Verdant Green Maiden settled by the Luo River.
Ji He provided her with food, clothing, and other necessities. She would also occasionally search the surrounding woods for wild rabbits willing to sacrifice themselves, to improve her meals.
In her spare time, Verdant Green Maiden picked up her old trade again.
She set up a fortune-telling stall by the Luo River.
From this, Ji He learned that Verdant Green Maiden was not a member of the Jiang Qi Imperial Clan, but the name Green Robe Immortal Maiden carried far more weight than that of any Imperial Clan daughter!
So Ji He treated her even better and would sometimes ask her to tell his fortune.
Over the past two years, the two of them had grown quite close.
Early one morning, Ji He excitedly came to Verdant Green Maiden's door, knocked, and called out, "Verdant Green Maiden, get up and open the door! It's me, Ji He! I need to talk to you!"
Inside, Verdant Green Maiden covered her ears, rolled over, and went back to sleep.
Outside, Ji He kept knocking, looking like he wouldn't leave until she answered.
"Enough already! Are you going to let a snake sleep or not?"
Verdant Green Maiden yelled, then angrily scrambled up and pulled open the courtyard gate. She looked at Ji He, standing there with an excited expression, and bared her sharp teeth.
"What is it? Seen a ghost?"
Ji He shook his head excitedly. "What ghost? It's the Great King!"
Verdant Green Maiden asked again, "The Great King turned into a ghost?"
Ji He's eyes widened in alarm. He hurriedly glanced around, then lowered his voice. "You can't just say things like that!"
Watching Ji He's startled expression, Verdant Green Maiden looked up at the sun and squinted.
"It's barely morning, and you're already making a fuss. What do you want?"
"Luoyi has been completed! The Great King rewarded me with Thirty Peng of Cowrie Shells and Thirty Jin of Gold!"
Ji He excitedly told Verdant Green Maiden, "The Great King also recognized my father's achievements. This is a tremendous honor. I plan to cast a bronze vessel, and since you're so knowledgeable, I came to ask your opinion."
"I suggest you give it to me!"
Ji He: "..."
Seeing Ji He's somewhat speechless expression, Verdant Green Maiden waved him away. "Go do whatever you need to do. The Great King gave it to you, so you can decide what to do with it yourself. Why come wake me up so early?"
"Then I'll bring it over for you to see once it's cast!"
Ji He didn't linger. He was still caught up in the excitement of receiving the reward.
Verdant Green Maiden returned inside. She wanted to go back to sleep, but after being woken up, she couldn't fall asleep again. She punched the bed, then went out to hunt in the woods, still fuming.
The animals were out of luck today. She had quite the temper when woken up.
Ji He cast the Thirty Jin of Gold the Great King had rewarded him with into a bronze vessel, and engraved an inscription on its base.
Once it was finished, he excitedly brought it over to show Verdant Green Maiden.
The vessel had been carried over and set on a wooden platform. Verdant Green Maiden walked around it once, then leaned over to look inside.
"What did you write?"
Verdant Green Maiden asked.
Hearing her question, Ji He puffed out his chest and solemnly replied, "I wrote down the Great King's words and my father's achievements."
"Only when the King first settled at Cheng Zhou, having established his residence there, did he again receive the blessings bestowed by King Wu from Heaven..."
"May I dwell in this Central Realm, and from here govern its people..."
As Ji He recited the inscription he had carved into the vessel, Verdant Green Maiden reached out and gently traced the characters on its base.
When she heard this line from Ji He, her hand stopped, too.
It rested over the two characters meaning Central Realm.
She knew that at this time, the words "Central Realm" meant the center of the world, not what they would mean three thousand years later.
Verdant Green Maiden had witnessed the earliest written record of the words "Central Realm."
"Not bad."
After Ji He finished reciting the inscription, Verdant Green Maiden gave a slight nod.
"Keep it safe. It'll be important someday."
"Someday?"
Hearing this, Ji He asked again, "Verdant Green Maiden, have you divined something? Would you tell me?"
Verdant Green Maiden looked at Ji He, his face full of curiosity, and smiled. "If I told you that this bronze vessel would become a treasure that safeguarded the realm in the future, would you believe me?"
"A treasure that safeguards the realm?"
Ji He was clearly startled. He smiled and shook his head. "I want to believe you, but that's too incredible. All I ask is that my descendants preserve this vessel, so that generations to come will remember the achievements of the Great King and my father!"
"They'll remember!"
Verdant Green Maiden nodded with a smile. "Whether they're your descendants or someone else's, they'll remember."
And this vast land would be named after it.
"Good!"
Ji He nodded firmly.
He trusted Verdant Green Maiden's divinations!
If she said future generations would take pride in this, then he believed they would!
He also believed that the achievements of the Great King and his father would be passed down forever!
After Luoyi was completed, King Zhou Ji Song moved the people of Hao Jing here to live. Gradually, Verdant Green Maiden had more and more neighbors.
Ji He had thought he could stay in Luoyang, but he was transferred back to Hao Jing for an official post.
He'd been promoted—and by quite a lot!
But he couldn't bear to leave the Luoyang he had personally overseen and helped build. Still, the King's Command could not be disobeyed.
Before leaving, Ji He came to say goodbye to Verdant Green Maiden.
The two drank for most of the day. Verdant Green Maiden couldn't remember how much Ji He drank; she only remembered that the brat had gotten drunk and tried to steal her meat.
Meat was Snake Girl's treasure!
Fortunately, Verdant Green Maiden didn't drink and wasn't drunk. Otherwise, she would definitely have chewed his head off.
Ji He promised Verdant Green Maiden that he would send her letters regularly after returning to Hao Jing, but given how slowly carriages and horses traveled in that era, sending even one letter was no easy task.
Besides, Verdant Green Maiden didn't think Ji He would remember this place after returning and getting promoted.
Sure enough, after Ji He returned to Hao Jing, he sent letters for only a year or two before they gradually stopped coming.
People with short lives were merely passersby in Verdant Green Maiden's long life.
Verdant Green Maiden didn't care what happened to Ji He.
She was too busy being driven to distraction by the back-and-forth demands of neighborly relations.
Verdant Green Maiden had spent so many years living in the wilderness that she hadn't expected neighborly relations to have been so complicated even three thousand years ago.
So many people wanted to find her a match that they nearly wore out her doorstep!
But as time passed, it became increasingly clear that Verdant Green Maiden's appearance never changed. Once the neighbors noticed how unusual she was, fewer came to arrange matches for her, while more came to her door seeking blessings.
Some prayed for a good harvest in their fields; some asked for blessings when their children fell ill; others asked Verdant Green Maiden to see whether a family member who had gone out and not returned had been eaten by a wild beast.
Things like that happened every day!
Over time, Verdant Green Maiden realized one thing: it seemed she couldn't stay in her home in Luoyang.
One morning, she packed her belongings, ready to slip away.
When she opened the door, a young man was standing outside.
He had one hand raised, as if about to knock. When he saw Verdant Green Maiden come out, he looked quite surprised.
"Who are you?"
Verdant Green Maiden frowned at the stranger striking a pose outside her door.
The young man came to his senses and hurriedly cupped his hands in greeting.
"I am Yao Jiang. I pay my respects to the Immortal Maiden."
Again!
Verdant Green Maiden said impatiently, "There's no Immortal Maiden here, only mushrooms. If you want some, pick them yourself from the corner of the wall."
"The Immortal Maiden jests!"
Yao Jiang laughed, stepped back, and solemnly bowed to Verdant Green Maiden.
"I've come to ask the Immortal Maiden to accept me as her disciple!"
"This is a small gift from me. It's nothing much..."
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