When the snowflakes were flying, Xiao Yue'er was already three months old.
Qin Xiangyu's husband returned from the desert, and the family was talking and laughing in No. 46, chatting around a pot of fire.
In the backyard of Hongchen Inn, Amu and Dasha were chopping firewood.
To be precise, Dasha should be learning to chop firewood from Amu.
In the past, you would take turns for a day at tasks like chopping firewood, and when you were almost done, it would be the other person's turn.
But Dasha discovered that the firewood he spent two hours chopping was enough for the inn to last for two days, while Amu completed all the tasks in just one hour.
This puzzled him.
So he couldn't help but ask: "Brother Amu, do you have any tips for chopping firewood? I am no weaker than you, why are you always an hour faster than me?"
Only he knew in his heart that he was definitely not being lazy, but that Amu's movements were really faster than his own.
Amu looked at him and smiled: "It's not enough to just chop wood. You have to finish your work every day, or sharpen your ax before you chop wood."
"Chopping firewood is just a skilled job. As long as you do it quickly, accurately and ruthlessly, you will get twice the result with half the effort. Also, you have to separate the dry firewood from the wet firewood to make it faster."
Dasha nodded and asked: "How do you do it quickly and accurately without hurting yourself?"
He knew very well that chopping firewood was easy to say, but if he did it quickly, he would inevitably hurt himself.
Amu stopped what he was doing, held the ax in his hand, pointed at the snowflakes falling from the sky and smiled.
He said: "Have you ever thought about treating the falling snowflakes like firewood all over the ground? As long as the ax in your hand is fast enough, accurate enough, and cruel enough..."
"Let me try."
Dasha took the ax from Amu's hand, stood in the yard, looked at the falling snowflakes in the sky, and took a breath...
With a sound of "Hoo!", the ax in his hand struck into the air.
He took it back and looked down. There was a cold light on the ax, but there was nothing on it. He had struck it empty.
Dasha became stubborn and struck the sky again and again with his axe. He struck countless times, but there was still nothing on the axe.
"Oh, I don't believe it. How about you show me this? This is impossible."
Dasha sighed and handed the ax in his hand to Amu.
Amu nodded and said with a smile: "You are too impatient. Before you use the ax in your hand, you must first know where the snowflakes come from and where they are going to fall..."
"Hoo!" sounded, and Amu instantly retracted the ax and handed it under Dasha's eyelids.
Dasha almost screamed, because Amu didn't even look at it, he just chopped it casually, and there were snowflakes split into two petals on the ax, quietly sticking to it.
"Before you take action, first turn this snowflake into a fallen leaf. What is its trajectory..."
Amu smiled faintly: "When I was bored in the past, I would chop wood while chopping the snowflakes in the wind. Gradually, I found that the speed of chopping wood was getting faster and faster..."
Dasha nodded and replied: "This is amazing, I want to learn it."
Upon hearing this, Amu patted his shoulder: "You can learn slowly while chopping firewood. At the beginning, you can replace the ax with a hatchet, which is lighter..."
Amu explained the principle to Dasha carefully. After he understood it, he said seriously: "Don't affect the work, and don't let the shopkeeper have any opinions."
These two points are very important to Dasha and him. After all, they come to the inn to work and earn money.
Seeing Dasha nodding thoughtfully, Amu took the ax from his hand and started chopping firewood.
While hacking, he said: "Remember this is the Hongchen Inn, not the Hongchen Martial Arts School. There are some things you can think in your heart, but you can't say them out, let alone reveal them."
Dasha chuckled when he heard this: "That's right, don't worry, I know it well."
Having said this, Amu thought for a while and said: "During the Chinese New Year, I am going to Luoyang to visit friends. I may not be at the inn for ten and a half days. You will have to work hard by yourself then."
Dasha couldn't help but patted his chest when he heard this: "Don't worry, as long as I'm here, there won't be any trouble."
From that day on, the chef in the kitchen noticed that Dasha seemed to be getting more and more stupid. He often stood stupidly by the firewood shed in the backyard for half an hour.
Doing nothing, just watching the falling snowflakes from the sky silently, standing like a snowman.
Qin Xiangyu asked Amu several times about this matter.
Amu told Qin Xiangyu that he wanted to take leave to go to Luoyang during the New Year.
He smiled faintly and said: "Maybe Dasha's hometown is in the Snow Country. Look at the snowflakes and it doesn't affect the work. Why do you care about him?"
Qin Xiangyu chuckled: "It's true, everyone has their own worries... When will you come back from this trip? Have you greeted my master?"
Amu cupped his hands and said: "I will tell my seniors, at least ten days, at most one month, no more."
Qin Xiangyu nodded, looked at him and said with a smile, "You have to come back early. In spring, you can carry Yue'er around the city and let her see this colorful world."
Amu was stunned: "The shopkeeper won't go in person?"
Qin Xiangyu glared at him: "I have to look after this inn. I have to make money to support you. If something happens while I'm gone, can you and Dasha handle it?"
Amu chuckled: "That's true."
After the winter solstice, Amu carefully explained the matter of the inn to Dasha twice, then left the inn early and dived into the wind and snow.
Looking at the figure disappearing in the wind and snow, Qin Xiangyu looked at Dasha who was in a daze and said, "Don't mind, if you want to take a rest, when Amu comes back, I will give you ten and a half days' leave."
Amu thought for a while and said nothing.
Instead, he turned around and walked towards the back of the inn. Qin Xiangyu shouted, "What are you doing, Dasha?"
"I'm going to chop firewood. I haven't finished today's work yet?" Dasha thought to himself that Amu was gone and he had to do two jobs by himself. How could he have time to think about whether he had to go home?
