Rows of small houses with gray tiles and white walls lean low against the water, with dimly lit yellow lanterns hanging. The oars gently cut through the water, and the quaint rowboats traveled through the water lanes. The whole Qingyuan Town was very peaceful and remote.
Mu Lin sat on the edge of the stone, slowly kicking his short legs, his round toes always just barely reaching the water surface.
That's right, she is now just a three-year-old girl who is powerless, and her name is also Mu Lin. She was reincarnated with her memories, and she didn't know her identity and fate. Fortunately, she got the fate trajectory of her master in this life by threatening Fairy Jingchen.
Mu Lin is confident that he can help his master overcome the tragic and difficult times that have led to depression and madness, and give him a lifetime of happiness and health.
After a while, she heard her mother's voice calling her from afar. The moon was above the treetops, and the night was falling. It was time to go home for dinner. Mu Lin responded from afar, stood up, patted the dust off her body, and staggered towards her own little house.
Mu Lin always felt that her mother was not an ordinary person.
The Jingsheng Dynasty where they lived was in the midst of a turmoil over the succession struggle. It was truly beyond description that a weak woman who was stranded outside could escape from Kyoto to a small border town safely, find a place to stay, and give birth to a child smoothly.
Not to mention that her mother, Mu Qinying, was a capable lady in both the living room and the kitchen. Not only was she a good cook, she was also proficient in reading and writing, and she also supported her and her daughter with her excellent Suzhou embroidery.
Mu Lin walked into the house with her short legs, and the strong smell of fish lingered in her nose. She raised her head and jumped. Sure enough, the food was already on the table, and the main dish was her favorite pine nut fish!
"Nannan is back?" The young woman with her hair in a bun leaned over, hugged her daughter, and touched the little bangs on her head.
"Mom~" Mu Lin skillfully put his arms around her neck and acted coquettishly.
Even the coarse grey skirt could not conceal Mu Qinying's stunning beauty and extraordinary demeanor. Mu Lin felt that her heart melted when this mortal mother smiled gently at her.
Mu Lin felt that she had become childish. She was indulging in endless maternal love, but she enjoyed it.
Mu Qinying also thought that her daughter was so adorable that it melted her heart. Every time she held the little girl's soft hand, she was determined to protect her for the rest of her life. She only wished that she would always be safe, happy and have a smooth life.
Mu Qinying's expression darkened, not knowing what she was thinking about. She patted her daughter's back and sighed softly.
"Why is mother sighing? Is the embroidery selling poorly today?"
"No, my mother is so talented, her embroidery is in great demand."
Mu Qinying gently pinched her daughter's nose and said, "Go wash your hands and sit down to eat. The pine nut fish is getting cold."
"Ah!!!" Mu Lin hurriedly ran to wash his hands.
Mu Qinying shook her head and smiled.
Her daughter is precociously independent, unlike normal children. She speaks clearly at the age of one, and can follow adults' thinking at the age of two. She has no communication barriers and is like a little adult. She doesn't need her help with dressing or eating.
If the war had not broken out... her daughter should have lived a life of luxury, with everything provided for her.
Mu Qinying just sighed and lowered her eyes to help her daughter find a smaller spoon and chopsticks.
Mu Qinying's cooking skills were so good that little Mu Lin's eyes sparkled every time she ate. Mu Qinying would pick up some food for her from time to time, and she felt a sense of satisfaction when she saw her daughter chewing the fish like a little hamster.
It seems not bad to continue living like this.
Children sleep a lot, and Mu Lin felt sleepy soon after he finished eating. Accompanied by the light and gentle scent of Mu Qinying, he closed his eyes in a daze.
Before falling asleep, she calculated the days and realized that she would soon meet her master.
During her childhood, she had been thinking about what to do. The first thing she had to do in this reincarnation was to save her master's mother, Princess Qianji.
Today, the world is divided into three parts: the Great Qin Empire in the north, the Jingsheng Empire in the southwest, and the Tianlan Empire in the southeast. The rest of the small countries are scattered around, and there is endless war.
Mu Lin is a citizen of the Jingsheng Empire. Qingyuan Town is a small border town at the junction of the Jingsheng Empire and the Tianlan Empire. It is a remote and peaceful town for many years.
The master's reincarnation this time was very precious. He was Xiao Muyun, the second son of the Hengyang Palace of the Tianlan Empire. He was now six years old. If she remembered correctly, Xiao Muyun and Princess Qianji would encounter an assassin tomorrow and flee to Qingyuan Town. Xiao Muyun was hidden by the princess and luckily escaped, but the assassin killed the princess on the spot in order to force him out.
This incident opened the prelude to Xiao Muyun's tragic life. When the people from the Hengyang Palace finally found him, he had been staring at his dead mother for three days without eating or drinking. The Hengyang King was too sad to care about his son. After Xiao Muyun was taken back, he fell seriously ill and almost died. After being rescued, his foundation was damaged, he was weak and sickly, and his will was depressed for a long time.
The King of Hengyang treated him coldly, and his elder brother Xiao Muren, who had been comforting and caring for him, died in the South Desert. Xiao Muyun, who became the crown prince, had to hold on for the sake of Tianlan Jiangshan and worked hard. Later, he experienced the death of his father, the suspicion of the king, and finally the seizure of his beloved fiancée, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back. A person's black hair turned white in nine years of waiting, and he vomited blood and died in the ice and snow...
