Late-night passion

“I have excellent hearing. That day I recognized the sound of paper, but you found it first.”

"I was just passing by today and stopped by to look for medicinal herbs for my senior brother in the valley."

Meng Yan handed over the distorted piece of paper as well. Yue Lang took it, turned it around a few times, and hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

He silently pointed to the half-eaten grass in the cinnabar box.

"..."

Meng Yan understood; she didn't really want to anymore.

The two jumped off the rock and squatted down, carefully digging through the grass, not daring to miss any inconspicuous little things.

However, things didn't go as planned; on this vast expanse of land, only that one dead blade of grass floating in the cinnabar grew.

Yue Lang wished he could bury his head in the ground and become that dead, dry grass.

A cold wind seemed to blow past him, and he shivered as he turned around, meeting Meng Yan's calm gaze once more.

He hurriedly slipped back to the rock and continued on the blank page of the paper: "Don't worry, young lady, with my help today, we are confident that we will obtain the medicinal herbs."

Meng Yan's face remained expressionless. After a moment, she picked up her pen and asked, "Why haven't you spoken today?"

"I've been saying it all along, these three pages are all of them." After he finished speaking, he didn't forget to unfold the several crumpled sheets of paper back onto the sheets to show her.

"Do you have mouth ulcers?"

"No, I'm fine!"

"Throat discomfort?"

"Cough cough cough... It feels quite comfortable!"

Meng Yan paused in his writing, then asked again, "Why didn't you speak up much today?"

"So, the young lady just wanted to hear me talk!" he said cheerfully.

Is it too late to say no now?

"To be honest, I'm trying to change some of my habits, such as using writing instead of speaking."

Why?

Yue Lang frowned, seemingly trying to find a reason for himself. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he wrote: "I think I might be making a bit of a fuss if I speak."

Meng Yan nodded in understanding and walked around him into the depths of the forest.

Yue Lang: "?" Do I have to agree with this too? You're being too considerate of my feelings!

"Slow down, wait for me." He tidied up the mess of the three stones and put them back in his arms, then happily chased after him.

.

The forest was deep and secluded, the sun was not visible, and the surrounding light gradually faded, blurring the view from a distance. Before long, the two could only see each other.

Yue Lang followed closely behind Meng Yan, trying several times to warn her to watch her step, but the girl dodged skillfully. He fell three or four times, but she never tilted her body even slightly.

Hearing the startled "Eh," "Ah," and "Yay" from beside him, Meng Yan's eyebrows twitched repeatedly. After a long while, the man did not say anything more, but his faint exclamations still echoed in his ears.

Unable to bear it any longer, she stopped and turned to him, gesturing, "Just say what you have to say."

The colorful ghost behind him, focused on the road, was completely unaware that the guide in front of him had already stopped. Only after being bumped on the head did the ghost slowly back away, looking up blankly and asking, "Huh?"

If it were by moonlight, he should have been able to see Meng Yan's hand movements, or at least see her clearly, but there was no light in the forest, and he could only barely make out the outline in front of him. He raised his hand in front of her and asked, "Why are you stopping? Should I go ahead and clear the way?"

He heard a faint sigh.

Just as he was about to comfort the dejected girl in front of him, a soft cracking sound of dry leaves came from ahead. He didn't move, nor did he see Meng Yan's silhouette in his field of vision.

There are other things here besides them.

"Shh." He leaned forward a step, guessing he should stop in Meng Yan's ear and whisper.

Meng Yan didn't reply to him. After being ignored for a moment, he suddenly realized that he was the only one who could speak up.

The unknown in the shadows continued to move, stepping over withered leaves, onto wild grass, into puddles, and then quickly settling back onto the ground, carrying mud and water.

Before meeting Meng Yan, Yue Lang had crossed a puddle, but now, due to the wind, he could not determine the true origin of the sound.

His arm was suddenly grabbed in the darkness, the force light yet quite powerful, pulling him in one direction.

“It’s there,” he replied in a low voice.

That was the direction he was going to pass through the puddle.

The restraints on his arms were instantly removed, and he paused for a moment before retracting his right hand and placing it on his waist.

The person in front must have made some kind of move. Yue Lang saw her shadow change position, and then the clicking sound of the mechanism rang out, but there was no further movement.

A rather audacious idea popped into his mind.

Meng Yan wanted to take action against this unknown.

Having found the right direction, the crossbow was strung and filled with bolts that Meng Yan had been developing for a long time but had never used in actual combat.

She didn't know how powerful it was, nor did she know what the enormous creature approaching was. All she knew was that this thing, which she hadn't even touched yet, was big and heavy, and that it was too late to run away now.

Birds flutter away in fright without lingering, and mosquitoes move silently without making a sound.

Only Yue Lang behind him seemed to be dawdling, unsure of what he wanted to say. He opened his mouth several times, but each time he took a deep breath and held it back.

Meng Yan ignored him, raised the crossbow in his hand, pointed it at a point, and pulled the trigger.

With a click, it's loaded, then closed again, and so on.

The sound of something cutting through the air was incessant, accompanied by the sound of crossbow bolts piercing flesh and shattering bones, making her teeth chatter slightly.

Behind him, Yue Lang, who was usually still but active, suddenly became silent. Meng Yan suspected that he had fainted, so he pulled out his elbow and jabbed it backward during the crossbow's firing interval.

