Yelan Mountain
After downing a bowl of spicy mutton soup, Yan Dan not only failed to break a sweat, but a blister even appeared on the corner of her mouth. It seemed her body was determined to defy her this time, refusing to produce a single drop of sweat.
She couldn't sleep, her body alternating between chills and fever, so she could only stare wide-eyed at the slightly rocking cabin ceiling. Yan Dan realized that she was truly a demon whose mind could never be delicate. In this situation, with the lonely lamp in the cold and desolate night, she should have felt a little sad, but what she was thinking at this moment was that the food from Jiangnan was light and easy to eat, and it suited her taste better than the food from the North.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. Yu Mo moved the lit oil lamp closer and blew out the tinder in his hand. In the dim candlelight, he looked at Yan Dan, seemingly startled. He bent down beside her and touched her forehead with his cool fingers: "It's even hotter than before. Should we see a doctor?"
Yan Dan immediately put on a firm expression: "I don't want to go." But her words lacked force and were so soft that they were almost inaudible.
Yu Mo was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "We'll go when it's light. You're already in this state, so don't throw a tantrum."
Yan Dan pouted slightly and remained silent for a while before saying, "Yu Mo, I feel cold."
"...The blankets are all on you."
"It's still cold."
He hesitated for a long time before hugging the person through the blanket: "How about this?"
Yan Dan couldn't help but chuckle, and slowly leaned against Yu Mo: "Tell me, I was perfectly fine before, how did I catch a cold and get a fever?"
Yu Mo raised his hand to smooth her black hair and adjusted his posture slightly to make her more comfortable: "You've always been strange, so it's not surprising that this kind of thing happened to you."
Yan Dan smelled the faint scent of sandalwood on him and slowly became sleepy. Her voice gradually became slurred: "Yu Mo, I feel like you haven't been very happy lately..." She only vaguely heard Yu Mo say softly, "That's not true," before her consciousness faded and she fell asleep, feeling both relieved and saddened.
What reassured her was that Yu Mo wouldn't have any other thoughts even if he held her like this, and it wouldn't matter if she fell into a deep sleep; what saddened her was that even though she was sleeping next to Yu Mo like this, he didn't have a single impure thought, which was a heavy blow to their flower spirit clan, who were proud of their good looks.
She fell asleep with a mixture of relief and sorrow, but had a rather unpleasant dream. In the dream, she returned to the Heavenly Court and, for some unknown reason, jumped through the cycle of reincarnation seven more times, over and over again, without end. When she woke up, her clothes were damp on the back; she had been sweating.
Yu Mo carefully brushed away the strands of hair that were stuck to her forehead, and smiled slightly: "At least the fever has gone down, are you alright?"
Yan Dan smiled back: "That way we don't need to take medicine or see a doctor, right?"
Yu Mo smiled and tilted his chin to look at her: "It's a wonder you're thinking about this." He raised his hand and touched the corner of her mouth: "You're currently suffering from excessive internal heat and blisters on your lips. When you return to Yelan Mountain, Zi Lin will definitely make fun of you."
Yan Dan leaned over the low table and couldn't help but say, "Zi Lin is the same age and cultivation level as you, so how can he be so immature? I think even if a thousand years pass, no one will look up to him."
As they chatted idly, the pot of water on the table was boiling to about eight or nine tenths full. Yu Mo scooped up some tea leaves and put them in. The emerald green tea leaves floated up and down in the water, and soon the cabin was filled with a fragrant aroma.
Yan Dan took the celadon teacup, smelled it, and asked curiously, "What else did you put in before you put in the tea leaves?"
"I noticed you have a lot of internal heat, so I added some honeysuckle, goji berries, and crushed lotus leaves to clear the heat."
"Lotus... lotus leaf?!" Yan Dan was startled, her voice filled with confidence, "Do you want me to eat myself?"
"It wasn't on you; I bought it at the pharmacy."
