Lu Heng looked at Ya Fei.
Those peach blossom eyes, which usually held three parts smile and seven parts shrewdness, were now covered with a layer of heartbreaking mist.
Sister Ya Fei didn’t make a scene or question him; she just looked at him quietly, her fingers gripping the spoon so tightly that her knuckles turned pale from the force.
This stance clearly showed she thought he was leaving and never coming back.
Lu Heng sighed in his heart, and the joke that was on the tip of his tongue was forced back down.
He had originally wanted to tease Ya Fei by saying something like “Yeah, the world is so big, I want to go see it,” but seeing the tears swirling in her eyes, stubbornly refusing to fall, Lu Heng’s playful thoughts vanished instantly.
“Yes, I have to leave.”
Lu Heng nodded slowly.
“Clatter.”
The spoon in Ya Fei’s hand slipped and fell into the bowl, splashing a few drops of thick rice soup onto her expensive red dress.
She didn’t wipe it, just lowered her head, her voice somewhat choked: “When?”
“In the next day or two.” Lu Heng stood up.
Ya Fei’s body trembled slightly; she didn’t look up, seemingly trying her best to control her emotions, her shoulders slumped as if her spirit had suddenly been drained away.
In the next second, a pair of arms that weren’t very broad and were even a bit youthful wrapped imperiously around her waist.
Although Lu Heng was not even eleven years old and his height only reached Ya Fei’s chin, it didn’t stop him from showing his dominance at this moment.
He took a step forward, buried his face in Ya Fei’s fragrant embrace, and hugged her tightly.
“Sister Ya Fei, what on earth is going on in that head of yours all day?”
Lu Heng’s voice came muffled from her chest, carrying a hint of a helpless smile:
“I just feel that my current actual combat ability is too poor.
It’s a waste to have all this Dou Qi and Medicinal Pills if I’m likely to suffer a loss in a real fight.
So I plan to head to the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range near Qingshan Town to find a few blind First-tier Magical Beasts to practice on.”
Ya Fei’s body stiffened for a moment, then gradually softened.
“Just…
training?”
Ya Fei asked somewhat uncertainly, her palm subconsciously stroking Lu Heng’s back, feeling his body heat through the fabric.
“Otherwise?
Where did you think I was going?”
Lu Heng looked up, his chin resting against her soft heart, looking up at the beautiful face so close at hand,
“My life was saved by Sister Ya Fei.
Even if it’s just to be better at living off a woman in the future, I have to toughen up this body of mine, right?”
Hearing the words “living off a woman,” Ya Fei’s originally desolate mood mostly dissipated.
“Really?”
“Truer than gold coins.”
Lu Heng said seriously, “Two months at the shortest, half a year at the longest.
Once I’ve honed my Dou Techniques, I’ll come back even if I have to crawl.
After all…”
Lu Heng leaned in a bit closer, his warm breath fanning over Ya Fei’s slender neck as he smirked:
“I can’t bear to leave Sister Ya Fei alone in an empty room.
If some blind fool were to poach you, who would I go to cry to?”
“Slap.”
Ya Fei slapped him on the back in annoyance, the force as light as if she were dusting him off.
“Glutton for talk!
You’re only so old, yet you already know how to be so smooth-tongued.”
Although she scolded him, after that slap landed, Ya Fei’s hand didn’t withdraw; instead, she tightly gripped the clothes on Lu Heng’s back.
Tears that had been suppressed for a long time finally slid down her charming cheeks, dripping onto Lu Heng’s forehead, scalding hot.
“Go if you want to go, I’m not holding you back with a rope.”
Ya Fei sniffled, her voice thick with nasality,
“But Lu Heng, you remember this: if you dare to come back missing a single hair, I’ll…
I’ll…”
Ya Fei was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say.
The corners of Lu Heng’s mouth curled up as he held Ya Fei even tighter…
On this day, a rare thing happened at the Mite’er Auction House.
Ya Fei, the chief auctioneer who wished she could live at the Auction House three hundred and sixty-five days a year, actually took a leave of absence for the first time.
In the Appraisal Room, Gu Ni looked at the mountain of files waiting to be audited on the table, then at the “leave note” Ya Fei had sent—which was actually just a sticky note saying “Busy today, do not disturb”—and his old face wrinkled into a ball.
“What kind of situation is this…”
Gu Ni slapped the note onto the table.
But there was nothing he could do; who told Lu Heng, that Prodigy, to give him so many surprises?
“These two had better really be off doing something serious.”
Gu Ni sighed, muttering while fiddling with his abacus,
“Young people these days don’t even look at the occasion when they’re in love.
Even if they don’t care about the occasion, this kid Lu Heng is so young yet so good at coaxing the Young Miss.
He even uses an old man like me as hard labor…”
Meanwhile, on Qingping Mountain outside Wutan City.
The sun was just right, and the breeze was not dry.
There was no clamor of the Auction House here, no intrigue between families, only wild flowers all over the mountains and the crisp chirping of birds.
Lu Heng lay on the grass with a foxtail grass in his mouth, his hands pillowed behind his head, squinting at the azure sky above.
Ya Fei sat beside him, not wearing her signature red brocade robe, but having changed into a plain light-cyan dress, looking less glamorous and seductive and more like a gentle neighbor sister.
“Open your mouth.”
Ya Fei was peeling a purple grape, and the translucent flesh was held to Lu Heng’s lips.
Lu Heng cooperated fully by opening his mouth, even nipping Ya Fei’s finger as his tongue lightly swept the grape away.
“Are you a dog?”
Ya Fei withdrew her hand as if struck by an electric shock, her face flushing slightly as she glared at him.
“This grape is sweet.”
Lu Heng said indistinctly while chewing the grape,
“But not as sweet as Sister Ya Fei.”
“Talk nonsense again and I’ll cut your tongue off to go with wine.”
Ya Fei snorted, but the upward curve of her mouth couldn’t be suppressed no matter what.
Throughout the day, neither of them mentioned cultivation, the Auction House business, or tomorrow’s departure.
They were like the most ordinary siblings, or perhaps like a young couple in the early stages of a relationship, chasing wild rabbits on the mountain, catching crabs by the stream, and leaning together to watch the clouds change when they were tired.
Lu Heng watched Ya Fei run across the grass, disregarding her image to catch a butterfly, her skirt fluttering and her laughter crisp.
At that moment, he felt that the “Golden Queen” who was so adept at social maneuvering in the arena of fame and fortune had disappeared, replaced by just an eighteen-year-old girl named Ya Fei.
Yes…
at the end of the day, Sister Ya Fei was only an eighteen-year-old girl after all…
until the sun set in the west, stretching their shadows very, very long.
On the way down the mountain, Ya Fei walked very slowly.
“Little brother.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think the world outside is really that exciting?”
Ya Fei looked at Wutan City as its lights gradually flickered on in the distance, her voice sounding somewhat ethereal.
“Exciting, but dangerous.”
Lu Heng took Ya Fei’s hand; it was a bit cold,
“However, no matter how exciting it is outside, I will always come home.
Because Sister Ya Fei is at home.”
Ya Fei’s fingers trembled, then she squeezed Lu Heng’s palm tightly in return.
“Little brother…”
“Sister Ya Fei…”