We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 481: You Have Only Been Gone Less Than a Single Day

The morning after Tushan Xinhua's departure, Xiao Mo had already packed his belongings and was ready to move to the separate courtyard at the foot of the mountain.

That day, Tushan Jingci had also, for once, not slept in, and had risen before Xiao Mo left.

After breakfast, Tushan Jingci and Yueshi accompanied Xiao Mo together to his new residence.

They arrived at the foot of the mountain.

It was a bamboo courtyard.

The courtyard was nestled within a bamboo grove.

It was somewhat smaller than the courtyard where Tushan Jingci lived, by about two sizes but for Xiao Mo living there alone, it was more than sufficient, however one looked at it and the courtyard was indeed secluded and peaceful.

Having lived on Qianxue Peak for so many years, had no one told him, Xiao Mo would never have known that hidden within this bamboo grove at the foot of the mountain, there was such a courtyard tucked away.

Xiao Mo supposed that some scholar from Qianxue Peak in years past must have come here to read and built himself this little dwelling, and that after the scholar departed, the Hanshan Academy had simply never let it out to anyone else.

"Young Miss, Elder Sister Yueshi, please head back. I can clean the courtyard myself." Xiao Mo turned around and gave the two of them a bow.

"Xiao Mo, let me help you clean." Tushan Jingci looked at Xiao Mo with reluctance, seeming unwilling to leave so soon.

"The Young Miss is of noble standing. There would be no reason for her to help a servant like me clean. If the Lady were to find out, I would surely be reprimanded." Xiao Mo shook his head with a smile. "But once I have finished cleaning, the Young Miss is welcome to come and sit here whenever she likes."

"All right."

Tushan Jingci lowered her head, and not wanting Xiao Mo to be blamed by her mother, did not press the matter further, though a trace of dejection showed in her expression.

"Then you get on with things first, Xiao Mo. If there is anything you need, come and find me at the halfway point up the mountain anytime."

"Of course. Many thanks, Young Miss." Xiao Mo gave a nod.

"Then I am going." Tushan Jingci pinched the hem of her skirt between her fingers.

"Take care, Young Miss." Xiao Mo bowed.

Tushan Jingci had only taken a few steps when she turned her head back toward Xiao Mo and said, "Oh, and remember, when I go to the study hall, you must accompany me."

"I will remember. It is my duty to begin with. I would not dare forget." Xiao Mo smiled.

"I, I really am going now."

"Mm."

Tushan Jingci still seemed to want to say something, but did not know how to begin and the young girl had a feeling that the moment she opened her mouth, she might burst into tears.

In the end, Tushan Jingci could only make her way out of the courtyard in steps, pausing to look back every few paces, until she had left the bamboo grove entirely.

"Right, time to get to work."

Xiao Mo looked at the courtyard covered in fallen leaves, rolled up his sleeves, took up a broom, and set to sweeping.

Though Xiao Mo could have cleaned the courtyard completely with a single technique.

He still preferred to do it with his own hands.

For no other reason than this, that when he swept a courtyard himself, a natural stillness settled into his heart.

For Xiao Mo, who cultivated the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet, this too was a form of cultivation.

Half an hour later, Xiao Mo had swept every fallen leaf from the courtyard clean, wiped the dust from all the furniture, and made up the bedding.

The afternoon came.

Xiao Mo looked at the deep green bamboo in the grove around him, the pointed tips of new shoots pushing up through the earth in the distance, and listened to the calling of the insects. Without quite meaning to, Xiao Mo slowly closed his eyes and began cultivating the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet.

Before long, Xiao Mo entered a state of complete absorption.

He did not know how much time passed.

A gentle wind moved through the bamboo grove, setting the bamboo leaves whispering and rustling.

A single bamboo leaf drifted down from above and brushed lightly across Xiao Mo's cheek as it fell.

"Young Miss, stop fooling around."

Xiao Mo said without thinking but when he opened his eyes and looked around him, there was no one there at all.

Only a single bamboo leaf resting on his knee.

"I really am..."

Xiao Mo picked up the bamboo leaf, began to murmur to himself, then stopped mid-sentence, closed his mouth, shook his head, and could not help but smile.

Back at the separate courtyard halfway up the mountain.

After finishing lunch, Tushan Jingci tried to read for a while but as she read on, Tushan Jingci found that Xiao Mo's face kept drifting into her mind unbidden, and she could not take in a single word.

She set the book down.

Tushan Jingci wanted to go and find Xiao Mo but Yueshi stepped in front of her, saying, "Young Miss, the Lady has made it clear. You may not go looking for Xiao Mo without good reason."

"Elder Sister Yueshi, you need not tell Xiao Mo about it."

"Young Miss, it cannot be done."

"Elder Sister Yueshi... please just let me go."

"I humbly ask the Young Miss not to put me in a difficult position."

No matter what Tushan Jingci said, no matter how sweetly she pleaded, Yueshi would not be moved.

Knowing that Elder Sister Yueshi answered only to her mother's instructions and would never let her leave, Tushan Jingci could only turn back to her room in frustration.

She lay back on her bed, gazing up at the pale pink canopy above her, her pretty fox eyes blinking slowly.

One scene after another drifted through the young girl's mind.

She thought of many things in that moment.

She thought of how, in years past, whenever Xiao Mo sat in the courtyard with his eyes closed in meditation, she would always sneak out of her room and tickle his cheek with a leaf.

And Xiao Mo would always slowly open his eyes, his tone full of quiet helplessness.

She thought of how, when Xiao Mo was asleep, she would creep into his room, sometimes drawing on his face, sometimes burrowing into his bedding and stuffing two fingers up his nose.

Every time she woke Xiao Mo up this way, she would give a bright smile, and Xiao Mo would never once be angry, only giving a quiet sigh each time.

She thought of how Xiao Mo, though his cultivation followed the Daoist arts and he was more or less half a Daoist, had taken to the study of Confucian scholarship surprisingly quickly.

And he seemed to know something about everything.

Only when he was asked something difficult to answer, he would fall silent.

He was always like that, it seemed.

As she lay there thinking, a creeping drowsiness gradually washed over the young girl, and she slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Toward evening, with the sound of birdsong drifting in from outside, the young girl woke from her sleep, fully rested.

Still half in a daze, she rubbed her eyes, climbed out of bed, walked out of her room into the courtyard, and called out drowsily, "Xiao Mo, stop cultivating. Come and play with me."

But when the young girl's vision cleared, she found the courtyard completely empty.

Only then did it come back to her, that Xiao Mo had already moved away.

Looking at the quiet, empty courtyard, the young girl sat down on the stone bench where Xiao Mo most often used to sit.

She did not know how long she sat there. Eventually she rose, walked to the side room, and pushed open the door.

This was Xiao Mo's room.

Inside, only the original table, chair, and wooden bed remained. Everything else had been taken away.

The young girl crouched down and settled herself gently on the threshold.

She felt a hollowness inside her, much like the emptiness of the room before her, as though everything had been taken away.

If there was one thing that remained, it was only the faint trace of his scent that still lingered in the room.

"You have only been gone less than a single day."

The young girl hugged her knees to her chest and looked into the empty room, her pale pink fox eyes shifting softly.

"And yet..."

"Why does it feel as though you have been gone for such a very, very long time?"

"Wretched Xiao Mo."

The young girl drew her knees in tighter, buried her face into the crook of her arm, her clear voice carrying the faintest tremor.

"Wretched Xiao Mo."

"Why..."

"Why is my mind filled with nothing but you?"