Little Alpaca – Chapter 90

Volume 2: Fuzhu Huodou

You’ve Never Studied, Have You?

Recently, You Yan had suffered quite a few injuries and consumed too much spiritual energy. Yi Qiu stayed by her side, and after a long and winding journey, they finally settled down for a temporary rest in Moshui City.

Perhaps because there was nothing urgent to worry about for the time being, You Yan once again grew as indolent as she was when she first arrived in Moshui City, or when she had just joined the Xianlu Sect.

When the indolent You Yan was in bed, she would either gather her qi to condense her breath¹ or close her eyes to rest her mind. If she wasn’t in bed, she was either brewing or drinking tea, or she was leaning against the window in deep thought or grinding ink to practice calligraphy. What a terribly bird woman, making herself idle enough to resemble one of those well-bred young ladies² who never stepped out of the house before marriage.

However, things were different now compared to before. Yi Qiu was no longer an alpaca and could run outside freely. Every day, she would see or encounter interesting things outside and come back to sit by You Yan’s side to chatter about them at length.

In the past, You Yan would have definitely found her noisy. But now, no matter what she said, You Yan would listen quietly, and while listening, she would occasionally chime in with a sentence or two.

Although her tone wasn’t necessarily pleasant and would most likely carry a hint of faint sarcasm, You Yan had always been this kind of bird woman. Yi Qiu had long since gotten used to it and naturally didn’t ask for more.

During these days of peacefully accompanying You Yan as she recuperated, autumn quietly arrived, and the mortal world’s summer slipped away in a daze.

Yi Qiu actually liked this kind of leisurely life. If only she didn’t have that system in her body, if the matter of the Fuzhu and the Huodou could have a not-so-terrible conclusion, if Luo Mingyuan and Jiang Yuyao could undergo their tribulations on the spot successfully…

What a pity. Although everyone had a tacit understanding and never mentioned those vexing matters recently, she just knew that this kind of leisure probably wouldn’t last too long.

Regardless, during this time when she could still spend her days idly, Yi Qiu quite hoped that You Yan could go out for a walk with her.

After all, since transforming into human form, apart from the night she “stole” things in Xi City, she had never gone out on the streets with You Yan.

So, on an afternoon when the sun was still reasonably bright, she casually asked You Yan, “Aren’t you bored like this day after day? Why don’t you go out for a walk with me?”

To this, You Yan gave an answer that was completely within Yi Qiu’s expectations: “It’s noisy outside.”

Yi Qiu thought for a moment, then tiptoed over to You Yan’s back and tilted her head to look at the characters she had written on the paper.

Seeing Yi Qiu watching from the side for a long time, You Yan couldn’t help but ask softly as she put down her brush, “How is it?”

“It’s really well-written!” Yi Qiu praised perfunctorily.

You Yan’s calligraphy… you couldn’t call it neat, nor could you call it elegant. It was neither grand nor delicate.

To say it was ugly would be untrue, but to say it was beautiful seemed to be missing something.

But since this bird woman had already asked “how is it,” what could she do but praise it?

Beautiful, truly beautiful. It was better than her writing, so she could praise it with her eyes closed. At the end of the day, if she could praise that frizzy embroidery, what was there not to praise about this conventional handwriting?

But Yi Qiu really hadn’t expected You Yan to be so self-aware in certain aspects. The moment after being praised, she let out a soft laugh and said faintly, “This stuff, and you still have the nerve to praise it.”

Getting called out by the bird for patting the bird’s butt with her eyes closed³, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but pout and retort stubbornly, “I’m serious, this is so much better than mine!”

Hearing this, You Yan raised an eyebrow, unhurriedly took two steps to the side, and while gesturing for Yi Qiu to take the brush with her eyes, she replaced the paper with a fresh sheet and said faintly, “Write two characters, let me see.”

“Me?” Yi Qiu frowned. “My handwriting is very ugly!”

“Let me see,” You Yan repeated.

The bird woman’s patience had always been poor. She must not be allowed to say something three times, or the alpaca would surely suffer.

