Chu Yao: “You seem to offend people wherever you go.”

Xia Ge: “Ai, who offended him?  But let’s drop it, he’s mentally ill.”

Chu Yao raised an eyebrow: “You want to just leave him laying here?”

Rolling her eyes, Xia Ge nudged Chu Yao with the wine jar: “Should I personally escort him to a doctor?”

Chu Yao pondered briefly: “I thought you would at least do that much.”

Xia Ge: “……”

She’s Lei Feng, not the Virgin Mary, alright?

Seeing Xia Ge’s choked expression, Chu Yao couldn’t help laughing: “It’s not bad that you’re not a pushover.  C’mon, let’s go.”

By tacit agreement, Chu Yao and Xia Ge moved the unconscious Huo Bai into the trees and then walked leisurely away, carefree as could be.

“Why did you come looking for me?” Xia Ge hugged the wine jar back to her chest, “And you only brought two jars of wine……what a pity.”

Thinking of the wine jar that’d been smashed courtesy of Huo Bai’s head, Xia Ge felt quite regretful.

After all, Dongqing bamboo leaf-green wine was very expensive.

“Do I have to have a hidden motive to come and find you?” Chu Yao raised her eyebrows again.

“I don’t know your motives,” Xia Ge spoke honestly, “But I do know an old saying……”

Chu Yao: “Mmm?”

Clutching the wine jar, Xia Ge declaimed righteously: “When someone shows unsolicited kindness, they’re either a thief or a rapist.”

“Tsk,” Chu Yao gave Xia Ge a challenging look, but couldn’t hide the small smile on her lips, “You didn’t have to accept the ‘unsolicited kindness’ of the wine.  And really, thieves or rapists?  A bit much, don’t you think?”

Xia Ge kept a death-grip on the wine jar while also maintaining her virtuous attitude: “I didn’t ‘accept’ it, I’m carrying it for you!”

“Ohh……” Chu Yao stroked her chin in apparent contemplation, before laughing a second later, “In that case, I haven’t been kind enough.”

Done speaking, Chu Yao immediately hoisted Xia Ge by the collar and vanished into Danfeng’s forest like a ghost.

“Oi, oi, oi!”

Chu Yao was extremely fast.  But despite the wind rushing past her ears and the rattling of her body, Xia Ge made sure not to drop the wine jar, yelling: “Hey, stop!  I have another class later!  The master will beat me to death, aaaahh——”

Her toes barely touching the branches and leaves, Chu Yao was light as a swallow.  With graceful leaps, she flew through the air, her tone faintly amused: “Master?  Do you really need that master?  I could teach you too.”

Xia Ge was getting dizzy: “You, you, you……what would you teach me?  No, who asked you to teach me anything?!  The master is going to scold me!”

“Hmm,” Chu Yao answered, “Don’t you already get scolded every day?”

Xia Ge: “……”

Desperate and despairing, Xia Ge finally protested: “What gossip are you listening to?!  I’m an excellent student!”

Chu Yao: “Oh?  Then you can get scolded just this once for my sake.”

Xia Ge: “……”

Xia Ge then steadied her mind and accepted reality: “What exactly is it that you want to teach me?”

Quickly arriving at Jianfeng, Chu Yao put down Xia Ge down in some trees.  Wind rustled through the leaves as Chu Yao stroked her chin thoughtfully: “I will teach you……how to aim a bow and shoot a big bird of prey?”

Xia Ge: “……”

Holding the wine jar tight, Xia Ge promptly started walking away.

Chu Yao immediately grabbed Xia Ge by the collar: “Where are you going?”

Xia Ge was about to burst into tears: “I don’t want to aim a bow and kill some big bird.”

Chu Yao: “But I’m trying to please you.  Give you attention.”

Xia Ge: “……”

How was shooting birds out of the sky supposed to please anyone?  What kind of logic was that?!  Wasn’t a nice jar of wine more than enough?  And why would Chu Yao suddenly want to ‘please’ her?!

Xia Ge decided on some gentle, tactful hinting: “……actually, this jar of wine is very good.”

So let’s forget the bows, arrows, and birds……alright?

Chu Yao: “Wait here a minute.”

Xia Ge watched as Chu Yao nimbly leapt up a tree, pulled out two bows and two quivers of arrows from behind a bird’s nest, and threw one set down to Xia Ge: “Here.”

Holding the wine jar in one hand, Xia Ge grasped a bow and quiver in the other: “Umm?”

Chu Yao: “We’ll need to stash the wine somewhere, and after that we can go hunting.”

