Shang Can and Yun Duan settled in Yun City.
The two well-known figures in the realm of immortality unexpectedly lived lives no different from ordinary mortals. Their lives were more peaceful than they had anticipated: no pursuers, no lingering threats—just waking up with the dawn, resting at dusk, having three meals a day, and being with their lover at all times.
Out of caution, Shang Can didn’t wear a mask like she had in the past, but she still cast a spell on her appearance so that those who weren’t familiar with her would forget her features after seeing her, leaving no deep impression. This way, when asked about her by those with ulterior motives, they wouldn’t be able to divulge anything. She rarely went out, partly to maintain her anonymity and partly considering Yun Duan’s feelings.
Although Yun Duan would not voice it, Shang Can, who shared a heartbeat with her, could tell that Yun Duan was not yet at ease with her going out alone. Understanding this sentiment, Shang Can willingly stayed by Yun Duan’s side every day, waiting patiently in the courtyard when Yun Duan occasionally stepped out, and eagerly approaching her for a warm hug upon her return.
How should she put it? Sometimes, Shang Can thought that she could no longer imagine a better life than this.
“You’re nothing but a pretty boy,” Wan Shao said, storming in on the third day after they returned to Yun City, pointing her finger at Shang Can and making a sharp remark, “Aren’t you the ‘delicate’ one hidden away in a golden house?”
“That’s a biased statement,” Shang Can retorted.
Before they could sit down and have a calm conversation, they went through a storm of accusations. Shang Can’s choice of words was much more tactful than before: “There’s a difference between the active and passive sense of the word ‘hidden.'”
“…” Wan Shao clicked her tongue in surprise, unable to help but applaud this rare sight of Shang Can blooming like an iron tree. “Incredible, Shang Can. Is this the power of love? Even your thick-headed self can have a moment like this. Truly amazing.”
Without lifting her gaze, Shang Can smiled nonchalantly, “If I had to say—your potion is much more impressive than mine.”
Wan Shao’s smile froze instantly, her pupils trembling in shock. The dynamics shifted rapidly, and it was now Wan Shao who spoke timidly. Still, she couldn’t help but doubt that Yun Duan would ever reveal this matter, suspecting Shang Can of fishing for information, so she feigned ignorance and stammered, “… What potion are you talking about? I’ve given you so many potions over the years; how could I remember them all—”
Shang Can coldly watched her stumble through her words and only when Wan Shao finally ran out of excuses did she say flatly, “Yun Duan told me.”
“How did you get into the black-hearted business of being a drug dealer?” Shang Can recalled the events of the past with mixed feelings. On one hand, she felt that without those matters, her relationship with Yun Duan might have remained stagnant for a while longer. On the other hand, she felt genuine apprehension. Now that she had caught the one responsible for supplying the potion, she had to confront her. “That kind of potion—how could it just be available? Are you carrying such strange things with you every day?”
“You can’t just slander me!” Wan Shao, who had lived for who knows how many years, couldn’t tolerate such accusations. She glared at Shang Can and retorted, “I only saw that Yun Duan had long had this idea—she was unyielding, and you should know her character—so I thought it’d be better for her to have something with less harmful effects than to look for something suspicious on the market…”
At this point, Shang Can was left speechless. Her expression was quite remarkable; after several moments of red and white flushing through her cheeks, she stammered, “… You mean she… has had this idea for a long time?”
Wan Shao quietly closed her mouth, feeling immensely fortunate that Yun Duan was currently outside dealing with demons. She thought that since the main party hadn’t heard this slip of the tongue, it didn’t count as letting anything out. Thus, Wan Shao confidently scolded her absent-minded friend, “What do you mean otherwise? Could it be that someone like Yun Zhong Jun would do such a thing on a whim?”
Seeing Shang Can, who was at a loss for words, Wan Shao continued to nag her, “You hid away in your sword comfortably; you have no idea what Yun Duan looked like when she discovered that your soul was actually in Fei Wang—of course, I learned of this later. Although I didn’t witness it firsthand, by the time I saw her, she was already quite terrifying.”
“Honestly, I felt that even if the only way to bring you back to life was to kill everyone in the world…” Wan Shao paused, her face displaying a painful expression as if recalling something. “Yun Duan would probably do it. Thank goodness, thank goodness.”
Shang Can was taken aback, finding it difficult to describe the emotions that welled up at this moment. She couldn’t imagine Yun Duan taking the lives of innocent people, yet strangely felt that Wan Shao’s words were not fabricated.
Even the most powerful cultivators are still human, and Yun Duan was no exception. The heart of a cultivator is an ambiguous concept, its strength or fragility varying from person to person, easily influenced by external circumstances. A moment of demonic thought is not rare in the realm of immortals.
They had not shared their feelings for very long, and Shang Can had yet to have a proper conversation with Yun Duan about the time when she couldn’t glimpse the outside world while in Fei Wang—it was something Yun Duan was reluctant to mention. Every time Shang Can attempted to broach the subject, it was somewhat hastily brushed aside, and after a few attempts, she gradually understood and decided to let the topic sit for a while.
Suddenly learning a fragment of information from Wan Shao left Shang Can feeling as if she had taken a shortcut, so she thought about changing the subject. However, before she could speak, Wan Shao cleared her throat and teased, “… How was your wedding night?”
“…”
Shang Can had no desire to engage with this frivolous flower spirit, so she awkwardly shifted the topic. “Speaking of which, I heard you found a book about the Tian Wai Tian puppet technique from the library of Bi Luo Huang Quan? Where did that come from? If the news gets out, Bi Luo Huang Quan will likely be targeted by Tian Wai Tian.”
