Chapter 93 Xie Rongjing picked up the food box…
Xie Rongjing tightened his grip on the food box, without moving an inch.
"Dad, I promised I would go see him."
Xie Zhuo's face remained expressionless, and the words he spoke were as calm as still water, like an unmelting block of ice:
"It's the same to meet him after we find out his purpose. You have been studying with your teacher since you were young, so you should understand the principle that a wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall. Get some rest tonight."
The chilling words crashed into Xie Rongjing's strangely calm heart, stirring up a storm. The complex emotions he had felt upon learning Xie Baoqiong's identity served as fuel for his heart, which was then ignited by this falling spark.
"Father himself hasn't figured out how to redefine Qiong'er's position, so why impose these ideas on me? I'm clear-headed. Whether he is Qiong'er or not, he's the one who has called me 'brother' for so long. Every time he calls me that, my affection for him grows a little more..."
Xie Rongjing spoke these words quickly and urgently, his chest heaving violently a few times. Realizing his own emotional state, he slowly calmed down.
He lowered his eyes to avoid Xie Zhuo's calm gaze, and his last sentence suddenly became somber, his tone complex:
"You brought him to me."
She then forcefully shoved the food box into Xie Zhuo's hands, and before turning to leave, her voice was so soft it seemed to be carried away by the wind:
“If something really happens, I still have my father.”
...
Xie Zhuo watched Xie Rongjing's back as he returned to his room. Only then did he feel the extra weight in his palm. His gaze moved downwards and landed on the heavy food box.
Xie Rongjing bluntly pointed out the thoughts he had been trying so hard to conceal. He didn't feel embarrassed, but his confusion grew, and he didn't know how to face Xie Baoqiong's identity. He originally wanted to postpone the matter until he had finished dealing with things in Luozhou City and come up with a perfect solution before resolving the issue.
However, he seems to be wrong.
As Xie Zhuo hesitated, his hand suddenly felt lighter.
The food box vanished from his hand and fell into the hands of Chishong, who had been watching the show for who knows how long.
As soon as the lid was lifted, a sweet aroma wafted out.
Chishong picked up the ice cream cheese and drank it all in one gulp. His expression changed slightly. These days, the things that the cubs like to eat are either sour and astringent or so sweet that they're cloying.
"Aka pine!"
Xie Zhuo snapped at him, his face darkening, and even the usual polite address was omitted.
Akamatsu, who was called out, unabashedly shook the empty bowl in his hand:
"Why get so angry, Lord Xie? I've just solved your problem and saved you the trouble of hesitating."
"I never knew you were such a kind-hearted person."
Chishong put down the empty bowl and food box, leaned against the wall, and scoffed, "I'm not human."
His golden pupils slowly turned to Xie Zhuo. In the gloomy night, there were no stars or moon, only those eyes gleaming with a cold light.
Humans and demons are not the same.
It's not the difference between demons and humans in the eyes of the world, but the most fundamental difference.
Once a demon successfully transforms into human form, even the worst one can have a lifespan of several hundred years, while for ordinary humans, living for a hundred years is already considered a long life.
What is a long life for you is but a fraction of our long life.
Even after you've lived out the rest of your life, his mind might still be the same as it is now.
Since you won't leave any impression on him in the end anyway, it's better to end this ill-fated relationship sooner rather than later; it's better for both of you.
After saying that, he didn't wait for Xie Zhuo's reaction and swayed away, disappearing from the courtyard.
In the dim and silent world, only a lonely figure remained.
Xie Zhuo remained completely still, only his eyes slowly moved toward the room where the candles had been extinguished.
He stood there for a long time, until his eyes felt sore, before he blinked gently and slowly walked toward the room.
But when he reached the bottom of the steps, he stopped and waited until the night watchman returned from the outhouse and came forward to pay his respects.
"Is the young master resting?" The hoarse voice came from his throat, making him feel as if he were in another world.
"The young master went to bed early, and I extinguished the candles when I saw there was no noise."
