As Jun Xiaomo heard Qin Lingyu’s message, her listless disposition was quickly renewed with glowing spirits and a somewhat smug look. Seeing this, Ye Xiuwen could not help but lift an eyebrow curiously as he continued to sip his tea indifferently.
Jun Xiaomo’s smiled impishly as she sneaked over to Ye Xiuwen’s side, tugging at his snow-white coloured sleeve, asking mysteriously, “Martial brother, are you interested in checking out a good show?”
Ye Xiuwen turned his head slightly, and he saw that Jun Xiaomo’s obsidian-black eyes flashed with a glint of mischief. Even though he knew right this moment that she was up to no good, he could tell that what she was about to do was not hateful either.
It was just like watching a playful and cheeky kid arrogantly bragging to his friends about the innocent mischief he has caused. Apart from leaving people not knowing whether to laugh or cry, this kind of “magnanimous” behaviour was not detestable to begin with.
If Jun Xiaomo knew that Ye Xiuwen had just likened her to a “playful and cheeky kid”, she would definitely find his reaction lamentable. After all, her soul was already past a hundred years old – how could it be apt to call her “innocent and bright”, or “playful and cheeky”?
However, what Jun Xiaomo did not realize was that in front of those whom she trusted and let her guard down, such as Jun Linxuan, Liu Qingmei and Ye Xiuwen, she would always behave with a childish and impish att.i.tude, and sometimes even act like a little princess.
This could truly be called renewing one’s youth – not just in her physical reversion to sixteen years of age, but in her heart as well. That said, her renewed youth was only disclosed and apparent to a few select people.
“Martial brother, let’s go, let’s go~”
As she noticed how Ye Xiuwen was only looking at her silently, Jun Xiaomo tugged at his sleeves once again, fervently blinking her large, pearly eyes at him.
Ye Xiuwen was never a person to enjoy crowds, festivities, or generally being a busybody. Therefore, if this had happened on any other day, he would have immediately turned down Jun Xiaomo’s suggestion. But now, Ye Xiuwen could not deny the fact that he was convinced by Jun Xiaomo’s puppy eyes.
He stood up and waved his hands, and the tea set on the stone table were immediately all stored within his Interspatial Ring.
“Alright, let’s go have a look at what spectacle you have to show me.” Ye Xiuwen said indifferently, yet a slight smile could be seen on the corner of his lips.
“Yay~! Hurray! I guarantee it will be good!” Jun Xiaomo said with a lilt as she lifted her chin, revealing a smug look on her face like a peac.o.c.k boasting its feathers. Yet as soon as Ye Xiuwen looked over at her, she immediately turned away and walked ahead of him, masking the little bit of guilty conscience in her heart.
The truth was that she could not guarantee a “good show” as Ye Xiuwen understood it. After all, she knew that Ye Xiuwen did not like to watch these kinds of shows.
Nevertheless, one of the main reasons why she had asked Ye Xiuwen along was because she wanted to see how far the present Ye Xiuwen would indulge in her antics. As it turns out, her thick-skinned att.i.tude has indeed paid off – he was clearly warming up to her right now!
But this time, she would be careful not do anything to hurt Ye Xiuwen again. Absolutely not!
As she walked on ahead of Ye Xiuwen, Jun Xiaomo secretly revealed a determined smile on her face.
---------------------------------------------------
Last time, Qin Lingyu waited for Jun Xiaomo for four whole hours before he saw her sauntering back home tardily. Considering how this time he had brought Yu Wanrou over to render her apology, he thought that Jun Xiaomo would show up in no time. Unexpectedly, he had already waited for two whole hours and still Jun Xiaomo had not showed up. Not only that, the woods nearby buzzed with the incessant, intermittent clamoring of cicadas, multiplying the roiling frustrations on his heart.
“Lingyu, why not…let’s leave for now and return another day. Jun Xiaomo’s still not back yet, and she hasn’t sent any Messenger Paper Cranes either, so there’s no way we’ll know where she’s gone. Are we really going to wait here for her so pointlessly?”
Yu Wanrou walked over to Qin Lingyu’s side as she gently tugged at his hand as she spoke with dolefulness and dissatisfaction.
“Alright, don’t be so obvious. Remember, we’re outside now.” Qin Lingyu promptly wrested his hand free of Yu Wanrou’s touch as he said with some measure of vexation in his voice – the growing frustration in his heart had long since depleted any capacity and patience he had for sympathizing with Yu Wanrou. At present, his heart and mind were all solely fixated on the promise of that two fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills.
