“You! what did you say?” Yun Jinghe thought she must have misheard.
“Cook the raw rice into cooked rice. Many people seem to like acting first and reporting later,” Shi Ying said.
“Who likes that?” Yun Jinghe couldn’t help but ask. “And do you even know what that means?”
Shi Ying smiled and leaned closer, tilting her head to blow lightly into Yun Jinghe’s ear. “Isn’t it just lying together and sleeping? Of course I know.”
Sleeping wasn’t difficult, even though neither she nor Yun Jinghe actually needed sleep.
Yun Jinghe couldn’t understand why Shi Ying could say such things with a tone of innocent naivety, as if she were the one in the wrong.
She had already refused multiple times, albeit tactfully so surely some of it should have gotten through.
Or perhaps she should have realized long ago that the unspoken rules of human interaction simply didn’t apply to Shi Ying or perhaps they didn’t even exist for her.
In the midst of her daze, she felt a firm grip on her shoulder, and a cool strand of hair brushed against her cheek for a fleeting moment.
She caught the hand reaching for her collar, her voice laced with warning. “Don’t mess around!”
“How am I messing around?” Shi Ying frowned slightly. “I’m actively solving the problem here. Can’t you cooperate a little?”
Shi Ying recalled how Yun Jinghe often accused her of being disobedient, but in reality, it was always Yun Jinghe who refused to listen.
Yun Jinghe didn’t release her grip, her lashes half-lowered.
Why was it always her being passively pushed along, while Shi Ying could act so recklessly, again and again?
Was it her nature, or something else?
Though Yun Jinghe’s expression remained calm, her grip on Shi Ying’s hand gradually tightened, the blue veins faintly visible against her pale skin.
Shi Ying was almost used to this little habit of hers. She let Yun Jinghe hold her hand and knelt on one knee between Yun Jinghe’s legs, leaning down.
“Do you really know what you’re doing?” Yun Jinghe “looked” at her directly.
“You’re so naggy. Yes, yes, I know. How many times do I have to tell you?” Shi Ying’s grumbling complaint carried a hint of coquettishness.
Yun Jinghe watched her in silence for a long moment before murmuring, “We barely know each other. You don’t even know who I am, how can you act so boldly?”
“That’s a weird thing to say.” Shi Ying reached out to play with a strand of Yun Jinghe’s hair, twirling it around her finger, her gaze drifting pointedly toward Yun Jinghe’s dantian. “It’s not your identity I’m interested in. Why would I need to know all that?”
Yun Jinghe froze, her eyes flickering with surprise. Her lips parted slightly, but it took a while before she spoke. “But I’ve never even seen your face.”
“Are you afraid I’m ugly?” Shi Ying immediately straightened up, her tone tinged with unmistakable emotion. “I haven’t even complained about you being blind! Besides, didn’t you say before that appearances are just superficial?”
Yun Jinghe wanted to say that wasn’t what she meant, but before she could speak, she felt the hand she was holding twist in her grasp, turning to clasp her fingers instead.
Gradually, she loosened her grip, letting the other guide her hand elsewhere.
“Fine, I thought about it. I probably wouldn’t let someone too unattractive be my partner anyway, so—”
Shi Ying took her hand and pressed the warm palm against her cheek. “If you can’t see, surely you can feel it.”
Yun Jinghe felt the delicate texture beneath her palm and couldn’t help but recall that brief, interrupted touch from before.
She instinctively tried to pull her hand back as if shocked by electricity, but Shi Ying stopped her.
“What are you doing? Do you think I’m so ugly in your eyes that you’d even avoid touching me?” She was now certain this person was still blind, there was no way she could see!
“No.” Yun Jinghe wanted to say something to mask the fluster in her heart, but no words came to mind.
Seeing her frozen in place, Shi Ying had no choice but to guide her hand across her own face.
She tilted her head slightly, bringing the other’s fingers to rest above her brows. “This is my forehead, these are my eyebrows, below are my eyes, the bridge of my nose.”
Yun Jinghe remained silent, letting Shi Ying lead her as she traced every contour of that face, listening to her soft explanations.
She remembered hearing of the five great secret arts of the world mountain, medicine, fate, divination, and physiognomy said to have been bestowed by the Mystic Maiden of the Nine Heavens. Bone-reading was one of them.
