Xiao Xiao played happily for three or four hours, and only reluctantly left the toy room when she got hungry.
The living room lights weren't on, and there was no one in the house.
Xiao Xiao knocked on the master bedroom door, and as soon as she placed her hand on it, she felt a tingling sensation.
"Why would you need to set up an array or barrier at home?" Xiao Xiao was confused and shocked, and began to wonder if all sorts of evil forces had appeared after the revival of spiritual power.
As Xiao Xiao pondered this, the bedroom door opened.
Xu Yi knelt down and hugged her, "Are you hungry?"
"It seems a little bit." Xiao Xiao touched her belly. Now she was just like a human child, she felt pain, cold, and hunger.
Xu Yi prepared dinner for her and ate some with her.
Xiao Xiao pointed to the bedroom and asked the question that had been puzzling her.
"Have our enemies found us?"
Xu Yi tapped her forehead. "Don't overthink it. I have no enemies."
"Then why did you set up a barrier?" Xiao Xiao didn't understand. The spiritual energy had only just begun to recover, and the only way to use it was to store it within oneself. Absorbing and refining spiritual energy was quite laborious. If no enemies came looking for her, why would she do all this?
Xu Yi smiled and pinched her cheek, saying to her in the same way most people would coax a child, "You'll understand when you grow up."
"Okay." Xiao Xiao already felt a sense of crisis. As a celestial artifact that was fought over ten thousand years ago, she often worried that it would be taken away after the spiritual power was revived.
Xu Yi didn't pay attention to Xiao Xiao's thoughts. He patted her head, intending to help her take a bath and take her back to her room to sleep.
Xiao Xiao lay on the bed, her big eyes peeking out as she gazed eagerly at Xu Yi.
"Aren't you sleepy yet?" Xu Yi looked at Xiao Xiao with a helpless expression, glancing at the book "The Little Prince" that she had already finished reading.
Xiao Xiao shook her head and said excitedly to Xu Yi, "I also want to travel to other planets like the Little Prince."
"Are you sure?" Xu Yi placed the book on the bookshelf.
Xiao Xiao nodded very seriously.
Xu Yi stood by the window, looking at the twinkling stars in the night sky.
"Choose one you like, and I'll send it to you."
"Really?" Xiaoxiao crawled out of the blanket and climbed onto the windowsill with her little legs.
"Really. Go now and come back at dawn. Be careful not to be discovered by Miss Gu." Xu Yi sensed the surroundings again. "However, the nearby planets are all undeveloped. They might not even have air, let alone spiritual energy. Are you sure you want to go?"
"Go!" Xiao Xiao clenched her little fist.
Xu Yi removed the sword spirit of the Demonic Sword from Xiao Xiao's neck, and lightly touched Xiao Xiao's brow with her fingertip. Xiao Xiao turned into a ball of light.
That night, stargazers unexpectedly spotted a bright shooting star.
Gu Yueyue woke up at around 8 a.m.
Xu Yi was already having breakfast with Xiao Xiao.
Xiao Xiao, holding a spoon, excitedly told Xu Yi about what she had seen and heard the previous night.
"I saw a big spaceship. It 'whooshed' past me and then came back. It invited me to come in and play, and offered to take me back to their world. I didn't agree, and came back at dawn."
"We weren't exposed, it was so much fun."
"I want to go again in the future, to even farther places."
Gu Yueyue walked over, patted the little head, and asked with a smile, "What is the baby saying?"
"Speaking of last night..."
Xiao Xiao was interrupted halfway through her sentence by Xu Yi feeding her a bite of food.
"Xiaoxiao, you can't talk while eating at Teacher Gu's house. This is a rule set by Teacher Gu, and those who break the rule will be punished."
Xu Yi spoke to Xiao Xiao with a serious expression.
Xiao Xiao looked up at Gu Yueyue in fright, then quickly covered her mouth with her hand, indicating that she would not talk while eating.
Hearing Xu Yi's words and seeing Xiao Xiao's actions, Gu Yueyue was amused and annoyed. She raised her hand, grabbed Xu Yi's earlobe, and rubbed it with some force.
Xu Yi remained expressionless and continued feeding Xiao Xiao.
After the little one finished eating and left, Xu Yi finally picked up her own bowl.
"I checked your schedule. Jinshi TV's New Year's Eve Gala has invited you. Shouldn't you go to the rehearsal in advance?"
Xu Yi thought for a moment, "Sister Xiaoye said she'll go there the day after tomorrow, then she has to meet with an advertiser, and then there's an audition. The time is very tight."
"I am a little nervous. Which drama are you auditioning for?" Gu Yueyue had accumulated a lot of connections before, and Xiao Ye was also doing very well in the industry. She had her own resource channels. Although she was not a very important person at the moment, she was not lacking in exposure for Xu Yi.
"Novel adaptation, spy thriller, web series."
Gu Yueyue has made an impact. It was a TV series introduced by Ma Youcai. However, this web series is not very friendly to female actors. The main characters are two men. The female lead actually has less screen time than several of the male supporting characters, and the character is not very likable.
The male protagonist married a spoiled and arrogant young lady to cover his tracks, but in reality, he used the status of a powerful man's son-in-law to benefit himself.
Finally, the spoiled and arrogant young lady discovered that her beloved husband had killed her father, who had always doted on her. After her family was destroyed, she decided to give up everything and find a small town to practice medicine, only to be killed by local bandits.
“It’s not certain that I’ll be chosen. I heard that Jiang Rujin is interested in playing the role.” Xu Yi glanced at Yueyue and frowned, then explained, “I heard that she thinks the role of a spoiled and domineering young lady is quite in line with her own image, and she plans to play herself. The director is also interested in choosing her, after all, she can bring her own investment to the production.”
