The clouds are so deep that I don’t know where they are.

Outside the mountains, it was scorching hot in June. Inside the mountains, it was a quiet and cool world.

Outside the orchid room, two figures in white stood on the long corridor. The wind blew, and the white clothes moved slightly, but the people did not move at all.

Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji were standing upright.

Handstand.

The two of them were silent, as if they had entered a state of meditation. The gurgling of the spring and the flapping of the birds' wings were the only sounds here, which made the surroundings even quieter.

After a while, Lan Wangji suddenly said, "Brother."

Lan Xichen slowly came out of his meditation, looking straight ahead, and asked, “What’s the matter?”

After a moment of silence, Lan Wangji asked, "Have you ever picked a lotus pod?"

Lan Xichen tilted his head and said, “…No.”

If the descendants of Gusu Lan family want to eat lotus pods, they naturally don't have to pick them themselves.

Lan Wangji nodded and said, "Brother, do you know?"

Lan Xichen: “What?”

Lan Wangji: "Lotus pods with stems are more delicious than those without stems."

Lan Xichen said, “Oh? I haven’t heard of this. Why, why are you suddenly talking about this?”

Lan Wangji said, “Nothing. Time’s up, switch hands.”

The two of them switched the hand that supported the handstand from the right hand to the left hand. Their movements were uniform, silent and extremely stable.

Lan Xichen was about to ask again, but when he looked closely, he smiled: "Wangji, you have a guest."

On the edge of the wooden corridor, a white fluffy rabbit slowly crawled over, rubbed against Lan Wangji's upside-down left hand, and twitched its pink nose.

Lan Xichen asked: “How did you find this place?”

Lan Wangji said to it, “Go back.”

But the white rabbit didn't listen. It bit the end of Lan Wangji's headband and pulled hard, as if it wanted to drag Lan Wangji away with it.

Lan Xichen said leisurely: "It wants you to accompany it."

The rabbit that couldn’t be dragged away angrily jumped around the two of them. Lan Xichen watched with amusement and asked, “Is this the playful one?”

Lan Wangji said, “It’s too noisy.”

Lan Xichen said, “It’s okay to make noise, they’re cute after all. I remember there were two of them. Aren’t they always together? Why is only one here? Does the other one prefer to be quiet and not want to come out?”

Lan Wangji said, “I will come.”

Sure enough, after a while, another snow-white head climbed onto the edge of the wooden corridor. Another white rabbit followed, looking for its companion.

The two snowballs chased each other for a while, and finally chose a place, next to Lan Wangji's left hand, and squeezed together safely.

A pair of white rabbits clinging to each other and rubbing against each other, even if viewed upside down, the scene is still very cute. Lan Xichen asked, "What's your name?"

Lan Wangji shook his head, not sure whether to say there was no name or not to mention it.

Lan Xichen said, “I heard you call them last time.”

“…”

Lan Xichen said sincerely: “It’s a very good name.”

Lan Wangji switched hands. Lan Xichen said, “It’s not time yet.”

Lan Wangji silently changed his hand back.

After one stick of incense, the time was up, the handstand ended, and the two returned to the elegant room to sit in meditation.

A servant brought some chilled fruits to cool off the heat. The watermelon had been peeled and the flesh was cut into neat slices, placed on a jade plate. It was red and translucent, and looked very pretty. The two brothers knelt on the mat, whispered a few words, exchanged their thoughts on yesterday's lecture, and then began to eat.

Lan Xichen took a melon slice, but saw Lan Wangji staring at the jade plate with an unclear meaning, so he instinctively stopped.

As expected, Lan Wangji spoke. He said, "Brother."

Lan Xichen asked, “What’s the matter?”

Lan Wangji asked, “Have you ever eaten watermelon rind?”

“…” Lan Xichen asked, “Can the watermelon rind be eaten?”

After a moment of silence, Lan Wangji said, "I heard it can be fried."

Lan Xichen: “Maybe.”

Lan Wangji: “I heard it tastes very good.”

"I haven't tried it."

"I do not have either."

