Chapter 41, Section Forty-One
Chapter Summary: [Aqing huddled in a ball, seemingly terrified, but after the man walked away, she tapped her way into a secluded alley and immediately spat.]
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Ah Qing huddled up and didn't move, seemingly very scared. But after the man walked away, she tapped her way into a secluded alley, immediately spat, took out a money pouch from her bosom, poured out the money and counted it, then spat again, saying, "You stinking men, they're all like this. They dress like respectable people, but they don't have much money on them. You can't even make a sound if you shake it."
Wei Wuxian was both amused and exasperated. A-Qing was only a teenager, probably not even fifteen yet, but she could curse people so fluently, and she was even more adept at stealing their money. He thought to himself, "If you stole from me, you definitely wouldn't curse like that. I used to be very rich too."
While he was still lamenting how he had become penniless, A-Qing had already found her next target. Pretending to be blind, she left the alley, walked a short distance, and then, using the same trick, bumped into a white-robed Taoist priest with a cry of "Ouch!" and said, "Sorry, sorry! I can't see, sorry!"
Everyone recognized the figure from behind and were searching for him when Lan Wangji suddenly leaned close to Wei Wuxian's ear:
"Need money?"
Everyone:...
Wei Wuxian: "...Huh?"
Realizing Lan Zhan's thought process in an instant, Wei Wuxian broke into a bright smile, then started rummaging through his robes...
He pulled out... a money pouch?
Jiang Cheng, standing nearby, facepalmed, unable to bear the sight.
“Now that your purse is with me, how could you be broke?” Wei Wuxian happily twirled the purse in his hand.
Everyone: ...Uh, who still remembers the important matter? What were we supposed to be doing?
You didn't even change the words, little beauty!
The Taoist priest was startled by her collision. He turned around, steadied her, and said, "I'm fine. Can't you see, young lady?"
The man was very young, dressed in a simple and clean Taoist robe. A long sword wrapped in white cloth was strapped to his back. The lower half of his face was quite handsome, though slightly thin. The upper half of his face was wrapped with a bandage five fingers wide, through which faint traces of blood could be seen.
Everyone: It's Xiao Xingchen again?!
Xiao Xingchen: ...Why do I only have this one image?
Ah Qing seemed stunned for a moment before saying, "Yes, yes!"
Xiao Xingchen said, "Then slow down, don't walk so fast. It wouldn't be good if you bumped into someone again."
He didn't mention that he couldn't see it either, but took A-Qing's hand and led her to the side of the road, saying, "This way. There are fewer people here."
His words and actions were gentle and careful. A-Qing reached out her hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally, without anyone noticing, swiftly snatched the money pouch from his waist, saying, "A-Qing thanks you, brother!"
Xiao Xingchen said, "It's not my brother, it's Daoist Master."
Aqing blinked and said, "He's a Taoist priest and also a brother."
Xiao Xingchen laughed and said, "Since you call me 'brother,' then return my money pouch."
A-Qing: ...I can't laugh.
Sister Niangui, could you see my awkward yet polite smile?
Lan Jingyi moved closer to Lan Sizhui for the nth time: "I never expected A-Qing..."
Lan Sizhui quickly shushed him, signaling him not to talk nonsense.
Unexpectedly, A-Qing overheard: "The Taoist priest discovered it because he's so skilled. If it were you, you wouldn't have been able to find out."
Xiao Xingchen quickly pressed down on A-Qing, while Lan Sizhui pressed down on Lan Jingyi.
These two kids can really get into a fight.
Even if A-Qing, a street thug, were ten times faster, she couldn't hide from a cultivator's five senses. Hearing this, she grabbed her staff and started running, but before she could take two steps, Xiao Xingchen grabbed her by the back of her collar with one hand and pulled her back: "I told you not to run so fast, what if you bump into someone again?"
A-Qing twisted and struggled, her lips moving as she bit her lower lip with her upper teeth. Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "Oh no, she's going to yell 'molestation'!" Just then, a middle-aged man hurriedly turned the corner. His eyes lit up when he saw A-Qing, and he walked over, cursing, "You little slut, I've got you! Give me back my money!"
Not satisfied with his cursing, he swung his hand to slap her across the face, startling Ah Qing who immediately shrank back and closed her eyes. However, the slap missed her cheek; it was intercepted halfway.
