Luxi City could be considered a large city capable of being named in the Immortal Continent. Early in the morning, the streets were already bustling with people squeezing against each other.
Husheng walked amidst the crowd, tugging Ji Yunlang’s sleeve and looking around curiously, while not forgetting to complain a few sentences, “If you wanted to come yourself you should have spoken earlier! Letting me kneel there for so long in vain.”
“I didn’t let you kneel; it was you who wanted to kneel on your own accord.”
As Ji Yunlang spoke, he walked to the roadside to buy two flatbreads. When giving the money, the boss saw his eyes, pointed at him, and shouted in terror, “Ah! You”
With a movement of Ji Yunlang’s fingertips, he let the money fly into the boss’s pocket on its own accord, and condensed a massive golden ingot with spiritual light on his stall, “What, haven’t seen an Ingot Immortal?”
The boss suddenly saw the light, receiving the spiritual light of the ingot, and holding his palms together bowed three times toward him: “Immortal bless, Immortal bless, make a great fortune this year.”
Ji Yunlang nodded, leaving together with Husheng, dropping a sentence, “Bless you.”
“Why bless him?” Husheng grasped the two flatbreads to chew them together, “He pointed at you like that; shouldn’t we smash his stall?”
Ji Yunlang said: “When I was your age, the moment I went onto the street I would smash stalls. Whoever looked at me a couple more times, I would smash them completely clean.”
Husheng swallowed a mouthful of flatbread, “What happened later?”
“Later I compensated until my Master was impoverished. He said he himself had no money, and told me not to smash people’s stalls in the future.”
“So you didn’t smash them anymore?”
“Correct.” Ji Yunlang educated him, “Therefore don’t you smash people’s stalls outside either; otherwise I’ll still have to spend money to compensate.”
Husheng nodded, “Oh.”
After strolling for another bit, Husheng finished chewing the flatbreads, slapped his forehead, and said, “Not right ah.”
“What’s not right?”
“Why do we have to compensate if we smashed the stall?”
Ji Yunlang: “In truth, I also asked my Master this phrase.”
Husheng: “What did he say?”
“He let me guess.”
“Then have you guessed it now?”
Ji Yunlang said: “No.”
Husheng: “Oh.”
Husheng possessed a large appetite, and to him the streets were completely full of fresh food items. Strolling all the way, eating all the way, Ji Yunlang acted as the Ingot Immortal all the way, blessing the entire street, exchanging for the favor of countless stall owners.
Husheng swallowed the final mouthful of butterfly pastry, and smelling a scent, walked to a steamed bun stall. This turn had no need for Ji Yunlang to open his mouth, first saying light-car-and-familiar-road: “Give me two of every filling!”
Ji Yunlang had discovered since just now that he ate too much, looking at him with puzzlement, “Did I always abuse you in the past to make you unable to eat your fill?”
“Not at all.”
“Then is it that the food I cook is not delicious?”
“Of course not; you cook food most deliciously.”
During the interval of waiting for the buns, Husheng turned his body around to explain to him, “But no matter how delicious it is, it cannot possibly encompass the world’s delicacies. There are always some you haven’t made. Having been trapped at home for so long, managing with great difficulty to be able to come out, naturally I must taste them all; otherwise I absolutely will regret it!”
Ji Yunlang cast down his eyes lost in thought.
Husheng waited for a bit, but the buns unceasingly weren’t ready. Looking with puzzlement, he found the stall owner was currently supporting a lotus leaf with one hand, maintaining the posture of placing buns, staring blankly at Ji Yunlang.
Husheng understood, tugging Ji Yunlang’s sleeve to bring him back to reality, “Ingot Immortal, you’ve frightened a person again.”
Ji Yunlang raised his eyes, and a massive golden ingot spiritual light condensed from his fingertips flew toward the stall owner. Just as he was about to speak, he discovered the expression with which the stall owner looked at him wasn’t quite right.
