Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Gentleman Yanyu.
Qiao Ying remembered the man she had seen at the inn. So this veiled young woman was his sister. Young Master Yanyu’s exceptional looks had earned him the ardent admiration of the city’s women.
Presumably, his sister possessed equally celestial beauty. No wonder she concealed her face when she went out.
Frightened by the young woman’s identity, the hunter still tried to defend himself. “Miss, I make my living hunting in the mountains. I catch a few wild animals to feed my family. I’ve never done anything unconscionable!”
“Are animals’ lives not lives?” the Girl in Yellow asked.
“I… I…” After struggling for words, he finally said, “You can’t put it that way. The mountains are full of wild animals. If I don’t catch them, someone else will. I earn my food through skill. It’s not as if I rob or steal.”
She sighed. “Does relying on skill make it right to take their lives without remorse? You see only your family’s food and shelter, but not the animals running free in the mountains or foraging beneath the moon. They feel pain and fear. They fight desperately for their young.”
She was kindness personified. Every gentle word made her sound like a goddess who pitied all living beings, earning admiring glances from the gathering passersby.
The hunter’s face alternated between red and white. He could not help muttering, “B-but they aren’t people.”
“Does not being human mean they have no right to live?” she demanded.
The hunter had no answer.
Her maids had followed her for years. Their young miss never treated them as servants but regarded them as friends, so they knew her nature well. They could not resist speaking.
“Our young miss has the kindest heart. She cannot bear to see people suffer, much less small animals.”
“This little fox has committed no evil. The young miss is stopping you from accumulating the sin of further killing.”
“If you sincerely repent, release it into the mountains.”
Under everyone’s condemning stares and immense pressure, the insignificant hunter did not dare offend a wealthy family’s daughter. He gritted his teeth.
“Yes. The animal is innocent.” He looked apologetically at Qiao Ying. “I’m truly sorry, miss, but I cannot sell you the fox.”
A maid swiftly lifted the cage. “Young miss, we’ll release the fox later.”
The woman nodded in satisfaction, then offered Qiao Ying a kindly admonition. “Life has no distinction of size or rank. Every creature in this world has the right to live. I hope you understand that truth one day.”
Qiao Ying hesitated, then whispered to Shen Qingyu, “I can’t hold it in much longer.”
He smiled. “Then don’t.”
“But I can’t defeat them.”
Shen Qingyu turned his head and leaned closer, lowering his voice as though sharing a secret. “I can.”
Reassured, Qiao Ying exhaled. “The embroidery on your yellow silk dress is gold thread, isn’t it?”
“What if it is?”
“Gold is smelted from ore. Smelting requires enormous amounts of charcoal. How many trees were cut down to make that charcoal? Once the trees are gone, where will the small animals in the mountains shelter from winter storms?”
The young woman had no immediate reply.
Qiao Ying continued, “You say all lives are equal. Do you eat nothing but vegetables at every meal? No, that won’t work either. This world contains every possible marvel. Plants can cultivate spirits too. If you eat vegetables, you might swallow some little creature on the verge of assuming human form. Would that not also be taking a life?”
Qiao Ying widened her eyes in sudden realization. “So you must have grown up subsisting entirely on wind and dew.”
Shen Qingyu laughed softly.
The hunter wanted to laugh too, but after glancing at the young woman’s large entourage, he hurriedly covered his mouth.
She clenched the handkerchief in her hand.
Her maids stepped forward in anger.
“What nonsense! Our kindhearted young miss saved this fox. You’re a shallow killer, yet you dare mock and slander her!”
“Exactly! The young miss meant only good. You answer with absurd tales about plants cultivating spirits and eating little monsters. Do you think her good temper makes her easy to bully?”
Even the troop of guards looked indignant. Only their scar-faced captain possessed some skill. From the instant he saw Shen Qingyu concealing every trace of his aura, he had remained secretly on guard.
Qiao Ying looked at their vast crowd, then at herself and Shen Qingyu. “Which side looks easy to bully, exactly?”
Shen Qingyu lazily raised a hand and rubbed the top of her head, his smile deepening.
“They do, of course.”
She was the person who liked him. Naturally, he would never allow anyone to bully her.
The instant his Blind Staff moved, Qiao Ying jumped up and wrapped both arms around his arm, nearly hanging her whole body from him.
Shen Qingyu fell quiet, then lowered his face. “Yingying?”
“I’m afraid you’ll be hurt.”
“They are very easy to kill. I will not be hurt.”
“But the people around us will be traumatized.”
Shen Qingyu did not understand.
His methods of killing were brutally graphic. How could the peaceful citizens here withstand the sight?
The Girl in Yellow heard his words, and her tone changed. “What arrogance. The lord of Yunling City in Yunling Prefecture established long ago that private fighting is forbidden within the city. Violators are imprisoned and subjected to extreme punishment.”
