Chapter 715: Chapter 715
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The path she had once traveled with the Daoist priest, the horse, and swallow would have taken them far longer. Ordinary people would need even more time, and there would have been countless hardships along the way. Now, in this era, even common travelers could reach the same destination quickly and easily.0
It was truly a completely different age.0
Yet, on second thought, wasn’t this just like those earliest days, on some aimless nights during her travels, when the Daoist priest had told her about the world?0
And the salt tower… The girl still remembered.0
Meal service began on the plane. She chose a potato and beef set meal with a sweet soda. The boy copied her choice, and when she turned her head, she met his clear eyes and his mother’s gentle smile.0
After some small talk, they discovered both were heading to Langzhou for leisure. Their journeys overlapped by two days. The mother, noticing she was traveling alone and that her son seemed fond of her, warmly invited her along. Lady Calico had intended to travel alone, and cats like her preferred solitude, but after a moment of thought, she agreed.0
The hotel was conveniently nearby. The plane began its descent, arriving at Langzhou Lan’an, Canghai Airport. With that, the mobile signal returned.0
Old Daoist: Arrived? How’s the experience?0
The girl held her phone, deep in thought. Finally, she typed back.0
Lady Calico: Feels good0
She put away her phone and began disembarking.0
Unlike those around her carrying large bags, she only had a simple, rustic silk pouch. Slender and comfortably dressed, she looked light and unburdened, her steps soft as she touched the ground. Looking around, she saw the place brightly lit.0
Her expression was still composed, but she drew in another breath.0
Langzhou was no longer the smoky, forsaken place it had once been. Thanks to its maritime accessibility and trade, its economy had flourished, becoming one of the wealthiest regions in the country. While walking this land, she could see no trace of its past. Even the mountains no longer resembled their old outlines; even the air smelled different from centuries ago.0
Lady Calico walked alone to the hotel, checked in, turned on the TV, and transformed back into her cat form, curling up on the bed without moving.0
The news was on. Another ancient tomb discovered in Changjing…0
In the morning of the next day…0
At a certain beach by the sea… Perhaps it was the same beach from centuries ago, or perhaps not.0
The stretch of sand was still spacious. Aside from a coconut grove and a few courts, there was only a small shrine, with no resorts or other distractions.0
A strong scent of incense floated from the temple. The shrine was dedicated to the White Rhino God.0
Now, the White Rhino God was the primary deity worshiped by people in coastal regions. Shrines dedicated to them were everywhere along the coast. In larger coastal villages, each had at least one temple; in smaller villages, two or three shared one. Many families also kept statues of them at home.0
Thanks to decades of careful stewardship and protection of fisheries and navigation, the two white rhinoceroses held an extremely high status in the hearts of coastal people. Incense burned continuously, and annual festivals in their honor were grand events, not only for locals but also attracting many visitors, each year bustling with activity.0
As for this shrine, because it was near a beach frequented by tourists, most visitors were travelers, especially those from inland, who would come light a couple of incense sticks out of curiosity. Just like that mother and son from yesterday.0
By now, they were probably still waiting in line to offer incense.0
Lady Calico, of course, did not go.0
It would have been fine if she could just glance at them or greet them briefly, but standing in line? Absolutely out of the question.0
The girl instead found a rock on the beach. She didn’t care if it had sand on it or whether it was clean. She put on her cat-ear headphones, sat down, and held up a picture book to read carefully.0
Her ears paid no attention to the world outside; her mind focused entirely on the children’s book. It was The Tianpin Diary. It was the children’s edition, complete with illustrations. She had bought it just that morning.0
Modern scholars had translated the original text and added illustrations. Each story ended with commentary, making it a fully-fledged children’s book.0
This book was very special. Not only was it one of the few well-preserved ancient zhiguai xiaoshuo, it was the only zhiguai xiaoshuo written in a travelogue format suitable for children, from a first-person perspective. Its reputation was significant, and subsequent translators had been very careful, making it a bestseller at home and abroad. Only, due to the original author’s limited literary skill, some passages were imprecise, contexts missing, or perspectives difficult to grasp, which posed challenges for translators and occasionally deviated slightly from the author’s original intention.0
The illustrations were also carefully done, though naturally they could never capture the full impact of the original scenes, and differed significantly from reality at the time.0
“The author cleverly wrote this travelogue in the voice of a monster. It makes the story more vivid, lively, and full of charm. Many of the ideas are incredibly unusual, things normal people would never imagine, as if it were truly written by a creature with a different way of thinking. That is undoubtedly the greatest highlight of this book.”0
“Heh…” Lady Calico smiled faintly and closed the book.0
Unconsciously, it was almost noon.0
Looking up, she saw the mother and child had finished their incense at the White Rhino God Temple. They had also bought a small shovel, net, and bucket from a nearby stall, evidently planning to head toward the sea. At this moment, the mother was standing nearby on the phone, while the child ran barefoot after tiny sand crabs, glancing back at her from time to time.0
A trail of footprints marked the sand.0
“Miss! Come catch crabs!” the boy called out excitedly as soon as their eyes met. His face was alight with pure excitement. That expression seemed familiar, as if it belonged to someone she had once known.0
Now, thinking back, the scene was somewhat blurry, but the feeling remained vivid, almost as if it had happened just a few months ago.0
“Miss! There are so many little crabs! Come catch them! It’s so fun!”0
