Chapter 37: Chapter 34 Qingshan Yunshui Cave_2
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With that thought, Su Xiaoxiao’s joyful smile narrowed her eyes into slits, her fox-like eyes becoming even more seductive. The corners of her eyes were long and slightly lifted, and a faint pinkish red tinted her temples, captivating one’s soul.
“Do I look good?”
“You do.”
A sudden voice popped up, and Su Xiaoxiao unconsciously responded.
She was stunned for a few seconds before realizing what had happened. When she looked again, the rascal had already put down his pen, was massaging his wrists, and was looking over with a teasing smirk.
...
Su Xiaoxiao’s shoulders shook, and she hurriedly closed her fingers, burying her little face tightly in her hands, attempting to pretend nothing had happened.
But a pale hand holding a scroll had already reached out.
“Sneaky sneaky.”
“Ugh.”
“Harboring ill intentions.”
“Ow~”
“Peeking through the fingers.”
“Stop hitting .”
“Did you underestimate this young master?”
“Whimper, no, you’re the most formidable.”
“Not good enough, need to hit one more ti, feels pretty good.”
“Whimper whimper.”
Zhao Rong chuckled and withdrew his hand, put down the scroll, and picked up his favorite silk fan from the side, tossing it to the little fox demon who was rubbing her head with a wronged expression, giving her a look.
The cool breeze caressed his face, and Zhao Rong put aside what he was doing, took out two jugs of osmanthus wine he had bought from a tavern by the green mountains and waters, and tossed one to Liu Sanbian, who was staring blankly opposite him.
The latter caught it steadily, and without any pretense, took a whiff, then drank heartily.
“Brother Sanbian has worries on his mind.”
“In this life, who doesn’t have worries?”
“No, worries have their weights. Most people fill their lives with countless trivial matters, whereas a few are weighed down by several significant ones. The forr bear an unbearable weight since they can never escape those repetitive trifles; the latter, however, bear an unbearable lightness, for once they resolve to act, regardless of failure or success, in the end, they will leave without weight.”
The young scholar spoke leisurely, took a swig of wine, and exhaled softly.
“Brother Sanbian has a weighty matter.”
The gloomy man with severed ties and a radiant smile responded.
“What makes you say that?”
—
“Because Brother Sanbian’s ho is in the south, that’s the direction Brother Sanbian often looks back towards, while Great Wei is in the north, and that’s where Brother Sanbian is heading now.”
“Is leaving ho necessarily a grave matter? Aren’t you also away from ho, young master?”
“No, it’s not the sa. Although I’m not of great age, but due to so special reasons, I can very well understand soone who has experienced life’s ups and downs and already has a family. If they abandon all their ties and leave ho for thousands of miles, then they must be going to do sothing they believe they must do. As for how to perceive its importance…” the young man who was also a castaway from the ends of the earth took another swig of wine. “I understand that look in their eyes that finds it hard to return ho.”
“Because I might never be able to return either.”
The somber man did not make a sound, did not ask why he could not return. Everyone has their secrets; he has his, the scholar before him has his, and the little fox demon beside them has hers.
He lifted the wine jug and took a sip.
Drinking this kind of roadside inn’s brew, he was surprisingly brought to a teary sting.
Afterward.
The two were silent.
Only the wine before them and the moonlight at the mont were in their hands, on their brows.
The little fox demon fanned the air quietly on one side, looking at the fire by two n who seed to be drinking together, yet also appeared to be drinking alone, one big one small.
Although simple-minded and innocently romantic, she listened to the conversation between the two with complete confusion. But she could vaguely understand so of Zhao Rong’s words because she had her little worries too. She was also a traveler far from ho. Though young and without much attachnt to the Qiantang Mountain where she grew up, even eager to escape it, she left to find her ancestral grandmother, to find soone who would be kind to her, the right person.
If there wasn’t soone greatly desired to be seen, or sothing eagerly wanted to be done, who would leave ho on a whim?
Su Xiaoxiao was actually beginning to miss ho. She had even secretly tried to compose a poem; she had thought of the first line long ago, “I dwelt upon Qiantang Mountain slight, through blossoms’ fall and bloom, regardless of ti’s blight.”
She had dread it one night, unable to co up with it through day’s pondering, yet what one ponders in the day, becos the dreams of night. That night, she dread she was with her beloved in a bamboo cottage, he was reading and writing while she assisted, grinding ink and adding fragrance. Though she could not clearly see the beloved’s face, he must surely have been as handso as a jade tree. In the dream, she also possessed literary grace, shyly composing a verse under his gaze. But just as she wrote down the beginning line, sudden strange events occurred. Her beloved’s true face appeared, as if clouds parting to reveal the sun—it was none other than Zhao Rong, who had been pestering her all day. And to her utmost surprise, this scoundrel leaned in, sealed her lips with his own, leaving her breathless and looking up close at that face… Suddenly, she woke from her dream in the middle of the night, found her face covered by a book, which had restricted her breathing. Dazedly, she turned to see Zhao Rong’s sneaky figure not far off.
Rage filled her. You vile wretch, tornting Xiaoxiao by day is already too much, but you even haunt Xiaoxiao’s dreams at night to bully her. And as if that weren’t enough, you don’t sleep at midnight, choosing instead to wake Xiaoxiao up. Now it’s done, Xiaoxiao’s poem is lost, never to co into dream again, and try as she might, she cannot think of a good line anymore. Wah, you owe my poem!
Zhao Rong, who crushed the literary dreams of a certain little fox demon, felt sowhat despondent at the mont, unaware that he owed soone a poem. He shook the wine jug, now empty, and raised his head to look at Liu Sanbian. Seeing that Brother Sanbian also had no wine left, the two caught each other’s gaze in mid-air for a mont, then suddenly smiled.
“Brother Zhao, I have a matter to entrust to you.”
“Brother Sanbian, I also have sothing to seek from you.”
“You go first,” Zhao Rong spoke up first, reaching for the paper on the bookcase that listed Gui’s improvents to the ‘Ant Ascending Heaven Technique’, waiting for Liu Sanbian to speak.
Liu Sanbian paused, his eyes fixed on the flickering flas in front of him, with the night breeze coming from the lake causing his shadow to sway unsteadily.
“There’s still so distance to Great Wei. In this ti, if Brother Zhao has any need, I will certainly help to the best of my ability. However, I hope that when we part ways in Great Wei, you could bring so items back to Yunshui Cave in Lihuo Country for , to give to my family in Qingshan. I don’t ask you to take them there imdiately; as long as they can reach my family in Qingshan’s hands, no matter how long it takes, you can arrange it as you see fit,”
The man paused, perhaps recalling sothing, maybe his child nad Qingshan. His face wore a smile, and under the warm glow of the firelight, his face softened with gentleness that seed to lt away the hard edges.
“I haven’t formally introduced myself to you, brother.”
“I am Liu Sanbian, from Great Wei, presently a cultivator at Yunshui Cave of Lihuo Country, a Martial Artist of the Sixth Grade!”
Qingshan’s Yunshui Cave, this place is my ho.
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