Jing'an District, Huashan Road, a secluded community near Hanhai Drama Academy. Not far away is the crowded Hengrong Square, but it is quiet here. The tall walls block the sight and noise of the outside world. The exterior walls made of red bricks are covered with vine roses, and the dense French sycamore trees cover the scorching sun. Here, people temporarily forget the troubles of the outside world and calm down.

Ren Pingsheng has been calling Zuo Xiaoxiao's phone these days, but no one answered the other end for a long time. The familiar avatar on the QQ list has dimmed for a long time and he has not answered Ren Pingsheng's message. In short, Zuo Xiaoxiao seems to have completely disappeared from his world.

In desperation, Ren Pingsheng had to find the community according to the address Zuo Xiaoxiao gave him before.

Although he deliberately cleaned his hair today, changed into a new shirt and trousers, and his whole body looked refreshing and neat, he was still stopped by the security guard at the door for a long time. Even if he asked Zuo Xiaoxiao's name, it was useless. The security guard asked him what he was going to do.

Ren Pingsheng couldn't say that he was here to win back his ex-girlfriend, so he could only make excuses in the name of visiting classmates, but the suspicious security guard did not let him go easily. He asked a lot of personal questions at the bottom of the question, and the security guard did not let him go until he showed his student ID from Hanhai University.

The interior of this community is not big. After all, it is in Jing'an District where every inch of land is valuable. The houses inside are all two-story single-family villas. The building area of ​​a single villa is estimated to be more than 500 square meters. There are more than 200 square meters of courtyards and gardens outside. The building materials are mainly red bricks, outdoor corridors with Roman columns, shallow sloping roofs and lofts are full of American style.

Although Ren Pingsheng walked into the community, he felt a little unhappy. From the security guard's words and expressions, it can be seen that he did not belong to the class of residents in this community. Although Ren Pingsheng had gone far away, the security guard's vigilant and suspicious eyes were still chasing behind him, making him feel uncomfortable as if he was thorning on his back.

"I've already arrived here, so don't worry anymore." Ren Pingsheng said to himself secretly that now is not the time to take care of his humble self-esteem. In order to make up for the regrets in his previous life and to save his college love, he must show his determination and attitude to go all out.

Under self-motivation, Ren Pingsheng accelerated his pace and found a single-family villa with a door number 17. He stepped on the rocky path and walked through the lawn with roses. Ren Pingsheng stood in front of the brown door that he had never stepped into before. He felt his heartbeat accelerated rapidly, and he could even hear the sound of blood vessels swelling, just like he had been on a date with Zuo Xiaoxiao for the first time, as nervous as a rookie.

"Don't think about it, a real man is decisive in his work. Do you still want to repeat the mistakes in his previous life?" Ren Pingsheng thought about it over and over again, and finally made up his mind, but instead felt amused by his previous timidity.

He rang the doorbell and waited for almost a minute before the door opened.

Ren Pingsheng did not see the beautiful figure he had always dreamed of. The one who opened the door was an old aunt in her early 50s. She had an old-fashioned bun like duck eggs and had a simple face that walked out of the mountains. Judging from her clothes and posture, she should be a servant at home.

Zuo Xiaoxiao seemed to have mentioned to Ren Pingsheng that she was always raised by Aunt Guo in her family when she was a child. Aunt Guo came to her house to help her when she was 20 years old, and she still serves the Zuo family diligently.

The woman in front of her should be Aunt Guo. She said in Mandarin with a Huizhou accent: "Hello, who are you looking for?"

"Hello, my name is Ren Pingsheng. I am a student of Hanhai University. I'm looking for Zuo Xiaoxiao. We are friends." Ren Pingsheng introduced seriously.

Aunt Guo seemed to be familiar with his name. She nodded slightly and said, "Come in first and sit in the living room."

Aunt Guo's attitude was neither enthusiastic nor indifferent, which made Pingsheng a little relaxed, but she did not say that she would not inform Zuo Xiaoxiao, and Ren Pingsheng was a little unable to let go.

Seeing Aunt Guo’s footsteps disappear at the entrance of the stairs, Ren Pingsheng looked around. The interior decoration of the house was mainly dark yellow rosewood. The entrance entrance entrance was facing the stairs leading to the second floor. On the left side of the entrance were the dining room and kitchen, which were partitioned with a well-painted flower and bird screen. On the right side was a spacious living room. The living room was more than 5 meters high. Dark gray Roman curtains were hung on the long floor-to-ceiling windows, and bookcases with full ceilings were vertical on both walls, which were lined with various books and decorative ornaments.

Ren Pingsheng took advantage of the waiting time to browse the bookcase. The books on it were complicated, which showed that the owner had a wide range of knowledge and many artworks and crafts from different civilizations, such as Buddha statues in India, folding fans in RB, tapestries in Iran, Bolivian pottery, Norwegian lacquer paintings, etc., which were all witnesses brought back by the owner when he traveled to various countries.