If Qin Lingyu knew that Jun Xiaomo had without hesitation attempted to barter five fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills with Ye Xiuwen for an even simpler task, he might just become so infuriated that he would spit out a mouthful of blood!
Ever since she fell in love with Qin Lingyu, Yu Wanrou did not mind it when he treated her coldly in front of others. But today there was only the two of them present, yet Qin Lingyu still bore the same att.i.tude to her – how could she accept this? Did Qin Lingyu think that she was a fool pandering to every single of his beck and call like Jun Xiaomo?
These thoughts festered in her heart, and her anger burgeoned, fueled by both the thoughts of Jun Xiaomo hurting her, and Qin Lingyu forcing her to give an apology. Furthermore, that wave after wave of vexatious buzzing of the cicadas slowly grew on her nerves and wore down her rationality. Under the confluence of all these factors, Yu Wanrou finally reached her boiling point and she snapped.
She stamped her feet as she blew her top, blurting, “Qin Lingyu, if you want to wait you can wait alone. I’m going!” As she said that, she motioned towards the exit of Jun Xiaomo’s abode.
Hearing this, Qin Lingyu quickly strode over to her and gripped her arm, saying with a grimace on his face, “You’ve already come this far, are you recanting now?!”
“What do you mean by recanting?! I’ll be honest with you. Qin Lingyu, I absolutely do not want to apologize to this harlot! The person who hurt me was Jun Xiaomo, yet the person to apologize is me – where is the reason in this?!” Yu Wanrou’s tears filled the rims of her eyes and streamed down like waters bursting out a dam. She was both infuriated and hurting at the same time – Qin Lingyu had gripped onto her arm so tightly that her bones felt as though they were being crushed.
Yet Qin Lingyu did not do anything to console her. Instead, he only tightened his grasp on her arm as though he were afraid that she would run if he let go of her. Gritting his teeth, he slowly spoke, “I’ve said it before – I don’t care who’s wrong or who’s right, I only want you to give her an apology, understand?! Even if you want to leave, you can only do so after you’ve apologized!”
Even though Qin Lingyu’s tightened grasp caused her to experience excruciating pain, but the infuriated Yu Wanrou could not care for that any longer! She cried as she lamented, “And why should I be the only one to apologize? She is clearly torturing me because she knows our relations.h.i.+p. But you’re the mastermind – you should be the one to apologize to her!”
At this moment, a cold gleam flashed across Qin Lingyu’s eyes as he shot his palm towards Yu Wanrou’s face. But Qin Lingyu managed to stop himself at the very last moment.
Yu Wanrou had countless suitors chasing her within the Sect. If they noticed a palm mark on her face, who knows what kind of mountain they would build out of this molehill.
Qin Lingyu’s eyes darkened in gloom. He lowered his head, looked at Yu Wanrou, and coldly said with a hushed voice, “There is nothing going on between us, do you understand, Yu Wanrou? Don’t you dare try to test my boundaries by starting any rumours. If I hear any such rumours spreading within the Sect, I won’t go easy on you.”
Alas! This was clearly an open threat against her. To make matters worse, this person threatening her was the same one who once held her in his embrace, a.s.suring her that she was the apple of his eye!
Yu Wanrou stared vacantly at him with streaks of tear stains on her face.
Qin Lingyu– This was the first time she had clearly seen this person’s true nature.
Just last night, the two of them were still close and affectionate with each other; yet overnight he seemed to have become a completely different person. Was this not just for the two measly Energy Rejuvenation Pills from Jun Xiaomo?
Yu Wanrou felt absolutely bitter as the waves of cold hard truth battered against her heart, threatening to shatter her reality.
Qin Lingyu realized that Yu Wanrou no longer had any intention to leave Jun Xiaomo’s abode, so he loosened his grip, walked to the side and sat atop a large stone, adjusting and collecting his own roiling emotions.
At this instant, both parties no longer spoke to each other, and the weight of the air about them seemed to have become dense and heavy. Qin Lingyu looked at a spot just beside him, as though vacantly, while at the same time as though he were in deep thought. On the other side, Yu Wanrou bit down on her lower lip and tears streaked down her eyes as she clutched onto her arm that had been hurt by Qin Lingyu’s vice-like grip. He had used so much strength earlier that her arm had already grown slightly swollen.
In the woods not too far away, two people witnessed this entire scene between Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou. They had each applied on their bodies one high-grade Invisibility Talisman that concealed not only their physical bodies, but their auras as well. Therefore, there was no way Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou could have discovered their presence.
