"Bai Jin embroidered it herself."
Miaomiao turned around to scrutinize him. Mu Sheng always had his hair tied up and this white headband never seemed to leave his person. Since he treasures the headband his foster mother gifted to him, the relationship between the mother and son shouldn't be all that terrible.
"Then Sister Mu's mother treats you rather well."
Mu Sheng didn't reply but a mocking expression flashed through his face. He knocked the Demon Restraining Circlets against the table, "How are you planning on sending your letter?"
Miaomiao stuffed the letter into her robes: "I already looked into it. There's an official going to Jiangnan to take on a new post. I can entrust the letter to him to take along. He's leaving today on a ship from the south suburbs."
She mumbled to herself: "The mountains are high and waters far reaching, sending out a letter sure is a pain." She carefully packed up two small pieces of pastries into the package and then shot Mu Sheng an inquiring gaze: "Hey, this enough?"
The youth frowned as he looked at her: "Why are you asking me?"
Ling Miaomiao shot back the question: "Aren't you going to go together with me?"
"Why should I go together with you?" For a moment, a cold smile flashed through his expression, "Oh, is Miss Ling afraid of getting ost?"
Miaomiao took on his mocking tone and her clear apricot eyes were sparkling as she didn't disagree nor argue: "Right."
She properly wrapped up the package and proficiently tied it onto her body, "Sister Mu said it early on, we will go separate paths and investigate the case. She and Brother Liu have been busy like bees for the past few days. While we have been just leisurely cozying up inside our rooms, it's not very good at all."
Ling Miaomiao knew what would occur mostly in the plot. Although the act of her sending out a letter seemed rather innocent, it would cause huge waves in the plot later on. Looking from this angle, she was considered a NPC, pushing along the plot diligently.
Mu Sheng squinted at her: "You want to also go investigate at the same time?"
Ling Miaomiao looked very sincere: "It's so hot outside, if we don't do our errands, Sister Mu would have to run around for our sake, would you be able to take that?"
Lu Jiu had already stayed in the Liuyue Palace for 4 hours and his back was completely soaked in sweat.
As he walked on the path out of the palace, his steps were rather weak, but they were much lighter compared to when he entered.
His head was lowered as he let Mu Yao take the lead. However, Mu Yao slowed her pace and purposely stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
"I've heard that Mister Lu Jiu's Agarwood Hotel's business is very popular. It's a unique existence within Chang An."
Lu Jiu wiped off a layer of sweat from his forehead and humbly smiled: "Not at all, not at all. I'm merely a lowly businessman barely making enough to get by."
Mu Yao turned around and sized up his face. Lu Jiu was around twenty years of age but was already a rather famous Incense Master in the capital and rivers of business would flow in everyday. For a business person like him to mix into the fold for so long was all due to him being this low-key and unassuming. He was smooth and slick with how he dealt with matters, to the point he adapted to the circumstances like he was afraid of even the slightest thing happening.
Mu Yao looked at him for a long time before opening her mouth, there was no anger or joy audible within her tone: "...For Mr. Lu to put your safety in front of your principles is right. However, you have to be careful in keeping your conscience intact."
While she spoke, her color glass pupils seemed extraordinarily bright and the teardrop birthmark below her eye very cold and distant. She looked very pure and unadulterated, someone who wasn't allowed to be cheated or hold malicious thoughts towards.
Lu Jiu's footsteps paused in a short time. His body was slightly shaking as he quickly lowered his voice: "Miss Mu, this matter is too complicated. I advise you all to not investigate deeply..."
A flash of investigative suspicion flew through Mu Yao's brows; She calmly asked: "Mr. Lu, your meaning is?"
Seeing Lu Jiu hesitate, Mu Yao unconsciously turned around to look for Liu Fuyi's figure. However, what she saw was Princess Duanyang with her rosy sunset dress walking with him shoulder to shoulder. They were walking far behind, so much so that it was difficult to make out their faces.
She silently turned back around, her voice containing some moodiness: "You can be at ease. We demon hunters live our lives running about for the benefit of the common people, we don't even fear demons. Naturally, we don't fear threats or a strong force."
Lu Jiu faltered for a moment before sighing: "As a businessman, I've made friends from all sorts of trade. The information I've learnt is both bountiful and disordered..." He clenched his teeth and lowered his voice, "Exorcist Mu, you've been to the Imperial family's Xingshan Temple before, what did you think about it?"