Gu Yueyue thought of that young lady's style of doing things and couldn't help but smile, "I'm afraid the director will regret inviting such a big shot back."
"There's another play called 'Waiting for Spring to Return,' which is similar. It has two female leads and tells the story of a mute and a leading actress in a theatrical troupe. I heard that Han Muzhou has already been chosen as the female lead, and Jiang Rujin is also interested in the second female lead."
Xu Yi ate her meal and couldn't drink any more soup, but she still wanted to have a bowl to savor the flavor.
Gu Yueyue silently put down her chopsticks and bit her lower lip.
“Jiang Rujin brought her own investment to the project. She debuted earlier than you and already has representative works in the industry. I'm afraid we can't compete with her.” Gu Yueyue sighed softly. “Xiao Xu, are you still going to the audition?”
Xu Yi is currently very popular, but she doesn't have any representative works, nor does she have any capital support. Her popularity is half due to fate and half due to luck.
Her popularity doesn't allow her to play supporting roles, and her talent doesn't allow her to land leading roles.
It's just that I'm in an awkward position, which is very frustrating.
The more we ate, the less flavorful the meal became.
Xu Yi finished her soup and slowly said, "Teacher Gu, I can give it a try. I may not succeed, but sometimes those who are just there for the ride also have opportunities off the field."
Cultivators don't give up so easily.
Seeing that Xu Yi had made up her mind, Gu Yueyue stopped trying to stop her and gave her a few words of advice, telling her to take good care of her health and not to work too hard.
“You don’t need to listen to Ono. I don’t care whether we can go public or not, and I don’t care whether our fans will approve of us being together even if it’s exposed one day.”
"You don't need to put any pressure on yourself. I believe you will grow up someday. No matter when that day comes, I can wait and walk with you."
I hope you can be happy.
"If one day you feel tired or weary of this industry, you can choose to quit at any time."
"You can continue your studies, you can do anything you want."
As Xu Yi finished the last sip of soup and put down the bowl, Gu Yueyue had already taken a handkerchief and wiped the corners of her lips.
"Teacher Gu, why do you always seem to see me as a child?" Xu Yi was somewhat dissatisfied, or rather, she felt a bit stifled and unhappy.
Ten thousand years ago, Miss Gu sent her out of the killing formation to save her. Later, in order to save her, the head of the Gu family fought the Demon Lord alone and perished together.
Now, because of her, Teacher Gu, who is emotionally unstable, has chosen to rest at home, and is under immense pressure.
She had no idea how much Teacher Gu had to do behind her back to be able to tell her so calmly that she could do whatever she wanted, and that he just wanted her to be happy.
Gu Yueyue has analyzed many emotions, including the emotional settings of characters in dramas, the emotional expressions of veteran actors, and the true feelings of people she encounters in life.
But she can't understand Xu Yi's emotions right now.
Gu Yueyue touched Xu Yi's cheek; it was still soft and smooth, but a little cool, and her fingertips were stained with tears.
"What's wrong?" Gu Yueyue asked, flustered, wiping away her tears.
Xu Yi, who usually seems to force her smile, broke down in tears today.
"Please don't cry. What did I do wrong? Or did I do something bad? Tell me, please don't cry."
Xu Yi grasped the hand that was wreaking havoc on her face, brought it to her lips, kissed and nibbled at it, and her sobs drifted out intermittently through her lips, teeth, and fingertips.
"Don't cry, don't cry. You can tell me what's wrong. Don't be sad. Is it because I've interfered too much in your work?" Gu Yueyue couldn't figure out why she was suddenly sad, so she analyzed the situation with wild thoughts and hugged her tenderly. "I'm sorry. I didn't treat you like a child, and I didn't want to control your life. I just didn't want you to work too hard."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Yi cried even harder, almost unable to catch her breath.
Half an hour later, Xu Yi finally calmed down a bit.
Gu Yueyue breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that she had stopped crying.
At this moment, Xu Yi's eyes were already red from crying. Her eyes were wet as she looked at Gu Yueyue, her amber starry eyes reflecting Gu Yueyue's image alone.
Gu Yueyue felt a slight itch in her throat and awkwardly avoided looking at Xu Yi in her current state.
Even though Xu Yi was crying so hard, she secretly felt that Xu Yi crying in her arms was interesting and tempting, making her want to tease her a little more.
Gu Yueyue silently berated herself, and helped Xu Yi up. "Leave your things here, I'll pack them up later. I'll take you to take a bath first, and then you can get a good night's sleep."
"Maybe we can have a good talk tomorrow after you wake up. Tell me all your worries, grievances, and sadness. Okay?"
After she finished speaking, Xu Yi pouted, almost bursting into tears again.
Gu Yueyue kissed him directly, a rare instance of her taking the initiative, but it worked quite well, making Xu Yi forget to cry and temporarily indulge in pleasure.
A note from the author:
Actually, I feel more sorry for Xu Yi.
A perfectly ruthless swordsman was somehow outmaneuvered by Miss Gu.
It's like having an account that's been leveled up for thousands of years and is almost at the maximum level, being forced to reset and start all over again.
There is also a cooldown period, which can take 20,000 years.
Xu Yi is in a terrible state. She has lost her memories of the time before her rebirth, but after she went mad, she kept searching for Miss Gu's reincarnation, experiencing Miss Gu as a mortal time and time again, witnessing her life, aging, sickness, and death in front of her.
After her rebirth, her master and second senior sister sealed away her memories of her past life, but that doesn't mean those memories didn't exist.
Xu Yi's inner demons are even heavier than Miss Gu's.
Based on Miss Gu's previous actions, she always sent Xu Yi away in times of crisis to protect her. Later, as a reincarnated mortal, she had no choice but to leave Xu Yi.
Xu Yi was abandoned countless times by the person she loved, in the name of love.