Volume 2: Fuzhu Huodou
No Matter Where You Go, There’s Always Someone to Wait on You.
Forget it, I won’t think about it anymore.
The plot has already deviated one hundred and eight thousand li from the original novel. With this brain of mine that gets everything wrong, I couldn’t figure out an answer even if I tried.
I should find the kitchen first. I wonder if there are any leftovers in the pot.
Even if You Yan wasn’t hungry, she herself was.
In this world, apart from life and death, nothing was more important than eating.
Thinking this, Yi Qiu sighed softly, walked out of the room, and used her elbow to pull the door shut for You Yan.
She unconsciously craned her neck to look around, as if trying to figure out which direction the kitchen was in. Only after looking for a good while did she realize she wasn’t an alpaca anymore; constantly stretching her neck forward like that would look very unsightly.
She quickly pulled her neck back and straightened her posture.
However, no matter how straight she stood one second, the moment she took a step the next, the pain made it impossible to stand up straight again.
It had to be said, the socks of ancient people didn’t conform to the feet at all. The loose cloth rubbing against her wounds was not a pleasant feeling.
Or maybe… I should go get this bandaged first?
Yi Qiu hesitated for a moment. While wandering around aimlessly, she began to ponder where she could find some medicinal cloth.
Just then, she ran into Luo Mingyuan, who was walking out of a side room.
The moment their eyes met, Luo Mingyuan’s were filled with confusion.
After a brief moment of eye contact, Yi Qiu waved her two scalded palms at Luo Mingyuan and asked, “Little pig trotter, it seems my medicine was applied for nothing. Where are the medicine and bandages?”
Luo Mingyuan: “You, you you…”
Yi Qiu pointed to herself, her innocent eyes wide. “Me?”
Luo Mingyuan said in astonishment, “You’re Little Sheep?!”
“Ah…” Yi Qiu paused, then said, “Don’t look at me like that.”
“S-sorry!” Luo Mingyuan quickly averted his gaze, as if the person before him was something that couldn’t be looked at.
Yi Qiu pouted. “It’s not that serious…”
The people of ancient times were very conservative in their thinking.
Perhaps because she had taken human form, the rules of males and females should not touch hands when giving or receiving things1 now applied. The little pig trotter who was washing an alpaca’s feet just half a shichen (an hour) ago was now suddenly too embarrassed to even touch Yi Qiu’s hand.
He took Yi Qiu to find Chao Yun. With Chao Yun’s help, her hands and feet were properly bandaged. Only then did she put her shoes back on and stand on the ground again.
When they had first started applying the medicine, Yi Qiu mentioned that You Yan was awake and wanted to eat, so Luo Mingyuan had run off to the kitchen.
As soon as Yi Qiu walked out of Chao Yun’s room, she followed the aroma of food to the kitchen.
When she found it, the food was being plated.
“It’s ready so quickly!” Yi Qiu trotted forward, leaned over to sniff the fragrant dishes, and couldn’t help but remark, “Your cooking skills are better than You Yan’s, little pig trotter. Miss Jiang will be in for a treat in the future.”
“You little…” Luo Mingyuan paused mid-sentence, then frowned and said, “Little girl, what nonsense are you spouting!”
“Don’t look down on me because I’m small. I’m a yaojing2, I’m older than you!” Yi Qiu said, pouting.
She held out her two hands, which were wrapped in gauze like zongzi3, and gestured back and forth over the dishes for a long time, completely at a loss as to how to start.
“Let me,” Luo Mingyuan said, unable to watch any longer.
“Oh.” Yi Qiu took two steps back to make way for him.
Luo Mingyuan placed the dishes on a tray. As he picked it up, he couldn’t help but ask, “Miss Bai… is her name You Yan?”
“Ah… uh, yes.” Yi Qiu felt awkward for a couple of seconds before adding, “The ‘Yan’ from ‘brush, ink, paper, and inkstone’.”
“Oh.”
