Chapter 20 The Embroidered Ball
Qin Ruoyi was dead.
She had not even left me a corpse.
My face stayed calm. I sat on the ruins with my arms around my legs and stared blankly at that familiar bloodstained Natal Spirit Sword in the middle of the square.
Not one tear would come out.
My mother asked me what relationship I had with the woman of the Heavenly Mandate.
I smiled and answered, "Only a Senior Sister."
"A Senior Sister was enough for her to give her life?" Mother said, flat and unmoved.
"Mm. I lied and told her I loved her."
I lowered my head and answered softly, trying to think of something sad.
My mother looked at me in silence and did not ask again.
I lifted my head in a daze, looked at the sky, and murmured.
"Dead... why is even the corpse gone..."
I should have cried.
She had given her life for me. I should have cried...
But I could not squeeze out even a little grief.
Maybe I really did not love her.
Otherwise, why could I not feel the pain.
Qin Ruoyi had been stuck with me. It truly was not worth it for her.
The flood dragon crawled over, propped up his small body, and licked the corner of my eye, as if comforting me.
I sighed and stopped him.
"Father, don't lick me. I'm not crying."
But the flood dragon still licked me, stubborn. His little black eyes looked full of worry.
"Come back with me," Mother said.
"All right." I tugged the corner of my mouth and smiled for Mother.
I said goodbye, one by one, to each remaining Senior Brother.
Same as the flood dragon.
They looked at me with worry too.
I laughed lightly and asked them, a little helpless, "Qin Ruoyi is dead. You don't ache for her. Why ache for me?"
Each Senior Brother said nothing. They only lowered their heads and said one line, "Condolences," and nothing more.
"Actually I don't love her. She only assumed I liked her." I told them calmly, and stressed, "I don't love her. I only love myself."
No one looked up at me. It seemed they had decided I was the most miserable one.
Really... it was dull to the extreme.
I turned away without any reluctance.
Mother took me back to the small world beneath the Demon-Sealing Seal.
I ate, practiced the sword, slept, and cultivated.
Very disciplined.
Day after day went like that.
It was as if Qin Ruoyi's leaving had not affected me at all.
That day.
A sudden idea hit me. I performed a sword art I had practiced. It went perfectly smooth. I did not miss one move.
The corner of my mouth lifted. I felt a little proud and turned on instinct.
"Qin Ruoyi, why won't you praise..."
The rest of the sentence cut off.
Because no one stood behind me.
I blinked and drew a deep breath. My eyes ached terribly.
"I forgot. She's already dead," I said to myself.
Wind moved the bamboo behind me. Under the rustle of bamboo leaves came the crisp sound of feet on dry leaves.
My heart pounded.
I turned. A cyan robe showed and hid among the bamboo.
My pupils tightened.
I dropped the sword and rushed into the bamboo, stumbling toward the figure.
"Qin Ruoyi... Qin Ruoyi!"
I shouted, afraid that streak of cyan would vanish.
Even if it was a dream...
A dream was fine. A dream was fine!
Just as I was about to catch her.
Mother's empty, flat voice rose all at once.
"Jiang Ling, you have a heart demon."
The cyan figure scattered the moment my mother spoke.
I caught empty air and fell.
"Stand up," Mother said.
I lifted my eyes in a daze and looked everywhere. I still could not find that cyan shadow. Bean-sized tears rolled down one by one.
"Mother, I can't stand." I looked up at my mother. In the end I could not hold it. My lips trembled, and I burst into ugly sobs. "I miss her. But she won't let me dream of her."
Mother pulled my sobbing self into her arms and patted my back the way she had when I was small.
"And, and her Natal Spirit Sword. I lost her sword...
"Her blood is on the sword. I don't dare take it... Mother, help me. Help me find her sword."
I cried until my words fell apart and clutched Mother's sleeve tight.
"No one remembers her. Only me. She only has me."
Mother's brows locked tight. It seemed she could not bear how useless I looked, and she could only explain with patience.
"Qin Ruoyi bore a Heavenly Mandate that was bound beneath another world, so she should never have existed in ours. She was meant to be the Heavenly Dao of another heaven and earth. You are a descendant of gods. You should have seen those foreign characters, shouldn't you?"
"I want her." I lay on Mother's shoulder and sobbed into it.
"I crushed her life pattern. There is no soul here. She has no chance of reincarnating among us." Mother said it calmly.
