The pear tree on the wall is snowy and delicate

Chapter 36: Winter Solstice Dumplings

After five days of snow, the sky finally cleared up in the early morning of the winter solstice. Under the sunlight, the Jiuque Mountains were covered in silver, like a fairyland.

After Xinyi's advice last night, Long Qi didn't completely resolve his worries, but he finally came out of the haze.

The moves in "The Manual of the Chanlong Sword" looked extremely familiar. Long Qi tried to imitate a few of the moves. Although they went quite smoothly, he always felt that they started well but ended badly. The further he went, the weaker he felt, as if something was missing.

Smoke rose from Qiuyun Peak early in the morning, and Lingxiang could smell the fragrance as soon as she went out.

Following the smell, I came to the kitchen, where I saw Maidong and several of his disciples busy making dumplings. A pot of dumplings was already on the stove. The plump, white dumplings were rolling in the soup, looking very cute.

Lingxiang leaned against the door frame and watched Maidong chatting and laughing with her fellow brothers. Suddenly, she remembered that this girl seemed to have been brought up the mountain by Brother Fuyin not long after that.

In the first few days after she arrived, she had a high fever that lasted for a long time, she was sobbing and unconscious, and it was thanks to Senior Brother Fuyin who took care of her day and night and treated her carefully that she was saved. But after waking up, she had forgotten everything in the past, not even her own name.

"I guessed that you would be the first one to get up. No one's nose is as sensitive as yours." Maidong saw Lingxiang as soon as he raised his eyes and couldn't help teasing her.

A joke interrupted Lingxiang's thoughts. She joked with Maidong without showing any expression.

"I was wondering who it was that was making my stomach restless so early in the morning. It turned out to be you, girl. I'm sure your fellow brothers have been tormented by you a lot."

"What I said is really against my will. You have to come here to eat and drink for free every year. This year, it happened to snow before the Winter Festival. But you took advantage of me and used this excuse to bully me. This year, I can't give you any dumplings." Maidong cursed with a smile, then turned around and took out the dumplings from the pot one by one.

As soon as Lingxiang stretched out her hand, Maidong slapped her with a palm.

"This first pot is to be sent to the uncles and master, why are you so unruly!"

"What are you saying? Could it be that I am not your master's aunt?"

Mai Dong glanced at Ling Xiang and sneered: "You are just a peak master now, and you still want to sit with the head elder?"

Lingxiang curled her lips when she heard that - this damn girl has been looking down on her more and more recently.

The outer disciples were also very busy. The sect sent a lot of dumplings, saying that it was the winter solstice and everyone should celebrate the festival together.

The boys in the kitchen cook it right away. There are those with shepherd's purse and tofu filling, those with leek and vermicelli filling, and those with winter bamboo shoots and mushroom filling. Just let them know what kind of filling you want and it will be cooked in a moment.

When they heard that there were dumplings to eat, Long Qi dragged Liu Xia and the other two to the kitchen, but they were disappointed to hear that they only had vegetarian fillings.

"I haven't had any meat since I came to the mountains. I finally had some dumplings, but they were all vegetarian. I'm so full that I can almost feed sheep."

"Once you enter the Dao sect, you naturally cannot eat meat. To cultivate, one must harden one's mind." Liu Xia stepped forward and picked a few of each and handed them to the boy in the kitchen. "So, it seems that there is also a saying about starving one's body. It is said that when one reaches a certain level of cultivation, one must fast in order to improve one's cultivation."

“So, from now on, we can only live on these green vegetables and green leaves?” Long Qi lazily picked up a few dumplings and handed them out.

"I heard that if one succeeds in cultivation and ascends to the thirty-three heavens, there will be meat to eat. The storybooks say that whenever the heavenly officials and generals have a banquet, there will always be immortal foods such as dragon liver and phoenix marrow to eat as a tonic, which can improve one's cultivation and satisfy one's appetite. It's like killing two birds with one stone." Zhao Wuyang held the plate, hesitating about which kind of dumplings to choose.

