This Is My Planet - Chapter 38 - Chapter 38 – Moonlight Melody
Actually, Yin Xiaoru still had many things she wanted to ask.
For instance, what was that cauldron about? And the sword on the wall, was it a flying sword?
What about the jade flute… Could Xia Guixuan play the flute? She wondered how he played…
Also, Xia Guixuan seemed to be very fond of things with a Xia Dynasty flavor, like the depiction of ‘Great Yu Controls the Waters’, and that nine-figure painting. Could the cauldron be modeled after the Nine Cauldrons of Yu? However, his attire definitely didn’t match that of the Xia Dynasty, and the Xia Dynasty didn’t have such swords and jade flutes. It was as if he had absorbed the progress of a new civilization along the way, gradually witnessing it up to now.
Including now, it seems he’s still doing such things…
It’s really strange… If you said there were such ancient cultivators on Earth, Yin Xiaoru might believe it. But how could there be on this planet? Either the people here are immigrants, newly born humans, or divine descendants indigenous to this planet. Do they have any connection to ancient Huaxia?
Her mind was filled with various curiosities, but Xia Guixuan clearly didn’t want to answer related questions. She could only leave with a belly full of curiosity, constantly looking back as she walked away.
After all, it was getting late, and she still had to go back home to sleep.
They planned to take an early flight to the capital tomorrow.
Yin Xiaoru was a little nervous. The reason she had been staying in Sangyu City all along, aside from the uniqueness of the ecological garden, was to find a place to settle away from the capital. But unexpectedly, she had been dragged into the spotlight this time. Anyways, sooner or late, she wouldn’t be able to avoid it.
As she was leaving on the mountain path, she saw Fat Tiger. Yin Xiaoru pretended to kick, and Fat Tiger quickly covered its head and ran away.
Yin Xiaoru burst out laughing, suddenly feeling very good again.
Xia Guixuan was a very mysterious and miraculous person. With him around, it seemed like nothing could go wrong.
Just like the miraculous male-female demon revealing mirror, Yin Xiaoru still hadn’t asked Xia Guixuan why he inexplicably had a male mirror. It seemed normal for him to have all sorts of strange things on hand.
Just like this lake pearl necklace…
Yin Xiaoru gently stroked the necklace on her chest. The pearls emitted a soft light under the moonlight, like stars. The light reflected on her face, hazy and beautiful.
Suddenly, the sound of a flute came from the mountain.
Yin Xiaoru stopped and looked back. Xia Guixuan stood on the top pavilion, playing the flute under the moon.
Was he playing it horizontally? Can a flute be played horizontally? Yin Xiaoru didn’t know, but she found it very cool.
And very pleasant.
It’s a pity that in these twenty-plus years in the city, amidst the hustle and bustle, she had long forgotten her artistic sensibilities… she couldn’t understand the meaning contained in his flute’s melody, but she felt it was refreshing to listen to, not melancholic reminiscence but rather a clear and distant feeling, like a lucid song under the moon, a fishing boat singing at dusk.
Under the night breeze, it felt like an immortal bidding farewell.
Even though he wasn’t looking at her, but at the moon.
Further away, Ling Moxue stood in the darkness, somewhat astonished, watching the figure on the mountaintop.
She was originally planning to fly back to the capital overnight but stayed for a moment, unexpectedly hearing this celestial melody.
This master… is becoming increasingly different from what she imagined.
Her artistic perception was different from Yin Xiaoru’s. While Yin Xiaoru only felt it was a song under the moon, she immediately recognized it as the famous melody “High Mountains and Flowing Water.”
Lofty aspirations like high mountains, and vast ambitions flow like water. It had little to do with moonlit fishing boats. It’s just that when he played it under the moon, it took on the tranquility of the moon.
But he wasn’t seeking a Bo Ya to meet his Ziqi; he only desired the moon. Even if she ran up to tell him, “Master, master, I can hear the secluded moon and the flowing water. I’m a kindred spirit,” he’d probably just smile and say, “Oh.”
He was a recluse in the mountains who had seen through worldly matters, fundamentally not an ordinary person.
Then why do you still accept female slaves!
Hmm…
Wait, that’s not right… He’s not detached either. Doesn’t this melody have a feeling of longing or reminiscence? Ling Moxue felt uncertain.
Judging a person by just one piece of music seemed a bit exaggerated, incomprehensible.
