For Xie Bai, such actions from Yin Wushu were actually a bit unusual.

When he was twelve or thirteen years old, Yin Wushu once commented on his character, saying that he was "extreme in both love and hate" — once he accepted someone's closeness, the whole world would be divided into two categories, this person and everyone else, extreme dependence and care for this person, and extreme indifference to others, with almost no transitional phase in between.

If there had to be a middle ground, it would be "just about" for people like Lou Xianyue and Luo Zhusheng, who were not completely ignored.

Yin Wushu was the only close person to Xie Bai, so Xie Bai cared about every comment and opinion of his.

At that time, he asked Yin Wushu, "Is this bad?"

Yin Wushu just patted his head and said, "It's not bad. Everyone is different. How you love and hate and how you treat others is your own decision. Others can't interfere."

Xie Bai nodded and continued to seriously mash the jujube paste. After a while, his empty left hand casually touched a peach branch nearby, and he asked Yin Wushu, "Do you dislike people with this kind of temperament?"

Yin Wushu, who was carefully picking peach petals, didn't even look up and answered, "Of course not."

Xie Bai felt relieved, and while continuing to mash the jujube paste to a finer consistency, he casually waved his left hand and said, "Then I won't add meat and vegetables."

Yin Wushu glanced at him when he heard this, only to see a chubby green worm being gently tossed back onto the tree by Xie Bai.

Yin Wushu: "... "

He asked helplessly, "If I say yes, are you going to mash that fat worm into the paste to poison me?"

"Yes," Xie Bai nodded seriously, without even looking at him, continuing to mash the jujube paste. After a while, he couldn't help but smirk slightly, and then, as expected, he was playfully smacked on the head by Yin Wushu.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with his extreme love and hate attitude. Since that day, he had no intention of changing it, and he even more fiercely placed Yin Wushu in the exception position, because Yin Wushu didn't dislike it.

Therefore, although Xie Bai had always disliked physical contact with others, he had always been able to accept Yin Wushu's touch. He thought he had already gotten used to any touch from Yin Wushu, but he found out during the Lantern Festival that day that he was still uncomfortable.

Obviously, when he was young, he often crawled into Yin Wushu's arms to keep warm, and he often held Yin Wushu's hand. Patting heads and touching faces were all very natural, with no burden at all, just like touching himself.

But that day, when Yin Wushu grabbed his hand on the street, he felt something was off. From head to toe, especially the hand that was being held, nothing felt quite right.

So much so that he was led by Yin Wushu to walk and stop in the market for quite some time, and his mind was still wandering outside.

It wasn't until Yin Wushu shook their interlocked hands and pointed to a stall selling lanterns on the right-hand side that Xie Bai finally realized what was strange — too close.

This was different from their previous skin contact, and the feeling of entanglement between their fingers inexplicably surpassed the boundary of closeness and approached intimacy.

Xie Bai looked up at Yin Wushu, only to see him turning his head and asking, "Can't stand the crowd? Why did you act dumb as soon as we entered the street?"

Xie Bai hadn't recovered yet, and he just responded blankly, "Huh?"

Yin Wushu chuckled and raised his other hand to shake it in front of Xie Bai's eyes, saying, "Daydreaming again, Flowers boy. Snap out of it."

Xie Bai: "... "

Stimulated by this teasing nickname, Xie Bai finally regained his senses, and the subtle and strange thoughts just now dissipated instantly. He glanced at Yin Wushu and said coolly, "In a few days, when you're resting with all seven apertures closed, I'll stick that whole tree of red plum blossoms on your head. How about that, Flowers Uncle?"

Yin Wushu, whether imagining that scene or being startled by the nickname "flowers Uncle," clenched his teeth and made a hissing sound, then changed the subject, "Alright, you're back. Do you want me to buy you a flower lantern?"

Xie Bai: "..."

He thought Yin Wushu was teasing him again, after all, he was twenty-three, not three.

Who knew that person would earnestly drag him to a stall hung with various lanterns, pointing to one of the gauze lanterns and saying, "Since you like cats, it wouldn't be bad to have a paper lantern with a cat design."

Xie Bai looked at him expressionlessly, "Am I stupid?"

Yin Wushu answered, "Yes."

Xie Bai glanced at the lantern seller and pulled Yin Wushu away, saying as they walked, "I don't like cats."

Yin Wushu replied, "Oh?" in response, letting himself be led away without saying much.

But whether it was because fate enjoyed teasing Xie Bai or not, as they walked and chatted, spending nearly an hour wandering through the entire lantern street, when they were about to reach the end of the street, a small gray and white cat rolled out of a corner hole in the wall.

Really rolled...

The cat was very small, with a round head and plump body. Its movements seemed unsteady, swaying with each step, stumbling and wandering until it reached Yin Wushu's feet.

