Chapter 275: Some Reunions Are the Best
(I must give everyone a shout-out. The subscriptions for *Sword Comes* are rather strange: high fixed subscriptions at 21,500, average subscriptions at 20,000, but the 24-hour subscription is 20,500. Thank you for your love for *Sword Comes*.)
Chen Ping'an was completely disoriented, with no idea where he was on Daoxuan Mountain. There were no tall trees or high branches for him to look down from, only mansion gates and high walls lining the streets. He certainly didn't dare to casually stand on someone else's wall. In the early morning hours, pedestrians were sparse, and not a single person could understand the Ya Yan of East Bottle Gourd Continent. Under normal circumstances, worrying that he hadn't returned all night, Jin Su at the Stork Inn would definitely be anxious, and might even alert Osmanthus Island, which was currently loading and unloading cargo at the dock. Chen Ping'an couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. But today, as he strolled through the quiet streets, Chen Ping'an actually felt that slowly walking like this, letting fate take its course and seeing whatever sights came his way, was fine.
A person can't avoid troubling others all the time; occasionally having one or two such moments shouldn't bring too much guilt.
Then, as he walked, he saw her.
Ning Yao stood at the other end of the street, slowly walking toward Chen Ping'an.
She wore a dark green long robe. If his memory served him right, it was very similar to the new clothes he had bought for her back in Lizhu Cave Heaven. It fit her perfectly.
Chen Ping'an jogged forward until he stood before Ning Yao, blurting out, "What a coincidence."
Ning Yao curled the corner of her mouth, then put on a straight face and said nothing.
Chen Ping'an said softly, "I was planning to spend these two days exploring Daoxuan Mountain, checking out more shops before finally deciding whether to buy a few items at Lingzhi Studio. Then I'd give them to you, along with that sword forged by Master Ruan."
Ning Yao said irritably, "What good things could Lingzhi Studio have? At most, that Wishful Lingzhi and a Nurturing Sword Gourd are barely passable, but I have no use for them. Besides, Lingzhi Studio won't sell them, and you can't afford them anyway."
Chen Ping'an let out an "Oh," scratched his head, and felt a bit disappointed.
Ning Yao hesitated for a moment. Struggling against her own nature, she broke her usual pattern by adding one more sentence, as if explaining, "No other meaning. Don't overthink it."
Chen Ping'an smiled. "I won't overthink it. My mind is a mess right now; thinking about anything gives me a headache."
Ning Yao asked, "When you see me, does your head still ache?"
Chen Ping'an quickly replied, "It feels much better."
Ning Yao asked, "Where are you staying? Just wandering around aimlessly like this? What, hoping to encounter injustice and play the hero saving a damsel in distress?"
Chen Ping'an sighed. "Last night, I drank the Forget Worry Wine from Yellow Millet Blessed Land, and as soon as I left the shop, I couldn't figure out how to get back."
They walked casually down the street. Ning Yao asked, "How could you afford Forget Worry Wine?"
Chen Ping'an lowered his voice. "A couple treated me to it. It was a bit strange. Just now, I was taken to the Sword Qi Great Wall, and I clearly saw the two of them on the city wall, but last night they said it was their first time visiting the Respect Sword Pavilion. Yet they talked about many senior sword immortals as if reciting from memory. Is it easy for people from Daoxuan Mountain to go to the Sword Qi Great Wall, but the reverse is very difficult? Even though this matter is strange, I still think that couple are good people. Treating me to wine was a kind thing. If I have the chance later, I must treat them in return."
Ning Yao hummed ambiguously in acknowledgment.
The two walked into a quiet alleyway, with high walls on both sides covered in climbing ivy. Ning Yao remained silent the whole time.
Chen Ping'an asked, "Miss Ning, when you left that time, it was so sudden that I forgot to ask—do you dislike me?"
Ning Yao answered bluntly, "No."
Chen Ping'an stopped in his tracks. He subconsciously reached for his wine gourd but quickly let go, looking straight at Ning Yao. "Miss Ning, then do you like me?"
Ning Yao remained silent.
