Zanxing

Chapter 132 - Gu Caiyu (2)

He kept the smaller room for himself and left the larger room for Fairy Qinghua, even though she had never stayed in it once.

Here, time seemed to pass slowly and gently, as if it would remain the same even after a thousand years.

One day, it poured rain heavily, and the branches and leaves of the giant tree in the field were blown down everywhere. Fairy Qinghua sat under the tree, soaked like a wet hen.

Gu Caiyu poked his head out of the thatched house and called out to her from afar, "Fairy, come in and sit!" He sounded like a warm-hearted neighbor.

Fairy Qinghua looked at the thatched house; the warm light shining through its windows seemed to shield against all cold and rain.

After watching for a moment, she finally stood up and walked toward the only light in the field.

Gu Caiyu warmly welcomed this precious guest.

He closed the door, shutting out the wind and rain, and then heated some water on the stove to pour a cup for Fairy Qinghua. He placed the cup in front of her and eagerly said, "Fairy, look, my house is built quite well, isn't it?"

Fairy Qinghua silently drank the water without saying a word.

He then boasted, trimming the wick in the oil lamp: "It's just that the lamp oil is too little; the flame isn't very bright. The wooden bed is a bit hard. If only I had some cotton, sleeping on it now is too tough... A skilled woman can't make a meal without rice, after all."

Bai Qie Ji "gurgled" a couple of times, strutting onto the table, but Gu Caiyu quickly grabbed it and said, "Xiao Bai, stop causing trouble."

Fairy Qinghua's gaze caught sight of some paper and brushes on the table against the wall, and she couldn't help but be taken aback. Gu Caiyu noticed her attention and immediately stood up, saying, "Those are my humble works. Would you like to take a look, Fairy?"

Before Fairy Qinghua could utter the words "I don't want to," he had already dashed into the room and emerged with his "works of art."

To be fair, the handwriting was quite beautiful, elegant and carefree, but the content consisted of frivolous phrases like "beauty," "goddess," and "fairy."

Fairy Qinghua looked at him with cold eyes.

Gu Caiyu held up the papers with the poems to the dim light of the oil lamp, utterly satisfied, "Oh, the characters are truly beautiful and so stylish!"

"Where did you get the ink and brush?" Fairy Qinghua asked.

Gu Caiyu patted his waist, saying, "From my Qiankun bag."

Fairy Qinghua frowned, "You carry useless things like this in your Qiankun bag instead of useful talismans and spirit artifacts?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Caiyu set down his "works of art" and looked at the woman in white: "Fairy, that's not quite right. How can ink, brush, paper, and inkstone be considered useless?"

"It's precisely because you only carry these trivial things that you still can't get out of here."

Gu Caiyu clicked his tongue twice, "If I may ask, Fairy, you have quite a few high-level spirit artifacts in your Qiankun bag, yet we are still trapped here, at our wits' end, aren't we?"

Fairy Qinghua was momentarily speechless, unable to retort.

"You disciples are always so uninspired." He sat down on the chair, poured himself a cup of hot water, and took a sip as if it were fine wine, comfortably sighing before continuing, "Cultivating immortality like you all, putting your lives on the line for such an uninteresting practice. There are also those who cultivate freely, as we do, doing as we please. I cultivate to be happy. I may not be able to leave, but I have a house, a chicken, and hot water to drink here, so I'm happy. You brought so many spirit artifacts; can they warm you when it rains?"

Fairy Qinghua slammed her cup down on the table and stood up to leave.

Gu Caiyu quickly grabbed her, saying, "Hey, hey, hey, I was just speaking casually! Why are you getting angry? But I am genuinely curious about one thing," he asked, "Fairy, what is your purpose in cultivating immortality? Is it just to ascend and gain immortality?"

"Of course not." Fairy Qinghua denied it outright, pausing for a moment before adding, "All living beings suffer. If one can attain perfection and protect the three realms in peace, that is the true destination for a cultivator."

"Very good," Gu Caiyu clapped his hands, "Lofty aspirations, quite impressive."

Fairy Qinghua ignored his ambiguous praise and looked at him, asking, "Then why do you cultivate?"

"Me?" Gu Caiyu hugged Bai Qie Ji stroking its bare tail as he said, "I already said, I do it for happiness. If there's wine and poetry, I'm happy; as for ascending, that's just a bonus. The Immortal Realm is so glorified by everyone, but it might not be as comfortable as my shabby thatched house. Don't you think?"

Fairy Qinghua turned her head away and scoffed, "Worrying too much."

Zanxing also thought it was worrying too much. Gu Caiyu seemed to be just a low-level loose cultivator who spent his days raising chickens and building houses. He had such grand ambitions that if this were enough to ascend, the Immortal Realm would probably be overcrowded by now.

That night, Fairy Qinghua did not leave.

Like a guest lodging in the wilderness, she settled into the largest room of the thatched house. The room only had a wooden bed with rough corners, no bedding, and no pillows. She lay on the bed, and from the other side came the sound of "ping-pong," which was Gu Caiyu working on new carpentry, occasionally accompanied by the chicken's clucking, a cacophony of sounds. Outside, the rain poured down heavily, water dripping from the eaves of the thatched house, soaking the dirt in the courtyard.

It looked so flimsy, as if a strong wind could blow the roof away, yet it was not cold inside; it was quite warm.

Fairy Qinghua closed her eyes and finally slept soundly for the first time in days.

After that, the scenes became more fragmented.

Zanxing saw Fairy Qinghua settling in the thatched house, trying every day to break the barrier in front of the stone mountain. Gu Caiyu remained unfocused as always, enthusiastic about decorating the thatched house to make it more beautiful and fancy, as well as cooking.

The wilderness only had edible wild grasses and fruits, yet he managed to bring spices with him, surprisingly able to prepare a table full of colorful and fragrant dishes. Every noon, he would shout out in the courtyard, "Fairy, the food is ready!"

Fairy Qinghua would then put away her sword and come inside to eat.

She remained cold, while Gu Caiyu was still undeterred by her indifference. He made a stone vase and picked some foxtail grass to use as decoration, or he would write poetry.

He wrote poem after poem, the water in the courtyard's stone jar ran out and was refilled, yet the white-cut chicken still hadn't grown its tail, while the giant tree in the wilderness began to bloom.

The flowers looked like phoenixes wanting to take flight, burning passionately like fiery flames on the branches. Gu Caiyu pulled Fairy Qinghua over to see and exclaimed, "Winged flowers! They're actually winged flowers!"

"Winged flowers?" Fairy Qinghua asked, puzzled.