Xiao Xingchen said, "Please calm down. It's not very nice to treat a young girl like this."
A-Qing peeked out and saw that the middle-aged man was clearly using a lot of force. Xiao Xingchen seemed to be holding his hand lightly, but he couldn't move forward an inch. Feeling scared, she retorted defiantly, "You blind man who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, what kind of hero are you! Is this little slut your lover? Do you know she's a thief! She stole my money bag, and you protected her. You're a thief too!"
Xiao Xingchen grabbed him with one hand and A-Qing with the other, and turned around to say, "Give the money back to them."
A-Qing quickly took out the small amount of money from her pocket and handed it over. Xiao Xingchen released the middle-aged man, looked down and counted it; nothing was missing. Glancing at the blind man, he knew he was not to be trifled with, and could only leave sheepishly. Xiao Xingchen said, "You're too bold. You can't see, yet you still dare to steal."
Ah Qing jumped three feet high: "He touched me! He pinched my butt, it hurt so much! What's wrong with me taking some money from him? Such a big bag and he only put so little in it, and he still had the nerve to be so fierce and want to hit me, you poor bastard!"
Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "You were the one who bumped into me first and tried to attack, yet now it's become his fault. What a clever switcheroo!"
Everyone: ...Wei Wuxian, you talk too much nonsense.
Song Lan had no objection to Xiao Xingchen's actions because he knew that his good friend was such a kind person.
However, in the end, it was because of his kindness that...
It was quite heartwarming; he turned to look at A-Qing and suddenly spoke:
"Aqing, would you like to learn medicine from me?"
A-Qing's eyes widened in surprise; she hadn't expected such an opportunity: "Really?"
Wen Qing smiled and nodded. She hadn't thought too much about it; she just felt that the girl was smart and quick-witted, and it wouldn't be bad to teach her a skill to help her.
"Okay, okay! I'm willing!"
Seeing A-Qing's excited expression, Xiao Xingchen's slightly heavy mood eased a bit.
Xiao Xingchen shook his head and said, "Since that's the case, you shouldn't have provoked them even more. If no one had been here today, a slap wouldn't have solved this. You'd better think twice, young lady."
After he finished speaking, he turned and walked in another direction. Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "He didn't get his money pouch back. My uncle-master is quite the chivalrous person."
A-Qing clutched the small purse she had stolen, stood there blankly for a moment, then suddenly stuffed it into her bosom, banged on her bamboo pole, and chased after Xiao Xingchen, throwing herself onto his back. Xiao Xingchen had no choice but to support her again, asking, "Is there anything else?"
Ah Qing said, "Your purse is still with me!"
Xiao Xingchen said, "It's yours. It's not much. Don't steal anything until you've spent it all."
Ah Qing said, "I just heard that stinky ghost cursing. So you're blind too?"
Upon hearing the second half of the sentence, Xiao Xingchen's expression instantly darkened, and his smile vanished.
The innocent and unfiltered words of children are the most deadly. Children understand nothing, and it is precisely because of this ignorance that their hurtful words are often the most direct.
Seeing that she had so openly exposed Xingchen's wounds, A-Qing's excitement vanished instantly, and she looked at Xiao Xingchen somewhat helplessly.
"Master... I shouldn't have said that, I really didn't know..."
Xiao Xingchen quickly patted her shoulder and smiled gently, "It's alright, it's all in the past."
Looking at Xiao Xingchen's lifeless expression in the sky, A-Qing's eyes reddened slightly, and she secretly tugged at Xiao Xingchen's sleeve.
I must be kind to the Taoist priest again from now on!
Beneath the bandages binding Xiao Xingchen's eyes, a streak of blood grew thicker and thicker, almost seeping through the cloth. He raised his hand to cover it, his arm trembling slightly. The pain and wound from gouging out one's eyes are not so easily healed.
Ah Qing thought he was just dizzy and happily said, "Then I'll go with you!"
Xiao Xingchen forced a smile: "What are you doing following me? Do you want to become a female Taoist priest?"
