Chapter 611 Fellow Taoist

Song Chunxue rode her horse behind her senior brother, wearing a straw hat, and under the scorching June sun, she didn't feel hot at all.

Because she looked through the bag Xie Zheng had given her, her heart, which had finally calmed down, was once again stirred up.

Inside was a simple, off-white outfit, very similar to what she wore the night she went to the Wang family.

She chuckled helplessly. So, Lord Xie likes her dressed like that?

I wonder how he'll react if I ask him that question in person next time.

And so, the brothers and sisters traveled on and off, having a bowl of noodles for lunch whenever they could find a place to eat, and eating dry rations when they couldn't find a noodle shop.

They barely spoke for two days, lost in their own thoughts.

Suddenly, the horse stepped into a ditch, stumbled, and Song Chunxue lost her grip on the reins, almost falling off the horse.

"Hey, watch your step."

The Taoist priest sat upright on the horse's back, standing on a high place in front, and turned around to ridicule her.

"Is Xie Zheng on your mind all the time? Why don't you go back now and go to the capital with him? It's not too late. Anyway, you're just going to Jiangnan to relax. It doesn't matter where you go. You've never been to the capital before."

Song Chunxue gripped the reins tightly and wrapped them around her hands twice. "What kind of road is this, Senior Brother? Even the horses are falling over."

"You blame me and Ma for your own distraction? Junior brother, you're being unreasonable. Is Lord Xie really that infatuated with you?"

Song Chunxue glared at him. "You were the one who tried to match us up time and time again. Now that I'm willing to take the first step, if you say anything more, I'll run away. To be honest, I'm a coward. If it weren't for Xie Zheng, I would never want to get close to a man in my life, except for my senior brother, of course."

"You..." The Taoist priest was caught off guard. He opened his mouth several times, but in the end he didn't refute her. He just glared at her.

He swept his whisk across the ground and then raised his hand to adjust his straw hat.

"Why are you panicking? He's just a man. If things don't work out, we'll break up. What's the big deal? Don't tell me that you're old enough to think Xie Zheng is blind to have chosen you. The reason I want him to be my junior brother is because he has excellent taste."

"Don't hesitate or overthink things just because you have a lot of children. Don't worry about marriage or not. After you come back, try to get along quietly. If you can't get along, then go your separate ways. If you really get married in a muddle and then regret it, I'll be left with nothing. I'll lose both of my junior brothers and be all alone on Wuquan Mountain."

Song Chunxue didn't want to talk much. "Senior brother's advice is right. So where should we go to eat later? I'm sleepy after being in the sun for so long. Can we find an inn to rest?"

The senior brother was proficient in the five arts and must have known what the future held, but he was still willing to bring them together.

On second thought, Song Chunxue was no longer afraid.

For her, cultivating the Tao is the top priority; perhaps this is a hurdle she cannot ultimately avoid.

"Shopkeeper, two bowls of noodles, please."

They came to a noodle shop by the roadside, less than a mile outside the city.

It was lunchtime, and many people ordered a bowl of noodles here even before entering the city, because the soup here was so fragrant.

Song Chunxue raised her hand to pull up her hat and wipe the sweat from her head. She put the hat aside and accidentally bumped into a crooked hairpin, causing her hair to fall loose.

She didn't think anything of it, bent down to pick up the hairpin, and prepared to put it behind her head.

Suddenly, her wrist tightened.

A smiling man grasped her arm.

"Young lady, you're quite pretty."

Song Chunxue chopped him on the forearm with a chop, and the man released his grip, but showed no intention of backing down.

He slung one leg over his shoulder, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, and sizing her up with a roguish air. “You’re dressed so simply, but you have a nice figure and face. Want to come play in the river over there with us?”

The Taoist priest wanted to make a move, but Song Chunxue stopped him with a look.

I've been getting a bit bored walking around these past couple of days, so I thought I'd stretch my muscles a bit.

Helpless, the Taoist priest crossed his arms and leaned against a pillar to watch the show.

"My friend, didn't you see that he has a companion? Please speak with some respect."

Just as Song Chunxue was about to break off the outstretched arm, another person's sword beat her to it.

Someone intervened to help those in need.

Song Chunxue couldn't help but look at the Taoist priest. She noticed that the man was wearing a tanned Bagua robe with patches on it, but his face was quite young. He had no beard, no wrinkles on his face, and his eyes and brows were very clear.

This person is a practitioner, and a Taoist practitioner at that.

Upon closer inspection, the senior brother's face had no wrinkles, and the area around his eyes was very smooth.

This discovery surprised her. She remembered that her senior brother was not very young. Could it be that she had a preconceived notion and misremembered because her senior brother had a beard?

"What's it to you? They haven't even said anything, why are you standing here causing trouble? Get out of the way." The man pushed the man in the Bagua clothes aside. "Don't block my way from flirting with the girls."

The man looked at Song Chunxue, "Fellow Daoist, why don't you resist?"

Song Chunxue stood up, kicked the man in the stomach, and then slapped him hard across the face with her other foot.

"Bang!"

The burly man flew out directly. She looked at the man who had intervened and said, "Fellow Daoist, thank you for your kindness, but I don't want to waste my breath on such a person."

As she spoke, Song Chunxue raised her hand and pointed to the empty seat at the square table, "Fellow Daoist, please sit down."

The man didn't show much surprise and naturally sat down.

"Where are you two going, fellow Daoists?"

The words had barely left his mouth when the man who had been kicked five meters away ran over, pointing at Song Chunxue and cursing, "You stinking..."

"Clap clap clap!"

Without saying a word, Song Chunxue slapped him three times across the face, then pulled out a short sword and pointed it at his neck, yelling, "Get lost!"

"..." The man covered his cheek and tried to reach out to grab Song Chunxue's collar, but was blocked by the longswords of the Taoist priest and the fellow Taoist next to him.

"If you want to live, get out of here now. Don't force my junior brother to kill you. She never tolerates people like you." The Taoist priest stared at the man and the group of people behind him who were about to fight. "We won't be so easy to talk to later."

A chill ran down the back of their necks. Sensing the tense atmosphere, the others pulled the troublemaker away.

"Let's go, let's go! They all have swords. How can they be so clueless? There are women everywhere."

"Exactly, why do you have to pick on women who travel and make their way in the world? They wouldn't dare to go out if they didn't have some skills. Are you stupid?"

The group of people walked away, but their voices could still be heard.

The words that followed became harsh and vulgar, but Song Chunxue ignored them.

You encounter these kinds of dead things all the time when you're out and about; you can't just kill them all, can you?

"Where do you two come from, and where are you headed?"

"Going to Yangzhou," the Taoist priest poured him a cup of tea. "Where are you headed, fellow Daoist?"

"Sigh, I have to go down the mountain to beg for food, and ask the wealthy for some donations for our ancestral master. The Taoist temple is dilapidated and uninhabitable," he said, his gaze fixed on Song Chunxue. "I am not lucky with money, but this fellow Taoist looks like she is not short of money. May I invite you to the temple for a cup of tea?"

Song Chunxue looked at the Taoist priest, "Senior brother, are you going?"

The Taoist priest couldn't help but chuckle, pressing his fist to his lips. "Let's go take a look, and while we're at it, let's draw him a few lucky charms."

“No, you two don’t seem like a Daoist couple,” the fellow Daoist said, looking at Song Chunxue’s face. “This fellow Daoist is currently very popular, but recently there has been a bloody incident…”