"Master?"
Inside the carriage, Sun Boling saw Verdant Green Maiden stop and lifted the curtain, confusion in his eyes. He glanced at the mountains and rivers around them and asked, "Why have we stopped here?"
Verdant Green Maiden glanced at him. "Hong Luan hasn't returned yet. We'll wait for her."
Sun Boling nodded in understanding. Verdant Green Maiden added, "I'm going to fetch water. Have a good wash. You stink!"
Snake Nose wasn't especially sensitive, but that didn't mean she couldn't smell anything.
At her faintly disgusted remark, Sun Boling grew even more flustered. He lowered his head, his voice dropping. "This disciple is so down on his luck that I've offended you, Master. Please forgive me."
Sigh... The essence of humanity is a machine for spewing nonsense. If I really blamed you, I wouldn't have come to Da Liang to find you.
Verdant Green Maiden sighed and waved her hand, then went to the riverbank to fetch him a bucket of water.
The two waited and waited by the riverbank, but Hong Luan never came. Instead, a self-deceiving Qi State Spy showed up first.
Half his body was hidden behind a tree, like a pipa player whose face was half veiled.
"Should we pretend we didn't see him?" Verdant Green Maiden muttered under her breath.
Sun Boling looked that way, his gaze turning cold. "No one should deceive you, Master, whatever their intentions. The person behind the tree—if you're a gentleman, please come out and meet us!"
Verdant Green Maiden's eyes widened. "You're so polite."
After that, the spy stepped straight out and cupped his hands to greet them. "A Qi State Spy pays his respects to Ghost Valley Master and Mr. Sun!"
"Oh, look. A Qi spy really did show up!"
Verdant Green Maiden clicked her tongue and waved him away. "Go get whoever's in charge at your place. You've shown no sincerity at all."
The spy looked awkward at her words. He nodded repeatedly and took his leave.
After Hong Luan flew back, she chattered away to Verdant Green Maiden about Pang Juan's actions after she'd left, her voice full of indignation. "We shouldn't have let him into the valley in the first place! How did we end up teaching such a black-hearted fellow? Verdant Green Maiden, why don't you go back and give him a good beating?"
"Beating people is tiring."
Verdant Green Maiden shook her head and said to Hong Luan, "Don't get angry. You'll shorten your life. Look at me. I've only gotten angry a few times in all this time. A good disposition is the secret to staying young and beautiful."
Hong Luan: "..."
Have some shame!
She landed on Verdant Green Maiden's shoulder and asked, "Why aren't we leaving? Who are we waiting for?"
"There!"
Verdant Green Maiden pointed a short distance ahead.
Several people came running toward them, literally covered in dust from their journey. Their leader wore fine brocade and had his hair arranged with not a strand out of place. He bowed to Verdant Green Maiden and saluted. "Chunyu Kun, envoy of Qi, pays his respects to Master!"
Verdant Green Maiden shifted aside. "He's here for you."
"How could this disciple compare with you, Master?"
Sun Boling shook his head in denial.
Chunyu Kun explained why he'd come: he wanted to invite Verdant Green Maiden and Sun Boling to Qi.
Such talent—Wei State didn't want them, but Qi State did!
Hearing this, Verdant Green Maiden couldn't help but marvel that Great Wei truly lived up to its reputation as a talent-exporting base for the Warring States. The rulers of Qin and Qi could kneel and kowtow to Ji Cui, and it still wouldn't be too much.
Sun Boling was tempted by Chunyu Kun's offer, but he didn't accept outright. Instead, he looked at Verdant Green Maiden.
"What do you think, Master?"
"You're trying to play games with me?"
Verdant Green Maiden glanced at Sun Boling and clicked her tongue. "Wherever you want to go, I won't stop you."
At her words, Sun Boling continued, "Then, Master..."
"You're still trying to scheme against me?"
Verdant Green Maiden glared and waved him away, looking faintly disgusted. "Don't get any ideas about the snake, or I'll beat you."
She knew exactly what Chunyu Kun and Sun Boling were thinking.