The huge living room only has two sofas in the center, which are covered with white hand-woven sofa seat cushions commonly found in the last century. The sofa is made of shiny leather. There are no TVs commonly found in Chinese homes in the living room. Apart from artwork, there are all kinds of books. Even the sofa is full of books, which is exactly in line with the style that a senior intellectual family should have.

In this house with the fragrance of books and no thoughts, Ren Pingsheng truly understood how Zuo Xiaoxiao's indifferent temperament was developed.

There was a picture of unframed calligraphy on the Huanghuali wood coffee table next to the sofa. Ren Pingsheng came over and looked at it. The fonts on the paper were like branches of dead trees, quiet, thin and rugged, solemn and simple, with the image of dragons and snakes; the winding resonance had the rhythm of drums and zithers; the strong and upright places had the momentum of swords and golden horses. Although the fonts were sometimes pictographic, Ren Pingsheng found that he could not understand a single word.

"There should be such a pure mind, and should not be attached to form and produce the mind, nor should it be attached to sound, fragrance, taste and touch, and should be born of the mind without dwelling on anything."

A thick and low male voice came. Ren Pingsheng looked back and saw Zuo Yuqiu walking down the stairs.

Zuo Xiaoxiao's father Zuo Yuqiu was a famous poet and essayist in the Chinese literary world. Especially the series of poems "Yanhuang Long Song" published at the beginning of the century, which caused great response and praise in China. He was also selected as a representative of the country's culture. At the turn of the century, he had a century-long roundtable dialogue with representatives from several major civilizations in the world, and his influence spread throughout the country.

Zuo Yuqiu is currently the honorary dean of Hanhai Drama Academy. He usually does not participate in public activities easily, lives in seclusion in the downtown area, and devotes himself to writing books. Although his name is well-known, it is the first time Ren has seen himself in his life.

He just turned 60 this year, with gray hair, square face, and frameless glasses on his high nose. Although there are many wrinkles on his face, it can still be seen that he was quite handsome when he was young. He is of medium figure, neither fat nor thin, wearing a clean light white linen jacket, and black handmade cloth shoes under his feet. He is in a great style in every move.

Zuo Yuqiu walked to the side of the Huanghuali wood tea table and pointed to the calligraphy and said, "This is a large seal script. The ancestors transformed oracle bones into bronze inscriptions and stone drum inscriptions. Because of their regular lines and neat strokes, they became the ancestor of humanities in later generations."

"Very big, very many, very many." Ren Pingsheng pondered for a while and spit out these six words from his mouth.

A strange color flashed in Zuo Yuqiu's eyes. The sentence he had just read out was from the Buddhist classic Diamond Sutra. Unexpectedly, although Ren Pingsheng did not know the large seal script, he understood the Diamond Sutra. The six words he answered were exactly the subsequent answers from Zuo Yuqiu to quote the Diamond Sutra.

In the Diamond Sutra, Subhuti asked the Buddha Tathagata three questions in succession, namely, "Is the body as Sumeru, is it big?", "Is there a lot of sand in the Ganges River?", "Is there a lot of worlds?", and the Tathagata answered Subhuti by the six words Ren Pingsheng.

This conversation from the first meeting was obviously very commendable to Zuo Yuqiu's intentions, and it also made him very beneficial to the young man's first impression.

"Hello, uncle." Ren Pingsheng nodded with his hands crossed his hands.

"Sit down, don't be polite." Zuo Yuqiu nodded and smiled, raising his hand towards the sofa.

From the moment he appeared, Zuo Yuqiu's attitude was quite kind, and the arrogance of no celebrities made Ren Pingsheng's originally somewhat restrained hands and feet relax. He looked around and sat down on the sofa opposite Zuo Yuqiu.

Aunt Guo appeared again. She held a carved wooden plate in her hand and placed two blue and white porcelain cover bowls in front of them. She stepped down without saying a word.

Zuo Yuqiu lifted the cover bowl, and a unique fragrance came to his face. He picked up the bowl and put it in his nose, smelled it, closed his eyes, as if immersed in the fragrance of tea, with a very pleasant expression.

He opened his eyes, pointed to the covered bowl in front of Ren Pingsheng and said, "This is Pu'er that has been ten years old. Young people may not be used to drinking it, so they can try it."

Ren Pingsheng put the cover bowl between his nose and smelled it. The fragrance of Pu'er tea is very strong. He drank a lot of tea in his previous life, but he mainly drank green tea and white tea. Pu'er only tasted it slightly. But based on the feeling he smelled just now, Pu'er that has been old for the past ten years should be the best among tea.

