Riding the wind of rebirth

The oily meat itself has a salty and soy flavor. It is grilled with fresh pork belly, topped with scallions, and wrapped in fresh leek leaves. It tastes quite good, like an upgraded version of Korean barbecue.

"Your sister is worried that you'll suffer here." Li Laosan couldn't bear to part with the pancakes from lunch, so he asked Zhou Zhi to put them on the iron plate and bake them until they were crispy. He thought the pancakes were more fragrant this way: "It turns out this place is pretty good too."

"Of course, yachting and golf are out of the question." Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "But you can still do whatever you want, such as horseback riding, cross-country camping and fishing."

"The starry sky here is even purer than that in Northern Europe." Li Laosan looked up at the starry sky.

When the moon is full in Liangshan Prefecture, it is bright enough to make out the words on a book. But even so, it cannot cover up the starry sky, which becomes more and more numerous the more you look.

"I heard that there is an ozone hole above Liangshan Prefecture. I wonder if it has anything to do with it," said Zhou Zhi.

The ozone hole was once an environmental issue that shocked the world. Scientists have published various papers speculating on its impact on future generations, believing that it would eventually cause changes in the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the earth's air, causing global warming and ultimately leading to a huge climate disaster.

This incident even led to the accelerated elimination and upgrading of household appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners that use CFC refrigerants. However, the actual result was that decades later, the ozone hole above the earth disappeared on its own.

This is true for all large voids, and they are insignificant compared to the small void above Liangshan Prefecture.

"I heard there's a temple here that's quite effective?" People in Hong Kong are generally more superstitious than those in mainland China. Especially when he heard there was a magical temple here that enshrined a living Buddha, Li Laosan felt that he would seem disrespectful if he didn't go to worship, and he even felt a little uneasy.

"The road there is not easy to walk on. Sister Chi came back last time and took two days to soak in the hot springs before she recovered." Zhou Zhi advised kindly: "If you want to go, you'd better exercise first."

“Besides, there aren’t many snow-capped mountains to be seen now.” Mai Xiaomiao said regretfully, “It’s more beautiful in winter.”

"That's not necessarily true." Zhou Zhi disagreed. "There's a song in Liangshan Prefecture that says 'Soma flowers bloom'. Soma flowers are alpine azaleas. I heard they'll bloom soon. When they're in full bloom, we can go and see them."

"Then let's go there when the flowers bloom in the back mountain?" Mai Xiaomiao looked forward to it: "Master Mingtai and Master Liaoran have exchanged martial arts with Elbow, so they have a special relationship."

"Really?" Li Laosan had never heard of this before. With the rise of Tsui Hark's new-style martial arts films in recent years, he automatically imagined characters like Huang Feihong and Hong Xiguan flying over eaves and walls: "You also know martial arts?"

"Didn't you know that I gave your father a Longquan sword?" Zhou Zhi knew what Li Laosan was thinking of when he saw his expression, and said with a smile, "It's not what you think. I have a friend who is the successor of the inner sect of Yang Tai Chi. He taught me some key points of Tai Chi. Last time at Lingshan Temple, I saw the young monk Ran practicing Tai Chi but he was not very good at it, so I gave him some tips on the techniques. Later, the abbot came out and understood the principle. To express his gratitude, he taught us a set of muscle relaxation techniques before we went down the mountain."

“Master Mingtai is amazing.” Mai Xiaomiao nodded seriously, “Eubi and I persisted in practicing after we went down the mountain. Later, among all the people who went out to play, we were the only two who didn’t have any muscle soreness.”

"That's a little tricky..." Li Laosan's eyebrows moved: "Is it difficult to learn?"

"It's not hard to learn, but it's quite boring and takes a bit too long, more than 40 minutes, so they didn't stick with it."

"Then I guess I can't do it either." Li Laosan began to convince himself shamelessly: "Plus, there are very few times when I need to exercise a lot to relieve muscle soreness, so it's better not to practice."

Zhou Zhi also wished he hadn't been taught. Forcing someone who didn't like to study to study was a futile thing. Not everyone was as obedient as Xiao Miao. After feeding the horse with beans, it was time to rest. Until the charcoal fire was covered with ashes from the fire pit, there was still no sound of wild animals around the hot spring pool.

It is probably because people come here so frequently that the wild animals have chosen to avoid this place. Except for birds and fish, the monkeys and musk deer that we had seen several times before are nowhere to be seen.

When it was time to rest, Li Laosan became even more certain about the relationship between Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao, and the two of them slept in the same tent!

Although Elbow's excuse was that there was too much room for them to sleep together, seeing Mai Xiaomiao's complacent look, one could tell that this was not the first time the two had done this!

This is great information!

Nothing happened that night. When Li Laosan came out of the tent the next day, he found two figures, one big and one small, practicing Tai Chi on the lawn by the lake.

The movements of the two figures were very consistent, and the morning sun cast a layer of golden light on their shoulders, which was quite pleasing to the eye.

After finishing a set of boxing practice, Mai Xiaomiao greeted Li Laosan enthusiastically: "Good morning, Third Brother."

"Breakfast is ready. It's leftovers from last night, with rice porridge cooked with oil and meat residue." Zhou Zhi arranged, "After eating, we can ride horses to the upper reaches of the stream for a stroll."

Li Laosan raised the camera in his hand and said, "The light and shadow just now were very beautiful. I took a lot of photos for you."

“Thank you, Third Brother.” Mai Xiaomiao ran over and took the camera: “Hurry up and eat. I’ll take out the photos and take a look.”

By the time Zhou Zhi finished taking care of the horses, Li Laosan had already had breakfast. Mai Xiaomiao was also very happy: "I want this picture as my screen saver!"

Zhou Zhi looked over and saw that the two people were filmed while pausing at the end of their Gao Tanma practice. There were only two backs, one big and one small, with neat movements. With the edge outlines illuminated by the morning sun, the people could not actually be seen clearly. However, the contrast between the human figures and the water light behind them formed a contrast between light and dark, and coupled with the movements, it looked quite interesting.

"It's really good. Brother San took a great photo for us. Thank you!"

"Thank you, where are we going next?"

"It was winter when we came here before." Zhou Zhi said, "We explored the warm water stream. Now that the weather is getting warmer, we will explore along the cold water stream this time."

This pool is formed by the confluence of two water sources, one warm and one cold. The warm water is a calcium spring, and Zhou Zhi doesn't dare to take that water for drinking. Generally, camping is chosen on the lawn area where the two streams meet. Swimming is on the warm water side, and making tea and cooking is on the cold water side.

The water in Nuanshui Creek gets hotter the further upstream you go. The water temperature at the source has been carefully measured and can be as high as over 60 degrees.

The spring is a small pond with blue-green water. There are stalactite deposits around and on the bottom. The pond itself is only three or four square meters, but the surrounding stone land is hundreds of square meters. With the spring as the center, there is no grass growing.

Due to the high humidity and long-term warm temperature, the surrounding trees are all covered with long lichens, and the scenery is quite spectacular.

Lengshui Creek had not been explored before, so the three of them packed up and headed for this "secret place" for the first time. (End of this chapter)