a hundred years old. Therefore, Lin Luoran puts them inside the space and grow them with ginseng. The ganoderma she finds is ordinary, but it enjoys a good reputation, so Lin Luoran grows some in the space, too.
In the day, Lin Luoran usually finds a cliff that is suitable for climbing. She goes up to the top and ties the mountaineering rope. While she is waiting on the top, drinking tea, Luodong is trying hard to climb onto the cliff — naturally, Luodong needed to be “rescued” by Lin Luoran at first, but after a few days of climbing, Luodong falls in love with this sport.
They travel all the way to Mount Wuyi. Lin Luoran is “up to no good” here. Night falls and they are still hiding in the Jiulongke Scenery Spot. Lin Luodong thinks for a while and suddenly recognizes what his sister is about to do — but, is it good to be a thief?
Lin Luoran ignores what is happening inside her brother’s mind and she quietly “steals” some branches from one seed tree of Dahongpao tea. Cliff can never resist Wind-riding Spell so she does that easily. If cultivators are up to no good, they can do a lot more harm than ordinary people.
Naturally, Lin Luoran doesn’t just take branches from the seed tree. Although the government has forbidden people to pick leaves from it, Lin Luoran is not sure whether people actually follow the rule or not. She doesn’t want the tree to be withered in the future, which will definitely make tea-lovers sad, so she infuses pure wood Reiki into this tree. It is a big price for the branches!
Lin Luoran planned to plant all kinds of famous tea in her space, but her plan stops after their tour in Mount Wuyi.
On the one hand, Luodong is about to start school again. She cannot take him play anymore.
On the other hand, Lin Luoran receives a call from Wen Guanjing, who has not met her for three years. He asks her to meet him in R City, saying that there is an emergency.
Wen Guanjing seems to be quite busy these years. He is always on missions abroad. However, when he comes back, he takes care of the Lin family. At least, Lin Luoran has heard her mother ask, “Why is Guanjing not coming?” several times. Apart from her mother’s ulterior motive, Lin Luoran actually likes this friend.
Although Luodong hasn’t had enough fun, he goes back to R City with his sister a few hours later.
Luodong is about to go back to school. Therefore, Mrs. Lin has cleaned the house in the city and moved in. Mr. Lin and Baojia stay in the mountain to continue their cultivation and Goldie feels more comfortable in the mountain as well.
Wen Guanjing waits for her at their house in the city. Lin Luoran arrives home at 3:00 p.m. and she finds Wen Guanjing chatting with her mother. Seeing her daughter coming back wearily, Mrs. Lin feels proud that her daughter finally grows up. Besides, she keeps saying that Luodong gets tanned and thin after the tour.
“Mom, what are you talking about? I’m a man now!” Luodong shows off his muscle, which is an achievement of climbing the mountains.
Mrs. Lin is shocked. This is the first time that he actually calls her “mom”, but Luodong doesn’t give her time to take in. He says, “Mom, I got you some flowers as well, and we took a lot of photos. Come upstairs and I’ll show you…”
He takes Mrs. Lin, who is still in shock, upstairs, and he blinks to Lin Luoran — OMG! Lin Luoran is almost choked by the tea she is drinking. Their relationship is not like that of Pei Yuan and Xia Bingyan. Why is Luodong misunderstanding!
There are only Wen Guanjing and Lin Luoran left in the living room. They haven’t met for a long time and Wen Guanjing breaks the silence, “Sister Lin… No, Uncle Lin, congratulations on successfully laying foundation.”
Lin Luoran “begs for mercy” and says, “Please… Just call me Sister Lin.” In the cultivation world, there is a clear rank. She cannot call Wen Guanjing “Brother” again, or other people will think that Wen Guanjing is arrogant.
“Of course, Sister Lin!” Wen Guanjing takes her advice. He is comfortable with Lin Luoran. After all, they have been in the secret land together and it will be great if they are still close.
