"Di Fuyi, how could you just leave after picking up a girl! There"s no way you would be like what Headmaster Gu had said, a heart thief who lets go of his prey after they have gone stale for his taste... and leave me alone here weeping through the seasons..."The liquor had seeped into her melancholy. She had drunk too much unknowingly and could not restrain herself from kicking the trunk of the tree, scattering down the snow stacked on the branches.
Someone sneezed under the tree. Gu Xijiu looked down and saw a young man clothed in light purple who was as exquisite as a jade tree. He looked at her straight in the face, "No wonder I couldn"t find you anywhere. You"ve come here to drink your sorrows away."
It was Ying Yannuo, her latest partner.
He raised himself up and landed on the branch next to Gu Xijiu without striking a posture of any kind, sitting face to face with her.
Ying Yannuo carried a natural fragrance with him, a quiet and cold redolence that was similar to the aroma on Di Fuyi"s clothes, yet at the same time vastly different, as though it had lacked some sort of essence, and had a fainter scent with an additional touch of bamboo.
Gu Xijiu felt especially close to nature every time she went near him, with the surrounding air much more pristine than usual.
"What are you doing here looking for me in the middle of the night?" Gu Xijiu was not in a particularly good mood and did not want to speak much to him.
With one hand on his leg, Ying Yannuo replied straightly: "To drink with you."
At this moment Gu Xijiu would not reject drinking liquor. She generously tossed him a calabash of liquor: "Here, drink this! It"s really something!"
Ying Yannuo removed the lid on the calabash, threw his head up to take a sip and raised his thumb in praise. "Good stuff!" He sized her up again. "How much liquor did you bring with you?"
"A lot, enough for you to drink for eighteen rounds!" Gi Xijiu patted her storage bag.
Being a heavy drinker, Gu Xijiu had all sorts of exquisite liquor in her bag. They were local products bought from places she had gone to during missions, and most of them were hard liquor.
The two of them sat on the branch and took turns in drinking the liquor.
"Boss Gu, you have anything weighing on your mind?" Ying Yannuo looked at her, his eyes flowing like waves.
Gu Xijiu raised her eyebrow. "What could I possibly have weighing on my mind?"
Ying Yannuo smiled, "Longing for someone by looking at the object a.s.sociated with the person?" He swept his hand round the courtyard. "I"ve heard that you were quite close with Celestial Master Zuo…...This is his courtyard, right? You must be thinking of him if you came here to drink..."
Gu Xijiu did not indicate neither consent nor dissent to his response and took a sip of liquor: "You"ve heard quite a lot!"
She took another sip. "You"re quite noisy, but there is a fallacy in your thinking. According to your logic, I must be thinking of him if I drink here in his courtyard. Then if I"m drinking at the beach, am I thinking of the prawns and crabs in the ocean?"
Ying Yannuo halted, then laughed, "So you"re really not thinking of him?"
Gu Xijiu"s heart burned with anger. "Babbler! Of course not, I came here to drink because it"s quiet here and there"s no one to distract me—I never thought that you would come to this place finding me. This place is strictly off-limits to outsiders. If I let Headmaster Gu know that you"ve come barging in, I"ll make you kneel on a bed of nails!"
"That"s nothing; my kneecaps are hard enough, I"m not afraid to kneel on that." Ying Yannuo was totally unconcerned and patted the calabash of liquor: "Think of me coming in here as risking my life to accompany you. There"s no cla.s.s tomorrow, let"s drink till we"re drunk tonight!"
"Sure, drink till we"re drunk!" Gu Xijiu dropped her empty calabash on the ground with a smack. This time, she took out a huge jug——
As they had a mission to go to the day after tomorrow, Gu Canmo let them take a day off. Even if Gu Xijiu made a drunkard out of herself tonight, she would not cause any hold-up tomorrow.