Chapter 12 The bittersweetness shared by Xing'er was an unripe sweetness. ...

The rain was fine and dense, making the mountain path slippery.

You Mingjiang glanced at the bamboo medicine basket; the umbrella was still there.

She couldn't remember if the umbrella had been opened when she came down the mountain, and at this moment, as raindrops slid down her hair, she didn't even have the thought of raising her hand to open the umbrella.

She was completely soaked.

You Mingjiang walked dejectedly in the rain, her hair disheveled and plastered to her cheeks, her straw sandals tattered and her trousers stuck to her calves.

The alarm of the Virgin Mary system shrieked in her ears:

【WARNING——】

【SYSTEM_OVERLOAD……】

[Warning! Your adrenaline levels have exceeded the safe threshold, and your emotional fluctuation value has surpassed the safety limit. Your six-dimensional attribute panel is being frozen...]

【LOADING...PLEASE WAIT...】

Before You Mingjiang could react, the system displayed her six-dimensional attribute panel:

*Name: You Mingjiang

*Attribute: Phoenix (will be resurrected at the marked anchor point 168 hours after death)

*Gender: Female

*Occupation: Itinerant Doctor

*Personal tags: [Gongyang School], [Half-baked], [Dispensing medicine to help the poor]

*Character Introduction: [Wandering through the alleys and lanes of Cloud Mist Valley, she carries a tiger-shaped wooden lever and a bamboo medicine basket slung across her shoulder. The basket is filled with bottles and jars of ointments and powders, mainly for treating common ailments and minor external injuries. However, she is too versatile; she can even treat acute and severe internal injuries with drastic measures.]

* Overall appearance:

[Face: Radiant] [Height: 172cm]

[Weight: 61kg] [Body Fat Percentage: 19%]

*Six-dimensional basic attributes:

[Body Condition: A+]

Strength: A-

Agility: A-

Intelligence: B+

[Charm: S-]

[Luck: ??? (Data disorder)]

On the system panel, a bright red notification is prominently displayed: [The network connection has been lost. All six attribute values ​​are currently frozen and cannot be increased at this time.]

.

cold.

I can't tell if it's the cold rain or my heart that's cold.

You Mingjiang suddenly felt homesick.

Before she transmigrated, she was just an ordinary itinerant doctor.

Her hometown is a village in a valley, located on a sacred mountain in the East China Sea. It is shrouded in ethereal mist all year round, so people call it "Cloud and Mist Valley".

Cloud Valley isolates the village from the outside world, preventing the villagers from leaving, but it is often frequented by a large number of outsiders.

They always mutter strange words like "NPC" and are keen on exploring every nook and cranny of the villagers' homes, even their pickle jars.

She once thought that Cloud Valley had trapped everyone's freedom, but after seeing this cruel and bloody alien world, she belatedly realized that she had once lived in a paradise.

That peaceful, warm, misty valley seemed as distant as the moon in the clouds. She knew she could never go back.

Over the years, she has wandered through the countryside, perhaps searching for the shadow of Cloud Valley.

Even just looking at it from afar makes me feel happy.

Yu Mingjiang clutched his chest, hunched over and panting heavily. Raindrops pelted his nose, making him shiver from the cold, but his eyes burned, and he could only stagger forward.

The Azure Dragon Society and she have been mortal enemies for many years.

It wasn't just because of defection.

The Green Dragon Society chased her so hard that she had to hide and was unable to get a full night's sleep, with nowhere to go. She also raided several of the Green Dragon Society's hideouts, causing them to suffer heavy losses and making them jump up and down in pain.

Over the years, she had long since lost count of how many assassins sent by the Azure Dragon Society she had killed, just as the Azure Dragon Society had long since lost count of how many times it had hunted her down.

She lost a lot of blood, but the Azure Dragon Society lost even more.

This is a messy, unresolved issue.

But this time, the Azure Dragon Society came far too quickly.

She had barely settled down at Jingyang Ridge when she heard deafening cries from the village...

After the Yellow River breached its banks at Shawan, this small village at the foot of Jingyanggang finally managed to clear a path through the silt and rebuild its houses. In the blink of an eye, it was killed by assassins from the Qinglong Society!

Their eyes were still open, staring blankly at the sky, as if asking her: Why? Why wasn't it someone else who died? Why them of all people...?

Even killing the members of the Azure Dragon Society cannot bring back these innocent lives.

You Mingjiang clenched her back teeth tightly, her palms digging painfully. But how could the pain in her palms compare to even a fraction of the pain in her heart?

