Chapter 64 Green Mist Flows In: Don't Look at Me Like That

With its sleek body and bullet-shaped front, the train pulls into the station, keeping pace with this rapidly developing era.

Incredible. Every time Xia Zhu carefully observes a super-modern invention, she exclaims in this way. It's as if she's a young person who has traveled from a distant era. Just when she thinks she's at the forefront of contemporary society, the clarion call of progress from the big city blows clear to her ears and eyes.

It wasn't that she was a country kid being overwhelmed by the modern city; she was marveling at the wisdom of the human species.

Five people leaned against a pillar by the platform, waiting for the train to come to a stop. Despite trying to stay awake, they couldn't help feeling dizzy and drowsy. Xia Zhu's exhaustion was mixed with a strange restlessness. Her eyes kept drifting over the electric fence overhead. The gray sky was shrouded in a hazy mist.

This restlessness only completely dissipated after I entered the carriage, found my seat, and sat down. Across the aisle, that long-limbed figure squeezed into the seat.

"Want to know how I got in?" Ying Huo leaned half her body against the armrest, tilting slightly towards Xia Zhu, a light blue train ticket between her beautiful fingers.

"I don't want to." Xia Zhu turned her head and looked out the window. Feng Feng, who was sitting by the window, had already closed his eyes and curled up in his seat. Sleepiness was also overwhelming her.

She didn't know how she fell asleep. In her hazy state, the car swayed, then began to move steadily forward, the steady hum of the machinery forming a natural protective barrier. Xia Zhu slept soundly in this pleasant white noise.

When she opened her eyes again, a layer of mist had formed on the train window, and the mountain scenery was fragmented into patches of color like flowing clouds. There were more people in her carriage than when she had boarded. She subconsciously turned her head, and the seats on the other side of the aisle were empty.

Xia Zhu reached out and rubbed the back of her neck. After a comfortable sleep, the brain becomes sluggish, and the limbs feel temporarily weak. She tried to stand up quietly, using the handrail for support. Since the train hadn't stopped, her center of gravity was a little unstable.

With so many people, the air inevitably becomes somewhat stale. She stood up simply to find a quiet place to refresh her lungs. Looking around, she saw the outlines of several suitcases visible at the connection between the carriages behind her, so she decided to move forward.

Staggering along the aisle, Xia Zhu felt her physical abilities might be declining; she resolved to find time to exercise more when she got back. Grayish-white smoke slowly drifted from the connecting area. Before she even reached it, a stranger who had just extinguished his cigarette turned his back to her and walked towards the next carriage. Xia Zhu glanced at her toes; turning back now might seem a bit odd, so she continued forward with her head down.

A thick cloud of smoke billowed overhead, and a pair of gray eyes peered out from the car window.

He said out of the blue, "I don't smoke this stuff, it's bad for your lungs."

Xia Zhu looked at Ying Huo's face through the dissipating smoke and saw him leaning against the car door like a boneless creature. The glass window was fogged up, blurring the view of the damp, green meadow outside.

Those indistinct, stained marks seemed to frame the person within a dreamlike scene. The smoke had clearly dissipated, yet she still couldn't make out Ying Huo's face clearly; she only smelled an irresistible, damp green odor swirling around her nose.

She kept staring at his face, then calmly asked the question.

"You didn't enter the loop, did you?"

"What?" He twitched his fingers, which were lazily crossed over his arms, and a crimson light flashed into Xia Zhu's eyes.

"From beginning to end, there was only one bewitching dream in the demon's mind; you never actually entered the cycle."

Ying Huo didn't answer immediately, but tilted his head and gently rested it against the glass window. Xia Zhu thought he would make excuses, but he didn't.

"You're quite clever, aren't you? Don't look at me like that. At least I risked my life to save you a few times, didn't I?"

Xia Zhu turned her head slightly; the light emitted by the pigeon-blood red gemstone ring was too dazzling, so she had to reluctantly look away. After a few breaths to catch her breath, she spoke again.

"So now, it's my turn to ask you, who exactly are you?"

"Isn't everything supposed to be about first come, first served? It seems like I asked you that question first."

