Chapter 42Â - Starting All Over Again of Heaven Has A Road But No One Walks It is up! :D
They spent a last day in Aijian village to make the last preparations for the journey ahead, getting ready to leave the misty mountains of Muaishan at last.
Xue Yang and Xingchen danced cautiously around each other from the moment they woke, tantalized and wary at once â there was a mix of hunger and guarded uncertainty Song Lan had rarely seen on Xingchenâs face, and a pained, shivering patience he had never expected from Xue Yang.
âMore gifts for you, daozhang,â Old Hu called out as Song Lan descended the stairs after solemnly sweeping the little closet room floor clean of painful jagged shards, snapping him back to the present. Handing the speech talisman over, he inclined his head.
âThank you. You can put them here, I will pack them away. Please give these generous people our sincerest thanks.â
The table near the door to the garden was already cluttered â as news had rippled through the village that they were finally leaving, it seemed like every single person in the nearby valleys were coming by the inn to see them off. He hadnât fully realized the impact they had had on this remote place until now, helplessly wondering how to fit all the tokens of gratitude into their rather humble qiankun bags and pockets.
Ranging from little simple notes of thanks to small packages of well-prepared food, simple but well-made spare garments, strips of cloth for Xingchenâs eyes, medicines and home brewed fruit wine â humble gifts, given by poor people, but many of them.
Someone had seen fit to gift them an actual live chicken, which sat perching in birdly bewilderment upon its throne of tributes until he could pay the anonymous benefactorâs generosity forward to Madam Hu. He had attempted to settle their bill when he told old Hu that they were planning on moving on soon, but the innkeepers had absolutely refused to take any payment, assuring him that freeing the mountains from the tyranny of the mist spirits put the people of Muaishan forever in their debt, not the other way around.
In the end, he was only grudgingly allowed to recompense Madam Hu for the regrettably broken ceramic bowl in Xue Yangâs room. And, apparently, gifting her a chicken.
Time for a breather, a little while of sweetness. â„
As always, your comments and questions mean the world to me, it is literally what motivates me to keep writing this monster of a fic! Whether you drop some funny tags, send an ask, go comment on the fic itself, I read and treasure it all - or why not come hang out or lurk like a Xue Yang crocodile in my discord server! đ
Thank you so much, all of you who are still keeping me company on this crazy journey! This ride has some wild twists and turns in store yet. đ