Little Cutie, Come Here (1)
Xie Fei protected Xi Wen like this, and the two of them lived happily until the ends of their lives. But Xi Wen"s health was still poor, and before she turned fifty, she was already too weak to go on and died. When the familiar strand of soul left her body, it disappeared completely in just a second, so fast that Xie Fei couldn"t even grab ahold of it.
Luckily, there was still a bit of her aura left in the air. With a wave of his sleeves, Xie Fei properly stored it away.
Not long after Xi Wen died, Xie Fei followed after her and left the world. However, their complex and sweet love story became one of Great Qi"s legendary romances, eternally spoken of from generation to generation.
……Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com. If you are reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen from me.
Xie Fei stood in front of the window in a trance, facing at the bewitching petals of the red spider lilies.
He was truly curious about who that soul was, and why he indescribably had such a favorable impression towards her… What made him even more confused was that, in the ten thousand years he was cultivating, he had never seen a single trace of her. It was like she had never appeared before, like she didn"t exist in any corner of this world.
Gently twirling the jade ring on his thumb, Xie Fei quirked the corner of his lips. He could feel that they would definitely meet again. He would absolutely catch her then.
At the quiet Bridge of h.e.l.l, Houtu gracefully stepped onto the bridge, walking to the middle. She lowered her head to look under the bridge. It seemed as though the murky waters of the Yellow Springs had brightened by a shade and flowed a bit faster. After looking for a bit, an eerie light flashed across Houtu"s beautiful eyes. She began to smile in satisfaction.
After a long time, she finally began to move. In a few breaths, she appeared outside the mountain dwelling. She saw Xie Fei lost in thought, and she covered her mouth, laughing. "What is King Dizang so focused on thinking about? You"re so focused that you don"t even notice someone as beautiful as me. It can"t be that after a trip to the human world, you"ve become reluctant to leave, hmm?"
Xie Fei raised his eyes and swept over her once. Indifferently, he said, "One doesn"t visit a temple without a cause1. If there"s something wrong, come in and say it."
Houtu"s beautiful eyes narrowed. Reproachfully, she said, "You"re no fun."
Xie Fei turned towards the divan, seeming as though he hadn"t heard her. He picked up a flask of wine from the table, raising his head to drink it.
The cool and refreshing scent of wine filled the room. Houtu pushed open the door and entered the room, eyes sparkling. With a wave of her sleeves, she s.n.a.t.c.hed away the wine flask in Xie Fei"s hands. "Isn"t this the Human World Wine2 your master brewed? You brat, you really don"t know how to show filial piety to this old lady."
As she spoke, she raised the flask and downed it valiantly. After two mouthfuls, she coughed, knitting her eyebrows. "Why does it taste a little strange?"
Xie Fei"s long fingers grasped onto a scroll. Looking at Houtu, he said coolly, "I brewed this."
Houtu"s eyes rolled. She immediately threw the wine flask to the side, angrily flopping into a seat next to the table.
"Why were you looking for me?" Xie Fei glanced at her carelessly.
"Oh, I just came to see how you did at your a.s.signment," Houtu said lazily, leaning languidly on the table, her pale and white wrists supporting her head.
After all, these matters concerned that person. She couldn"t be imprudent.
Xie Fei turned to look at Houtu, his cold eyes drilling into her. He guessed that Houtu was keeping a secret from him, and that this secret was probably linked closely that wisp of a soul.
Houtu"s back went cold under his stare. With a forced smile, she prepared to crack a joke. "Isn"t this…"Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com. If you are reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen from me.
Before she finished, Ox Head and Horse Face appeared, looking anxious. "Daren, one of the malicious spirits that we imprisoned has too deep of an obsession. This subordinate can"t suppress her anymore."
"Aiyo, then I"ll leave first. I won"t disturb your work anymore." With a wave of her sleeves, Houtu immediately disappeared.
