Chapter 74: Break Up?
If Ning Guang wanted to pretend nothing was wrong, no one would be able to tell. Since she was showing it so clearly, Di Jiufeng went along with her and asked.
As expected, Ning Guang nearly didn’t hesitate before tugging on her arm and saying, “A-Feng, I want to know, who are you?”
“Who else could I be, I’m your Shifu.” Di Jiufeng replied casually, but right afterwards, she realized that wasn’t entirely correct. After all, she wasn’t the real Di Jiufeng, but a stranger who had transmigrated from another world. She thought this had been exposed, but to be honest, this was nothing she couldn’t tell Ning Guang.
“Alright, it’s a bit complicated, listen to me.” Di Jiufeng carefully gathered her words, and explained to Ning Guang how she had died, then transmigrated from another world.
She trusted Ning Guang very much, she was sure she could accept that she had been reincarnated in someone else’s body.
Ning Guang did believe her, but she still looked tense.
Looking at the deep creases in her brow, Di Jiufeng felt a knot in her chest, she still felt a bit bad. “What is it? If you can’t accept it, then just tell me. Don’t talk around it, I’m slow.”
Di Jiufeng felt she was about to explode, she wasn’t in a good mood.
Ning Guang wavered between scaring her and making her angry for a while, but finally sighed and said, “Look for yourself.” She took out the wooden sculpture she had been hiding in her qiankun pouch, refusing to let her see, then, with her back to Di Jiufeng, passed the sculpture to her.
Di Jiufeng didn’t notice anything strange at first, until she was holding the wooden sculpture in her hands. When she turned it to get a closer look at its face, Di Jiufeng exploded on Ning Guang like an erupting volcano. “You want to break up? No, you don’t want to be with me anymore?”
Even burning with anger, Di Jiufeng still considered the cultural differences, and translated the term to make sure Ning Guang would understand.
[T/N: 分手, lit. ‘to separate hands’, is a more modern way of saying ‘to break up’.]
But right after the words left her mouth, she laughed in anger. She was threatening to break up, and the first thing she thought to do wasn’t to interrogate Ning Guang, but worry whether she could understand. There must be something wrong with her, even in a relationship she was trying to ascend as a saintess!
“Pah, if you want to break up then we can break up, I don’t want to stay with you!” She spat fiercely at Ning Guang, then turned to walk back inside.
She wasn’t the type to hang on too tightly to something she had already lost, but she couldn’t control the suffering in her heart. As soon as she was out of eyesight, the tears started spilling uncontrollably down her face.
Ning Guang was confused how things had progressed this way, she didn’t know how Di Jiufeng’s thoughts had gone there, she was a bit shocked.
When she saw her leave, she chased after her in a panic and took her into her arms. “A-Feng, what are you thinking? Why would you think that?” Ning Guang furrowed her brow. She didn’t know whether she should be angry or if she should laugh, but Di Jiufeng’s breaths were coming quickly, her entire chest rising and falling violently at an unusual rate. But she didn’t make a sound, only her tears kept flowing down.
Warm tears crashed on Ning Guang’s hand drop by drop, and Di Jiufeng knew that her back was stretched taut as well. Though she did not struggle hard, this unrestrained force told Ning Guang that she wanted to go.
Of course Ning Guang would not let her go. She knew that if she let her go now, she would never have a chance to explain.
When Di Jiufeng was soft, she could pluck a star from the sky for you. She would not be afraid, she could place her body in front of you as a shield, even battered by the wind and rain. But, when she wanted to get away, even a piercing gale could not permeate the wall in her heart.
Ning Guang didn’t know what to do, she had somehow walked into an undeserved catastrophe. But she was very joyful that Di Jiufeng had not been able to chase her out of her heart.
“A-Feng, I really don’t know what nonsense you’re thinking about?”
Di Jiufeng sneered. “Nonsense? When you showed me this second body, weren’t you telling me that you like the owner of this body? Then let me tell you, she’s very pretty, you should go to her!”
Ning Guang nodded and placated Di Jiufeng before she could get any angier. “She is very pretty, but she is you. A-Feng, this is you.”
“Bullshit.”
Di Jiufeng never cursed at people, and even if she did, she would pay attention to proper wording. But today, she really couldn’t take it, she couldn’t hold up to Ning Guang’s ability to bluster. “If you want to convince me, at least find a better excuse. Where did you get the courage to compare the two of us? I’m, I’m…”
Di Jiufeng very much wanted to shamelessly say ‘I’m much prettier than her’, but she could not. After all, even the crudity of the carving couldn’t obscure that woman’s devastating beauty. This was not her current appearance, and it was not her former face. Though she wanted to accept Ning Guang’s assurances, this lie was far too easy to expose, she couldn’t lie to herself.
[T/N: 倾国倾城, lit. “toppling countries and toppling cities”, is a common idiom for devastating beauty.]
“Ning Guang, I always trusted you. I want to trust you now, but this really isn’t me. In my memories, I have never had a face like this.”
“But it’s always the most impossible things that are the most true. A-Feng, she really is you, this is the face which appeared with the wisp of your soul.”
