Volume 3: Old Tales of Kunlun
I’ll just sleep on the floor, I like sleeping on the floor!
Yi Qiu had originally thought that for her first dinner at You Yan’s house, she would have to eat while looking at You Yan’s old dad’s sour face.
But after You Yan finished cooking, she just portioned some of it out, placed it in front of that bedroom door, knocked lightly, and said, “Daddy, the meal is ready.”
Afterwards, she returned to her own room, closing the door under Yi Qiu’s curious gaze.
Yi Qiu stood by the door, stunned for a good while, before following her to the table with a look of astonishment. “You… you just leave it at the door like that?”
“Mm… it’s not really appropriate for me to go in directly,” You Yan said, picking up her bowl and chopsticks.
“You go ahead and eat for a bit,” Yi Qiu muttered, walking to the door and prying open a crack with her hoof.
She stood by the crack in the door, staring intently at the tightly shut door opposite her for a long time, but she never saw the person inside open it to get the food.
You Yan looked up at the little alpaca’s back and couldn’t help but frown. “If you don’t eat soon, the food will get cold.”
Yi Qiu came back to her senses, kicked the door shut, and turned to walk back to the table, opening her little mouth.
After a satisfying meal, she followed You Yan out of the room. The food at the opposite door had been replaced by empty plates. It seemed the person inside had indeed come out to get the food, and had eaten it without making a sound.
What kind of dad is this, who doesn’t say a single word to his daughter on a normal day and just freeloads in the house, eating and drinking for free.
No wonder Little Red Flower doesn’t like him.
The little alpaca won’t like this kind of irresponsible father either!
Thinking this, Yi Qiu rolled her eyes at the tightly shut door and followed You Yan to the kitchen to wash the bowls and chopsticks.
You Yan was very happy all day today, so happy that while washing the dishes, she began to softly hum a little tune without lyrics.
This was the first time Yi Qiu had ever heard little You Yan hum. She had to admit, the five-hundred-year-old You Yan was pretty much the same as the three-thousand-plus-year-old You Yan. When it came to singing, it was a case of wanting rhythm but having no rhythm, wanting pitch but having no pitch1; it was just awful.
Yet she listened, stunned. Not for any other reason, but because no matter how terribly You Yan sang, she could recognize that the familiar melody came from her original world.
Without lyrics, isn’t it still “Catching Loaches”2?
This bird woman. She said she didn’t want to learn it, but at some point, she secretly committed that childish tune to memory.
The little alpaca looked up at You Yan washing the dishes and asked seriously, “You Yan, where did you learn this tune?”
You Yan suddenly frowned, seeming to think about it seriously for a moment, but she couldn’t come up with anything. She shook her head and said, “I don’t remember.” As she spoke, she smiled sheepishly. “Does it sound awful? I… I can’t sing. The tune is very nice, it’s just that I can’t sing it well…”
Hearing this, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Did she hear that wrong? There’s actually a day when You Yan would praise “Catching Loaches” for sounding nice?
Back then, I wonder who it was that said this song was awful, yet always liked to have the little alpaca sing it for her.
Sure enough, after the bird woman grew up, she became much more duplicitous. She clearly liked it in her heart, yet she insisted on putting on an air of looking down on it completely.
“I didn’t mean to sound disdainful, I just wanted to say that this song is a nursery rhyme from my hometown.” As Yi Qiu spoke, a trace of warmth flashed in her eyes. “If you like it, I can teach you.”
You Yan’s eyes suddenly lit up. She looked down at Yi Qiu and asked earnestly, “Really? It’s a nursery rhyme from your home?”
“Yeah! And it has lyrics!”
“Then, then how could I have heard it before?”
“Maybe, maybe this is something fated in the great unknown.” Yi Qiu started spouting nonsense again. “The world is so big, yet I was able to dream of you, and you were able to find me. It’s just like this song—it clearly comes from a distant land, yet it just so happened to enter your ears.”
Upon hearing this, You Yan was slightly taken aback for a moment, then she couldn’t help but lift the corners of her mouth and begin to chuckle silently.
They say that lies are half-truth, half-falsehood, and sometimes you can even deceive yourself with them.
Yi Qiu at this very moment was a case in point. She was clearly spouting lies, yet she felt that what she was saying made perfect sense.
She and You Yan, she thought, were once from two different worlds, the most completely different kinds of people.
But the world is so big, and she just had to be the one to sincerely follow that shitty, unfinished novel3 to its end. Amidst a sea of cursing and negative reviews, she was chosen by that useless system and brought to this world.
She was just like this song; she didn’t belong to this world, yet she was taken into the heart of this world’s You Yan, bit by bit.
She was willing to believe this was yuanfen4, a destiny long predetermined in the great unknown.
Some people are destined from birth to meet. Even if separated by a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers5, they can still glimpse one another through some accident.
So, the little alpaca lay down beside You Yan and happily began to sing that ballad from another world.
As You Yan listened, she timidly began to follow the little alpaca’s voice, softly singing along while she washed the dishes.
Just that one short song, they sang it from the kitchen to the courtyard, and from the courtyard back into the house.
The sky darkened bit by bit. You Yan sat at the table, took out the spirit lamp she had brought back from the tree hollow, and used a magical art to suspend it in mid-air.
Yi Qiu lay by her leg, looking up at the faint green spiritual light with a look of attachment in her eyes, her thoughts drifting off to who knows where.
After an unknown amount of time, You Yan suddenly reached out a finger and gently fiddled with Yi Qiu’s little ear.
