Nightfall

“When I first came, like you, I was too surprised by the beauty to say a word.”

Chen Pipi came to stand by Ning Que at some point.

Ning Que turned around, glancing at him, and asked, “Is it more beautiful than the place where you once lived?”

Chen Pipi looked at him, wondering if he had figured out where he came from. After a moment of silence, he said, “The solemn, respectful or sacred are not actually the beauty.”

He smiled and continued, “Welcome to the real Academy.”

Ning Que answered with a smile, “It seems that you are my tour guide today.”

While Chen Pipi had not heard the words, tour guide, before, he roughly guessed the meaning. He smiled and led Ning Que to the cliff floor. Stepping on the damp ridges, they made all the way through the fields and meadows before they embarked on a wooden bridge, coming to the lake as calm as a mirror.

The white waterfowls sank and floated while they were preying on fish in the water. No matter they succeeded or failed, they proudly raised their heads or ate the fish, or dried water droplets on their feathers. The sound of footsteps on the wooden bridge attracted the waterfowls’ attention. However, they were obviously not afraid of people. Instead, they appeared to be curious, full of spiritualism.

There was a pavilion in the middle of the wooden bridge, which was quiet and elegant as it located in lake water. A woman dressed in a piece of light yellow Academy spring clothes was devoted to embroidering.

Chen Pipi led Ning Que to the woman and said with a respectful salute, “Seventh Sister.”

The woman in the light yellow clothes looked up and glanced at Ning Que beside him, then said with a smile, “Take your junior brother to have a look around.”

Ning Que greeted a bow with hands folded in front and respectfully said, “Seventh Sister, it’s a great honor to meet you.”

Seventh Sister looked at Chen Pipi with a half smile and suddenly said, “From now on, you can get some free time.”

Chen Pipi chuckled in embarrassment.

Ning Que felt puzzled and looked at them in confusion.

Seventh Sister did not say anything more. She continued to embroider.

They walked out of the lake pavilion and came to the shore along the wooden bridge. Chen Pipi turned around and introduced to Ning Que, “Seventh Sister is named Mu You. She is proficient in array tactical. The mist you penetrated through when you climbed the mountain before was set by former predecessors, and now it is maintained by her alone. As for embroidery… Seventh Sister ran into a bottleneck two years ago. Neither Eldest Brother nor Second Brother could figure out a way to help her. Finally, the teacher decided to let her do embroidery. She has been embroidering for two years. I don’t know if she has come through the bottleneck after all.

The shock in Ning Que had never disappeared as it was his first visit to the Second floor of the Academy. He just behaved to be calm. He did not know many things, such as the relationship between embroidery and array tactical. But as he could not understand, he knew it was useless to ask. So he kept silent.

Chen Pipi guided him to the jungle in the west, passing by a very tall old tree. While listening to the beautiful sound of the lute and the vertical bamboo flute, Chen Pipi said, “The man who is playing the vertical bamboo flute is Ninth Brother, Beigong Weiyang, and that one who is playing the lute is Tenth Brother, Ximen Buhuo. They both come from the Pole South Island and are proficient in tonality. As for the cultivation they are pursuing, I’m afraid even they themselves cannot tell it clearly.”

Ning Que was surprised and asked, “What? How can cultivators don’t know the cultivation they pursue?”

Chen Pipi shook his head and explained, “Teachers have never asked them to do homework. They just let them tinker with these useless stuff according to their wills. I have been hearing them play since I came to the Academy. I have seen them do anything else.”

The music in the spring forest suddenly stopped. With a sound of grating, two men in white spring Academy clothes with wider bottom hems and bigger sleeves, which obviously had been changed, came out of the wood, handsome and calm. They did not look like students. They were more like recluses with celestial behaviors.

Ninth Brotherwith a vertical bamboo flute in his hands looked at Chen Pipi and snappily said, “What do you mean that I cannot explain it clearly?”

Chen Pipi said with a smile, “Then please tell us what you have been practicing in the Academy for so many years?”

Ninth Brother furiously knocked Chen Pipi’s head with the vertical bamboo flute.

Chen Pipi clutched his head and annoyedly cried, “Ninth Brother, how can you hit me just as you cannot convince me interracially? Where is your ritual?”

The silent man hugging the lute beside them suddenly said, “Good job.”

Chen Pipi looked at the man and said, “Tenth Brother, you used not to be such a person.”

Tenth Brother, Ximen Buhuo, slightly smiled, lightly holding the lute with his hands in front of him. Then he pulled a broken sound with his fingertip and said to Ning Que, “Dear junior brother, what Beigong Senior Brother and I are practicing is tonality. Such laymen like Chen Pipi, who only take the Qi of Heaven and Earth to fight, simply cannot understand the beauty of tonality. I hope you are not one of them.”

Ninth Brother, Beigong Weiyang, inserted the vertical bamboo flute into his waist and curiously said to Ning Que, “Dear junior brother, the other day we observed you climb the mountain, we discovered that you were free and easy. Master Yan Se said you have the potential of being a Divine Talisman Master. Besides, it is said that you are one of the Calligraphers in the city of Chang’an, who have recently become famous. So you must be quite accomplished in art. We should learn from each other in the future.”