...
—
The following day.
Xie Baoqiong refused the servants' help to wash up. He was still wearing the clothes that Xie Rongjing had helped him change into the night before, which he had wrapped in the quilt all night and were now wrinkled and worn on his body.
His hair was tied back to its original state, simply tied with a hairband, just like when he was still a small tombstone, with stray hairs sticking up haphazardly and no one pressing them down.
He needs to get used to being alone again soon.
When he got up and walked out of the room, there was no one else in the courtyard.
He habitually sat on the small stool placed under the eaves. A few days ago, if he got up earlier than Xie Zhuo, he would sit here and wait for Xie Zhuo to get up before taking him to the clinic.
Realizing that Xie Zhuo would not be coming back, Xie Baoqiong suddenly stood up, but hesitated to take a step.
Cao Zhuangling is dead, and the real culprit, suspected to be the mastermind behind it all, also died at the hands of Chisong.
He had completed his mission of descending the mountain, and the spiritual energy within his body was gradually able to circulate with difficulty. Although it was not yet smooth, it was no longer as impossible to progress as it had been before he descended the mountain. It seemed that he no longer had any need to remain in the mortal world.
Moreover, there is no place for a small tombstone in the mortal world.
However, the greed in his chest was like a stone blocking his way, making him unwilling to slink back like that.
The mortal world is truly a terrible place, causing his heart to be blocked by another stone, even though his heart was originally a stone heart.
In her moment of dejection, Xie Baoqiong suddenly remembered her promise to Qi Gui.
Oh, and he also needs to go to the capital to see Qi Gui.
Then, we'll go back to Sishui Mountain later.
"Are you still waiting for Xie Zhuo?"
The sudden sound beside her ear made Xie Baoqiong's already sticking-up hair stand on end even more.
"No, I didn't." Xie Baoqiong turned around and saw that his small stool was being occupied by Chishong.
“This is my stool.”
"It was prepared by Xie Zhuo for his little treasure, not yours." Chishong's words were as sharp as ever.
Xie Baoqiong's spiky hair drooped, and her voice lost its previous assertiveness:
"be mine."
Red Pine leaned back against the corridor pillar, his tone no longer as sharp as it had been moments before, but rather unusually calm:
"I'm going to die, let me sit for a while."
Xie Baoqiong looked incredulous: "An elder I know once said that when a person is about to die, their words are kind. Why don't you say something nice?"
Chishong patted his leg, indicating that he could sit down if he wanted, and then said with a sense of entitlement:
"I am a demon."
Xie Baoqiong had even ridden the true form of Chishong, so naturally she didn't stand on ceremony and readily sat down.
He tilted his head to the side, his eyes sweeping over Chishong's healthy, ruddy complexion, his tone skeptical:
"Is your lifespan coming to an end?"
"No." Akamatsu appeared relaxed, showing no signs of impending death.
"Oh," Xie Baoqiong responded, then looked at the empty courtyard and said nothing more.
Chishong frowned and nudged the figure on top of him: "Why aren't you asking anymore?"
"I don't know you well, and I don't like you."
"Then why are you still sitting here?" Akamatsu almost laughed out loud at his self-righteous words.
"You sat on my stool first." Xie Baoqiong treated it as if she had an extra cushion, and sat calmly on the bare pine's lap.
"It wasn't like this when you wanted to ride my true form."
Xie Baoqiong turned around and glanced at Chisong with a puzzled look:
"That's different."
“Nothing’s different, it’s all me.” Chishong had never raised cubs before, and when he saw the person suddenly shake, he raised his hand to protect them.
Xie Baoqiong's eyebrows drooped: "Of course it's different. Xie Zhuo's reaction to me is different from my original form."
The air suddenly fell into a deathly silence.
Xie Baoqiong turned around dejectedly and grabbed Chisong's clothes.
The cushion beneath him suddenly moved, straightening up and pressing itself very close to him, offering him a brocade pouch:
"It's very expensive. Here, take this and play with it."
