Dou Akou looked in the direction of the voice and saw Fu Jiuxin squat down: "I'll carry you on my back."
"Oh my! Sir! You're such a kind person!" Dou Akou exclaimed happily, and immediately ran towards Fu Jiuxin without hesitation.
—The gentleman's back was far more alluring than Xu Li's hands.
Xu Liren gave a mocking smirk and withdrew his hand.
Dou Akou ran up to Fu Jiuxin and hurriedly wrapped herself around him. Feeling that it wasn't stable enough, she moved her bottom up a bit more.
"All done? I'm getting up." Fu Jiuxin carried her and stood up steadily.
Ah! Dou Akou exclaimed happily in her heart. Her husband's back was so broad, and his steps were so steady. Lying on it was both warm and comfortable. She leaned her head against Fu Jiuxin's back, and with the rhythm of his walking, she actually began to feel drowsy.
Fu Jiuxin was feeling very unwell.
With his skills, carrying someone up the stairs wouldn't have been difficult for him. But the person he was carrying was Dou Akou. That little rascal who had followed him around since childhood had, over the years, quietly stolen the secret of time and grown into a young woman.
Her soft, fragrant body pressed against his back, and he could almost feel the fullness of her breasts. Her head hung down to the side of his neck, and warm breath occasionally brushed against his skin. Perhaps because he had been sleeping in the same position for a long time, she unconsciously turned her head and her lips brushed against the back of Fu Jiuxin's neck.
The man nearly tumbled down the steps. He quietly focused his mind and calmed his disordered breathing. It took him a while to start to feel calm again.
With a calm and composed heart, he carried Dou Akou on his back, and his pace quickened. As the last rays of sunlight disappeared over the Qingyong City hilltop, he reached the mountain gate.
He tilted his head slightly: "Miss, we've arrived."
"Huh?" Dou Akou slid off Fu Jiuxin's back in a daze, swallowed, and opened her eyes to see Gu Huaibi and Tang Xunzhen standing in front of her to pick them up.
Tang Xunzhen clicked his tongue and shook his head: "Akou, I've been waiting for you here from morning to afternoon, and you've been taking advantage of Mr. Tang, enjoying your life so comfortably. Akou, don't you think this thousand-step stone staircase is a bit too short?"
Tang Xunzhen's sharp tongue could be so witty it would make even the dead blush and run away. And Gu Huaibi, adding fuel to the fire, exclaimed, "Junior Sister, I think Qingyong City is about to have a wedding?"
"No, no! Don't talk nonsense!" Dou Akou stamped her foot anxiously. If the master heard such words, he would definitely be angry! The master was someone to be admired from afar and not to be trifled with. Dou Akou would not even dare to touch a single hair on the master's head!
She glanced at Fu Jiuxin, but the man remained expressionless, as calm as ever.
Gu Huaibi looked at Fu Jiuxin, then at Dou Akou, laughed, and hooked his arm around Fu Jiuxin's neck as they walked, saying, "Brother Fu, come on, I've been waiting for you for ages. I brought some wine from Xilie Fort, aged wine that I buried under the pear tree in my yard five years ago. It's still unopened, waiting for you to drink it together."
He walked away until he could no longer see Dou Akou and the others, then leaned in and asked slyly, "Brother Fu, what's up? Did you win over Junior Sister?"
Fu Jiuxin remained noncommittal, a slight smile playing on his lips: "Not yet. I'm waiting for her to figure it out herself."
Gu Huaibi exclaimed in surprise, "Wait for her to figure it out on her own? When will that be?!"
"Isn't there also Xu Liren?"
"You mean... let Dou Akou learn what love is and how to love someone from Xu Liren first? Don't joke around, what if she really falls for him?"
"No," Fu Jiuxin said calmly, and walked away first.
Gu Huaibi stood there, stunned, and saw a branch of red plum blossoms climbing over the wall at the gate of Qingyong City, blooming in full glory outside. A cook from Qingyong City took an axe and cleanly chopped off the branches that had climbed over the wall in a few swift strokes, using them as firewood.
