Dark Room

Chen Ping'an was very familiar with that kind of look, just like how he himself looked at Liu Xianyang when he was a child. Back then, Liu Xianyang was the king of the children in the Apricot Blossom Alley and Mud Bottle Alley area. He could catch snakes, birds, and fish; it seemed there was nothing in the world Liu Xianyang couldn't do. Later on, some of the peers who used to follow Liu Xianyang around went to the Dragon Kiln as apprentices, and more went to work in various small shops in town or helped relatives manage accounts. As Song Jixin said, the most useless people would go dig for food in the fields. In the end, only Chen Ping'an was still hanging around with Liu Xianyang.

Chen Ping'an threaded the three Stone Flatfish he was giving to the girl through their gills with some foxtails and handed them over. She took the string of fish and gave it a little shake. It felt a bit light, not enough to make a plate of stir-fried fish with Chinjao, she thought. She tilted her head and glanced at the small stream pool, full of expectation. Chen Ping'an understood immediately and said apologetically, "The fish I catch next, I need to boil into soup to nourish a friend's body, so I can't give them to you."

The girl pointed to the opened package not far away, indicating she could trade some of the pastries for fish. Chen Ping'an shook his head and smiled, "No, pastries are delicious and can fill your stomach, but they aren't as nourishing as fish soup."

The girl nodded and didn't push it. She quietly returned to her spot, carefully placed the fish by her feet, and continued her grand endeavor of "eating away her savings."

Although Chen Ping'an was curious about her identity, he didn't ask. Looking at her clothes and appearance, she didn't seem like a young lady from the wealthy families of Fulu Street or Taoye Lane. She was more like Zhi Gui, their neighbor, delicate and quiet. Chen Ping'an suddenly worried if she might be a little maidservant who had stolen things from home to eat. He had heard that the rules in those large houses were very strict. Liu Xianyang and Song Jixin always liked to say the opposite of things, but they were an exception on this matter. However, Liu Xianyang's version was terrifying: he said that in those houses with high walls, if a maidservant's posture was even slightly wrong, the butler, whose eyes were as sharp as a Snake-Catching Eagle's, would send people to break her legs and throw her out onto the street to die. Song Jixin said Liu Xianyang was spreading rumors and it wasn't that exaggerated, but the maidservants and governesses in those households did walk like cats, making no sound at all. At that time, Liu Xianyang saw the maidservant Zhi Gui secretly smiling nearby and immediately became angry, cursing Song Jixin, "What goose, Song Jixin? Can your goose talk?"

Chen Ping'an finally caught seven or eight Stone Flatfish. The bamboo basket swayed from their struggles. The pale-faced youth knew he was near his limit. The spring water was bone-chillingly cold, and more importantly, his injured left hand couldn't take it anymore. After coming ashore for the last time, Chen Ping'an quickly jumped off the green stone cliff and burrowed into the grass by the stream, making rustling sounds. Before long, he pulled out three or four kinds of grass, many with roots still clinging to the soil. He held a large handful in his palm, picked up an ordinary stone, and returned to the stone cliff. He found a natural, palm-sized hollow on the cliff face. After wiping it dry and clean, he began to gently pound the herbs, which soon turned into a green paste, its juice emitting the unique fragrance of wild grass by the spring water.

With his back to the girl, Chen Ping'an took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and began to unwrap the cotton cloth on his left hand. Sweat soon beaded on his forehead, mingling with the cold stream water that had dripped from his hair. The bloody wound, although better than before it was bandaged when the bone was visible, was still a shocking sight. Chen Ping'an hadn't expected to get his left hand wet when he came, so he hadn't prepared any cotton strips. His mind had been filled with thoughts of the Snake Gallstone being sellable and boiling fish soup. It was only now that he realized he had made a big mistake. The youth was a bit dazed when suddenly a hand appeared before his eyes, holding out several dry, clean strips of cloth. It turned out the green-clothed girl had torn off a section of her sleeve at some point. Chen Ping'an gave a wry smile. Without time to be polite to the girl, he applied the herbal paste to the wound on his palm, brought it close to his mouth, bit down on one end with his teeth, pulled it tight with his right hand, wrapped it around the back of his hand twice, and tied a knot. The series of actions were orderly and swift, like a butterfly circling a branch, dazzling any observer.

After finishing the bandaging, Chen Ping'an slowly raised his right arm to wipe the sweat from his face, his arms trembling uncontrollably.

The green-clothed girl, who had been squatting nearby, gave Chen Ping'an a thumbs-up, her face expressing "You're amazing."

Chen Ping'an pointed to his own eyes with his right finger and said with a bitter smile, "It actually hurt so much that tears started streaming down my face."

