Valle del Hombre Salvaje de Qingshan

Capítulo 39

"Need people?" Mo Xibei asked. "My Chunfeng Ruyi Tower is right across the street. Do you need a few servants?"

“No, those who attacked the young master that day were all experts. How can they be of any use?” Tian Xin shook her head, her face contorted with anxiety, as if she were ready to kneel down before Mo Xibei at any moment.

"They're all experts, it's pointless for us to stay. Forget it, hurry up, I'm sleepy." Mo Xibei waved his hand impatiently, and only after watching Tian Xin and the divine doctor leave did he close the door. However, he didn't want to go to the bed, so he casually moved a chair to the wall and sat down. He closed his eyes slightly, deciding to take a short nap.

When she's sleepy, Mo Xibei can sleep anywhere. This is a rule that Honglu has observed. Although Mo Xibei usually only sleeps on a thick, soft wool bed, under a quilt scented with roses, and on a pillow filled with chrysanthemum petals, she can actually sleep standing up even when there's nothing there. Mo Xibei calls it survival of the fittest. Honglu says she's just being overly fussy. Anyway, she falls asleep anyway, and surprisingly, she sleeps soundly and even has a short dream.

In her dream, Chu Junfeng held a food box in his hands and said to her: I was wrong. I shouldn't have deliberately made you angry. Please forgive me.

In her dream, Mo Xibei scoffed at him with great pride, then Chu Junfeng opened the food box and said to her: "Look. I made all of this myself; it took me a long time. Try it. It's delicious. If you don't like it, you don't have to forgive me. If you do, then you will forgive me."

Mo Xibei then said: Do you think I'm a three-year-old? You think you can get rid of me with a box of cookies?

Yes, the food box contained perfectly baked cookies, topped with fresh butter and garnished with small pieces of chocolate. Mo Xibei hadn't tasted such deliciousness in many years, and finally couldn't resist reaching out to pick one up and take a look. But then, the dream abruptly ended.

Before even tasting what it was like, Mo Xibei thought with annoyance, "Why did I wake up?"

Reluctantly opening her eyes, she was momentarily dazed. Chu Junfeng was indeed standing in front of her, but he didn't have a food box or cookies in his hand. He was only holding a thick cloak, which he seemed to be trying to cover her with.

"Did I wake you up?" Seeing Mo Xibei's eyes clear up from confusion and then immediately roll her eyes at him, Chu Junfeng was somewhat puzzled. However, he certainly remembered that Mo Xibei had angrily tried to leave earlier, so he spoke cautiously, ignoring the glare. "Couldn't you have waited until I tasted that cookie before covering me with the blanket?" Mo Xibei said indignantly. "Or you should have woken me up before I even saw what was in that food box."

"A food box, cookies?" Chu Junfeng was completely confused this time. Holding the cloak in his hand, he was a little embarrassed and had to put the cloak aside. "I'm sorry to have disturbed your sweet dream. What were you dreaming about? I'll make it up to you."

"If you can compensate me, I won't have to dream anymore." Mo Xibei knew he was being unreasonable, but he still felt frustrated. Thinking of Chu Junfeng's previous "bad" behavior, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at him again.

Chu Junfeng smiled bitterly, pressed his hand to his chest and retreated to the bed. He seemed to think for a while before saying, "My injury is really not serious this time. If you want to go back to Jiangnan, then I can take care of Miss Murong."

"You're going to take care of her?" Mo Xibei snorted. "Lian Yun isn't an object. Do you think you can just take care of her like that? Who are you to her? What right do you have to say such things? What do you take a woman for? Let alone whether she's willing or not, she can't stay with me for now."

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Chu Junfeng said, his chest tightening at Mo Xibei’s long string of words. After a long pause, he finally said, “Xibei, I know you have a deep misunderstanding about me. I don’t expect you to understand me or forgive me. No matter what happened in the past, I really just hope you can leave this vortex and return to your old life as soon as possible. Actually, I know that it’s naive of me to think this way. The martial world is a quagmire. Once you step into it, you can’t expect to get out except by dying. It’s not just you, it’s the same for me.”

“The path of the martial world may not be as terrible as you say,” Mo Xibei said with a slightly relaxed expression. “I just didn’t expect that I would be drawn into this martial world because of a dried vegetable duck. But now that I’m involved, what’s the use of being afraid or regretting it? Since the martial world is meant to be navigated, instead of living in fear, I might as well be happy and maybe even make a name for myself.”

