Shi Yeshan only saw Su Zhai turn and go inside the house. He instinctively glanced at his wound, wondering if he had frightened her by making it look too severe.
He pulled his sleeve down to cover the wound and followed her inside. "What are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for gauze." Su Zhai was still in the bedroom. After rummaging around for a moment, she retrieved gauze and wound-healing medicine. Carrying the items to the guest room, she had Shi Yeshan sit on the chair.
Only when she drew close did she realize how serious his injury really was.
Shi Yeshan, remarkably, didn't utter a single sound of complaint. He just watched her, like a red panda playing.
She no longer deliberately spoke in that soft, sweet voice either, but instead added a touch of sternness: "Didn't you tell me there might be monsters in the back mountain, and that I shouldn't go in there casually?"
In fact, Qiling Peak was a Spirit Mountain famous far and wide. Spiritual Qi was abundant, and there were many monsters—and just as many Immortal Cultivators. Even the Shushan Sect had established a branch hall nearby, which was why the villagers could cultivate medicinal herbs in the area.
"Hm?" Shi Yeshan was distracted. "That thing's fine—hopping around lively as ever."
He was the one who wasn't fine.
"Don't change the subject." Su Zhai raised her voice as she cleaned his wound, frowning at him. "You're just an ordinary mortal yourself. You keep going into the mountain alone, showing off your bravery, and now you've gotten hurt."
It was a tone of reproach.
Shi Yeshan tilted his head slightly and used his free hand to brush aside the loose strands of hair hanging at Su Zhai's temple. "What kind of reasoning is that?"
His voice was low, and it sounded somewhat displeased. "When it gets hurt, you soothe it. When I get hurt, I get scolded instead?"
Su Zhai shut her mouth at that.
She and Shi Yeshan could be said to treat each other with mutual respect. They didn't communicate much, and they had never once argued.
After finishing with the wound, Su Zhai took the items and returned to the bedroom, continuing to read her storybook. Shi Yeshan did come in to take a look, but Su Zhai just kept her head down reading—and after a long while, she was still on the same page.
By evening, she went to the kitchen to make dinner, but Shi Yeshan had already gone out.
Su Zhai stood in the middle of the courtyard and suddenly touched her nose, thinking somewhat sheepishly that she shouldn't lose her temper so casually in the future.
When she'd seen how deep his wound was, and how he didn't seem to take it seriously at all, she couldn't help but feel anxious. Her tone had been harsh, and she'd overlooked the fact that the two of them were really just a marriage of convenience.
Her concern and her scolding had probably overstepped the line.
From afar came the faint crowing of a rooster, and then a solid knocking at the front door.
"Su Su, are you home?" It was the voice of the villager Liu Xiaotao. "Su Su, I've brought you some eggs."
Liu Xiaotao hadn't come alone. Sister-in-law Fang was with her, and since the two had come together, of course they would come in and sit for a while.
Sister-in-law Fang was very warm. "Su Su, no need to pour tea. I can see the household is a bit frugal—don't go to any trouble."
Liu Xiaotao said, "Su Su's husband serves at Ziqian Hall and rarely comes home, so her place is a bit cold and quiet. Su Su, why haven't you gone to play with my second sister today?"
Su Zhai just shook her head. "How could I keep troubling Erniang?"
Sister-in-law Fang narrowed her eyes. "Now that's speaking like a stranger. Neighbors are supposed to help each other. The Water Mirror we gave you last time—are you getting used to it? If you need anything else, just tell your sister-in-law."
"Su Su is just a bit shy with people," Liu Xiaotao said with a laugh. "But her heart is warm. Su Su, have you mentioned that matter to your husband yet? Your Brother Fang is rarely blessed with an Immortal Bone, but he just has no connections. We can only hope you'll bring it up with your husband. Your husband is an important man—getting your Brother Fang into Ziqian Hall shouldn't be any trouble at all."
They had already made this request the day before.
But Su Zhai found it rather awkward, because Sister-in-law Fang's husband was a very unpromising sort. His family was fairly well-off, and he had never done a day of work since childhood, clinging stubbornly to his dream of becoming an immortal. Unfortunately, he was just a mortal, and no sect was willing to take him in.
