Return to My Home.
The misunderstanding was resolved, their thoughts clear.
They no longer needed to hide things from each other.
Fu Lianxue could finally face her own feelings boldly and without reservation.
She held Baobao, hooked her arm through Chu Zhaoqiu’s, and leaned against her shoulder.
Chu Zhaoqiu tilted her head slightly, intimately close beside her.
They felt the wind on Tingfeng Cliff, watched the moon in the sky, and talked about the past.
Time seemed to rewind a thousand years, back to when they were most green and naive; the clear breeze and bright moon were still the same then, nothing had changed.
“I really thought you liked your Shijie1 back then,” Fu Lianxue said.
Chu Zhaoqiu couldn’t help but laugh. “How could that be? What I felt for Shijie was reverence and the bond between fellow disciples. I always saw her as my own older sister, and she only ever saw me as a younger sister.”
Fu Lianxue stroked the kitty and looked at the moon. “Of course your Shijie saw you as a younger sister. She had no ties or worries, that’s why she could attain godhood…2 Your Shijie, she really was something else.”
“Hey,” Fu Lianxue suddenly grew curious, “don’t gods3 sometimes descend to the mortal world? You’ve reincarnated so many times, did you never see your Shijie again afterwards? Didn’t she ever come back to see you all?”
Chu Zhaoqiu thought for a moment, then shook her head. “The last time I saw Shijie was right before she attained godhood.”
After saying this, she fell silent for a moment, then added, “Or maybe I did see her, but I don’t remember.”
“Because I’m missing a period of my memory.”
Fu Lianxue immediately sat up straighter, blinking, her eyes full of confusion. “Missing? What happened?”
“Was it… dug out by someone?”
Chu Zhaoqiu said, “Something like that.”
Cultivators carry the memories of each life into reincarnation. This is so they can experience different lives, gain insights, and improve themselves.
She too had slowly grown through life after life, becoming more mature, steady, and honest.
She remembered all these life memories clearly, except for one period that had vanished.
Just as Fu Lianxue said, it was as if it had been dug out, leaving only a blank space.
Whenever she tried to recall that part, all she felt was emptiness and confusion.
“I can’t remember. It’s not a good feeling,” she said.
Fu Lianxue seemed to recall something and had a sudden realization.4 “No wonder you didn’t let me dig out that kid Cen Zhu’s memories back then…”
Just when Cen Zhu discovered her identity, she had been about to act but was stopped by Chu Zhaoqiu.
She told her, “Don’t do that.”
Chu Zhaoqiu’s lips curved slightly, her voice gentle. “Cen Zhu isn’t the type of child to gossip irresponsibly, so there was no need to erase her memory.”
She had experienced it herself and knew how bad it felt; besides that, she also trusted Cen Zhu’s character.
Fu Lianxue asked, “Then do you think this missing memory of yours might be related to me?”
Chu Zhaoqiu thought back, then shook her head again.
“I remember I was about ten years old then. My cultivation memories hadn’t awakened yet, so I was no different from an ordinary person.”
“That day, I was going up the mountain to worship the gods, but I suddenly encountered a Yaoguai at the foot of the mountain.”
Fu Lianxue grew tense. “What did that Yaoguai do to you?!”
Chu Zhaoqiu said calmly, “It chased me.”
“And then?”
“I ran, and then it used magic to trip me, making me twist my ankle.”
Fu Lianxue’s breath caught as she listened. “Ah?! And then?”
If that Yaoguai dared to harm her Chu Zhaoqiu, she would dig three feet deep5 to unearth it and give it a savage beating!
“And then… I don’t remember.”
Chu Zhaoqiu’s tone was very lost.
The anger that had just started to flare up in Fu Lianxue instantly died down. “Ah… ah?”
Chu Zhaoqiu’s expression was calm, but a faint confusion showed in her eyes.
“It’s what happened after that, I don’t remember.”
When she was tripped, her survival instinct drove her to crawl forward.
There was a temple dedicated to gods on this mountain. If she crawled just a little further, would she be a bit closer to the gods? Would they be able to see her then and perform a miracle to help her survive this ordeal6?
She didn’t know; she could only cling to hope and crawl forward with all her might.
The memory after that… a complete blank.
“The memory after the blank is of me appearing at my doorstep, safe and sound, as if I had never gone to that mountain at all, as if I had been home the whole time.”
She turned her head to look at Fu Lianxue.