A-Qing said, "You're the big blind one, and I'm the little blind one. If we go together, we can look after each other. I have no parents and nowhere to go. It doesn't matter who I go with or where I go." She was very clever and was afraid that Xiao Xingchen would not agree. Seeing that he was a good person, she threatened, "If you don't take me with you and don't agree, I'll spend money very quickly. I'll spend it all in no time. Then I'll have to steal and cheat. I'll get slapped so hard that I won't know which way is up. How pitiful that would be."
Xiao Xingchen laughed and said, "You're so clever and mischievous, you're the only one who can fool people so badly that they lose their bearings. Who can beat you into losing your bearings?"
After looking around for a while, Wei Wuxian discovered something amazing.
With Xiao Xingchen himself as a comparison, he discovered that Xue Yang's impersonation was incredibly lifelike! Aside from appearance, every detail was vividly portrayed; he could almost believe it if you said Xue Yang had been possessed by Xiao Xingchen.
Xue Yang clicked his tongue in disdain. Wei Wuxian was good in every way, except that he was too talkative. It was enough to know one thing at a time; why did he have to remind people again and again?
A-Qing was persistent and clingy, feigning blindness and pitifulness, clinging to him the whole way. Xiao Xingchen had told her several times that it was dangerous to follow him, but A-Qing wouldn't listen. Even when Xiao Xingchen killed an old, spirited ox in a village, it didn't scare her away. She still called him "Daoist Master" repeatedly, sticking to him like glue within a foot of him. After a while, perhaps seeing that A-Qing was clever, lovable, and wouldn't be a problem, and being a blind, lonely little girl, Xiao Xingchen tacitly allowed her to stay by his side.
Wei Wuxian initially thought Xiao Xingchen would have a destination, but after skipping through several memories and judging from the local customs and accents, the places they had visited didn't form a coherent route at all; they were completely disorganized. It didn't seem like they were heading to any particular place, but rather like they were night-hunting, going to wherever they heard of hauntings or strange occurrences to resolve them. He thought to himself, "Perhaps the case of the Chang family of Liyang dealt him a heavy blow, and he no longer wanted to mingle with the powerful sects, but he couldn't let go of his ambitions, so he chose to wander and night-hunt, doing whatever he could."
At this moment, Xiao Xingchen and A-Qing were walking on a flat, long path, with waist-high weeds on both sides. Suddenly, A-Qing exclaimed, "Ah!" Xiao Xingchen immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
Ah Qing said, "Ouch, it's nothing, I just twisted my ankle."
Wei Wuxian could see clearly that her scream wasn't because she twisted her ankle at all. She was walking perfectly fine. If she hadn't been pretending to be blind in front of Xiao Xingchen so he couldn't kick her out, she could have flown to the sky with a single leap. A-Qing screamed because she had just glanced around and seen a dark figure lying in the overgrown weeds.
Although she didn't know whether he was dead or alive, A-Qing probably felt that both were troublesome, and clearly didn't want Xiao Xingchen to find out about him, so she urged, "Let's go, let's go, let's go to that city up ahead to rest, I'm exhausted!"
Xue Yang clicked his tongue again: "He really has no compassion."
A-Qing almost spat on him: "Save you? What's so good about saving you?"
Xue Yang: ...
Everyone: ...What do you mean by not knowing whether she's dead or alive, and finding both dead and alive troublesome? This little girl...she's not very old, but she has quite a temper.
We should sympathize with someone.
Xiao Xingchen said, "Didn't you sprain your ankle? Do you want me to carry you?"
A-Qing was overjoyed, banging the bamboo pole loudly, "I want it! I want it!" Xiao Xingchen smiled, turned his back to her, and knelt on one knee. A-Qing was about to pounce on him when suddenly, Xiao Xingchen held her down, stood up, and said intently, "There's a bloody smell."
At that moment, A-Qing also caught a faint, almost imperceptible whiff of blood, but it was weak and intermittent due to the night breeze. She feigned ignorance, saying, "Really? I can't smell it. Maybe someone around here is slaughtering a pig or chicken?"
No sooner had she finished speaking than, as if the heavens were conspiring against her, the person in the bushes coughed.
Everyone: ...
Lan Jingyi: ...Pfft!
Aqing: ……
Then the little girl suddenly jumped up and was about to hit Xue Yang on the head with a bamboo pole: "You bad thing! You only know how to go against me!!"
