Celestial Change Day, April 13

"Thrown a difficult problem at me and placed a huge life choice before me—could you give me some time to digest it?"

Changye smiled. "Of course! Before you walk into the civil service examination room, you still have a chance to change your mind."

"Have some tea. This is Tashan Tea. It isn't famous, and its handmade appearance isn't much to look at, but it smells wonderful..." Lin Xiaosu raised his teacup toward Changye.

Changye took a light sip of tea and cast her gaze toward the silent mountain village outside. At this hour, though the village was quiet, lights still shone from a hundred homes.

Changye said, "There are quite a lot of people in your little mountain village."

"That's probably the advantage of being a suburban village. There's more or less work to be found in suburban villages, enough to keep people alive. Country folk actually don't ask for much. As long as they can survive, no one wants to run off to the Outside World. But the villages farther down are different. Young people have to leave home for work. On ordinary days, apart from three old men and a dog, you probably won't see anyone else. That's life's helplessness—the hometown cannot contain the body, while a foreign land cannot settle the soul..."

"The hometown cannot contain the body, while a foreign land cannot settle the soul... That's incisive!" Changye slowly turned her gaze toward him. "So over the next week, you'll be torn over whether your life should settle your body or settle your soul. Is that it?"

Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly. "There's something I've always wanted to ask you."

"Ask."

"The weather's getting warmer. Aren't you uncomfortable, wrapped head to toe in a layer of human skin?"

Changye stared at him, her eyes glittering.

Lin Xiaosu looked at her calmly.

Changye gave a soft sigh. "Out here in the Outside World, you're the first person to notice that I'm wearing human skin."

"If I hadn't noticed, would you have been a little disappointed? After all, I'm different from other people. The only tool I have for making a living is probably these eyes."

"That's true." Changye said, "It isn't that I deliberately concealed my true appearance. I truly had no choice. I'm a poison person. If I don't wear this skin, and you accidentally touch my actual skin, you'll die."

Lin Xiaosu's heart jolted. "This is the other side of Genetic Modification, isn't it?"

"Yes. Genetic Modification breaks nature's laws. If you gain something, you're bound to lose something too..."

"Xiao Su..."

His mother's call came from downstairs.

Changye lowered her voice. "Your mom?"

Lin Xiaosu nodded lightly.

"Should I slip away?"

"Slip away? She's already outside the Gate. Where are you going to slip off to?"

"Then what do we do?" Changye panicked and glanced at the Window. Iron bars covered the outside of it, so it didn't meet the basic conditions for climbing out a window.

"Say you're my classmate."

"What if she mistakes me for your girlfriend and stuffs a red envelope with ten thousand and one yuan into my hands?"

"Dream on. Last time you gave me ten thousand yuan, and now you want it back?" Lin Xiaosu shot her a look and opened the Gate.

The Gate opened, and Mom's eyes went wide by the doorway.

Never in her wildest dreams had she expected him to hide a beauty in a golden house!

And not just any beauty, either. That face, that figure, that fiery charm...

"Hello, Auntie. I'm Xiao Su's classmate. I heard he was taking the civil service exam, so I came to see him..." Changye smiled sweetly.

Wisps of cloud drifted across Mom's face, each one blooming into rosy sunset clouds. "That's wonderful! Miss, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Auntie will cook for you. You two chat, go on and chat..."

She happily withdrew from the room and thoughtfully closed the Gate behind her.

A moment later, an alert sounded on Lin Xiaosu's phone. Changye glanced over and saw the message from his mother: Should we give the girl a red envelope?

"Yes, yes! Ten thousand and one—one in ten thousand is a lucky sign!" Changye said.

"This penny-pinching act of yours is lowering the class a bit. Aren't you afraid it'll affect my decision?" Lin Xiaosu glared at her and replied right in front of her with two words: No need!

Still, that little farce brought them closer. Qianlong, that mysterious institution so high-ranking it beggared imagination, suddenly seemed to possess a touch of warmth.

Perhaps that had been Changye's real purpose all along.

The next moment, Changye and Lin Xiaosu went downstairs. Mom tried to keep her for quite a while, but Changye insisted on returning to the city. Mom even told Lin Xiaosu to see her off. Changye told her that she had driven here, and that her car was around the bend in the road. Lin Xiaosu escorted her to that corner. Changye smiled gently at him, tapped her toes against the ground, and rose to the treetop. A branch sprang beneath her feet, and she vanished without a trace.

This was the second time she had displayed her skills before Lin Xiaosu.

The truly breathtaking part was perhaps that she was using this method to tell him: Come on. Our group holds endless wonders...

The next day was April 13.

As the sun set, cowbells rang in Old Tashan Village, crisp and melodious.

Lin Xiaosu walked up the mountain path, listening to the crowing chickens and barking dogs, the smoke and fire of ordinary life, and a few emotions stirred in his heart.

The rural life his elders spoke of had already changed shape in his perception.

The chicken crows and dog barks familiar to generations upon generations had actually become luxuries in modern rural areas.

Only suburban villages still retained that most primitive scene of country life.

The villages farther down no longer had young people.

There were only a few old folks, hobbling from one end of the village to the other with massive walking sticks. Once night fell, even the dogs did not bark.

Some said that the countryside was aging step by step toward death.

Others said this was progress, that urbanization was the direction of the future...

Lin Xiaosu had made a round trip through the cities outside before returning to this little mountain village. To be honest, he quite enjoyed this sort of rural life, but his future path ultimately did not lie here...

Willow Grove Temple was quiet, as quiet as ever.

