After a year, the mountains and waters of Qingqiu remained unchanged, lush with greenery and undulating peaks. Yet, the feelings in one’s heart were entirely different from when they first left.
Upon entering the familiar forest path, Li Fei jumped off her stone sword. Despite the heavy bundle on her back, filled with essentials they had purchased in Lu Gong Town, returning home made her steps light. She walked along the familiar muddy path she had trodden countless times, surrounded by the familiar scents of the forest and the wind—this was the home where she had lived for ten years.
“Look, I used to come to this forest often,” Li Fei said enthusiastically, pulling Lei Xiuyuan along as she recounted childhood stories. “You can dig up a kind of wild mushroom under the tree roots. Stir-fried with bamboo shoots, it’s delicious.”
Lei Xiuyuan glanced around. The faint demonic aura he had sensed earlier had completely vanished. This was truly a remote wilderness. Judging by the growth of the trees and the paths, it seemed that few people ever came to Qingqiu. Yet, the air was unusually clean, likely due to the protective charm on her wrist.
He turned back and saw Li Fei gathering a bunch of mushrooms in her arms. Curious, he asked, “What are you collecting them for?”
Her face was filled with rare, unrestrained joy, her eyes squinting with delight. “I’ll cook them for you when we get to my house. You can taste my cooking. But you’ll have to put up with vegetarian food for a few days—I can’t cook meat.”
It seemed that returning to Qingqiu had relaxed her, making her quite different from her time at the academy. Lei Xiuyuan smiled and took the dirty, mud-covered mushrooms from her arms. “If there’s anything else delicious, don’t be stingy. Just bring it along.”
For Li Fei, this was her first time bringing a friend home, and she was both excited and eager to be a good host. Fortunately, the mountains were full of wild vegetables and mushrooms, and soon she had gathered a large handful. They walked along the overgrown forest path, entering a narrow path between cliffs.
The cliffs towered like clouds on either side, their rock faces sharp and treacherous. The narrow path was littered with bones, mostly human, likely from those who had attempted to climb the dangerous peaks but had tragically fallen.
After walking for a while, Li Fei’s face showed a mix of anticipation and nervousness. She ran a few steps ahead and looked up, seeing the hemp rope she had tied to a protruding rock a year ago still there, untouched. She reached out to take it down, but the bell on the rope was rusted, and the rope itself crumbled at a touch.
It seemed no one had returned.
Li Fei felt a mix of disappointment and sadness. After a moment, she said softly, “Look, my master and I used to climb up and down using this rope.”
Lei Xiuyuan looked up at the towering cliffs, feeling their daunting and awe-inspiring presence. Without the power of flying on a sword, it was hard to imagine how one could climb them with just human strength.
Seeing the undisguised disappointment on Li Fei’s face, likely because her master hadn’t returned, he said softly, “Weren’t you going to be a good host? I’m starving. How can you let your guest starve?”
Li Fei chuckled and tossed out her stone sword. “Let’s go. The rope is too rotten to use. We’ll fly up.”
The simple forest cottage hadn’t changed at all. A circle of fences surrounded the yard, and inside were three wooden huts. The small plots of land that once grew radishes and sweet potatoes were now overgrown with weeds, as Li Fei had dug them up before leaving.
Li Fei pushed open the wooden door of her hut, and a string of dust fell from the eaves. She smiled awkwardly, “Uh, it’s been too long since I came back. It’s so dirty. You can put your things down and look around while I clean up.”
Lei Xiuyuan pressed her head and pushed her out. “I’ll do it. You go make us some food.”
Could he clean? Hopefully, he wouldn’t just shove the dirt under the bed like her master did and call it clean! Li Fei followed him inside, watching as he took off his outer robe, rolled up his sleeves, and began sweeping with practiced ease. Halfway through, he turned and stared at her, “If you don’t start cooking, I’m leaving.”
Li Fei quickly went out to fetch water. After a year, the water tank was filthy, and the well was covered in dust and weeds. She cleaned it for a long time before she could start a fire, wash rice, cook, and chop vegetables. The small kitchen was soon filled with steam and the aroma of food. The long-missed smoke from the chimney rose, and she suddenly felt as if she had never left Qingqiu, a feeling both nostalgic and bittersweet.
Having Lei Xiuyuan here was wonderful. If she were alone, she would probably be crying by now.
In the yard, sheets and blankets were drying in the sun. Lei Xiuyuan had even taken out the quilts that had been stored for a year to air them. This boy was surprisingly capable. Before long, he came over with a yellowed book, saying, “Your master’s books are quite interesting.”
“What book?” Li Fei leaned over to look and saw the cover read “Records of Overseas Anecdotes.” She asked curiously, “Where did you find it?”
