This was the first disciple of BaoShan SanRen who “didn’t die a peaceful death”—YanLing DaoRen.
What this shibo of Wei WuXian’s went through after leaving the mountain that caused his personality to change so much remained a mystery. It was likely that nobody would ever find out. After Xiao XingChen finished mending the basket, he felt it a few times. He made sure that it wouldn’t hurt the hand, put it down, and continued, “The second disciple was a girl and also very outstanding.”
Wei WuXian’s chest felt warm.
She was ZangSe SanRen.
A-Qing, “Is she pretty?”
Xiao XingChen, “I don’t know. She was said to be really pretty.”
A-Qing, “Then, I know! There must’ve been a lot of people who liked her and wanted to marry her after she left the mountain. And then, she must’ve married a high-ranking official or the leader of a big sect! Heehee.”
Xiao XingChen laughed, “You guessed wrong. She married the servant of the leader of a big sect, and the two lived happily ever after.”
A-Qing, “I don’t like this. How would an outstanding and beautiful cultivator settle on a servant. This story’s so cliche. It’s probably made up by some poor scholar. And then what happened? How was their life like after they lived happily ever after?”
Xiao XingChen, “And then the two of them accidentally lost their lives during a night-hunt.”
A-Qing spat, “What sort of story is this?! She not only married a servant, but they died together! I’m not listening anymore!”
Wei WuXian thought to himself, Good thing that Xiao XingChen didn’t go on and tell her that the two of them gave birth to another big villain that everyone wanted to beat up. Or else, she might be spitting about me.
Xiao XingChen sighed, “This was why I said in the beginning that I don’t know how to tell stories.”
A-Qing, “Then, Daozhang, you must remember the night-hunts you’ve been on, right? I like to hear those! Tell me, what sort of monsters have you fought?”
Xue Yang had been unfocused on the story, listening with his eyes shut. Now, though, his expression grew a bit more serious. His pupils shrunk, and he glanced at Xiao XingChen.
Xiao XingChen, “There really are too many.”
Xue Yang suddenly asked, “Really? Then, Daozhang, did you used to night-hunt alone as well?”
The corners of his lips curled up, indicating that he was up to no good, yet his voice was filled with simple curiosity. After a pause, Xiao XingChen smiled slightly, “No.”
This got A-Qing interested, “Then who else were with you?”
This time, Xiao XingChen’s pause was longer. After a few moments, he answered, “A very good friend of mine.”
An eerie light flashed inside Xue Yang’s eyes and his smile grew larger. It seemed that peeling off Xiao XingChen’s scabs gave him quite a lot of pleasure. A-Qing, on the other hand, was actually curious, “Daozhang, who’s this friend of yours? What sort of person are they?”
Xiao XingChen replied calmly, “A sincere man of noble nature.”
Hearing this, Xue Yang rolled his eyes in contempt. His lips moved faintly, as though he cursed at him. However, he purposely pretended that he was confused, “Then, Daozhang, where’s this friend of yours right now? Why hasn’t he come to find you when you’re already like this?
Wei WuXian, What an insidious knife.
This time, Xiao XingChen didn’t reply. Although A-Qing didn’t know what was going on, she looked as if she also sensed something. Holding her breath, she glared at Xue Yang. She clenched her teeth, as though she wanted to take a bite out of him. After a while of spacing out, Xiao XingChen broke the silence, “Where he is right now, I don’t know either. But, I hope that…”
Before he finished his sentence, he patted A-Qing’s head, “Alright. That’s it for tonight. I really don’t know how to tell stories. It’s quite embarrassing.”
A-Qing replied obediently, “Oh. Okay!”
Yet, Xue Yang suddenly spoke up, “Then how about I tell one?”
A-Qing was just about to feel disappointed. She immediately agreed, “Yes, yes. You tell one.”
Unhurried, Xue Yang began, “Once upon a time, there was a child.”
“The child really liked eating sweet things. But because he had no parents or money, he could rarely eat them. One day, the same as any other day, he was sitting zoned-out on a flight of stairs. Opposite to the stairs, there was a liquor shop. A man sat on a table inside of the shop. As he saw the child, he gestured for him to go over.”
Although this story’s beginning wasn’t that great either, it was definitely a lot better than Xiao XingChen’s cliche one. If A-Qing had a pair of rabbit ears, they must’ve perked up already.
Xue Yang continued, “Being naive and puzzled, the child had nothing to do anyways. He saw someone wave at him, and immediately ran over. The man pointed at a plate of pastries on the table and asked him, ‘Do you want this?’”
“Of course he wanted it. He nodded as fast as he could. So, the man gave the child a piece of paper and said, ‘If you want it, take this to a certain room in a certain place. I’ll give it to you after you take the paper.
“The child was really happy. He could have a plate of pastries if he ran the errand, and he earned the plate of pastries himself.
“He didn’t know how to read, so he just took the paper and went to the place. After he opened the door, a huge, brawny man came out. He took over the paper and looked at it, and he gave the child a slap so hard that his nose started bleeding. The man pulled the child’s hair and asked, ‘Who told you to take such a thing over?’”
The child must’ve been Xue Yang himself.
Wei WuXian could never have imagined that a crafty person like Xue Yang was so honest, so dim-witted when he was young, doing whatever a stranger asked him to do. The things written on the piece of paper definitely wasn’t nice. Most likely, the person at the liquor shop and the brawny man had some conflicts. The former didn’t dare curse at the latter in front of his face, so he told a child on the streets to bring over a humiliating letter instead. Such an act could even be described as perverse.
Xue Yang, “He felt scared and pointed the direction. The man went to the liquor shop, carrying the child by pulling his hair. The other man had long been gone. The leftover pastries on the table had been taken away by the waiters as well. The man was so angry that he threw over quite a few tables before storming out.”
“The child was really frustrated. He ran an errand for someone, got beaten up, and was held by his hair on the way back. His scalp was almost pulled off. Of course he wouldn’t settle without the pastries. So, he asked a waiter with tears in his eyes, ‘Where are my pastries? Where are the pastries that he said will be mine?”
Xue Yang continued as he grinned, “The store was in a mess and the waiter was feeling quite cross. He slapped the child a few times, so hard that his ears were even buzzing, and chased him out the door. He crawled up and walked for a while. Guess what? Coincidentally, he ran into the man that made him take the letter again.”
He stopped at this point. A-Qing was just getting engrossed in the story. She hurried him, “And then? What happened?”