We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 492: I Like You

Above the courtyard on Qianxue Peak, a few unusually bright stars blinked in the cold and quiet sky, like shards of ice in the depth of winter, bright enough to see, but carrying no warmth.The river of stars stretched across the middle of the sky, thicker than it had seemed a moment before, a soft and blurry scatter of broken light. Looking more closely, the light seemed to hold countless stars crowded together, or perhaps all of them sunk in a deep and undisturbed sleep.

"Oh, you dear, dear girl. What you just described, that is liking someone."

Xu Bei'er had already left Tushan Jingci's courtyard. But Tushan Jingci, sitting alone in the yard, was still thinking in a daze about the last thing Xu Bei'er had said to her before she left.

She lowered her eyes gently, her lashes blinking slowly, as though she were working hard to take something in.

The expression on the young girl's face was filled with a complexity that could not be put into words.

"So this is... liking someone?"

She murmured to herself, her voice so soft it seemed to be asking herself, or perhaps asking the quiet night around her.

"Is this what liking someone feels like?"

"Could it be that I... that I..." Tushan Jingci sat up straight with a sudden start, and her heart abruptly began to race, beating faster and faster, as though it might leap from her chest. "Could it truly be that I actually like him?"

"But how could that be possible?"

Without her noticing, a faint flush had crept up her cheeks, and the thoughts in her mind tangled into such a knot that she could not sort any of them through.

"It cannot be, it cannot be. How could I possibly like him?"

She pressed her lips tightly together, and in those beautiful fox eyes a flash of panic passed through, and a flash of bewilderment, and a thread of something she could not name even to herself then all at once, Tushan Jingci leapt to her feet, gathered up her skirt, and ran out of the courtyard without looking back.

"Young Miss, where are you going? Young Miss..."

Yueshi had been sweeping in the courtyard, and when she looked up she caught sight of her Young Miss running off in a hurry. She raised her voice and called after her.

"Elder Sister Yueshi, I am going out for a while. I will be back later!"

The young girl who was already running further away simply waved a hand, her voice scattering in the night wind.

"Really, the Young Miss... running off at this hour..."

Standing in the courtyard, Yueshi watched that disappearing figure and could not help murmuring under her breath in quiet complaint.

A faint regret stirred in her heart, a regret she had been carrying since two years ago when her heart had softened and she had let the Young Miss go and visit Xiao Mo.

Because from that day on, the Young Miss had been impossible to stop, running to Xiao Mo every other day without fail.

At this rate, when the Lady came, how was she ever going to explain this?

The moonlight flowed like water, drifting quietly through the bamboo grove.

Xian Xichun was lying in a hammock strung between two thick bamboo trunks, dozing at his leisure.

Over these two years, Xian Xichun had not spent the whole time seated on that stone. After all, when the days stretched long, one needed to be comfortable. So he had rigged himself this hammock between two sturdy bamboo stalks, allowing himself to sleep a little more easily while keeping watch through the night.

As for whether anyone might come under cover of darkness to make an attempt on Xiao Mo's life, Xian Xichun was less concerned about that than he had once been.

For one thing, since that assassination two years ago, the Tushan clan had not sent anyone to trouble Xiao Mo again. And even if someone truly came, his life-bound flying sword would stir.

Much like it was doing now.

Xian Xichun's life-bound flying sword, which had already developed a spiritual awareness of its own, hovered quietly in midair, its tip swaying gently from side to side like an alert hound keeping watch over its surroundings against any who might come with ill intent.

After a moment, the sword suddenly stilled in place, its tip trembling slightly, and threads of sword energy began to rise from it as it pointed with precision in one particular direction but very quickly, as though it had sensed a familiar presence, the sword eased back and resumed its earlier, unhurried swaying.

Xian Xichun, lying in his hammock, slowly opened his eyes and gave a yawn, saying to himself with an air of tired resignation, "Really now, coming at this hour too? Do young people these days truly have so much energy?"

He shook his head, turned over, and with a casual gesture set up a barrier around himself, hoping to shut out all disturbances from outside but before long, someone stepped through the barrier.

Tushan Jingci arrived carrying a food box, bent down toward Xian Xichun, and called softly, "Teacher, I have brought a late night snack. Teacher?"

Hearing his student's voice, Xian Xichun let out a helpless sigh.