The guard captain, a middle-aged man with a scar across his face, stepped forward and shielded her. Then he cupped his hands in greeting.
“Young Master, our disagreement has been verbal. There is no need for a fight to the death. You and the young lady appear to be outsiders. Since fate brought us together, perhaps we might part as friends. If you settle in Yunling Prefecture and ever require assistance, we may be able to help.”
The Girl in Yellow objected, “Uncle He.”
Uncle He gave her a warning look. “Aren’t you meeting Young Master Li to go boating? You should not waste your time here.”
Only then did she close her mouth.
Uncle He continued, “Since this young lady likes the wild fox, a gentleman does not take what another cherishes. She may dispose of it as she wishes.”
Taking his hint, the maid reluctantly set down the cage.
Uncle He saluted again. “Farewell.”
The Girl in Yellow had arrived with great fanfare and departed surrounded by her entourage, attracting just as much attention.
Still unconvinced, she asked, “Uncle He, why were you afraid of him? There were so many of us. Could we truly not defeat one man carrying a Blind Staff?”
“We truly could not.”
The young woman choked into silence.
The crowd swept away.
Qiao Ying released Shen Qingyu’s arm, paid the hunter, and lifted the wooden cage. “The fox is mine.”
The hunter had expected to earn nothing, but after all those twists, he received his silver. He beamed. “Of course. Thank you, miss.”
Qiao Ying returned to the young man with the cage. The smile had left his lips, replaced by languid boredom.
She took one of his hands. “All right, stop sulking. If you stay angry, you’ll develop wrinkles.”
Shen Qingyu had no choice but to force himself to smile again and eliminate that possibility.
As Qiao Ying led him onward, she could still hear the vendors behind them.
“Why are you so happy about selling one fox?” the cloth merchant asked.
The hunter’s voice rang with vigor. “Why wouldn’t I be? I can pay for my wife’s medicine and buy my child a new outfit. My family will have a good New Year!”
Outside the city at the foot of the mountain, unknown wildflowers bloomed brilliantly despite the onset of winter.
Qiao Ying crouched and opened the cage. She poked the red fox’s tail. “Off you go. Life is difficult for you, but it’s difficult for humans too. Be clever and don’t get caught so easily again.”
The fox tentatively emerged. It looked back at Qiao Ying, then at the Youth in Blue beside her, and hesitated, afraid to move.
“You bought it but don’t intend to make a cloak?” Shen Qingyu asked.
“Who said I wanted a cloak? I meant to release it from the beginning.” Qiao Ying rested her chin in both hands and watched the little fox with curiosity. “I don’t like that preachy woman, but she was right about one thing. This red fox truly is pitiful and adorable.”
Shen Qingyu gave a sarcastic snort.
The fox trembled harder and became even less willing to flee.
“It looked so pitiful curled into a ball inside that cage,” Qiao Ying said.
“It is only a little beast that has not awakened its spirit.”
Qiao Ying gave him a dissatisfied look. Suddenly, she caught his hand and pulled him into a crouch beside her. Their bodies pressed together, and Shen Qingyu lost any urgency to stand.
Guiding his hand, she brushed his fingertips across the fox’s red tail. “How does it feel?”
“Coarse. Unpleasant.”
“Only because it was caged too long. Once it returns to the forest with the breeze and moon for company, its fur will become soft and fluffy.”
Shen Qingyu felt her fingers enter the spaces between his, imitating his habit until their hands were fully interlaced.
Her voice passed his ear with the wind.
“When I saw this little fox, I couldn’t help wondering: if a tiny White-Furred Fox were ever locked in a cage and could only hide curled inside his tail, I would hope someone might set him free.”
Shen Qingyu swallowed. After a long moment, a quiet laugh escaped his lips. “Yingying.”
Qiao Ying propped her chin on one hand and looked up, a loose strand of hair stirring at her temple. “What?”
He brushed that strand and murmured, “You’re so strange.”
“Oh. I’ve been strange in your eyes for ages.”
A pebble suddenly struck the red fox on the head.
It gave an aggrieved whine, then ran toward the wind as though receiving a royal pardon, vanishing into the woods.
Qiao Ying tried to see where it went, but the young man’s tall body covered her view.
Shen Qingyu leaned very close. His pale face looked pure and flawless. She could see every breath and the slightest movement of his lips.
Qiao Ying instinctively held her breath as her heartbeat stumbled.
His nose brushed hers, rubbing gently as if he had discovered an amusing game.
An odd scrap of knowledge surfaced from nowhere in Qiao Ying’s mind.
When a canine touches noses with you, possessiveness and protectiveness are at work. Like marking territory, it leaves its scent so other dogs will stay away.
But Shen Qingyu was not a dog. Therefore, the next thing Qiao Ying felt was a lick at the corner of her mouth.
It took her a moment to recover. Then embarrassment and anger flooded her. “Shen Qingyu!”
He laughed into the wind, exceptionally delighted.