294 If Life Could Be Like the Moment When We First Met Part Six

After who knows how long had passed, she woke up. When she awoke, she realized that her clothes had already been put back, herbelt fastened once more. The clothes were cleaned up extremely well, with noteven a speck of grass on them. There was not even any evidence of last night'sescape upon them. She could clearly feel bandages underneath her clothes, andshe did not know how the wound had been treated, but the pain had been greatlyalleviated. She even felt that she could perform some small movements. She opened her eyes wide, looking at her bosom, and felt where the bandageswere applied. As she imagined the scene that had occurred previously, herexpression became somewhat blank. After a while, she began to strenuously look around, looking for Zhexiu'sfigure. Zhexiu was squatting at the edge of the grass, the place on this piece ofsolid ground that was the farthest from her. The hem of his clothes had beentorn up, causing his two legs to stick out. His posture was rather ugly, makinghim seem just like a dog. The torn off hem of his clothes had probably become the bandages wrappedaround her abdomen. She once again looked at her bosom, and for some reason, she felt extremelywronged. She thought to herself, "How could you take off someone's clotheswithout even asking permission first?" It was actually truly amazing. Once she no longer needed to conceal hergender, she seemingly began to think like a young lady. For instance, whenreferring to herself, she used "someone" instead of "I", only it had not become"this one" right away. The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt, especially sinceZhexiu had not turned around from beginning to end. This made her extremelyuncomfortable… and then she began to cry. Squatting by the edge of the grass and hearing her cry, Zhexiu's back began totremble. After a while, he realized why the crying had not stopped. Following thesound, he sat down in front of her and said as soothingly as he could, "Don'tcry anymore." Qi Jian temporarily stopped crying, her small face covered in tears. Zhexiu paused, then added on, "...or  else it will attract more monsters,which is very troublesome." This was what it meant to have nothing to say but still finding something tosay. Whether adult or youth, in general, men never understood that, in a situationwhere they had nothing to say but still insisted on saying something, it wasthe same as turning nothing into something, and also the equivalent of courtingan early death. Qi Jian stared blankly at him, and then began to cry once more. She made sureto not make any sound, which had her seem even more pitiful. Zhexiu silently pondered on what to do, then explained, "You know that I can'tsee anything right now, so..." Without even waiting for him to finish, Qi Jian began to cry even moregrievously. She thought with deep discomfort, although you didn't see, thisone's entire body was touched all over by you, so are you saying you won'tadmit it? Could it be that you aren't taking responsibility? Zhexiu felt his head hurt very much. He had lived for more than ten years, andwho knew how many terrifying monsters and demons he had encountered on thesnowy plains. He had been through countless life-and-death situations, but… hehad never encountered such a situation. He thought to himself, what to do?  Ifshe continues to cry like this, what will I do if it affects the wound? Hearing Qi Jian's sobbing, he was rather restless, and also somewhat confused.He thought to himself, as the last disciple of Mount Li's sect master, yourcultivation is so high. At such a young age, you're already at the middle levelof Ethereal Opening. Your swordplay is so strong that perhaps even Guan Feibaiisn't even your match. Your skills in comprehension are great, such that at theMausoleum of Books, you directly read up to the third monolith. No matter howone looks at it, you're extraordinary, so how is it that against allexpectations… you would cry? He did not know how to solve this, so he just silently sat to the side. Littledid he know that his response happened to luckily coincide with a famous maximon man-woman interactions. The problems of a woman's mood could only ever be solved by the passage oftime. In many cases, they simply felt aggrieved and sad and want to cry, so itwas for the best to just let them cry. Accompanying them involved offering ahandkerchief when necessary or proffering a shoulder when needed, but itcertainly did not require sitting on the side with an incessant stream ofconsoling words. When they still did not calm down and did not feel liketalking, anything you did was just making more trouble. As expected, the crying finally died down. Like a startled bird, Qi Jianlowered her head, and asked a little ashamedly, "You… did you already know?" This question had two meanings and it was exceptionally difficult to answer—ifhe had known beforehand, then all those times where their bodies touchedafterwards, especially that scene which had just occurred, would incur an evenmore negative interpretation. Fortunately, Zhexiu was not very good with words,so he maintained his silence—silence had many meanings, so Qi Jian could pickthe explanation that made her feel the most comfortable. In truth, Zhexiu really did not know. Over the course of their escape, there were a few times, especially when hewas carrying her over the mountains and listening to her soft interjections,that he had thought this way, but these were just passing fancies that he didnot dwell on much. This was because it was impossible for him to imagine thatthe last disciple of Mount Li's Sect Master, the most cherished junior of theDivine State's Seven Laws, the young genius who entered the Proclamation ofAzure Sky at a mere twelve years old… was actually a girl. He recalled the scene on the first day in the grass hut back at the Mausoleumof Books, but this time there was naturally a completely different explanationfor it. Back then, it was the seven of them living under the same roof. Zhexiu,Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six stayed in the inner room while the fourdisciples of the Mount Li Sword Sect stayed in the outer room. Every day whenthey slept, Gou Hanshi, Guan