A-Qing secretly peeked from behind her eyelids. The middle-aged man clearly used a lot of strength, yet his hand was held by Xiao XingChen’s in a seemingly light way, unable to move an inch. Although he was nervous, he accused stubbornly, “What is a blind guy like you doing here? Saving the damsel in distress? So the little bitch is your lover? Did you know that she’s a thief? She stole my money! If you protect her, then you’re also a thief!”
With him in one hand and A-Qing in the other, Xiao XingChen turned around, “Give the man his money back.”
A-Qing fumbled out the small amount of money and passed it over. Xiao XingChen let go of the man, who counted the money. Everything was still there. Glancing at the blind cultivator again, the man knew that he’d be difficult to deal with, so he trudged awkwardly away.
Xiao XingChen, “You really are too bold. How do you dare steal things even when you’re blind?”
A-Qing leaped up three inches high, “He touched me! He pinched my butt, and it hurt so much, so what’s wrong with me taking some of his money? There’s only so little inside of such a big pouch, and he’s being a bully about it. He’s gonna die flat broke!”
Wei WuXian disagreed, You clearly had stealing intentions and bumped into him first, but now you’re saying it like he wronged you first. What a fraud argument.
Xiao XingChen shook his head, “Such being the case, you really should’ve known better than to provoke him. Today, if nobody was here, the matter wouldn’t have been solved with a mere slap. Maiden, take care.”
After he finished, he turned to the opposite direction and left. Wei WuXian observed, He didn’t ask for his money pouch back. This shishu of mine is gentle towards women as well.
Holding the money pouch that she stole, A-Qing stood and stared blankly for a few seconds. Suddenly, she stuffed it into her lapel, chased over with her pole, and crashed right onto Xiao XingChen’s back. Xiao XingChen could only help steady her again, “Is there anything else?”
A-Qing, “I still have your money pouch!”
Xiao XingChen, “It’s yours now. There’s not much inside, anyways. Before you spend all of it, be sure not to steal anything else.”
A-Qing, “I heard the filthy man curse. So you’re blind too?”
Hearing the second sentence, Xiao XingChen’s expression faltered at once. His smile disappeared as well.
The bold, innocent remarks of children were often the cruelest. Children didn’t know anything. Precisely because they didn’t know anything, they hurt people’s feelings in the most direct of ways.
Under the bandages wrapped around Xiao XingChen’s eyes, a smear of red grew darker and darker, almost seeping through the cloth. His raised his hand for it to hover over his eyes, while his arm trembled slightly. The pain and injury that came with gouging out one’s eyes were not that easy to heal. However, A-Qing simply thought that he was feeling dizzy. She beamed, “Then let me follow you!”
Xiao XingChen managed to smile, “Why would you want to follow me? To become a cultivator?”
A-Qing, “You’re tall and blind, and I’m small and blind. If we travel together, we can care for each other. My parents are gone and there’s nowhere I can stay. I’ll follow anyone to anywhere.” Being as clever as she was, she was afraid that Xiao XingChen would refuse her, so she took advantage of his agreeable nature and threatened, “I spend money really quickly. If you refuse to take me with you, the money will be gone at once, and I’ll have to go steal and trick people again. And then somebody will slap me hard and I’ll fall down and I won’t even be able to find my way. Poor me!”
Xiao XingChen laughed, “Someone as clever as you should be able to fool others so that they can’t find their way. Who in the world can do the same to you?”
After watching for a while, Wei WuXian found something interesting.
Now that he had seen Xiao XingChen himself, he discovered that, in comparison to the real one, Xue Yang’s imitation really was precise! Aside from his face, all of the details were true to the real Xiao XingChen. If someone told him so, he could’ve even believed that Xiao XingChen had possessed Xue Yang’s body.
Pleading, pestering, and pretending that she was pitiful, A-Qing clung to Xiao XingChen the whole way. Xiao XingChen warned her quite a couple of times that it’d be dangerous if she followed him, but A-Qing never listened. She wasn’t even scared after Xiao XingChen exorcised an old cattle that had gained consciousness when they passed a certain village. She still kept on calling him “Daozhang” and stuck to him as if she was syrup, never going more than three meters away from him. As she followed him, possibly deciding that A-Qing was quick-witted, brave, and never a hindrance all the while being a young, blind maiden with nowhere to go, Xiao XingChen finally gave tacit permission to her staying with him.
Wei WuXian originally thought that Xiao XingChen must have had a destination. However, as a few pieces of memory passed, judging from the climates and dialects, the places that they went couldn’t at all form a distinct route. He didn’t seem like he was going anywhere, but rather night-hunting by chance. He went to wherever people mentioned peculiar things were happening. Wei WuXian guessed, Maybe the YueyangChang Clan’s case had too big of a blow on him. He didn’t want to be among the clans and sects anymore, but he couldn’t give up on his aspirations, so he chose to night-hunt as he wandered around, solving as many problems as he could.
At the moment, Xiao XingChen and A-Qing were walking along a long, flat road with weeds and grasses of waist height growing on both sides of it. Suddenly, A-Qing cried out with an ah. Xiao XingChen immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”
A-Qing, “Ugh. Nothing. My ankle twisted.”
Wei WuXian could clearly see that it wasn’t because her ankle twisted at all. She was walking as fine as ever. If not for that she was pretending to be blind in front of Xiao XingChen so that he couldn’t come up with any reasons to shoo her away, she could hop up to the heavens as she walked. A-Qing’s exclamation was because as she glanced around, she suddenly saw a black figure lying among the bushes of weeds.
Although she didn’t know whether he was dead or alive, most likely thinking that it’d be a drag either way, she obviously didn’t want Xiao XingChen to find the person. She urged him, “Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s rest a bit at that whatever city that’s ahead. I’m so tired!”
Xiao XingChen, “Didn’t you twist your ankle? Do you want me to carry you?”
A-Qing was ecstatic, knocking loudly on the ground with her bamboo pole, “Yes, yes, yes!” Smiling, Xiao XingChen turned around with his back to her and kneeled down with one leg. Just as A-Qing was about to throw herself over, Xiao XingChen suddenly stopped her. With a serious expression, he stood up, “Something smells like blood.”
A-Qing could also smell a faint hint of blood. Amid the night wind, it was indeed discernible at times. She bluffed, “Really? Why can’t I smell it? Are any families around the area killing livestock?”
Just as she finished speaking, as if Heaven wanted to go against her wishes, the person in the bushes coughed.
Even though the sound was almost imperceptible, it couldn’t escape Xiao XingChen’s ears. He immediately found the direction, stepped into the bushes, and squatted down beside the person.