“Hmm…” Lan Xichen said, “Do you want someone to try to stir-fry it?”

After thinking about it, Lan Wangji shook his head solemnly.

Lan Xichen breathed a sigh of relief.

Somehow, he didn't think it was necessary to ask the question "Who told you that?"

The next day, Lan Wangji went down the mountain alone.

It’s not that he seldom goes down the mountain, but that he seldom comes to the bustling market alone.

People come and go. Whether it is the immortal family or the hunting ground in the mountains, there are not so many people. Even at a large gathering of people, people are mostly orderly, not so crowded, as if it is not uncommon for someone to step on someone else's feet or bump into someone else's car when walking. Lan Wangji has always disliked physical contact with people. Seeing this, he paused, but did not give up. Instead, he planned to ask for directions on the spot. Unexpectedly, he did not find anyone to ask for directions for a long time.

Lan Wangji then realized that not only did he not want to get close to others, but others also did not want to get close to him.

In fact, he was totally out of place in this bustling market. He was spotless and carried a sword. The vendors, farmers, and idle people rarely saw such a young man from an aristocratic family, so they all hurried to avoid him. They were either afraid that he was a playboy who was not easy to mess with, and no one wanted to offend him accidentally; or they were afraid that he looked stern and cold. After all, even Lan Xichen had joked that within a six-foot radius of Lan Wangji, it was freezing cold and no grass grew. Only the women who went to the market wanted to look at Lan Wangji but didn't dare to look too much. They pretended to be busy with something, lowered their eyebrows and raised their eyes. When he passed by, they gathered behind him and laughed.

Lan Wangji walked for a long time before he saw an old woman sweeping the dust in front of a house. He asked, "Excuse me, where is the nearest lotus pond?"

The old woman's eyesight was not very good. The dust covered her eyes. She was panting and could not see him clearly. She said, "Eight or nine miles away, there is a family that has planted dozens of acres of lotus pods."

Lan Wangji nodded and said, "Thank you very much."

The old woman said, "My dear young man, the lotus pond is closed to the public at night. If you want to go there, you have to go there during the day."

Lan Wangji said again: "Thank you."

Just as he was about to leave, he saw the old woman holding a slender bamboo pole, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge a dead branch that was stuck under the eaves. She pointed her finger, and the sword energy knocked the dead branch down from the air, then she turned and left.

Eight or nine miles was not far for him, so Lan Wangji followed the direction the woman pointed and continued forward.

After walking one mile, he left the market; after walking two miles, the population gradually became sparse; after walking four miles, he saw green mountains and green fields on both sides, with crisscrossing paths. Occasionally, there was a crooked little house with crooked smoke rising from it. On the ridge of the field, there were a few clay dolls with pigtails squatting and playing with mud, laughing and playing with each other. This scene was quite wild and interesting. Lan Wangji stopped to watch, but he was discovered after a while. The clay dolls were small and shy, and they ran away. He then took a step and continued walking. When he walked five miles, Lan Wangji felt a chill on his face. It was actually a fine rain blowing from the breeze.

He looked up at the sky, and sure enough, gray clouds seemed to be pressing down. He quickened his pace, but the rain came even faster.

At this moment, I suddenly saw five or six people standing on the ridge ahead.

The raindrops had turned into raindrops, but these people neither held umbrellas nor shielded themselves from the rain. They seemed to be surrounding something, not paying any attention to anything else. Lan Wangji approached and saw a farmer lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

After listening quietly for a few sentences, Lan Wangji knew what happened. It turned out that the farmer was hit by another farmer's cow while working in the fields. Now he was unable to get up because he either injured his waist or broke his legs. The cow had done something wrong and was chased away to stand at the end of the field, burying its head and shaking its tail, not daring to get close. The owner of the cow ran to ask for a doctor, and the remaining farmers did not dare to move the injured person at will, for fear of breaking his bones, so they could only take care of him like this. But the weather was not good, and it began to rain. At first it was just a drizzle, which was bearable, but after a while, it started to rain heavily.