"Imposing and grand." Mu Yao muttered to herself, "But I had some misgivings... I'm not very knowledgeable in the field of fengshui1 , but I remember that great halls should be backed against a mountain. Xingshan Temple is only a scant distance from the city yet it's surroundings are empty. It feels quite improper."
Lu Jiu shook his head and sighed, "What you said is right. The temple's fengshui should be zi facing wu sitting on the wang kong lines. Only this way can you easily leap out of the Three Realms and not remain within the five phases. When the Xingshan Temple was built, the exorcists took great care in picking out a most suitable place for the temple: Leaning against the mountain."2
"The reason why you felt it was strange, that was the reason... Dowager Consort Zhao has prayed to Buddha for a decade, but a decade ago, the Xingshan Temple wasn't the one you all saw that day."
Below the wooden window, lush daylilies moderately hid the palace paths. There was a delicate and petite figure standing in the shadow of a japanese zelkova tree.
"Peiyun, if you know anything please say it. I still have many things to deal with." The silk robed court eunuch before her had a horsetail whisk on their front. He looked all around before moving his anxious gaze to the frustrated face of the young lady before him.
"...The princess seems to have taken a liking to that Exorcist Liu." Peiyun was carrying a food box in her hands and below her long lashes was a face full of doubt and hesitation.
"Then you..."
The two of them discussed in whispers for quite a while before going their separate ways, one left and one right. Their figures disappeared in the two extremities of the forked path.
"Hmph, as expected..."
The Fengyang Palace's windows were like a gateway to a different scene, a secret landscape hidden within the frame.
The wooden window was softly closed and the several little palace maids behind the window looked at each other in dismay, "Sister Peiyun, as it turns out, Sister Peiyun truly has been in contact with people from other palaces all this time..."
"Shhh..." A depressed expression appeared on Peiyu's childish face, "All of you keep it in. There will inevitably be a day where we grab a hold of evidence. I will personally hand her over to the princess then!"
___________________________________
The further south they went, the less they saw of the lofty and magnificent ocher eaves. On the top of the plain was a massive plain of tall grass, reaching the height of half a person. At the end of the plains was an unending horizon of fertile agricultural fields; At a glance, one couldn't see the end in sight.
The eye-piercing sunlight shone through the lush trees and created copper coin-like circles of illuminance upon the ground.
Ling Miaomiao followed Mu Sheng and leaped down from the horse before quickly hiding into the shadow of a tree. Her neck hurt from the continuous fiery slaps of the sun and her whole body emitted heat.
Mu Sheng wore black all over and his ponytail was tied high up. His hair lightly bounced along behind him and surprisingly, there wasn't even the smallest bead of sweat on his face. It was simply unscientifically against all common sense.
Ling Miaomiao leaned on the tree as she gulped down half a container of water. She let a lot of the water leak out and it flowed down her neck into the collar of the light purple jacket she wore.
Ling Miaomiao was greedy for the cold. Her upper jacket was weaved out of cold silk and the strap of her dudou[3] was barely visible through her jacket. After getting drenched in water, the strap looked startlingly scarlet in comparison to her snow white skin. The collision of different colors made it look like a little snake aiming to drill itself into her heart.
Mu Sheng felt sudden fury at this scene: "Do you have a leak in your mouth?"
The young girl only then blushed and stopped out of embarrassment. She wiped her mouth and said: "I'm sorry....." Before she even finished her words, the tidbit of shame she felt disappeared as she measured him up and down and asked curiously: "How do you not feel even the slightest bit of heat?"
A sneer of a smile did Mu Sheng leak out. He didn't even want to bother with her thus turned around and left. Ling Miaomiao hastily followed up: "Do you want some water?"
He paused for a moment before turning around and accepting it. He raised his head to drink but suddenly felt the weight of Miaomiao's focused gaze on his face. His long lashes moved and he met her gaze: "Why are you looking at me?"
Ling Miaomiao was under such duress from the sun that her cheeks had turned crimson. Her slightly squinting eyes reflected the broken rays of the sun: "I'm learning how to drink without leaking."
"..." Mu Sheng turned around to face her with his back to continue drinking.