At thirty, however, he had suddenly passed some kind of Root Bone test for a place called the Qingyang Sect. But after going there, he came back within two days with a sour look on his face. Word had it that he'd been swindled out of all his money by a fake Immortal Cultivation sect—yet he still hadn't given up.
Even the world of Immortal Cultivation had its shell companies.
Su Zhai wasn't very keen on helping. She had already refused once the day before. At that time, the two of them had cornered her at Liu Erniang's house and given her an earful.
They said that the house Su Zhai now lived in had been repaired by the villagers back then, and that Su Zhai should think about that before refusing.
At the time, Liu Erniang had helped her out of the jam. Now the two of them had come to her door in person. Seeing that Su Zhai remained silent, they wandered around the house, looking it over.
"Come to think of it, back then an epidemic broke out in Shi Yeshan's hometown. His father begged for food all the way to this village and was raised on the charity of the whole village. This house—when your father-in-law married his wife back then, the whole village pitched in to build it."
"Tiger Cub had a hard lot growing up. His parents died early, and it was the villagers who raised him. Later he awakened his Immortal Bone and was fortunate enough to enter an Immortal Gate. After all these years, he's looked down on us common folk—and I suppose it's us who are reaching above our station."
Su Zhai: "…"
Wait, who was Tiger Cub?
Her husband's childhood nickname?
They were still talking back and forth, the two women carrying on their little performance by themselves—starting with stern criticism, moving to mutual consolation, and finally unilaterally announcing that they had forgiven Su Zhai.
"You're an outsider married into this village, and your husband's hardly ever home. You should be friendlier with the villagers. If anything ever comes up, we can help out."
"Su Su, so we'll leave this matter to you and your husband, then?" Liu Xiaotao patted her shoulder intimately. "I just love how sensible you are."
But Su Zhai still shook her head.
Her eyes were clear as she let out a sigh. "To be honest with you, my husband is getting on in years. He doesn't have the strength he used to, and life hasn't been easy for him in the sect."
And today he'd even managed to get himself hurt.
Having lived this long, Su Zhai still wasn't very good at refusing people.
She could only say it tactfully: "My husband's position only sounds good on paper. We're actually struggling. We're so poor we can't even afford to raise a child…"
The two older women's expressions began to sour.
But the curtain to the bedroom was pushed aside, and a chill presence swept in sideways. Su Zhai started and stood up. "You've been home this whole time?"
Shi Yeshan hummed in acknowledgment. "I was sleeping in the room."
He turned to look at the two women, his voice still fairly gentle. "Brother Fang, is it? Have him come with me tomorrow to Ziqian Hall. We'll take a look at his Root Bone first."
Liu Xiaotao beamed. "Oh, I knew Immortal Lord Shi had a kind heart, willing to help out your Brother Fang."
Sister-in-law Fang also smiled. "This is wonderful. Don't mind me saying so, but your little wife here isn't much of a friend—we've swallowed our pride and come knocking more than once for the sake of neighborly goodwill. If we'd known, we'd have come straight to you."
Shi Yeshan replied calmly, "Yes. My wife is still young and thin-skinned. If anything comes up in the future, come straight to me. I've got a thick enough face, and I can understand all that veiled mockery and insult well enough—no need for you to waste a performance."
The two exchanged a glance, their faces gradually turning pale with a hint of disbelief.
Shi Yeshan frowned again. "It's my oversight too—we don't keep a dog at home. And my wife can't tell good from bad, letting all sorts of filth into the house. It won't happen again."
…
Shi Yeshan, actually, was pretty good at arguing.
Su Zhai felt dazed, more shocked than the two women themselves. Because Shi Yeshan didn't talk much, and his temperament was even somewhat lazy—many things Su Zhai found interesting, he found troublesome and couldn't be bothered with.
So on a normal day, he seemed like a good-natured, gracious person.
Who knew that with a single casual remark, he could poison someone to death.
Beyond her shock, Su Zhai also felt a bit worried.
Wasn't it bad to sour relations with the neighbors?
