Plant Books

"If Xiao Qing could go out with me, where would Xiao Qing take me?" Fan Ling asked Xiong Qingzhao with an interesting expression on her face.

"Naturally, Xiao Qing will show Miss what Xiao Qing used to do in the past," Xiong Qingzhao confidently answered while they were still walking back to her quarters.

"Oh? What did Xiao Qing play with in the past?" Fan Ling questioned with a brow lifting up to show her curiosity.

Strangely enough, even though Xiong Qingzhao was older than Fan Ling, there seemed to be a difference in mental age between the two people. Clearly, Xiong Qingzhao was the older one, but she behaved younger than Fan Ling. Of course, this was something that people only noticed after a few had passed after Fan Ling woke up from her accident.

Prior to her accident, Fan Ling was incredibly disobedient and immature. In fact, at her young age, even though many of her peers were still out playing; they were also learning etiquette and educating themselves to improve and maintain the reputation of their families.

However, this was to be expected if anyone knew about the real situation surrounding Fan Ling.

In her previous life, Fan Ling was already thirty years old. She was no longer fourteen years old like her current body and no longer innocent like normal teenagers. Well, not as if she was innocent and naive of the outside world at that age either way.

Since the day Fan Ling was seven years old, she has already lost all of her childhood innocence. Trust? Love? Honesty? She no longer liked the human world and only simply did what she felt like doing to continue to persevere and live.

Despite the fact that she hated being alive, she had to do her best to survive in this world. Not for herself, but for someone else…

After some days passed, Xiong Qingzhao walked into her room and said, "Miss, Eldest Young Master just brought in the books from Physician Jie!"

Xiong Qingzhao was naturally very happy because she knew how much Fan Ling wanted these books. As her maid, she could understand her master very well - especially her emotions and actions.

Well, at first, Xiong Qingzhao did not understand Fan Ling very well. The first time was because Fan Ling was still the original soul. The original soul was not exactly someone easy to understand in the first place because they were so willful.

However, when Fan Ling transmigrated, she was even harder to read than the previous soul. Although, Xiong Qingzhao and the rest of the servants would rather face a neutral-faced master all day long than a bratty girl.

Though, after spending many days with Fan Ling, Xiong Qingzhao realized that Fan Ling was actually not too hard to understand as long as one tried to understand her. Only, when people were silent, many would think that they were speaking in puzzles.

This was exactly the case for Fan Ling. In fact, her actions and speech are very easy to understand. Except, she remained quiet most of the time so people assumed that she was someone with a mind as unfathomable as the emperor.

"Show me the books quickly," Fan Ling rushed Xiong Qingzhao with a calm voice, but an excited expression on her face.

Waving a hand, Xiong Qingzhao called in a line of servants - all of them carrying a tray full of at least five to ten books each.

After a while of waiting for the servants to place the books down in her room, Fan Ling counted that there were at least ten scrolls and thirty books.

Immediately grabbing a book from the top of the stack, Fan Ling read out the title, "Plants Used in Medicine."

Then, she gave a quick flip through the book, "Artemisia argyi, Berchemia lineata, Clove, Dichroa febrifuga…"

The book was extremely thick and there seemed to be more than two hundred pages. Although, this was probably still an average number of pages compared to modern-day books with could now reach six hundred or one thousand pages.

Once again, Fan Ling went to another pile and grabbed the top book, "The Four Noble Plants."

This time, the book was not as thick. However, Fan Ling could still see that the book was at least a hundred pages long.

The book only talked about plum blossoms, orchids, bamboos, and chrysanthemums. Only, the book included much more details about the description of the plant and their varieties. At the same time, there were also many pages dedicated to the care of the plant - even branching off into how to take care of a plant that was also an orchid, but just a different variety.

Finally, Fan Ling grabbed a scroll from the pile and rolled it open. The scrolls were very different from the books. The books contained lots of detailed drawings and diagrams of the plants and their body makeup. On the other hand, the scrolls only contained words and there was not a single piece of art to behold.

Honestly, Fan Ling should have expected this already. She just did not think that the scrolls were practically borderline boring with no color other than the bamboo color and the black ink.

Besides, the books even contained little tiny drawings that were almost like emojis to her. Well, she should have expected the outcome already considering how long she had been educated in this region.

"Xiao Qing, what if I fall asleep while reading one of these scrolls?" Fan Ling honestly told her worry to Xiong Qingzhao.

Xiong Qingzhao gave a tiny chuckle before answering, "Miss does not have to worry. Even if Miss falls asleep, as long as Xiao Qing reads it out loud for you, then you will still remember everything."

Fan Ling knew that Xiong Qingzhao was actually speaking close to the truth. Well, at least close to the truth anyways.

She had a very hyperactive brain and even when she was asleep, her brain was still processing information from outside. Even if she were unconscious, her brain would still be able to communicate with her what just happened. This was truly an existence that made people love and hate.

Love for high memory retention is something people wish to have. Hate for people tends to learn that dirt can come in from anywhere.

"Then, I will depend on you to read for me in the future," Fan Ling said to Xiong Qingzhao with a sigh.

Just as stated before, she loved her hyperactive brain. Due to this highly active brain, she was able to get things done in shorter times and focus on many things at the same time. However, she also hated this brain very much.

Sometimes, Fan Ling wished that she could just pick the brain out of her head and give her brain to someone else instead. Sometimes, she wished that she was born differently. Sometimes, she wished that she was never born because her brain would think of a memory from the past that she did not wish to remember in the least.

"Da-ge really got Scholar Yuan to send these books to me quite fast though," Fan Ling told Xiong Qingzhao with a tiny hint of surprise in her voice.

"Eldest Young Master has always spoiled Miss," Xiong Qingzhao appreciated with a smile on her face. "Scholar Yuan used to think that Miss was a brat, but every since Miss has accepted Scholar Yuan as your tutor, he has changed his opinion of Miss in a positive way."

Fan Ling also felt the same way as Xiong Qingzhao. The actions of the original soul were quite annoying – thank god the original soul did nothing morally wrong that would make people hate her though. The majority of her actions were mainly annoying, but people could still excuse those actions as childish and immature.

When Fan Ling first accepted Scholar Yuan as her tutor, she could read from the tiny facial movements on his face that he disliked her. If she were an idiot, she would probably think that Scholar Yuan was truly serious in his teachings. Pitifully though, she did not get a degree in psychology, but she had more than enough experience in life to learn how to read a person.

Whether a person hated someone, whether a person loved someone, or whether a person loved and hated someone at the same time. Fan Ling was more than capable of reading these simply through tiny facial movements, expressions, and body gestures.

Perhaps in the long far past, Fan Ling used to believe in trusting the words of others. Now though, she would rather doubt the words of people and use her own judgment based on sight and hearing.

This was also the same with books. Fan Ling only trusted books to a certain degree because she knew that sometimes information would be removed for propaganda or information would be twisted to fit the narrative of the author. Half of the time that she did research for anything, she always made sure to do her own investigations to make sure that the information was accurate.

Maybe what she was doing was overboard, but she believed that her hard work was better than being brainwashed by others.

Even if… others were saying that she was being too paranoid.