Green Bamboo carried herself with a kind of easy familiarity, and that really was her nature. She didn’t start off with any formal words about seeking instruction; instead, she just plopped herself down right next to Liu Xiaolou.
“Move over a little more… there, that’s better. Your cart’s way too small. Why not get a bigger one? Oh… too big and this goose couldn’t pull it, huh? But what if you count me in? What are you saying, that I should be the one pulling it? I mean, if I sit in the cart, can it still manage? Come on, big goose… giddyup!”
“Honk honk!”
“Ha, it can pull it! That’s funny… oh, and you’ve got a cat too? Shy, is it? Call it back over, I love dealing with little spirit pets… never mind, if it gets used to me it’ll come back on its own.”
“Uh… so Bamboo Lady, what exactly did you come looking for me about?”
“No rush… oh right, I’m a year older than Lady Xi. How about I just call you brother-in-law?”
“Uh…”
“Settled then! I heard from Xi that you go back home every year for about three months, right? You have family on Wulong Mountain?”
“My teacher’s buried on the mountain…”
“Ah! So you’re going back to sweep the grave… wait, let me write that down…”
“No, Bamboo Lady, why are you even writing that down?”
“I’ll write my notes, you just keep talking. So, brother-in-law, when did you first become your master’s disciple?”
“You…”
“Actually, my teacher has already passed away too. I became her disciple when I was twelve. She wasn’t from our Ouyang family; she was an outsider, a formation master. I remember back then, the protective formation at Lianxi Hall had broken down. My family invited several formation masters in a row, but none of them could fix it. One day my teacher came, held the formation disk in her hand for just a moment, and the formation was completely restored. I admired her so much right then, and I wanted to learn formations from her. At the time, I had only just reached the second layer of Qi Refinement…”
As she spoke, she suddenly drew a pitch-black token from her robe and rubbed it between her fingers before showing it to Liu Xiaolou. “This is the Sect Master’s Token of our sect. Scarlet Spirit Sect. So technically, I’m also a sect master.”
Liu Xiaolou focused his gaze on it. He saw that her token had the same shape as the ones he carried. So he took out two of his own. “Pardon me, but I happen to be the master of two sects.”
What he revealed were the Sect Master’s Tokens of Sanxuan Sect and Purple Pole Sect. The third one he had obtained from Hou Sheng of Qingyu Sect, but that one he dared not show.
Green Bamboo immediately laughed. “Well then, my respects!”
They placed their three Sect Master’s Tokens together, comparing them for a while. Then Green Bamboo said, “My teacher told me our Scarlet Spirit Sect has been passed down since ancient times. Back then, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the Thirty-Six Grotto Heaven Sects as one of the great sects of the world. But after thousands of years, we’ve declined. Now our lineage is down to a single heir… What about your Sanxuan Sect and Purple Pole Sect?”
Liu Xiaolou said, “My teacher told me back then, ‘This is the Sect Master’s Token of Sanxuan Sect. Keep it safe. If something happens to me, you’ll succeed as sect master.’”
“And then?”
“And then something happened to him.”
“…Heaven bear witness, you really shouldn’t say things like that so casually…”
“Well, he said it every time before leaving the mountain.”
“…Fine. What about Purple Pole Sect then? How did you end up its sect master? Did you later become their disciple too?”
“No. I just happened to meet their sect master by chance. I suggested, ‘Why don’t our two sects form an alliance and look out for each other?’ But he didn’t think much of it and simply handed the position of sect master over to me.”
“So he stopped being sect master?”
“He kept going. I’m the sect master, he’s the grandmaster emeritus. That’s why Purple Pole Sect is actually more prosperous than Sanxuan Sect.”
“…That’s amusing…”
“Hold on a sec—”
“Why are you getting off the cart?”
“I need to go relieve myself.”
“Ah…”
They traveled on, chatting as they went, until the night grew late. When Liu Xiaolou started yawning again and again, Green Bamboo suggested, “It’s too late. Let’s find a place to settle down for the night.”
The day before yesterday he had exhausted himself demonstrating formations, and yesterday he’d taken a palm strike from Su Wan. His energy was far from fully recovered, and the damaged spot along his Kidney Meridian still hadn’t healed. He really did feel tired, and his lower back ached, so he agreed.
Big White turned off into the nearby woods, found a slope, unhitched the cart, and then gathered an armful of dry branches and leaves. With a quick “thump-thump-thump-thump,” it got a bonfire going.
