MDZS: Still Lament Prologue

Chapter 4: Meeting tHeIM, the mischievous Lotuses of Yunmeng Jiang Part 1

Lanling Jin's carriage stopped by the side of the lake, and Baoqi came out of the carriage, followed by Zixuan then Little Zhuqin. Upon seeing the floating lotuses amongst the crystal clear lake, Little Zhuqin was already silently jumping with joy, and looked for a wooden boat that was bound to be located by the side of the lake. But then the young girl realized something...just exactly where was Yunmeng? She looked around the lake and did not see a distinct village with lively people. For a second, Little Zhuqin had thought Yunmeng was IN the lake or even...perhaps they needed to travel a few more miles until reaching the town itself. Not being afraid to speak to random strangers as a new bloom to the outside world, the young curious girl saw a dock with wooden boats next to it and seeing several boatmen on the boats, she wandered over to one of them with Zixuan fast walking after her.

"Qingwen shushu, dao Yunmeng zenme zou na (Excuse me uncle, can you tell me how to get to Yunmeng Jiang)?" asked Little Zhuqin.

Instead of immediately replying to her curious question, the boatman was instead attracted to the astonishing beauty charisma both Little Zhuqin and Zixuan gave off as they approached the wooden dock. He had even thought both children were already betrothed to one another.

"Shushu, shushu," Little Zhuqin continued to ask while waving her little arms up at the boatman. "Qingwen...dao Yunmeng zenma zou na?"

"Ah xiao guniang (Little young miss)," The middle aged man asked, snapping himself away from their golden charisma. "Ni dao qu Yunmeng ma (You want to go to Yunmeng)? Could it be that this is your first time going there?" He continued to question while carefully stepping into the boat with a long wooden stick in one hand.

"What's with him?" Zixuan quietly asked himself.

"That's right, this is my first time!" Little Zhuqin honestly replied. "Anyways, how do we get there?"

"By boat," "We have to ride on the boats and sail across this lotus lake to get to Yunmeng. Believe it or not, it's a town that is completely surrounded by water." Zixuan interrupted the boat man.

"Oh, dui, dui, dui (Oh, right, right, right), what this young gentleman said is right. Yunmeng is a beautiful town surrounded by thousands of floating lotuses in this massive lake and the only way to get there is by boat." The middle aged man replied, believing that perhaps even Zixuan had visited countless times.

In truth, Baoqi had always told him of the scenery of Yunmeng...thus building his knowledge on the lotus pier haven itself.

"A town surrounded by water?" Little Zhuqin asked and looked across the lake, filled with pink lotuses. "Well then if you think about it, this Yunmeng town is like heaven floating on clouds."

"Aiya, xiao guniang, you are really intelligent to be thinking like that. May I ask, just how old are you?" The man questioned out of pure curiousity.

Sounding as if the man was going to hit on or was interested in his younger sister, Zixuan walked in front of Little Zhuqin and stretched his left arm out, blocking her face.

"Aiya Xuan ge," The young girl herself knew the middle aged man was asking her age out of pure intent and moved it away, to Zixuans disappointment. "To answer uncle's question, wo shi liu sui la (I am six years old)." She replied with an honest and friendly smile.

"Liu sui (Six years old)? Xiao guniang, ni shi zhen da liu sui ma (Little young lady, are you really six years old)? You have such stunning manners and intelligent words, there is no way you are still such a young child." The man insistingly said and smiled.

Other than the eldest daughter of the Jiang family, the man was hapy to know there was at least another young girl with such fine manners and words.