When Fang Moye finally understood everything and walked out of her room, Jiang Huai and Ning Yuzhu were not in the courtyard.
Jiang Zhi was still ten days from coming out of seclusion. Bored in the courtyard, Ning Yuzhu dragged Jiang Huai to Shiz to wander around. Before leaving, she only left Fang Moye a note saying she would return in five days.
So, Fang Moye sat quietly in the pavilion, gazing at the flowers in the courtyard, watching them bloom and fall, and the clouds gather and disperse.
“Do you really not want to pick a gift for Senior Disciple Sister?” Ning Yuzhu tilted her head, her eyes cunningly looking at Jiang Huai.
At this moment, the two were in the merchant guild of Shiz, attending a grand auction. Most of the items auctioned were cultivation methods and spirit treasures. These things might make ordinary cultivators flock, but they were meaningless to Jiang Huai.
A single spirit fruit casually picked from White Dew Mountain was a hundred times more precious than the best heavenly treasures at the auction.
Therefore, Jiang Huai’s attention was always on some interesting small objects. Hearing Ning Yuzhu’s question, Jiang Huai hesitated and replied, “I don’t know what Senior Disciple Sister would like.”
He indeed did not understand Fang Moye’s preferences. Ning Yuzhu immediately said, “Senior Disciple Sister doesn’t really like many things. After being with her for so many years, I haven’t seen her show any special liking for anything. But if we return empty-handed, Senior Disciple Sister might be disappointed.”
“Then why don’t you pick one for her?”
“I’ve already picked one for Senior Disciple Sister.”
“What did you pick?”
“A pair of Demon-Repelling Ice Silk Stockings woven from Star Soul Domain Snow Silkworm Ice Silk, and a pair of high heels inlaid with sky-blue glazed jade.”
“…” Jiang Huai was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say. After thinking for a long time, he couldn’t think of a suitable gift and finally gave up. Ning Yuzhu looked at him with a look of disappointment, poked his cheek lightly with her finger, and said helplessly, “Rotten wood cannot be carved.”
After saying that, her body leaned closer to Jiang Huai, hugging him even tighter.
Jiang Huai turned his head to look at Ning Yuzhu in his arms, thinking if she had picked a gift, wouldn’t Ning Yuzhu say again, “Good, you have improper thoughts about Senior Disciple Sister,” and then have an excuse for “foot punishment” at night?
Heh, women.
Over the next five days, Jiang Huai and Ning Yuzhu wandered around Shiz for a long time, but they still hadn’t explored the entire Shiz. After all, it was the main city of the Dawn Realm, especially vast and immense. They would explore the remaining places next time. He and Ning Yuzhu took a spirit boat back to White Dew Mountain.
Ning Yuzhu pushed open the door. Fang Moye was sitting in the pavilion in the courtyard. A chess set was placed in front of her. She was playing chess with herself, using both black and white pieces.
Indeed, people would do anything when they were bored. Jiang Huai looked at her profile. Today, Shizu was wearing a black Daoist robe, elegant and dignified. When she sensed his gaze, she turned her head, her eyes still as cold as ever.
Did she finally figure everything out after going into seclusion?
Jiang Huai thought this was a good thing, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, a sense of loss quietly surged up in his heart. However, it seemed that what Fang Moye had said earlier was not without reason. The more passionate people were, the more ruthless they would be. Even if he had no more connection with Fang Moye in the future, he probably wouldn’t be too disappointed.
It was just a small greed that had not been satisfied.
“Has Senior Disciple Sister eaten lunch?” Ning Yuzhu tilted her head up and asked softly.
“No,” Fang Moye shook her head.
“Then I’ll go make food,” Ning Yuzhu said, and then walked to the kitchen. Only Jiang Huai and Ning Yuzhu were left in the courtyard. Jiang Huai wanted to help Ning Yuzhu in the kitchen, but after a while, Ning Yuzhu drove him out. Her reason was that she felt cooking was a very happy thing, and Jiang Huai had shared her joy of doing it herself, so she asked him to wait obediently outside.
So, he had no choice but to sit by the pond in the courtyard, leaning on the bamboo chair, watching the koi swimming in the pond. He took out some fish food from somewhere and began to feed the koi.
Petals fell by the pond, and the wind blew. Jiang Huai suddenly smelled a scent of sandalwood.
In an instant, he turned his head in surprise and realized that Fang Moye was standing beside him at some point. The evening breeze slightly ruffled her robes. She was wearing a pair of jade-colored high heels. The almost jade-like shoes had a slightly transparent texture, as if revealing the outline of her bony, slender feet. Jiang Huai was somewhat confused and looked up at her eyes.
Her figure was already tall. Now that Jiang Huai was sitting, her posture standing beside him, as she slightly lowered her head, made her seem to be looking down at him. Her eyes were still as cold and aloof. Jiang Huai blinked in confusion and innocence, not knowing why she had suddenly come over.
Moreover, Fang Moye did not speak.
Since she didn’t speak, Jiang Huai didn’t speak either. The two sat and stood by the pond, watching the koi gather and happily wag their tails.
The aroma of food wafted from the courtyard. The two remained silent. After a while, Jiang Huai, who could no longer stand the silence, finally spoke slowly, “Shizu…?”
