Dark Blue Frost - Chapter 21
Chapter 21: The Pearwood Hairpin
Without keeping count of the passing years, the bright moon over Mount Yan hung high in the sky reflected upon the water. In the blink of an eye, five years slipped quietly away like flowing water.
In the midst of the woods, freshly washed bedsheets and covers were draped over bamboo poles to dry, flapping loudly in the wind. On a nearby parasol tree sat a plump little boy with his legs crossed, contentedly gnawing on a sweet potato. Even though he clearly saw two acquaintances approaching in the distance, he turned a blind eye and simply kept taking large bites of the sweet potato, eating it skin and all.
Kong Lan and Mu Fei—a pair of inseparable bosom friends—exchanged a look. Seeing the blankets and quilts hung out to dry, they knew these had to be Qingxuan’s doing again. Exchanging mischievous grins, they slowly ambled over.
Ever since Qianse chased them off with a curt “See the guests out,” the two of them had to be sneaky and secretive every time they came up the mountain. They always had to scout out the area for a good long while for fear of being caught red-handed by her.
Truth be told, it was all because of that kid, Qingxuan.
Five years ago, out of nowhere, he had taken a sudden whim to learn the art of winemaking in earnest. As a wine devotee, Kong Lan was naturally obsessed with the drink, so he naturally became the judge of Qingxuan’s winemaking skills. Initially, Kong Lan had intended to trick Qingxuan into drinking up all the aged Nü’er Hong stored in the cellar, after which he would pat his buttocks and slip away. But who could have guessed that Qingxuan was exceptionally talented at brewing? The wine he crafted was not a bit inferior to the fine nectar and jade wine of the Nine Heavens. Thus, as time went on, the wine bug inside Kong Lan was frequently teased into an insatiable itch—scratching at his heart like a cat’s paw—making it impossible for him not to visit!
However, ever since that kid Qingxuan went on a trip outside the Eastern Region, he seemed to have grown sharper by the day and increasingly difficult to fool. In the past, one merely needed to carelessly teach him a superficial trick or two, and he would chuckle foolishly to himself for half a day. Nowadays, however, not only had he inherited Qianse’s true legacy in Taoist arts, but his disposition had also become increasingly deep and reserved. He had grown remarkably skilled at reading people’s expressions and words; his tongue could practically speak blooming flowers into existence. With just a few charming, coaxing words, he would unwittingly coax his senior uncles into bestowing upon him all their prized, secret techniques.
“Hey, Chubby kid, where’s your brother?” Kong Lan tilted his head up and called out softly to the little boy who was munching on the sweet potato, his inquiry laced with a touch of banter. Heh, look at that silly boy—he’s eating a simple sweet potato with such serious devotion as if it were a rare delicacy! And look at those chubby, puffed-out cheeks; he’s practically a little piglet raised by Qingxuan!
Rourou lowered his eyelids and glanced at Kong Lan. Though his small mouth was stuffed with sweet potato, making his speech somewhat slurred, two extremely crucial words could still be heard clearly:
“…Sleeping…”
Hearing this answer, Kong Lan froze for a moment, muttering to himself in confusion, “Why is he sleeping in broad daylight?” Looking again at the bedsheets and quilt covers drying in the woods, he let out a tutting sigh.
Does this kid Qingxuan have an obsessive obsession with cleanliness or something? He does a grand wash every few days, as if stripping and laundering bedsheets has become a hobby for him! Could it be that he felt exhausted after washing all these things and went to sleep? But judging by the sheer quantity of bedcovers stripped and washed, it’s likely that everything washable on Mount Yan has been washed by him. Where else could he possibly sleep?
Sigh, as expected: whatever eccentric trait a master possesses, their disciple inherits an equally odd quirk!
“Then where is your master?” Mu Fei asked, looking up while cradling his zither. Although he clearly felt rustling debris—what seemed to be sweet potato crumbs—falling from the tree, he merely shifted aside with practiced ease, maintaining his usual leisure.
In truth, Qianse had never officially taken Rourou as a disciple. However, seeing Qingxuan address Qianse as “Master” every time, the silly boy naturally picked up the habit and followed suit. At this moment, because of the food stuffed in his mouth, the chubby boy was still slurring his words, yet those crucial keywords slipped out of his mouth once more: “…Sleeping…”
“Hmm? Your master is sleeping too?” Feeling as though they had caught onto some juicy secret, Mu Fei and Kong Lan exchanged a sneaky glance, both spotting a flicker of mischievous excitement in each other’s eyes: “Could it be—”
“Chubby kid, are your brother and your master sleeping together?” Believing in the principle of striking while the iron is hot, Kong Lan knew that Rourou was a simpleton who would answer whatever was asked without hiding anything or telling lies. Boldly, he began probing while making his guess.
