“You can put your leg down first.”
Yino leaned back on the sofa, with the girl’s jade foot raised high beneath her skirt, hovering near his face. He closed his eyes helplessly.
Xinyao raised an eyebrow, not understanding. “Why?”
“It’ll be seen.”
“What are you thinking? I’m wearing shorts.”
“Oh, you should have said so earlier.”
Only then did Yino’s tightly furrowed brows relax with a sigh of relief.
He opened his eyes and brazenly peeked up along her fair jade leg, trying to uncover the truth beneath her skirt.
But just at the critical last second, Xinyao suddenly withdrew her leg without a word, hiding the mystery.
“Didn’t you say you were wearing them?”
“Just because I’m wearing them, you’re going to stare straight up my skirt?”
The girl puffed out her cheeks.
Yino shrugged, feeling like she was nitpicking.
“What else? Either way, you won’t let me see. What’s the point of telling me you’re wearing them? Is it to reassure me that you won’t have a wardrobe malfunction when you go out tonight?”
“You!”
For some reason, Xinyao’s face flushed red.
She lightly bit her red lips and put her hands on her hips.
“Yino, don’t try to change the subject sneakily!”
“Hurry up and confess. Why did you run away from home today without a word?”
Yino sighed, knowing he couldn’t escape this predicament.
He briefly composed himself and put on a look of despair.
“I’m a waste. Even if I go to the Wuji Sect, what can it change?”
“I’ll still be at the bottom of the immortal sect, looked down upon by everyone, right?”
“If I stay in the Grand Tutor’s Mansion, at least I’m still the seventh young master. But if I go to the Wuji Sect, I’ll be nothing. If someone beats me up then, I can only grit my teeth and swallow my anger.”
“What’s the point?”
These words were half-true and half-false when Yino said them.
He had been reincarnated, not possessed by a soul.
Growing up in this cultivation world for sixteen long years, how could Yino be willing to be a waste?
Yino was just playing the role of the original character.
Because being a “prodigal son” had two benefits: one was not changing the original timeline, and the other was lowering his presence and reasonably entering and leaving gambling houses and brothels.
Gambling houses and brothels were the largest gray industries in the cultivation world.
And Yino, as a veteran player of The Fallen Immortal, had many cheat guides for the jianghu black market.
“So you were afraid of being bullied in the Wuji Sect, that’s why you ran away from home?”
Xinyao blinked in surprise.
Yino’s conscience didn’t ache because in the original story, he really did die in the Wuji Sect. This was a well-intentioned lie.
“Alright, alright, don’t be sad anymore!”
Seeing the young man looking a bit depressed, Xinyao quickly hugged his face, no longer in a scolding mood. Instead, she felt a bit distressed and guilty.
“Auntie almost forgot. Although our Yino has grown taller, he’s still only sixteen years old. Deep down, he’s still a child~”
These words were both teasing and a gentle coaxing laugh.
She stared at the young man for a long time, the guilt in the depths of her heart difficult to express.
She actually couldn’t bear to let Yino go to the Wuji Sect either.
But this was the decision of the Grand Tutor’s Mansion elders. She also had her own difficulties and couldn’t tell Yino the truth.
Later, Xinyao took Yino and left the noisy Phoenix Pavilion.
The moonlight at night was clear, cold, and desolate.
They didn’t talk along the way.
Xinyao kept holding the young man’s hand, afraid that if she was careless, he would run away again. She only let go when she brought Yino to the peach tree in the back courtyard of the Grand Tutor’s Mansion.
She leaned against the tree, gazing up at the moonlight, narrowing her pale golden phoenix eyes.
“Yino, do you still remember?”
“Ten years ago, I was standing under this peach tree, watching you run over with teary eyes and hug my leg, crying and making a fuss, insisting Auntie teach you cultivation…”
“At first, I didn’t want to waste time teaching you.”
“But later, you cried and hugged me, saying that the children from the neighboring mansion all knew how to cultivate. They looked down on you for being clumsy and didn’t play with you. They even bullied you together, making you play the demon in their demon-subduing game…”
“From that moment on, Auntie’s heart softened.”
“But you were only six years old at the time, still a little kid. You couldn’t even lift the lightest peach wood sword and even tried to show off in front of me, only to fall flat on your face.”
The girl spoke with quite a bit of nostalgia, unable to hold back a smile herself.
She looked again at the handsome young man in front of her who had long since grown up, now even taller than her. The corners of her lips curved up, her beautiful eyes filled with affection and doting.
Yino’s face turned awkward, finding it a bit embarrassing to recall.
At that time, he was only six years old. He had only been reincarnated for a few years and hadn’t completely shed his childish nature. He also hadn’t figured out his identity as a cannon fodder villain and still held fantasies and longings for this cultivation world he had been reborn into.
Of course… Perhaps he aspired to cultivate.
Or perhaps he just aspired more to his Auntie’s fragrant and soft jade legs.
Xinyao smiled and tiptoed to pat his head, then reminisced:
“Later, Auntie picked up a small branch under this tree and simply taught you some self-defense techniques.”
“Actually…”
“From the day you were born, I had already heard from the elders in the mansion. They said that Yino was a child with no aptitude for cultivation, and they all advised me not to waste too much effort on you.”
“But your crying and coquettish appearance was just too cute and pitiful.”
“Auntie couldn’t bear to see you wronged, so I taught you some body technique cultivation methods with the mindset of just giving it a try.”
“Unexpectedly, Yino, you actually learned it!”
“Not only did you beat up all the children who bullied you, making them obediently acknowledge you as their big brother…”
“Later, you even won first place in the children’s martial arts competition in Luo City!”
“That day, Auntie was sitting in the audience, watching you use the self-defense techniques I taught you to knock down one opponent after another who was taller than you, and then personally witnessed you go on stage to receive the award…”
“Until we got home, and I received the bell gift you gave me.”
“Yino, do you know?”
“From the day you tied the bells on Auntie’s wrist, Auntie was convinced that you were an extraordinary young man. Perhaps everyone in this world looks down on you, but Auntie has always believed in you—Yino, you’re not the waste young master they say you are!”
“It’s just that…”
“The opportunity belonging to you hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Perhaps, if you go to the Wuji Sect and cultivate for a few years, you’ll encounter the opportunity meant for you.”
The girl was no longer joking. She put her hands behind her back, her phoenix eyes flickering with an unprecedented sincerity.