“How would I know?” Wan Shao casually let the thick-skinned Shang Can off the hook. She raised an eyebrow, asserting, “You’ve been to the library of Bi Luo Huang Quan. The place is huge and the books are numerous, all messy like a maze. Even at my age, I can’t say for sure what books are there. I wouldn’t be surprised to find anything.”
As she spoke, she scoffed, indicating, “That half-demon bloodline of yours took me a long time to trace. If you hadn’t shown me that pattern before, I would have had no clue where to start—oh, now that I think of it, haven’t you lived for quite a long time? You’re older than I am.”
Wan Shao seemed to have been inspired by this thought, and her spirits soared as she gleefully ridiculed Shang Can, “Good job, Shang Can. Your generation is quite remarkable now!”
Though her words were indeed a matter of objective fact, Shang Can still rolled her eyes in annoyance, feeling somewhat unjustified as she retorted, “From the perspective of physical age, I’m only three months old.”
“Don’t you have any shame?”
“Why, do you want me to share some with you?”
The two glared at each other defiantly, neither willing to give in. Just as Shang Can was about to inquire further about Yun Duan’s physical condition, the courtyard door suddenly swung open with a loud bang, as if someone had barged in.
Shang Can instinctively prepared to strike, her soul already responding to her intentions. However, upon raising her gaze and seeing the familiar figure in white, she abruptly halted her attack. Wan Shao was not as quick-witted; startled by the loud noise, she lost control of her spiritual energy, causing the earth in the courtyard to surge dramatically, sending up a cloud of dust like a rain of earth.
Yun Duan, entering last, had just enough time to react, gracefully spinning to avoid the chaos. But the angrily marching figure at the front was not so lucky; unprepared, they got a face full of dirt and began to cough uncontrollably.
It was too late to stop it now. Shang Can looked at Yun Duan, who had been responding to the news of demons wreaking havoc outside and now appeared somewhat at a loss regarding the situation. With a helpless smile, she winked at Shang Can.
Realizing that Yun Duan seemed to have been caught in a trap, Shang Can, feeling guilty, pulled out a handkerchief and approached her, speaking gently, “… Here, wipe your face first?”
With a face covered in dirt, Chu Ming glared at her, his expression shifting dramatically. Finally, with a face that could be described as indignantly furious, he grabbed the handkerchief from Shang Can’s hand and growled, “Shang Can, you heartless…!”
This situation echoed the one when he first met Wan Shao. Shang Can quietly accepted Chu Ming’s ire, which was more justified than Wan Shao’s: “Why didn’t you tell me you woke up!”
Chu Ming was completely in the dark about everything. Whether it was Shang Can’s soul in Fei Wang or her revival using puppet techniques, he was entirely unaware, only having heard about the entire situation from Yun Duan today. He understood, as Yun Duan’s actions were certainly not something Qing Yu would condone, and it was normal to try to hide things before they were successful—however, Shang Can had failed completely. How could she not contact him after waking up for three months? In the end, he had learned the news from the gatekeeper, which was utterly ridiculous!
Shang Can assessed his expression and replied honestly, “Actually, I was planning to send you a letter over the last couple of days, but I truly didn’t know how to start, so I delayed it for a few days…”
“The last couple of days?” Chu Ming was enraged, scolding, “What were you doing for the first three months?”
Shang Can fell silent, pondering her words for a long time before finally speaking up, “… I couldn’t find you back then.”
After saying this, she averted her gaze and fell silent, ignoring Chu Ming’s vehement rebuttal of “You were right in Qing Yu; how could you not find me?” She simply wouldn’t respond—how could she tell him the truth that she had been locked in a room by Yun Duan? Chu Ming couldn’t bear to hear that.
If she confessed, he might earnestly ask her why she had been locked up in the first place, and she really didn’t want to deal with that.
Sitting beside her, Yun Duan appeared calm on the surface, but her heart had raced a few beats when Shang Can mentioned not being able to find Chu Ming. The hidden emotions within Shang Can made her want to laugh unexpectedly. She secretly turned to glance at Yun Duan, whose earlobes, as white as jade, began to flush red under her gaze before she coolly turned her head away.
There was no hope for Yun Duan to step in and smooth things over, but there was still a well-meaning insider present, Wan Shao. The flower spirit felt quite guilty for her earlier impolite behavior and, eager to help, she quickly chimed in to explain to Chu Ming, “Yes, yes, Shang Can isn’t lying. She really couldn’t go out not long ago.”
… It would have been better if she hadn’t revealed that extra bit of information. Shang Can closed her eyes in resignation, and sure enough, she heard Chu Ming sharply catch onto the key phrase: “Couldn’t go out? What happened to you?”
Shang Can momentarily lost her words. Chu Ming scrutinized her closely, and suddenly furrowed his brows, lowering his voice, “… Why does your neck look like it has a bruise? Did Yun Duan strike you before? Is that why you couldn’t move?”
“…”
Shang Can silently tightened her collar, calmly denying, “That’s not the case.”
If they were to get into the details, it would probably be more accurate to say she had been the one to make the first move—not something to mention in this context.
She hurriedly shook off the strange thoughts that had popped into her mind and realized that it seemed Chu Ming believed it was very plausible that Yun Duan would hit her. Just as she was struggling to think of a way to cover up her earlier statement about not being able to go out, she heard Chu Ming suddenly exclaim in a tone of realization, “Oh, that’s it.”
She turned to look at him and saw him with a simple, innocent expression, confidently stating, “It’s that saying that people often share among themselves. I remember it goes—’A brief separation surpasses a new marriage.'”
“…”
Stunned into silence twice within just a few sentences, Shang Can truly couldn’t comprehend how Chu Ming’s thoughts could only swing between such extremes. Yet for some reason, she didn’t feel like arguing back at the moment. Instead, she simply reached out and took the hand of the person who had been standing stiffly there, nodding firmly.
“Well, you could say that.”
Comment