Lavender Dream (new-revised) will add changes~

It was no beautiful village girl who had discovered Long Tian as he floated into the river of Shangyi on a plank some days ago, after his boat had sunken due to its wrecking by the ruthless torrents of water. This was Shangyi, not Mystic Village, where everyone were much too busy to mind their own business. To them, their “piece of cake” was far more important than the leprechaun’s “pot of gold”. Long Tian had been lounging on the sand for probably three days before he finally gained consciousness.
The little gold he had with him was just more than enough for some new clothes, a decent place to stay, and two meals a day. After all, he was Lan Long Tian, not a coward. He had his right to live and to achieve this, he would do something he had evaded from throughout twenty-one years of life, and that was: work.
Lan Jia Da Shao Ye, the eldest young master of the Lan clan. He would never, all his life, hear that term addressing him again in his life since the Black Masked Robbers had evacuated his abode of any living forms. In escape, he and his family had been separated on different boats. His two sisters were on the same boat with him but they were not to be found. Perhaps they had floated to another destination. His parents were on the other boat.
Would his enemies pursue him to where he had floated to? That was what he dreaded day and night. He gulped down his pride, telling himself, he had to be Yang Xiao Tian now, and forget temporarily his life as a Lan, until the day of reuniting with his family and avenging those killed by the Blacks.
He would also have to conceal his martial arts unless forced to. As a Lan, and the eldest of the Lan heritage (in contrast to his cousins), he had been trained with the Lan heritage arts as a child. Zhang Xian, the head of the Blacks, had in his possession his cousins, Lan Bing Na, sixteen, and her younger brother of fourteen, Lan Tian Xun. When the time was right, he must venture in search of Zhang.
He had carelessly, almost given himself away the time he saw that girl. Having totally no idea who she was, it seemed that the merit of rescuing her life was way more important to him than the matter of keeping his knowledge of martial arts a secret. He had saved her alright, by roping her on the spot. But the worst was not of him exposing his identity but then, how he had himself rooted to the ground the moment her fearful apricot-shaped eyes met his own. Lan Long Tian saw in her eyes, and noted, the presence of a feeling he had never encountered in the eyes of other maidens, but that was the feeling his own mother had given him: care.
This girl was caring, not beautiful and alluring, and it was care all along that had led to the urge to approach her once more, wherever she was. Lan Long Tian, you are in danger. You haven’t gotten anywhere in your quest for Zhang Xian, and here you are, having a crush on some girl. Hey, no, you couldn’t call it a crush just yet. He had yet to know her.
KOKOKOKOKOK…
Tian jumped up from his sleep, and rushed to change into his work clothes. Just one fart from the cock was enough to wake him, much say the noise pollution the rooster gave off at dawn. Yang Xiao Tian, the commoner, was in no way ready to endure any more of the hazardous penetrating tweeting of his boss’ wife. Xiao Tian was working under the innkeeper, and would never be Da Shao Ye ever again. Fighting back the tears, he tromped down the stairs with the least force he could inflict on the floors.
“Yang Gong Zi (Gentleman Yang), today’s performance is much better. Please work yourself in improving before your pay gets deducted or even missing.”
“Yang Shao (Master Yang), you are indeed one lucky man. Not a single cup broken.”
“Shao Ye (Young Master), your attitude is improving.”
It was finally night time. Tian pulled his cloak closer to his body, shuddering at the thought of what sort of assault the proprietress had awaiting him the next morning. He visualized a giant hen flapping her wings and crowing in a hen-like manner. The next moment, he fell to the ground collapsing with laughter. As he laughed uncontrollably, he was then aware of the smell of lavender and a female figure before him. It was the girl.
“Miss,” he squeaked, struggling to stand up.
From the looks of it, the girl was stifling back her giggles, and trying to look serious at the same time. Speechlessly, she handed him the rope he had used to save her life, and disappeared into the crowds.
That was it. She was gone, and he had not even her name or address. All he could do was stare at the rope like it would turn into a snake and bite him to death.
Reluctantly he returned to his room and closed his eyes, urging himself to sleep and think of nothing other than what was expected for the next day.

