The villagers were well informed. Though Pan Yun and the others had landed directly atop the mountain and never gone down, by early the next morning, the entire village knew Pan Yun had returned.
So the villagers came climbing up the mountain at dawn, baskets slung over their arms and bundles in their hands.
Pan Yun and the others had just finished their morning lessons. Seeing the villagers emerge at the mountain gate shrouded in morning mist, they stood there with their mouths agape.
"What brings you here?"
"We came to worship the Three Pure Ones." That was only an excuse. In truth, they had come to ask after Wang Xiaojing and the others.
After returning to Quanzhou, Pan Yun had handed Wang Xiaojing and the others' letters and belongings to Steward Ding, Wang Cong's man, for him to deliver home.
Each family had received them, but they still wanted to learn more from Pan Yun. For instance, how far Japan was from here, how often they could return home in the future, whether it was easy to return, and how much it would cost.
What they ate and drank in Japan, what the climate was like, whether they could get used to living there...
Pan Yun was the keeper of the Mountain God Temple, and the villagers all loved and trusted her. As for Miao Zhen and the other two, the villagers had watched them grow up. Surrounded in the middle, none of them could tell the villagers lies.
When the villagers heard that there were not even houses to live in over there and that they had to build their own, and that winter was bitterly cold, with chill already rising after the Double Ninth Festival, they could not help wiping away tears.
But when they heard that