Chapter 505: I’m This Pretty, and You Still Don’t Want Me, You Blockhead…
Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci walked side by side along the mountain path.
By now, the sky had gone completely dark. The moon quietly poked its head out from behind the clouds, hanging above the treetops and spilling clear radiance across the ground.
The young woman lowered her delicate head as she followed at Xiao Mo’s side. The faint blush rising over her cheeks made her maidenly shyness plain for all to see.
Ever since they had left the courtyard, neither of them had said a single word.
Yet the atmosphere lingering around them carried an indescribable ambiguity, flowing silently beneath the moonlight.
Not long ago, Tushan Jingci had just expressed her feelings to Xiao Mo.
After learning the young woman’s heart, Xiao Mo had indeed been greatly startled.
Only, for a time, he did not know how he should respond.
If it was that sort of affection between a man and a woman, Xiao Mo truly had never thought in that direction before.
In his heart, he had always regarded Tushan Jingci as something like his own younger sister.
But deep in Xiao Mo’s heart, if one were to say he had no affection for Tushan Jingci at all, that was impossible too.
Beyond that, Xiao Mo did not know whether the Young Lady falling in love with him was actually a good thing.
He was human.
And Jingci was a Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox.
It was not that Xiao Mo felt his identity as a human made him unworthy of Jingci.
What he worried about was this—if Jingci wanted to be with him, what she would very likely have to face was the hostility and rejection of the entire Tushan clan.
From what he knew, the Tushan clan would rather have its clansmen die outside than allow them to marry demons of inferior bloodline, let alone a human.
Then did he truly have the ability to protect Jingci?
The current him could not give that answer.
And back then, in the courtyard, Xiao Mo’s long silence had been seen clearly by Tushan Jingci.
Yet the young woman had not pressed him. She had only smiled slightly, not demanding that he give her an answer at once, and merely asked him to escort her back.
At this moment, the two of them had already reached the small courtyard halfway up the mountain.
Tushan Jingci stopped and turned around.
The young woman clasped both hands behind her back. The little foot in her embroidered shoe lightly tapped the ground, and her skirt hem lifted slightly as her whole figure turned lightly around to face Xiao Mo.
“All right, Xiao Mo. I’m going back to my courtyard. You should go back and rest properly too.”
Beneath the moonlight, the young woman’s eyes curved into two beautiful crescents. Her brows and eyes were filled with a bright smile, as though after speaking the words she had hidden in her heart for so long, all her previous conflict and unease had vanished at once, leaving her whole person open and relieved.
“Young Lady, I...”
Xiao Mo raised his head, wanting to give the young woman a response.
Jingci had already made her feelings clear. If he kept dragging things out in such an unclear, vague manner, that would be the greatest irresponsibility toward Jingci.
But just as Xiao Mo’s words reached his lips, Tushan Jingci had already stretched out her left hand. Her slender index finger gently pressed against his lips.
“Shh...”
She also raised the index finger of her right hand before her own lips, signaling for him to be silent.
The young woman tilted her head slightly, and a gentle smile rippled across her lips. Moonlight flowed like water, spilling over her face, which was cold-white as porcelain yet flushed with peach-pink color. Under the moonlight, those fox eyes became even brighter and more moving.
“Xiao Mo, I know your temperament. After all, we grew up together...”
Tushan Jingci’s eyes blinked softly. Her voice was so gentle it sounded as if she were coaxing a child.
“So I can more or less guess what you’re about to say.”
“You’re always like this. You like thinking about this, thinking about that.”
“My guess is that what you’re about to say next isn’t what I want to hear.”
“Since I don’t want to hear it, then I won’t listen.”
Tushan Jingci lowered her finger. Those beautiful fox eyes quietly gazed at him. There was no urging, no questioning, only clear and gentle warmth.
“But Xiao Mo... we of the fox clan have one very bad trait. Our temperaments are terribly stubborn.” The young woman’s voice was soft, yet it carried an unquestionable firmness. “Once we decide on someone, we will never change.”
“My maternal grandmother is like that. My mother is like that. I am like that too...”
“If you like me, then from now on, I will make you like me even more.”
“If you don’t like me, then from now on, I will make you fall in love with me.”
Her tone gradually took on a layer of stubbornness. Under the moonlight, those beautiful fox eyes became even clearer and brighter.
“Who you like is your business, but—I like you. That is my business!”
“So... no matter what you think, no matter what you do, in this lifetime, I will like you, and I will only like you.”
“That’s all...”
Tushan Jingci slowly withdrew her finger from Xiao Mo’s lips. The warmth of his lips still lingered on her fingertip.
She took a step forward and gently rested her forehead against Xiao Mo’s chest, bumping him once. The force was so light it seemed like coquettishness, and also like sulking.
After that, the young woman turned, lifted her skirt, and ran into the courtyard. Without looking back, she shut the door.
Xiao Mo stood where he was, looking at that tightly closed door. As he recalled the words the young woman had just spoken, indescribable emotions churned in his heart.
He stood outside the courtyard for a very long time. Only in the end did he turn around and walk back, step by step, along the path by which he had come.
The moonlight stretched his shadow very, very long, until it gradually merged into the night.
Inside the room, Tushan Jingci leaned by the window, quietly watching Xiao Mo’s gradually receding figure.
The night breeze brushed softly past, stirring the loose strands of hair at her temples.
Only when that figure had completely vanished into the depths of the night did the young woman slowly draw back her gaze. A faint, almost imperceptible smile curved her lips.
“Blockhead...”
She muttered softly, then turned and lay down on the bed, curling up that soft, graceful body. Her waterfall-like long hair slipped down from the pillow, brushing across her cheek.
She reached out a finger and, stroke by stroke, earnestly wrote his name on the soft bedding.
“I’m this pretty, and you still don’t want me...”
She complained softly, yet there was not the slightest trace of anger in her tone. Instead, it was full of a young woman’s pouting tenderness.
“Blockhead...”
......
He walked along the road down the mountain.
In Xiao Mo’s mind, the words Jingci had just spoken still echoed, each one clear, as though carved into his heart.
He was lost in thought, and his steps unconsciously slowed.
Suddenly, a late breeze brushed softly past him, carrying a slight chill.
Xiao Mo stopped. Slowly, he raised his head and looked ahead.
Not far away, a young woman dressed in Daoist robes had, at some point, silently appeared before him.
The moment he saw the young woman’s face clearly, Xiao Mo’s expression froze slightly. He almost suspected he was seeing things.
“Jingci?”
He called the name inwardly, and very nearly blurted it aloud.
But very quickly, he pressed the thought down—the other party was not Jingci.
But why...
Why did this young woman...
look exactly the same as Jingci?
Only their hair color was different.
The mottled shadows of the trees swayed gently beneath the moonlight, scattering fragments of silver light between the two of them.
Xiao Mo stared at her in a daze.
The young woman also looked at him quietly.
After a moment, she took a step forward. Moonlight passed through the gaps between the branches and leaves, scattering across the mountain path.
There was a hint of curiosity between the young woman’s brows and eyes, as well as a certain composed dignity.
Her gaze moved from top to bottom, unhurriedly taking Xiao Mo in.
After a long while, the young woman finally spoke slowly, her voice clear and smooth as jade.
“May I ask whether Your Excellency’s name...”
“is Xiao Mo?”