Bury the Sword

Bai Roushuang wanted to accompany her senior sister to say goodbye to the others, but for a month or two, Xu Shulou seemed to be wandering aimlessly in this mortal world. He saw the magnificent rivers and the competing currents in the ravines, stepped over the towering mountains and the endless yellow sand, and walked through all the lush grass and colorful forests in the world.

Bai Roushuang knew that she was saying goodbye to this world.

Wherever they went, Xu Shulou would tell his junior sister about the memories he had left there.

"See that village? I've lived here before," Xu Shulou pointed to a stilt house, "and the locals taught me a little song called Killing Centipedes."

Bai Roushuang smiled and said, "I remember you once played music for us using grass leaves."

"They even asked me to dance with them," Xu Shulou shook his head. "At that time, I had no idea about their customs. I just danced around for a long time before I realized I was in a funeral procession, helping with the funeral."

“…”

"By the way, when you are here, you must try the sour soup fish and five-color rice," Xu Shulou blinked, "only then will the trip be worthwhile."

"good!"

After leaving here, the two walked along the river, the river was surging and rolling eastward.

"It was by this river that I buried my sword. I didn't use Quexie at that time," Xu Shulou said, looking at the rushing river. "I thought, since I don't plan to seek revenge anymore, this sword is useless to me."

Bai Roushuang, who heard about this for the first time, trembled and asked, "...Where is it buried?"

"I don't remember. I didn't plan to dig it out when I buried it," Xu Shulou replied, "and I didn't make any marks."

“…”

"For a while, I lived in a daze," Xu Shulou pointed to a nearby town, "I rented a small courtyard here, and lay in bed every day, doing nothing and thinking about nothing. My neighbor was always worried that I would die alone and rot at home, causing her family to live in unrest, so she would peek through the window every day. She poked more than ten holes in my paper window. Later, when winter came, the cold wind kept blowing into the house. I was too lazy to fix the window paper, and she was afraid that I would freeze to death, so she came to paste the window for me while cursing."

"..." Bai Roushuang knew that what her senior sister was talking about was the journey she took after giving up revenge and leaving the Xiao Kingdom Palace. She should have felt distressed, but her senior sister's description was so interesting that Bai Roushuang didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

“It sounds pretty bitter.”

"It wasn't bitter, actually. I could feel at that time that I was getting better slowly," Xu Shulou thought for a moment, "You can think of it as a process of self-healing."

After being escorted out of the imperial city with an umbrella held by someone, she pieced her love back together piece by piece in the human world.

“…”

The two continued to move forward, not flying their swords, but just walking around casually.

"Do you see that restaurant?" Passing by a city, Xu Shulou pointed out a very gorgeous building to his junior sister, "I used to work there."

"What do you do?" Bai Roushuang asked curiously, "You can't be helping in the kitchen, right?"

Xu Shulou smiled and said, "I'm a waiter. The boss is a kind-hearted person. He thought I was homeless, so he took me in. I didn't object. I just work here. I have food and drink every day, but no wages."

“…”

"The other waiter, oh, yes, he was paid, and he would tell me about his vision for the future every day. Every time he received his monthly salary, he would light an oil lamp and secretly count the money, saying how many copper coins he had saved, and that he would soon return to the village to marry his childhood sweetheart," Xu Shulou said with a smile on his face, "I stayed here the whole time, and only moved on after I saw him and the girl get married with my own eyes."

For some reason, this simple story of a restaurant waiter and a village girl actually made Bai Roushuang feel relieved - fortunately it was a good ending, fortunately, the senior sister at that time encountered a reunion story.

"Actually, I cheated," Xu Shulou said frankly, "I got a little impatient waiting, so I secretly stuffed money into his bag of copper coins, a few coins every night."

"..." Bai Roushuang felt at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

"My life here is actually quite pleasant," Xu Shulou added, "It's just that the owner of the roast goose shop next door thinks I'm easy to cheat and keeps trying to convince me to work for him for free, but his roast goose is pretty delicious."

“……”So you actually worked for nothing?

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Bai Roushuang asked hurriedly.

"I planted this jujube tree," Xu Shulou smiled and pointed to a lush tree at the corner of the street. "I didn't expect it to still be there after all these years."

Bai Roushuang looked up and saw five-petal flowers blooming among the dense branches and leaves, with yellow and some tender green, which embellished this summer with vitality. At this time, some people were sitting under the tree to enjoy the cool and chat. Bai Roushuang could already imagine the scene in autumn when the branches and leaves were full of "red agate" and naughty children were waiting under the tree to eat dates.

