Lu Wei stood with his back to Mingming, his gaze fixed only on the endless sea of bamboo stretching into the distance.
He asked, “Those who cultivate immortality rarely cook.”
Naturally, Mingming wasn’t about to let him discover that her culinary skills were actually the result of her love of good food.
So she casually made up a lie. “My mother wasn’t valued in our clan. The food the kitchen sent over was often cold. Her health was poor, and I was afraid she’d fall ill if she ate it, so I taught myself how to cook.”
What she said wasn’t entirely false. Back then, the meals delivered to Lan Pavilion were often cold. By the time she had grown tall enough to stand on a stool and reach above the stove, the kitchen at Lan Pavilion had become a place filled with rising steam all year round.
Lu Wei pressed his lips together but said nothing more. The Shen Clan’s circumstances were unusual, and he had heard a little about them.
That was also why he despised the Shen Clan so deeply. They clung to outdated customs from who knew where, stubbornly conservative to the extreme.
He said to Mingming, “Since you’ve accepted my token, I will naturally instruct you on this path.”
Personal matters were personal matters. No matter how unwilling he was to see Mingming, he would still fulfill his duty as her teacher.
Hearing that, Mingming’s eyes curved into a smile. Lu Wei’s eyes were covered, so he could not see how beautiful that smile was.
Pure joy filled her misty eyes. She looked at him with unwavering focus and sincerity, as though she would quietly listen to every word he said until the end of the world.
Yet hidden deep within that smile was a trace of greed that could never be erased. She still wanted to eat him… and the meals he cooked.
They were so delicious that Mingming had yearned for them for hundreds of years.
This was Mingming’s desire, and the very shackle she had to sever if she wished to ascend.
Yet now, simply having that tiny desire fulfilled was enough to fill her with delight. In the end, she was still a demon. Her nature could not be changed.
After parting with Mingming, Lu Wei did not return to his own quarters. Instead, he headed for Lu Xuan’s residence.
At that moment, Lu Xuan was unrolling a painting in his room. He stared at the indistinct face of Qing Ming in the portrait, lost in thought.
When he saw Lu Wei enter, he picked up a brush and said, “Uncle Wei, you’re a master of painting. Come help me finish this. Give this portrait a face.”
A face… whose face? Lu Wei already knew the answer.
Absurd. Utterly unreasonable.
Lu Wei refused coldly, “I don’t know what she looks like.”
“Wasn’t your eye condition cured long ago?” Lu Xuan asked.
“Put the painting away. I never saw you this obsessed before.”
Before meeting Mingming, Lu Wei had known that Lu Xuan possessed an almost obsessive persistence whenever something caught his interest, but he had never been this irrationally consumed by it.
“Uncle Wei, you too have an obsession in your heart. What right do you have to mock mine?” A faint smile curved Lu Xuan’s lips.
“You’ve endured a hundred years of darkness for her. When you next open your eyes to see the light again, are you hoping to see her?”
“A snake…” he scoffed.
Lu Wei said nothing more. Rather than taking up the brush for Lu Xuan, he changed the subject instead. “Where is the fragment of armor you chose at the Ascension Gathering?”
“It’s an ancient relic preserved by Changxiao Palace, one of great significance. It should be returned to the palace tomorrow,” Lu Wei said.
Lu Xuan felt around inside his sleeve. Just as he was about to take out the fragment of armor, he even turned his sleeve inside out, yet there was no trace of it.
A flicker of surprise appeared on his face. “This… it’s gone.”
Lu Xuan searched himself over again and again, but still found nothing.
Lu Wei had personally escorted them back the entire way, and he was certain Lu Xuan had not lost anything.
There was no reason for Lu Xuan to hide it deliberately. If he wanted it, he could simply ask the elders of Changxiao Palace for it.
So what exactly had happened…?
Lu Xuan stood there in a daze for a long while before finally holding out his empty hand to Lu Wei. “It really has disappeared.”