Chen Ping'an imitated her gesture from back in the ancestral home on Clay Bottle Alley—he extended two fingers, leaving only a tiny gap between them. "Just this much liking? Is there any?"
Ning Yao didn't answer his question but instead asked, "Why do you like me?"
Chen Ping'an turned his head, took down his Nurturing Sword Gourd, quickly took a sip of wine, wiped the corner of his mouth, and then smiled radiantly. "That's a long story. Let me tell it to you slowly. No matter what, Miss Ning, you must let me finish. Even if you get angry, don't interrupt me, because if you do, I'm afraid I'll never dare to say it for the rest of my life. Miss Ning, you are truly beautiful. Before I met you, I'd never seen anyone more beautiful than you in Lizhu Cave Heaven. Later, when I was recuperating in the Clay Bottle Alley, I wasn't bothered by my humble home. You taught me to read; because you explained the *Firm Mountain Fist Manual* to me, I started practicing boxing and was able to come this far, all the way to Daoxuan Mountain.
At that covered bridge, you lent me your skirt-weighting dagger. We fought side by side and got into a brawl with that Mountain-Moving Ape from Zhengyang Mountain. We both nearly died, but in the end, neither of us died—how wonderful. At the Immortal's Grave, I even came close to killing that Ma Kuxuan. Together, we went to the western mountains to help that woman from the Chen clan of Poshazhou find the *kai* tree. Later, when you were angry once and refused to let me help, insisting on decocting the medicine yourself, you burnt it to a crisp. I found that adorable. You once said, 'The Great Way shouldn't be so narrow.' I didn't understand at the time, but now that I've traveled far, I truly get it. When you advised me not to be a spineless goody-goody or a patron saint handing out money, I was actually quite happy. When you left Lizhu Cave Heaven and had already walked so far with those immortals, you still turned your sword around to come say goodbye to me. After you left, I was eating a sugar-coated hawthorn stick—something I used to drool over as a child—and it had no taste at all. Teacher Qi left; I took Little Baoping and the others to Great Sui. Whenever I saw beautiful mountains, I'd think of your eyebrows, Miss Ning. Whenever I saw beautiful water, I'd think of your eyes. On my travels, whenever I saw a pretty girl, I'd think of you, Miss Ning, and suddenly they wouldn't seem beautiful anymore."
Having poured out these words like beans from a bamboo tube, Chen Ping'an felt his throat tighten and his face flush crimson. The Nurturing Sword Gourd in his hand seemed to weigh tens of thousands of pounds.
But Chen Ping'an didn't regret saying so much.
He said in a trembling voice, "Miss Ning, me liking you is my own business. It doesn't matter if you don't like me."
Ning Yao leaned against the wall, and even those climbing ivy vines couldn't compare to her charm.
She asked, "If I don't like you, will you go and like another girl? For example..."
She thought for a moment, "Ruan Xiu?"
Chen Ping'an looked at her and realized that liking a very good girl, when she seemed not to like him back, was something both heartbreaking and not too heartbreaking. "If liking another girl meant I could never see you again, then I'll never like anyone else in this life. Even if I'm a thousand or ten thousand miles away, where you can't see me, and I throw a million or ten million punches, I'll still only like you."
Ning Yao rolled her eyes. "Do I seem that unreasonable?"
Chen Ping'an was stunned.
Then Ning Yao said firmly, "Yes! I am exactly that unreasonable!"
She suddenly burst into laughter, full of childish smugness. When she laughed, her brows and eyes became even more vivid and lively. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Who else would like a fool like me?"
Then she stepped forward two paces and wrapped her arms around the young man from Great Li, murmuring, "Chen Ping'an! I like you—not one bit less than you like me!"
The first reunion, she had wanted to say to him:
*I don't like you.*
But that was so hard.
She let go, the rims of her eyes slightly red, with a rare display of annoyance and shyness that seemed utterly out of character for her—as if the sun had risen in the west. "How can you be so stupid?!"
Chen Ping'an stood there dazedly. "How can you really like me..."
In that moment, Chen Ping'an was exactly like Liu Baqiao of Wind Thunder Garden.
When you like a girl, you like her so much that you feel she will never like you back, and you don't feel it's unfair at all.
