Three Days Apart

Compared with Sun Qin, who had reported back promptly, Song Zhao truly showed what it meant to take one's time.

He too had returned to Clear Creek Village the following afternoon, but he waited until the third afternoon before leisurely coming here with a tightly wrapped cloth bag tucked into his clothes and more than a dozen able-bodied young men from the village.

The group chatted and laughed as they approached the Fox Immortal Temple. Though it was still dilapidated, it was no longer remotely the same in the villagers' eyes.

Even though the temple remained in disrepair, their eyes now held a measure of reverence.

That was simply how things were. If you were truly useful, and immensely so, people would supply reasonable explanations for you even if you lived in a ruined temple. As the modern saying went, great scholars would step forward to defend your scriptures for you.

Even Song Zhao was a little nervous now.

Anything else might have been fake, but the gold he had handled yesterday could not have been more real.

Once his own interests were involved, how could a mere village chief like Song Zhao possess the composure and self-control to remain unmoved?

And once someone had something to ask for, they were bound to become the weaker party.

But after weighing the gold in his hand, Song Zhao felt his confidence return.

Lord Fox Immortal liked gold. If he offered what the immortal liked, surely he couldn't fail?

As he thought this, Song Zhao suddenly saw two figures, one tall and one small, emerge from the Fox Immortal Temple. They looked completely out of place amid the dilapidation.

They were an ethereally beautiful woman and girl who seemed somewhat out of place in this rural village.

The older one looked to be in her early twenties, in the prime of her youth, and gave off an attraction that was practically lethal to men. The younger one appeared to be under ten, but her delicate, doll-like features were also utterly endearing.

Their clothes were simple, but the fabric looked like silk. They too looked nothing like people who belonged in this little mountain village.

After taking a few more steps closer, Song Zhao noticed that although their ruqun appeared to be simple white tops and red skirts, there were many fine gold and red threads woven into decorative patterns. The overall effect was simple but not plain, with an inexplicable air of elegance.

They also both carried a faint fragrance. That bodily scent, which had no place in this mountain village, lent them an additional hint of mystery.

Their hair, however, was unusually left loose, with only a red cord wound around the ends. More conspicuous than their hairstyles were the delicate masks they wore at one corner of their foreheads, patterned like foxes.

Their simple yet elegant attire, with its hint of the uncanny, made the sturdy men behind Song Zhao swallow involuntarily. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the older woman, unable to look away.

Song Zhao, who no longer had much desire in that regard, looked at the two before him in some bewilderment.

Though this should clearly have been their first meeting, Song Zhao had the illusion that he knew them.

He pondered that sense of familiarity, but then wondered how he could possibly know people who looked like young ladies from prominent families.

And when he remembered that this was the Fox Immortal Temple, Song Zhao thought that, rather than some wealthy young ladies, they were probably fox spirits Lord Fox Immortal had found somewhere!

"And you are...?"

With that thought, Song Zhao became much more polite. He stepped forward and asked softly.

"Village Chief Song, what brings you here?" To Song Zhao's surprise, the older woman looked a little puzzled, then addressed him in a very familiar tone.

"Grandpa Village Chief!" The little one came skipping up to Song Zhao and showed off her clothes. "Aren't these pretty? Lord Yi Yun gave them to me! And there's more than one set! Lord Yi Yun gave Mommy and me four sets each, so we can change between them!"

Although she had nearly been made a sacrifice, Zhao Wan was not the sort to hold a grudge, and in the end, it could even be said that a misfortune had turned into a blessing.

So she did not feel much dislike for Song Zhao, the village chief.

Most importantly, Sun Qin would not let Zhao Wan wear her new clothes outside the Fox Immortal Temple. Having finally met someone she could show them off to, she naturally had to make the most of it.

"You're..." Hearing that familiar tone, Song Zhao studied her carefully before saying uncertainly, "Little Nannan?"

"Yes! It's me!" Zhao Wan spun around happily and smiled. "Do my clothes look nice?!"

"Nice, very nice." After that perfunctory answer, Song Zhao turned his gaze to Sun Qin and said, still somewhat incredulous, "You're Widow Sun? Why are you dressed like this?"

