Strange Tale of Qingluan

On the top of the northern mountains, there is a monastery that looks like a fairy cave. It is early summer, and the mountains are thick green, surrounding the buildings. The sparse or dense branches and leaves allow sunlight to pass through, making the bluestone slabs and walls beautiful. Large or small mottled tree shadows are left on the windows, carved windows and blue tiles.

The bamboo curtains on the corridor guardrail were hanging down, covering half of the sunlight. Suddenly, the shadow of a boy passed by the lattice door in a hurry. The back of the silver-haired boy moved quickly in the corridor, but stopped in front of a lattice door in the middle. , leaning closer to the lattice door, peeping and listening to the movement in the room.

There was a young man standing in that room, looking down at various letters. He was so focused that he never noticed any sounds in the corridor, nor did he notice that there was a handsome face outside the door, and a pair of glass-like eyes were calming down. quietly watching him.

It was only an hour of burning incense, and it was suddenly broken by a woman's voice from the stairs.

"Big brother! Big brother! Are you there?"

Hearing the sound, the silver-haired boy rushed towards the stairs in a panic, just as the woman with the hanging ring came up, the two bumped into each other lightly, but the silver-haired boy didn't say anything, just rushed go downstairs.

The woman turned her head and wondered, "Huh? Junior Brother Yan?"

A window not far ahead opened, revealing the young man's face: "Changyue, what's wrong?"

Changyue turned around, smiled at Zhu Yanfeng and said, "Eldest brother. Master asked you to go over and help forge iron and swords."

Zhu Yanfeng promised: "I'll come right away!" He closed the window, and soon came out of the room, went downstairs quickly, and rushed to the casting room.

Changyue didn't keep up, just went downstairs slowly, remembering things while walking, and thought: I saw Junior Brother Yan leave here in a hurry just now, I don't know what happened, why don't you go and see him while you have free time? ?

When crossing the path, Changyue thought again: Maybe it's something troublesome?How about making him some desserts to comfort him?

Immediately, Changyue was not in a hurry to see Huang Yan, but just went in the direction of the kitchen.

Huang Yan hid beside the waterfall, squatting on the ground, holding a short piece of bare dead branch in his right hand as a writing brush, dipping in water while drawing on the ground, and drew a human face, exactly like Zhu Yanfeng.

After finishing the painting, he rested his chin on one hand, looked at the human face he had painted, and was in a daze for a while.On this mountain, I have been practicing martial arts and various spells with Master Yingqing for more than ten years. When I first fell in love with my elder brother secretly, I dare not say it, and I have been hiding it in my heart for several years.

Just as he was in a daze, suddenly the branches near him made a rustling sound, and then an upside-down face protruded from the branch, and it called out to him with a smile: "Brother Yan!"

Huang Yan was startled, and immediately stepped on the painting in a panic, and moved the soles of his shoes to erase the painting, just because he was afraid that his fellow disciples would find the painting.

Seeing his actions, Gong He thought it was very strange, he was stunned, and couldn't help saying: "Senior brother, what is this hiding, you don't want me to see it? Let me see what it is!" Turning up and down, he walked quickly in front of Huang Yan, crossed his hands behind his waist, looked at the ground with interest, but saw messy scratches, and frowned slightly.

Huang Yanruo said nonchalantly: "I haven't hidden any treasure..."

Gong He pinched Nie's chin with one hand, and guessed wildly: "The soil is in a mess. Senior brother just practiced calligraphy, or was he a beggar?" shine.

Huang Yan replied: "I'm not so greedy that I would secretly do that kind of thing..."

Gong He was slightly disappointed, and replied: "Forget it! I'll go find my senior sister to make me steamed buns!" Turning around, he was about to leave, but he stopped after taking a step, sniffing the air, talking to himself, "What is so fragrant? It seems to be the smell of food?"

As soon as the words were finished, Changyue came with a bamboo basket and called out: "Junior Brother Yan!" Seeing that Gong He was also present, she hurriedly added, "Unexpectedly, Junior Brother Yan is also here."

Gonghe immediately moved to Changyue's side, and said coquettishly, "Senior sister, what delicious food did you make and bring it to me?"

Changyue said bluntly, "It's for Junior Brother Yan."

Gong He couldn't help being disappointed: "Is there no place for me?"

Huang Yan interjected: "I'm not hungry, give it to my junior brother."

After hearing this, Gong He was overjoyed, hugged the basket and was about to snatch it, but was gently pushed on his forehead by Changyue's spare hand, preventing him from succeeding.

Changyue immediately stuffed the basket into Huang Yan's hands, then grabbed the lapel of Gong He who was arguing and refused to let go, then turned around, pulling Gong He away.

Huang Yan was stunned for a moment, so he had to deal with the basket in his hand first, opened the lid of the basket, saw a soup cup and a folded letter paper at the bottom of the basket, first hung the basket on the thick branch closest to him, and took out the letter paper Spread it out and take a look.The letter reads like this—Junior Brother Yan, are you unhappy today?You look so cute, you should be happy like a fairy, try my handicraft, don't be unhappy, okay?

Unmoved, he calmly tore up the letter paper, sprinkled the snowflake-like shredded paper into the waterfall, then took out the soup cup from the basket, and lifted the lid. It was not a tonic soup, but a sweet smell overflowing sweet-scented osmanthus taro balls with honey and white jelly.

