The past few days had been spent in a daze, like a pile of withered leaves with no clear direction. But with a gust of spring wind from Yan Huirou, a path had finally been cleared.
Breathing in the warm fragrance of her embrace, Jiang Xidai, for the first time in a long while, had a good night’s sleep.
When she woke up the next day, she finally felt a rare sense of clarity and refreshment.
The two of them had slept face to face, unknowingly growing very close.
And Jiang Xidai had woken up much earlier than Yan Huirou. She rested her cheek on her hand and quietly gazed at Yan Huirou’s sleeping face.
The halo of light behind the curtain was dim, and a few bird calls came from outside the window.
Jiang Xidai stared for a long time, and seeing the person sleeping so peacefully, she suddenly felt a long-lost sense of warmth.
Her fingertips twitched, reaching for the ends of Yan Huirou’s hair. But just as she touched it, Yan Huirou buried her face in the pillow in a daze and opened her eyes. “…Good morning.”
After speaking, she seemed to have just clearly seen the woman before her. Her eyes curved, and she smiled. “Good morning, Sect Master.”
“Mm… what are we doing today?”
Yan Huirou had wanted to say that there was nothing to do, but on second thought, she felt that a certain date was approaching.
She had almost forgotten; she was about to go to the Bamboo Forest Temple’s secret realm.
This important plot point, which had been ignored by Jiang Xidai for a long time, was finally making its grand entrance at the right time.
At this moment, Jiang Xidai had lazily finished her morning routine and was sitting on the windowsill, looking at the maple forest. She turned her eyes upon hearing her. “This time, in the secret realm, you should be careful of Li Xinghe.”
“Forget it,” Jiang Xidai said. “I’ll go with you.”
Yan Huirou paused and blinked. “You don’t trust me?”
“Is there anything about you that makes people trust you?” she said, as if unintentionally lifting her wrist and flicking her fingers, her eyes darting over. “Either you’re being led astray by some woman, or you’re always… always meeting this person and that person.”
Yan Huirou said bluntly, “So sour.”
“…” Jiang Xidai didn’t want to talk anymore. She fainty let go of the string of beads in her hand, instead propping her chin up. After a long, slow moment, she curved her lips. “Yanyan.”
The tone of her voice was gentle, and though it came from her own mouth, it sounded surprisingly natural. Yan Huirou was stunned for a moment, and the two soft, gentle words spread in from the faint blush on her ear.
“Don’t you like it?” Jiang Xidai said. “Then I’ll call you Rou Rou.”
Yan Huirou said demurely, “I want the first one.”
“Why?”
“Because the second one always reminds me of—I once thought of an elegant name for the Sect Master. A long time ago,” Yan Huirou said. “But because of our relationship, I was afraid you wouldn’t like it, so I didn’t say it. It’s better not to make me remember it.”
Jiang Xidai asked with great interest, “What is it?”
Yan Huirou was quite interesting when it came to naming things. The four dogs she was raising were named very creatively.
Jiang Xidai was very confident about this, but she hadn’t expected the girl to open her small mouth and utter two words: “Jiao Jiao.”
“Hm?” Jiang Xidai thought she had misheard and asked again, uncertainly.
“Jiao-Jiao(meaning pampered).” When Yan Huirou pronounced these two syllables, her mouth formed a shape like a smile held between her lips, especially when she deliberately said them slowly and clearly.
She said very seriously, “The meaning of these two characters is exactly the same as you.”
Jiang Xidai’s face flushed a little, and she said with feigned anger, “What nonsense?”
“How are they the same? They’re not the same at all.”
“They are the same,” Yan Huirou said gracefully.
Under the Sect Master’s repeated orders, Yan Huirou was finally forced to take back the name.
However, the master of the Shasheng Sect had always been one to allow herself what she forbade others, and another “Yanyan” escaped her lips, followed by, “When does the secret realm open?”
Yan Huirou: “In three days.”