After a moment of contemplation, Lu Wei said nothing further. He merely replied, “I’ll explain the situation to Wen Shao.”
With those words, he turned and left.
After he was gone, Lu Xuan lowered his gaze to his palm. No one understood the fragment’s condition better than he did.
Thinking back carefully, he recalled that while they had been on the road earlier, his wrist had suddenly grown warm, as though some change had taken place within his body.
The fragment had not disappeared. It had fused into his body.
That night, Mingming reclined on the bamboo lounge chair in the courtyard to rest. A strong breeze swept through the yard, making the night pleasantly cool.
The constant flutter of her eyelashes betrayed the restlessness quietly rising within her.
At such close proximity, she could clearly sense Lu Wei’s aura. It beckoned to her, tempting her to move closer and breathe in his scent.
How could this be? She had thought that as long as she stayed by Lu Xuan’s side, she would be able to keep her desires suppressed.
Instead, there was now an additional Lu Wei. He kept appearing right before her eyes, as though he were openly tempting her.
Even if she couldn’t eat him, simply holding him and taking in his scent would be enough to make Mingming happy.
Mingming turned over on the bamboo lounge chair, her wide sleeve falling over her face in an attempt to calm herself down.
But it was useless. Mingming could even sense the fluctuations of spiritual power radiating from his cultivation.
The instincts she had honed through years of hunting had long since been etched into her very bones. Not the slightest movement could escape her notice.
After tossing and turning for a long while without falling asleep, Mingming finally gave up. With a light leap, she landed atop the courtyard wall and rested her head against a branch extending from a nearby tree.
It was a plum tree, its blossoms carrying a cool, delicate fragrance.
Only after moving a little closer to him did Mingming feel satisfied. Her eyelids drooped halfway as she leaned against the tree, finally beginning to feel drowsy.
Just then, the sound of the courtyard gate opening came from outside. Mingming immediately turned her head. One of the plum blossoms was tugged loose by her movement, and she instinctively caught it between her lips.
With the blossom still in her mouth, she saw Lu Xuan appear at the entrance.
She happened to be perched in the plum tree closest to Lu Wei, making the scene rather difficult to explain.
Keeping perfectly composed, Mingming plucked the white plum blossom from her lips and held it out to Lu Xuan, hastily coming up with an excuse for herself.
“I was picking a flower for you,” Mingming said.
She stretched out her hand from the tree, and Lu Xuan raised his own from below, accepting the white plum blossom.
“So elegant, picking flowers in the middle of the night?” Lu Xuan glanced toward the courtyard where Lu Wei was staying and remarked coolly.
Mingming rubbed her eyes. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Why not?” Lu Xuan asked.
“You weren’t here,” Mingming replied.
That wasn’t a lie. Having someone as reserved as him by her side made her especially sleepy.
“Were you trying to sweet-talk me?” Lu Xuan laughed.
“No.” Mingming jumped down from the tree and settled back onto the lounge chair. Sure enough, with Lu Xuan here, her desires subsided considerably.
Sleepiness overtook her, and her eyes slowly drifted half-shut.
Seeing that her drowsiness was genuine, Lu Xuan sat beside her to keep her company. The feeling was strangely comforting, and the gesture came so naturally that it was as if he had done the same thing countless times before.
“Did someone used to stay with you like this?” Lu Xuan asked.
“Yes.” Mingming was already half-asleep and answered absentmindedly.
Before, it had been Lu Wei. And before that…? She had forgotten.
Memories disappeared because there was no longer any need for them to exist.
Lu Xuan picked her up and carried her into the room. Mingming had fallen into a deep sleep against him. Seeing that she gave no response, he began murmuring to himself, speaking words that seemed almost nonsensical.
“The fragment of armor disappeared. At first, I was surprised too, but later I realized I’d absorbed it myself.”
“Perhaps I have some connection to that great general from ten thousand years ago. Maybe I am him. Countless times, I’ve seen her in my dreams… No… it’s you.”