“…”

"Xia Zhu," she whispered her name.

Ying Huo smiled.

"So it was summer, not wind."

"pity."

"I am still Ying Huo."

With her hands clenched into fists at her sides, Xia Zhu raised her hand and punched Ying Huo in the annoying face without hesitation.

Xia Zhu pulled his fist back, his knuckles throbbing slightly. He spread his fingers to loosen them, glancing briefly at the warm bloodstains on the man's face.

"Hiss—" Ying Huo raised his hand to touch his wound. "Did you grow up eating gunpowder?"

They resort to violence at the slightest disagreement.

"Ah Zhu! What are you doing here!" Feng Feng woke up and didn't see Xia Zhu, so he came to look for her.

"Oh, come get some fresh air." Xia Zhu pulled Feng Feng away expressionlessly, preventing her from walking to the connecting area. The air was filled with secondhand smoke; she couldn't let Feng Feng smell it.

"Okay, okay, Azhu, are you hungry?" The two returned to their seats together, their voices fading into the distance as they walked away from Ying Huo. "Let me tell you, the instant noodles on the train are the best! They're just a bit expensive..."

After several transfers, they arrived at Shushan Town. After getting off the bus, Feng Feng refused to allow Ying Huo to enter the Feng family's territory.

"Weren't you supposed to take me in? This is called giving up halfway." Ying Huo's lips were still a little bruised. He gave Xia Zhu a reproachful look, but Xia Zhu refused to accept him.

Ying Ya seemed hesitant to speak the whole way, and this became more pronounced as they got closer to Shushan Town. The Ying family and the Feng family were neighbors, but he didn't seem like the type to feel timid when getting closer to home.

Only Feng Feng truly knows what Ying Ya is thinking.

"Alright, alright, the prophecies have all come true. The days ahead are probably going to be tough. Go home and see your old man!" Feng Feng patted Ying Ya on the shoulder, earning a pair of bright, sparkling eyes in return.

Feng Feng glanced sideways at Ying Huo, whose expression was extremely sour.

"Aren't you and the little crow from the same family? You're already at your doorstep, aren't you going back to check on things?"

After all, the "Cholera of the Demon God" mentioned in the prophecy had not yet appeared, and Feng Feng simply did not believe that Ying Huozhen had been abandoned like this.

"Really? You think so too?" Ying Huo glared at Xia Zhu and said this.

Xia Zhu felt somewhat bewildered. She had only agreed to accompany Ying Huo so that she could question him about everything in the previous dream. But the way he looked at her now was like that of a dog that had just been picked up by its owner and then abandoned.

So Xia Zhu once again automatically blocked out Ying Huo's burning gaze, and just lowered her head and stared blankly at the loose thread on the hem of her school uniform, pulling with great concentration and gritting her teeth.

Ying Huo stared incredulously at the whorl of hair Xia Zhu had left him, his jaw muscles trembling with anger. He made a firm decision in his heart that he would never trust anyone again, no matter how much they resembled her.

He turned and walked away, heading in the opposite direction from Xia Zhu and the others. Only when he became a tiny black dot did Xia Zhu dare to quietly raise her head and glance at the lonely little dot slowly blending into the green trees on both sides of the road.

What is she feeling guilty about? She never said she would take him with her wherever she went.

Xia Zhu lowered her eyes again and began to fuss over the loose thread.

The melancholy young Ying Ya lingered three steps away, reluctant to leave. Even Ying Huo, who had been refusing to leave, had disappeared. He still stood there, gazing longingly at Feng Feng.

Only when a tiny daisy sprouted from Feng Feng's fingertip and meandered around his bare finger bone did the young man leave, satisfied.

"What a bad habit, you can't break it after all these years. Maybe you can train it with something else next time?" Feng Feng muttered to himself, looking at his fingers, thinking that this was just a way to tease the bird.

Little did they know that Feng Mian's mouth was twitching at the sight of their sticky and gooey actions.

However, Feng Feng was very oblivious when it came to matters of the heart. He couldn't see the love that his little animal couldn't hide, nor could he sense the flames burning on his brother's head.