The girl turned and glanced at the large basket and green bamboo fish creel the young man had woven himself, looking a bit confused.

Chen Ping'an's expression was awkward. "Those stones can make money, and catching fish is also very important."

The girl seemed to understand a little, but she still didn't speak. Her eyes were a bit vacant as she turned her head and stared blankly at the shimmering creek water.

The babbling creek water lapped against the stones exposed above the water, making a splashing sound.

At that moment, the starry sky was brilliant, and the world was silent. It seemed as if only a young man and a young woman existed in the human world.

Chen Ping'an's body gradually quieted and stabilized. His previously rapid breathing began to slow down subconsciously, becoming long and steady.

It was like the stream had transformed from a torrent into a shallow stream in late autumn or early spring.

The youth himself didn't notice this subtle change at all; it happened naturally and effortlessly.

Chen Ping'an knew he couldn't stay in the cold spring wind for too long while soaking wet and needed to return to the town to change his clothes quickly. The youth naturally didn't understand the health and pathology in medical books, but having been the most afraid of getting sick his entire life, he had long developed a keen intuition for the changes in seasons and his body's adaptation to them. So, he quickly put on his straw sandals, tied the fish creel around his waist, shouldered the basket, waved goodbye to the green-clothed girl, and said with a smile, "I'm leaving now. Miss, you should go home early too."

As Chen Ping'an walked down the stone cliff, he couldn't help but turn his head to remind her, "The water by the covered bridge is especially deep. Be very careful not to slip. When you go home, it's best to stick to the side near the rice fields. Even if you fall, getting covered in mud is better than falling into the creek..."

As Chen Ping'an spoke, he suddenly realized his words were a bit ominous, sounding more like the cursed words that Gu Can's mother from Mud Bottle Alley was best at. Chen Ping'an quickly shut his mouth, stopped nagging, and quickened his pace, running north towards the town.

The basket was heavy.

But the straw-sandaled youth was exceptionally happy.

Having untangled the knot in his heart that was almost a death knot, Chen Ping'an felt for the first time that he wanted to live well, truly well.

For example, he wanted to have money!

He wanted to be able to afford couplets with a unique ink fragrance, painted Door Gods, eat the meat buns from Granny Mao's shop, and ideally, buy a cow and raise a flock of chickens like Song Jixin next door...

The green-clothed girl was still diligently "digging through the mountain" with a serious expression. Each time she picked up a new pastry, it was as if she was dealing with a mortal enemy.

As she was struggling with a piece of peach blossom cake, her body suddenly stiffened. Realizing something was wrong, she didn't run but opened her mouth wide, swallowing more than half of the cake whole. Then she clapped her hands and sat there, resigned to her fate.

At some unknown time, a man had appeared. He was not tall, but he exuded a sense of sturdy reliability. However, no one would mistake him for a village farmer because his eyes were too piercing, making it impossible to look directly at him.

The man looked at the floral-patterned package, which now only had "foothills," with a look of helplessness. He wanted to scold her a few words, but he couldn't bear to. He silently watched his daughter's stubborn look of accepting punishment for her mistakes, and his heart ached terribly, as if he were the one who had made the mistake.

The man really wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere, like, "Daughter, if you're hungry, just eat at the Sword Furnace Thatched Hut. I'll buy you more in town tomorrow."

But the words wouldn't come out. Being naturally reserved, the man found them as heavy as a thousand pounds, pressing down on his tongue, and he had no idea how to comfort his daughter.

At that moment, the man felt he was less capable than that straw-sandaled youth. At least his daughter wasn't so tense.

The green-clothed girl suddenly looked up and asked, "Dad, why didn't you take him as an apprentice back then?"

Her daughter's initiative made the man feel relieved.

Although the man kept a stern face, he sat down beside his daughter and explained, "That kid's disposition is pretty good, but his roots are too poor. Even if I took him in, he would quickly fall behind his fellow disciples. No matter how hard he tried, he could only watch the gap widen. What if there was another Senior Brother Liu? What would be the point?"

The green-clothed girl's face fell, perhaps because she heard the name "Senior Brother Liu," or perhaps because of the straw-sandaled youth's passing by.

The man hesitated for a moment, deciding not to hide anything, lest she go astray or disrupt the Sage's plans. "Besides, this young man is too ordinary. In the small town, he seems quite special. Xiu'er, you probably don't know that this kid's destiny porcelain was broken long ago, making him like a lonely ghost, not blessed by ancestral lineage. At the same time, all sorts of imperceptible strange things happen to him. This is also why Song Jixin and that woman chose to live as his neighbors. Otherwise, with Song Jixin's status, how could he not even afford to live on Fulu Street? It's clearly impossible."

The girl pondered for a moment. "Dad, are you saying he's a bit like bait?"