Unexpectedly, Rourou glanced at him, looking somewhat baffled by his question. Cocking his head in thought for a moment, he wiped his runny nose across his sleeve. Completely unaware of the treacherous motives behind these two sneaky fellows’ deliberate questioning, he answered innocently, “…Brother and Master… have always slept together…”
“Ah?!”
This time, the two troublemakers disguised as senior uncles felt as though they had truly caught a massive piece of scandal; their faces instantly blossomed into wide grins!
“Chubby kid, when you say ‘together’, what kind of ‘together’ do you mean?” Kong Lan pressed on, somewhat unsatisfied, eager to dig out more details about this “sleeping together.” In truth, he wanted to ask whether it was “together” in terms of time, or “together” in terms of space. However, knowing that Rourou wouldn’t understand such profound concepts, he decided to make it more concrete and vivid: he pressed his two fingers together, mimicking a pair of main characters snuggled up together during a romantic night, even making deliberate chirping kissing sounds. Finally, he gave a vulgar smirk: “Chubby kid, is it like this?”
Before Rourou could answer, another voice resonated from the side.
“What exactly are you trying to pry into?”
The tone was exceedingly slow, deliberate, yet fiercely cold. The words seemed to be squeezed out from between her lips like beads of ice—hard and freezing. Unseen, they seemed to strike the ground with a resonant force, carrying a subtle edge of displeasure.
“Junior Sister?!”
Frightened by the voice, Kong Lan and Mu Fei shuddered violently. Turning their heads in unison, they happened to see Qianse with her eyes slightly narrowed. From her cold, aloof expression, not a shred of ordinary human warmth could be detected. Her icy eyes were filled with a fierce chill, causing them both to instinctively take a step back, planning to secure an advantageous position to flee!
In truth, it wasn’t that the two of them were lacking in martial prowess and had to constantly fear Qianse. When it came down to it, Qianse was the only female disciple under Emperor Changsheng. Back when she first entered the sect, Emperor Changsheng had been plagued by headaches over how difficult his numerous male disciples were to manage, so he came up with a method of punishment—
Whoever committed a fault had to pull down their own trousers in the main hall and let Qianse whip their buttocks fiercely with a rattan cane!
Naturally, Emperor Changsheng’s original intent was to arouse a sense of shame in these mischievous disciples, and Qianse had always been obedient; when she whipped their rear ends with the cane, she never held back. Over time, during their years of cultivation, almost every senior and junior brother of the same generation had been whipped by the rattan cane in Qianse’s hand, without exception. The thick-skinned fellows of Yuxu Palace didn’t take this punishment seriously when they were runny-nosed little kids, laughing it off as it passed. But as they gradually grew into sensitive youths with self-respect and pride, even if they considered getting beaten a routine affair, they were no longer willing to strip down their trousers and expose their bare bottoms in front of a young girl. Thus, they gradually began to behave themselves, saving Emperor Changsheng quite a bit of worry.
However, the lingering side effect was that, except for a select few, almost every senior and junior brother of that generation would instinctively tighten their skin and stiffen their faces whenever they saw Qianse. They always felt as though an invisible rattan cane was resting in her hand, ready to whip across silently with her words and strike right at the place on their rear where old scars of the past were etched—it didn’t hurt anymore, but it left a burning, tingling sensation of utter embarrassment!
Kong Lan and Mu Fei were two victims burdened with severe psychological trauma, so it was no wonder they reacted to Qianse like mice seeing a cat!
Seeing that the two of them were on the verge of trembling, Qianse narrowed her eyes. Her deep, dark gaze fixed tightly upon them, her look as sharp as a blade, nearly piercing through them.
“Starting five years ago, Qingxuan has been sharing the same bedchamber with me. Now, are you satisfied?” She spoke extremely slowly and steadily, word by word, resonant and forceful. She did not deliberately heighten her tone, yet her words carried an unhidden coldness, as if a gust of icy wind were blowing directly from her speech: “What else do you wish to pry into?”
