The night turned pitch black, and Yun Qingyue collapsed onto a chair in the living room. Grunting and groaning, she said to Divine Doctor Li, who was still wiping down the table, "I am about to die of exhaustion, and I'm so hungry! Things were finally starting to get a little easier over the last few days, but today is going to work me to death. Good thing my health has improved a lot lately; otherwise, the day I found you, I would have dropped dead from fatigue!"
Hearing this, Divine Doctor Li walked over in surprise and asked, "Is your health poor? Is something making you uncomfortable? Let me check your pulse."
Yun Qingyue slumped across the table, thrust her arm out right in front of Divine Doctor Li with an amused sweep of her hand, and teased, "Oh my, stepping into character so fast, are you? Then please, Divine Doctor Li, take a look at me."
Her words irritated Divine Doctor Li to the point that he pointed a finger at her through the air, looking utterly helpless as he reached out to check her pulse. Watching the expression on Divine Doctor Li's face grow increasingly solemn, Yun Qingyue knew she had been found out. This man was improving way too fast!
After taking the pulses of both her wrists, he spoke with a grave expression: "Your heart meridians are damaged, and it seems to have been this way for quite some time. Fortunately, it must have been treated before, so it's not as severe anymore. Why didn't you say sooner that your health was bad? What would you have done if something happened while you were working this hard every day? You have such an incredible item, why didn't you use it to treat yourself?"
"Oh, come on, it's no big deal. I have congenital heart disease, so it can only be cured slowly. I'm already much better now—before, I couldn't even walk a little too fast. As for that healing device of mine, I just haven't had the time to use it yet. You were in much worse condition at the time, so I wasn't in a hurry!" Yun Qingyue said so casually, uttering words that made Divine Doctor Li's heart ache intensely!
Divine Doctor Li took a deep breath and asked, "Can... can you still use that device? Do you need anything else? I didn't know that thing was so important to your health, I..."
The more Yun Qingyue listened, the more wrong things sounded. She couldn't let this man's mental state regress back to square one—she didn't know how to cure psychological illnesses!
So she hurriedly cut in: "Hey, hey, hey, don't go having other thoughts. I really wasn't in a hurry for treatment because I'm not as bad off as I used to be. That thing is called a Medical Pod, and it can still be used later; it won't be affected! When are you going to prescribe some medicine for yourself to cure this habit of yours of letting your imagination run wild? You can't just keep doubting yourself because of one failure. You have to believe in yourself and have confidence! You became famous at a young age, and by fifteen you were the finest in the world. You have every right to look down upon the entire world—why on earth would you doubt yourself? Some people are destined to accompany you for only a stage of the journey, regardless of whatever status they hold. You simply haven't met the person who will walk the entire path with you yet! Why do you always doubt yourself and negate yourself? If you keep this up, I'm going to get mad and stop talking to you, do you hear me?"
After giving Divine Doctor Li a thorough tongue-lashing right to his face, Yun Qingyue suddenly felt as though her very soul had ascended!
Look at how amazing she was. She, Yun Qingyue, was actually capable of serving as someone's psychological counselor! And her subject was none other than the finest martial artist in the world, Li Xiangyi—how proud she was!
Divine Doctor Li was left alternating between laughter and tears after being inexplicably lectured. He hadn't meant anything else by it; he was simply worried about this girl.
Yet it had landed him with good intentions unrewarded and an inexplicable scolding. Still, he was quite grateful to her; no one had ever spoken these words to him before. It felt really nice.
Realizing the situation was turning against him, Divine Doctor Li scratched the outer corner of his eyebrow and said in a pitiable tone, "I'm so hungry, aren't you hungry? Hand over some food, or the village chief will be reporting us to the authorities tomorrow!"
Fine, Yun Qingyue was starving herself. Without any further nonsense, she directly produced shredded pork in sweet bean sauce, a whole set of sliced roast duck, cumin lamb, shredded potatoes with vinegar, hand-torn cabbage, and a mixed mushroom and chicken soup. This time she skipped the rice and pulled out forty spring pancakes instead—today they were eating pancake-wrapped dishes!
Today was yet another day of hands-on teaching. Once she had taught Divine Doctor Li how to eat it, Yun Qingyue dug into her own meal with immense joy, taking a sip of soup to wash things down whenever she ate too fast.
Yun Qingyue stopped only after eating six in a row, let out a long sigh, and said, "After finishing work, eating something delicious feels especially satisfying. What do you think?"
