◎XP Mischief◎
"...What token?" Yingshi didn't quite understand.
Shuangjian closed his eyes, "pretending to sleep," his face and neck flushed. He seemed to take a deep breath, about to speak, but heard Yingshi say again, "Wait, do you have a fever?"
She turned back and returned to the edge of the straw bed to test his temperature.
Her soft hand, with a hint of coolness, recklessly pressed against his forehead. Shuangjian trembled, suddenly opened his eyes, and tilted his head to avoid it.
"It is a bit hot, otherwise I..."
Yingshi bit her lip in thought, seeming to reconsider the possibility of not responding to Xu Mingcheng's summons.
"I've been lying in the straw all day, it's normal for my forehead to be hotter than usual. I don't feel any discomfort." Shuangjian didn't want her to dwell on his temperature, directly interrupting her. He propped himself up to sit halfway, his expression equally serious, but his eyes still dared not look at Yingshi. "I wanted to ask you for something you carry with you..."
The end of his sentence trembled slightly.
Because he couldn't find a good reason to package this request.
He could only keep telling himself in his heart: Han Shuangjian, you were once willing to commit suicide and even destroy the world for freedom, and now just asking for a woman's red string makes it so hard for you to speak?
By mocking himself in this way, the embarrassment could be temporarily suppressed...
He thought about the rhetoric to persuade Yingshi. A prototype of a plan to "fabricate a spell that requires a personal token for communication, asking for the red string under the pretext of establishing contact" formed in his mind. Just as he was about to say it, he saw Yingshi nod without hesitation.
"Oh, sure, let me see what I can give you..." She didn't ask why, already searching her body.
But Yingshi didn't expect the original owner to be a "minimalist," not even carrying regular purses or jewelry!
She then wanted to raise her hand to take off the jade hairpin on her head, but Shuangjian stopped her: "If your hair falls loose, the sect leader will definitely notice."
"But there's nothing else. How about I cut off a lock of hair for you?" Yingshi pinched a strand of her hair and tilted her head to look at him.
Although she didn't know the reason, she didn't feel Shuangjian's request was rude or absurd. She guessed it was probably a psychological state similar to hers—a feeling of reliance on a "fellow townsman."
Especially when people are sick and in pain, they are particularly vulnerable. Now that she, a fellow compatriot, had to leave temporarily, leaving a "security blanket" with Shuangjian would make him feel much better!
"How about it? I have a lot of hair, the cheap dad probably won't notice!"
Shuangjian was stunned. The embarrassment he had finally suppressed by mocking himself rose again.
He had never considered the option of asking for hair. The body, hair, and skin are given by parents. In his view, hair shares the same origin as the rest of the body's flesh and blood. At least tonight, what he considered was limited to external objects.
Moreover, in the universal concept of this world, exchanging hair is an extremely intimate act. Only some couples destined to marry would do this before the wedding.
He found even the red string on Yingshi's ankle tricky, let alone her hair...
At least... at least confirm the red string is useless before considering the possibility of hair, right?
Shuangjian shook his head and said simply, "Could you leave the string knot on your ankle with me?"
"Oh right, I forgot about this, that definitely works." Yingshi suddenly realized and immediately squatted down.
The red string on her left ankle was too unnoticeable; she completely forgot about this "setting."
The novel mentioned the red string on Yingshi's foot and provided at least two scenes to reinforce the memory of it, such as Yingshi playing in the mountain spring barefoot, injuring her ankle during a martial arts competition and needing medicine applied, and other plots she couldn't recall now.
Some male readers in the comments section really hoped this setting would "converge." They harbored some romantic expectations, so later when Yingshi appeared, they often left comments focusing on this point, hoping to have some interaction with the male protagonist.
But Jing Fengliu seemed to have swallowed the book and forgotten his own setting. He clearly wrote this out of some psychological mischief of XP, but never expanded on it later.
Yingshi didn't think there was anything special about this string knot; it was just a plain red string with a tiny mute bell tied to it, which wouldn't ring and served only as a decoration.
She quickly untied it and held it in her hand, keeping a candid expression until she handed it over.
"..."
Shuangjian stared at Yingshi's eyes, suddenly feeling that his previous guess that she "held back" was a misjudgment.
Her eyes were so clear, as if one could look straight into her heart through them.
He really didn't need to speculate about her; she really wasn't a person with deep thoughts... Or, was she so deep that it exceeded the limits of what he could imagine right now?
The investigation and suspicion in his mind constantly fought. Shuangjian pursed his lips, said thanks, and took the string knot with feigned naturalness.
He casually placed that eye-catching bright red by the bed, reassured again that he didn't have a fever, and watched Yingshi leave.
As soon as her figure disappeared, he immediately gripped the red string in his palm again, as if holding onto a lifesaver, his heartbeat accelerating with time, waiting for some kind of sentence to descend.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Yingshi's figure had completely gone far away, and the red string in his hand was gripped so tightly it felt hot, like holding a ball of fire, melting his frozen shell bit by bit.
—Not restricted.
No suffocating bondage descended.
Shuangjian lay back on the straw bed, his back already soaked with cold sweat. The hand gripping the red string was placed on his chest, like a branding ring printed on his chest.
This attempt succeeded.
So tonight was just an ordinary night.
