The following day, the sky had barely begun to lighten with a faint glow when Xiao Mo woke from his sleep.
He dressed quickly and neatly, then put the travel things he had already packed into his storage ring.
He pushed open his door and walked out of his room but the moment Xiao Mo stepped into the courtyard, he saw the young girl standing gracefully before him, as though she had been waiting there for some time.
"Jingci, why are you up so early?"
Looking at Jingci, Xiao Mo paused for a moment, then a warm smile came to his face and he spoke softly.
"If I did not get up early, you would already be gone, and I would not even have a chance to see you one last time."
Tushan Jingci pushed her lips out and walked forward as she spoke.
"If I remember correctly, the formal gathering for departure is not until the chen hour today. Why are you trying to leave so early? Do you truly dislike me seeing you off so much?"
Xiao Mo heard this and gave a quiet shake of his head with a smile, his tone carrying a hint of teasing. "I was only afraid you might feel sad and upset. What if you could not hold it together and the tears came and you turned into a little painted cat? What would I do then?"
Tushan Jingci pushed out her lips again, then reached out both hands and pressed them firmly onto Xiao Mo's shoulders, pushing him down onto the stone bench without argument.
"Stop rushing to be on your way. Even if you are going, you are not going anywhere until you have eaten breakfast first!"
Before the last word had settled, Tushan Jingci rolled up her sleeves, revealing pale and slender wrists, and turned to step into the kitchen.
Before long, a thin coil of cooking smoke began rising from the direction of the kitchen, drifting through the cool morning air in gentle wisps.
Then from the kitchen came a series of clanging sounds of pots and bowls knocking together.
"Ow."
"How exactly is this supposed to work?"
"In theory, I should be doing it this way, right?"
"Elder Sister Yueshi definitely taught me like this..."
"I practiced over and over for an entire night yesterday. It should not go wrong again..."
Xiao Mo sat quietly in the courtyard, patiently waiting for breakfast.
From time to time, Tushan Jingci's quiet muttering drifted from the kitchen.
Xiao Mo heard it, but only gave a slight shake of his head and continued to sit on the stone bench and wait, as though he had heard nothing at all.
About half an incense stick's time later, Tushan Jingci carried out the pumpkin congee she had cooked, together with several small side dishes, carefully and steadily setting everything on the table in the courtyard.
"Xiao Mo, come and taste it." Tushan Jingci urged him on and filled a bowl of pumpkin congee for him with her own hands, setting it before him.
"Of course." Xiao Mo gave a nod, took the bowl, lifted the spoon and brought a mouthful to his lips.
"How is it? Does it taste good?"
Tushan Jingci watched Xiao Mo with full anticipation, her bright eyes carrying an undisguisable nervousness and tension.
"Mm, it is good." Xiao Mo heard this, and the corners of his lips curved upward in a warm smile. Then he lowered his head and brought another spoonful to his mouth.
"Really good?"
A barely suppressible delight moved through Tushan Jingci's eyes, and she quickly reached for her own bowl, filled it, and took a careful sip but in the very next instant, Tushan Jingci's brow immediately furrowed, and a look of difficulty spread across her whole face.
"Xiao Mo, you were deceiving me! How could this possibly be good?"
Tushan Jingci quickly stuck out her tongue, a note of aggrievement in her voice.
Xiao Mo looked utterly unbothered, and raised his bowl again for a large mouthful of pumpkin congee, his eyes resting on her with a smile. "Anything you have made with your own hands is naturally good to me. And besides, your cooking has already come a long way compared to before."
"But when all is said and done... it is genuinely rather difficult to eat."
Tushan Jingci lowered her head, her gaze falling on the bowl of congee before her, a growing sense of guilt and self-reproach settling over her.
"Xiao Mo, I am sorry. I wanted to make you a proper meal before you left. I practiced an entire night for it. But in the end what I made is still this unpleasant."
"It is all right."
Xiao Mo said it softly.
"When I come back from the battlefield, if you are still willing to, you can make something for me again. I am sure your cooking will have improved a great deal by then."
"'Also'? Why did you say 'also'?"
Tushan Jingci's ears moved and she suddenly lifted her head in alert, her eyes looking straight at Xiao Mo.
