9 Stories

Everyone dies.

Ying Jianhua thought to herself, "If I'm not a man, then are you, this monster, one?"

The voice, which had been silent for a long time, appeared several times at this moment. He couldn't help but ask, "Don't you really feel anything strange in this room?"

This was the second time Ying Jianhua had questioned this matter, revealing his urgency. Du Zhijin released his divine sense, and a wave rippled outwards from her. After a moment, she shook her head at him: "No."

No? How could there be no one?

He frowned slightly, his relaxed heart tightening again as the strange noise failed to appear.

There are only two possibilities why Du Zhijin can't find out anything right now: one is that her cultivation has not fully recovered and her abilities are limited, and perhaps she can solve the problem once she gets back Zuilan; the other is that the monster's cultivation is above hers and he deliberately avoided her investigation.

If it's the former, then everything is fine. If it's the latter...

"Why would you ask that? Is it because you feel something is wrong?" She called out to Xingyue and looked around warily.

Ying Jianhua pressed down on her hand as she drew her sword, explaining, "Perhaps she's too ill; her head is always buzzing. She'll be fine after a rest." He couldn't alert her before she recovered her cultivation.

Upon hearing this, she hurriedly urged him to go to sleep. In the past, he was the one who urged her to go to sleep, but now that their roles had reversed, he lay on the bed with a bitter feeling in his heart.

When Du Zhijin returned from dispensing the medicine, he saw Ying still staring at the rooftop, so he continued to provoke him: "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you. Doctor Ying, if you don't set an example, how can you expect your patients to trust you?"

Doctor Ying gritted his teeth and reluctantly closed his eyes, only his slightly trembling eyelashes betraying his true state. Du Zhijin thought for a while, then pulled up a stool and sat down on the edge of the bed: "Since you can't sleep, let me tell you a story."

Telling a story? Does she think he's a three-year-old?

Despite this, Ying Jianhua's eyelashes noticeably calmed, and she adopted a listening posture. Du Zhijin cleared his throat and said leisurely:

“Once upon a time, there was a mountain, on the mountain was a temple, and in the temple was a…” “Stop.” He opened his eyes and interrupted her, expressionless. “If you’re going to tell this kind of cliché story, you can shut up now.”

Du Zhijin blinked: "How could it be a cliché story? Once upon a time, there was a mountain, on the mountain was a temple, in the temple was an old nun, who found a child."

"She was a baby girl, less than a month old. When she was abandoned at the entrance of the nunnery, there was nothing in her swaddling clothes except a note with her name on it. The old nun raised her until she was five years old, and seeing that she had spiritual potential, she entrusted her to her former junior sister, who then sent her to the celestial sect."

Upon hearing this, Ying Jianhua realized that this might be related to Du Zhijin's own background, and was taken aback.

She was... an abandoned baby?

"It's a pity the old nun is too old and misjudged the girl. She doesn't have any extraordinary spiritual roots. She's only slightly better than ordinary people, and if she's any worse, she'll hardly even be able to get started with cultivation. The old nun's junior sister is very troubled because she simply can't teach her. The girl is six years old and still can't even draw qi into her body. You know, even a tree in the immortal sect that has been exposed to immortal energy for a year will bear more fruit than other trees."

"Knowing that she had no hope of cultivation, the girl was willing to serve as a sweeping disciple for the rest of her life. Just when everyone was about to give up on her, a very powerful senior from the immortal sect suddenly appeared, pointed at her and said, 'I will take this disciple.'"

A very powerful senior? Is he the master she mentioned?

Ying Jianhua thought carefully for a moment, trying to recall a few names from her memory, but to no avail.

Wuling Village was too remote. He only knew that Dengxian Mountain existed, but he didn't know who lived there.

"...The entire sect was shocked, because that senior had never taken on a disciple before, and the one he did take on was a 'little good-for-nothing.' But only the girl and the senior knew that they had seen him before, on a frozen lake in the dead of winter."

"The child was playful and would dig a hole in the lake to fish even in the dead of winter. One day, she encountered a strange woman who stared at her for a long time and eventually scared away the fish. The girl was very angry, glared at her, and tripped over a pebble, making a fool of herself. But for this reason, the senior remembered her and took her as his apprentice when they met for the second time."

"As expected of a senior, not only is he powerful himself, but he also has a great way of teaching his disciples. The girl's cultivation has improved by leaps and bounds, and in just a few years she has become one of the best among her peers. At the age of fifteen, she was given the opportunity to go down the mountain to train on her own."

"She was very happy and bought a lot of elixirs and talismans to take back to the old nun who had raised her. She had even thought about which elixirs could cure all diseases and which could prolong life. With these, the old nun could enjoy her old age in peace without illness or disaster. But when she returned to the nunnery, she only heard the news that the old nun had passed away ten years ago."

"Ten years ago?" Ying Jianhua asked in astonishment.

Du Zhijin nodded: "...Yes, it was the year the girl left."

The sound of rain outside gradually subsided, and even the wind softened. The gentle rain stopped, sounding like weeping and lamenting.

He broke the silence: "And then?"

"And then?" she said casually. "Then the girl died."

Ying Jianhua was startled: "How is that possible? Aren't you the protagonist of the storybook who is destined to survive to the end?"

If the girl dies, who will stand before him?

Du Zhijin blinked rapidly twice and said bluntly, "Everyone dies."