Xue Yang: ...Doesn't this mean that I'm not destined to die?
Oh well, never mind, let's run for our lives first.
Although it was an extremely faint sound, it did not escape Xiao Xingchen's ears. He immediately discerned the direction, stepped into the bushes, and squatted down next to the person.
Seeing that he had discovered her after all, A-Qing stamped her foot and pretended to grope her way over, asking, "What's wrong?"
Xiao Xingchen took the man's pulse and said, "There is someone lying here."
Ah Qing said, "No wonder there's such a strong smell of blood. Is he dead? Should we dig a hole and bury him?"
The dead are certainly less troublesome than the living, so A-Qing couldn't wait for this person to die. Xiao Xingchen said, "He's not dead yet, he's just seriously injured."
After a moment's thought, he gently carried the person on his back.
A-Qing saw that her spot had been taken by a blood-soaked, smelly man, and the promised trip to carry her into the city was off. She pouted and poked several deep holes in the ground with her bamboo pole. But she knew Xiao Xingchen was someone she absolutely had to save, so she didn't complain. The two returned to the road and continued walking. The further Wei Wuxian walked, the more familiar it felt. Suddenly, he remembered, "Isn't this the road Lan Zhan and I took when we came to Yicheng? Only this time the road surface isn't covered in weeds yet."
Sure enough, at the end of the road, Yicheng stood majestically.
The city gates weren't as dilapidated then; the corner towers were intact, and there was no graffiti on the walls. Entering the gates, the fog was thicker than outside, but compared to now, it was almost negligible. Lights shone from the doors and windows of the houses on either side, and voices could be heard; although it was rather secluded, there was at least a semblance of human presence.
Lan Jingyi: "Yicheng doesn't look that strange."
Lan Sizhui nodded. Yes, at the time they only heard Wei Wuxian say that Xue Yang deserved to die, but they didn't know the specifics.
Upon hearing Lan Jingyi's words, Wei Wuxian whispered, "He is the one who truly turned this place into Yicheng."
Xiao Xingchen, carrying a heavily wounded and bloodied man on his back, knew that no inn would take in such a guest. Therefore, instead of asking for lodging, he directly asked a night watchman approaching him if there were any vacant mortuaries in the city. The watchman told him, "There's one over there. The old man who guarded it passed away last month, and now no one is taking care of it." Seeing that Xiao Xingchen was blind and had difficulty finding his way, he offered to lead him there.
It was the mortuary where Xiao Xingchen's body was placed after his death.
After thanking the night watchman, Xiao Xingchen carried the injured man into the room on the right. The room was neither too big nor too small, with a low bed against the wall and all the necessary utensils such as pots and pans. He carefully laid the man down, took out some pills from his storage bag, and pushed them into the man's tightly clenched teeth. A-Qing explored the room for a while before exclaiming happily, "There are so many things here! There's a basin!"
Xiao Xingchen asked, "Is there a stove?"
"have!"
Xiao Xingchen said, "A-Qing, try to boil some water."
A-Qing pouted and got to work. Xiao Xingchen touched the man's forehead and gave him another pill. Wei Wuxian wanted to take a closer look at the man's face, but A-Qing was clearly uninterested and quite annoyed, not sparing him even a glance. After boiling the water, Xiao Xingchen slowly wiped the blood off his face. A-Qing glanced at him curiously and let out a small "Eh!"
To her surprise, the person had cleaned his face and was actually quite good-looking.
Upon seeing that face, Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "Just as I expected, it's Xue Yang. What a small world, Xiao Xingchen, you're really... incredibly unlucky."
At this time, Xue Yang was even younger, just a teenager, seven parts handsome and three parts childish. But who would have thought that such a boy, whose smile revealed a pair of tiger teeth, would be a ruthless and ruthless massacrer? Wei Wuxian couldn't help but feel indignant on his behalf: "How could such a person be overshadowed by the Yiling Patriarch? It's truly outrageous!"
Everyone: ...Uh, you still have time to stand up for Xue Yang?
Xue Yang had just escaped from under A Qing's bamboo pole and was instantly amused when he heard this.
"Thank you, Senior Wei. My face is actually not bad looking."
Everyone: ...Well, another one who missed the point.
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