“Is this really fun?” The girl walked calmly over. Only faint footprints marked the sand.0
“These crabs are tiny, and have no meat. Catching them won’t fill your stomach. What’s fun about that?”0
“You can take them home and raise them. Once they grow big, you can eat them!”0
“They won’t grow big.”0
“They’re just this size.” The girl spoke calmly and patiently. She paused, then continued, “There are too many people here. Only these small crabs are left. If we walk along the coast to a less crowded area, we can catch big crabs, lobsters, and even fish, that’s real fun.”0
The boy immediately looked at his mother, and Lady Calico also turned her head. The mother was still on the phone but gave Lady Calico a small smile, which was a mix of apology for troubling her and gratitude for playing with her son.0
So the two of them walked toward the quieter part of the beach, with the mother following behind on her call. They chatted along the way, reminiscing about the past.0
The sea was still endlessly blue, the sky still vast and boundless. Gazing at the horizon, it seemed no different than centuries ago, and the scene gradually overlapped with memories, as if they had returned to the past.0
Fewer people were on the beach now, both because they had walked away from the tourist areas and because the weather had shifted. Without them noticing it, the sky darkened, thick clouds rolled in, and the wind howled. A storm seemed imminent, dimming the light considerably.0
The sand had become cleaner and more even.0
On this smooth, clean stretch, the girl thought she saw a trail of paw prints resembling plum blossoms, as if a calico cat were running, carrying a fish, daintily prancing along. But when she blinked, the prints on the sand were indeed shaped like plum blossoms, but at their end was only a lazy orange cat.0
“Looks like it’s going to rain. Can we still catch fish?” The boy looked worried and glanced back; his mother frowned slightly as well.0
“Don’t worry,” Lady Calico said calmly.0
She then turned her head to look at the boundless sea, now ruffled into countless folds, and glanced back at the White Rhino God Temple, now far behind her. In a calm tone, she said, “An old friend has come all this way, shouldn’t there at least be some good weather to welcome them?”0
The weather at sea truly changed in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the wind calmed, the clouds dispersed, revealing a bright blue sky, and the sea grew noticeably lighter.0
“Eh! The sun’s out again!”0
“Let’s go, that area over there is good for sea-foraging.”0
Over the next few days, the boy’s mother often had work matters to attend to, leaving Lady Calico to play with the boy by herself. Fortunately, he was well-behaved and sensible, and she enjoyed spending time with him. But nothing lasts forever, and the moment eventually came to part ways.0
The three of them had one last meal together—a table full of assorted seafood they had gathered from the beach and had cooked at a nearby shop. After eating, they began heading back.0
“Miss, why do you eat from your own bowl?”0
“It’s just a habit.”0
“Oh.” The boy nodded, looking a little reluctant. “Mom and I are leaving tomorrow.”0
“Miss, where are you from?”0
“Oh! That’s where we flew from,” the boy said cheerfully. “Where in Lingquan do you live?”0
“At a place called Menglai Temple.”0
“A Daoist temple? Are you a Daoist?”0
“…” The girl thought for a moment. “Sort of.”0
“Ah?” The boy’s eyes widened in surprise. Even his mother looked a bit taken aback.0
“We also visited a Daoist temple in Lingquan, called Hidden Dragon Temple. Mom said the immortals there are very powerful,” the boy continued. “Do you know it?”0
“Hidden Dragon Temple… of course I know it…” Lady Calico’s eyes immediately softened with nostalgia. “We used to live there.”0
“You used to live there?”0
“Yes, for several years. Later our family split up, and we left it to the next generation of Daoists. We built another one elsewhere.” The girl looked down at the boy, her eyes lighting up slightly. “Was Hidden Dragon Temple fun?”0
“It was crowded. We wanted to eat inside the temple, but we couldn’t get in line.”0
“I see,” the girl paused. “Was there a pond in front of Hidden Dragon Temple when you visited?”0
“Yes, we saw it. People threw lots of money in there.”0
“That’s the one I built.”0
“I built it to raise fish.”0
“Wow!” The boy was utterly astonished.0
His mother only smiled faintly. She had read the plaque by the pond, which clearly stated that the pond was built at the end of the Great Yan dynasty, hundreds of years ago. Of course, she didn’t reveal this to the boy.0
She simply waited for a pause in their conversation and asked, “Miss Song, do you have any plans after this?”1
“After this? Maybe I’ll travel along the coast to Yangzhou, then to Yuzhou. I haven’t decided beyond that,” the girl thought for a moment before replying.0
“Yangzhou? The ancient Jiangnan town? That’s worth a visit. If we had more time, we could go too.”0
“Yuzhou doesn’t seem to have any famous sights.”0
“I’m just going to try the local traditional food.”0
“Traditional food in Yuzhou?”0
The mother made a strange expression. People in Yuzhou have long enjoyed snakes and rats as delicacies, a tradition that has lasted for many years and still continues.0
The curious boy immediately started asking what good food there was in Yuzhou.0
The mother didn’t answer, but asked another question instead, “Will you go to Changjing in the future?”0
“Changjing…” The girl’s mind seemed to drift. “Of course I will.”0
“We live in Changjing. We’re not locals, but we know the place well. The Forbidden City, Mount Chang, Mount Beiqin, the alleys of Changjing… When you arrive, make sure to send us a message. We’ll take you on a proper tour.”0
“…” Lady Calico felt a strange, curious amusement.0
After a long pause, she merely nodded in agreement and added, “If you come back to Lingquan, and want to offer incense at Hidden Dragon Temple, you can ask me. I know the current temple owner and some of the Daoist priests there. With me, you’ll definitely get to eat inside the temple.”0
The mother agreed as well. The three continued walking, returning to casual conversation between the girl and the boy.0
“Do you know magic?”0
“Can you catch monsters?”0
“Have you ever caught a monster and demons?”0
“Catching monsters and demons, huh…”0
A reflective look appeared in the girl’s eyes, though her face remained expressionless, her tone carried a hint of wistfulness. “There were far too many of them…”0