Xiao Yu hesitated for a long time, as if struggling with some difficult choice, before finally making up its mind. It drifted over to Li Jingsheng’s face and rubbed against him: “Host, please don’t like him. He will ruin you.”
Hearing those words, Li Jingsheng felt his heart skip a beat before offering a wry smile: That is right, I almost forgot that he has that kind of ending.
Yet he quickly adjusted his mindset.
If he treated the boy a little better, wouldn’t the other person perhaps retain a shred of old affection down the road?
Never mind, and if he doesn’t, that is fine too. I am just doing this because I want to be good to someone, not expecting any return anyway.
After finishing his banter with Xiao Yu, Li Jingsheng turned in for the night. Today’s physical exertion easily ranked in the top three since he had transmigrated here.
The moment he hit the pillow, sleepiness overtook him to the point where he could barely keep his eyes open, and his consciousness blurred within moments.
Right before drifting off, however, he seemed to hear whispering noises coming from next door, as if someone was discussing something.
Before his awareness faded completely, he briefly wondered who stayed next door, and then recalled that the adjacent room belonged to Eldest Senior Brother.
Probably nagging Xifeng again.
With that thought, Li Jingsheng drifted into dreamland with a smile on his face.
As dusk gathered, lanterns lined the streets of Linxian Town for dozens of miles, illuminating the thoroughfare as brightly as day. The bustling atmosphere at night matched the daytime hours entirely.
The early summer evening breeze slipped through the gaps into the room, lightly stirring the bed curtains. Upon closer inspection, the chamber was completely vacant.
As for Xifeng, who ought to have been asleep in that very room, he was currently in Jin Yunhao’s quarters next door, venting about his bizarre encounter earlier that day.
“Senior Brother, you have no idea how unreasonable the family I visited today was! It is my first time running into such utterly senseless relatives. Their own son goes missing, yet instead of letting people help track down the real culprit, they immediately demand that we arrest their newlywed daughter-in-law!”
“If it weren’t for the fact that they are getting on in years and couldn’t handle the shock, I honestly would have wanted to give each of them a piece of my mind.”
“Unknowing, watch your words!”
Before Xifeng could finish, Jin Yunhao cut him off.
“I know you feel indignant on that girl’s behalf, but when traveling outside, you must be careful with what you say. Never act purely on impulse. If those words fall into the wrong hands, it could tarnish the reputation of our immortal sect.”
Knowing that he tended to speak without thinking, Xifeng obediently nodded at the reminder: “Oh.”
Normally he was quite mindful of his words, but today he had simply been too furious.
Earlier that day, he had gone to investigate the family where the missing person originated. Before he could even open his mouth or get a word out, the mother of the missing person had grabbed his sleeve and pointed accusingly at the newly arrived daughter-in-law, claiming she was the one who murdered her son.
The daughter-in-law had dark circles under her eyes and red-rimmed sockets. Clearly, she hadn’t been having an easy time lately; even while being berated by her mother-in-law, she didn’t utter a word, merely standing off to the side and wiping away tears with her sleeve.
Xifeng had painstakingly maintained his patience to comfort the woman, waiting until she calmed down before preparing to question her further, only for the mother to immediately flare up again, grabbing him once more to rail against the daughter-in-law and demanding that he drag the girl off to be arrested to avenge her son.
If the mother of the victim was unreasonable enough, the father turned out to be just as muddled. Seeing his wife crying and making a scene, he joined in, wailing and shouting things like how his family ever ended up marrying such a jinx.
His temper had flared right then and there. They hadn’t even investigated anything yet, and these people were already rushing to pass judgment!
So he had cooled his expression and offered them a few stern words of advice.
“The matter hasn’t been investigated yet, so we cannot make arbitrary arrests. If the two of you insist that she harmed your son, you must produce evidence. Besides, your son is currently only missing; whether he has met with foul play remains unknown. Rather than throwing false accusations around so casually, the two of you would do better to recount the events of that day clearly so we can locate your son sooner.”
Who would have thought that those very words would be met with an unbelievable twisting of intent by the couple?
“Are you taking a fancy to that vixen? You are an immortal cultivator, yet instead of arresting the bitch who killed my son, you are standing up for her?! Are you working together with her?!”
Recalling the incident, Xifeng felt as though his worldview had been shattered and reconstructed all over again. He had merely spoken a few fair and impartial words, only to end up being falsely accused in return.
What made it even more galling was that before he could even mount a proper rebuttal, they had chased him out of the house with a broom.
Glaring back at their tightly shut door, anger welled up within him.
These people were simply beyond reason!
Fired up by unprovoked rage, he grabbed the cup of tea from the table, took a sip, and complained to Jin Yunhao: “Anyway, I am not going back to that family tomorrow. They are simply too overbearing!”
Hearing him say that, Jin Yunhao naturally wouldn’t force him to continue investigating them.
“I’ll handle the investigation for that family tomorrow, Unknowing. You don’t need to do anything else tomorrow; just keep roaming the streets to see if there are any suspicious individuals.”
Feeling like he hadn’t contributed much of anything, Xifeng asked: “Senior Brother, how is the investigation regarding that scholar going? Do you want me to go check on it again tomorrow?”
Jin Yunhao shook his head: “No need. That scholar’s parents aren’t here, and he didn’t have any deeply close friends in ordinary times, only a single classmate whose relationship wasn’t particularly intimate either. There’s nothing to investigate there.”
So far, the case only involved two victims. Since there was nothing to look into regarding the scholar, they had no choice but to start from the bridegroom’s family.
Thinking of that family, Xifeng’s face turned ashen.
The hour was growing late, and after a full day of running around, both of them were exhausted. Jin Yunhao urged Xifeng to get some rest, and without further demurral, Xifeng turned and headed back to his own room.
