Although Princess Changping had noticed something unusual in the courtyard, she was not afraid as long as Yin Qing sat calmly beside her.
After hearing Ji Yuan's words, Yang Ping confirmed that the two guards were leaning against the wall and were fine, so he withdrew his gaze from the two guards and answered Ji Yuan.
"I am the daughter of a royal family, so I should have the bearing of a royal family."
Yin Qing smiled slightly on the side.
"Sir, Ping'er and I will be married next year. I hope you can come to Kyoto to attend the wedding if you are free. It would be best if you can bring Hu Yun with you."
As he spoke, Yin Qing took out a red-sealed invitation and handed it to Ji Yuan with both hands. The latter took it, stroking the gold-plated words on it, then looked at Yin Qing and Yang Ping with a look of emotion in his eyes.
"Qing'er is finally going to start a family!"
Ji Yuan stood up, walked to the trunk of the jujube tree, looked at the branches of the jujube tree in the yard, and then looked in the direction of Niu Kui Mountain.
"Everyone who knows me in Ning'an County has slowly grown old. In a few years, people will return to dust. Ji Yuan in Ju'an Xiaoge may not age for twenty years, but I can't really let the villagers think that I am immortal and not integrate into the village life. It may be best for me to be gradually forgotten like now."
"I will never forget you, sir."
Yin Qing said this in a cute way.
When Yang Ping heard Ji Yuan's words, she clutched her skirt tightly with her left hand under the table. Yin Qing noticed this and reached out to hold her hand.
Yang Ping's heart was beating faster at this moment, but she forced herself to calm down and asked Ji Yuan in a calm tone.
"Sir, do you mean to say that you are an immortal?"
Ji Yuan turned around and looked towards the stone table.
"To be precise, there are no absolute 'immortals' in the world. Some are just people who practice immortality. In the city, there are people who make a living by performing talismans and spells. You call them magicians, or even jianghu sorcerers. In the mountains, there are people who can call the wind and rain. You call them immortals. In fact, they are all the same kind of people. Although there is no absolute 'immortal', there are immortal charms and immortal ideas."
Ji Yuan's words were tantamount to implicit admission. Yang Ping held Yin Qing's hand even tighter, but for a moment she didn't know what to say.
The Yang family once had an experience of devoting all their national strength to the pursuit of immortality, and at this moment, a person who looked like an immortal was standing right before their eyes.
"Your Highness, with your intelligence, you should know that the Yang royal family's several attempts to seek immortality are destined to be fruitless. Oh, not entirely. It should be said that they are destined not to get the result they want."
The matter of the old beggar made it difficult for Ji Yuan to say anything definitive, but he still got the point across.
"Qing'er really loves you, so he brought you to Ju'an Pavilion. I once told him that as a couple, you can have your own little privacy, but it's best not to have any big secrets."
Yang Ping subconsciously looked at Yin Qing, and the latter was also looking at her. Once Yang Ping married into the Yin family, there would be only two results. Either she would be isolated from all magical things, or the elders would treat her as their own daughter and her husband would support her through thick and thin.
Obviously Yin Qing is willing to believe Yang Ping.
“Perhaps Your Highness Princess is wondering right now whether the Yin family has achieved such success because of knowing me?”
Ji Yuan knew that a normal person would inevitably think this way.
"It is undeniable that there is inevitably some connection, but it is definitely not what you think. A sincere Confucian heart and a righteous spirit are the mirror of heaven and earth. Not to mention that I only interact with the Yin family as relatives and friends, even if I help with all my strength, I cannot create a Yin Zhaoxianlai who is respected by the people and admired by ghosts and gods out of thin air."
As he spoke, a smile appeared on Ji Yuan's face. He returned to the table, placed his left hand on the red-sealed invitation, gently opened it, and looked up at Yin Qing and Yang Ping.
"Don't be nervous, Princess. When you marry Yin Qing, you will be my junior from now on. I wish you a long and happy marriage!"
As he spoke, Ji Yuan stretched out his right hand. A stream of light flew out from his sleeve and turned into a wolf-hair brush at his fingertips. The tip of the brush was moistened with ink as the light appeared and disappeared.
When the tip of the pen was stained with ink and the red paper was pasted, a faint fragrance of ink wafted out. Words full of charm appeared on the red paper as Ji Yuan wrote, which was exactly "a happy marriage for a hundred years and a lasting love".
As the last word fell, a flash of light appeared on the invitation.
Ji Yuan returned the invitation to Yin Qing.
"Keep it. If you ask for a wife again, I won't give you one, sir."
"He dares!"
Princess Changping pinched Yin Qing hard, then stood up and bowed to Ji Yuan.
"Since you are my elder, just call me Pingping or Ping'er."
"Okay, I'll call you that in the future when I'm alone with my friends."
Yin Qing slapped his thigh at this moment and quickly brought up the small jar of wine from under the table.
"Mr. Ji, these two jars are Qianrichun, which has been stored for 20 years. I spent a lot of effort to buy them from the garden shop. I know you like to drink it, so I brought them here specially to honor you!"