Due to Xie Bai's special constitution, most animals were instinctively afraid of him, but this small cat may have been too small to feel anything, or it may have felt something but its legs didn't listen.

It circled around Yin Wushu's feet with its tail raised, meowing in a cute voice.

Actually, Yin Wushu was right. Compared to other living things, Xie Bai did like cats quite a bit, but very few cats were willing to approach him, and he couldn't just touch them without covering his hands, so he never showed this liking. Occasionally encountering cats on the streets, he often avoided them from afar.

He couldn't figure out how Yin Wushu could see through his thoughts.

Yin Wushu squatted down and scratched the chin of the small cat with two fingers, then shook Xie Bai's hand, saying, "Afraid you'll hurt it? Just touch it through my hand, it's okay to satisfy your craving."

With that, he actually opened his palm and covered the small cat's head, with a calm expression as if to say, "With me in between, feel free to touch."

Xie Bai: "..."

Sure enough, with age comes a bit of madness. Xie Bai's face collapsed, really wanting to crack open Yin Wushu's skull to take a look.

Having teased enough, Yin Wushu finally withdrew his fingers and said to Xie Bai, "We've practiced all afternoon today, how about testing the results?"

Only then did Xie Bai remember that the black mist formed by refining Yin Corpse Qi had already solidified, and when it adhered to the skin, it was almost like having nothing on, completely unaffected by touch. However, he hadn't stabilized it yet and wasn't sure if wrapping a layer of black mist around him could really block harm.

He stared at the young cat for a while, shook his head, and was about to say "next time," when a voice came from the adjacent stall, respectfully calling out, "Sir?"

Both Xie Bai and Yin Wushu turned to look, only to see a small vendor dressed as an ordinary person bowing to Yin Wushu. "I didn't expect the sir to have such a good mood..."

After the vendor finished bowing, he smiled slightly, then, seeing that there was no one around, whispered to Yin Wushu, "I'm the stork demon from that old bookstore in the North Sea Demon Market."

With him mentioning it, Xie Bai also had some impression, after all, Yin Wushu would always go to that old shop when he visited the Demon Market.

Yin Wushu nodded and asked, "Why did you come here?"

"The human lantern festival is also an opportunity," the stork demon explained, rubbing his hands. "I'm here to help the shopkeeper set up a stall. Sir, if you see anything you like, just take it."

Yin Wushu waved his hand, indicating it wasn't necessary. "It's not appropriate to just take things for free."

Xie Bai certainly didn't intend to take anything from this stall, he just casually glanced around like at other stalls. The items on the stork demon's stall were quite miscellaneous, with several exquisite glass lanterns hanging outside, and various small gadgets hanging inside, which were delicate and striking, mostly aimed at attracting girls. In the corner closest to Xie Bai, there were also a few books.

Just as Xie Bai was about to see what books they were, he felt a gust of wind blow by, coincidentally flipping open the topmost book a few pages.

Initially, Xie Bai glanced at the page that was exposed in the book but didn't pay much attention to it. Nowadays, in his dream, whether it was due to his inherent compulsive tendencies or something else, he became greatly interested in the blurry pages of the book in his dream, eager to clearly see the content on them.

The unusual persistence in his mind surprisingly had some effect in the dream, and the content on the pages of the book was gradually becoming clearer line by line. Xie Bai looked at the paragraph and silently recited each word:

"I once saw a person under the Changshi (NT: stone beam) Cave, standing with his back, wearing black clothes and tying his hair. I was inexplicably afraid and dared not approach. Beside him, there was a white tiger lying on a rock, with a long tail like a whip, coiling around its ankle, emitting a heavy aura. In an instant, the man suddenly stroked the tiger's head, and the white tiger looked towards the mountain and roared loudly. The mountain and rocks shook together, and then a golden light appeared suddenly. The white tiger suddenly disappeared..."

Just as Xie Bai had read up to "the white tiger suddenly disappeared, and the man in black had something extra in his hand," a sudden creaking of the door abruptly interrupted. The bustling lantern-lit street where he was suddenly seemed to stretch far away, and the page he was about to read became instantly blurred.

In that moment, Xie Bai felt inexplicably anxious, subconsciously feeling that there would be something very important in the unread part of the text, as if the reason he had such a dream was to remember the contents of this book...

Unfortunately, fate had its own plans, and the more he wanted to stay in the dream, the quicker it woke him up. In the blink of an eye, everything dissipated along with the lanterns.

*

Xie Bai abruptly opened his eyes and saw Yin Wushu sitting quietly in the other corner of the old temple, leaning against the back of the chair, looking at him calmly. His dark eyes reflected the flickering light of the fire hanging in the room, appearing both clear and obscure, giving no hint of what he was thinking.

The sound of the door came from the door of the old temple. Just before he closed his eyes, Lin Dong clearly closed that door, but now it was half open, and there was an inexplicable puddle of water on the floor at the door.

 

Translator : DarNan