A Flower Immortal’s Devotion, Three Hundred Years in the Mortal Realm

“The sky was black and the earth yellow; the universe was vast and a wasteland. The sun rises and sets; the moon waxes and wanes. Stars and constellations are spread arranged. Cold comes and heat goes; autumn harvests and winter stores. Intercalary months make up a year; music scales adjust the Yang…”

The clear, rhythmic sound of chanting echoed throughout the schoolroom.

The schoolmaster paced back and forth beside the young pupils, a small bamboo switch in hand. Most of the boys looked incredibly diligent.

Of course, there were always exceptions.

Tucked away in a corner, Lin Lan was already staring out the window, completely lost in thought.

As the saying went: A beautiful evening in a scenic land, a gifted scholar and a lovely lady, destined to be a perfect match. By now, the twelve-or-thirteen-year-old Lin Lan was already deeply poisoned by these popular romance novellas.

“Lin Lan, you’re daydreaming in class again. Careful, or the master will see you and give you a beating!” his friend beside him whispered a warning.

Lin Lan knitted his brows and waved his hand in irritation, shooing his friend off. Seriously, you just ruined my fantasy about an immortal fairy sister.

The friend wanted to say more, but a silhouette suddenly loomed behind the two of them. The friend instinctively glanced up, and his face instantly turned pale as a sheet.

Noticing that his usually chatty friend had gone dead silent, Lin Lan found it a bit strange. But before he could even turn around, the small bamboo switch smacked sharply across his back.

“Go stand outside.”

Lin Lan opened his mouth to protest, but seeing the master’s dark expression, he ultimately chose to slink outside with his tail between his legs. The master followed him out shortly after, unleashing a torrent of scolding right to his face.

“I bet you’re still thinking about your immortal fairy sister! If you remain this unmotivated, how do you expect to pass the imperial examinations and secure an official rank in the future?”

The master was furious, but Lin Lan maintained a completely nonchalant expression. “It’s not like my parents expect anything from me anyway…”

The master’s eyes widened with rage, and he raised the bamboo switch high into the air. Lin Lan didn’t flinch, merely staring back at the master’s wrathful glare. For a moment, the two of them just stood there, locked in a tense staring match.

In the end, the blow never fell.

Perhaps the master knew Lin Lan’s family background—knowing that he was the child of the Lin family’s late matriarch, that he was marginalized at home, and that his daily life was miserable.

“Child,” the master sighed, his anger deflating. “Even if you don’t care about bringing glory to your ancestors, you should at least fight for your own dignity.”

The master patted his shoulder helplessly and told him to go back inside.

This was Lin Lan in his youth. Every single day, his head was filled with stories of impoverished scholars and breathtakingly beautiful maidens, dreaming the ridiculous dream that a fairy would fall straight out of the sky for him.

Three years later…

Lin Lan left home for the very first time, traveling alongside his several half-brothers to sit for the provincial examinations.

In truth, everyone knew Lin Lan was only going to go through the motions. In the eyes of others, the third son of the Lin family was entirely talentless—someone who spent all his time tinkering with unorthodox, eccentric hobbies and knew absolutely nothing about the teachings of the sages. This time, he was merely going along as a patch of weeds meant to make the real flowers shine brighter.

Their stepmother had provided the other brothers with an abundance of silver, but the allowance she gave Lin Lan consisted of just a few measly pieces of broken silver. It wasn’t even enough to cover food and lodging along the way. His biological father chose to turn a blind eye to the matter, refusing to intervene.

Yet, Lin Lan set out anyway.

While his brothers rode in carriages, he traveled on foot. While his brothers dined on meat, he survived on plain flatbread. Even with such frugality, his travel funds quickly ran dry.

Inevitably, he fell behind.

His brothers had no intention of lending him a single copper. Confronted with a destitute Lin Lan, they merely mocked him ruthlessly before riding away, treating him exactly like a total stranger.

Lin Lan felt the last few ounces of broken silver in his pouch and gritted his teeth. Ultimately, he relied on his own two legs to trudge all the way to the provincial capital. By the time he arrived, he was truly completely penniless.