The man stroked her head. "Something like that."

Then he smiled, "If my daughter and I weren't sword cultivators who cared the least about external things, fate, or luck, perhaps I would have kept him by my side to see if it could bring you more benefits."

The green-clothed girl seemed a little down, her mood not great.

The man sighed, "Xiu'er, Dad's words are rough but true. Don't find them unpleasant to hear."

The green-clothed girl still looked sickly and lacked energy.

The man thought for a moment, then pointed to the covered bridge in the distance, like a black dragon spanning the creek. "The construction of that covered bridge was a grand undertaking by the Great Li Dynasty, costing immense effort, all to suppress that unremarkable iron sword. Imagine, after three thousand years, an ownerless sword with a damaged and depleted Nascent Soul still requires a dynasty to pay such a huge price after more than three thousand years, merely to let it rest for a moment..."

The girl said "oh," her head drooping. Her peripheral vision kept glancing at the foothills. She absentmindedly echoed, "Amazing, amazing."

The man didn't know whether to laugh or cry, rubbing his forehead.

Heaven and earth are vast, but eating is paramount.

But his wife wasn't like this. Who did this daughter take after?

The man patted his daughter's shoulder and said softly, "Dad is going to meet someone. You stay here. Eat slowly; no one will snatch it from you."

The young girl suddenly raised her head, grabbing the man's arm. A crimson bracelet on her wrist shone brilliantly, taking the form of a Flood Dragon with its head and tail connected.

It coiled around the girl's wrist like a lively, fiery little Flood Dragon.

The man said with relief, "At least you still have some conscience. Alright, don't worry, Dad is going to see Mr. Qi."

The girl let go and immediately grabbed a pastry, devouring it.

The man's anger flared. He had endured it all with great difficulty until now, and finally couldn't help but grumble, "Eat, eat, eat. That brat Liu might deserve a beating, but he didn't say anything wrong. Sooner or later, you'll eat yourself into a plump little fatty! Who would dare marry you then! Do you expect your father to find a live-in son-in-law?"

The girl stopped eating, cupping the pastry in her hands, on the verge of tears.

The man fled in disarray. With his back to his daughter, he didn't forget to slap himself.

It was always like this, failing at the last hurdle.

Deep in the night, Chen Ping'an ran all the way back to Liu Xianyang's house. As he unlocked the door, he could hear the guy's thunderous snoring.

What a carefree soul.

If it were him, Chen Ping'an, he definitely wouldn't be able to sleep soundly tonight.

He first placed the basket and fish creel in the makeshift kitchen set up in the courtyard. He went to the right side room that Liu Xianyang had cleared out for him. After Chen Ping'an quickly changed his clothes, he returned to the kitchen in the courtyard and began to deal with the Stone Flatfish. He gutted them, cleaned them, and placed them on a clean porcelain dish, covering them with another dish to avoid attracting snakes, rats, or insects.

Chen Ping'an then picked out five or six Snake Gallstones from the basket that caught his eye and moved them to the side room where he slept.

Earlier, he had casually glanced at the long sword Miss Ning had placed on the cabinet. It was still lying there quietly.

After finishing all this, Chen Ping'an could finally lie in bed. His body gradually warmed up, but his eyes were bright.

On one hand, his left hand was stinging. On the other hand, he wasn't sleepy at all.

But the real reason was that Chen Ping'an knew better than Liu Xianyang how "unreasonable" those outsiders could be.

The young man dared not fall into a deep sleep.

So Chen Ping'an stayed awake all night, constantly paying attention to any movement at the courtyard gate and the room door.

At the crack of dawn, Chen Ping'an got up and went to the kitchen. He picked up the carrying pole, preparing to go to the Iron Lock Well in Apricot Blossom Alley to fetch two buckets of water.

Liu Xianyang, still groggy with sleep, hid under his covers, only his head peeking out. Hearing the faint sounds, he mumbled groggily, "Chen Ping'an, up so early? Where are you going?"

Chen Ping'an replied irritably, "To fetch water!"

Liu Xianyang called out again, "If you see Zhi Gui, say hello for me."

Chen Ping'an couldn't be bothered to reply.

Just as he was about to leave the small courtyard, Chen Ping'an suddenly heard Liu Xianyang say, "Chen Ping'an, if you're willing to help, I'll help you look for stones in the water pit later!"

Chen Ping'an grinned brightly, "Alright!"

Liu Xianyang rolled his eyes and retracted his head under the covers, muttering, "Unloyal fellow, this is the only trick that works on him."

On the stone steps of the Covered Bridge, a middle-aged scholar sat alone. He sat there until dawn.

As the first ray of light broke through the sky, he looked up and chuckled softly, "A dark room for a thousand years is illuminated by a single lamp."