“Junior Sister, what kind of talk is that?” Seeing the situation, Kong Lan was the faster one to react. He immediately forced a face full of smiles, pulling his neck back with a touch of flattery: “We were just caring about you and Qingxuan.”
As the junior brother, Mu Fei obediently remained silent, leaving the negotiation to the old rogue Kong Lan. Truth be told, he was already suppressed by Qianse’s queenly aura to the point where he felt half his size—how could he dare act presumptuously?
“Is that so?” Qianse didn’t even bother looking at them properly. The ends of her brows arched upward with immense arrogance as she turned around to issue an eviction order: “If there’s nothing else, scram. For the rest of my life, I don’t ever want to see either of you again.”
She didn’t particularly dislike these two hauntingly persistent martial brothers; she was merely annoyed by how clingy they were and how they were always eager to see the world fall into chaos.
Having long anticipated that Qianse would show no face whatsoever, and seeing that Qingxuan—the little ancestor tasked specifically with rescue missions—was not around, Kong Lan had no tricks left. He was forced to intentionally pull a long face, assuming a rare persona of a senior brother. Replacing his original playful grin with an extremely solemn expression, he said: “Junior Sister, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to see us, and it’s understandable that you are avoiding Feng Jin. But are you planning to avoid Master as well, and never return to Yuxu Palace to visit the old man for the rest of your life?”
This time, he and Mu Fei had quietly snuck up Mount Yan intending to have Qingxuan help persuade her. Now that the boy Qingxuan had vanished off to who-knows-where for fun, he had no choice but to rely on himself! Qianse had a stubborn temper and a proud nature; she could only be moved by provocation. Therefore, he had to bite the bullet and administer a strong dose of truth—knowing what Qianse least liked to hear, he deliberately chose to speak of it.
Qianse did not reply, so he assumed he had struck her weak point and immediately launched into a non-stop tirade: “You have already missed the Changsheng Banquet at Yuxu Palace, which is held once every five hundred years, several times now. The fifth day of the fifth lunar month this year is the day Master emerges from his secluded cultivation. If you fail to show up again, Master will surely think that you truly hold a grudge over what happened that day and refuse to see even him. Just think about how heartbroken the old man will be! As his disciple, wouldn’t you be unfilial…”
Whether out of extreme nervousness or something else, he didn’t dare stop to catch his breath, rambling on continuously until he was nearly in tears. By the end, he ran out of breath and almost choked.
Qianse neither agreed nor disagreed, simply letting Kong Lan ramble on. It was only when he stopped to catch his breath, his eyes almost rolling back, that she spoke: “Another provocation tactic.” She responded nonchalantly, her voice tinged with a bit of sarcasm: “Senior Brother, after so many years of ascending to immortality, can’t you make even a tiny bit of progress?”
With that, she turned on her heel and flicked her sleeves to leave, leaving Kong Lan and Mu Fei standing frozen on the spot. Meanwhile, Rourou, who had finished his sweet potato, leaped down from the tree like an agile monkey and hurriedly caught up, tumbling after her like a little meatball.
Rourou lowered his head, still savoring the sweet taste of the sweet potato, when he suddenly heard his master walking ahead ask a question.
“Rourou, why did your brother wash the bedsheets again?”
As for why Qingxuan was not on Mount Yan and where he had gone, Qianse was not curious. Over the past five years, he had been diligent and hardworking, learning nearly seven or eight tenths of her abilities. Combined with the skills he learned from Kong Lan and Mu Fei, she no longer worried about his safety. Moreover, he now possessed a strong sense of propriety; even when he went out, he would surely return before sunset, so she didn’t restrict him much.
However, she was equally puzzled: Qingxuan seemed to be washing the bedsheets very frequently lately, sometimes at intervals of less than ten days. Even she began to suspect—could he really have developed an obsessive need for cleanliness?
“Brother he…” Rourou gave a silly chuckle and answered ingenuously, “He wet the bed again…”
Before the sun set, Qingxuan returned.
By now, he had grown quite tall, his frame having long shed the frailness and childishness of his youth. His grey robes fitted him impeccably, giving him a bright, refined, and noble appearance at first glance. Through simple actions and gestures, an air of dignified grandeur unconsciously radiated from him. His refined face was also touched with a hint of steady maturity, making his features appear all the more captivating and deep—he was no longer the naive boy of the past.
