Water Reflects Peach Blossoms

"Zheyan is here." Donghua informed Jiang Ruan.

Jiang Ruan understood: "Are you here to pick me up?"

Holding Jiang Ruan's hand tightly, Donghua said, "Aruan, don't you want to leave me? If so..."

"No." Jiang Ruan interrupted Donghua and explained, "I have many medical problems that the Medicine King can't answer for me, so I want to ask Zheyan."

Donghua looked dejected: "But Ruan, we just...are you going to leave me alone?"

"Why don't you come with me?" Jiang Ruan, who was determined to seek medical treatment, did not understand the deeper meaning of Donghua's words.

Donghua: "..."

If he followed A Ruan to the Ten-Mile Peach Forest, one could imagine how crazy that old phoenix Zhe Yan would go.

On the day Jiang Ruan followed Zhe Yan to leave Taichen Palace, Si Ming felt like the sky was falling. He knew without thinking that he would have to live a difficult life under the Emperor's wrath for the next ten years.

Poor Siming, just when he was living a better life, he was filled with sorrow again!

"Miss Jiang, you must come back soon." Looking at Jiang Ruan reluctantly, Si Ming was so sad that he wanted to cry, "Don't forget that everyone in Taichen Palace is looking forward to seeing you, especially the Emperor."

Donghua, who was standing aside, looked at Siming and wondered why Siming was even sadder than him?

The peach blossoms in the Ten-Li Peach Forest were bright and beautiful. Jiang Ruan landed lightly on the grass and raised her hand to catch a fallen pink petal.

Zhe Yan, dressed in a pink robe, stood beside her, looking at her with tender eyes. He said in a nostalgic voice, "The layout inside the wooden house is the same as when you left. It has never changed."

Jiang Ruan thought of the scene when she escaped from the Heavenly Palace and was rescued by Zhe Yan.

At that time, Zheyan was Jiujiu. He concealed his identity and turned into a red bird to accompany her, traveling thousands of miles to Jian'an to find Cen Sheng through hardships and dangers.

Jiang Ruan pushed open the door and found that the interior was still the same as when she lived here.

She walked to the bookshelf, and the rows of ancient medical books on it instantly captured her heart.

After taking out a book and carefully reading a few pages, Jiang Ruan looked at Zhe Yan and said, "I have many medical questions that I couldn't discuss with the Medicine King and would like to ask you for advice."

The atmosphere instantly returned to the tacit understanding they had when they were in the human world.

Zheyan walked to Jiang Ruan and patiently explained her doubts.

In this way, Jiang Ruan studied medicine during the day and watched the moon with Zhe Yan at night. If he was in the mood, he would even have a few drinks facing the moon.

She would plant flowers with Zheyan, pick peaches, identify herbs and spiritual plants, and fish beside the stream in the Ten-Mile Peach Forest.

When Zheyan taught her how to play chess, he would pretend not to see it and allow her to regret her move and secretly take back the chess pieces. He also taught her how to make wine and astrology, and discussed music with her.

Jiang Ruan felt that Zhe Yan was both her teacher and friend, and they had a tacit understanding as if they had a telepathic connection. Although they were in the same room, she did not feel uncomfortable or awkward.

Zheyan also specially opened a hot spring in the Ten-Mile Peach Forest. Jiang Ruan liked to take a bath there in the evening to eliminate the fatigue of the day.

Next to the Ten-Mile Peach Forest is Qingqiu.

Bai Qian, who inherited the Qingqiu Fox Cave from the Fox Emperor and Fox Queen, sometimes comes to the Ten-Li Peach Forest. When she sees Jiang Ruan and Zhe Yan, she always separates them with unclear meaning, and then teases Zhe Yan, the old phoenix, to ease the atmosphere.

Bai Qian knew that Mo Yuan's residual soul was being cultivated in Jiang Ruan's body, and she was extremely concerned about Jiang Ruan. She would come to see her every few days, and sometimes she would even stay in the Ten-Li Peach Forest for a few days regardless of Zhe Yan's instructions.