“But I found a leaf inside my clothes. It was from a tree deep in the mountains; there aren’t any like that near my home.”
The leaf proved her memory wasn’t confused.
She had indeed gone out, indeed met a Yaoguai, been chased and tripped by the Yaoguai, and the leaf had indeed drifted into her sleeve then.
Only the memory in between was gone, and the Yaoguai had also disappeared.
“Maybe…” She raised her head towards the pale, bright moon in the sky, her gaze distant, “the gods really were protecting me.”
“Maybe so. You believe in them so much, perhaps they really were protecting you.”
Fu Lianxue turned to gaze at her.
“Looking at it that way, they’ve been quite good to you.”
After she finished speaking, she saw Chu Zhaoqiu’s lips curve gently upwards. The light in the eyes looking back at her was as bright as stars, incredibly moving. “I also think they’ve been very good to me, because they let me meet you again.”
The love she had desperately held onto for a thousand years finally had an echo.
It was the whisper of the breeze, the lingering touch of fine rain, the sight and sound of Fu Lianxue.
Into her dull, monotonous life, a beam of light, cheerful and bright, finally shone again.
Words from the heart sounded like tender words of love.
Melodious, captivating, making one’s heart joyful.
Fu Lianxue’s elegant brows relaxed, happiness written clear in her eyes. Then she took the initiative, leaning forward to kiss her lips again and again, pressing close again and again.
“Chu Zhaoqiu, I like you even more now.”
Chu Zhaoqiu’s eyes curved happily as she returned the intimate kiss. “Really?”
“Of course it’s real,” Fu Lianxue hugged her. “Besides, I’m not as easy to bully as I was back then! I’ve gotten stronger. I can protect you now, so other Yaoguai can’t bully you anymore!”
“How about that? Happy?”
“Happy. Especially happy.”
Chu Zhaoqiu hugged her back, her expression blissful.
“I can protect you better now too.”
“Lianxue, I won’t let you suffer even the slightest harm again, I promise.”
The young girl from back then had grown up, possessing not only the courage to face love but also greater strength, enough to protect her beloved.
Things she couldn’t do back then, she could do now.
“Look who’s talking,” Fu Lianxue didn’t spare her feelings7, “Why don’t you let that injury on your hand heal properly first, huh?”
Chu Zhaoqiu smiled innocently. “It was an accident.”
Fu Lianxue looked stern. “Fewer accidents like this next time!”
Chu Zhaoqiu nodded obediently. “Okay, I’ll listen to our great star.”
The great star was very satisfied with her attitude and nodded.
“Also, do you remember what the Yaoguai that chased you looked like?” Fu Lianxue suddenly asked.
“What do you plan to do?” Chu Zhaoqiu asked back.
“Get revenge for you, of course!” Fu Lianxue said as if it were perfectly natural.
A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years8; her, Fu Lianxue’s, revenge wasn’t too late even after several thousand years!
Hearing this, Chu Zhaoqiu paused, then couldn’t help but chuckle. “That was such a long time ago. We’d never find that Yaoguai now, and I don’t know what it looked like anyway.”
“Hm?”
“It was wearing a mask at the time.”
“…Pretty cautious, huh.”
“But it seemed to know me.”
She still remembered that when the Yaoguai saw her, it tilted its head slightly, as if sizing her up, then said, “It’s you.”
And then it started trying to kill her.
Fu Lianxue frowned upon hearing this.
So it actually knew Chu Zhaoqiu…
Chu Zhaoqiu pondered for a moment, then said, “Perhaps it was some grudge formed from capturing Yaoguai in the past. But that Yaoguai never came looking for trouble afterwards, it just vanished. Still, it not causing trouble is ultimately a good thing.”
How could a demon hunter possibly coexist peacefully with every Yaoguai? There would always be some who were diametrically opposed.9
Like that Yaoguai who controlled her to kill Fu Lianxue and then wanted to kill her too.
Speaking of which…
“Lianxue, do you have any leads on the Yaoguai that possessed me that night and attacked you?” Chu Zhaoqiu asked. “She seemed to know you, and had some kind of grudge against you.”
A familiar name was on the tip of Fu Lianxue’s tongue.
In the end, Fu Lianxue just frowned, didn’t say it out loud, and lowered her head, lost in thought.
Judging from the techniques the Yaoguai used, it strongly resembled one of their Charm Demon race.
Could it be Ji Congyun?
But that shouldn’t be right. Ji Congyun didn’t know she was going to say goodbye to Chu Zhaoqiu that night…
Maybe it was another Charm Demon?