Once the fire was lit, the goose darted back into the forest. Not long after, it came sprinting back with a rabbit clamped under each wing and a snake wound around its beak. It dashed straight to the camp, and with a mix of webbed feet and blunt beak, quickly plucked the rabbits, skinned them, gutted them, and tossed them over to Liu Xiaolou.
Liu Xiaolou skewered them with wooden forks, set them over the flames to roast, and pulled out salt, pepper, and other seasonings from the cart’s bundles, carefully rubbing them in. Before long, the fragrance spread through the forest.
Green Bamboo’s eyes lit up with delight. She skipped over to Big White, wrapped her arms around its long neck, pressed her cheek against it, and rubbed against it over and over. “Oh my, you’re too cute. Big White, come with me instead…”
Big White gave a helpless honk and glanced at Liu Xiaolou. Liu Xiaolou shook his head. “Let her hug you for a while. It’s not like it costs you anything.”
Green Bamboo didn’t care for snake meat, so she ate one of the roasted rabbits for herself. Liu Xiaolou shared the other rabbit and the snake with Big White. As the goose ate, it tossed rabbit bones and snake bones up into the trees. A black shadow darted from branch to branch, leaping about happily.
“This black cat, does it have some spirit in it too? Why doesn’t it come down to eat?”
“It’s shy.”
“Then can I feed it a little?”
“Go ahead. It’ll be grateful to you.”
So Green Bamboo tossed pieces of rabbit meat up into the branches, and Little Black accepted every bit.
“How will it thank me?” Green Bamboo asked curiously.
“Heh, hard to say…” Liu Xiaolou chuckled.
In the glow of the fire, Green Bamboo suddenly felt that the man before her looked especially handsome when he smiled. She stared at him in a daze for a moment, but then a strange, sour pang rose in her chest. Why him?
A thought surged up in her mind, impossible to suppress.
When the meal was finished, Green Bamboo drew out a basin of clear water and a towel from her sleeve. Without really thinking to avoid his gaze, she wiped her cheeks, neck, shoulders, and wrists. Then she slipped off her shoes and socks, washing her feet, her ankles, and even her pale white calves.
Well, I’m so close with Lady Xi, what’s there to be shy about? And besides... he’s bent anyway.
Liu Xiaolou sat there staring openly, fuming inside. Does she really think I don’t exist?
“You wash up too.” Green Bamboo pulled out another bronze basin from her sleeve, also filled with clean water, and tossed it in front of him.
“No need.”
“Go on, wash. You’re covered in dust from the road. How are you going to sleep like that?”
“I’ll sleep however I sleep.”
“Wash up properly. I… still want to stay up and talk with you, foot to foot.”
“Huh? F-foot to foot… long talk?”
While they spoke, Green Bamboo had already finished washing. She then pulled a blanket and a tent out of her sleeve and set them up by the fire. “Are you done yet? Come inside… there are a lot of things I want to confirm with you.”
“W-what… what kind of things…? This doesn’t seem very proper…”
“What’s improper about it? Fifth Lady and I used to do this all the time. She and I were as close as sisters could possibly be. We never treated each other like outsiders.”
Liu Xiaolou still declined. Faced with this kind of situation, he couldn’t help but let his thoughts run wild. In the end he even started to suspect that Green Bamboo had been sent by the Su family, her true purpose to dig up his faults and hurry him out the door with a letter of divorce.
Absolutely not!
There was still a year and ten months left on the contract. Twenty-two spirit stones. Add the final twelve from when he was dismissed, and that made thirty-four in total. If he let himself be distracted by the beauty in front of him, who knew? The Su family might try to weasel out of all thirty-four spirit stones.
Dream on!
Thinking this, Liu Xiaolou steeled his resolve. His eyes swept the forest, searching for any sign of a follower.
After searching for a long while, he even went into the woods himself, circling twice, but found no trace. He had to relieve himself before finally returning to the fire, still full of doubt.
“Why can’t you sleep?” Green Bamboo asked from inside the tent.
“I’m fine, really…” Liu Xiaolou said perfunctorily, though a twinge of self-doubt crept in. Maybe he was overthinking? The real first opportunity for dual cultivation was right in front of him. If he missed it because of his suspicion, it would be wasted.
Go into the tent? Or not?
Should he go in, or should he stay out?
Liu Xiaolou weighed it over and over, then couldn’t help but slap himself twice.
Smack! Smack!
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… just… mosquitoes…”
“I told you, come in quickly. The mosquitoes are biting like crazy out here.”
“…So… should I come in?”
“Come in.” Green Bamboo lifted one corner of the tent, a smile playing on her lips.