She sat down on a large rock, panting heavily. The rock was wet, but she didn't want to move; she just wanted to sit there quietly and wait.

You Mingjiang stared blankly at the sky, lost in thought.

I want to wait for that red sun to rise in the east.

She was like an apricot pit left in a crack in the rock, sprouting in the darkness. Neither the wind nor the sunlight could reach her, and she didn't know which direction to grow in.

A raindrop hangs from a pine branch.

It gently dripped onto You Mingjiang's eyelids.

She rubbed her eyes, and a wet streak of water trickled down her cheek, indistinguishable between tears and rain.

.

The mountains and forests were shrouded in a damp mist after the rainstorm.

Lu Xiaojia clutched her wounded shoulder, walking with uneven steps. The girl surnamed You was nowhere to be found…

He needs to find her first.

Lu Xiaojia always thought that in this treacherous and unpredictable world, her blood had long since turned cold.

Many assassins relax by spending a fortune on alcohol and women. But when Xue Guo's woman harassed him, he felt so disgusted that he wanted to go mad and kill that shameless woman with a sword. Even soaking in the cool river water couldn't numb his pain or extinguish his burning rage.

Indulging in wine and women is a heavy drain on one's inner strength.

To him, that gaudy, cold, and stale smell, like a box of lifeless gray moth corpses, always easily caused him to experience waves of gastrointestinal spasms.

Home was not his safe haven either.

For Lu Xiaojia, home is a tangled ball of yarn that he can't untangle. He's not a cat, so of course he doesn't like tangled yarn.

Whenever he thinks of home, the pain in his heart, pierced by the wounds inflicted by his closest relatives, is so intense that he feels like he can't breathe.

Until he met You Mingjiang.

He hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time. Even a mule, besides pulling a millstone, needs its hooves trimmed and some fresh alfalfa.

①She was like a big water buffalo, vibrant, gentle, and strong, exuding a fresh scent of purple gromwell, with a shiny horn on her head, radiating a redemptive halo that pulled him out of the mire.

As he was thinking this, he turned past a clump of bushes and suddenly heard a faint sobbing sound.

Where did the crying come from in this desolate wilderness?

He frowned, approached silently, and parted the bushes. He saw You Mingjiang sitting on a rock, her face buried in her hands, unwilling to utter a single sob.

Lu Xiaojia slowed her pace and approached slowly.

"Who?!" You Mingjiang trembled and shouted warily, but did not turn around.

Lu Xiaojia frowned almost imperceptibly.

The fingers hanging by his side suddenly tightened, then slowly loosened. He felt inexplicably irritated, but pretending not to see it, he cleared his throat and said, "Lu Xiaojia."

You Mingjiang raised her hand to wipe her eyes. Her voice was hoarse, whether from the thick smoke or from crying.

"You...haven't left yet."

Lu Xiaojia said, "I must repay the kindness of you stitching my stitches. Since I promised to guard the mountain god temple for one night, I will never break my promise."

Repaying a debt of gratitude...

You Mingjiang paused for a moment, then looked up at him.

Her face was covered in soot, and her shabby coarse linen clothes were scorched with many black holes of varying sizes. Even the lock of hair that hung down to her neck was burned and curled up by the fire.

Lu Xiaojia's gaze was fixed on her face, burning hot.

Realizing her disheveled state, You Mingjiang turned her face away, roughly wiped her face, and then turned back to face him directly.

She said softly, "Thank you."

Lu Xiaojia didn't say anything, but just sat on another big rock next to her.

The two sat side by side, raindrops dripping from the treetops onto their heads.

No one disturbed this peace.

After an unknown amount of time, You Mingjiang finally spoke.

"I didn't expect you to be such a lovely person," she said.

Lu Xiaojia smiled and said, "What, did you think I was annoying before?"

“Yes.” You Mingjiang nodded.

Lu Xiaojia glanced at You Mingjiang and said calmly, "That's because you have a prejudice against me."

"No prejudice, I hate every killer."

Lu Xiaojia frowned and said with dissatisfaction, "...Hey!"

He paused, then continued, "Tsk, whatever, think what you want, I'm just an assassin."

You Mingjiang shook his head and said, "It's different."

Lu Xiaojia said casually, "Oh?"

You Mingjiang said earnestly, "Assassins aren't cute, but you are..."

A hitman who buys lives for money, a person who licks blood from the edge of a knife, should not be trusted with any reason.

But in the moment she broke down last night, she didn't even consider the possibility that he might have even the slightest malicious thought...