Xia Ge: “……stash what?”  Go hunting?

Hunting is hunting, but why bring bows and birds into it?  Hey, doesn’t this seem very uncultured?

Chu Yao, after thinking for a moment: “Follow me.”

They were currently in the midst of a thick mountain forest, and Xia Ge, traipsing after Chu Yao, started finding it familiar.  A few twists and turns, and Xia Ge turned her head to spot a clump of persimmon trees not far off.

Xia Ge’s footsteps faltered: “……”

Well now, she really was……someplace familiar.

Noticing Xia Ge’s behavior, something flashed through Chu Yao’s eyes, yet her face didn’t change expression: “What’s the matter?”

Xia Ge: “The persimmons over there look ripe.”

Chu Yao: “You want to eat some?”

Despite the fact that she already knew them to be sweet, Xia Ge asked: “Are they tart?”

Chu Yao: “Not tart at all.”

Done speaking, Chu Yao went and picked two persimmons for Xia Ge.  Balancing the persimmons atop the wine jug, and carrying the bow and quiver on her back, Xia Ge continued following Chu Yao.

Chu Yao circled around a couple of times, pulling aside branches and leaves until she found a suitable knothole in a tree: “Good, we’ll put the wine here.”

Xia Ge placed the wine jug in the tree, covering it with leaves.  When done, she clapped her hands, suddenly laughing: “Why does it feel like burying high-grade Shaoxing wine?”

Pausing, Chu Yao gave Xia Ge a sideways glance: “Shaoxing wine?”

“Mmm,” Xia Ge said, “You don’t know?  You bury it when a daughter is born and when she’s married, you dig it back up and drink it.”

“I know the custom,” Chu Yao replied, “But why does this feel like that to you?”

Xia Ge: “……”

She had no clear answer.

“It was just a feeling.  Feelings don’t need a reason.”  Xia Ge was struck by a thought and couldn’t help grinning.  “You’re a daughter of the great Chu family, they must have buried some Shaoxing wine for you, right?”

“Who knows?” Chu Yao tsked, but found Xia Ge’s question diverting, “Why?  Do you want to drink it?”

“Er, no, no, I was simply asking,” Xia Ge waved a hand, sighing with wistfully, “I think the custom is fun, that’s all.”

“It’s boring,” Chu Yao retorted, “Leave the wine here, we’ll come back tonight to get it.”

“What?  Tonight?  The master really will scold me to death……”

Still, whatever she did, she was certain to get admonished, so Xia Ge let it go after muttering a little to herself.

And truthfully she didn’t care all that much about the master’s ire.  But following Chu Yao now, and coupled with what’d happened before, Xia Ge complained to cover up her guilty conscience.

Chu Yao wasn’t bringing up any past events though and Xia Ge intended to play along.  Instead she contented herself with asking: “What are we hunting?”

Narrowing her eyes, Chu Yao looked up at the fractured sunlight seeping through entwined leaves, the faint call of a bird sounding high above.  Eventually she nodded to herself and ascended to the top of a tree.

The sky was clear, the landscape beautiful, and it truly was a good day for hunting.

While Xia Ge, raising her head, could barely see a corner of Chu Yao’s blue clothing.

Chu Yao called: “Come up here.”

Using {ghost and shadow}, Xia Ge landed lightly on a top branch close to Chu Yao.  Now Xia Ge could see Chu Yao’s whole figure.  Her blue ribbon fluttering in her black hair, Chu Yao pulled her bowstring taut, a sharp arrow pointing straight at the horizon as her eyes gleamed with a bright light.

Whoosh——

Chu Yao’s arrow was let loose, there came a very faint ‘thunk,’ paired with a mournful call, and a wild goose was falling from the southwards sky.

Xia Ge: “……”

Chu Yao was gone in a flash, and when she reappeared a moment later, she held a dead goose in her hand, felled in one blow by Chu Yao’s sharp arrow.

Chu Yao: “We’ll have roast geese tonight.”

Xia Ge: “……”

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Noticing Xia Ge’s complicated expression, Chu Yao quirked an eyebrow: “Didn’t you say last time that you were hungry for roasted goose?”

Xia Ge feigned forgetfulness: “……I don’t remember.”  Hadn’t it been nothing more than idle words?

“Hurry up, you can’t be lazy, tonight’s dinner depend on this,” Chu Yao’s gaze turned a little doubtful at Xia Ge’s motionlessness, “You’re not going to tell me you can’t even draw the bow, are you?”