Still, Verdant Green Maiden was generous enough to give them the carriage. It wasn't her property anyway. Worried Pang Juan might do something outrageous, Chunyu Kun drove the carriage at full speed through the night, heading straight for Linzi.
After sending Sun Boling off, Verdant Green Maiden wasn't in a hurry to return to Ghost Valley. She decided to give herself a year off.
Verdant Green Maiden, who'd spent at least eighteen hundred of the past two thousand years on vacation, thought her time off was far too short!
A little snake should eat, drink, and be merry, carefree and untroubled.
But because of Pang Juan and Sun Boling, Ghost Valley's reputation had soared.
Even though Verdant Green Maiden skipped work for more than a year, visitors kept arriving one after another. They trampled back and forth through the beautiful mountains and waters, wearing countless paths into the land.
"Sigh. There's less game around, too."
Verdant Green Maiden sighed.
Hong Luan cocked her head on her shoulder. "Isn't there less game because you eat so much?"
"Eating well is a blessing," Verdant Green Maiden muttered. She didn't think her appetite was a problem at all! After two thousand years, if she couldn't eat, she'd have starved into a dried-up green snake long ago. How else could she still be so lively?
The person and the bird traded barbs as they returned to the valley entrance. There, they saw a young man kneeling and bowing. "This junior, Su Qin, pays his respects to Ghost Valley Master!"
"Su Qin?"
Hidden in a tree, Verdant Green Maiden narrowed her eyes.
Hong Luan asked, "You know him?"
"I know him all too well."
Verdant Green Maiden clicked her tongue. She grabbed Hong Luan off her shoulder and whispered, "You, sneak in and bring out our luggage. We're making a getaway!"
Sitting in Verdant Green Maiden's palm, Hong Luan shook her head. "You're not getting away. Look down there."
Verdant Green Maiden froze, then looked down.
Su Qin was standing beneath the tree, gazing up at Verdant Green Maiden as she sat on a branch, swinging her legs.
When he saw her looking at him, he immediately stepped back and bowed in greeting. "I pay my respects to Master!"
Verdant Green Maiden leaned back and waved him away. "You've mistaken me for another snake."
Su Qin replied resolutely, "This junior begs you to teach me, so that I may gain the wisdom to persuade the Warring States! I, Su Qin, thank you in advance!"
After bowing, he took sacrificial meat from his bag and respectfully offered it to Verdant Green Maiden. That gesture went straight to her heart! Of course, it wasn't that Verdant Green Maiden loved food. It was Su Qin's sincerity that moved her!
"Ahem..."
Verdant Green Maiden cleared her throat and leaped down.
She snatched the sacrificial meat from Su Qin's hands, then tossed him a bamboo scroll of the Vertical and Horizontal Strategy Treatises. "Take it, take it. Study it yourself! I'll let you stay in Ghost Valley, but don't come bother me."
Su Qin hugged the bamboo scroll like a priceless treasure and immediately knelt, kowtowing again and again. "Thank you, Master!"
Verdant Green Maiden walked into the valley. In her hand, Hong Luan muttered, "You let yourself be bought with a bit of meat. How embarrassing!"
"Refusing meat delivered right to your mouth goes against the laws of Heaven."
Verdant Green Maiden said it with grave conviction. In any case, it only meant letting one more person stay in the valley. She wasn't responsible for feeding him. Letting someone who could forage for himself live there would be a way to cultivate her character.
Su Qin settled in the valley, and stayed for three years. Verdant Green Maiden didn't think there was anything worth reading in a single book, but he couldn't get enough of it.
For three years, he pored over the treatises Verdant Green Maiden had given him again and again.
At last, believing he was ready to travel the Warring States and fulfill his ambitions, he came to bid Verdant Green Maiden farewell.
"Thank you, Master, for teaching me!"
"Where are you going?"
Verdant Green Maiden looked at Su Qin with curiosity.
Su Qin replied, "Out into the world, to fulfill this disciple's ambitions! Some time ago, Wei attacked Zhao. The Warring States all ignored powerful Qin and kept waging war against one another, wasting their strength in the process! This disciple wants to find a way for the Warring States to resist powerful Qin!"
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