When the call connected, a crisp, pleasant female voice came through the phone.
It made Shi Rongchuan a little uncomfortable, because the person coming to pick him up turned out to be a girl.
Earlier Great-Grandfather Jiu had only said he’d send someone, he hadn’t said, hadn’t said it was a woman!
He’d assumed people of cultivation were all men, where would a young woman be found who could bear that kind of hardship?
Then he heard the other party ask him directly, “Excuse me, are you Shi Rongchuan? Master sent me to pick you up.”
Shi Rongchuan answered politely in a very soft voice, “Hello, I’m Shi Rongchuan.”
The young man’s voice came through the phone into Yang Zengyue’s ear.
Following the sound, she spotted a man at the arrivals gate in a white T-shirt, black linen-cotton trousers, and white canvas shoes, a large black backpack on his shoulders.
This must be the person they’d come to collect.
Yang Zengyue said, “I’m fifty meters ahead of you.”
With that she hung up, and she and Chen Jia’er walked quickly over to Shi Rongchuan.
Seeing who had come, Shi Rongchuan was even more surprised, it was two young, pretty girls, no less.
Very pretty.
Prettier, at least, than many girls he’d seen, and with an especially different air about them.
Not the least bit affected.
Very forthright.
Yang Zengyue stopped in front of Shi Rongchuan, introduced herself, and briefly explained her relationship to Jiuxiao. “My name is Yang Zengyue. Daoist Jiuxiao is my master. This is my little sister, Chen Jia’er.”
Shi Rongchuan was thoroughly unsettled just then.
What he was thinking was: Great-Grandfather Jiu’s disciple, how should he address her?
Auntie, no, Grand-Aunt?
This…
At the thought, Shi Rongchuan nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.
How was he supposed to get that out of his mouth!
The girl before him might not even be older than he was!
Shi Rongchuan felt he might really be about to become a rude member of the Shi family.
Mother dearest, what “foresight” you had!
Yang Zengyue saw his discomfiture but didn’t call it out. “Come on, the car’s parked over there. Do you need help with your luggage?”
she asked considerately as she and Chen Jia’er led Shi Rongchuan toward the parking spot.
Shi Rongchuan hurriedly waved a hand. “No need, it’s not heavy.”
The silence that followed left Shi Rongchuan a bit awkward, he had no experience being this close to girls.
He had few sisters at home, and though back abroad he’d dealt with girls at parties and academic exchanges, this felt different from before.
These were two young “elders,” of the same generation as his grandfather.
So he felt rather constrained.
Chen Jia’er didn’t have the habit of going dewy-eyed at the sight of a handsome man, in her eyes, only one man could ever enter her sight.
Even a peerless beauty of a man, like this Shi Rongchuan, couldn’t rouse her interest.
Courtesy at most,
she’d never put on a coy, bashful act like other girls.
Yang Zengyue was even more so.
In her eyes, all living beings were equal,
and looks meant nothing.
A beauty?
She herself seemed pretty enough.
So Shi Rongchuan’s good looks counted for nothing at all in her eyes.
This was the first time Shi Rongchuan had been treated like an ordinary member of the crowd, and it left him feeling a little out of sorts, somehow.
Yang Zengyue was only here to pick him up, in her past life she’d never met Shi Rongchuan, never even known such a person existed, and in this life she’d probably meet him just this once, how warm could she really be?
Expecting the big shot to make conversation was out of the question, and Yang Zengyue knew Chen Jia’er’s mind too, no one caught her eye but that one person.
So once they reached the parking spot, the two got in briskly, started the engine, and prepared to head back.
Then it struck Yang Zengyue that it was noon, and she asked offhand, “Have you had lunch?”
Hearing no answer from Shi Rongchuan, she turned to look, and found him halted in front of the car.
He hadn’t gotten in…
Just now, Shi Rongchuan couldn’t for the life of him connect this pickup truck with these two girls.
Two pretty, delicate-looking girls, driving a rugged black pickup, what kind of picture was that?