Xie Fei"s deep, dark eyes looked at the place where Houtu disappeared, his defined hands beginning to tap lightly on the table. His face was blank, but his eyes flashed with an secretive smile.
Heh, how interesting. It seems this task wasn"t so easy.
Xie Fei turned to look at Ox Head and Horse Face. Lowly, he said, "Bring her over."
The two of them accepted the order and retreated. In a short time, they brought in a blank-faced girl. When she walked, she had a bit of a limp, maybe because of a fracture. She looked like she had been fished up from a pool of blood. Her school uniform dyed was dyed red, her shoulder-length hair was stuck to her cheeks, and blood dripped from her chin to the ground.
The girl"s face was calm without a single ripple. Her eyes had no resentment, only unwillingness. Facing Xie Fei, she said resolutely, "I want to make a trade right now."
"You"ve already thought about it?" Xie Fei looked at her. "The trade is for your soul."
"I"ve already thought about it. I want them to taste the kind of suffering and pain that I endured." The girl"s eyelids lowered, her voice shaking. The events that had happened before flashed before her eyes like a movie.
……Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com. If you are reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen from me.
This girl"s name was Su Yin. When she graduated from middle school, because of her good grades, she tested into A Province"s flagship high school, Yizhong3 Provincial High School. Yizhong was a collection of the entire province"s brightest students with the best grades, and Yizhong"s Cla.s.s 1 was the cream of the crop.
Originally, Cla.s.s 1"s students were all feeder students who came directly from Yizhong"s middle school section. Everyone quickly divided into their friend groups, but Suyin, a foreigner, was still alone half a month after school started. She didn"t even have a deskmate. She sat all by herself in the corner by the window.
Su Yin"s family wasn"t wealthy at all; her parents were only normal office workers. The cost of living at Yizhong"s was especially expensive. In order to prevent from adding to her parents" expenses, when school started, Su Yin studied with all her might to win the end-of-term scholarship and settle her own costs for the next semester.
Thus she often stayed in her seat for the entire day, working on homework and studying. Adding on that she was pretty and quiet, the entire cla.s.s thought she was hard to get close to. Slowly, even more people stopped taking notice of her.
After another month, a girl named Wei Xiaoqin transferred into the cla.s.s. Because her heart disease had suddenly worsened, she had missed the time to report in, and only came to cla.s.s after recovering properly.
The homeroom teacher a.s.signed Wei Xiaoqin to sit next to Su Yin. Su Yin was always introverted and not good at talking to other people. On top of that, she could tell at a glance from Wei Xiaoqin"s manners and clothes that she was from a wealthy family, so she was even more afraid to greet her new deskmate.
But Wei Xiaoqin gave Su Yin a natural greeting, and when cla.s.s ended she struck up a conversation. After a few weeks, the two of them became extremely good friends. They ate together, split snacks together, went to the bathroom together, and even left school together, although one of them boarded at the school and one of them lived at home.
It wasn"t like couldn"t was always be this way, but, unfortunately, someone appeared. This someone was Jiang Hui, the first-place champion in the entire province for the high school entrance examinations who had directly entered the high school section.
Jiang Hui was handsome, and his grades were good. There were many girls who liked him in the cla.s.s as well as the entire school. The girls even formed a Jiang Hui Fanclub.
Unsurprisingly, Wei Xiaoqin also fell in love with Jiang Hui. After the monthly exams, she switched seats so she was next to Jiang Hui. Often, she would talk to him under the pretense of asking about test questions, drawing hate from many girls. When the president of the fanclub heard, she took a few girls and cornered her during gym cla.s.s.
In order to protect Wei Xiaoqin, Su Yin fought with the girls. In the end, Su Yin was, naturally, beaten into the ground. She was afraid her parents would worry if the matter became a big deal, so she hid in the gym closet. Wei Xiaoqin ran to the infirmary to buy lots of medicine. She sobbed and quivered as she helped Su Yin apply the medicine. When she put on the disinfectant, Su Yin couldn"t help but frown and let out a quiet sound. Her cry sent Wei Xiaoqin into even fiercer tears, until her entire body was shaking.