You Mingjiang closed his eyes and could imagine the scene of corpses lying all over the mountain god temple.

.

Lu Xiaojia smiled and said, "Your judgment is a bit late."

“Yes.” You Mingjiang sighed softly, then continued, “Why did you become an assassin?”

"My master is an assassin."

"Then why did you become an apprentice to an assassin?"

Lu Xiaojia fell silent.

He never had the opportunity to choose his own life, nor did he ever think that he might have a different way of living.

He had no choice at all.

Lu Xiaojia said softly, "No one is born an assassin."

When you're in the world of martial arts, you're not always in control of your own destiny.

Perhaps because someone was listening to her, You Mingjiang's resentment and pain, which she had suppressed all night, burst forth like a flood.

She looked at her hands, these hands stained with blood, could they ever be cleaned again?

Those past fragments surged through my mind.

How naive I was back then, to have so easily believed Fang Longxiang's oath. I remember him speaking so eloquently: "Look at this world, the eunuchs and treacherous officials are forming cliques for personal gain, the local officials and gentry are in cahoots, and the common people are even gnawing on tree bark... Why not join the Azure Dragon Society and work with us to eradicate these parasites!"

And what was the result?

It's all a lie!

At this moment, she felt an irrational hatred for all the killers in the world, including her former self.

Yu Mingjiang silently shed tears when suddenly a hand gripped the back of her head, forcing her to tilt her head back.

"It's hideous." Lu Xiaojia frowned, her lips pressed tightly together. Despite her obvious impatience, she pulled a snow-white handkerchief from her sleeve. She gently wiped the handkerchief across her reddened eyes, and he clicked his tongue in disgust: "You're crying like a kitten."

You Mingjiang stared blankly at him.

Tears clung to my eyelashes, threatening to fall but not quite.

She was about to struggle when he grabbed her chin and held her in place.

"Stop crying," he commanded harshly.

But his ears turned red.

The handkerchief quickly got dirty, so Lu Xiaojia simply grabbed her sleeve and rubbed it haphazardly on her face.

"...Tsk, you think crying can wash the blood off your hands? Either keep going down this dead end, or find another way to survive. Stop dawdling...I don't know what trouble you've gotten yourself into, but I think you're doing a pretty good job as a doctor."

Yu Mingjiang's eyes were red. Hearing this, she paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, and said softly, "Don't say such sentimental things... I'll really cry."

"Then cry for a little while." Lu Xiaojia pulled her into her arms. "You can borrow my shoulder, but remember to return it later."

His clothes were soaked with hot tears.

Drop after drop, Lu Xiaojia felt a burning sensation in his chest, a burning sensation that made his heart ache and his nose sting. After a long while, Lu Xiaojia lowered his head and raised his hand to wipe away the tears on her face.

You Mingjiang tilted her head, her face pressed against his palm, tears soaking his fingers.

Their eyes met, reflecting each other's tiny images.

"Cough cough..." Lu Xiaojia coughed lightly twice, her face slightly flushed, her eyes somewhat unfocused. You Mingjiang seemed to wake from a dream, as if electrocuted, and released his hand.

"Um..." Lu Xiaojia touched her nose, trying to keep her voice calm, "...Would you like some apricots?"

“Xing’er…?” You Mingjiang was taken aback.

.

Lu Xiaojia rummaged in her bosom for a while before finally pulling out an apricot, yellow with a hint of red and a touch of green.

These apricots aren't fully ripe yet.

That crooked apricot tree was quite peculiar; its roots had taken hold on the edge of the cliff. The flood had washed away a lot of mud and sand, leaving the roots exposed, yet it still had a stubborn spirit and produced small apricots.

After these torrential rains, the early-ripening apricots all rolled into the sticky mud, covered in dirt. Only a few half-green apricots still hung sparsely on the treetops.

The treetops were taller than a person's arm. Even if the starving people stood on tiptoe and held up bamboo poles for half a day, they probably wouldn't be able to touch an apricot leaf.

These few unripe apricots, though unremarkable, have become intangible gold nuggets, hanging overhead.

This actually benefited Lu Xiaojia.

.

Lu Xiaojia gently broke off a piece, revealing the golden apricot flesh, and handed half to her: "It's too sour for one person."

You Mingjiang hesitated for a moment before taking it.

I lowered my head and took a small bite. The cool juice rushed into my mouth, with a sour taste that made my skull tremble.

You Mingjiang burst into laughter through her tears: "It's really sour."

"I told you."