Xie Baoqiong gripped the hem of his robe with one hand and took the brocade pouch with the other. He probed inside with his divine sense, and the pile of glittering, jewel-encrusted magical artifacts almost blinded him. He suddenly clenched the storage pouch in his hand:
"Have you done something wrong?"
There was a moment of silence behind him, then a lazy voice rang out: "A little bit."
Xie Baoqiong turned his body even more, so Chishong had to raise one hand to hold him back.
"So you gave me these?"
Akamatsu's pupils revealed a golden hue without any attempt to conceal them as he calmly gazed at him, offering no answer to the question:
"Of course, one should dispose of their belongings before dying."
Having received a benefit, Xie Baoqiong considerately followed Chishong's words and asked:
Why did you die?
Chisong raised his golden eyes and gazed into the distance: "The spiritual energy in Luozhou City cannot be restored, and many people will die. I did not handle this matter well, so I have to pay a price to restore the spiritual energy in the city."
"Because of your agreement with the Dasheng royal family? But you don't seem like such a kind person." Xie Baoqiong carefully put away her storage pouch.
Her golden eyes looked at him again, a hint of amusement in them.
“That agreement cannot bind me, and I am not that malicious.”
Xie Baoqiong found Chishong a bit strange and looked back at the golden eyes with a puzzled expression: "But you don't like humans, and they have nothing to do with you."
Chishong nodded in agreement: "But the disappearance of spiritual energy in the city was caused by human intervention. If the news leaks out, the evil magic involved will attract too many people with ill intentions. I don't want the world to go back to the way it was before. It's good as it is now."
"Evil magic?"
"A cultivation technique that can make someone progress by leaps and bounds in a day, aren't you tempted?"
A flash of hatred crossed his golden eyes, which Xie Baoqiong caught, but he still answered truthfully, "Probably."
"But evil magic is, after all, evil, and there must be a terrible price behind it."
Xie Baoqiong's mind worked quickly, and she easily deduced the truth: "So the evil magic in Luozhou City is to absorb other people's spiritual energy for oneself?"
Chishong gave him an approving look.
“This will involve a lot of cause and effect. People who practice this technique have been deceived.” Xie Baoqiong said naively.
"Never underestimate the evil in others."
"But if you do that, you will die, and you won't see how the world will turn out."
The topic eventually returned to the main point.
Chishong Xu embraced the person on his lap, discussing his own life and death as casually as if he were talking about the clouds in the sky:
"I have lived for many years. Almost all the humans and demons of my generation have died. The rest either ascended to heaven or secluded themselves to cultivate in seclusion. But my foundation has been destroyed, and I have no hope of transforming into a dragon, let alone ascending to heaven."
I searched for hundreds of years but couldn't find a way to restore order. Then I spent hundreds more years in the mortal realm, experiencing everything I was meant to see, only to find it was all the same old stuff. At first, it bothered me, but later it became boring. In the end, I'd had enough of living. My only regret is that I didn't get to see Lin Zhechun die before me.
Xie Baoqiong listened quietly to Chishong's words, neither interrupting nor dissuading him. Only after the paws quieted down did she ask:
"Why do you want me to say all this? Shouldn't you have a better relationship with Lord Cheng?"
"Isn't giving you so many treasures as a reward enough?" Chishong caught a glimpse of the shadow behind the tree in the distance, raised his eyebrows slightly, and silently looked away.
Xie Baoqiong's sophistry echoed in his ears: "That's compensation for what you did wrong."
He scoffed, "I've known Cheng Ling for too long; these kinds of things are better said to people I'm not familiar with."
...
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Author's Note: The number of Moonstones has changed. Thank you everyone for contributing Moonstones! [kissing emoji]
And I secretly replaced both character cards with animated GIFs, but I haven't figured out Live2D yet, so I could only use the simplest method, and therefore the animation isn't very extensive :D
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