Jin Yunhao stood watching Xifeng’s retreating figure, lost in thought.
He actually had withheld a piece of crucial information from the other. When investigating the scholar’s residence earlier that day, he had stumbled upon a suspicious detail.
The classmate had claimed the scholar was always alone and had never brought anyone else back with him, yet today, Jin Yunhao had discovered a woman’s handkerchief and sachet inside the scholar’s quarters.
Naturally, those items alone proved nothing on their own. However, he had detected a trace of demonic qi lingering among the woman’s belongings.
The demonic qi was extremely faint, virtually imperceptible unless one inspected it with extreme care.
Yet, having spent years undergoing trials out in the world, he had long grown hyper-sensitive to the presence of demonic qi.
Still, the demonic qi wasn’t dense. It should belong to a minor demon who had only recently started cultivating. Thinking this, Jin Yunhao retrieved the handkerchief tainted with demonic qi and studied it once more.
Outside the window, the moonlight flowed like water, spilling into the room and casting a rather desolate glow.
Moonlight poured into the room through the window, tracing out a square patch of brightness. As time ticked forward, the illumination slowly crept upward to light up the face of the sleeping occupant.
His brows locked in a deep frown, beads of cold sweat dotting his skin as if he were trapped in a deeply distressing nightmare.
At this point, Mo Yu could no longer tell whether he was experiencing reality or illusion. He only felt an inexplicable surge of delight within his heart.
He saw himself reach out to grab the sleeve of the person before him, asking happily: “Senior Brother, can we really go down the mountain today?”
Hearing this, the figure turned around, scooped him up, pressed cheeks against him in an affectionate gesture, and chuckled: “Of course. Master has already agreed. I heard there is a shadow puppet show at the market today, does Xiaoman want to go see it?”
Xiaoman again.
Before Mo Yu could ponder further, he heard his own childish voice reply: “Yes!”
He still couldn’t make out the person’s face, but the presence of that individual felt hauntingly familiar.
The scene shifted abruptly, and they arrived at the market at the foot of the mountain.
The person treated him to shadow puppets, strolled through the market with him, and purchased numerous quirky little trinkets.
Finally, there was the skewer of candied hawthorns that had caused him to lose control earlier today.
The person had bought him a stick of candied hawthorns.
At last, he realized where that familiar sensation originated.
The person before him bore a striking resemblance to Senior Brother. Not in facial features, but in attire, demeanor, and actions.
Anxious and unsettled, he watched the events unfold.
The dreamscape shifted once more, advancing to his youth. The red-robed youth standing before him possessed an even more striking physique, and when he turned back to smile, Mo Yu felt his heart skip an accelerated beat.
The youth seemed to have been punished by their master, standing alone in a peach grove to practice horse stances with a small cup of tea balanced atop his head.
It was the transition between spring and summer, and the sun blazed fiercely in the distant sky. Just sitting nearby to keep company caused him to work up a heavy sweat.
Yet an hour passed, and the youth’s horse stance remained rock-solid, the water in the teacup atop his head not rippling even a fraction.
After another hour or so elapsed, he saw his past self walk over to the youth, murmuring in a low voice: “Senior Brother, time’s up.”
The youth maintained his original posture, merely shifting his gaze toward him with an unconscious hint of entreaty in his eyes: “Junior Brother, could you help Senior Brother take the teacup off my head? My legs have gone numb.”
Mo Yu watched his past self nod, then approach the youth to lift the teacup from his head.
As he moved away, he noticed a peach blossom petal falling onto the youth’s shoulder and reached out to brush it off. Just as he stepped close, the youth lost his balance and tipped directly toward him.
The petal that had just been retrieved drifted aimlessly back into the air in a flurry.
“Ah, Junior Brother, apologies! My legs are simply too numb, I couldn’t control myself.”
Feeling the youth’s breath fan across the side of his neck, his heart rate spiked uncontrollably.
The teacup he had been holding moments ago had long since rolled off somewhere. The youth seemingly tried to brace himself up, but due to keeping his arms raised for too long, his muscles lacked strength. The moment he lifted himself half an inch, he collapsed right back against Mo Yu’s chest.
He heard the youth’s mortified, breathy voice: “Junior Brother, I am truly sorry. My arms have gone numb too, I honestly can’t get up.”
He saw his past self swallow hard, then wrap one arm gently around the youth’s waist, his voice raspy: “It is fine. Senior Brother can just lie here and rest for a moment.”
Mortified beyond belief, the youth took quite a while before managing to speak: “Then, thank you in advance, Junior Brother.”
By this point, Mo Yu found the person resembling Senior Brother more and more, even the way he acted shy was identical in every detail.
Before he could reflect on it further, the peach grove vanished from his sight, replaced once more by that heart-wrenching purgatory.
Amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he once again beheld the red-robed youth collapsing before him.
And this time, he finally caught a clear glimpse of the person’s face.
It was Senior Brother.
The next second, Mo Yu snapped awake from the nightmare. The sheer volume of information packed into the dream left his head throbbing with a splitting pain, as if it were about to burst.
If he hadn’t misidentified the face just now, the red-robed youth who appeared in his dream was none other than Senior Brother.
Yet, Senior Brother had never treated him with such affectionate intimacy in reality.
Where on earth did that dream come from, then?
If it was a glimpse of the future, past events were also mixed into the sequence.
At that thought, a splitting headache assailed Mo Yu.
As the final image flashed across his mind, he thought with lingering dread:
He almost hoped that person wasn’t Senior Brother.
Recalling the sensation of gently wrapping his arms around the other’s waist in the dream, Mo Yu’s dark eyes grew increasingly profound.
I want to hold him like that again.