“You’ll become Qing Ming. The moment I saw you, I felt as though all those paintings and statues had finally been given a face.”
“And my heart… did it only begin to beat because of you?”
Lu Xuan gently laid Mingming down on the bed and asked her earnestly.
Mingming turned over. She was fast asleep and hadn’t heard a single word Lu Xuan had said.
Early the next morning, Wen Shao contacted Lu Wei.
“What? You’re saying the fragment of armor disappeared while it was in Young Lord Lu’s possession?”
“Yes.” Lu Wei nodded before the communication formation.
“As for that fragment… sigh… truthfully, it wasn’t all that important. According to the customs of the ancient Changxiao Kingdom, all who died were to be cremated into ashes and returned to heaven and earth.”
“For all these years, we’ve preserved the Great General’s fragment of armor as a memorial. But thinking about it now, we never truly allowed him to rest according to Changxiao’s customs.”
“Now that it resonated with Young Lord Lu and disappeared, perhaps his spiritual aura awakened the fragment’s last remnant of spiritual power, causing it to vanish on its own.”
Wen Shao did not dwell on the matter. Ancient spiritual relics all had destinies of their own, and he had no intention of forcing them to remain.
“Understood,” Lu Wei replied.
After explaining the matter, he prepared to end the conversation. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going to teach my lesson.”
“What? Lord Wuya, you’re really going to teach personally? Something like this could be left to the other elders of Changxiao Palace.” Wen Shao was astonished.
“Since she chose me, I have to fulfill my responsibility.” Although he had only handed the token to Wen Shao on a whim back then, now that someone had truly chosen him, he naturally wouldn’t cast Mingming aside.
“As expected of Lord Wuya,” Wen Shao said with a sigh of admiration.
He couldn’t help but think that the Shen Clan’s Second Miss truly had extraordinary luck. Not only had she gained the protection of Wentian City’s Young Lord, but she had also accidentally ended up with Lord Wuya’s token.
The only two remaining members of the Lu family of Wentian City had, in one way or another, both ended up connected to her.
He took out the treasure box that had originally held the fragment of armor and erased the inscription on its nameplate. The box had once been engraved with the Great General’s full name.
After the passage of history, only the surviving descendants of the Changxiao Kingdom still knew the Great General’s name.
Beneath Wen Shao’s fingertips, the two characters “Lu Ye” gradually disappeared.
The shared surname was perhaps nothing more than a coincidence. If that coincidence were to create unnecessary worries and interfere with someone’s cultivation, it would do more harm than good. So Wen Shao chose to remain silent.
Meanwhile, Lu Wei had already summoned Mingming. Within a valley shaded by verdant bamboo, he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, ethereal as an immortal.
“According to custom, you should address me as Teacher,” Lu Wei said.
Mingming rested her chin on one hand, her elbow propped on the table, watching him with a faint smile playing on her lips.
‘My, my. The little boy from the Wilderness of Eternal Night has grown up. Now he’s even putting on a stern face and asking me to call him Teacher.’
“Teacher?” Mingming called in her changed voice.
“Mm.” Lu Wei nodded coolly and placed a block of tofu onto the cutting board.
Despite possessing countless supreme techniques, he was earnestly teaching Mingming how to cook.
Mingming also took the prepared block of tofu out of the container.
“Cut it into evenly sized cubes.” With a flick of Lu Wei’s finger, the tofu split neatly into pieces. He was genuinely serious about teaching.
The moment Mingming wrapped her hand around the kitchen knife, her wrist seemed to take on a life of its own. It moved with the fluid grace of a swimming serpent, and before long, the tofu had been cut into nine perfectly even cubes.
Next came pan-frying. When it was time to add the seasonings, Lu Wei kept a straight face, rolled up his sleeve, and poured a heaping spoonful of salt directly into the pan.
“That much?” Mingming couldn’t help asking.
“That much,” Lu Wei replied with complete certainty.
She liked eating it, so this had to be the most delicious way. There was absolutely no way he could be wrong. That was what he believed.