Although Sun Qin had been one of the village's beauties before, a peasant woman's rustic clothes and her habit of going barefaced had reduced a ten-out-of-ten beauty to a five. Not to mention that the drought had lasted more than half a year, and she had barely had a chance to tidy herself up properly.

Now that she had changed into new clothes and applied light makeup with modern cosmetics, she naturally looked like a different person.

A Buddha depended on gold, and a person on clothes. That was all there was to it.

Suddenly, Song Zhao also remembered why she had seemed familiar.

When Sun Qin and her late husband had first returned to Clear Creek Village, she had looked just like this.

But a few years had slipped by, and Song Zhao could no longer remember what the woman before him had originally looked like.

"Lord Yi Yun was kind enough to think highly of me and let me serve as the temple keeper here..." Sun Qin glanced at the people behind Song Zhao, her calm manner tinged with distance. "May I ask why you've brought these people here, Village Chief?"

For some reason, looking at Sun Qin now, Song Zhao could no longer muster his former arrogance. Instead, he felt a trace of the old awkwardness.

He had not felt that awkwardness for a long time, not since Sun Qin's husband and parents-in-law had passed away one after another.

"Ahem, ahem!"

He coughed hard several times, as though trying to cough that inexplicable thought out of his body.

Looking at Sun Qin again, Song Zhao silently reminded himself that she was just Widow Sun, whom anyone could come along and bully!

She had only changed her clothes...

Looking at Sun Qin's beautiful, alluring face, Song Zhao still could not bring out his former domineering manner.

"Lady S-Sun, who is this Lord Yi Yun you mentioned?"

Quietly changing how he addressed her, Song Zhao asked about the Lord Yi Yun whom both Zhao Wan and Sun Qin had mentioned.

"Lord Yi Yun is the current master of the Fox Immortal Temple. The wild fox, Fox Seventh Aunt, is gone. The master here now is a nine-tailed fox from the Qingqiu Kingdom!"

After the incident with Spirit Medium Wang, Sun Qin had learned the truth that Yin Yunze was not Fox Seventh Aunt. Of course, this was undoubtedly good news to Sun Qin.

Since she had become the keeper of the Fox Immortal Temple, Sun Qin naturally wanted to set the record straight for Yin Yunze.

But until just now, Sun Qin had not found a good way to do so. Unexpectedly, Song Zhao had brought her an opportunity.

"Lord Green Hill Yi Yun is the Lord Fox Immortal who recently delivered our Clear Creek Village from the sea of suffering..."

Although she had come up with the words on the spot and stumbled over them somewhat, Sun Qin's present appearance caused most of the men there to accept, almost involuntarily, the fact that the Fox Immortal Temple had a new master.

"Ahem, ahem!"

Seeing the situation inexplicably turn into a scene of Sun Qin preaching, Song Zhao coughed again and interrupted her. "Lady Sun, I understand everything you've said! I need to see Lord Fox... Lord Yi Yun now, so step aside."

"Lord Yi Yun said..." Sun Qin took a deep breath and looked at Song Zhao, her eyes showing none of their former timidity. "From now on, you can come to me for mundane matters. I'll receive you for all of them. You must not go and bother him!"

"You think you're qualified..." Song Zhao instinctively started to scold her, but after a moment's thought, he softened his tone. "What I need to discuss with Lord Fox Immortal isn't something you can decide."

"I can!"

Knowing that Song Zhao surely would not trust her, Sun Qin followed Yin Yunze's earlier instructions and reached for the fox mask on her head.

She pulled the fox mask down over her face, and it seemed to give her all the confidence she needed. "If you have something to say, say it quickly!"

In the eyes of Song Zhao and the others, however, a nine-tailed white fox as tall as a house suddenly appeared behind Sun Qin after she put on the mask.

Its nine tails lashed through the air like whips, and its crimson eyes stared at the mortals who dared overstep their bounds.

Upon seeing the phantom of the nine-tailed white fox, Song Zhao instinctively looked at the dozen or so sturdy men behind him.

But those men, who already believed in Yin Yunze, left Song Zhao bitterly disappointed.

They had all dropped to their knees on the ground.

The timid ones bowed their heads and trembled slightly.

The bolder ones stole glances at the majestic nine-tailed white fox.

And the lustful ones kept sweeping their eyes over Sun Qin.

Seeing such a group of useless fellows, Song Zhao could not help but hunch his formerly upright back.