"Xiao Mo, do you have someone else outside?"
"I do not. I was just... saying it without thinking." Xiao Mo answered calmly.
Though thinking it over, Xiao Mo himself could not quite say why that particular word had come out of his mouth in that instant.
It was only that somewhere deep in his mind, there was a dim impression of another young woman, who had at first been quite a poor cook but had willingly practiced again and again for his sake but Xiao Mo did not dwell on it. After all, this kind of impression came to him from time to time.
It was probably something from a dream he had forgotten, and when he encountered a similar scene in waking life, it gave him a sense of familiarity.
Xiao Mo raised his head and glanced at the sky. "Jingci, it is not early. I should be going."
Hearing Xiao Mo say he was leaving, Tushan Jingci lowered her head and had no mind left to wonder whether Xiao Mo had someone else.
"I... I will walk you a little way."
After a long while, the young girl finally raised her head, both small hands gripping the skirt on her lap tightly, the tips of her fingers pale, looking at Xiao Mo in a daze.
"Very well." Xiao Mo knew he could not refuse Jingci, and could only give a nod.
He finished every last drop of the pumpkin congee in his bowl and the small side dishes, then rose and walked out of the courtyard.
Yueshi had also come over from the upper part of the mountain by then, and walked alongside the Young Miss to see Xiao Mo off.
The three of them made their way in silence toward a small clearing in Tushan, with only the mountain wind passing by.
"Jingci, Yueshi, this is far enough. I will go on from here."
About a li from where the gathering point was, Xiao Mo turned and said.
"I... let me walk a little more." Tushan Jingci said, taking a step forward without meaning to but Yueshi gently took hold of the Young Miss's arm, shook her head, and said quietly, "Young Miss... this would not be appropriate."
Yueshi understood the reluctance in the Young Miss's heart, of course but the Young Miss was now Tushan's Holy Woman, a position of exceptional significance.
If she were to walk Xiao Mo all the way to the gathering point, any accidental display of genuine feeling between them would, for a person of human origin like Xiao Mo, only bring trouble.
With this reminder from Yueshi, Tushan Jingci also understood the stakes and could only force herself to stand still, watching Xiao Mo's retreating back with eyes growing faintly red at the corners.
"Xiao Mo, once you are at the front, do not push yourself too hard. Keeping your life is the only thing that matters."
"If anything feels wrong, do not hesitate. Just run."
"Do not try to be first in anything. If you need something, write to me. I will find a way to get it to you."
Tushan Jingci's eyes shifted softly, and without quite noticing, a glimmer of tears had gathered in those eyes.
She did her best to keep her voice steady, but by the end it was trembling faintly against her will.
"And also..."
"Jingci, I know." Xiao Mo smiled and gently cut off the young girl's words, his tone warm. "Do not worry. I am looking forward to coming back and eating your cooking again."
Xiao Mo turned his head to Yueshi and said with genuine feeling, "Yueshi, the Young Miss is in your care."
"Of course." Yueshi gave a nod, then said with earnest seriousness, "Xiao Mo, take good care of yourself. Keep your wits about you at all times at the front."
"Xiao Mo, I know you will find me nagging too much." Tushan Jingci reached out lightly and held the hem of his robe, her raised eyes looking at him with a dazed intensity, her voice full of reluctance and longing. "But you must look after yourself. All right?"
"All right." Xiao Mo gave a brief nod, then stepped back, gave a formal and solemn bow. "Jingci, Yueshi, farewell."
He turned and walked toward the clearing visible in the distance.
Tushan Jingci watched his figure grow smaller and smaller, her fingers squeezing together so hard her nails were nearly pressing into her palms.
She could not say why, but she had a feeling, as though this departure of Xiao Mo's were somehow final.
After Xiao Mo had only taken a few steps, Tushan Jingci suddenly broke forward on her long legs, hurrying after him, and wrapped her arms tightly around him from behind.
He felt the soft warmth of the young girl pressing against his back.
Felt her pressing her face tightly against him.
Felt his back being gradually dampened, little by little, by warm tears.
Xiao Mo stopped walking.
He lowered his gaze, looking at the pair of smooth white hands clasped around him, and gave them a gentle pat then he slowly, one by one, loosened the fingers she had locked together at his front.
