The great river flowed east, its waves washing away countless heroes through the ages.
Under the cool moonlight, there was someone who had wielded his sword in a determined dance for hours. The blade was like a silver dragon, its light like a clear spring, carrying a chilling, intimidating gleam.
Yang Ming wore white robes. Beneath his neat short hair were thick brows and star-like eyes, his features resolute and his lips tightly pressed together. Confidence and pride filled the space between his brows. Every gesture of his carried the bearing of an ancient gentleman, impossible to ignore.
By the edge of the field, many senior girls had come of their own accord. Every one of them held her breath and remained silent, afraid that the slightest sound would shatter the beauty of the moonlit night or disturb the young master in the center of the field. Yet the frantic pounding of their deer-like hearts had already betrayed their true feelings.
He was so handsome!
Xiao Wu secretly rolled her eyes at these love-struck girls.
But for some reason, she felt as though she had bitten into a lemon, a faint sourness rising in her heart.
Watching the figure dancing beneath the moon, Xiao Wu pouted slightly and muttered:
"You stingy jerk. You wouldn't fight me, yet you came here to practice swordsmanship."
After familiarizing himself with Green Lotus Emergence, the first level of the Green Lotus Sword Art, Yang Ming put away the Mysterious Sword. Only then did he belatedly realize that a group of girls nearby was intensely watching him.
"Uh..."
Seeing the girls staring straight at him, Yang Ming touched his face and asked:
"Are there flowers on my face?"
As soon as he spoke, Yang Ming seemed to hear the sound of swallowing. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but the girls' eyes lit up as though they were only one step away from shouting:
"We want your body! We want your face!"
Feeling the restless atmosphere born from female hormones in the air, Yang Ming's right eyebrow began twitching wildly.
They said a twitching left eyebrow meant wealth, while a twitching right eyebrow meant disaster. Yang Ming did not believe in such superstitions, but seeing that the situation before him was not quite right, he promptly made a run for it.
After losing sight of Yang Ming, the senior girls shook their heads regretfully and dispersed. Yet through their word of mouth, the legend of the Moonlit Swordsman began spreading widely among the girls.
Yang Ming moved quickly with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, but Xiao Wu was not much slower. She arrived first and stood prettily along the path Yang Ming had to take back to the dormitory, smiling at him.
Yang Ming halted and asked:
"Need something?"
Xiao Wu nodded heavily, waved her pink fists, and brought up the old matter again.
"Yang Ming, let's fight! I won't be satisfied until I defeat you!"
Yang Ming had thought Xiao Wu had something important to say. He had not expected her to be seeking a fight again. Immediately losing interest, he waved a hand lazily.
"No. I surrender."
Xiao Wu was furious. She felt that Yang Ming looked down on her because she was a girl, and she asked indignantly:
"Why?"
"Why does everything need a reason these days? I said no, so no. If you want to fight, go find Third Brother yourself. Don't bother me."
Yang Ming utterly failed to understand a woman's heart. Ignoring Xiao Wu, he went straight back to Dorm Seven.
His roommates were still young, and after drinking a little rice wine, they had all fallen deeply asleep. The dormitory air was filled with the foul blend of sweat, socks, and alcohol.
Yang Ming opened the window to air out the room. Only after the stench had dispersed did he return to his bunk and lie down.
Yang Ming lay on his side facing the wall. Before long, a blanket descended from above and covered him. At the same time, he caught a trace of a girl's fragrance behind him.
Yang Ming turned around, and Xiao Wu's pretty, adorable face entered his view. Her large eyes seemed able to speak as she blinked at him, a sly glint flashing through them.
Yang Ming rubbed his throbbing temples and said irritably:
"My dear ancestor, spare me, will you? Let me sleep peacefully, okay? Even if you insist, don't climb onto my bed. Aren't you sharing a bed with Tang San? Why aren't you over there already?"
"I don't want to!" Xiao Wu wrinkled her delicate nose in disgust. "He reeks of alcohol. It's enough to suffocate someone. I'm not sleeping with him."
"Then you can sleep by yourself!" Yang Ming said in anguish.
Xiao Wu put on a pitiful expression, her voice weak.
"Can you really bear to watch a beautiful young girl like me sleep all alone in the cold wind?"
Yang Ming was emotionless.
In his previous life, not only had he never had a girlfriend, but he could count the number of times he had spoken with girls on both hands. The women he spoke with most often were either his mother or his homeroom teacher. He simply could not understand what was going through Xiao Wu's mind.
Yang Ming simply stopped talking, turned over, and faced the wall again.
Xiao Wu was furious, her chest heaving as she felt Yang Ming was doing this on purpose!
Yang Ming had barely enjoyed a moment of quiet when Xiao Wu raised her tender little finger and lightly poked his back once, twice, three times. It was like being tickled, making him feel uncomfortable all over.
Yang Ming turned around again. In that fleeting glance, he saw Xiao Wu's triumphant, smug smile. But by the time he had completely turned over, she changed expressions faster than flipping a page. Pouting her rosy little lips, she looked like a weak little white rabbit and said softly:
"Yang Ming, could you tell me a bedtime story? Maybe if you tell it well, I'll go to sleep early and stop bothering you?"
Yang Ming held his forehead and sighed. Women really were calamities, the source of all evil.
But Xiao Wu's persistent coaxing wore him down. Yang Ming felt that she had a bit of a point. To send this little ancestor away as soon as possible, he racked his brains. After pondering for a moment, he began slowly:
"In ancient times, the heavens collapsed and the earth split apart, and Chaos had only just opened. Nuwa refined stones at Unfounded Cliff on Great Wilderness Mountain to mend the heavens, producing thirty-six thousand five hundred and one multicolored stones, each twelve zhang high and twenty-four zhang square. Nuwa used thirty-six thousand five hundred stones to mend the sky, leaving one unused stone behind at the foot of Green Ridge Peak. Who could have known that after being refined, this stone had gained spiritual awareness? Seeing that all the other stones had been chosen to mend the heavens while it alone was deemed unworthy, it lamented and blamed itself, crying day and night in shame..."
As the story of Dream of the Red Chamber slowly unfolded, Xiao Wu, hearing such an interesting tale for the first time, became engrossed in it at once.
In particular, the story of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu tugged at her heartstrings.
Lin Daiyu's experience of living under another's roof, along with the melancholy air surrounding her, resonated with Xiao Wu. It reminded her of how she had lost her father in childhood, how her mother had been hunted down and killed by Bibi Dong and her people, leaving her all alone to come to the human world by herself.
Her outward strength faded away, like peeling off the thorny shell of a lychee to reveal the crystal-clear heart beneath, as translucent as its flesh.
Seeing Xiao Wu shed tears, Yang Ming panicked and hurriedly wiped them away for her.
Seeing Yang Ming clumsily make the corners of her eyes ache, Xiao Wu broke into a smile through her tears and said coquettishly:
"You're hurting me."
(Thanks to Nan for the 100 book coin donation.)
(I've noticed everyone has a bit of a reading comprehension problem. The ending of yesterday's chapter was not what those perverts in the comments claimed! Since this author has never been in a relationship, this book will currently focus on family affection and friendship. The protagonist and Xiao Wu share sibling-like feelings, not romance. Even if romance is written later, it will most likely involve female characters summoned by the protagonist. Rather than trying to pair people up, why not offer suggestions for what female characters would be good to summon?)
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