In his mind, Lao Meng and Xiao Die should be gathering around the stove to eat meat and roast themselves, and there was no need for him to worry.
Therefore, it seems that there is nothing in this world worth worrying about.
At least, that's what it seems.
There is snow at the foot of the mountain, and in addition to snow, there are also winter plums on the mountain.
Qingyu and Gao Yue'er, who were waiting in the living room to make tea and enjoy the plum blossoms, waited for Li Xiuyuan who came through the snow without any warning.
After not seeing each other for half a year, Qingyu found that her husband was becoming more and more calm and more and more like an ordinary person.
Gao Yue'er quickly heated a cup, poured him a cup of spiritual tea, and asked in a low voice: "Sir, have you finally remembered that this is your home?"
Standing outside the living room, Li Xiuyuan reached out and carefully brushed off the snowflakes falling on his shoulders, gown and bamboo hat, and then stomped on his cloth shoes.
Looking at the two of them, he smiled and said, "Wherever I am, my heart is at ease. As long as I am there, I am home wherever I am, so why bother clinging to this house in front of me?"
Upon hearing this, Qingyu seemed to realize something, and sighed and said, "It seems to be the case. Xiao Hei also said this to me during the Great Zhou Dynasty."
Upon hearing this, Gao Yuer'er curled her lips and smiled and said, "That guy also learned from Mr."
"Are you okay?"
Li Xiuyuan took out the freshly dug winter bamboo shoots from the mountain and put them aside. He picked up the spiritual tea on the table and took a sip, slowly savoring the taste, and then sighed softly.
He said: "Everyone in the world thinks that gods are good, but in fact they don't know that even gods sometimes are not as comfortable as the human world."
Qingyu thought for a moment, looked at him and said, "Qin Xiangyu gave birth to a baby girl. Do you think you can go back and be the godfather?"
Li Xiuyuan nodded and sighed: "When she finally becomes a mother, she will also have to experience the hardships of being a mother. This is a good thing for her practice."
When Qingyu heard this, she couldn't help complaining: "Sir, are you laughing at Qingyu and junior sister?"
Li Xiuyuan did not expect this, so he had to smile bitterly and said: "Here you are waiting for me here, how can you compare yourself with Qin Xiangyu?"
Gao Yue'er also asked after hearing this: "Why can't you compare with sister Xiangyu?"
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan took a sip of spiritual tea and sighed.
Looking at the two women, he said: "Let's take Qingyu first. If you hadn't met Xiaohei back then, I'm afraid you would have been married to someone by the empress."
"And Yue'er, if you hadn't met Xiao Hei on the street in Jianzhou, I'm afraid you would have married in Da Mo. Or if you hadn't gone to Da Mo, I would have married the prince of Northern Qi."
"In this way, you will end up just like the mortals in the world, like the grass and trees that fall into reincarnation early."
Having said this, Li Xiuyuan looked at the winter plums blooming quietly in his garden in the living room.
He murmured: "Human life is not as good as these cold plums. After they are withered this year, they will come again next winter."
When Qingyu heard this, she could only pat Gao Yue'er's hand gently and said with a wry smile: "Junior sister, as expected, we have gained something, and we have to lose something."
"That's not necessarily the case. You can also be like the little monk at the foot of the mountain. You can marry a mortal first and spend the rest of your life with him to see the prosperity and loneliness..."
"Who is the little monk?"
Gao Yue'er couldn't help but ask: "Is it the most famous monk Sanzang?"
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan replied: "The little monk was originally nameless and he was considered my younger brother. I named him Jin Wuliang. He later accompanied Sanzang to Tianzhu to obtain Buddhist scriptures..."
"I told him that day that you don't have to practice in a Buddhist hall. You can enter the world. You can find a woman you like and get married. Then you can search for the Dharma in the world and understand the supreme Dharma..."
"Jin Wuliang, what a strange name. Did that guy later return to the Tang Dynasty with Sanzang?"
Gao Yue'er couldn't help but ask: "I also want to meet my younger brother who can be a gentleman to see if he is like Monk Sanzang."
"Wuliang, he is a simple and lovely brother."
Li Xiuyuan sighed, leisurely recalling the experiences of the two of them since leaving the Tang Dynasty, and even the terrible situation of almost dying of thirst in the eight hundred miles of desert.
Finally he said with a smile: "He should be in the country of Shewei in Tianzhu now, marrying a woman he likes, and enjoying his worldly fireworks."
When Qingyu heard this, she couldn't help but laugh: "Sir, if you ask the young monk to return to secular life and marry a wife, will the young monk's master curse?"
Gao Yue'er couldn't help laughing when she heard this: "I've only ever heard of people being persuaded to become a monk and practice cultivation. This is the first time I've heard your husband advise people to return to the secular world and marry a wife."
"The old monk is at the bottom of the mountain. How could he blame me? The little monk is an orphan he picked up on the roadside. Wuliang has no parents since he was a child, and the old monk is his parents..."
Having said this, Li Xiuyuan couldn't help but sigh, looked at the two of them and said, "That's why I asked him to try to accept the world and feel the warmth of the world..."
When Qingyu heard this, her eyes were red, she hugged Gao Yue'er and cried.
"Junior sister Wuwu, you still had parents back then, and my mother picked up Qingyu from the roadside. I also want to find someone I like to marry him, Wuwu... I want to learn from the little monk..."
Thinking about her own life experience, which was so similar to that of the young monk, Qingyu couldn't help shouting.
Gao Yue'er didn't wait for Li Xiuyuan to say anything, then chuckled and said, "I'm afraid that if senior sister marries a mortal in this world, you won't be able to be like Qin Xiangyu."
Qingyu was stunned when he heard this, turned to look at her and asked, "Why?"
