Ning Changjiu heaved a sigh and said, “Please ask then.”
Zhao Xiang’er looked at him with a poker face, saying, “First, why were you sleeping with Ning Xiaoling on the ground? What did you do to her? Why did she wrap herself up with the quilt and seem afraid?”
Ning Changjiu was stunned.
The first question was already not easy for him.
He answered with a question, “She felt cold so I wrapped her up with the quilt. Clearly, she was warm and happy. Why do you say she was afraid?”
Zhao Xiang’er asked with a frown, “Why did you put your hands and feet on her?”
“What?” Ning Changjiu only felt a headache and couldn’t think of anything. He said, “Last night, I took care of you and then passed out due to exhaustion. How can I know what happened?”
Zhao Xiang’er didn’t question his answer, “Okay. You carried me back last night?”
Ning Changjiu nodded his head.
Zhao Xiang’e
The room was quiet again. Zhao Xiang’er was leaning against his chest. Seeing her pretty face, he felt a bit angry. He pulled her arms away from him, put her on the bed and pinched her face as punishment. Then, he tucked her in and ran out.Ning Xiaoling, lifting a hunk of beef, didn’t run far away. She was sitting on the stair with her chin rested on her hand sulkily.Ning Changjiu sat by her and took a glance at the beef, saying with a chuckle, “I didn’t know you had gone hunting.”Ning Xiaoling answered, “Yeah, neither did I expect that you were hunting in the room.”Ning Changjiu comforted her smilingly and explained the ins and outs of the matter to her. Ning Xiaoling listened to him suspiciously and stared at him with distrust.Ning Changjiu heaved a sigh and said, “You don’t even trust me?”Ning Xiaoling answered, “Yes, but Xiang’er is so pretty and you are in the green. I...”Ni
In the yard of the old house, it was messy on the snowfield. The crystalline snow was reflected by the moonlight just like the red grassland at the end of autumn and the beginning of winter.After dressing himself up in a suit of clean clothes, Ning Changjiu stood a few meters away from Zhao Xiang’er. Both of them were unarmed. They would fight bare-handed.Ning Xiaoling brought a chair over and sat under the eaves of the yard, watching over the red umbrella and the swords. She rubbed her hands and clasped them before her chest. She was no more disappointed about not being able to see them conduct joint cultivation. Instead, she was full of expectations upon seeing them confront each other.Ning Changjiu said with clasped hands, “Miss Zhao, no need to show mercy for me.”Zhao Xiang’er rubbed her wrists and couldn’t refrain from laughing when she heard that, “Rest assured.”She had long wanted to kick his ass.
Linhe City was enshrouded in the darkness all the time. In the bleak darkness, occasionally, Yellow Spring surged and caused the wind of aura, which blew above the city drily and gloomily, seeming to wash something. The scarlet moon seemed to have shone for thousands of years and the snow among the slots of the roofing tiles had formed piles of ice. The crystals within the ice reflected the moonlight and never melted in the cold world.In an old house, the door damaged by worms was pushed open and a crying boy ran out. He fell to the ground quickly, his face full of bloodstains. He wiped his face and there was still hard rice at the corners of his mouth.In the room, a woman slowly stuck out her head and wanted to call the boy back but she couldn’t make any sound. With her long hair scattered, she held a handful of yellow raw rice, her skeleton-like face buried in the long face. It was difficult to tell whether she was a human or a ghost.
After the boy called her “Madam”, the darkness seemed to be stagnant. It was quiet before the gate. After a while, Ning Changjiu coughed.He pretended to cough a few times to ease the embarrassing situation. He bent down to pat the boy’s head and said with a smile, “You are such a polite boy.”Zhao Xiang’er became sterner. She grabbed Ning Changjiu’s back neck and dragged him aside.The boy was not sure whether he had addressed her in a right way or not. Yet, this madam didn’t seem happy. She looked so fierce... Oh right, he should have called her “Your Ladyship”.The boy realized his mistake. Looking at the pretty girl’s cold face, he felt coldness in his limbs. He wanted to make up for his mistake but upon thinking that his mother had told him that he who talked much would err much, he was dithering over whether he should say it.Seeing the scene, the chatelain snorted inwardly. He thought that a kid was too i
In the yard, the two of them confronted each other. Zhao Xiang’er threw a peachwood sword at him. Ning Changjiu asked with a frown, “I only asked you to practice fist techniques with me.”Zhao Xiang’er asked, “You want to switch it to an iron one?”Ning Changjiu could only compromise, “What sword method are you going to practice today?”Zhao Xiang’er answered, “I don’t know sword moves. There is no sword method.”Ning Changjiu said, “You don’t need to have sword moves after you wield the sword for a long time, you will have your familiar moves. These moves are moves anyway.”Zhao Xiang’er thought for a while and said with a nod, “You’ve got a point indeed.”She agreed with Ning Changjiu but she didn’t slow down striking her sword. The peachwood sword swept across the dark frozen earth. As she leaped swiftly, she thrust at Ning Changjiu’s chest with the sword. Ning Changjiu parried the strike with a
The scarlet moon hung in the sky motionlessly, surrounded by no clouds. The sky was pure dark. And the scarlet moon was like the hole in the dark curtain but no shimmer of light was cast through the hole as if the other side of the world were also a sea of darkness.Ms. Bai kept her head lifted, leaving the blood dripping along her fair skin. Her naked body was stained with blood as if wearing a dark red dress. The blood made her long hair even darker. The broken skulls still hung on her body just like countless bone worms nibbling her body together.Ms. Bai stared at the scarlet moon attentively and the scarlet moon also looked at her with concentration. Her dark eyes were like two ponds of water that reflected the moonlight.“Zhao Xiang’er... You are the empress of the state of Zhao. No wonder you didn’t dare to cross the river and kill me. If we met elsewhere now, we should have fought to the death.” Ms. Bai put on a smile and her pal
The bone sword rose to the sky as if a silver fish sank into the deep ocean. It disappeared on the back of the scarlet moon quickly.The moonlight shone throughout the city.The sword didn’t land even moments later.Ning Changjiu carried the injured Ning Xiaoling back into the room and took out the prepared medicine to treat her. Zhao Xiang’er stood aside and watched the blood marks washed by the sword Qi through her ragged Taoist dress, saying with appreciation, “Well done. You’ve done a good job beyond my expectations.”Ning Xiaoling wiped the blood off her forehead and looked at Zhao Xiang’er with a grin, saying, “It was due to Changjiu’s help.”Zhao Xiang’er was holding her umbrella in her arms. Standing aside, she looked at Ning Changjiu binding up Ning Xiaoling’s injuries and then asked, “That day, when I and your fellow disciple came back, we didn’t come to find you directly simply in fear that Ms. Bai wo
Shubai, who had arrived above the yard, stopped and landed in the yard. He looked around with his red eyes on his bony face like a vigilant owl.Ms. Bai also scouted around with the scarlet moon. She knew that Zhao Xiang’er had an extremely capable acquired spirit that could absorb all the light. When it was merged with the darkness, it could hardly be noticed. Yet, it was not truly invisible. As long as it left the dark place, it would be exposed.However, it was a girl by the broken Bridge of Forgetfulness who saw Zhao Xiang’er earliest.The girl with a slim figure hid in an empty house beside the bridge, curling herself in the shadow. Every day she would stick out her head to look around the bridge.She didn’t dare to stay too far away from the bridge. Once she left, her body would be torn into pieces.She was the new Old Lady Meng, who had been bound with the Bridge of Forgetfulness.Now, the br