Chapter 9

<b>Chapter 9: Did we use to know each other?</b>

Hidden in the shadows of the night, I listened to their conversation while staying crouched behind a plum tree.

“Senior!” the nun was saying with some urgency. “The wolf demon is coming to invade us. Why are you allowing that demoness with unknown origins to remain here? Shouldn’t we exterminate her as soon as possible?”

I sighed. I’d already said this a thousand times. Yes, my origins aren’t clear, but I’m really not a monster! I had even destroyed that Thousand-Lock Pagoda of yours, had I still not proven my identity?! Oh, the stupidity! Humans are such idiots!

Even though I hadn’t finished grumbling, I noticed that Zhonghua was getting fairly affected. “We’ll discuss this another day.” His voice was slightly hoarse and weak, as though he had had too much to drink.

He was drunk.

The nun still wouldn’t let it go. “Senior, don’t tell me you’ve come to care for the demon because of her vulnerable facade.”

Zhonghua was getting angry. He brushed her hand off and snapped: “What nonsense are you uttering?!”

“Let’s hope I’m just uttering nonsense.” She then coldly continued: “Senior, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten. In the beginning, it was precisely because Master was softhearted that she had accepted that low-class wolf demon called Hu’yi. It ultimately led to Liubo’s crisis twenty years ago. Qingling prays that you won’t follow our master’s footsteps.”

After a length of silence, Zhonghua waved his hand and told her: “Go back.”

I pursed my lips in thought. From what the nun had just said, the wolf demon named Hu’yi had perhaps been the disloyal and betraying kind that pays kindness with misdeed. Based on my experience of inspecting countless ghosts by the Wangchuan River, however, that isn’t what he was.

The story twenty years ago apparently had some untold tales.

After the nun named Qingling left, Zhonghua stood by himself in the dark corner for a while before leaning on the wall and slowly finding his way back to his bedchamber.

I heaved a sigh as I watched his forlorn shadow.

In the past, whenever Moxi stumbled and fell, I was always there to protect my baby and feel his pain. I never let him suffer any loneliness or be hurt in any way. Yet now that he had become the high and mighty Venerable Zhonghua, he didn’t have a single helper by his side when he got drunk. He might not even be as comfortable as Chang’an who was sleeping in my room.

“Who’s there?” He sharply turned around.

I blinked a few times, increasingly convinced that he must be living a very tiring life from day to day. If even my soft sigh could catch his attention after he was this drunk, his wariness on a normal basis must be layers thick.

Hearing no answer, Zhonghua straightened up and slowly made his way to this side. I knew I couldn’t hide, so I openly stepped out and greeted him with a smile. “Oh! Good evening!”

When he saw me, his brow severely scrunched up before turning to leave, as though he had seen something extremely revolting. He walked with long strides, no longer staggering drunkenly this time.

I froze for a moment, suddenly becoming furious.. I hurried to pinch his Renzhong acupoint while muttering: “Moxi, don’t get me into trouble. I’ll really be condemned by the heavens for knocking a god on his trial dead. Moxi…”

I tearfully called his name for a while. He seemed to understand my dilemma for he soon groaned and then slowly opened his eyes. I elatedly sent my grateful prayers to Yanwang over and over again.

“Master…” he quietly said as he looked at me.

I froze, only now smelling the strong alcohol in his breath. I reckoned alcohol had gone to his head and he had lost his cognizance.

“Master,” he called again, “why…”

He spoke so softly that I couldn’t hear him at all. “What is it?” I leaned in and pressed my ear against his lips to listen more carefully. However, my mind was sent whirling from what he said: “Why did you develop those sorts of feelings for Hu’yi?” he asked.

Let’s not discuss what sorts of feelings Zhonghua’s master had developed for Hu’yi for now. I was more curious as to whether Zhonghua’s master was male or female.

“Was your master a man or a woman? Did your master fall in love with Hu’yi? How far did they get? What happened to them? Why was Hu’yi locked up in the pagoda? And where’s your master now?” I asked as subtly as I could, and then blinked while quietly awaiting Zhonghua’s answers.

But his head fell to the side, asleep.

I squeezed my fists.

The feeling of unsatisfied curiosity made me want to poke the two holes on his forehead. But looking at his peaceful sleeping face, I finally sighed and resignedly tore my skirt into strips to bandage his wounds for him.

Since Chang’an was sleeping inside, dragging his revered Reverend in wouldn’t be very prudent. It wouldn’t be very convenient to jump him either.

I mulled for a bit, then dragged him under a plum tree and let him rest on my lap. As for me, I leaned against the tree, caressed his forehead, took his hands in mine, and lastly placed a kiss on his lips, then fell into the most carefree sleep that I’d had in a long while.

The next morning when I woke up, I saw a pair of clear eyes staring at me. I smiled at him and waved hello: “Good morning, Your Most Reverend! You’re still here?”

He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, looking as though he was trying his best to keep calm. At long last, he said to me with some restraint: “Untie me.”

I laughed uneasily, untied the rope that was yoking his neck to my leg, and innocently said, “Can you blame me? I was afraid you’d run away.”

Not waiting for me to completely untie the rope, he struggled to his feet and scowled at me.

I spread my hands in helplessness. “I knew you’d run away after you wake up and then deny the fact that we’ve spent the night together. That’s why I’ve placed more than a dozen spells on the rope. That’s the only way to prove that you have really slept with me last night. By the rules of the humans, take responsibility, Mo… Zhonghua.”

Each time I spit out a word, his face would darken by the second, and then by the end of my speech there was even a rare shade of red in all that blackness: “Sh… sh… shame…”

He couldn’t manage a complete sentence even after trembling for a long time. I helped him out with a sigh: “Shameless.” Being able to make the ice-faced Reverend this angry was an incredibly proud accomplishment. “It’s all the same whether I’m shameless or not. Zhonghua, you still have to marry me.”

He looked at me for a moment, seeming to have calmed down. His expression gradually chilled. “Even if I were drunk, I can clearly remember everything I did. You and I are not the same kind. How could I have done that sort of thing with you?”

I asked curiously, “So you can’t do it if you’re not the same kind? Then what about your master and Hu’yi?”

Zhonghua’s expression suddenly iced over. He looked as if he could mince me into pieces. He stormed away. I was a stubborn rock. If I didn’t get a clear answer now, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. I hurriedly caught up to his side and yell out to him: “Hey! What about your master and Hu’yi? What was going on with them? Your master…”

A flash of fury grazed my ears, striking the snow behind me and sending snow dust whirling in the air.

I froze on the spot.

“Hold your tongue.” He icily threw these words at me before turning around to leave.

Moxi had never looked at me that way. Even when he hurled a fireball at my feet when we were last in the underworld, he didn’t have such a chilly expression.

I’d only seen that expression from him once before. It was in the last lifetime when two thugs broke into our house and harassed me that he had put on that face.

He seemed to intensely hate hearing anyone speak of his master and Hu’yi. Perhaps besides physiological discrimination, his hatred for Hu’yi was also emotionally seated. It seemed he cared very much for his master…

His feelings toward his master might have even been a little… not so ordinary.

I thus became ever more curious as to whether his master was a man or a woman.