Villa
The villa is built inside the deep mountainous area free from human intervention. It was built mainly for tranquility. It was a spacious three storey building. The first floor has kitchen, dining area, living room. The second floor has two bedrooms, practice room, while the third floor has library, study room.
These floors are connected through the corridor with plants on both sides of the pavement.
Outside the villa the lawn is filled with wild flowers, swing and stable for horses and chickens.
There are swans, wild gooses, roosters and birds which add to the lively atmosphere.
The villa is entirely designed by Fu Zhou and Lin Zhen. They built it with a thought that would give a lovely atmosphere.
The kitchen is very spacious and has mostly the vegetables and meat which are available in the forest. The roosters and chicken are raised here for meat. The lotus root and fishes are collected from nearby lake. Bundles of dried herbs hung from the beams-rosemary, ginger root and wild chrysanthemum, their perfume gently filling the air.
The dining area is just beyond the kitchen with floor mats, a low rosewood table with tea cups surrounded by cushioned stools.
The living room wall is filled with different paintings from various countries. Fu Zhou has love for paintings and he has a habit of collecting various paintings and portrait from every country wherever he went for trade. The floor –to-ceiling window that opened onto a moon –viewing terrace.
The bedrooms held a large canopy bed draped in soft gauze curtains that shifted with the breeze, their edges fluttering like whispers. The sandalwood screen stood by the bed.
The practice room has various swords, bows and arrows practice blades. The walls hung the painted verses about strength, discipline and balance.
The library has various shelves with books and strolls –related to trade, warfare, history, topology, medicine and much more. There are two separate tables for both of them with inks, styles etc.
The study room is in the innermost area with important materials and things in it. The air held the scent of aged paper, jasmine tea and a touch if incense.
Along the corridors lanterns hung beneath the eaves, swaying softly in the wind, their glow reflected in the still water of the koi ponds that flanked the path.
The lawn is filled with orchid, plums, medicinal plants and herbs. The vines filling the large trees giving a closed path along the lawn.
The roosters and hens for eggs and meat. The stable for horses and the hay are stored. The coops are also made for chicks.
They are camouflaged with the environment feeling like they are not raised by the humans.
The rooms are spacious with various wall hangings and lanterns for light.
The lawn has lot of herbs which they bought from various countries during their travel. Since, Lin Zhen is a soldier and has knowledge of herbs and their medicinal as well as poisonous nature. The lawn and garden are filled with many plants and herbs.
Fu Zhou had studied medicine from his grandfather, their family had a knowledge of herbal medicine passed through generations,even though he had not well versed in medicine he knew to protect himself from harmful herbs which is very important during travel.
His brothers and cousins had studied medicine from their grandfather and they deviated from trade to medicine.
Lin Zhen has interest in calligraphy and has a lot of materials and stylus related to it.
Fu Zhou loves painting there are lot of paints, brushes and stands for painting.Although his painting is medicore he still boasts himself as a painter.
There are separate area for their paints and brushes used by them in the practice room.
Here, Lin Zhen often sat by the open window, letting the breeze ruffle his notes. Fu Zhou, meanwhile, preferred the veranda—a long stretch of smooth, dark wood that overlooked the valley below.
The villa breathed with life, in the rhythm of wind through branches, the creak of wood, the flutter of a curtain. It was a home built not just to shelter, but to belong—to the earth, to the seasons, and to the two souls who had shaped it with their own hands.
Lin Zhen practiced calligrapraphy,his strokes were precise, quiet, like breath made visible. Sometimes he would spend an hour on a single character, not in pursuit of perfection, but to honor the form, the motion, the ancient rhythm of it all. In the late afternoon light, the study would glow golden, and the scratch of brush against parchment sounded almost like rainfall on dry earth. The air smelled faintly of ink, sandalwood, and time.
Fu Zhou's world, on the other hand, was a vibrant contrast—scattered, lively, and loud with color. His painting corner was set near the veranda, where the best natural light streamed in. Easels stood at uneven angles, each holding half-finished landscapes, wildly expressive portraits, or sudden ideas painted in broad, impulsive strokes. Clay pots held an army of brushes, some thin and delicate, others thick and worn from overuse. Jars of pigment—crimson, jade green, river blue, muddy brown—cluttered every surface, leaving behind smudges like fingerprints of his imagination.
Though his skill was, at best, inconsistent, Fu Zhou embraced each painting with the confidence of a seasoned master. "Art," he often declared, "isn't about precision—it's about passion!"Lin Zhen never corrected him, though he did sometimes raise an eyebrow when he referred to himself as "the greatest painter in the province."
He would respond with a faint smile and a sip of tea, returning to his characters while he splashed another stroke of bright orange across a mountain that had never seen such a hue.
And so, between ink and color, between silence and laughter, the villa held the balance of two artists—one precise, the other wild; one rooted in tradition, the other in imagination. Together, they filled the space not just with objects, but with spirit. The walls whispered stories in brushstrokes and calligraphy, and the rooms, though quiet, were never still.