Unable to afford an inn, Lin Lan resorted to sleeping on the streets, sharing a roof with beggars. From day to day, he relied on the charity of strangers for a few scraps of food.

One day, he even ran into his brothers. They were all roaring drunk. One of them mockingly tossed a single piece of silver into Lin Lan’s bowl and spat a thick glob of phlegm right onto it before sauntering away laughing.

Lin Lan’s face remained dark for a long time. Eventually, he pinched the piece of broken silver out of the bowl and wiped it clean in the dirt.

He didn’t even know why he was being so stubborn about coming here. Back home, even if he amounted to nothing, he would at least have food and drink. But today, he was starving.

Finally, the day of the examination arrived.

Lin Lan made his appearance at the venue. He noticed that as the candidates filed in, they were all placing silver coins into a tray set before the examiner—even his brothers did so. Lin Lan found it quite strange, but he didn’t pay it much mind. He retrieved his seat number and entered the courtyard.

Shortly after the examination began, someone tapped loudly on Lin Lan’s desk. A bewildered Lin Lan looked up at the examiner standing before him.

“Did you fail to pay the customary fee?”

“Aren’t the imperial examinations free of charge?” Lin Lan asked instinctively, only to watch the examiner’s face twist in anger.

Before the exam had even progressed very far, Lin Lan was violently thrown out.

Only then did he learn the truth. It turned out that besides travel expenses, candidates were required to pay a form of tribute to the examiners known as the “customary fee.” But what good did knowing that do now? He couldn’t possibly afford the price the examiner demanded.

Feeling the last few pieces of broken silver jingling in his pocket, Lin Lan decided to find a place to enjoy himself. And the best choice in the capital was, without a doubt, the Zui Xiang Brothel.

That place was rumored to be a paradise where any man would lose himself. Even as an outsider who had only entered the city a few days ago, Lin Lan had already heard about the brothel’s three grand courtesans multiple times: Fairy Qing’er, who was a master of the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting; Fairy Raozhi, who was widely dubbed the public enemy of every woman in the city; and the mysterious proprietress who had never shown her face to the public—Fairy Zi.

This was the first time Lin Lan had ever planned to visit such an establishment. He wanted to see if these “fairies” spoken of by the world bore any resemblance to the immortals he had envisioned in his childhood dreams.

Lin Lan bought himself a set of fresh clothes. While he still didn’t look like a wealthy young noble, he at least no longer appeared so destitute. He also found a handful of small pebbles and stuffed them into his money pouch, making it look completely plump and full.

Once his preparations were complete, Lin Lan set off.

At dusk, he arrived at the legendary estate.

The Zui Xiang Brothel was truly magnificent—a three-story wooden pavilion bathed in red lights and green wine, teeming with enchanting and beautiful women. From within the doors, the elegant sounds of the zither and flute drifted out alongside sweet, captivating singing, sounding like heavenly music. Quite a few girls stood at the entrance welcoming guests. Every single one of them was breathtakingly beautiful; back in Lin Lan’s hometown, you wouldn’t be able to pick out a single girl of their caliber across ten villages.

One of the girls spotted Lin Lan, a flash of disdain flitting through her eyes. Having stood at the door for years, she had naturally cultivated a sharp eye for reading people. The man before her possessed a youthful, naive face, his posture carried a hint of hesitation, and his attire lacked even a shred of nobility. At a glance, he was clearly a poor boy visiting a place like this for the very first time.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to drive him away, Lin Lan casually jingled his heavy money pouch.

The girl’s expression instantly shifted, and the harsh words right at the tip of her tongue were deftly rewritten. “Well, hello there, young master! Please, come right on inside.”

Lin Lan gave a smug wave of his hand and prepared to enter.

Suddenly, a voice echoed from above.

“Bring him up to my room.”

Lin Lan instinctively lifted his head toward the second floor.

Standing there was a woman draped in a violet gown, her face concealed beneath a delicate veil. Her sheer aura alone was one of peerless independence—untouched by the mortal world, looking exactly like an immortal fairy.