The sudden pain of her hair being tugged elicited a cry from He Zhuoming.
The girl in white was so startled that the comb dropped from her hand; she panicked and knelt to the ground. He Zhuoming was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly reached out to pull her up. “Why are you kneeling to me… get up, get up quickly!”
The girl looked slender and frail, but He Zhuoming discovered she couldn’t pull her up from the floor at all.
Not believing it, she increased her strength, but the girl remained motionless, head bowed and kneeling, her forehead nearly touching the floor, only her shoulders trembling.
At a loss, He Zhuoming looked up at Lin Qingyun, carefully asking with her lip movements: What’s the situation here?
She had assumed these girls were like Lin Qingyun, disciples of the Pear Garden who were just lower in rank and thus ordered about by him—much like a student in school assigned by a teacher to collect homework or check recitations.
But seeing how terrified the girl was, even someone as slow on the uptake as He Zhuoming finally realized that these people seemed to occupy a much more subservient and lowly position.
Lin Qingyun walked into the room, picked up the comb from the floor, and spoke in a light, casual tone, “You may leave. Don’t stay here.”
The girl in white scrambled up with her head down, her back hunched, and retreated backward out of the room with an attitude that could only be described as terrified and cautious.
He Zhuoming rubbed the spot on her head where her hair had been tugged, puzzled. “That girl seemed really scared…”
“What do you call her?” Lin Qingyun asked.
“Sister—is that not the right way to address her?”
Lin Qingyun thought for a moment and shrugged. “It’s fine, call her whatever you like. Come here, let me see where your hair was tugged.”
She waved him off, ignoring him, and turned to continue peering into the bronze mirror. “It was just a little pull. My mom often pulls my hair when she combs it, too. Wow, this hairstyle—it’s so complex, why does it wind around so many times?—is it done?”
“But why was that girl so scared? Isn’t she a disciple of the Pear Garden?”
“She is a handmaid of the Divine Palace, responsible for tending to the idol of the Pear Palace Earth Immortal.”
“Wouldn’t her status be very high?” she asked in surprise.
“No matter how high the status, one cannot harm a guest.”
He Zhuoming was even more astonished. “…I’m actually a guest? I thought I was just a friend of yours bumming a place to stay.”
The smile that had been faint on Lin Qingyun’s face—when confronted by He Zhuoming’s wide-eyed, incredulous expression—couldn’t be held back, and he burst into laughter.
“Hmm, that’s true, Xiao He is a friend bumming a place to stay, not a guest. Alright, take out the gold; I’ll help you estimate how much it’s worth.”
Hearing that it was time for business, she immediately stopped looking in the mirror and brought over the red silk bundle she had never let out of her sight—even while taking a bath, she had kept it within her line of sight, never letting it leave her.
Opening the bundle, she revealed a pile of brightly colored beads and a piece of gold hammered into a bizarre shape.
Traces of delicate carvings could still be seen on the surface of the gold.
Lin Qingyun picked up the gold, weighed it in his hand, and tossed it. “This was the phoenix coronet you wore when we performed the wedding rites.”
“Right,” she complained. “It took me a lot of effort to hammer it into this shape; I even got cut.”
Lin Qingyun glanced at her hand—children recovered quickly; the back of her hand was smooth, and not even a scar could be found.
However, her nails were cracked in several places; after all, those few days in the mountains had been rough.
Withdrawing his gaze, he smiled faintly. “This piece of gold weighs exactly twenty liang. If you exchange it for copper coins, it’s enough for you to settle into a two-story residence, buy four or five slaves, and you’d probably have some left over.”
“These beads aren’t worth much; they’re second-tier glaze—glaze is valuable, but these small pieces are usually scraps. They aren’t polished well, they have cracks inside, and the color isn’t transparent enough. If you find the right buyer, you could get five or six liang of silver for them.”
He Zhuoming felt dizzy from the currency conversion. After Lin Qingyun finished speaking, she sat blankly in place, taking half an eternity to digest it.
Gold, silver, copper coins… it was so complex. How many grams was twenty liang? How many grams was five or six liang? Where was she supposed to find the “right buyer”?
The mere thought made her head feel huge.
She clutched her head, only to touch the complex hairstyle she had just had done—fearing she would ruin it, she sheepishly lowered her hand.
Lin Qingyun tossed the piece of gold back into the bundle casually. “If you trust me, give it to me. I have the connections to exchange it for money for you…”
Before he could finish, He Zhuoming rushed to reply, “I trust you, I trust you!”