He raised his eyebrows, “You know me?”
The stall owner was a young woman, wearing coarse cloth and linen garments, her long hair neatly coiled into a roll tied on the top of her head. Brought back to reality by Ji Yunlang’s question, she hurriedly shook her head, and following that placed buns onto the lotus leaf, yet her movements were flustered and hurried, accidentally dropping all the packed ones out completely.
The fragrant buns rolled onto the ground and caught mud. Husheng swallowed his saliva with heartache, “Don’t you be anxious, elder sister, and don’t be afraid either. This purple-eyed person is the Ingot Immortal, capable of blessing you to make a fortune!”
The woman cast down her eyes, nodding, “Okay, s-sorry, I will fetch them for you anew…”
Following that, until she handed the buns over and Ji Yunlang finished paying the money, she never raised her head to look at Ji Yunlang even a single glance.
There were too many buns, so Husheng had no way to eat while walking. Ji Yunlang found a riverside stone chair to let him sit down to eat.
Husheng looked at the small bridge and flowing water in front of his eyes with puzzlement, “Does a bustling market also possess this kind of scene?”
Ji Yunlang said: “Man-made scene, specially made for you to rest when tired from strolling. The scenery outside the city is vastly larger than this.”
“So it turns out to be like this,” Husheng chewed the buns, again becoming melancholic, “Then wouldn’t it mean I have no opportunity to see larger scenery? When do we return?”
Ji Yunlang lowered his head to look at him, asking: “When do you want to return?”
Husheng buried his head to eat, not daring to speak.
Ji Yunlang’s gaze again fell toward the front. It was about to be the Beginning of Spring, yet the sky still hadn’t returned to warmth. The pedestrians on the street still wore not a little, clothes squeezing against each other to cross that small stone bridge.
Unbeknownst to him whether Jiang Zhou was cold or not.
Having locked the person for long, Ji Yunlang always felt his Master had changed into a useless person. The moment he wasn’t beneath his own eyes, he couldn’t suppress thinking: Does he in the end understand to eat when hungry, and wear when cold?
Ji Yunlang was just about to feel heartache for him, when immediately following that he thought about how Jiang Zhou had already plucked down his wrist chain, and wouldn’t be hungry nor would be cold. If he truly wanted to hide himself away, dodging into the deep mountains and old forests for a hundred years without coming out, then Ji Yunlang wouldn’t be able to find him.
Ji Yunlang didn’t feel heartache for him anymore, beginning to hate him.
He rose, saying to Husheng: “You eat slowly; I’ll go walk around.”
He walked onto the bridge, looking down into the water. The ice on the river had long since melted, the water faintly green, with fish swimming.
The first time meeting Jiang Zhou was precisely inside this river that was neither large nor wide. This place hadn’t changed much even after a dozen-odd years passed.
At that time he was ten years old, much smaller in build than Husheng right now. A large rock was tied onto his chest, and the moment he fell into the water, he sank toward the river bottom without stopping for a single instant.
A torrential rain broke out from the sky with a hualala sound. Lying at the bottom of the river, he could still see the silhouettes carrying umbrellas coming and going on the bridge. In truth the water was exceptionally shallow; even after raining for so long it hadn’t changed to how deep. If there wasn’t that rock, he wouldn’t drown even if he swam inside for a whole day.
The rock pressed against his chest, and the cold, fishy water poured into his mouth and nose, mixed with a faint scent of blood. This was because his left hand held an eyeball tightly grasped, which didn’t loosen no matter how.
He knew what that man wanted to do to his ten-year-old younger sister. That man wasn’t many years older than him, and Ji Yunlang easily dug out one of his eyes until he was blind.
Later a large crowd of people barged into his home. His father and mother held his younger sister unceasingly kowtowing to them, and then trembling lowered their heads, allowing that crowd of people to drag him out of the house door.