“Not sure,” Fu Lianxue said. “I’ll look into it later.”
Chu Zhaoqiu seemed to read her mind.10 “You think it’s that member of your race you dislike?”
Fu Lianxue didn’t deny it, only saying, “Not really sure.”
Chu Zhaoqiu nodded. “Although you haven’t seen each other for a long time, since there’s suspicion, it’s good to be extra cautious.”
Baobao meowed along, as if agreeing with her words.
The two looked at him in tacit understanding.
Chu Zhaoqiu smiled and stroked his head, then leaned down and gave him a little kiss. “Does Baobao also think Mama needs to be more careful?”
Baobao meowed twice more.
Although he couldn’t understand what his Mamas were saying, he was very supportive, his little tail swaying gently back and forth.
“You little cutie!”11
Fu Lianxue couldn’t put him down12, picking him up and giving him a big kiss.
Chu Zhaoqiu watched them gently, then remembered something important. “Lianxue, when you came looking for me that night, was there something you needed to tell me?”
Fu Lianxue, holding Baobao, said, “Yeah! I overheard what you and your Shifu13 said. Your Shifu wanted you to ‘deal with’ me, right? So I wanted to say goodbye and leave, that way things wouldn’t be too difficult for you with the old master, and you wouldn’t have to ‘slay the demon and exorcise the evil’ when it came to me…”
Chu Zhaoqiu blinked slowly, looking stunned.
“You thought ‘dealing with it’ meant killing you?”
“Isn’t it? Isn’t slaying demons and exorcising evil your duty?”
Chu Zhaoqiu gave a helpless laugh. “I’m not that rigid.”
Although she was a bit methodical14 back then, she wasn’t unable to distinguish right from wrong.
Slaying demons and exorcising evil is about cutting down harmful evil spirits. Fu Lianxue hadn’t hurt anyone, hadn’t harmed anyone, why should she be killed innocently?
Besides, how could she possibly bear to do it?
Fu Lianxue felt a bit embarrassed by her laugh. “So you had another solution?”
Chu Zhaoqiu said gently, “There was one back then. I originally wanted to ask if you’d be willing.”
Fu Lianxue asked, “What was it?”
Chu Zhaoqiu looked at her with gentle eyes. “We cultivate together.”
Elder Tianxuan15 just didn’t want her cultivation progress to be hindered, so he offered a few words of guidance; he never instructed her to kill Fu Lianxue.
Therefore, she had thought of this solution.
Yaoguai who diligently cultivate also have the possibility of ascending16. Moreover, cultivating would also help Fu Lianxue strengthen herself; the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
If Fu Lianxue agreed to cultivate with her and stopped teasing her, her Shifu might not have refused to let Fu Lianxue stay, and might even have taken Fu Lianxue as a disciple.
She just hadn’t expected so many things to go wrong that night…
Fu Lianxue was stunned after hearing this.
So she really had been overthinking things!
If it hadn’t been for that Yaoguai that night, they would have cleared things up long ago and wouldn’t have had to be separated for these thousands of years!
“Damn it, that Yaoguai had better hope I don’t find her!” she said, grinding her teeth.
Chu Zhaoqiu glanced left and right—no one was around.
Only then did she relax, but she still didn’t feel entirely at ease.
She stood up and held out her hand. “Let’s go back. It’s still not very convenient to talk about this topic here.”
Fu Lianxue, holding Baobao, looked at her hand.
After a few seconds, she reached out and took it, saying as she stood up, “Young Master Chu, we’ve already been talking here for ages, hey…”
Chu Zhaoqiu smiled gently and kissed her hand. “Just in case.17 It’s not too late to leave now.”
Fu Lianxue’s lips curved up unconsciously. “Alright then, I’ll listen to you.”
“But,” she stopped Chu Zhaoqiu, who was about to leave, “we’re going back to my place.”
Chu Zhaoqiu turned back to look at her. “Hm?”
Fu Lianxue raised her eyebrows flamboyantly, her expression both delicate and stunningly beautiful. “What’s wrong? Is there anything strange about going to your girlfriend’s place?”
Hearing this, Chu Zhaoqiu froze for a second, then beamed with delight, as if all the flowers in the world had bloomed at once.
Fu Lianxue smiled and lifted their clasped hands, her expression both proud and sweet. “Starting today, Fu Lianxue and Chu Zhaoqiu are officially dating!”
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