She bundled the gold and glass beads together in the red wedding dress, using both hands to hand it over to Lin Qingyun with a solemn expression. “I’ve entrusted you with my entire life and fortune. Once you exchange it, I’ll definitely treat you to the most expensive and best meal!”
“I don’t eat,” Lin Qingyun said with a smile.
“Are you fasting… no, not fasting—um…”
The word slipped her mind right as she was about to say it, and she grew anxious, her face scrunching up.
Lin Qingyun felt like laughing again—he pressed a finger to the dimple at the corner of his mouth, holding it back, and prompted her: “Inedia.”
“Yes, that’s it! Inedia! Are you not eating because you’re practicing inedia?”
“Hmm, something like that,” he replied vaguely.
He hadn’t intended to deceive Xiao He.
It was just that explaining these matters was incredibly troublesome. If he clarified the difference between his condition and true inedia, he would have to explain his identity, and his identity was a bit complicated…
But in this way, he, like Xiao He, now had a secret he didn’t need to confess to the other party.
Another point won.
In a better mood, Lin Qingyun stood up with a smile and greeted her: “Are you rested? If you are, let’s go find the place where you suddenly appeared and see if there are any clues.”
Hearing something related to getting home, she immediately regained her energy, scrambling up with the skirt she had been sitting on.
Standing up to smooth out the gown she had wrinkled, she still felt it was incredibly inconvenient. “Qingyun, I don’t want to wear this skirt. Can you lend me another set of your clothes?”
“Sure,” he agreed readily.
He Zhuoming changed back into the men’s clothing—a striking combination of red robes over white, and she stood next to Lin Qingyun, who wore the same.
The two looked at their reflections in the bronze mirror at the same time. She made a ‘V’ sign at her reflection and said, “Wearing clothes like this feels so much like a school uniform.”
“School uniform?”
“Back home, students in the same sect wear the exact same clothes.”
“Boring,” he scoffed.
What was the point of thousands or tens of thousands of people wearing the same clothes?
They left the room, crossing the covered corridors and the crabapple grove. Along the way, she continued looking around curiously at the overlapping eaves behind the corridors.
The residence looked large enough to house many people. Indeed, when they had first entered, quite a few people had come out to greet them.
But on their way out, she didn’t see a single person. Everything was so silent that not even a bird could be heard, and no matter which direction she looked, aside from eaves and walls, there was nothing but crabapple flowers in full, fiery bloom.
She couldn’t help speeding up a few steps to catch up to Lin Qingyun, grabbing his sleeve and whispering, “Why are there no pear trees inside the Pear Garden, but so many crabapples?”
“That’s a question for the Pear Palace Earth Immortal,” he replied with a smile. “Since he didn’t ascend the orthodox path, he’s a bit of a mixture—it’s normal for him to do some unconventional things…”
Before he could finish, she jumped up and clamped a hand over his mouth in horror.
Lin Qingyun was pushed back against the wall, his nose covered by her fingertips—the faint breaths he felt were all the scent of her skin, a warm, savory fragrance… she must have eaten jujube paste pastries while bathing earlier.
“Shh, shh, shh—we’re still in the sect dormitory!” she said gravely. “How can you speak ill of the Pear Palace Earth Immortal? What if your fellow disciples… or the Pear Palace Earth Immortal hears you!”
“Let me tell you, True Deities are powerful; you can’t even imagine their abilities!”
Although her memory of the original novel had blurred to nearly zero, she still remembered that the True Deities who appeared in the chapters she had read were terrifyingly strong, and the original male protagonist hadn’t even been qualified to face any of them head-on until the middle of the story.
Setting aside the fact that she was counting on Lin Qingyun to help her exchange money and get home, she couldn’t just let him court death after their ten-plus days of going through life and death together!
“It is said that True Deities have eyes and ears everywhere… You’re still a registered musician of the Pear Garden; you really need to be more careful…”
She babbled on with earnest advice—yet he wasn’t listening at all. After a long silence, he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled it away.
“Let’s make a pact, starting now. You are not allowed to cover my mouth again, and I won’t press your head anymore. Violators…”
His tone paused, he thought for a moment, and then said coldly, “Violators will bark like little dogs.”
She didn’t get why, but her thought process was also quite eccentric. She retorted, “That doesn’t count as a punishment, does it?”
“It doesn’t?”
“Sometimes my mom calls me a little dog directly,” she argued seriously. “This punishment is too weak—at least agree that the person who breaks the rule… hmm… must bark like a dog at the first stranger they meet that day! That one is much more effective!”
He was shocked by her words. “Aren’t you worried about breaking the rule yourself?”
“But barking like a dog at an acquaintance doesn’t count as a punishment at all.”