“Then we can set off.”
But Yan Huirou still had some doubts. “But Sect Master Xie’s side should only have my name. Even if the Sect Master were to disguise herself and sneak in, there are no more spots.”
“Xie Minting? What favor do you owe that little weakling now?”
“I think that Sect Master Xie isn’t necessarily like that…” Yan Huirou coughed lightly.
Jiang Xidai glanced at her, her eyes dark. She closed the window and walked over. “A small matter. No need to worry about this.”
So Yan Huirou returned to Bright Moon Pavilion, packed some healing pills, and put them in her Storage Ring by category. She brought spare clothes, daily necessities, and money.
Finally, she wrapped Golden Tower Jade Palace around her waist, which was very light and concealed.
This thing, she had originally used it to test Su Yuxi’s skills. But she found that she was really good, so she gave the rest of the black iron to Su Yuxi to forge.
Yan Huirou bent down and opened a dark, inconspicuous box.
Inside was a precious sword. And a storage pouch. The sword was named Dragon Spring, and the pouch was the Universe Pouch, like a piece of jade hidden in a box, its brilliance contained within.
Although it was far from that level, from the outside, it looked no different.
Yan Huirou wrapped it in a handkerchief, put it in the box, and brought the two boxes with her.
A rustling sound came from her feet, and a pair of paws tugged at the corner of Yan Huirou’s clothes.
Yan Huirou was surprised. “Shangshan?”
The lump of coal had grown a size. She didn’t know if it was because it was the only one that had received Jiang Xidai’s fortune, but it seemed particularly intelligent and human-like among the other three dogs.
Shangshan wagged its tail into a black chrysanthemum again. It pushed the box open and crawled inside.
Yan Huirou said, “Come out, Shangshan. This is not a place for sleeping.”
She reached out and took the little dog out, not thinking much of it. But soon, Shangshan crawled back in, and squatting inside, it looked even more like a lump of coal, a fluffy one.
It was the same several times in a row.
Yan Huirou seemed to understand its meaning and picked it up. “You want to go too? Not really. There’s no time to look after you on the road.”
Shangshan still crawled in, stubbornly squatting inside.
The little dog wanted to go.
Yan Huirou had no choice but to take it out for the time being and place it on her shoulder. “Alright, then you stay with me.” From a distance, it looked like a shiny black cloth draped over her.
Jiang Xidai saw her from afar, her gaze falling on the black cloth. “Do you like this lump of coal that much?”
“…I’ll take it with me,” Yan Huirou sighed. “Ever since you fed it until it became a spirit, it no longer needs to eat, drink, or relieve itself. It’s quite convenient. It’ll just be for company.”
Jiang Xidai was noncommittal. She saw that Yan Huirou had taken everything and took her hand.
This was an ordinary action, but the moment their palms touched, both of them couldn’t help but feel a little unnatural.
Jiang Xidai opened her embroidered umbrella, and the beautiful edge of the umbrella blocked the light from above, casting a graceful arc on the ground.
One person holding the umbrella, two people walking side by side.
Until they reached the edge of the cliff, and there was no more road. Jiang Xidai wrapped an arm around her waist and, like a falling flower, rose with the wind, even turning a half-circle in the air, very light and fairy-like.
“Why aren’t you carrying me this time, Sect Master?”
“It’s not a pretty sight,” Jiang Xidai said lightly, the arm around her tightening a little.
To be honest, since yesterday, Yan Huirou had not rejected her closeness, but she had not said anything else either.
She didn’t know if the matter was over or not. Everything seemed to have returned to how they usually were.
Jiang Xidai had once been very satisfied with this state, but for some reason, she did not feel the same complete satisfaction now.
She had been the one to retreat before, but now that they were back at the starting point, she was unwilling to stop here.
What a strange disposition.
Jiang Xidai herself also found it inexplicable.
“Yanyan.”
“What is it?”
“I might be starting to like you.”