How could he not understand what was going on? She was not truly here to bring him food. She was here to give him a clear hint to take himself away from this spot and not disturb her private night visit with Xiao Mo.

Xian Xichun sat up in the hammock and said with a look of resignation, "I can just set up a barrier and go to sleep, Jingci. I would not see or hear a thing. There is no need to actually send your teacher away."

"No, that will not do." Tushan Jingci pushed out her lips with great seriousness. "I have something very important to say to Xiao Mo tonight. What if the teacher listens in by accident?"

"..."

Xian Xichun was briefly at a loss for words. He very much wanted to ask her what she possibly expected to say to Xiao Mo when Xiao Mo could not hear a word she said but in the end, Xian Xichun only scratched his head, rose from the hammock, and took the wine and roasted chicken Tushan Jingci held out to him. "All right, all right. I suppose I will have my late night snack at the second watch hour then."

With that, Xian Xichun walked off helplessly toward the other side of the bamboo grove, muttering as he went, "Really, who eats a late night snack at the second watch hour?"

After Xian Xichun had moved away, Tushan Jingci turned and walked into Xiao Mo's courtyard.

She sat down beside Xiao Mo, cupped her soft, pale chin in both hands, and like a peony blooming in quiet stillness, looked at him without making a sound.

"Xiao Mo, I have come to see you again tonight."

Tushan Jingci began softly, as though Xiao Mo before her was not in seclusion at all, but simply sitting and listening to her in silence.

"Xiao Mo, I came to find you tonight because there is something I need to tell you." Tushan Jingci sat up straight, placed her hands neatly in her lap, and spoke with a sober, earnest manner. "Just this evening, Bei'er came to find me."

"Bei'er is that girl I am very close with, the one who used to cry so easily when we were young. You remember her, do you not?"

"Well, since you went into seclusion, Bei'er has stopped crying so much. She even has someone she cares for now, a demon called Xu Chu."

"The two of them are fond of each other and had an engagement, but something happened recently and Bei'er came to me in tears. The good news is that she sorted it out for herself in the end and went to find Xu Chu."

"But I am getting sidetracked."

Tushan Jingci quickly waved a hand, as though to brush away all the unnecessary details.

"The point is, what happened was, what happened was..."

As she spoke, a soft blush gradually crept into the young girl's cheeks, spreading like peach blossoms in early spring, taking on color little by little.

"What happened was, toward the end of our conversation, Bei'er asked me whether there was anyone I liked. I said there was not."

"Then Bei'er asked me whether there was anyone I particularly cared about."

"And I said, there was one person I did care about somewhat."

Tushan Jingci lifted her eyes and looked quietly at the young man sitting without movement before her. The softness in her gaze was gentle enough to overflow.

"I told her that I think about him all the time, that he fills my mind, and though sometimes he is so stubborn he makes me angry, the moment he appears it is as though I have forgiven him already. When he is near me, my whole world seems to become brighter."

"And then I asked Bei'er what liking someone actually was."

Tushan Jingci lowered her head. The fingers of both hands hooked together in her lap, fidgeting as though she were a child who had done something wrong, her fingertips twining together without meaning to.

"And Bei'er said..."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, softer and softer, until at last it was as soft as the beat of a butterfly's wings.

The faint blush on the young girl's cheeks had spread all the way to the tips of her ears, which had taken on a rosy pink.

At last, the young girl gathered her courage, drew a slow breath, and spoke quietly, "Bei'er said, that is what liking someone is."

She raised her head, and her beautiful eyes were full of shyness and a trembling uncertainty, like a single crystal dewdrop hanging on a petal in the early morning, quivering lightly, on the verge of falling at any moment.

"Xiao Mo, is it really, is it really liking someone?"

"Is this truly what it feels like, to like someone?"

In the instant she spoke the words she had been holding in her heart, it was as though something inside the young girl was gently lifted aside, and the heart beating beneath it was laid bare, warm and alive.

"Xiao Mo, does that mean I like you?"

As she spoke, the young girl rose to her feet, curled her hands into small fists, puffed her cheeks, and said with an air of indignant feeling, "Silly Xiao Mo, did you hear that?"

Her voice was barely above a murmur, and yet it carried an endless tenderness and shyness that could not be contained.

"Xiao Mo!"

"I like you."