Feibai, and Liang Banhu squeezed together while QiJian had a space for herself. Crucially, Qi Jian had a blanket for herself. Atthe time, Zhexiu and Chen Changsheng felt that Gou Hanshi and the rest pamperedQi Jian too much, or that the last disciple of the Sect Master must have hadsome special status. But now he understood that this was a division between menand women. What should be done next? Zhexiu was silent while Qi Jian did not know what tosay. An awkward atmosphere lingered between this young man and young lady. Just at this moment, a rumble came from deep within the plains, closelyfollowed by a thunderous roar. Zhexiu's expression subtly changed as heinclined his ear to listen, confirming that it was some sort of extremelypowerful and terrifying monster. He decided that it was not something he couldhandle, so he took out a powder that would eradicate their scent and scatteredit all around them, then just like he had done every other day and night, hewent up to Qi Jian then turned around and squatted down. Over the course of that one day and night, they had repeated this sequencemany times. Logically, they should have been very proficient at this, butperhaps because he had learned Qi Jian was a girl, Zhexiu's movements weresomewhat stiff, the two hands that were thrust back were rather rigid. Heseemed just like a duck that was just about to get cooked. Seeing this picture, Qi Jian's tears broke into a smile. She lightly pattedhis back, indicating that he needed to squat a little lower. Then she slowlygot on, her two hands very naturally wrapping around his neck. Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him, but Zhexiu felt that the feelingfrom his back was much softer than usual. A dozen li away, the ground under the grass was constantly bulging andthunderous and terrifying roars came out of it as some strange animal wasswiftly advancing forwards. The sun was blazing hot, and its rays penetratedthrough the grass into those pools of water, revealing the figures of countlessmonsters. It was like a tide, chasing after the two of them. It was anextremely breathtaking sight. At the front of this monster tide, Zhexiu and Qi Jian faced the ever-risingand ever-brightening sun, wading through the water all the way. She was stillhis eyes, and he was still her legs. "Which direction should we go?" "In the southwest, there seems to be a big meadow. The ground seems to behigher there, so why don't we go and see? That sound seems to be coming fromthe east, so you might have go a bit faster." This conversation's end was followed by a long period of silence, only brokenby the sound of feet breaking through the water and splashing it around as thegrass gradually grew higher. After who knows how long had passed, Qi Jian whispered, "Were you reallysurprised?" After a moment of silence, Zhexiu replied, "Yes." She drew closer to his neck, leaned against his shoulders, smelled thefamiliar scent, and then whispered once more, "What are you thinking?" Zhexiu did not answer, because he did not know how to answer. Thinking?Thinking about what? About how my fingertips on your slightly shaking bodyalmost slipped once? No, at the moment, that wolf youth's mind was completelyblank. He was not thinking about anything. She thought to herself… did silence mean he's unhappy? After a while, shewhispered even more softly, and rather nervously, "Then do you think it wasbetter for me to be a boy or a girl?" There was no evil motive behind the question, and it went straight to thepoint. Zhexiu thought to himself, since yesterday all you did was 'mm' and 'ah' whiletightly holding onto me all the way. If you were a man, then it truly wouldn’thave been very becoming. Thus, he said, "A girl is better." Qi Jian felt slightly ashamed, and whispered as softly as a mosquito, "It'salways a good thing when women are together, this must be what you mean." Zhexiu thought to himself, just because it's worse than usual, your conduct isno longer as impressive as it was before, how come? In this continent, there was a folktale, a story about how a boar demi-humancarried his wife on his back. Yes, whether it was a story or fact, in the vast majority of cases, it shouldalways be the man carrying the woman. It was very hard to imagine the opposite. So in this vast and boundless plain, Zhexiu carried the young girl Qi Jian onhis back. On the other end of the plains, Chen Changsheng was also carrying agirl on his back. He had waded through the plains for a long time, and yet he was still in thewetland. The blazing sun illuminated the reeds within the water as well as manyunnamed grasses, as if it wanted to turn all plant life into gold and silvercarvings. Yet he did not sweat a single drop as his body continued to emit thatcold qi, dispersing the scorching heat and resisting the sunlight. Her eyes closed, Xu Yourong leaned against his back, her eyelashes unblinking,and occasionally she would purse her lips. It seemed that with Chen Changshengthere to serve as a natural pot of cold water, she was sleeping very soundly. Up until now, there had also been no sign of Nanke's pursuit. Chen Changshengthought to himself that even the demons would not be willing to adventure intothese plains. They had most likely given up, which made him feel somewhat moreat ease. As his mind relaxed, his wounds and exhaustion suddenly struck himlike a rushing tide. Like sludge, they trapped his two legs, imbuing him withthe desire to not take another step forward. Around him was nothing but grass and wetland with no place to sit down andrest. Chen Changsheng gazed at the grass that was taller than a man as he wasforced to continue walking with Xu Yourong on his back. Only this time, he wasno longer walking forward, but in a circle, stamping down the reeds and grassall around him. Gradually, a piece of flat ground formed from crushed grasstook shape before his eyes. Under the cover of the surrounding reeds and grass, it was very difficult forpeople outside to see within, but if there was someone that flew up into thesky and looked down, they would see a little circle about a zhang wide made ofgrass. Her arms wrapped around her legs, Xu Yourong lay on that pile of crushedgrass. She seemed very weak and pitiful, like a newly-conceived child.