Unfortunately, she had never learned the art of bone-reading or face-reading, so she couldn’t glean anything from this touch.
But true beauty lay in the bones, not the skin. Though she understood little else, she could still sense the refined structure of Shi Ying’s features the harmonious balance of bone and flesh, with not a single flaw.
“Are you done yet? It’s starting to hurt a little.” Shi Ying couldn’t help but speak up. Yun Jinghe, who had spent years wielding a sword, had calluses of varying thickness on her fingers and palms, and the roughness was beginning to chafe her skin.
Only then did Yun Jinghe snap out of her daze, realizing she had long stopped following Shi Ying’s guidance and was instead cradling her face, meticulously exploring every inch on her own.
Feeling her stop, Shi Ying asked, “Finished? Satisfied?”
Yun Jinghe averted her gaze as if evading the question and let out a vague hum from her throat, unclear which part of Shi Ying’s words she was even responding to.
“Then can we start now?” As she spoke, Shi Ying’s free hand was already busy loosening the sash at Yun Jinghe’s waist.
Yun Jinghe’s fingers still lingered at the corner of her lips, and at those words, they trembled uncontrollably.
“No.” She stopped her, both in word and action.
“Why not?!” If Shi Ying had been a furry little demon, she would have bristled all over by now.
“Isn’t it just taking off clothes and sleeping together? What’s so hard about that?” Shi Ying couldn’t help but think, those cultivation novels sold in bookshops were actually realistic. The archetype was sitting right here.
Yun Jinghe took a deep breath, reminding herself that it was fine if she didn’t understand worldly customs. She could teach her slowly.
“Yingying, this isn’t how it’s done.” Yun Jinghe looked at her again, her voice softening as if she were a different person.
“What’s wrong with it? Weren’t you going to sleep anyway? What’s the difference if you sleep with me? Isn’t it all just sleeping? Or do you not like sleeping with me?” The words tangled in Shi Ying’s mouth, leaving even herself a little dizzy by the end.
Yun Jinghe shook her head slowly. “Everything must follow a process. It has to be gradual.”
Her hand still rested against Shi Ying’s cheek, and she could feel the subtle shift likely a displeased pout.
So she continued, “This is especially true between two people. One mustn’t disregard too many proprieties.”
Shi Ying’s eyes flickered slightly. Hearing the softening tone in the other’s voice, she wanted to hear what she had to say. “Then tell me, what exactly do you mean by ‘gradual progress’?”
Yun Jinghe had originally planned to take some time to thoroughly persuade her, never expecting her to relent so easily.
It saved some trouble, at least.
Truthfully, she wasn’t entirely sure how two people should progress gradually either, but it certainly shouldn’t be like Shi Ying’s approach jumping straight to forcing the rice to cook.
“For interaction, we can start with the most basic things,” Yun Jinghe said slowly, lowering her hand and turning her palm upward. “For example, holding hands.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than she felt something warm and soft nestle into her palm, like the delicate paw pad of a boneless creature.
She thought of that little tabby cat again.
“We’re already holding hands. What next?” Shi Ying urged impatiently.
Yun Jinghe pressed down the corners of her lips, which had begun to curl. “Just this for now.”
“Just this for now?” Shi Ying couldn’t help but repeat the words.
“Yes, just this for now,” Yun Jinghe affirmed, her long lashes lowering slightly. “And from now on, you can’t go to those kinds of places again. Can you do that?”
“Got it, got it,” Shi Ying muttered, still caught up in her earlier astonishment, barely registering the latter part of Yun Jinghe’s words.
She lifted their joined hands. “So how long do we have to do this? Ten minutes? Half an hour?”
Yun Jinghe lifted her gaze unhurriedly, her words slowing deliberately. “At least, a month.”
The statement struck Shi Ying like a bolt from the blue. “A month?!”
An entire month just for holding hands? What about after that? Would it take a whole year?!
Shi Ying couldn’t possibly wait that long not to mention, Wu Feng’s alchemy certainly wouldn’t wait either.
“No, no, no, no way! I refuse!” she declared firmly.
Yun Jinghe had anticipated this reaction, so she wasn’t surprised. In fact, she had already steeled herself not to yield.