Ning Que hurriedly bow with respect, while he was bitterly thinking that he did not understand tonality. As for the question whether it was vulgar or not… if one can sense the Qi of Heaven and Earth, he, of course, should use it to enhance his state, and then learn fighting skills. These two senior brothers actually put all the cultivation and even their lives into tonality. Elegant as they were, they just wasted their potential.

“Dear senior brothers, I know nothing of tonality.” He quickly responded.

Ninth Brother, Beigong Weiyang, was very disagreeable and said while cuffing his sleeves, “Both tonality and calligraphy are beautiful things between heaven and earth. Art includes many intertwined disciplines. Since now you have met us, how would you know nothing of it?”

Ning Que understood the good intentions of them and felt awful to reject, so he agreed that he would come to learn tonality from them as long as he had spare time in the future. Even if he might not get improvements, being a listener would do him good.

The two senior brothers were cast with the pleasing joy after they heard the words, praising Ning Que together. “Surely you are not a layman like Chen Pipi.”

…

…

Chen Pipi glanced at Ning Que on their way to the houses on the cliff floor under the big tree and seriously asked, “Do you really like the sound of lutes and vertical bamboo flutes?”

Ning Que glanced at him and said, “I am totally not interested in that… You do not have to look at me in this way. This is my first day on the second floor of the Academy. The two senior brothers are so passionate. How can I refuse them in person?”

Chen Pipi said with bitter hatred, “You idiot! Of course, you should firmly reject.”

Ning Que was puzzled, and asked, “If they want to play the vertical bamboo flute for me, I can just avoid them. So what is the problem?”

“In the past few years, none of our senior brothers and sisters were willing to quietly listen to their performance. They could only play face-to-face with themselves every day, talking with each other and flattering each other. They have been boring to death, all they need is a listener. Since you have promised them, you will be forced to listen in the back of the mountain every day.”

Ning Que confusedly asked, “Are they extremely poor in tonality?”

“They are absolutely first-class players in the ordinary world.”

Chen Pipi seriously said with his eyebrows bitterly dropping down, then continued, “If you are forced to listening to the same melody thousands of times, you will know the pain in it, despite they being great masters of tonality.”

Will I be fed up with eating a thousand bowls of hot and sour noodle slice soup without a break? Will Sangsang be fed up with eating a thousand dishes of vinegar-soaked cabbages ceaselessly? Will we both be fed up with having noodles in Building of Pines and Cranes for a thousand days? Of course we will. Then listen to the same song for a thousand times in a row will certainly be boring and tormenting.

Ning Que asked with a shaking voice, “There are endless people in the world loving tonality, they won’t always force me to listen, right?”

“There are endless people who love tonality in the world, but as the two senior brothers view, there are very few people who are qualified to listen to the music they play. Those who can become their classmates after entering the back mountain of the Academy are certainly qualified as they have all passed the test of the Headmaster of Academy.”

Ning Que kept silent for a long time and decidedly said, “I will hide.”

“I had once tried.” Chen Pipi looked at him sympathetically and sighed, “Although the back mountain of the Academy is not small, it is not difficult to look for an individual.”

Ning Que was about to say something but suddenly found that the flower trees along the stone path shook and a person whose face could not be clearly seen rushed out. He was taken aback. Then he looked at the man and recognized him as a young senior brother. However, his hair and robe were covered with a wide range of petals, funny yet a little horrible.

Chen Pipi pulled him to his side and seriously introduced, “This is Eleventh Brother, Wang Chi.”

Ning Que preener himself and greeted a deep bow to show his respect. “Eleventh Brother, it’s a great honor to meet you.”

Eleventh Brother stared at him without greeting back, but picked up a petal on his shoulder and startledly asked, “Answer my question, if there is nothing besides heart, what is the connection between the flowers, which had been blossoming and fading for thousands of years before the Headmaster of Academy came to the back mountain, and the hearts of you and me? If no one walks into the mountains and no one admires, doesn’t the flowers exist?”

Ning Que was speechless and kept silent for a long time, then he turned around and innocently looked at Chen Pipi.

Chen Pipi looked more innocent than Ning Que, meaning that if you did not know, we would not be able to leave.

Eleventh Brother, Wang Chi, gently looked at him, waiting for a long time for his answer. Although he did not get the answer, he was not unhappy but mildly explained, “In my opinion, before you and I see the flowers, our hearts and the flowers are silent and lonely. When you and I admire the flowers, the flowers bloom in out hearts. Whether the flowers exist or not lies in the moment of appearance.”

Ning Que slightly opened his lip, still speechless, and looked very innocent.

Chen Pipi felt guilty from the innocent look of Ning Que and said after coughed, “Eleventh Brother, the younger brother just came to the back mountain, I have to take him to meet other senior brothers.Can we discuss later the flowers and heart?”

Wang Chi gently look at Ning Que and said, “Little younger brother, can he help me with the thinking if you are not busy in the future?”

Ning Que got the meaning of the words and felt relieved. He quickly agreed and then fled from the flower trees following Chen Pipi to those houses under the ancient tree of the cliff floor without noticing the sympathetic look on Chen Pipi’s face again.