Gu Huaibi shivered for no reason and jogged after Fu Jiuxin.
Tang Xunzhen grabbed Dou Akou's hand and exclaimed, "Let's go, let's go! I have so much to tell you!"
Dou Akou was dragged along by her against her will, feeling as if she had forgotten something.
When she turned around, she saw Xu Liren standing silently, whom she had ignored from beginning to end, and then she remembered what she had forgotten.
From the moment Fu Jiuxin carried her up the steps to the lively greetings she exchanged with her senior brothers and sisters, it seemed everyone had forgotten about Xu Liren. No one paid him any attention, and no one noticed him. He stood to the side, wondering how painful it must have been for him.
Dou Akou felt very guilty. She called out, "Xu Li, I..."
Xu Liren acted as if she hadn't heard him and walked away on her own.
Tang Xunzhen glanced at Xu Liren quickly, then dragged Dou Akou along even faster: "Oh, let's go, let's go. I brought some Ruyi cakes from home, let's eat them together."
That evening, Tang Xunzhen lingered at Dou Akou's place again, talking at length. She said that more and more people were learning about the treasure of the Siyou Ancient Kingdom. It seemed as if someone in the martial arts world had deliberately spread this news. Several major sects, including Xilie Fortress and the Li Family of Jiangnan, had discussed it and planned to hold a martial arts conference in Xilie Fortress in early March to discuss the matter.
She asked again, "Ah Kou, are you going? I am going. Just to broaden my horizons. All the martial arts sects will be there, including the Twelve Rows of Waterways, the Seven Kill Linked Docks of Assassination, the Gongsun Mo family who are skilled in strategy... Wow, just thinking about it makes me excited."
Dou Akou was completely confused: "Is it fun?"
"Of course! Qingyong City will definitely send people too. Akou, let's go together, shall we?"
Tang Xunzhen got excited while talking, gesturing wildly and animatedly, but soon got tired and fell asleep.
While she was fast asleep, Dou Akou secretly got up and slipped out the door.
She felt incredibly guilty. She was the one who brought Xu Liren down from Qingyong City and home, but now she was ignoring him, leaving Xu Liren all alone. She felt like a mother hen who had lost her chicks—it was awful.
Dou Akou sneaked to Xu Liren's residence. There was only a dim lamp in the room. Xu Liren's shadow was cast on the window paper. He was hunched over and coughing painfully. Dou Akou was startled and rushed in. Sure enough, Xu Liren had fallen ill again.
He leaned back in the chair, clutching his throat with one hand, gasping for breath. Despite the freezing weather, he was sweating profusely.
Dou Akou looked at him worriedly: "Xu Li, are all those ginseng supplements completely useless?"
Xu Li gritted his teeth and endured the pain, then sat down with difficulty in the chair: "Dou Yacai, you're so stupid. I told you this a long time ago, my illness is caused by a poison I was given when I was very young. At first, it didn't flare up much, but the older I get, the more often it flares up. When I'm thirty, the poison will take effect and I will die."
Dou Akou felt very sad. Although she had heard Xu Liren mention it before, hearing it again made her feel sorry for Xu Liren.
Is there no way to cure it?
"Maybe, I don't know anyway." Xu Liren said nonchalantly, then looked at Dou Akou and suddenly raised an eyebrow: "Dou Akou, I don't have much time left to live, and you still won't admit that you like me?"
Dou Akou was bewildered: "I like you?"
Xu Liren had mentioned it when he hugged her last time, but she hadn't taken it to heart then. Now, hearing Xu Liren bring it up again, she felt very bewildered.
"Yes. You see, I feel unwell when I have an attack, but I like to talk to you and I'm happy when I'm with you. That means you like me."
"Oh." Dou Akou seemed to realize something. "Then I like you too, sir."
Xu Liren chuckled coolly, "That kind of liking is different from this kind of liking."
