RIIDMDR chapter 48

 

Tingchuan sat until dusk before returning to the courtyard. By then, Nan Xu and Zhi Xing’s eyes had returned to normal. The two were busy in the kitchen. The courtyard was filled with the mixed aroma of various chili peppers.

Tingchuan placed the oak wood in the courtyard. Upon entering the main room, he saw Nanxu emerge carrying a clay pot.

“You’re back!”

Nan Xu’s eyes curved into a smile. It was unclear whether the smile was from lingering amusement at having chatted with Zhi Xing or from happiness at seeing Tingchuan return. Tingchuan stared into his eyes for two seconds, then nodded lightly and said, “I went into the mountains to find an oak log to make that thing you called ‘xiangqi’ (Chinese chess) for you.”

Nan Xu wanted to explain that the “xiang[mfn]象 (xiàng) → the elephant piece in Chinese chess.[/mfn]” in Chinese chess wasn’t the same as the “xiang[mfn]橡 (xiàng) → oak tree.[/mfn]” in oak wood. However, he stopped when he heard Ting Chuan continue: “This wood is relatively tough, harder than the tree you brought back.”

Nan Xu was stunned for a moment before realizing that Ting Chuan hadn’t misunderstood him; he had simply listened to Nan Xu’s casual morning complaint. He remembered that Tingchuan had clearly been napping in the shade of a tree.

“Thank you. You’ve worked hard,” Nan Xu said with a smile.

Tingchuan’s smile faltered for a moment, and he calmly said, “No need.”

Unaware of what was happening, Nan Xu carried the pottery jar to the wooden rack against the main hall wall. Tingchuan then noticed that it was already filled with five or six other items, large and small. Nan Xu put the pottery jar down, took out a palm-sized piece of paper, wrote something on it, strung a cotton string around it, and hung it from the jar.

Tingchuan walked over to take a look. Nanxu’s writing was cryptic and scribbled, listing the names of various sauces. Tingchuan wondered where the human race got the ingenious idea to devour chili peppers.

“Zhi Xing said garlic chili paste tastes the best, so I made more of it and left two jars for us.” Nan Xu spoke as he arranged the jars neatly, addressing Ting Chuan behind him.

Tingchuan hummed. After a long pause, he realized that Nanxu had finished talking.

The room was quiet. Nanxu had been moving the jars around, rearranging them to make the shelves look nice. When he turned around, he bumped into Tingchuan.

He hadn’t expected Tingchuan to still be behind him. After being knocked down, he took a step back instinctively. The shelf behind him, which was filled with bottles and jars, suddenly clanged. Nanxu immediately moved forward, but the jar next to his head still fell. His pupils widened. Before he could react, the large jar landed securely in Tingchuan’s palm.

Nan Xu breathed a sigh of relief. The jar was filled with chili sauce. If it had fallen, he would have been devastated. He had cried a lot that afternoon just for a little extra chili.

“Did I scare you?” Tingchuan asked as he placed the ceramic jar back on the shelf behind Nan Xu’s head.

Nan Xu hadn’t really been frightened. He had simply been absorbed in thinking about how to arrange the local products to make them more appealing to buyers. “It’s fine. Luckily, you caught it.”

Tingchuan didn’t move, and Nan Xu stood there too, afraid to move. He waited for Tingchuan to put the jar back. They were so close that Nan Xu could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t sure if it was his own heartbeat or Tingchuan’s. Nan Xu’s gaze was fixed on Tingchuan’s lips. They were beautifully shaped and plump with a subtle pink hue. Nan Xu swallowed and suddenly felt the urge to taste them.

His mind was muddled, but Nanxu stared again. Those lips looked a little thin. In the human world, I’d heard people say that those with thin lips were heartless, but I didn’t know if that was true. Yaolin said Tingchuan had lived for thousands of years without being involved in a romantic affair with a demon. However, it seemed impossible to verify that.

At the time, Yaolin had said that he guessed other demons weren’t as advanced or beautiful as Tingchuan, so they couldn’t catch the eye of the most beautiful and aloof nine-tailed fox demon. After all, even in the demon world, people care about matching.

“What are you daydreaming about?” Tingchuan asked, his head lowered.

Nan Xu came back to his senses and subconsciously licked his lips, feeling a little guilty. “No, I just thought you demons seemed pretty tall.”

Tingchuan smiled, took a step back, and said, “Not necessarily. I’ve seen short ones, too.”

Nan Xu thought about it and realized that, in the human world, some people were tall and some were short. The fact that all the demons he had seen so far were large might just be a coincidence.

“Is it set up?” Nan Xu asked timidly.

Tingchuan took two steps back, giving Nan Xu some breathing room. “Yeah.”

“It would be nice if there were glass. Then it wouldn’t fall down if it was touched,” Nan Xu muttered.

Tingchuan had good hearing. “Glass? What’s that?”

“It’s transparent stone, like ice in winter,” Nan Xu said.

Tingchuan nodded thoughtfully. “Why don’t you make a cabinet with a hollow door? Make the gap smaller than the cabinet itself so the jars won’t fall out.”

Nanxu’s eyes lit up. The idea seemed more feasible after thinking about it, but then a touch of melancholy came over him. “This is delicate work. With my limited skills, I hope it won’t turn customers off.”

Tingchuan thought of the uneven bamboo table in the yard and couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll go down to the peak tomorrow and have the canine tribe build you a new one.”

