As her fingertips touched the soft petals, it felt as if she had picked a piece of a dream out of the void.
The dream suddenly magnified, and Zanxing heard Fairy Qinghua’s urgent voice. Her mind was suddenly filled with a barrage of images, chaotic and fragmented, like pieces of a torn picture swiftly passing before her eyes.
The chaotic whiteness gradually dissipated.
The sky grew brighter, and she heard a man’s voice, bright and lively like the spring sun in April, with a hint of playful teasing: “Seeking pearls to ride the vast sea, gathering jade to ascend Jingheng. My name is Gu Caiyu, may I ask the fairy’s name?”
Zanxing saw a man.
His face seemed shrouded in a veil of mist, indistinct and unclear. All she could discern was his long spring-colored robe and a hairband of the same color. He was tall, leaning against a tree, and although his features were obscured, his voice alone seemed to paint a picture of the smile on his face.
Zanxing also saw Fairy Qinghua. The beautiful woman coldly walked past the man named Gu Caiyu without even sparing him a glance.
Gu Caiyu touched his nose, a bit disgruntled, and said, “The female disciples in this sect may be beautiful, but their temperaments leave much to be desired.”
In the distance, barren stone mountains stretched endlessly. In the vast wilderness, a single tree stood tall and lush, swaying in the wind. The man started after the woman ahead, saying as he went, “Hey, fairy, since we’re both trapped here, we should help each other find a way out!”
Trapped here? Zanxing was taken aback. Could this be… something that happened in the past here?
The scene swiftly shifted. She saw the man sitting on a rock in front of the desolate stone mountain, fiddling with a stalk of foxtail in his hand while speaking to someone in the distance, “Fairy, fairy, have you thought of a way to get out?”
Fairy Qinghua sat on a distant green stone, practicing cultivation with closed eyes.
“Fairy, fairy, when will you break the restriction of this place with your cultivation?”
“Fairy, fairy…”
With a smack, a fruit was stuffed into his mouth, and Fairy Qinghua withdrew her hand, coldly saying, “Shut up.”
Gu Caiyu fell silent.
As the sun gradually shifted westward, casting shimmering ripples on the meandering river, a figure of a man rushed excitedly from the wilderness. He carried a chicken in his hand, a chicken so ugly it was terrifying, with barely any feathers left, its tail was bald, struggling desperately in Gu Caiyu’s hands.
He held up the chicken’s wing and reached out to Fairy Qinghua, who was meditating with closed eyes, to show her his prize, “Fairy, I caught a chicken! We have meat to eat now!” He tilted his head to look at the chicken, whose black-bean-like eyes stared at him. He rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment, “But this chicken is a bit skinny. Let’s fatten it up before we eat it. Let’s raise it for a while before we slaughter it.”
Fairy Qinghua ignored him.
After that, the man got busy.
Zanxing watched him squatting on the wilderness, catching bugs everywhere and pulling wild vegetables. He made his own chicken feed and fed the chicken on time. Sometimes he would sit with the chicken in his arms, watching Fairy Qinghua practice her sword while asking, “How about giving it a name? What would be good? Roast chicken, fried chicken, beggar’s chicken? Steamed chicken, braised chicken, white cut chicken?”
Fairy Qinghua swept past with her sword, the sword wind shattering the stone in front of him. There was a moment of silence between heaven and earth. After a while, the man’s weak voice sounded, “Then call it Bai Qie Ji, I love to eat white cut chicken the most.”
And that was it.
Fairy Qinghua would go to the stone mountain to test the barrier every day. Her sword couldn’t break the barrier, and she would sometimes get hurt herself.
But Gu Caiyu was ready to kill the chicken.
He rolled up his sleeves, and with a palm-sized knife in his hand, he made a few cuts on the chicken’s neck. Finally, he shook his head and put the knife down, asking Fairy Qinghua, “Maybe… we shouldn’t eat it after all?”
Fairy Qinghua looked on coldly.
“I’m not afraid to kill the chicken, really,” the man’s voice was sincere. “I just think that being a vegetarian is not bad either.”
“You weren’t planning to slaughter it in the first place, were you?” Fairy Qinghua finally spoke her first words. She stepped past Gu Caiyu and said indifferently, “No one gives names to food.”
She walked forward with her sword in hand, while the young man still held the chicken in his hand, staring at her back in a daze.
Bai Qie Ji clucked and squawked.
The man came to his senses, looked at the chicken in his hand and scolded, “Stop making noise, Xiao Bai.”
He lowered his head again. Zanxing was not sure what he was thinking, but she thought he was probably smiling.
Then, there was another fragmented scene.
Zanxing saw Gu Caiyu start collecting hay and red clay everywhere, followed by the bald-tailed roast chicken. His long spring-colored robe was covered in mud, and he shouted excitedly, “Fairy, let’s build a thatched cottage here!”
Fairy Qinghua flicked the tip of her sword and looked back at him. He was already working hard on his own. He was covering it very carefully, and the bald-tailed chicken was standing in the yard, leisurely pecking at the grass seeds on the ground.
The thatched cottage was soon built.
The walls were made of rammed earth and the roof was made of hay. Every beam in the house was carefully planed by him with a knife. He then went to a place near the stone mountain and painstakingly polished a piece of bluestone into a water tank, and split a gourd into a ladle. When he started making stone cups, bowls, and chopsticks, Fairy Qinghua finally couldn’t bear it anymore and walked over to him and asked coldly, “What exactly are you doing?”
“Ah?” Gu Caiyu was sitting on the doorstep sharpening his knife. The knife had just been used to chop wood and was a bit dull. He said while sharpening it, “I’m building a house. In this remote place, we will have a place to live in the future.”
“You can live in it yourself if you want,” Fairy Qinghua said indifferently.
“Don’t say that,” Gu Caiyu said quickly, “look, I built two rooms, one for you and one for me. I plan to make a table in the house to write and stuff…”
Fairy Qinghua frowned: “Are you not planning to leave? Do you want to live here for the rest of your life?”
“Live here for the rest of my life?” Gu Caiyu’s voice sounded cheerful, “That’s not bad either. You see, the mountains and rivers are beautiful here, the scenery is endless, and with a beautiful woman by my side…”
A strong gust of wind swept over him, causing three strands of green hair to float down.
Fairy Qinghua looked coldly at him, the radiance of her long sword captivating.
Gu Caiyu swallowed hard. “…I only dare to admire from afar, and not act recklessly.”
Fairy Qinghua snorted coldly and turned away.
After that, Fairy Qinghua continued to practice daily, attempting to break the barrier, but returned empty-handed each time.
Meanwhile, Gu Caiyu’s thatched hut became more and more complete.
A wooden bed was set up, and a table was also crafted. There were windows, a stove, and even a hearth. The stone tank was filled with water, and the bald-tailed chicken often flew to the gourd ladle to drink.