I paused, then cried even harder.
"But someone in the other world is helping her. I'll go along with it and change the Heavenly Dao rules on their side a little, so coming over will be easier for her." Mother added.
I stopped crying and sobbed out, "Mother, why say it only now?"
"You were like a mute. I thought you didn't like that Heavenly Mandate, so of course I would not spend the effort." Mother's face showed nothing. She wiped my face. "Wait a little longer. She will come."
I nodded like a fool.
After that day, I was still the same. I ate, practiced the sword, slept, and cultivated.
Only now I had something to wait for.
Mother said Qin Ruoyi had been placed here as a fetus, and only after eighteen would she awaken her old memories.
But I could not wait. The moment she turned one, I wanted to raise her.
What if, this time, she had no father and no mother again?
I wandered the cultivation world, searching for any newborn with rare talent.
What if it was Qin Ruoyi.
When I was idle, I also took Qin Ruoyi's sword. I imitated her manner, entered secret realms, snatched secret treasures, and challenged above my rank.
The other cultivators were the ones who got excited.
The one being robbed and challenged was me, at Foundation Establishment...
So I went to a mortal city to play. I heard the prefect's daughter there would throw an embroidered ball to choose a husband.
I liked a crowd, so I went to watch.
The bride looked cute.
I was in men's clothes. My hand itched, and I reached out and caught the embroidered ball.
The people around cheered for me to go upstairs.
I felt a little embarrassed. I thought I would go up in a moment and just grant a blessing.
I held the embroidered ball and turned my head.
A pair of familiar eyes stared blankly at the embroidered ball in my hand.
"..."
"I... can you let me explain? Actually I do love you. Really." I looked down at the embroidered ball, then up at Qin Ruoyi, wearing a pained expression.
A guard blocked me. His eyes were fierce.
"Does this young master know our miss? Please stay far from our miss."
Qin Ruoyi glanced at me, turned, and left in a sedan at the side.
I went blank.
Qin Ruoyi had not awakened yet?
I frowned. Why did I not believe that at all.
Deep in the night.
I slipped into the house where Qin Ruoyi lived now. I searched a long time before I found Qin Ruoyi's room.
She lay on the bed, eyes closed, as if asleep.
I sneaked in. I did not even want to test her.
I sat straight down on her waist.
Qin Ruoyi opened her eyes. Her gaze was clear, without a trace of sleep, as if she had known I would come.
"Jiang Ling, you are still very rude," she said, flat.
I grinned. My eyes were a little wet. I blinked and threatened her.
"Talk nicer, and I can let you go. Otherwise this new body of yours won't get up tomorrow."
Before, I could not beat her. I could only stay under her.
Now... heh heh.
"Qin Ruoyi, I want to top you."
I pinched her chin. I had barely gotten two laughs out when thick spiritual energy gathered into a ball of water mist.
"Hey, wait. Where did your spiritual energy come from!"
Qin Ruoyi's eyes turned fierce. She turned and pressed me back beneath her, then hooked her lips.
"Talk nicer, and I can let you go."
Cold sweat covered me. I swallowed.
"Th-things Dual Cultivation can settle don't need to leave us covered in sweat."
"I like being covered in sweat." Qin Ruoyi undid my sash, calm.
【呜呜呜, 我女总算复活了, 之前要一百万点卡，突然卡 bug 变成只要看一次广告就能复活了，太棒了。】
【转平台了好像，某点变某乎，双女主瞬间合理，再也不用你死我活了。】
【又是水幕，便宜狗妹这个死丫头了, 呜呜呜。】
【算了, 我看某棠自己幻想也行，她俩能久久, 我也认了。】
The long-silent subtitles began scrolling again, and so did the commentary on my life.
But they had saved my Qin Ruoyi.
I looked at Qin Ruoyi's face and lost focus. My nose stung.
"Qin Ruoyi..."
"Mm?"
"Actually I love you so, so much."
"Mm... me too."
"Do you still remember how you came back to life?" I cupped her face and asked.
"Mm."
Qin Ruoyi's lashes trembled. She slowly looked up, the corner of her mouth curving into a smile.
"Thank you for liking this. But... you still can't watch."
Golden subtitles floated up too, a whole screen of "?".
My pupils shook.
"You, you, you... can see..."
Qin Ruoyi gently covered my mouth.
"Shh. Time to shut up, Jiang Ling."