Watching Mo Xibei's eyes gleam in the candlelight, and the carefree smile on his lips, Chu Junfeng couldn't take his eyes off him. Yes, that was the look on his face, that was the man he was. All he had ever wanted in his life was this.

"Northwest, I never thought I could actually find someone like you." Almost uncontrollably, Chu Junfeng let out this soft sigh.

"What's so strange about finding me?" Mo Xibei felt a little uneasy under his gaze. Although he knew there was nothing wrong with him, he still subconsciously checked himself over.

“That’s strange,” Chu Junfeng smiled and changed the subject, “You still haven’t told me what the cookie you just dreamed about was. Let’s see if I can make it for you.”

"Cookies are a kind of biscuit. Well, you don't even know what a biscuit is. It's just a kind of dessert. It has a rich milky aroma, melts in your mouth, is sweet, and is very crisp. Sigh, I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, I can only eat this kind of dessert but I can't make it. I've asked the chef to try it repeatedly, but it still didn't work." Mo Xibei was in a slightly better mood when talking about cookies, but he was still a little frustrated.

“That’s too complicated for me, but,” Chu Junfeng said with a smile, “Although I don’t know how to make the kind of dessert you’re talking about, I happened to learn how to make a milky dessert on the way to the Southern Shaolin Temple. I’ll make it for you to try.”

"It's so late, where are we going to find milk?" Mo Xibei felt a little hungry and was quite tempted by the idea.

"Because I didn't know when I might need it, I asked Tian Xin to buy a dairy cow and tie it up in the stable." Chu Junfeng seemed very excited, and his originally pale face, which was flushed from blood loss, was now flushed with a faint red.

"You're well-prepared, why didn't you say so earlier?" Mo Xibei jumped up, emptied the large teapot on the table, and was about to start milking the cows.

"Let's go together," Chu Junfeng said naturally as he walked over and gently took Mo Xibei's hand. The grip was light, yet it was impossible for Mo to break free.

The two walked hand in hand to the backyard, where a black and white spotted cow indeed monopolized the entire stable. When Mo Xibei approached, it shifted its hooves slightly uneasily, as if trying to dodge.

"Good cow, I'm just going to squeeze out a little milk from you. Be good and don't move." Mo Xibei was dizzy from the smell of the cow, but he still told Chu Junfeng to hold the teapot on the other side of the cow while he rolled up his sleeves and started milking.

She had seen milking on TV, but having lived two lives, she hadn't had the chance to try it herself. So, she tried to imitate it, but the first milking was too light and didn't produce a single drop of milk. The second milking was too heavy, and the cow was very dissatisfied. It turned its body and head to the side and nudged Mo Xibei, while its hind hooves were aimed at Chu Junfeng.

Both of them dodged quickly. Chu Junfeng hugged the teapot tightly, pressed it against his chest, and laughed, "So you don't know how to milk a cow."

"I'm not anything special, but do you think you are?" Mo Xibei's face also turned slightly red, but it was late at night, so no one could see it.

"I don't know either," Chu Junfeng readily admitted, "but let's both give it a try."

One person held up the teapot, bending over to wait for the milk to be dispensed, while the other reached out and milked the cow, sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully. The cow naturally got impatient, but it was scattered all over the place and couldn't reach the two of them. At first, they managed to suppress their laughter, but when they saw each other's disheveled state, they finally couldn't help but burst into laughter. After finally managing to milk half a teapot, Chu Junfeng said, "That's enough, that's enough for this meal."

Volume Two: Traces Left by the Wind, Chapter Two: Love Is Hard to Express (Part Two)

"Are you alright?" Carrying a teapot, the two quietly slipped into the inn's kitchen. Seeing Chu Junfeng squatting in front of the stove with a bundle of firewood to start a fire, Mo Xibei finally remembered that the person in front of him seemed to be a seriously injured person.

"I'm not made of paper." Chu Junfeng didn't even look up, squatting in front of the stove, blowing on it repeatedly until he finally got the fire going. He added water to the large pot, covered it, and started looking around for a small container to boil the half-pot of milk. In fact, Chu Junfeng's desserts weren't complicated. Mo Xibei vaguely remembered eating them a long, long time ago at a small Cantonese fruit salad shop. Because each dish was small and delicate, she ordered many things: coconut milk herbal jelly, mango sago, and cantaloupe-garnished jelly, plus fruit pizza, roasted chicken wings, and black pepper steak. She was so engrossed in her meal that she didn't pay much attention to the rather ordinary-looking double-skin milk pudding, taking only one bite before pushing it aside. Later, she thought about that bowl of double-skin milk pudding, but when she went back, the shop had been converted into an internet cafe. She could only feel regret and then try to forget about it.

