Today, Wei Bo came to the Bamboo Building at Luopo Mountain. Mountain Lord Chen said he had an important matter to discuss and had troubled Great Mountain Lord Wei to make the trip.
Chen Ping'an rose from beside the stone table at the cliff's edge to greet him, smiling. "The old cook asked me to pass along a message. Could we buy a plot of land over at Piyun Mountain? When summer comes, we could go there to escape the heat."
Wei Bo asked doubtfully, "You called me here just for that?"
For such a trivial matter, why had he specifically summoned him?
It turned out that Wei Bo had built a separate residence in a secluded spot on Piyun Mountain. Its architecture was exquisitely crafted, winding onward like an unrolled scroll. At the Mountain Lord's study stood two old pines transplanted from the former Lu royal residence. Their shade was thick as a pine canopy. Looking into the distance from beneath them, whenever white clouds rose from the foot of the mountain, the surrounding peaks vanished entirely, leaving only the topknots of Luopo Mountain, Xiandu Mountain, and other places to the south exposed. It resembled a Mi Family painting of snowy mountains. Outside the study was a pond full of lotus blossoms, its leaves standing tall and graceful. During the height of summer, one could moor a boat here, toss two or three watermelons into the water, then take a nap. Their fragrance would seep into one's clothes. After waking from a daytime dream, one could fish out the melons, carry them ashore, split them open, and eat them. They would be as cold as something from an ice cellar, as though the world had no dog days of summer.
Chen Ping'an smiled and got straight to the point.