The Ten Absences

A human voice... It wasn't Mandarin, but he could actually understand it?

Then Ye Fu heard footsteps circling around toward him. They were low and brief. The person was being cautious.

To avoid a misunderstanding, Ye Fu spoke. "Sheltering from the rain."

"What?"

Only then did Ye Fu realize he had spoken Mandarin without thinking. As he wondered how to answer, his head grew heavy, and then he instinctively said, "Sheltering from the rain," in the newcomer's language.

"Oh, you're sheltering from the rain too? So am I, haha." The other person's tone relaxed somewhat, and the footsteps grew lighter.

Ye Fu frowned slightly. He certainly hadn't relaxed. Everything was unknown to him, and there was a severe imbalance in what they knew. He couldn't relax for a moment.

He widened his eyes, hoping to make out the newcomer in the darkness, but for some reason, both his viewing distance and field of vision had become unusually limited, as though veiled in mist. Through the "mist," he could barely make out the person's build.

Long hair, rather slender, not tall, with a long, board-shaped object almost as tall as she was slung diagonally across her back. She seemed to be wearing ancient clothing. Judging by her voice as well, she was probably a young woman.

Why ancient clothing? Had he transmigrated to an ancient civilization?

A hiss interrupted Ye Fu's thoughts. Then an orange-yellow light appeared, bringing a little warmth. She must have lit a fire.

Ye Fu was still in that trance-like state, his awareness flickering in and out. Sitting on the pedestal beneath the statue, he looked rather stiff.

"Are you cold?" the woman asked.

In his daze, Ye Fu hadn't heard her clearly, so he gave a perfunctory answer. "Uh..." A word that meant neither yes nor no was well suited to this situation.

The woman said, "It's February, and there's cold rain falling. You look like you're only wearing one layer, so you must be cold."

Ye Fu answered again, "Uh-"

"Hehe." Ye Fu's cold response made the woman laugh awkwardly. Chagrined, she said, "Sorry, I'm not very good at communicating."

"Uh-"

"Uh."

The atmosphere grew unbearably awkward.

Chapter 2: The Ten Absences

After gathering some dry things at random and building a fire, the woman sat through another stretch of awkward silence before she couldn't help asking, "Are you bad at communicating too?"

Ye Fu didn't hear her, so he didn't react at all.

The woman took his silence for agreement and smiled. "Me too."

Then she went on, more to herself, "Among people my age, I've never been very good at talking. I always say the wrong thing or speak at the wrong time. That's why I came out alone, to get some practice."

"..." Ye Fu couldn't hear her at all. Though his eyes were open, his consciousness had sunk into a stupor.

The woman laughed awkwardly again, thinking that she really was bad at communicating if the other person didn't even want to acknowledge her. She sighed in disappointment. After a moment of silence, she patted her cheeks and told herself to pull herself together and find something to say.

"Are you from the Layered Cloud Kingdom?"

Ye Fu's awareness returned somewhat. "What?"

But he hadn't controlled his expression well. He was frowning and looked fierce. "Never mind, never mind, don't be angry!" The woman hastily waved her hands.

Ye Fu was a little puzzled.

The woman hunched her shoulders and thought, This person has such a terrible temper. Are people down the mountain all like this?

After that, neither of them spoke again.

Ye Fu sat on the pedestal, leaning against the statue. The woman sat on the other side of the fire, looking up at him from time to time. Each time she did, she found Ye Fu staring blankly at a spot, as though he were lost in thought, or perhaps grieving. She couldn't help wondering, Did something sad happen to him? At that thought, it dawned on her. I see. Something sad must have happened, and that's why he doesn't want to talk to me.

So she summoned her courage again, looked at Ye Fu, and asked, "Would you like to talk?"

By the faint firelight, Ye Fu could see her, though only indistinctly. "What did you say?"

"I said, would you like to say something?"

"Say what?"

The woman paused and thought, Could he be hard of hearing? She moistened her throat and said loudly, "I said, would you like to tell me something?"

Ye Fu was also taken aback. He realized that she seemed to understand things a little differently from him. He had only just arrived and knew nothing, and now he was in this strange state. What could he say? It was better to say as little as possible; saying too much could easily cause trouble.

"Nothing."

The woman paused. Seeing Ye Fu's somewhat gloomy expression, she thought, He must be having a hard time. She gritted her teeth and told herself that, since she wanted to practice communicating anyway, she might as well take this opportunity. So she asked as gently as she could, "Are you having any trouble?"

For Ye Fu, however, in such a strange environment and state, he absolutely couldn't give her any reason to suspect him. He shook his head. "No trouble."

"It's all right, you can tell me. I won't laugh at you!"

Laugh at him? What was she thinking? Ye Fu said, "Sorry for the trouble, but I'm not having any trouble."

"Look at you, you're even crying, and you still say you're not having any trouble."

Ye Fu raised his head and felt his face, discovering that he really was crying. However, these were only tears caused by the dryness from being unable to close his eyes. "I got sand in my eyes."

"Oh, you don't have to make excuses like that. Really, I won't laugh at you."

"..."

"My senior sister said not to bottle up too many worries, or they could build up and make you ill."

"No-"

"One of my martial uncles had too much on his mind and suffered Qi Deviation during a breakthrough."

"I really-"

"Don't underestimate worries. Whether you're an immortal or a mortal, they're a matter of the utmost importance."

"..." Ye Fu thought, Is this person a chatterbox? She really can talk. He simply stopped responding and let her go on.

"Did you lose money? Or did someone bully you? Or..." She rambled on and on.