In the gym closet, the two girls hugged each other, crying. In tears, they vowed that even if they weren"t born in the same month, they would die in the same month.Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com. If you are reading this elsewhere, it has been stolen from me.
Since then, their relationship quickly became even better. Moreover, Wei Xiaoqin didn"t dare to offend the fanclub"s president and members. She and Su Yin decided to sit together after the next monthly exam. From then on, they were inseparable.
The day grades were published, Jiang Hui suddenly confessed to Wei Xiaoqin, and Wei Xiaoqin happily accepted. In the midst of her excitement, she broke her promise once more and picked the seat next to Jiang Hui again.
Seeing Su Yin"s disbelieving expression, Wei Xiaoqin finally remembered their decision. She looked at Su Yin, completely blaming herself. When cla.s.s ended, she immediately went to Su Yin to explain. At first, Su Yin had felt disappointed, but when she found out the reason, she immediately became happy for her good friend.
After Wei Xiaoqin and Jiang Hui started dating, the two of them were always together no matter what they did, and Su Yin returned to the time when she was alone. But not long later, Wei Xiaoqin came to Su Yin, saying Jiang Hui thought that since she and Su Yin were good friends, then the three of them should eat and study together. That way, they could avoid Wei Xiaoqin losing such a good friend because of her relationship.
Originally, Su Yin didn"t want to agree, but seeing Wei Xiaoqin"s pleading little face, she hesitantly nodded her head in agreement. After that, the three of them often ate and studied together.
But good things never last. Because of her heart disease, Wei Xiaoqin couldn"t do intense exercise. During gym cla.s.s, she could only watch Jiang Hui teaching Su Yin basketball with wide eyes. Although this was her suggestion, she couldn"t restrain her heart from firing up in envy.
Wei Xiaoqin also couldn"t be overworked or nervous, so the other two slowly surpa.s.sed her in grades. Seeing Jiang Hui"s focused expression when he explained math problems to Su Yin and his slight smile towards Su Yin, Wei Xiaoqin"s heart slowly began to feel loathing and hatred towards Su Yin.
Somehow, slanderous gossip started in the cla.s.s, saying Jiang Hui and Wei Xiaoqin had already broken up. Now, he and Su Yin had become a couple. The two of them were a perfect match, no matter if it was looks or grades. By comparison, Wei Xiaoqin couldn"t even measure up.
After hearing this, Wei Xiaoqin also went to Jiang Hui to talk, telling him not to be so close with Su Yin, she was his girlfriend. Jiang Hui didn"t agree, and even blamed Wei Xiaoqin for not believing him. He left angrily.
Wei Xiaoqin"s boyfriend was angry. Her heart was a mess. In order to win Jiang Hui"s favor, she saved money to buy him a new phone and secretly stuffed it in his schoolbag. Inadvertently, she saw his sketchbook. And, for some reason only the G.o.ds and demons knew, she stole it, putting it in her own schoolbag, and went home.
The author has something to say:
If I say it you guys probably won"t believe it, but I was brainstorming a t.i.tle for over an hour. ?_(ツ)_/?
I really couldn"t think of anything. For now let"s go with this~
T/N: The name is so cute and it"s even better in Chinese "cause it rhymes (小可愛，你過來, xiao ke ai, ni guo lai). If you can think of anything with the same meaning that rhymes, let me know ^^
1↩: "無事不登三寶殿", an idiom that means that someone always has ulterior motives. It"s talking about how people only go to the temple to pray if they have problems.
2↩: "人間玉露" translates directly to Human World Fine Liquor (or something), but the quotes indicate it"s more of a name so we get a liberal translation instead ?
3↩: I think 省一中 would literally translate to something like "Number 1 High School of the Province". That"d be a super weird name for a school in English, and it doesn"t translate well in later parts when they refer to it/other places as "一中", so I"m leaving it in pinyin.