Dou Akou was even more confused.
Xu Liren lowered her voice and whispered, "If you like me, you have to listen to me. You do whatever I tell you to do. Understand, Fatty Dou?"
I want you to lend me a hand so that I can ascend to the throne.
Twelve Forms
The next day, Dou Akou got up very early, and Jiu Rou Sanren said he would teach her new tricks.
The carefree man stood on one leg on the plum blossom stakes of the Elephant Dance Platform, his white robes and white beard fluttering in the wind.
Dou Akou looked at him with reverence: "Master is truly a sage."
The carefree drunkard turned around and grinned, "Disciple, did you bring your master a New Year's gift?"
Dou Akou bent down and laboriously carried over a large object: "Yes, Master. Look, this is a new longevity plum bonsai that we have cultivated. It has been pruned and shaped into the form of a magpie perched on a plum tree. Do you like it, Master? Even the palace doesn't have one like this yet."
Looking at the lush, half-person-high plum tree, Jiu Rou San Ren (the Wine and Meat Hermit) chuckled awkwardly. He was a vulgar man who loved eating meat and drinking alcohol, but disliked potted plants.
Fu Jiuxin, who came with Dou Akou, carried a string of wine gourds: "Here, freshly brewed buckwheat liquor. It tastes excellent with dried yellow beef."
The carefree drunkard's eyes lit up. He floated down from the plum blossom stakes, thinking that his disciple Fu Jiuxin was indeed perceptive. He uncorked the gourd and poured some into his mouth. After downing half the bottle, he let out a long, contented sigh and said with boundless pride, "Akou, come, while I'm still drunk, I'll teach you this Twelve Forms of Peak Slaying. Combined with the 'Wandering Clouds and Startled Swallows' technique you learned before, it'll be more than enough to protect you! Disciple, watch!"
He leaped into the air on the last word, gracefully landing beside Dou Akou. He deftly unfastened her sword, and with a flash of light, he adopted a powerful and unrestrained stance.
The Twelve Forms of Slaying Peak are simple and clean, seemingly full of openings and weaknesses, but their moves are fierce and domineering. The overwhelming momentum has a sense of looking down on the world, and others are so suppressed by this momentum that they can't even breathe.
Dou Akou instinctively felt the blade's wind rushing towards her. She subconsciously took a few steps back, closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, she saw Jiu Rou Sanren already in mid-air, breathing heavily: "Chop!" His shout was like a booming bell, his momentum shaking the heavens. Dou Akou saw him holding the blade with both hands, and in a blur, a plum blossom stake was cleaved in two from top to bottom.
Dou Akou was stunned. Those slashes and cuts were like the Milky Way falling from the heavens, cascading down and tearing through the air and mountains. She was completely shocked.
The wine-and-meat hermit let out a burp: "Disciple, remember? Remember to practice hard."
Dou Akou nodded solemnly.
The old man returned the knife to Dou Akou: "My disciple, practice hard. A martial arts conference will be held in Xilie Fort on March 25th to discuss the treasures left behind by the Siyou Ancient Kingdom Dynasty. Our Qingyong City will also be sending people. Although we have many disciples in Qingyong City, most of them practice martial arts from other sects and are not from our own family. If we really have to send people, we won't be able to send many. You must make your master proud."
Dou Akou felt somewhat frustrated. She had originally thought that Tang Xunzhen's talk about ancient kingdoms and treasures was just a private conversation between the two of them, or perhaps Tang Xunzhen's own dream. She hadn't expected that it had already become a hot topic in the martial arts world, and that she couldn't escape it either.
She thought her grand ambition was simple: to eat plain rice, braised pork, and a handsome young man.