Mu Lin would never allow these things to happen.
I have to say that Zijian's arrangement for her master was quite thoughtful, but it was not well-intentioned. Her good master encountered such an extremely bad fate. Was he going to go through all the tribulations that could be overcome in the mortal world
The more Mu Lin thought about it, the angrier she became. When she got back, she would skin Zi Jian alive, pull out his tendons, and throw him into the reincarnation cycle for several lifetimes!
Thinking about it, he sighed again. When the human world is in constant war, the underworld will be busy. Mu Lin began to understand why the defeated underworld started to operate again after only a thousand years - even the immortal world and the god world couldn't stand the ghosts left by the underworld's shutdown in the human world, causing trouble for the people, right
Her master once told her a conjecture: Heaven has given the immortals power to rule the human world, and they must assume the responsibility of governing the human world; and the gods' immense divine power relies largely on drawing on the power of mortals' faith.
If this is the case, the God of War is worthy of being the supreme god. A hint of sarcasm flashed across Mu Lin's eyes.
After all, where there are people, there are wars and plunder.
It's not just humans, immortals, demons, and gods, either. Will these greed and cruelty provide the God of War with an endless source of faith
What can stand against Him
Mu Lin had no answer in his mind.
When she woke up, Mu Qinying was embroidering by the window. The bright morning sunlight shone through the gauze window onto the woman's black hair and light blue skirt, making her look particularly beautiful.
Mu Lin put on his clothes, climbed off the bed, walked over with his short legs, and grabbed the hem of his mother's skirt.
Mu Qinying lowered her eyes and saw a chubby little hand pulling her skirt and shaking it. The little girl blinked her big black and white eyes in confusion. She was cute and soft. She put the canvas on the table and held the little girl in her arms.
"Are you hungry, Nannan?"
Mu Lin hugged her neck and shook his head.
“Not hungry.”
"Go wash your face first. After I embroider this flower, I'll braid your hair into pigtails, okay?"
"Mother, today is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Shall we go to the lantern festival tonight?"
It turned out that he was just playing around. Mu Qinying smiled helplessly: "Okay~"
"Then you have to be good today, daughter. Follow your mother closely in the evening and she will buy you some candied haws."
"Rin'er will definitely be good!"
Mu Lin let go of Mu Qinying, struggled to the ground with his short legs, and ran to wash up.
In the evening, Mu Qinying took Mu Lin out as expected.
Sparse shadows slant across the shallow water, and a faint fragrance floats in the moonlight at dusk. The mother and daughter, one in blue and one in pink, walk under the moonlight and tree shadows on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, surrounded by the quiet scent of winter plums, as blurred as a dream.
Even many years later, Mu Lin would still recall this moment.
The mother and daughter arrived at the Lantern Festival not long after they left. Mu Qinying sighed, "The east wind blows thousands of flowers at night. It blows down stars like rain. The road is filled with the fragrance of BMWs and carved carriages.
The sound of the phoenix flute moves, the light of the jade pot turns, and the fish and dragons dance all night. The moth is covered with golden threads of snow willow. The smiles and the faint fragrance are gone. "
Mu Lin shook her sleeves: "Mother, the lantern festival in Qingyuan Town is not this beautiful..."
Most of the more than a thousand people in Qingyuan Town came out tonight. It was lively, with vendors selling snacks and small items shouting and hawking along the two roads, but there were no BMWs, carved carriages, or phoenix flutes or jade pots.
Mu Qinying was surprised to find that her daughter could understand the poem she was reading. She smiled and said softly, "A long time ago, mother participated in the Lantern Festival in the capital and encountered... just like what was described in the poem."
"Mother, can you take me to the capital to see it?"
Mu Qinying squatted down to her eye level, and said seriously, "Lin'er, there will be such a day. Mother promises you."
"Okay~" Mu Lin smiled, his eyes curved into crescents.
For the rest of the journey, the little girl was like a butterfly flying around.
"Mom, I want to eat rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice!"
"Mother, sweet-scented osmanthus cake~"
"Steamed cheese with sugar looks delicious, mother~"
"Little greedy cat."
When she was a child, she was not as lively and greedy as Nannan. Mu Qinying lost her temper and had no choice but to take out her wallet and buy things.
Fortunately, the child's stomach was small, and he was full in a short while. Mu Lin held the little red lantern, burped, glanced at the moon, and thought it was almost time.
"Mom, I don't want to go shopping anymore, shall we go back?"
"Okay, mother will carry our daughter and leave?"
"No need, Lin'er can walk by herself. Mom, let's take the path to the east. There are fewer people there, it's quieter, and you can help digest your food there."
"Well, there's nothing I can do about you."
Mu Qinying took Mu Lin's hand and led her to a sparsely populated alley, intending to go around there and go home.
Qingyuan Town is a warm and remote place. Doors are left open at night and people do not pick up things on the road. It is the Lantern Festival and red lanterns are hung at the doors of every household. Although there are few people on this road, there is really nothing to make people feel uneasy.
Mu Lin became quiet. Mu Qinying thought her daughter was tired from shopping and stopped teasing her. The mother and daughter slowed down their pace tacitly.