Shi Yeshan had already seen them off. Back in the room, his stern face was expressionless, but Su Zhai could still detect a hint of irritation.
"We do need to get a fierce dog."
He said it out of nowhere. "What do you think?"
Today, Su Zhai had been harassed by two mortals at the door. If something similar happened again in the future, he wouldn't necessarily be home. Having a beast to guard the house would be more convenient.
If it caught a whiff of malice, it could just bite down and be done with it.
"…I suppose that's fine. But forget the little red panda." Su Zhai sat down beside him and poured him a cup of tea, her tone oddly reverent. "You—have some tea."
She'd always been afraid of people who could argue.
What a coward.
Shi Yeshan looked at her quietly, his terrifyingly sarcastic tone unchanged. "Weren't you bold enough to scold me this morning? How come you went mute in front of them?"
Just cowering there pitifully, letting people bully her.
And making excuses that he was old.
Su Zhai said nothing, silently sliding off her chair and slipping into the kitchen.
She knew she was in for a scolding too.
Just her luck.
In the courtyard, the Nine-Jointed Wolf silently vaulted over the wall again, avoiding Su Zhai in the kitchen and quickly padding over to Shi Yeshan, pressing all four paws flat to the ground in cautious submission.
It was a man-eating demonic beast, captured by Shushan Sect disciples and locked in a cell for years.
But it was small and cute, so many of the female disciples at Shushan would secretly come to pet it. Today, Shi Yeshan had grabbed it again, sending it to win over a woman's affection.
The little red panda was absolutely furious, determined not to yield.
It was a man-eating beast!! Not some fawning cat or dog!!
"Immortal Lord Ziying." The little red panda spoke in a voice like a genderless child's. "I'm willing to become… a plaything for this woman. Please don't lock me back in the dungeon."
This woman—though she was human—when she'd softly coaxed it earlier, had reminded it of its mother.
Immortal Lord Ziying frowned. "Do you eat people?"
The little red panda huffed twice, sounding defiant. "I won't anymore."
It hadn't before either—it had only been driven to desperation by hunters.
But that was just how unfair the world was. Humans could hunt, even kill for sport, but demons couldn't kill humans, even if they were starving to death the next moment.
"Utterly useless." Shi Yeshan sneered. "Get out. Crawl far away. Don't show your face again."
…
Su Zhai kept thinking she caught a glimpse of the little red panda's fluffy tail, but when she poked her head out to look, there was nothing there.
Instead, she saw Shi Yeshan coming out of the house, and she quickly pulled her neck back in.
"Don't cook," he said. "I'll take you to the restaurant in town."
But it was almost dark.
From home to town, it would take at least half an hour on foot, and for the sake of a single meal, they'd have to walk back in the dark.
Su Zhai replied from the kitchen, "I'm not going. The food's almost ready."
Cooking in ancient times was inconvenient, but luckily there was a magical artifact under the stove that could produce fire, controllable like natural gas—it could be turned on and off at will. Su Zhai even discovered that this artifact could understand human speech.
This was the benefit of her husband working at an Immortal Gate sect—the house was full of these convenient little gadgets. Su Zhai noticed that no one else in the village had such things, and she never made a fuss about it.
"Turn off the fire." Su Zhai kicked the stove, but the flames suddenly surged higher, a tongue of fire licking up and grazing the back of her hand. Su Zhai dodged hastily, feeling bewildered.
The stove had already gone out.
"Are you angry?"
Shi Yeshan blocked the kitchen doorway, studying her face, which still carried a hint of fiery irritation.
Su Zhai: "…No."
What did she have to be angry about?
The sky had already dimmed to dusk. He stood against the light, most of his face hidden in shadow, she didn't know how long he'd been watching her.
Like a quiet, still shadow.
"But I'm angry."
Shi Yeshan's tone was somewhat strange. "It's a bit unreasonable, I know."
Shi Yeshan got injured, and instead Su Zhai put on a stern face and scolded him.
Su Zhai was bullied by someone coming to her door, yet Shi Yeshan harbored some inexplicable displeasure toward her.
The two of them—both a little odd.