“I found a box under his bed while cleaning the room and opened it,” he nodded toward the door. Sure enough, there was an open, tattered wooden box on the ground, filled with yellowed and moldy books, all laid out on stones to dry.
“I looked through them. They’re all about overseas legends,” Lei Xiuyuan smiled. “Your master is quite an interesting old man. Few people believe in overseas tales.”
Overseas? Li Fei was puzzled. Her master had never mentioned such things. She knew he had books, but they were mostly for teaching her to read and write. When did he have a box of books under the bed?
She picked up a book and flipped through it. It was indeed filled with tales of overseas legends, like people with pitch-black skin holding snakes, which seemed entirely unbelievable. How strange. After all these years with her master, she was only now discovering these books. Had he taken them out before leaving?
“Don’t think about it if you can’t figure it out,” Lei Xiuyuan said, pressing her head and pushing her back into the kitchen. “The food’s about to burn. I can smell it.”
Ah! It was about to burn! Li Fei hurriedly took the pot off the fire. Seeing Lei Xiuyuan always pointing and gesturing beside her, she pushed him out in annoyance, “Go play by yourself.”
After a year without cooking, she was a bit rusty, but she managed to prepare three dishes and a soup. She brought the food to the main room’s table, where Lei Xiuyuan was already sitting, reading a book while waiting. She served him a full bowl of rice and placed a chopstick of bamboo shoots and mushrooms in his bowl, grinning, “Here, try it.”
He took a bite of the bamboo shoots, his eyebrows raising slightly, but he said nothing.
Li Fei, cooking for someone other than her master for the first time, was filled with anticipation. “How does it taste?”
She didn’t expect Lei Xiuyuan to say anything nice. Getting a compliment from him was harder than getting Ri Yan to praise her.
To her surprise, he nodded, smiled slightly, and said warmly, “It’s good.”
Li Fei beamed and piled his bowl high with food, “Then eat more! Grow strong!”
He placed a chopstick of water bamboo in her bowl, saying, “You need to eat more. You’re so short.”
She was a bit annoyed, “I’m still growing! I’ll be taller in the future!”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re short now,” he said, adding another chopstick of mushrooms to her bowl.
Well, she couldn’t argue with that. Everyone had started growing taller this year. The most dramatic was Ye Ye, who was now up to Hu Jiaping’s shoulder. Lei Xiuyuan had also grown a lot, now taller than her by a head, though he still seemed slender compared to Ye Ye and Ji Tongzhou. However, the delicate, girlish frailty he once had was gone.
Lei Xiuyuan graciously finished all the food, even the soup, and after they cleaned up, the two of them sat in the sunlit courtyard, leaning against a stone, flipping through the books from the wooden box.
Lei Xiuyuan read for a long time. Each book in the box was about various overseas anecdotes, some collected folk tales, others wildly exaggerated fabrications. The overseas world remained an unknown mystery, and few believed it truly existed. Why had Li Fei’s master collected these? Was it just a hobby?
“Li Fei, did your master ever talk to you about overseas matters?” he asked softly. But after waiting a while without a response, he turned to see her asleep against the stone.
Eating and then sleeping, just like a pig.
Though it was midsummer, the mountain forest breeze was still cool. He took off his outer robe and draped it over her, then continued reading. Despite the books being mostly legends and fabrications, they were more interesting than the dry immortal techniques and arcane arts in the academy’s library, and he was engrossed.
The wind carried a faint, mysterious fragrance, and Lei Xiuyuan found it increasingly difficult to focus on the book.
He turned to look at Jiang Li Fei beside him. She was sleeping soundly, the fine down on her face glinting like gold in the sunlight, her lips innocently pouting. His robe looked oversized on her, making the usually stubborn and unyielding Jiang Li Fei appear unexpectedly delicate and fragile.
She had changed so much. If he hadn’t seen her every day, he would have thought she was a stranger. Fortunately, inside, she was still the same Jiang Li Fei.
In the mountain forest courtyard, two quarters past noon, the sounds of wind, rustling leaves, and Li Fei’s breathing intertwined. Though it was a desolate place, it unexpectedly brought a sense of peace. This was her home, where she had lived for ten years.
Lei Xiuyuan watched the orchids on her pink dress, the wind making it flutter. She was probably dreaming of food, smacking her lips and making indistinct sounds, then suddenly turning over, her long braid falling heavily on her back, thick and black, shiny and smooth.
He found it amusing, a mix of curiosity and mischief, as he reached out to play with the end of her braid, wrapping it around his fingers. Her hair was soft and smooth, tickling his palm.
It was so quiet here, so leisurely, like a dream.