“So that must have been the “good show” that you mentioned earlier huh.” Ye Xiuwen gave Jun Xiaomo a bemused look as he said – this young lady is rather magnanimous, isn’t she? The earlier argument between Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou clearly revealed that they didn’t have an ordinary relations.h.i.+p with each other, but Jun Xiaomo’s showing no signs of jealousy. Instead, she was merely watching intently as though she were watching a theatre show performed by outsiders.
Jun Xiaomo retrieved a green fruit from her Interspatial Ring, and she rubbed it against her teeth before crisply sinking her teeth into the fruit. As she filled her cheeks with mouthfuls of fruit like a chipmunk, she waved her hand at Ye Xiuwen, pouting slightly as she said with arrogance, “This young lady hasn’t even made her appearance yet. That was only half the show~”
Ye Xiuwen knit his eyebrows as he picked off a dry leaf from Jun Xiaomo’s hair and toyed with the leaf, saying, “Qin Lingyu isn’t a person with a bad temper. Yet today he lost control of his emotions – I wonder if you’ve set any trap for them in your yard?”
Jun Xiaomo looked at the leaf in Ye Xiuwen’s hand and coughed lightly. Then, as she dusted the dry leaves and dirt and soil from her body, she explained, “It’s not much of a trap either. It’s just a small formation array I’ve set within the yard.”
Earlier, in order to drag out the time and let Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou wait a little while longer, they even ran over to the other side of Heavenly Peak just to pick some green fruits from the trees there. As Jun Xiaomo was presently unable to operate her true energy within her body, she personally climbed up the fruit tree just to pick these fruits. However, after picking only a few fruits, she made a misstep, fell from the tree and landed on Ye Xiuwen.
With this, it would be the third time she had already fallen into Ye Xiuwen’s hands. This time she felt so embarra.s.sed that she was unable to face Ye Xiuwen or speak to him for a short while.
At present, these few dry leaves on her body were the “battle scars” from that earlier incident, including the one that Ye Xiuwen had removed from her head. At the same time, Jun Xiaomo was completely oblivious to the existence of these leaves and “battle scars” until a little while ago.
A smile crept up the corner of Ye Xiuwen’s lips, but his tone remained very calm. He slowly said, “If my guess is right, I would say that the sound of the cicadas must be fake, right? There’s no reason to have so many cicadas around in the current season.”
Jun Xiaomo’s eyes gleamed as she nodded her head forcefully, smiling as she commented, “Martial brother is still the best. You’ve managed to guess it in one try!”
Ye Xiuwen chuckled, “Little martial sister is the skilled one here. You could even think of using the sound of cicadas to disrupt their emotions!”
Even a person without any worries would grow frustrated after hearing the dry, incessant chirping of these cicadas, much less the present Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou who already had numerous things weighing on their hearts. These sounds evidently triggered the deeply hidden emotions within them, turning their frustrations into conflict in no time. The ability to think of such subtle yet effective tactics clearly proves that this little martial sister of his was not as much of a fool as what everyone makes her out to be.
It was truly a wonder how she grew to be so infatuated with Qin Lingyu in the first place.
Even though Jun Xiaomo was unable to say whether Ye Xiuwen was complimenting her when he said she was “skilled”, Jun Xiaomo nevertheless opened her eyes wide, and puffed up her chest as she said proudly, “Of course! To those who dare to scheme against me, I, Jun Xiaomo, will naturally let them have an eye for an eye – I’ll let them have it!”
“Alright, alright. Then let me ask this “eye-for-an-eye” little martial sister, when will I be able to see the second half of the show?” Ye Xiuwen played along with Jun Xiaomo’s antics as he queried, evidently curious about how things would pan out.
“There’s no hurry. Let me finish these green fruits first.” Jun Xiaomo leisurely replied, stuffing another few green fruits into Ye Xiuwen’s hands, “Martial brother you should try it too! Even though they’ve not fully ripened yet, they’re still not too bad.”
She had tried to give Ye Xiuwen some of these fruits after plucking them from the trees earlier, but Ye Xiuwen had refused. Therefore, she was trying her luck again this time.
Watching a good show with her “partner in crime” with snacks in tow – this was an absolute delight!
This time, Ye Xiuwen no longer refused the fruits. He picked up one of these green fruits and took a small bite.
Mm, it’s really not too bad. Ye Xiuwen smiled as he thought. At this moment, he discovered that he had never been so happy and relaxed ever since his clan had been annihilated years ago.
I must have been infected by this contagious young lady before me… Ye Xiuwen silently added in his heart, as he laughed at himself and shook his head helplessly. Ye Xiuwen stared into the distance, as he indulged in his own thoughts.