RIIDMDR chapter 97

 

After the peeled sweet potato starch had been dried under the sun for several days and the moisture had evaporated, it became like a wide, thick brick. Nan Xu took a grater from the storage room and grated the brick into vermicelli.

Yao Lin had been looking forward to this for a long time. Now that he saw Nan Xu turn it into these fine strips, he knew it was almost ready to eat. He reached out, picked some up, and sniffed it. It didn’t have the sweet fragrance he had imagined. He bit off a small piece, but it was hard with an unpleasant texture and bland taste. His excitement immediately fizzled out.

Listlessly playing with the noodle in his hand, Yao Lin’s every movement was within Nan Xu’s line of sight, yet Nan Xu didn’t stop him.

Yao Lin was a demon with an especially strong sense of curiosity, completely different from Ting Chuan. Zhi Xing, though curious, would give up due to his personality. However, Yao Lin, a demon who could talk for three days and nights without rest, wouldn’t believe you if you told him something wasn’t tasty without letting him try it himself.

“This isn’t meant to be eaten directly,” Nan Xu said. “I’ll make it into a dish at noon, then you can try it.”

Only then did Yao Lin realize he had made a fool of himself, giving an embarrassed smile.

After grating the vermicelli, Nan Xu put a handful in the vegetable basket and carried the rest outside to dry in the sun, which would remove the moisture and make it easier to store.

At that moment, Guan’er, who had been sleeping on the hay in the corner, sat up and barked toward the courtyard gate. Nan Xu looked in that direction. The gate wasn’t very tall—most demons standing outside could show half their heads—but now, not even a strand of hair was visible. Thinking it might be Xu Le, Nan Xu took two steps toward the gate. Suddenly, it opened, and a little girl, not even as tall as the gate itself, walked in.

The girl was small with soft, shoulder-length hair tied with a sky-blue ribbon. As she entered, she leaned forward slightly, holding the door with one hand, and scanned the courtyard with her gaze.

“Is the owner here?” Her clear, crisp voice rang out as she asked Nan Xu and Yao Lin.

“I am,” Nan Xu replied.

He glanced behind her, but there was no one there.

Hearing Nan Xu’s answer, the girl relaxed and stepped further into the courtyard. She wore calf-high boots and a multicolored, layered gauze dress that fluttered lightly in the breeze, making her appear lively and airy.

“Owner, I want to stay at the inn,” the girl said.

Nan Xu couldn’t help but look behind her again. “Just you alone?” he asked.

“Just me,” the girl replied. She suddenly looked nervous and asked, “You’re not running a scam, are you?”

Nan Xu: …

Even if it were, would anyone admit it? Such an innocent question. Amused, Nan Xu smiled gently and replied, “Of course not.”

The girl patted her chest in relief. “That’s good, then.”

Nan Xu turned to look at Yao Lin, silently asking with his eyes how there could be such a naïve little demon in the demon realm.

But Yao Lin only returned a numb look.

Nan Xu grew curious. Why did Yao Lin look so lifeless, as if he’d lost all energy?

Before Nan Xu could ask, the girl suddenly exclaimed, “It’s you! I’ve been chasing you for so long—why did you run away?”

Yao Lin, who had been sitting sideways on a bench facing away from the gate, was noticed only when she stepped closer. She looked at him with great excitement.

Nan Xu’s eyes widened slightly—he could sense the gossip in the air. He’d heard Yao Lin talk about all kinds of rumors in the demon realm, but never about himself.

“No way,” Nan Xu whispered, leaning in close to Yao Lin. “She’s so young—how could you bring yourself to seduce her?”

Yao Lin raised his head and glared at him with resentment. “I suggest you keep your thoughts in check. Besides, can’t you tell? This demon is over three hundred years old.”

Nan Xu: “Ah?!”

Nan Xu was shocked. He turned to look at the little girl again. Three hundred years old and still a little girl?

“Why are you ignoring me?” the girl asked.

She stepped closer, startling Yao Lin, who grabbed the bench and took three steps back.

“You’re always raining! If I don’t run, I’ll get drenched!” Yao Lin glared. “Stay away from me—I value my feathers!”

The little girl looked hurt and stood there, staring at him. “But you ran so fast. If it doesn’t rain, how can I lighten my body enough to catch up with you?”

Yao Lin replied, “If you hadn’t chased me, why would I have run?”

The two argued back and forth while Nan Xu stood between them, feeling quite redundant.

After a while, Nan Xu had heard the whole story of their “you chase, I flee” drama. It turned out that Yao Lin traveled everywhere by flying. The cloud demon often played in the sky and met him along the way. At first, they accompanied each other on long aerial journeys. However, since the cloud demon absorbed too much moisture, she had to rain to lighten herself. Yao Lin, being a bird demon, hated getting wet. He wanted to keep his distance, but the cloud demon thought friends should stick close. Their disagreement had turned into this.

Now, Nan Xu’s head was full of the words “chase” and “run,” and he had no more energy for gossip. Finally, he interrupted helplessly, “Excuse me, you two—can you listen to me for a moment?”

Both demons fell silent and looked at him, their stares sharp enough to pierce him.

Nan Xu cleared his throat and spoke carefully. “Here’s the thing. You both want to stay at the inn, right? There’s no rush. How about I show Miss Cloud Demon her room, collect the room fee, and then you two can continue arguing?”

