151 The past and the presen

Yin Zi was very angry, depressed, and indignant. But, he couldn't take off his disguise as a female. At that time, the decision to cross-dress was made for the sake of convenience. But now, in hindsight, his disguise was a stumbling block.

Why? The answer was simple.

In Mao Mountain and this village, everyone thought that Yin Zi was a woman. And not only that, Yin Zi was so beautiful that everyone paid attention to him.

If he were to suddenly become a man, people would think he was an insane pervert. Not even counting other people, his fellow female disciples from Mao Mountain would come here to kill him in order to protect their own reputation.

Yin Zi was a loyal friend, but now he wanted to retreat back to Luoying Mountain. He wanted to go back to being a tyrannical mountain king and find someone else to replace him in this embarrassing role.

But, he couldn't. Wawa had recently returned to Xuan Qing Palace. She had obtained her dream position as the person in charge of the maidservants and her relationship with Xiao Tian was very warm. They always went out together to play or go on dates. If he told her to give up her job, it would be okay if it were to help out for a short period. But if it were for a long period, although her mouth would say it wasn't a big deal, her heart would be unhappy.

Luo Luo was actually very willing, but she was naturally timid and afraid of strangers. Also, her family would have to move here with her, so it would be very inconvenient for her to come here.

The remaining maids already thought that they had been wronged enough in descending to the common world from the immortal world to take care of Hua residence. There was no way they would be willing to move to the countryside. They said it was too filthy.

After trying every possible way, Yin Zi was left feeling helpless.

He couldn't help sighing, "Miao Miao, is it because I owed you something in a previous life that I need to work extremely hard to repay you in this life?

After I thought about it, I smiled and said, "Maybe, right now, I'm borrowing and accumulating a debt from you."

"Then, in the next life, you'll have to repay me with double this debt amount. My interest rate is very high."

Jokes aside, that girl Xiao Cha was becoming more aggravating. She spent every day circling around Yin Zi. Not only that, her eyes were faulty. As Yin Zi was teaching me how to do housework, he was clearly constantly mocking me for being clumsy. Furthermore, he would stand there clutching his shoulders as he watched me do everything. Yet, Xiao Cha would say that Yin Zi worked too hard. Every day, she would try to send him tasty food. When I asked her to do housework, she wouldn't go with me no matter how much I scolded.

I kept tolerating and resisting the urge to expel her because other than having bad eyesight, she was docile and well behaved. But, the most important thing was that she was worse than me at housework. She couldn't chop firewood. It would have been okay if she couldn't carry a shoulder pole that had two buckets filled with water, but she couldn't even start a cooking fire. After she killed a fish and saw blood, her screams were more frightening than a person being killed. Every time mother-in-law came to assess my skills, I only needed to bring the dishes cooked by Xiao Cha's before my own. And then, mother-in-law wouldn't mention any objections about my cooking.

This was the advantage from having a contrast.

And so, the days were spent like this. In a blink of an eye, spring arrived in March. There was continuous spring rain. Following the rain, there would be a gentle wind. In front of the slightly cold house, the orange trees were sprouting tender green buds that made the place more beautiful and clean.

---

Most of the houses on Mao Mountain had been fixed. I followed Xiang Qing there to take a look. Wu Daochang was full of energy. He had sent people everywhere and in all directions to proclaim that immortals had descended to Mao Mountain. This attracted more believers to come by to pay respects.

From various parts of the country, many people had come here to request the Daoist priests to display their remarkable skills by defeating evil demons. From the time that Xiang Qing had regained Bi Qing-shenjun's divine power, they depended him to take these tasks. While he did earn a little bit of money from this, he didn't get rich because he was too honest. He would never ask them to pay a high price.

---

Today, it had rained for an entire day without stopping. I sat on the bed while yawning. I used my hands to prop up my head. Out of bored, I looked outside to see Xiao Cha doing gymnastic exercises like stretching her waist and legs.

Xiang Qing didn't go out today. He sat next to me and held my hand. He placed my hand on the edge of his lips to gently bite it. This felt a little itchy and I wanted to take back my hand. But, his complexion suddenly changed. He quickly turned over my hand to carefully look over my palm. It seemed as if he had saw something dreadful.

"What happened?" Seeing that his expression looked strange, my heart felt somewhat afraid. I forcefully pulled my hand back. I looked at it repeatedly, but I only saw a few faint calluses. I didn't find anything strange.

Xiang Qing grabbed my hand again. He used his rough hand to gently rub the hollow of my palm.

With a somewhat sad tone, he said, "Miao Miao, your hands has become rough."

"If they becomes rough, they becomes rough." I didn't care.

"I was too careless. I only focused on earning money. I haven't helped out enough with the housework." Xiang Qing's face was full of regret, "You used to live your days comfortably. After you followed me, you had to spend your days cooking meals and washing clothes. And the outcome was your hands becoming like this."

I looked at my hands again and indifferently said, "It doesn't matter. It's nothing serious. You carry the water from the well, cut firewood, catch fishes, and build furniture. You already do a lot of work."