Too busy eating to even lift his head, Divine Doctor Li squeezed out a single word between bites: "Right!" Then he lowered his head and dove back into the struggle!
It was rare to see Divine Doctor Li lose his image like this; it seemed he was truly starving. Mostly because the food was simply delicious, and people from their era had certainly never tasted anything like it.
Yun Qingyue guessed, recalling all the delicious food she had shared with him since she found him, that he had surely never eaten any of it before. Otherwise, why would he be so exceptionally enthusiastic every single meal?
Yun Qingyue smiled and leaned back against her chair, beaming from ear to ear as she watched Divine Doctor Li lean back while stuffed, letting out low groans. Her giggling laughter provoked Divine Doctor Li to the point that he wanted to reach out and smack her.
Yet looking at the radiant, blooming young girl across from him, he twitched his fingers and remained seated without moving. Instead, he smiled as he watched her laugh at his expense, the doting fondness in that smile entirely unnoticed by himself!
Her stomach aching from laughter, Yun Qingyue barely managed to straighten her posture, holding back her giggles as she stammered, "Ha... today you clean up... ha, you clean up the dishes and tidy the place to help digest your food. I'm going outside for a walk first... pfft, hahahahaha."
Indulgently, Divine Doctor Li shook his head. Ignoring Yun Qingyue while she was riding the wave of her excitement, he resignedly went to wash the dishes and tidy the room. He felt he had acted a bit unseemly today as well—he had eaten everything, leaving not a single crumb behind!
It was truly humiliating today, acting as if he had never seen food in his life! Still, the things Yueyue brought out really were things he had never seen, let alone eaten!
The next day, Divine Doctor Li went to discuss with the village chief about hiring people to salvage the sunken ship timber. Meanwhile, Yun Qingyue went into the woods and bamboo groves to hunt for culinary delicacies!
Spring wild vegetables were waiting for her, tender and green, along with spring bamboo shoots... Just thinking about it made her mouth water. Purely natural and pollution-free, how much money would these be worth if she took them back to sell in the modern era!
She found a back basket and carried it into the woods. Here I come, here I come, delicious food, here I come! As soon as Divine Doctor Li returned from the village chief's house, he saw the note Yun Qingyue had left and tracked her down!
Watching her small, huddled form digging up wild vegetables down in the dirt, he found her both amusing and pitiful. Divine Doctor Li walked over and asked, "Why didn't you wait for me? How unsafe is it for one person to be out here alone?"
"No it isn't, there's only me here. Besides, in broad daylight, where would there be so many bad guys?" Yun Qingyue said incomprehensibly.
Seeing her reaction, Divine Doctor Li roughly guessed what kind of environment she had grown up in. He had no choice but to emphasize earnestly, "Haven't you ever heard that one shouldn't enter forests blindly? You don't even know martial arts, and this place is so remote. What would you do if bad people showed up? So, from now on, let me know wherever you want to go, or I'll be worried, alright?"
Stunned by Divine Doctor Li's attitude, Yun Qingyue nodded blankly: "Got it, I'll remember from now on!" Ah, ah, ah, her heart was beating so fast. A Divine Doctor Li like this was truly so special.
Yun Qingyue had never seen a guy like this; it hit all the right spots! What on earth was Qiao Wanwan thinking to let go of such a good man? If anyone else had crossed paths with him, they would have clung to him tooth and nail and refused to let go!
Suddenly, Yun Qingyue felt a sharp pain on her forehead. "Ow, what are you doing?" Before the person forcibly shaken back to reality even understood what was happening, she heard Divine Doctor Li's unkind tone: "What were you daydreaming about just now, with that strange look on your face? I called you several times and you didn't even hear me."
Would Yun Qingyue dare to voice the thoughts she had just had? Absolutely not! She could only cowardly pretend she had no idea.
Yun Qingyue: "Hehe, let's hurry up, it'll be time to eat soon. Um, let's go dig for spring bamboo shoots—oil-braised bamboo shoots, pickled bamboo shoots with pork, stir-fried cured meat... I can't take it, I shouldn't think about it or my mouth will water. Quick, quick, quick, let's go find some shoots!" As she spoke, she waved her small hoe and sprinted toward the bamboo grove!
"Hehe, let's see how far you can run off to. You must have been plotting behind my back again, you bad girl!" Though he muttered those words under his breath, his legs were not slow at all as he closely followed behind Yun Qingyue and asked aloud, "You sure have plenty of skills, recognizing wild vegetables and knowing how to find bamboo shoots as well? Why do you know so many things?"