Heaven and earth may be vast, but collecting money was his top priority!

The demons paused, and then Yao Lin spoke up first. “True. Little Dark Cloud, you pick your room first!”

The cloud demon had already taken a step forward when she heard that. She stepped back and huffed, “How many times have I told you? I’m a rainbow cloud demon, not some dark cloud!”

The argument was about to erupt again. Nan Xu’s head began to ache. Forget it—collecting rent wasn’t urgent.

He left the two demons to their quarrel, slung a bamboo basket over his back, and carried a sickle as he went to the back mountain. Ting Chuan had mentioned a tree farther away that bore red and green fruits which many birds liked to peck. Thinking they looked like jujubes, Nan Xu decided to pick some.

It was autumn, and the leaves in the mountains were turning yellow. His footsteps crunched on the fallen leaves, creating a constant rustling sound like a special kind of music. Feeling happy, Nan Xu began to hum a tune. He’d been away from the human world so long that he’d forgotten most of the lyrics.

Following Ting Chuan’s directions, Nan Xu walked for more than an hour until he reached a tree full of jujubes near a cliff. Holding onto the trunk, he approached and startled a flock of birds that flew into the air and circled above.

The birds only ate the fruit on the high branches, which Nan Xu couldn’t reach, so they weren’t competing.

“Go ahead and eat. I’m not trying to catch you,” Nan Xu muttered to himself.

Maybe it wasn’t just the fruit that tempted them. Perhaps they truly understood him because the birds slowly returned to the branches. Nan Xu set down his basket and looked around. The map showed a faint outline of a cliff here, so he knew there was no path forward. He had never come this way before, but the surrounding vegetation was lush. A clear path led to the jujube tree, and the thorns had already been cleared away. Perhaps Ting Chuan had made the path for him in advance.

Besides that trail, there was another faint one—not quite a path—just slightly different from the surrounding grass, as if someone had walked over it.

Nan Xu followed it to the cliff’s edge and looked down. It was so deep that he couldn’t see the bottom, and his heart skipped a few beats. Instinctively, he took two steps back and grabbed a tree trunk to steady himself.

He wasn’t afraid of heights, but this was the main peak of Zhuyu Mountain, the highest point in the demon realm. The cliff went straight down to the base with no railings, and he could occasionally hear small stones tumbling down. Anyone would feel a chill looking at such a sight.

Nan Xu decided he wasn’t cut out for admiring such grand scenery. He was about to turn back to pick jujubes when he caught a glimpse of a flickering light across the cliff. It quickly turned into the figure of a person wearing a light blue robe. His sleeves fluttered in the mountain wind, making him appear free and graceful. It could only be Ting Chuan.

Ting Chuan was sitting on a large, protruding rock on the cliff, making Nan Xu’s heart jump. How could he have such nerve?

Ting Chuan must have noticed him, too, because he turned to look in his direction. Though they were far apart, Nan Xu’s vision in the demon realm had improved enough that he could make out Ting Chuan’s movements.

Nan Xu waved and cupped his hands around his mouth to call out that it was dangerous, though he wasn’t sure Ting Chuan could hear him. Not long after, Ting Chuan stood up and left, disappearing from sight.

Nan Xu let out a breath of relief and looked at the cliff again. Perhaps it was his imagination, but the cracks in the rock appeared to form flowing lines—like a massive talisman etched into the mountain.

Who could carve such enormous symbols? Perhaps it was a masterpiece of nature, Nan Xu thought.

The wild jujubes were smaller than the cultivated ones. He picked one, rubbed it on his sleeve, and popped it into his mouth. It was crisp, juicy, and sweet. No wonder the birds loved them.

He sped up, and soon his basket was half full. The lower branches were almost bare now. Nan Xu looked up, debating whether to take back his earlier words. He wouldn’t really mind competing with the birds.

After staring up for a few minutes, he gave up. The tree wasn’t sturdy enough to hold his weight anyway.

Just as he was about to head back, he heard footsteps. He followed the sound and saw Ting Chuan approaching casually, holding a golden fruit in his hand.

Nan Xu lifted the basket and walked toward Ting Chuan, surprised. “How did you get here so fast?”

There was a cliff between them, and it was a long way around. Could a nine-tailed fox actually fly?

“I took a shortcut,” Ting Chuan said, handing over the fruit. “Found this on the way.”

Ting Chuan always brought back a few wild fruits from the mountains these days, so Nan Xu was used to it. He thought it was a ripe wild tangerine, but when he received it, he realized it was a persimmon. Delighted, he exclaimed, “There are persimmons, too?”

Ting Chuan looked at the fruit in his hand curiously. “Oh? So this fruit is called a persimmon. There weren’t many ripe ones on the tree, so I picked this one.”

He’d recently learned the names of quite a few wild fruits from Nan Xu.

Nan Xu accepted the persimmon. It was soft, and he could feel the abundance of juice inside with a gentle squeeze. He looked at Ting Chuan and teased, “You seem to be bringing things home more and more. Could it be my influence?”

Ting Chuan didn’t seem embarrassed. “Since your abilities are limited and you can’t go far for now, whatever you want from this mountain, I’ll get it for you.”

---