She held Xia Zhu's arm in one hand and the somewhat shy Ji Wuchou's arm in the other.

"Little Chou, is this your first time visiting the Feng family? You don't know, my brother is an amazing cook! Tonight, you'll definitely get to try his cooking!"

She insisted on walking alongside the two of them, so the three figures walked unsteadily along the familiar ridge, with Feng Mian silently following behind.

The smoke from distant chimneys still rises, and the setting sun casts a golden glow.

Xia Zhu's previously empty chest was filled again, and she wanted to walk this path home many, many more times.

I walked across the field ridges, through the woods, jumped into the dry well, savored the sweet taste of the lamp, and climbed out of the pit overgrown with wildflowers. Feng Ye was already waiting for me.

She frowned, but still tried her best to welcome Ji Wuchou gently, and asked Xia Zhu if her cotton-padded clothes were warm before finally looking at her daughter's face.

"There's a problem with the Jianmu tree."

"Cracks have appeared on the tree trunk."

On the way back, Feng Feng told Feng Ye everything she had seen and heard at the Nine Heavens Assembly. Just as she had thought, the shell left by Jianmu on Sun and Moon Mountain had also developed cracks. It seemed that even a part that shed itself millions of years ago could affect the original body in the distance.

Although the Feng family is more like a secluded paradise, not involved in the conflicts of the divine blood families, and living like a group of reclusive people, with Feng Ye as the family head being virtually a figurehead, when it really comes to a crisis, she has to stand up and do something for the land that the Spring Emperor's lineage has protected for generations.

So, at the family meeting after dinner, Feng Ye decided to use Fu Yu's abilities to reinforce the barrier on the Feng family's territory and expand its range to cover the entire Shushan Town. They would do everything in their power to ensure the basic safety of the ordinary people there.

Ji Wuchou spoke softly, saying she could also help. Feng Ye casually put her arm around Ji Wuchou, laughing and saying, "Great! I've long heard of the Puyang Ji family's cicada catchers' skills, it'll be a good opportunity for the younger generation in the family to broaden their horizons."

Perhaps because Xia Zhu's bloodline and the Feng family's Fu Yu were not from the same lineage, she was unable to use the Fu Yu to drive the power of the talisman to open the barrier. She could only regretfully stay with Feng Mian as a logistics person, preparing a sumptuous meal for the people who returned from setting up the barrier. After all, this task was very energy-consuming, and the barrier would take at least a week to complete.

Xia Zhu placed the dishes prepared by Chef Feng into the oven to keep them warm, waiting for Feng Feng and the others to return so they could have dinner. She smoothed her hair, which kept slipping down her chest, and planned to go back to her room to find a hair tie to tie it up; leaving it like this was really affecting her work.

Xia Zhu squatted in front of the dressing table, which had been empty when she left last time, but had been filled by Feng Ye this time. Now that Ji Wuchou was also there, the two of them were sharing a room, and Feng Ye had another excuse to order Lao Jiang to go out and buy more items.

“Two people! This is definitely not enough!” Feng Ye said, and as she said this, she slapped Lao Jiang hard on the shoulder. Even the burly man couldn’t help but gasp, but he still nodded repeatedly with satisfaction, taking his wife’s words as gospel.

Xia Zhu was dazzled by a pile of pretty hair ties, but in the end she chose a hair tie with two gray glass balls inlaid on it and tied her really thick hair back.

The room's lights were warm, like the color of a ripe lemon or a sunflower. Only after she finished doing all this did she realize that her actions seemed a little too familiar, as if this place, this room, had always been her home.

She didn't know whether this natural reaction was good or bad. Usually, when thinking about a problem, Xia Zhu would freeze in place, as if her soul had left her body.

There was a noise coming from the stairs leading to the attic behind her. Xia Zhu came back to her senses and turned around to look. A reddish-brown, furry head popped out of the doorway.

"The logistics unit has added a new member for the first time." Feng Mian walked up a few steps, letting his upper body emerge from the doorway. He propped himself up on the floor with one hand and his chin on the other, his long eyelashes drooping and a faint smile on his lips.

"Want to chat?" he said.