An ordinary person spending his ordinary day. He didn't wrestle with himself, nor did he need to try his best to fight against some invisible existence.
He could finally feel calm.
"..."
Shuangjian's face showed an expression he had never had before, a half-smile, a half-cry.
Like a death row inmate in a heavenly prison, he had once chopped off his own hands and feet to escape, torn down the surrounding walls, but still couldn't break through those layers of restrictions.
But one day after he gave up in despair, a piece of straw blew into his cell.
He never thought that just a bit of straw scrap could penetrate the lock core and open the shackles of his cell.
...And he had been imprisoned for so long.
"Ha."
...
Yingshi stepped on the moonlight and returned to the inner gate, her heart beating like a drum all the way.
As she prepared herself mentally, she constantly reviewed the memories in her mind and the contents related to the novel, for fear of showing flaws in front of Xu Mingcheng later.
Her trembling continued until she saw Xu Mingcheng with her own eyes.
This middle-aged man, who looked quite like an immortal, actually chose to wait for her on the necessary path to her bedroom, not even giving her the chance to go back and tidy up briefly. No wonder Shuangjian said that if she gave away the hairpin, she would definitely be caught with loose hair; it was entirely a prediction.
Xu Mingcheng stroked his beard and glared at her when he saw her: "Why did you delay for so long? It's really outrageous!"
Although he was reprimanding her, Yingshi's mental pressure was inexplicably reduced by more than half.
Before coming here, she had even wondered if Xu Mingcheng would look exactly like her real-life dad. After all, Xu Yingshi's body was a carbon copy of her own. Now that she saw he didn't, she actually breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, she really couldn't imagine a minor villain wearing her dad's face constantly stirring up trouble only to be repeatedly slapped down by the male lead.
"Dad, I was wrong. I was so absorbed in my cultivation at the back mountain that I lost track of time!" Yingshi said with a look of utmost sincerity.
In her memories, "going to the back mountain to cultivate" was the excuse the original owner used to go take care of Shuangjian.
She had only told the truth to her personal attendant, Nanny Zhong, even borrowing her servant's quarters to brew medicine and asking her to cover for her.
"Since when were you so hardworking?" Xu Mingcheng scoffed coldly. "More like hiding somewhere to slack off and play!"
"No, no! My sudden diligence is exactly for the upcoming Tiangang Martial Gathering!" Yingshi spouted the excuse she had prepared on her way here.
Fortunately, she was essentially taking an open-book exam, so she wasn't completely flying blind.
"That is exactly why I called you here." Hearing the term Tiangang Martial Gathering, Xu Mingcheng put away his angry expression and said seriously, "It's best that you are aware of it. The Tiangang Martial Gathering is of extraordinary significance to you inexperienced youths. Even if you don't expect to win first place, you must make a name for yourselves in the grand competition. At the very least, do not embarrass our sect!"
Xu Mingcheng wasn't wrong. The Tiangang Martial Gathering was a heavily featured story arc in the novel, where major characters made their grand entrances en masse. It was also where the male lead astounded everyone and obtained a crucial opportunity.
Interpreted through a modern lens, the Tiangang Martial Gathering was essentially a massive joint entrance exam for the cultivation world. Organized and hosted in turns by the top three academies, it was open to all schools and even self-taught individuals who had already made a name for themselves.
Self-taught cultivators would receive one-on-one invitations from the organizers in advance. Within the academy groups, only top students were qualified to participate. Furthermore, the final confirmed bone age of all candidates could not exceed thirty, nor could they be repeat candidates who had participated before.
This year's Tiangang Martial Gathering was hosted by the Daoyi Immortal Alliance, one of the "Top Three."
As a lower-middle-tier shrimp of a sect in the cultivation world, the Yunshui Sect naturally had participation quotas as well, though not many—four or five at most.
If the process were standard, a sect would normally hold an exclusive internal selection tournament for the Tiangang Martial Gathering. On the surface, the Yunshui Sect also had this step, but as for its fairness... well, it could only be guaranteed at about fifty percent.
"I have hired a wandering immortal master for you and your brother, one who has participated in setting the questions for past Tiangang Martial Gatherings. He will arrive in a couple of days. When he does, you and Xiaoran will no longer need to go to the training grounds." Xu Mingcheng instructed with his hands behind his back. "You must restrain your temperaments in front of the immortal master. Absolutely do not act as scattered and undisciplined as usual!"
These lifestyle details of supporting characters were never mentioned in the novel, so it was her first time learning that Xu Mingcheng had actually hired a top-tier private tutor just for the Tiangang Martial Gathering to give his children a leg up.
It should be known that this teacher had a special storyline later in the book... but right now, there was no need for her to show that she knew.
Yingshi gathered her thoughts. Believing herself to be much more obedient and promising compared to Xu Xiaoran, she deliberately brought up his name in an attempt to redirect the crossfire:
"I know, Dad. But shouldn't you be saying this to my brother instead? I study much harder than he does on a daily basis."
"Do you think I haven't spoken to him?" Xu Mingcheng fumed. "I summoned both of you here ages ago, but you were the one who took your sweet time! What 'cultivating at the back mountain'—it's nothing but nonsense! Did you know that Master Xuanzhen came to complain to me a long time ago? You haven't shown your face since you woke up this morning; your mind must have flown off to the clouds! Tell me, what exactly were you doing?!"
