Chapter 68
Chapter 68
A vein throbbed in Yan Yanchi’s forehead. He kicked away the bone. The yellow dog barked angrily and chased it into the distance.
“There. The dog is gone. Come out.”
Ding Ling tentatively revealed half her face. Her red, tear-filled eyes made her look exquisitely pitiful.
Yan Yanchi frowned.
The female ghost was trying to seduce him again.
If left unchecked, she might indeed become a vengeful ghost that devoured vital essence and brought disaster upon the world.
With a stern expression, he demanded, “Which direction is your home? Hurry. I have no desire to transfer Yang Qi to you every day.”
Ding Ling shuffled out. In her dreams, she had imagined returning to Yunling Prefecture and following the flagstone roads home countless times. The route had been carved into her memory.
She pointed. “That way.”
Yan Yanchi turned and set off.
The wind carried a faint lotus fragrance. Even in a world filled with wonders, lotuses blooming in winter were rare.
Ding Ling looked toward the curtained Huxin Pavilion. The overlapping figures of a young man and woman could be faintly seen inside, and envy stirred within her.
As children, her cousin had taken her there too. But she had been afraid of the water, and his expression had always been unhappy.
The people inside the pavilion must be lovers.
Yan Yanchi stopped ahead and looked back impatiently. “Come.”
Ding Ling hurriedly withdrew her gaze and followed.
By dusk, it was time for dinner.
Shen Qingyu was easy to feed, but after accumulating some savings, Qiao Ying had become choosy. She led him from place to place before finally sitting at a wonton stall.
An elderly couple ran the stall. Many customers were eating there, so the food was probably good.
Qiao Ying ordered two bowls of wontons. After thinking, she called to the busy Old Master, “Add a fried egg.”
“Of course. Just a moment,” he replied.
“That man looks blind.”
“Look at the Blind Staff in his hand. Of course he is.”
“The girl is young and beautiful. Why would she choose a blind man?”
“What do you know? Perhaps he has other exceptional qualities.”
Two men joked in low voices. Their gazes drifted below Shen Qingyu’s waist, and the implication of their remarks changed.
Shen Qingyu easily distinguished goodwill from malice. Smiling pleasantly, he reached for his ebony blind cane.
At that moment, Qiao Ying moved her stool closer. She propped her chin in both hands and stared at him with keen enjoyment.
Whenever she watched him this way, it felt as if a tiny paw scratched inside Shen Qingyu’s heart. His desire to kill immediately softened.
He turned his head, the ends of his white hair swaying. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because they were right. You do possess exceptional qualities.”
“Such as?”
“Pale skin, beautifully colored lips, an elegant jaw, and a handsome face.”
The warm breeze stirred his blue robes, and his white hair spilled over his shoulders like a waterfall.
Though a white silk blindfold concealed his eyes, a gentle smile slowly curved his lips, like spring water rippling beneath a breeze. His lighthearted joy remained impossible to hide.
“Are those all my exceptional qualities?”
Qiao Ying sighed helplessly. “You already have far more than anyone else. If you had even more, how would other people survive? Shen Qingyu, Little Fish, leave us ordinary mortals some hope.”
Something in her words pleased him. Shen Qingyu pressed his lips together, but could not stop their upward curve. In the warm dusk light, his beautiful face resembled that of an immortal seated among clouds.
He should have remained beyond worldly concerns. Yet when Qiao Ying playfully hooked a lock of his white hair, she tied him to the mortal world.
The two men finished their wontons and left. The white-haired old woman brought over two bowls.
Qiao Ying slid the bowl with the fried egg in front of Shen Qingyu, guided a pair of chopsticks into his hand, and smiled. “Eat.”
“Yingying,” Shen Qingyu said.
“Mm?”
“Why don’t you have a fried egg?”
“I don’t like eggs.”
“Then why do I have one?”
“Don’t you like it?”
Shen Qingyu shook his head.
In the past, he ate whatever she fed him. Now he had even learned to say what he disliked.
Qiao Ying muttered, “I seem to remember… you liked eggs.”
She looked up. “We already ordered it. We can’t waste food, so eat it all.”
She had once told him he need not eat food he disliked. Now she was forcing him.
Shen Qingyu refused to move his chopsticks.
“Shen Qingyu, let me tell you a terrifying story.”
The word terrifying caught his interest.
He turned toward her. “What kind of story?”
“Once there was a little fox who roamed freely through the mountains every day. One day, it stepped into a hunter’s trap. Fortunately, a kind girl saved it. Afterward, it cultivated and cultivated until one day it assumed human form and became a beautiful little boy.”
“Then?” Shen Qingyu asked.
“The boy went to repay the girl. He knocked on her window and said softly, ‘Hello. I’m the little fox. I came to repay you. Will you open the window and meet me?’ He waited in the night wind for a long time. When movement finally came from inside, his fox ears wiggled with excitement.”
The young man leaned closer without realizing it, his ears stirring as well.
“The boy waited eagerly. He thought he was so beautiful that the girl would certainly like him. At last, she opened the window.”
Qiao Ying abruptly stopped.
Shen Qingyu became anxious. “What happened?”
“The girl screamed at the sight of him, fell to the floor, and burst into tears.”
His lips tightened. “Why? Was the boy not beautiful enough?”
“He was beautiful, but…” Qiao Ying raised her face and placed her lips beside his ear. As he listened intently, she suddenly raised her voice. “The little fox was so picky that all his fur fell out! So when he became a boy, his head was completely bald, without a single hair remaining!”
Shen Qingyu’s expression changed. His body trembled as one hand rose to his snow-white head.
Unable to restrain herself, Qiao Ying collapsed across the table and covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking.
Her emotions were such a jumble that he could not tell whether she was laughing or crying.
He hooked one of her fingers. “Yingying, what’s wrong?”
Her voice shook, and speech came with difficulty. “The story was… far too terrifying. I was frightened. What if I open my window one day and see a bald little boy?”
After a brief silence, Shen Qingyu said, “You will not.”
“Oh.”
The young man remained silent a little longer. Finally, he obediently lifted his bowl and chopsticks and slowly ate every bite of the fried egg.
For some reason, the girl beside him continued to tremble.
Perhaps the story truly had been too frightening, and she had not recovered.
She liked him, so he could not ignore her distress.
Shen Qingyu put down his bowl and reached to stroke her head and soothe her fur. But as he turned, she fell against his chest. Laughter finally burst free, bright and musical, summoning that itching little paw inside his heart.
He thought he might have been deceived.
Yet her happiness possessed a strange magic. Like a warm breeze, it slipped through his ear and into his heart, then spread through every limb until everything felt almost unbearably comfortable.
In the end, he could not resist. Tugged along by her delight, laughter spilled from his lips as well.
Together, they fell into the joys of the mortal world.