Tea is good tea, but Ren Pingsheng didn't feel like tasting tea at this moment. He couldn't help but speak out: "Uncle, my name is Ren Pingsheng. I wonder if Xiaoxiao has ever mentioned to you that I am her boyfriend, is she at home?"

"No hurry, don't hurry, drink tea first." Zuo Yuqiu was not surprised by Ren Pingsheng's words. He raised his glass step by step and put it beside his mouth, taking a sip.

Although Ren Pingsheng was anxious, he had to follow Zuo Yuqiu's instructions. Although he was elegant and gentle, he had an indescribable force that made people have to listen.

After drinking this sip of tea, Ren Pingsheng unexpectedly discovered that the temperature of the tea soup was just right, neither hot nor cold, and the taste was mellow and fragrant, like a golden thread, slowly entering the esophagus through the throat, and then dispersed to the whole body and internal organs, as if every pore had been ironed as comfortable.

Ren Pingsheng raised his courage again and explained in detail how he and Zuo Xiaoxiao met, got to know each other and fell in love in college. Although his tone was a bit intense, Zuo Yuqiu just listened quietly while slowly tasting tea.

After Ren Pingsheng finished speaking, Zuo Yuqiu didn't know if he could. He put down the cover bowl in his hand and said leisurely: "Pu'er tea is the most difficult to make, picking greens, withering, killing greens, rolling, autoclaving, baking, and baking. The last one is the most important. The key to baking is to master the heat. Too heavy baking will leave smoke. When the smoke is boiled and roasted, it will have a burnt and bitter taste. If the baking is not enough, there will be water vapor, dull and turbid, unstable, and obscure in the mouth. Only by mastering the appropriate heat can you make a good tea cake, but this tea is not drunk at this time. Although it is sweet in the mouth, it is actually shallow and lacks the aftertaste, and then it is dull. Good tea also needs years of precipitation. It must be stored in the ages to make the taste thicker, have more changes, be soft, refreshing, rich and considerate, and this is the best tea."

After listening to this set of tea ceremony, Ren Pingsheng was very helpful. Moreover, Zuo Yuqiu not only talks about tea, but also uses Pu'er's way to metaphorize life and emotions. He originally wanted to show it to Zuo Xiaoxiao with all his passion, but was caught by this cup of tea and his words, but he was only concerned about slowly chewing the taste of tea and the meaning of the words.

Zuo Yuqiu seemed to know all this. He said while tasting tea:

"Drinking tea is a very nourishing thing, and the taste is second. Some things are unhurried and some things are unhappy. Is the taste right after drinking it? Do you understand?"

Ren Pingsheng looked confused. This time he came to find Zuo Xiaoxiao and wanted to win back their relationship, but he met her father. Although Zuo Yuqiu was quite polite to Ren Pingsheng, he ignored Ren Pingsheng's demands, and his words were filled with fog, which made him unaware of the reason and why.

Time passed by second, and Zuo Yuqiu just savored the tea casually. The tea was fragrant, the sofa was comfortable, and the atmosphere was also very good, but Ren Pingsheng felt that every second he stayed here was so uncomfortable because Zuo Xiaoxiao was not there.

Finally, Zuo Yuqiu put the finished tea cup back on the table and stood up. Ren Pingsheng understood the other party's intention of seeing off the guests, and unconsciously stood up.

When I walked to the door, Zuo Yuque took the initiative to shake hands with Ren Pingsheng, and gently patted his back and said, "Although I am not a minister, I have also read "Ice Mirror" and "Liu Ren Lesson". Your bones are pure and noble, not an emperor, general, and famous scholars. However, there is a flaw in the life palace. You need to be careful and endured, and you can avoid disasters and auspicious things. Remember, remember."

Ren Pingsheng nodded, accepted Zuo Yuqiu's message, and left the Zuo family with unspeakable loss and melancholy.

At the beginning of time travel, Ren Pingsheng was full of confidence and thought that with more than ten years of experience and insight, he could turn the world around at will. Unexpectedly, the first thing happened to fail. This was a huge blow to him. For the first time in his life, he doubted his strength.

He walked towards the community gate in a daze, not far away, as if he heard footsteps coming from behind.

Looking back, Aunt Guo from Zuo was panting and ran to the front with a small step. Although she was very moved, her expression did not change much. She still said lightly: "Xiao Xiao just left yesterday. Mrs. Zuo had a performance in North America, and she accompanied her to relax."

Ren Pingsheng was overjoyed. Unexpectedly, he had no information in the Zuo family, but unexpectedly got it from the servant. He hurriedly asked, "Thank you, did the professor ask you to tell me?"

Aunt Guo seemed to have expected Ren Pingsheng to ask this question, and replied slowly: "This is what Xiao Xiao told me before leaving."
Chapter completed!