They had already sent out the letter and Mu Sheng was pulling the horse along by the reins. On his right, Ling Miaomiao was half-dead and half-alive as she followed along. She was even aimlessly treading in the direction of the south. The sun was scorching but... for some reason, with someone as company, the road was exceptionally peaceful.
"So hot..." What girls feared the most in their life was the hot summer sun. Ling Miaomiao used her palm to cover her face. She dragged her heavy feet as she stuck herself towards a tree trunk.
Mu Sheng's shadow fell below his boots. He pursed his thin lips as he walked about under the blistering sun as if it was nonexistent. He was repeatedly gazing at Ling Miaomiao's figure out of the corner of his eye.
He couldn't understand how the girl beside him could suddenly turn into a shriveled up plant, weakly wrapped up into a ball on the ground, just like she had all of her essence sucked out of her. Especially once she accidentally swayed into his clothes, she shrunk back like it had bit her. He had immediately lost control and pulled her over to ask with a dark expression: "Why are you dodging."
"Try and touch yourself...." Ling Miaomiao's sullen face caused Mu Sheng to reach out with his hand to touch the clothes covering his stomach. The black cloth had already turned into searing hot material by the sweltering sun.
Mu Sheng was still calm as he loosened the tie around his wrist and pulled his sleeve up to his elbow. His snow white arm was visible and he indicated to her to try touching in disgruntlement.
Miaomiao was scared by this action of his but she didn't dare throw away the black lotus's face so she carefully reached out to touch him. Her eyes immediately flew wide open.
She mentally exclaimed in shock: "Does he really have ice flesh and jade bones!?"
In this kind of weather, whoever was cold was the boss. She instinctually neared him and her ice silk jacket brushed past his exposed flesh. Her blazing palm repeatedly rubbed against his arm and her entire person stuck onto him, bringing along with it a faint wave of her fragrance.
The youth's sensitivity suddenly grew manifolds. He couldn't help but let down his sleeve, "Miss Ling, can't you be a little more reserved?"
If he was a cat, all of his fur would've been patted flat by her. This person didn't have a normal person's level of a thick face. A moment prior, she had been trying her utmost to avoid him and in the next she treated like an ice block. She didn't just touch, because looking at her appearance, she looked like she would start hugging him at any moment.
Ling Miaomiao observed and noticed his expression and thus shrunk away while muttering a sentence: "Wasn't it Young Noble Mu who told me to touch?"
"What?"
Ling Miaomiao gestured a 'time-out' to him as she didn't even have the energy to argue with him. After two steps, she couldn't help but very carefully ask: "Mu Sheng, how much long before we arrive?"
"Arrive?" He coldly smiled, "We basically haven't left at all. We've been going south all this time."
"What??!!" Ling Miaomiao felt like she was about to collapse. She twisted her head around to peruse the surroundings, "Are you sure? To me, everything around looks the same."
The youth's mouth pulled up, and below his lashes was all full of derision as he closed in on her ear to softly speak: "Going into the outside world and carelessly dying in an unknown place is all because one can't recognize the road."
Ling Miaomiao had the guts to get angry but wasn't brave enough to enunciate it out. She pursed her lips and pursed them again as her face was completely full of helpless blankness: "... we're in the desolate wilderness, are we on the road back to Taicang County?"
Mu Sheng also felt a lack of interest. He turned around and patted the horse's back as he spoke in a cold voice: "Then let's head back, get on."
"Mu Sheng!"
He turned around and saw the breeze lightly blow up her thin jacket and soft hair. She was watching the far end of the fields and paddies. She reached out and pointed at the grey shadow in the distance hidden within the dense vegetation: "Look..."
Suddenly, a great gale blew through the tall grass. A path of sunlight shone down upon the glazed tiles of the uplifted eaves. It looked like a reflective mirror as brilliant light shot towards their eyes, causing Ling Miaomiao to instinctively avoid it.
The eaves were below a cliff and the uneven layers of the arches snaked upwards. The jade steps were ash grey just like dried up bones in the middle of grass. A vast mirage had seemingly appeared for no reason.
Ling Miaomiao hesitantly turned around to look at Mu Sheng: "Did we just... walk back to Xingshan Temple?"
[1] Fengshui: Aka Geomancy. A pseudoscientific traditional practice originating from ancient China, which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. (shamelessly inserted from wikipedia)