“My name is Yi Qiu,” Yi Qiu added.
“Oh…” Luo Mingyuan turned with the tray and walked out of the kitchen.
Yi Qiu quickly followed behind him, too embarrassed to say much more.
She didn’t know if it was because she had spoken the blunt truth that day, but she always felt that Luo Mingyuan was less willing to talk to her than before.
It makes sense when you think about it. The little pig trotter’s leg is still a bit lame. No matter how fast or well he recovers, it’s impossible for him not to care at all.
“Um, there’s something I need to make clear to you,” Yi Qiu said, organizing her thoughts for a moment before continuing. “That bird yao that appeared at the Xianlu Sect… she, she really is You Yan… but, but she only threw you down the mountain, she didn’t want to kill you. Your injuries weren’t caused by her, and the demonic cultivator wasn’t her either…”
“At least the leg was,” Luo Mingyuan said in a low voice.
“Ah, well…” Yi Qiu was embarrassed for a moment, then bit her lower lip and said seriously, “Actually, there’s a reason for it, but I promise, there was absolutely no malicious intent!”
Luo Mingyuan was silent for a moment before saying, “You don’t have to say all this.”
“Huh?” Yi Qiu couldn’t help but frown.
Is this little pig trotter starting to have a small belly and chicken intestines4?
Sigh, calling him petty isn’t quite right either. Anyone who was suddenly captured and had their leg broken would be upset.
“Actually, actually, my senior sister and I… we, we don’t mind,” Luo Mingyuan said in a small voice.
“Huh?” Yi Qiu truly hadn’t expected that answer.
“Miss Bai… Miss You is a good person, and so are you,” Luo Mingyuan said. “To be honest, my parents’ revenge, the safety of Moshui City… none of it has anything to do with you. But you’ve been helping us all along. To help us hold back the Huodou, Miss You nearly lost her life. We saw all of this.”
“As for what happened that night, I think… even without Miss You, that Yi bird you mentioned probably wouldn’t have let me go,” Luo Mingyuan said, turning his head to glance at Yi Qiu. He asked curiously, “I just don’t understand one thing. Why did you have to capture me and take me down the mountain, and… and break my leg.”
“Well, about that… it’s a bit awkward,” Yi Qiu said with a wry smile, frowning as she explained. “Didn’t I see… see those senior and junior brothers of yours always bullying you? So I said to You Yan, it would be great if you could come down the mountain. If you left that place, you wouldn’t be bullied by them anymore.”
Luo Mingyuan: “…”
“And then You Yan said, she said, getting you down the mountain would be simple, but you have your own feet, you’d just walk back. If you want to make sure he can’t go back, unless, unless you break his leg.” As Yi Qiu spoke, she lowered her head and mumbled, “I thought she was just saying it casually at the time and didn’t pay much attention. How was I supposed to know she would actually break your leg…”
Luo Mingyuan: “…”
Yi Qiu cautiously studied Luo Mingyuan’s facial expression. Seeing that he only seemed a little speechless, she finally relaxed.
After delivering the food to You Yan’s room, Luo Mingyuan left without a single wasted word. His departure was clean and decisive.
In the small room, it was suddenly just Yi Qiu and You Yan again.
“No matter where you go, there’s always someone to wait on you,” You Yan said faintly. She casually tied up her long hair, put on her shoes, and got out of bed.
Seeing You Yan walk toward the table, Yi Qiu quickly ran over, looking aggrieved, and held out her own tightly bandaged hands to You Yan.
“I can’t carry it! How can I carry the dishes like this? If I drop the plates halfway, we’ll both go hungry!” She said while following You Yan’s steps, hopping sideways for several paces.
You Yan walked to the table, sat down, and glanced up at Yi Qiu. “Someone had to bandage such a minor injury for you.”
“I…” Yi Qiu was at a loss for words.
After a moment of feeling choked up, she exhaled heavily and said with a smile that was skin but not flesh5, “I’m delicate. It’s not the first day you’ve known that.”