A gesture like this hadn’t happened in a long, long time.
Yi Qiu came back to her senses and stared blankly at You Yan, but You Yan just curved her brows and smiled.
For a single instant, a smile like that seemed to overlap with the other You Yan.
“What are you spacing out for?”
The young woman’s voice sounded by her ear, and only then did Yi Qiu realize that this place was the Kunlun Mountains, and the person before her was the five-hundred-year-old You Yan.
“I… I was thinking about what you look like when you’re grown up.”
“But I am grown up,” You Yan tilted her head in confusion.
Yi Qiu shook her head and said seriously, “I mean, when you’re even older.”
You Yan asked curiously, “Will there be any difference?”
“Mm… maybe, you’ll be even better looking than you are now.”
“Are you complimenting me?” You Yan asked happily.
“I guess so,” Yi Qiu said, leaning sideways against You Yan and gently resting her fluffy head on You Yan’s leg.
Seeing this, You Yan also reached out and gently stroked the little alpaca’s fleece.
“Yi Qiu,” she suddenly called the little alpaca’s name.
“Hm?”
“It’s so good to have met you.”
The little alpaca smiled, and as if remembering something, asked softly, “You Yan, I sang for you today. Can you tell me a story?”
You Yan replied, “What do you want to hear?”
Yi Qiu thought for a moment, then looked up and said, “Your diedie, what kind of… Qinyuan6 is he?”
You Yan tilted her head, a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. “My diedie, he… he doesn’t really like me, but he’s never abandoned me either.”
She said her diedie was an incredible Qinyuan in the Kunlun Mountains. Not only was his cultivation level very high, but he was also very handsome. Most importantly, he was very devoted.
“I heard that when Daddy was young, there were so many yaojing7 in the mountains chasing after him, but he only had eyes for my niangqin8,” You Yan said. “My niangqin was also a Qinyuan. She was very gentle, and very beautiful… She and my diedie were very much in love.”
It was only later that she came into this world.
She destroyed everything between them, including their entire future.
“I caused Niangqin’s death. From that moment on, Daddy barely spoke to me… but he was always protecting me, always, I know he was…” As You Yan spoke, she couldn’t help but start emphasizing over and over that her father was always protecting her, always.
She said, “I can feel it. Even if Daddy doesn’t speak to me, he still can’t let go of me.”
She also said, “He hates me, but he also loves me.”
Her tone of voice, as if she were trying desperately to prove something but couldn’t find any evidence, was simply heart-wrenching to hear.
For a moment, Yi Qiu didn’t dare say anything more, blaming herself for bringing up such a bad topic and making You Yan unhappy.
Strangely, after saying all this, You Yan didn’t seem to be unhappy.
She simply got up and walked to the bedside, pushed open a crack in the window, and glanced at the tightly shut, lightless room. Then she closed the window again and said with a smile, “Daddy should be asleep now. Let’s be quieter.”
As she spoke, she raised an index finger to her lips and went “shh.” Seeing the little alpaca nod, she then broke into another smile.
You Yan tiptoed to the bedside, took off her shoes and socks, and climbed onto the bed.
Yi Qiu hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked to the side of You Yan’s bed. Looking at the cold, hard floor, she lay down with a pitifully wronged expression.
You Yan seemed to have forgotten about making a pallet on the floor for her with the bedding. But she had just reminded You Yan of sad things, so how could she have the nerve to bring it up now?
Just as the little alpaca was hesitating, You Yan suddenly reached out and fiddled with her ear. She tilted her head up, her eyes filled with confusion as she looked at You Yan.
“You’re not going to sleep on the floor, are you?” You Yan said, patting the bed. “Come on up. The bed is much more comfortable than the floor.”
Shocked! Sleep on the bed?
Were words like these something a little alpaca was even worthy of hearing?
Yi Qiu couldn’t help but stretch out her long neck, the confusion in her eyes turning, drop by drop, into disbelief.
“You, you… this bed, it, I… I can sleep on it?”
“I don’t take up much space!” You Yan said, scooting closer to the wall. She freed up that half of the bed that was so familiar to the alpaca and looked at Yi Qiu. “I can’t fall asleep unless I’m right against the wall, so you see, I usually only sleep in this little bit of space. It won’t be crowded if you come up! Mm… I could even hug you. You’re so soft, it would definitely be very comfortable to sleep while hugging you.”
Hearing this, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but blink.
She subconsciously wanted to climb onto the bed, but then she suddenly remembered that huge kick a certain bird woman had given her one night, and she immediately got angry.
Was she that easy of an alpaca?
Kicking her off the bed when they weren’t on good terms, and now inviting her onto the bed now that they are, and even wanting to hug her?
Dream on!
“Never mind, I’ll just sleep on the floor!”
“Why?”
“I… I had a dream,” Yi Qiu said, gritting her teeth. “In the dream, you also only slept on half the bed. I wanted to get on, and you kicked me right off with one foot!”
“How could I do something like that? I wouldn’t!” You Yan said, moving to the edge of the bed and wrapping her arms around Yi Qiu’s neck. “Come on up. It’s already autumn, it gets very cold at night!”
“No.”
“Come on up!”
“NO!”
You Yan frowned, while Yi Qiu turned her head away.
The next second, the sulking little alpaca was lifted off the ground by a surge of spiritual energy, crying “Ei, ei,” as she was moved onto the bed.
What are you doing! This is coercion!9
The author has something to say:
Once kicked by a bird, fears sleeping on a bed for ten years.10
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