A bit earlier, Ning Guang had thought Di Jiufeng was hiding something from her. Though she had said that she did not care, she still felt uneasy. She had always been honest with Di Jiufeng, of course she hoped that Di Jiufeng could tell her everything as well. It was alright if it was a bit hard to say, but if she couldn’t even tell her her true identity, this made Ning Guang very unhappy.
Ning Guang wanted to be difficult to gain a bit of advantage for herself. She was already going to quit while she was ahead, she never thought it would cause so much trouble. And, it seemed that even Di Jiufeng herself didn’t know the truth.
Ning Guang rubbed the center of her forehead. She really was stupid. If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have said anything, she would just have pretended she made a mistake while carving.
She sighed at herself, then reached out to wipe the ice-cold tears on Di Jiufeng’s face. She still resisted her a bit, but thankfully didn’t try to run again. “A-Feng, memories can trick people, but souls can not. If you don’t trust me, you ought to trust the soul in this second body. You already said that you reincarnated from another world. Perhaps you had reincarnated another time before that, but since forgotten?”
Some things were preposterous, but so convincing that you had to believe them.
By now, Di Jiufeng knew that she had thought wrong, and her face went red, she wanted to find a turtle shell to hide in. She was afraid to look at Ning Guang, she could only squirm in front of her.
Ning Guang didn’t keep talking. She touched from her face to her hands, then slowly slid her hands inside her robes at the waist.
“I was wrong, I was wrong, I know I was wrong…” Being shamelessly groped, Di Jiufeng looked left and right, grabbing her hands in a panic. “Ning Guang, I shouldn’t have suspected you, but this second body of yours, you really can’t blame me for overthinking.” Di Jiufeng thought, then attempted to push away the blame.
But Ning Guang ignored her. Even her breaths had grown lighter.
Di Jiufeng’s face was not thick enough, so she silently took back the blame. She curled into a ball, full of regret. “I was wrong, I won’t do it again.” She turned to hug Ning Guang and pressed several kisses to her face.
Di Jiufeng was very sincere in acknowledging her mistake. Her eyes were innocently and piteously opened wide, nearly burning straight through Ning Guang’s intentionally exaggerated anger.
But when she thought about it, Ning Guang still felt that she had been wrongfully accused. Her expression relaxed a bit, but what replaced it was a helpless and aggrieved indulgence. “Forget it, I know you didn’t do it on purpose.” She forced herself to smile and pinched Di Jiufeng’s face.
This aggrieved look, like she wished to say something but was holding herself back, had actually become an expert trick to retreat in order to advance.
Di Jiufeng deflated and collapsed limply into her arms, reproaching herself. “I will never suspect you again, I won’t hide anything from you either. If anything happens, we can talk about it together, don’t feel bad.”
Did Ning Guang feel bad? Of course she did a bit, but not as much as she was pretending. Most of her anger had already disappeared when Di Jiufeng started to cry for her. But she was well-versed in the ruse of self-injury, and of course she would try to gain as much as she could while Di Jiufeng was feeling guilty.
Ning Guang was satisfied, but she didn’t show it on her face, leaving only a helpless smile on her lips.
Di Jiufeng didn’t know her disciple could be so shameless, so she tried everything she could to comfort her. Only when she was pushed down on the couch did she realize that she had fallen into her trap! She wasn’t very happy, but she didn’t have the chance to get mad, after all Ning Guang was truly too good at ‘disrespecting her elders’!
Time passed in a haze, and when Di Jiufeng opened her eyes again, it was already noon. She was sprawled on the bed, rolled in a blanket, she really didn’t want to think about how things had moved onto the bed.
“Ning Guang, what are you doing?” After rolling around on the bed a bit, Di Jiufeng softly called her.
Ning Guang had heard her wake up, and she was already by the window. “I was investigating the Soul-Finding Array. You had already set up the array, so I tried it out. Just now, I actually did find where the core was.”
“You found it?!” Her disciple truly was a genius. Di Jiufeng pursed her lips and smiled, then reached out to pat her shoulder. “Where is it? We can get our things together and go.”
“It is in a mountain to the northwest. I do not know if he will move, it’s best if we go soon.”
“Then go get Qing Yu, I’ll get up.”
They packed up quickly, and after a cup of tea’s time, met up in front of Di Jiufeng’s room. Because the ancient witch’s core affected whether or not Lin Hao could become a ghostly cultivator, he had come too.
The mountain where the monk was staying was not far, but not close either. They set out at noon and continued without rest, but only arrived at the mountain at dawn the next day.
It was a well-known mountain, but as they arrived at the foot of it, Di Jiufeng discovered an area that was a bit strange.
Jade leaves reached into the sky, a heavy covering of green, and birds flitted past at low altitudes.
This was a very nice place, a good scenery of mountains and water, full of life, but unfortunately, there was not a single sound. It was too quiet, so quiet it was a bit frightening.
“Has he discovered us? Is he waiting for us to walk into his trap?” Though it was a question, when the words left Di Jiufeng’s mouth, they nearly became a certainty. Ning Guang thought the same, and with a look of worry, took Di Jiufeng’s hand securely in her own.
Author’s Notes:
This baby is super soft, how could I angst, rolls around, please give me a kiss