"That doesn't mean you can curse yourself to death! Take that last sentence back!" he snapped. What kind of person was she? He'd gone to so much trouble to save her, and now she was cursing him to death with just one sentence.

Seeing that she remained silent, he angrily rolled up most of the blanket and wrapped himself inside, leaving her with a cold and indifferent back view.

Who taught her to tell stories like that? Who can fall asleep after listening to her stories?

————

The weather was a bit better the next day. Although it was still gloomy, it wasn't raining heavily outside and drizzling inside.

Ying Jianhua's illness, like the weather, has improved; he can now get out of bed and walk around. He insisted that Du Zhijin's illness was more serious than his, while Du Zhijin insisted that he shouldn't do any work. Neither of them would give in, so in the end, they each compromised and each took a side.

Ying Jianhua was in charge of sorting and picking through the medicinal herbs that hadn't been collected in the previous days, checking if any were still usable. Du Zhijin, meanwhile, used the copper coins he had left over from pawning his belongings to buy a bunch of new thatch.

They couldn't afford new roof tiles for the time being, but they needed to replace the thatch with new ones. The two of them worked all morning and finally got the roof up.

Du Zhijin stood on the roof and pointed to various places in the courtyard, saying to him, "After I get my sword back, I will go up the mountain to hunt deer and bears. After selling the deer antlers and bear skins, I will first redeem your mother's belongings. If there is any left over, I will buy a batch of tiles. In the future, you can move the herbs into the house on rainy days so that they won't get wet."

"Also, didn't you want to build a chicken coop before? You can build one there, right next to the Huang family's place. There are lots of earthworms there, and I always see Honghua digging up earthworms to feed her chickens. You can raise chickens, ducks, and dogs too. Duck blood vermicelli is the most flavorful, and duck soup is very nourishing. And there are many benefits to raising dogs, like guarding the house, herding chickens and ducks... Look how lovable little Huang next door is."

Perhaps to make up for upsetting him last night, Du Zhijin was unusually talkative today. Ying Jianhua, however, wasn't so easily forgiven, coldly distributing the medicine.

Du Zhijin secretly glanced at him, realizing for the first time what it meant to be disastrous because of what you say.

Fortunately, Honghua and Aunt Huang's appearance saved her. Aunt Huang said that her younger sister, the daughter of Old Liu at the village entrance, was getting married in a few days, but a table and chairs that were part of her dowry had been damaged by lightning last night. The road to town was also difficult to travel now, and she couldn't find a carpenter, which made her sister very anxious.

"I only heard from Chunyan that Miss Mu has this skill, so I shamelessly asked you to come and give it a try." Aunt Huang didn't let her work for free, so she brought a basket of eggs, at least five or six.

Even without payment, Du Zhijin would still make the trip. Firstly, she was eager to get out of Ying Jianhua's sight, and secondly, the Huang family had taken good care of them, so it was just a small favor, and she would do it anyway.

Seeing that Ying and Jianhua didn't object to her going out, she took Honghua's hand, and the two of them, one big and one small, walked towards Liu's house at the entrance of the village.

Aunt Huang remained in the courtyard. Hearing Ying Jianhua's cold snort behind her, she laughed and said, "When I came, I heard Miss Mu say that she wanted to build a chicken coop and raise a dog. It seems that Doctor Ying is also about to have good things happen?"

Upon hearing this, Ying Jianhua was stunned for several seconds before she realized what she was saying. She explained, "Auntie, you've misunderstood. She's just one of my patients, not what you think."

Seeing Aunt Huang's silent smile, he felt a sense of powerlessness.

Well, it's better than treating Du Zhijin like a womanizer. He knew that to live in the countryside, he had to give up some useless things when necessary.

"Excuse me, is Dr. Ying at home?"

A male voice sounded from outside the door. Ying Jianhua recognized the voice as Lu Ping's and frowned. Aunt Huang, seeing that he had a guest, took her leave and went home. As she brushed past Lu Ping, she silently admired him, thinking to herself, "What a handsome young man!"

He's on par with Dr. Ying.

Lu Ping didn't come empty-handed; in his left hand he carried a bunch of bright red azaleas, their tender petals still glistening with dew, clearly picked early that morning. Azaleas alone would likely be dismissed as vulgar by most painters, but Lu Ping, with his clever touch, had cleverly paired them with two pale pink peach blossoms and a sprig of fresh green willow, adding a touch of wild charm and elevating the bouquet from "common" to "refined elegance."

Noticing his gaze, he flashed a shy smile, revealing a set of white teeth. "My sister said that girls these days all like this. I wonder if Miss Mu would like it. By the way, Doctor Ying, where is Miss Mu?" With that, he immediately began to look around.

Ying Jianhua wants to say that your wooden girl won't even tell you her real name, so what are you expecting?

"She's not here. If it's about what happened before, we might be able to talk. If it's about her, turn left and don't bother seeing me out."

Turn left after exiting the gate, and you'll find the river.

Lu Ping still held the flowers carefully, as if worried about damaging them: "Doctor Ying, please don't misunderstand. The magistrate has already found another doctor to treat the young master. I'm here today for personal matters."

He turned his gaze to the indifferent-looking person beside the medicine shelf, his eyes flashing with the glint of a beast vying for territory: "May I ask, Doctor Ying, what is your relationship with Miss Mu?"