Chu Junfeng's double-skin milk pudding looked and tasted exceptionally good. To save a few steps, Mo Xibei simply squatted in front of the stove and ate most of the bowl. Then, he felt a chill on his scalp. When he looked up, Tian Xin was standing angrily in front of the kitchen door, holding a medicine pot in her hands.

"You've been gone for so long, so you've already prepared the medicine." Mo Xibei felt a little guilty, but smiled exceptionally sweetly.

"Young Master Mo, I only asked you to look after my young master for a while, and this is how you look after him?" Tian Xin's face darkened with anger. He had finished brewing the medicine at the divine physician's place and rushed back, only to find room number three of the Heavenly Pavilion empty. Chu Junfeng and Mo Xibei were nowhere to be seen. At first, he thought an enemy had attacked, and he was so startled that he almost dropped the medicine pot. Fortunately, he quickly calmed down and looked around the room. There were no signs of a struggle, and the doors and windows were tightly closed, so it didn't seem like an attack. Thinking about it, he suddenly remembered that this morning his young master had instructed him to buy a cow. He had found it strange at the time, wondering why his young master would need to buy a cow. Then he suddenly thought of Mo Xibei and rushed to the stable where the cow was kept. However, the ground was covered in messy footprints, and the cow was very unfriendly to people, completely unlike its docile behavior during the day. He hurriedly ran to the kitchen, but before he could even enter... Then they saw the young master sitting in front of the stove with his hand on his chest, while the gluttonous Mo Xibei was eating something.

Tian Xin was furious beyond measure, almost wanting to smash the medicine pot in his hand. However, he hesitated in the end, because he saw his young master turning his head to watch intently at the person squatting beside him, eating heartily. His eyes were gentle and affectionate, and a faint smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

Chu Junfeng was always smiling, and everyone thought he was a gentle person. But Tian Xin knew that for Chu Junfeng, that smile was a meaningless expression. When he smiled, it was no different from when others didn't. Sometimes, even when his smile seemed like a gentle breeze, it was actually a form of mockery, directed at others and at himself.

He had never seen Chu Junfeng smile like that before—a genuine, joyful, and affectionate smile. But he quickly became angry again because the person who should have seen it didn't even give the slightest reaction.

"Tian Xin, don't be so rude, I'm fine now." When Mo Xibei glanced guiltily at Chu Junfeng, his expression was already as usual. He stood up and said to Tian Xin, "You've been busy for half the night. Give me the medicine and go rest."

"Young Master, you always protect him." Tian Xin complained in a low voice, then came over and stuffed the medicine pot into Mo Xibei's hands. He then used his free hand to help Chu Junfeng, who had been sitting still. He knew that the young master liked cleanliness, and he wouldn't have been sitting on the stove if his body couldn't support him. He had just changed his mind at the last minute. He said to Mo Xibei, "Young Master Mo, it's inconvenient for me to hold the medicine pot. Please help my young master back to his room."

"Of course, of course," Mo Xibei nodded in agreement, reaching out to help Chu Junfeng. Even through his clothes, he could feel the heat radiating from Chu Junfeng's body. After taking a few steps, Chu Junfeng's legs gradually became weak.

That night, even after taking the medicine, Chu Junfeng's rapidly spreading fever persisted. Mo Xibei and Tian Xin took turns applying cold compresses with towels, but to no avail. By dawn, both of them were exhausted. "I'll go ask the renowned doctor to come and take another look. Young Master Mo, please don't bother him anymore," Tian Xin said, wanting to say something harsh, but remembering that she had ultimately brought Mo Xibei along to help, she didn't say anything more and quickly ran out.

"Northwest" helped Chu Junfeng change the towel. Mo Northwest leaned against the headboard and dozed off. But as soon as he nodded, he heard Chu Junfeng calling him.

"I'm here. Do you want some water?" Mo Xibei opened his eyes, but saw that Chu Junfeng's eyes were closed and he was not awake at all. For a moment, he didn't know if he was too sleepy and was hallucinating.

"Northwest, don't go, wait for me." After a pause, Chu Junfeng said again, his voice muffled and soft, as if he were talking in his sleep.