We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 492: I Like You...

Above the courtyard on Elementary Learning Peak,

a few especially bright stars flickered coldly, like chips of ice in the twelfth month of winter. You could see the light in them, but you could not feel any warmth.

The Milky Way stretched across the middle of the sky, denser than before, a hazy spill of broken light.

If you looked closely, it seemed as though countless stars were crowded together inside that glow—and yet it also seemed as though they were all fast asleep.

“Oh, my dear girl... what you described just now—that’s what liking someone is...”

Xu Bei’er had already left Tushan Jingci’s courtyard, but sitting there alone, Tushan Jingci still stared blankly ahead, replaying those last words over and over in her mind.

Her lashes fluttered as she lowered her eyes, as though she were trying very hard to digest something.

Her expression was tangled with emotions she herself could not quite name.

“So this is... liking someone?”

She murmured it under her breath, so softly it sounded as though she were asking herself—or perhaps asking the silent night.

“Is liking someone... supposed to feel like this?”

“Could it be that I... I...” Tushan Jingci suddenly sat up straight. Her heart lurched into a frantic gallop, thudding so hard it felt as though it might burst from her throat. “Could it be... that I really do like him?”

“But... how could that be?”

At some point, a faint blush had crept across her cheeks. Her thoughts were a hopeless tangle, impossible to sort out no matter how hard she tried.

“No, impossible, impossible... how could I possibly like him...”

She pressed her lips together tightly. In those beautiful fox eyes, a flash of panic passed, then confusion, and beneath it, a thread of feeling even she could neither name nor explain.

All at once, Tushan Jingci shot to her feet, lifted her skirts, and ran out of the courtyard without looking back.

“Huh? Young Lady, where are you going? Young Lady—”

Yueshi was sweeping the courtyard. The moment she looked up and saw her young mistress hurrying away, she immediately called after her.

“Sister Yueshi, I’m going out for a bit! I’ll be back later!”

The girl only waved a hand as she ran farther and farther off, her voice scattering into the night wind.

“The Young Lady really is something... running out this late at night...”

Standing there in the courtyard, Yueshi watched the figure disappear and could not help muttering in quiet complaint.

Deep down, she was starting to regret it—regret softening two years ago and letting the Young Lady go see Xiao Mo.

Since then, the Young Lady had become impossible to restrain, running off to Xiao Mo’s place every few days.

At this rate...

When Madam arrived, how was she supposed to explain any of this...?

......

Moonlight flowed like water through the bamboo grove.

Xian Xichun lay dozing leisurely in a hammock strung between two thick bamboo stalks.

Over the past two years, he had not spent all his time sitting on that bluestone slab. After all, once the days dragged on long enough, a man had to make himself comfortable somehow.

So he had rigged up this hammock between two sturdy stalks of bamboo, so that when he stood watch at night, he could at least sleep a little more soundly.

As for whether someone might sneak in under cover of darkness to assassinate Xiao Mo, Xian Xichun was no longer especially worried.

Leaving aside the fact that the Tushan clan had not sent anyone to trouble Xiao Mo since the assassination attempt two years ago—even if someone did come, his natal flying sword would alert him.

Just like now.

His sentient natal flying sword floated quietly in the air, the tip swaying gently from side to side like an alert hound, keeping watch over the surroundings for any would-be killer.

A moment later, the sword suddenly stopped in midair. Its tip trembled slightly as strands of sword qi began to spill from it, aiming straight in one direction.

But very soon, as though it had sensed a familiar aura, it relaxed again and returned to its lazy, drifting rhythm.

Lying in the hammock, Xian Xichun slowly opened his eyes, yawned, and muttered helplessly to himself, “Honestly. Coming by again this late at night? Young people these days really do have a lot of energy.”

He shook his head, rolled over, and casually set up a barrier around himself, intending to shut out all outside disturbances.

And yet, before long, someone stepped right through it.