58. The First Trial (IV)

"Celestial silk! What is so special about it? The girls here all wear celestial silk." Dan Niang looked at Libao disdainfully and said to the servants, "Throw it out!"

"No!" Libao used to be thrift, especially when it came to valuable thing, so he stopped the servant at the door. The servant couldn't afford to offend either one of them, so he turned to Dan Niang and Libao with an embarrassing look, "Um, umm..."

"Oh! This is Libao's gift to me!" Ye Lan glanced at the dress carefully and said while eating her porridge.

"Oh! That's why you won't let me throw it away. I thought you have a hobby of keeping female dresses!" Dan Niang laughed at Libao's protective behavior of the dress and said.

"No! I got the celestial silk from Mountain Tian after some hard struggle. But the material is a little small for men's clothing. So I made a dress for her!" Libao scratched on his head and said embarrassed, "It took a lot of effort for me to obtain the celestial silk!"

"Such a heartful story!" Dan Niang bended to look at Libao with a pretended regretful look on her face. Libao had turned into his original form which is a chubby red panda. Dan Niang was a tall woman with a thin waist and a big breast. Right now, Dan Niang had to bend down to look at Libao and laughed at him. From Libao's view, with a sudden lift of his head, he saw the snowy breast of Dan Niang, and his golden panda face was flushed. As a gentleman, Libao turned his eyes elsewhere and said, "I reality cherished it!" But, with their talking and their current position, he couldn't help but have glances of her breasts. Once he glanced at the fair skin of Dan Niang, he would suddenly turn his head away. Dan Niang was delighted by his reactions. She stood up and crossed her arms in front of her breasts, said, "Such a shame. A few years back, celestial silk was a rare treasure. But now, it had been out of date. The mass population at the Mountain Tian started to cultivate celestial worm on a large quantity. Celestial silk was no longer rare anymore!"

"Ah!" Libao became sad about the fact that the precious item of his had already been out of date for many years, and he still thought that it was rare. This was really shameful for him! "Em, forget about it. You can throw it away now!" Libao cracked his grin and finally gave up! He turned his body to jump on to the table and looked at Ye Lan with embarrassment. Before, he had bragged about the value of celestial silk in front of Ye Lan. And now, it turned out to be wrong. This was just a slap on his face.

"Haha!" Ye Lan was amused by Li Bao's reaction, and she turned to give a big hug to Libao. She patted on his furry head and rubbed on it with her chin, "I won't laugh at you for it! We are the same. I hadn't known either and treated it like a rare treasure. When I went into the forest with my burlap clothing, I was so grateful for your celestial silk dress. So, this is not a normal dress that everybody has. This is the best dress I have from Libao!"

"Really, really?" Ye Lan's comforting words really helped, but still, he was a little bumped.

"Really?" Libao stared at the sincere face of Ye Lan for a long time before he could adjust his emotions, "That's good! I had been in the forest for so long that I had derailed from the rest of the world!"

"Ahh!" Ye Lan grabbed Libao's shoulders and the two of them were playing around like two children. What a pleasant view to see.

"Dang Niang, don't throw away that dress! Could you wash it and place it in my wardrobe?" Ye Lan said to Dan Niang.

"OK! Whatever my master said!" Dan Niang obeyed.

"Hey, forget it; don't keep it; anyway, there are still many pieces! Threw it away!" After some hesitation, Libao decided to let Ye Lan throw it.

"Really?" Dan Niang smiled and asked Libao with a testing tone to her voice. Ye Lan looked at Libao, puzzled, "Why?"

"It's nothing. I have left the forest. As the king of all beasts, how could I care about such little celestial silk? Don't keep it." He was relieved after he said those words.

"Okay! Then I will do as you asked." Ye Lan had no intention to do against his wishes. Since he didn't need it, she would not keep it. She said that it was all his choices.

"Okay, then throw it out!" Dan Niang sighed with relief. The servant finally knew what to do now. He quickly nodded and said yes to her orders, made a bow, and went out.

Ye Lan nearly laughed her head off. Within one day, Dan Niang had organized everything in Ye Lan's room, making it lovely and decent. Though her room was not big, through Dan Niang's decoration, it was a very clean room with clothes hanging organized by season and by sets. All Ye Lan had to do was take them out and put them on. Though Ye Lan learned that celestial silk could be mass-produced, it was a still expensive material. For example, like the Pandora Jewelry, though it was commonly seen on the street, it still has its value. Ye Lan thought of the resemblance and laughed. That was clear evidence of the luxuries of the Fallen Angels; girls here wore celestial silk each season. Other brothels couldn't possibly afford that much cost.

