That year, in midsummer, peach blossoms covered the mountains.
The stream murmured.
Ji Hong sat beside the stream, arranging the tea utensils on the table, elegant and composed.
A corner of his scholar's robe rose with the wind. The wind stilled, and the fabric fell.
"Where's my tea?"
Lifting the lid of the wooden box and finding it empty, Ji Hong frowned slightly, turned, and looked into the distance.
Up in the enormous Peach Blossom Tree.
Old White Ape looked slightly drunk as he leaned hazily against a branch.
"I steeped it in wine."
He grinned.
"Didn't you complain that my wine tasted of tea?"
Ji Hong spoke mildly and closed the tea box.
Old White Ape rolled over, his drunkenness deepening. "Since the stream already tastes of tea, why not abandon the stream and cut off the source? Who knows, it might work wonders!"
"So it is with tea, so it is with wine, and life..."
"Is no different."
"What do you say?"
Old White Ape seemed nearly drunk unconscious. He hiccuped and spoke with a playful grin.
Ji Hong's expression remained unchanged. He did not even glance at Old White Ape, still sitting beside the stream and watching the water flow.
"The wine smells of tea only because you drew water downstream."
"Sometimes, if you simply try walking a few steps upstream, you may find a wider world."
"Tea is not the source. Water... is."
As he spoke, Ji Hong bent down, scooped up some stream water, and rinsed the teapot.
"Life holds so much bitterness. Why go forward in search of more?"
"Since you can already accept this place..."
"You might as well stop here."
"The fragrance of tea in wine might be a pleasant surprise."
Old White Ape shook his head, however. Holding the wine jar,