Ning Yao finally regained some composure, her brows and eyes soaring like the sharpest flying sword under heaven. "Do I, Ning Yao, need a reason to like someone?!"
Actually, she did have reasons—many of them.
But she was too embarrassed to say them out loud. After all, she was a girl, not a thick-skinned person like Chen Ping'an.
Suddenly, as if divinely inspired, Chen Ping'an hugged Ning Yao tightly.
Ning Yao's face flushed crimson. She curled her lips but didn't struggle. Instead, she secretly lifted one hand and gently pinched the edge of his clothes.
In that small alley on Daoxuan Mountain, the boy and girl quietly embraced like that.
At that moment, the world seemed to come alive.
Ning Yao was still Ning Yao; Chen Ping'an was still Chen Ping'an. They didn't continue being shy and timid forever.
After they separated, Ning Yao led the way, saying she wanted to finish the half-jar of Yellow Millet Wine. She guided Chen Ping'an to an old locust tree. Raising a hand, she curled her fingers as if knocking on a door.
Soon, ripples appeared before Ning Yao, revealing the shape of a wine shop. Ning Yao was the first to stride across the threshold, and Chen Ping'an followed closely behind.
The shop assistant, Xu Jia, saw Ning Yao and greeted her with great enthusiasm. "Miss Ning, you're here! Can I buy you a drink?"
Ning Yao glanced at him. Who was this? No recollection.
So she ignored him and chose a table to sit at.
Xu Jia wilted.
In his eyes, this girl was second only to the Young Miss. He had been deeply impressed the first time he saw her.
That was a few years ago. The young girl had left the Sword Qi Great Wall for Daoxuan Mountain for the first time. A certain fellow had brought her to the wine shop; he drank two jars of wine, but she only tasted it once and stopped. Back then, she wore black clothes, a saber at her waist—not yet carrying two swords like today, nor wearing a dark green robe. Her face was cold; even when the old shopkeeper met her gaze, she paid him no mind. While Ah Liang drank his wine, she walked to the high wall on her own, stared at it for a long time without a word, then returned to her seat. In Xu Jia's eyes, the girl had too much personality—almost dazzlingly so, making people dare not look directly at her.
That time, Ah Liang wasn't joking around; he just drank. Xu Jia could tell that Ah Liang didn't know how to persuade the girl. It seemed she was about to do something remarkable, and Ah Liang drank gloomily. Xu Jia realized then that even Ah Liang could be at a loss. After the girl insisted that Ah Liang not see her off and left the wine shop alone, Ah Liang stopped drinking and moped, saying half a daughter had just flown away.
Xu Jia glanced at the youth from Great Li named Chen Ping'an.
No matter how he looked at it, this guy didn't deserve Miss Ning.
Even a hundred Chen Ping'ans piled together wouldn't match her.
Chen Ping'an asked for the remaining half-jar of Forget Worry Wine, enough to fill two large white bowls. He poured half a bowl for each.
They sat side by side on a long bench, and Ning Yao didn't find anything wrong with that.
Xu Jia hid in the distance, clicking his tongue in wonder.
Chen Ping'an took a sip of the Forget Worry Wine.
Suddenly, he felt the wine tasted much better than it had last night, so he smiled at Ning Yao.
Ning Yao glared at him.
They didn't speak, just sipped their wine in small amounts.
Suddenly, Chen Ping'an asked pitifully, "Ning Yao, you're not a fake, are you?"
The old man who was teasing a caged bird couldn't help but laugh at the youth's silly remark.
Ning Yao sighed.
He's a fool, but I'm even more foolish.
Who was it that said this guy would definitely end up with someone who didn't have all her marbles?
Chen Ping'an set down his wine bowl, reached out his hand toward her. Ning Yao just watched him, wanting to know what he was up to.
Chen Ping'an used two fingers to pinch her cheek, gently tugging.
Ning Yao didn't move.
Chen Ping'an extended another hand and pinched her other cheek.
Xu Jia broke out in a cold sweat, thinking that this bold bastard was probably doomed.