A muffled groan sounded in his ear, and Meng Yan felt relieved, continuing to skillfully perform the operations at hand.

In the void, the painful roars of the great beast echoed through the forest and thickets, and birds and animals scattered and fled in panic, creating a rare scene of liveliness in the silent darkness.

The lively atmosphere didn't last long before it returned to silence. As the chaotic footsteps faded away, only the sound of the wind and the two people's shallow breathing remained in the world.

"Is it over?" Yue Lang asked in surprise, his hands still moving, when a flash of light appeared between the two of them.

He held a burning yellow talisman between his index and middle fingers, its red light flickering, casting a shadow on his face that obscured most of it.

Meng Yan couldn't see his expression clearly, only his bright eyes reflecting the light.

The wind seemed poised to extinguish the flame at any moment, yet his eyes remained ever-shining, captivating all who beheld them.

Why are you staring at me? Is there something dirty on my face?

Yue Lang handed the talisman to Meng Yan, then rubbed his face with his hands, opened his eyes and looked at her, "Now, is there any more?"

Meng Yan shook his head, handed the talisman back, and turned to pack up the crossbow in his hand.

She pressed the mechanism to fire an arrow, unloaded the string, and folded the bow in sequence at the parts. A crossbow capable of firing three bolts at the same time changed continuously in her hands, eventually turning into a square wooden block.

As was his habit, Meng Yan tossed it out and weighed it a few times. After checking it, he put it back into the brocade pouch at his waist.

"Wow."

Yue Lang's mouth was wide open, which made Meng Yan suddenly curious: would he swallow the mosquito?

He must have been so thirsty from spitting out so much that he finally remembered to close his mouth and waved the still-burnt talisman around Meng Yan.

Is this how you repel mosquitoes?

"You can walk around here like you own the place! I've never spent the night in the deep mountains and forests before, this is my first time, and I never expected to run into such a big guy." He turned the talisman and probed towards the spot where the beast had just been.

Meng Yan reluctantly followed, like a little follower, wholeheartedly protecting the safety of his silly young master.

As expected, several arrows missed their mark and fell to the ground, while others were deeply embedded in the tree trunks. The foolish young master was gritting his teeth, trying to pull them out.

The short grass was trampled beyond recognition, mixed with mud and blood, and blood was still stained on the broken branches nearby, dripping down one by one.

Yue Langkong had two big eyes and didn't look at his surroundings at all. He was about to turn to the blood leaves when Meng Yan couldn't stand it anymore and pulled him back.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

The foolish young master shrank back behind her, the flame in his hand almost setting her hair ablaze.

Enraged, Meng Yan snatched the talisman from his hand and walked ahead, clearing the way.

This small talisman burned for a long time without changing in the slightest. When it faced the wind, it only swayed twice and showed no sign of going out.

The thin talisman improved the owner's public image, even though the owner was still chatting away behind the scenes, completely unaware of what was going on.

"Judging from the way we've been through, we've most likely encountered a tiger."

Tiger, also known as Big Insect, was mentioned on paper as possibly being surrounded by insects, and it seems that this was indeed true.

"However, as the saying goes, there is always a higher mountain than the one above. No matter what kind of wolves and tigers there are, with Miss Yan here, everything will surely be safe and sound."

Does "everything" refer to someone personally? When did the title change to "Miss Yan"?

“I also have a senior brother in my sect who is quite skilled at creating mechanical contraptions. Last time, the umbrella that Miss Yan gave me was accidentally triggered by a mechanism, but don’t worry, neither of us was hurt. When the mechanism was activated, I pushed my senior brother to the left and swept my junior brother to the right, and dozens of sharp blades flew out, but they didn’t cut a single hair on our heads. In the end, my senior brother fixed the umbrella for me. It’s still in my room now. I didn’t bring it with me on this trip because I thought it was too heavy. If I had known I would meet you, I would have carried it back to you intact.”

The familiar liveliness returned to my ears.

...

Under the illumination of the talisman fire, the escape route of the beast was clearly visible, with broken branches and grass scattered everywhere, and bloodstains intermittently spilled on the ground, extending into the boundless night.

Meng Yan glanced at it silently, then changed direction and continued forward, holding the talisman.

"Hiss, look at the blood on the ground." Yue Lang clicked his tongue twice. "I reckon this big guy is in grave danger. If I weren't so inexperienced, I would definitely give it a divination."

"Hey, why did you leave without even calling me?" After saying that, he suddenly shut his mouth and didn't say another word for a long time.

The feeling of a ghost behind me came again.

.

Time passed slowly as the talisman burned, and a thin, light layer of mist gradually rose from the ground, surging upwards as the two walked, soon obscuring their feet and shrouding their vision.

Meng Yan stopped in his tracks, paused for a moment, and moved to the right to avoid the impact from behind.

Yue Lang opened his bright, large eyes and turned to look at her.

His eyes alone were remarkably bright, and coupled with his expression and lip movements, Meng Yan shifted her gaze, shoved the talisman back into his hand, and asked simply, "Did you see any caves on your way here?"

Yue Lang held the talisman and nodded lightly. He looked around to confirm the general direction and then stepped forward to lead the way for her.