Thinking this, Yi Qiu reached out for the brush, unwillingly moved to the desk, and, copying You Yan’s actions, dipped it in some ink. She stared at the blank sheet of paper and fell into deep thought.

It had to be said, this feeling of being forced to write was just like being compelled to perform a talent in front of relatives during the New Year. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, but with someone staring expectantly from the side, a brain that was originally quite well-stocked could easily be ransacked by embarrassment.

“What… what should I write?” Yi Qiu couldn’t help but glance sideways at You Yan.

“Write a name,” You Yan said.

“Oh, okay!” Yi Qiu nodded and quickly wrote the two small characters for “Yi Qiu” on the paper.

She had used too much ink, and her hand was trembling. The two simple characters were written crookedly by her—as expected, the bird woman started laughing at her from the side again.

Yi Qiu bit her inner lip and was just about to put the brush down when she heard You Yan say, “My name, write it.”

Hearing this, Yi Qiu instantly frowned. “Ah, your name has so many strokes!”

Her handwriting had been ugly since she was a child, and this brush was just too difficult to use. If she used a brush to write characters with too many strokes, it would definitely be explosively ugly, probably enough for You Yan to laugh at for a whole year.

You Yan’s fingertip tapped the clean white paper as she said, beyond question, “Write.”

Yi Qiu took a deep breath and wrote the two large characters for “You Yan” on the paper like a ghost-drawn talisman⁴. The moment she finished, she put down the brush, clasped her hands behind her back like a primary school student being punished, and shuffled to the side.

You Yan tilted her head, changing her angle, and looked at the characters for “You Yan” under Yi Qiu’s brush over and over again. A smile of growing intensity couldn’t help but surface in her eyes.

You Yan: “You…”

Yi Qiu couldn’t help but press her lips together. “You’re laughing at me again. Is it really that ugly?”

You Yan: “You wrote the character wrong.”

Yi Qiu: “Eh?”

You Yan looked at the bewildered Yi Qiu and laughed out loud. She picked up the brush and wrote the character “硯” on the paper, arching her brows. “Do you know it now?”

“…” I was careless. The “Yàn” character from the 21st century⁵ had been simplified.

So You Yan wasn’t laughing at her ugly handwriting, but at her lack of culture.

“You’ve never studied, have you?” You Yan asked faintly.

“I have!” Being treated as an illiterate after so many years of schooling was something Yi Qiu could not tolerate.

However, the consequence of not being able to tolerate things was that the very next second after her reflexive rebuttal, she met the great villain’s smiling eyes.

The foolish fish, it had taken the bait again and again and again⁶…

You Yan: “You alpacas, how old are you when you start studying?”

Yi Qiu: “…”

You Yan: “Can you study without having your spiritual intelligence opened?”

Yi Qiu: “…”

Seeing that Yi Qiu didn’t answer, You Yan didn’t press further. She just sighed softly and said faintly, “A pity, all that studying was for nothing. From now on, I will teach you. For today, let’s start by copying the wrong character a thousand times as punishment.”

“Ah?” Yi Qiu frowned in shock. “I have to copy it a thousand times?!”

“Mhm, both characters together,” You Yan said, then turned to walk to the window and sit down. She pushed open a small crack in the window and looked outside leisurely.

“That’s not necessary!” Yi Qiu tried to bargain. “A thousand times is too much!”

You Yan said faintly, “Then make it two thousand times.”

Yi Qiu gritted her teeth and didn’t move for a long time.

What a joke. The last time she was punished with copying lines was back in high school. Two thousand repetitions of “You Yan” meant four thousand characters, and not with a fountain pen, gel pen, or ballpoint pen, but with that incredibly troublesome calligraphy brush!

“I’m not copying it!” Yi Qiu said, turning and rushing out of the guest room.

You Yan looked back at the wide-open door. Just as she was about to use a spell to close it, she saw Yi Qiu double back, shut the door for her with a ‘bang’, and then leave again.

You Yan was silent for a moment, then couldn’t help but shake her head and chuckle.