Yun Qingyue lifted her chin proudly and replied, "Where we come from, everyone, regardless of gender, has to go to school when they reach a certain age, and you can learn all kinds of knowledge in school! Our place is exceptionally safe. Although there are bad people too, we have police—um, patrollers, patrol officers everywhere, day and night. You can go to them for help with anything at all, and they won't deliberately make things difficult for people just to extort silver. Also, the night markets are especially fun; I used to go to the night markets to eat delicious food all the time after school!"
Divine Doctor Li fell silent for a moment before his voice dropped low: "What a truly wonderful place, not even in dreams could one imagine such a sight. Living in your world must be truly blissful! Do you not like it here? After all, nothing here is as good as where you come from." Asking this, Divine Doctor Li waited somewhat nervously for the young girl's reply.
Yun Qingyue thought for a moment and said firmly, "But you are here, so no matter how many bad places there are, it's not a problem. You are here, and there are many people who want you to be well. I'm so lucky to have come here and even met you; I'm very happy!" Raising her head to look right into Divine Doctor Li's eyes, Yun Qingyue said earnestly!
Suddenly, Divine Doctor Li pulled the young girl—who had eyes only for him—into his embrace. Lowering his head, he buried his face in the crook of her neck, his arms tightly wrapping around her and holding her against his chest.
Before Yun Qingyue could even react, she was caught in an embrace, just as she was about to struggle a little. Instead, she felt a wet sensation in the crook of her neck—was he crying???
That made sense, after all, Divine Doctor Li was only twenty years old, having spent all these years burdened by everyone else's expectations. He had been forced to shoulder many responsibilities he shouldn't have had to bear at his age. On the contrary, it was those adults—those who only knew how to hide behind a mere child and enjoy the fruits of his labor—who were truly deserving of death!
When the opportunity arose, she would definitely find a chance to grind those bastards into dust! She wouldn't let a single one go, dealing with them one by one.
While Yun Qingyue's mind was running wild with these fantastical thoughts while nestled in Divine Doctor Li's arms, Divine Doctor Li finally calmed down. Then, realizing what an impulsive and forward thing he had just done, he was dumbfounded.
He had been afraid others might ruin the young girl's reputation, yet he was the one who had done such a thing—he deserved to die! But why was the young girl's body so soft and fragrant all over?
Previously, he had only ever held A-Mian's hand and kissed her forehead. Such a disregard for propriety was a first for him.
Giving a light cough, Divine Doctor Li pretended nothing was amiss as he released Yun Qingyue and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "My apologies, it's truly because..."
Yun Qingyue smiled and interrupted him: "Alright, I don't blame you. Experiencing a catastrophic disaster overnight, followed by a dramatic reversal of fortunes—losing control of your emotions amidst such immense grief and joy is only human nature. You've been quite restrained considering everything; don't dwell on it!"
Now it was Divine Doctor Li's turn to freeze. A sudden wave of loss washed over him—was she this nice to everyone? A young girl had been taken advantage of, yet she was the one comforting the other person. And if it had been someone else... no, wait, she had just said she came here for him.
"What are you standing there frozen for? Hurry up and come over. Don't think about slacking off, get to work!" Hearing this energetic voice, Divine Doctor Li, who was still lost in thought, smiled and followed her to work, otherwise, he would be scolded again shortly. Being scolded was a minor issue, but what would happen if his delicious dinner vanished tonight?
This bad girl loved using delicious food to threaten him. He had it hard too—for the sake of his stomach, he had no choice but to bow his head. Though he felt helpless inside, the upturned corners of his mouth wouldn't drop down even as he dug up bamboo shoots!
After dinner, the two of them sat under the grape trellis to drink tea and admire the moonlight. In a somewhat hoarse voice, Divine Doctor Li said, "Today I learned that the reason the villagers here detest martial artists is partly because of me."
Yun Qingyue suddenly turned her head to look at Divine Doctor Li, though she did not utter a sound, merely continuing to listen as he spoke. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down several times before he spoke again with a slightly trembling voice, struggling slightly to get the words out: "My East Sea Battle with Di Feisheng... destroyed many boats across three surrounding villages. I—I didn't think that much of it at the time. I only thought that no one would go out to sea in such terrible weather... I... Yueyue... I..."