Seeing Shi Rongchuan not getting in after so long, Yang Zengyue assumed he looked down on the low grade of the vehicle and could only speak up. “This is the only runabout the family has. I’ll have to trouble Young Master Shi to lower himself and put up with it for now.”
Hearing that cool tone, Shi Rongchuan realized he’d been out of line and hurried to make amends, blurting out, “No, it’s just, strange that neither of you looks like you’d choose this kind of car.”
Chen Jia’er shot him a glance and said, equally coolly, “In the village we use it to haul goods and fertilizer. If not this kind, then what kind?”
Shi Rongchuan had no idea that Yang Zengyue and Great-Grandfather Jiu made their living growing herbs, which required hauling all sorts of fertilizer and pesticide.
He’d only reflexively assumed there was no reason to choose such a vehicle, without considering that they’d chosen this type out of the family’s needs.
Shi Rongchuan knew his words would displease them, and simply shut his mouth.
He didn’t much care about the impression he made on Yang Zengyue and Chen Jia’er, being well aware he’d have no further dealings with the two girls.
Shi Rongchuan mused to himself that these two girls were utterly unlike any other Nanyuan girls he’d met, perhaps this was Great-Grandfather Jiu’s unique way of raising people?
After all, Shi Jiu himself was a man who never played by the rules, the ones he taught had probably inherited his mantle.
When they’d seen him, the two hadn’t spared him a sideways glance, without the least of the star-struck manner most people showed.
This actually put Shi Rongchuan at ease, he really had had enough of the girls at his school.
When he’d seen that the person coming to pick him up was likewise a young woman, he’d worried about the sort of scene where he’d be cornered, looked up and down, ogled nakedly.
None of that had happened,
which let Shi Rongchuan relax considerably.
Although his words had displeased the two girls, so much the better.
He could avoid a lot of awkward situations.
After all, he had to stay at Great-Grandfather Jiu’s for two or three days.
Getting no answer to her key question, Yang Zengyue asked again. This time Shi Rongchuan wasn’t hungry, he’d eaten on the plane—
so he said he’d already eaten.
Yang Zengyue and Chen Jia’er had bought bread at the supermarket, and feeling a bit peckish now, each took a bottle of water and a piece of bread and polished them off in a few bites.
Then Yang Zengyue started the car, said “Hold on tight,” and stepped on the gas, pulling onto the airport expressway.
None of the three said much on the way. Yang Zengyue simply never spoke to people she wasn’t close to.
And Chen Jia’er, tempered by the apocalypse, understood that talking too much gets you killed sooner, so the two of them became a pair of sawn-off gourds [1]people who won’t say a word jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2946422_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2946422_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Shi Rongchuan couldn’t find a topic to talk about with the two of them either and could only stay silent.
A little over an hour later, Yang Zengyue brought Shi Rongchuan home.
Jiuxiao had already brewed tea and was sitting in the living room waiting.
Shi Rongchuan saw that this courtyard had a real lived-in warmth, all its arrangements elegant, and marveled that Great-Grandfather Jiu’s taste was indeed not low.
Jiuxiao looked up at the man walking into the hall against the light, a pair of long, narrow phoenix eyes, a black mole at the tip of his left brow, a high straight nose, natural bearing, an outstanding air.
Indeed a Shi family man.
The moment Shi Rongchuan stepped inside, he met a pair of long, narrow eyes, their contours much like his own, only that these eyes held a wisdom the young Shi Rongchuan did not yet have.
“You’re Rongchuan?” Jiuxiao spoke only after Shi Rongchuan had come forward.
Following Shi family etiquette, Shi Rongchuan made a bow to Jiuxiao and answered respectfully, “Your great-great-grandson Shi Rongchuan greets Great-Grandfather Jiu.”
Jiuxiao waved a hand. “I left the Shi family many years ago. We can dispense with these formalities. Sit.”
Shi Rongchuan sat on the stool Jiuxiao had just indicated and began to field Jiuxiao’s questions.
References[+]