People are inherently contradictory, let alone someone like him… How could he be purely one-sided?
But… at his level of cultivation, shouldn’t it be very pure?
Ling Moxue felt unsure again.
What does she understand with her cultivation anyway…
Under the moonlight, the sound of the flute was serene. One person walked the mountain path while the other observed the quiet silhouette. Their minds were both in turmoil.
Fat Tiger sat under a tree, thinking it sounded really nice; that’s all that mattered to it.
Who knows what those two foolish women are thinking about, boring.
……
The next morning, with the rising sun and the setting moon, the flute music in the mountains had already vanished.
Xia Guixuan sat in the flight cabin, looking at the clouds outside, and chuckled, “Why does it feel like airplanes haven’t changed in hundreds of years? That shouldn’t be, right?”
Yin Xiaoru sat beside him, playing on her virtual screen, casually remarking, “Only the appearance hasn’t changed. Materials and energy sources have changed a lot. The biggest change is the absence of flight attendants; you men can only look out the window.”
Indeed, there were no more flight attendants; they were all robots. Because most services could truly be replaced by AI, only one human stewardess handled things that the AI couldn’t handle.
The population of Great Xia was only a few tens of millions, not even reaching a hundred million, yet the territory was nearly as vast as the Eurasian continent. With truly wide lands and a sparse population, human resources became crucial. Most positions could only be filled by robots.
All kinds of service robots were perhaps even more numerous than humans.
It’s no wonder Yin Xiaoru mentioned that if they ever developed human-like thoughts, it would be a terrifying prospect. Probably many sci-fi works have discussed such matters. In fact, Xia Guixuan felt that their technology should be even more powerful in terms of artificial intelligence now. He didn’t know if it was deliberately suppressed or if more advanced controls were not in civilian use?
This visit to the capital might reveal more interesting things. After all, Sangyu is just a third-tier small city. Even a fox in Qin Xin realm can saunter around; what more can one expect?
“If there are no flight attendants, I’ll read novels,” Xia Guixuan leaned comfortably in the seat, opening a screen, and casually remarked, “But the seat designs are much more interesting now. I don’t know what the designers were thinking when I saw them before; they seemed anti-human… Especially the seats on coach buses. Although I haven’t sat in one, I think passengers would be very uncomfortable. Is it deliberate?”
“I don’t know.” Yin Xiaoru looked at him strangely. “What era’s seats are those? I have no idea.”
“Uh…” Xia Guixuan closed his mouth and decided to read his novel.
Yin Xiaoru peeked at the screen. “Is it that Xia Dynasty novel? By the author Xiao Jiu?”
“Yes,” Xia Guixuan mused, “Works about the Xia Dynasty are rare. Occasionally, there are stories about Xia Jie. It’s truly not easy to find one from the Tai Kang period, and even rarer is that it’s not an antagonist… but discussing romance. According to the comments, it’s quite ‘sappy’… What does that description mean?”
Yin Xiaoru was always wondering whether the person playing the flute last night and the one sitting beside her now were the same. After a long silence, she said, “Who told you Tai Kang isn’t an antagonist? It’s precisely because he’s an antagonist; as long as he’s capable of romance, it becomes ‘sappy.’”
“Is that so…” Xia Guixuan rubbed his chin. “Why aren’t there real-life videos of romantic scenes? Like how Ling Moxue performed in the martial arts scenes.”
“Ling Moxue never agrees to act in romance scripts,” Yin Xiaoru scoffed. “The aloof and noble Ice Queen, she’s got a powerful background.”
Xia Guixuan nodded in approval, but it wasn’t directed at Ling Moxue. “That’s good; I don’t want to see someone poorly portraying Tai Kang.”
Yin Xiaoru gave him a strange look. “Why?”
“Others aren’t handsome enough; it’s unlikely to match the original descriptions.”
Yin Xiaoru sighed and said with a touch of exasperation, “Why do I have a feeling that you’re so interested in this nonsense book because the author portrays Tai Kang as extremely handsome?”
Xia Guixuan blinked a few times but didn’t reply.
“…The original works always praise the male and female leads as godlike figures. If we really stick to the original standards, I think even Ling Moxue falls a bit short. Where would we find such actors? You’re overthinking it… Oh, wait.” Yin Xiaoru looked him up and down for a while, then suddenly laughed. “Why don’t you go act in it? You might just have the right flavor.”