I Was Faking It

Warm sunlight spilled in through the window. The summer breeze was gentle, and cicadas chirped in the distance.

The candle on the wooden table had burned down to less than half. The Green-Robed Youth on the bed quietly rolled over, then opened his eyes suspiciously.

Gu Baishui sat bolt upright and stared around in astonishment at the cave abode where he had lived for half a century.

All the furnishings were in place, and the protective arrays around the cave abode were intact. There were no signs that anyone had broken in.

But he clearly remembered meeting that strange, terrifying Red-Haired Monster on the forest path last night. He had nearly lost his life. How had he woken up in his own cave abode?

Could it be... that it had all been a dream?

Gu Baishui narrowed his eyes and reached into his chest with his right hand, feeling a plain, rough, antique bronze mirror.

But before he could take the mirror out, he heard a lazy young girl's voice outside the wooden house.

"Third Senior Brother, are you awake?"

"If you are, quit zoning out and come out to eat something."

Gu Baishui froze, then shook his head, dazed.

He must not be fully awake yet. Otherwise, how could he inexplicably hear that girl, Ji Xu, speaking?

And in his own cave abode, no less. How could that be?

"Senior Brother, if you don't come out soon, I'll pull up every last one of these shabby flowers and weeds you've planted in your cave abode. They're an eyesore anyway."

The girl threatened the youth inside with an expressionless face. At her words, his face stiffened, then crumpled bitterly. Bracing himself against the wall, he poked his head out with all the strength of a dying man.

In the middle of the lush green lawn outside the wooden house stood a clean, tidy round jade table beneath a tree.

Two white cushions sat on either side of the stone table.

A girl in a plain white dress, with features as lovely as a painting and a serene, otherworldly air, sat on one of the cushions. She lowered the ancient book in her hands and looked up at the youth peeking out of the house.

Gu Baishui was silent for a moment, then gave a dry laugh.

"Little Junior Sister, what are you doing here?"

"Why can't I be here?"

Ji Xu's eyelids flickered. She raised her head and said, "The Ji Clan's ancestral festival ended three days ago. Where else would I go if not back to the sect?"

As the Ji Clan's most doted-on little princess, Ji Xu herself had little interest in the family's complicated, tedious affairs. In fact, she found them rather tiresome.

Her clansmen treated her with reverence and tried to curry favor with her, while her elders fussed over her. All the Ji Clan's resources and cultivation methods were nothing more than vulgar trinkets under her nose.

The gates to the Central Continent imperial clan's divine treasury, a hoard accumulated over ten thousand years, had been thrown wide open. By any measure, Gu Baishui's little Junior Sister, favored by the Heavenly Dao, was the richest patron in the sect-even richer than that fellow, Second Senior Brother.

But Ji Xu alone didn't like any of that. This girl, who had lived among the clouds since childhood, had never liked those things.

She didn't like noise, nor did she like solitude. She didn't like ease, nor did she like toil.

She really was a willful, lazy person, and had never denied it.

But just as Third Senior Brother had said: "People are selfish and greedy, really. Being able to see yourself clearly is already remarkable. Why bother changing and repressing yourself? Don't tire yourself out, don't vex yourself too much. Being a little willful is perfectly fine."

Ji Xu thought Third Senior Brother made a lot of sense, and no sense at all.

It was like how she liked the night breeze among the mountains, the dew on the plants at dawn, and all the strange and wonderful things inside the gates of the Emperor's Tomb.

There were always a few people around her-not too many, not too few, just right.

"No, that's not what I'm asking."

Gu Baishui shook his head at the doorway of the wooden house and asked seriously, "I mean, I just replaced the ancient array outside my cave abode a few days ago. How exactly did you break in?"

Ji Xu stiffened and replied with a straight face, "Third Senior Brother, you forgot that I studied the Divine Dao of Arrays with Master for a while."

"I didn't forget. You pestered me to tutor you every day back then. I didn't get a decent night's sleep for a whole month. How could I forget?"

Gu Baishui rolled his eyes. "I'm asking because I know how skilled you are with arrays. I'm curious how you broke in."

Ji Xu said nothing, simply looking up at Gu Baishui.

The two stared at each other in silence for a long, long time. Only then did the girl blink awkwardly.

Gu Baishui's mouth twitched. He sighed silently. "Did you tear down my door again?"

"Mm."

"How many times is that now?"

"Eleven... I think."

"Eleven times." Gu Baishui asked weakly, "Don't you have anything to say?"

Ji Xu thought for a moment, then nodded innocently. "Senior Brother, you forgot to give me the Mnemonic to your cave abode this time."

Gu Baishui froze, then asked, "Did I ever give you the cave abode Mnemonic any of the previous eleven times?"

"No." Ji Xu shook her head. "That's why I tore it down so many times."

Her matter-of-fact tone left Gu Baishui silent for a good while before he finally understood what his little Junior Sister meant.

"Wait, Junior Sister, there's something I've never been able to figure out."

"Ask away, Senior Brother."

"Why do you only tear down my door, and not the doors to the Eldest Senior Brother's and Second Senior Brother's cave abodes?"

Ji Xu thought about it, then replied, "The Eldest Senior Brother's and Second Senior Brother's cave abodes aren't interesting. They have nothing but piles of Spirit Stones and seeds for immortality medicines."

"I see."

Gu Baishui nodded silently, understanding what his little Junior Sister meant.

The Eldest Senior Brother and Second Senior Brother had nothing at home but treasures, while his own home had everything... except treasures.

It was a harsh and helpless reality, because that was the rule of the Gravekeeper Lineage: no one could descend the mountain and enter the mortal world before reaching the Immortal Platform Realm.

If you couldn't leave, you couldn't encounter fortuitous opportunities, so Gu Baishui was naturally dirt poor.

His sleeve fluttered lightly as he sat on a cushion. Looking at the empty tabletop, he sank into thought once more.

"Junior Sister."

"Mm?"

"If I remember correctly, you woke me up so I'd come out and eat something, right?"

"Mm."

"Then... where's the food?"

Ji Xu was quiet for a moment, then gave her Senior Brother a somewhat troubled look. "Senior Brother, I can't cook."

"Then you-"

"You can." Ji Xu blinked innocently.

Gu Baishui's handsome face twisted. After a long silence, he finally resigned himself and nodded.

"Your Senior Brother will make you something to eat."

"Sorry for the trouble, Senior Brother."

"No trouble. I'll make something poisonous and kill you."

By midday, Gu Baishui had eaten his fill and was lying on the lush lawn outside his cave abode.

The shade of the tree covered his blue robe as the youth gazed up at the old tree.

The warm sunlight filtered through its canopy, leaving scattered specks of light on the lawn.

The girl in white walked by without a word, then lightly kicked the Green-Robed Youth.

Gu Baishui obligingly shifted over, making room for his little Junior Sister to lie down.

The two lazy companions lay in the shade, hands pillowing the backs of their heads. Cool summer breezes brushed their cheeks, and waves of cicadasong filled their ears.

Gu Baishui seemed to have completely forgotten the terrifying Red-Haired Monster on the path last night, as well as the ominous peril and tension when his life had hung by a thread.

The fresh scent of the lawn and the faint fragrance drifting from the girl beside him lingered at his nose, cool as a night-blooming cereus and clear as a secluded spring.

Gu Baishui narrowed his eyes, enjoying this brief peace and comfort.

"Senior Brother, do you know what that Red-Haired Monster from last night was?"

"..."

"You can see it?"

"Mm. I was faking it."