Lu Xiaojia took a bite, her brows relaxing a bit. "If we share it, it won't be so sour."

There was a pit in his half of the apricot.

Lu Xiaojia took out the apricot pit and held it in her palm.

"These are apricot seeds. To grow an apricot, you need to crack the apricot kernel and encourage it to sprout. Then it will grow into an apricot tree."

"Break the shell and sprout?" You Mingjiang's eyelashes trembled slightly. "...You want to plant apricot trees? I thought...you wanted to eat almonds."

Lu Xiaojia said, "Apricots are sour, and almonds might be bitter too."

Yu Mingjiang pinched an apricot, squinting her eyes because it was so sour, and patiently chewed it. "Perhaps it could have grown into a sweet apricot, but people were too hasty and beat it to ripeness."

Lu Xiaojia carefully crushed the apricot pit, revealing the plump, heart-shaped almond inside, and said softly, "You guessed right, this kind of almond is sweet, you can eat it... I still don't want to give up. How will I know if it can grow into an apricot tree if I don't try?"

You Mingjiang understood his unspoken meaning.

She stared blankly at the other person's clumsy tenderness.

After a moment's hesitation, You Mingjiang opened her palm and gestured for Lu Xiaojia to give her the almonds: "Give them to me. I'll find a good place to plant them next spring. Maybe in a few years, my wish will come true."

Lu Xiaojia laughed.

Almonds slipped through his fingers.

With a soft "thud," it gently fell into her palm.

You Mingjiang lowered her eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly, and held her breath.

She looked at the almond in her palm.

Lu Xiaojia is looking at her.

His gaze lingered on her face, her eyebrows, her eyes, her lips, tracing each inch.

She suddenly looked up, and their eyes met.

Lu Xiaojia's gaze was still fixed on her face.

His gaze was so intense, it felt like he was burning a hole through her.

He didn't have time to hide, nor did he want to.

The two remained locked in this stalemate, neither moving, as if time itself had stood still.

In the end, You Mingjiang didn't show his face first.

Her voice was a little strained: "It's time to go."

"Let's go." Lu Xiaojia stood up and stretched out her hand. "Hai Hongzhu and the others are still waiting for you."

She gave a soft "hmm" but didn't pull away from his hand.

.

.

The clouds have stopped and the rain has ceased; the sky is clear after the rain.

The sky began to lighten, and gradually a pale golden dawn spread across the mountains.

"Hongzhu, open the door." You Mingjiang raised her hand and gently knocked on the door.

The sound of a bolt being lifted came from inside the mountain god's temple.

Then, with a creak, one of the temple doors opened.

Hai Hongzhu poked her little head out, rushed out and hugged You Mingjiang, excitedly shouting, "Sister You, you're back!"

You Mingjiang felt a pang of sadness.

She was blinded by rage and abandoned the old, weak, sick, and disabled in the temple, leaving them to endure fear in the long, rainy night.

Hai Hongzhu and the other children must have been very scared, right?

Thinking of this, You Mingjiang gently stroked Hai Hongzhu's back, comforting her again and again:

"Hongzhu, don't be afraid, your sister is back."

.

A note from the author:

----------------------

[Good Luck Lotus] The apricot kernel needs to be cracked open, and the kernel inside should be soaked in water. It should then sprout in warm, well-drained soil and grow into a sapling with good sunlight. The kernel does not like to be waterlogged, as it will rot.

[Good Luck Lotus] Meme ①: Yu Zecheng said that Cuiping's voice was like a cow, very powerful.

[Orange Heart][Purple Heart] A side note [Pink Heart][Green Heart]

① Ming Jiang doesn't have a God's-eye view [cheek resting on hand]. Over the years, she has frequently clashed with the Azure Dragon Society. She is dominated by experiential thinking [please]. In addition, she is in the process of trauma. People with a high sense of morality are prone to generalizing their sense of responsibility and taking on responsibilities that do not belong to them [heartbroken]. She will grow later.

② Regarding Ming Jiang's body stats, [pat on the head] we referenced data from female boxers. Her body fat percentage is 19%, meaning she has no excess fat, her muscles are firm and healthy, and she has visible abs, biceps, and calf muscles. Her face is also very defined. [dog head with rose in hand]

[Qingxin] April 21, 2025 Revision: Entire chapter rewritten. [Qingxin]

[Qingxin] 25.5.5 Update: Removed Gong Jiu-related storylines. [Qingxin]

[Qingxin] Edited on May 25, 2020: Deleted "Stories of Yazhou" + "A Letter" [Qingxin]