Seeing her displeasure, the Wine and Meat Hermit coaxed and tricked her, "My disciple, the treasures in that ancient kingdom's treasury aren't just gold and silver. It's said that there are many lost martial arts manuals. Fifty years ago, the ruler of Siyou Kingdom was a master swordsman. His Chu Shi sword defeated the entire Central Plains martial arts world. Unfortunately, Siyou Kingdom was located in the Western Regions, with countless shifting sands in the Gobi Desert. A great storm buried the entire Haohui City underground, and Siyou Kingdom gradually declined. The Chu Shi sword and the sword manual were also lost in the shifting sands along with Haohui City."
The Recluse of Wine and Meat spoke with great regret, but Dou Akou felt nothing. She looked at the Recluse of Wine and Meat and said, "Is that sword so powerful? I think your sword is quite good too." Besides, the key is not the sword, but the person wielding it.
The Wine and Meat Hermit stamped his foot: "Sigh, besides the secret manual, what else is there? I've heard that the city lord of Haohui City is skilled in medicine and has written a book called 'Thousand Gold Prescriptions,' which records techniques for bringing the dead back to life for various incurable diseases. As soon as this news spread, the Ding family of the Hundred Herbs Classic of the Martial World couldn't sit still. I think they will definitely go to this martial arts tournament as well."
Dou Akou's heart skipped a beat. A prescription for a terminal illness? What if... what if this prescription could cure the poison that Xu Liren had been given since childhood?
She fell silent, pondering the matter in her heart.
The wine-and-meat hermit gave Dou Akou a few more pointers, and after patiently watching her practice twice, he happily left with a string of wine gourds in his arms.
Dou Akou asked Fu Jiuxin, "Sir, this treasure... it belongs to the Siyou Kingdom, after all. Wouldn't it be inappropriate for us to go treasure hunting? Sir, do you think there are any descendants of the Siyou Kingdom left?"
"I don't know." Fu Jiuxin lowered his eyes indifferently, looking at the ordinary sword in his hand.
Dou Akou's life suddenly became fulfilling.
Firstly, Fu Jiuxin was very diligent in urging her; secondly, she wanted to go to Siyou Kingdom to search for treasures, but the prerequisite was that she first had to complete the disciple trial at the end of February in Qingyong City before she could go to the martial arts tournament.
When she practiced her sword, her master would watch from the side, and occasionally he would suddenly strike. His sword could always accurately find the flaw in what Dou Akou thought was a solid blade and pierce into the opening, then stop an inch in front of her body.
Tang Xunzhen and Gu Huaibi would also come over to give her pointers when they had time. At first, they sparred one by one, but later they often fought together. The silver whip, which moved like butterflies among flowers, and the autumn water blade, which was as thin as a cicada's wing, were used for long-range attacks with the silver whip and close-range attacks with the sharp blade. The two of them cooperated perfectly.
At first, Dou Akou was always forced into a sorry state and had to rely on Fu Jiuxin to save her. Later, she gradually managed to exchange a few blows with him.
Gu Huaibi nodded: "Junior Sister's skills have greatly improved."
Dou Akou was very happy.
After finishing her martial arts practice that day, she planned to go and tell Xu Liren the good news.
Walking a short distance away, he saw several newly initiated disciples from Qingyong City teasing Xu Liren.
Some people said his face was prettier than a girl's, and they wanted to strip him to see if he was a woman dressed as a man. Xu Liren fell to the ground, unable to struggle, and his expression was very indifferent.
"You!" Dou Akou rushed over, "What are you doing!"
Upon seeing her, the group realized she was a disciple of the Wine and Meat Hermit, a close friend of Tang Xunzhen and Gu Huaibi, and had a powerful master—something they couldn't afford to offend—so they scattered in a panic.
Dou Akou helped Xu Liren up and brushed the dust off his clothes: "Xu Li, are you in pain?"
Xu Liren pushed her away; he hated being touched.
Dou Akou didn't care at all: "Xu Li, why don't I teach you martial arts? The 'Wandering Clouds and Startling Swallows' and 'Twelve Forms of Slaying Peaks' that my master taught me are very powerful."
Xu Li sneered, "Is this the move you've been practicing these past few days? It's really bad."