But Ning Yao just slapped away Chen Ping'an's meddling hands and warned, "Chen Ping'an, keep being this scatterbrained, and I might just fall out with you."
Chen Ping'an withdrew his hands awkwardly. "Good. It's really you."
Ning Yao took a big gulp of wine and asked, "You must already know that my parents have passed away. Do you think I'm pitiful?"
Xu Jia thought that if the kid dared to say yes, then he would be dead for sure this time.
Chen Ping'an didn't hesitate. "Pitiful. If losing your parents isn't pitiful, then what is?"
But as he said these words—
His lips were tightly pressed, the corners of his mouth turned down. The young man seemed even more wronged than she was.
He wasn't pitying the girl before him, because he, too, had lost his parents, and even earlier. As a child, unable to fend for himself, scraping by until it was unbearable, he had to beg for kindness and charity—there was no other choice, or he wouldn't survive.
But when you grow up, you no longer need to be pitied. You can live well on your own, and you can even repay the kindness you received in your early years. So he just felt for her.
But when the words came to his lips, Chen Ping'an couldn't control himself.
Ning Yao snorted coldly. "Who do you think you are? I need your pity?"
Chen Ping'an blinked.
Ning Yao blushed a little and, under the table, stomped her foot on Chen Ping'an's instep.
Xu Jia stood by, utterly dumbfounded. He felt as if a great sword immortal had stabbed him in the heart several times.
After that, the two of them drank and murmured to each other in low voices.
Xu Jia felt like he was being stabbed again and again.
This life was unbearable.
He no longer stayed inside the shop. He moved a small bench and sat on the doorstep, hoping that out of sight would mean out of mind.
But he couldn't help glancing back, and he saw that the girl's long, narrow eyebrows were no longer sad, as they had been at their first meeting—instead, they were full of playfulness and warmth.
That stab to the heart was equivalent to one of Ah Liang's sword strikes.
Then he saw the young man from Great Li, his face full of smiles, his eyes warm, as if saying that his love for Ning Yao had nothing to do with either of the two worlds—he just liked this girl. So much so that even an outsider like Xu Jia felt, after seeing them, that the two were quite well matched.
Then that stab to the chest was no less than the legendary "City-Saving" sword strike of the old sword immortal on the city wall.
Xu Jia turned to the old shopkeeper and wailed, "When is the Young Miss coming home? I'm dying to see her!"
The old man replied, "Dying to see her? Just don't die inside the shop."
Just then, Xu Jia perked up. After someone his age knocked on the "door," he immediately "opened" it to welcome the guest.
Entered an extremely handsome young man.
Xu Jia asked with a smile, "How come you're back from the Sword Qi Great Wall?"
The young man wore a white robe, his smile warm. He raised his hand and high-fived Xu Jia, then said to the old man in a clear voice, "Shopkeeper, the usual. I want to buy a jar of wine, put it on my master's tab."
The old shopkeeper saw the young man and smiled as well.
Any old-timer who saw this young man, who radiated a "sun at its zenith" aura despite his youth, would almost certainly take a liking to him.
And while they could still take advantage of their age to look down on this youth, they had to cherish the moment, because soon they wouldn't have the chance.
On the wall behind them, the young man's master had recently inscribed the mighty words: "Martial Arts Can Go Even Higher."
The handsome young man said to Xu Jia, "Xu Jia, I'm going to write something first. Get me a brush. Hmm, I want my writing to sit next to my master's."
All gloom lifted from Xu Jia's heart. He ran to fetch wine and a brush, turning his head as he ran to reply, "Got it! Wait for me!"
As the handsome young man walked toward the wall, he kept his gaze fixed on Ning Yao, who was sitting beside Chen Ping'an.
But Ning Yao only glanced at him once before continuing to talk to Chen Ping'an about the Sword Qi Great Wall.
The handsome young man smiled, walked to the high wall, moved a stool for himself, and next to the words of the woman state preceptor of the Great Duan Dynasty—"Better"—he raised his brush and wrote four characters: "Even Higher Because of Me."
Chen Ping'an secretly averted his gaze and whispered, "Who is that? He seems really impressive."
Ning Yao thought carefully for a moment. "I forgot his name."