Nanxu nodded repeatedly. “Then I’ll make a few more jars of sauce later. Please help me bring them to them. Tell them I’m not in a hurry, and don’t let my cabinet distract them from their work.”

Tingchuan nodded, then suddenly said, “I liked the chili sauce we had last time.”

Nanxu: “Huh?”

Tingchuan stopped talking and looked at him quietly.

Nanxu realized belatedly that he had said Zhixing liked garlic sauce, so he made a few more jars of it. Tingchuan was just getting upset again.

“This batch of chilies is almost used up. When we harvest next month, I’ll make a few more jars of that kind, okay?” Nan Xu offered.

He’d thought Ting Chuan wouldn’t be jealous over a child.

Upon hearing this, Ting Chuan gave him a meaningful look, his tone faintly resentful. “Oh? Laughing and joking with that kid every day—will you even remember next month?”

Nan Xu: “… I’ll remember, of course I’ll remember.”

Tingchuan went to rest on his recliner throne. Nanxu returned to the kitchen. Zhixing stirred the chili oil in the pot with a spatula to keep it from burning. Hearing the sound, he looked back and whispered, “It’s getting thick. Is it ready?”

Nanxu leaned over to take a look. Fortunately, it wasn’t too dry. “Okay, I’ll turn down the stove.”

He sat down by the stove, took out a burning piece of wood, and placed it in the ashes below. Then, he picked up the burning wood and threw it into the pot next to him. He quickly covered the pot with heavy wooden boards to suffocate the flammable charcoal.

Zhi Xing stirred the sauce in the pan, but stole glances at Nan Xu several times. “Brother Nan Xu, you seem really happy.”

Nan Xu touched his own face. “Do I?”

Zhi Xing looked again and nodded firmly. Nan Xu thought it was just that he’d been busy these past few days. He was worried that Zhi Xing wouldn’t adapt well to the environment here, so he spent more time with Zhi Xing and didn’t talk much with Ting Chuan. Ting Chuan seemed unhappy at first, but then he took the initiative to tell Nan Xu what he liked. Truly unprecedented.

He didn’t even know why he felt happy—perhaps because Ting Chuan’s attention made him feel he wasn’t the only one acting out a one-man play.

That night, Nan Xu was lying in bed checking his emails when he couldn’t help but get up and go out again. Ting Chuan had been quiet, but this was already the third time Nan Xu had gone out.

Initially, he assumed he was going to the restroom, but from the noises he heard, it seemed he was heading straight for the warehouse.

Nan Xu left looking hopeful but returned half a minute later, crestfallen. Ting Chuan sat up and looked at Nan Xu doubtfully.

When their gazes met, Nan Xu froze, then realized he had disturbed Ting Chuan’s sleep with his back-and-forth. He ran his hand through his long hair and said, “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep!”

Tingchuan waited until he was lying down to ask, “Did you lose something?”

After all, with so many trips to the warehouse, there was no other way!

Nan Xu didn’t know how to respond. He was still concentrating on the system. His inbox clearly stated that the rewards for Side Quest 4 had been sent mid-morning. However, there was no reward list attached, and he hadn’t seen where the items were either. Could the system be bugged and swallowing the rewards?

He couldn’t figure it out, yet he was desperate to find the answer, which is why he kept running to the warehouse. He thought he had missed something, but after several attempts, he was certain the problem wasn’t his.

Nan Xu asked 006, but the broken system displayed “Connecting…” for a long time before failing to respond, which left him furious.

To be sure, life was much better now than it had been at the beginning, and he shouldn’t have cared so much about system rewards. However, this mission was difficult, with many dangers lurking within. If something went wrong, he might not make it out alive. Nan Xu reasoned that, since the rewards for each side quest were tied to the mission’s difficulty, this time it would likely be a massive gift package.

He waited and waited until Zhixing finally woke up and recovered after a few days. He was filled with anticipation when he received the email that morning, but it was a false alarm, and he didn’t receive any of his mission reward.

“Nothing’s missing,” Nan Xu said sadly. “It’s just that the duck that was about to be eaten seems to have flown away.”

Tingchuan, unable to understand human language, assumed Nan Xu was craving duck. He said, “There’s a valley two mountains away. Wild ducks often rest there. If you’d like to eat some, I’ll go there tomorrow.”

Nanxu felt like laughing. These two were completely different! But when it comes to duck, he’s definitely a glutton. Sauce duck, roast duck, osmanthus duck, steamed duck, stewed duck, beer duck—they’re all delicious! It’s been so long since I’ve had any; just thinking about them makes my mouth water.

The mission reward was put aside for now. Nan Xu turned to Tingchuan and asked, “Can you really catch it?”

Tingchuan’s eager eyes softened slightly in the candlelight. “If you want to eat it, you can.”

Nan Xu smiled brightly. “Climbing mountains and ridges is too much trouble. So, I’ll trouble you.”

Tingchuan’s smile faded a little. “Don’t thank me all the time. I don’t like you being so polite with me.”

Nan Xu was stunned for a moment, then readily said, “You can have one of the duck legs.”

Tingchuan finally smiled. “Okay.”

He sat on the bed with his arms propped up and smiled a truly beautiful smile. His eyebrows curved slightly, and a gentle breeze ruffled his long black hair, which framed his dark eyes. His obsidian eyes held a gentle, watery gentleness.

Nan Xu felt dazzled. It was as if the smoldering candle flame burned fiercely just to make sure that smile could be seen clearly by him and him alone.