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"This isn't okay! I don't want you to do manual labor and suffer hardships!" Xiang Qing unhesitatingly ordered, "Starting from tomorrow, I'll wash the clothes. You can stay home to sleep in. Don't wake up before noon."

Although I loved to sleep, I didn't want to be forced to sleep. Furthermore, there wasn't even a single man at river where laundry was done in the morning. Maybe, men were forbidden to go there... And so, I immediately opposed his decision.

I didn't expect that on the next morning, Xiang Qing would wake up before the sun to go to the river. By the time I found out, an hour had almost passed since he left. Thus, I hastily put on my clothes and rushed over to the river to look for him.

When I arrived, I saw him surrounded by women at the river. They giggled and laughed while looking at Xiang Qing. And there were busybodies whispering that he was his wife's slave. His wife must be a tigress.

Xiang Qing pretended that he couldn't hear. His eyes only looked at the clothes in his hands as he industriously beat the clothes to clean it.

This was unjustified! I was clearly a gentle and cute little cat! When did I become a tigress? So, I quickly walked forward to forcibly take back the clothes and wash them myself.

Xiang Qing stubbornly refused. The two of us pulled back and forth. In the end, the strong forces caused the clothes to rip in half and we lowered our heads in embarrassment.

"It ripped... hehe..." I awkwardly laughed. "When we go back, I'll ask Yin Zi to mend it."

"It's okay. This piece of clothing is mine." Xiang Qing turned around to continue washing as a way to cover up his embarrassment.

In the end, the two people worked hard together and they finished washing the clothes quickly. The clean clothes were put into a cask and Xiang Qing carried it as they walked home. By this time, this sun had completely come out and dried the morning dew on the grass.

I vivaciously bounced and walked at the front while Xiang Qing was at the back. He was silent for a long time.

He suddenly said, "Miao Miao... I'm sorry."

"Why do you have to say sorry?" I turned around in confusion.

"Before, when you were in the Heavenly Realm... your days were very happy and blessed, right?" Xiang Qing stopped walking. He lowered his head as he looked at me. His eyes showed that he felt bad. "You had all of the treasures in the world and all of the delicacies under the sun. You didn't have to do anything. You were carefree and without any worries... but, now that you followed me, you have to use your hands to wash clothes and cook meals. You have to suffer grievances. This is my fault."

After I listened to his words, I was even more confused, "What grievances? How come I didn't discover them?"

Xiang Qing continued, "I'll work harder. You just need to wait. I'll let you live a rich and plentiful life. You'll live every day happily and won't have to think about anything."

I thought for a long time before I finally understood his meaning. I couldn't help smiling.

"You don't know. When I lived in Xuan Qing Palace, you would pamper me excessively. You wouldn't let me to anything or have to think about anything. But... I didn't like that lifestyle very much."

"Why?" Xiang Qing asked.

"Because, I thought I was very useless. I couldn't do anything right and that's why you didn't want me to do anything..." I thought of past events with sweetness, but also a little sourness. "I always relied on you, but you didn't need me, so I felt bad..."

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"Your martial arts skill is very good. How could you say you're useless?" Xiang Qing stroked my head to comfort me.

"I can't use my martial arts skill to fight against you!" I hurriedly explained, "At that time... when you were injured, everyone was so busy helping you that they were running around in circles, only Miao Miao couldn't help as if I was unnecessary. I didn't like this type of feeling."

After I finished that sentence, I proudly flaunted, "Right now is good. I help you cook meals and wash clothes. Yin Zi also praised me for improving quickly! If I seriously study, I can still improve. Of course... compared to other people, I'm still a bit worse...."

"You're already doing a good job. I love everything that you cook." Xiang Qing said with a smile, "I must have done good deeds for three lifetimes to have the good fortune to marry such a virtuous lady."

(T/N: Just in case it's confusing. He's referring to their common law marriage. They haven't legally married yet.)

"No no, its two lifetimes of good fortune. You also spent you previous lifetime with me." I quickly refuted, "Also, I want to be the world's most virtuous daughter-in-law so that you'll never leave me!"

"En, you're right. At that time, I'll have no choice but to stay with you. But, you still shouldn't work too hard. Let's take turns cooking in the future.

"No! You're not allowed to rob this from me. Those things are all opportunities for me to show off my skills."

"This won't do."

"Then, I'm going to chop firewood too."

"That's even more not okay. Where would you see a girl chopping firewood?"

"Firewood and grass are the same. They can both easily be torn apart with hands. It's very easy."

"It'll be troublesome if someone sees you doing that. It'll be better for me to cut it with a blade and it'll be just as quick."

We laughed and joked as we walked home. When we arrived home, we saw that the door was open. My future mother-in-law was sitting in the central room. Xiao Cha and Yin Zi were at her side. They were serving her tea and chatting with her. When mother-in-law had seen that we had returned, she slowly stood up. Her expression seemed somewhat displeased. It seemed like there was something she wanted to say.

T/N: Miao Miao and Xiang Qing are the cutest ^^.