Hearing this, You Yan couldn’t help but lower her gaze and let out a soft chuckle. “True.”
Yi Qiu let out a light “Hmph,” and subconsciously wanted to go lie down on the floor by You Yan’s feet, but she caught herself as soon as she took a step.
Her place now wasn’t at You Yan’s feet, but on any of the stools by the table.
Yi Qiu thought for a moment, then sat down opposite You Yan with her head held high and chest out, staring with her large, almond-shaped eyes to show her dissatisfaction.
But when had You Yan ever taken her little moods to heart?
She glared from the side for a long time, but You Yan just picked up her bowl and chopsticks and ate, bite by bite.
I’ve gone Buddha6, I’ll eat too!
Thinking this, Yi Qiu angrily reached for the chopsticks.
But after fumbling for a while, not only did she fail to pick them up, she even “grabbed” one of them onto the floor.
—Clatter!
Yi Qiu: “…”
Chao Yun wrapped my hands too tightly, I can’t move them at all…
Yi Qiu looked at the chopsticks, now separated on the table and the floor, then looked at the food the little pig trotter had made, and swallowed unconsciously.
You Yan was eating, eating all by herself, and enjoying it very much.
Now that there’s no alpaca to feed, this bird woman has a much easier time eating.
She must have thought the alpaca was a burden, especially difficult to serve, which is why she started thinking about turning the alpaca into a person so early on.
But this bird woman probably didn’t expect that even after the little alpaca became a person, she would still temporarily be unable to eat on her own.
Although admitting this was very embarrassing, she had already lost all her face in front of this bird woman long ago. Thinking about it carefully, it wasn’t a big deal at all.
Yi Qiu bit her lip, stood up, moved a stool over, and sat down right next to You Yan, gazing deeply at her with large eyes full of “longing.”
Perhaps the girl’s gaze was too scorching, for You Yan finally shifted her line of sight to her.
The two looked at each other for a moment before You Yan raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why aren’t you eating?”
Yi Qiu instantly took a deep breath.
What the meow7, my blood pressure is rising!
The noise of her dropping the chopstick was so loud just now, she refuses to believe this bird woman didn’t see it!
She saw it and is still asking a question she knows the answer to. She just wants to laugh at her!
Endure. I must endure.
This isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.
I’ll get used to it.
Yi Qiu swallowed and stammered, “Um, I… my, my hands are inconvenient.”
She didn’t know why, but when she was an alpaca, she felt no psychological pressure at all letting this bird woman feed her. But now that she was a person and still needed this bird woman to feed her, she felt exceptionally shy.
You Yan: “So?”
Yi Qiu’s eyes instantly widened, puffed up with anger.
I’ve already spelled it out, why is she still asking what she already knows!
“I, I can’t eat!” Yi Qiu’s brow furrowed for a few seconds. She snorted angrily through her nose like a little bull and bit out fiercely, “You have to feed me!”
You Yan stared at the girl before her, whose little face was red with anger. After a long moment of silence, her eyebrows suddenly curved, and she let out a “pfft” of laughter.
Yi Qiu’s little face fell instantly.
“Forget it, I’m not eating.” Even her tone of voice fell along with it.
Just as she stood up to return to her room, You Yan suddenly grabbed her wrist.
“Sit down. I’ll feed you.”
The author has something to say:
Knocking on the blackboard: In ancient times, fifteen was the age of ji ji8, when one could get married, so they weren’t considered a child. Besides, fifteen or sixteen is her apparent age. If you really want to get hung up on age, this alpaca is probably only three and a half years old since birth. At the end of the day, why are we even talking about age differences with immortals, yao, and gods? Our bird woman is a three-thousand-year-old young lady [dog head to save my life]9.
(Whispering very quietly) The song, lyrics, and arrangement for our You Yan and Yi Qiu’s song are all done. All that’s left is the singing and post-production mixing. The melody is very beautiful, the gentle and soothing type.
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