He continued walking with steady steps, without looking back.
Tushan Jingci stood where she was in a daze, like a jade figure from which the soul had been taken.
About one incense stick's time later, the young girl watched as one flying vessel after another rose slowly from the clearing and moved off into the distance.
"Young Miss, let us go back."
When the dozens of flying vessels had gradually disappeared at the edge of the clouds, Yueshi spoke softly to the Young Miss.
"Elder Sister Yueshi, Xiao Mo will come back, will he not?" Tushan Jingci was still standing where she was, her gaze fixed longingly on the distant sky without drawing it back.
"Yes, Young Miss. Xiao Mo's cultivation is not low, and he is careful and thorough in his thinking. He will certainly return safely." Yueshi said in comfort but even as she said it, Yueshi knew that the front line would not be without its dangers for Xiao Mo.
After all, who could say what might happen in a war?
"Mm... I believe he will come back."
Tushan Jingci looked out at the distant sky in a daze, her voice so soft it seemed to be dispersed by the wind.
Those words did not seem to be said to Yueshi, but to herself.
"He said... he would never deceive me."
…
The present. The palace of the Nine-Tailed Fox Kingdom.
The woman woke from her dream, and slowly opened her eyes.
Those drowsy eyes still carried a faint, languid heaviness but beneath the languor, there was a deeper distraction that could not be hidden.
That feeling was as though the woman had been using sleep to run from reality, again and again, and yet in the end could not help but wake.
Thinking back on the dream she had just had, Tushan Jingci reached up a hand and lightly touched the corner of her own eye.
At some point, those slightly upturned, bewitching eyes had gathered a scattering of glistening tears.
"Your Majesty."
From outside the palace, a maidservant's voice sounded.
"Come in."
The ruler of the Nine-Tailed Fox Kingdom, Tushan Jingci, pushed herself up to sit on the bed.
The snow-white sleeping dress slipped slowly from her fair, smooth shoulder, and a few strands of hair fell lightly against that snow-soft shoulder, making the skin appear even more luminous.
As the woman continued to sit up, the thin silken dress slid further down, caught only at a certain fullness and not falling further, revealing a sliver of white.
In the sunlight of near midday, the woman's snow-white skin seemed to glow with a faint, luminous warmth.
The maidservant's gaze drifted involuntarily across her sovereign's chest, her slender waist, and the graceful curves behind her.
Beneath the hemline, those long, pale legs of finest jade lay crossed over one another, the lines flowing and soft, their beauty beyond imagining.
Even as a woman herself, the maidservant could not help swallowing quietly.
"Speak. What is it." Tushan Jingci raised a hand and tucked back the strands of hair beside her ear, her eyes carrying a deep, cool clarity.
"In... in reply to Your Majesty." The maidservant came back to herself and quickly lowered her head, speaking with respectful deference. "The Three Lives Three Worlds Pill has been delivered to the Zhou Kingdom's imperial palace and placed personally in the hands of Sect Master Jiang of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect."
"Mm." Tushan Jingci gave a small nod, her tone flat. "Instruct Sect Master Jiang on my behalf not to forget what she promised me."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The maidservant gave a bow and withdrew with full deference.
The palace with only the woman remaining.
She rose to her feet. Those pale, rosy feet, perfect as works of art, stepped lightly onto the floor.
She changed her clothes, then slowly took a seat before the dressing table and began to arrange her long hair.
"Sister, I had that dream again." Tushan Jingci looked at the silver mirror before her and spoke softly.
"He said again and again he would never deceive me, and yet he deceived me again and again. Sister, that is what men are."
As she spoke, the faintest curve rose at the corner of her lips, a smile like someone who has let go of something entirely and no longer hopes.
"But it does not matter, Sister. This time, he will not be able to deceive me again."
"Tell me, when he remembers everything, what do you think it will look like?"
With those words, the woman fell silent, only gazing quietly at her reflection in the mirror, as though waiting for something.
After a long while, the breathtaking face reflected in the silver mirror gradually softened in its expression.
The young girl sitting before the mirror gave a quiet sigh, her lips parting slightly, her voice carrying a cool and helpless note. "Jingci... it has been so many years already."
"What is the use?"