Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Xue Heting said, “It’s you.”

Qiao Ying had not expected to run into Xue Heting here either. She gave a dry little laugh. “What a coincidence.”

Zhao Zhiyi looked back and forth between them. “Heting, you two know each other?”

Xue Heting said, “The night before last, I was tracking an Evil yaoguai and accidentally startled this young lady. I left in a hurry then and never had the chance to apologize.”

Qiao Ying waved it off. “You were ridding the people of a menace, sir. A little fright is hardly worth mentioning. If anything, I should be thanking you for protecting the peace of the region.”

Just then, Zhao Zhiyi also noticed the sword in Xue Heting’s hand trembling. His expression shifted slightly. “Heting, the Qingshuang Sword has always been sensitive to Yaoguai. Why is it so restless now?”

Xue Heting looked at Qiao Ying again.

Qiao Ying’s scalp prickled at once.

After a moment of thought, Xue Heting said, “Not long ago, this young lady was stained with Yaoguai blood. Perhaps that is what Qingshuang sensed.”

Before long, the Qingshuang Sword seemed to lose all trace of the Yaoguai’s presence and settled back into stillness.

Qiao Ying also let out a breath of relief.

Mu Yunshu’s curious gaze fell on Xue Heting’s hand. “So this is the treasured sword Old Master Zhao passed down to you? I’ve heard of it before. In his youth, the Old Master relied on this very sword to slay Yaoguai and evil spirits in all directions. It is precisely because he stood guard here that the area around Yunling has remained safe and peaceful all these years.”

At the mention of Old Master Zhao, Zhao Zhiyi looked as proud as if he shared in the honor. “Yunshu is right. Back then, my grandfather fought alongside the great general of Yunling Prefecture against an invasion of demons. With just one man and one sword, he protected an entire city’s worth of people. And my grandmother…”

“I know. Your grandmother met your grandfather during that battle. Your grandfather saved the beauty like a hero but was gravely wounded, and your grandmother nursed him back to health with great care. Over time, affection grew between them, and after they married, they had your father.” The corners of Mu Yunshu’s lips lifted slightly. “I’ve already heard you tell this story many times.”

Zhao Zhiyi scratched his head in embarrassment. The person he admired most was his grandfather, and whenever he brought up the stories from back then, he always grew excited. Unfortunately, his father had no talent for such things, and he himself had been born with a love of freedom. All he wanted was to be an idle young master of a wealthy family. He had never once thought of taking on a great responsibility and becoming the master of the Qingshuang Sword.

But fortunately, his grandfather had such an excellent disciple in Xue Heting. The legacy of the Qingshuang Sword would not be broken.

Qiao Ying set the items down, excused herself, and left.

Ah Yuan hurried after her and asked curiously, “Qiao Ying, you know Young Master Xue?”

Qiao Ying said, “We’ve met once. I wouldn’t really say we know each other.”

A look of admiration appeared in Ah Yuan’s eyes. “Young Master Xue is so upright and awe-inspiring. Who knows how many Yaoguai and demons he’s slain, or how many people he’s saved? More importantly, he’s handsome too. He’s truly such a good man. What a pity I’ve never had the chance to say more than a few words to him.”

“He’s nothing but a hypocrite, and yet you all can’t stop talking about him.”

A lazy, drawling voice came from not far away. Up ahead, a gaudily dressed young man was leaning against a pillar, cracking melon seeds between his teeth, his disdain for Xue Heting plain to see.

Ah Yuan frowned. “Who are you? How can you be so rude?”

Qiao Ying said, “That night, I remember the person traveling with Young Master Xue was this Young Master Ming Caihua.”

Ming Caihua raised an eyebrow. In a flash, he had already appeared in front of Qiao Ying. “Not bad, little lady. You actually remembered my name.”

He rubbed his chin and smiled frivolously. “Could it be that you’re secretly in love with me?”

Qiao Ying restrained the urge to roll her eyes. “Since Young Master Ming is currently little different from a prisoner, you would do well to rein in that temper of yours.”

She walked around Ming Caihua and left without another word.

Unconvinced, Ming Caihua chased after her. “Hey, who are you calling a prisoner? Come back here and explain yourself-”

After only a few steps, the bracelet around his wrist began to faintly heat up again. He turned back to glance at the hall entrance. Xue Heting was still inside, catching up with his friends. With this bracelet on, Ming Caihua could not go more than a hundred paces from Xue Heting.

So angry that he stamped his foot, Ming Caihua gloomily found a spot to crouch down and went back to cracking melon seeds.

Qiao Ying was then dragged off by Ah Yuan to help cut out quite a few double-happiness characters to paste on the windows. By dusk, the rain still showed no sign of easing, and Qiao Ying had finally managed to endure until the end of her shift.

