But Only Him-Sister Couldn't Let Go

After leaving the Empress Dowager's residence, Xiao Mo returned to Yangxin Hall and entered the Book of a Hundred Lives once more.

He sat in the courtyard.

Xiao Mo took a translucent snake scale from his robes.

Bai Ruxue had already strung the scale into a necklace. It now hung around Xiao Mo's neck, always with him.

Xiao Mo set down the book in his hands and looked up toward She Mountain.

It was about time he went to meet her.

Yesterday, Bai Ruxue had said she would pack her things and wait for him on that little path at noon the next day.

Judging by the time, she should be coming down the mountain soon.

"Sister, are you really leaving?"

At the mouth of the cave, Xiao Qing looked at her sister, her nose twitching as she tried not to cry.

"Don't worry, Xiao Qing." Bai Ruxue patted her younger sister's shoulder. "I'll come back to visit you often. Once I'm familiar with life at the foot of the mountain, I'll bring you down with me. Xiao Mo is a very good person."

"Fine." Xiao Qing wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. "Then you have to be careful after you go down the mountain, Sister. Humans are all awful! And you're so innocent, you'll be easy to trick."

"I won't be." Bai Ruxue proudly lifted her fair little chin. "I'm very clever, you know. And Xiao Mo will be there."

I'm just afraid he'll sell you off, Sister, Xiao Qing sighed to herself.

"After you go down the mountain, you mustn't reveal your true form in front of anyone. Remember that!" Xiao Qing reminded her again.

"Mm-hmm, I know." Bai Ruxue nodded. "You should eat plenty of mice too, Xiao Qing, and take good care of yourself. I'll bring you down as soon as I can."

"I'll wait for you, Sister."

After bidding her younger sister farewell, Bai Ruxue happily made her way down the mountain.

Before long, she reached the halfway point.

Beside a rock on the little path, she spotted him in a blue robe.

"Xiao Mo!" Bai Ruxue called, then jogged over.

Xiao Mo turned around and saw Bai Ruxue carrying a chicken in one hand and a rabbit in the other.

"What are those?" Xiao Mo asked.

"Our lunch today!" Bai Ruxue said, waving the game in her hands. "I'll cook for you after we get down the mountain."

"Good." Xiao Mo smiled. "Then I'll see what Miss Bai can do."

"Hmph-hmph! I'm an excellent cook~~~"

"I'm looking forward to it, Miss Bai," Xiao Mo said.

The two walked side by side down She Mountain and into the village.

"Mister Xiao, the young lady with you is a real beauty."

"What a lovely young lady!"

"She looks like a celestial maiden, Mister Xiao. Who is she?"

When Xiao Mo walked into the village with Bai Ruxue, Auntie Li, Granny Wang, and the others all praised her.

They weren't flattering her. They truly had never seen a woman so beautiful.

Her skin was soft and fair, as clean as snow. She looked just like the celestial maidens in the legends.

"She's the daughter of a friend of my late father. She usually lived in the Chen Kingdom, but there's been unrest there, so Ruxue fled with her parents. Her parents passed away not long ago. I went to town today and recognized her. She had nowhere to go, so I brought her back for now."

Xiao Mo gave the village gossips the story he had prepared in advance.

Hearing how pitiful the young woman's situation was, the women's hearts ached for her, and they surrounded Bai Ruxue, asking after her and fussing over her.

Before long, everyone in Shiqiao Village knew a stunning young woman had arrived—more beautiful than any celestial maiden.

"Miss Bai, I'm sorry you'll have to make do with this place for now. If you need anything, just tell me."

Back at the courtyard, Xiao Mo showed Bai Ruxue to a small wooden hut next door.

The hut had originally been used to store odds and ends, but Xiao Mo had cleaned it out. The bedding and pillows were all new.

"I'm not making do at all." Bai Ruxue waved her hand and sat on her bed. "It's so comfortable. I usually sleep on rocks."

Xiao Mo: "..."

"Um, I mean, my sister and I have a very hard bed. It's like sleeping on rocks." Bai Ruxue hastily tried to cover herself.

"As long as Miss Bai likes it," Xiao Mo said, still pretending not to know anything.

"I love it!"

Seeing how easily Xiao Mo was fooled, Bai Ruxue thought there was no way she would expose her identity. Xiao Qing's worries were completely unnecessary.

"Xiao Mo, I'll go make you something to eat."

"Then thank you, Miss Bai."

"No need to be so polite~"

Bai Ruxue skipped out of the bedroom and hurried to the kitchen.

Xiao Mo sat in the courtyard, flipping through a book.

Before long, he smelled a strong odor of smoke.

He looked up and saw Bai Ruxue, covered in soot, running out of the kitchen in tears.

"Xiao Mo, there's a fire! The kitchen's on fire!"

In the kitchen at the back of the Minister of Rites' residence in the Zhou Kingdom,

Yan Ruxue was cooking.

Her maid, Xiao Chun, stood at her side, supposedly helping.

Though Xiao Chun was there to lend a hand, she had no idea what to do.

The young lady did all the chopping and fire-tending herself.

Watching her mistress's deft knife work and the way she expertly stoked the fire and added wood, Xiao Chun couldn't help wondering every time how such a perfect woman could exist.

She was equally at home in the drawing room and the kitchen, and gifted in both beauty and talent.

Surely only her own young lady could be like that.

Once the food was ready, Yan Ruxue asked Xiao Chun to carry it out.

A woman in a blue skirt sat in the courtyard.

She was her young lady's friend, though Xiao Chun had never learned where she came from.

She always came and went like a shadow.

But Xiao Chun never pried or asked questions.

All she knew was that the woman's beauty was only slightly inferior to her young lady's.

And her young lady called her "Xiao Qing."

After setting the food on the table, Xiao Chun bowed as usual and withdrew.

Yan Ruxue sat across from Xiao Qing, rolled up her sleeve with a slender hand, and revealed her fair arm. She ladled out a bowl of chicken soup and offered it to Xiao Qing.

"Xiao Qing, it's been a long time since you've had your sister's cooking. Here, try it and see whether I've lost my touch."

"Sister." Xiao Qing looked up at the woman before her, her gaze complicated. "You haven't been back to the Dragon Palace in ages."

Yan Ruxue served Xiao Qing another piece of braised rabbit. "I'll go back once everything's taken care of."

"Sister! It's no use!"

There was a hint of anger in Xiao Qing's voice.

"So what if you found his third life this time? He's still an ordinary person in this life. He still won't live more than a hundred years. In the end, he'll turn to dust!"

Yan Ruxue said nothing, simply serving her younger sister rice.

"Sister! Have you forgotten what he said to you before he died?" Xiao Qing abruptly rose to her feet and looked at her sister, her chest heaving.

Yan Ruxue: "..."

Looking at the sister who had clung to this for thousands of years, Xiao Qing felt all her strength drain away. "Sister... let it go."

"Xiao Qing."

Yan Ruxue lifted her head and gazed gently into Xiao Qing's eyes.

"There's nothing I can't let go of.

"But him—

I can't."