There are tens of thousands of acres of verdant mountains in the beautiful city of Yibin. Boundless bamboo forests cover hundreds of hills that are connected to each other.
In the east of Yibin, there is a county called Changning. Going 60 kilometers from Yibin to Changning, you’ll get to the entrance of “the Sea of Bamboo in the south of Chuan province”.
Temperatures are rising, even the wind in the city is hot. People living in the city can’t withstand the heat and all go on holidays in the bamboo forest where it is cool in summer and warm in winter.
The river is singing. Birds are chirping. Wildflowers are growing in the green bamboo forest. When tourists walk along the crooked roads in the forest, they feel as if they were getting out of the earthly world and became immortals. If you come across a girl in a green dress deep in the bamboo forest, she must look like a fairy living in the mountains.
Passing the Worry Free Valley, you’ll find the “Emerald Corridor” of the bamboo forest. There are dozens of miles of tourist trails. If visitors walk along the trails, they’ll hear the sound of the running spring and enjoy the scenery in the bamboo forest. With the fragrance of bamboo leaves diffusing in the air, people will be very relaxed and peaceful in mind.
Right now, there are three tourists on the Emerald Corridor. The girl walking inat the front seems to be in her twenties. She is in a simple yet beautiful green dress and she doesn’t wear any makeup, which makes the forest even more quiet and enchanting. Her eyes are clear. Others can see the reflections of the swaying bamboo branches in them.
There are also two younger boys who are 15 or 16 years old. One of them is more outgoing. He is taking pictures of the scenery along the road with a DSLR and holds the three of them behind. They walk more slowly than they did at first.
If they didn’t travel together, Lin Luoran would not have known that Lin Luodong is a fan of photography. Cultivators should also have hobbies. Li Xi’er is developing the hobby of flowering. Yuan Ye likes to study spirit herbs. Huang Weijian loves to practice calligraphy. Lin Luoran herself only feels fulfilled when working in her space.
A dew is rolling on the tip of the grass. Lin Luodong stays still for a while to shoot the moment when it rolls down.
“I got it. We can go now.” Lin Luodong feels sorry for having his sister and Huang Weijian waiting for him.
As for Huang Weijian, although he is a cultivator, he has never been out of Rong City. He was raised by his single grandfather in the countryside of Rong City and moved to the city. The mountains are green. The rivers are beautiful. He desperately wants to see everything and remember them deeply in his heart.
While taking pictures of the bamboo forest, Lin Luodong says: “I was wondering where mom and dad are now.”
After returning from the Tower of Babel, Mr. Lin made a particularly romantic decision of taking Mrs. Lin to travel around the world. Their first stop is Hainan. They should enjoy the sunshine on the beach and drink coconut waterjuice at this time. Also, they may have seafood for lunch. Mr. Lin took a lot of fishing gear with him and said he was going to try real sea fishing.
Li Xi’er returned to her teacher’s place. Only Yuan Ye is still at Lin’s villa. He guards the house while teaching his school brother who is a bit slow on the spells of the five elements. This month has become the real tourism month for everyone at Lin’s houseschool.
Lin Luoran chose the Sea of Bamboo in the south of Chuan province to be their first stop because of the bamboo tube that Yuan Ye made last time. The bamboo has Reiki on it. Lin Luoran can transplant the bamboo to her space and the backyard of Lin’s villa. She can also use it to make containers. Maybe it can be used to refine weapons as well? It will be useful anyway.
The sun gradually rises high into the sky. Lin Luodong takes photos and makes them walk slow, so they didn’t get out of the Emerald Corridor until now.
Lin Luoran and Huang Weijian are not tired, but they have to take care of Lin Luodong. There are always a lot of village inns around scenic spots. Lin Luoran wants to pick one randomly to have lunch at. However, restaurants are not like other places. The quieter a restaurant is, the worse its food tastes. Lin Luoran has to choose one with many customers in it to make sure the food they are going to eat is fresh.
People coming to the Sea of Bamboo must try the bamboo banquet or they’ll be laughed at. Lin Luoran decides to try the local food and chooses to sit in the corner of the restaurant. Now, they only need to wait patiently for the bamboo banquet.
The first dish is smoked meat that is finely sliced. Oil on the meat shines under the light. It is made of pork belly and is very oily as if it were made from oil. Lin Luoran takes a bite and finds that the meat tastes very well and is not greasy at all. It tastes even better than their homemade smoked meat when she was little.
Is it smoked with bamboo leaves?
Lin Luodong takes a few bites. The food here is not as fancy as what he eats at home, but the meat tastes well because the pig may be raised in the mountains and is not fed on fodder. The method of smoking meat is also special, which makes it tastes completely different from dishes at Lins.
“This is delicious.” Huang Weijian concludes.
A carefree waiter brings over a big bamboo tube and says: “Sir, more delicious dishes are to come!”
The joint on one side of the bamboo tube is cut off. The tube is filled with tender white tofu. The fragrance of the beans blends with that of the bamboo. Coriander on the withe tofu greatly increases the three customers’ appetite. The waiter then quickly brings three plates of chili sauce, which completes the full process of serving the tofu.
