Chapter 24 What are you thinking about? "I'm thinking about you."

How much longer do we have to walk?

Cui Mingcan stopped to rest for a while, panting, "The sun is almost setting, why haven't we reached the inn to rest yet?" He then looked around at the scenery and said with a worried look, "In this desolate wilderness, could there be ghosts?"

Cen Ying scoffed at him: "A Taoist cultivator like you, afraid of ghosts?"

"Who says cultivators shouldn't be afraid? I'm still a young, unmarried man of sixteen, and I'm most afraid of this kind of thing..." Cui Mingcan snorted, unable to resist retorting. He straightened his clothes and looked at Bai Yuheng, who was leading the way. A dangerous thought popped into his head, "You wouldn't be thinking of killing us to silence us, would you?"

He took a few steps forward, leaned closer to Bai Yuheng, and questioned, "I'm telling you, you don't have a terrible sense of direction and led us to the wrong place, do you?"

"..." Bai Yuheng was sweating profusely and had no words to refute him for a moment.

Seeing his guilty look, Cui Mingcan was furious: "Fine! I told you you only seem reliable, but you're actually not reliable at all!"

Cen Ying flicked him on the forehead and scolded, "What are you yelling about! You slacked off when I asked you to lead the way, but now that someone else is doing the work, you're complaining? People who don't do the work have no right to yell at others!"

"Ouch! Ouch!" Cui Mingcan was caught off guard and had his ear grabbed, crying out, "Grandma, Grandma, I was wrong, I was wrong..."

Bai Yuheng rescued Cui Mingcan from Cen Ying's clutches and said, "Alright, don't blame him. It was indeed my fault for taking him to the wrong place. My fault, my fault."

Bai Yuheng actively confessed her guilt and apologized.

She herself had forgotten that she had no sense of direction and didn't know the way at all.

In the past, when going out, people would usually rely on their own mount, the white phoenix, to carry them. After taking Pei Yuan as their disciple, they had someone to follow them, so they didn't have to worry about which road to take or which way to go.

Bai Yuheng inexplicably missed them.

"Chirp—"

A bird's long cry echoed through the desolate, deserted mountain forest.

Cui Mingcan was so frightened that he got goosebumps all over his body and his hair stood on end. Ignoring the difference between men and women, he hugged Cen Ying with both hands and feet.

"..."

"Could you be any more timid?"

Cen Ying remained silent, her expression one of disdain.

"Hey! Get down here!" Cen Ying couldn't straighten her back and couldn't move an inch.

"I don't want to! I'm scared." Cui Mingcan hugged her while cautiously glancing around.

"What are you looking for?"

"ah!!!!"

Suddenly, his gaze met Bai Yuheng's, who peeked out from behind him. Startled, he jumped off Cen Ying and leaped onto the taller and stronger Li Tiankuo.

Bai Yuheng covered her mouth and laughed, putting her arm around Cen Ying's shoulder to watch him make a fool of himself.

"You're really useless!" Cen Ying said disdainfully.

Cui Mingcan snapped out of her daze, turned around and glared fiercely at the two of them, accusing them, "Well, Bai Yuheng, you've gone bad! You actually scared me! You two viperous women! I'm never playing with you again!"

As he spoke, he hugged Li Tiankuo even tighter.

"Brother Li, I'll follow you from now on."

Li Tiankuo glanced down at him and said indifferently, "No need, I don't bring vases."

"Smack!"

I wonder which young man's heart was broken.

Cui Mingcan sobbed, crying out to heaven and earth, "Brother Li, you actually despise me too... I, I, I will haunt you even as a ghost!"

Li Tiankuo: "..."

Bai Yuheng and Cen Ying thought he was going to say something harsh, but he just said it like that, and they were instantly amused by him.

"Hahahaha, coward, hahaha, Cui Mingcan is a big coward..."

Cui Mingcan ignored them, snorted, and held onto Li Tiankuo tightly.

"Chirp—"

Another loud, long cry rang out.

"Could there be something in this forest?" Cui Mingcan's mind raced as he guessed, "Like some kind of monster with ten-meter-long legs, a beast's mouth, and a human face!"

Cen Ying teased him, "Have you been reading too much of the Classic of Mountains and Seas?"

"Hmph, I'm too lazy to talk to you." Cui Mingcan pouted.

The four walked along the forest path, and as they heard the birdsong getting closer, they all stopped and cautiously observed their surroundings.

"Awooo—"

Bai Yuheng's eyelids twitched; she felt that the sound was somewhat familiar.

The next moment, a large, entirely white bird swooped down from the forest at a speed equivalent to a hundred meters per second, heading straight for the four of them.

"It's a monster!"

Cui Mingcan immediately jumped off Li Tiankuo and nimbly climbed up the big tree next to him.

"Whoosh—"

The large bird automatically slowed down and came to a steady stop in front of the three of them, curiously observing them.

Li Tiankuo held his sword, unsure how to react.

"Awooo!"

A pair of bright eyes fell on the woman in red, and with a howl, it tried to sniff her with its long beak.

"Yu'er, be careful!" Cen Ying stood beside her, reminding her, a silver needle tucked between her drooping hand, ready to strike.

"It's nothing..." Bai Yuheng couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. She glanced around and reached out to touch the phoenix's head.

"Awooo! Awooo!"

The phoenix happily flapped its wings, stirring up dust on the ground.

Cui Mingcan slid down from the tree.

"Does it recognize you?" Cui Mingcan looked at the harmonious scene between the human and the bird with a puzzled expression. "Do you two know each other?"

Bai Yuheng feigned ignorance: "No, I'm with you guys every day, how would I have time to get to know it?"

"But it seems to be very clingy to you?" Cui Mingcan questioned.

"Awooo!"

—It's angry.