"Of course I know it's not from me, but it's still part of my family, isn't it? Do you know how pitiful our family is? We bloom for everyone to enjoy, and when the flowers wither, most of the lotus pods are picked off and eaten. If we can't finish them, they're dried into lotus seeds. Even the lotus roots in the mud can't escape this fate. Now they're even using the leaves to make tea. It's just too much!"
“If you don’t want to drink it, I won’t force you to.” Yu Mo picked up his teacup nonchalantly, only to see Yan Dan suddenly lean closer and say in a sinister tone, “You can’t drink it either.”
Yu Mo pondered for a moment: "When you used to stew fish soup, didn't I watch you?"
Yan Dan, quick as a flash, snatched the teacup from his hand: "Then let's make a trade. I will never eat fish or drink fish soup again, and you can't touch the lotus seeds or lotus roots either. Oh, and the leaves and flowers are out of the question too."
Yu Mo frowned but didn't say anything.
"Is it alright? You won't lose out if you agree. There's nothing fairer in the world than this..."
He chuckled slightly: "Alright, let's leave it at that."
By the time they returned to Yelan Mountain, it was already late autumn or early winter.
Not long after Yan Dan entered her own mountain gate, she encountered Zi Lin. The two exchanged a sharp retort, with Zi Lin, as always, flying into a rage, threatening to skin her alive. Yan Dan, however, was unfazed by this threat and didn't care at all. Turning her head, she saw Lin Lang gracefully approaching, taking out an exquisite silk handkerchief from her sleeve to wipe Zi Lin's face, then smiling sweetly.
Yan Dan looked eastward and muttered to herself, "Strange, so the sun still rises from the east today."
Dan Shu struggled to squeeze over, his head bobbing up in a ball of white fur. His tail had fallen off, a testament to his recent progress in cultivation, a significant step forward from a wretched human form to a more presentable one. "Sister Yan Dan, Mountain Lord, you've been gone for so long this time." Yan Dan immediately handed him a bag of pine nut candy. "It seems you've been cultivating diligently lately; even your tail is gone."
Dan Shu hugged the bag of pine nut candy as if it were a treasure, and smiled innocently: "That's what I thought too, but Daddy still said I'm useless." He took out a pine nut candy, and the ball of fur on his head immediately shook, made a few "hmm hmm hmm" sounds, and stretched his neck to put the candy in his mouth.
Yan Dan reached out and stroked the fur ball: "Zi Yan has grown quite a bit too."
The little fox stuck out its tongue and licked her hand with a smacking sound. Suddenly, it turned its head and saw Yu Mo. It trembled violently, then shrank back into a fluffy ball, clinging tightly to Dan Shu's head and whimpering softly in its throat.
Yan Dan couldn't help but think that the psychological trauma Yu Mo had inflicted on the little fox would probably take a long time to heal. Fortunately, demons have very long lifespans, and with time, the trauma would naturally fade.
Yan Dan was quite happy after returning to Yelan Mountain, except for two things that made her unhappy.
Originally, both she and Zi Lin were considered highly cultivated demons, yet they had hardly any romantic prospects for a thousand years, not even bad ones. Although Zi Lin was the mountain lord, he was dull and irritable; his previous concubines either fell for other demons or for Yu Mo, leaving him a thousand-year-old bachelor. But now, the beautiful Lin Lang had actually taken a liking to him—truly a beautiful flower stuck in cow dung, no, stuck in a tortoise shell!
From now on, she has one less thing to use to mock Zi Lin.
The other matter concerns Yu Mo.
She and Yu Mo didn't live together, but they weren't far apart either. She had originally intended to borrow a book on demonic cultivation from him. The first time she went, Bailing told her that the Mountain Lord had gone deep into the mountains to set up an array and wouldn't return until the day after tomorrow. Yan Dan didn't pay much attention. A few days later, she went again, but still didn't see Yu Mo. Bailing handed her a stack of books on cultivation, saying regretfully that the Mountain Lord had recently gone into seclusion and wouldn't emerge for at least ten days to half a month.
