After the juniors roamed eagerly around the garden for a while, Lan SiZhui spoke up, “This is the garden of the Damsel of Annual Blossoms, is it not?”
Lan JingYi was confused, “The Damsel of Annual Blossoms? Who is that? Does the garden have an owner? Why does it look so worn-down? It seems like nobody has been caring for it for a long time.”
Annual blossoms were flowers that had short flowering periods and only bloom during certain seasons. There were many varied types and colors, which filled the entire garden with fragrance when they bloomed. Hearing the name, Wei WuXian couldn’t help but recalled something.
Placing his hand over one of the pillars of the pavilion, Lan SiZhui thought for a while, “If I remember correctly, it probably is. This garden used to be rather famous. I read about it on a book once, in the chapter The Blossoming Spirit of the Florist Damsel. In Tanzhou there is a garden, and in the garden there is a damsel. Under the moonlight, if one should recite poetry, when she deems it fine, she grants them an annual blossom, the fragrance of which persists for three years; when she deems it poor or when the rhyming does not pass, she casts a blossom at their face, then fades away.”
Lan JingYi, “So if you recited the poetry wrong she would throw a flower at your face? Hopefully the flowers did not have thorns. Or else, if I were there to try, my face would definitely start bleeding. What sort of fae was she?”
Lan SiZhui, “I would not call her a fae. She was more like a spirit. The legends have it that the earliest owner of the garden was a poet. He planted these flowers himself and treated them as friends, reciting poetry here everyday. Affected by the emotions of the poetry, a spirit crystallized from the flora of the garden and became the Damsel of Annual Blossoms. When someone came, if their poetry was decent and allowed her to remember the one who planted her, she would be happy and give them a flower. If the poetry was wrong or did not sound pleasing, she would emerge from the bushes and hurl a flower onto the person’s face. The one who had been attacked would faint and realize that they had been thrown out of the garden after they woke up. Ten years ago, an endless number of people would come to this garden.”
Wei WuXian, “Romantic, romantic. But I know for sure that the GusuLan Sect’s Library Pavilion wouldn’t hold books that say such things. SiZhui, be honest. Tell us what book you were reading and who gave it to you.”
Lan SiZhui blushed and sneaked a glance at Lan WangJi, worried that he’d be punished. Lan JingYi asked, “Is the Damsel really pretty? Or else why would so many people come?”
Seeing that Lan WangJi had no intentions of scolding him, Lan SiZhui secretly let out a sigh of relief. Only then did he smile and reply, “She probably was. After all, she crystallized from such pleasant things and was such a romantic spirit. But in reality, nobody had ever seen the Damsel’s face. Because of how even if someone did not know how to compose poetry, it was more than easy for them to memorize a few poems, most people had received the Damsel’s flowers. Even when there came the rare person who recited wrong, they would not get to meet her since they were knocked out immediately. However… one person was the exception.”
Another boy asked, “Who?”
Wei WuXian let out a light cough.
Lan SiZhui, “The YiLing patriarch, Wei WuXian.”
Wei WuXian coughed again, “Uh, why’s it him again? Can’t we talk about something else?”
Nobody paid him any attention. Lan JingYi waved anxiously, “Be quiet! What did Wei WuXian do? He was such a big villain—what did he do, this time? Did he snatch the Damsel away and take her outside?”
Lan SiZhui, “Well, no. But, in order to see the Damsel’s face, he went out of his way to come to Tanzhou all the way from Yunmeng. Whenever he came to the garden, he would recite the poetry wrong on purpose so that the Damsel became angered, hit him with flowers, and threw him out. When he woke up, he would crawl back inside and continue to recite incorrectly. After this repeated for more than twenty times, he finally saw the Damsel’s face. After this, he would go about everywhere praising how beautiful she looked. However, the Damsel was rather irritated as well. She did not show up for quite a while. Whenever he came, she would pound him with a rain of flowers. The scene was truly more wondrous than any wonders.”
The boys bursted into laughter, “Wei WuXian was such an annoying person!”
“Was he really that bored?”
Wei WuXian touched his chin, “How was it boring? Who hasn’t done a couple of such things when they were young? Speaking of it, why do people even know about something like this? And it’s even seriously recorded in a book. That’s pretty boring as well, if you ask me.”
Lan WangJi was looking at him. Although still expressionless, an unusual glint hid beneath his eyes. He looked as though he was laughing at him. Wei WuXian thought to himself, Hey, Lan Zhan, don’t you dare make fun of me. I know at least eight—if not ten—of your embarrassing stories from when you were young. I’ll tell them to the boys sooner or later and destroy the inviolable, irreproachable reputation they have of their HanGuang-Jun.
He declared, “You children are so hyper all the time. You’ve definitely been reading idle books instead of focusing on cultivation. When you get back, make sure HanGuang-Jun punishes you by making you copy the sect rules. Ten times.”
The boys wailed, “Ten times even when doing the handstand?!”
Wei WuXian was also shocked. He turned to Lan WangJi, “Your sect makes disciples do handstands while copying? That’s awful.”
Lan WangJi replied calmly, “There would always be someone who did not learn their lessons by simply copying the sect rules. Handstands not only guaranteed better performance in the future but also benefited cultivation.”
Of course, Wei WuXian was the someone who never learnt his lessons. He pretended as though he didn’t know what Lan WangJi was talking about. Turning around, he found himself glad that he didn’t have to copy the scriptures while doing handstands.
In high spirits from listening to the stories, the boys decided that they’d camp at the Garden of Annual Blossoms for the night. Camping was common during night-hunts, anyway. The group gathered a pile of dead branches and dry leaves from around them and finished making the bonfire. Lan WangJi went away to patrol the area, not only making sure that their surroundings were safe but also setting up an array in case of any night attacks. Stretching out his legs, Wei WuXian sat by the fire. Now that Lan WangJi was gone, he finally had a chance to clear up his confusion, “Right. I need to ask you guys a question. Just what is the meaning behind your sect’s forehead ribbon?”
Hearing this, the boys’ expressions changed at once. They’d all started to stammer. Wei WuXian’s heart skipped a beat and then thumped faster and faster.
Lan SiZhui asked in caution, “Senior, do you not know?”
Wei WuXian, “If I knew would I still have asked? Do I seem like that bored of a person?”
Lan JingYi mumbled, “Yes… After all, you could even do something like tricking us to line up and look at that sort of thing…”
Wei WuXian poked at the fire with a stick, releasing bursts of sparks, “Wasn’t that for you to train yourselves and get out of your comfort zones? It really is effective. If you listen to what I say, you’ll definitely benefit from them in the future.”