Chapter 224 - Riverside
“Hey!” Puppy grumbled when he saw Chun Xiaoman so blatantly use him for physical labour. But, in the end, he wasn’t able to raise his voice for fear of being chopped up by her.
Meanwhile, Chun Xiaoman approached the sitting Li Huowang. “Senior Li, why are we traveling so urgently today?”
Li Huowang patted the ground beside him and said. “There might be an unseen danger. I’m just guessing, but it's better to be safe than sorry.”
As he spoke, he turned around and looked in the direction of the Women’s Mountain. Whether or not the Lion Dance Palace was an established sect like the Righteous Monastery, he was glad that they hadn’t noticed his identity.
Should I make contact with them and ask them about Bei Feng of the Sitting Oblivion Dao? No... It might be too dangerous. If I want to solve the issues related to being a Strayed One, then I need to work on something else first.
At that moment, Bun walked over and placed down a stone that it had fetched from somewhere else. Then, it started wagging its tail, hoping for Li Huowang to pet it.
“Senior Li, you don’t have to shoulder everything by yourself. You already have an illness and it might even get worse if you just bottle everything up. You can tell us about your worries and we can figure it out together,” said Xiaoman.
Hearing this, Li Huowang started patting Bun’s head while calmly telling her what he had seen yesterday.
“So, your illusions told you that there were more hands than feet in the Lion Dance and then you recalled that it in fact did have more hands?” asked Xiaoman, feeling amazed. She suddenly felt that the whole thing was quite ridiculous and thought that Sun Baolu was right.
Li Huowang felt her distrust but didn’t get mad. He just sighed disappointedly as he stared at the three illusions in front of him and mumbled, “See? This is why I prefer to keep it all to myself and not tell anyone.”
If he spoke to others, not only would he not gain their understanding, they would even think that he was crazy if he ended up saying certain things out loud.
“Daoist, don’t worry. I will always believe in you. It’s fine if they don’t understand you,” declared Monk.
However, Li Huowang just ignored Monk’s illusion and looked at Chun Xiaoman’s empty sleeve. “Have you gotten used to only having one arm?”
Chun XIaoman was slightly surprised to see him taking care of her. “Losing an arm was worth it to save everyone’s lives. After all, if it weren’t for everyone here, then I would long be dead.”
Li Huowang decided to use this opportunity to explain to her about his power. He placed his fingers into his left eye socket and gingerly touched the dry, but still recovering eyeball. “The ability to regenerate an arm... It’s not that I don’t want my secrets to be leaked, but that it’s not something you can just use. The process would be too painful for you to handle.”
Chun Xiaoman nodded. “I know. You would’ve taught it to me if I could use it. You are not someone that selfish.”
Xiaoman wanted to say something else, but in the end, she decided against it. Instead, she just quietly approached Bai Lingmiao.
At this moment, Bai Lingmiao was picking some wild vegetables some distance away.
Xiaoman squatted down beside Bai Lingmiao and removed some of the wild grass from within Bai Lingmiao’s basket. “If you want to live with him in the future, then you have to find a way to cure his illness. Right now it's even affecting his daily life.”
However, Bai Lingmiao was still riding the high of their date from yesterday and just nodded along.
Seeing this, Chun Xiaoman gently nudged Bai Lingmiao’s shoulder. “Did you hear me? I’m talking to you.”
“Yes, I’m listening. Xiaoman, I’m fine even if he’s not cured. As long as I get to be with Senior Li, I will be happy,” replied Bai Lingmiao.
When she saw how stubborn Bai Lingmiao was, Chun Xiaoman sighed. “Why are you so stubborn? If it was anyone else who was being this stubborn, then I would’ve long since stopped caring about them.”
Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao smiled and hugged Chun Xiaoman. “Thank you for your concern. I will listen to you.”
Chun Xiaoman's heart melted when she saw Bai Lingmiao’s cute face. “Fine, fine. Anyway, the sun is so bright today; you should quickly put on your blindfold.”
“I’m just digging up some wild vegetables. As long as I keep my head down I will be fine,” replied Bai Lingmiao.
Given that summer solstice was almost upon them, there were many wild vegetables to be found in the grassfield. They ate about half of the wild vegetables they collected while the rest of them were stored, meant to be eaten the next day.
Even though there were some rough bits and pieces of vegetables within their soup, they still ate it gladly, all thanks to the lard floating at the top of the soup.
After their meal, the men went and washed up in the river. The days were getting hotter and no one enjoyed having sweat sticking to their body.
After the men finished bathing, it was the women's turn.
Bai Lingmiao and Chun Xiaoman carefully supported the pregnant Luo Juanhua to the river while the other women that they had saved from the bandit camp followed them as well.
Some of the men were tempted to take a peek at the bathing women, but none of them dared to even look in the direction of the river when they saw Li Huowang sitting there menacingly like an iron pillar, guarding the women from unwanted gazes.
Behind Li Huowang was a scene straight from heaven. The setting sun dyed the river a beautiful red.
Bai Lingmiao poured the water that was glimmering with a red color onto her jade white skin, leaving glimmering droplets on her body.
Even Chun Xiaoman was astounded by the beautiful scene in front of her.
Meanwhile, Luo Juanhua, who also saw this scene, admired her as well. “Tsk tsk, such beautiful skin. Your man must love embracing and caressing you in bed.”
Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao blushed and lowered her body into the water. “Sister Luo, what are you talking about?”
“There are no men here, so no need to be shy. But once you are at my age you will come to understand that for men, it’s all just an act,” said Luo Juanhua. Then, she carefully walked over while holding her belly and curiously asked Bai Lingmiao, “Say, how is your man in bed? Is he good? Does it feel good? Oh, and how long does he last?”
Hearing those questions, Bai Lingmiao was so embarrassed that she almost dove down into the water and Chun Xiaoman had to walk over and rescue her from the embarrassment. “Sister Luo, she’s very shy; please don’t embarrass her so much.”
Luo Juanhua sighed pitifully. “I’m just trying to teach her since she’s so young. But if she doesn't want to, then I won’t do it. Plus all this is still quite tame compared to what we used to talk about in my village. There, every woman in the village would bathe together in the lake and our topics were so dirty that even the old men would run away whenever they heard us talking.”
Having said that, Luo Juanhua carefully walked away toward another woman.
As she watched Luo Juanhua walking away, Chun Xiaoman held Bai Lingmiao’s arm and pulled her up. “Alright, she’s gone. You can stand up now or you will end up drowning.”
Bai Lingmiao patted her chest and sighed. “I’ve never seen her be so open before. That startled me.”
“They are already mature adults. They are all the same,” said Chun Xiaoman as she used her cloth to help wipe down Bai Lingmiao’s body.
“Do you think that we will also become like her once we reach her age? It’s so embarrassing...” Bai Lingmiao blushed while staring at Luo Juanhua who was laughing with the others in the distance.
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