Fang Moye looked down and replied indifferently, “What?”
Her questioning tone towards Jiang Huai made him unsure of what to say. Perhaps she just wanted to look at the fish, or perhaps she felt the air was better here, and the wind was gentler. Yes, that was it.
So he shook his head again, “Nothing.”
Fang Moye then said nothing more.
It wasn’t until Ning Yuzhu came out with the food that the deadlocked atmosphere was finally broken. The three of them gathered around the table to eat. After they had all silently eaten their fill, Jiang Huai cleared the dishes and went to the kitchen. When he came out again, Ning Yuzhu had already gone to trim the flowers and plants in the courtyard, while Jiang Huai sat back down by the bamboo chair.
Fang Moye stood by the pond again, but this time she squatted down and, taking some fish food from somewhere, also began to feed the koi in the courtyard.
So, Jiang Huai stopped looking at her and shifted his gaze back to the flowers in the courtyard.
After feeding the koi, Fang Moye also looked at the flowers in the courtyard.
Then, Jiang Huai looked up at the clouds in the sky again.
It wasn’t until Fang Moye spoke slowly that Jiang Huai finally came back to his senses.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Looking at the clouds,” Jiang Huai replied truthfully.
Fang Moye also looked up, watching the clouds gather and disperse across the sky. These days, she had been sitting in the courtyard, watching flowers, watching clouds, watching the wind rise and the seas churn, ever-changing.
“Then what have you seen?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are you looking at it?”
“Huh?” Jiang Huai looked at Fang Moye’s profile and then couldn’t help but mutter, “Shizu and these clouds are no different; they are unpredictable and elusive.”
“Are they?”
“Yes,” Jiang Huai nodded. “When Shizu looks at me, it feels like she’s very far away. But when she looks at the clouds, she seems to be very close.”
Fang Moye lowered her head, and at this moment, she finally moved her gaze to Jiang Huai’s face and asked seriously, “Then do you prefer me to be far away from you, or close to you?”
Unexpectedly, Jiang Huai’s eyes showed a hint of dissatisfaction after hearing this question.
“Shizu is clearly a living person. Shouldn’t you figure these things out yourself? Why ask me? Is it because you want to escape, so you’re handing the choice to me? Hmm, I don’t want to make this kind of choice.”
“You misunderstood the meaning.”
“Then what do you mean, Shizu?”
“Do you like me, or do you dislike me?” Fang Moye asked seriously again.
“I neither like nor dislike you,” Jiang Huai answered frankly.
Fang Moye took a step forward, her eyes becoming more serious. “But you said a few days ago that you liked me.”
“I said I liked Shizu’s body very much, not Shizu herself.”
Fang Moye was stunned, then looked at him in confusion. “Isn’t my body still me? Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?”
“Then, to put it another way, I like Shizu’s body, but I don’t like Shizu’s awkward personality. But Shizu doesn’t need to change herself because of my likes or dislikes.”
“Am I awkward?”
“Aren’t you awkward?” Jiang Huai retorted. “Isn’t Shizu being hot and cold towards me precisely because she’s awkward in her heart?”
“When everyone looks at each other, they are just looking in a mirror. You are just as awkward, no less than me,” Fang Moye countered.
“But I’ve never been hot and cold towards Shizu.”
“You are very cold to me now,” Fang Moye lowered her head slightly and asked, “Aren’t you?”
“This is adaptive coldness. Shizu always put on a cold and aloof expression in the courtyard every day. Do you still expect me to greet you with a smile and seek self-humiliation?”
“Am I cold and aloof?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Can you judge that I am cold and aloof just by my expression?”
“Then why?”
“Then have you ever actively spoken to me?” Fang Moye suddenly asked him.
Jiang Huai was stunned. After thinking about it carefully, he realized he really hadn’t.
He and Fang Moye hadn’t spoken for quite some time, but this wasn’t a cold war. He felt it was a tacit understanding. Ever since the last dual cultivation, every time he saw Fang Moye, she had a cold and aloof, unapproachable expression. So, naturally, he shouldn’t talk to her, wouldn’t that be seeking self-humiliation?
But now that Fang Moye used this fact to refute him, he couldn’t argue back. As expected, women would use any condition that was beneficial to them.
“If I speak to Shizu, will Shizu greet me with a smile?”
“Why must I greet you with a smile?” Fang Moye asked in confusion. “Do I have to be playful and joking with you all day for it to be proof that I’m not cold and aloof?”
In an instant, Jiang Huai suddenly understood Fang Moye’s logic.
It was like Chu Xianning, who always had a cold and aloof, unapproachable expression every day. But this didn’t mean she didn’t love Jiang Huai. She just felt it was unnecessary to show all her emotions on her face; it was enough for them to know it in their hearts.
Fang Moye’s tone was somewhat aggressive at this moment. “If I were truly cold and aloof to you, why would I have agreed to do it so many times in the bathhouse last time we dual cultivated?”
“Huh? Wasn’t that what Shizu wanted herself?”
“You’re calling me a slut again.” Fang Moye’s eyes turned ice-cold again, as if she had instantly put Jiang Huai in the wrong again.
A bead of sweat formed on Jiang Huai’s forehead. He began to try to invoke the evil Little Huai.