“Heavenly officials and heavenly generals? That requires hundreds of years of cultivation to reach that realm? It’s a pity that my internal organs have not been nourished for such a long time, it’s really heartbreaking…” Long Qi said as he looked at Xin Yi, only to see him looking at Jiaozi, as if he was thinking about something.

“Dumplings…”

……

"Mother said, there is a chestnut in the dumpling, whoever eats it, the whole year of next year will be as rich as the chestnut." The girl shook the two tufts of hair on her head and jumped towards the boy. The tufts of hair also jumped happily as the girl ran, which was extremely cute. When she was about to get close, she stumbled on the steps and was about to fall to the ground. Seeing this, the boy in the yard quickly stopped his horse stance and jumped towards the girl, grabbing her before she fell. The bowl on his head broke into pieces when he moved.

The young man pulled the girl up, but the girl acted as if nothing had happened and said with a smile: "Thank goodness that Brother Lu is good at martial arts, otherwise you would have to marry an ugly wife with a disfigured face in the future."

The young man smiled lovingly upon hearing this.

……

Just after eating dumplings, Zhenren Chengxin and Zhenren Fuyin started again the unfinished game of yesterday. Zhenren Donghui was still comprehending the "Tianxuan Fragments", while Lingxiang was peeling pine seeds nearby.

Click~click~click~

Zhenren Donghui frowned slightly and glanced at Lingxiang beside him, but she seemed to be fine and kept making annoying noises.

"Cough..." Master Donghui coughed lightly with his fist to his mouth.

"What's the matter? Fourth Brother, do you want to eat some?" Lingxiang said as she handed over a handful of pine seeds with a sincere look on her face.

"Cough!" Master Donghui was so angry that he actually started coughing. After he calmed down, he said to Lingxiang, "It's not that I don't want to help you. This is the rule. There is no such thing as lending out the skills in Langhuan Pavilion, especially to outer disciples."

"In that case, I won't make things difficult for you, Fourth Senior Brother. Since it cannot be loaned out, I will just take someone to see it." Lingxiang said as she stuffed a pine grain into her mouth.

"Nonsense! How can you bring outer disciples into Langhuan Pavilion!"

"Look at what you said. Who said I would bring him in now? After the three martial arts performances, he will naturally be my direct disciple. Wouldn't it be natural for him to enter Langhuan Pavilion at that time? Now it's just a formality."

"Speaking of martial arts performances..." Fu Yin, who was waiting for Cheng Xin to make his move, said, "Why did Han Yang hide the matter of Hui Wu? You should know that the head brother is in charge of Wangxiantai, and he knows everything."

"Who said I wanted Han Yang to hide that matter? I just wanted him not to make it public," Lingxiang looked at the misty clouds outside the corridor, "As for that person, I always feel that I have seen him somewhere, but I really can't remember where. I will keep an eye on him for now. If he has any ill intentions, there must be someone behind him. If I let him go this time, won't it alert the enemy?"

Master Chengxin considered for a long time and finally made a choice.

"The Yuanqing sect has just opened its doors, so it's better to be cautious."

……

Long Qi ate a dumpling listlessly, but found it tasted really good, and hurriedly praised the cooking skills of the boy in the kitchen.

The little boy was embarrassed by the praise and scratched his head and said, "We just put the dumplings into the pot and cooked them. It's not like we have any skills... Even if they are delicious, it's because the filling is well mixed."

"Huh? Could it be that you didn't make these dumplings?" Long Qi sighed again and asked vaguely.

"These dumplings are sent out by Qiuyun Peak every year. In previous years, before the mountain gate was opened, each person was given a bowl of cooked dumplings. Now that there are many outer disciples, Senior Sister Maidong asked us to make hot dumplings. I heard that she and the brothers from Qiuyun Peak were busy making them before dawn."

It was Ophiopogon japonicus? She has this skill?
Xinyi picked up a dumpling and took a bite, and was stunned for a moment.

The dumplings...

It actually contained a chestnut!
(End of this chapter)