Seeing the rain getting heavier, a farmer ran home to get an umbrella, but he lived far away and couldn't get back for a while. The rest of the people were anxious, and they put their hands together to block as much rain as they could for the injured farmer. But this was not a solution. Even if they got an umbrella, there were only a few, and they couldn't just cover one or two people while the rest of the people got wet, right?

One person murmured, "It's like seeing a ghost. Such heavy rain came suddenly."

At this time, a farmer said, "Hold up the shed. It will hold up for a while if possible."

Not far away there was an abandoned old shed, propped up by four wooden poles, one of which was crooked and the other had been rotten due to years of wind and sun.

One person hesitated and asked, "Isn't it true that we can't touch him?"

"A few...a few steps should be fine."

Everyone hurriedly carried the injured farmer over, and two people went to support the broken shed. Unexpectedly, the two farmers couldn't even lift up the broken shed roof. The others urged them to do it, and they tried their best, their faces flushed, but they didn't move at all. Two more people came, but they still didn't move!

The roof of the wooden shed was made of wood, covered with tiles, thatch, and layers of dust. It was definitely not light, but it was not so heavy that four farmers who worked in the fields all year round could not lift it.

Lan Wangji knew what was going on before he even got close. He walked to the wooden shed, leaned down, lifted up a corner of the shed roof, and lifted it up with one hand.

Several farmers were stunned.

Four farmers couldn't even lift the roof, but this young man lifted it up with just one hand!

After a while, a farmer whispered something to the others, and without hesitation, they all carried the farmer over. When they entered the wooden shed, they all looked at Lan Wangji, but Lan Wangji didn't look away.

After putting the person down, two people came over and said, "This... Sir, put him down and let us do it."

Lan Wangji shook his head. The two farmers insisted, "You are too young to handle it."

As he spoke, he raised his hands to help him hold up the awning. Lan Wangji glanced at them, said nothing more, and just slightly reduced his strength, and the two farmers' faces immediately changed.

Lan Wangji withdrew his gaze and returned to his original strength. The two farmers squatted back in embarrassment.

The wooden shed was actually heavier than they had imagined. Once the young man withdrew his hands, he couldn't hold it up at all.

One of them shuddered and said, "It's strange, why is it colder after coming in?"

But they couldn't see that at this moment, in the middle of the wooden shed, there was a figure with dry hair, long tongue and ragged clothes hanging.

It was raining and windy outside the shed, and the figure swayed under the wooden shed, bringing up a gust of cold wind.

It is this evil spirit that makes the roof extremely heavy and impossible for ordinary people to lift it up.

Lan Wangji went out without his salvation tool. Since this evil spirit had no intention of harming anyone, he naturally could not indiscriminately beat it to death. It seemed that he could not convince it to put down its hanging body for the time being, so he could only prop up the roof first. He would report it later and send someone to deal with it.

The evil spirit dangled behind Lan Wangji for a while, blown here and there by the wind, and complained, "It's so cold..."

“…”

It looked around and found a farmer to lean on, as if to get warm. The farmer suddenly shivered. Lan Wangji turned his head slightly and gave it a very cold look out of the corner of his eye.

The evil spirit also shivered and went back aggrieved. But he still stuck out his tongue and complained: "It's so cold in such heavy rain and it's so open... "

“…”

Until the doctor arrived, the farmers did not dare to talk to Lan Wangji. When the rain stopped, they moved the injured out of the wooden shed, and Lan Wangji lowered the roof and left without saying a word.

When he arrived at the lotus pond, the sun had already set. He was about to go down to the lake when a small boat came out from the opposite side. A middle-aged woman in the boat said, "Hey, hey, hey! What do you do?"

Lan Wangji said, “Pick lotus pods.”

The woman said, "It's sunset. We don't let anyone in after dark. It won't work today. Let's do it another day!"

Lan Wangji said: "I won't stay any longer, I'll be leaving in a moment."

The woman said, "No means no, this is the rule. I don't make the rules. You should ask the master."

Lan Wangji asked, "Where is the owner of the lotus pond?"