Yun Qingyue still didn't interrupt him. The first few times she had interrupted, it was because she was too angry to hold back, but doing it too often wasn't good. Some pressures had to be spoken aloud to be released.
Pausing for a moment, the man slowly continued: "On the way back to the Sigu Sect that day, I saw bleeding townspeople complaining and cursing amidst the ruined walls. After descending the mountain and returning to the shore, all I saw was utter devastation. I had thought it was caused by wind and waves, never realizing it was caused by me. Yet what I had wanted to do was simply bring stability to the martial world so that the common people would no longer be oppressed. I never expected that in the end, all the suffering belonged to everyone else because of me. Yueyue, shouldn't I have simply crawled back out of the sea? If I had died in the East Sea back then, would I have been able to atone for my sins?"
Midway through, Yun Qingyue was pulled into Divine Doctor Li's embrace. Listening to this fragile man's vulnerable confession, feeling his slight tremors and the growing dampness of his hot tears against the crook of her neck, Yun Qingyue finally extended both arms to embrace the pitiful young man in return.
Only then did Yun Qingyue speak softly and gently right by his ear, slowly easing his burden: "When you became famous at a young age, you were only fifteen years old. You founded the Sigu Sect at seventeen, and right now you are barely twenty. But what about your companions? What about those people who built the enterprise alongside you? How old are the elders of the Fo Bi Bai Shi? What about Xiao Zijin? Even Heroine Qiao is older than you, right? Yet what did they do? Did the Sigu Sect really have no one else who could make decisions after you left for your duel? What did the people you left behind to guard the home front and command things do? They sent all the people loyal to you out to die, keeping only their own faction behind so they could smoothly seize control of the Sigu Sect's power! And your poison? Aside from them, nobody else could have made you poisoned without your knowledge, right? And what you ought to understand most of all is that you were simply nothing more than a tool for them to climb higher! Yet when a weapon grows too powerful to be controlled, it can only be destroyed. Shouldn't the ones you hate be the masterminds who caused all these consequences? A knife can be used to chop vegetables, and it can be used to kill people—if someone uses a knife to kill, is it always the knife's fault? Shouldn't the fault lie with the person wielding the knife? When you were easy to control, you were the great banner and signboard of the Sigu Sect, their mascot and sharp weapon for climbing higher and basking in the adoration of the masses. But the moment you could no longer be controlled, you could only serve as a mascot and a slogan so they could continue enjoying their glory... because only a dead hero is a hero!"
Feeling as though she was about to have her waist snapped in half, Yun Qingyue endured the pain and hardened her heart to administer a heavier dose of medicine: "Think back carefully—when you first entered the martial world and met them, what were they like? You led them for so many years, did their martial arts improve? But did their behavioral styles change drastically? While you were risking your life running around working for your ideals, what were all those 'righteous companions' of yours doing? Even... even—cough, I'm not trying to sow discord, I'm just speaking the truth, don't be mad... even Heroine Qiao herself, wasn't she gradually drifting further and further away from you under the flattery of martial artists and the instigation of Xiao Zijin? You met in the martial world, and later on, was it you who asked her to stay at the Sigu Sect and wait for you? She was the one who gave up the chance to accompany you, so why turn around and blame you for not accompanying her? The wrong thing has never been the blazing sun, but rather those dark souls incapable of enduring the sun's warmth and light! So, if you were at fault, it should simply be that you were bad at judging people and failed to recognize them for who they really were. But that was also because you were still young back then, having just descended the mountain without worldly experience, and they tricked you! What wrong did you commit by being trapped within lies? I also beg you, please stop blaming Li Xiangyi, alright? He was also a pitiful youth, so bitterly deceived all this time. On top of that, he had to take the blame for the bad guys—he is so pitiful too. If you refuse to forgive him as well, what is he supposed to do? Alright?"
The pressure around her waist gradually eased, and before Yun Qingyue could even let out a sigh of relief, a force was applied to the back of her head while the other large hand at her waist gave a slight lift.
Simultaneously, her head was pressed by a hand into the shoulder of the person opposite her, and her entire body was pulled to sit directly on his lap.
Dazed, Yun Qingyue had no idea what kind of trajectory this development was taking. Even the person who had recklessly spouted a whole bunch of grand reasoning just now felt a bit guilty at this moment.
The kind of guilt born from fearing she might have damaged a young martial artist's mental core! With no other choice, she simply remained silent and let the man hold her, figuring that sitting on his lap wasn't uncomfortable anyway.