Yan Huirou heard this and said, “Mm.”
“…”
Jiang Xidai did not look away, just tossed out the sentence as if she were talking about the weather. But her peripheral vision was still tracing Yan Huirou’s side profile.
She frowned imperceptibly. Why is her reaction only an “mm”?
“I can see that, Sect Master,” Yan Huirou said. “The way you accept and don’t accept a person is too obvious.”
“…Is that so?” Jiang Xidai said. “Can you say something else?”
Yan Huirou closed her eyes, feeling the wind blow, and leaned against her shoulder, listening to Jiang Xidai’s heartbeat for a long while, from the rapid beat of horse hooves to a calm silence.
When she was completely quiet, Yan Huirou’s brow relaxed. “Something else?”
Jiang Xidai’s brow furrowed even more, but she was unwilling to be direct, feeling an unspeakable shame. She glanced at Yan Huirou and said nothing.
Yan Huirou said thoughtfully, “Something else is…”
“…”
Jiang Xidai was listening intently.
“Something else is…” Yan Huirou seemed to be choosing her words.
Jiang Xidai: “I’m not listening anymore.”
Yan Huirou smiled and said, “Something else is, what a coincidence.”
The woman looked over, surprised. “What’s a coincidence?”
“I have always loved you.”
The area around the Bamboo Forest Temple was a place for cultivation for the Immortal Alliance, sparsely populated but orderly.
If not for this occasion, Jiang Xidai would not have been willing to set foot here.
She glanced at everything before her with a critical eye, then looked away in disdain, two words of judgment coming from her crimson lips: “Shabby.”
“It’s… alright,” Yan Huirou looked around. It wasn’t extravagant, but it naturally couldn’t be compared to the Shasheng Sect.
“Why are you speaking up for them?” The woman snorted lightly, but she didn’t seem to be angry. “No need to pity them. After all these years, a bunch of cowards haven’t made any progress.”
“I told you, no need to worry,” Jiang Xidai said softly.
A puff of white smoke dissipated, and the red-robed beauty in front of her disappeared.
Yan Huirou looked at the ground, surprised. In the spot where Jiang Xidai had been standing, a cute, toasted marshmallow had appeared—it was that long-furred, white-pawed little orange cat?
The little orange cat squatted on the ground proudly, its fluffy tail brushing against Yan Huirou’s ankle.
“Still not picking me up.”
An ethereal and familiar voice sounded by Yan Huirou’s ear.
Yan Huirou: “That day, so you were following me? You…”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, wondering how Jiang Xidai had come up with this method, and had even tricked her into three kisses.
The little cat’s ears twitched, as if it didn’t know anything. The tip of its tail flicked up and down, as if it hadn’t yet been tamed. A snow-white paw pressed down on the constantly moving thing.
Yan Huirou couldn’t resist this kind of round, furry creature. After a few glances, she obediently picked it up.
Shangshan lay on Yan Huirou’s shoulder, and at the sight of this, it was so shocked it retracted its panting tongue.
“Hm? Turning into a kitten, so you won’t be discovered?”
The furball in her arms moved, seeming to be very comfortable in Yan Huirou’s embrace.
“This is the art of spiritual transformation, not a low-level illusion. Unless their cultivation is higher than mine, what can they see?”
Yan Huirou nodded. “The Sect Master is so amazing. Was that the first time you transformed? And you even learned to meow.”
“…”
Yan Huirou let out a soft “ooh,” a fine scratch appearing on her wrist.
But she didn’t mind at all and her eyes curved, shimmering with affection as she looked at the little cat.
The little orange cat stiffened for a moment. The next moment, she felt the tip of her ear get wet, kissed by Yan Huirou, and then her forehead.
Next, the entire cat was unfurled, and Yan Huirou, her cheeks slightly red, buried her face in the thick cat fur, taking a deep breath, as if to suck away Jiang Xidai’s soul as well.
