Middle-Aged Women Couldn't Possibly Be This Adorable

Middle-Aged Women Couldn't Possibly Be This Adorable

June 28, 2017, evening.

Yu Dian eagerly offered to work a little longer again, giving Cheng Yun time to cook.

Dinner consisted of four dishes and a soup: three meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a century egg and cucumber soup. Since Cheng Yan wasn't coming back for dinner, Cheng Yun called Old Mage and Heroine Yin downstairs, and the four of them ate together.

Although Yu Dian was surprised, she said nothing and silently committed to memory the old man living in Room 202 without registering.

After dinner, Cheng Yun began his shift.

A certain heroine had eaten her fill and contentedly leaned against the back of the sofa, wearing the expression of a salted fish.

"Station Master," she suddenly called.

"Hmm?" Cheng Yun was sitting behind the counter, playing with his phone.

"How many meals do people here eat in a day?"

"Three meals a day," Cheng Yun answered without looking up.

"Oh." Heroine Yin looked a little dazed. "The common people where I'm from only eat two meals a day, and even then it's just thin porridge. For people like us who have no fixed home, getting one filling meal a day is already pretty good."

"You have big fish and meat sometimes, right?"

"Very rarely." The heroine sighed. "When we eat well, we eat until we're stuffed. When we go hungry, we starve ourselves half to death. We're all human, so why is the difference between us so huge?"

"Probably because the eras are different."

"Then why were you born into such a good era?"

"It's not like we chose it." Cheng Yun paused, then asked, "What kind of era was yours?"

"Bandits ran rampant, locusts passed through in swarms. There was no grain in the fields, and white bones covered the land. The government was corrupt, and society devoured people." Heroine Yin's voice was filled with emotion. "If things hadn't been like that, who would have wanted to roam the martial world?"

"Natural disasters?"

"Part natural disaster, part man-made calamity."

"Were there wars?"

"Minor fighting at the borders, but it couldn't really be called war." Heroine Yin rubbed her head. "The country itself was pretty chaotic, though. I remember there was once a martial organization that swept across the entire martial world. Some alliance, I think. It overestimated itself and caused an enormous commotion. Later, the government lost its patience and sent iron cavalry to hunt them down everywhere, north and south of the great river. Quite a few innocent martial artists died because of it. My parents were among them."

"That really was quite chaotic." Cheng Yun didn't comment further. "How old were you then?"

"Very young." Heroine Yin pursed her lips. "I was raised by one of my parents' old brothers from the martial world. I called him Uncle, but later he was killed when an enemy came after him."

"I thought people in your world possessed such powerful martial prowess that they wouldn't fear the government," Cheng Yun said.

"Don't be ridiculous." Heroine Yin scoffed. "I also thought your world had Autobots and Decepticons, so the government should have no choice but to tuck its head in and play turtle!"

"Uh... those are fake."

"What?"

"Nothing." Cheng Yun shook his head.

"I heard that the brocade-clad guards carrying swords in the imperial palace could each stand their ground against famous masters when they entered the martial world, and whenever they went out, they moved as a whole unit." Heroine Yin looked helpless. "If they wanted to kill someone, who could stop them?"

"I think I understand what you mean. Governing institutions are always built on the foundation of the world itself—water carries the boat. The higher the martial level of a world, the higher the level of its governing institutions."

"No, no, I just mean..." The heroine slumped onto the sofa. "Those palace guards had connections. Even if people ordered them around, they still weren't willing to run around the martial world! If you can eat your fill and sleep warm, who would want to lick blood from the edge of a blade?"

"So you decided to roam the martial world because your parents died, and then your uncle died too?" Cheng Yun suddenly became interested.

"More or less." The heroine sounded emotional. "Aside from my martial arts, I had no other strengths. I couldn't even make a proper living in the martial world, going hungry one day and eating my fill the next. Someone like me, if I didn't roam the martial world, could only find some honest, dull man and marry him, serving him like a maid all day, doing whatever he ordered and letting him amuse himself at my expense. I'd rather die!"

Cheng Yun fell silent at that.

He had majored in history at university, so he naturally knew something about the era China had once passed through.

Actually, even during the magnificent Tang and Ming dynasties that everyone praised and yearned for, even during the so-called golden ages of various dynasties, as long as the shackles remained, the people at the bottom stayed enslaved. Women were at the very bottom of that bottom layer. They practically deserved to be placed in another class altogether. If they encountered an age of endless warfare, they might not even be considered people.

On that point, he rather admired this heroine.

"What happened to that scar on your face?" Cheng Yun pointed at the long, narrow knife scar across her face.

"I was young and ignorant back then, and challenged an old senior of the martial world. The tip of his blade grazed me." Heroine Yin smiled. "That slash nearly split my head open. Luckily, I dodged quickly."

"So did you lose or win?" Cheng Yun figured that since he was idle, he might as well chat with the heroine.

"I won." For some reason, Heroine Yin's voice grew a little subdued. "He had been very famous in his youth, but he was already old by then. I seriously injured him, then left at my leisure. I heard he died not long afterward."

