"Buddy, I'm going to America in a few days, and I may ask you to do me a favor. I talk to you in advance so that you can be prepared. You must not refuse me," Fan Huaying said to Ning Tao at the security checkpoint.

Ning Tao, remembering something Zhao Wushuang said last night, asked, "Are you really going to organize a group?"

"It's pretty much a certainty, but I can't say much at this point," Fan Huaying said.

"Okay, you can call me if you need me, but I don't have a pa.s.sport or visa. If someone needs to see a doctor, you have to get him here," Ning Tao uttered. Fan Huaying did him such a big favor, and as he asked for it, Ning Tao would definitely try his best.

Fan Huaying laughed and said, "See a doctor, see a doctor, it must be the patient who comes to the doctor. There is no reason for a doctor to fly across the ocean. It's a done deal. Well, you talk to Wushuang. I'll go in first."

"Goodbye." Ning Tao waved.

Zhao Wushuang looked at Ning Tao with a trace of smile tugging at the corner of her mouth and said, "I'll come to you after this new drama is over and have a good time with you."

Ning Tao said, "Good. It's hasty this time. There are many interesting places in Shan City that you have never seen. Next time you come, I will show you around."

"That's a deal. You can't back out." Unexpectedly, Zhao Wushuang had such a girly side.

Ning Tao smiled. "It's a deal, and I will never back out."

"I'm going in." Zhao Wushuang looked at Ning Tao with tender eyes.

"Go in and get together again," Ning Tao said.

Zhao Wushuang popped up and gave Ning Tao a big, affectionate hug.

Ning Tao's hands stiffened, but he still picked them up and put his arms around her waist.

"Goodbye, Brother Ning," Zhao Wushuang whispered in Ning Tao's ear, and then let go of him, dragging the suitcase away.

It wasn't until she left that Ning Tao uttered the words, "Goodbye."

Just leaving the airport and going back, Ning Tao got a phone call from Zou Yulin.

"Master Ning, I have found two pieces of land. One in the city, one in a village. I'll show you when you're free." Zou Yulin's voice was full of flattery.

Ning Tao said, "I'm at the airport right now, getting ready to go back downtown. Where is the village you mention?"

A little excited, Zou Yulin replied, "Oh, what a coincidence! The village is called Sword Pavilion Village. It is not far from the airport. It's a nice place with beautiful scenery. I'm sure you'll like there. I'll go to the airport and pick up you right away, and we'll go and look at the land together."

Ning Tao said, "You don't have to pick me up. I'll get a car straight to the village. We'll meet in the Sword Pavilion Village."

More than half an hour later, a ride-hailing car of Didi Chuxing arrived in a mountain village. Ning Tao got off the car at the entrance of the village. Zou Yulin hadn't come yet. Ning Tao walked to the village alone with his small medicine chest.

The Sword Pavilion Village was distributed at the foot of the mountain and on the hillside, with a flagging stretching from the entrance to the end of the village. There were about 100 families, and most of them lived at the foot of the mountain, the less part living on the hillside. Most of the houses in the village were made of mud, stone and brick. There were several big trees with their crowns hanging like big green umbrellas over the village. Villagers were working in the fields around the village, and two local dogs were chasing each other on the flagging. There were kids in open-crotch pants looking at the stranger, and the next second, they had a running nose. This place and the scenery made Ning Tao feel like he was back 100 years ago.

Ning Tao felt a little weird. "Why did Zou Yulin find such a lonely place? But it's a good place for children to live and grow up. They are not easily corrupted without the temptations in the city."

For a child, the environment was especially important.

The sound of children reading suddenly came from a yard. "Tang, Li Bai, Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu. Sunlight streaming on Incense Stone kindles a violet smoke. Far off I watch the waterfall plunge to the long river. Flying waters descending straight three thousand feet. Till I think the Milky Way has tumbled from the ninth height of Heaven."

Ning Tao followed the sound, and stood outside the yard and looked in.

In a room in the courtyard, a young woman was teaching a cla.s.s to a dozen children in front of a small blackboard propped up on a wooden frame. What was written on the blackboard was Li Bai's Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu. The young woman was short, delicate and cute, her dark hair in a ponytail that reached her slender waist. She was plainly dressed— a printed short-sleeved s.h.i.+rt, a blue tight skirt, and black embroidered shoes with laces. Her dress was simple, but she had sagacity in her bones. She looked like a female college student in the Republic of China, who was proficient in the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, rather than a modern woman who liked to surf the Internet and go clubbing.

Everyone had his own way of life, and she lived like a white lotus flower.

"Master Ning!" Zou Yulin's voice came from behind.

Ning Tao turned around and saw Zou Yulin running toward him from a Cayenne parked at the entrance to the village. He brought along a bodyguard, who tried to follow, but went back after Zou Yulin snapped at him.

It was obvious that he could not get out of his former life completely, but it was good enough for him to restrain and correct his evil actions. Life was not a car, which could go forward or reverse at will.

"Master Ning..." Zou Yulin finally ran over to Ning Tao, but before he finished his sentence, he put his hands on his knees and gasped.