The moon is bright and the stars are sparse. A barrier in the peach forest separates the hot spring from the outside world.

Jiang Ruan stepped barefoot into the hot water, soaked her whole body in it, and let out a comfortable sigh.

Bai Qian, who had her long hair tied up next to her, said of her, "As cute as a cat."

Jiang Ruan opened her eyes and looked at Bai Qian beside her: "When you were Si Yin before, I knew you were a girl, but I still treated you as a handsome young man. Now I know that I was blind to your true beauty."

"Are you complimenting me on my figure?" Bai Qian picked up the wine jar and took a sip of Peach Blossom Drunk.

"Yes." Jiang Ruan shifted his gaze away from Bai Qian's graceful figure, lying on a rock, picking a piece of grass and playing with it on his fingertips.

"I wonder when Master will wake up." Bai Qian sighed, gazing at the stars outside the barrier. "When Master wakes up, Kunlun Xu will be able to regain its former glory, and my brothers and sisters will be able to return."

"He will wake up." Jiang Ruan said with certainty.

Looking at Jiang Ruan in surprise, Bai Qian thought: "Could it be that, Ruan Ruan, you feel the fluctuations of Master's soul?"

As she spoke, her face was filled with uncontrollable joy.

"No." Unable to sense any fluctuations of the remaining soul in his body, Jiang Ruan said to Bai Qian, "I just feel that Lord Mo Yuan has grasped a glimmer of hope. Even if it takes a thousand or ten thousand years, as long as we have enough patience, he will definitely wake up."

"Actually, I also hope he wakes up soon."

Bai Qian teased Jiang Ruan, "Could it be that you, Ruan Ruan, don't like the Emperor or Zhe Yan, the old phoenix, but have fallen in love with my master?"

"I just want to be free again as soon as possible, that's not it..." Jiang Ruan said angrily, "If you keep talking nonsense, I will ignore you!"

Seeing that Jiang Ruan was really angry, Bai Qian paddled behind Jiang Ruan and poured hot water on her snow-white back with both hands. "Okay, okay, I won't say anything."

"But, Ruan Ruan, who do you like?"

Lying on the stone, Jiang Ruan thought carefully and shook his head: "I don't know."

She really doesn't know.

She and Donghua were married, but she didn't know whether she really liked him in her heart. But it was undeniable that he did have a place in her heart.

After soaking, Jiang Ruan and Bai Qian got up, dressed and left the hot spring.

On the way, the two of them started chatting out of boredom.

"If you're not sure who you like, then why not like my master?" Bai Qian promoted her own master.

Ever since she learned that Mo Yuan's remaining soul resided within Jiang Ruan's body, Bai Qian had known her master's intentions. She certainly wouldn't miss this opportunity. "Emperor Donghua is not only overbearing, but he also seems cold and unemotional. That old phoenix, Zheyan, has been a playboy since ancient times. He even pursued my mother. I'm afraid I couldn't finish recounting his love history for three days and three nights."

Jiang Ruan was curious as he had never heard of such gossip before.

Before she could ask, Zhe Yan, who was sitting a few meters away drinking under a peach tree, spoke up: "You, Xiao Wu, took advantage of being alone with Ruan Ruan to frame me. Little did you know that what happened between your mother and me was all a play. Go ask your father and you'll find out what's going on."

Bai Qian looked at Zhe Yan: "What play?"

Zhe Yan stood up, his demeanor elegant and graceful. "If it weren't for me, you would have been born tens of thousands of years later."

"Back then, your mother fell in love with your father, but he was a bit of a blockhead. She couldn't just rush up to him and ask him if he liked her or not. So she discussed it with me and staged a play to provoke your father. Unexpectedly, this gave rise to your eldest brother."

Having never heard of this version before, Bai Qian immediately went back to ask her parents!

Halfway through the journey, she remembered that her parents were out traveling and had not returned yet, so she went to ask her eldest brother, who angrily punished her by making her copy books in the middle of the night.