Ji Yunlang didn’t remember how long he lay at the bottom of the river—lying from night until dawn, and again from dawn until the night of the second day. The people on the bridge came and went, yet nobody knew a child was pressed underneath.
He seemed to die very slowly; every time he reached the critical point of suffocation he would violently startle awake to restore consciousness. This wasn’t any good thing; his entire person sank into a cycle of suffering.
That eyeball had long since soaked until it was swollen, and unbeknownst to him when it had already been pinched to pieces by him, completely consumed by the small fish wandering around.
Ji Yunlang thought at that time: It would be good if a large fish came to eat me up too. Later Jiang Zhou appeared not to eat him, but to save him.
Jiang Zhou carried him up to the shore from the river bottom. After Ji Yunlang got onto the shore, he vomited with a “Wah” sound, making a body full of water all over him, and even spewed out a fluttering small fish onto his shoulder.
Jiang Zhou raised his hand. Ji Yunlang thought he was angry and about to beat a person, thinking in his heart whether he prepared to beat his head or beat his face.
He was the savior of his life; if he beat him then beat him, but regardless of where he beat he could only beat once. If he beat a second time, Ji Yunlang absolutely would get anxious with him.
The anticipated slap didn’t fall down. Jiang Zhou pinched up that small fish, pinched his face to make him open his mouth, looked at the fish, and again looked at his throat, seemingly very amazed his mouth could hide a fish, asking: “Are you a kitten?”
Ji Yunlang wasn’t a kitten; a kitten wouldn’t be this pitiful. Jiang Zhou also felt he was pitiful, throwing the small fish into the water, and without seeking his opinion, brought him back to the Qingxiao Sect.
Ji Yunlang didn’t hate him anymore, beginning to miss him.
Ji Yunlang prostrated by the bridge edge looking downward, a flip of spiritual light from his fingertips catching a small fish up.
He pinched up the small fish’s slippery tail, using spiritual light to wind around it, lifting it in front of his own eyes and saying: “You go find him for me; otherwise I’ll eat you.”
The crazily swaying small fish stagnated, and with a “Puff” sound spat a mouthful of water toward him.
Ji Yunlang wiped clean the water on his face, revealing a ferocious smile toward it, “Can’t find? Then I’ll eat you right now”
“Step aside! All step aside!”
Several people while shouting hurriedly darted onto the bridge, waving away the crowd to run downward. Ji Yunlang was pushed fiercely by one of them. Seeing he was about to tumble off the bridge, a section of an arm suddenly added onto his waist, restraining his waist to steady him onto the shore.
He immediately felt a round of numbness through his entire body, subconsciously turning his body around, and with a pa sound slapped the small fish in his hand onto that person’s face, “Loose—”
Four eyes met, and Ji Yunlang saw at a glance that this wasn’t a person of the Immortal Continent; having stayed in the Bafang Region for seven years, he was most familiar with the wild nature and killing intent inside those people’s eyes.
That person only intersected gazes with him for a single glance and removed his vision, loosening his waist, catching the downward-falling small fish, walking past him to throw it into the river, and then silently wiping clean his face, lifting his steps to leave.
Ji Yunlang placed his vision onto that wrapped weapon behind his back, narrowing his eyes. Just as he was awaiting to strike to intercept him, a shouting suddenly came from ahead, “Someone is fighting on the front street! Unknown whose house’s child is one matching ten! Everyone come quickly to watch ah!”
Ji Yunlang stopped in place for a moment, turning around to follow the crowd to go watch the fight.
If no accident occurred, the child capable of one matching ten on this street was only possessed by his house.
Jiang Zhou had just gotten off the bridge when Lin Xiao squeezed over with cold sweat unceasingly pouring, “That indeed was Ji Yunlang… to think you still dared clasp him, Big Brother Hu, your skill is high and your courage is grand ah.”
Jiang Zhou’s expression was as out of the ordinary, saying calmly, “Mm.”
In truth he had no necessity to strike just now.