Xia Ge sneered: “Of course not.”

She had watched Chu Yao’s movements, and they hadn’t been complicated. A flock of geese were flying overhead, but with Chu Yao watching, Xia Ge was too scared to use {one strike}.  Still, the second Xia Ge’s fingers let go of the bowstring, her arrow flew swift and fierce!

Xia Ge’s words were proud: “See?  I shot an arrow.”

Chu Yao stared wordlessly at Xia Ge’s forceful arrow as it made lovely parabolic arc in the air and then leisurely landed on the mountainside.

While the flock of wild geese had quickly become no more than black spots in a blue sky.

Still a little speechless, it was a long while before Chu Yao managed: “You’ve never learned?”

Xia Ge: “This was my first time using a bow……you’ve got to let me get the feel of it.”

Taking a second arrow out of her quiver, Xia Ge nocked it, slowly stretching out the bowstring.  Ever since her lingqiao had been opened, she’d become more sensitive to lingqi fluctuations around her.  Now, even as she tried to aim her next arrow, she felt there was something vaguely wrong with Jianfeng’s lingqi.

Chu Yao, holding onto a dead wild goose, seemed to notice nothing, simply watching Xia Ge.

Xia Ge: “I think I’m about to get the hang of it……”

Squeak——

Before Xia Ge could say another word, countless more unpleasant squeaks sounded all around them, ear-piercing and very grating.  The next second, as if shrouded in black clouds, the originally bright sky turned dark!

At the same time, the endless squeaking from every direction was enough to leave a person completely bewildered.  Pupils shrinking, Xia Ge was finally able to clearly distinguish what was flying over the top of her head!

It wasn’t black clouds, it was……bats!

Innumerable and immense pitch-black bats, including one that appeared vaguely humanoid, had appeared out of thin air, instantly occupying the heights of Lingxi Sect’s Jianfeng!

Standing at the top of a tall tree, Chu Yao and Xia Ge were instantly targets.  Endless giant black bats immediately swooped through the air towards them.  The bats’ black wings looking like poisoned blades.  And wherever the bats passed, the lush vegetation withered up beneath them, all color gone!

Dead goose in one hand, bow and quiver on her back, Chu Yao drew out her sword with her other hand.  Shining clear like limpid water, Chu Yao’s sword was a glittering light in the darkness!

Thwack——

One strike of the sword and a bat’s head was sliced in half, blood raining down in a terrifying shower!

Realizing that Chu Yao was not an easy bone to chew, a bat turned its flight to rush towards Xia Ge instead.  Without hesitation, Chu Yao moved to protect Xia Ge.  Chu Yao never expected that, when she raised her eyes to peer through the rain of blood, she would see a young man with his bow drawn, his black hair and red ribbon flying in the dark winds.  The tip of his arrow was frosted cold, and despite the gigantic bats about to attack him, that icy arrow was aimed straight at Chu Yao!

雷锋Léi Fēng

Lei Feng (1940-1962), made into a model of altruism and dedication to the Party by propaganda from 1963 onwards

身轻如燕 [shēn qīng rú yàn]

be as light as Lady Fly Swallow of the Han Dynasty, who could “dance on a man’s palm”; light as a swallow — smart; with a body as light as a swallow’s

无事献殷勤，非奸即盗

“one who offers unsolicited hospitality must be harboring evil intentions”

“Nothing to Show Courtesy, Either Rape or Steal”

one who is unaccountably solicitous is a thief

offering gallantry for nothing is either adultery or stealing, and the meaning of this common saying can be extended to “there is no free lunch in the world, and there are no benefits for no reason for you. A person who has nothing to do but asks you how you are, and shows you frequently. Well, there must be something I want from you, and I want to get benefits from you.” Here, “either rape or steal” is used to describe “other people’s intentions to conspire against you”. On the whole, the meaning of “nothing to show affection, either rape or steal” is equivalent to “weasel pays New Year greetings to chickens-no peace of mind”.

https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/687901162909274252.html?fr=search&word=%CE%DE%CA%C2%D2%F3%C7%DA&ie=gbk

when the southerners give birth to their daughters, they start to make a lot of wine, and wait until the winter in the pond. When the water dries up, seal the wine jar and bury it in the pond. Even when the pond is full of stagnant water in spring, it is not dug out. Only when the daughter is married, the wine buried in the pond is dug out and used to entertain guests.

https://baike.baidu.com/item/花雕酒/5683013

秋水qiūshuǐ

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limpid autumn waters

(trad. description of girl’s beautiful eyes)