Zhang Yi pulled her hood over her head, carefully hiding her long silky hair from view. Those apricot eyes, the glisten of those strands of hair, and her rosy cheeks were known inherited features from her mother, Hong Nuan Ying. However, it was bizarre that it was Yi herself who resembled so much of her mother, having her mother’s intelligence and perseverance. She could have mastered in the Zhang clan’s martial arts, had it not been that her father had taken flight along with the scripts. Yi sighed and sauntered out of the cottage.
She was in a village in which nobody bothered about her existence. Not that it mattered to her. She was in her own life, and her own world. Her mother had passed away not long ago, of sickness, despite her efforts of picking herbs day after day, and her brother had left to take the imperial examinations and never returned. It seemed that, the only thing left for Yi to do was to leave Shangyi in search of the father that left her family a decade ago. But how far could she go, armed with merely basic martial arts and an ordinary horsewhip? She shuddered at the thought of wolves and bears rampaging around in a forest of darkness. Not to mention, there was such a thing as village bandits.
Someone knocked on the door briskly. Yi gathered her courage to open it. Standing on the ground outside was her neighbor, Liu Mei Yan. Cheerfully, Mei Yan handed her an envelope and told her to read it, before leaving with a smile.
There was nothing other than the words “Meet me at the river at dusk.” Enclosed in the envelope was a section of rope. Could it be… him? Yi wondered. From the window, Yi could see Mei Yan snickering to herself, toying freely with her dark straight hair.
Tian gazed at the reddish sky, tossing a stone as far as he could across the river. It was probably two hours he had been waiting for her arrival. Yi smirked and without losing her composure, headed towards him with her usual “don’t-waste-my-time” look, in spite of him trying to be friendly with her the other time.
Mei Yan’s last words flashed in his mind. If she was willing to return you your worn-out rope, then maybe she does hold some feeling for you. “Miss…” Tian cried out with pleasure.
He had never felt so emotional before. Why was his chest burning with passion, as if there was a fire ignited within his heart? Why had it to be someone mysterious, often in a hood? Why?
“Gong Zi,” Zhang Yi began. “This meeting is so unexpected… and yet so expected… but I have to ask you this.”
Liu Mei Yan sensed herself sliding off her position on the branch of the willow tree she was on. To think that the man she, Liu Mei Yan admired and liked, had something for the below-average cold and mysterious Zhang Yi… She grabbed another branch above for support, but was likely to damage it.
“What connection do you have with the Lans?” Yi queried abruptly. Mei Yan twisted her head towards them in shock, partially forgetting she was atop a tree branch.
“I… Uh, my grandfather was one of their servants,” Tian stammered, turning red with embarrassment at his own lie. “How did you know about the Lan clan?”
“You are lying.” She then faced Lan Long Tian, her eyes burning with anger and hatred. Pointing her index finger towards Long Tian, she declared. “Your eyes fail to hide the truth. You are a member of the Lan clan, and if I am not mistaken, you are no other than Lan Long Tian of the Lans.”
Before Lan Long Tian could say anything, she continued, “The blood on the rope is the blood of a Lan male. Lans would rather drip blood than shed a tear.”
“Considering you saved me once, I won’t do anything to you,” Zhang Yi ended. At this point, melancholy overcame the visage of the young woman.
Long Tian finally found the courage to speak up once more. “Who… are you?”
“My family name is Zhang, and my name is Yi.”
“You, you are Zhang Xian’s daughter?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then, I guess, I have no choice but to settle this with you,” Long Tian said. “Tomorrow night.”
Zhang Yi replied coolly, “As you wish.”
No sooner had Yi stepped into her mansion and closed the doors, she began to fret about how she would lose her life at Lan Long Tian’s hands. After all, it was her with the basic skills, her with the missing father and her with hardly anything at all. She began beating herself against the wall. Failing to notice an irregular object protruding out of the wall, she bumped her head against it. Subsequently, Zhang Yi fell through a hole that had just appeared on the floor, and then landed on the floor of an underground room below.
Meanwhile, back at the river, Long Tian was busily pulling the busybody Liu Mei Yan out of a pile of broken branches. “It’s not good being a peeking tom,” he told her.
“Are you really going to have a spar with Zhang Yi?” Mei Yan asked.
“Well, if she wasn’t a Zhang, everything would have been different,” Long Tian said. “This is the karma of her father.”
“But, if it was really her father at fault, and not her, and if she dies at your hands and her father comes back and makes things worse, wouldn’t all her efforts and your efforts be in vain?”
“In vain,” Long Tian repeated after her. “If she dies…”
“Yes, Bro Tian. From what I know, Zhang Yi knows nuts about martial arts and moreover, her father has left Shangyi for ten years. What could a ten-year old, leading a poor and simple life, know about vengeance?”
“But… she said…She knew about the Lan clan…”
“Her father was made to leave due to some vow related to the betrayal of Lan Tian Men. All her life, she has assumed the Lan clan was the direct cause of her father leaving. And then, her mother has been feeding her all these stories all the while, that the Lans were evil and also telling her to reclaim her father’s innocence by fighting them.”
“And her mother is…”
“Hong Nuan Ying.”
Tian gulped.
“Her mother died several months ago,” Mei Yan said.
“You do know a lot,” Long Tian said.
“Definitely I do. In fact,” Mei Yan grinned, “I am Hong Nuan Ying’s cousin, Hong Qing Luo’s daughter, Liu Mei Yan.”
“Uh, your surname is Liu? And I thought it was Lu…”

Zhang Yi stood up from where she had fallen. Staring skyward, she noticed a rope dangling from the floor above, connected to the hole she had fallen through. Light entered from the hole. She rubbed her eyes and peered around her. So this was the reason her mother refused to sell their dusty ancient mansion; the Zhang clan had a mighty secret. Around her, the walls were inscribed with paintings. But, the miracle was, all of the paintings were of a female body form. Had the Zhang family predecessor been a female?