She had never taught a disciple before, but she had been one herself and understood the importance of setting boundaries.
But Shi Ying’s next move instantly shattered her plans.
Shi Ying actually climbed right onto her lap, gripping the fabric at her collar and shaking it like a child throwing a tantrum. “Didn’t you say this is about the two of us? Then why should it only be your way? I don’t agree!”
“This is already moving quickly,” Yun Jinghe insisted, trying to hold her ground. “Get down first.”
“I won’t listen! If this is your idea of ‘gradual progress,’ then I don’t want it. I’ll just stick to my own way, let’s go back to bed!”
Unable to undo Yun Jinghe’s clothes, Shi Ying started unfastening her own instead.
At first, Yun Jinghe didn’t understand what she was fumbling with until her hand was abruptly pulled against a patch of warm, smooth skin. She recoiled as if burned.
But then she swiftly reached out, yanking Shi Ying’s outer robe tightly shut again, a vein faintly pulsing at her temple. “What are you doing?!”
“If you won’t change the timeline, then I won’t listen to you,” Shi Ying retorted, utterly shameless.
In the end, Yun Jinghe, helpless against her relentless pestering, repeatedly lowered her own limits until the timeframe was set at ten days.
Though still not entirely satisfied, Shi Ying accepted it.
After all, she understood the principle that “water overflows when full.” She couldn’t push this person too hard, or else what if Yun Jinghe changed her mind and refused her again?
Once the farce was over, Yun Jinghe finally had the leisure to ask her about the supposed dangers of this village.
“I don’t know. I never said I was from this village,” Shi Ying replied candidly.
“If you’re not from here, then where are we staying right now?” Yun Jinghe felt a headache coming on.
“An empty house. I only found this place because I was bringing you here,” Shi Ying said. “As for me, I’m not much different from a ‘wanderer of the jianghu’ like you, just drifting around.”
Hearing this, Yun Jinghe’s headache grew worse. She wanted to point out the impropriety of such behavior but didn’t know where to start.
After all, Shi Ying had only come here for her sake.
In the end, she decided that when they left, she would leave enough silver behind as compensation for the original owner.
Having stayed here for some time, Yun Jinghe hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the village, so she resolved to remain for the time being and to retrieve the spiritual sword she had lost days ago.
The next day, Yun Jinghe asked Shi Ying to take her to find the sword.
But perhaps too much time had passed, because Shi Ying seemed to have forgotten the way into the woods. They wandered in circles for a long time. Fortunately, Yun Jinghe had intermittently regained some of her spiritual power and could faintly sense her sword. After much meandering, they finally arrived at the spot where she had left it.
Likely due to the village’s ominous reputation, no one dared to venture into the surrounding mountains and forests, which was why no one had discovered the spiritual sword.
As for ordinary monsters, they wouldn’t dare approach it.
Thus, Yun Jinghe successfully retrieved her sword, completely unharmed.
But after recovering the sword, Shi Ying seemed to grow even more eager, constantly reaching for her hand.
She even asked if doing so could speed up the remaining time of their agreement. When Yun Jinghe refused, she grew quiet.
The once-enthusiastic hand-holding became far less frequent.
And Shi Ying often sighed in frustration.
This made Yun Jinghe reflect had she done something wrong?
Meanwhile, Shi Ying stood at a distance, staring sulkily at Yun Jinghe’s silver sword.
Of course, she hadn’t wanted Yun Jinghe to find it. A swordswoman with her weapon in hand was far more dangerous not just by a little, but by leaps and bounds.
If only she had thrown the sword farther away back then.
Lost in thought, Shi Ying turned away, stewing in silence.
Yun Jinghe gently rubbed her fingertips, watching Shi Ying’s direction. Her vision had improved over the past few days, and she could now make out the outlines of people.
Having finished her reflection, she walked over to the sulking Shi Ying and suddenly reached out to touch her face, her fingertips tracing as if searching for something.
“What are you doing?” Shi Ying tilted her head, glancing sideways at her from where she sat at the table.
Yun Jinghe stopped her movements. “Actually, it’s not entirely impossible.”
A cool autumn breeze swept in, carrying a few yellowed leaves into the house. They fluttered gently before settling on the shadow of the figure bending down.