Yan Dan felt a little strange, but still took the book and went back. After a while, she heard that Yu Mo had come out of seclusion, so she took the book and wanted to ask him for some methods of forming formations, but she was still turned away.
Yan Dan vaguely felt that the fact that she hadn't seen him three times in a row meant that Yu Mo was deliberately avoiding her.
She considered herself a very pragmatic demon. If Yu Mo really wanted to avoid her, she wouldn't confront him or ask him directly. After thinking it over, she decided it would be better to subtly inquire through someone close to him.
The best candidate among them was naturally Zi Lin. He usually appeared serious and imposing, but in reality, he had a bad temper and couldn't control his mouth when angry. Yu Mo, on the other hand, was meticulous and calm; anything he didn't want to say would just fester in his heart. When Yan Dan first arrived in Yelan Mountain, she found it very strange that these two completely different personalities could get along.
As it turned out, Zi Lin learned her lesson this time.
With a stern face, he took a bite of the apple Linlang handed him and said in a cold tone, "Yu Mo has been in seclusion a lot lately. What's so unusual about that? But even if he's in seclusion because he can't stand seeing your face, it's not surprising. Tell me, what do you have that you can offer that people can't forget? Not to mention, you can't compare to Linlang."
Yan Dan held her anger in, but Zi Lin, that despicable man, always found an opportunity to berate her. No wonder their enmity had been escalating for the past twenty years, resulting in this deep-seated hatred.
Linlang smiled sweetly upon hearing this, her radiant beauty making the surrounding walls and decorations shine. She gently chided, "Zilin, what are you saying? I'm not as good as you make me out to be."
Yan Dan looked at the two people gazing at each other affectionately in front of her, and goosebumps twitched all over her body. She had no choice but to tread carefully and retreat. She really shouldn't have come. Now that Zi Lin, that thousand-year-old bachelor, has finally blossomed, and not only has he blossomed, but he's blossoming beautifully, while she's still all alone and miserable. Just the sight of the two of them being so nauseating was enough to make her lose her appetite.
Yan Dan took a dozen steps when she suddenly heard Lin Lang say behind her, "Wait a minute, I have something to say." Yan Dan turned around and saw Lin Lang raise her slender fingers to tidy her hair, which had been ruffled by her hurried steps. She lowered her head slightly and walked gracefully to her. Yan Dan couldn't help but sigh: she had always heard that the fox clan was known for producing beauties, and Lin Lang was a beauty among beauties. Now, such a fresh and tender flower had been plucked by Zi Lin. It was too good for him.
Linlang stood three steps away from Yan Dan, smiling sweetly: "When I first came here, I couldn't wait to go back, but after staying for a while, I never wanted to leave again. No wonder so many demons have come to Yelan Mountain and settled here."
Yan Dan echoed, "Yes, Yelan Mountain is indeed a very nice place." Not only is it warm like spring even in the coldest winter, but it is also full of flowers and lush green grass all year round. There are mountains and lakes, and many interesting monsters. You can't find a better place in the world.
"I never thought I would be with Zilin now. It was only after spending more time with him that I realized he is a very gentle and considerate person who deserves to be treated with sincerity."
Yan Dan didn't think so. When she first met Zi Lin, she felt that this mountain lord was serious and rigid, with an indescribable sense of intimidation. But after spending more time with him, she realized that most of her initial impressions were unreliable.
"I heard it from Zilin. Master Yu Mo has been in a bad mood lately. He came over half a month ago, but he just wanted to drink with Zilin. When asked, he refused to say anything."
Yan Dan was already seven or eight parts certain that Yu Mo was indeed avoiding her the only one. Half a month ago, when she went to see him, Bai Ling said that he was in seclusion again. Surely his cultivation wasn't actually about going drinking with Zi Lin?
Yan Dan recalled that night on the banks of the Zhangtai River, when he threw the strange eye into the river without hesitation, his resolute posture as if he wanted to discard something he could never let go of.
But in the end, she found the strange eye again. Was she really the one who made a mistake this time?
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