Second Uncle came out from inside. When he saw Lin Xiaosu, his eyes brightened a little. "Don't tell me your Second Aunt has had another episode."

Lin Xiaosu gently shook his head. "Second Uncle, do you really have to wait until Second Aunt gets sick before going home? Even ancient doctors knew that prevention was more important than treatment."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'll keep watch tonight, and you can go home and keep Second Aunt company."

Second Uncle looked at him with utter distrust. "I find it hard to believe that you brat suddenly became so considerate."

"Then I'll leave?"

Second Uncle's expression immediately came alive. "You've already come, so leave my ass! You'll keep watch tonight! But..."

"But what?"

"Tonight is another Celestial Change Day. What exactly are you planning, brat?"

"Fine, fine, I'll be blunt. I suspect Hu Ya's body is so freakishly strong because the vital energy of Celestial Change Days seeped into her. So whenever there's a Celestial Change Day, I come up the mountain. I want to try my luck at having that vital energy seep into me too."

"Now that's more like it!" Second Uncle's old face bloomed like a chrysanthemum. "That girl's physical fitness isn't something an ordinary person can handle. Since you've got such thoughts, your Second Uncle is deeply gratified. Fine, I'll give you this opportunity—build yourself a strong body and keep her in line..."

Having made his position clear, he repeated the procedure to Lin Xiaosu, then happily headed down the mountain to attend his magpie-bridge rendezvous with Second Aunt.

Lin Xiaosu stood on the platform of Willow Grove Temple, rubbing his nose.

Second Uncle, isn't your understanding a little off?

It was true that he sought an opportunity, but he truly had no intention of keeping that daughter of his in line.

Would it be hard to handle his daughter?

He wouldn't fight her.

And there was a secret he didn't know whether he should say: personally, he felt that his daughter had always been playing hard to get with him. As long as he used a few minor tricks and took some firm measures, he could make everything between them thoroughly ambiguous...

The moon shone bright while the stars were sparse tonight, and azaleas dotted the mountainside like scattered stars.

Spring had passed, and the chirping birds and humming insects seemed perfectly suited for insects to entwine through a starry night.

Lin Xiaosu sat on the platform, his Heavenly Insight Eye taking in the spring scenery across the mountain. It was not merely the seasonal spring scenery; there truly was spring scenery in the extended sense as well. For instance, in the deep pool below the platform, he saw two toads stacking arhats. Their croaking probably amounted to the human equivalent of moaning and whimpering...

He raised his gaze. The night seemed not to exist at all. With one glance spanning ten miles, he saw the little river west of the village. Anna appeared with perfect punctuality. Her husband really had it hard—during the day, he carried vegetables with a shoulder pole; at night, he used that same shoulder pole to stand watch for his wife. Once Anna finished bathing, he would probably have to labor happily and get to work...

Chicken crows, dog barks, the smoke and fire of ordinary life—scene after scene, day after day...

"Hi!" Hu Ya's habitual greeting announced her entrance.

Her father went down the mountain, and she came up.

Her father accompanied her mother, while she came to accompany Lin Xiaosu.

That seemed to carry some special meaning, so Hu Ya's cheeks were faintly flushed.

She had brought dinner, and it was quite lavish, with meat, fish, and wine.

The meat was proper cured pork, the fish were small fish from the Yishui River, the vegetables came from her family's own fields, and the liquor was the local strong spirit, Chuxiang Spring.

Hu Ya ate with him and drank with him. Though Lin Xiaosu did not drink much, she drank with abandon. At least eight liang from the bottle went into her stomach.

That capacity for liquor...

"In a few days, you'll be taking the exam, right?" Hu Ya said.

"Mm. Six days."

"Can you really make it?"

"I don't know. Anyway, my mom found a lot of backers. I don't know whether they'll be any use."

"Tch! Didn't she just seek out Guanyin Bodhisattva?" Hu Ya snorted disdainfully. "If that worked, I would've gone to college with you back then."

"No way. You prayed to Buddha back then too?"

"I didn't pray. My mom did. She dragged your mom along with her. Your mom prayed for you to get into a first-tier university. My mom couldn't tell which universities were good and which were bad, so when she made her vow, she pointed at your mom and told the Bodhisattva... 'Let my daughter be just like her son!' The monk beside her practically burst out laughing..."

Lin Xiaosu laughed.

Hu Ya was a little dejected. "I seriously suspect the Bodhisattva at Qingyuan Temple misunderstood what she meant. My mom wanted me to be like you, but the Bodhisattva might have heard it as having the same physical fitness. She went all out refining my body, making me less and less like a woman..."

"Who says you don't look like a woman? I think you look very much like one..." Lin Xiaosu grabbed her hand and pointed here and there. "For example, here..."

His finger pressed down, and Hu Ya shuddered violently. That finger seemed to have hit the mark rather precisely...

The atmosphere in the temple became somewhat unusual.

A sly eye-roll formed on Hu Ya's face. "Do you really want to make a move on me?"

"I merely want to correct your thinking, so you stop believing you don't look like a woman. It's entirely an act of kindness."

"We know each other so well. Aren't you embarrassed to make a move?"

"What obstacle is there? Your dad and mom know each other even better than we do. Why don't you ask your dad whether he's embarrassed to make a move on your mom..."

"That actually makes some sense... How about we try it?"

Lin Xiaosu grew excited...

Hu Ya sprang to her feet. "My heavens, your eyes are turning green! I'm leaving!"

It was interrupted once again, and they resumed chatting. Amid their idle banter, the moon climbed high into the sky.

Tonight was April 13. The moon was already nearly full, making the solar lights in the temple seem to lose some of their brightness.