"Oh." Cheng Yun fell silent too.

In this era, even criminals guilty of the most heinous crimes weren't easily sentenced to death. Changing execution by shooting to lethal injection wasn't enough for people; there were even large groups shouting for the abolition of the death penalty. He truly couldn't understand that chaotic world where life and death could be decided so casually.

Heroine Yin remained silent for a long time before raising her head to look at him, her eyes narrowed. "You might not know this, but that old senior and I had no prior grudge or recent enmity. In fact, it was our first meeting, and I nearly killed him."

Cheng Yun froze for a moment.

The heroine paused before continuing. "After killing him, I found a temple to bandage my wounds and recuperate. For three whole days and three nights, I didn't eat a single grain or drink a single drop of water, nor did I close my eyes to sleep. At the time, I thought that if I ever made a name for myself in the martial world, and once I grew old and could no longer match the young people, if my disciples and successors turned out to be useless, perhaps that would be my fate too."

She stared blankly at the ceiling. "That's why I fought desperately to seize the Void Arrow. I had no other thought—I just wanted to escape."

Cheng Yun asked, "Did you kill him for fame?"

"Yes!" the heroine replied crisply. "For a nameless junior of the martial world to prove her ability, defeating an old senior who had once been famous was the fastest way. But in truth, no matter how fit those old seniors had been in their youth, once they passed their prime, they began to decline. How could they possibly beat young people?"

"A stepping stone?"

"I suppose so. That battle really was the starting point of my fame, but it didn't help me all that much. After that battle, I disappeared for an entire year before returning to the martial world. By then, most of the fame from that battle had already faded."

"What did you do during that year?"

"I set up a stall selling fruit, worked as a waiter in a restaurant, and delivered letters for people. I even nearly went to farm!" Heroine Yin grew angry at the memory and slapped the sofa. "I either lost money or had my wages withheld. It made me furious!"

"I mean, why did you disappear for a year? You wanted fame so badly before, so why abandon the fame you'd worked so hard to gain?"

"Because I... realized after the fight that I didn't know why I had done it." Heroine Yin looked lost, then turned to Cheng Yun. "All I knew was... everyone else did the same thing."

"It wasn't your fault." Cheng Yun said what he felt he ought to say. "It was the fault of that era, that world, that treacherous martial world. The fact that you woke up to it early already proves you surpassed most people."

As he spoke, he took a lollipop from the front desk and tossed it to Heroine Yin. "Have some candy, heroine."

Seeing Heroine Yin holding the lollipop in confusion, not knowing how to eat it, Cheng Yun smiled and pulled out another one. After demonstrating how to eat it, he asked, "So how old are you this year?"

"Th... thirty-something, I guess."

"How old?" The lollipop fell from Cheng Yun's lips.

"Thirty-something." Heroine Yin stared blankly at him, then counted on her fingers. "I can't remember exactly. About that, I suppose. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter make one year. It's the same here, right?"

"How could you possibly be over thirty? Have you gotten confused?" Cheng Yun's eyes widened in disbelief. "You look... at most twenty-two or twenty-three!"

"How old are you?" Heroine Yin asked in return.

"Twenty-two."

"So young!" Heroine Yin was surprised too.

"Wait." Cheng Yun froze. "If a person in your world doesn't fall ill, how many years can they live?"

"Over a hundred." Heroine Yin seemed to realize something. "What do you mean? Is your world different?"

"..." Cheng Yun began to understand.

People in ancient times could naturally live for over a hundred years. If they developed into the modern era, wouldn't they approach two hundred years? So either the people in her world lived longer, or her planet's orbital period was shorter.

The two chatted for quite some time, and Cheng Yun gradually learned more about her, her world, and that martial world.

Even after there was nothing left to discuss, Heroine Yin still wasn't sleepy at all.

Cheng Yun poured her some water to soothe her throat. This time, she drank it, seemingly having let down her guard.

The sky had already darkened. Heroine Yin sat on the sofa behind the front desk, staring blankly outside through the glass door.

The nights in the Songshi World were mostly gloomy and dead silent, with no one's gaze able to penetrate that distant darkness. The nights in the martial world, meanwhile, were bloody and terrifying, filled with death and slaughter. Assassinations, ambushes, revenge killings, and the destruction of entire families followed one after another.

She had heard that the prosperity of Jiujing could illuminate the night, with colorful lanterns and candlelight along the river burning all night, but Yin Dan had never seen it.

Even the nights in Hengzhou Prefecture were frighteningly silent. Once night fell, anyone who dared ignore the curfew and walk the streets was either a martial artist carrying a blade and planning to cause trouble, or an official soldier patrolling in formation.

But how could those rumors compare with this place?

Yin Dan's gaze grew somewhat distant.

The headlights and taillights of car after car seemed to stretch into lines along the road. Streetlights illuminated the world with an almost dreamlike glow, while neon signs and the lights from roadside shops reflected each other. Pedestrians walked calmly along both sides of the road, as if it were daytime.

I, Golden Jasmine, would rather jump from here and die than ask you for your recommendation votes!

...Never mind, this is actually pretty nice!