Ning Tao was speechless. "Look at you. How can you be the mob boss like this?"

Zou Yulin said hurriedly, "I haven't been a mob boss for... many days. I've told my people that I have given up that and will only do legitimate business."

Ning Tao responded, "Come on, it's all in your heart whether you to be good or bad. I can't see, but G.o.d can."

"Yes, yes, Master Ning, you are right." Zou Yulin had an air of humility.

"By the way, why did you choose such a lonely place?" Ning Tao asked casually.

Zou Yulin replied, "I asked one of my people, who came from this village, to do the work. He said the village was attracting investment, so... I came here to visit it. This place was beautiful and suitable for children, so I boldly told you about it. If you don't like it, we'll visit the land in the city."

"Is that piece of land in the city expensive?" Ning Tao asked.

Zou Yulin replied, "Yeah, the land alone costs five million yuan and only a few hundred square meters."

"My G.o.d, that's too expensive. Then I'd like to choose the land in this village. Show me the land," said Ning Tao. Last night's charity party raised a total of 4,100,000 yuan, plus the five million yuan donated by Jiang Yilong before, the Suns.h.i.+ne Orphanage had 9.1 million yuan available, but it was too wasteful to take five million yuan to buy the land.

"Okay, Master Ning. I'll call the village chief of Sword Pavilion Village right now," Zou Yulin said, pulling out his cell phone and making a call.

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

Suddenly a mobile phone rang in the yard.

"Everybody, read the text silently while I go out to answer the phone." In the cla.s.sroom in the yard, the female teacher, who was teaching, spoke to her students and came out of the spare cla.s.sroom to answer the phone.

"h.e.l.lo? Excuse me, are you Lu Nan, the chief of Sword Pavilion Village?" Zou Yulin asked.

"Yes, may I ask who is calling?" Asked the woman, who was standing in the yard.

Zou Yulin was about to go on, when Ning Tao tapped him on the shoulder and said, "No more phone calls. The village chief is right under our noses."

"Where?" Zou Yulin looked around.

Ning Tao ignored him, and directly said to the female teacher in the yard, "Excuse me, are you Chief Lu? I've come to see the land."

The female teacher looked over and saw Ning Tao and Zou Yulin standing outside the yard. She paused for a second, and then smiled, "I'm Lu Nan. I'm really sorry. Please wait for moment. I'll arrange for the students to study by themselves and then I'll show you the land."

"Okay, we're in no rush," Ning Tao said.

Zou Yulin looked at Lu Nan's back and said, "Master Ning, Chief Lu has a really pretty b.u.t.t. The elasticity must be very good. It's excellent."

Ning Tao slapped Zou Yulin on the back of his head.

Zou Yulin immediately explained, "Master Ning, you misunderstood me. I look at it from an artistic point of view, without any ill intention."

It was indeed not an ill intention for a man to look at a woman's bottom.

Ning Tao remembered someone and casually asked, "By the way, how is your brother-in-law now?"

Zou Yulin replied, "Master Ning, you mean Jiang Yilong, huh? He has nothing to do with me now. My sister divorced him. I heard that he went to work as a volunteer. He has the skill of a mason and now he helps poor families build houses."

Ning Tao's mouth broke into a smile. That was good. If a person, who had done something bad, reformed his ways and became single-minded to good, this was a good thing, and he deserved a chance to atone.

At this moment, Lu Nan came out of the cla.s.sroom and walked across the yard to Ning Tao and Zou Yulin. She held out her hand to Ning Tao and said politely, "May I have your name, sir?"

"My name is Ning Tao, Chief Lu. How do you do?" Ning Tao shook her hand.

Lu Nan had a slight smile on her delicate face. "How do you do, Mr. Ning."

Not daring to enjoy the same treatment as Ning Tao, Zou Yulin offered to shake hands with Lu Nan and introduced himself, "My name is Zou Yulin. I run errands for Master Ning. You can just call me Little Zou."

"Brother Zou, how do you do?" Lu Nan couldn't really call him like that because Zou Yulin looked several years older than her.

"Chief Lu, where is the land you mention? Take us to see it," said Ning Tao.

"Okay, come with me." Lu Nan led the way.

At that moment, Ning Tao's nose was filled with a smell of mountain woods, which was Lu Nan's body smell.

"Our Sword Pavilion Village is not simple. There's a moving story here." Lu Nan pointed to the mountain at the end of the village and continued, "That's Sword Pavilion Mountain. Legend had that an immortal called Xuan Tianzi had cultivated here, and a village girl fell in love with him, but they never got together. This place is endowed with the fine spirits of the universe. The people are simple and honest. There are good people and pretty scenery. When I came back after graduating from university, I wanted to lead the villagers to develop tourism, but we didn't have the money."

"Wait..." Ning Tao had a weird look on his face. "Chief Lu, about the immortal who had cultivated here in the story you just said, you call him Xuan Tianzi, right?"

Lu Nan nodded and said firmly, "Yes, Xuan Tianzi. It was said that there was a cave where he lived in the Sword Pavilion Mountain, but we had never found it."

Ning Tao was stunned at what he heard.