Chapter 489: What If Xiao Mo Could Hear?
Before anyone realized it, a full three months had passed since Xiao Mo entered seclusion.
The cool, pleasant days of spring had gradually given way to the steadily intensifying heat of summer.
Throughout those three months, Xiao Mo remained exactly as he had been the day he first entered meditation, sitting motionless in the courtyard.
If not for the healthy color still in his face, and the fact that his breathing remained long, even, and steady, even Xian Xichun would have begun to worry, wondering whether this young man might simply pass away in this bamboo courtyard.
And every one or two days, Tushan Jingci would °• N o v e l i g h t •° come to this bamboo grove to see Xiao Mo.
Each time she came, she would first stop by Cold Mountain City to buy a jug of good wine and a few tasty dishes to go with it, then bring them to Master Xian, who was keeping watch outside the bamboo courtyard.
Master Xian had once said that the reason he was helping Xiao Mo had nothing to do with the Tushan clan. He was doing it solely out of his friendship with Xiao Mo.
But in Tushan Jingci’s eyes, Xiao Mo was hers.
And since Master Xian was guarding the way for her Xiao Mo, then of course she ought to bring him a few things and properly thank him for it.
Of course, every time Tushan Jingci brought wine and meat for Master Xian, she also had another small scheme in mind.
She wanted to distract him.
There was no helping it. Sometimes, when she came to see Xiao Mo, if Master Xian had nothing better to do, he would grab her and start lecturing her or testing her on her studies.
That left Tushan Jingci deeply aggrieved.
She was already spending all day in lessons at the hall, and now that class was finally over and she had managed to find time to come see Xiao Mo, she still had to keep studying.
At that rate, wouldn’t it mean that other than sleeping, she was in class every waking moment...?
What demon could stand that?
So Tushan Jingci came up with this solution. Every time she came, she brought wine and food.
Once Master Xian got busy eating and drinking, naturally he would have no time to make her study.
Xian Xichun, of course, saw straight through the little scheme of this young lady of the Tushan clan.
Still, he never exposed it. Every time Tushan Jingci arrived, he would merely lift a jug of wine, take up a food box, and stroll off to the other side of the bamboo grove to eat and drink by himself, leaving this little world to the two young people.
At first, Tushan Jingci could only stand outside the courtyard and look at Xiao Mo.
But later, as she gradually fed spiritual power into the formation and the formation grew familiar with her aura, she became able to step inside the courtyard and get a little closer to him.
Of course, there was one more condition: she could not harbor any killing intent toward Xiao Mo.
After all, the way this formation guarding Xiao Mo judged friend from foe was by sensing whether the person entering carried murderous intent.
But how could Tushan Jingci possibly ever give rise to even the slightest wish to harm Xiao Mo?
Summer deepened.
September was the hottest time of year at Cold Mountain Academy.
The blazing sun hung overhead, pouring down fierce heat without the slightest cover. Even dressed in a light gauze dress, Tushan Jingci found it almost unbearable, let alone Xiao Mo.
He sat there motionless in the middle of the courtyard, letting the merciless sunlight beat down on him.
Tushan Jingci’s heart ached terribly. She wanted to hold an umbrella over him, a fifth-grade artifact that could shield him from the blistering heat and make it feel like early autumn.
But Xian Xichun stopped her.
“The Great Dream of Yellow Millet that Xiao Mo cultivates is the most orthodox Daoist art under Heaven,” Xian Xichun explained to Tushan Jingci with patient care. “What it emphasizes is merging oneself into nature, becoming a part of nature, and sensing the changes in all things between Heaven and Earth. Through that, one comes to understand the resonance of the Way and thus steps onto a higher path.”
“Now that Xiao Mo is in seclusion, the influence of that cultivation method has caused all the spiritual power in his body to withdraw inward. At this moment, aside from relying on the spiritual qi of Heaven and Earth for sustenance, his body and everything else about him are actually no different from an ordinary person.”
“That is because Great Dream of Yellow Millet requires him to personally experience the turning of the four seasons in nature, using the natural power flowing through Heaven and Earth to temper his own spiritual power and dao heart.”
“You can interfere a little with ordinary methods and make him somewhat more comfortable.”
“But if you directly shield him from the sun, it will do him more harm than good.”
After hearing that, Tushan Jingci, even as she watched Xiao Mo’s cheeks flushed red from the heat and even his hair grow hot under the sun, could only force herself to endure the pain in her heart and not meddle too much.
Even so, so long as it would not affect Xiao Mo’s cultivation, she still tried everything she could think of.
Sometimes she would carry over blocks of ice and place them carefully outside Xiao Mo’s courtyard, hoping the faint chill drifting off them might cool him a little.
At other times, she would draw a basin of cool well water, soak a cloth in it, wring it dry, then walk softly to Xiao Mo’s side and gently wipe his cheeks and the backs of his hands.
But ordinary measures like that could only do so much.
Every time she saw the skin on Xiao Mo’s cheeks reddened and peeling from the sun, Tushan Jingci felt as though her heart were being twisted, and her eyes would sting faintly with unshed tears.
Sometimes, on summer nights, Tushan Jingci would quietly come into the bamboo courtyard and sit beside Xiao Mo.
She would listen with him to the cicadas singing in the summer dark, look up with him at the stars filling the sky, and then chatter on and on about the funny and interesting things she had run into lately.
She understood perfectly well that Xiao Mo could not hear her, and that if she kept talking to herself like this, no one would answer.
But she still felt that as long as she said it out loud, her heart would feel a little easier.
Besides, what if Xiao Mo could hear?
Then his seclusion would not be so boring after all...
And during this same period, Liu Shui also came often to visit Xiao Mo.
Tushan Jingci did not really mind that Sister Liu Shui came to see him.
After all, Liu Shui was Xiao Mo’s friend. It was only natural for friends to care about each other and come visit each other.
But when Tushan Jingci happened to learn that Sister Liu Shui had often come before to help Xiao Mo clean the courtyard, an odd, indescribable discomfort rose in her heart.
The feeling struck her as very strange.
It was as though something she cherished most, something she valued more than anything, had somehow been quietly occupied in part by someone else.
Tushan Jingci did not think she was a petty person.
In the past, if she had something good to eat or something fun to play with, she had always shared it with Sister Liu Shui.
She had then, and naturally she still would now.
But for some reason...
In the young girl’s heart, it seemed that she could share anything with other people, except Xiao Mo.
Not long afterward, however, one day Liu Shui personally came to the bamboo courtyard to bid Tushan Jingci farewell.
“Hm? Sister Liu Shui is leaving?”
Tushan Jingci looked at Liu Shui, who was standing before her, surprise in her eyes along with a trace of reluctance.