Bai Yuheng comforted it, lying through her teeth: "Perhaps it's because I have a kind face, loved by everyone, loved by birds, and loved by flowers."

"..." Cui Mingcan was speechless. "You have a really thick skin."

After saying that, he and Cen Ying tried to reach out and touch its white head.

"Ouch!" Cui Mingcan quickly withdrew his hand, wincing in pain as he protested, "Then why did it peck me!?"

Cen Ying laughed at him, "Aren't you just asking a question you already know the answer to?"

"..."

Cui Mingcan was depressed.

Cen Ying: "Divine bird, divine bird, what are you doing here all alone? Do you have an owner?"

“It doesn’t look like a divine bird to me at all… it should be called a color bird!” Cui Mingcan muttered from the side. After being glared at by the phoenix, he hid behind Li Tiankuo, poked his head out and stuck out his tongue.

As Bai Yuheng touched it, she asked, "Is your master here?"

"Awooo!"

—At the back.

Bai Yuheng pretended not to understand.

"It's so well-behaved, answering every question, even though I don't understand it." Cen Ying liked it very much and stroked its fur.

Bai Yuheng echoed, "Yes, I wonder who the owner is. Such a cute bird must have a lovely owner as well."

"Aww aww aww!"

Why are you praising yourself?

The phoenix didn't know if she understood what it was saying. It used its long beak to grab her clothes, flung her onto its back, and flapped its wings to carry her away.

"Yu'er!"

"Yu Heng!"

The phoenix was too fast; before they could react, Bai Yuheng was taken away.

"I'm fine!" Bai Yuheng shouted to them from the back of the phoenix.

"call out--"

It circled in the air a few times before plunging into the dense forest.

Only a few springs on the mountainside were still flowing, their water sparsely flowing into the stream.

A tall, elegant man in white stood on a rock in the stream, his hands behind his back. Upon hearing the cry of the phoenix, he slowly turned around.

"Master Pei," Bai Yuheng quickly corrected herself.

He dismounted from the phoenix's back and bowed to him as a disciple.

"I was unaware of Master's arrival; I have been impolite."

Pei Yuan stood there silently, watching her without saying a word.

Bai Yuheng lowered her eyes under his deep, burning gaze, feeling a chill run down her spine. She thought to herself, "But he already knows her identity?"

No, he probably doesn't know yet.

There may be doubts, but we don't know yet.

Bai Yuheng recalled a time when she went down the mountain to help capture demons. Because of the mission, she needed to hide her identity and happened to run into him carrying out a mission there. He saw through her disguise at a glance.

The person on the mission followed her gaze and saw a handsome young man staring intently at him. He felt offended by the gaze, frowned, and asked her, "Who is he? Do you know him?"

She still remembers how she calmly looked away, took his hand, and smiled sweetly at him, saying, "I don't know you."

The two turned and left.

At night, a boy who shouldn't be there stood in her room, looking at her with hurt and pitiful eyes, like a puppy about to be abandoned by its owner.

Meeting her wet eyes, her heart softened, and she asked softly, "Why did you come here? Didn't you light any candles?"

She sat down on the stool, poured him a cup of tea, and handed it to him with a smile: "Sit down."

The boy didn't take the tea she offered. Instead, he grabbed her hand, covered his cheek with it, and asked her in a soft, gentle voice, "Master, don't you want me anymore?"

He clearly knew she was on a mission and that the excuse she gave was out of necessity, but it seemed to have genuinely hurt him.

“Good boy,” Bai Yuheng soothed his cheek. She had only ever been a headmaster of teaching and had never actually raised a disciple. Because she didn’t know how to raise him, she was always exceptionally patient with him. “Master did that for the mission, not because he really didn’t want you.”

"Really?"

Bai Yuheng nodded: "It's true."

"If Master has other disciples in the future, will he still want me?" Little Pei Yuan asked pitifully, rubbing his cheek against her palm.

She was momentarily blinded by her soft heart: "No, Master will only have you as his disciple."

Xiao Pei Yuan smiled and looked at her happily: "Really?"

“...Of course,” Bai Yuheng replied.

"Master, rest assured, your disciple will definitely take good care of you."

"……Um."

Looking into his bright eyes, Bai Yuheng couldn't help but laugh. She thought to herself that children are so easy to coax. It's not necessarily a bad thing that he's the only one who's good to her, since not all children are as obedient and considerate as him.

...

Bai Yuheng pulled herself out of her memories, the gentle boy in her mind overlapping with the cold young man before her. She couldn't see through the deep, dark emotions in his eyes.

Seeing that he remained silent, Bai Yuheng was certain that he probably didn't know her identity yet. Otherwise, judging from his previous behavior, he would have rushed over to her the moment he found out, staring at her with a pitiful expression until she felt guilty and her heart softened, and then asking her in a soft, low voice if she still wanted him.

"..." Bai Yuheng felt a chill run down her spine from his gaze, unable to fathom what he was thinking, and asked, "Master, what are you thinking about?"

Pei Yuan landed gently, stood in front of her, and looked down at her face.

Bai Yuheng subconsciously took a few steps back, looked up at him, and suddenly had the real feeling that he had really grown into a man.

He was tall and slender with broad shoulders, a prominent Adam's apple peeking out from his collar, and a sharp, masculine face. Gone was the youthful innocence and gentleness of his younger days; his expression was deep and complex, revealing a range of emotions she couldn't decipher.

If one's gaze were to fall upon her smooth forehead, slender eyebrows, long and curled eyelashes, bright and expressive eyes, high and delicate nose, and naturally red lips...

His Adam's apple bobbed rapidly in his collar, and a deep, husky voice came from his dry throat as he answered her question:

I'm thinking of you.

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Author's note: I'm hoping to make the list today! [cat emoji]