People would naturally compare, and they would easily come into the conclusion of the better brothel. The guests would compare as well. Just as two pots of flowers in front of them of the same kind and same blooming condition, but with a different package, one with a nice cut and an exquisite package, the other one was left unattended for years. People would naturally go for the nice packaged one. Girls in the Fallen Angels never went out easily to attract guests. This was the rule of the Fallen Angels and it helps to keep their dignity! It was also this dignity that gave the male guests a sense of freshness. Also, the girls there all had their skills, either singing, dancing, playing instruments, or acting.

Ye Lan had helped with their dance choreograph and the playwriting during her free time. It was like a hobby to her, but by giving them to the girls, it sure earned her some love from the girls. The pieces that Ye Lan wrote was fresh and unconventional, well-liked by the guest. Some of the guests here at the Fallen Angels came even just for the play, not for the girls. When Dan Niang was describing such guests, she was laughing, "They were a bunch of dumb heads. They would request shows from such beauty and never lay a finger on them. They were nice tippers, but they never stayed. Lan, how do you say about that? Such fools." Dan Niang had been with Ye Lan long enough to know her. Gradually, she had changed the way she called Ye Lan, from master to Lan. Just as, Libao liked to call her baby Lan.

Ye Lan's dresses were mostly plain, and occasionally some delicate colors decorated on plain materials.

She wore a long dress today, with a light-yellow edge decorated on the sleeves and the peplum, elegant and refined, like a blooming flower! Ye Lan didn't like wearing too much jewelry, so Dan Niang set a set of small pearl ornaments on her hair. The small pearls combined together loosed some of the elegance taste of big pearls, and added the pure and innocent taste to Ye Lan in her age.

The dean accompanied Ye Lan to the Xuanhuang Pavilion. The scenery along the road had a panoramic view of small bridges, flowing water, white sand, and the river banks. It was indeed a good scenery.

Due to the long-lasting spiritual energy cumulation within the Fengtian Academy, it was filled with heavenly air, making it feel like heaven. Ye Lan took some big breath of the air, feeling comforted across her body.

There are many kinds of plants in the Fengtian Academy, including most of the existing kinds, forming a sea of flowers. There are peach trees, and even the rarely seen lotus, dream epiphyllum. These are all rare medicine materials. Staring at these flowers, Ye Lan felt a flash shine through her eyes. The smile on her lips gradually grew deeper!

However, the growth environment was vital to these spiritual plants. Putting those flowers outside the Fengtian Academy will cause them to lose the nurture of the pure spiritual energy here, and they would be contaminated by the polluted air from the outside world. Here, it could flourish through nurturing within the pure spiritual energy.

However, as the old saying went, "Good fortune follows upon disaster; disaster lurks within good fortune". The two different growing environments had its own ups and downs. The spiritual plant growing in the outside world has less spiritual energy to absorb, but it could absorb other effects from other plants. The plants here had full access to the pure spiritual energy here, so they had strong medical effects, but they were weaker on other aspects comparing to those on the outside. Ye Lan knew the difference between them, but she was busy collecting the flowers.

The Dean was helping Ye Lan with the unfamiliar plants and animals. She would not hesitate to take them with her when she encountered something useful. She wanted to refine them into pills.

"Hey! Is this flower beautiful?" After explaining the medicinal use of these flowers, the Dean watched Ye Lan starting to rolling her eyeballs. She quickly squatted down to begin her harvest. The dean followed her actions and laughed, "Are you really a girl?"

"Why do you ask?" Ye Lan was so busy picking herbs that she couldn't think much.

"Hiss. For ordinary girls, when it comes to picking flowers, they either pick them for the beauty; or they don't pick at all. They would just look far away, and rumble some sad and heartful things, like "How could you pick the flowers for they are alive as well", or even "We don't have the right to hurt others, even a flower." The dean gave an example of normal girls, and said, "As for you, it is true that you are picking flowers, but you sure don't look like them. You are like a flower robber, rude."

"Why? Did you feel pity for the flowers?" Ye Lan threw the pedicel out of the soil without even looking up. After a while, a pile of flowers piled up next to Ye Lan, and she slimed all of them into her personal space.

"No! I am the dean of the Fengtian Academy. I would not care about the little grass you took." The dean shook his head and rejected her idea.