Ji Yunlang was already this large, and wasn’t a small child, simply unable to fall down.
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if he fell down it wouldn’t matter; a physically strong and large young fellow taking a cold water bath in winter what of it?
Jiang Zhou thought about the winter of the first year he was carried away by Ji Yunlang. That year Ji Yunlang had just turned twenty years old, precisely young, his liver-fire prosperous, and the moment one didn’t follow him he would flare up into rage.
At that time Jiang Zhou had just put on two spirit-locking chains, his body completely unadapted everywhere. The moment the sky got cold he was somnolent, and the person also became devoid of spirit, not wanting to move around.
One day Ji Yunlang happened to have his interest aroused, wanting him to sit up and move on his own accord, using this to express affection.
Jiang Zhou was exhausted in body and mind, unable to lift a single bit of energy at all, doing it half-pushing and half-pulling in a complete mess, and even letting out a yawn midway—an entire appearance of being forced against his will and acting perfunctorily.
This in Ji Yunlang’s eyes became Jiang Zhou being unwilling to express affection toward him; how could this be tolerated?
He dragged Jiang Zhou to the outdoor area where snow was drifting, plucking off his outer robe, and tossing him onto the frozen spring water, asking: “Clear-minded, still sleepy?”
Jiang Zhou’s entire back pasted onto the ice; how could he still be sleepy, sitting up and saying, “Not sleepy anymore.”
Ji Yunlang nodded, squatting down his body to pinch his waist, smoothing down to touch his thigh, “Then continue? A bit more passionate, Master.”
Jiang Zhou couldn’t be passionate; he was going to freeze to death.
Ji Yunlang pressed him against the ice to kiss. In order to not let his own body have a large area of contact with the ice surface, Jiang Zhou had to do whatever he said to do, following his wish, hurriedly letting him be satisfied.
Ji Yunlang kissed him, gently stroking his back, saying happily: “If cold then hold me tightly, Master. If you don’t exert strength a bit more, it’s going to snow in a bit.”
Jiang Zhou was frozen until his blood was close to congealing. The more strength he exerted, the more excited Ji Yunlang became, stiffly carrying him to make a fuss until it snowed, a flip of his body again pressing him onto the ice.
Ice and fire intermingling, winter snow hiding spring, drifting like an immortal.
After the affair finished Ji Yunlang had no business at all, but Jiang Zhou being cold and warm like this directly developed a grand fever, paralyzed on the bed dizzy for half a month; only at that time did he know what was called truly drifting like an immortal.
Ji Yunlang fed him medicine, drilling into the quilt that was warmed hot by his body, kissing his lips that still carried remnants of medicine fluid, furrowing his brows and saying: “Truly bitter.” He then let him open his mouth to continue kissing, strictly needing to kiss until the mouth was devoid of bitter taste before letting him off.
At night Ji Yunlang satisfiedly held him to sleep, his face buried in his neck-hollow, unknown whether it was chatting or dream-talk, saying: “You burn for a few more days, Master.”
Jiang Zhou hadn’t spoken for several days already, his voice still a bit hoarse upon opening his mouth, asking him, “And then warm the quilt-hollow for you?”
Ji Yunlang would then laugh, the hand holding his waist tightening, his head rubbing in his embrace, “It’s fine if you think like this too.”
The words were spoken like this, but later whenever it reached winter Ji Yunlang instead exceptionally focused on his protection against cold, not letting him develop a fever even once.
Ji Yunlang had already grown this large, and wouldn’t fall into the river, being physically strong and even less afraid of cold, so Jiang Zhou had no way to find a rational explanation for his behavior on the bridge just now.
In truth it also didn’t need an explanation.
He just hadn’t seen Ji Yunlang for several days, running into him on the street and feeling it was truly a coincidence, so smoothly he wanted to touch his waist.
Jiang Zhou lowered his head to look at his own hand.
Next time he would still touch.