Walking with his hands behind his back to the door of Qianse’s bedchamber, he carefully inspected his attire once more. He patted the object tucked against his chest to make sure there were no flaws in his appearance, and only then did he push the door open and enter.
“Master.”
He called out, sneaking a glance at Qianse, who was copying scriptures, and immediately took the opportunity to edge closer to her.
“You’re back?” Qianse paused her writing and glanced sideways at him. With her sharp eyesight, she couldn’t spot any flaw in his flawlessly disguised exterior, but she caught a slip of truth from the deliberate seriousness in his eyes. Without a word of blame, she simply asked casually, “Did you go outside the Eastern Extremities again to catch demons and drive away ghosts for people?”
“Rourou has been eating way too much lately.”
Qingxuan coughed lightly, feeling a bit guilty using Rourou as an excuse, though his face remained entirely composed. Indeed, in the past, the fruits and grains on Mount Yan were enough for his consumption, but ever since Rourou arrived, resources had become somewhat strained. Thus, following his master’s example, he frequently went outside the Eastern Extremities to drive away ghosts and catch demons for others—accepting no gold or silver, asking only for grain.
However, his recent trips had been quite frequent, and it wasn’t purely for grain; he had another purpose in mind. He kept Kong Lan’s words firmly in his heart: If Master is willing to take him to the West Kunlun to attend the Changsheng Banquet, he will be able to see Feng Jin. No matter what, he couldn’t lose face; he had to bring honor to his master.
Plucking up his courage, he leaned forward and retrieved the carefully hidden object from inside his robes. Hands slightly trembling, he inserted the hairpin into Qianse’s hair by her temple, removing the old one in the process. He strove to keep his voice steady and calm: “Master’s hairpin is quite old and worn. I saw that this pearwood hairpin was rather nice, so I—” Stopping short at the end, he took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress his nervousness: “This hairpin looks truly beautiful on you, Master!”
It had to be said that such an action was indeed quite bold and overstepping boundaries, appearing a bit too intimate for a master and disciple. Qianse paused slightly, roughly guessing what the object was.
“You went down the mountain just for this?” She knitted her brows slightly. Although she felt it was somewhat inappropriate, she didn’t care overmuch, merely giving Qingxuan a meaningful look: “There are no outsiders on Mount Yan. Whether it’s a new hairpin or an old one, who would care?”
Qingxuan didn’t speak. He simply stepped back, looking Qianse up and down from head to toe. Seeing that the effect was just as he had imagined, he smiled with quiet satisfaction. Offering no further defense, he simply began grinding ink by her side at an unhurried pace. Naturally, he had no intention of telling Qianse that this hairpin was something he had spent a great deal of effort hand-carving himself. Moreover, he knew that no matter how much Qianse might dislike it, as long as he was the one who personally pinned it in her hair, she wouldn’t take it down.
Her attitude toward him had always been forgiving to the point of indulgence.
Having lived together for so many years, how could Qianse not know what was on Qingxuan’s mind? She simply chose to turn a blind eye, as she had her own plans after all. Furthermore, her mind was currently a bit chaotic, and she didn’t pay excessive attention to the deeper meaning behind this intimate gesture. She merely returned to copying her scriptures almost out of instinct. After a good while, she finally spoke, a faint, elusive emotion surfacing in her voice: “Qingxuan, I plan to take a long journey.”
Qingxuan paused his ink-grinding movement, instantly realizing something. He lowered his head, pretending not to care, yet his question was remarkably direct: “Is Master going to Mount Kunlun?”
“Mm.” Qianse gave a low response. The brush she held trembled slightly; her dense, long eyelashes fluttered gently as if unable to withstand a cold wind, lending her side profile an incredibly vulnerable look. Pausing for a moment, she regained her usual composure, though her voice retained a hint of raspy tightness: “Qingxuan, didn’t you want to go to Kunlun earlier as well?”
Having stayed by Qianse’s side for so long, how could there be a lack of mutual understanding between them? Qingxuan raised his head slightly, maintaining a respectful demeanor. Yet inside, it felt as though a thousand turbulent waves of excitement had surged up, though he did his utmost to maintain a calm exterior: “Master, you are taking me with you?”
Qianse did not answer for a long time.
Only after a good while did she raise her head, setting the wolf-hair brush down upon the water basin. A faint, bitter smile tugged at the corners of her lips. At that moment, her expression was serene, and even her words sounded entirely natural.
“It will be good for you to come along with me to meet Master.”