She thought of Shen Qingyu, wondering if he had grown impatient waiting for her.

Qiao Ying unconsciously quickened her pace. At the end of the long corridor, she saw the figure still sitting silently beneath the tree.
In the hazy mist woven from threads of rain, Shen Qingyu sat dressed in blue-green robes, the fine drizzle dampening the fabric until it was faintly translucent. It made the frost-white strands in his hair stand out all the more, as if a layer of first snow had settled there.

The white silk blindfold over his eyes was spotless, its ends falling along the line of his jaw. It hid whatever emotions lay in his gaze, yet somehow made the gentle warmth around him seem even purer.

His hands lightly gathered the Blind Staff across his knees. Raindrops kept falling on him, but he seemed utterly unaware, sitting there in silence, his presence as calm as a deep, still pool, as though he had become one with the rain.

Qiao Ying instinctively lifted her skirts and ran into the rain, hurrying toward the figure beneath the tree. Her slightly breathless voice mingled with the patter of rain. “Shen Qingyu!”

Shen Qingyu lifted his clean, jade-pale face. A soft smile rippled across his lips, his blue-green sleeves brushing away droplets with the slight motion. His voice was warm and mild. “You’re back.”

It was as if a hint of life had suddenly stirred within a deathly silence.

Qiao Ying quickly ran inside to fetch the oil-paper umbrella she had brought that morning for shade, then hurried back out and opened it, blocking the drizzling rain.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been sitting here like this for hours.”

He nodded.

“Are you stupid? It started raining and you didn’t even know to go inside and take shelter?”

He said, “I promised you I would sit here and wait for you.”

Qiao Ying said, “But… but it was raining outside. You could have waited for me inside.”

“A promise must be kept.” This gentle-smiling young man once again revealed that strange stubbornness of his. “That is how one should conduct oneself. One must keep one’s word, shouldn’t one?”

Qiao Ying suddenly asked, “I told you to wait for me here, but what if I broke my word and didn’t come back…”

“I would kill you.”

A chill crept up Qiao Ying’s back. She decisively refused to continue that topic. Taking his hand, she felt how icy cold it was and pulled him to his feet. “All right, if you keep getting rained on, you’ll catch a chill. I’m done with work. Let’s go home.”

Shen Qingyu was soaked through, his blue-green robes clinging tightly to his back, outlining his already slender frame and making him seem even more fragile, as if a single gust of wind could knock him down.

“Qiao Ying.”

She looked up. “Mm?”

The young man’s wet hair stuck to the side of his neck, frost-white strands mixed with rainwater streaming down and dripping along his jaw. It only made his face look as pale as paper. Only the smile at the corner of his lips still held a trace of warmth that had yet to fade.

“You’re very strange.”

Qiao Ying asked, “What’s strange about me?”

“I felt it just now. You were afraid of me, but now you’re holding my hand.”

His slender, delicate fingers bent slightly, as if imitating her, and he held her hand in return. It had been the same when they escaped from the dungeon earlier. She had held his hand then, very, very tightly. It was an exceedingly novel experience.

Qiao Ying said, “Actually, I have a question for you too.”

He was extremely patient. “What is it?”

“That dungeon couldn’t hold you at all. When they captured you, why didn’t you turn around and kill them instead?”

“At the time, they said they were taking me to a good place.”

“And then?”

“As it happened, I was hungry, so I asked them whether that good place had food.”

Qiao Ying said, “…And then?”

“They said that once I got there, I would never have to worry about food for the rest of my life.” Shen Qingyu smiled. “So I followed them. I didn’t have to do anything, and someone brought me three meals a day. It was excellent.”

Qiao Ying said, “…”

Listening to the raindrops falling against the umbrella, Shen Qingyu said softly, “Qiao Ying, you are afraid of me. Why not take a gamble? If you run, I may not necessarily be able to find you.”

There was temptation hidden in his voice, as if he wanted to play a game of cat and mouse. And usually, after a cat caught a mouse, it would not rush to kill it. It would toy with it on purpose, letting the mouse suffer in endless fear.

But Qiao Ying was blunt and decisive. “I won’t run.”

“Why?”

“That would only make you more excited.”

Shen Qingyu froze for an instant. The next moment, a low laugh spilled from his lips, gradually taking on a sickly edge, adding another thread of eeriness to the fine rain in the dusk.

Qiao Ying remained perfectly calm. “We’re almost home. Stop laughing like that. You’ll scare the neighbors.”

Shen Qingyu’s laughter halted. Only after a long while did he manage to squeeze out a single word.