Lin Luoran thinks for a while and takes out the Universal Sack kept in the space. Inside the Universal Sack is one of the twelve jades that open the secret land. It is this piece of jade that helped her get out of the secret land at the very last moment and started her wonderful journey on the sea.
She can refuse to give it back to Chen Yun as she doesn’t like him, but she must give it back to Wen Guanjing.
However, Wen Guanjing just takes the piece of jade. He explains to her, “This one belongs to the Wen family and I cannot call the shots… As for the Universal Sack and the Jade Map, they are souvenirs for cultivators who have been to the secret land. Sister Lin, you can keep them.”
“I heard that you have been abroad these years. Now that you come back, why do you come to R City instead of taking a good rest?” By saying “rest”, Lin Luoran actually means “cultivation”. She is surprised to find that he has not made any progress since their farewell three years ago. Wen Guanjing is greatly valued by the master of the Wen family and the so-called “Minister Chen” and he is the best one among the young generation, so he should have a good Taoist root…
Speaking of his experience abroad, Wen Guanjing gets excited. He says in a mystic tone, “Sister Lin, you will never know what I have found these years abroad.”
Lin Luoran turns to him. Wen Guanjing looks for something in his Universal Sack. Lin Luoran looks at him with expectation but just sees him taking out a laptop. If there is anything special with this laptop, it is the latest model of IBM.
“Your gift to me?”
Wen Guanjing answers, “Yes, I have a gift for you, but no, not this laptop.”
He opens the laptop and asks anxiously, “Sister, have you watched the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy?”
That is a classic movie and Lin Luoran watched it when she was in university. It is so special that she can even remember the story clearly today.
“The one about Bushmen?”
The movie was made in the 1980s. It tells an interesting story of the Bushmen, who live in the desert in Africa, got confronted with modern civilization. Although they were just 600 kilometers away from the modern city, the Bushmen had no idea of modern civilization. They drank water from tree roots, tree sap and the dewdrop on the leaves in the morning. They lived on hunting and there was no fight or conflict between them. It was a pure, happy and peaceful tribe. However, their life changed one day, when a plastic bottle dropped from a plane by accident…
Lin Luoran is mostly impressed by the language used by Bushmen, which she cannot understand at all. However, how is this movie connected with Wen Guanjing’s gift?
The laptop is turned on quickly. Lin Luoran looks at the screen. It is a picture in the desert with someone standing in front of some colorful murals. The murals are carved in the rock with beautiful colors. They are very eye-catching.
However, why is the picture familiar? Lin Luoran thinks very hard and realizes that she has seen the picture before — isn’t that the still photo of the TV series Heroes? The painter who predicts the future with his murals in the desert?
Wen Guanjing is not a strange person who will call her back just to show her a still photo… She looks more carefully and sees Wen Guanjing’s hand shaking.
“This one is just a foreshadowing. Sister Lin, are you aware that the Bushmen are also very good at recording history with murals apart from hunting and tracking? This picture was firstly shot at the Kalahari Desert in Africa…”
Saying this, Wen Guanjing clicks on a coded picture. Lin Luoran glances at it casually but gets surprised at once.
Is that…?
Wen Guanjing clicks on the mouse and shows multiple pictures of similar scenes with a little difference. She can tell that the pictures are telling the same story. Different pictures provide different angles and different pieces of evidence.
Lin Luoran doesn’t say anything. She looks much more serious than Wen Guanjing.
There are less than ten pictures and she finishes looking at them soon.
Lin Luoran turns to Wen Guanjing, hoping to get a “no” from him. However, Wen Guanjing nods his head solemnly.
“Sister, this is the most precious thing I have got abroad… The Bushmen who can draw pictures have given me a lot of pleasant surprises.”
Lin Luoran breathes out slowly. It is not really a pleasant surprise for her, but it really shocks her — if something happens once, it can be fake, but if it happens again in Africa, what does it mean?
Will it be what they have been expecting for?