They ordered salmon with bamboo shoots, chicken stewed with bamboo shoots, shredded bamboo shoots seasoned with sesame oil, and delicious soup made of fungus grown in bamboo groves. The three did not order everything on the menu of the bamboo banquet. These dishes are enough.
Lin Luodong volunteers to pay the bill when they finish their lunch. Lin Luoran doesn’t stop him. When Lin Luodong comes back, he is holding a small plate of fried worms.
“Sister, this is from the restaurant. Can we really eat it?” Lin Luodong wonders.
The worms are bamboo shoot worms that are rich in protein. There used to be many of such worms on the mountain behind Li’s Village. Before summers back then, the scent of fried bamboo shoot worms would make Lin Luoran drool. She doesn’t explain it to Lin Luodong. Instead, she throws one into her mouth. The bamboo shoot worms’ feet and wings are already removed before they are fried. To get the best taste, Lin Luoran needs to eat them when they are still hot.
After seeing Lin Luoran enjoys the worms a lot, the two boys grab the worms to eat as well. The taste of the wild worms reminds Huang Weijian that he once ate dishes made of wild animals when he was under ten years old. As for Lin Luodong, this is his first time to try it.
“Excuse me, is the Colorful Waterfall in this way?”
The owner of the restaurant says it is. Lin Luoran thanks the restaurant owner and goes on the trip again with the two teenagers.
They walk slowly along the way because they only need to reach their destination before dark. Even if they can’t, they brought tents and can camp in bamboo forests. It will be a different experience.
The three of them rest a few times along the way. At the same time, Huang Weijian’s mind becomes more peaceful.
Lin Luoran remembers the last time when she took Luodong to travel, she hoped that the trip could let him forget the things that hurt him. Thinking this way, Lin Luoran seems to have done the mental therapists’ work. Lin Luoran smiles secretly and looks up into the sky from time to time. Goldie shows half of his body in the clouds. The cyan little fox must be afraid of falling and holding Goldie’s neck tightly.
Animals should be in the wild and the amazing nature. The last time Lin Luoran took Goldie and the little fox out was when they went to the Tower of Babel. There wasn’t a lot of fun. Rather, Goldie and the little fox still have a lingering fear of almost getting grilled by the Master of Blue Waves. Lin Luoran surely needs to comfort their frightened nerves.
The Sea of Bamboo in the south of Chuan province is lively and beautiful. There are a lot of waterfalls in different shapes on the ups and downs of the mountain. The most magnificent one is the Colorful Waterfall.
At seven o’clock in the evening, the three of them walk to Mount Shigu. Lin Luodong is very excited. He can barely feel his feet. After going down Mount Shigu, they’ll get to the Valley of Gourds where the Colorful Waterfall is.
Lin Luoran can’t help smiling and shakes her head when she sees Lin Luodong is exhausted.
They walk down the mountain along the path and hear the sound of the waterfall clearly. Stream running down the waterfall is astonishing. It is said that at noon on a clear day, a rainbow appears at the bottom of the pond when sunlight falls vertically into it.
They arrive late and miss the rainbow today, but they have a lot of time to wait.
Lin Luodong has camping experience. He sets up the tent around the headwaters of the pond with Huang Weijian. Lin Luoran picks some firewood and builds a traditional stove with stones. She then puts water in the pot on the stove and asks Lin Luodong and Huang Weijian to take care of the fire.
Goldie lands on the ground quickly when ithe finds there is nobody around. ItHe shakes down the cyan little fox and turns into the size of an ordinary eagle to stand on Lin Luoran’s shoulder. The cyan little fox has some grievances, but itshe is soon attracted by Lin Luodong. They are trying to catch fishes in the pond. The cyan little fox runs happily to the pond while Lin Luoran and Goldie go to higher places of the waterfall.
The mountain behind the waterfall is covered with moss. The spirit bamboo grows on places where ordinary people can’t step on.
Only Goldie can get to such places, but they are just going to find some meat for their dinner tonight. Common wild rabbits will be too frightened to run when they find Goldie is around. The rabbits will stand still on the ground and wait for you to grab them by their ears.
After sending Goldie out, Lin Luoran casts a Wind-riding Spell and flies to the top of the waterfall. There is indeed a cliff behind the waterfall. Bamboos in darker colors are grown quietly there.
Lin Luoran is as light as a bamboo leaf that just falls from the branches and lands silently on the swaying top of the bamboo.
Yuan Ye only cut off a short bamboo tube last time. There are five bamboos left in the place now, but none of them is higher than the bamboo tube that Yuan Ye cut. To avoid hurting their roots, Lin Luoran digs the bamboos out carefully and transplants them into her space.
What hard stuff is hidden in the soil attached to the bamboos’ roots? Lin Luoran knows that she just touched something, but the Heart of Druid she wears under her clothes starts to buzz before she gets a chance to take it out.