She stood up and walked back to the table with the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. She stared at the crooked “You Yan” on the table and pondered for a long time, finally rolling it up gently and putting it into her spirit pouch.

When she turned and walked back to the window, the little girl who had fled to avoid being punished was not far from her line of sight, buying Tangyou Guozi⁷ from a street vendor. After paying, she took the snack and skipped away into the distance, disappearing from her sight a short while later.

After a brief moment of thought, the person in the room closed that small crack in the window once more.

Yi Qiu hummed a little tune as she walked down the bustling street.

Passing by a teahouse, a storyteller sat behind a desk telling tales. Passing by an opera house, she could hear a few indistinct lines of opera⁸ even from the outside.

The lively atmosphere of the mortal world⁹ was something the demon realm lacked, yet You Yan was never willing to come out and see it.

“That bird woman just doesn’t know how to live…” Yi Qiu muttered under her breath. Turning her head, she happened to see Chao Yun getting medicine wrapped at a pharmacy nearby and quickly ran over to greet her.

Hearing someone call her name, Chao Yun couldn’t help but look back. Seeing Yi Qiu running towards her, she curved her eyes into a smile. “It’s you, Little… Yi Qiu?”

Yi Qiu: “So you knew my name?”

Chao Yun: “Yuyao told me.”

“Buying medicine for the little pig trotter?” Yi Qiu said, pointing a finger at the medicine that had just been wrapped by the pharmacy owner behind Chao Yun.

Chao Yun nodded and asked, “Are you going the same way?”

Yi Qiu hummed in agreement and smiled. “I was just about to go see him.”

“Let’s go then,” Chao Yun said, turning to pick up the medicine packet and walking out of the pharmacy with Yi Qiu.

If one didn’t count the time at the Xianlu Sect when she was still an alpaca, then this was the first time Yi Qiu had been alone with Chao Yun.

This second female lead from the original novel, whom she had liked the most, was unbelievably gentle in every word, every action, and every glance. Just like at this very moment, she was clearly doing nothing, just walking quietly by Chao Yun’s side, yet she had a feeling of being like bathing in the spring breeze¹⁰.

No wonder. In the original novel, You Yan couldn’t bear to kill her, and now, the Yi Bird couldn’t bear to harm her either.

But now that everything had deviated from the original work, what kind of role was Chao Yun playing in a world like this?

Was she still that Wood God who loved the Golden Crow, guarded the Fusang tree, and never dared to pursue her love?

Just as Yi Qiu’s thoughts were running wild, Chao Yun suddenly found a topic of conversation.

“Recently, why haven’t I seen Miss You?”

“Hm?” Yi Qiu paused for a second, then shook her head. “She’s lazy to death, she doesn’t like going out.”

Chao Yun: “You could ask her to come out for a walk, listen to some storytelling¹¹, watch some opera. Perhaps she would like it.”

Yi Qiu pouted. “There’s no way I can get her to move.”

Chao Yun: “I don’t believe you.”

Yi Qiu was taken aback and looked up at Chao Yun, who had a smile in her eyes.

After a brief silence, Chao Yun looked back at Yi Qiu and asked softly, “You have a stream of spiritual energy inside you that doesn’t belong to you. It’s Miss You’s Blood Coagulation Pearl, isn’t it?”

“You even know about this…”

“She is very special to you. Before…” Chao Yun’s words paused here for half a second. When she continued, she had already changed the subject. “In a few days, it will be the Qiqiao Festival¹². Moshui will be very lively then. You should pull her out to have a look.”

“Pull?” Yi Qiu was sure she hadn’t misheard. Chao Yun had emphasized the word “pull.”

“Mhm, if you use a little force, she will come out eventually.”

Yi Qiu muttered under her breath, “For this kind of festival, why would I want to pull that Ghost Sees Sorrow out with me…”

The Qiqiao Festival, isn’t that just Qixi?

On the day the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl¹³ meet on the magpie bridge, why would she forcibly drag out a bird woman who grew to be over three thousand years old by eating bamboo shoots and who feels uncomfortable if she doesn’t test her for a single day?

Was she trying to find trouble for herself?

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