The lotus-picking girl said, "I went back a long time ago, so it's useless for you to ask me. If I let you in, the owner of this lake will have nothing good to say to me. Please don't embarrass me."

Hearing this, Lan Wangji no longer forced himself and nodded, "Excuse me for disturbing you."

Although his expression was calm, one could see a sense of disappointment in his expression.

The lotus-picking girl looked at his white clothes, which were as white as snow, but half of them were wet from the rain, and his white boots were stained with mud. She softened her tone and said, "You are late today. Come earlier tomorrow. Where are you from? It was raining heavily just now. You, little kid, didn't you run here in the rain? Why didn't you hold an umbrella? How far is your home from here?"

Lan Wangji said truthfully, “Thirty-four miles.”

The lotus girl choked when she heard this and said, "So far! It must have taken you a long time to get here. If you really want to eat lotus pods, you can buy some on the street. There are plenty of them."

Lan Wangji was about to turn around, but stopped when he heard this and said, "The lotus pods on the street don't have stems."

The lotus-picking girl asked curiously, "Do you really have to have the stems? It doesn't make any difference when you eat it."

Lan Wangji said, “Yes.”

"No!"

Lan Wangji said stubbornly: "Yes. Someone told me there is."

The lotus-picking girl burst out laughing and said, "Who told you that? Such a stubborn young man, he must have been bewitched by a ghost!"

Lan Wangji said nothing, lowered his head and prepared to turn around and walk back. The man shouted again: "Is your home really that far away?"

Lan Wangji said, “Yeah.”

The lotus-picking girl asked, "Why don't you... not go back today? Find a place to stay nearby and come back tomorrow?"

Lan Wangji said, "There is a curfew at home. I have to go to school tomorrow."

The lotus-picking girl scratched her head and thought for a while in embarrassment. Finally, she said, "...Okay, I'll let you in, just for a little while. If you want to pick them, hurry up. If someone sees me, they might gossip about me to my master. I don't want to be scolded at my age."

After the rain, the empty mountains are so deep that the clouds are so deep that no one knows where they are.

The magnolia after the rain was particularly fresh and beautiful. Lan Xichen was delighted by it and spread some paper on the table to paint by the window.

Through the carved window pane, he saw a figure in white slowly approaching. Lan Xichen did not put down his pen and said, "Wang Ji."

Lan Wangji walked over and said through the window: "Brother."

Lan Xichen said, “I heard you talking about lotus pods yesterday. It just so happens that my uncle had someone buy some lotus pods and bring them up the mountain today. Do you want to eat some?”

Lan Wangji said from outside the window: "I've eaten."

Lan Xichen was a little puzzled: "Have you eaten yet?"

Lan Wangji: “Yeah.”

The two brothers exchanged a few more brief words, and Lan Wangji returned to the quiet room.

After the painting was finished, Lan Xichen looked at it for a while, then put it away and forgot about it. He took out the Ice Crack and went to the place where he practiced Qing Xin Yin every day.

In front of the Gentian House, there were clusters of pale purple, dotted with starlight. Lan Xichen walked along the path, raised his eyelids, and was slightly startled.

On the wooden porch in front of the cottage, there was a white jade bottle, in which were several lotus pods of different heights.

The jade bottle is slender, the lotus stem is also slender, and the posture is very beautiful.

Lan Xichen put away the cracked ice and sat down on the wooden corridor facing the jade bottle. He looked at it sideways for a while, struggling in his heart.

In the end, I was too reserved to do anything and secretly peeled one to try to see what the difference was in the taste of the lotus pod with the stem.

Since Wangji looks so happy, it must be really delicious.

The author has something to say:

This article was originally intended to be a story about the children in Yunshen Buzhichu and Lianhuawu catching ghosts during a cool summer, but it ended up being a heartwarming rural life.

In short, although the WiFi when he was a child failed to successfully lure the second brother back to Lotus Pier to eat, drink and have fun, the two children, Wangxian, still completed a spiritual connection in their intentional or unintentional obsession with each other!