Smelling the taste and looking at the color, he found it delicious no matter what, so Huang Yan sat cross-legged on the stone by the water, carefully dug a spoonful with a porcelain spoon, and tasted a spoonful. A fresh fragrance.

Thinking that he should send the basket and tableware back, he headed to the kitchen as early as possible, but on this path, he ran into Zhu Yanfeng unexpectedly, and greeted him with a blushing face as "big brother".

Zhu Yanfeng glanced at him, smiled slightly, his eyes quickly fell on the basket in his hand, and couldn't help being confused: "This is...?"

Huang Yan replied: "It's the sweets made by my senior sister." Noticing the wet sweat on Zhu Yanfeng's face, he suddenly felt regretful, and opened his lips again, "It's just that I ate it up... if I could leave some ..."

Zhu Yanfeng didn't seem to care, he just said: "Since you like to eat, you don't have to leave it to me. I've been working hard for Master for a long time, so I'll go back and rest first." He put a hand on his shoulder inadvertently, and left .

Huang Yan was stunned for a moment, he couldn't help but raised his hand to stroke his shoulder, then he became ashamed, blushed and ran away to the stove room, originally he just wanted to clean the utensils and pack the baskets, but because of this joy, he unknowingly put the whole stove The rooms are kept spotless.

One day a few days later, he went to the alchemy room and returned to his dormitory. It was late at night, and he was exhausted. He closed the door, took off his outer robe, and turned around to find that there was a soup cup on the empty table.Thinking of Changyue making a dessert with such utensils before, she couldn't help but lift the lid and take a look, it was indeed that dessert.

In the early morning of the next day, Yingqing was giving a lecture in the forest, and he was very focused on the lecture. After listening for a while, Huang Yan couldn't help deserting. He secretly glanced back at Zhu Yanfeng who was sitting behind, but found that Zhu Yanfeng was secretly beating his chin with one hand. Dozing off, thinking that senior brother is also cute, he turned around and secretly drew on the paper.

For the next few months, intermittently, when he returned to his dormitory, a dessert appeared out of nowhere on the table, sometimes it was cold, sometimes it was warm.Although he enjoyed it intermittently for several months, he also felt ashamed of Changyue because of this, so he decided to decline the kindness in person.

After noon, after one-on-one with Yingqing to finish the magic lesson that Yingqing customized for him, on the stone steps of the path, I met Changyue who just came to take the magic lesson alternately, because it was still early , So he called Changyue to stop.

"Senior sister. Thank you for the sweets last time, but I will invite you again..."

He just opened his lips, but before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Changyue.Changyue was very happy, and blurted out: "Since Junior Brother Yan likes to eat, why didn't you tell me earlier? I can cook it for you a second time!"

Hearing this sentence, Huang Yan couldn't help being stunned—the second time?Sister, what do you mean, you haven't cooked sweets for me in the past few months?I misunderstood that it was the senior sister who did it?But in this dojo, only senior sister is the best at cooking delicious food to coax people...

Seeing him in a daze, Changyue was very confused: "Junior Brother Yan, what's wrong?"

A question woke Huang Yan up, and he opened his lips: "No, it's nothing, don't bother senior sister." As soon as he finished speaking, he hurried down the stone steps and left in a hurry.

Night fell on time, Huang Yan returned to the dormitory early, but closed the door and did not turn on the lights, deliberately creating a scene where he has not returned, intending to try to catch a turtle in a jar.After waiting for about an hour in silence and boredom, suddenly there was a light approaching from outside. As soon as the light passed by the window, he immediately opened the door, stepped across the threshold quickly, and caught the person.

The visitor stopped and ran into Huang Yan but did not try to run away, holding a lantern in his left hand and a basket carefully in his right hand.Huang Yan saw the face of the visitor through the light from the lantern, and couldn't help being startled, blurting out: "Eldest senior brother?!"

After a moment of silence, Zhu Yanfeng slightly raised a smile, and opened his lips and said, "I didn't expect you to be so early this time..."

Still in surprise, Huang Yan blurted out: "How could it be the elder brother? I always thought it was the dessert made by the senior sister." As he spoke, his cheeks blushed.

Zhu Yanfeng replied: "That time on the road, when I met you and talked about sweets, it must have been made by Changyue, and I asked Changyue about it. I think this is a perfect opportunity."

Huang Yan said: "What... what opportunity?"

Zhu Yanfeng hurriedly switched the lantern to the hand that was carrying the basket, freed his empty hand, took out a piece of paper from his skirt, and handed it to Huang Yan. It was the portrait of the senior brother that he secretly painted when he was absent in class.

He lowered his head even lower: "Brother...you already know...? Will you hate me from now on..."

Only suddenly, a hand was stretched out in front of his eyes, gently removing the strands of hair hanging from the corners of his eyes, and a gentle voice came into his ears: "What nonsense. Senior brother will always be by your side. "

Huang Yan replied: "That's different, I..."

Zhu Yanfeng smiled and said slowly: "I only envy mandarin ducks, not immortals."

Hearing this, Huang Yan blushed again, her heart beating very fast.Zhu Yanfeng stroked his forehead lightly: "Why is your body temperature so high suddenly?" He quickly handed over the basket, "The grass jelly relieves the fever, try it early."

Huang Yan took the basket and nodded shyly.

Zhu Yanfeng took one of his hands, took him into his bedroom, fed him sweets tenderly, chatted with him, coaxed him to sleep, let him pillow on his lap, and stayed together all night. half a step.