“…”
He skipped over the topic, reached out to press on her head, and turned her face forward. “Alright, enough of this embarrassing punishment talk—watch where you’re going and see if you can find the place where you appeared.”
The topic vanished just like that—she because she was forgetful, and he because he didn’t want to bark at strangers.
He was quite self-aware and felt that if they were really serious about it, he couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t break the rule. As for having no shame, Xiao He seemed much more able to accept being a “little dog” than he was.
…Why did Xiao He’s mother call her a little dog? And why did she seem so proud of it?
They left the residence and wandered everywhere along the stone roads.
At first, she really wanted to find the place she had transmigrated from—but they hadn’t gone far before they ran into a candied hawthorn stall.
This was followed by fritters, scallion pancakes, fried dough, and cherries in cream…
She couldn’t carry any more in her hands, so she shared some with him, wanting him to try them as well.
“Even if you’re practicing inedia and don’t need to eat, tasting isn’t the same as eating, right?”
She had already excitedly held the fried snack out to his mouth. He was all smiles, but still refused, turning his face to avoid the food and shaking his head.
Seeing his insistence, she had no choice but to eat it herself.
As she ate, she suddenly realized something. “You don’t eat—doesn’t that mean I can’t treat you to a meal?!”
He sighed with a smile. “Xiao He, you reacted so quickly, it really exceeded my expectations.”
She felt quite embarrassed. “It actually wasn’t very quick—”
“I wasn’t complimenting you.”
She popped a cherry into her mouth and sighed. “Then I’ll just have to repay you in other ways… Hey! Here, here!”
Suddenly spotting a familiar stretch of road, she hurriedly dumped the remaining cherries into her mouth, freed a hand to grab his wrist, and dragged him forward—he took a few small trots as she pulled him, his mouth drooping in discomfort.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle running, but he wasn’t used to being dragged by the wrist by He Zhuoming.
She had just been eating cherries in cream, and it seemed to have gotten on her hand. He felt the wrist she held become wet, hot, and sticky, the syrup from the cherries seemingly gluing their skin together.
Not only did it stick to his skin, but it even trickled down his wrist toward his palm, making it itch.
She let go of his wrist once they reached their destination and pointed at the stone bridge over the river, excited. “When I first transmigrated—when I first arrived here! I saw this bridge!”
“But because the clothes I was wearing were a bit different from the locals, people passing by were peeking at me. I felt really awkward, so I just kept walking down this road… in the middle… did I turn a few times? The roads here are too hard to tell apart…”
As he listened, he pinched his own palm—the skin touched by his fingertips was perfectly dry. When he looked down, his wrist was clean, leaving only a faint fingerprint where she had held him.
No water stains, no sticky痕迹 (trace) of honey water.
That illusory wet heat and itching were entirely Lin Qingyun’s own hallucination. For the first time, he learned that he, too, could experience hallucinations.
Although they found the place where she had transmigrated, they inquired around the area to almost zero effect.
Wen County had no strange legends, no ghosts or monsters, and no county records matching her situation—Lin Qingyun even checked the earth veins and spiritual power traces around the bridge, yet found no anomalies.
He Zhuoming had appeared out of thin air, for no reason, ungraspable and incomprehensible… The latter two adjectives were added by Lin Qingyun.
To him, He Zhuoming was truly just that.
As the sun sank in the west, a drained He Zhuoming trudged back to the “sect dormitory” they were bumming.
Exquisite food had long been prepared in the residence, but because her mood was poor, her appetite was too; she just tossed down a few bites to fill her stomach and went to the room he had indicated to sleep.
The person sent to find “Tang Shuayu” had returned.
Kneeling before Lin Qingyun with his forehead to the floor, he said in a low, respectful voice, “Your Highness, the person has been brought back.”
Lin Qingyun rose and walked out. The others stood quietly in place—without an explicit command, they would not react easily.
The residence was still the same exquisite place, but in the open space surrounded by crabapple trees, a dilapidated, mud-walled shack had appeared out of thin air, roofed with thatch, with faded spring couplets pasted on the lintel.
Lin Qingyun entered the room and scanned it: it was cluttered and chaotic. In the corner, a makeshift bed was piled haphazardly with thatch and fabric, where a youth in simple linen clothes was sleeping soundly.
Although his sleeping posture was unrefined and his clothing impoverished, the garments were washed clean, and with his pretty face and thick, dark, short hair, he easily garnered goodwill.
But what drew the eye most was the long earring hanging from the youth’s left ear.
I wanted to update more too… but this humble servant cannot do it. Every year’s wish is to pray that I can write ten thousand words a day…