Xu Shulou patted the tree trunk and said, "When I left, it was only as thick as the mouth of a teacup, but now it's this big."

Even after you leave, the traces you left in the world will always be there.

Bai Roushuang wanted to say this, but she opened her mouth and couldn't say anything.

It seemed as if once I said it, the farewell would become true.

The two left the city and headed in a random direction.

Xu Shulou pointed out another village to his junior sister: "I also stayed here for a while."

Bai Roushuang carefully observed the ordinary village in front of her, hoping to get some traces of her senior sister's life in the past.

"I don't remember the name of the village anymore. I only remember that my neighbor had a big cat, but it was very stupid and couldn't catch mice, so the neighbor wanted to throw it away," Xu Shulou said softly. "He had an eight or nine-year-old child who was very worried. He would sneak out every night and catch mice with his friends, and then put them outside his house to pretend that it was the cat that did it."

"...Didn't his parents find out the truth?"

"It was discovered a long time ago, but they decided to pretend they were fooled."

Bai Roushuang smiled knowingly, and a slight warmth arose in her heart.

The two of them strolled along the village stream, and Xu Shulou gave her some pointers: "At that time, I often went to the stream to fork fish. I forked quickly and accurately. After I caught a fish, I took it to the widow Wang's house at the end of the village and asked her to help make fish soup. I gave her half and took my half home to eat. She was a good cook and the fish soup she made was especially delicious. Sometimes she made those coarse grain pancakes and she would give me a few."

"Have you rented a house here?" Bai Roushuang asked.

"Yeah," Xu Shulou nodded, "At that time, I was wandering around the world. When I was in a good mood, I would rent a house or stay in a restaurant. When I was in a bad mood, I would just pick a place to spend the night. I slept in an abandoned Taoist temple in the mountains and on the roof of a restaurant in the city. To put it bluntly, it was called sleeping in the open air. To put it nicely, it was sleeping with the bright moon and the fresh breeze."

Bai Roushuang pursed her lips.

"Once, I was misunderstood by beggars in the city. They told me to stay away and not to steal their business," Xu Shulou smiled. "But one of the beggars gave me half a steamed bun and said that everyone had a hard time. I left him a silver ingot privately and left."

"And then?"

"Later, I met a young lady from a wealthy family who wanted to buy me back to be a maid," Xu Shulou recalled. "At that time, I didn't want to do anything and stared at the sky every day, but she felt that she got along well with me and kept me by her side. Later, she wanted to get engaged, and her parents sent servants to investigate the young men who came to propose marriage. I climbed on the roof in the middle of the night to find out about the romantic affairs of her fiancé. I probably mixed up four or five of them. Some of them loved to visit brothels, some had other people in their hearts, and some took concubines before marriage... Every time she mixed up one, her parents were so angry that they jumped up and down in the main hall and cursed those bastards, and she and I hid in the yard and laughed secretly."

Bai Roushuang couldn't help laughing: "How long have you been with her?"

"It was probably less than half a year," Xu Shulou recalled, "and then she finally met a real gentleman who was not after her family's money, and she liked him too. I felt relieved and left."

“That’s great.”

"Yeah," Xu Shulou agreed, "That's great."

Bai Roushuang suddenly thought of something: "Haven't you ever encountered bad people and bad things?"

"I've encountered a lot," Xu Shulou smiled, "but the ones I wrote down and told you were all good things."

Bai Roushuang was stunned for a moment, and for a moment she felt like tears were about to burst out.

Xu Shulou stroked her hair: "Why are your eyes suddenly red?"

"Nothing," Bai Roushuang quickly shook her head, "What happened next?"

"Later, I traveled to many places and picked up the sword again," Xu Shulou said with a gentle look in his eyes. "This time it was no longer to kill people, but to save people."

“…”

"Then, I never put down the sword."

"... Senior Sister," Bai Roushuang's voice was a little choked, "Don't worry, after you leave, I will work hard to become stronger, do justice, and protect this world for you!"

Xu Shulou shook his head: "I don't want to impose this responsibility on you."

Bai Roushuang couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into tears: "Senior Sister!"

Xu Shulou hugged her and patted her on the back: "Don't cry, I promise you, if possible, I will find a way to come back and see you."