Ji Yuan smiled and said “Hehe”.
"The owner of this garden shop is very smart. Twenty years ago, the Thousand Days Spring that had been stored for twenty years was indeed rare. Now, who knows how many are hidden. Next time, you can find one that is more than thirty years old. Well, your salary is enough to buy it anyway."
Yin Qing shouted exaggeratedly.
"I can't bear to be with someone like you, sir. I have to count my salary very carefully!"
…
Originally, Yin Qing and Princess Changping and their entourage were going to dine at a restaurant in the county, but they had dinner that night at Ju'an Pavilion, where Ji Yuan cooked the dishes himself.
By the time they left, it was already dark. Although the Yin family's old house was occasionally taken care of by someone, it was obviously not suitable for living, so they went to the inn in the city.
After leaving Tianniufang, smelling the fragrance of jujube flowers all the way, Yang Ping leaned over to Yin Qing and asked quietly.
"Sir, is Mr. Ji really a god? Can he call the wind and rain? Can he make people immortal?"
"Then I don't know. I have never seen you perform such magic. I only know that having an elder like you always makes me feel at ease. Is it important to be able to call the wind and rain or make people immortal? When I was a child, you heard from your master that immortality can never be obtained by asking for it."
After much hesitation, Yang Ping finally asked the question that had been lingering in her mind.
"Then, can I tell this to my father?"
Hearing this, the expression on Yin Qing's face did not change as Yang Ping worried. Instead, he looked at her with a smile.
"I won't say whether it will harm the country or not. If there really is an immortal who can help Dazhen, and the emperor is wise enough, the benefits will definitely outweigh the disadvantages. But you asked the wrong person about this matter. You should ask Mr. Ji. What do you think he thinks?"
Yang Ping suddenly realized and no longer had any worries.
After drinking some sweet soup in Ju'an Pavilion, the fatigue from the long journey was swept away. Starting from the next day, Yin Qing and his family began to send invitations to some close relatives and elders from their parents' side and their mother's side, and told them not to worry about the itinerary as they would prepare the carriages and boats.
On the fourth day, Yin Qing, who received a special message, took Princess Changping to Niukui Mountain. Ostensibly, they were going for a tour, but in fact, they were going to meet their good friend Hu Yun. This time, with Yin Qing's hint, Hu Yun's true identity was revealed to Yang Ping, letting the latter know that the so-called "red cat" was actually the fox.
Yang Ping was more excited to see the "fox fairy" than when she arrived at Ju'an Pavilion, and Hu Yun was also more relaxed in front of Yin Qing. He cast a spell to send the guards away, and displayed his magic in front of Yang Ping, even showing off his paper man talisman like a treasure. He called the person he created by refining the paper man talisman "Shadow Phantom".
The guards who were responsible for protecting the princess and her future prince consort were terrified that day. In a mountain where man-eating tigers were said to have once bred, a group of guards with great martial arts skills actually lost the future prince consort and the princess. This was a huge crime.
Fortunately, Yin Qing and Yang Ping came out of the mountain safely half a day later, which made the guards and attendants who were sweating profusely feel relieved. They felt even more relieved when they knew that the two would not be punished and would even keep the matter secret.
However, because of this incident, the guards never took their attention away from their two masters until they left Ning'an County and returned to the capital.
Then the one-year period arrived, and the marriage of Yin Qing and Yang Ping became famous throughout the capital. On the wedding day, both Yin's Mansion and the Imperial Palace were extremely lively.
In this festive atmosphere, Ji Yuan took Hu Yun to the Yin family and gave his blessings, but this time he did not stay long and returned to Ning'an County after only three days.
…
Time flies, but in Ning'an County, Ji Yuan did not feel that time was like a torrent, especially when he did not sleep long.
This time, Ji Yuan lived in Ning'an County for nearly three years, which was the longest time he had lived there since he came to this world.
Nothing major happened in the past few years, and not many people came to disturb Ji Yuan. The only thing was that the Wei family resumed the habit of sending tea, and every year when the new tea came out, they would select the best part and send it to Ju'an Xiaoge.
In the blink of an eye, it was already the beginning of February in the Wuxu year. On this day, Sun Yaya, who had grown a little taller, was still practicing calligraphy in the yard. It was a very cold day, but the little girl in the yard had warm hands and feet, and her thinking was clearer.
Ji Yuan was playing with a few magic coins in the room. They were the result of his careful refining many times. The light was more subtle and the connotation was deeper, like a large copper coin, with a heavier feeling of weight.
“Boom boom boom…”
There was a knock on the gate. Sun Yaya quickly put her pen on the pen holder and ran to open the door.
The door opened with a creak, and Sun Yaya found an old man with a white beard and a kind face standing outside.
"You are Sun Yaya, right?"
Sun Yaya frowned.
"Grandpa, who are you? I have never seen you before. Why do you know me?"
"Hahaha, I can recognize you even if I haven't seen you before..."
Ju Yuanzi looked at Ji Yuan who had already walked out of the house, and bowed from a distance.
"Mr. Ji, the time to set off has come!"